and C. K. Davis. These gentlemen, after an examination of all the evidence supplied, reach the conclusion that Shakespeare was, at some time in his career, engaged in the practice of some branch of the English law. If Shakespeare at any time in his life prosecuted legal study, it must have been between 1579 and 1585, the period which Lord Campbell asserts was spent in that occupation. Nothing authentic or trust worthy is known concerning the poet or his employment during this interval. ' We do know that in 1578, or thereabouts, Shakespeare was taken from school on ac count of business reverses of his father. At that time John Shakespeare's affairs had become so involved that the old gentleman "came not to church for fear of process of debt." We further know that in 1585, William Shakespeare was prosecuted by Sir Thomas Lucy for deer-stealing, and forced by the apprehension of imprisonment to leave Stratford for residence in London. In 1582, the poet married, and Sir Lucy's prosecution not only drove himfrom home, but from wife and children as well. What Shakespeare did between the date of his quitting the grammar school until his escape from Stratford is now largely a mat ter of deduction and conjecture. A few fragments of history and tradition survive which tend to establish the fact that during the years indicated, William was serving an apprenticeship to a butcher and wool dealer. Aubrey, sixty years after the dramatist's death, published this statement of Shakes peare's employment; and Aubrey is the earliest and best authority we have on the subject. It is a shock to most of us to pic ture " gentle William " engaged in slaugh tering and dressing hogs. A similar senti ment doubtless moved the historian, for Aubrey seeks to throw over the shoulders of the butcher the mantle of a poet by re lating that " when Shakespeare killed a calf, he would do it in high style and make a speech."
This version of Shakespeare's early oc cupation is strengthened by a tradition cur rent in the neighborhood of Stratford and which a traveller in 1693 thus expresses: — "The clerk that showed me the church (of the Holy Trinity) is about eighty years old; he says that Shakespeare was formerly in this town bound apprentice to a butcher, but that he run from his master to London and there was received in a playhouse." There are other shadows of proof cumu lative on this feature of Shakespeare's life, but altogether the testimony is far from convincing. The facts, scanty as they ap pear, more than outweigh the mere skillful surmise which Lord Campbell indulges. Considering the case upon external evidence, we feel hardly warranted in granting the con tention that Shakespeare was ever an appli cant for legal honors. The contemplation of such an aspect of the poet is most agreeable, but it is not only in opposition to the faint echoes of history, it violates the dictates of common sense and experience as well. That Shakespeare's studies at school were interrupted forever by the financial distresses of the family is one of the few known con ditions of his life, and it is scarcely possible that a father, forced by poverty to arrest the education of a son, would select for such child a liberal profession. In Shakespeare's day the ladder of the law was long and difficult to climb. Ad mission to the bar was then a matter of time, study and cost. There were four stages in the progress of a student to the goal of his ambition. He commenced reading at one of the innes of chancery and then continued at one of the innes of court and was termed in consequence an " inner barrister." His instruction at the innes was superintended by an officer of the court called a " Reader," who both delivered lectures and conducted a "quiz." After seven years as an inner barrister, the student was called to the bar and became an " utter barrister." He remained such for
