Part 13 (1/2)

And Shakespeare, thou whose honey-flowing vein (Pleasing the world) thy Praises doth obtain, Whose _Venus_ and whose _Lucrece_ (sweet and chaste) Thy name in Fame's immortal Book have placed, Live ever you, at least in fame live ever: Well may the Body die, but Fame dies never

Value of his name to publishers

Shakespeare's name was thenceforth of value to unprincipled publishers, and they sought to palm off on their customers as his work the productions of inferior pens As early as 1595, Thomas Creede, the surreptitious printer of 'Henry V' and the 'Merry Wives,' had issued the crude 'Tragedie of Locrine, as 'newly set foorth, overseene and corrected By W S' It appropriated es from an older piece called 'Selimus,' which was possibly by Greene and certainly ca before Shakespeare had written a line of blank verse The sae of 'The True Chronicle Historie of Thoust 11, 1602, was printed for William Jones in that year, and was reprinted verbatie of the co Streete,' which George Eld printed in 1607, 'WS' was again stated to be the author

Shakespeare's full naes of 'The Life of Old-castle' in 1600 (printed for T[hoall' in 1605 (printed by T C for Nathaniel butter), and of 'The Yorkshi+re Tragedy' in 1608 (by R B for Thomas Pavier) None of these six plays have any internal claim to Shakespeare's authorshi+p; nevertheless all were uncritically included in the third folio of his collected works,(1664) Schlegel and a few other critics of repute have, on no grounds that enuine work in one of the six, 'The Yorkshi+re Tragedy;' it is 'a coarse, crude, and vigorous impromptu,' which is clearly by a far less experienced hand

The fraudulent practice of crediting Shakespeare with valueless plays from the pens of co enterprising traders in literature both early and late in the seventeenth century The worthless old play on the subject of King John was attributed to Shakespeare in the reissues of 1611 and 1622 Humphrey Moseley, a reckless publisher of a later period, fraudulently entered on the 'Stationers' Register' on September 9, 1653, two pieces which he represented to be in whole or in part by Shakespeare, viz 'The Merry Devill of Edmonton' and the 'History of Cardenio,' a share in which was assigned to Fletcher 'The Merry Devill of Ede before the close of the sixteenth century, was entered on the 'Stationers' Register,' October 22, 1607, and was first published anony in both humour and romantic sentiment; at times it recalls scenes of the 'Merry Wives of Windsor,' but no sign of Shakespeare's workmanshi+p is apparent The 'History of Cardenio' is not extant {181} Francis Kirkman, another active London publisher, who first printed William Rowley's 'Birth of Merlin' in 1662, described it on the title-page as 'written by William Shakespeare and William Rowley;' it was reprinted at Halle in a so-called 'Collection of pseudo-Shakespearean plays' in 1887

'The Passionate Pilgrim'

But poems no less than plays, in which Shakespeare had no hand, were deceptively placed to his credit as soon as his faard, a well-known pirate publisher, issued a poetic anthology which he entitled 'The Passionate Pilgrim, by W Shakespeare'

The volume opened with two sonnets by Shakespeare which were not previously in print, and there followed three poems drawn from the already published 'Love's Labour's Lost;' but the bulk of the volume was by Richard Barnfield and others {182} A third edition of the 'Passionate Pilgrih the incorrigible Jaggard had added t poems which he silently filched from Thomas Heywood's 'Troia Britannica' Heywood called attention to his own grievance in the dedicatory epistle before his 'Apology for Actors' (1612), and he added that Shakespeare resented the more substantial injury which the publisher had done him 'I know,'

wrote Heywood of Shakespeare, '[he was] ether unknown to him) presumed to make so bold with his name'

In the result the publisher seee of a few copies This is the only instance on record of a protest on Shakespeare's part against the many injuries which he suffered at the hands of contemporary publishers

'The Phoenix and the Turtle'

In 1601 Shakespeare's full name was appended to 'a poetical essaie on the Phoenix and the Turtle,' which was published by Edward Blount in an appendix to Robert Chester's 'Love's Martyr, or Rosalins co the Truth of Love in the Constant Fate of the Phoenix and Turtle' The drift of Chester's crabbed verse is not clear, nor can the praise of perspicuity be allowed to the appendix to which Shakespeare contributed, together with Marston, Chapnoto' The appendix is introduced by a new title-page running thus: 'Hereafter follow diverse poeticall Essaies on the former subject, viz: the Turtle and Phoenix Done by the best and chiefest of our modern writers, with their names subscribed to their particular workes: never before extant' Shakespeare's alleged contribution consists of thirteen four-lined stanzas in trochaics, each line being of seven syllables, with the rhy 'threnos' is in five three-lined stanzas, also in trochaics, each stanza having a single rhye the obsequies of the Phoenix and the Turtle-dove, who had been united in life by the ties of a purely spiritual love The poem may be a mere play of fancy without recondite intention, or it orical i ecclesiastical, political, or rief for the death of some leaders of contemporary society, is not easily deter else of like character

XII--THE PRACTICAL AFFAIRS OF LIFE

Shakespeare's practical teht to practical affairs a singularly sane and sober teraphy of Gaed at Bedford on March 26, 1605, the highway a troop of actors whom he met by chance on the road to perform in his presence At the close of the perfor to the memoir, addressed hied hiality in London 'When thou feelest thy purse well lined (the counsellor proceeded), buy thee so weary of playing, thy nity and reputation' Whether or no Ratsey's biographer consciously identified the highwayman's auditor with Shakespeare, it was the prosaic course of conduct marked out by Ratsey that Shakespeare literally followed As soon as his position in his profession was assured, he devoted his energies to re-establishi+ng the fallen fortunes of his fa for hientlefolk

His father's difficulties

His father's pecuniary embarrassments had steadily increased since his son's departure Creditors harassed hily In 1587 one Nicholas Lane pursued him for a debt for which he had become liable as surety for his brother Henry, as still farh 1588 and 1589 John Shakespeare retaliated with pertinacity on a debtor named John Tompson But in 1591 a creditor, Adrian Quiney, obtained a writ of distraint against hih in 1592 he attested inventories taken on the death of two neighbours, Ralph Shaw and Henry Field, father of the London printer, he was on December 25 of the sa himself from church The commissioners reported that his absence was probably due to 'fear of process for debt' He figures for the last tis of the local court, in his customary _role_ of defendant, on March 9, 1595 He was then joined with two fellow traders--Philip Green, a chandler, and Henry Rogers, a butcher--as defendant in a suit brought by Adrian Quiney and Thomas Barker for the recovery of the suation, his na, and when the suit reached a later stage his naether These may be viewed as indications that in the course of the proceedings he finally retired from trade, which had been of late prolific in disasters for him In January 1596-7 he conveyed a slip of land attached to his dwelling in Henley Street to one George Badger

His wife's debt

There is a likelihood that the poet's wife fared, in the poet's absence, no better than his father The only contee in 1582 and her husband's death in 1616 is as the borrower at an unascertained date (evidently before 1595) of forty shi+llings froton, who had formerly been her father's shepherd The ton died in 1601, and he directed his executor to recover the su the poor of Stratford {187}