Part 13 (2/2)

It was probably in 1596 that Shakespeare returned, after nearly eleven years' absence, to his native town, and worked a revolution in the affairs of his family The prosecutions of his father in the local court ceased Thenceforth the poet's relations with Stratford were uninterrupted He still resided in London for most of the year; but until the close of his professional career he paid the town at least one annual visit, and he was always forentleust 11, 1596, when his only son, Hamnet, was buried in the parish church; the boy was eleven and a half years old

The coat-of-arms

At the same date the poet's father, despite his pecuniary ee, which ned to the poet's intervention {188a} He e of Heralds for a coat-of-ar new coats-of-arinary antiquity, and little reliance need be placed on the biographical or genealogical staterants of ar to the College stated that John Shakespeare, in 1568, while he was bailiff of Stratford, and while he was by virtue of that office a justice of the peace, had obtained from Robert Cook, then Clarenceux herald, a 'pattern' or sketch of an aration is not noticed in the records of the College, and ned by John Shakespeare and his son to recootiations of 1568, if they were not apocryphal, were certainly abortive; otherwise there would have been no necessity for the further action of 1596 In any case, on October 20, 1596, a draft, which ree of Arms, was prepared under the direction of Willia John's request for a coat-of-arueness, that he had been 'by credible report' informed that the applicant's 'parentes and late antecessors were for theire valeant and faithfull service advanced and rewarded by theHenry the Seventh of famous memories sythence whiche tyme they have continewed at those partes [_ie_ Warwickshi+re] in good reputacion and credit;' and that 'the said John [had] hter and heiress of Robert Arden, of Wilent' In consideration of these titles to honour, Garter declared that he assigned to Shakespeare this shi+eld, viz: 'Gold, on a bend sable, a spear of the first, and for his crest or cognizance a falcon, his wings displayed argent, standing on a wreath of his colours, supporting a spear gold steeled as aforesaid' In the rant there is a pen sketch of the arms and crest, and above them is written the motto, 'Non Sans Droict' {189} A second copy of the draft, also dated in 1596, is extant at the College The only alterations are the substitution of the word 'grandfather' for 'antecessors' in the account of John Shakespeare's ancestry, and the substitution of the word 'esquire' for 'gent' in the description of his wife's father, Robert Arden At the foot of this draft, however, appeared some disconnected and unverifiable memoranda which John Shakespeare or his son had supplied to the heralds, to the effect that John had been bailiff of Stratford, had received a 'pattern' of a shi+eld from Clarenceux Cook, was a man of substance, and had married into a worshi+pful family {190}

[Picture: Coat-of-arms]

Neither of these drafts was fully executed It may have been that the unduly favourable representationsJohn Shakespeare's social and pecuniary position excited suspicion even in the habitually credulous minds of the heralds, or those officersthe negotiation, a bar to co the transaction At any rate, Shakespeare and his father allowed three years to elapse before (as far as extant documents show) they made a further endeavour to secure the coveted distinction

In 1599 their efforts were croith success Changes in the interval ae s

In 1597 the Earl of Essex had becoe (the office had been in coreat scholar and antiquary, Williae, also in 1597, as Clarenceux King-of-Arms The poet was favourably known to both Camden and the Earl of Essex, the close friend of the Earl of Southarant of arms was asked for It was asserted without qualification that the coat, as set out in the draft-grants of 1596, had been _assigned_ to John Shakespeare while he was bailiff, and the heralds were nition' or 'exemplification' of it {191} At the same time he asked permission for himself to impale, and his eldest son and other children to quarter, on 'his ancient coat-of-arms' that of the Ardens of Wile officers were characteristically complacent A draft was prepared under the hands of Dethick, the Garter King, and of Ca the required 'exe the required i On one point only did Dethick and Camden betray conscientious scruples Shakespeare and his father obviously desired the heralds to recognise the title of Mary Shakespeare (the poet's reat Warwickshi+re family of Arden, then seated at Park Hall But the relationshi+p, if it existed, was undeterentry of influence in the county, and were certain to protest against any hasty assumption of identity between their line and that of the hu the Warwickshi+re Arden coat in thethe hts erased it They substituted in their sketch the ar at Alvanley in the distant county of Cheshi+re With that stock there was no pretence that Robert Arden of Wilmcote was lineally connected; but the bearers of the Alvanley coat were unlikely to learn of its suggested impalement with the Shakespeare shi+eld, and the heralds were less liable to the risk of litigation But the Shakespeares wisely relieved the College of all anxiety by o to assume the Arden coat The Shakespeare arms alone are displayed with full heraldic elaboration on the rave in Stratford Church; they alone appear on the seal and on the tohter, Mrs Susanna Hall, impaled with the arms of her husband; {192a} and they alone were quartered by Thohter, Elizabeth Hall {192b}

Sorant even of the Shakespeare shi+eld, but it was based on vexatious grounds that could not be upheld Early in the seventeenth century Ralph Brooke, as York herald froed in a bitter quarrel with his fellow officers at the College, complained that the arms 'exemplified' to Shakespeare usurped the coat of Lord Mauley, on whose shi+eld 'a bend sable' also figured Dethick and Camden, ere responsible for any breach of heraldic etiquette in the matter, answered that the Shakespeare shi+eld bore no more resemblance to the Mauley coat than it did to that of the Harley and the Ferrers families, which also bore 'a bend sable,' but that in point of fact it differed conspicuously from all three by the presence of a spear on the 'bend' Dethick and Camden added, with custorant was istracy and was justice of peace at Stratford-on-Avon; he hter and heire of Arderne, and was able to maintain that Estate' {193}

Purchase of New Place

Meanwhile, in 1597, the poet had taken openly in his own person ahimself and his family in the eyes of his fellonsest house in the town, known as New Place It had been built by Sir Hugh Clopton more than a century before, and seems to have fallen into a ruinous condition

But Shakespeare paid for it, with two barns and two gardens, the then substantial su to the sudden death of the vendor, Williainal transfer of the property was left at the time incomplete Underhill's son Fulk died a felon, and he was succeeded in the fae, May 1602, completed in a new deed the transfer of New Place to Shakespeare {194a} On February 4, 1597-8, Shakespeare was described as a householder in Chapel Street ward, in which New Place was situated, and as the owner of ten quarters of corn The inventory wasto the presence of famine in the town, and only two inhabitants were credited with a larger holding In the same year (1598) he procured stone for the repair of the house, and before 1602 had planted a fruit orchard He is traditionally said to have interested hiarden, and to have planted with his own hands aa prominent feature of it When this was cut down, in 1758, numerous relics were made from it, and were treated with an almost superstitious veneration {194b} Shakespeare does not appear to have permanently settled at New Place till 1611 In 1609 the house, or part of it, was occupied by the town clerk, Thomas Greene, 'alias Shakespeare,' who clairandmother seems to have been a Shakespeare He often acted as the poet's legal adviser

It was doubtless under their son's guidance that Shakespeare's father and mother set on foot in November 1597--six ainst John Laed estate of Asbies in Wiled on for some years without result

Appeals for aid fro 1598 by leadingthe Corporation's archives, and leave no doubt of the reputation for wealth and influence hich the purchase of New Place invested the poet in his fellons early in 1598, apparently to a brother in London, says: 'This is one special remembrance from our father's motion

It see to disburse some money upon some odd yardland or other at Shottery, or near about us: he thinketh it a very fit pattern to move him to deal in the ive him thereof, and by the friends he can make therefor, we think it a fair ood' Richard Quiney, another townsman, father of Thomas (afterwards one of Shakespeare's two sons-in-laas, in the autumn of the same year, harassed by debt, and on October 25 appealed to Shakespeare for a loan ofcountryman,' the application ran, 'I a your help with xxx_li_' Quiney was staying at the Bell Inn in Carter Lane, London, and his main business in the metropolis was to procure exemption for the town of Stratford fro to Quiney from Stratford ten days later (on November 4, 1598), pointed out to him that since the toholly unable, in consequence of the dearth of corn, to pay the tax, he hoped 'that our countryman, Mr Wm

Shak, would procure us money, which I will like of, as I shall hear when and where, and how'

Financial position before 1599

The financial prosperity to which this correspondence and the transactions i it point has been treated as one of the chief ratuitous There is practically nothing in Shakespeare's financial position that a study of the contemporary conditions of theatrical life does not fully explain It was not until 1599, when the Globe Theatre was built, that he acquired any share in the profits of a playhouse But his revenues as a successful dramatist and actor were by no ains in the capacity of drahest price known to have been paid before 1599 to an author for a play by thecompany was 11 pounds; 6 pounds was the lowest rate {197a} A s ten shi+llings--was bestowed on a dramatist whose piece on its first production was especially well received; and the author was by custom allotted, by way of 'benefit,' a certain proportion of the receipts of the theatre on the production of a play for the second ti at times to asand altering an old play for a revival The nineteen plays which may be set to Shakespeare's credit between 1591 and 1599, co those eight years, cannot consequently have brought hiht or nine of these plays were published during the period, but the publishers operated independently of the author, taking all the risks and, at the same time, all the receipts The publication of Shakespeare's plays in no way affected his h his friendly relations with the printer Field doubtless secured hiht law, soe and continuous sale of his poems