Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 51.djvu/377

 in learning, solid but slow in his performances. Shakespear, with the English man of war, lesser in bulk, but lighter in sailing, could turn with all tides, tack about, and take advantage of all winds by the quickness of his wit and invention.’

Of the many testimonies paid to Shakespeare's literary reputation at this period of his career, the most striking was that of Francis Meres [q. v.] In a survey of contemporary literary effort in England (Palladis Tamia, 1598), Meres asserted that ‘the Muses would speak Shakespeare's fine filed phrase if they could speak English.’ ‘Among the English,’ Meres declared, ‘he was the most excellent in both kinds for the stage’ (i.e. tragedy and comedy). The titles of six comedies (‘Two Gentlemen of Verona,’ ‘Errors,’ ‘Love's Labour's Lost,’ ‘Love's Labour's Won,’ ‘Midsummer Night's Dream,’ and ‘Merchant of Venice’) and of six tragedies (‘Richard II,’ ‘Richard III,’ ‘Henry IV,’ ‘King John,’ ‘Titus,’ and ‘Romeo and Juliet’) were enumerated, and mention followed of his ‘Venus and Adonis,’ his ‘Lucrece,’ and his ‘sugred sonnets among his private friends.’ These were cited as proof ‘that the sweet witty soul of Ovid lives in mellifluous and honey-tongued Shakespeare.’ In the same year, and in the same strain, Richard Barnfield, in ‘Poems in divers Humors,’ predicted immortality for Shakespeare, whose ‘honey-flowing vein had pleased the world.’

His name was thenceforth of value to unprincipled publishers. Already, in 1595, Thomas Creede, the surreptitious printer of ‘Henry V’ and the ‘Merry Wives,’ had issued the ‘Tragedie of Locrine,’ as ‘newly set foorth, overseene and corrected by W. S.’ The like initials figured on the title-pages of ‘The Puritaine, or the Widdow of Watling-streete’ (printed by G. Eld in 1607), and of ‘The True Chronicle Historie of Thomas, Lord Cromwell’ (licensed 11 Aug. 1602, and printed by Thomas Snodham in 1613). ‘The Life of Oldcastle’ in 1600 (printed by T[homas] P[avier]), ‘The London Prodigall’ in 1605 (printed by T. C. for Nathaniel Butter), and ‘The Yorkshire Tragedy’ in 1608 (by R. B. for Thomas Pavier) were all published under the fraudulent pretence that they were by Shakespeare, whose name, in full, appeared on their title-pages. None of these six plays have any internal claim to Shakespeare's authorship, but all were included in the third folio of his collected works (1664). Schlegel and a few other critics have, on no grounds that merit acceptance, detected signs of Shakespeare's work in ‘The Yorkshire Tragedy;’ it is ‘a coarse, crude, and vigorous impromptu,’ which is clearly by a far less experienced hand. With even smaller justification, the worthless old play on the subject of King John was attributed to Shakespeare in the re-issues of 1611 and 1622. But poems as well as plays in which Shakespeare had no hand were deceptively placed to his credit. In 1599 William Jaggard, another piratical publisher, issued a volume which he entitled ‘The Passionate Pilgrim, by W. Shakespeare.’ Jaggard included two sonnets by Shakespeare which were not previously in print, and three poems drawn from the already published ‘Love's Labour's Lost;’ but the bulk of the volume was by Richard Barnfield and others (cf., i. 401–4, for analysis of volume). When a third edition of the ‘Passionate Pilgrim’ was printed in 1612, Shakespeare gently raised objection, according to Heywood's ‘Apology for Actors’ (1612), to the unwarranted use (‘altogether unknown to him’) of his name, and it was apparently removed from the title-page of some copies. In 1601 Shakespeare's full name was appended to ‘a poetical essaie on the Turtle and the Phœnix,’ which was published in Robert Chester's ‘Love's Martyr,’ a collection of poems by Marston, Chapman, Jonson, and others. This obscure allegory may be from Shakespeare's pen; happily he wrote nothing else of like character.

Shakespeare, in middle life, brought to practical affairs a singularly sane and sober temperament. The anonymous author of ‘Ratseis Ghost’ (1605) [see ] cynically urged an unnamed actor of repute, who has been identified with Shakespeare, to practise the utmost frugality in London. ‘When thou feelest thy purse well lined (the counsellor proceeded), buy thee some place or lordship in the country that, growing weary of playing, thy money may there bring thee to dignitie and reputation.’ It was this prosaic course of conduct that Shakespeare followed. As soon as his position in his profession was assured, he devoted his energies to re-establishing the fallen fortunes of his family in his native place, and to acquiring for himself and his successors the status of gentlefolk. His father's pecuniary embarrassments had steadily increased since his son's departure. Creditors harassed him unceasingly. In 1587 one Nicholas Lane pursued him for a debt for which he had become liable as surety for his brother Henry. Through 1588 and