Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/299

 12 S. VIII. MARCH 26, 1921.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 241 LONDON, MARCH 26, 1921.' CONTENTS.-No. 154. tNOTES : Among the Shakespeare Archives : The Birth of William Shakespeare, 241-Robert Whatley, 242 The Beginning of Esthetic Criticism in Italy : Sforza Pallavi cino (1607-16*7), 244 A Norfolk Churchwarden's Charities in 1716 Bronte Poem The Qualities of Female Keauty, 247 Medical Value of Nail-cutting Vicissitudes of Books Henry Molle, 248. QUERIES: Bamfylde Moore Carew, 248 Maria Dickson=: Dr. Dominick Lym-h- Jenkinson and Duck Families Hercules Underhill Double Firsts at Oxford Shering- ton : Old Church Registers Rose-Coloured Vestments on Mothering ISunday Variations in Gray's ' Elegy,' 249 " A. Liverpool Gentleman and a Manchester Man "The Lord's Prayer in the Gipsy or Romany Language Old Song Wanted The Roman Numeral Alphabet Leg of Mutton Clubs Thomas Fuller of Amsterdam Tavern Sign : C*stle and Wheelbarrow James Peake, Words- worth^ Schoolmaster William Toone. 250 Repositories of Wills Pastorini's Prophecy Influence of Climate 'Gentleman's Magazine Library, 1731-1868 'Defoe and Africa The Gal'ic Era " Eiehty-eigbt" Asmodeus Capt. Charles Morris ^ir Thomas Greene Monthly Periodical, ' Penny Post,' 251. ^REPLIES: Tercentenary Handlist of Newspapers, 262 Nuns and Dancing Crucifixion in Art : the Sp^ar Wound Sir John Wood, Treasurer Book Borrowers, 253 1 Hinchbridge Haunted ' Plees Family Cohbold Family, 254 Col. Owen Rowe " Death as Friend "The Coffin- Mouse, 255 Giuseppe Parini Domestic History of the Nineteenth Century Byerby of Midridge Grange, Dur- ha, 256 Maughfling Family Inscription on Claret Jug Meridians of London and of Greenwich Richard III. ''Colly my Cow" Oast on de Foix, 257 Thackeray Query "The Empire" Bible of James I Old Silver Charm Sentry at Pompeii, 258 O'Flaherty Family: Kings of Comiaught " A Hogarth Miniature Frame "- Author Wanted, 259. '.NOTES ON BOOKS :' Stories and Ballads of the Far East' ' English Place-Name Study' ' London County Council : Indication of Houses of Historical Interest in London ' ' Annals of Archseology and Anthropology ' Handlist ot Indexes to Norfolk and Suffolk Works ' ' Durham Univeisity Journal." ^Notices to Correspondents. AMONG THE SHAKESPEARE ARCHIVES. (See ante, pp. 23, 45, 66, 83, 124, 146, 181, 223.) THE BIRTH OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. The natural interpretation of the words on the Poet's monument Obiit anno Domini 1616 aetatis suae 53 die 23 Ap. is that lie died on Apr. 23, 1616, after the com- pletion of his 52nd year, and was born, therefore, before Apr. 23, 1564. He was baptized on Wednesday, Apr. 26, 1564, as we know fromthe entry in Bretchgirdle's register: " 1564 April 26 Gulielmus filius Johannes Shakspeare," and there is little doubt that "his birthday was Saturday, the 22nd. Parents are admonished in the Prayer Book of 1559 : " that they defer not the baptism of infants any longer than the Sunday or other Holy Day next after the child be born unless upon a great and reasonable cause declared to the Curate and by him approved," and : "that it is most convenient that baptism should not be ministered but upon Sundays and other Holy Days when the most number of people may com* together, as well for that the congregation there present may testify the receiving of them that be newly baptised into the number of Christ's Church as also because in the baptism of infants every man present may be put in remembrance of his own profession made to God in his baptism," Sunday the 23rd was too soon to take the infant, if born on the 22rd, from Henley Street to the parish church in Old Stratford, especially if the father and mother were cautious after the death of baby Margaret in December, 1562. The next Holy Day was Tuesday the 25th, St. Mark's Day'; but this was one of the unlucky days of the Calendar known as Black Crosses, when, a few years previously, crosses and altars were draped and a special litany was said. Trouble came, it was believed, to all who walked in the churchyard or did any manner of work. A quarter of a century after Shakespeare's birth the superstition was rife in Wales. "In 1589, I being as then but a boy," says William Vaughan in Golden Grove Moralised ' (1600), " do remember that an ale wife making no exception of days would needs brew upon St. Mark's Day ; but, lo, the marvellous work of God ! while she was thus labouring the top of the chimney took fire and before it could be quenched her house was quite burned." Bretchgirdle and John Shakespeare, we presume, would not object to the day, but it does not follow that Mary Shakespeare did not. Hence, probably, the baptism on the 26th, though it was not a Holy Day. In confirmation of the 22nd as the Poet's birthday is the circumstance that his grand- daughter, Elizabeth Hall, ten years after his death, when honour was being paid tc his memory, chose Apr. 22 for her wedding-day. There was danger of an unbaptized infant being carried off by fairies ! William Shakespeare escaped the fate which nearly overtook his contemporary and neighbour, Robert Willis, at Gloucester : " Within few days after my birth, says Willis, whilst my mother lay in. I was taken out of the bed from her side, and by my sudden and fierce crying recovered, being found sticking between the bed's head and the wall, and if I had not cried in that manner as I did our gossips had a conceit that