Page:The Pacific Monthly volumes 1-3.djvu/278

222 probabilities are that it consisted of English, rudimentary Latin and literature. There is no record of Shakespeare's progress or conduct while at school, but from the subsequent genius he displayed it is but reasonable to suppose that he was an apt scholar. Seven years under the direction of an able tutor, at an age (seven to fourteen) when the youthful mind is most capable of receiving and retaining impressions would form the foundation of a pretty substantial education and probably a very sound one for the period in which he lived. Ben Jonson, himself a university graduate, speaking somewhat slightingly of Shakespeare's classical knowledge, said that "he knew little Latin, and less Greek," and a perusal of his plays shows us that the Latin quoted therein is of just about the quality that an intelligent boy would gain at a public school, while the scenes, between the French princess, her maid, and the king in "Henry V," would indicate that his knowledge of that language was of the same rudimentary quality as his Latin.

Of his life on leaving school (about 1578) to assist his father, who, with a large family, was then in financial difficulties, we know little. In his moments of leisure he doubtless shared the recreations of the youths of his own age in the neighborhood, for in his plays we find constant references to and quotations of the terms used in bowls, quoits, archery, hawking, hunting, wrestling and other sports of the period. In his pastoral plays, such as "A Midsummer's Nights Dream" and "As You Like It," we find ample evidence of his powers of observation, unconscious doubtless at the time, of the beauties of nature, the variety of the wild flowers, the habits of the birds, the insects, the animals, and the reptiles that he found in the meadows by the Avon's banks.

Also of his wanderings in the woods of Shottery and Charlecotte, where he found

I can readily imagine that he, himself, saw

augment the already swollen stream with his superfluous tears. It was, doubtless, from his own childish experience with some village Yorick, that he placed in Hamlet's mouth the line —

And from the immature observations of his youthful days developed the philosophy of his maturer years. During the days of his courtship of Anne Hathway it is not difficult to understand how, to the eyes of the youthful lover nature took on an added beauty, and the natural poetry of his mind developed under the influence of "love's young dream." His indiscreet, and (for him) premature marriage followed, when he was little more than eighteen years of age — Anne Hathway was eight years older. With its realities and responsibilities, he awoke to the bitterness of an enforced cohabitation with a woman who, if not absolutely uncongenial, was certainly far inferior to himself in every quality of mind and imagination. His escapade on the estate of Sir Thomas Lucy probably led to his subsequent flight to London to avoid its consequences.

What a revelation to this country youth must have been the vastness of that great city, for it was great, even in the days of "good Queen Bess," with its life, its wealth, its palaces, its pageants, and its play-houses. It was to the latter that he naturally drifted, first finding employment outside its doors, then within as "call boy" or prompter's assistant, and finally as an actor. Here he found his proper and natural sphere, here the natural trend of his mind and heart found a congenial atmosphere, and here his natural amiability and intellectual accomplishments found speedy recognition, and secured his rapid advancement to fame and for-