Knight's store of knowledge for all readers: being a collection of treatises, in various departments of knowledge / by several authors.

  • Knight, Charles, 1791-1873
Date:
[1841]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Knight's store of knowledge for all readers: being a collection of treatises, in various departments of knowledge / by several authors. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/406 (page 8)
    j'1^2l4?}}Ct i-ycU£ less than miraculous in his writings, especially with reference to the almost boundless amount of knowledge which they con- tain on every subject, will raise in us not a vulgar wonder but a rational admiration when we look at him as a well-nurtured child, brought up by parents living in comfort if not in alllu* ence, and trained in those feelings of honour which were more especially held the possession of those of gentle blood. Wil- liam, tlie son of Alasfer John Shakspere, would, without any prejudice for mere rank, be a difierent person from tlie son of Goodman Shakspere, butcher. We can scarcely conceive him killing a calf in a high style” without seeing him sur- rounded with the usual companions and associations of the slaughterhouse. His father and mother were, we have no doubt, educated persons; not indeed familiar with many books, but knowing some thoroughly; cherishing a kindly love of nature and of rural enjoyments amidst tlie thorougldy Kiiglish scenery by which they were surrounded; admirers and cultivators of music, as all persons above the lowest rank were in those days; frugal and orderly in all their household arrangements; of habitual benevolence and piety. We have a belief, which amounts to a conviction os strong os could be derived from any direct evidence, tliat tlie mind of William Shaksi^re was chiefly moulded by his mothei*. No writer that ever lived has in tlie slightest degree approached him in his delineations of the grace and purity of the female cha- racter; and we scarcely exaggerate in saying that a very great deal of the just appreciation of women in England has been produced through our national familiarity witli the works of Sliakspere. It was lie who lirst embodied the notion— and he has repeated it in shapes as various as they are beauti- ful—of “ A. perfect wonuin, nobly platiuM, To warn, to comfort, uiul command ; And yet ii spirit slUl, mul bri;'ht M’ith something of ati’an^ul light.” Had his boyhood been surrounded with ignorance, or vul- garity, or selfishness, in female shapes, we doubt if our Dcs- demoiias, and \ iolos, and Mirandas, would have been quite 80 jwrfect. Hut n father's inllucnco could not have been wanting in his culture. If his father, and his father's coniiw- iiioiis, li!ul been cxamplva of coarscncM, and sensuality, and indilTercncc to bigli and ennobling pursuits, we doubt if ins wondroiu gallery of full-length portraits of Iborougb gentlemen of all ages and countries would have attained its present com- pleteness. ^\'e are not sure Ibal the poor mad Ix:ar, in his ]'aruxysms of anguish, would have said, ** I’ray ;ou, undo this button; thank you, sir f‘ or that Poloniiu would bare adrisol bis son, To thine own i.elf Ijc true. And It roust follow, as tlie niglit llie day, Tlinu caaat not tlicn be falMi Vj any man. Malone assures us tlmt Sbalispere's father could not wntc. \Vc were perfectly satisfied tltat the statement was untrue; and we bare taken some pains, therefore, to exainuie the evi- dence which was produced for Ibis assertion. Putting the higher considerations of the {loet's education out of the (ques- tion, we thought it scarcely consistent with his lialjitual rever- ence for those things which we arc called upon to hemour, that he should make his own father the subject of his satire, and tliat during liis fathers lifetime, in the praise which Jack Cade bestows upon tliose who “ dh not use to write their names, hut have a mark of llieir omi.like honest plain-dealing men.” Malone tells us tliat Jolm Shakspere h^ a mark of his own, and it “ nearly resembles a capital A, and was ]ier- haps chosen in honour of the lady whom he liad married.” He fartlicr says, “ Out of nineteen persons who signed a japer relative to one of their body who liad been elected bailin', ten of whom were aldermen, and the rest burgesses, seven only could write their names; and among the twelve marksmen is found John .Shakspereand tliat he derives his knowledge of the facu from an Ordef, dated September 27, 1561. The reader shall judge for himself of tlie truth of this assertion. We give an exact fac-timile of the Order, which a most careful artist was permitted to make for us from the old council-book of tlie corqioratioii of Stratford. (No. 1.) There may be a doubt,;the reader may think, whether tlie mark which “ nearly resembles a capital A” belongs to “ George Wliateley, high'bailiff,” in the first column, or “ Jhoii Sliacksper,” in the second column. Malone, who asserts that it belongs to our poet's father, had the corporation-books in his possession for many years; but lie omitted to find an entry of the 29th of January, i589, when John Shakspere had ceased to be a member of the corporation. He did not dien, of course, record liis ignorance in the corpo- ration-books; hut George Wliateley still uses the same big A. In a quarter of a century he had not learned to write. AVe give a fno-simile of this entry, which wc trust is decisive. (No, 2.) Malone talks as if John Sliakspcre's use of a mark was a common thing. There it not another example in the corpo- ration-books in which the name of John Shakspine is attached to any order of a commou hall. Mr. Wheler, of Stratford, who is honourably distinguished for his attention to matters connected with Shakspere, informs us that such orders were very rarely signed by members of the corporation wlm were present, but tliat the entry to which the name of John Sbak- sperc is allixcd was a very special one. William Shaksiiere, tlicii, we think had a mother who could read, and a father who could write. They prolwhly could do something more in the way of advancing lire intelligence of their son. But, at any rale, wlreii lie Irecame old enough, thev would send their hoy to the endowed grammar-school of tire town ill which they lived. He proliahly went there about 1571, when his father had Iwcome chief alderman of lire town. The frce-scliool of SImiford was founded in the reign of Henry VI., and received a charter from Kdward VI. It was open to all boys, natives of tire borough; and, like all tire gram- iiiar-scliools of that age, was under the direction of men who, as clergymen and graduates of lire universities, were qualified to difl'iiso that sound scholarship which was once the boast of England. W c have no record of Shakspere having lieeii at this school; hut there can he no mtioiial doubt that he was educated there. His father could not have procured for him a belter education anywhere. It is perfectly clear to those who have studied Ids works (without being influenced by pre- judices, ivhicli liave been most carefully cherished, iinplviiig tliat he had received a very narrow education) that they ahoiind with evidences llial ho mnsi have lieen solidly grounded in the learning, pro]ierly so colled, which was taught in grani- niar-ichoolt. As ho did not adopt any one of the learned pro-