A Life of William Shakespeare | Page 8

would appear) on
the ground that it was the day of his death. There is no positive
evidence on the subject, but the Stratford parish registers attest that he
was baptised on April 26.

Alleged birthplace.
Some doubt is justifiable as to the ordinarily accepted scene of his birth.
Of two adjoining houses forming a detached building on the north side
of Henley Street, that to the east was purchased by John Shakespeare in
1556, but there is no evidence that he owned or occupied the house to
the west before 1575. Yet this western house has been known since
1759 as the poet's birthplace, and a room on the first floor is claimed as
that in which he was born. {8} The two houses subsequently came by
bequest of the poet's granddaughter to the family of the poet's sister,
Joan Hart, and while the eastern tenement was let out to strangers for
more than two centuries, and by them converted into an inn, the
'birthplace' was until 1806 occupied by the Harts, who latterly carried
on there the trade of butcher. The fact of its long occupancy by the
poet's collateral descendants accounts for the identification of the
western rather than the eastern tenement with his birthplace. Both
houses were purchased in behalf of subscribers to a public fund on
September 16, 1847, and, after extensive restoration, were converted
into a single domicile for the purposes of a public museum. They were
presented under a deed of trust to the corporation of Stratford in 1866.
Much of the Elizabethan timber and stonework survives, but a cellar

under the 'birthplace' is the only portion which remains as it was at the
date of the poet's birth. {9}

II--CHILDHOOD, EDUCATION, AND MARRIAGE
The father in municipal office.
In July 1564, when William was three months old, the plague raged
with unwonted vehemence at Stratford, and his father liberally
contributed to the relief of its poverty-stricken victims. Fortune still
favoured him. On July 4, 1565, he reached the dignity of an alderman.
From 1567 onwards he was accorded in the corporation archives the
honourable prefix of 'Mr.' At Michaelmas 1568 he attained the highest
office in the corporation gift, that of bailiff, and during his year of
office the corporation for the first time entertained actors at Stratford.
The Queen's Company and the Earl of Worcester's Company each
received from John Shakespeare an official welcome. {10} On
September 5, 1571, he was chief alderman, a post which he retained till
September 30 the following year. In 1573 Alexander Webbe, the
husband of his wife's sister Agnes, made him overseer of his will; in
1575 he bought two houses in Stratford, one of them doubtless the
alleged birthplace in Henley Street; in 1576 he contributed twelvepence
to the beadle's salary. But after Michaelmas 1572 he took a less active
part in municipal affairs; he grew irregular in his attendance at the
council meetings, and signs were soon apparent that his luck had turned.
In 1578 he was unable to pay, with his colleagues, either the sum of
fourpence for the relief of the poor or his contribution 'towards the
furniture of three pikemen, two bellmen, and one archer' who were sent
by the corporation to attend a muster of the trained bands of the county.

Brothers and sisters.
Meanwhile his family was increasing. Four children besides the
poet--three sons, Gilbert (baptised October 13, 1566), Richard (baptised
March 11, 1574), and Edmund (baptised May 3, 1580), with a daughter

Joan (baptised April 15, 1569)--reached maturity. A daughter Ann was
baptised September 28, 1571, and was buried on April 4, 1579. To
meet his growing liabilities, the father borrowed money from his wife's
kinsfolk, and he and his wife mortgaged, on November 14, 1578,
Asbies, her valuable property at Wilmcote, for 40 pounds to Edmund
Lambert of Barton-on-the-Heath, who had married her sister, Joan
Arden. Lambert was to receive no interest on his loan, but was to take
the 'rents and profits' of the estate. Asbies was thereby alienated for
ever. Next year, on October 15, 1579, John and his wife made over to
Robert Webbe, doubtless a relative of Alexander Webbe, for the sum
apparently of 40 pounds, his wife's property at Snitterfield. {12a}

The father's financial difficulties.
John Shakespeare obviously chafed under the humiliation of having
parted, although as he hoped only temporarily, with his wife's property
of Asbies, and in the autumn of 1580 he offered to pay off the mortgage;
but his brother-in-law, Lambert, retorted that other sums were owing,
and he would accept all or none. The negotiation, which was the
beginning of much litigation, thus proved abortive. Through 1585 and
1586 a creditor, John Brown, was embarrassingly importunate, and,
after obtaining a writ of distraint, Brown informed