Chapter 11

BACK AGAIN IN STRATFORD

In the foregoing review of the poet's life-work, the progress of his fortunes on the material side has been of necessity overlooked. It would have been confusing to deal with the two interests side by side, and now it is time to look for the signs that mark William Shakespeare's prosperity. We know that he came to London poor and left it comparatively wealthy, and the change of his state has some very definite landmarks. No man passes easily from the duties of an ostler to the position of part proprietor of prosperous theatres, and the first few years of Shakespeare's sojourn in the metropolis bore but little fruit. We know that in those lean times his own purse would have been but ill-lined, and both his father's household and his own were suffering from the pinch of poverty. His wife was forced to borrow money; his father's affairs went steadily from bad to worse. Nor was there in all Stratford any help for a family that had fallen from comparative affluence into the slough of financial troubles.

We may presume, from the scanty evidence which records have left and diligent scholarship has discovered, that the poet himself made no effort to "fling away ambition." In the early years of his sojourn in London, when visits to Stratford were few and far between and the fear of the Squire of Charlecote may have compelled him to lie very low within the boundaries of Warwickshire, he would have seen or heard of his father's affairs going from bad to worse. The parental honours were stripped off one by one, debts accumulated, duns were incessant in their attendance. To a proud and sensitive man this condition of things must needs have been very galling; but it was not destined to last long. Quite apart from his considerable receipts as a playwright, the poet's earnings as an actor were substantial. The purchasing value of a sovereign in Elizabeth's time would be equal to the value of nearly eight pounds of our money, and Shakespeare's most learned biographers are of opinion that he was a careful and a saving man. Member of a leading company, enjoying the patronage of noblemen and the regard of his Sovereign, frequently summoned to take part in special performances at Court, it is likely that the poet's income as an actor was, within comparatively few years of the start of his career, equal in our modern currency to a sum nearer a thousand than five hundred a year. In later years it was still higher. For revising other men's work his fees would have varied between thirty and forty pounds, modern currency, and for his own plays he may well have averaged twice as much, or even more. The "benefit" system was already in vogue, and a dramatist could command an extra fee if the first-night audience proved very appreciative of his efforts. Shakespeare wrote his plays at the rate of two a year, and he would have had something in the way of a royalty on the sale of his poems, even though the plays brought him nothing as published work. We may presume, then, that after a year or two he was able to maintain his wife and children with some approach to comfort, and as the years passed and reputation grew he found himself able to revisit his birthplace in security, and to take definite steps to re-establish the family fortunes, then at so low an ebb.

We read that after 1596, when the poet returned to Stratford with London's honours thick upon him and plenty of money in his purse, his father's debts were no longer the subject of proceedings at the local court. We may presume, then, that his son had paid them and cleared the way for John Shakespeare's strange application to the College of Heralds for a coat of arms. Strange at first thought, but less remarkable if, as is generally supposed, the father was acting for the son. It was and is the custom for a coat of arms to be applied for by the eldest male of the house, and the poet could not have made application in his father's lifetime. The application may have received some initial support in London, for arms were assigned with the least possible delay. Garter King-of-Arms referred to certain (and probably apocryphal) services rendered "to that most prudent prince King Henry the Seventh of famous memory," and stated, without any recorded blush, that the Shakespeare family had continued since those days to live in Warwickshire, in good reputation and credit! He went on to record the undoubted fact that the applicant had married Mary Arden, daughter and heiress of Robert Arden of Wilmcote, who is described as a gentleman. In view of these qualifications, arms were assigned to the applicant, a shield described in the quaint jargon of heraldry, "Gold, on a bend sable, a spear of the first, and for crest or cognizance a falcon, his wings displayed argent standing on a wreath of his colours, supporting a spear gold steeled as aforesaid." The motto chosen was "Non Sans Droict."

But though the grant was assigned, the assignment was not completed for three years, the claim to relationship with the Ardens of Park Hall, through John Shakespeare's wife, being disallowed, as was indeed inevitable. Even then the grant was criticised in many quarters, but William Shakespeare's eminence tended to render all criticism nugatory; nor was he the first eminent actor to enjoy a coat of arms. It is quite easy to understand the significance of the application if we turn to regard the poet as a purchaser of real estate. Some two years before the assignment was completed, he had impressed upon his fellow townsmen of Stratford the truth that the period of strained finances had passed.

New Place, the century-old seat of Sir Hugh Clopton, a man who had done much for Stratford, his birthplace, and had thriven in London, was now dismantled and in bad repair; but remained the most imposing house in the town. It was on the market, and William Shakespeare bought it, with outbuildings and garden, for the equivalent of about four hundred and fifty pounds, a large sum in that place and in those days. Some years passed before the transaction was completed, and then the poet planted an orchard which contained a famous mulberry tree, that flourished for more than a hundred and fifty years, and was cut down by the Rev. Francis Gastrell, whose name and memory are anathema to lovers of Shakespeare. The poet did not take up his residence at New Place until he had retired from London, and by that time the repairs were completed and the place was in good order. It is at least highly probable that the poet conducted some farming operations in and round New Place, though we know nothing of his special qualifications for this work. There is a record that in time of a local famine he had a good store of corn, and he is known to have bought several lots of arable land. From the date of the purchase of New Place there could have been none to dispute the poet's claim to the description of William Shakespeare of Stratford, Gentleman, and from first to last the total amount of his purchases of real estate in and round his native town would amount to more than £7000 modern currency, if we value the Elizabethan pound at eight times our own.

At the corner of Chapel Street, Stratford, where it turns into Chapel Lane, there is an ugly modern house that enjoys the title of New Place and receives the sixpences of the faithful. The trustees of Shakespeare's birthplace own New Place and Anne Hathaway's cottage. The house in which Shakespeare passed his last years does not exist, but there is not a little about Stratford that calls for sixpences more readily than it can justify the receipt of them. All that New Place can offer of true Shakespearian interest is some venerable timbers, a shovel board, from the old Falcon Inn that rose close by soon after Shakespeare's death and still stands in receipt of custom, a circular table inlaid with wood from the mulberry tree that the poet is said to have planted, and a stone mullion from his own house. There is little else that can recall the past, although the site of the ancient Clopton mansion that Shakespeare purchased is undeniably here. The history of the house that has passed and that of its successors has a very definite interest.

Shakespeare left New Place to his favourite daughter, Susanna, and to her daughter, Elizabeth Nash, in second marriage Lady Barnard. On her death Sir John Barnard kept the place as a residence until he sold it to Sir Edward Walker, whose daughter Barbara married Sir John Clopton, descendant of the man who built the first house at the end of the fifteenth century. Sir John pulled down the old house, rebuilt it, and was succeeded by Sir Hugh Clopton. From him in an evil hour it passed into the hands of a clerical Vandal, Francis Gastrell by name. He was a wealthy man and mean, so he quarrelled with the Stratford rating authorities, who assessed him too heavily, or so he said, for the relief of the poor. He had already cut down the great mulberry tree in the garden, because his privacy was disturbed by the early pilgrims to the poet's shrine, and for this act alone his name was an offence to the lads of Stratford, who broke his windows when opportunity afforded. But the town had not finished with the reverend gentleman. When the assessors refused to listen to his claim that he should not pay full rates to Stratford because he resided for a part of the year at Lichfield, he vowed that New Place should never be assessed again. He pulled the place down. Boswell described the cutting down of the mulberry tree as a piece of "Gothic barbarity," but was silent about the other act of vandalism. The mulberry, sold for firewood, was bought by a local clockmaker, who made solemn affidavit that the toys he made of it were from the genuine sacred tree. When the Rev. Mr. Gastrell had gone to where he may have met the poet, though this is unlikely, his widow sold the remains of the estate to a Mr. Wm. Hunt, who in time sold it to a firm of bankers. In 1827 Miss Smith purchased the site of New Place with the adjacent house, now the museum. Mr. Edward Leyton and his daughter, Mrs. Loggin, were the next holders, and in 1861 Mr. J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps, an enthusiastic student of the poet's history, established the existing Trust after raising the necessary money by public subscription. But as far as New Place, so called, is concerned, it must be remarked, with deference to those whom the reminder may offend, that the Falcon Hotel, which can be seen from the house, is the older establishment by centuries--indeed the billiard-room is panelled with some of the old oak from the New Place that Shakespeare knew. New Place Museum is really the house adjoining Shakespeare's, and was the property of Thomas Nash, first husband of Elizabeth, daughter of Susanna Hall.

Shortly after his purchase of New Place, the poet found himself in a better position than ever for increasing his property and gratifying his passion for real estate. Richard and Cuthbert Burbage, sons of that James Burbage who owned "The Theatre" in which the poet is said to have been a servitor, had built the "Globe Theatre" on Bankside. It was an octagonal wooden building, in which Shakespeare's company was to be seen year after year; the poet refers to it in the opening part of "Henry V." The two brothers, from motives of prudence or generosity or both issued twenty-one-year leases of shares in the profits of the venture. Shakespeare had a share; so had Condell and Phillips and others of the company; and later the poet acquired an interest in the "Blackfriar's Theatre." Each share was proved, in the course of long subsequent litigation, to have been worth two hundred pounds a year. Setting down the poet's salary at a like amount, and his author's fees at about a hundred, we find that he must have been worth nearly £4000 a year, in our modern currency, from the time when he bought New Place to the year of his retirement. "The Globe" was burnt down in 1613 during a performance of "Henry VIII.," and was rebuilt a year later, but before the disaster occurred Shakespeare's financial position had long been assured, and it is unlikely that he held his shares when the theatre suffered. There is a story, unauthenticated but seemingly credited by many good judges, to the effect that at a moment when Shakespeare was desirous of making investments either in Stratford or London, his friend and patron Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, came very generously to his assistance.