He was married and was a father before his majority. His wife, Anne Hathaway, was seven or eight years older than himself, and they were early betrothed, which in those days constituted a legal, but irregular marriage; while his wife must have had some power, good or otherwise, upon him, yet a far finer and profounder feminine influence was that which his mother, Mary Arden, exerted on him.

There is a tradition, not authenticated, that after Shakespeare's death Anne Hathaway married a second time. Mary Arden, though now fallen to a yeomanry life, might be termed a gentlewoman of old family, whose impress is seen in his poetry. From his mother he inherited his love of flowers, birds, animals, and trees, and of the solitudes and beauties of nature, and he must have felt that he had some rights in Arden Forest and its deer, since it once belonged (as well as an extensive territory in Warwickshire) to his mother's family, giving their name to this whole region, especially to the wood itself, where, wandering and musing, he laid the forms and surroundings of many plays.

He drew, too, his gentle spirit from his mother. "Gentle and honest," Ben Jonson called him, and his contemporaries speak of his gentle breeding, upright character, and refined tastes, and he gave proof of this in the select company he kept. It has indeed been affirmed that Shakespeare was an aristocrat, but if this were true, it might be said that it was born in him and was no affectation. He had the English love of lords and kings, and he walked among them like a king to the manner born, and could also scathe them for their pride and oppression with terrible words. He was nature's nobleman, and was too big a man to be an exclusive aristocrat. Ben Jonson once again wrote of him, "I loved the man, and do honor to his memory this side of idolatry. He was indeed most honest, and of an open and free nature, had an excellent phantasy, brave notions and gentle expressions." Ben Jonson's relations to Shakespeare throw strong light on the character of both. They were nearly contemporaries, Shakespeare being some eight or nine years older. They commenced their careers as writers for the stage at

about the same time. Shakespeare probably came to London in 1585, going through the different grades of stage service, while Jonson began his work for the stage in London some six years later, in his learned and famous dramas pursuing the ancient Greek forms; while Shakespeare still remained a free lover of nature.

Jonson, though critical of his own methods, looked upon Shakespeare as his superior. The judgment pronounced by John Addington Symonds, that Jonson bore no jealousy towards Shakespeare, cannot be gainsaid. Jonson's line,

"Shine forth, thou star of poets,"

sounded the keynote of his real feeling for Shakespeare. This "sweetness and light," a phrase which seems to have been invented to describe Shakespeare, came, we cannot but think, from his mother, Mary Arden; and yet his father, John Shakespeare, who by writers in the next centuries. of bitter controversy about Shakespeare's dramatic art was called a "butcher" and other terms meant to be lowering, was a man of no mean stock

or reputation. He married one of old family, by name and race, at least, a lady, though living now in yeomanry degree; was himself high bailiff of Stratford, and his ancestry dated back to Saxon times. His forefathers doubtless fought at Bosworth Field near by Stratford, and in the Wars of the Roses. The martial name of Shakespeare was probably won in this way, so that his coat of arms bearing a slanting spear was no misnomer; Shakespeare himself was tenacious of this coat of arms, and took pains to have it certified in the Herald's College.

When he returned from London, to live some twenty years in Stratford-on-Avon, owing to his thrifty habits and honesty he not only helped his father in money difficulties, but he had amassed considerable wealth and built the "New House," so-called, where he entertained many of the leading dramatists and poets of the day, also men of courtly rank. This constant reference to his honesty is enough to quash any charge of forgery or double dealing in respect to his plays, a charge never mentioned or dreamed of in his lifetime or

the centuries immediately after. 'Honest and gentle" indeed! Shakespeare was what his friends claimed, and what even his rivals and enemies did. not gainsay. But as to his being an aristocrat, it should be remembered that he was no mere aristocrat. He rose above caste into a wider world of humanity. He merited the name of democrat in the nobler sense of that word. He loved the people and his humble neighbors, and knew and entered into their moods and merry-makings. He was of the same independent spirit with them, and in his youth even defied the lord of the manor. Voltaire, in a green fit of poisoned envy, called Shakespeare "a village buffoon who had not written two decent lines," but Voltaire was forced humbly to recede from these words, though he hated Shakespeare because he upset his own precious classic ideas of the drama.

The life of Shakespeare from 1564 to 1616, comprising fifty-two years, runs for some thirty years parallel to the reign of Elizabeth, one of the most memorable epochs of English history; and his death removed from the quiet community of Warwick