WITH NOTES, INTRODUCTION AND GLOSSARY BY 117 GEORGE SMITH, M.A. Principal, U.F.C. Training College, and Examiner in Education, WITH FIVE ILLUSTRATIONS BY T. H. ROBINSON And Many Illustrations in the Introduction and Glossary from Contemporary Prints J. M. DENT AND COMPANY 29 and 30 BEDFORD STREET, W.C. 10 1X моя THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH. Introduction. Life of Shakespeare-Birth and Parentage.-The play of The Tragedy of Macbeth was written by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, who was born at Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire, on the 22nd or 23rd April 1564. The latter date has been accepted as the more likely, an old tradition stating that he died on the anniversary of his The Village of Wilmecote or Wincot in 1852. birth, and we know beyond question his death occurred on April 23rd, 1616. His father, John Shakespeare, belonged to a family which had given generations of substantial yeomen to the Midland districts of England. At the time of the poet's birth John was a prosperous "general merchant" in agricultural produce. Corn, malt, hides, wool, leather, hay are named among the wares in which he dealt. Aubrey, the first biographer of Shakespeare, styled the father of the latter "a butcher." Others have classed him as a "glover." Possibly, like colonial storekeepers of the present day, he may have united many branches of trade in himself, so as to consult the convenience of rural customers coming from a distance. |