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, Fenchurch-street, surgeon, said: I was called to see rgery. He told me he had been shot, and, upon looking bullet had lodged in the jaw. As there was no hæmorrshould immediately go to the ho-pital, which he did.

saw enough of the wound to know that it was a bulleterous wound.

ed whether any solicitor attended for the prosecution ?— ed.

he case is one of great importance to the public, and I am t the Judges shall not have all the trouble in the prosecure, have the policeman bound over to prosecute, and the et the case at the Central Criminal Court

is much affected. He expressed his gratitude to the medihomas's Hospital, to whose skill and attention he said he deeply for the prisoner.

1 it was his duty to commit the prisoner for shooting, with expressed his gratification at hearing a confirmation of the ne medical gentlemen of St. Thomas's Hospital; and he of whom he had heard such an excellent private chaof the commission of the act should have altered the him by the perpetration of so heinous an offence. t a word.

e prisoner had, while he was in the hospital, sent to be inis health, and desired that he should be told that he (the violence he had committed, and could not guess what him to commit such an act.

en committed for trial.

MR. BUNN.-On Wednesday, in pursuance of an order Villiams in this matter, at chambers, a commission was 's Bench Office, to examine witnesses viva voce at Berlin, s in Prussia, as to the alleged breach of contract for which The celebrated composer, Meyerbeer, is expected to be xamined under the Commission. The commissioner on s Mr. I. G. Lewis, of Ely-place, his solicitor; and on the ind, Mr. Hoggins, one of the barristers retained on her as been named the other Commissioner. It would seem ogress as rapidly as the forms of the Court will permit, the le returnable on the 2nd of November, the commencement and it is, therefore, expected that the action will be tried tunity.

rchives Israelites says:-"It is calculated that the total d over the surface of the globe is 6,000,000 of souls. Of the enjoyment of civil rights, viz.-30,000 in the United 000 in Holland, 10,000 in Belgium, and 90,000 in France. as yet incompletely emancipated."

PRICE OF BREAD.-On Monday morning the bakers of the ced the price of the 4lb. loaf. The high-priced bakers o 7d., while those of other qualities were figured as low as ops on the south side of the Thames intimated a further of the week, those of the League anticipating their price 88 OF FIVE LIVES.-A shipwreck took place on Saturday gale from the W.S.W., in Carnarvon Bay, by which no have met with a premature death. It appears that two d the other a schooner, were seen out in the bay, the ed for a pilot to cross the bar. This proved to be the Gem, Fleming, member of the Royal Yacht Squadron; in consefrom the station, she did not wait for the pilot's arrival, her own own hands for the mate of the other vessel, who The schooner proved to be the Vine, of Pwllheli, bound com Llanelly, in South Wales, to Bangor. From some the darkness of the evening, she, in attempting to pass ween five and seven o'clock, into the Menai Straits, struck st have immediately capsized, filled, and sunk with all on he dead body of a female passenger was found, and on the n was discovered, and both were immediately taken to signs of life in the man. Four other men, the remainder but their bodies have not yet been found. The Gem r, with the Vine's mate on board.

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CRANOE CHURCH.-In our account of the New Chu been stated that the ancient and venerable Church roads of time, and the severe storms of the last sump a dilapidated and dangerous state, that it has been t re-erected. As the subscriptions do not amount to quired to complete it, it is to be hoped that a benevol give assistance to the Rector and Churchwardens, i more provide the inhabitants with a house of praye been deprived twelve months. The sum required scription list is headed by her Majesty the Queen sympathy of others who have not yet come forward, responsible for the great deficiency yet required, rath should pass another year without the use of the Pari

IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CITY.-Workmen are several houses in Gresham-street, formerly Lad-lane, the improvements in that part. The houses are upwa on tablets in the front of each, are busts of a female, ve thead is crowned with a garland of flowers. It is do tended to represent, but they have been reserved Company, and are to be preserved at their Hall. I buildings are busts of her Majesty (crowned) in niche

C

SKETCH

OF THE

LIFE OF SHAKSPEARE.

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WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE was born at Strat- the performance. But in whatever situation he

"Th' applause, delight, the wonder, of our stage."

ford-upon-Avon, in Warwickshire, on the 23d day was first employed at the theatre, he appears to
of April, 1564. His family was above the vulgar have soon discovered those talents which afterwards
rank. His father, John Shakspeare, was a con- made him
siderable dealer in wool, and had been an officer
of the corporation of Stratford. He was likewise
a justice of the peace, and at one time a man of
Some distinction he probably first acquired as
considerable property. This last, however, ap- an actor, but no character has been discovered
pears to have been lost by some means, in the latter in which he appeared to more advantage than in
part of his life. His wife was the daughter and that of the Ghost in Hamlet: and the best critics
heiress of Robert Arden, of Wellington, in the and inquirers into his life are of opinion, that he
county of Warwick, by whom he had a family of was not eminent as an actor. In tracing the chro-
ten children.
nology of his plays, it has been discovered, that
Romeo and Juliet, and Richard II. and III., were

Our illustrious poet was the eldest son, and was printed in 1597, when he was thirty-three years educated, probably, at the free-school of Stratford; old. There is also some reason to think that he but from this he was soon removed, and placed in commenced a dramatic writer in 1592, and Mr. the office of some country attorney. The exact Malone even places his first play, the First Part of amount of his education has been long a subject Henry VI., in 1589.

of controversy. It is generally agreed, that he did

not enjoy what is usually termed a literary educa- His plays were not only popular, but approved
tion; but he certainly knew enough of Latin and by persons of the higher order, as we are certain
French to introduce scraps of both in his plays, that he enjoyed the gracious favour of Queen Eli-
without blunder or impropriety.
zabeth, who was very fond of the stage; the pa-
tronage of the Earl of Southampton, to whom he
When about eighteen years old, he married dedicated some of his poems; and of King James,
Anne Hathaway, who was eight years older than who wrote a very gracious letter to him with his
himself. His conduct soon after this marriage was own hand, probably in return for the compliment
not very correct. Being detected with a gang of Shakspeare had paid to his majesty in the tragedy
deer-stealers, in robbing the park of Sir Thomas of Macbeth. It may be added, that his uncom-
Lucy, of Charlecote, near Stratford, he was obliged mon merit, his candour, and good nature, are sup-
to leave his family and business, and take shelter posed to have procured him the admiration and
in London.

acquaintance of every person distinguished for such qualities. It is not difficult, indeed, to trace, that

He was twenty-two years of age when he arrived Shakspeare was a man of humour, and a social in London, and is said to have made his first ac- companion; and probably excelled in that species quaintance in the play-house. Here his necessities of minor wit, not ill adapted to conversation, of obliged him to accept the office of call-boy, or which it could have been wished he had been more prompter's attendant; who is appointed to give the sparing in his writings.

performers notice to be ready, as often as the busi

ness of the play requires their appearance on the

How long he acted, has not been discovered; but

stage. According to another account, far less he continued to write till the year 1614. During probable, his first employment was to wait at the his dramatic career, he acquired a property in the door of the play-house, and hold the horses of those theatre, which he must have disposed of when he who had no servants, that they might be ready after retired, as no mention of it occurs in his will. The

latter part of his life was spent in ease, retirement, gentlemen of the neighbourhood; and here he is and the conversation of his friends. He had accu-thought to have written the play of Twelfth Night. mulated considerable property, which Gildon (in He died on his birth-day, Tuesday, April 23, 1616, his Letters and Essays) stated to amount to 300l. when he had exactly completed his fifty-second per ann. a sum equal to 1000l. in our days. But year; and was buried on the north side of the chanMr. Malone doubts whether all his property cel, in the great church at Stratford, where a monuamounted to much more than 2001. per ann. which ment is placed in the wall, on which he is repreyet was a considerable fortune in those times; and sented under an arch, in a sitting posture, a cushion it is supposed, that he might have derived 2001. an-spread before him, with a pen in his right hand, nually from the theatre, while he continued to act. and his left rested on a scroll of paper. The following Latin distich is engraved under the cushion : Judicio Pylium, genio Socratem, arte Maronem, Terra tegit, populus moret, Olympus habet.

He retired some years before his death to a house in Stratford, of which it has been thought

cratem. Underneath are the following lines:

Stay, passenger, why dost thou go so fast?
Read, if thou canst, whom envious death has plac'd
Within this monument: Shakspeare, with whom
Quick nature died; whose name doth deck the tomb
Far more than cost: since all that he hath writ
Leaves living art but page to serve his wit.

Obiit ano. Dni. 1616,

Æt. 53, die 23 Apri.

We have not any account of the malady which, bours of this unrivalled and incomparable genius. at no very advanced age, closed the life and laThe only notice we have of his person is from

important to give the history. It was built by Sir Perhaps we should read Sophoclem, instead of SoHugh Clopton, a younger brother of an ancient family in that neighbourhood. Sir Hugh was sheriff of London in the reign of Richard III. and lord mayor in that of Henry VII. By his will he bequeathed to his elder brother's son his manor of Clopton, &c. and his house by the name of the Great House in Stratford. A good part of the estate was in possession of Edward Clopton, Esq. and Sir Hugh Clopton, Knt. in 1733. The principal estate had been sold out of the Clopton family for above a century, at the time when Shakspeare became the purchaser, who, having repaired and modelled it to his own mind, changed the name to New Place, which the mansion-house afterwards Aubrey, who says, "He was a handsome wellshaped man;" and adds, "verie good company, erected, in the room of the poet's house, retained and of a verie ready and pleasant and smooth wit." for many years. The house and lands belonging to it continued in the possession of Shakspeare's His family consisted of two daughters, and a son descendants to the time of the Restoration, when named Hamnet, who died in 1596, in the twelfth they were re-purchased by the Clopton family. year of his age. Susannah, the eldest daughter, Here, in May, 1742, when Mr. Garrick, Mr. Mack- and her father's favourite, was married to Dr. John lin, and Mr. Delane, visited Stratford, they were Hall, a physician, who died Nov. 1635, aged 60. hospitably entertained under Shakspeare's mul-Mrs. Hall died July 11, 1649, aged 66. They left berry-tree, by Sir Hugh Clopton, who was a bar-only one child, Elizabeth, born 1607-8, and married rister, was knighted by George I. and died in the April 22, 1626, to Thomas Nashe, esq. who died in S0th year of his age, 1751. His executor, about 1647; and afterwards to Sir John Barnard, of the year 1752, sold New Place to the Rev. Mr. Abington in Northamptonshire, but died without Gastrel, a man of large fortune, who resided in it issue by either husband. Judith, Shakspeare's but a few years, in consequence of a disagreement youngest daughter, was married to Mr. Thomas with the inhabitants of Stratford. As he resided Quiney, and died Feb. 1661-2, in her 77th year. part of the year at Litchfield, he thought he was By Mr. Quiney she had three sons, Shakspeare, assessed too highly in the monthly rate towards the Richard, and Thomas, who all died unmarried. maintenance of the poor, and being opposed, he The traditional story of Shakspeare having been peevishly declared, that that house should never the father of Sir William Davenant, has been gebe assessed again; and soon afterwards pulled it nerally discredited.

*

down, sold the materials, and left the town. He From these imperfect notices, which are all had some time before cut down Shakspeare's mul- we have been able to collect from the labours of berry-tree, to save himself the trouble of showing his biographers and commentators, our readers it to visitors. That Shakspeare planted this tree will perceive that less is known of Shakspearc appears to be sufficiently authenticated. Where than of almost any writer who has been considerNew Place stood is now a garden.

*The first regular attempt at a lifo of Shakspeare is proDuring Shakspeare's abode in this house, he fixed to Mr. A. Chalmer's variorum edition, published in 1805. enjoyed the acquaintance and friendship of the of which we have availed ourselves in the above Sketch.

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