*

Such is the very considerable body of authenticated facts about the life
of Shakespeare. Lacking though they are in intimate and personal
touches, they can hardly be said to leave the main outlines of his
career shadowy or mysterious. But they do not by any means exhaust the
data at our disposal for forming an impression of the poet's
personality. A large mass of tradition, of less than legal validity but
much of it of a high degree of probability, has come down to us, the
sources of which may now be detailed.

In the seventeenth century we have several biographical and critical
collections in which Shakespeare figures, the most important being
these: Fuller's _Worthies of England_ (1662), Aubrey's _Lives of Eminent
Men_ (compiled 1669-1696), Phillips's _Theatrum Poetarum_ (1675), and
Langbaine's _English Dramatic Poets_ (1691). The two last are for
strictly biographical purposes negligible, though interesting as early
criticism. Fuller began his work in 1643, so that he may be supposed to
have had access to oral tradition from men who actually knew
Shakespeare. He gives few facts, but some hints as to temperament.
"Though his genius generally was jocular and inclining him to
festivity, yet he could, when so disposed, be solemn and serious....
Many were the wit-combats betwixt him and Ben Jonson; which two I beheld
like a Spanish great galleon and an English man-of-war; master Jonson
(like the former) was built far higher in learning; solid, but slow, in
his performances. Shakespeare, with the English man-of-war, lesser in
bulk, but lighter in sailing, could turn with all tides, tack about, and
take advantage of all winds, by the quickness of his wit and invention."

[Page Heading: Sources of Traditions]

Among the actors who, with Shakespeare, took part in the first
production of Jonson's _Every Man in His Humour_ was Christopher
Beeston, who when he died in 1637 was manager of the Cockpit Theater in
Drury Lane. He was succeeded in this office by his son William, who
became in his old age the revered transmitter to Restoration players and
playwrights of the traditions of the great age in which he had spent his
youth. From him, and from another actor of the same period, John Lacy,
as well as from other sources, the antiquary John Aubrey collected
fragments of gossip for his lives of the English poets. According to
Aubrey's notes, confused and unequal in value, Shakespeare "did act
exceeding well"; "understood Lat