cheeked old man that said, 'Will was a good honest fellow, but he
darest have crackt a jeast with him at any time.'" No Sir John Mennes
who could have seen John Shakespeare is known, but the saying may well
be the echo of contemporary gossip.

A manuscript preserved at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, contains
certain notes made before 1688 by the Rev. William Fulman. Among them
are interpolated others (given here in italics) by the Rev. Richard
Davies previously to 1708. "William Shakespeare was born at
Stratford-on-Avon in Warwickshire about 1563-4. _Much given to all
unluckinesse in stealing venison and rabbits, particularly from Sr. ...
Lucy, who had him whipt and sometimes imprisoned, and at last made him
fly his native country to his great advancement; but his reveng was so
sweet that he is his Justice Clodpate, and calls him a great man, and
that in allusion to his name bore three lowses rampant for his arms._
From an actor of playes he became a composer. He dyed Apr. 23, 1616,
aetat 53, probably at Stratford, for there he is buried, and hath a
monument (Dugd. p. 520), _on which he lays a heavy curse upon any one
who shall remove his bones. He dyed a papist."_ The inaccuracy of
Davies's version of facts otherwise known warns us against too great a
reliance on his individual contribution.

A certain John Dowdall left a short account of places he visited in
Warwickshire in 1693. He describes the monument and tombstone, giving
inscriptions, and adds, "The clarke that shew'd me this church is above
80 years old; he says that this Shakespeare was formerly in this towne
bound apprentice to a butcher, but that he run from his master to
London, and there was received into the play-house as a serviture, and
by this means had an opportunity to be what he afterwards prov'd. He was
the best of his family, but the male line is extinguished. Not one for
feare of the curse abovesaid dare touch his gravestone, tho his wife and
daughters did earnestly desire to be leyd in the same grave with him."
The traditional explanation of the curse as reported by William Hall,
has already been given (p. 35).

[Page Heading: Rowe's Biography]

The first regular biography of Shakespeare is that by Nicholas Rowe,
written as a preface to his edition of the plays which, issued in 1709,
stands at the beginning of modern Shakespearean interpretation. Though
compiled nearly a century after the poet's death, Rowe's life has claims
upon our credi