t for us to apprehend a high-spirited but
injudicious man, showing always somewhat superior in spirit to his
social conditions.

He settled in Stratford twelve years previous to the birth of our poet,
and appears to have been recognised as a man of some importance soon
after his arrival. We have record that he was elected to various small
municipal offices early in his Stratford career, and also of purchases
of property from time to time, all of which evidences a growth in estate
and public regard. At about the time of Shakespeare's birth, and during
a season of pestilence, we find him prominent amongst those of his
townsmen who contributed to succour their distressed and stricken
neighbours. A year later than this we find him holding office as
alderman, and later still as bailiff of Stratford; the latter the
highest office in the gift of his fellow-townsmen. While holding this
office we catch a glimpse of him giving welcome to a travelling company
of players; an innovation in the uses of his position which argues a
broad and tolerant catholicity of mind when contrasted with the growing
Puritanism of the times. And so, for several years, we see him prosper,
and living as befits one who prospers, and, withal, wearing his village
honours with a kindly dignity. But fortune turns, and a period of
reverses sets in; we do not trace them very distinctly; we find him
borrowing moneys and mortgaging property, and, later, these and older
obligations fall due, and, failing payment, he is sued, and thereafter
for some years he fights a stubborn rearguard fight with pursuing fate
in the form of truculent creditors and estranged relatives.

In the onset of these troubles an event occurred which, we may safely
assume, did not tend to ease his worries nor add to his peace of mind.
In 1582, his son, our poet, then a youth of eighteen, brought to his
home an added care in the shape of a wife who was nearly eight years his
senior, and who (the records tell us) bore him a daughter within six
months of the date of their betrothal. All the circumstances surrounding
the marriage lead us to infer that Shakespeare's family was not
enthusiastically in favour of it, and was perhaps ignorant of it till
its consummation, and that it was practically forced upon the youthful
Shakespeare by the bride's friends for reasons obvious in the facts of
the case. About two and a half years from this date, and at a period
when John Shakespeare's affairs had b