ly Shakespeare wrote nothing else of like character.

XII--THE PRACTICAL AFFAIRS OF LIFE

Shakespeare's practical temperament.

Shakespeare, in middle life, brought to practical affairs a singularly
sane and sober temperament. In 'Ratseis Ghost' (1605), an anecdotal
biography of Gamaliel Ratsey, a notorious highwayman, who was hanged at
Bedford on March 26, 1605, the highwayman is represented as compelling a
troop of actors whom he met by chance on the road to perform in his
presence. At the close of the performance Ratsey, according to the
memoir, addressed himself to a leader of the company, and cynically urged
him to practise the utmost frugality in London. 'When thou feelest thy
purse well lined (the counsellor proceeded), buy thee some place or
lordship in the country that, growing weary of playing, thy money may
there bring thee to dignity and reputation.' Whether or no Ratsey's
biographer consciously identified the highwayman's auditor with
Shakespeare, it was the prosaic course of conduct marked out by Ratsey
that Shakespeare literally followed. As soon as his position in his
profession was assured, he devoted his energies to re-establishing the
fallen fortunes of his family in his native place, and to acquiring for
himself and his successors the status of gentlefolk.

His father's difficulties.

His father's pecuniary embarrassments had steadily increased since his
son's departure. Creditors harassed him unceasingly. In 1587 one
Nicholas Lane pursued him for a debt for which he had become liable as
surety for his brother Henry, who was still farming their father's lands
at Snitterfield. Through 1588 and 1589 John Shakespeare retaliated with
pertinacity on a debtor named John Tompson. But in 1591 a creditor,
Adrian Quiney, obtained a writ of distraint against him, and although in
1592 he attested inventories taken on the death of two neighbours, Ralph
Shaw and Henry Field, father of the London printer, he was on December 25
of the same year 'presented' as a recusant for absenting himself from
church. The commissioners reported that his absence was probably due to
'fear of process for debt.' He figures for the last time in the
proceedings of the local court, in his customary _role_ of defendant, on
March 9, 1595. He was then joined with two fellow traders--Philip Green,
a chandler, and Henry Rogers, a butcher--as defendant in a suit brought
by Adrian Quiney and Thomas Barker for th