d in his journeys to and from Stratford. The story of
Shakespeare's parental relation to D'Avenant was long current in Oxford,
and was at times complacently accepted by the reputed son. Shakespeare
is known to have been a welcome guest at John D'Avenant's house, and
another son, Robert, boasted of the kindly notice which the poet took of
him as a child. {265b} It is safer to adopt the less compromising
version which makes Shakespeare the godfather of the boy William instead
of his father. But the antiquity and persistence of the scandal belie
the assumption that Shakespeare was known to his contemporaries as a man
of scrupulous virtue. Ben Jonson and Drayton--the latter a Warwickshire
man--seem to have been Shakespeare's closest literary friends in his
latest years.

Final settlement at Stratford.

At Stratford, in the words of Nicholas Rowe, 'the latter part of
Shakespeare's life was spent, as all men of good sense will wish theirs
may be, in ease, retirement, and the conversation of his friends.' As a
resident in the town, he took a full share of social and civic
responsibilities. On October 16, 1608, he stood chief godfather to
William, son of Henry Walker, a mercer and alderman. On September 11,
1611, when he had finally settled in New Place, his name appeared in the
margin of a folio page of donors (including all the principal inhabitants
of Stratford) to a fund that was raised 'towards the charge of
prosecuting the bill in Parliament for the better repair of the
highways.'

Domestic affairs.

Meanwhile his own domestic affairs engaged some of his attention. Of his
two surviving children--both daughters--the eldest, Susanna, had married,
on June 5, 1607, John Hall (1575-1635), a rising physician of Puritan
leanings, and in the following February there was born the poet's only
granddaughter, Elizabeth Hall. On September 9, 1608, the poet's mother
was buried in the parish church, and on February 4, 1613, his third
brother Richard. On July 15, 1613, Mrs. Hall preferred, with her
father's assistance, a charge of slander against one Lane in the
ecclesiastical court at Worcester; the defendant, who had apparently
charged the lady with illicit relations with one Ralph Smith, did not
appear, and was excommunicated.

[Picture: Signature on Purchase-Deed]

Purchase of a house in Blackfriars.

In the same year (1613), when on a short visit to London, Shakespeare
invested