re's biography has reason to ask
for some information respecting him who enjoyed the exclusive distinction
of serving Shakespeare as his patron.

Parentage. Birth on Oct. 6, 1573.

Southampton was a patron worth cultivating. Both his parents came of the
New Nobility, and enjoyed vast wealth. His father's father was Lord
Chancellor under Henry VIII, and when the monasteries were dissolved,
although he was faithful to the old religion, he was granted rich estates
in Hampshire, including the abbeys of Titchfield and Beaulieu in the New
Forest. He was created Earl of Southampton early in Edward VI's reign,
and, dying shortly afterwards, was succeeded by his only son, the father
of Shakespeare's friend. The second earl loved magnificence in his
household. 'He was highly reverenced and favoured of all that were of
his own rank, and bravely attended and served by the best gentlemen of
those counties wherein he lived. His muster-roll never consisted of four
lacqueys and a coachman, but of a whole troop of at least a hundred
well-mounted gentlemen and yeomen.' {375a} The second earl remained a
Catholic, like his father, and a chivalrous avowal of sympathy with Mary
Queen of Scots procured him a term of imprisonment in the year preceding
his distinguished son's birth. At a youthful age he married a lady of
fortune, Mary Browne, daughter of the first Viscount Montague, also a
Catholic. Her portrait, now at Welbeck, was painted in her early married
days, and shows regularly formed features beneath bright auburn hair.
Two sons and a daughter were the issue of the union. Shakespeare's
friend, the second son, was born at her father's residence, Cowdray
House, near Midhurst, on October 6, 1573. He was thus Shakespeare's
junior by nine years and a half. 'A goodly boy, God bless him!'
exclaimed the gratified father, writing of his birth to a friend. {375b}
But the father barely survived the boy's infancy. He died at the early
age of thirty-five--two days before the child's eighth birthday. The
elder son was already dead. Thus, on October 4, 1581, the second and
only surviving son became third Earl of Southampton, and entered on his
great inheritance. {375c}

Education.

As was customary in the case of an infant peer, the little earl became a
royal ward--'a child of state'--and Lord Burghley, the Prime Minister,
acted as the boy's guardian in the Queen's behalf. Burghley had good
reason to be satisfied with hi