Chapter I: Preface

Two years ago, at the request of the editors of the _Youth's Companion_, I wrote for that periodical a series of four familiar articles on the boyhood of Shakespeare. It was understood at the time that I might afterwards expand them into a book, and this plan is carried out in the present volume. The papers have been carefully revised and enlarged to thrice their original compass, and a new fifth chapter has been added.

The sources from which I have drawn my material are often mentioned in the text and the notes. I have been particularly indebted to Halliwell-Phillipps's _Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare_, Knight's _Biography of Shakspere_, Furnivall's Introduction to the "Leopold" edition of Shakespeare, his _Babees Book_, and his edition of Harrison's _Description of England_, Sidney Lee's _Stratford-on-Avon_, Strutt's _Sports and Pastimes_, Brand's _Popular Antiquities_, and Dyer's _Folk-Lore of Shakespeare_.

I hope that the book may serve to give the young folk some glimpses of rural life in England when Shakespeare was a boy, and also to help them--and possibly their elders--to a better understanding of many allusions in his works.

W. J. R.

CAMBRIDGE, _June 10, 1896_.

CONTENTS

PAGE

PART I.--HIS NATIVE TOWN AND NEIGHBORHOOD 1

WARWICKSHIRE 3

WARWICK CASTLE AND SAINT MARY'S CHURCH 4

WARWICK IN HISTORY 8

GUY OF WARWICK 9

KENILWORTH CASTLE 12

COVENTRY 14

CHARLECOTE HALL 19

STRATFORD-ON-AVON 24

THE EARLY HISTORY OF STRATFORD 27

THE STRATFORD GUILD 34

THE STRATFORD CORPORATION 39

THE TOPOGRAPHY OF STRATFORD 43

PART II.--HIS HOME LIFE 47

THE DWELLING-HOUSES OF THE TIME 49

THE HOUSEHOLD FURNITURE 52

FOOD AND DRINK 57

THE TRAINING OF CHILDREN 60

INDOOR AMUSEMENTS 67

POPULAR BOOKS 71

STORY-TELLING 73

CHRISTENINGS 80

SUPERSTITIONS CONNECTED WITH BIRTH AND BAPTISM 84

CHARMS AND AMULETS 87

PART III.--AT SCHOOL 93

THE STRATFORD GRAMMAR SCHOOL 95

WHAT SHAKESPEARE LEARNT AT SCHOOL 99

THE NEGLECT OF ENGLISH 106

SCHOOL LIFE IN SHAKESPEARE'S DAY 110

SCHOOL MORALS 112

SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 113

WHEN WILLIAM LEFT SCHOOL 118

PART IV.--GAMES AND SPORTS 119

BOYISH GAMES 121

SWIMMING AND FISHING 130

BEAR-BAITING 132

COCK-FIGHTING AND COCK-THROWING 136

OTHER CRUEL SPORTS 139

ARCHERY 142

HUNTING 145

FOWLING 151

HAWKING 153

THEATRICAL ENTERTAINMENTS 160