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400 THE LEADER. fNo. 370, Satthmuv ^ ¦ i
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" ITflwrtfttrV 2UUUIUUU
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Critic3 are not the legislators, "but th...
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The anniversary of Shakspeaee's birthday...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
400 The Leader. Fno. 370, Satthmuv ^ ¦ I
400 THE LEADER . fNo . 370 , Satthmuv ^ ¦ i
" Itflwrtfttrv 2uuuiuuu
ICtente .
Critic3 Are Not The Legislators, "But Th...
Critic 3 are not the legislators , "but the judges and police of literature . They do not make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them . — JEdinhurgh Review . ~
The Anniversary Of Shakspeaee's Birthday...
The anniversary of Shakspeaee ' s birthday having this week been celebrated in . his native town , it cannot be out of place , in connexion -with that event , to notice a curious document introduced by Mr . Hepwoivih Dixon to the readers of the Atheticeum last week under the title of " Something New About Shakspeare's Birth-Place . " This document is not only very interesting as a narrative , from its minute and graphic detail , but historically important in con . nexion with the meagre accounts we possess of Shakspeahe ' s early life . The
writer is Sir William : Lucy , of Charlcote , father of the Sir Thomas whose deer the poet is reputed to have stolen , and whose subsequent wrath he depicted , as the story goes , in a ballad affixed to the part gates . The paper contains an account of the trial before three Commissioners ( the writer himself being one ) of a Stratford artisan , one Ricttaud Cotton , on a charge of brawling in the church of a neighbouring village while the puritanical curate , Sir Edward Large , was preaching ; and of an indictment for heresy and sedition subsequently preferred by the good people of Stratford against this obnoxious preacher . Sir William ' s description of these proceedings , though prolix , is by no means tedious , his quaint and picturesque touches giving us a vivid picture of what took place iiv the village of Hampton on that Easter Monday holiday , just three hundred and twenty years ago .
In order to understand this fully , it should be remembered that in the year 1537 the country was religiously in a most unsettled State ; though the King had broken with . Rome , the nation had not yet renounced the Catholic Church . Still every day its authority grew weaker , the minds of men became more unsettled , conflicts between the old and the new sprang up , and , as a natural result , considerable freedom both of opinion and practice prevailed . This is sufficiently illustrated in the proceedings at Hampton , described in the paper before us . The curate , Sir Edward Large , performs mass as a Catholic priest one day , and arouses the indignation of the people as a Puritan preacher the next . That he really favoured the heretics was , however , no secret ,.. " being noted , " says Sir William , " one of the new learning , as they commonly call all
them that preach that pure , true , and sincere word of God , and also all them that favour them that preach the same . " Sir Willlam himself sympathized with the curate , and regularly attended his preaching ; for while telling us that he was absent through illness from the particular sermon in question , he adds , " Else he never preached ., I being at home , but I heard him . " The people of Stratford , on the other hand , hearty , straightforward , and with a thoroughly English dislike of all innovations , set their faces against the new learning ; and having little sympathy with the knight , and none at all with the curate , indirectly opposed the one , and openly denounced the other . Such w as the state of affairs on the Easter Monday of the narrative . This holiday was generally kept up with a good deal of festivity at Hampton , Church-ale being distributed on
the occasion ; but this year a larger number of visitors than usual flocked from the neighbouring town , one of the Hampton churchwardens , who had a sister married to a " man of good substance" at Stratford , having urged him to come over and bring as many of his friends as he could . * Sir Edward Large , being naturally anxious to " improve" such an important occas ion , determined to give a full exposition of his views to the unfriendly burgesses of Stratford , and put off his sermon till the afternoon in order that all who came over might have the opportunity of hearing it . It was an impressive gathering— -the High Bailiff of Stratford and his brother attended ; so did the family from Charlcote Park . "There was also , " says Sir William , with grave unconsciousness , " my wife , two of my brethren , with divers other of my servants . " The
preacher fully realized the importance of his position , as is evident from his solemn address to the audience at the outset , " desiring them patiently to hear him to the end ; and if they thought he spoke anything he could not justify , if they would come to him when the sermon was done they should have his own handwriting , or if any tfiere could write , he said that he had laid therefor them pen and ink and paper ready . Only he desired them that they would not report his words otherwise than he did speak them . " Just fancy that ! In the pedantry of his zeal for accurate representation , the good man had actually arranged a reporter ' s table in the church . Or were his preparations restricted to cross-legged stools , with ink-bottles and scrolls , the people being expected to write upon their knees like the mcdiceval scribes in the first act of Hichard II at the Princess ' s P
The sermon , was a long one , " two hours at least , " Sir William tolls us . Dus would be rather trying at any time , even to those who like sermons ; much more so to those who care little for them , or have only the interest of opposition to sustain their attention ; most trying of all to holiday people , anxious for fresh air and out-door enjoyment ; and it proved too much for at Least one of the Stratford visitors—the Richard Cotton aforesaid . He interrupted the preachor ; in what way we aro not told ; perhaps simply to suggest towards the close of tlie second hour that they had heard enough . It seems more probable , however , that ho audibly objected to some of the doctrines advanced . Howcvor tlua may be , such a public affront to their favourite preacher i J" Mr - , ? . ' W » introductory notice of the paper , gives another reason for tho Sf H T on this day-timt a marriage wa 8 to bo celebrated between a man of for thoftato t t IIam P > but wodiacovemQ authority in tho document itqolf
in the presence of the Park family was not to be lightly passed over tT culprit was sent to prison , and thence brought for examination before Sfr William Lucy , who harangues him on the heinousness of his offence « T showed him , " says Sir William , " that he was much to blame to use anv such words to the priest , being in the pulpit , for if he had said never so ill or lewdly , it did not become him to speak unto him in the pulpit , he seeing there then also a great sort both of more reputation and wisdom , and that knew better what they had to do than he , which yet let him alone and said nothing unto him , and that he did then as much as lay in him to set the people together by the ears . And then he confessed'he had done very ill , and that he was very sorry for it , and would beware of ordering himself so again as Ion * as he lived , and then desired us , for the love of God , to be so good unto him as yet to write unto the gaoler that he might he in a chamber and thereto work for his living , or else he were undone , for lie had a wife , and nothing to find him and her withal but his occupation and daily working . "
Cotton was sent back to prison again , where it seems likely he might have been long detained as a warning and example , had not a country squire of the neighbourhood , Master William Clapton , come to tlic rescue . Master Clapton evidently shared in the popular feeling against the " new learmV " its representatives and abettors ; and coming forward as the champion of the Stratford people , devoted himself with hearty good-will to the liberation of their imprisoned fellow-townsman . He went to the Commissioneis , talked the matter
over -with them , urged that the case should be represented rathe proper quarter and the man set at liberty . Provoked , however , by their dilatory movements he soon took the matter into his own hands , sent messengers to London , made a full statement of the case to the authorities there , and , as the result of his efforts in a few days Cotton left Iris solitary cell in Warwick Castle , andreturned to his wife and family at Stratford . Sir William Lucy , however , hj having so evidently favoured the schismatic preacher , incurred the displeasure of his
superiors ; so much so , that his conduct was strongly censured in . open court by Mr . Justice Fitziierbert , one of the judges of Assize . In this document , which Sir William writes to exculpate himself from the charge of partiality , he evinces throughout an anxious desire , by detailing minutely all the circumstances of the case , to remove the unfavourable impression which he is evidently painfully conscious his conduct had produced . The historical aud biographical value of the document is to be found in the light it throws on . the feeling that existed between the family at Charlcote Park and the inhabitants of Stratford . Evidently this feeling was anything but a cordial one . Sir William Lucy was by no means
popular . Clearly he was not a man to inspire popular confidence , or even popular regard . - At Stratford he was feared by the few who depended on him , and disliked by the majority . They disliked his ecclesiastical leanings , his formal , reserved disposition , his puritanical ways ; and though he laboured to stand well with all classes in the town , it seems clear that he was never able to command the hearty support of any . Now , the evidence of such a state of feeling is surely very important in connexion with the deer-stealing tradition . It should be remembered , that though often attacked , that story has never been disproved , and is therefore , as we may now see , very likely to be true .
What more natural , for example , than that the son of a popular Stratford burgess , knowing the feeling generally entertained towards the Lucys , and at a time when there "was nothing criminal in sucli an adventure , should look upon a moonlight raid on the deer / or any other game in the park , as capital fun , and thoroughly enjoy the commotion that followed ? The daring trespass would not be likely to excite any strong indignation amongst the good people of Stratford , and the verses h \ which he is said to have commemorated the event and satirised Sir Thomas , as the expression of a strong traditional feeling would he popular enough to gratify the most passionate youthful thirst for local
fame . Passing- from the matter to the style of this old document , its archaisms of language arc worth noticing as thoroughly characteristic of the era ; such , for example , as the prefix " Sir" to a priest ' s name , us in Shakspeaue ' s Sir Hugh the " Welsh preacher , and Sir Topas the curate ; the use of the double negative so common in Siiakspeaiie , " I will never belie no man falsely , " of " noise" for rumour ; of " sort" in the sense of number or company—a use also familiar to Siiaksteaiie ' s , as in . the passage nightly given at the Princess ' s : — Mine eyes aro full of teara , I cannot see ; And yet salt water blinds them , not so much 13 ut they can see a sort of traitors horo .
This use of the word occurs in the passage already quoted—" a great sort , o £ more reputation and wisdom , and that knew better whntto do than he . " The use of the word " incontinent" in tho sense of suddenly , without deliberation or delay 3 may also be noted , a writer in the Athenawm , a fortnight ago , having complained that this abuse of the word , as he styles it , vas unknown to tho language till within the last ton yoars . In this case , however , as in many others , what is stigmatised and denounced as new is really very old . It is common in Suaksi'eaiik , as in the closing linos of Ukhard II , where it
rhymes to lament : — Come , mourn with mo for what I do lamont , Ami put on smllon black incontiwnt . " It occurs twice in this letter , which is older limn SiiAKsPEAitE— " And ihcii incontinent ho sent for him again ; " " He said if the lcLtcr was ready he would send ono of his servants with it incontinent" But , in fact , this use of U «
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 25, 1857, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_25041857/page/16/
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