Whether the Force of Inclination merely, or some concurring Circumstances
of Convenience in the Match, prompted him to marry so early, is not easy
to be determin’d at this Distance: but ’tis probable, a View of Interest
might partly sway his Conduct on this Point: for he married the Daughter
of one _Hathaway_, a substantial Yeoman in his Neighbourhood, and she had
the Start of him in Age no less than eight Years. She surviv’d him,
notwithstanding, seven Seasons, and dy’d that very Year in which the
_Players_ publish’d the first Edition of his Works in _Folio_, Anno Dom.
1623, at the Age of 67 Years, as we likewise learn from her Monument in
_Stratford_ Church.
How long he continued in this kind of Settlement, upon his own Native
Spot, is not more easily to be determin’d. But if the Tradition be true of
that Extravagance which forc’d him both to quit his Country and Way of
Living; to wit, his being engag’d, with a Knot of young Deer-stealers, to
rob the Park of Sir _Thomas Lucy_ of _Cherlecot_ near _Stratford_: the
Enterprize favours so much of Youth and Levity, we may reasonably suppose
it was before he could write full Man. Besides, considering he has left us
six and thirty Plays, at least, avow’d to be genuine; and considering too,
that he had retir’d from the Stage, to spend the latter Part of his Days
at his own Native _Stratford_; the Interval of Time, necessarily required
for the finishing so many Dramatic Pieces, obliges us to suppose he threw
himself very early upon the Playhouse. And as he could, probably, contract
no Acquaintance with the Drama, while he was driving on the Affair of Wool
at home; some Time must be lost, even after he had commenc’d Player,
before he could attain Knowledge enough in the Science to qualify himself
for turning Author.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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