The time for romancing has gone by, and nothing more can be done concerning the poet's life except through careful study and through patient research. All students must regret that their labours have such comparatively meagre results. Though sharing in this regret, I have been able, besides adding minor details, to find at last a definite link of association between the Park Hall and the Wilmcote Ardens; and I have located a John Shakespeare in St. Clement's Danes, Strand, London, who is probably the poet's cousin. I have also somewhat cleared the ground by checking errors, such as those made by Halliwell-Phillipps, concerning John Shakespeare, of Ingon, and Gilbert Shakespeare, Haberdasher, of London (see page 226). I hope that every contribution to our store of real knowledge may bring forward new suggestions and additional facts. In regard to his mother's family, I thought it important to clear the earlier connections. But it must not be forgotten that until modern times no Shakespeare but himself was connected with the Ardens. Yet, having commenced with the family, I may be pardoned for adding to their history before the sixteenth century the few notes I have gleaned concerning the later branches. The order I have preferred has been chronological, limited by the advisability of completing the notices of a family in special localities. Disputed questions I have placed in chapters apart, as they would bulk too largely in a short biography to be proportionate. Hence the Coat of Arms and the Arden Connections are treated as family matters, apart from John Shakespeare's special biography. I have done what I could to avoid mistakes, and neither time nor trouble has been spared. I owe thanks to many who have helped me in my long-continued and careful researches, to the officials of the British Museum and the Public Record Office, to the Town Council of Stratford-on-Avon and Mr. Savage, Secretary of the Shakespeare Trust, to the Worshipful Company of the Haberdashers, for allowing me to study their records; to the late Earl of Warwick, for admission to his Shakespeare Library, and to many clergymen who have permitted me to search their registers. CHARLOTTE CARMICHAEL STOPES. CONTENTS PART I CHAPTER PAGE I. THE NAME OF SHAKESPEARE 1 II. THE LOCALITIES OF EARLY SHAKESPEARES 4 III. LATER SHAKESPEARES BEFORE THE POET'S TIME 10 IV. THE SHAKESPEARE COAT OF ARMS 17 V. THE IMPALEMENT OF THE ARDEN ARMS 24 VI. THE ARDENS OF WILMECOTE 35 VII. JOHN SHAKESPEARE 50 VIII. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE 61 IX. SHAKESPEARE'S DESCENDANTS 87 X. COLLATERALS 110