Such are the very few circumstances which reiterated research has hitherto gleaned relative to the father of our poet; circumstances which, as being intimately connected with the history and character of his son, have acquired an interest of no common nature. Scanty as they must be pronounced, they lead to the conclusion that he was a moral and industrious man; that when fortune favoured him, he was not indolent, but performed the duties of a magistrate with respectability and effect, and that in the hour of adversity he exerted every nerve to support with decency a numerous family. Before we close this chapter, it may be necessary to state, that the very orthography of the name of Shakspeare has occasioned much dispute. Of Shakspeare the father, no autograph exists; but the _poet_ has left us several, and from these, and from the monumental inscriptions of his family, must the question be decided; the latter, as being of the least authority, we shall briefly mention, as exhibiting, in Dugdale, three varieties,—_Shakespeare_; _Shakespere_, and _Shakspeare_. The former present us with _five_ specimens which, singular as it may appear, all vary, either in the mode of writing, or mode of spelling. The first is annexed to a mortgage executed by the poet in 1613, and appears thus, _W{m} Shakspe{a}_: the second is from a deed of bargain and sale, relative to the same transaction, and of the same period, and signed, _William Shaksper̄_: the third, fourth, and fifth are taken from the _Will_ of Shakspeare executed in March 1616, consisting of three _briefs_ or sheets, to each of which his name is subscribed. These signatures, it is remarkable, differ considerably, especially in the surnames; for in the first brief we find _William Shackspere_; in the second, _Willm Shakspe re_, and in the third, _William Shakspeare_. It has been supposed, however, that, according to the practice in Shakspeare's time, the name in the first sheet was written by the scrivener who drew the will. In the year 1790, Mr. Malone, from an inspection of the mortgage, pronounced the genuine orthography to be _Shakspeare_[17:A]; in 1796, from consulting the deed of sale, he altered his opinion, and declared that the poet's own mode of spelling his name was, beyond a possibility of doubt, that of _Shakspere_, though for reasons which he should assign in a subsequent publication, he should still continue to write the name _Shakspeare_.[18:A] To this decision, relative to the genuine orthography, Mr. Chalmers cannot accede; and for this reason, that, "when the testator subscribed his name, for the _last time_, he _plainly_ wrote Shakspe_a_re."[18:B]