View of Country-Life during the Age of Shakspeare, continued — An Account of some of its _Superstitions_; Winter-Night's Conversation — Peculiar Periods devoted to Superstition — St. Paul's Day — St. Swithen's Day — St. Mark's Day — Childermas — St. Valentine's Day — Midsummer-Eve — Michaelmas — All Hallow-Eve — St. Withold — Omens — Charms — Sympathies — Superstitious Cures — Miscellaneous Superstitions. 314 CHAP. X. Biography of Shakspeare resumed — His Irregularities — Deer-stealing in Sir Thomas Lucy's Park — Account of the Lucy family — Daisy-hill, the Keeper's Lodge, where Shakspeare was confined, on the Charge of stealing Deer — Shakspeare's Revenge — Ballad on Lucy — Severe Prosecution by Sir Thomas — never forgotten by Shakspeare — this Cause, and probably also Debt, as his Father was now in reduced Circumstances, induced him to leave the Country for London about 1586 — Remarks on this Removal. 401 PART II. SHAKSPEARE IN LONDON. CHAP. I. Shakspeare's Arrival in London about the Year 1586, when twenty-two Years of Age — Leaves his Family at Stratford, visiting them occasionally — His Introduction to the Stage — His Merits as an Actor. 413 CHAP. II. Shakspeare commences a Writer of Poetry, probably about the year 1587, by the composition of his Venus and Adonis — Historical Outline of Polite Literature, during the Age of Shakspeare — General passion for Letters — Bibliography — Shakspeare's Attachment to Books — Philology — Criticism — Shakspeare's Progress in both — History, general, local, and personal, Shakspeare's Acquaintance with — Miscellaneous Literature. 426 CHAP. III. View of Romantic Literature during the Age of Shakspeare — Shakspeare's Attachment to, and Use of, Romances, Tales, and Ballads. 518 CHAP. IV. View of Miscellaneous Poetry during the same period. 594 [Illustration: _Five genuine Autographs of Shakspeare_ _N{o}. 1 is from Shakspeare's Mortgage 1612-13._ _2 is from M{r}. Malone's plate II. N{o}. X._ _3 is from the first brief of Shakspeare's Will._ _4 is from the second brief of the Will._ _5 is from the third brief of the Will._] SHAKSPEARE AND HIS TIMES. PART I. _SHAKSPEARE IN STRATFORD._ CHAPTER I. BIRTH OF SHAKSPEARE—HIS FAMILY—THE ORTHOGRAPHY OF HIS NAME. William Shakspeare, the object almost of our idolatry as a dramatic poet, was born at Stratford-upon-Avon, in Warwickshire, on the 23d of April, 1564, and he was baptized on the 26th of the same month.