Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Stephen Blundell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net [Illustration: The Shakespeare Monument in the Parish Church, Stratford-on-Avon.] THE FACTS ABOUT SHAKESPEARE BY WILLIAM ALLAN NEILSON, PH.D. PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY AND ASHLEY HORACE THORNDIKE, PH.D., L.H.D. PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH IN COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY [Illustration] New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1927 _All rights reserved_ COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped. Published November, 1913. Reprinted April, 1914; July, 1915; May, November, 1916; January, 1918; February, September, 1920; September, 1921; March, 1922; February, December, 1923; October, 1924; June, 1926; January, December, 1927. PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY THE BERWICK & SMITH CO. Transcriber's Notes: Unique page headings have been retained, marked as [Page Heading:], and positioned at the first available paragraph break of the page or the preceding page. Many spelling inconsistencies exist due to the historical period of the quoted sources. These, in addition to the original punctuation, have been retained. Obvious typesetting errors have been corrected and noted in the Transcriber's Endnotes at the end of the text. Some index entries have been re-sequenced to allow for clarity of sub-entries. These changes are recorded in the Transcriber's Endnotes along with a copy of the original text. Contents CHAPTER PAGE I. SHAKESPEARE'S ENGLAND AND LONDON 1 II. BIOGRAPHICAL FACTS AND TRADITIONS 17 III. SHAKESPEARE'S READING 50 IV. CHRONOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENT 67 V. THE ELIZABETHAN DRAMA 89 VI. THE ELIZABETHAN THEATER 117 VII. THE TEXT OF SHAKESPEARE 131 VIII. QUESTIONS OF AUTHENTICITY 156 IX. SHAKESPEARE SINCE 1616 167 X. CONCLUSION 188 APPENDIX A. BIOGRAPHICAL DOCUMENTS AND AUTHORITIES 203 APPENDIX B. INDEX OF THE CHARACTERS IN SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS 226 APPENDIX C. INDEX OF THE SONGS 241 APPENDIX D. BIBLIOGRAPHY 243 INDEX 265 THE FACTS ABOUT SHAKESPEARE The Facts about Shakespeare [Illustration] CHAPTER I SHAKESPEARE'S ENGLAND AND LONDON