tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">113

XII. CONTEMPORARY WARWICKSHIRE SHAKESPEARES 118

XIII. SHAKESPEARES IN OTHER COUNTIES 132

XIV. LONDON SHAKESPEARES 142


PART II

I. THE PARK HALL ARDENS 162

II. THE ARDENS OF LONGCROFT 183

III. OTHER WARWICKSHIRE ARDENS 188

IV. THE ARDENS OF CHESHIRE 196

V. BRANCHES IN OTHER COUNTIES 213

TERMINAL NOTES 222

INDEX 239

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE
PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Frontispiece

SHAKESPEARE'S ARMS 17

OLD HOUSE AT WILMECOTE, BY SOME SUPPOSED TO BE ROBERT ARDEN'S To face 35

PRESENT VIEW OF SHAKESPEARE'S BIRTHPLACE " 55

THE GUILD CHAPEL, FROM THE SITE OF NEW PLACE " 67

THE CHANCEL, TRINITY CHURCH " 83

SHAKESPEARE'S EPITAPH 84

ANNE HATHAWAY'S COTTAGE To face 88

ANNE SHAKESPEARE'S EPITAPH 90

SNITTERFIELD CHURCH To face 113

NORDEN'S MAP OF LONDON, 1593 " 142

WARWICK CASTLE " 162

SWAN THEATRE (BY DR. GAIDERTY) " 214

THE BEAR GARDEN AND HOPE THEATRE " 216

SWAN THEATRE " 216

When, from the midst of a people, there riseth a man
Who voices the life of its life, the dreams of its soul,
The Nation's Ideal takes shape, on Nature's old plan,
Expressing, informing, impelling, the fashioning force of the whole.

The Spirit of England, thus Shakespeare our Poet arose;
For England made Shakespeare, as Shakespeare makes England anew.
His people's ideals should clearly their kinship disclose,
To England, themselves, the more true, in that they to their Shakespeare are true.

Shakespeare's Family

PART I

CHAPTER I

THE NAME OF SHAKESPEARE

The origin of the name of "Shakespeare" is hidden in the mists of antiquity. Writers in Notes and Queries have formed it from Sigisbert, or from Jacques Pierre,[1] or from "Haste-vibrans." Whatever it was at its initiation, it may safely be held to have been an intentionally significant appellation in later years. That it referred to feats of arms may be argued from analogy. Italian heraldry[2] illustrates a name with an exactly similar meaning and use in the Italian language, that of Crollalanza.

English authors use it as an example of their theories. Verstegan says[3]: "Breakspear, Shakespeare, and the like, have bin surnames imposed upon the first bearers of them for valour and feates of armes;" and Camden