SHAKESPEARE'S ENGLAND

BY

WILLIAM WINTER

SHAKESPEARE'S

ENGLAND

BY

WILLIAM WINTER

New Edition, Revised, with Illustrations

New York
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., LTD.
1898

All rights reserved

Copyright, 1892,
BY MACMILLAN AND CO.

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Illustrated Edition,
COPYRIGHT, 1893,
BY MACMILLAN AND CO.

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First published elsewhere.
Set up and electrotyped by Macmillan & Co., April, 1892. Reprinted
November, 1892; January, 1893.

Illustrated edition, revised throughout, in crown 8v0, set up and
Electrotyped June, 1893. Reprinted October, 1893; August, 1895; September,
1898.

Norwood Press
J. S. Cushing & Co.—Berwick & Smith
Norwood Mass. U.S.A.

To

Whitelaw Reid

IN HONOUR OF EXALTED VIRTUES

ADORNING A LIFE OF

NOBLE ACHIEVEMENT AND PATIENT KINDNESS

AND IN REMEMBRANCE OF

FAITHFUL AND GENTLE FRIENDSHIP

I DEDICATE THIS BOOK


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"Tum meae, si quid loquar audiendum,
Vocis accedet bona pars"

PREFACE TO THE ILLUSTRATED EDITION OF SHAKESPEARE'S ENGLAND

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The favour with which this book has been received, alike in Great Britain and America, is thought to warrant a reproduction of it with pictorial embellishment, and accordingly it is offered in the present form. I have revised the text for this reprint, and my friend Mr. George P. Brett, of the house of Messrs. Macmillan and Company,—at whose suggestion the pictorial edition was undertaken,—has supervised the choice of pictures for its adornment. The approval that the work has elicited is a source of deep gratification. It signifies that my endeavour to reflect the gentle sentiment of English landscape and the romantic character of English rural life has not proved altogether in vain. It also shows that an appeal may confidently be made,—irrespective of transitory literary fashions and of popular caprice,—to the love of the ideal, the taste for simplicity, and the sentiment of veneration. In these writings there is, I hope, a profound practical deference to the perfect standard of style that is represented by such illustrious exemplars as Addison, Goldsmith, Sterne, and Gray. This frail fabric may perish: that standard is immortal; and whatever merit this book may possess is due to an instinctive and passionate devotion to the ideal denoted by those shining names. These sketches were written out of love for the subject. The first book of them, called The Trip to England, reprinted, with changes, from the New York Tribune, was made for me, at the De Vinne Press. The subsequent growth of the work is traced in the earlier Preface, herewith reprinted. The title of Shakespeare's England was given to it when the first English edition was published, by Mr. David Douglas, of Edinburgh. It has been my privilege to make various tours of the British islands, since those of 1877 and 1882, recorded here; and my later books, Gray Days and Gold, and Old Shrines and Ivy, should be read in association with this one, by those persons who care for a wider glimpse of the same delightful field, in the same companionship, and especially by those who like to follow the record of exploration and change in Shakespeare's home. As to the question of accuracy,—and indeed, as to all other questions,—it is my wish that this book may be judged by the text of the present edition, which is the latest and the best.

W. W.

June 6, 1893.

PREFACE

Beautiful and storied scenes that have soothed and elevated the mind naturally inspire a feeling of gratitude. Prompted by that feeling the present author has written this record of his rambles in England. It was his wish, in dwelling upon the rural loveliness and the literary and historical associations of that delightful realm, to afford sympathetic guidance and useful suggestion to other American travellers who, like himself, might be attracted to roam among the shrines of the mother land. There is no pursuit more fascinating or in a high intellectual sense more remunerative; since it serves to define and regulate knowledge, to correct misapprehensions of fact, to broaden the mental vision, to ripen and refine the Judgment and the taste, and to fill the memory with ennobling recollections. These papers commemorate two visits to England, the first made in 1877, the second in 1882; they occasionally touch upon the same place or scene as observed at different times; and especially they describe two distinct journeys, separated by an interval of five years, through the region associated with the great name of Shakespeare. Repetitions of the same reference, which now and then occur, were found unavoidable by the writer, but it is hoped that they will not be found tedious by the reader. Those who walk twice in the same pathways should be pleased, and not pained, to find the same wild-flowers growing beside them. The first American edition of this work consisted of two volumes, published in 1879, 1881, and 1884, called The Trip to England and English Rambles. The former book was embellished with poetic illustrations by Joseph Jefferson, the famous comedian, my life-long friend. The paper on Shakespeare's Home,—written to record for American readers the dedication of the Shakespeare Memorial at Stratford,—was first printed in Harper's Magazine, in May 1879. with delicate illustrative pictures from the graceful pencil of Edwin Abbey. This compendium of the Trip and the Rambles, with the title of Shakespeare's England, was first published by David Douglas of Edinburgh. That title was chosen for the reason that the book relates largely to Warwickshire and because it depicts not so much the England of fact as the England created and hallowed by the spirit of her poetry, of which Shakespeare is the soul. Several months after the publication of Shakespeare's England the writer was told of a work, published many years ago, bearing a similar title, though relating to a different theme—the physical state of England in Shakespeare's time. He had never heard of it and has never seen it. The text for the present reprint has been carefully revised. To his British readers the author would say that it is neither from lack of sympathy with the happiness around him nor from lack of faith