the celebration of weddings, and the presentation of new-year's gifts", gloves were a very costly article. 8 "About the 14th or 15th year of Queen Elizabeth," [1571 or 1572,] says the continuator of Stowe's Annals, "the Right Hon. Edward Vere, Earl of Oxford, came from Italy, and brought with him gloves, sweet bags, a perfumed leather jerkin, and other pleasant things; and that yeare the queene had a payre of perfumed gloves, trimmed onlie with four tuftes or roses of cullored silke "." The chronicler, writing near fifty years after the period mentioned, is not quite accurate as to the time when this fashion was imported; for the Earl of Oxford, as appears from Lord Burleigh's Diary, did not return to England, from his travels in Italy, till the year 1576, which was the 18th year of Elizabeth. foreign fashion, of perfuming and adorning gloves, was, without doubt, soon imitated by the English; and, accordingly, I find that perfumed gloves were sold in common, in London, only two years afterwards, in 1578'; at a subsequent period, the pack of our poet's Autolycus is plentifully furnished with them 2. That a great number of persons followed this occupa This 7 In the Manuscript Diary of Edward Alleyn, the player, preserved at Dulwich College, is the following article: "1618. Jan. 1. Given Mr. Austin a pair of gloves, 17. 10s. Od." 8 Stowe's Annals, published by E. Howes, fol. 1615, p. 868. The paragraph in question was an interpolation by the editor. 9 Murden's State Papers, p. 778. Florio's First Fruites, 4to. 1578. 2 Gloves as sweet as damask roses, Masks for faces, and for noses; Come, buy," &c. VOL. II. .... Winter's Tale, Act IV. Sc. III. G tion, may be collected from a petition presented to the lords of the council, in 1594, by the glovers dwelling within forty miles of London, against the leather-sellers, who, by engrossing the skins used in the manufacture of gloves (which were chiefly those of deer and goats), had so enhanced the price of that commodity, that if some regulation were not made to restrain them, thousands of glovers (it was alleged) would be forced to beg in the streets 3. In the country, gloves of the most ordinary kind were, I find, sold at so low a price as four-pence the pair; but those used by persons of a superior rank were undoubtedly much dearer; and sometimes, on marriages and other occasions, when gloves were intended to be given as presents, the country manufacturers vied with the Londoners in the ornament and expense of this part of dress. The great profits of trade, however, depend rather on an equal and constant sale, than on the caprice of fashion, or the casual demands made on extraordinary and incidental occasions; and in this surer basis of successful commerce, the trade of a glover was not deficient: for, at that period, in the country, and probably in the metropolis too, he furnished his customers with many articles, beside gloves, of more necessary and ordinary use; with leathern hose, aprons, belts, points, jerkins, pouches, wallets, satchels, and purses: each of which, except, perhaps, the last, the lower classes of society had frequent occasion to purchase. 3 Strype's Hist. of London. 4 This appears from various inventories of the effects of dealers in leather at Stratford. SECTION VI. The manufacture of gloves, which was, at this period, a very flourishing one, both at Stratford and Worcester (in which latter city it is still carried on with great success), however generally beneficial, should seem, from whatever cause, to have afforded our poet's father but a scanty maintenance. Of his circumstances, about the time of his eldest son's birth, some conjecture may be formed from a subscription entered into, for the relief of those that were visited by the plague, in 1564, and from other contributions towards the aid of the poor in the same year: the benefactions of John Shakspeare, at that time, seem to denote a moderate, though not the lowest, rank among the contributors 5. He was not, 5" At a hall holden in oure garden, the 30 daye of Auguste, a. 1564, money på towards the relief of the poure. M' Baylie, iiis. iiijd. M' Alderman, iis. viiid. M' Smyth, iis. vid. M' Jefferies, xiid. M' Adrian Quiney, iis. vid. [i. e. Lewis ap Williams] John Taylor, viiid. John Shackspere, xiid. On the 6th of Sep. the bailif and six aldermen gave twelve pence each "to the relief of those that were visited;" Mr. Quiney, indeed, then an alderman. There is, however, abundant proof that, about twelve years after he had obtained that station, when our author was about fourteen years old, he was, by no means, in affluent, or even easy, circumstances. Though his wife was an heiress, and King Henry the Seventh had been very liberal to her grandfather, she brought to her husband, we have seen, no other land but the small estate of Asbies, which was mortgaged, for forty pounds, to Mr. Edmond Lambart, in 1578; probably to pay for the purchase of two houses in Stratford, for which that sum, precisely, was disbursed. The valuable lease, which had been made to her grandfather, it should be remembered, expired in 1528, some years before she was born. With respect, however, to the distressed situation of Mr. Alderman Shakspeare, at this period, we have surer grounds to rest upon, than conjecture; for the following extracts, from the records of the borough of Stratford, afford a decisive proof of what has been suggested: 66 Burgus } Ad aulam ibm tent. xxixo die Janu Stratford. Sarii, a° regni dnæ Elizabeth, &c. vicesimo [1577-8]. "At this hall yt is agreed that every alderman except such underwrytten excepted, shall paye towards the furniture of three pikemen, ij billmen, 1s. 6d.; Jn. Shakspeare, John Sadler, Wm. Smyth, haberdasher, Jn. Botte, and Jn. Taylor, 6d. each; and Rob. Brat, 4d.; and on the 27th of Sept. another donation nearly in the same proportion. Registr. Burg. Stratford. A. and one archer, vis. viijd. and every burgess, except such under wrytten excepted, shall paye iijs. ivd. "Mr. Plymley, vs. "Mr. Shaxpeare, iij. ivd. "John Walker, ijs. vid. Robert Bratt, nothinge in this place. "Thomas Brogden, ijs. vid. "William Brace, ijs. 66 Anthony Tanner, ijs. vid. "Sum vili. xiiijd. "The inhabitants of every ward are taxed as by the notes to them delivered yt may appear." "Ad aulam ibm tent. xix.° die Novembris a regni dnæ Elizabeth &c. xxi.o [1578]: "Itm yt is ordeined that every alderman shall paye weekely towards the releif of the poore iiijd. saving John Shaxpeare, and Robert Bratt, who shall not be taxed to paye anythinge. Mr. Lewes and Mr. Plimley are taxed to pay weekely, eyther of them iijd. apece, and every burgesses are taxed weekeley at ijd. apece"." An account of money levied on the inhabitants, in the following year (1579), for the purpose of purchasing armour and weapons of defence, corresponds with the foregoing statements; for the name of John Shakspeare is found among the defaulters". Humphrey Plymley died in such poor circumstances in April, 1594, that the sum total of his effects, as appears from his inventory, amounted only to 6l. 15s. 2d. 7 Registr. Burg. Stratford. A. 8 "Accompt of money levied xi°. die Marcii Ano. regine Elizabeth xxi°. [1578-9]: by John Smith and William Wilson: |