How curious and interesting is the parallel--as far as poverty of biographical details is concerned--between Satan and Shakespeare.
It is wonderful,it is unique,it stands quite alone,there is nothing resembling it in history,nothing resembling it in romance,nothing approaching it even in tradition.How sublime is their position,and how over-topping,how sky-reaching,how supreme--the two Great Unknowns,the two Illustrious Conjecturabilities!They are the best-known unknown persons that have ever drawn breath upon the planet.
For the instruction of the ignorant I will make a list,now,of those details of Shakespeare's history which are FACTS--verified facts,established facts,undisputed facts.
FACTS.
He was born on the 23d of April,1564.
Of good farmer-class parents who could not read,could not write,could not sign their names.
At Stratford,a small back settlement which in that day was shabby and unclean,and densely illiterate.Of the nineteen important men charged with the government of the town,thirteen had to "make their mark"in attesting important documents,because they could not write their names.
Of the first eighteen years of his life NOTHING is known.They are a blank.
On the 27th of November (1582)William Shakespeare took out a license to marry Anne Whateley.
Next day William Shakespeare took out a license to marry Anne Hathaway.She was eight years his senior.
William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway.In a hurry.By grace of a reluctantly-granted dispensation there was but one publication of the banns.
Within six months the first child was born.
About two (blank)years followed,during which period NOTHING ATALL HAPPENED TO SHAKESPEARE,so far as anybody knows.
Then came twins--1585.February.
Two blank years follow.
Then--1587--he makes a ten-year visit to London,leaving the family behind.
Five blank years follow.During this period NOTHING HAPPENED TOHIM,as far as anybody actually knows.
Then--1592--there is mention of him as an actor.
Next year--1593--his name appears in the official list of players.
Next year--1594--he played before the queen.A detail of no consequence:other obscurities did it every year of the forty-five of her reign.And remained obscure.
Three pretty full years follow.Full of play-acting.Then In 1597he bought New Place,Stratford.
Thirteen or fourteen busy years follow;years in which he accumulated money,and also reputation as actor and manager.
Meantime his name,liberally and variously spelt,had become associated with a number of great plays and poems,as (ostensibly)author of the same.
Some of these,in these years and later,were pirated,but he made no protest.Then--1610-11--he returned to Stratford and settled down for good and all,and busied himself in lending money,trading in tithes,trading in land and houses;shirking a debt of forty-one shillings,borrowed by his wife during his long desertion of his family;suing debtors for shillings and coppers;being sued himself for shillings and coppers;and acting as confederate to a neighbor who tried to rob the town of its rights in a certain common,and did not succeed.
He lived five or six years--till 1616--in the joy of these elevated pursuits.Then he made a will,and signed each of its three pages with his name.
A thoroughgoing business man's will.It named in minute detail every item of property he owned in the world--houses,lands,sword,silver-gilt bowl,and so on--all the way down to his "second-best bed"and its furniture.