These ploughed turf covered generally with furze and brambles. open fields were not only the common possession of the townshipthe "fair felde ful of folke" of Langland's "Vision" "on Malverne hulles" (1377) when, being "very forwandred," he went to rest"Under a brode banke, bi a bornes side "*——— but were the home or resort of all kinds of living creatures-flowers and butterflies, birds and beasts-which, with the destruction of these open fields, have been either decimated or exterminated. Enclosed the Common Fields of the English villages had already to a great extent been; but the Common Fields of Stratford-on-Avon still in Shakespeare's time existed untouched; and it is their enclosure that chiefly makes it difficult for us now to picture to ourselves the home of his youth and the haven of his later years. It was in these open fields that Shakespeare had first picked up that wonderful knowledge of natural history which is so surpassingly evidenced in his Plays.† And I do not know that it has hitherto been remarked that at least one passage affords evidence that, as the fact was, these balk-divided acre-strips in open fields were what Shakespeare was most accustomed to. Imagining and indeed not untruly, so far as my recollection serves me-imagining the village fields of Nazareth to be similar to those of Stratford-on-Avon, he thus writes: "Those holy fields Over whose acres walked the blessed feet It so happened, however, that it was during the very years of Shakespeare's retirement to and residence at his native town, from 1613 till his death in May (April 23 o.s.), 1616, that the first attempts, so far as we know, were made to enclose the Common Fields of Stratford-on-Avon. It so chances, also, that we find among the MSS. preserved at the old house of Shakespeare's parents, and where he was born, a Diary kept by the Town Clerk of Stratford, Mr. Thomas Greene, during these same years, and minutely recording the devices employed by the Squire to enclose, and by the Corporation and Commoners to resist the enclosure, of these immemorial Common Fields. This Diary has now, for the first time, been published by Dr. Ingleby, with autotypes of its eight folio pages, a transcript by Mr. Scott, of the British Museum, an Introduction by Dr. Ingleby, and an Appendix of documents relating to the intended Enclosures, and most of them never before printed. As the Enclosure * Piers Plowman, "Prologus." + See Harding, "The Ornithology of Shakespeare," and particularly "The Introduction;" and Grindon, "The Flora of Shakespeare." "Henry IV.," Part I. act i. sc. 1. Similarly, as Mr. Seebohm points out ("The English Village Community," p 106), we have evidence that these open fields were what the Anglo-Saxon translator of the Gospels was accustomed to in the tenth century, in his using the expression walked over the aceras" (acres), in translating the story of the Disciples walking through the cornfields. project, which forms the whole subject of this Diary, was but one of innumerable other such projects, the success of which constituted a great Economic Revolution-that Economic Revolution of the sixteenth century in which Modern Capitalism originated—this Diary affords the most interesting local illustrations of the practical working out of that Revolution. But interesting and important as, in this respect, it is, this Diary is of a far more special interest and importance. It presents us with the most graphic pictures of the whole social environment of Shakespeare while resident at Stratfordon-Avon during the last three years of his life. But this is not all, nor even what is of chief interest and importance in this Diary. It gives us the only recorded speeches and opinions of Shakespeare, and these are of such a nature as to afford us, for the first time, sure grounds on which to judge of Shakespeare's character, not only as a man, but as a citizen. For the first time. For the brief extracts from this Diary hitherto published have been interpreted in two diametrically opposite ways—the one affirming Shakespeare's opposition to, the other his promotion of, the Enclosures. It was, indeed, my having remarked that the opinion expressed by Mr. Halliwell Phillipps on this subject, in his "Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare," published in 1883, was just the reverse of what the same eminent Shakespearean had expressed in his folio "Life," published in 1853, that led me to urge on my friend, Dr. Ingleby, the importance of a more thorough examination of the MS. Diary, and its publication, if found genuine. And though this Diary is only now issued to subscribers, the proceedings with reference to autotyping and transcribing it date from the visit to Stratford-on-Avon, in September, 1883, in which I had the pleasure of accompanying Dr. Ingleby, who, as a Trustee of the Birthplace, had, of course, special facilities for examining the MSS. there preserved. The Diarist was the owner, wholly or partially, of one moiety of the Tithes affecting the lands to be enclosed; the owner of the other moiety being his "cosen Shakespeare," who had also purchased Freeholds, subject to commoners' rights. The value of the Freeholds would be increased by the Enclosures; but not so, that of the Tithes. It was, therefore, of great importance for the Squire's purpose that the opposition of such interested and influential persons as Mr. Thomas Greene and Mr. William Shakespeare should be bought off by their being more than secured against any diminution of their Tithes in consequence of the Enclosure. And the view which Mr. Halliwell * In 1544, the priests of the chauntry of Stratford-on-Avon, foreseeing the ruin that was to overtake the ecclesiastical owners of property, granted a lease for ninety-two years of the tithes of Stratford, Old Stratford, Bishopton, and Welcombe, subject to certain annual payments; and the unexpired term of a moiety of the interest in this lease Shakespeare purchased in July 1605, for the sum of £400. See Halliwell Philipp's "Outlines," p. 183; and Ingleby, "Shakespeare and the Welcombe Enclosures," Introd., p. viii. Phillipps, in his "Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare," takes of Shakespeare's sentiments and conduct with regard to the Enclosuredispute is, to put it plainly, that he allowed himself to be bribed by the enclosing Squire to take his side against the Commoners. "William Combe, the squire of Welcombe," says Mr. Halliwell Phillipps, "spared no exertion to accomplish his object, and in many instances, if we may believe contemporary allegations, tormented the poor and coaxed the rich into an acquiescence with his views. It appears most probable that Shakespeare was one of the latter, and that amongst, perhaps, other inducements, he was allured to the unpopular side by Combe's agent, one Replingham, guaranteeing him from prospective loss. However that may be, it is certain that the poet was in favour of the enclosure, for on December 23 the Corporation addressed a letter of remonstrance to him on the subject, and another on the same day to a Mr. Manwaring. The latter, who had been practically bribed by some land arrangements at Welcombe, undertook to protect the interests of Shakespeare, so there can be no doubt that the three parties were acting in unison." Now, the question is, can this view of Shakespeare's character and conduct be sustained? And considering that the Stratford-on-Avon Enclosure-dispute was not a mere local quarrel, but part of a great conflict that had been going on all over England for more than a century, and with the most disastrous results for the agricultural classes, I venture to say that no more important question has ever been raised with reference to the character and conduct of a national Poet and Prophet. Mr. Halliwell Phillipps, indeed, finds nothing blameworthy in the conduct he thus imputes to Shakespeare. On the contrary, he is never tired of pointing out what he takes to be evidence of Shakespeare's peculiarly anxious care for his pecuniary interests. Nay, so predominating a characteristic does he consider this to have been, that he endeavours to show that it was this anxious carefulness that Shakespeare chiefly transmitted to his children, and even children's children. A certain circumstance, says Mr. Halliwell Phillips, "exhibits his daughter, Mrs. Hall, as, in one direction, a true scion of the poet -a shrewd person of business, caring more for gold than for books."* Certain other circumstances enable him, as he believes, to trace this distinctive trait of Shakespeare's character even in his granddaughter.† And Mr. Halliwell Phillipps declares that "no doubt can arise in the minds of those who will listen to evidence, that when Pope asserted that Shakespeare, whom you and every playhouse bill Style the divine, the matchless, what you will, he not only expressed the traditional belief of his own day, but one which later researches have unerringly verified." That Shake "Outlines," p. 246. VOL. XLVII. + Ibid. 3 н speare also was thus a "greatest, wisest, meanest of mankind," as the same Pope-not certainly himself a man of very noble characterdeclared Bacon to be, must, of course, if it is sufficiently evidenced, be acknowledged without blinking. But I venture to think that, in face of the historical facts, this is not a conclusion to be accepted without very careful investigation. I might show, were I here permitted the space, what Henry VIII.'s Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas More, had to say about Enclosures, and the misery they produced; what the evidence to the same effect is that is afforded by Acts of Parliament; by the prodigious number of Executions of vagabonds, who were but evicted tenants; and, above all, by the tolerance of the despotism of the Tudors: and, with respect more particularly to the proposed Stratford-on-Avon Enclosures, I might show that orders were issued against them, not only by Chief Justice Coke, but with the assent of Lord Chancellor Bacon; that, at serious risk to their private interests, even the shopkeepers who were members of the Town Council strongly and persistently opposed these Enclosures, impelled by a sense of public duty, as "sworn men for the good of the Borough;" and that even the women and children risked whatever penalties the law might inflict, and, while a council was being held on the matter, settled it by filling up the enclosing ditches. And yet we are asked to believe that, though the whole town was in commotion about these Enclosures during all the three years of Shakespeare's residence in it previous to his death, he had no word to say against them, nay, allowed himself to be bribed to give his support to the projects of the Squire, disastrous as they would certainly be to the Commoners. Never was so portentous a conclusion raised on so slight a foundation. Literally it rests on nothing more than a singular twirl in a very crabbed handwriting, which twirl appears to stand for "L.” Hence Mr. Halliwell Phillipps's later reading: "Mr. Shakspeare told Mr. J. Greene that I was not abble to beare the enclosing of Welcombe." But on this Mr. Halliwell Phillipps himself cannot help remarking, "Why this observation should have been chronicled is a mystery "-seeing that the Diarist's views about the Enclosure were sufficiently well known. Nevertheless, it is an "I." But a careful reading of the whole MS. shows that the Town Clerk had the singular peculiarity of frequently writing "I" for "he." There are some seven places in these eight folio pages where no sense could be made save by reading "he" for "I," and in all save one the Diarist has made the correction himself. As to the meaning of the expression "abble to beare," many passages might be quoted in which "bear" has the sense of support or promote. And thus, the result is that we find Shakespeare reported as having decidedly declared that he was ble to promote the enclosing of Welcombe. Be it observed, however, that this by no means implied blindness to the agricultural desirability of the gradual abolition of the primitive Open- or Common-field system. Its abolition was, indeed, a necessary condition of the improvement of agriculture. But the Enclosures were generally carried out with the most flagrant disregard of the customary rights of the poorer tenants, and with the most miserably pauperising consequences. And hence Shakespeare may well have found himself unable to promote the enclosing of Welcombe, while at the same time seeing the agricultural advantages of Enclosures no less clearly than Fitzherbert, Tusser, and Bacon, who also deprecated and opposed the high-handed measures by which the Enclosures were commonly effected. Looking still further into the circumstances revealed by the Diary and by other documents now published, we find that, in declining to promote the Enclosures, this mercenary bard who-" for gain, not glory, wing'd his roving flight"—was acting in a way directly contrary to what would have been counselled by a regard for gain. For besides his interests in the Tithes arising from these Common Fields, Shakespeare, as has been said, possessed Freeholds, the income from which would have been greatly increased by these Enclosures; and so far as the value of his Tithes would have been diminished by the Enclosures, he had been guaranteed against loss by an agreement of the 28th of October, 1614, between him and William Replingham, the agent of the enclosing Squire. That the Corporation thought it necessary in December, 1614, to write a letter to Shakespeare, to which the Town Clerk added of himself " a not of the inconvenyances wold happen by the inclosure"-is true. But the necessity for this seems to be explained by previous entries in November. For on the 17th of that month, the day after Shakespeare had come up on a visit to London, his "cosen," the Town Clerk, writes that, when he "went to see him how he did, he told me that they assured him they ment to inclose noe further than to Gopsell Bushe, and so upp straight (leavyng out part of the Dyngles to the field) to the gate in Clopton hedge, and take in Salisburyes piece; and that they mean in Aprill to survey the land, and then to give satisfaccion and not before, and he and Mr. Hall say they think ther will be nothing done at all." Evidently the whole project had been at this time minimised to Shakespeare so as to disarm his opposition; and he had listened to these representations in by no means so suspicious a spirit as the wily lawyer. For on the same 17th of November there occurs this other entry: "Mr. Wyatt, afternoone, told me that Mr. Wryght hadd told Mr. Combe that the inclosure would not be, and that yt was at an end. I said I was the more suspicious. For these might be words used to make us careless. I willed him to learne what he could. And I told him, soe * This is one of the cases in which "I" has been substituted for "he." |