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Hotel Restaurant and Travel Law 7th Edition Morris Test Bankinstant download

The document provides links to various test banks and solution manuals for different educational texts, including 'Hotel Restaurant and Travel Law' and 'Calculate With Confidence'. It also contains multiple-choice questions, true/false statements, and completion exercises related to hotel guest qualifications and the innkeeper-guest relationship. Additionally, it discusses the historical context of Shakespeare's life and his birthplace, highlighting the significance of his early environment.

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100% found this document useful (2 votes)
22 views

Hotel Restaurant and Travel Law 7th Edition Morris Test Bankinstant download

The document provides links to various test banks and solution manuals for different educational texts, including 'Hotel Restaurant and Travel Law' and 'Calculate With Confidence'. It also contains multiple-choice questions, true/false statements, and completion exercises related to hotel guest qualifications and the innkeeper-guest relationship. Additionally, it discusses the historical context of Shakespeare's life and his birthplace, highlighting the significance of his early environment.

Uploaded by

mthurananyan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Chapter 7—Guests and Other Patrons

MULTIPLE CHOICE

1. Whether or not a person qualifies as a guest impacts a hotel’s liability for all of the following except
one. Which one is not affected by the presence or absence of such a relationship?
a. Liability of negligence c. Liability of insulting conduct
b. Liability of breach of contract d. Liability of stolen property
ANS: B PTS: 1

2. Which of the following qualifies as a guest?


a. A diner in a hotel restaurant
b. A business person who attends an all-day meeting at a hotel
c. A person without reservations who enters a hotel hospitality van at the airport, gives the
driver luggage, and intends to register as a guest (the hotel has vacancies)
d. One who uses the hotel bathroom on the way to the restaurant
ANS: C PTS: 1

3. Which of the following is true?


a. People without reservations cannot qualify as guests until they register.
b. A customer at a bar qualifies as a guest.
c. A person who has not decided whether to take a room in a hotel can, under certain
circumstances, qualify as a guest even before deciding whether to register.
d. A person who registers at a hotel using a false name cannot qualify as a guest.
ANS: C PTS: 1

4. Jonathon was a guest at a hotel for two days, and he checked out around noon on the second day. He
intended to sightsee that day before leaving town in the early evening. He left his luggage for the
duration of the day in the hotel luggage storage room. Does Jonathon qualify as a hotel guest while
sightseeing?
a. No, because his intention to become a guest has ended.
b. No, because once a guest checks out of a hotel, guest status terminates.
c. Yes, because luggage storage is a service offered primarily to guests.
d. Yes, because once a person has been a guest in the hotel he or she remains a guest for all
purposes forever thereafter.
ANS: C PTS: 1

5. Which of the following will not terminate an innkeeper-guest relationship?


a. The guest’s bill is not paid when due.
b. The guest’s bill was timely paid and a reasonable period of time has passed since final
payment was made.
c. The guest expresses dissatisfaction with the accommodations.
d. The period of time for which the innkeeper agreed to rent the room has passed.
ANS: C PTS: 1

6. Which of the following is not used to distinguish between a guest and a tenant?
a. Whether or not the building contains a restaurant
b. The terms of the contract between the hotel and the patron
c. The terms of payment (e.g., daily, weekly, monthly)
d. The incidental services offered
ANS: A PTS: 1

TRUE/FALSE

1. As a general rule, people do not qualify as guests unless they require accommodations.

ANS: T PTS: 1

2. A man has his hair cut every other week at a hotel barber shop. True or false: He qualifies as a guest.

ANS: F PTS: 1

3. The parents of a bride arrange to have the wedding catered at a hotel. The bride and groom rent the
bridal suite for their first night as husband and wife. True or false: The parents of the bride qualify as
guests at the hotel.

ANS: F PTS: 1

4. A woman entered the hotel with her luggage. Although she did not have reservations, she intended to
rent a room and was hopeful the hotel had vacancies. Unfortunately, it did not. True or false: The
woman qualifies as a guest.

ANS: F PTS: 1

5. A woman with a reservation entered a hotel and gave her luggage to a bellhop. Before registering, she
saw an old friend in the lobby and spent a half hour talking with him. True or false: During the half
hour chat with her friend, the woman qualified as a guest.

ANS: T PTS: 1

6. Jeremy was in New Orleans for three days on business and stayed at a downtown hotel. On the last day
of his stay he left the hotel for the airport to catch a plane at noon. When he arrived at the airport, he
learned the plane was delayed for four hours. He decided to use the time to sightsee and checked his
luggage in the baggage room at the airport hotel. True or false: Jeremy qualifies as a guest at the
airport hotel.

ANS: F PTS: 1

7. A person with hotel reservations that begin tomorrow can, under certain circumstances, become a
guest today.

ANS: T PTS: 1

8. Nora rented a room at a hotel for one night and used it for proposes of prostitution. True or false: Nora
qualifies as a guest.

ANS: T PTS: 1

9. The legal duties owed by an innkeeper to a guest differ from those owed to a tenant.

ANS: T PTS: 1
10. Terms used in a contract for the rental of a room constitute one of several factors used to determine
whether someone qualifies as a guest or a tenant.

ANS: T PTS: 1

COMPLETION

1. An important factor in determining whether a person qualifies as a guest is whether the person
____________________ to register.

ANS: intends

PTS: 1

2. People staying at a hotel on a permanent basis are ____________________.

ANS: tenants

PTS: 1

3. The innkeeper-guest relationship is a ____________________ one.

ANS: contractual

PTS: 1

4. A person who does not qualify as a guest and uses a hotel without the permission of the innkeeper is a
____________________.

ANS: trespasser

PTS: 1

5. A patron in a hotel cocktail lounge who was not a registered guest in the hotel claimed he was
shortchanged by the waiter and then was insulted, humiliated, and embarrassed. The
____________________ of the hotel turned on whether the patron qualified as a guest.

ANS: liability

PTS: 1

6. An essential element of all contracts is the ____________________ by the parties to enter a contract.

ANS: intention

PTS: 1

7. The actions of the parties usually provide the needed ____________________.

ANS: evidence

PTS: 1
8. Registration is clear evidence of the ____________________ and ____________________ intent of
developing a relationship.

ANS: guest’s, innkeeper’s

PTS: 1

9. One of the guests staying at a hotel was injured due to the hotel’s negligence. Who would be liable for
her sustained injuries? _________________________

ANS: the hotel

PTS: 1

10. As the court in ____________________ stated, registration at the hotel is not essential for an
innkeeper-guest relationship to exist.

ANS: Langford

PTS: 1

11. In such circumstances, soon-to-be guests evidence an ____________________ to become a guest by


giving their possessions to the hotel’s employee.

ANS: intention

PTS: 1

12. The hotel’s intent is ____________________ by its acceptance of the suitcase.

ANS: evident

PTS: 1

13. The responsibility of the proprietor as innkeeper starts at the moment of the ____________________
and ____________________ of the suitcase.

ANS: delivery, acceptance

PTS: 1

14. A person who has not yet decided whether to rent a room may, under certain circumstances, be
considered a ____________________.

ANS: guest

PTS: 1

15. A ____________________ issue in many lawsuits against hotels is whether the plaintiff was a guest in
the legal sense.

ANS: threshold
PTS: 1
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Yet, it is remarkable, that in this collection of diversities, our


dramatist's name is uniformly spelt Shakespeare: in whatever
manner this celebrated name may have been pronounced in
Warwickshire, it certainly was spoken in London, with the e soft,
thus, Shakespeare: in the registers of the Stationers' Company, it
is written, Shakespere, and Shakespeare." Chalmers's
Supplemental Apology, p. 129, 130.

A curious proof of the uncertain orthography of the poet's


surname among his contemporaries and immediate successors,
may be drawn from a pamphlet, entitled, "The great Assizes
holden in Parnassus by Apollo and his Assessours: at which
Sessions are arraigned, Mercurius Britannicus, &c. &c. London:
Printed by Richard Cotes for Edward Husbands, and are to be sold
at his shop in the Middle Temple. 1645. qto. 25 leaves."

In this rare tract, among the list of the jurors is found the
name of our bard, written William Shakespeere; and in the body
of the poem, it is given Shakespeare, and Shakespear. Vide British
Bibliographer, vol. i. p. 513.
CHAPTER II.

THE HOUSE IN WHICH SHAKSPEARE WAS BORN—


PLAGUE AT STRATFORD, JUNE 1564—SHAKSPEARE
EDUCATED AT THE FREE-SCHOOL OF STRATFORD—
STATE OF EDUCATION, AND OF JUVENILE
LITERATURE IN THE COUNTRY AT THIS PERIOD—
EXTENT OF SHAKSPEARE'S ACQUIREMENTS AS A
SCHOLAR.
The experience of the last half century has fully proved, that
every thing relative to the history of our immortal dramatist has
been received, and received justly too, by the public with an avidity
proportional to his increasing fame. What, if recorded of a less
celebrated character, might be deemed very uninteresting,
immediately acquires, when attached to the mighty name of
Shakspeare, an importance nearly unparalleled. No apology,
therefore, can be necessary for the introduction of any fact or
circumstance, however minute, which is, in the slightest degree,
connected with his biography; tradition, indeed, has been so sparing
of her communications on this subject, that every addition to her
little store has been hitherto welcomed with the most lively
sensation of pleasure, nor will the attempt to collect and embody
these scattered fragments be unattended with its reward.
The birth-place of our poet, the spot where he drew the first
breath of life, where Fancy

—— "fed the little prattler, and with songs


Oft sooth'd his wond'ring ears,"
has been the object of laudable curiosity to thousands, and happily
the very roof that sheltered his infant innocence can still be pointed
out. It stands in Henley-street, and, though at present forming two
separate tenements, was originally but one house.[21:A] The
premises are still in possession of the Hart family, now the seventh
descendants, in a direct line, from Jone the sister of the poet. From
the plate in Reed's Shakspeare, which is a correct representation of
the existing state of this humble but interesting dwelling, it will
appear, that one portion of it is occupied by the Swan and
Maidenhead public-house, and the other by a butcher's shop, in
which the son of old Mr. Thomas Hart, mentioned in the last chapter,
still carries on his father's trade.[22:A] "The kitchen of this house,"
says Mr. Samuel Ireland, "has an appearance sufficiently interesting,
abstracted from its claim to notice as relative to the Bard. It is a
subject very similar to those that so frequently employed the rare
talents of Ostade, and therefore cannot be deemed unworthy the
pencil of an inferior artist. In the corner of the chimney stood an old
oak-chair, which had for a number of years received nearly as many
adorers as the celebrated shrine of the Lady of Loretto. This relic
was purchased, in July 1790, by the Princess Czartoryska, who made
a journey to this place, in order to obtain intelligence relative to
Shakspeare; and being told he had often sat in this chair, she placed
herself in it, and expressed an ardent wish to become a purchaser;
but being informed that it was not to be sold at any price, she left a
handsome gratuity to old Mrs. Hart, and left the place with apparent
regret. About four months after, the anxiety of the Princess could no
longer be withheld, and her secretary was dispatched express, as
the fit agent, to purchase this treasure at any rate: the sum of
twenty guineas was the price fixed on, and the secretary and chair,
with a proper certificate of its authenticity on stamped paper, set off
in a chaise for London."[23:A] The elder Mr. Hart, who died about the
year 1794, aged sixty-seven, informed Mr. Samuel Ireland, that he
well remembered, when a boy, having dressed himself, with some of
his playfellows, as Scaramouches (such was his phrase), in the
wearing-apparel of Shakspeare; an anecdote of which, if we consider
the lapse of time, it may be allowed us to doubt the credibility, and
to conclude that the recollection of Mr. Hart had deceived him.
Little more than two months had passed over the head of the
infant Shakspeare, when he became exposed to danger of such an
imminent kind, that we have reason to rejoice he was not snatched
from us even while he lay in the cradle. He was born, as we have
already recorded, on the 23d of April, 1564; and on the 30th of the
June following, the plague broke out at Stratford, the ravages of
which dreadful disease were so violent, that between this last date
and the close of December, not less than two hundred and thirty-
eight persons perished; "of which number," remarks Mr. Malone,
"probably two hundred and sixteen died of that malignant
distemper; and one only of the whole number resided, not in
Stratford, but in the neighbouring town of Welcombe. From the two
hundred and thirty-seven inhabitants of Stratford, whose names
appear in the Register, twenty-one are to be subducted, who, it may
be presumed, would have died in six months, in the ordinary course
of nature; for in the five preceding years, reckoning, according to
the style of that time, from March 25. 1559, to March 25. 1564, two
hundred and twenty-one persons were buried at Stratford, of whom
two hundred and ten were townsmen: that is, of these latter, forty-
two died each year at an average. Supposing one in thirty-five to
have died annually, the total number of the inhabitants of Stratford
at that period was one thousand four hundred and seventy; and
consequently the plague, in the last six months of the year 1564,
carried off more than a seventh part of them. Fortunately for
mankind it did not reach the house in which the infant Shakspeare
lay; for not one of that name appears in the dead list. May we
suppose, that, like Horace, he lay secure and fearless in the midst of
contagion and death, protected by the Muses, to whom his future
life was to be devoted, and covered over:—

—————— "sacrâ
Lauroque, collataque myrto,
Non sine Diis animosus infans."[24:A]

It is now impossible to ascertain with any degree of certainty the


mode which was adopted in the education of this aspiring genius; all
that time has left us on the subject is, that he was sent, though but
for a short period, to the free-school of Stratford, a seminary
founded in the reign of Henry the Sixth, by the Rev. —— Jolepe, M.
A., a native of the town; and which, after sharing, at the general
dissolution of chantries, religious houses, &c. the usual fate, was
restored and patronised by Edward the Sixth, a short time previous
to his death. Here it was, that he acquired the small Latin and less
Greek, which Jonson has attributed to him, a mode of phraseology
from which it must be inferred, that he was at least acquainted with
both languages; and, perhaps, we may add, that he who has
obtained some knowledge of Greek, however slight, may, with little
hesitation, be supposed to have proceeded considerably beyond the
limits of mere elementary instruction in Latin.
At the period when Shakspeare was sent to school, the study of
the classical languages had made, since the era of the revival of
literature, a very rapid progress. Grammars and Dictionaries, by
various authors, had been published[25:A]; but the grammatical
institute then in general use, both in town and country, was the
Grammar of Henry the Eighth, which, by the order of Queen
Elizabeth, in her Injunctions of 1559, was admitted, to the exclusion
of all others: "Every schoolmaster," says the thirty-ninth Injunction,
"shall teach the grammar set forth by King Henrie the Eighth, of
noble memorie, and continued in the time of Edward the Sixth, and
none other;" and in the Booke of certain Cannons, 1571, it is again
directed, "that no other grammar shall be taught, but only that
which the Queen's Majestie hath commanded to be read in all
schooles, through the whole realm."
With the exception of Wolsey's Rudimenta Grammatices, printed
in 1536, and taught in his school at Ipswich, and a similar work of
Collet's, established in his seminary in St. Paul's churchyard, this was
the grammar publicly and universally adopted, and without doubt
the instructor of Shakspeare in the language of Rome.
Another initiatory work, which we may almost confidently affirm
him to have studied under the tuition of the master of the free-
school at Stratford, was the production of one Ockland, and entitled
ΕΙΡΗΝΑΡΧΙΑ, sive Elizabetha. The object of this book, which is
written in Latin verse, is to panegyrise the characters and
government of Elizabeth and her ministers, and it was, therefore,
enjoined by authority to be read as a classic in every grammar-
school, and to be indelibly impressed upon the memory of every
young scholar in the kingdom; "a matchless contrivance," remarks
Bishop Hurd, "to imprint a sense of loyalty on the minds of the
people."[26:A]
To these school-books, to which, being introduced by compulsory
edicts, there is no doubt Shakspeare was indebted for some learning
and much loyalty, may be added, as another resource to which he
was directed by his master, the Dictionary of Syr Thomas Elliot,
declaring Latin by English, as greatly improved and enriched by
Thomas Cooper in 1552. This lexicon, the most copious and
celebrated of its day, was received into almost every school, and
underwent numerous editions, namely, in 1559, and in 1565, under
the title of Thesaurus Linguæ Romanæ et Britannicæ, and again in
1573, 1578, and 1584. Elizabeth not only recommended the lexicon
of Cooper, and professed the highest esteem for him, in
consequence of the great utility of his work toward the promotion of
classical literature, but she more substantially expressed her opinion
of his worth by promoting him to the deanery of Gloucester in 1569,
and to the bishoprics of Lincoln and Winchester in 1570 and 1584, at
which latter see he died on the 29th of April, 1594.[27:A]
Thus far we may be allowed, on good grounds, to trace the very
books which were placed in the hands of Shakspeare, during his
short noviciate in classical learning; to proceed farther, would be to
indulge in mere conjecture, but we may add, and with every just
reason for the inference, that from these productions, and from the
few minor classics which he had time to study at this seminary, all
that the most precocious genius, at such a period of life, and under
so transient a direction of the mind to classic lore, could acquire,
was obtained.[27:B]
The universality of classical education about the era of 1575,
when, it is probable, Shakspeare had not long entered on the
acquisitions of the Latin elements, was such that no person of rank
or property could be deemed accomplished who had not been
thoroughly imbued with the learning and mythology of Greece and
Rome. The knowledge which had been previously confined to the
clergy or professed scholars, became now diffused among the
nobility and gentry, and even influenced, in a considerable degree,
the minds and manners of the softer sex. Elizabeth herself led the
way in this career of erudition, and she was soon followed by the
ladies of her court, who were taught, as Warton observes, not only
to distil strong waters, but to construe Greek.[28:A]
The fashion of the court speedily became, to a certain extent, the
fashion of the country, and every individual possessed of a decent
competency, was solicitous that his children should acquire the
literature in vogue. Had the father of our poet continued in
prosperous circumstances, there is every reason to conclude that his
son would have had the opportunity of acquiring the customary
erudition of the times; but we have already seen, that in 1579 he
was so reduced in fortune, as to be excused a weekly payment of
4d., a state of depression which had no doubt existed some time
before it attracted the notice of the corporation of Stratford.
One result therefore of these pecuniary difficulties was the
removal of young Shakspeare from the free-school, an event which
has occasioned, among his biographers and numerous
commentators, much controversy and conjecture as to the extent of
his classical attainments.
From the short period which tradition allows us to suppose that
our poet continued under the instruction of a master, we have a
right to conclude that, notwithstanding his genius and industry, he
must necessarily have made a very superficial acquaintance with the
learned languages. That he was called home to assist his father, we
are told by Mr. Rowe; and consequently, as the family was numerous
and under the pressure of poverty, it is not likely that he found much
time to prosecute what he had commenced at school. The accounts,
therefore, which have descended to us, on the authority of Ben
Jonson, Drayton, Suckling, &c. that he had not much learning, that
he depended almost exclusively on his native genius, (that his Latin
was small and his Greek less,) ought to have been, without scruple,
admitted. Fuller, who was a diligent and accurate enquirer, has given
us in his Worthies, printed in 1662, the most full and express opinion
on the subject. "He was an eminent instance," he remarks, "of the
truth of that rule, Poeta non fit, sed nascitur; one is not made but
born a poet. Indeed his learning was very little, so that as Cornish
diamonds are not polished by any lapidary, but are pointed and
smoothed even as they are taken out of the earth, so nature itself
was all the art which was used upon him."[29:A]
Notwithstanding this uniform assertion of the contemporaries and
immediate successors of Shakspeare, relative to his very imperfect
knowledge of the languages of Greece and Rome, many of his
modern commentators have strenuously insisted upon his intimacy
with both, among whom may be enumerated, as the most zealous
and decided on this point, the names of Gildon, Sewell, Pope, Upton,
Grey, and Whalley. The dispute, however, has been nearly, if not
altogether terminated, by the Essay of Dr. Farmer on the Learning of
Shakspeare, who has, by a mode of research equally ingenious and
convincing, clearly proved that all the passages which had been
triumphantly brought forward as instances of the classical literature
of Shakspeare, were taken from translations, or from original, and
once popular, productions in his native tongue. Yet the conclusion
drawn from this essay, so far as it respects the portion of latinity
which our poet had acquired and preserved, as the result of his
school-education, appears to us greatly too restricted. "He
remembered," says the Doctor, "perhaps enough of his school-boy
learning to put the Hig, hag, hog, into the mouth of Sir Hugh
Evans:" and might pick up in the writers of the time, or the course of
his conversation, a familiar phrase or two of French or Italian: but
his studies were most demonstratively confined to nature and his
own language.[30:A]
A very late writer, in combating this part of the conclusion of Dr.
Farmer, has advanced an opinion in several respects so similar to our
own, that it will be necessary, in justice to him and previous to any
further expansion of the idea which we have embraced, to quote his
words. "Notwithstanding," says he, "Dr. Farmer's essay on the
deficiency of Shakspeare in learning, I must acknowledge myself to
be one who does not conceive that his proofs of that fact sufficiently
warrant his conclusions from them: 'that his studies were
demonstrably confined to nature and his own language' is, as Dr.
Farmer concludes, true enough; but when it is added, 'that he only
picked up in conversation a familiar phrase or two of French, or
remembered enough of his school-boy's learning to put hig, hag,
hog, in the mouths of others:' he seems to me to go beyond any
evidence produced by him of so little knowledge of languages in
Shakspeare. He proves indeed sufficiently, that Shakspeare chiefly
read English books, by his copying sometimes minutely the very
errors made in them, many of which he might have corrected, if he
had consulted the original Latin books made use of by those writers:
but this does not prove that he was not able to read Latin well
enough to examine those originals if he chose; it only proves his
indolence and indifference about accuracy in minute articles of no
importance to the chief object in view of supplying himself with
subjects for dramatic compositions. Do we not every day meet with
numberless instances of similar and much greater oversights by
persons well skilled in Greek as well as Latin, and professed critics
also of the writings and abilities of others? If Shakspeare made an
ignorant man pronounce the French word bras like the English brass,
and evidently on purpose, as being a probable mistake by such an
unlearned speaker; has not one learned modern in writing Latin
made Paginibus of Paginis, and another mentioned a person as
being born in the reign of Charles the First, and yet as dying in
1600, full twenty-five years before the accession of that king? Such
mistakes arise not from ignorance, but a heedless inattention, while
their thoughts are better occupied with more important subjects; as
those of Shakspeare were with forming his plots and his characters,
instead of examining critically a great Greek volume to see whether
he ought to write on this side of Tiber or on that side of Tiber; which
however very possibly he might not be able to read; but Latin was
more universally learnt in that age, and even by women, many of
whom could both write and speak it; therefore it is not likely that he
should be so very deficient in that language, as some would
persuade us, by evidence which does not amount to sufficient proofs
of the fact. Nay, even although he had a sufficiency of Latin to
understand any Latin book, if he chose to do it, yet how many in
modern times, under the same circumstances, are led by mere
indolence to prefer translations of them, in case they cannot read
Latin with such perfect ease, as never to be at a loss for the
meaning of a word, so as to be forced to read some sentences twice
over before they can understand them rightly. That Shakspeare was
not an eminent Latin scholar may be very true, but that he was so
totally ignorant as to know nothing more than hic, hæc, hoc, must
have better proofs before I can be convinced."[31:A]
The truth seems to be, that Shakspeare, like most boys who have
spent but two or three years at a grammar-school, acquired just as
much Latin as would enable him, with the assistance of a lexicon,
and no little share of assiduity, to construe a minor classic; a degree
of acquisition which we every day see, unless forwarded by much
leisure and much private industry, immediately becomes stationary,
and soon retrograde. Our poet, when taken from the free-school of
Stratford, had not only to direct his attention to business, in order to
assist in warding off from his father's family the menacing approach
of poverty; but it is likewise probable that his leisure, as we shall
notice more at large in the next chapter, was engaged in other
acquisitions; and when at a subsequent period, and after he had
become a married man, his efforts were thrown into a channel
perfectly congenial to his taste and talents, still to procure
subsistence for the day was the immediate stimulus to exertion.
Under these circumstances, and when we likewise recollect that
popular favour and applause were essential to his success, and that
nearly to the last period of his life he was a prolific caterer for the
public in a species of poetry which called for no recondite or learned
resources, it is not probable, nay, it is, indeed, scarcely possible, that
he should have had time to cultivate and increase his classical
attainments, originally and necessarily superficial. To translations,
therefore, and to popular and legendary lore, he was alike directed
by policy, by inclination, and by want of leisure; yet must we still
agree, that, had a proficiency in the learned languages been
necessary to his career, the means resided within himself, and that,
on the basis merely of his school-education, although limited as we
have seen it, he might, had he early and steadily directed his
attention to the subject, have built the reputation of a scholar.
That the powers, however, of his vast and capacious mind,
especially if we consider the shortness of his life, were not expended
on such an attempt, we have reason to rejoice; for though his
attainments, as a linguist, were truly trifling, yet his knowledge was
great, and his learning, in the best sense of the term, that is, as
distinct from the mere acquisition of language, multifarious, and
extensive beyond that of most of his contemporaries.[32:A]
It is, therefore, to his English studies that we must have recourse
for a due estimate of his reading and research; a subject which will
be treated of in a future portion of the work.
FOOTNOTES:
[21:A] It is with some apprehension of imposition that I quote
the following passage from Mr. Samuel Ireland's Picturesque
Views on the River Avon. This gentleman, the father of the youth
who endeavoured so grossly to deceive the public by the
fabrication of a large mass of MSS. which he attributed to
Shakspeare, was undoubtedly, at the time he wrote this book, the
complete dupe of his son; and though, as a man of veracity and
integrity, to be depended upon with regard to what originated
from himself, it is possible, that the settlement which he quotes
may have been derived from the same ample store-house of
forgery which produced the folio volume of miscellaneous papers,
&c. This settlement, in the possession of Mr. Ireland, is brought
forward as a proof that the premises in Henley-street were
certainly in the occupation of John Shakspeare, the father of the
poet; it is dated August 14th, thirty-third of Elizabeth, 1591, and
Mr. Ireland professes to give the substance of it in the subsequent
terms:—"'That George Badger, senior, of Stratford upon Avon,
conveys to John and William Courte, yeomen, and their heirs, in
trust, &c. a messuage or tenement, with the appurtenances, in
Stratford upon Avon, in a certain streete called Henley-streete,
between the house of Robert Johnson on the one part, and the
house of John Shakspeare on the other; and also two selions (i. e.
ridges, or ground between furrows) of land lying between the
land of Thomas Combe, Gent. on the one hand, and Thomas
Reynolde, Gent. on the other.' It is regularly executed, and livery
of seisin on the 29th of the same month and year indorsed." P.
195, 196.
[22:A] "In a lower room of this public house," says Mr. Samuel
Ireland, "which is part of the premises wherein Shakspeare was
born, is a curious antient ornament over the chimney, relieved in
plaister, which, from the date, 1606, that was originally marked
on it, was probably put up at the time, and possibly by the poet
himself: although a rude attempt at historic representation, I have
yet thought it worth copying, as it has, I believe, passed
unnoticed by the multitude of visitors that have been on this spot,
or at least has never been made public: and to me it was enough
that it held a conspicuous place in the dwelling-house of one who
is himself the ornament and pride of the island he inhabited. In
1759, it was repaired and painted in a variety of colours by the
old Mr. Thomas Harte before-mentioned, who assured me the
motto then round it had been in the old black letter, and dated
1606. The motto runs thus:

Golith comes with sword and spear,


And David with a sling:
Although Golith rage and sweare,
Down David doth him bring."

Picturesque Views, p. 192, 193.

[23:A] Picturesque Views, p. 189, 190. It is probable that Mr.


Ireland, though, it appears, unconnected with the forgeries of his
son, might, during his tour, be too eager in crediting the tales
which were told him. One Jordan, a native of Alverton near
Stratford, was for many years the usual cicerone to enquirers
after Shakspeare, and was esteemed not very accurate in
weighing the authenticity of the anecdotes which he related.

[24:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. i. p. 84, 85.


[25:A] It is possible also that the following grammars and
dictionaries, independent of those mentioned in the text, may
have contributed to the school-education of Shakspeare:—

1. Certain brief Rules of the Regiment or Construction of the


Eight Partes of Speche, in English and Latin, 1537.

2. A short Introduction of Grammar, generallie to be used:


compiled and set forth, for the bringyng up of all those that
intend to attaine the knowledge of the Latin tongue, 1557.

3. The Scholemaster; or, Plaine and perfite Way of teaching


Children to understand, write, and speak, the Latin Tong. By
Roger Ascham. 1571.

4. Abecedarium Anglico-Latinum, pro tyrunculis, Ricardo


Huloeto exscriptore, 1552.

5. The Short Dictionary, 1558.

6. A little Dictionary; compiled by J. Withals, 1559. Afterwards


reprinted in 1568, 1572, 1579, and 1599; and entitled, A Shorte
Dictionarie most profitable for young Beginners: and
subsequently, A Shorte Dictionarie in Lat. and English.

7. The brefe Dyxcyonary, 1562.

8. Huloets Dictionary; newlye corrected, amended, and


enlarged, by John Higgins, 1572.

9. Veron's Dictionary; Latin and English, 1575.

10. An Alvearie, or Quadruple Dictionarie; containing foure


sundrie Tongues: namelie, English, Latine, Greeke, and Frenche.
Newlie enriched with varietie of wordes, phrases, proverbs, and
divers lightsome observations of grammar. By John Baret, 1580.

11. Rider's Dictionary, Latine, and English, 1589.


[26:A] Moral and Political Dialogues, vol. ii. p. 28. edit. 1788.

[27:A] That school-masters and lexicographers were not


usually so well rewarded, notwithstanding the high value placed
on classical literature at this period, may be drawn from the
complaint of Ascham: "It is pitie," says he, "that commonlie more
care is had, yea, and that amonge verie wise men, to find out
rather a cunnynge man for their horse, than a cunnynge man for
their children. They say nay in worde, but they do so in deede.
For, to the one they will gladlie give a stipend of 200 crownes by
yeare, and loth to offer to the other 200 shillings. God, that sitteth
in heaven, laugheth their choice to skorne, and rewardeth their
liberalitie as it should; for he suffereth them to have tame, and
well ordered horse, but wilde and unfortunate children; and
therefore, in the ende, they finde more pleasure in their horse
than comforte in their children."—Ascham's Works, Bennet's
edition, p. 212.

[27:B] It is more than possible that the Eclogues of Mantuanus


the Carmelite may have been one of the school-books of
Shakspeare. He is familiarly quoted and praised in the following
passage from Love's Labour's Lost:—

"Hol. Fauste, precor gelidâ quando pecus omne sub umbrâ


Ruminat,—and so forth. Ah, good old Mantua! I may speak of
thee as the traveller doth of Venice:

——— Vinegia, Vinegia,


Chi non te rede, ci non te pregia.

Old Mantuan! old Mantuan! who understandeth thee not, loves


thee not." Act iv. sc. 2. And his Eclogues, be it remembered, were
translated and printed, together with the Latin on the opposite
page, for the use of schools, before the commencement of our
author's education; and from a passage quoted by Mr. Malone,
from Nashe's Apologie of Pierce Penniless, 1593, appear to have
continued in use long after its termination. "With the first and
second leafe, he plaies very prettilie, and, in ordinarie terms of
extenuating, verdits Pierce Pennilesse for a grammar-school wit;
saies, his margine is as deeply learned as, Fauste, precor gelidâ."
Mantuanus was translated by George Turberville in 1567, and
reprinted in 1591.—Vide Reed's Shakspeare, vol. vii. p. 95.

[28:A] Warton's History of English Poetry, vol. iii. p. 491.

[29:A] Worthies, p. iii. p. 126.

[30:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ii. p. 85.

[31:A] Censura Literaria, vol. ix. p. 285.

[32:A] "If it were asked from what sources," observes Mr.


Capel Lofft, "Shakspeare drew these abundant streams of
wisdom, carrying with their current the fairest and most unfading
flowers of poetry, I should be tempted to say, he had what would
be now considered a very reasonable portion of Latin; he was not
wholly ignorant of Greek; he had a knowledge of the French, so
as to read it with ease; and I believe not less of the Italian. He
was habitually conversant in the chronicles of his country. He lived
with wise and highly cultivated men; with Jonson, Essex, and
Southampton, in familiar friendship. He had deeply imbibed the
Scriptures. And his own most acute, profound, active, and original
genius (for there never was a truly great poet, nor an aphoristic
writer of excellence without these accompanying qualities) must
take the lead in the solution." Aphorisms from Shakspeare:
Introduction, pp. xii. and xiii.
Again, in speaking of his poems, he remarks—"Transcendent as
his original and singular genius was, I think it is not easy, with
due attention to these poems, to doubt of his having acquired,
when a boy, no ordinary facility in the classic language of Rome;
though his knowledge of it might be small, comparatively, to the
knowledge of that great and indefatigable scholar, Ben Jonson.
And when Jonson says he had 'less Greek,' had it been true that
he had none, it would have been as easy for the verse as for the
sentiment to have said 'no Greek.'"—Introduction, p. xxiv.
CHAPTER III.

SHAKSPEARE, AFTER LEAVING SCHOOL, FOLLOWS HIS


FATHER'S TRADE—STATEMENT OF AUBREY—
PROBABLY PRESENT IN HIS TWELFTH YEAR, AT
KENELWORTH, WHEN ELIZABETH VISITED THE EARL
OF LEICESTER—TRADITION OF AUBREY CONCERNING
HIM—WHETHER THERE IS REASON TO SUPPOSE
THAT, AFTER LEAVING HIS FATHER, HE WAS PLACED
IN AN ATTORNEY'S OFFICE WHO WAS LIKEWISE
SENESCHAL OR STEWARD OF SOME MANOR—
ANECDOTES OF SHAKSPEARE—ALLUSIONS IN HIS
WORKS TO BARTON, WILNECOTTE AND BARSTON,
VILLAGES IN WARWICKSHIRE—EARTHQUAKE IN 1580
ALLUDED TO—WHETHER, AFTER LEAVING SCHOOL,
HE ACQUIRED ANY KNOWLEDGE OF THE FRENCH
AND ITALIAN LANGUAGES.
That Shakspeare, when taken from the free-school of Stratford,
became an assistant to his father in the wool-trade, has been the
general opinion of his biographers from the period of Mr. Rowe, who
first published the tradition in 1709, to the present day. The
anecdote was probably collected by Mr. Betterton the player, who
visited Stratford in order to procure intelligence relative to his
favourite poet, and from whom Mr. Rowe professes to have derived
the greater part of his information.[34:A] A few incidental
circumstances tend also to strengthen the account that both father
and son were engaged in this employment, and, for a time,
together: in the first place, we may mention the discovery already
noticed of the arms of the merchants of the wool-staple on a
window of the house in which the poet was born[34:B]; secondly, the
almost certain conclusion that the poverty of John Shakspeare,
which we know to have been considerable in 1579, would naturally
incline him to require the assistance of his son, in the only way in
which, at that time, he could be serviceable to him; and thirdly, we
may adduce the following passages from the works of our Dramatist,
which seem to imply a more than theoretic intimacy with his father's
business. In the Winter's Tale, the Clown exclaims,
"Let me see:—Every 'leven wether—tods; every tod
yields—pound and odd shilling: fifteen hundred shorn,—
What comes the wool to?"
Act IV. Scene 2.
Upon this passage Dr. Farmer remarks, "that to tod is used as a
verb by dealers in wool; thus, they say, 'Twenty sheep ought to tod
fifty pounds of wool,' &c. The meaning, therefore, of the Clown's
words is, 'Every eleven wether tods; i. e. will produce a tod, or
twenty-eight pounds of wool; every tod yields a pound and some
odd shillings; what then will the wool of fifteen hundred yield?'"
"The occupation of his father," subjoins Mr. Malone, "furnished our
poet with accurate knowledge on this subject; for two pounds and a
half of wool is, I am told, a very good produce from a sheep at the
time of shearing."
"Every 'leven wether—tods," adds Mr. Ritson, "has been rightly
expounded to mean that the wool of eleven sheep would weigh a
tod, or 28lb. Each fleece would, therefore, be 2lb. 8oz. 11-1/2dr.,
and the whole produce of fifteen hundred shorn 136 tod, 1 clove,
2lb. 6oz. 2dr. which at pound and odd shilling per tod, would yield
143l. 3s. 0d. Our author was too familiar with the subject to be
suspected of inaccuracy.
"Indeed it appears from Stafford's Breefe Conceipte of English
Pollicye, 1581, p. 16, that the price of a tod of wool was at that
period twenty or two and twenty shillings: so that the medium price
was exactly 'pound and odd shilling.'"[35:A]
In Hamlet, the prince justly observes,

There's a divinity that shapes our ends,


Rough-hew them how we will.

Act V. Scene 2.
Lines, of which the words in italics were considered by Dr. Farmer as
merely technical. "A woolman, butcher, and dealer in skewers," says
Mr. Stevens, "lately observed to him (Dr. F.), that his nephew, an idle
lad, could only assist him in making them; '—he could rough-hew
them, but I was obliged to shape their ends.' To shape the ends of
wool-skewers, i. e. to point them, requires a degree of skill; any one
can rough-hew them. Whoever recollects the profession of
Shakspeare's father, will admit that his son might be no stranger to
such terms. I have frequently seen packages of wool pinned up with
skewers."[36:A]
We may, therefore, after duly considering all the evidence that
can now be obtained, pretty confidently acquiesce in the traditional
account that Shakspeare was, for a time, and that immediately on
his being taken from the free-school, the assistant of his father in
the wool-trade; but it will be necessary here to mention, that
Aubrey, on whose authority it has been related that John Shakspeare
was, at one period of his life, a butcher, adds, with regard to our
poet, that "when he was a boy, he exercised his father's trade;" and
that "when he killed a calfe, he would do it in a high style, and make
a speech."[36:B] That John Shakspeare, when under the pressure of
adversity, might combine the two employments, which are, in a
certain degree, connected with each other, we have already
recorded as probable; it is very possible, also, that the following
similes may have been suggested to the son, by what he had
occasionally observed at home:

And as the butcher takes away the calf,


And binds the wretch, and beats it when it strays,
Bearing it to the bloody slaughter-house;
Even so, remorseless, have they borne him hence.
And as the dam runs lowing up and down,
Looking the way her harmless young one went,
And can do nought but wail her darling's loss;
Even so, &c. &c.

Henry VI. Part II. Act III. Scene 1.


but that the father of our poet, the former bailiff of Stratford, should
employ his children, instead of servants, in the slaughter of his
cattle, is a position so revolting, so unnecessarily degrading on the
part of the father, and, at the same time, must have been so
discordant with the well-known humane and gentle cast of the
poet's disposition, that we cannot, for a moment, allow ourselves to
conceive that any credibility can be attached to such a report.
At what age he began to assist his father in the wool-trade,
cannot now be positively ascertained; but as he was early taken
from school, for this purpose, we shall probably not err far, if we
suppose this change to have taken place when he was twelve years
old; a computation which includes a period of scholastic education
sufficiently long to have imbued him with just such a portion of
classical lore, as an impartial enquirer into his life and works would
be willing to admit.
A short time previous to this, when our poet was in his twelfth
year, and in the summer of 1575, an event occurred which must
have made a great impression on his mind; the visit of Queen
Elizabeth to the magnificent Earl of Leicester, at Kenelworth Castle.
That young Shakspeare was a spectator of the festivities on this
occasion, was first suggested by Bishop Percy[37:A], who, in his
Essay on the Origin of the English Stage, speaking of the old
Coventry play of Hock Tuesday, which was performed before Her
Majesty during her residence at the castle, observes,—"Whatever
this old play, or 'storial show,' was at the time it was exhibited to
Queen Elizabeth, it had probably our young Shakspeare for a
spectator, who was then in his twelfth year, and doubtless attended
with all the inhabitants of the surrounding country at these 'Princely
Pleasures of Kenelworth,'[37:B] whence Stratford is only a few miles
distant. And as the Queen was much diverted with the Coventry
play, 'whereat Her Majestie laught well,' and rewarded the
performers with two bucks, and five marks in money: who, 'what
rejoicing upon their ample reward, and what triumphing upon the
good acceptance, vaunted their play was never so dignified, nor ever
any players before so beatified:' but especially if our young Bard
afterwards gained admittance into the castle to see a play, which the
same evening, after supper, was there 'presented of a very good
theme, but so set forth by the actors' well-handling, that pleasure
and mirth made it seem very short,' though it lasted two good hours
and more, we may imagine what an impression was made on his
infant mind. Indeed the dramatic cast of many parts of that superb
entertainment, which continued nineteen days, and was the most
splendid of the kind ever attempted in this kingdom, must have had
a very great effect on a young imagination, whose dramatic powers
were hereafter to astonish the world."[38:A]
Of the gorgeous splendour, and elaborate pageantry which were
displayed during this princely fete at Kenelworth, some idea may be
formed from the following summary. The Earl met the Queen on
Saturday the 9th of July 1575, at Long Ichington, a town seven
miles from Kenelworth, where His Lordship had erected a tent, for
the purpose of banqueting Her Majesty, upon such a magnificent
scale, "that justly for dignity," says Laneham, "may be comparable
with a beautiful palace; and for greatness and quantity, with a
proper town, or rather a citadel;" and to give his readers an
adequate conception of its vast magnitude, he adds that "it had
seven cart load of pins pertaining to it."[38:B] At the first entrance of
the Queen into His Lordship's castle a floating island was discerned
upon the pool, glittering with torches, on which sat the Lady of the
Lake, attended by two nymphs, who addressed Her Majesty in verse,
with an historical account of the antiquity and owners of the castle;
and the speech was closed with the sound of cornets, and other
instruments of loud music. Within the base-court was erected a
stately bridge, twenty feet wide, and seventy feet long, over which
the Queen was to pass; and on each side stood columns, with
presents upon them to Her Majesty from the gods. Silvanus offered
a cage of wild-fowl, and Pomona various sorts of fruits; Ceres gave
corn, and Bacchus wine; Neptune presented sea-fish; Mars the
habiliments of war; and Phœbus all kinds of musical instruments.
During the rest of her stay, varieties of sports and shows were daily
exhibited. In the chase was a savage-man clad in ivy accompanied
by satyrs; there were bear-baitings and fire-works, Italian tumblers,
and a country brideale, running at the Quintain, and Morrice-
dancing. And, that no sort of diversion might be omitted, hither
came the Coventry-men and acted the old play already mentioned,
called Hock Tuesday, a kind of tilting match, representing, in dumb
show, the defeat of the Danes by the English, in the reign of King
Ethelred. There were besides on the pool, a Triton riding on a
Mermaid eighteen feet long, and Arion upon a Dolphin. To grace the
entertainment, the Queen here knighted Sir Thomas Cecil, eldest
son to the lord treasurer; Sir Henry Cobham, brother to the Lord
Cobham; Sir Francis Stanhope, and Sir Thomas Tresham. An
estimate may be formed of the expense from the quantity of
ordinary beer, that was drank upon this occasion, which amounted to
three hundred and twenty hogsheads.[39:A]
To the ardent and opening mind of our youthful Bard what
exquisite delight must this grand festival have imparted, the
splendour of which, as Bishop Hurd remarks, "claims a remembrance
even in the annals of our country."[39:B] A considerable portion of
the very mythology which he had just been studying at school, was
here brought before his eyes, of which the costume and language
were under the direction of the first poets of the age; and the
dramatic cast of the whole pageantry, whether classical or Gothic,
was such, as probably to impress his glowing imagination with that
bias for theatrical amusements, which afterwards proved the basis of
his own glory, and of his country's poetic fame.
Here, could he revisit the glimpses of the day, how justly might he
deplore, in his own inimitable language, the havoc of time, and the
mutability of human grandeur; of this princely castle, once the seat
of feudal hospitality, of revelry and song, and of which Laneham, in
his quaint style and orthography, has observed,—"Who that
considerz untoo the stately seat of Kenelworth Castl, the rare beauty
of bilding that His Honor hath avaunced; all of the hard quarry-
stone: every room so spacious, so well belighted, and so hy roofed
within; so seemly too sight by du proportion without; a day tyme, on
every side so glittering by glasse; a night, by continuall brightnesse
of candel, fyre, and torch-light, transparent thro the lyghtsome
wyndow, as it wear the Egiptian Pharos relucent untoo all the
Alexandrian coast: or els (too talke merily with my mery freend) thus
radiant, as thoogh Phœbus for hiz eaz woold rest him in the Castl,
and not every night so to travel doown untoo the Antipodes; heertoo
so fully furnisht of rich apparell and utensilez apted in all points to
the best;"[40:A] of this vast pile the very ruins are now so reduced,
that the grand gateway, and the banquetting hall, eighty-six feet in
length, and forty-five in width, are the only important remains.[40:B]
If Shakspeare were taken as early from school as we have
supposed, and his slender attainments in latinity strongly warrant
the supposition, it is more than probable, building on the traditional
hint in Rowe, of his aid being wanted at home[42:A], that he
continued to assist his father in the wool-trade for some years; that
is, in all likelihood, until his sixteenth or eighteenth year. Mr. Malone,
however, not adverting to this tradition, has, in a note to Rowe's
Life, declared his belief, "that, on leaving school, Shakspeare was
placed in the office of some country attorney, or the seneschal of
some manor court[43:A]:" a position which we think improbable only
in point of time; and, in justice to Mr. Malone, it must be added, that
in other places he has given a much wider latitude to the period of
this engagement.
The circumstances on which this conjecture has been founded,
are these:—that, in the first place, throughout the dramas of
Shakspeare, there is interspersed such a vast variety of legal phrases
and allusions, expressed with such technical accuracy, as to force
upon the mind a conviction, that the person who had used them
must have been intimately acquainted with the profession of the
law; and, secondly, that at the close of Aubrey's manuscript
anecdotes of Shakspeare, which are said to have been collected, at
an early period, from the information of the neighbours of the poet,
it is positively asserted, that our bard "understood Latin pretty well,
for he had been in his younger years a schoolmaster in the country."
[43:B]

On the first of these data, it has been observed by Mr. Malone, in


his "Attempt to ascertain the Order in which the Plays of Shakspeare
were written," that the poet's "knowledge of legal terms is not
merely such as might be acquired by the casual observation of even
his all-comprehending mind; it has the appearance of technical skill;
and he is so fond of displaying it on all occasions, that I suspect he
was early initiated in at least the forms of law, and was employed,
while he yet remained at Stratford, in the office of some country-
attorney, who was at the same time a petty conveyancer, and
perhaps also the seneschal of some manor-court."[43:C] In
confirmation of this opinion, various instances are given of his legal
phraseology, which we have copied in the note below[43:D]; and
here we must remark that the expression, while he yet remained at
Stratford, leaves the period of his first application to the law, from
the time at which he left school to the era of his visiting London,
unfixed; a portion of time which we may fairly estimate as including
the lapse of ten years.
With regard to the affirmation of Aubrey, that Shakspeare had
been in his younger years a schoolmaster in the country, the same
ingenious critic very justly remarks, that "many traditional
anecdotes, though not perfectly accurate, contain an adumbration of
the truth;" and then adds, "I am strongly inclined to think that the
assertion contains, though not the truth, yet something like it: I
mean that Shakspeare had been employed for some time in his
younger years as a teacher in the country; though Dr. Farmer has
incontestably proved, that he could not have been a teacher of
Latin. I have already suggested my opinion, that before his coming
to London he had acquired some share of legal knowledge in the
office of a petty country-conveyancer, or in that of the steward of
some manorial court. If he began to apply to this study at the age of
eighteen, two years afterwards he might have been sufficiently
conversant with conveyances to have taught others the form of such
legal assurances as are usually prepared by country-attorneys; and
perhaps spent two or three years in this employment before he
removed from Stratford to London. Some uncertain rumour of this
kind might have continued to the middle of the last century, and by
the time it reached Mr. Aubrey, our poet's original occupation was
changed from a scrivener to that of a schoolmaster."[46:A]
In this quotation it will be immediately perceived that the period
of our author's application to the study of the law, is now supposed
to have occurred at the age of eighteen, when he must have been
long removed from school, and that he is also conceived to have
been a teacher of what he had acquired in the profession.
These conjectures of Mr. Malone, which, in their latter and
modified state, appear to me singularly happy, have met with a
warm advocate in Mr. Whiter: "The anecdotes," he remarks, "which
have been delivered down to us respecting our poet, appear to me

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