The Early Life Story
of William Shakespeare
Stratford, England, 1564-1569
(Page 8: His Family Prospered)
An excerpt from "William Shakespeare: The Man Behind the Genius"
by Anthony Holden
On 30 September 1558, two weeks after the birth of his first child, the well-married glover had been sworn in (with Humphrey Plymley, Roger Sadler and John Taylor) as one of the borough's four constables, 'able-bodied citizens charged with preserving the peace'. Although proverbially stupid — an Elizabethan tradition his son would immortalise in the characters of Constables Dogberry and Dull — these local worthies, guardians of law and order, took on unenviable responsibilities in these unruly times. John Shakespeare would often have been called upon to break up drunken brawls, confiscate weapons from men made menacing by liquor, and give evidence against them in court. He was also responsible for policing the town's precautions against the ever-present threat of fire, and reporting to the church authorities any malingerers caught 'bowling, gaming or tippling' when they should have been at divine worship.
For a year Shakespeare's father evidently performed these duties efficiently enough, for 6 October 1559 saw him reappointed 'petty constable' — despite a fine that April for 'failing to keep his gutter clean' — and promoted to the equally unpopular role of 'affeeror', or 'assessor', the civic functionary responsible for assessing fines not laid down by statute. It was not long before his upward progress reached its first plateau, with his election as one of Stratford's fourteen burgesses, the bulk of the town council responsible for all administration, who met in the Guild Hall every morning at 9 A.M.
Whatever the effect of his public duties on the conduct of his business, John Shakespeare's fluctuating financial fortunes seem at first to have had little impact on his civic standing. His three-shilling contribution to the plague fund in the August following William's birth was followed by only sixpence the following month, at the end of which his name enters the municipal lists as a witness to a corporation order. Already he was the borough treasurer, a regular attender of council meetings, who presented Stratford's annual accounts for 1564 at a plenary meeting held on 1 March 1565. By July he had been elevated to alderman — unembarrassed, it seems, by an order shortly thereafter to pay £3 2s 7d 'for restitution of an old debt'. In mid-February 1566 the records show him again presenting the annual accounts, a citizen solid enough to stand bail that September for one Richard Hathaway — father, as it happens, of his son's future bride. Each time he 'signed' the borough accounts, Shakespeare's father used as his mark an elegantly drawn pair of compasses, one of the tools of his trade.
As an alderman, John was entitled to attend church and all other public occasions in a black cloth gown trimmed with fur. He would also have sported a ring which evidently made a lasting impression on his observant young son. 'When I was about thy years, Hal,' brags Sir John Falstaff in 1 Henry IV, 'I could have crept into any alderman's thumb-ring.' The ring surfaces again in Act 1 of Romeo and Juliet, in Mercutio's resounding Queen Mab speech:
She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agate stone
On the forefinger of an alderman.
Copyright © 1999 by Anthony Holden. All rights reserved. Posted with permission of http://www.twbookmark.com. Click here for ordering information for "William Shakespeare: The Man Behind the Genius" at Amazon.com.
