He is styled "gentle Shakespeare": this does not refer to anything
relating to his character or to his manners but it means that possessing
a coat of arms he was legally entitled to call himself a "gentleman."
Chapter IV.
Contemporary Allusions to Shackspere.
Shakspeare the Actor purchased New Place at Stratford-on-Avon in 1597
for L60 and he became a "gentleman" and an esquire when he secured a
grant of arms in 1599.
How did the stage "honour" the player who had bought a coat of arms and
was able to call himself a "gentleman"?
Three contemporary plays give us scenes illustrating the incident:
1st. Ben Jonson's "Every man out of his humour" which was acted in 1599
the very year of Shakspeare's grant of arms.
2nd. Shakespeare's "As you like it" which was entered at
Stationers' Hall in 1600, although no copy is known to exist before
the folio of 1623.
3rd. "The Return from Parnassus" which was acted at St. John's College,
Cambridge in 1601, though not printed till 1606.
In addition to these three plays, there is a fourth evidence of the way
in which the Clown who had purchased a coat of arms was regarded, in a
pamphlet or tract of which only one copy is known to exist.
Pages:
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48