Excerpt from Dramatic Works of William Shakspeare, to Which Are Added His Miscellaneous Poems, Vol. 1 of 6: Containing, Tempest; Two Gentlemen of Verona; Merry Wives of Windsor; Twelfth Night, or What You Will; Measure for Measure; Much a Do About Nothing; Midsummer-Night's Dream The daughter of one Hathaway, said to have been a substantial yeoman in the ne ghbourhood of Strat rd. [n this kind of settlement he continued ibr some time, till an extravagance that he was guilty of forced him both out of his country, and that way of living which he had taken up and though it seemed at first to be a blemish upon his good manners, and a misfortune to him, yet it afterwards happily proved the occasion of exerting one of the eatest geniuses that ever was known in dramatic poetry. He had by a misfortune common enough to young fellows, fallen into ill company, and amongst them some that made a frequent practice of deer-stealing, engaged him more than once in robbing a park that belonged to Sir Thomas Lu of Charlecote, near Stratford. For this he w prosecuted by that gentleman, as he thought, some. What too severely and in order to revenge that ill usage, he made a ballad upon him. And though this, probably the first essay' of his poetry, be lost, yet it is said to have been so very bitter, that it te doubled the prosecution against him to that de ree, that he was obliged to leave his business and at ly in Warwickshire, for some time, and shelterhim self in London. It is at this time, and upon this accident, that he is said to have made his first acquaintance in the playhouse. He was received into the compaa' then in being, at first in a very mean rank, but admirable wit, and the natural turn of it to the stage, soon distinguished him, if not as an extraor dinary actor, et as an excellent writer. His name is printed as t e custom was in those times, amongst those of the other players, before some old plays, but without any particular account of what sort of rts he used to play; and though considerable e'u quiries have been made, it does not appear that he.

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