SHAIRP, JOHN CAMPBELL (1819-1885).—­Poet and critic, ed. at Glasgow and Oxf., became Prof. of Latin at St. Andrews 1861.  Principal of the United Coll. there 1868, and Prof. of Poetry at Oxf. 1877-87.  Among his writings are Kilmahoe and other Poems (1864), Studies in Poetry and Philosophy (1868), Culture and Religion (1870), and a Life of Burns in the English Men of Letters Series.  He also collaborated with Prof.  Tait in writing the Life of Principal Forbes (q.v.), and ed. the Journal of Dorothy Wordsworth.

SHAKESPEARE, WILLIAM (1564-1616).—­Dramatist and poet, b. at Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire, on 22nd or 23rd, and baptised on 26th April, 1564.  On his father’s side he belonged to a good yeoman stock, though his descent cannot be certainly traced beyond his grandfather, a Richard S., settled at Snitterfield, near Stratford.  His f., John S., appears to have been a man of intelligence and energy, who set up in Stratford as a dealer in all kinds of agricultural produce, to which he added the trade of a glover.  He became prosperous, and gained the respect of his neighbours, as is evidenced by his election in succession to all the municipal honours of his community, including those of chief alderman and high bailiff.  He m. Mary, youngest dau. of Robert Arden, a wealthy farmer at Wilmcote, and a younger branch of a family of considerable distinction, and whose tenant Richard S. had been.  On her father’s death Mary inherited Asbies, a house with 50 acres of land attached to it.  The first children of the marriage were two dau., who d. in infancy.  William was the third, and others followed, of whom three sons, Gilbert, Richard, and Edmund, and a dau. Joan, reached maturity.  He was ed. with his brother Gilbert at Stratford Grammar School, where he learned Latin from Lilly’s Grammar, English, writing, and arithmetic.  He probably read some of the Latin classics and may have got a little Greek, and though his learned friend Ben Jonson credits him with “little Latin and less Greek,” Aubrey says he “knew Latin pretty well.”  This happy state of matters continued until he was about 13, when his f. fell into misfortune, which appears to have gone on deepening until the success and prosperity of the poet in later years enabled him to reinstate the family in its former position.  Meanwhile, however, he was taken from school, and appears to have been made to assist his f. in his business.  The next certain fact in his history is his marriage in November, 1582, when he was 18, to Ann Hathaway, dau. of a yeoman at the neighbouring hamlet of Shottery, and 8 years his senior.  Various circumstances point to the marriage having been against the wishes of his own family, and pressed on by that of his wife, and that it was so urged in defence of the reputation of the lady, and as perhaps might be expected, they indicate, though not conclusively, that it did not prove altogether