SUMMARY.—­B. 1564, ed. at Stratford School, f. falls into difficulties c. 1577, m. Ann Hathaway 1582, goes to London end of 1585, finds employment in theatres and acts in chief companies of the time, first in “The Theatre” afterwards the “Rose,” the “Curtain,” the “Globe” and “Blackfriars,” appearing in Jonson’s Every Man in his Humour and Sejanus. Venus and Adonis, Lucrece, earlier plays, and perhaps most of sonnets pub. by 1595, when he was friend of Southampton and known at Court, purchases New Place at Stratford, falls into trouble c. 1600, having lost friends in Essex’s conspiracy, and has unfortunate love affair; emerges from this into honour and peace, retires to Stratford and d. 1616.  Productive period c. 1588-1613, 4 divisions, first (1588-96), second (1596-1601), third (1601-1608), fourth (1608-1613).  Of 37 plays usually attributed, only 16 pub. in his life.

As might have been expected, there is a copious literature devoted to Shakespeare and his works.  Among those dealing with biography may be mentioned Halliwell Phillipps’s Outline of the Life of Shakespeare (7th ed., 1887), Fleay’s Shakespeare Manual (1876), and Life of Shakespeare (1886). Life by S. Lee (1898), Dowden’s Shakespeare, his Mind and Art (1875), Drake’s Shakespeare and his Times (1817), Thornberry’s Shakespeare’s England (1856), Knight’s Shakespeare (1843). See also Works by Guizot, De Quincey, Fullom, Elze, and others.  Criticisms by Coleridge, Hazlitt, Swinburne, T.S.  Baynes, and others.  Concordance by Mrs. Cowden Clarke.  Ed., Rowe (1709), Pope (1725), Theobald (1733), Johnson (1765), Capell (1768), Steevens’s improved re-issue of Johnson (1773), Malone (1790), Reed’s 1st Variorum (1803), 2nd Variorum (1813), 3rd Variorum by Jas. Boswell the younger (1821), Dyce (1857), Staunton (1868-70), Camb. by W.G.  Clark and Dr. Aldis Wright (1863-66), Temple (ed.  I. Gollancz, 1894-96), Eversley Shakespeare (ed.  Herford, 1899).

SHARP, WILLIAM ("FIONA MACLEOD”) (1856-1905).—­Wrote under this pseudonym a remarkable series of Celtic tales, novels, and poems, including Pharais, a Romance of the Isles, The Mountain Lovers, The Sin-Eater (1895), The Washer of the Ford, and Green Fire (1896), The Laughter of Peterkin (1897), The Dominion of Dreams (1899), The Divine Adventure (1900), Drostan and Iseult (1902).  He was one of the earliest and most gifted promoters of the Celtic revival.  In verse are From the Hills of Dream, Through the Ivory Gate, and The Immortal Hour (drama).  Under his own name he wrote Earth’s Voices, Sospiri di Roma, Sospiri d’Italia, poems, and books on Rossetti, Shelley, Browning, and Heine; also a few novels.