RETIREMENT AND DEATH.—­A few words will complete his personal history:  His fortune steadily increased; in 1602 he was the principal owner of the Globe; then, actuated by his home feeling, which had been kept alive by annual visits to Stratford, he determined, as soon as he could, to give up the stage, and to take up his residence there.  He had purchased, in 1597, the New Place at Stratford, but he did not fully carry out his plan until 1612, when he finally retired with ample means and in the enjoyment of an honorable reputation.  There he exercised a generous hospitality, and led a quiet rural life.  He planted a mulberry-tree, which became a pilgrim’s shrine to numerous travellers; but a ruthless successor in the ownership of New Place, the Reverend Francis Gastrell, annoyed by the concourse of visitors, was Vandal enough to cut it down.  Such was the anger of the people that he was obliged to leave the place, which he did after razing the mansion to the ground.  His name is held in great detestation at Stratford now, as every traveller is told his story.

Shakspeare’s death occurred on his fifty-second birthday, April 23d, 1616.  He had been ill of a fever, from which he was slowly recovering, and his end is said to have been the result of an over-conviviality in entertaining Drayton and Ben Jonson, who had paid him a visit at Stratford.

His son Hamnet had died in 1596, at the age of twelve.  In 1607, his daughter Susannah had married Dr. Hall; and in 1614 died Judith, who had married Thomas Quiney.  Shakspeare’s wife survived him, and died in 1623.

LITERARY HABITUDES.—­Such, in brief, is the personal history of Shakspeare:  of his literary habitudes we know nothing.  The exact dates of the appearance of his plays are, in most cases, doubtful.  Many of these had been printed singly during his life, but the first complete edition was published in folio, in 1623.  It contains thirty-six plays, and is the basis of the later editions, which contain thirty-seven.  Many questions arise which cannot be fully answered:  Did he write all the plays contained in the volume?  Are the First Part of Henry VI., Titus Andronicus,[31] and Pericles his work?  Did he not write others not found among these?  Had he, as was not uncommon then and later, collaboration in those which bear his name?  Was he a Beaumont to some Fletcher, or a Sackville to some Norton?  Upon these questions generations of Shakspearean scholars have expended a great amount of learned inquiry ever since his day, and not without results:  it is known that many of his dramas are founded upon old plays, as to plots; and that he availed himself of the labor of others in casting his plays.