We know very little of Shakespeare’s life in London.  As an actor he never made a great name, never acted the chief character in a play.  But he acted sometimes in his own plays and took the part, we are told, of a ghost in one, and of a servant in another, neither of them great parts.  He acted, too, in plays written by other people.  But it was as a writer that he made a name, and that so quickly that others grew jealous of him.  One called him “an upstart Crow, beautified in our feathers . . . in his own conceit the only Shake-scene in the country."* But for the most part Shakespeare made friends even of rival authors, and many of them loved him well.  He was good-tempered, merry, witty, and kindly, a most lovable man.  “He was a handsome, well-shaped man, very good company, and a very ready and pleasant smooth wit,"** said one.  “I loved the man and do honor to his memory, on this side of idolatry as much as any.  He was indeed honest and of an open and free nature,"*** said another.  Others still called him a good fellow, gentle Shakespeare, sweet Master Shakespeare.  I should like to think, too, that Spenser called him “our pleasant Willy.”  But wise folk tell us that these words were not spoken of Shakespeare but of some one else whose name was not William at all.

Robert Greene, A groatsworth of Wit bought with a million of repentance. *John Aubrey. ***Ben Jonson.

And so although outside his work we get only glimpses of the man, these glimpses taken together with his writings show us Will Shakespeare as a big-hearted man, a man who understood all and forgave all.  He understood the little joys and sorrows that make up life.  He understood the struggle to be good, and would not scorn people too greatly when they were bad.  “Children, we feel sure,” says one of the latest writers about him, “did not stop their talk when he came near them, but continued in the happy assurance that it was only Master Shakespeare."* And so if children find his plays hard to read yet a while they may at least learn to know his stories and learn to love his name—­it is only Master Shakespeare.  But they must remember that learning to know Shakespeare’s stories through the words of other people is only half a joy.  The full joy of Shakespeare can only come when we are able to read his plays in his very own words.  But that will come all the more easily and quickly to us if we first know his stories well.

Prof.  Raleigh.

There are parts in some of Shakespeare’s plays that many people find coarse.  But Shakespeare is not really coarse.  We remember the vision sent to St. Peter which taught him that there was nothing common or unclean.  Shakespeare had seen that vision.  In life there is nothing common or unclean, if we only look at it in the right way.  And Shakespeare speaks of everything that touches life most nearly.  He uses words that we do not use now; he speaks of things we do not speak of now;