DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42851#0145
61
Plate XXXIV. is a view of an old building at Stratford on Avon, rendered
famous as the house in which our great dramatic poet Shakspeare was born. Poor
and dilapidated as this building appears, yet as the birth-place of so great a genius?
it is viewed with veneration by all who have sufficient taste to appreciate the works
of Shakspeare. Kings, princes, noblemen, and great men of all classes, have
visited this wretched dwelling; and it has thus become a sort of temple where great-
ness stoops to do homage to genius. Shakspeare possessed a mind so strong, that
by its native energy, it could break through the shackles of poverty, and by industry
and peculiar powers of adaptation, cover the deficiency of education under which he
laboured. His early life promised nothing of that glory which encircled his riper
years. Bred in humble circumstances, he followed the business of his father, who
combined the trade of butcher and woolstapler. Having been guilty of some youth-
ful irregularities, a neighbouring magistrate threatened to inflict the penalty of the
law: this forced Shakspeare to quit Stratford, and seek a living in the metropolis;
where he could find no better employment than holding the horses of the gentlemen
who visited the theatre. He was afterwards taken into the service of the actors; and
humble as this introduction to fame was, he had now reached the threshold of his
proper sphere of action; his poetic powers soon raised him above his former masters,
and to use his own emphatic language, he shook all the difficulties of poverty and
Plate XXXIV. is a view of an old building at Stratford on Avon, rendered
famous as the house in which our great dramatic poet Shakspeare was born. Poor
and dilapidated as this building appears, yet as the birth-place of so great a genius?
it is viewed with veneration by all who have sufficient taste to appreciate the works
of Shakspeare. Kings, princes, noblemen, and great men of all classes, have
visited this wretched dwelling; and it has thus become a sort of temple where great-
ness stoops to do homage to genius. Shakspeare possessed a mind so strong, that
by its native energy, it could break through the shackles of poverty, and by industry
and peculiar powers of adaptation, cover the deficiency of education under which he
laboured. His early life promised nothing of that glory which encircled his riper
years. Bred in humble circumstances, he followed the business of his father, who
combined the trade of butcher and woolstapler. Having been guilty of some youth-
ful irregularities, a neighbouring magistrate threatened to inflict the penalty of the
law: this forced Shakspeare to quit Stratford, and seek a living in the metropolis;
where he could find no better employment than holding the horses of the gentlemen
who visited the theatre. He was afterwards taken into the service of the actors; and
humble as this introduction to fame was, he had now reached the threshold of his
proper sphere of action; his poetic powers soon raised him above his former masters,
and to use his own emphatic language, he shook all the difficulties of poverty and