“The deer was, as you know, sanguis, in blood, ripe as the pomewater, who now hangeth like a jewel in the ear of caelo, the sky, the welkin, the heaven; and anon falleth like a crab on the face of terra, the soil, the land, the earth.”

Three English equivalents are here given for each of the Latin terms caelo and terra.  The same schoolmaster uses seven synonyms in describing the “fashion” of speech of the ignorant constable, —­“undressed, unpolished, uneducated, unpruned, untrained, or, rather unlettered, or, ratherest, unconfirmed, fashion.”  When we remember that it was really Shakespeare who wrote this, we know that he had been led to study variety of expression.  His large vocabulary could not have been acquired by any one without hard work.

A good translation of the English Bible was accessible to him.  Scriptural phrases and references appear in his plays, and volumes have been written to show the influence of the Bible on his thought.

Financial Reverses of the Shakespeare Family.—­It is probable that Shakespeare at about the age of fourteen was taken from school to assist his father in the store.  The elder Shakespeare was then overtaken by financial reverses and compelled to mortgage his wife’s land.  His affairs went from bad to worse; he was sued for debt, but the court could not find any property to satisfy the claim.  It is possible that he was for a short time even imprisoned for debt.  Finally he was deprived of his alderman’s gown.

These events must have made a deep impression on the sensitive boy, and they may have led him to an early determination to try to master fortune.  In after years he showed a business sagacity very rare for a poet.

Marriage and Departure from Stratford.—­The most famous lovers’ walk in England is the footpath from Stratford, leading about one mile westward through meadows to the hamlet of Shottery.  Perhaps William Shakespeare had this very walk in mind when he wrote the song:—­

  “Journeys end in lovers’ meeting
  Every wise man’s son doth know.”

[Illustration:  ANNE HATHAWAY’S COTTAGE, SHOTTERY.]

The end of his walk led to Anne Hathaway’s home in Shottery.  She was nearly eight years his senior, but in 1582 at the age of eighteen he married her.

There is a record that Shakespeare’s twin children, Hamnet and Judith, were baptized in 1585.  From this we know that before he was twenty-one Shakespeare had a wife and family to support.

We have no positive information to tell us what he did for the next seven years after the birth of his twins.  Tradition says that he joined a group of hunters, killed some of the deer of Sir Thomas Lucy at Charlecote Park, and fled from Stratford to London in consequence of threatened prosecution.  There is reason to doubt the truth of this story, and Shakespeare may have sought the metropolis merely because it offered him more scope to provide for his rapidly increasing family.