१ SHAKSPEARE'S COAT OF ARMS. The following Instrument is copied from the Original in the College of Heralds: It is marked G. 13, p. 349. TO O all and finguler noble and gentlemen of all estats and degrees, bearing arms, to whom these presents shall come, William Dethick, Garter, Principall King of Arms of England, and William Camden, alias Clarencieulx, King of Arms for the fouth, east, and west parts of this realme, sendethe greeting. Know ye, that in all nations and kingdoms the record and remembraunce of the valeant facts and vertuous dispositions of worthie men have been made knowne and divulged by certeyne Thields of arms and tokens of chevalrie; the grant and teftimonie whereof apperteyneth unto us, by vertu of our offices from the Quenes moft Exc. Majestie, and her Highenes most noble and victorious progenitors: wherefore being folicited, and by credible report informed, that John Shak • In the Herald's Office are the first draughts of John Shakspeare's grant or confirmation of arms, by William Dethick, Garter, Principal King at Arms, 1596. See Vincent's Press, Vol. 157, No. 23, and 4. STEEVENS. In a Manuscript in the College of Heralds, marked W. 2. p. 276, is the following note: "As for the speare in bend, it is a patible difference, and the person to whom it was granted hath borne magistracy, and was justice of peace at Stratford-uponAvon. He married the daughter and heire of Arderne, and was able to maintain that estate." MALONE. speare, now of Stratford-upon-Avon, in the counte of Warwick, gent. whose parent, great grandfather, and late anteceffor, for his faithefull and approved service to the late most prudent prince, king Henry VII. of famous memorie, was advaunced and rewarded with lands and tenements, geven to him in those parts of Warwickshere, where they have continewed by some descents in good reputacion and credit; and for that the said John Shakspeare having maryed the daughter and one of the heyrs of Robert Arden of Wellingcote, in the said countie, and also produced this his auncient cote of arms, heretofore affigned to him whilest he was her Majefties officer and baylefe of that towne;9 In confideration of the premisses, and for the encouragement of his pofteritie, unto whom suche blazon of arms and achievements of inheritance from theyre faid mother, by the auncyent custome and lawes of arms, maye lawfully descend; We the faid Garter and Clarencieulx have affigned, graunted, and by these presents exemplefied unto the faid John Shakspeare, and to his pofteritie, that shield and cote of arms, viz. In a field of gould upon a bend Sables a speare of the first, the poynt upward, hedded argent; and for his creft or cognisance, A falcon with his wyngs displayed, standing on a wrethe of his coullers, fupporting a speare armed hedded, or steeled fylver, fyxed uppon a helmet with mantell and taffels, as more playnely maye appeare depected on this margent; and we have likewise uppon on other escutcheon impaled the fame with the aun 9 -his auncient cote of arms, heretofore affigned to him whileft he was her Majesties officer and baylefe of that towne ;] This grant of arms was made by Cook, Clarencieux, in 1569, but is not now extant in the Herald's Office. MALONE. cyent arms of the said Arden of Wellingcote; fignifieng therby, that it maye and shalbe lawfull for the faid John Shakspeare gent. to beare and use the same shield of arms, single or impaled, as aforsaid, during his natural lyffe; and that it shalbe lawfull for his children, yssue, and posteryte, (lawfully begotten,) to beare, use, and quarter, and show forth the fame, with theyre dewe differences, in all lawfull warlyke facts and civile use or exercises, according to the laws of arms, and custome that to gentlemen belongethe, without let or interruption of any perfon or persons, for use or bearing the fame. In wyttnesse and testemonye whereof we have subscrebed our names, and fastened the feals of our offices, geven at the Office of Arms, London, the day of in the xlii yere of the reigne of our most gratious Sovraigne lady Elizabeth, by the grace of God, quene of Ingland, France, and Ireland, defender of the faith, &c. 1599. I - and we have likewise-impaled the fame with the auncyent arms of the faid Arden -) It is said by Mr. Jacob, the modern editor of Arden of Feversham (first published in 1592 and republished in 1631 and 1770) that Shakspeare defcended by the female line from the gentleman whose unfortunate end is the fubject of this tragedy. But the assertion appears to want fupport, the true name of the person who was murdered at Feversham being Ardern and not Arden. Ardern might be called Arden in the play for the sake of better found, or might be corrupted in the Chronicle of Holinshed: yet it is unlikely that the true fpelling should be overlooked among the Heralds, whose interest it is to recommend by oftentatious accuracy the trifles in which they deal. STEEVENS. Ardern was the original name, but in Shakspeare's time it had been softened to Arden. See p. 58, n. 5. MALONE. |