I, and the
publisher Lintot says that the Duke of Buckinghamshire claimed to have
examined the document. The story about Shakespeare's first connection
with the theater consisting in his holding horses outside, told first in
a manuscript note preserved in the Library of the University of
Edinburgh, 1748, is also credited to D'Avenant. According to this
tradition, frequently repeated, the future dramatist organized a regular
corps of boys and monopolized the business, so that "as long as the
practice of riding to the play-house continued the waiters that held the
horses retained the appellation of Shakespeare's Boys."

[Page Heading: Further Traditions]

Many of the natural inferences to be drawn from the data in the first
part of the chapter are given by Rowe as facts. Thus he states
positively that Shakespeare attended a free school, from which he was
withdrawn owing to "the narrowness of his circumstances, and the want of
assistance at home." He repeats the deer-stealing anecdote, with further
detail. As to his acting, Rowe reports, "Tho' I have inquir'd, I could
never meet with any further account of him this way than that the top of
his performance was the ghost in his own Hamlet." He corroborates the
general contemporary opinion of Shakespeare's fluency and spontaneity in
composition. As to his personality, he says, "Besides the advantages of
his wit, he was in himself a good-natur'd man, of great sweetness in his
manners and a most agreeable companion." Rowe credits Shakespeare with
having prevented his company from rejecting one of Jonson's plays at a
time when Jonson was altogether unknown, and is inclined to consider the
latter ungenerous in his critical remarks on Shakespeare.

William Oldys, in his manuscript _Adversaria_, now in the British
Museum, reports a few further fragments of gossip, the chief of which
is that Shakespeare's brother Gilbert was discovered still living about
1660 and was questioned by some actors as to his memory of William. All
he could give them was a vague recollection of his having played the
part of Adam in _As You Like It_.

Such are the most significant details which tradition, unauthenticated
but often plausible, has added to our knowledge of the documents. There
exists also a very considerable amount of literary allusion to
Shakespeare's productions from 1594 onwards, which is easily accessible
in collected form. The most notable of these are the comments of his
friend and