eare's retirement to
Stratford-on-Avon.

Page 84.--It may be noted as a coincidence that the plays were published
in folio the year of Mrs. Shakespeare's death. Some change among the
leases, or the termination of the connection with his family through the
death of his widow, may have suggested this.

Page 93.--A Robert Hall rented the old School House in
Stratford-on-Avon, and paved the Guild Hall, 1568. A Richard Hall was
churchwarden of St. Nicholas, Warwick, in 1552, who died in 1558, and
among the churchwarden's accounts are notices of Richard Hall the
younger, Nicholas Hall, John, Alice, Simon and "Eme Hall." "Received of
Ric. Hawle the younger for the benevolence that Richard Hawle gave unto
the poor out of his lands in Church Street, World without end," 1566-67.
Richard Hall was churchwarden in 1600 and in 1606 (Churchwarden's
Accounts, St. Nicholas, Warwick, Mr. Richard Savage).

Page 99.--Michael Drayton frequently visited Sir Henry Rainsford at the
Manor House, Clifford Chambers. This gentleman had married Anne Goodyere
of Polesworth, whose parents were Drayton's patrons. She was the "Idea"
of his sonnets. (See introduction to "Michael Drayton," by Oliver Elton,
1895.)

Page 103.--Susanna Hall's signature appears on the settlements of 1639,
and on that of 1647, in which her daughter joined.

Page 104.--"15th Dec., 1648. Tithes: Mrs. Elizabeth Nashe for Shottery
Corne Tithes, being of the yearly value of one hundred pounds, L5."
"28th June, 1650. Mrs. Elizabeth Barnard for Shotterie Corn tythes of
the yearly value of one hundred and twentie pounds, L6." (Wheler's
Notes, Stratford-on-Avon.)

Page 107.--There are many Bagleys in the parish registers of St.
Martin's-in-the-Fields, and also Hathaways. It _may_ be they were
connections.

Page 110.--Halliwell-Phillipps states that in the "Coram Rege Roll of
1597, Gilbert Shakespeare is named as one of those standing bail for a
clockmaker of Stratford"; and adds that he is described as "Haberdasher
of St. Bridget's Parish, London." Through the kind permission of the
Worshipful Company of Haberdashers, I have been allowed to go through
their books at leisure, and find that there is no trace of a Shakespeare
anywhere, and in the sixteenth century, no trace even of a _Gilbert_,
except "Gilbert Shepherd," who took up his freedom in 1579. Neither is
there any trace of him in the registers of St. Bridget's or St. Bride's,
nor in the Subsidy Rolls, but in both place