Apart from his numerous kinsfolk and neighbours at
Stratford-on-Avon, there was in London a large society of
fellow-authors and fellow-actors with whom he lived in close
communion. Very little correspondence or other intimate memorials,
whether of Shakespeare's professional friends or of his kinsfolk or
country neighbours, survive. Nevertheless some scraps of the talk
about Shakespeare that circulated among his acquaintances or was
handed on by them to the next generation has been tracked to written
paper of the seventeenth century and to printed books. A portion of
these scattered memorabilia of the earliest known oral traditions
respecting Shakespeare has come to light very recently; other portions
have been long accessible. As a connected whole they have never been
narrowly scrutinised, and I believe it may serve a useful purpose to
consider with some minuteness how the mass of them came into being,
and what is the sum of information they conserve.
The more closely Shakespeare's career is studied the plainer it
becomes that his experiences and fortunes were identical with those of
all who followed in his day his profession of dramatist, and that his
conscious aims and ambitions and practices were those of every
contemporary man of letters.
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