THE SCENE: According to this apocryphal anecdote, William Shakespeare’s flair for the dramatic began at an early age.
THE TEXT: Mr. William Shakespeare was born at Stratford upon Avon in the county of Warwickshire. His father was a butcher, and I have been told heretofore by some of the neighbors, that when he was a boy he exercised his father’s trade, but when he killed a calf he would do it in a high style, and make a speech.
– Brief Lives, John Aubrey, 17th Century AD
“The sentence was immediately executed, and the skin of the culprit nailed upon the seat of judgment, as an awful warning to others to avoid a similar offence.” […]
“It is asserted by the credible relation of many persons, the walls of the church which he had seized and of the adjoining cloister exuded real blood, by which, as it afterwards appeared, was signified, as well the heinousness of his crime as its impending punishment.” […]
“He then made a descent on the provinces of Scotland, wasting all before him with rapine and slaughter; but whenever the royal army was dispatched against him, he eluded the whole warlike preparation, either by retreating to distant forests, or taking to the sea; and when the troops had retired, he again issued from his hiding-places to ravage the provinces.” […]
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