The application of the term “Adolescens” to “Gilbert Shakespeare,” in the Burial Register of Stratford-on-Avon, and the information it has been supposed to give concerning the poet’s family, make an examination of the context incumbent upon Shakespearean students. There are, indeed, some noteworthy peculiarities concerning the Stratford use of terms, which I have not seen in any other of the Registers which I have studied.
The Registers of Stratford are, however, like many others, a mixture of English and Latin entries. Sometimes Latin prevails for a page or two, and then English runs on for a like period, sometimes the entries are almost time about in each language, sometimes both languages are used in the same entry, as “Jane uxor John Davis als Keliam, she was Kild with a tinker on the Bridge, July 2ⁿᵈ 1599,” or “John filius William Walford Draper.” The commonest Latin terms are of course filius, filia, uxor, Vidua, clericus, generosus, but the writers were rarely careful with their genitives. There were occasional notes of a man’s trade, sometimes in Latin, much more frequently in English.
But there was one period during which Latin gained the upper hand, and that was the period after Mr. Bifield had finished his transcript of the early registers, and had given up signing its pages. The signature of “William Gilbard alias Higges minister” was a new one to the Register in 1603, though he had been known as assistant Schoolmaster and then as Curate, since 1563 at least. It is not clear whether there was a new Parish Clerk at the time, or whether the Curate wrote the notices himself, or if he gave any directions to aid the intelligence of the clerk. But coincident with this change of signature, there is a great increase in Latin phrases, many more qualifying adjectives are added, and attention is generally paid to the Latin cases. “Almsman” becomes “Elemosynarius,” or “Eliēmo;” “Bastard” becomes “Nothus” or “Notha”; trades are translated into Latin, as “Scissor,” “Lanio,” “Fab. lig.,” “Calcearius,” “Pistor.” Never before had there been any reference to age, or to condition, other than “Uxor,” “Vidua.” Now there is one case of “Margaret Urlle, Cælebs, 8ᵗʰ April 1609” who does not seem to have been born in the town. Early in the period which we may suppose Sir William Gilbard alias Higges to have controlled the entries, occurs the first use of “adolescens” in the Registers, and the only one, excepting that of Gilbert Shakespeare. “Anna Yat, adolescens, Jan. 8ᵗʰ 1602,” (Burials), On referring back, I find that one Anne Yate, daughter of John Yate, was baptized on 20th September 1573, and that another of the same name, daughter of Richard Yate, was baptized on 29th September 1589. It might be assumed that it was the younger of these two who was buried at thirteen years of age, though why, among all the other young girls buried there, she alone should be singled out to be described as “adolescens,” baffles explanation. Her father was still alive, and absence of any reference to him is also strange. If it were applied to the elder Anne, who was twenty-nine years old, it would be less surprising to find her father unnoticed, but “adolescens,” in its ordinary sense, could hardly have been applied to her. The only other contemporary of the name was a wife, married as Annys, buried as Anne Yate.
But if there are only two entries of “adolescens,” the first applied to a female, and the second to a male, there are many of a resembling word, “adolocentulus,” which should mean a very young man, but it is very difficult to guess what it really did mean in Stratford Latin.
“Isabella Rodes, Adolocentula” was buried 12th May 1604. She does not seem to have been born in the parish. There is no other mention of her name, so her age cannot be estimated, but as an “Annys Rodes, widow” had been buried a fortnight before, she might have been an orphan daughter. “Nicholas Lane, Adolocentulus, buried 16ᵗʰ Nov. 1604.” There was one Nicholas Lane, son of John Lane baptized in 1569, and another in 1584; the elder would have been thirty-five, the younger twenty. John Lane himself had been buried in 1600, so this entry would seem to fit the younger man. But on the other hand, “Richard Clarke, adolocentulus,” buried 10th June 1605, was the son of Henry Clarke, and had been baptized 11th March 1572, so that he would be in his thirty-third year. “Margaret Clarke, adolocentula,” buried 2nd June 1611, had been baptized in 1581 and was thus thirty years old. (She had an illegitimate son Thomas in 1605.) “Henry Ainge adolocentulus,” 24th December 1605, had been baptized on 5th February 1581 and was therefore twenty-four years old.
“Jone Hadon, Adolocentula” does not seem to have been born in the parish. “Ales Brage, Adolocentula,” 8th January 1610, had been baptized in July 1576, and was therefore about thirty-four. “Susanna Daniel, Adolocentula,” 17th November 1608, had been baptized on 24th May 1593, and would be fifteen. Her father had died in 1596, and she might be alone. The only other “adolocentula” does not seem to have been baptized in the parish.
The result of studying “adolocentula,” therefore, is as unsatisfactory as that of studying “adolescens.”
William Gilbard alias Higges signed the Register pages till July 1610, and he may have superintended them till May 1611, when the page was signed once by John Rogers, Vicar. In that year the curate, William Gilbert alias Higgs, died, and, strange to say, was buried the very day before Gilbert Shakespeare, i.e., on 2nd February 1611-2.
Does this imply that the clerk was left to his own classic inspirations or memories in writing the register, or that his superintendence was taken over by the succeeding assistant minister, Edward Woolmer? Under him the language of the text gradually simplified, until it took on a new varnish of Latin under Mr. Richard Watts.
But the fact remains, that “adolescens,” which had only once appeared before, never appears again, and it is difficult to gauge the extent of its meaning and use. It has been held by all writers to support Halliwell-Phillipps’ statement that the poet’s brother went to settle as a haberdasher in St. Bride’s, London, and lived to a great age. I have definitely proved that Halliwell-Phillips was mistaken in saying that Gilbert was a London haberdasher (see my article in the “Athenæum,” 29th December 1900, “John Shakespeare of Ingon, and Gilbert of St. Brides”), p. 62. The whole arguments of the family-wills tell against the notion of the survival of the poet’s brother, and my careful study in registers helps to convince me that the word “adolescens” is not here used in its normal and natural sense.
That should be “a youth” or “junior.” In either case if this is accepted as true of some unknown nephew of the poet, it would imply that Gilbert Shakespeare married somewhere, baptized this child somewhere, and died somewhere, and that the mother died somewhere, none of these facts having yet been proved. If it had its ordinary meaning, it would suggest that the father and mother were already dead, and the “youth” stood alone in the world. But if so, where was Gilbert buried? The name of Shakespeare would have been sure to have been noticed, either in London or in country registers.
The difficulties seem to me so great,[111] that the alternative seems a trifling one in comparison, that the word, for some inexplicable reason, has been unintelligently applied to the poet’s brother Gilbert. In this opinion I have taken much counsel from students of registers, and they agree that it is the most natural explanation of the puzzle. And therefore I believe firmly that Gilbert Shakespeare, the poet’s brother, died and was buried at the date recorded in the register (Feb. 3, 1611-2), which accounts for his not being mentioned in the poet’s will.
“Sonderabdruck aus dem Archiv für das Studium der Neueren Sprachen und Literaturen,” Band cxxiii, Heft 1-2, 1909.