Most every day, after the family broke their morning fast, Anne and Mary cleared the table, and did various work, before they began to prepare for the main meal of the day, dinner at midday.
Joan usually took her nieces and nephew to feed their livestock animals, mostly goats and lambs, which were held in an animal pen and a tanning area, at the rear of the house. The animals were kept for the family’s business, which was making and selling gloves, and other leather items, such as belts and packs.
John and his sons worked in a room at the front of the same house they lived in, with shutters that opened to the street. The room served as a workshop and store.
As the boys made small talk, about strange new words they had heard, Shakespeare helped Gilbert open the shutters. Shakespeare saw the sky. He took a deep breath, It is so beautiful, I think I just might see the Lord riding upon a swift cloud, with great power and glory, to bring victorious change.
He noticed an unusually large number of birds already gathered near their house—on tree limbs, on the roofs of other houses. Most days there might be a dozen. Now there was more than one hundred.
Gilbert yawned, sleepy as usual. He usually overslept more than anyone else in the family, sometimes sleeping for more than six hours. Incredibly, he slept sometimes for as many as eight hours.
Gilbert scratched his head. He was doubtful, as usual— “Puzzle? What kind of word is puzzle? It doesn’t seem like a real word, Will.”
Shakespeare said, “Greenaway swears he heard it in London. He even heard it more than once.”
Richard asked, “Are you certain that it is pronounced puzzle? Are you sure it is not poozel, or posall, or pusel, or pewsol?”
Shakespeare replied, “To the best of my knowledge it is puzzle. Puz-uhl.”
Edmund laughed, “It sounds so funny! Puzzle!”
Gilbert frowned, “Greenaway doesn’t know what it means?”
Shakespeare shook his head, “He doesn’t even know if it is a noun or a verb—a puzzle, or to puzzle.”
Richard asked, “But who invented the word? Who gave them the authority to make a new word? Can anyone make a new word? Can I make a new word?”
Shakespeare shared his brother’s confusion, “And how did they invent it? Who could have imagined ‘puzzle’ as a word?”
Richard asked, “What word would you invent, Will?”
John cleared his throat. It was his way of telling them to change the subject. He had once heard a word very much like the word puzzle, and he knew that it had a very naughty meaning.
His sons heard him, but Gilbert and Richard were talking and not working. They talked noisily at the same time, their voices overlapping.
John raised his voice, not angrily but firmly, “I don’t mind your clucking, as long as you are working. This is not a land of idleness, a land of Cockaigne.”
Gilbert was about to say something in response. He was the only one who dared to say something to John, when John was telling them to be silent.
Before Gilbert said anything, John gave him a hard stare.
Gilbert stayed silent, and got to work. But Shakespeare could see that he was restless.
Shakespeare himself was not a very patient young man. He easily got lost in what he heard, what he saw, and he often found his mind wandering—especially to the history of the world, and the many famous women and men of the world. It took him considerable time to learn how to shut out the many distractions around him—the beautiful trees and sky, and especially the birds which easily caught his attention.
From the time when they were very young, John patiently taught each of his sons in turn how to perform each individual step in the process of making gloves. He would often say, “Anyone can make gloves. Good gloves, however, are made with hard work and with diligent effort.”
John also said more than once that he did not want his sons to work as glove-makers forever. “However,” he told them, “it is good honest work. No matter what other trade you might choose to enter into later, you must know how to sit still and work. God does not want us to be idle, or play games.”
Shakespeare, Richard and even Edmund learned that lesson well. They were good workers, and they enjoyed working. Gilbert was not very consistent in his work—some days he worked hard, and some days he did not. He could never sit still for long, and he did not enjoy working.
John taught them how to slaughter and to skin an animal, how to remove the hair, how to cure and to soften the skins, how to cut the skins in patterns, how to stitch the pieces together, and how to decorate the leather. It was a messy and demanding process. While no one individual step in the process was very difficult, doing all of them well took many months and years to master.
The most difficult thing to learn was how to put in a full effort, every single day. There was no such thing as a day when the work was not challenging. It was what took Shakespeare the longest to learn as a boy—how to work very hard, day after day, doing the same things each and every day. It was very monotonous at first, but after a few months, he became accustomed to it. In time, he even found himself enjoying such repetitious work.
However, Shakespeare never got used to slaughtering animals for their skins. It was always unpleasant, and it usually made him sick to his stomach. He often broke out in a terrible sweat when he had to catch a sheep or a goat. It took him a long time as a boy to learn how to do it calmly, without making the animal more agitated. He detested the horrendous smell of realgar, which was used to remove the hair from the skins. To Shakespeare, it was the worst smell in the world. But he endured such work, even as bloody and as smelly as it was.
As a boy, when he first worked with his father, everything was difficult. His hands hurt all the time, from working with awls, and the other tools of their trade. His hands and fingers ached so much, he could not sleep through the night, even though his mother gave him glovewort as a salve. But over time, his hands became so strong, until they never hurt again.
Perhaps the hardest thing to master was having to sit in one position, for several hours at a time. At first, he had trouble sitting upright. His back ached. His neck ached. He couldn’t keep himself from slouching. In time, he slowly got stronger, and was able to sit erect and keep working, despite any nagging minor aches.
Once Shakespeare had learned how to make gloves, his father taught him how to make belts, bags, bridles, satchels, saddlebags, pouches and purses. John patiently taught him not just how to make these items, but to make them well.
There was an art to making the gloves and other goods, but there was an entirely different art in selling them. “What good is making anything if you can’t sell it?” John would ask. “You should never make anything that you can not sell.”
John hardly ever got angry, and he never yelled at them for the work they did, or the mistakes they made. If they made a mistake, John did not scold them. He would express how disappointed he was, and he would tell them to do better next time. He wanted them to know that they should be excellent craftsmen, and accept nothing less than excellence. John often said, “I expect the best from my sons, because they should expect the best from themselves—and they should know that they can always do better.”
There were times when Shakespeare’s mind wandered. There were times he daydreamed about running off, to London perhaps. When he was younger, he often imagined what it would be like to work as an apprentice in another trade—like his good friend Richard Field, who went to work in a print shop, in London. Now as a husband and a father, he put away such dreams.
As much as Shakespeare may have wanted to work less, and work in a different trade, he did want to please his father. He worked very hard for his father. He liked being close to his family. There were even times when he did find some joy in the work. He especially enjoyed embroidering gloves. He was always eager to stitch with colored thread. Such scarletwork and blackwork was a very painstaking process, and it took all of his powers of concentration. John was so impressed by his precise stitching, he usually asked Shakespeare to do most of it for the shop.
This morning, Shakespeare sat down to stitch and finish some gloves made of dog-skin.
Shakespeare looked at his brothers, and smiled. He worried about them. They were growing up so fast, and they did not confide in him as much any more. They seemed to be growing closer to Gilbert than they were to him. He worried that they were holding something back from him.
Thirteen-year-old Richard was always restless and impatient. Shakespeare glanced over to watch John supervise Richard, as he sharpened a knife to cut the leather. While his father’s back was turned, Gilbert saw some attractive girls passing by, and stopped working. Gilbert, unmarried, and twenty years old, smiled from ear to ear. The girls smiled back.
As if he had eyes in the back of his head, John admonished Gilbert, “He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand.” Gilbert nodded and went back to work.
Shakespeare remembered how Hesiod wrote that there is no disgrace in work, but that idleness is disgraceful. That idea appealed to him. He thought of sharing it with his father, but he knew how his father denounced anything pagan. Shakespeare stayed silent.
He wished he could share more with his father, but he knew his father was carrying a heavy burden, as the head of such a large family. He wished his father would share more about his life, before he had children, and before he was married to Mary. So much of John’s life was a mystery even to him, his eldest son.
He knew John had held many public offices in Stratford-upon-Avon, in addition to running the glove-making shop. John had even been mayor once, when Shakespeare was a little boy. He remembered very little from that time. But Shakespeare remembered how excited his parents were when he first began to go to the Guildhall school, which had only been established in 1553, eleven years before Shakespeare was born. It was because of his father’s civic service that Shakespeare was able to receive such a fine education.
Shakespeare knew better than to ask his father about his time in political office. He knew that John still harbored some deep resentment about his political rise and fall. There were some town leaders he avoided, and who avoided him. Some of the civic leaders, like the current mayor, treated him like a pariah, or a vagabond. The current mayor even discouraged people from patronizing the Shakespeare glove-shop.
Shakespeare could recall a time, when he was about four years old, when his father had been well liked and respected by almost everyone. People used to smile frequently at them, and greet them in the street. But those days were gone. In the last few years, people were less friendly towards John. He used to welcome many visitors in the house, but that had almost entirely stopped in the last few years. They still had some neighbors who were steadfast in their friendship, but even they did not come inside the Henley house as often.
John sometimes said that the whole town had changed, and that people were less friendly and inviting. He blamed it on the poor financial state of the shire, and across all of England. He said, “People hardly have enough food for themselves. How can they offer anything to their guests?”
In general, Shakespeare saw people gather almost exclusively at Holy Trinity Church, but that attendance was required by law.
Shakespeare looked at the gloves in his hands. His mind traveled back in time. He remembered when he was a boy, and was first learning his father’s trade. He could still feel the acute worry he had, that he would be unable to make gloves well. He was afraid of disappointing his father.
His teacher, at the Guildhall school, helped him overcome his concerns. His teacher taught him references to gloves in history. He told him how King Henry II of England was buried with gloves on his hands. He told Shakespeare, “King Henry must have had an excellent glove-maker. Why else would the king honor him like that, by wearing his gloves forever?”
His teacher taught him how, in the reign of King Henry I, the Bishop of Durham escaped from the Tower of London, by sliding down a rope from his window. But the Bishop burned the skin off his hands because he forgot to wear his gloves.
Shakespeare chuckled, and thought, These dog-skin gloves probably would have done the trick.
He learned about how the great Spartan ruler and military commander, Leotychides, took bribes from his enemies. Despite the fact that he was born from the noblest of families, with the most divine blood, he was caught with a bribe—a glove full of coins. He was banished from Sparta, and his house was burned. Shakespeare could never make sense of it, How could such a heroic man who is charged to defend his nation, sell out his nation for a mere glove-handful of riches?
It reminded Shakespeare of the mysterious magical mitten in Chaucer’s The Pardoner’s Tale. If a man put his hand in it, he would have a “multiplying of his grain.” Shakespeare could never figure it out—How could a mitten made of wool produce grain in overflowing abundance? He had no clue what it meant, but he was sure it was a joke of some sort, since Chaucer had such a foolish wit.
He wondered, Leotychides must have believed his glove was magical too—and that it would give him great riches and power.
Shakespeare’s teacher taught him about Pliny the Elder—the Roman writer and philosopher, whose most famous work was his 37-volume Encyclopedia. During the cold winter months, Pliny gave gloves to the clerk who painstakingly transcribed his words for him. Shakespeare thought, If he did not give gloves to his clerk, Pliny could never have accomplished so much—and the world would have never received his incredible wisdom.
Shakespeare hoped to make gloves like that one day, for an important person, or perhaps even a writer of great historical significance. He liked to think that the famous chronicler Raphael Holinshed might have purchased gloves from their shop, before his death in 1580. Holinshed lived in nearby Warwick, at Packwood House. Shakespeare liked to think that he might have met the great man, without ever knowing it.
Shakespeare wished he could have sold a pair of gloves to Sir Philip Sidney. It broke his heart that such a great writer had met such a sad and early death, only a few months ago, in the Netherlands war, at the Battle of Zutphen.
Shakespeare often dreamed of having a talent for writing, like Pliny or Sidney. He laughed in amazement when he thought of how productive Pliny was, What kind of genius of a man can write 37 whole books? I can’t even imagine writing even one single book! I can barely finish a single sonnet!
Shakespeare’s most favorite reference to gloves was in Homer’s great epic historical poem, The Odyssey. After ten years of fighting at Troy, alongside the great warrior Achilles, and after his ten year voyage home, King Odysseus of Ithaca reunited with his father, Laertes. In his garden, Laertes wore gloves to protect his hands from the sharp brambles.
Shakespeare now looked at his own father, with admiration. Shakespeare remembered how when Odysseus returned to Ithaca, he saw his father, tending to his garden. Laertes did not recognize his son. Odysseus told him that his clothes were disgracefully shabby, and that he cared for his garden more than he cared for his appearance. Shakespeare thought it was remarkable that Laertes, who had been the king before his son, could wear such humble clothing, and be so humble a man. Shakespeare knew that his father was much the same kind of man, who cared for his glove shop more than he cared for himself.
Shakespeare thought, My father might not be a king, like Laertes, but he is my father. He is my Laertes.
Shakespeare often thought, I hope I might make gloves for a man as great as Laertes one day. I also hope that I might make something for my own father, as practical and as meaningful as the gloves Laertes once wore.
Shakespeare also hoped to have the opportunity to make another pair of gloves for Queen Elizabeth one day. It was well known how fond of gloves she was, and how she would not accept any gloves if they were not adorned and embroidered with expensive materials, like lace, silk, gold, and gemstones. She was rumored to have a collection of gloves that numbered in the hundreds.
He thought of the Earl of Leicester and his boorish brother, the Earl of Warwick—the two most powerful Warwickshire lords. John once said, “They are the kind of lords whose only purpose in life is to please themselves, and to glorify themselves in their lordships.”
Shakespeare often hoped that he would never have to make gloves for Leicester and Warwick again. But he really did not have any choice in the matter. If they demanded gloves, Shakespeare had to make them gloves.
To further inspire him, Shakespeare’s teacher also taught him about the many patron saints of glove-making. He learned about Saint Bartholomew, who was one of the twelve apostles, and who even witnessed the Ascension of Christ. Sadly, Shakespeare could never think of this saint without thinking of that unspeakably violent massacre on the feast day of Saint Bartholomew, in France, in 1572.
Shakespeare was eight years old, and he heard the news coming from France in the weeks and months afterward, the bone-chilling stories of death and mass murder. He heard grisly stories of neighbor turning against neighbor, mercilessly and senselessly killing each other.
It had occurred right before the new star or blazing star in November. Shakespeare heard that many people in France thought the light in the sky was a divine message—to help bring the bloodshed across France to an end. He also heard that the massacre may have been inspired by the star.
All of England was horrified by this brutal slaughter—and the incredibly high death toll. Everyone Shakespeare knew had something to say—and all of them were afraid that such religious violence might spread to England. Shakespeare could still remember many long nights when he could not sleep. He would lay awake, in fear that his friends and neighbors might turn against each other. Since he could not tell who was Protestant or Catholic just by their face, it made him very worried. For a long time afterwards, he could not tell who in his community had good or wicked intentions.
Shakespeare’s teacher taught him about Saint Gummarus of Lier, another patron saint of glove makers—but also of childless people, difficult marriages, and separated spouses. He was a soldier, off to war for years. When he returned to his wife—who was from a noble family—she had become a terrible shrew. They separated, and he never remarried. He became a hermit, and founded an abbey.
He learned about Saints Crispin and Crispinian, who were twin brothers. Some people believed that they were from Canterbury, and some believed that they were not even born in England. They were the patron saints of glove-makers, shoe-makers, lace makers, leather workers, saddle makers, tanners, and weavers.
Shakespeare had a special kinship with these twin brothers, since they were patrons of so many of the skills and crafts that he knew so well. For a time, when he was young, Shakespeare thought that he and one of his own brothers might fight together and die together for a great cause. The idea both scared him, and inspired him.
There were other patron saints, for other crafts and trades associated with the Shakespeare family business, like the patron saints of belt makers—Saint Alexius of Rome, and Saint Theobald of Provins. They were less meaningful to Shakespeare, although he did admire them for their good works—especially Alexius, who lived as a beggar, who helped pilgrims and the poor, and who was known as a “Man of God.”
Shakespeare greatly admired Saint Eloi Aquitaine, also known as Saint Eligius. He was so popular, he became a patron saint for many trades—including craftsmen, saddle makers, harness makers, and others. Shakespeare often dreamed of becoming as accomplished in so many trades. He admired Eligius for helping the poor, and for his twenty-year religious undertaking in Flanders to convert so many pagans to Christianity.
Eligius also became a master goldsmith. Shakespeare loved the story about the King of the Franks who ordered Eligius to make a new royal throne for him. Out of the gold it would take to make one single throne—as if by magic—Eligius made two thrones. The story amazed Shakespeare. He drove his teacher crazy with questions, asking him how Eligius could have performed such an astonishing feat. His teacher said, “Saint Eligius was able to do it because he did it for the glory of God.”
As a boy, Shakespeare resisted believing in miracles. For many years, he was very skeptical of such things. He admired Eligius, but he thought that he had some secret trick to increase the quantity of gold, or some conjurer’s art, or some mystical alchemy perhaps. He could believe that Eligius converted pagans. He could even believe that Eligius really did change the shoe on a demon-possessed horse. But he simply could not believe that Eligius could make gold multiply.
His teacher was very patient with him, and did not argue about it. He just taught Shakespeare what was written and what was recorded. It was only much later that Shakespeare began to believe in such miraculous things.
Even before his teacher told him about Saint Amandus, the patron of merchants and beer makers, Shakespeare was already familiar with that saint. John Shakespeare began his civil career as the local ale-taster. He had venerated Saint Amandus already in the house, from the time Shakespeare was young.
The one patron saint of glove-makers whom Shakespeare’s parents most admired and loved was Mary Magdalene. John and Mary did not tell him about how sinful Mary may have been, and how she may have been a prostitute. They thought he was too young to know that. They simply said that before she met Jesus, Mary had been a “fallen woman.” They taught Shakespeare that Saint Mary was one of the followers of Christ, who seemed to be as close to Jesus as any of the apostles. They told him that they loved Mary, despite her past. They said that if Saint Mary Magdalene was willing to witness Jesus’ hideous torture and appallingly cruel murder by crucifixion, then she must have loved Jesus a great deal.
John once said, “Mary was a witness to resurrection of Jesus. God wanted Mary to witness the rebirth of His Son. That means that God must love Mary very much. Therefore we must learn to love Mary, despite who and what she was.”
Shakespeare would never forget when his mother Mary once said to him, as she held John’s hand, “William, your father and I believe that you can not love if you have hate in your heart. You can not love a person if you hate another person, even a wicked person. If your father hated Mary Magdalene for the sins she may have committed, or for the wicked life she may have led, then he would not be able to love Mary, the mother of Jesus—and he would not be able to love me, his Mary.”
Shakespeare did not fully understand what his mother meant, at the time. But years later he came to understand it better when he married Anne.
Shakespeare found the stories of the saints quite fascinating. In later years, he read about other saints. Each of them taught him something different. Each of them inspired him in different ways. When Shakespeare found himself restless, and unable to settle down and work, he often thought of these saints. Usually, within a matter of a minute or two, he would be immersed in his labor again, to such a degree that the hours would fly by.
Also, after he learned about the various patron saints of glove-making, he started to appreciate the long history and the important tradition of making gloves and leather goods. He began to wonder if there was perhaps even a higher and more spiritual significance to it.
Also, when he had made his first gloves, as a boy, his gloves were not well made. They were so crudely done, his father often did not even try to sell them. After Shakespeare learned about the history of gloves and about these patron saints, his skill improved very quickly—almost overnight. It was not long before the gloves he made were good enough to be displayed for sale, right next to the gloves his father made.
There was a time when, as a boy, Shakespeare doubted that he could ever make gloves as good as the ones John made. Now, sitting at his worktable, he looked down at the glove in his hand, which was very good, and almost as good as the quality of his father. Yet, even today, he knew he was still missing something. His father possessed a mysteriously excellent skill, something that seemed impossible to match, no matter how hard Shakespeare tried. He never spoke of it. His father never said a word about it, but Shakespeare knew that his father was aware of it. He knew that his father was too good a judge of quality to miss it.
He smiled as he remembered a funny story from his boyhood, when he first learned the story of King David. He loved how David, as a young shepherd boy, faced the fearsome Philistine giant Goliath, with only his shepherd’s staff, his leather sling and five smooth stones he chose from a brook. It made Shakespeare desperate to make a sling of his own. It couldn’t be any harder than making a belt, or a harness, he thought at the time.
For weeks, he planned how to make a sling—what it should look like, how long it should be, and what kind of leather to use. Most importantly, he had to do all of this in secret. He was sure that John would disapprove. Finally, while John spent a day out at a farm, Shakespeare made a sling as fast as he could. He snuck out of the house, and ran down to the River Avon, to find smooth stones. First he practiced swinging the sling without the stones. Then, as his heart beat even faster, he placed a small stone in the sling. He whirled it about his head, held his breath, and snapped his wrist to release the stone—the stone tumbled out sideways, and with a whack, the sling slapped the back of his head.
He tried again—but the stone fell out of the sling, which got itself tangled around his arm. He tried and tried again. No matter how hard he tried, he could not manage to hurl a stone from his sling. He was so disappointed, it upset him for days. He could not even look at the sling anymore, he was so ashamed. But then a few weeks later, he thought, David must have spent a great deal of time learning how to use that sling, if he was able to slay a bear and a lion that stole sheep from his father’s flock.
He also realized that David had no choice but to be excellent with his sling. He thought at the time, David had to be good with a sling, because he had to protect his flock. Perhaps I am not good at this sling, because I am not a shepherd. I do not have to fight lions and bears here in Stratford.
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Shakespeare smiled now, at the thought of how young and foolish he had once been as a boy, by the banks of the Avon, with a sling he did not need. He chuckled, I should count myself fortunate, that there are no lions and bears around!
Over the years, he came to enjoy making gloves, even though he knew it could be years before he could be as good as his father. However, despite his growing ability to make gloves, when Shakespeare began to sell them, he was terrible. He did not know how to talk to strangers. He was painfully nervous. He did not know how to explain the gloves, and why they were worth buying. He stuttered and stammered. He grew impatient easily. He disliked having to sell the gloves all day long.
At first, John did not scold him, or correct him. But after two days, he had to talk to him.
Shakespeare complained that he became nervous by people, especially ones who looked unfriendly to him.
John said, “You should treat every person with the same respect, and the same courtesy. But each person is different. Each person behaves differently. And looks can be deceiving—some of the friendliest people don’t always look like friendly people. Also, sometimes friendly people don’t show you how friendly they are until you are friendly to them.”
Shakespeare liked that very much, because it made each person a mystery that he could investigate. He started to ask people questions, to find out who they were and what made them different. Some people did not want to answer any of his questions. But most people enjoyed talking about themselves—even to a boy selling gloves. Talking to customers became even easier, and sometimes very enjoyable. He also treated every person as if they were a friendly person. He was pleasantly surprised to find that most of the customers were very friendly in return—and they were very pleased to meet another friendly person in him.
There were also times when Shakespeare would talk too much. John and Mary were amazed at how much he started to talk, when he was in front of a customer. He even began to speak very fast, and his words came out too quickly. Customers had to ask him to repeat himself. Some customers seemed confused by how much he talked. It was clear to John that he spoke far more than he should, and for too long. John wanted him to be friendly, but he also did not want him to spend too much time with any single customer, especially when those customers bought very little, or did not buy anything. John found it odd that his firstborn son, who had been a very quiet child for most of his youth, suddenly talked so much, especially in front of strangers. John knew that he had to do something about it, because if Shakespeare could not sell effectively, then he might harm their entire business.
He sat Shakespeare down one day—“William, you speak too fast sometimes, and sometimes you speak more than you need to say. You must speak slower. You sound like a mindless man of Gotham. You have a head, William. You must keep your wits about you.”
Shakespeare tried very hard, but he still could not control himself. He got so excited and animated when he spoke to customers. There were times when he would get dizzy when he spoke.
Mary talked to him, “William, please slow down when you speak. There are times when you say ten words when all it takes is one word. When you are talking to a customer, there are even times when you should not even say anything. Sometimes a customer needs to think. If you are talking, they can not think.”
Shakespeare took her advice and tried to speak less. But he sometimes spoke too quickly, and sometimes he spoke too little, or too slowly. Some customers were confused.
John turned to the teacher at school for help. He reminded Shakespeare of the Greek word logos—meaning “word"--and rheo--meaning “to flow.”
The teacher said, “A river needs dikes and dams to control the flow of water, and to prevent flooding. When you are speaking, you must find places to pause and even to stop speaking. You must create dikes and dams to control your speech—so words won’t flood out of your mouth.”
Shakespeare liked the idea, and tried to speak with more pauses and stops. At first it was strange and confusing. Sometimes he paused and stopped too much, which only made him more nervous. Then one day, almost by accident, as Shakespeare was talking to a customer, he thought of the words logos and rheo. They instantly calmed him down—they had a marvelous effect of making his words flow more freely, but not excessively. He was so happy, and soon he began to truly enjoy talking with customers. The whole family was delighted that he had overcome such a problem.
Over time, he even experimented with the words and language he used when selling to customers. He began to make jokes, or funny remarks. He told customers about the gloves that Laertes wore, and about Pliny and his clerk, and other stories of gloves.
Some customers liked such stories, and some did not. He experimented with being silent—to say as little as possible, as his mother had advised. It was very hard for him, since he enjoyed talking so much. But he found that with some customers, it was best to let the product speak for itself.
Soon he was selling more than ever before. He was getting better with each passing day, and with each individual customer. He did not always succeed in selling gloves, but he had confidence that he was carefully honing his skill at selling. Within a matter of weeks, Shakespeare was selling more than even John usually did. It came as a surprise to all of them, especially Shakespeare.
There were times when there were too few customers, and sales were slow. It was especially difficult for Shakespeare to learn to be patient. The unpredictable nature of the business was a great frustration for him. John taught him that instead of worrying, and instead of trying to be patient—he should instead be expectant. He told Shakespeare, “Don’t be upset if customers do not come. Do not frown, or hang your head. Do not fill this shop with gloom. You should wait for them to come, to return, with a smile. You should expect them to come, and they will come.”
Shakespeare thought his father’s words were confusing. He tested the idea. Instead of sitting around moping or fretting, when business was slow, Shakespeare began to chat with his brothers and his father, as they worked. They tried finding anything to talk about, to put a smile on their faces. All of a sudden, Shakespeare discovered that the days did not feel so long—especially when they did not have even a single customer. They spent days laughing and talking about pleasant things and happy memories. Much to Shakespeare’s surprise, he began to forget his worries and doubts. He began to look forward to each day as if a customer was going to come, and brighten his day.
When a customer finally did come to their shop, they usually saw John and his sons with smiles on their faces. They found Shakespeare to be a bright and cheerful young man, who was very pleased to meet them, and who was eager to show them the gloves. They did not find a family that looked like it was starving for business, even when they were sometimes starving for business.
For a very long time, from the time before Shakespeare was born, there was a very serious problem for their business. Glove-makers could not set or change the prices for the gloves they made. The prices were fixed by the guild for glovers, the Worshipful Company of Glovers. Over the years, this had a negative effect on the glove trade as a whole. Glove-makers like John could not charge more money for their gloves, even when the cost of making gloves increased—and the cost never seemed to go down. In order to have any profit, glove-makers had to make their gloves more cheaply, with less costly and inferior leather. The quality of gloves went down.
This debasement of his beloved glove trade had long infuriated John. He hated making gloves with cheaper materials, and he hated seeing how shoddily gloves were made. Even worse, the business was suffering, and it was getting worse each and every year—for every glove-maker. People were just not buying gloves like they used to. People were more likely to keep their old gloves than to buy new ones. People often asked John to repair their old gloves, and their other leather goods, rather than buy new ones.
John said that this whole problem was caused by the Queen’s government, and especially by the corruption of the guild. He compared it to the debasement of the English currency in the time of her father’s reign. It was one more item in a long list of grievances he had against the Tudors.
By the 1570s, John did not know if his business would survive. There was a great deal of financial instability due to the legalization of usury. He had no choice but to lend money, and ask for money from others. He did not know if his business could survive without borrowing and lending money. Shakespeare could remember seeing how upset his father was at the time, and how worried he would become about money.
By 1574, John faced a grave dilemma. He did not want to make cheap gloves, but he had to stay competitive with the other gloves on the market. He also knew that if he continued to make cheap gloves, that his business might not survive.
He prayed on the problem for several weeks—and a bold idea came to him. He thought of making gloves of a better quality and with better animal skins than their competitors. They would not be able to charge more money, which meant that there would be less profit for each single pair of gloves. They would have to make a profit on the volume of the products they sold. There was a serious risk—the volume of sales had to be high and stay high. They would have to make a great many products, and they would have to sell them. If their volume of sales fell, it could spell disaster. They would need customers to buy from them in greater numbers, because of the better quality of their gloves.
John was also confident that he could get higher quality animal skins from other vendors, who had become increasingly desperate to sell such skins—and who might offer him reduced prices, if he bought in large quantities. He even thought of buying even more whole animals than before, to eliminate some of the need to buy skins from other vendors.
All of it was a tremendous risk. Since the whole family would have to pull together and work harder than before, John gathered everyone together. Shakespeare was ten years old at the time. Gilbert was seven, Joan was five, and Edmund had just been born. They all listened, eager to help their parents in any way.
John said to them, “To make a glove that is beneath or below our ability to make it does not seem to me to be a good thing. It is not living in good faith. I believe that God did not give us these skills and this talent to make something of so little value. I believe that there is some greater reward for making gloves to the best of our ability. I do not know what that reward is, but I have faith that it is there, as long as we work as if we are working not for men, but for the Lord. We must put our faith in Him to provide for us. We must choose to live in good faith.”
Mary was very moved by what John said. She said, “John, I have rarely ever seen you so full of inspiration, and so full of boldness—”
She could not even finish her words. She hugged him, and kissed his face repeatedly. Shakespeare and his siblings had never seen such a display of emotion between their parents before.
The other children were too young to really understand what was happening. Shakespeare was naturally worried, but he trusted his father. And he trusted his mother.
John saw the look of worry and confusion on Gilbert’s face. He knew that he needed to allay Gilbert’s fears. He said, “Gilbert, We must live in good faith. Jesus, our Lord and Savior, said that we should be perfect, even as our Father in Heaven is perfect. It means that with every glove we make, we should do it heartily. We should ‘labor after perfectness.’”
John saw how Gilbert’s face softened.
He said—“Gilbert, we are all human. None of us is perfect. But we must try.”
Gilbert struggled to understand his parents. Even then, he was so fearful, no matter what his parents said. But his parents were asking a lot of him. With Shakespeare going to school, John realized that he needed Gilbert at home, working in the glove shop. With a heavy heart, John and Mary decided that Gilbert would not go to school.
In the weeks afterwards, the whole family pulled together. Together they worked hard, and in good faith. John worked so much, he often got little to no sleep at all. But he also never seemed more joyful and energetic. His hard work motivated all of them to work harder than ever before.
John was very good at selling, and sales did improve slightly, but not enough to sustain them for long. John knew that he was lacking something, but he did not know what. Out of necessity, Shakespeare discovered the importance of sincerity.
He overheard his father and mother talking. John did not know what to say to customers, to make them believe that his gloves were of a higher quality, when over the years these customers had grown so accustomed to buying poorly made gloves. He said, “People have been buying gloves of such an inferior quality, I fear that they wouldn’t even know how much better our gloves are. They have been buying the wrong thing for so long, that they don’t know what the right thing is anymore.”
Suddenly, John saw that Shakespeare was listening. He was not angry at his son, but Shakespeare could sense his frustration. He asked him, “William, what do you think? How do I convince people to buy our gloves?”
Shakespeare just said, “We must tell them that our gloves are better.”
John replied, “Every glove-maker in England says the same thing. They all say it, even if it is not true.”
Shakespeare remembered how his schoolteacher had taught him about the words sincere and sincerity, which had only recently entered the English language. He said to his parents, with utter sincerity, “We are sincere, which means we are not false. We are telling the truth.”
Mary and John did not know how to reply. They were touched by the sincere tone in his voice.
Mary said, “John, you said that we should make gloves to the best of our ability. We should tell people what you said—that we make gloves as perfectly as we can. We should tell this to people—because it is true.”
John was silent. He could not argue with his own argument.
In the days and weeks after, Shakespeare spoke to customers as sincerely as he could. Almost instantly, as soon as he began to tell the truth, and only tell the truth, the customers bought more gloves. He stood out from their competitors by virtue of the fact that he was so earnest and so honest. Shakespeare could look a customer in the eye and say what he knew to be true. Customers believed him, because his belief in the quality of the gloves was unshakeable.
John and Mary often stopped what they were doing to hear Shakespeare say that their gloves were better, and that the gloves were made as perfectly as possible. They enjoyed how he said it, and how the words sounded.
Their business improved, quickly. Shakespeare sold more gloves than they expected, and the volume of sales climbed higher. John was amazed at how such sincerity won customers over. He began to say the same things to customers with the same sincerity. The sales increased even higher.
John gathered the whole family together, to have a talk, “There are glove-makers who lie, when they say that their gloves are better. We can’t stop them from lying, or from being false. We just have to tell the truth, about the gloves that we make. Our gloves may not be perfect, but we make them as perfectly as we can. I did not understand that before, but now I do. I have come to believe that true words in the mouth of an honest person are more persuasive than false words in the mouth of a liar.”
He looked at Shakespeare and smiled with pride, “I did not know that it was true until I saw it with my own eyes, and heard it with my own ears. Thank you, William.”
Shakespeare was overcome with emotion. He did not know what to say. He had never seen his father express such gratitude to him before. John shook his hand, and smiled at him, unable to say anything, he was so moved.
In the days and weeks after, all of the family wanted to help sell gloves. They wanted customers to know how hard they worked, and how perfectly they made gloves. Customers were very amused. They had never seen a whole family that was so lively, and animated by a desire to sell their goods. Even Gilbert improved, when speaking up to customers. Joan also began to help customers at the shop, and especially on Market Day. When such a young girl talked about their gloves with such sincerity, it was impossible for most people to resist.
For many months, customers bought more gloves—and their sales volume increased. John took whatever profit and invested it back into the glove shop. He bought more animals, and he ordered more skins from vendors. Since he was ordering so much in advance, he was able to negotiate deductions in the cost of the skins, which increased the profit margin.
Shakespeare remembered how it was an exciting time in their lives. John was very busy with the glove shop, with his properties, and with the town council. He was lending money and borrowing money, and he never seemed to worry about money any longer. He always had a smile on his face.
John surprised the family one day, early in 1576, when he received a special delivery from London—the new and complete translation of the Bible into English, known as the Geneva Bible, or more commonly as the Breeches Bible. John purchased it primarily because he wanted his children to know the Bible. He said that he thought it was the right thing to do, because God had so richly rewarded them all, for all of their hard work, ever since those prayerful weeks of his in 1574. He also wanted it because it was so incredibly rare for any person or family to possess a Bible, because of the expense. He also acknowledged that he had some reservations about buying a Bible that was approved by the Protestant Church of England. But he also knew that having such a Bible in his home might offer them some protection, as secret Catholics.
Shakespeare was delighted to have it in the house. As busy as he was, he worked very hard to find time almost each day to read it, and peruse its contents. Every time he opened it, and turned its pages, it inspired awe. Since John himself had never learned how to read, he asked Shakespeare to recite verses, and sometimes even whole chapters. On some occasions, the entire family gathered, to listen to Shakespeare read to them.
In those happy days, John talked to Shakespeare about the future more than before, and how he wanted him to go to the University of Oxford when he came of age. John wanted him to become a lawyer one day. He even said that Shakespeare might perhaps make his way to London, where he could climb the ladder of success in Her Majesty’s government. John told him that the future of the whole family rested on his shoulders.
John once said, “If you work hard and study hard, you can elevate our family into the noble class, so we can rise out of our humble status in society. If this family never ventures out of Stratford, we might wither away. We might never amount to anything.”
Shakespeare could remember how much his mother scolded John for talking like that. She did not want Shakespeare to have such pressure. But he could tell that Mary shared John’s dreams. Shakespeare could tell that his mother and his father both wanted him to help the whole family get ahead in the world.
Shakespeare was excited by their dreams, and he wanted to please his parents. He worked hard at the glove shop, and he worked hard at school. He worked very hard to be helpful to his parents, and to his siblings. He became a better student, because he wanted to please his parents. John was especially happy that his son was becoming so well educated.
John often told him that when he was born, they named him after several Williams in their own family. But John also once said, “I once heard a very smart man talk about an ordinary boy, from a village in Surrey, who went to Oxford. This ordinary boy became a great theologian and philosopher. When I heard about him, this William of Ockham, I knew that you should follow in his footsteps. It was one of the reasons why we named you William.”
Of course, John did not want his son to study theology, or to become a philosopher. That was not a path that lead to financial prosperity, as far as he was concerned.
One day, John had a new idea. Since gloves had to be sold at the same price, and since the gloves that they made were a significantly better quality—it meant that their gloves were a better value.
John realized that the price of their gloves did not reflect how much they were actually worth. Gloves could cost only a penny or two or four. However, the ones the Shakespeare family made were worth far more than that, because of their better quality. Their gloves were also more durable. Any farmer, any laborer, and any craftsman would save money by buying their gloves, because they would not have to buy gloves as often.
John realized that he could tell customers three true things. First, their gloves were better. Second, their gloves were worth more than other gloves. Third, when customers bought their gloves, they could actually save money. John was delighted, because all three things were absolutely true. He immediately taught this to his family, and all of them began to say these things to customers.
The business improved much more, month over month. John and Mary were excited by the direction their business was heading. Not only were they making gloves of better quality, they were proving the truth of that day after day. Some customers even returned, sometimes after many months, to tell them how pleased they were with the gloves they bought. They were proof that the gloves were indeed a better quality and a better value.
It gave John another idea, to brand the gloves they made with a mark, to show that they were made by the Shakespeare family. He experimented with different ideas—like burning a mark on the gloves with the letter S, or stitching some sort of symbol, like a spear. It was Mary who had the idea of attaching a small purl—a short length of metal thread curled tightly together like a tiny spring. She suggested stitching near the bottom of each glove. It looked like a small spear.
She said, with a laugh, “Perhaps one day we might attach a real pearl!”
John and the children loved the idea, and it became the brand for their gloves.
Within a year, the Shakespeare family was selling more gloves than ever before, and they were making a very good profit. Word spread. Many people were drawn to their Henley Street shop, to save money, by buying better-made gloves. As time went by, their customers became very loyal, and recommended other friends and members of their family to buy gloves from the Shakespeare family, and only from the Shakespeare family.
Sitting at his worktable now, Shakespeare turned his head and looked at his father. He remembered how full of life John was back in those days, and how quiet and calm he had become since then. It was almost precisely ten years ago that it all fell apart. He could remember the day when his father came home, with a dark look on his face. He could still hear the bitterness in his voice, when his father said that they had to stop making better gloves. He could still remember how upset it made him, to make gloves as poorly and as cheaply as every other glove-maker.
It was painful for Shakespeare to remember how their good fortune had come to an end. For three years their business had prospered. And then all of a sudden, in the beginning of 1577, it was gone, almost overnight.
John was so angry, he did not tell the family very much. It was clear that the guild was to blame. They had the power to tell him how to conduct his own business. If he did not comply, the guild could revoke his license to make and sell gloves entirely—and therefore banish him from their Worshipful Company.
Mary told Shakespeare John had enemies in the guild, some of whom were his competitors. But she also said that there were other powerful men in Stratford who had turned against John. He had even been forced out of the town council. She did not say why these men had targeted John. They might have quarreled over money, or politics, or religion—or all three.
It was even necessary to withdraw Shakespeare from the school, which also meant that he would not go to the University of Oxford.
Gilbert was especially upset. He had worked so hard for three years, and had missed the opportunity to go to school. He was quiet and withdrawn for weeks afterwards.
Shakespeare thought of how sad and confused he was at the time, and how it was nothing compared to the sadness and the loss he suffered in April 1579. The weeks and months afterwards were some of the darkest moments of his life. He thought about how John arranged to have him go to Lancashire to be a tutor. He thought about how sad he was when he had to depart so suddenly from Lancashire in 1581.
In the years after 1577, after the family’s reversal of fortune, Shakespeare often wondered what had happened. He heard many stories, and rumors, about other men and families, in Warwickshire and beyond—and how their fortunes rose, and more often fell in the 1570s.
In later years, Shakespeare learned about the wool trade. Even though the Shakespeare family was not in the wool business, everyone in England was affected by the wool market, since it was by far the single most important business everywhere in England. Wool was the most important product in England, and it was the foundation for England’s economy—particularly with overseas trade, particularly with Antwerp, and especially at Bruges. Most every businessman, including John Shakespeare, had financial investments in wool. Most every businessman owned sheep, sometimes even many flocks.
Over the years, the laws changed, and became more restrictive. A man like John was unable to own and to sell sheep as much as he had before. He could not rely on such investments to supplement his glove business. So, since the 1550s, John turned away from owning many sheep. But in the 1570s, the market for wool became very volatile and lucrative. There was great risk, but there was also great reward. Most businessmen, even men who did not have many sheep, like John, still made investments in wool.
There were many shortages of wool in those years. The businessmen who were licensed to deal in wool complained bitterly to the government about anyone who infringed on their business. Even worse, a system of informers began to develop—and they were paid handsomely to incriminate people for illegally dealing in wool. Many people were accused of being such “wool broggers.”
Shakespeare often heard the term, as a boy. He asked his teacher what it meant. His teacher said, “A wool brogger does not care for anyone or anything. They only care for how much money they can make, selling wool at the staple in Bruges.”
Since wool was the single largest industry in England, it became very common for people to trade illegally in wool. There was so much wool, it was impossible for the Queen’s government to regulate every last tod—the standard measure of wool. Anyone caught wool brogging could face very serious legal and financial consequences.
The market for wool became so unstable, by the end of 1576, the Queen’s government opened an investigation into many people who traded in wool. In the next month, all wool trading across the entire country was stopped. Two months later, John was expelled from the town council, and the Glover’s Guild turned against him.
At the time, in 1577, Shakespeare knew that wool might have been the reason why his father had a reversal of fortune. He did not want to believe that his father was a detested wool brogger. He knew that his father did not care only for money.
John never spoke of this black-market business in wool, but everyone knew that it was always there. It was lurking in the shadows, and under the surface of the many legitimate businesses. John was away from the house on some days. Shakespeare thought that his father certainly had the opportunity to be a wool brogger. However, he preferred to think that John was seeing to their modest land holdings, or merely working on local farms, in Snitterfield and in Ingon—owned by their other Shakespeare kin—for a little extra money, or some of their vegetables.
Shakespeare had suspicions about John, but no proof. He did not ask his father about it. He trusted that whatever his father was doing, it was for the best. He did not think his father could be a criminal, or had taken such risks. However, he had seen many people in the local courtroom who appeared good and honorable, but were anything but. Even upstanding people succumbed to a fear of poverty. It made them lose their good judgment, and risk everything for the sake of even just a little bit more profit. In their desperate gamble for more financial security, they had lost it all, and fallen to terrible depths.
In later years, Shakespeare also heard how, in late 1577, wool broggers across England were forced to post bonds of 100 pounds as a guarantee that they would never deal in wool again. Shakespeare hated to think that his father might have had to pay such an extraordinary amount of money—especially if his father had never truly been a wool brogger, and had never been found guilty of wool brogging in a court of law. John never spoke of such a bond, and Shakespeare never dared ask him about it.
It was quite possible that John was falsely accused of wool brogging. Shakespeare learned later how often people were falsely accused of crimes—such as lending outside the limits of the law, known as usury.
It was an easy and common allegation—to call someone a wool brogger, or a usurer. Sometime the people making such accusations were disreputable people, or even wicked people who were jealous of the good fortune of others. It was very hard for a person to prove their innocence. Even if people were never found guilty of usury, the accusation alone was enough to destroy their reputation. Good people lost their money, their good name, and their trade. Shakespeare suspected that his father may have been falsely accused of wool brogging, or usury—or both.
Shakespeare hoped that it was a much less significant reason, for his family’s financial troubles. In later years, Shakespeare learned how there had been some financial speculation at the time regarding worsted wool—which was in great demand. From what he heard, the competition and rivalry between Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire, Warwickshire and Buckinghamshire was very serious. Some men profited, while some men did not. Shakespeare feared that his father may have simply made some unwise investments, or that his father was the victim to a dishonest man or men from another shire.
Shakespeare also had heard that the men from some of the other shires would stop at nothing to protect the value of their own wool against worsted wool. He feared that perhaps his father had fallen victim to powerful men from Herefordshire, Shropshire and Staffordshire—men who were so proud of their Lemster Ore wool, which was commonly said to be the very finest wool in all of England.
Shakespeare was even told that such men had great influence at the royal court of the Queen, and that there was intense competition between very powerful wool traders. He also heard that even the wealthiest and largest wool fortunes were at risk, in such a volatile period. He heard gossip about the famous Heydon family, who owned tens of thousands of sheep, on their estates in Norfolk. They were one of the richest families in England. They were reportedly building up so much debt, that their entire fortune was in jeopardy.
Even now, ten years later, Shakespeare still did not know the whole story about his family’s sudden loss of prosperity. He often thought, If the Heydon family might go bankrupt, then what chance did my father have?
Over the years, he had spent many sleepless nights trying to make sense of it all. Shakespeare was tortured by a sense of helplessness. He tried to think of something he could do. He tried to figure out who was to blame. He often remembered reading how Julius Caesar had outlawed guilds, because many of them only served their own political motives, instead of serving their members.
There were moments when he even grew angry at his father and mother for having made him dream so much, only to have his dreams dashed. But over time, he let go of much of that anger, and that resentment. Ten years on, he realized that he was not even sure he wanted to know the truth any longer.
Shakespeare thought of how, in 1581, after he returned home to Stratford from Lancashire, he returned to work with his father in the glove shop. He remembered how sad his father was, and how unhappy John had been ever since, to have to make gloves as cheaply as possible. For ten years, his father was confined to support his entire family almost entirely through his glove business.
It hurt Shakespeare deeply, to think that his father could not make gloves as perfectly as he was able. It sometimes almost brought him to tears.
Shakespeare glanced at John now. He thought about how much he loved and admired his father, for many reasons. He knew his father to be a strong man, and a man of great faith. But he could not understand how his father could endure so much failure. Shakespeare did not comprehend how his father and mother could have so many dreams and see so many of them come to nothing.
Shakespeare sensed a turbulence within his father, underneath the surface. He did not know if there was anything he could say, or do, to help his father allay his fears and worries and doubts. He didn’t know how to make any of this better. He did not know, apart from working as a glove-maker, how to improve his family’s lot in life.
It seemed like there was a noose tightening on the neck of the Shakespeare family, and he did not see even the opportunity for any chance at escape, or redemption. He often thought, It is like living in Purgatory, being stuck in between Heaven and Hell.
All Shakespeare could do was to work, and continue to work hard. But as the days passed, he sometimes thought that if something did not improve their lot, then there might come a day when the Shakespeare family of Stratford-Upon-Avon might wither away and never be thought upon again—and no one would know the story of who they were, how hard they worked, and how perfectly they made gloves, once upon a time.
Shakespeare finished working on the dog’s-leather gloves. He immediately turned to embroider a pair of gloves that John had made.
Shakespeare threaded the needle. He enjoyed this scarletwork. He liked to imagine that adding the blood-red thread was like adding veins and blood, which enlivened the otherwise lifeless gloves.
When he used black thread, Shakespeare enjoyed creating an artistic balance between the light color of the glove leather and the dark color of the thread.
Over time, he found that even the purest white colored gloves looked even more pure and white with the addition of dark threads—and he found that the beauty of the black thread was impossible without the white leather to which it was bound.
Once he was done, Shakespeare attached a spring-like purl to each glove, to resemble a spear.