church and take communion. This may have been the cause of an apparent decline
in his fortunes. His conscientious objection continued. In 1757 a bricklayer working
on the Shakespeare house found hidden under the tiles a ‘soul testament’, a lengthy
declaration of faith prepared for Catholics likely to die without a priest, signed ‘John
Shakespeare’ at each paragraph. This document, published in 1790, has since been
lost. So Shakespeare, like many others in Warwickshire, came from a Catholic home.
Most obeyed the law and attended church; such conformists were known as ‘church
Papists’. The teachers at his school were mostly Catholic. So William started off at a
critical distance from the policy of the Elizabethan settlement which created a
Church of England, and he became a player, a profession deeply disapproved of by
reformers.
Whatever Shakespeare’s initial confessional allegiance, his beliefs cannot be
deduced from what is presently known of his life (which is not much), but only from
his writings, and from them with difficulty. Religion was banned by law from the
stage, but since English culture was permeated with centuries of Christianity this
colours Shakespeare’s work at a deeper level than does the educational influence of
the Renaissance humanists. The plays show a full awareness of the possibilities of
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE 109The Catalogue of ‘the First Folio’ of Shakespeare’s plays
Folio’ of Shakespeare’s plays,
published by his fellow actors
Heminges and Condell in
1623, in which eighteen of
the plays were printed for the
first time. The plays are
categorized by genre, which
was not always Shakespeare’s
priority. Cymbelineis listed as
a tragedy rather than a
comedy. By permission of the
Folger Shakespeare Library.