Not another Shakespeare signature!

There are various books purported to have been Shakespeare's on the basis of a signature. All of these have been condemned as forgeries at one time or another.

There is a recorded example of 'Shakespeare' being written as 'Shaxpere' (1601). Most contemporary appearances of the name 'Shakespeare' are spelt differently and written differently. At this time, spelling wasn't fixed the way it is today, particularly with regard to names. It was still an oral culture. You'd hear a name and spell it how you heard it. The Shakespeares came from Warwickshire and had a regional accent, which wouldn't have helped when William went to London and told people who he was. There were a wide range of formalised styles of handwriting current in the period, and you'd be expected to attempt different styles in different documents. For yourself, you'd have a different style altogether. When you were young, in your school books, you'd probably try several different styles (and even spellings) for your own signature. Over time, signatures also change. The signatures of Shakespeare that appear on official documents are mostly from his later years and those written on his will, perhaps when he was ill, if they are in his hand, may not be typical. Literate folk are notoriously variable with their signatures.

Other signatures of ownership in the book include those of William, Edward, and 'Margare' (probably an early spelling of 'Marjorie') Challner (ie. Challoner). There was a Challoner family in Stratford in the seventeenth century, the names William and Richard Challoner appearing in documents. In April 1700 a 'William Challoner, junior' bore witness to a document in which one Edward Hathaway of Stratford, turner, leased a parcel of land in Wood Street.

The names William and Christopher Pegge also appear in the book. These may relate to members of the family of the Rev. Samuel Pegge and his son (also called Samuel) who were antiquaries. The Rev. Samuel's library included the unique copy of Shakespeare's The True Tragedie of Richard Duke of York (1595) that is now in the Bodleian.

And to link the Pegges of Derbyshire with the Shakespeares of Warwickshire? Shakespeare's granddaughter, Elizabeth Hall, married her second husband (John, later Sir John Bernard) in 1649. This gave her three step-daughters: Elizabeth, Mary, and Eleanor. In 1658 the eldest step-daughter, Elizabeth, married Henry Gilbert, Gent. of Lockoe in the parish of Spondon, Derbyshire. The Pegge family lived less than 20 miles away from Spondon in the area around Osmaston, Ashbourne, Yeldersley, and Shirley.

Elizabeth Gilbert died of 'religious melancholy' eight years after her marriage. Her husband wrote an account of her life and death, the manuscript of which was still extant in the 1840s.

This copy of the Abridgement is now in a private collection. The 1562 and 1563 editions are given as variants with just the dates altered on the TP and in the colophon. In this copy both the TP and colophon leaves are absent.

As a postscript, below is a signature of Elizabeth Bernard. The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust determined that it is not the signature of Shakespeare's granddaughter (post-1649). It appears on the title-page of a copy of the enormous folio edition of the Works of Bishop Joseph Hall (1625).