initial commit of ebook 11990HEADmain

11 files changed, 6926 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6833f05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+* text=auto
+*.txt text
+*.md text
diff --git a/11990-0.txt b/11990-0.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9073f90
--- /dev/null
+++ b/11990-0.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,1056 @@
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11990 ***
+
+SHAKESPEARE'S INSOMNIA _And the Causes Thereof_
+
+BY FRANKLIN H. HEAD
+
+
+
+1887
+
+
+[**Transcriber's Note: The following is a literary hoax, and the letters
+quoted below are fictitious.]
+
+
+
+
+SHAKESPEARE'S INSOMNIA, AND THE CAUSES THEREOF.
+
+
+
+I.
+
+
+Insomnia, the lack of "tired Nature's sweet restorer," is rapidly
+becoming the chronic terror of all men of active life who have passed
+the age of thirty-five or forty years. In early life, while yet he
+"wears the rose of youth upon him," man rarely, except in sickness,
+knows the want of sound, undreaming sleep. But as early manhood is left
+behind and the cares and perplexities of life weigh upon him, making
+far more needful than ever the rest which comes only through unbroken
+sleep, this remedial agent cannot longer be wooed and won. Youth would
+"fain encounter darkness as a bride and hug it in his arms." To those of
+riper years the "blanket of the dark" often ushers in a season of
+terrors,--a time of fitful snatches of broken sleep and of tormenting
+dreams; of long stretches of wakefulness; of hours when all things
+perplexing and troublesome in one's affairs march before him in sombre
+procession: in endless disorder, in labyrinths of confusion, in
+countless new phases of disagreeableness; and at length the morning
+summons him to labor, far more racked and weary than when he sought
+repose.
+
+It has been of late years much the fashion in the literature of this
+subject to attribute sleeplessness to the rapid growth of facilities for
+activities of every kind. The practical annihilation of time and space
+by our telegraphs and railroads, the compressing thereby of the labors
+of months into hours or even minutes, the terrific competition in all
+kinds of business thereby made possible and inevitable, the intense
+mental activity engendered in the mad race for fame or wealth, where the
+nervous and mental force of man is measured against steam and
+lightning,--these are usually credited with having developed what is
+considered a modern and even an almost distinctively American disease.
+
+As the maxim, "There is nothing new under the sun," is of general
+application, it may be of interest to investigate if an exception occurs
+in the case of sleeplessness; if it be true that among our ancestors,
+before the days of working steam and electricity, the glorious sleep of
+youth was prolonged through all one's three or four score years.
+
+Medical books and literature throw no light upon this subject three
+hundred years ago. We must therefore turn to Shakespeare--human
+nature's universal solvent--for light on this as we would on any other
+question of his time. Was he troubled with insomnia, then, is the first
+problem to be solved.
+
+Dr. Holmes, our genial and many-sided poet-laureate, who is also a
+philosopher, in his "Life of Emerson," has finely worked out the theory
+that no man writes other than his own experience: that consciously or
+otherwise an author describes himself in the characters he draws; that
+when he loves the character he delineates, it is in some measure his
+own, or at least one of which he feels its tendencies and possibilities
+belong to himself. Emerson, too, says of Shakespeare, that all his
+poetry was first experience.
+
+When we seek to analyze what we mean by the term Shakespeare, to
+endeavor to define wherein he was distinct from all others and easily
+pre-eminent, to know why to us he ever grows wiser as we grow wise, we
+find that his especial characteristic was an unequalled power of
+observation and an ability accurately to chronicle his impressions. He
+was the only man ever born who lived and wrote absolutely without bias
+or prejudice. Emerson says of him that "he reported all things with
+impartiality; that he tells the great greatly, the small
+subordinately,--he is strong as Nature is strong, who lifts the land
+into mountain slopes without effort, and by the same rule as she floats
+a bubble in the air, and likes as well to do the one as the other." Says
+he, further: "Give a man of talents a story to tell, and his partiality
+will presently appear: he has certain opinions which he disposes other
+things to bring into prominence; he crams this part and starves the
+other part, consulting not the fitness of the thing but his fitness and
+strength." But Shakespeare has no peculiarity; all is duly given.
+
+Thus it is that his dramas are the book of human life. He was an
+accurate observer of Nature: he notes the markings of the violet and the
+daisy; the haunts of the honeysuckle, the mistletoe, and the woodbine.
+He marks the fealty of the marigold to its god the sun, and even touches
+the freaks of fashion, condemning in some woman of his time an usage,
+long obsolete, in accordance with which she adorned her head with "the
+golden tresses of the dead." But it was as an observer and a delineator
+of man in all his moods that he was the bright, consummate flower of
+humanity. His experiences were wide and varied. He had absorbed into
+himself and made his own the pith and wisdom of his day. As the fittest
+survives, each age embodies in itself all worthy of preservation in the
+ages gone before. In Shakespeare's pages we find a reflection, perfect
+and absolute, of the age of Elizabeth, and therefore of all not
+transient in the foregone times,--of all which is fixed and permanent
+in our own. He "held the mirror up to Nature." So "his eternal summer
+shall not fade," because
+
+  "He sang of the earth as it will be
+  When the years have passed away."
+
+If, therefore, insomnia had prevailed in or before his time, in his
+pages shall we find it duly set forth. If he had suffered, if the
+"fringed curtains of his eyes were all the night undrawn," we shall find
+his dreary experiences--his hours of pathetic misery, his nights of
+desolation--voiced by the tongues of his men and women.
+
+Shakespeare speaks often of the time in life when men have left behind
+them the dreamless sleep of youth. Friar Laurence says:--
+
+  "Care keeps his watch in every old man's eye,
+  And where care lodges, sleep can never lie;
+  But where unbruisèd youth with unstuffed brain
+  Doth couch his limbs, there golden sleep doth reign."
+
+Shakespeare describes, too, with lifelike fidelity, the causes of
+insomnia, which are not weariness or physical pain, but undue mental
+anxiety. He constantly contrasts the troubled sleep of those burdened
+with anxieties and cares, with the happy lot of the laborer whose
+physical weariness insures him a tranquil night's repose. Henry VI.
+says:--
+
+  "And to conclude, the shepherd's homely curds,
+  His cold thin drink out of his leather bottle,
+  His wonted sleep under a fresh tree's shade,
+  All which secure and sweetly he enjoys,
+  Are far beyond a prince's delicates."
+
+And Henry V. says:--
+
+  "'Tis not the balm, the sceptre and the ball,
+  The sword, the mace, the crown imperial,
+  The intertissued robe of gold and pearl,
+  The farcèd title running 'fore the king,
+  The throne he sits on, nor the tide of pomp
+  That beats upon the high shore of this world,--
+  No, not all these, thrice gorgeous ceremony,
+  Not all these, laid in bed majestical,
+  Can sleep so soundly as the wretched slave,
+  Who, with a body filled and vacant mind,
+  Gets him to rest, crammed with distressful bread;
+  Never sees horrid night, that child of hell,
+  But, like a lackey, from the rise to set,
+  Sweats in the eye of Phoebus, and all night
+  Sleeps in Elysium....
+  And, but for ceremony, such a wretch,
+  Winding up days with toil and nights with sleep,
+  Hath the forehand and vantage of a king."
+
+Prince Henry says, in "Henry IV.":--
+
+  "O polished perturbation! Golden care!
+  That keep'st the ports of slumber open wide
+  To many a watchful night, sleep with it now!
+  Yet not so sound and half so deeply sweet
+  As he whose brow with homely biggin bound
+  Snores out the watch of night."
+
+In this same play, too, is found the familiar and marvellous soliloquy
+of Henry IV.:--
+
+  "How many thousand of my poorest subjects
+  Are at this hour asleep! O Sleep, O gentle Sleep,
+  Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee,
+  That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down
+  And steep my senses in forgetfulness?
+  Why rather, Sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs,
+  Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee,
+  And hushed with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber,
+  Than in the perfumed chambers of the great,
+  Under the canopies of costly state,
+  And lulled with sounds of sweetest melody?
+  O thou dull god, why liest thou with the vile
+  In loathsome beds, and leav'st the kingly couch
+  A watch-case, or a common 'larum-bell?
+  Wilt thou upon the high and giddy mast
+  Seal up the ship-boy's eyes, and rock his brains
+  In cradle of the rude, imperious surge,
+  And in the visitation of the winds,
+  Who take the ruffian billows by the top,
+  Curling their monstrous heads, and hanging them
+  With deafening clamor in the slippery shrouds,
+  That with the hurly, death itself awakes?
+  Canst thou, O partial Sleep, give thy repose
+  To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude,
+  And in the calmest and most stillest night,
+  With all appliances and means to boot,
+  Deny it to a king? Then, happy low, lie down!
+  Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown."
+
+Caesar, whom Shakespeare characterizes as "the foremost man of all this
+world," says:--
+
+  "Let me have men about me that are fat;
+  Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights."
+
+And again, it is not an "old man broken with the storms of state" whom
+he describes when he says:--
+
+  "Thou hast no figures nor no fantasies
+  Which busy care draws in the brains of men;
+  Therefore thou sleep'st so sound."
+
+The poet also in various passages expresses his emphatic belief as to
+what is the brightest blessing or the deadliest calamity which can be
+laid upon our frail humanity. Rarely is a blessing invoked which does
+not include the wish for tranquil sleep; and this, too, as the best and
+greatest boon of all. His gracious benediction may compass honors and
+wealth and happiness and fame,--that one's "name may dwell forever in
+the mouths of men;" but
+
+  "The earth hath bubbles as the water hath,
+  And these are of them,"
+
+as compared with the royal benison, "Sleep give thee all his rest."
+
+The spectres of the princes and Queen Anne, in "Richard III.," invoking
+every good upon Richmond, say:--
+
+  "Sleep, Richmond, sleep in peace and wake in joy."
+
+And again:--
+
+  "Thou quiet soul, sleep thou a quiet sleep."
+
+Romeo's dearest wish to Juliet is,--
+
+  "Sleep dwell upon thine eyes; peace in thy breast."
+
+The crowning promise of Lady Mortimer, in "Henry IV.," is that
+
+  "She will sing the song that pleaseth thee,
+  And on thy eyelids crown the god of sleep."
+
+Titania promises her fantastic lover,--
+
+  "I'll give thee fairies to attend on thee,
+  And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep,
+  And sing, while thou on pressèd flowers dost sleep."
+
+Titus, welcoming again to Rome the victorious legions, says of the
+heroes who have fallen:
+
+  "There greet in silence, as the dead are wont,
+  And sleep in peace, slain in your country's wars,"
+
+promising them that in the land of the blest
+
+                        "are no storms,
+  No noise, but silence and eternal sleep."
+
+Constantly also in anathemas throughout the plays are invoked, as the
+deadliest of curses, broken rest and its usual accompaniment of
+troublous dreams. Thus note the climax in Queen Margaret's curse upon
+the traitorous Gloster:--
+
+  "If Heaven have any grievous plague in store
+  Exceeding those that I can wish upon thee,
+  Oh, let them keep it till thy sins be ripe,
+  And then hurl down their indignation
+  On thee, the troubler of the poor world's peace!
+  The worm of conscience still begnaw thy soul!
+  Thy friends suspect for traitors while thou liv'st,
+  And take deep traitors for thy dearest friends!
+  No sleep close up that deadly eye of thine,
+  Unless it be while some tormenting dream
+  Affrights thee with a hell of ugly devils!"
+
+The witch, in "Macbeth," cataloguing the calamities in store for the
+ambitious Thane, says:
+
+  "Sleep shall neither night nor day
+  Hang upon his pent-house lid;
+  He shall live a man forbid."
+
+It is curious also to remark, in the various lists of griefs which make
+life a burden and a sorrow, how often the climax of these woes is the
+lack of sleep, or the troubled dreams bearing their train of "gorgons,
+hydras, and chimeras dire," which come with broken rest. Lady Percy says
+to Hotspur:--
+
+  "Why hast thou lost the fresh blood in thy cheeks,
+  And given my treasures and my rights of thee
+  To thick-eyed musing and curst melancholy?
+  Tell me, sweet lord, what is't that takes from thee
+  Thy stomach, pleasure, and thy golden sleep?"
+
+Macbeth says:--
+
+  "But let the frame of things disjoint, both the worlds suffer,
+  Ere we will eat our meal in fear, and sleep
+  In the affliction of these terrible dreams
+  That shake us nightly; better be with the dead."
+
+In "Othello" is a striking picture of the sudden change, in the
+direction we are considering, which comes over a tranquil mind from the
+commission of a great crime. Iago says to Othello, after he has wrought
+"the deed without a name":--
+
+  "Not poppy nor mandragora,
+  Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world,
+  Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep
+  Which thou own'dst yesterday."
+
+The greatest punishment which comes to Macbeth after the murder of
+Duncan is lack of sleep. Nowhere in the language, in the same space, can
+be found so many pictures of the blessedness of repose as in the
+familiar lines:--
+
+  "Methought I heard a voice cry, 'Sleep no more!
+  Macbeth does murder sleep,' the innocent sleep;
+  Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleave of care,
+  The death of each day's life, sore labor's bath,
+  Balm of hurt minds, great Nature's second course,
+  Chief nourisher in life's feast."
+
+And the principal reason which deters Hamlet from suicide is the fear
+that even if he does sleep well "after life's fitful fever is over,"
+still, that sleep may be full of troubled dreams.
+
+  "To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there's the rub;
+  For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
+  When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
+  Must give us pause."
+
+Richard III. says, when the catalogue of his crimes is full, and when he
+"sees as in a map the end of all":--
+
+  "The sons of Edward sleep in Abraham's bosom,
+  And Anne, my queen, hath bid the world good night."
+
+In addition to the fuller phrases wherein are shown the blessedness of
+sleep, or the remediless nature of its loss, many brief sentences occur
+scattered throughout the plays, and emphasizing the same great lesson.
+For instance:--
+
+               "Now o'er one half the world
+  Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
+  The curtained sleep."
+
+               "With Him above
+  To ratify our work, we may again
+  Give to our tables meat, sleep to our nights."
+
+  "You lack the season of all natures, sleep."
+
+  "My soul is heavy, and I fain would sleep."
+
+  "For never yet one hour in his bed
+  Have I enjoyed the golden dew of sleep."
+
+  "For some must watch and some must sleep,
+  So runs the world away."
+
+  "How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon that bank."
+
+  "The best of rest is sleep."
+
+  "Our little lives are rounded with a sleep."
+
+The various passages cited above prove and illustrate that no author has
+written so feelingly, so appreciatingly, as Shakespeare on the subject
+of sleep and its loss.
+
+The diligent commentators on his works have investigated laboriously the
+sources from which he drew his plots and many of the very lines of his
+poems. He was a great borrower; absorbing, digesting, and making his own
+much of the material of his predecessors. But it is a noteworthy fact,
+that none of the exquisite lines in praise of sleep--that gift which the
+Psalmist says the Lord giveth to his beloved--can be traced to other
+source than the master. These are jewels of his own; transcripts from
+his own mournful experience. In middle life he remembered hopelessly the
+tranquil sleep of his lost youth, as
+
+  "He that is stricken blind cannot forget
+  The precious treasure of his eyesight lost."
+
+He had suffered from insomnia, and he writes of this, not "as
+imagination bodies forth the forms of things _unknown_," but as one
+who, in words burning with indestructible life, lays open to us the
+sombre record of what was experience before it was song; who makes us
+the sharers of his griefs; who would awaken in the similarly afflicted
+of all time that compassionate sympathy which goes out to those whose
+burdens are almost greater than they can bear.
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+
+The meagre information we have as to the life and habits of Shakespeare
+would seem to make it an almost hopeless task now to discover the causes
+of his insomnia. He wrote a marvellous body of literature, and it might
+be thought this labor itself would suffice as an explanation: that the
+furnace heat in which the conceptions of Hamlet and Macbeth and Lear
+were wrought in the crucible of his brain would be fatal to repose. But
+his contemporaries speak of him as an easy and rapid writer; one whose
+imagination is only paralleled by the ease, the force and beauty of the
+phrase in which it is embodied. We are told, too, by Dr. H.A. Johnson,
+an eminent medical authority, in the second volume of his treatise on
+the pathology of the optic nerve, that it is not work, even heavy and
+continuous, but worry over this work, which drives away repose and
+shortens life.
+
+I had observed, in collating the many passages in Shakespeare concerning
+sleep, that the greater number, and those bearing evidence of deepest
+earnestness, occurred in six plays: "Richard III.," "Macbeth," "1 Henry
+IV.," "Hamlet," "2 Henry IV.," and "Henry V." The chronology of
+Shakespeare's plays seems almost hopeless, scarcely any two writers
+agreeing as to the order of the plays or the years in which they were
+written. Several of the most critical authorities, however,--Dyce,
+White, Furnival, and Halliwell-Phillipps,--are agreed that two of the
+plays above named were written in 1593, three in 1602, and one in 1609.
+This would seem to indicate that during these three years unusual
+perplexities or anxieties had surrounded our author; and on noting this,
+it occurred to me that on these points the series of papers recently
+discovered and called the Southampton manuscripts, which are not yet
+published, might give light. I accordingly addressed a letter to the
+Director of the British Museum, where the manuscripts are placed for
+safe keeping, and received the following reply:--
+
+    BRITISH MUSEUM, OFFICE OF CHIEF CURATOR, DEPARTMENT OF MANUSCRIPTS,
+    LONDON, Feb. 14, 1886.
+
+    SIR,--I am directed by the Curator to acknowledge the receipt of
+    your valued favor of February 1, transmitting for preservation and
+    reference in the library of this institution--
+
+    1. The manuscript of the farewell address of Dr. Charles Gilman
+    Smith, on his retirement to private life from the presidency of the
+    Chicago Literary Club;
+
+    2. The manuscript of the inaugural address of his successor in the
+    office,--which is a public trust,--James S. Norton, Esq.;
+
+    3. An affidavit of Dr. W.F. Poole, that both manuscripts are
+    originals, and in the handwriting of their eminent authors.
+
+    The Curator further instructs me to convey to you the thanks of the
+    Board of Governors for these highly important papers, and to state
+    to you that they may be found on file in sub-compartment No. 113,280
+    of Contemporary Documents.
+
+    I am further instructed by the Curator to inform you that compliance
+    with your request that this institution reciprocate your kindness by
+    loaning to you all papers from the recently discovered Southampton
+    Shakespeare Collection, bearing date in the years 1593, 1602, and
+    1609, is contrary to the regulations of this institution. If you
+    cannot visit London to examine these interesting manuscripts, copies
+    will be made and transmitted you for three halfpence per folio,
+    payment by our rules invariably in advance. I note that you are
+    evidently in error upon one point. The collection contains no
+    letters or manuscripts of Shakespeare. It is composed principally of
+    letters written to Shakespeare by various people, and which, after
+    his death, in some way came into the possession of the Earl of
+    Southampton. His death, so soon after that of Shakespeare, doubtless
+    caused these letters to be lost sight of, and they were but last
+    year discovered in the donjon of the castle. I have examined the
+    letters for the years you name, and find that copies of the same can
+    be made for £3 3s., exclusive of postage.
+
+    Very respectfully yours,
+
+    JOHN BARNACLE,
+
+    _10th Ass't Sub-Secretary._
+
+The money having been forwarded, I received in due time the copies. At
+the first date, 1593, Shakespeare was a young dramatist and actor
+struggling for recognition, poor and almost unknown; in 1602 he had won
+an assured position among his fellows, and, with the thrift which
+characterized him, had secured an interest in the Globe Theatre, where
+his plays were performed; in 1609 he was in the fulness of his
+contemporary fame, had bought valuable property in Stratford, and was
+contemplating retirement to his country home.
+
+The following are the letters from the Southampton collection which
+serve to throw light upon the insomnia of Shakespeare. They are given in
+their chronological order, and verbatim, but not literatim, the
+orthography having been modernized. The first of the letters, dated in
+1593, is from a firm of lawyers, Messrs. Shallow & Slender, and is as
+follows:--
+
+    INNER TEMPLE, LONDON, Feb. 15, 1593.
+
+    To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:
+
+    Mr. Moses Solomons, an honored client of our firm, has placed with
+    us, that payment may be straightway enforced, a bill drawn by John
+    Heminge, for £10, due in two months from the date thereof, and the
+    payment of which was assured by you in writing. This bill has been
+    for some days overdue, and Mr. Solomons is constrained to call upon
+    you for payment at once. Your prompt attention to this will save the
+    costs and annoyance of an arrest.
+
+The second letter is from the same parties, and bears date four days
+later than the first.
+
+    Inner Temple, Feb. 19, 1593. Mr. William Shakespeare:
+
+    Recurring to certain statements made by yourself at our chambers
+    yesterday, we have considered the same, and have likewise the
+    opinion thereon of our client, Mr. Solomons. As we do now recall
+    them, you nominated three principal grounds why you should not be
+    pressed to pay the bill drawn by Mr. Heminge. First, that you
+    received no value therefor, having put your name to the bill upon
+    the assurance that it was a matter of form, and to oblige a friend.
+
+    To this we rejoin, that by the law of estoppel you are precluded to
+    deny the consideration after the bill hath passed into the holding
+    of a discounter unnotified of the facts.
+
+    Second, That, as our client paid but £1 for the bill, he should not
+    exact £10 thereon. To the which we reply, that, so a valuable
+    consideration was passed for the bill, the law looketh not to its
+    exact amount. It is also asserted by our client that, beyond actual
+    coin given for the bill, he did further release to John Heminge
+    certain tinsel crowns, swords, and apparel appurtenant to the
+    representation of royalty, which had before then--to wit, two weeks
+    before--been pledged to him for the sum of 8 shillings, borrowed by
+    the said Heminge.
+
+    Third, That it was impossible for you to pay the bill, you having no
+    money, and receiving no greater income than 22 shillings per week,
+    all of which was necessary to the maintenance of yourself and
+    family. We regret again to call to your notice the Statute of 16
+    Eliz., entitled, "Concerning the Imprisonment of Insolvent Debtors,"
+    which we trust you will not oblige us to invoke in aid of our
+    suffering client's rights. To be lenient and merciful is his
+    inclination, and we are happy to communicate to you this most
+    favorable tender for an acquittance of his claim. You shall render
+    to us an order on the Steward of the Globe Theatre for 20 shillings
+    per week of your stipend therein. This will leave to you yet 2
+    shillings per week, which, with prudence, will yield to you the
+    comforts, if not the luxuries, of subsistence. In ten weeks the face
+    of the bill will be thus repaid. For his forbearance in the matter
+    of time, which hath most seriously inconvenienced him, he requires
+    that you shall pay him the further sum of £2 as usury, and likewise
+    that you do liquidate and save him harmless from the charges of us,
+    his solicitors, which charges, from the number of grave and
+    complicated questions which have become a part of this case and
+    demanded solution, we are unable to make less than £4. We should say
+    guineas, but your evident distress hath moved us to gentleness and
+    mercy. These added sums are to be likewise embraced in the Steward's
+    order, and paid at the same rate as the substance of the bill, and
+    should you embrace this compassionate tender, in the brief period of
+    sixteen weeks you will be at the end of this indebtedness.
+
+The next letter is dated the following month, and is from Henry Howard,
+an apparent pawnbroker.
+
+    QUEER STREET, LONDON, 10 March, 1593.
+
+    To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, Actor:
+
+    These presents are to warn you that the time has six days since
+    passed in which you were to repay me 8 shillings, and thereby
+    redeem the property in pledge to me; namely, one Henry VIII. shirt
+    of mail and visor, and Portia's law book, and the green bag
+    therefor. Be warned that unless the 8 shillings and the usance
+    thereof be forthcoming, the town-crier shall notify the sale of the
+    sundry articles named.
+
+The next letter, and the last in this period of the poet's career
+(1593), is from Mordecai Shylock.
+
+    FLEET STREET, NEAR THE SIGN OF THE HOG IN ARMOR, NOV. 22, 1593.
+
+    To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:
+
+    I have been active in the way you some days since besought me;
+    namely, the procuring for you of a loan of £5, that you might retire
+    a bill upon which you were a guarantor. As I then told you, I have
+    no money myself, being very poor; but I have a friend who has money
+    with which I can persuade him to relieve your wants. Had I myself
+    the money, I should gladly meet your needs at a moderate usance, not
+    more than twenty-five in the hundred; but my friend is a hard man,
+    who exacts large returns for his means, and will be very urgent that
+    repayment be made on the day named in the bill. He hath empowered me
+    to take your bill at two months,--for him, mind you,--for £10, the
+    payment to be assured, as you wished, by the pledge of your two new
+    plays in manuscript,--"Midsummer Night's Dream" and "Romeo and
+    Juliet,"--for which bill he will at my strong instance, and because
+    you are a friend to me, give £5. My charge for services in this
+    behalf, which hath consumed much time, will be £1, which I shall
+    straightway pay out in the purchase of a new gown, much needed by my
+    little daughter Jessica, who loves you and recalls often the
+    pleasant tales you do repeat for her diversion.
+
+The letters in the second period (1602) are nine years later than those
+just read. The first is from the same Mordecai Shylock, who, with the
+poet, seems to have prospered in worldly affairs, as his letters are
+dated in a more reputable portion of the city.
+
+    THREADNEEDLE STREET, LONDON, April 17, 1602.
+
+    To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:
+
+    In January last past you purchased of Richard Burbage four shares of
+    the stock of the Globe Theatre for £100, and inasmuch as you had not
+    available the whole means to pay therefor, borrowed from me the £60
+    wanting, paying yourself £40 of such purchase price, and giving me
+    in pledge for my £60 such four shares of stock. Owing to special
+    attractions at Blackfriars' Theatre, the stock of the Globe hath
+    greatly declined in value, and I fear these four shares may not
+    longer be salable at the price of even £60, and I therefore must
+    importune that you forthwith do make a payment of £20 on your said
+    bill, or the four shares of stock will be sold at public vendue.
+
+The next letter is from the same writer, and is dated nine days later.
+
+    THREADNEEDLE STREET, April 26, 1602.
+
+    To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:
+
+    I acknowledge to have received from you by the hand of Henry Condell
+    £5, and two of your own shares in the stock of the Globe Theatre in
+    further pledge of your bill of £60, as was engaged between us
+    yesterday. It pains me to make known to you that, owing to the great
+    demands recently made upon the goldsmiths by her sacred Majesty,
+    money hath become very dear; and as it was not my own lent you, I
+    have been obliged to pay above the usance expected a further premium
+    of seventeen in the hundred, which I pray you to presently repay
+    me. I am told that shares in the Globe can now be bought at £15;
+    and inasmuch as yours were bought at £25, should you acquire other
+    shares at £15, it would serve to equate your havings.
+
+The next letter, from the same broker, is written but a few days later.
+
+    THREADNEEDLE STREET, May 12, 1602.
+
+    To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:
+
+    Acting as requested by you, I did one week ago buy for you three
+    shares in the Globe Theatre for £15 each, using in such purchase the
+    £15 given me by you, and £30, not of mine own, but which was
+    furnished me by a goldsmith of repute. Yesterday I learned that
+    shares were offered at £10 each, perchance from the efforts of
+    forestallers, as also from the preaching of a dissenter, who
+    fulminates that the end of the world is but three weeks away, which
+    hath induced great seriousness among the people. Unless you can pay
+    me, therefore, as much as £40, on the morrow I shall be constrained
+    to offer such shares to the highest bidder at the meeting of the
+    guild.
+
+The next letter is also from the same Mordecai Shylock, and is dated
+four days later.
+
+    THREADNEEDLE STREET, May 16, 1602.
+
+    To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:
+
+    My earnest epistle to thee of four days since having elicited no
+    response, I did on the following day offer at the meeting of the
+    Brokers' Guild some of the shares of the stock in the Globe pledged
+    to me, and three shares were bidden at £9 each by my brother,
+    Nehemiah Shylock. As I offered next all the rest, one Henry
+    Wriothsley, Earl of Southampton, did ask to whom the shares
+    belonged, and when he was enlightened, did straightway take all the
+    shares and pay me the whole balance owing, and called me divers
+    opprobrious names. I answered not his railing with railing, for
+    sufferance is the badge of all our tribe, but such slander is illy
+    bestowed on one who has been your friend for long, and who was but
+    striving to avert his own destruction.
+
+The next letter in order is from one William Kempe, who would seem to be
+the business manager of the Globe Theatre, or the person having in
+charge the unskilled labor connected with the playhouse.
+
+    GLOBE PLAYHOUSE, EMPLOYMENT BUREAU, May 25, 1602.
+
+    WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:
+
+    In much tribulation do I write thee as to the contention which hath
+    arisen among our stock actors and supes of the Globe. Nicholas
+    Bottom, whom you brought from the Parish workhouse in Stratford, is
+    in ill humor with thee in especial. He says when he played with you
+    in Ben Jonson's comedy, "Every Man in his Humor," he was by far the
+    better actor and did receive the plaudits of all; despite which he
+    now receives but 6 shillings each week, while you are become a man
+    of great wealth, having gotten, as he verily believes, as much as
+    £100. Vainly did I oppose to him that the reason you had money when
+    he had none was in verity that you had labored when he was drunken,
+    and that this was to his profit, since, had not you and the other
+    holders of shares in the Globe saved somewhat of money, unthrifty
+    groundlings of his ilk would starve, as there would be none to hire
+    them at wages; but he avers that he is ground in the dust by the
+    greed of capital, and hath so much prated of this that he hath much
+    following, and accounteth himself a martyr. I said to him that at
+    your especial order he was paid 6 shillings per week, which was
+    double his worth, and that he should go elsewhere if he was not
+    content, as I could daily get a better man for half his wages; but
+    he will not go hence, nor will he perform, and has persuaded others
+    to join with him, his very worthlessness having made him their
+    leader, and they threaten, unless they may receive additional 4
+    shillings per week, and a groat each night for sack, they will have
+    no plays performed, nor will they allow others to be hired in their
+    stead. They do further demand that you shall write shorter plays;
+    that you shall write no tragedies requiring them to labor more than
+    three hours in the rendition; that you shall cut out as much as
+    twelve pages each in "Richard III." and "Othello," and fifteen pages
+    from "Hamlet," that they may not labor to weariness, and may have
+    more hours to recreation and improvement at the alehouse. I know not
+    what to do. If I yield them their demands, nothing will be left for
+    the owners of shares in the Globe; and if I do not, I fear mobs and
+    riots. Fain would I receive thy counsel, which shall have good
+    heed.
+
+The next letter is the last in the period under review, and bears date
+four days later than the one just quoted from William Kempe.
+
+    AT THE ELEPHANT & MAGPIE INN, LONDON, May 29, 1602.
+
+    TO WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:
+
+    This is written to thee by John Lely, a clerk, in behalf of Nicholas
+    Bottom, who useth not the pen, and who says to me to tell William
+    Shakespeare, fie upon him that he did order the aforesaid Bottom to
+    be locked out of the Globe Playhouse. Hath he forgotten the first
+    play he, William Shakespeare, did ever write, to wit, "Pyramus and
+    Thisbe," when a boy at Stratford, which was played by himself and
+    Nicholas Bottom and Peter Quince and others, in a barn, for the
+    delectation of the townsmen? And is not this same play a part of his
+    "Midsummer Night's Dream," which beggarly play he did sell for £10,
+    and hath not Nicholas Bottom first and always been an ass therein?
+    Doth he refuse to render to Nicholas Bottom 10 shillings per week
+    when he can get £10 or even £11 for a beggarly play, which is nought
+    unless it be acted? Many a time hath he paid me from a sponging
+    house; often hath he given me groats for sack, and for purges when
+    sack hath undone me; and did I ever insult him to offer to repay him
+    a penny? Say to him, remembereth he not when the horses ridden by
+    Duncan and Macbeth upon the stage did break through the floor, who,
+    affrighted, did run howling away, whereby Burbage was aroused and
+    did pick him, William Shakespeare, from among the horses' feet and
+    save his life? And now, sweet Will, fie upon thee that thou didst
+    frown upon thy townsman. Delay not to send me sundry shillings for
+    the publican, who believes you will discharge, as often before, my
+    reckoning. This, and much more of like tenor, saith Nicholas Bottom
+    to William Shakespeare by your worship's humble servant,
+
+    JOHN LELY.
+
+The letters in the third period bear date in 1609, seven years later
+than those last quoted. The first is from Rev. Walter Blaise, who
+appears to be the clergyman at Stratford-on-Avon.
+
+    STRATFORD, Feb. 23, 1609.
+
+    TO WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:
+
+    John Naps, of Greece, who did recently return to his home here from
+    London, safely has delivered to Anne, your wife, the package
+    entrusted to him for carriage. As your wife hath not the gift of
+    writing, she does desire that I convey to you her thanks for the
+    sundry contents of the hamper. She hath also confided to me as her
+    spiritual adviser that she did diligently ply John Naps with
+    questions as to his visit to you in London, and that said John Naps,
+    under her interrogatories, has revealed to her much that doth make
+    her sick at heart and weary of life.
+
+    _Item_. He doth report that you do pass among men as a bachelor,
+    and, with sundry players and men of that ilk, do frequent a house of
+    entertainment kept by one Doll Tearsheet, and do kiss the barmaid
+    and call her your sweetheart.
+
+    _Item_. He doth also report that you did give to the daughter of the
+    publican at whose house you do now abide, a ring of fine gold, and
+    did also write to her a sonnet in praise of her eyebrows and her
+    lips, and did otherwise wickedly disport with the said damsel.
+
+    _Item_. He doth further report of you that you did visit, with one
+    Ben Jonson, on the Sabbath-day, a place of disrepute, where were
+    cock-fights and the baiting of a bear, and that with you were two
+    brazen women, falsely called by you the wife and sister of Ben
+    Jonson.
+
+    These things do overmuch grieve Anne, who hath been to you a loyal
+    wife and a true, and she desires that you do forthwith renounce your
+    evil ways and return to the new house at Stratford, and in ashes and
+    sackcloth repent of your wanderings from the straight and narrow
+    way.
+
+    Thus far have I spoken to you as the mouthpiece and vicegerent of
+    Anne, your wife, who is in sore affliction and deep grief by reason
+    of your transgressions. But, beloved lamb of my flock, I should be
+    unworthy my high and sacred calling did I not lift up also my
+    rebuking voice as a pelican in the wilderness, and adjure you to
+    beware of concupiscence and fleshly lust, which unceasingly do war
+    upon the human soul. Thinkest thou to touch pitch and remain
+    undefiled?
+
+The next letter is from the firm of Coke &
+Dogberry, lawyers in London.
+
+    INNER TEMPLE, March 8, 1609.
+
+    To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:
+
+    We have been retained by Mistress Anne Page as her solicitors to
+    bring against you an action, for that you have not fulfilled and in
+    sooth cannot fulfil with her a contract of marriage, and to seek
+    against you under the laws of this realm heavy damages and an
+    imprisonment of the body, in that you have in unholy ways trifled
+    with her affections, contrary to the statute in such cases provided.
+    She especially avers that you did, two days before Michaelmas, swear
+    to her on a parcel gilt goblet that you did love her alone, and did
+    then give to her a bracelet of price. But yesterday, as she was
+    bargaining with a yeoman named Christopher Sly, from Stratford, for
+    the purchase of a spotted pig of his own fattening, the said Sly did
+    reveal to her that you were his friend, and that you had wife and
+    children in your native town where he dwelt. We beg you to
+    straightway name to us your solicitors, that we may confer with them
+    and attend to the issuance of the writs.
+
+I have aimed to select from the letters sent me only those bearing on
+some trouble tending to cause sleeplessness on the part of the poet, but
+make an exception in case of a letter of Sir Walter Raleigh, next in
+chronological order, which refers to matters of general interest.
+
+    The Mermaid, March 20, 1609.
+
+    To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:
+
+    Full well do I know, my dearest Will, that often hast thou wondered
+    of the fate of thy £50, which, with a hundred times as much of mine
+    own, was adventured to found an empire in America. Great were our
+    hopes, both of glory and of gold, in the kingdom of Powhatan. But it
+    grieves me much to say that all hath resulted in infelicity,
+    misfortune, and an unhappy end. Our ships were wrecked, or captured
+    by the knavish Spaniards. Our brave sailors are perished. As I was
+    blameworthy for thy risk, I send by the messenger your £50, which
+    you shall not lose by my over-hopeful vision. For its usance I send
+    a package of a new herb from the Chesapeake, called by the natives
+    tobacco. Make it not into tea, as did one of my kinsmen, but kindle
+    and smoke it in the little tube the messenger will bestow. Be not
+    deterred if thy gorge at first rises against it, for, when thou art
+    wonted, it is a balm for all sorrows and griefs, and as a dream of
+    Paradise. And now, my sweet Will, whom my soul loveth, why comest
+    thou not as of yore to the "Mermaid," that I may have speech with
+    thee? Thou knowest that from my youth up I have adventured all for
+    the welfare and glory of our Queen Elizabeth. On sea and on land and
+    in many climes have I fought the accursed Spaniards, and am honored
+    recognize thy supreme merit, for daily and hourly are sung to her
+    the praises of this loveliness until the story is as a tale that is
+    told and a weariness to the understanding; but thy commendations of
+    her wisdom will be as fresh and fragrant incense, nor will their
+    truthfulness be too closely scanned.
+
+    Thou knowest that I have taken all knowledge to be my province, and
+    therefore have I oft and longingly gazed into the flowery fields of
+    that divine art where to-day in our much-loved England thou art
+    disporting thyself supremely and alone. But when I consider thy
+    tragedies, throughout which is diffused the inmost soul of poesy, my
+    crude yet labored metres seem to me as the body of a maiden, not
+    indeed devoid of a certain comeliness and grace, yet into whose
+    waiting bosom hath not yet been breathed the spirit of life.
+
+    In thy tragedies thou hast the majestic grace which in the Attic
+    ages belonged to Sophocles alone; thou hast the stately march and
+    music of Aeschylus, without in thy themes his ceaseless iteration
+    of predestined woe which ranks his heroes outside humanity; yet the
+    sombre hand of fate hath not more inflexibly driven the gentle
+    Iphigenia to her doom than it hath followed Macbeth to his
+    foreshadowed crime and end. But in thy canticles it is not an
+    o'ershadowing, mysterious, and tragic fate, but a gracious and
+    loving Providence which, as thyself hath phrased it,
+
+      "Holds in His hands the shears of destiny,
+       And has commandment on the pulse of life."
+
+    In comedy, Aristophanes is not thy master, yet must I greatly choose
+    thy tragedies as monuments of thy abiding fame. Funeral dolors
+    rather than bridal carols inspire even the harp of David, beloved of
+    the Lord; and the pencil of the Holy Ghost toucheth ever the
+    shadowed phases of our earthly lives.
+
+    I am minded to now advert to another topic from the tale told me by
+    Southampton that thou wert presently to publish a volume of thy
+    sugared sonnets. May I pray thee that this collection compass not
+    the two sonnets written by thee for me in laud of our Queen
+    Elizabeth, and the one of this morning? As thou knowest, these first
+    were presented to our gracious Sovereign as mine own, and did so
+    pleasure her as to chiefly prosper my advancement. Were the true
+    author now known it might sadly mar my fortunes. In the vastness of
+    thy riches, the absence of these gems shall not be noted. The loss
+    of a star dims not the splendor of the constellations. The glorious
+    sun seeks not to reclaim the lustre his rays have given to the tiny
+    dewdrop. Withal I have rendered to thee somewhat of recompense as I
+    have spoken at sundry times to her gracious Majesty and to our
+    present anointed Sovereign of thy dramas, and fostered as best I
+    might thy interests when they crossed not mine own. So I trust this
+    boon may be awarded me, and that my borrowed splendors may not be
+    stripped away. Thy immeasurable superiority, as again evidenced in
+    the sonnet to the Lady Mary, has fixed anew my resolve as to my
+    predestined field of labor. Not for my brow shall be woven the
+    Poet's garland of bays. Yet abundant self-confidence is mine, and I
+    augur that in the great work for which I would fain believe the ages
+    are waiting, will be made clear my award to be the high priest of
+    Nature. Exact sciences not yet born shall be my servitors and the
+    augmenters of my fame. By the methods I have discerned shall mankind
+    discover and apply those beneficent innovations which are the
+    chiefest births of time. Yet even this hope hath its flavor of
+    bitterness, as thus guided my pupils may far overpass me and my
+    memory be lost. But the love of beauty and melody in poesy is of
+    perennial life, and thy memory shall survive the mutations of time,
+    and shall be the Nation's heritage while fancy and imagination dwell
+    in the souls of men.
+
+    Anew do I now discern that the meditation of Nature and her laws,
+    mysterious yet exact, consorteth not with the airy fancies of the
+    Poet's vision, and that our paths are diverse, yet each guiding to
+    what is useful and divine.
+
+    Farewell! and until the dolors of death are mine shall I remember
+    thy sweet, loving kindness, and admire thy shining genius where wit
+    and wisdom guide the flight of a sovereign imagination.
+
+    Ever thy friend, FRANCIS BACON.
+
+One special point is notable in this letter from Bacon. His ordinary
+correspondence is thickly sprinkled with quotations in the ancient
+tongues. As he was well acquainted with Shakespeare, this omission of
+his customary Latin phrases would indicate that he recognized
+Shakespeare's lack of a thorough classical education.
+
+The next, and the last letter in the collection which seems to have a
+bearing upon the sleeplessness of Shakespeare, is also from Rev. Walter
+Blaise.
+
+    STRATFORD, April 3, 1609.
+
+    TO WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:
+
+    Sir Thomas Lucy, who is in her Majesty's commission as a Justice of
+    the Peace in this bailiwick, yesterday did inform me that he had
+    been questioned from London if you were a married man, and if yes,
+    when and to whom you were wedded. As the parish records are in my
+    keeping, I could but bestow the information sought, although with
+    great sinking of heart, as a well-wisher to you, who, though given
+    overmuch to worldly frivolities and revels, yet are a worthy
+    citizen, and a charitable and a just. Greatly did I fear this
+    knowledge was sought to thy injury. Hast thou led a blameless life,
+    the gates of hell shall not prevail against thee; but the wicked
+    stand on slippery ways. Anne, thy wife, to whom I did unbosom my
+    fears, is in much tribulation lest thou art unfaithful to thy
+    marriage vows, and again beseeches me to urge thee to come forth
+    from wicked Babylon and dwell in thy pleasant home in Stratford.
+    Thou art become a man of substance; and hast moneys at usury. I have
+    read of thy verses and plays, which, albeit somewhat given to
+    lewdness, and addressed to gain the favor of the baser sort, yet
+    reveal thee to be a man of understanding. I cannot, as it is rumored
+    do some of thy town associates, award thee the title of poet, which
+    title is reserved for the shining ones; but thou hast parts. There
+    are many parish clerks, and even some curates in this realm,
+    scarcely more liberally endowed in mind than thou. But greatly do I
+    fear that thou art little better than one of the wicked. How hast
+    thou put to use this talent entrusted thee by the Master of the
+    vineyard? In the maintenance of the things which profit not; in
+    seeking the applause of the unworthy; in the writing of vain plays,
+    which, if of the follies of youth, may be forgiven and remembered
+    not against thee, provided in riper years you put behind you these
+    frivolities, and atone for the mischief thou hast wrought by
+    rendering acceptable service to the Master; by coming to the help of
+    the Lord against the mighty. Gladly would I take thy training in
+    charge, and guide thy tottering feet along the flowery paths of
+    Homiletics. Who knoweth into what vessels the All-seeing One may
+    elect to pour his spirit? Perchance in mercy I may be spared to
+    behold thee a faithful though humble preacher of the Word. Anne, thy
+    wife, often hath likened me to a great light upon a high hill-top,
+    shining in the darkness far away. I would not magnify my powers, but
+    not to all is it given to be mighty captains of a host. Yet,
+    according to thy gifts might thy work be, and a little candle
+    shining in a darkened valley hath its place.
+
+In the light of these letters, some passages in "Richard III." and the
+"Comedy of Errors," written in the same year (1609), have an added
+significance. In "Richard III.," Gloster says to Anne:--
+
+  "Your beauty was the cause of that effect:
+  Your beauty, that did haunt me in my sleep,
+  To undertake the death of all the world,
+  So I might live one hour in thy sweet bosom."
+
+In the "Comedy of Errors," the Abbess says to Adriana:--
+
+  "The venom clamors of a jealous woman
+  Poison more deadly than a mud dog's tooth.
+  It seems his sleep was hindered by thy railing.
+
+         *       *       *       *       *
+
+  In food, in sport, and life-preserving rest
+  To be disturbed, would mad or man or beast.
+  The consequence is, then, thy jealous fits
+  Have scared thy husband from the use of wits."
+
+Note, too, the kindred thought:--
+
+  "Love hath chased sleep from my enthrallèd eyes."
+
+And again this passage, called forth possibly by the letters of the
+Rev. Walter Blaise:--
+
+  "Slander,
+  Whose edge is sharper than the sword; whose tongue
+  Outvenoms all the worms of Nile; whose breath
+  Rides on the posting winds and doth belie
+  All corners of the world."
+
+As also this:--
+
+  "Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,
+  Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven,
+  Whiles, like a puffed and reckless libertine,
+  Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,
+  And recks not his own rede."
+
+From these several letters sufficiently appear the causes for the
+insomnia of Shakespeare, which are some of the same causes resulting in
+its prevalence to-day. They illustrate anew that history repeats itself
+forever; that humanity is always the same; that like temptations and
+errors come to men with like results in all the centuries; that the
+sleeplessness of Shakespeare came, because, merely as a matter of form,
+he had indorsed for a friend,--because he had bought more stocks than he
+could pay for, and when his margins were absorbed, came forth a shorn
+and shivering lamb,--because of the turbulence of labor,--because, alas!
+he too had been dazzled and bewildered by
+
+  "The light that lies
+  In woman's eyes."
+
+Marvellous as were the endowments of the master, yet was he human and as
+one of us.
+
+CHICAGO, 1886.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Shakespeare's Insomnia, And the Causes
+Thereof, by Franklin H. Head
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11990 ***
diff --git a/11990-h/11990-h.htm b/11990-h/11990-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6cde5df
--- /dev/null
+++ b/11990-h/11990-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,1228 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
+    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
+<head>
+  <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
+
+  <title>Shakespeare's Insomnia, and the causes thereof</title>
+
+  <style type="text/css">
+  <!--
+  body                 {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+  p                    {text-align: justify;}
+  blockquote           {text-align: justify;}
+  h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6    {text-align: center;}
+  pre                  {font-size: 0.7em;}
+
+  hr                   {text-align: center; width: 50%;}
+  html>body hr         {margin-right: 25%; margin-left: 25%; width: 50%;}
+  hr.full              {width: 100%;}
+  html>body hr.full    {margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 0%; width: 100%;}
+  hr.short             {text-align: center; width: 20%;}
+  html>body hr.short   {margin-right: 40%; margin-left: 40%; width: 20%;}
+
+  .note
+  {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;}
+
+  span.pagenum
+  {position: absolute; left: 1%; right: 91%; font-size: 8pt;}
+
+  .poem
+  {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: left;}
+  .poem .stanza        {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;}
+  .poem p              {margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+  .poem p.i2           {margin-left: 1em;}
+  .poem p.i4           {margin-left: 2em;}
+  .poem p.i6           {margin-left: 3em;}
+  .poem p.i8           {margin-left: 4em;}
+  .poem p.i10          {margin-left: 5em;}
+
+  .figure, .figcenter, .figright, .figleft
+  {padding: 1em; margin: 0; text-align: center; font-size: 0.8em;}
+  .figure img, .figcenter img, .figright img, .figleft img
+                       {border: none;}
+  .figure p, .figcenter p, .figright p, .figleft p
+                       {margin: 0; text-indent: 1em;}
+  .figcenter           {margin: auto;}
+  .figright            {float: right;}
+  .figleft             {float: left;}
+
+  .footnote            {font-size: 0.9em; margin-right: 10%; margin-left: 10%;}
+
+  .side { float:right;
+          font-size: 75%;
+          width: 25%;
+          padding-left:10px;
+          border-left: dashed thin;
+          margin-left: 10px;
+          text-align: left;
+          text-indent: 0;
+          font-weight: bold;
+          font-style: italic;}
+  -->
+  </style>
+</head>
+<body>
+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11990 ***</div>
+
+<h1>SHAKESPEARE'S INSOMNIA <i>And the Causes Thereof</i></h1>
+
+<h2>BY FRANKLIN H. HEAD</h2>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h4>1887</h4>
+
+<h4><i>Copyright, 1886</i>, BY FRANKLIN H. HEAD.</h4>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>[**Transcriber's Note: The following is a literary hoax, and the letters
+quoted below are fictitious.]</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2>SHAKESPEARE'S INSOMNIA, AND THE CAUSES THEREOF.</h2>
+
+
+
+
+<h3>I.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Insomnia, the lack of "tired Nature's sweet restorer," is rapidly
+becoming the chronic terror of all men of active life who have passed
+the age of thirty-five or forty years. In early life, while yet he
+"wears the rose of youth upon him," man rarely, except in sickness,
+knows the want of sound, undreaming sleep. But as early manhood is left
+behind and the cares and perplexities of life weigh upon him, making
+far more needful than ever the rest which comes only through unbroken
+sleep, this remedial agent cannot longer be wooed and won. Youth would
+"fain encounter darkness as a bride and hug it in his arms." To those of
+riper years the "blanket of the dark" often ushers in a season of
+terrors,&mdash;a time of fitful snatches of broken sleep and of tormenting
+dreams; of long stretches of wakefulness; of hours when all things
+perplexing and troublesome in one's affairs march before him in sombre
+procession: in endless disorder, in labyrinths of confusion, in
+countless new phases of disagreeableness; and at length the morning
+summons him to labor, far more racked and weary than when he sought
+repose.</p>
+
+<p>It has been of late years much the fashion in the literature of this
+subject to attribute sleeplessness to the rapid growth of facilities for
+activities of every kind. The practical annihilation of time and space
+by our telegraphs and railroads, the compressing thereby of the labors
+of months into hours or even minutes, the terrific competition in all
+kinds of business thereby made possible and inevitable, the intense
+mental activity engendered in the mad race for fame or wealth, where the
+nervous and mental force of man is measured against steam and
+lightning,&mdash;these are usually credited with having developed what is
+considered a modern and even an almost distinctively American disease.</p>
+
+<p>As the maxim, "There is nothing new under the sun," is of general
+application, it may be of interest to investigate if an exception occurs
+in the case of sleeplessness; if it be true that among our ancestors,
+before the days of working steam and electricity, the glorious sleep of
+youth was prolonged through all one's three or four score years.</p>
+
+<p>Medical books and literature throw no light upon this subject three
+hundred years ago. We must therefore turn to Shakespeare&mdash;human
+nature's universal solvent&mdash;for light on this as we would on any other
+question of his time. Was he troubled with insomnia, then, is the first
+problem to be solved.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Holmes, our genial and many-sided poet-laureate, who is also a
+philosopher, in his "Life of Emerson," has finely worked out the theory
+that no man writes other than his own experience: that consciously or
+otherwise an author describes himself in the characters he draws; that
+when he loves the character he delineates, it is in some measure his
+own, or at least one of which he feels its tendencies and possibilities
+belong to himself. Emerson, too, says of Shakespeare, that all his
+poetry was first experience.</p>
+
+<p>When we seek to analyze what we mean by the term Shakespeare, to
+endeavor to define wherein he was distinct from all others and easily
+pre-eminent, to know why to us he ever grows wiser as we grow wise, we
+find that his especial characteristic was an unequalled power of
+observation and an ability accurately to chronicle his impressions. He
+was the only man ever born who lived and wrote absolutely without bias
+or prejudice. Emerson says of him that "he reported all things with
+impartiality; that he tells the great greatly, the small
+subordinately,&mdash;he is strong as Nature is strong, who lifts the land
+into mountain slopes without effort, and by the same rule as she floats
+a bubble in the air, and likes as well to do the one as the other." Says
+he, further: "Give a man of talents a story to tell, and his partiality
+will presently appear: he has certain opinions which he disposes other
+things to bring into prominence; he crams this part and starves the
+other part, consulting not the fitness of the thing but his fitness and
+strength." But Shakespeare has no peculiarity; all is duly given.</p>
+
+<p>Thus it is that his dramas are the book of human life. He was an
+accurate observer of Nature: he notes the markings of the violet and the
+daisy; the haunts of the honeysuckle, the mistletoe, and the woodbine.
+He marks the fealty of the marigold to its god the sun, and even touches
+the freaks of fashion, condemning in some woman of his time an usage,
+long obsolete, in accordance with which she adorned her head with "the
+golden tresses of the dead." But it was as an observer and a delineator
+of man in all his moods that he was the bright, consummate flower of
+humanity. His experiences were wide and varied. He had absorbed into
+himself and made his own the pith and wisdom of his day. As the fittest
+survives, each age embodies in itself all worthy of preservation in the
+ages gone before. In Shakespeare's pages we find a reflection, perfect
+and absolute, of the age of Elizabeth, and therefore of all not
+transient in the foregone times,&mdash;of all which is fixed and permanent
+in our own. He "held the mirror up to Nature." So "his eternal summer
+shall not fade," because</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"He sang of the earth as it will be</p>
+<p>When the years have passed away."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>If, therefore, insomnia had prevailed in or before his time, in his
+pages shall we find it duly set forth. If he had suffered, if the
+"fringed curtains of his eyes were all the night undrawn," we shall find
+his dreary experiences&mdash;his hours of pathetic misery, his nights of
+desolation&mdash;voiced by the tongues of his men and women.</p>
+
+<p>Shakespeare speaks often of the time in life when men have left behind
+them the dreamless sleep of youth. Friar Laurence says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"Care keeps his watch in every old man's eye,</p>
+<p>And where care lodges, sleep can never lie;</p>
+<p>But where unbruis&egrave;d youth with unstuffed brain</p>
+<p>Doth couch his limbs, there golden sleep doth reign."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>Shakespeare describes, too, with lifelike fidelity, the causes of
+insomnia, which are not weariness or physical pain, but undue mental
+anxiety. He constantly contrasts the troubled sleep of those burdened
+with anxieties and cares, with the happy lot of the laborer whose
+physical weariness insures him a tranquil night's repose. Henry VI.
+says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"And to conclude, the shepherd's homely curds,</p>
+<p>His cold thin drink out of his leather bottle,</p>
+<p>His wonted sleep under a fresh tree's shade,</p>
+<p>All which secure and sweetly he enjoys,</p>
+<p>Are far beyond a prince's delicates."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>And Henry V. says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"'Tis not the balm, the sceptre and the ball,</p>
+<p>The sword, the mace, the crown imperial,</p>
+<p>The intertissued robe of gold and pearl,</p>
+<p>The farc&egrave;d title running 'fore the king,</p>
+<p>The throne he sits on, nor the tide of pomp</p>
+<p>That beats upon the high shore of this world,&mdash;</p>
+<p>No, not all these, thrice gorgeous ceremony,</p>
+<p>Not all these, laid in bed majestical,</p>
+<p>Can sleep so soundly as the wretched slave,</p>
+<p>Who, with a body filled and vacant mind,</p>
+<p>Gets him to rest, crammed with distressful bread;</p>
+<p>Never sees horrid night, that child of hell,</p>
+<p>But, like a lackey, from the rise to set,</p>
+<p>Sweats in the eye of Phoebus, and all night</p>
+<p>Sleeps in Elysium....</p>
+<p>And, but for ceremony, such a wretch,</p>
+<p>Winding up days with toil and nights with sleep,</p>
+<p>Hath the forehand and vantage of a king."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>Prince Henry says, in "Henry IV.":&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"O polished perturbation! Golden care!</p>
+<p>That keep'st the ports of slumber open wide</p>
+<p>To many a watchful night, sleep with it now!</p>
+<p>Yet not so sound and half so deeply sweet</p>
+<p>As he whose brow with homely biggin bound</p>
+<p>Snores out the watch of night."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>In this same play, too, is found the familiar and marvellous soliloquy
+of Henry IV.:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"How many thousand of my poorest subjects</p>
+<p>Are at this hour asleep! O Sleep, O gentle Sleep,</p>
+<p>Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee,</p>
+<p>That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down</p>
+<p>And steep my senses in forgetfulness?</p>
+<p>Why rather, Sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs,</p>
+<p>Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee,</p>
+<p>And hushed with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber,</p>
+<p>Than in the perfumed chambers of the great,</p>
+<p>Under the canopies of costly state,</p>
+<p>And lulled with sounds of sweetest melody?</p>
+<p>O thou dull god, why liest thou with the vile</p>
+<p>In loathsome beds, and leav'st the kingly couch</p>
+<p>A watch-case, or a common 'larum-bell?</p>
+<p>Wilt thou upon the high and giddy mast</p>
+<p>Seal up the ship-boy's eyes, and rock his brains</p>
+<p>In cradle of the rude, imperious surge,</p>
+<p>And in the visitation of the winds,</p>
+<p>Who take the ruffian billows by the top,</p>
+<p>Curling their monstrous heads, and hanging them</p>
+<p>With deafening clamor in the slippery shrouds,</p>
+<p>That with the hurly, death itself awakes?</p>
+<p>Canst thou, O partial Sleep, give thy repose</p>
+<p>To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude,</p>
+<p>And in the calmest and most stillest night,</p>
+<p>With all appliances and means to boot,</p>
+<p>Deny it to a king? Then, happy low, lie down!</p>
+<p>Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>Caesar, whom Shakespeare characterizes as "the foremost man of all this
+world," says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"Let me have men about me that are fat;</p>
+<p>Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>And again, it is not an "old man broken with the storms of state" whom
+he describes when he says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"Thou hast no figures nor no fantasies</p>
+<p>Which busy care draws in the brains of men;</p>
+<p>Therefore thou sleep'st so sound."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>The poet also in various passages expresses his emphatic belief as to
+what is the brightest blessing or the deadliest calamity which can be
+laid upon our frail humanity. Rarely is a blessing invoked which does
+not include the wish for tranquil sleep; and this, too, as the best and
+greatest boon of all. His gracious benediction may compass honors and
+wealth and happiness and fame,&mdash;that one's "name may dwell forever in
+the mouths of men;" but</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"The earth hath bubbles as the water hath,</p>
+<p>And these are of them,"</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>as compared with the royal benison, "Sleep give thee all his rest."</p>
+
+<p>The spectres of the princes and Queen Anne, in "Richard III.," invoking
+every good upon Richmond, say:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"Sleep, Richmond, sleep in peace and wake in joy."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>And again:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"Thou quiet soul, sleep thou a quiet sleep."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>Romeo's dearest wish to Juliet is,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"Sleep dwell upon thine eyes; peace in thy breast."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>The crowning promise of Lady Mortimer, in "Henry IV.," is that</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"She will sing the song that pleaseth thee,</p>
+<p>And on thy eyelids crown the god of sleep."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>Titania promises her fantastic lover,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"I'll give thee fairies to attend on thee,</p>
+<p>And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep,</p>
+<p>And sing, while thou on press&egrave;d flowers dost sleep."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>Titus, welcoming again to Rome the victorious legions, says of the
+heroes who have fallen:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"There greet in silence, as the dead are wont,</p>
+<p>And sleep in peace, slain in your country's wars,"</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>promising them that in the land of the blest</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p class="i10">           "are no storms,</p>
+<p>No noise, but silence and eternal sleep."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>Constantly also in anathemas throughout the plays are invoked, as the
+deadliest of curses, broken rest and its usual accompaniment of
+troublous dreams. Thus note the climax in Queen Margaret's curse upon
+the traitorous Gloster:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"If Heaven have any grievous plague in store</p>
+<p>Exceeding those that I can wish upon thee,</p>
+<p>Oh, let them keep it till thy sins be ripe,</p>
+<p>And then hurl down their indignation</p>
+<p>On thee, the troubler of the poor world's peace!</p>
+<p>The worm of conscience still begnaw thy soul!</p>
+<p>Thy friends suspect for traitors while thou liv'st,</p>
+<p>And take deep traitors for thy dearest friends!</p>
+<p>No sleep close up that deadly eye of thine,</p>
+<p>Unless it be while some tormenting dream</p>
+<p>Affrights thee with a hell of ugly devils!"</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>The witch, in "Macbeth," cataloguing the calamities in store for the
+ambitious Thane, says:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"Sleep shall neither night nor day</p>
+<p>Hang upon his pent-house lid;</p>
+<p>He shall live a man forbid."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>It is curious also to remark, in the various lists of griefs which make
+life a burden and a sorrow, how often the climax of these woes is the
+lack of sleep, or the troubled dreams bearing their train of "gorgons,
+hydras, and chimeras dire," which come with broken rest. Lady Percy says
+to Hotspur:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"Why hast thou lost the fresh blood in thy cheeks,</p>
+<p>And given my treasures and my rights of thee</p>
+<p>To thick-eyed musing and curst melancholy?</p>
+<p>Tell me, sweet lord, what is't that takes from thee</p>
+<p>Thy stomach, pleasure, and thy golden sleep?"</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>Macbeth says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"But let the frame of things disjoint, both the worlds suffer,</p>
+<p>Ere we will eat our meal in fear, and sleep</p>
+<p>In the affliction of these terrible dreams</p>
+<p>That shake us nightly; better be with the dead."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>In "Othello" is a striking picture of the sudden change, in the
+direction we are considering, which comes over a tranquil mind from the
+commission of a great crime. Iago says to Othello, after he has wrought
+"the deed without a name":&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"Not poppy nor mandragora,</p>
+<p>Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world,</p>
+<p>Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep</p>
+<p>Which thou own'dst yesterday."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>The greatest punishment which comes to Macbeth after the murder of
+Duncan is lack of sleep. Nowhere in the language, in the same space, can
+be found so many pictures of the blessedness of repose as in the
+familiar lines:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"Methought I heard a voice cry, 'Sleep no more!</p>
+<p>Macbeth does murder sleep,' the innocent sleep;</p>
+<p>Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleave of care,</p>
+<p>The death of each day's life, sore labor's bath,</p>
+<p>Balm of hurt minds, great Nature's second course,</p>
+<p>Chief nourisher in life's feast."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>And the principal reason which deters Hamlet from suicide is the fear
+that even if he does sleep well "after life's fitful fever is over,"
+still, that sleep may be full of troubled dreams.</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there's the rub;</p>
+<p>For in that sleep of death what dreams may come</p>
+<p>When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,</p>
+<p>Must give us pause."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>Richard III. says, when the catalogue of his crimes is full, and when he
+"sees as in a map the end of all":&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"The sons of Edward sleep in Abraham's bosom,</p>
+<p>And Anne, my queen, hath bid the world good night."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>In addition to the fuller phrases wherein are shown the blessedness of
+sleep, or the remediless nature of its loss, many brief sentences occur
+scattered throughout the plays, and emphasizing the same great lesson.
+For instance:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p class="i10">   "Now o'er one half the world</p>
+<p>Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse</p>
+<p>The curtained sleep."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p class="i10">   "With Him above</p>
+<p>To ratify our work, we may again</p>
+<p>Give to our tables meat, sleep to our nights."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"You lack the season of all natures, sleep."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"My soul is heavy, and I fain would sleep."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"For never yet one hour in his bed</p>
+<p>Have I enjoyed the golden dew of sleep."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"For some must watch and some must sleep,</p>
+<p>So runs the world away."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon that bank."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"The best of rest is sleep."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"Our little lives are rounded with a sleep."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>The various passages cited above prove and illustrate that no author has
+written so feelingly, so appreciatingly, as Shakespeare on the subject
+of sleep and its loss.</p>
+
+<p>The diligent commentators on his works have investigated laboriously the
+sources from which he drew his plots and many of the very lines of his
+poems. He was a great borrower; absorbing, digesting, and making his own
+much of the material of his predecessors. But it is a noteworthy fact,
+that none of the exquisite lines in praise of sleep&mdash;that gift which the
+Psalmist says the Lord giveth to his beloved&mdash; can be traced to other
+source than the master. These are jewels of his own; transcripts from
+his own mournful experience. In middle life he remembered hopelessly the
+tranquil sleep of his lost youth, as</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"He that is stricken blind cannot forget</p>
+<p>The precious treasure of his eyesight lost."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>He had suffered from insomnia, and he writes of this, not "as
+imagination bodies forth the forms of things <i>unknown</i>," but as one
+who, in words burning with indestructible life, lays open to us the
+sombre record of what was experience before it was song; who makes us
+the sharers of his griefs; who would awaken in the similarly afflicted
+of all time that compassionate sympathy which goes out to those whose
+burdens are almost greater than they can bear.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3>II.</h3>
+
+
+<p>The meagre information we have as to the life and habits of Shakespeare
+would seem to make it an almost hopeless task now to discover the causes
+of his insomnia. He wrote a marvellous body of literature, and it might
+be thought this labor itself would suffice as an explanation: that the
+furnace heat in which the conceptions of Hamlet and Macbeth and Lear
+were wrought in the crucible of his brain would be fatal to repose. But
+his contemporaries speak of him as an easy and rapid writer; one whose
+imagination is only paralleled by the ease, the force and beauty of the
+phrase in which it is embodied. We are told, too, by Dr. H.A. Johnson,
+an eminent medical authority, in the second volume of his treatise on
+the pathology of the optic nerve, that it is not work, even heavy and
+continuous, but worry over this work, which drives away repose and
+shortens life.</p>
+
+<p>I had observed, in collating the many passages in Shakespeare concerning
+sleep, that the greater number, and those bearing evidence of deepest
+earnestness, occurred in six plays: "Richard III.," "Macbeth," "1 Henry
+IV.," "Hamlet," "2 Henry IV.," and "Henry V." The chronology of
+Shakespeare's plays seems almost hopeless, scarcely any two writers
+agreeing as to the order of the plays or the years in which they were
+written. Several of the most critical authorities, however,&mdash;Dyce,
+White, Furnival, and Halliwell-Phillipps,&mdash;are agreed that two of the
+plays above named were written in 1593, three in 1602, and one in 1609.
+This would seem to indicate that during these three years unusual
+perplexities or anxieties had surrounded our author; and on noting this,
+it occurred to me that on these points the series of papers recently
+discovered and called the Southampton manuscripts, which are not yet
+published, might give light. I accordingly addressed a letter to the
+Director of the British Museum, where the manuscripts are placed for
+safe keeping, and received the following reply:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+    BRITISH MUSEUM, OFFICE OF CHIEF CURATOR, DEPARTMENT OF MANUSCRIPTS,
+    LONDON, Feb. 14, 1886.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">SIR,&mdash;I am directed by the Curator to acknowledge the receipt of
+    your valued favor of February 1, transmitting for preservation and
+    reference in the library of this institution&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="i4">1. The manuscript of the farewell address of Dr. Charles Gilman
+    Smith, on his retirement to private life from the presidency of the
+    Chicago Literary Club;</p>
+
+<p class="i4">2. The manuscript of the inaugural address of his successor in the
+    office,&mdash;which is a public trust,&mdash;James S. Norton, Esq.;</p>
+
+<p class="i4">3. An affidavit of Dr. W.F. Poole, that both manuscripts are
+    originals, and in the handwriting of their eminent authors.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">The Curator further instructs me to convey to you the thanks of the
+    Board of Governors for these highly important papers, and to state
+    to you that they may be found on file in sub-compartment No. 113,280
+    of Contemporary Documents.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">I am further instructed by the Curator to inform you that compliance
+    with your request that this institution reciprocate your kindness by
+    loaning to you all papers from the recently discovered Southampton
+    Shakespeare Collection, bearing date in the years 1593, 1602, and
+    1609, is contrary to the regulations of this institution. If you
+    cannot visit London to examine these interesting manuscripts, copies
+    will be made and transmitted you for three halfpence per folio,
+    payment by our rules invariably in advance. I note that you are
+    evidently in error upon one point. The collection contains no
+    letters or manuscripts of Shakespeare. It is composed principally of
+    letters written to Shakespeare by various people, and which, after
+    his death, in some way came into the possession of the Earl of
+    Southampton. His death, so soon after that of Shakespeare, doubtless
+    caused these letters to be lost sight of, and they were but last
+    year discovered in the donjon of the castle. I have examined the
+    letters for the years you name, and find that copies of the same can
+    be made for £3 3s., exclusive of postage.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">Very respectfully yours,</p>
+
+<p class="i4">JOHN BARNACLE,</p>
+
+<p class="i4"><i>10th Ass't Sub-Secretary.</i>
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The money having been forwarded, I received in due time the copies. At
+the first date, 1593, Shakespeare was a young dramatist and actor
+struggling for recognition, poor and almost unknown; in 1602 he had won
+an assured position among his fellows, and, with the thrift which
+characterized him, had secured an interest in the Globe Theatre, where
+his plays were performed; in 1609 he was in the fulness of his
+contemporary fame, had bought valuable property in Stratford, and was
+contemplating retirement to his country home.</p>
+
+<p>The following are the letters from the Southampton collection which
+serve to throw light upon the insomnia of Shakespeare. They are given in
+their chronological order, and verbatim, but not literatim, the
+orthography having been modernized. The first of the letters, dated in
+1593, is from a firm of lawyers, Messrs. Shallow &amp; Slender, and is as
+follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+    INNER TEMPLE, LONDON, Feb. 15, 1593.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:</p>
+
+<p class="i4">Mr. Moses Solomons, an honored client of our firm, has placed with
+    us, that payment may be straightway enforced, a bill drawn by John
+    Heminge, for £10, due in two months from the date thereof, and the
+    payment of which was assured by you in writing. This bill has been
+    for some days overdue, and Mr. Solomons is constrained to call upon
+    you for payment at once. Your prompt attention to this will save the
+    costs and annoyance of an arrest.
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The second letter is from the same parties, and bears date four days
+later than the first.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+    Inner Temple, Feb. 19, 1593. Mr. William Shakespeare:</p>
+
+<p class="i4">Recurring to certain statements made by yourself at our chambers
+    yesterday, we have considered the same, and have likewise the
+    opinion thereon of our client, Mr. Solomons. As we do now recall
+    them, you nominated three principal grounds why you should not be
+    pressed to pay the bill drawn by Mr. Heminge. First, that you
+    received no value therefor, having put your name to the bill upon
+    the assurance that it was a matter of form, and to oblige a friend.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">To this we rejoin, that by the law of estoppel you are precluded to
+    deny the consideration after the bill hath passed into the holding
+    of a discounter unnotified of the facts.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">Second, That, as our client paid but £1 for the bill, he should not
+    exact £10 thereon. To the which we reply, that, so a valuable
+    consideration was passed for the bill, the law looketh not to its
+    exact amount. It is also asserted by our client that, beyond actual
+    coin given for the bill, he did further release to John Heminge
+    certain tinsel crowns, swords, and apparel appurtenant to the
+    representation of royalty, which had before then&mdash;to wit, two weeks
+    before&mdash;been pledged to him for the sum of 8 shillings, borrowed by
+    the said Heminge.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">Third, That it was impossible for you to pay the bill, you having no
+    money, and receiving no greater income than 22 shillings per week,
+    all of which was necessary to the maintenance of yourself and
+    family. We regret again to call to your notice the Statute of 16
+    Eliz., entitled, "Concerning the Imprisonment of Insolvent Debtors,"
+    which we trust you will not oblige us to invoke in aid of our
+    suffering client's rights. To be lenient and merciful is his
+    inclination, and we are happy to communicate to you this most
+    favorable tender for an acquittance of his claim. You shall render
+    to us an order on the Steward of the Globe Theatre for 20 shillings
+    per week of your stipend therein. This will leave to you yet 2
+    shillings per week, which, with prudence, will yield to you the
+    comforts, if not the luxuries, of subsistence. In ten weeks the face
+    of the bill will be thus repaid. For his forbearance in the matter
+    of time, which hath most seriously inconvenienced him, he requires
+    that you shall pay him the further sum of £2 as usury, and likewise
+    that you do liquidate and save him harmless from the charges of us,
+    his solicitors, which charges, from the number of grave and
+    complicated questions which have become a part of this case and
+    demanded solution, we are unable to make less than £4. We should say
+    guineas, but your evident distress hath moved us to gentleness and
+    mercy. These added sums are to be likewise embraced in the Steward's
+    order, and paid at the same rate as the substance of the bill, and
+    should you embrace this compassionate tender, in the brief period of
+    sixteen weeks you will be at the end of this indebtedness.
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The next letter is dated the following month, and is from Henry Howard,
+an apparent pawnbroker.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+    QUEER STREET, LONDON, 10 March, 1593.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, Actor:</p>
+
+<p class="i4">These presents are to warn you that the time has six days since
+    passed in which you were to repay me 8 shillings, and thereby
+    redeem the property in pledge to me; namely, one Henry VIII. shirt
+    of mail and visor, and Portia's law book, and the green bag
+    therefor. Be warned that unless the 8 shillings and the usance
+    thereof be forthcoming, the town-crier shall notify the sale of the
+    sundry articles named.
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The next letter, and the last in this period of the poet's career
+(1593), is from Mordecai Shylock.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+    FLEET STREET, NEAR THE SIGN OF THE HOG IN ARMOR, NOV. 22, 1593.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:</p>
+
+<p class="i4">I have been active in the way you some days since besought me;
+    namely, the procuring for you of a loan of £5, that you might retire
+    a bill upon which you were a guarantor. As I then told you, I have
+    no money myself, being very poor; but I have a friend who has money
+    with which I can persuade him to relieve your wants. Had I myself
+    the money, I should gladly meet your needs at a moderate usance, not
+    more than twenty-five in the hundred; but my friend is a hard man,
+    who exacts large returns for his means, and will be very urgent that
+    repayment be made on the day named in the bill. He hath empowered me
+    to take your bill at two months,&mdash;for him, mind you,&mdash;for £10, the
+    payment to be assured, as you wished, by the pledge of your two new
+    plays in manuscript,&mdash;"Midsummer Night's Dream" and "Romeo and
+    Juliet,"&mdash;for which bill he will at my strong instance, and because
+    you are a friend to me, give £5. My charge for services in this
+    behalf, which hath consumed much time, will be £1, which I shall
+    straightway pay out in the purchase of a new gown, much needed by my
+    little daughter Jessica, who loves you and recalls often the
+    pleasant tales you do repeat for her diversion.
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The letters in the second period (1602) are nine years later than those
+just read. The first is from the same Mordecai Shylock, who, with the
+poet, seems to have prospered in worldly affairs, as his letters are
+dated in a more reputable portion of the city.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+    THREADNEEDLE STREET, LONDON, April 17, 1602.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:</p>
+
+<p class="i4">In January last past you purchased of Richard Burbage four shares of
+    the stock of the Globe Theatre for £100, and inasmuch as you had not
+    available the whole means to pay therefor, borrowed from me the £60
+    wanting, paying yourself £40 of such purchase price, and giving me
+    in pledge for my £60 such four shares of stock. Owing to special
+    attractions at Blackfriars' Theatre, the stock of the Globe hath
+    greatly declined in value, and I fear these four shares may not
+    longer be salable at the price of even £60, and I therefore must
+    importune that you forthwith do make a payment of £20 on your said
+    bill, or the four shares of stock will be sold at public vendue.
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The next letter is from the same writer, and is dated nine days later.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+    THREADNEEDLE STREET, April 26, 1602.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:</p>
+
+<p class="i4">I acknowledge to have received from you by the hand of Henry Condell
+    £5, and two of your own shares in the stock of the Globe Theatre in
+    further pledge of your bill of £60, as was engaged between us
+    yesterday. It pains me to make known to you that, owing to the great
+    demands recently made upon the goldsmiths by her sacred Majesty,
+    money hath become very dear; and as it was not my own lent you, I
+    have been obliged to pay above the usance expected a further premium
+    of seventeen in the hundred, which I pray you to presently repay
+    me. I am told that shares in the Globe can now be bought at £15;
+    and inasmuch as yours were bought at £25, should you acquire other
+    shares at £15, it would serve to equate your havings.
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The next letter, from the same broker, is written but a few days later.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+    THREADNEEDLE STREET, May 12, 1602.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:</p>
+
+<p class="i4">Acting as requested by you, I did one week ago buy for you three
+    shares in the Globe Theatre for £15 each, using in such purchase the
+    £15 given me by you, and £30, not of mine own, but which was
+    furnished me by a goldsmith of repute. Yesterday I learned that
+    shares were offered at £10 each, perchance from the efforts of
+    forestallers, as also from the preaching of a dissenter, who
+    fulminates that the end of the world is but three weeks away, which
+    hath induced great seriousness among the people. Unless you can pay
+    me, therefore, as much as £40, on the morrow I shall be constrained
+    to offer such shares to the highest bidder at the meeting of the
+    guild.
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The next letter is also from the same Mordecai Shylock, and is dated
+four days later.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+    THREADNEEDLE STREET, May 16, 1602.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:</p>
+
+<p class="i4">My earnest epistle to thee of four days since having elicited no
+    response, I did on the following day offer at the meeting of the
+    Brokers' Guild some of the shares of the stock in the Globe pledged
+    to me, and three shares were bidden at £9 each by my brother,
+    Nehemiah Shylock. As I offered next all the rest, one Henry
+    Wriothsley, Earl of Southampton, did ask to whom the shares
+    belonged, and when he was enlightened, did straightway take all the
+    shares and pay me the whole balance owing, and called me divers
+    opprobrious names. I answered not his railing with railing, for
+    sufferance is the badge of all our tribe, but such slander is illy
+    bestowed on one who has been your friend for long, and who was but
+    striving to avert his own destruction.
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The next letter in order is from one William Kempe, who would seem to be
+the business manager of the Globe Theatre, or the person having in
+charge the unskilled labor connected with the playhouse.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+    GLOBE PLAYHOUSE, EMPLOYMENT BUREAU, May 25, 1602.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:</p>
+
+<p class="i4">In much tribulation do I write thee as to the contention which hath
+    arisen among our stock actors and supes of the Globe. Nicholas
+    Bottom, whom you brought from the Parish workhouse in Stratford, is
+    in ill humor with thee in especial. He says when he played with you
+    in Ben Jonson's comedy, "Every Man in his Humor," he was by far the
+    better actor and did receive the plaudits of all; despite which he
+    now receives but 6 shillings each week, while you are become a man
+    of great wealth, having gotten, as he verily believes, as much as
+    £100. Vainly did I oppose to him that the reason you had money when
+    he had none was in verity that you had labored when he was drunken,
+    and that this was to his profit, since, had not you and the other
+    holders of shares in the Globe saved somewhat of money, unthrifty
+    groundlings of his ilk would starve, as there would be none to hire
+    them at wages; but he avers that he is ground in the dust by the
+    greed of capital, and hath so much prated of this that he hath much
+    following, and accounteth himself a martyr. I said to him that at
+    your especial order he was paid 6 shillings per week, which was
+    double his worth, and that he should go elsewhere if he was not
+    content, as I could daily get a better man for half his wages; but
+    he will not go hence, nor will he perform, and has persuaded others
+    to join with him, his very worthlessness having made him their
+    leader, and they threaten, unless they may receive additional 4
+    shillings per week, and a groat each night for sack, they will have
+    no plays performed, nor will they allow others to be hired in their
+    stead. They do further demand that you shall write shorter plays;
+    that you shall write no tragedies requiring them to labor more than
+    three hours in the rendition; that you shall cut out as much as
+    twelve pages each in "Richard III." and "Othello," and fifteen pages
+    from "Hamlet," that they may not labor to weariness, and may have
+    more hours to recreation and improvement at the alehouse. I know not
+    what to do. If I yield them their demands, nothing will be left for
+    the owners of shares in the Globe; and if I do not, I fear mobs and
+    riots. Fain would I receive thy counsel, which shall have good
+    heed.
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The next letter is the last in the period under review, and bears date
+four days later than the one just quoted from William Kempe.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+    AT THE ELEPHANT &amp; MAGPIE INN, LONDON, May 29, 1602.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">TO WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:</p>
+
+<p class="i4">This is written to thee by John Lely, a clerk, in behalf of Nicholas
+    Bottom, who useth not the pen, and who says to me to tell William
+    Shakespeare, fie upon him that he did order the aforesaid Bottom to
+    be locked out of the Globe Playhouse. Hath he forgotten the first
+    play he, William Shakespeare, did ever write, to wit, "Pyramus and
+    Thisbe," when a boy at Stratford, which was played by himself and
+    Nicholas Bottom and Peter Quince and others, in a barn, for the
+    delectation of the townsmen? And is not this same play a part of his
+    "Midsummer Night's Dream," which beggarly play he did sell for £10,
+    and hath not Nicholas Bottom first and always been an ass therein?
+    Doth he refuse to render to Nicholas Bottom 10 shillings per week
+    when he can get £10 or even £11 for a beggarly play, which is nought
+    unless it be acted? Many a time hath he paid me from a sponging
+    house; often hath he given me groats for sack, and for purges when
+    sack hath undone me; and did I ever insult him to offer to repay him
+    a penny? Say to him, remembereth he not when the horses ridden by
+    Duncan and Macbeth upon the stage did break through the floor, who,
+    affrighted, did run howling away, whereby Burbage was aroused and
+    did pick him, William Shakespeare, from among the horses' feet and
+    save his life? And now, sweet Will, fie upon thee that thou didst
+    frown upon thy townsman. Delay not to send me sundry shillings for
+    the publican, who believes you will discharge, as often before, my
+    reckoning. This, and much more of like tenor, saith Nicholas Bottom
+    to William Shakespeare by your worship's humble servant,</p>
+
+<p class="i4">JOHN LELY.
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The letters in the third period bear date in 1609, seven years later
+than those last quoted. The first is from Rev. Walter Blaise, who
+appears to be the clergyman at Stratford-on-Avon.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+    STRATFORD, Feb. 23, 1609.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">TO WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:</p>
+
+<p class="i4">John Naps, of Greece, who did recently return to his home here from
+    London, safely has delivered to Anne, your wife, the package
+    entrusted to him for carriage. As your wife hath not the gift of
+    writing, she does desire that I convey to you her thanks for the
+    sundry contents of the hamper. She hath also confided to me as her
+    spiritual adviser that she did diligently ply John Naps with
+    questions as to his visit to you in London, and that said John Naps,
+    under her interrogatories, has revealed to her much that doth make
+    her sick at heart and weary of life.</p>
+
+<p class="i4"><i>Item</i>. He doth report that you do pass among men as a bachelor,
+    and, with sundry players and men of that ilk, do frequent a house of
+    entertainment kept by one Doll Tearsheet, and do kiss the barmaid
+    and call her your sweetheart.</p>
+
+<p class="i4"><i>Item</i>. He doth also report that you did give to the daughter of the
+    publican at whose house you do now abide, a ring of fine gold, and
+    did also write to her a sonnet in praise of her eyebrows and her
+    lips, and did otherwise wickedly disport with the said damsel.</p>
+
+<p class="i4"><i>Item</i>. He doth further report of you that you did visit, with one
+    Ben Jonson, on the Sabbath-day, a place of disrepute, where were
+    cock-fights and the baiting of a bear, and that with you were two
+    brazen women, falsely called by you the wife and sister of Ben
+    Jonson.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">These things do overmuch grieve Anne, who hath been to you a loyal
+    wife and a true, and she desires that you do forthwith renounce your
+    evil ways and return to the new house at Stratford, and in ashes and
+    sackcloth repent of your wanderings from the straight and narrow
+    way.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">Thus far have I spoken to you as the mouthpiece and vicegerent of
+    Anne, your wife, who is in sore affliction and deep grief by reason
+    of your transgressions. But, beloved lamb of my flock, I should be
+    unworthy my high and sacred calling did I not lift up also my
+    rebuking voice as a pelican in the wilderness, and adjure you to
+    beware of concupiscence and fleshly lust, which unceasingly do war
+    upon the human soul. Thinkest thou to touch pitch and remain
+    undefiled?
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The next letter is from the firm of Coke &amp;
+Dogberry, lawyers in London.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+    INNER TEMPLE, March 8, 1609.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:</p>
+
+<p class="i4">We have been retained by Mistress Anne Page as her solicitors to
+    bring against you an action, for that you have not fulfilled and in
+    sooth cannot fulfil with her a contract of marriage, and to seek
+    against you under the laws of this realm heavy damages and an
+    imprisonment of the body, in that you have in unholy ways trifled
+    with her affections, contrary to the statute in such cases provided.
+    She especially avers that you did, two days before Michaelmas, swear
+    to her on a parcel gilt goblet that you did love her alone, and did
+    then give to her a bracelet of price. But yesterday, as she was
+    bargaining with a yeoman named Christopher Sly, from Stratford, for
+    the purchase of a spotted pig of his own fattening, the said Sly did
+    reveal to her that you were his friend, and that you had wife and
+    children in your native town where he dwelt. We beg you to
+    straightway name to us your solicitors, that we may confer with them
+    and attend to the issuance of the writs.
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>I have aimed to select from the letters sent me only those bearing on
+some trouble tending to cause sleeplessness on the part of the poet, but
+make an exception in case of a letter of Sir Walter Raleigh, next in
+chronological order, which refers to matters of general interest.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+    The Mermaid, March 20, 1609.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:</p>
+
+<p class="i4">Full well do I know, my dearest Will, that often hast thou wondered
+    of the fate of thy £50, which, with a hundred times as much of mine
+    own, was adventured to found an empire in America. Great were our
+    hopes, both of glory and of gold, in the kingdom of Powhatan. But it
+    grieves me much to say that all hath resulted in infelicity,
+    misfortune, and an unhappy end. Our ships were wrecked, or captured
+    by the knavish Spaniards. Our brave sailors are perished. As I was
+    blameworthy for thy risk, I send by the messenger your £50, which
+    you shall not lose by my over-hopeful vision. For its usance I send
+    a package of a new herb from the Chesapeake, called by the natives
+    tobacco. Make it not into tea, as did one of my kinsmen, but kindle
+    and smoke it in the little tube the messenger will bestow. Be not
+    deterred if thy gorge at first rises against it, for, when thou art
+    wonted, it is a balm for all sorrows and griefs, and as a dream of
+    Paradise. And now, my sweet Will, whom my soul loveth, why comest
+    thou not as of yore to the "Mermaid," that I may have speech with
+    thee? Thou knowest that from my youth up I have adventured all for
+    the welfare and glory of our Queen Elizabeth. On sea and on land and
+    in many climes have I fought the accursed Spaniards, and am honored
+    recognize thy supreme merit, for daily and hourly are sung to her
+    the praises of this loveliness until the story is as a tale that is
+    told and a weariness to the understanding; but thy commendations of
+    her wisdom will be as fresh and fragrant incense, nor will their
+    truthfulness be too closely scanned.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">Thou knowest that I have taken all knowledge to be my province, and
+    therefore have I oft and longingly gazed into the flowery fields of
+    that divine art where to-day in our much-loved England thou art
+    disporting thyself supremely and alone. But when I consider thy
+    tragedies, throughout which is diffused the inmost soul of poesy, my
+    crude yet labored metres seem to me as the body of a maiden, not
+    indeed devoid of a certain comeliness and grace, yet into whose
+    waiting bosom hath not yet been breathed the spirit of life.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">In thy tragedies thou hast the majestic grace which in the Attic
+    ages belonged to Sophocles alone; thou hast the stately march and
+    music of Aeschylus, without in thy themes his ceaseless iteration
+    of predestined woe which ranks his heroes outside humanity; yet the
+    sombre hand of fate hath not more inflexibly driven the gentle
+    Iphigenia to her doom than it hath followed Macbeth to his
+    foreshadowed crime and end. But in thy canticles it is not an
+    o'ershadowing, mysterious, and tragic fate, but a gracious and
+    loving Providence which, as thyself hath phrased it,</p>
+
+<p class="i6">"Holds in His hands the shears of destiny,
+       And has commandment on the pulse of life."</p>
+
+<p class="i4">In comedy, Aristophanes is not thy master, yet must I greatly choose
+    thy tragedies as monuments of thy abiding fame. Funeral dolors
+    rather than bridal carols inspire even the harp of David, beloved of
+    the Lord; and the pencil of the Holy Ghost toucheth ever the
+    shadowed phases of our earthly lives.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">I am minded to now advert to another topic from the tale told me by
+    Southampton that thou wert presently to publish a volume of thy
+    sugared sonnets. May I pray thee that this collection compass not
+    the two sonnets written by thee for me in laud of our Queen
+    Elizabeth, and the one of this morning? As thou knowest, these first
+    were presented to our gracious Sovereign as mine own, and did so
+    pleasure her as to chiefly prosper my advancement. Were the true
+    author now known it might sadly mar my fortunes. In the vastness of
+    thy riches, the absence of these gems shall not be noted. The loss
+    of a star dims not the splendor of the constellations. The glorious
+    sun seeks not to reclaim the lustre his rays have given to the tiny
+    dewdrop. Withal I have rendered to thee somewhat of recompense as I
+    have spoken at sundry times to her gracious Majesty and to our
+    present anointed Sovereign of thy dramas, and fostered as best I
+    might thy interests when they crossed not mine own. So I trust this
+    boon may be awarded me, and that my borrowed splendors may not be
+    stripped away. Thy immeasurable superiority, as again evidenced in
+    the sonnet to the Lady Mary, has fixed anew my resolve as to my
+    predestined field of labor. Not for my brow shall be woven the
+    Poet's garland of bays. Yet abundant self-confidence is mine, and I
+    augur that in the great work for which I would fain believe the ages
+    are waiting, will be made clear my award to be the high priest of
+    Nature. Exact sciences not yet born shall be my servitors and the
+    augmenters of my fame. By the methods I have discerned shall mankind
+    discover and apply those beneficent innovations which are the
+    chiefest births of time. Yet even this hope hath its flavor of
+    bitterness, as thus guided my pupils may far overpass me and my
+    memory be lost. But the love of beauty and melody in poesy is of
+    perennial life, and thy memory shall survive the mutations of time,
+    and shall be the Nation's heritage while fancy and imagination dwell
+    in the souls of men.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">Anew do I now discern that the meditation of Nature and her laws,
+    mysterious yet exact, consorteth not with the airy fancies of the
+    Poet's vision, and that our paths are diverse, yet each guiding to
+    what is useful and divine.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">Farewell! and until the dolors of death are mine shall I remember
+    thy sweet, loving kindness, and admire thy shining genius where wit
+    and wisdom guide the flight of a sovereign imagination.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">Ever thy friend, FRANCIS BACON.
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>One special point is notable in this letter from Bacon. His ordinary
+correspondence is thickly sprinkled with quotations in the ancient
+tongues. As he was well acquainted with Shakespeare, this omission of
+his customary Latin phrases would indicate that he recognized
+Shakespeare's lack of a thorough classical education.</p>
+
+<p>The next, and the last letter in the collection which seems to have a
+bearing upon the sleeplessness of Shakespeare, is also from Rev. Walter
+Blaise.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+    STRATFORD, April 3, 1609.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">TO WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:</p>
+
+<p class="i4">Sir Thomas Lucy, who is in her Majesty's commission as a Justice of
+    the Peace in this bailiwick, yesterday did inform me that he had
+    been questioned from London if you were a married man, and if yes,
+    when and to whom you were wedded. As the parish records are in my
+    keeping, I could but bestow the information sought, although with
+    great sinking of heart, as a well-wisher to you, who, though given
+    overmuch to worldly frivolities and revels, yet are a worthy
+    citizen, and a charitable and a just. Greatly did I fear this
+    knowledge was sought to thy injury. Hast thou led a blameless life,
+    the gates of hell shall not prevail against thee; but the wicked
+    stand on slippery ways. Anne, thy wife, to whom I did unbosom my
+    fears, is in much tribulation lest thou art unfaithful to thy
+    marriage vows, and again beseeches me to urge thee to come forth
+    from wicked Babylon and dwell in thy pleasant home in Stratford.
+    Thou art become a man of substance; and hast moneys at usury. I have
+    read of thy verses and plays, which, albeit somewhat given to
+    lewdness, and addressed to gain the favor of the baser sort, yet
+    reveal thee to be a man of understanding. I cannot, as it is rumored
+    do some of thy town associates, award thee the title of poet, which
+    title is reserved for the shining ones; but thou hast parts. There
+    are many parish clerks, and even some curates in this realm,
+    scarcely more liberally endowed in mind than thou. But greatly do I
+    fear that thou art little better than one of the wicked. How hast
+    thou put to use this talent entrusted thee by the Master of the
+    vineyard? In the maintenance of the things which profit not; in
+    seeking the applause of the unworthy; in the writing of vain plays,
+    which, if of the follies of youth, may be forgiven and remembered
+    not against thee, provided in riper years you put behind you these
+    frivolities, and atone for the mischief thou hast wrought by
+    rendering acceptable service to the Master; by coming to the help of
+    the Lord against the mighty. Gladly would I take thy training in
+    charge, and guide thy tottering feet along the flowery paths of
+    Homiletics. Who knoweth into what vessels the All-seeing One may
+    elect to pour his spirit? Perchance in mercy I may be spared to
+    behold thee a faithful though humble preacher of the Word. Anne, thy
+    wife, often hath likened me to a great light upon a high hill-top,
+    shining in the darkness far away. I would not magnify my powers, but
+    not to all is it given to be mighty captains of a host. Yet,
+    according to thy gifts might thy work be, and a little candle
+    shining in a darkened valley hath its place.
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>In the light of these letters, some passages in "Richard III." and the
+"Comedy of Errors," written in the same year (1609), have an added
+significance. In "Richard III.," Gloster says to Anne:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"Your beauty was the cause of that effect:</p>
+<p>Your beauty, that did haunt me in my sleep,</p>
+<p>To undertake the death of all the world,</p>
+<p>So I might live one hour in thy sweet bosom."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>In the "Comedy of Errors," the Abbess says to Adriana:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"The venom clamors of a jealous woman</p>
+<p>Poison more deadly than a mud dog's tooth.</p>
+<p>It seems his sleep was hindered by thy railing.</p>
+  </div><div class="stanza">
+<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*</p>
+  </div><div class="stanza">
+<p>In food, in sport, and life-preserving rest</p>
+<p>To be disturbed, would mad or man or beast.</p>
+<p>The consequence is, then, thy jealous fits</p>
+<p>Have scared thy husband from the use of wits."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>Note, too, the kindred thought:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"Love hath chased sleep from my enthrall&egrave;d eyes."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>And again this passage, called forth possibly by the letters of the
+Rev. Walter Blaise:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"Slander,</p>
+<p>Whose edge is sharper than the sword; whose tongue</p>
+<p>Outvenoms all the worms of Nile; whose breath</p>
+<p>Rides on the posting winds and doth belie</p>
+<p>All corners of the world."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>As also this:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,</p>
+<p>Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven,</p>
+<p>Whiles, like a puffed and reckless libertine,</p>
+<p>Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,</p>
+<p>And recks not his own rede."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>From these several letters sufficiently appear the causes for the
+insomnia of Shakespeare, which are some of the same causes resulting in
+its prevalence to-day. They illustrate anew that history repeats itself
+forever; that humanity is always the same; that like temptations and
+errors come to men with like results in all the centuries; that the
+sleeplessness of Shakespeare came, because, merely as a matter of form,
+he had indorsed for a friend,&mdash;because he had bought more stocks than he
+could pay for, and when his margins were absorbed, came forth a shorn
+and shivering lamb,&mdash;because of the turbulence of labor,&mdash;because, alas!
+he too had been dazzled and bewildered by</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"The light that lies</p>
+<p>In woman's eyes."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>Marvellous as were the endowments of the master, yet was he human and as
+one of us.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>CHICAGO, 1886.</p>
+
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11990 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
+
+
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b478832
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #11990 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11990)
diff --git a/old/11990-8.txt b/old/11990-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3c7d2b7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/11990-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,1475 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Shakespeare's Insomnia, And the Causes
+Thereof, by Franklin H. Head
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Shakespeare's Insomnia, And the Causes Thereof
+
+Author: Franklin H. Head
+
+Release Date: April 11, 2004 [EBook #11990]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHAKESPEARE'S INSOMNIA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Steven desJardins and Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+SHAKESPEARE'S INSOMNIA _And the Causes Thereof_
+
+BY FRANKLIN H. HEAD
+
+
+
+1887
+
+
+[**Transcriber's Note: The following is a literary hoax, and the letters
+quoted below are fictitious.]
+
+
+
+
+SHAKESPEARE'S INSOMNIA, AND THE CAUSES THEREOF.
+
+
+
+I.
+
+
+Insomnia, the lack of "tired Nature's sweet restorer," is rapidly
+becoming the chronic terror of all men of active life who have passed
+the age of thirty-five or forty years. In early life, while yet he
+"wears the rose of youth upon him," man rarely, except in sickness,
+knows the want of sound, undreaming sleep. But as early manhood is left
+behind and the cares and perplexities of life weigh upon him, making
+far more needful than ever the rest which comes only through unbroken
+sleep, this remedial agent cannot longer be wooed and won. Youth would
+"fain encounter darkness as a bride and hug it in his arms." To those of
+riper years the "blanket of the dark" often ushers in a season of
+terrors,--a time of fitful snatches of broken sleep and of tormenting
+dreams; of long stretches of wakefulness; of hours when all things
+perplexing and troublesome in one's affairs march before him in sombre
+procession: in endless disorder, in labyrinths of confusion, in
+countless new phases of disagreeableness; and at length the morning
+summons him to labor, far more racked and weary than when he sought
+repose.
+
+It has been of late years much the fashion in the literature of this
+subject to attribute sleeplessness to the rapid growth of facilities for
+activities of every kind. The practical annihilation of time and space
+by our telegraphs and railroads, the compressing thereby of the labors
+of months into hours or even minutes, the terrific competition in all
+kinds of business thereby made possible and inevitable, the intense
+mental activity engendered in the mad race for fame or wealth, where the
+nervous and mental force of man is measured against steam and
+lightning,--these are usually credited with having developed what is
+considered a modern and even an almost distinctively American disease.
+
+As the maxim, "There is nothing new under the sun," is of general
+application, it may be of interest to investigate if an exception occurs
+in the case of sleeplessness; if it be true that among our ancestors,
+before the days of working steam and electricity, the glorious sleep of
+youth was prolonged through all one's three or four score years.
+
+Medical books and literature throw no light upon this subject three
+hundred years ago. We must therefore turn to Shakespeare--human
+nature's universal solvent--for light on this as we would on any other
+question of his time. Was he troubled with insomnia, then, is the first
+problem to be solved.
+
+Dr. Holmes, our genial and many-sided poet-laureate, who is also a
+philosopher, in his "Life of Emerson," has finely worked out the theory
+that no man writes other than his own experience: that consciously or
+otherwise an author describes himself in the characters he draws; that
+when he loves the character he delineates, it is in some measure his
+own, or at least one of which he feels its tendencies and possibilities
+belong to himself. Emerson, too, says of Shakespeare, that all his
+poetry was first experience.
+
+When we seek to analyze what we mean by the term Shakespeare, to
+endeavor to define wherein he was distinct from all others and easily
+pre-eminent, to know why to us he ever grows wiser as we grow wise, we
+find that his especial characteristic was an unequalled power of
+observation and an ability accurately to chronicle his impressions. He
+was the only man ever born who lived and wrote absolutely without bias
+or prejudice. Emerson says of him that "he reported all things with
+impartiality; that he tells the great greatly, the small
+subordinately,--he is strong as Nature is strong, who lifts the land
+into mountain slopes without effort, and by the same rule as she floats
+a bubble in the air, and likes as well to do the one as the other." Says
+he, further: "Give a man of talents a story to tell, and his partiality
+will presently appear: he has certain opinions which he disposes other
+things to bring into prominence; he crams this part and starves the
+other part, consulting not the fitness of the thing but his fitness and
+strength." But Shakespeare has no peculiarity; all is duly given.
+
+Thus it is that his dramas are the book of human life. He was an
+accurate observer of Nature: he notes the markings of the violet and the
+daisy; the haunts of the honeysuckle, the mistletoe, and the woodbine.
+He marks the fealty of the marigold to its god the sun, and even touches
+the freaks of fashion, condemning in some woman of his time an usage,
+long obsolete, in accordance with which she adorned her head with "the
+golden tresses of the dead." But it was as an observer and a delineator
+of man in all his moods that he was the bright, consummate flower of
+humanity. His experiences were wide and varied. He had absorbed into
+himself and made his own the pith and wisdom of his day. As the fittest
+survives, each age embodies in itself all worthy of preservation in the
+ages gone before. In Shakespeare's pages we find a reflection, perfect
+and absolute, of the age of Elizabeth, and therefore of all not
+transient in the foregone times,--of all which is fixed and permanent
+in our own. He "held the mirror up to Nature." So "his eternal summer
+shall not fade," because
+
+  "He sang of the earth as it will be
+  When the years have passed away."
+
+If, therefore, insomnia had prevailed in or before his time, in his
+pages shall we find it duly set forth. If he had suffered, if the
+"fringed curtains of his eyes were all the night undrawn," we shall find
+his dreary experiences--his hours of pathetic misery, his nights of
+desolation--voiced by the tongues of his men and women.
+
+Shakespeare speaks often of the time in life when men have left behind
+them the dreamless sleep of youth. Friar Laurence says:--
+
+  "Care keeps his watch in every old man's eye,
+  And where care lodges, sleep can never lie;
+  But where unbruisèd youth with unstuffed brain
+  Doth couch his limbs, there golden sleep doth reign."
+
+Shakespeare describes, too, with lifelike fidelity, the causes of
+insomnia, which are not weariness or physical pain, but undue mental
+anxiety. He constantly contrasts the troubled sleep of those burdened
+with anxieties and cares, with the happy lot of the laborer whose
+physical weariness insures him a tranquil night's repose. Henry VI.
+says:--
+
+  "And to conclude, the shepherd's homely curds,
+  His cold thin drink out of his leather bottle,
+  His wonted sleep under a fresh tree's shade,
+  All which secure and sweetly he enjoys,
+  Are far beyond a prince's delicates."
+
+And Henry V. says:--
+
+  "'Tis not the balm, the sceptre and the ball,
+  The sword, the mace, the crown imperial,
+  The intertissued robe of gold and pearl,
+  The farcèd title running 'fore the king,
+  The throne he sits on, nor the tide of pomp
+  That beats upon the high shore of this world,--
+  No, not all these, thrice gorgeous ceremony,
+  Not all these, laid in bed majestical,
+  Can sleep so soundly as the wretched slave,
+  Who, with a body filled and vacant mind,
+  Gets him to rest, crammed with distressful bread;
+  Never sees horrid night, that child of hell,
+  But, like a lackey, from the rise to set,
+  Sweats in the eye of Phoebus, and all night
+  Sleeps in Elysium....
+  And, but for ceremony, such a wretch,
+  Winding up days with toil and nights with sleep,
+  Hath the forehand and vantage of a king."
+
+Prince Henry says, in "Henry IV.":--
+
+  "O polished perturbation! Golden care!
+  That keep'st the ports of slumber open wide
+  To many a watchful night, sleep with it now!
+  Yet not so sound and half so deeply sweet
+  As he whose brow with homely biggin bound
+  Snores out the watch of night."
+
+In this same play, too, is found the familiar and marvellous soliloquy
+of Henry IV.:--
+
+  "How many thousand of my poorest subjects
+  Are at this hour asleep! O Sleep, O gentle Sleep,
+  Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee,
+  That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down
+  And steep my senses in forgetfulness?
+  Why rather, Sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs,
+  Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee,
+  And hushed with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber,
+  Than in the perfumed chambers of the great,
+  Under the canopies of costly state,
+  And lulled with sounds of sweetest melody?
+  O thou dull god, why liest thou with the vile
+  In loathsome beds, and leav'st the kingly couch
+  A watch-case, or a common 'larum-bell?
+  Wilt thou upon the high and giddy mast
+  Seal up the ship-boy's eyes, and rock his brains
+  In cradle of the rude, imperious surge,
+  And in the visitation of the winds,
+  Who take the ruffian billows by the top,
+  Curling their monstrous heads, and hanging them
+  With deafening clamor in the slippery shrouds,
+  That with the hurly, death itself awakes?
+  Canst thou, O partial Sleep, give thy repose
+  To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude,
+  And in the calmest and most stillest night,
+  With all appliances and means to boot,
+  Deny it to a king? Then, happy low, lie down!
+  Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown."
+
+Caesar, whom Shakespeare characterizes as "the foremost man of all this
+world," says:--
+
+  "Let me have men about me that are fat;
+  Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights."
+
+And again, it is not an "old man broken with the storms of state" whom
+he describes when he says:--
+
+  "Thou hast no figures nor no fantasies
+  Which busy care draws in the brains of men;
+  Therefore thou sleep'st so sound."
+
+The poet also in various passages expresses his emphatic belief as to
+what is the brightest blessing or the deadliest calamity which can be
+laid upon our frail humanity. Rarely is a blessing invoked which does
+not include the wish for tranquil sleep; and this, too, as the best and
+greatest boon of all. His gracious benediction may compass honors and
+wealth and happiness and fame,--that one's "name may dwell forever in
+the mouths of men;" but
+
+  "The earth hath bubbles as the water hath,
+  And these are of them,"
+
+as compared with the royal benison, "Sleep give thee all his rest."
+
+The spectres of the princes and Queen Anne, in "Richard III.," invoking
+every good upon Richmond, say:--
+
+  "Sleep, Richmond, sleep in peace and wake in joy."
+
+And again:--
+
+  "Thou quiet soul, sleep thou a quiet sleep."
+
+Romeo's dearest wish to Juliet is,--
+
+  "Sleep dwell upon thine eyes; peace in thy breast."
+
+The crowning promise of Lady Mortimer, in "Henry IV.," is that
+
+  "She will sing the song that pleaseth thee,
+  And on thy eyelids crown the god of sleep."
+
+Titania promises her fantastic lover,--
+
+  "I'll give thee fairies to attend on thee,
+  And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep,
+  And sing, while thou on pressèd flowers dost sleep."
+
+Titus, welcoming again to Rome the victorious legions, says of the
+heroes who have fallen:
+
+  "There greet in silence, as the dead are wont,
+  And sleep in peace, slain in your country's wars,"
+
+promising them that in the land of the blest
+
+                        "are no storms,
+  No noise, but silence and eternal sleep."
+
+Constantly also in anathemas throughout the plays are invoked, as the
+deadliest of curses, broken rest and its usual accompaniment of
+troublous dreams. Thus note the climax in Queen Margaret's curse upon
+the traitorous Gloster:--
+
+  "If Heaven have any grievous plague in store
+  Exceeding those that I can wish upon thee,
+  Oh, let them keep it till thy sins be ripe,
+  And then hurl down their indignation
+  On thee, the troubler of the poor world's peace!
+  The worm of conscience still begnaw thy soul!
+  Thy friends suspect for traitors while thou liv'st,
+  And take deep traitors for thy dearest friends!
+  No sleep close up that deadly eye of thine,
+  Unless it be while some tormenting dream
+  Affrights thee with a hell of ugly devils!"
+
+The witch, in "Macbeth," cataloguing the calamities in store for the
+ambitious Thane, says:
+
+  "Sleep shall neither night nor day
+  Hang upon his pent-house lid;
+  He shall live a man forbid."
+
+It is curious also to remark, in the various lists of griefs which make
+life a burden and a sorrow, how often the climax of these woes is the
+lack of sleep, or the troubled dreams bearing their train of "gorgons,
+hydras, and chimeras dire," which come with broken rest. Lady Percy says
+to Hotspur:--
+
+  "Why hast thou lost the fresh blood in thy cheeks,
+  And given my treasures and my rights of thee
+  To thick-eyed musing and curst melancholy?
+  Tell me, sweet lord, what is't that takes from thee
+  Thy stomach, pleasure, and thy golden sleep?"
+
+Macbeth says:--
+
+  "But let the frame of things disjoint, both the worlds suffer,
+  Ere we will eat our meal in fear, and sleep
+  In the affliction of these terrible dreams
+  That shake us nightly; better be with the dead."
+
+In "Othello" is a striking picture of the sudden change, in the
+direction we are considering, which comes over a tranquil mind from the
+commission of a great crime. Iago says to Othello, after he has wrought
+"the deed without a name":--
+
+  "Not poppy nor mandragora,
+  Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world,
+  Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep
+  Which thou own'dst yesterday."
+
+The greatest punishment which comes to Macbeth after the murder of
+Duncan is lack of sleep. Nowhere in the language, in the same space, can
+be found so many pictures of the blessedness of repose as in the
+familiar lines:--
+
+  "Methought I heard a voice cry, 'Sleep no more!
+  Macbeth does murder sleep,' the innocent sleep;
+  Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleave of care,
+  The death of each day's life, sore labor's bath,
+  Balm of hurt minds, great Nature's second course,
+  Chief nourisher in life's feast."
+
+And the principal reason which deters Hamlet from suicide is the fear
+that even if he does sleep well "after life's fitful fever is over,"
+still, that sleep may be full of troubled dreams.
+
+  "To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there's the rub;
+  For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
+  When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
+  Must give us pause."
+
+Richard III. says, when the catalogue of his crimes is full, and when he
+"sees as in a map the end of all":--
+
+  "The sons of Edward sleep in Abraham's bosom,
+  And Anne, my queen, hath bid the world good night."
+
+In addition to the fuller phrases wherein are shown the blessedness of
+sleep, or the remediless nature of its loss, many brief sentences occur
+scattered throughout the plays, and emphasizing the same great lesson.
+For instance:--
+
+               "Now o'er one half the world
+  Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
+  The curtained sleep."
+
+               "With Him above
+  To ratify our work, we may again
+  Give to our tables meat, sleep to our nights."
+
+  "You lack the season of all natures, sleep."
+
+  "My soul is heavy, and I fain would sleep."
+
+  "For never yet one hour in his bed
+  Have I enjoyed the golden dew of sleep."
+
+  "For some must watch and some must sleep,
+  So runs the world away."
+
+  "How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon that bank."
+
+  "The best of rest is sleep."
+
+  "Our little lives are rounded with a sleep."
+
+The various passages cited above prove and illustrate that no author has
+written so feelingly, so appreciatingly, as Shakespeare on the subject
+of sleep and its loss.
+
+The diligent commentators on his works have investigated laboriously the
+sources from which he drew his plots and many of the very lines of his
+poems. He was a great borrower; absorbing, digesting, and making his own
+much of the material of his predecessors. But it is a noteworthy fact,
+that none of the exquisite lines in praise of sleep--that gift which the
+Psalmist says the Lord giveth to his beloved--can be traced to other
+source than the master. These are jewels of his own; transcripts from
+his own mournful experience. In middle life he remembered hopelessly the
+tranquil sleep of his lost youth, as
+
+  "He that is stricken blind cannot forget
+  The precious treasure of his eyesight lost."
+
+He had suffered from insomnia, and he writes of this, not "as
+imagination bodies forth the forms of things _unknown_," but as one
+who, in words burning with indestructible life, lays open to us the
+sombre record of what was experience before it was song; who makes us
+the sharers of his griefs; who would awaken in the similarly afflicted
+of all time that compassionate sympathy which goes out to those whose
+burdens are almost greater than they can bear.
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+
+The meagre information we have as to the life and habits of Shakespeare
+would seem to make it an almost hopeless task now to discover the causes
+of his insomnia. He wrote a marvellous body of literature, and it might
+be thought this labor itself would suffice as an explanation: that the
+furnace heat in which the conceptions of Hamlet and Macbeth and Lear
+were wrought in the crucible of his brain would be fatal to repose. But
+his contemporaries speak of him as an easy and rapid writer; one whose
+imagination is only paralleled by the ease, the force and beauty of the
+phrase in which it is embodied. We are told, too, by Dr. H.A. Johnson,
+an eminent medical authority, in the second volume of his treatise on
+the pathology of the optic nerve, that it is not work, even heavy and
+continuous, but worry over this work, which drives away repose and
+shortens life.
+
+I had observed, in collating the many passages in Shakespeare concerning
+sleep, that the greater number, and those bearing evidence of deepest
+earnestness, occurred in six plays: "Richard III.," "Macbeth," "1 Henry
+IV.," "Hamlet," "2 Henry IV.," and "Henry V." The chronology of
+Shakespeare's plays seems almost hopeless, scarcely any two writers
+agreeing as to the order of the plays or the years in which they were
+written. Several of the most critical authorities, however,--Dyce,
+White, Furnival, and Halliwell-Phillipps,--are agreed that two of the
+plays above named were written in 1593, three in 1602, and one in 1609.
+This would seem to indicate that during these three years unusual
+perplexities or anxieties had surrounded our author; and on noting this,
+it occurred to me that on these points the series of papers recently
+discovered and called the Southampton manuscripts, which are not yet
+published, might give light. I accordingly addressed a letter to the
+Director of the British Museum, where the manuscripts are placed for
+safe keeping, and received the following reply:--
+
+    BRITISH MUSEUM, OFFICE OF CHIEF CURATOR, DEPARTMENT OF MANUSCRIPTS,
+    LONDON, Feb. 14, 1886.
+
+    SIR,--I am directed by the Curator to acknowledge the receipt of
+    your valued favor of February 1, transmitting for preservation and
+    reference in the library of this institution--
+
+    1. The manuscript of the farewell address of Dr. Charles Gilman
+    Smith, on his retirement to private life from the presidency of the
+    Chicago Literary Club;
+
+    2. The manuscript of the inaugural address of his successor in the
+    office,--which is a public trust,--James S. Norton, Esq.;
+
+    3. An affidavit of Dr. W.F. Poole, that both manuscripts are
+    originals, and in the handwriting of their eminent authors.
+
+    The Curator further instructs me to convey to you the thanks of the
+    Board of Governors for these highly important papers, and to state
+    to you that they may be found on file in sub-compartment No. 113,280
+    of Contemporary Documents.
+
+    I am further instructed by the Curator to inform you that compliance
+    with your request that this institution reciprocate your kindness by
+    loaning to you all papers from the recently discovered Southampton
+    Shakespeare Collection, bearing date in the years 1593, 1602, and
+    1609, is contrary to the regulations of this institution. If you
+    cannot visit London to examine these interesting manuscripts, copies
+    will be made and transmitted you for three halfpence per folio,
+    payment by our rules invariably in advance. I note that you are
+    evidently in error upon one point. The collection contains no
+    letters or manuscripts of Shakespeare. It is composed principally of
+    letters written to Shakespeare by various people, and which, after
+    his death, in some way came into the possession of the Earl of
+    Southampton. His death, so soon after that of Shakespeare, doubtless
+    caused these letters to be lost sight of, and they were but last
+    year discovered in the donjon of the castle. I have examined the
+    letters for the years you name, and find that copies of the same can
+    be made for £3 3s., exclusive of postage.
+
+    Very respectfully yours,
+
+    JOHN BARNACLE,
+
+    _10th Ass't Sub-Secretary._
+
+The money having been forwarded, I received in due time the copies. At
+the first date, 1593, Shakespeare was a young dramatist and actor
+struggling for recognition, poor and almost unknown; in 1602 he had won
+an assured position among his fellows, and, with the thrift which
+characterized him, had secured an interest in the Globe Theatre, where
+his plays were performed; in 1609 he was in the fulness of his
+contemporary fame, had bought valuable property in Stratford, and was
+contemplating retirement to his country home.
+
+The following are the letters from the Southampton collection which
+serve to throw light upon the insomnia of Shakespeare. They are given in
+their chronological order, and verbatim, but not literatim, the
+orthography having been modernized. The first of the letters, dated in
+1593, is from a firm of lawyers, Messrs. Shallow & Slender, and is as
+follows:--
+
+    INNER TEMPLE, LONDON, Feb. 15, 1593.
+
+    To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:
+
+    Mr. Moses Solomons, an honored client of our firm, has placed with
+    us, that payment may be straightway enforced, a bill drawn by John
+    Heminge, for £10, due in two months from the date thereof, and the
+    payment of which was assured by you in writing. This bill has been
+    for some days overdue, and Mr. Solomons is constrained to call upon
+    you for payment at once. Your prompt attention to this will save the
+    costs and annoyance of an arrest.
+
+The second letter is from the same parties, and bears date four days
+later than the first.
+
+    Inner Temple, Feb. 19, 1593. Mr. William Shakespeare:
+
+    Recurring to certain statements made by yourself at our chambers
+    yesterday, we have considered the same, and have likewise the
+    opinion thereon of our client, Mr. Solomons. As we do now recall
+    them, you nominated three principal grounds why you should not be
+    pressed to pay the bill drawn by Mr. Heminge. First, that you
+    received no value therefor, having put your name to the bill upon
+    the assurance that it was a matter of form, and to oblige a friend.
+
+    To this we rejoin, that by the law of estoppel you are precluded to
+    deny the consideration after the bill hath passed into the holding
+    of a discounter unnotified of the facts.
+
+    Second, That, as our client paid but £1 for the bill, he should not
+    exact £10 thereon. To the which we reply, that, so a valuable
+    consideration was passed for the bill, the law looketh not to its
+    exact amount. It is also asserted by our client that, beyond actual
+    coin given for the bill, he did further release to John Heminge
+    certain tinsel crowns, swords, and apparel appurtenant to the
+    representation of royalty, which had before then--to wit, two weeks
+    before--been pledged to him for the sum of 8 shillings, borrowed by
+    the said Heminge.
+
+    Third, That it was impossible for you to pay the bill, you having no
+    money, and receiving no greater income than 22 shillings per week,
+    all of which was necessary to the maintenance of yourself and
+    family. We regret again to call to your notice the Statute of 16
+    Eliz., entitled, "Concerning the Imprisonment of Insolvent Debtors,"
+    which we trust you will not oblige us to invoke in aid of our
+    suffering client's rights. To be lenient and merciful is his
+    inclination, and we are happy to communicate to you this most
+    favorable tender for an acquittance of his claim. You shall render
+    to us an order on the Steward of the Globe Theatre for 20 shillings
+    per week of your stipend therein. This will leave to you yet 2
+    shillings per week, which, with prudence, will yield to you the
+    comforts, if not the luxuries, of subsistence. In ten weeks the face
+    of the bill will be thus repaid. For his forbearance in the matter
+    of time, which hath most seriously inconvenienced him, he requires
+    that you shall pay him the further sum of £2 as usury, and likewise
+    that you do liquidate and save him harmless from the charges of us,
+    his solicitors, which charges, from the number of grave and
+    complicated questions which have become a part of this case and
+    demanded solution, we are unable to make less than £4. We should say
+    guineas, but your evident distress hath moved us to gentleness and
+    mercy. These added sums are to be likewise embraced in the Steward's
+    order, and paid at the same rate as the substance of the bill, and
+    should you embrace this compassionate tender, in the brief period of
+    sixteen weeks you will be at the end of this indebtedness.
+
+The next letter is dated the following month, and is from Henry Howard,
+an apparent pawnbroker.
+
+    QUEER STREET, LONDON, 10 March, 1593.
+
+    To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, Actor:
+
+    These presents are to warn you that the time has six days since
+    passed in which you were to repay me 8 shillings, and thereby
+    redeem the property in pledge to me; namely, one Henry VIII. shirt
+    of mail and visor, and Portia's law book, and the green bag
+    therefor. Be warned that unless the 8 shillings and the usance
+    thereof be forthcoming, the town-crier shall notify the sale of the
+    sundry articles named.
+
+The next letter, and the last in this period of the poet's career
+(1593), is from Mordecai Shylock.
+
+    FLEET STREET, NEAR THE SIGN OF THE HOG IN ARMOR, NOV. 22, 1593.
+
+    To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:
+
+    I have been active in the way you some days since besought me;
+    namely, the procuring for you of a loan of £5, that you might retire
+    a bill upon which you were a guarantor. As I then told you, I have
+    no money myself, being very poor; but I have a friend who has money
+    with which I can persuade him to relieve your wants. Had I myself
+    the money, I should gladly meet your needs at a moderate usance, not
+    more than twenty-five in the hundred; but my friend is a hard man,
+    who exacts large returns for his means, and will be very urgent that
+    repayment be made on the day named in the bill. He hath empowered me
+    to take your bill at two months,--for him, mind you,--for £10, the
+    payment to be assured, as you wished, by the pledge of your two new
+    plays in manuscript,--"Midsummer Night's Dream" and "Romeo and
+    Juliet,"--for which bill he will at my strong instance, and because
+    you are a friend to me, give £5. My charge for services in this
+    behalf, which hath consumed much time, will be £1, which I shall
+    straightway pay out in the purchase of a new gown, much needed by my
+    little daughter Jessica, who loves you and recalls often the
+    pleasant tales you do repeat for her diversion.
+
+The letters in the second period (1602) are nine years later than those
+just read. The first is from the same Mordecai Shylock, who, with the
+poet, seems to have prospered in worldly affairs, as his letters are
+dated in a more reputable portion of the city.
+
+    THREADNEEDLE STREET, LONDON, April 17, 1602.
+
+    To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:
+
+    In January last past you purchased of Richard Burbage four shares of
+    the stock of the Globe Theatre for £100, and inasmuch as you had not
+    available the whole means to pay therefor, borrowed from me the £60
+    wanting, paying yourself £40 of such purchase price, and giving me
+    in pledge for my £60 such four shares of stock. Owing to special
+    attractions at Blackfriars' Theatre, the stock of the Globe hath
+    greatly declined in value, and I fear these four shares may not
+    longer be salable at the price of even £60, and I therefore must
+    importune that you forthwith do make a payment of £20 on your said
+    bill, or the four shares of stock will be sold at public vendue.
+
+The next letter is from the same writer, and is dated nine days later.
+
+    THREADNEEDLE STREET, April 26, 1602.
+
+    To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:
+
+    I acknowledge to have received from you by the hand of Henry Condell
+    £5, and two of your own shares in the stock of the Globe Theatre in
+    further pledge of your bill of £60, as was engaged between us
+    yesterday. It pains me to make known to you that, owing to the great
+    demands recently made upon the goldsmiths by her sacred Majesty,
+    money hath become very dear; and as it was not my own lent you, I
+    have been obliged to pay above the usance expected a further premium
+    of seventeen in the hundred, which I pray you to presently repay
+    me. I am told that shares in the Globe can now be bought at £15;
+    and inasmuch as yours were bought at £25, should you acquire other
+    shares at £15, it would serve to equate your havings.
+
+The next letter, from the same broker, is written but a few days later.
+
+    THREADNEEDLE STREET, May 12, 1602.
+
+    To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:
+
+    Acting as requested by you, I did one week ago buy for you three
+    shares in the Globe Theatre for £15 each, using in such purchase the
+    £15 given me by you, and £30, not of mine own, but which was
+    furnished me by a goldsmith of repute. Yesterday I learned that
+    shares were offered at £10 each, perchance from the efforts of
+    forestallers, as also from the preaching of a dissenter, who
+    fulminates that the end of the world is but three weeks away, which
+    hath induced great seriousness among the people. Unless you can pay
+    me, therefore, as much as £40, on the morrow I shall be constrained
+    to offer such shares to the highest bidder at the meeting of the
+    guild.
+
+The next letter is also from the same Mordecai Shylock, and is dated
+four days later.
+
+    THREADNEEDLE STREET, May 16, 1602.
+
+    To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:
+
+    My earnest epistle to thee of four days since having elicited no
+    response, I did on the following day offer at the meeting of the
+    Brokers' Guild some of the shares of the stock in the Globe pledged
+    to me, and three shares were bidden at £9 each by my brother,
+    Nehemiah Shylock. As I offered next all the rest, one Henry
+    Wriothsley, Earl of Southampton, did ask to whom the shares
+    belonged, and when he was enlightened, did straightway take all the
+    shares and pay me the whole balance owing, and called me divers
+    opprobrious names. I answered not his railing with railing, for
+    sufferance is the badge of all our tribe, but such slander is illy
+    bestowed on one who has been your friend for long, and who was but
+    striving to avert his own destruction.
+
+The next letter in order is from one William Kempe, who would seem to be
+the business manager of the Globe Theatre, or the person having in
+charge the unskilled labor connected with the playhouse.
+
+    GLOBE PLAYHOUSE, EMPLOYMENT BUREAU, May 25, 1602.
+
+    WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:
+
+    In much tribulation do I write thee as to the contention which hath
+    arisen among our stock actors and supes of the Globe. Nicholas
+    Bottom, whom you brought from the Parish workhouse in Stratford, is
+    in ill humor with thee in especial. He says when he played with you
+    in Ben Jonson's comedy, "Every Man in his Humor," he was by far the
+    better actor and did receive the plaudits of all; despite which he
+    now receives but 6 shillings each week, while you are become a man
+    of great wealth, having gotten, as he verily believes, as much as
+    £100. Vainly did I oppose to him that the reason you had money when
+    he had none was in verity that you had labored when he was drunken,
+    and that this was to his profit, since, had not you and the other
+    holders of shares in the Globe saved somewhat of money, unthrifty
+    groundlings of his ilk would starve, as there would be none to hire
+    them at wages; but he avers that he is ground in the dust by the
+    greed of capital, and hath so much prated of this that he hath much
+    following, and accounteth himself a martyr. I said to him that at
+    your especial order he was paid 6 shillings per week, which was
+    double his worth, and that he should go elsewhere if he was not
+    content, as I could daily get a better man for half his wages; but
+    he will not go hence, nor will he perform, and has persuaded others
+    to join with him, his very worthlessness having made him their
+    leader, and they threaten, unless they may receive additional 4
+    shillings per week, and a groat each night for sack, they will have
+    no plays performed, nor will they allow others to be hired in their
+    stead. They do further demand that you shall write shorter plays;
+    that you shall write no tragedies requiring them to labor more than
+    three hours in the rendition; that you shall cut out as much as
+    twelve pages each in "Richard III." and "Othello," and fifteen pages
+    from "Hamlet," that they may not labor to weariness, and may have
+    more hours to recreation and improvement at the alehouse. I know not
+    what to do. If I yield them their demands, nothing will be left for
+    the owners of shares in the Globe; and if I do not, I fear mobs and
+    riots. Fain would I receive thy counsel, which shall have good
+    heed.
+
+The next letter is the last in the period under review, and bears date
+four days later than the one just quoted from William Kempe.
+
+    AT THE ELEPHANT & MAGPIE INN, LONDON, May 29, 1602.
+
+    TO WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:
+
+    This is written to thee by John Lely, a clerk, in behalf of Nicholas
+    Bottom, who useth not the pen, and who says to me to tell William
+    Shakespeare, fie upon him that he did order the aforesaid Bottom to
+    be locked out of the Globe Playhouse. Hath he forgotten the first
+    play he, William Shakespeare, did ever write, to wit, "Pyramus and
+    Thisbe," when a boy at Stratford, which was played by himself and
+    Nicholas Bottom and Peter Quince and others, in a barn, for the
+    delectation of the townsmen? And is not this same play a part of his
+    "Midsummer Night's Dream," which beggarly play he did sell for £10,
+    and hath not Nicholas Bottom first and always been an ass therein?
+    Doth he refuse to render to Nicholas Bottom 10 shillings per week
+    when he can get £10 or even £11 for a beggarly play, which is nought
+    unless it be acted? Many a time hath he paid me from a sponging
+    house; often hath he given me groats for sack, and for purges when
+    sack hath undone me; and did I ever insult him to offer to repay him
+    a penny? Say to him, remembereth he not when the horses ridden by
+    Duncan and Macbeth upon the stage did break through the floor, who,
+    affrighted, did run howling away, whereby Burbage was aroused and
+    did pick him, William Shakespeare, from among the horses' feet and
+    save his life? And now, sweet Will, fie upon thee that thou didst
+    frown upon thy townsman. Delay not to send me sundry shillings for
+    the publican, who believes you will discharge, as often before, my
+    reckoning. This, and much more of like tenor, saith Nicholas Bottom
+    to William Shakespeare by your worship's humble servant,
+
+    JOHN LELY.
+
+The letters in the third period bear date in 1609, seven years later
+than those last quoted. The first is from Rev. Walter Blaise, who
+appears to be the clergyman at Stratford-on-Avon.
+
+    STRATFORD, Feb. 23, 1609.
+
+    TO WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:
+
+    John Naps, of Greece, who did recently return to his home here from
+    London, safely has delivered to Anne, your wife, the package
+    entrusted to him for carriage. As your wife hath not the gift of
+    writing, she does desire that I convey to you her thanks for the
+    sundry contents of the hamper. She hath also confided to me as her
+    spiritual adviser that she did diligently ply John Naps with
+    questions as to his visit to you in London, and that said John Naps,
+    under her interrogatories, has revealed to her much that doth make
+    her sick at heart and weary of life.
+
+    _Item_. He doth report that you do pass among men as a bachelor,
+    and, with sundry players and men of that ilk, do frequent a house of
+    entertainment kept by one Doll Tearsheet, and do kiss the barmaid
+    and call her your sweetheart.
+
+    _Item_. He doth also report that you did give to the daughter of the
+    publican at whose house you do now abide, a ring of fine gold, and
+    did also write to her a sonnet in praise of her eyebrows and her
+    lips, and did otherwise wickedly disport with the said damsel.
+
+    _Item_. He doth further report of you that you did visit, with one
+    Ben Jonson, on the Sabbath-day, a place of disrepute, where were
+    cock-fights and the baiting of a bear, and that with you were two
+    brazen women, falsely called by you the wife and sister of Ben
+    Jonson.
+
+    These things do overmuch grieve Anne, who hath been to you a loyal
+    wife and a true, and she desires that you do forthwith renounce your
+    evil ways and return to the new house at Stratford, and in ashes and
+    sackcloth repent of your wanderings from the straight and narrow
+    way.
+
+    Thus far have I spoken to you as the mouthpiece and vicegerent of
+    Anne, your wife, who is in sore affliction and deep grief by reason
+    of your transgressions. But, beloved lamb of my flock, I should be
+    unworthy my high and sacred calling did I not lift up also my
+    rebuking voice as a pelican in the wilderness, and adjure you to
+    beware of concupiscence and fleshly lust, which unceasingly do war
+    upon the human soul. Thinkest thou to touch pitch and remain
+    undefiled?
+
+The next letter is from the firm of Coke &
+Dogberry, lawyers in London.
+
+    INNER TEMPLE, March 8, 1609.
+
+    To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:
+
+    We have been retained by Mistress Anne Page as her solicitors to
+    bring against you an action, for that you have not fulfilled and in
+    sooth cannot fulfil with her a contract of marriage, and to seek
+    against you under the laws of this realm heavy damages and an
+    imprisonment of the body, in that you have in unholy ways trifled
+    with her affections, contrary to the statute in such cases provided.
+    She especially avers that you did, two days before Michaelmas, swear
+    to her on a parcel gilt goblet that you did love her alone, and did
+    then give to her a bracelet of price. But yesterday, as she was
+    bargaining with a yeoman named Christopher Sly, from Stratford, for
+    the purchase of a spotted pig of his own fattening, the said Sly did
+    reveal to her that you were his friend, and that you had wife and
+    children in your native town where he dwelt. We beg you to
+    straightway name to us your solicitors, that we may confer with them
+    and attend to the issuance of the writs.
+
+I have aimed to select from the letters sent me only those bearing on
+some trouble tending to cause sleeplessness on the part of the poet, but
+make an exception in case of a letter of Sir Walter Raleigh, next in
+chronological order, which refers to matters of general interest.
+
+    The Mermaid, March 20, 1609.
+
+    To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:
+
+    Full well do I know, my dearest Will, that often hast thou wondered
+    of the fate of thy £50, which, with a hundred times as much of mine
+    own, was adventured to found an empire in America. Great were our
+    hopes, both of glory and of gold, in the kingdom of Powhatan. But it
+    grieves me much to say that all hath resulted in infelicity,
+    misfortune, and an unhappy end. Our ships were wrecked, or captured
+    by the knavish Spaniards. Our brave sailors are perished. As I was
+    blameworthy for thy risk, I send by the messenger your £50, which
+    you shall not lose by my over-hopeful vision. For its usance I send
+    a package of a new herb from the Chesapeake, called by the natives
+    tobacco. Make it not into tea, as did one of my kinsmen, but kindle
+    and smoke it in the little tube the messenger will bestow. Be not
+    deterred if thy gorge at first rises against it, for, when thou art
+    wonted, it is a balm for all sorrows and griefs, and as a dream of
+    Paradise. And now, my sweet Will, whom my soul loveth, why comest
+    thou not as of yore to the "Mermaid," that I may have speech with
+    thee? Thou knowest that from my youth up I have adventured all for
+    the welfare and glory of our Queen Elizabeth. On sea and on land and
+    in many climes have I fought the accursed Spaniards, and am honored
+    recognize thy supreme merit, for daily and hourly are sung to her
+    the praises of this loveliness until the story is as a tale that is
+    told and a weariness to the understanding; but thy commendations of
+    her wisdom will be as fresh and fragrant incense, nor will their
+    truthfulness be too closely scanned.
+
+    Thou knowest that I have taken all knowledge to be my province, and
+    therefore have I oft and longingly gazed into the flowery fields of
+    that divine art where to-day in our much-loved England thou art
+    disporting thyself supremely and alone. But when I consider thy
+    tragedies, throughout which is diffused the inmost soul of poesy, my
+    crude yet labored metres seem to me as the body of a maiden, not
+    indeed devoid of a certain comeliness and grace, yet into whose
+    waiting bosom hath not yet been breathed the spirit of life.
+
+    In thy tragedies thou hast the majestic grace which in the Attic
+    ages belonged to Sophocles alone; thou hast the stately march and
+    music of Aeschylus, without in thy themes his ceaseless iteration
+    of predestined woe which ranks his heroes outside humanity; yet the
+    sombre hand of fate hath not more inflexibly driven the gentle
+    Iphigenia to her doom than it hath followed Macbeth to his
+    foreshadowed crime and end. But in thy canticles it is not an
+    o'ershadowing, mysterious, and tragic fate, but a gracious and
+    loving Providence which, as thyself hath phrased it,
+
+      "Holds in His hands the shears of destiny,
+       And has commandment on the pulse of life."
+
+    In comedy, Aristophanes is not thy master, yet must I greatly choose
+    thy tragedies as monuments of thy abiding fame. Funeral dolors
+    rather than bridal carols inspire even the harp of David, beloved of
+    the Lord; and the pencil of the Holy Ghost toucheth ever the
+    shadowed phases of our earthly lives.
+
+    I am minded to now advert to another topic from the tale told me by
+    Southampton that thou wert presently to publish a volume of thy
+    sugared sonnets. May I pray thee that this collection compass not
+    the two sonnets written by thee for me in laud of our Queen
+    Elizabeth, and the one of this morning? As thou knowest, these first
+    were presented to our gracious Sovereign as mine own, and did so
+    pleasure her as to chiefly prosper my advancement. Were the true
+    author now known it might sadly mar my fortunes. In the vastness of
+    thy riches, the absence of these gems shall not be noted. The loss
+    of a star dims not the splendor of the constellations. The glorious
+    sun seeks not to reclaim the lustre his rays have given to the tiny
+    dewdrop. Withal I have rendered to thee somewhat of recompense as I
+    have spoken at sundry times to her gracious Majesty and to our
+    present anointed Sovereign of thy dramas, and fostered as best I
+    might thy interests when they crossed not mine own. So I trust this
+    boon may be awarded me, and that my borrowed splendors may not be
+    stripped away. Thy immeasurable superiority, as again evidenced in
+    the sonnet to the Lady Mary, has fixed anew my resolve as to my
+    predestined field of labor. Not for my brow shall be woven the
+    Poet's garland of bays. Yet abundant self-confidence is mine, and I
+    augur that in the great work for which I would fain believe the ages
+    are waiting, will be made clear my award to be the high priest of
+    Nature. Exact sciences not yet born shall be my servitors and the
+    augmenters of my fame. By the methods I have discerned shall mankind
+    discover and apply those beneficent innovations which are the
+    chiefest births of time. Yet even this hope hath its flavor of
+    bitterness, as thus guided my pupils may far overpass me and my
+    memory be lost. But the love of beauty and melody in poesy is of
+    perennial life, and thy memory shall survive the mutations of time,
+    and shall be the Nation's heritage while fancy and imagination dwell
+    in the souls of men.
+
+    Anew do I now discern that the meditation of Nature and her laws,
+    mysterious yet exact, consorteth not with the airy fancies of the
+    Poet's vision, and that our paths are diverse, yet each guiding to
+    what is useful and divine.
+
+    Farewell! and until the dolors of death are mine shall I remember
+    thy sweet, loving kindness, and admire thy shining genius where wit
+    and wisdom guide the flight of a sovereign imagination.
+
+    Ever thy friend, FRANCIS BACON.
+
+One special point is notable in this letter from Bacon. His ordinary
+correspondence is thickly sprinkled with quotations in the ancient
+tongues. As he was well acquainted with Shakespeare, this omission of
+his customary Latin phrases would indicate that he recognized
+Shakespeare's lack of a thorough classical education.
+
+The next, and the last letter in the collection which seems to have a
+bearing upon the sleeplessness of Shakespeare, is also from Rev. Walter
+Blaise.
+
+    STRATFORD, April 3, 1609.
+
+    TO WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:
+
+    Sir Thomas Lucy, who is in her Majesty's commission as a Justice of
+    the Peace in this bailiwick, yesterday did inform me that he had
+    been questioned from London if you were a married man, and if yes,
+    when and to whom you were wedded. As the parish records are in my
+    keeping, I could but bestow the information sought, although with
+    great sinking of heart, as a well-wisher to you, who, though given
+    overmuch to worldly frivolities and revels, yet are a worthy
+    citizen, and a charitable and a just. Greatly did I fear this
+    knowledge was sought to thy injury. Hast thou led a blameless life,
+    the gates of hell shall not prevail against thee; but the wicked
+    stand on slippery ways. Anne, thy wife, to whom I did unbosom my
+    fears, is in much tribulation lest thou art unfaithful to thy
+    marriage vows, and again beseeches me to urge thee to come forth
+    from wicked Babylon and dwell in thy pleasant home in Stratford.
+    Thou art become a man of substance; and hast moneys at usury. I have
+    read of thy verses and plays, which, albeit somewhat given to
+    lewdness, and addressed to gain the favor of the baser sort, yet
+    reveal thee to be a man of understanding. I cannot, as it is rumored
+    do some of thy town associates, award thee the title of poet, which
+    title is reserved for the shining ones; but thou hast parts. There
+    are many parish clerks, and even some curates in this realm,
+    scarcely more liberally endowed in mind than thou. But greatly do I
+    fear that thou art little better than one of the wicked. How hast
+    thou put to use this talent entrusted thee by the Master of the
+    vineyard? In the maintenance of the things which profit not; in
+    seeking the applause of the unworthy; in the writing of vain plays,
+    which, if of the follies of youth, may be forgiven and remembered
+    not against thee, provided in riper years you put behind you these
+    frivolities, and atone for the mischief thou hast wrought by
+    rendering acceptable service to the Master; by coming to the help of
+    the Lord against the mighty. Gladly would I take thy training in
+    charge, and guide thy tottering feet along the flowery paths of
+    Homiletics. Who knoweth into what vessels the All-seeing One may
+    elect to pour his spirit? Perchance in mercy I may be spared to
+    behold thee a faithful though humble preacher of the Word. Anne, thy
+    wife, often hath likened me to a great light upon a high hill-top,
+    shining in the darkness far away. I would not magnify my powers, but
+    not to all is it given to be mighty captains of a host. Yet,
+    according to thy gifts might thy work be, and a little candle
+    shining in a darkened valley hath its place.
+
+In the light of these letters, some passages in "Richard III." and the
+"Comedy of Errors," written in the same year (1609), have an added
+significance. In "Richard III.," Gloster says to Anne:--
+
+  "Your beauty was the cause of that effect:
+  Your beauty, that did haunt me in my sleep,
+  To undertake the death of all the world,
+  So I might live one hour in thy sweet bosom."
+
+In the "Comedy of Errors," the Abbess says to Adriana:--
+
+  "The venom clamors of a jealous woman
+  Poison more deadly than a mud dog's tooth.
+  It seems his sleep was hindered by thy railing.
+
+         *       *       *       *       *
+
+  In food, in sport, and life-preserving rest
+  To be disturbed, would mad or man or beast.
+  The consequence is, then, thy jealous fits
+  Have scared thy husband from the use of wits."
+
+Note, too, the kindred thought:--
+
+  "Love hath chased sleep from my enthrallèd eyes."
+
+And again this passage, called forth possibly by the letters of the
+Rev. Walter Blaise:--
+
+  "Slander,
+  Whose edge is sharper than the sword; whose tongue
+  Outvenoms all the worms of Nile; whose breath
+  Rides on the posting winds and doth belie
+  All corners of the world."
+
+As also this:--
+
+  "Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,
+  Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven,
+  Whiles, like a puffed and reckless libertine,
+  Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,
+  And recks not his own rede."
+
+From these several letters sufficiently appear the causes for the
+insomnia of Shakespeare, which are some of the same causes resulting in
+its prevalence to-day. They illustrate anew that history repeats itself
+forever; that humanity is always the same; that like temptations and
+errors come to men with like results in all the centuries; that the
+sleeplessness of Shakespeare came, because, merely as a matter of form,
+he had indorsed for a friend,--because he had bought more stocks than he
+could pay for, and when his margins were absorbed, came forth a shorn
+and shivering lamb,--because of the turbulence of labor,--because, alas!
+he too had been dazzled and bewildered by
+
+  "The light that lies
+  In woman's eyes."
+
+Marvellous as were the endowments of the master, yet was he human and as
+one of us.
+
+CHICAGO, 1886.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Shakespeare's Insomnia, And the Causes
+Thereof, by Franklin H. Head
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHAKESPEARE'S INSOMNIA ***
+
+***** This file should be named 11990-8.txt or 11990-8.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/9/9/11990/
+
+Produced by Steven desJardins and Distributed Proofreaders
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's
+eBook number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII,
+compressed (zipped), HTML and others.
+
+Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks replace the old file and take over
+the old filename and etext number.  The replaced older file is renamed.
+VERSIONS based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving
+new filenames and etext numbers.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+EBooks posted prior to November 2003, with eBook numbers BELOW #10000,
+are filed in directories based on their release date.  If you want to
+download any of these eBooks directly, rather than using the regular
+search system you may utilize the following addresses and just
+download by the etext year.
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org/etext06
+
+    (Or /etext 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99,
+     98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90)
+
+EBooks posted since November 2003, with etext numbers OVER #10000, are
+filed in a different way.  The year of a release date is no longer part
+of the directory path.  The path is based on the etext number (which is
+identical to the filename).  The path to the file is made up of single
+digits corresponding to all but the last digit in the filename.  For
+example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234
+
+or filename 24689 would be found at:
+     https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689
+
+An alternative method of locating eBooks:
+     https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL
+
+
diff --git a/old/11990-8.zip b/old/11990-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d7cdb6d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/11990-8.zip
diff --git a/old/11990-h.zip b/old/11990-h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a525e14
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/11990-h.zip
diff --git a/old/11990-h/11990-h.htm b/old/11990-h/11990-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dc308bb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/11990-h/11990-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,1676 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
+    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
+<head>
+  <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
+
+  <title>Shakespeare's Insomnia, and the causes thereof</title>
+
+  <style type="text/css">
+  <!--
+  body                 {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+  p                    {text-align: justify;}
+  blockquote           {text-align: justify;}
+  h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6    {text-align: center;}
+  pre                  {font-size: 0.7em;}
+
+  hr                   {text-align: center; width: 50%;}
+  html>body hr         {margin-right: 25%; margin-left: 25%; width: 50%;}
+  hr.full              {width: 100%;}
+  html>body hr.full    {margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 0%; width: 100%;}
+  hr.short             {text-align: center; width: 20%;}
+  html>body hr.short   {margin-right: 40%; margin-left: 40%; width: 20%;}
+
+  .note
+  {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;}
+
+  span.pagenum
+  {position: absolute; left: 1%; right: 91%; font-size: 8pt;}
+
+  .poem
+  {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: left;}
+  .poem .stanza        {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;}
+  .poem p              {margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+  .poem p.i2           {margin-left: 1em;}
+  .poem p.i4           {margin-left: 2em;}
+  .poem p.i6           {margin-left: 3em;}
+  .poem p.i8           {margin-left: 4em;}
+  .poem p.i10          {margin-left: 5em;}
+
+  .figure, .figcenter, .figright, .figleft
+  {padding: 1em; margin: 0; text-align: center; font-size: 0.8em;}
+  .figure img, .figcenter img, .figright img, .figleft img
+                       {border: none;}
+  .figure p, .figcenter p, .figright p, .figleft p
+                       {margin: 0; text-indent: 1em;}
+  .figcenter           {margin: auto;}
+  .figright            {float: right;}
+  .figleft             {float: left;}
+
+  .footnote            {font-size: 0.9em; margin-right: 10%; margin-left: 10%;}
+
+  .side { float:right;
+          font-size: 75%;
+          width: 25%;
+          padding-left:10px;
+          border-left: dashed thin;
+          margin-left: 10px;
+          text-align: left;
+          text-indent: 0;
+          font-weight: bold;
+          font-style: italic;}
+  -->
+  </style>
+</head>
+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Shakespeare's Insomnia, And the Causes
+Thereof, by Franklin H. Head
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Shakespeare's Insomnia, And the Causes Thereof
+
+Author: Franklin H. Head
+
+Release Date: April 11, 2004 [EBook #11990]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHAKESPEARE'S INSOMNIA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Steven desJardins and Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<h1>SHAKESPEARE'S INSOMNIA <i>And the Causes Thereof</i></h1>
+
+<h2>BY FRANKLIN H. HEAD</h2>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h4>1887</h4>
+
+<h4><i>Copyright, 1886</i>, BY FRANKLIN H. HEAD.</h4>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>[**Transcriber's Note: The following is a literary hoax, and the letters
+quoted below are fictitious.]</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2>SHAKESPEARE'S INSOMNIA, AND THE CAUSES THEREOF.</h2>
+
+
+
+
+<h3>I.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Insomnia, the lack of "tired Nature's sweet restorer," is rapidly
+becoming the chronic terror of all men of active life who have passed
+the age of thirty-five or forty years. In early life, while yet he
+"wears the rose of youth upon him," man rarely, except in sickness,
+knows the want of sound, undreaming sleep. But as early manhood is left
+behind and the cares and perplexities of life weigh upon him, making
+far more needful than ever the rest which comes only through unbroken
+sleep, this remedial agent cannot longer be wooed and won. Youth would
+"fain encounter darkness as a bride and hug it in his arms." To those of
+riper years the "blanket of the dark" often ushers in a season of
+terrors,&mdash;a time of fitful snatches of broken sleep and of tormenting
+dreams; of long stretches of wakefulness; of hours when all things
+perplexing and troublesome in one's affairs march before him in sombre
+procession: in endless disorder, in labyrinths of confusion, in
+countless new phases of disagreeableness; and at length the morning
+summons him to labor, far more racked and weary than when he sought
+repose.</p>
+
+<p>It has been of late years much the fashion in the literature of this
+subject to attribute sleeplessness to the rapid growth of facilities for
+activities of every kind. The practical annihilation of time and space
+by our telegraphs and railroads, the compressing thereby of the labors
+of months into hours or even minutes, the terrific competition in all
+kinds of business thereby made possible and inevitable, the intense
+mental activity engendered in the mad race for fame or wealth, where the
+nervous and mental force of man is measured against steam and
+lightning,&mdash;these are usually credited with having developed what is
+considered a modern and even an almost distinctively American disease.</p>
+
+<p>As the maxim, "There is nothing new under the sun," is of general
+application, it may be of interest to investigate if an exception occurs
+in the case of sleeplessness; if it be true that among our ancestors,
+before the days of working steam and electricity, the glorious sleep of
+youth was prolonged through all one's three or four score years.</p>
+
+<p>Medical books and literature throw no light upon this subject three
+hundred years ago. We must therefore turn to Shakespeare&mdash;human
+nature's universal solvent&mdash;for light on this as we would on any other
+question of his time. Was he troubled with insomnia, then, is the first
+problem to be solved.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Holmes, our genial and many-sided poet-laureate, who is also a
+philosopher, in his "Life of Emerson," has finely worked out the theory
+that no man writes other than his own experience: that consciously or
+otherwise an author describes himself in the characters he draws; that
+when he loves the character he delineates, it is in some measure his
+own, or at least one of which he feels its tendencies and possibilities
+belong to himself. Emerson, too, says of Shakespeare, that all his
+poetry was first experience.</p>
+
+<p>When we seek to analyze what we mean by the term Shakespeare, to
+endeavor to define wherein he was distinct from all others and easily
+pre-eminent, to know why to us he ever grows wiser as we grow wise, we
+find that his especial characteristic was an unequalled power of
+observation and an ability accurately to chronicle his impressions. He
+was the only man ever born who lived and wrote absolutely without bias
+or prejudice. Emerson says of him that "he reported all things with
+impartiality; that he tells the great greatly, the small
+subordinately,&mdash;he is strong as Nature is strong, who lifts the land
+into mountain slopes without effort, and by the same rule as she floats
+a bubble in the air, and likes as well to do the one as the other." Says
+he, further: "Give a man of talents a story to tell, and his partiality
+will presently appear: he has certain opinions which he disposes other
+things to bring into prominence; he crams this part and starves the
+other part, consulting not the fitness of the thing but his fitness and
+strength." But Shakespeare has no peculiarity; all is duly given.</p>
+
+<p>Thus it is that his dramas are the book of human life. He was an
+accurate observer of Nature: he notes the markings of the violet and the
+daisy; the haunts of the honeysuckle, the mistletoe, and the woodbine.
+He marks the fealty of the marigold to its god the sun, and even touches
+the freaks of fashion, condemning in some woman of his time an usage,
+long obsolete, in accordance with which she adorned her head with "the
+golden tresses of the dead." But it was as an observer and a delineator
+of man in all his moods that he was the bright, consummate flower of
+humanity. His experiences were wide and varied. He had absorbed into
+himself and made his own the pith and wisdom of his day. As the fittest
+survives, each age embodies in itself all worthy of preservation in the
+ages gone before. In Shakespeare's pages we find a reflection, perfect
+and absolute, of the age of Elizabeth, and therefore of all not
+transient in the foregone times,&mdash;of all which is fixed and permanent
+in our own. He "held the mirror up to Nature." So "his eternal summer
+shall not fade," because</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"He sang of the earth as it will be</p>
+<p>When the years have passed away."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>If, therefore, insomnia had prevailed in or before his time, in his
+pages shall we find it duly set forth. If he had suffered, if the
+"fringed curtains of his eyes were all the night undrawn," we shall find
+his dreary experiences&mdash;his hours of pathetic misery, his nights of
+desolation&mdash;voiced by the tongues of his men and women.</p>
+
+<p>Shakespeare speaks often of the time in life when men have left behind
+them the dreamless sleep of youth. Friar Laurence says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"Care keeps his watch in every old man's eye,</p>
+<p>And where care lodges, sleep can never lie;</p>
+<p>But where unbruis&egrave;d youth with unstuffed brain</p>
+<p>Doth couch his limbs, there golden sleep doth reign."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>Shakespeare describes, too, with lifelike fidelity, the causes of
+insomnia, which are not weariness or physical pain, but undue mental
+anxiety. He constantly contrasts the troubled sleep of those burdened
+with anxieties and cares, with the happy lot of the laborer whose
+physical weariness insures him a tranquil night's repose. Henry VI.
+says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"And to conclude, the shepherd's homely curds,</p>
+<p>His cold thin drink out of his leather bottle,</p>
+<p>His wonted sleep under a fresh tree's shade,</p>
+<p>All which secure and sweetly he enjoys,</p>
+<p>Are far beyond a prince's delicates."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>And Henry V. says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"'Tis not the balm, the sceptre and the ball,</p>
+<p>The sword, the mace, the crown imperial,</p>
+<p>The intertissued robe of gold and pearl,</p>
+<p>The farc&egrave;d title running 'fore the king,</p>
+<p>The throne he sits on, nor the tide of pomp</p>
+<p>That beats upon the high shore of this world,&mdash;</p>
+<p>No, not all these, thrice gorgeous ceremony,</p>
+<p>Not all these, laid in bed majestical,</p>
+<p>Can sleep so soundly as the wretched slave,</p>
+<p>Who, with a body filled and vacant mind,</p>
+<p>Gets him to rest, crammed with distressful bread;</p>
+<p>Never sees horrid night, that child of hell,</p>
+<p>But, like a lackey, from the rise to set,</p>
+<p>Sweats in the eye of Phoebus, and all night</p>
+<p>Sleeps in Elysium....</p>
+<p>And, but for ceremony, such a wretch,</p>
+<p>Winding up days with toil and nights with sleep,</p>
+<p>Hath the forehand and vantage of a king."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>Prince Henry says, in "Henry IV.":&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"O polished perturbation! Golden care!</p>
+<p>That keep'st the ports of slumber open wide</p>
+<p>To many a watchful night, sleep with it now!</p>
+<p>Yet not so sound and half so deeply sweet</p>
+<p>As he whose brow with homely biggin bound</p>
+<p>Snores out the watch of night."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>In this same play, too, is found the familiar and marvellous soliloquy
+of Henry IV.:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"How many thousand of my poorest subjects</p>
+<p>Are at this hour asleep! O Sleep, O gentle Sleep,</p>
+<p>Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee,</p>
+<p>That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down</p>
+<p>And steep my senses in forgetfulness?</p>
+<p>Why rather, Sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs,</p>
+<p>Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee,</p>
+<p>And hushed with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber,</p>
+<p>Than in the perfumed chambers of the great,</p>
+<p>Under the canopies of costly state,</p>
+<p>And lulled with sounds of sweetest melody?</p>
+<p>O thou dull god, why liest thou with the vile</p>
+<p>In loathsome beds, and leav'st the kingly couch</p>
+<p>A watch-case, or a common 'larum-bell?</p>
+<p>Wilt thou upon the high and giddy mast</p>
+<p>Seal up the ship-boy's eyes, and rock his brains</p>
+<p>In cradle of the rude, imperious surge,</p>
+<p>And in the visitation of the winds,</p>
+<p>Who take the ruffian billows by the top,</p>
+<p>Curling their monstrous heads, and hanging them</p>
+<p>With deafening clamor in the slippery shrouds,</p>
+<p>That with the hurly, death itself awakes?</p>
+<p>Canst thou, O partial Sleep, give thy repose</p>
+<p>To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude,</p>
+<p>And in the calmest and most stillest night,</p>
+<p>With all appliances and means to boot,</p>
+<p>Deny it to a king? Then, happy low, lie down!</p>
+<p>Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>Caesar, whom Shakespeare characterizes as "the foremost man of all this
+world," says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"Let me have men about me that are fat;</p>
+<p>Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>And again, it is not an "old man broken with the storms of state" whom
+he describes when he says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"Thou hast no figures nor no fantasies</p>
+<p>Which busy care draws in the brains of men;</p>
+<p>Therefore thou sleep'st so sound."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>The poet also in various passages expresses his emphatic belief as to
+what is the brightest blessing or the deadliest calamity which can be
+laid upon our frail humanity. Rarely is a blessing invoked which does
+not include the wish for tranquil sleep; and this, too, as the best and
+greatest boon of all. His gracious benediction may compass honors and
+wealth and happiness and fame,&mdash;that one's "name may dwell forever in
+the mouths of men;" but</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"The earth hath bubbles as the water hath,</p>
+<p>And these are of them,"</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>as compared with the royal benison, "Sleep give thee all his rest."</p>
+
+<p>The spectres of the princes and Queen Anne, in "Richard III.," invoking
+every good upon Richmond, say:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"Sleep, Richmond, sleep in peace and wake in joy."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>And again:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"Thou quiet soul, sleep thou a quiet sleep."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>Romeo's dearest wish to Juliet is,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"Sleep dwell upon thine eyes; peace in thy breast."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>The crowning promise of Lady Mortimer, in "Henry IV.," is that</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"She will sing the song that pleaseth thee,</p>
+<p>And on thy eyelids crown the god of sleep."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>Titania promises her fantastic lover,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"I'll give thee fairies to attend on thee,</p>
+<p>And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep,</p>
+<p>And sing, while thou on press&egrave;d flowers dost sleep."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>Titus, welcoming again to Rome the victorious legions, says of the
+heroes who have fallen:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"There greet in silence, as the dead are wont,</p>
+<p>And sleep in peace, slain in your country's wars,"</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>promising them that in the land of the blest</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p class="i10">           "are no storms,</p>
+<p>No noise, but silence and eternal sleep."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>Constantly also in anathemas throughout the plays are invoked, as the
+deadliest of curses, broken rest and its usual accompaniment of
+troublous dreams. Thus note the climax in Queen Margaret's curse upon
+the traitorous Gloster:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"If Heaven have any grievous plague in store</p>
+<p>Exceeding those that I can wish upon thee,</p>
+<p>Oh, let them keep it till thy sins be ripe,</p>
+<p>And then hurl down their indignation</p>
+<p>On thee, the troubler of the poor world's peace!</p>
+<p>The worm of conscience still begnaw thy soul!</p>
+<p>Thy friends suspect for traitors while thou liv'st,</p>
+<p>And take deep traitors for thy dearest friends!</p>
+<p>No sleep close up that deadly eye of thine,</p>
+<p>Unless it be while some tormenting dream</p>
+<p>Affrights thee with a hell of ugly devils!"</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>The witch, in "Macbeth," cataloguing the calamities in store for the
+ambitious Thane, says:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"Sleep shall neither night nor day</p>
+<p>Hang upon his pent-house lid;</p>
+<p>He shall live a man forbid."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>It is curious also to remark, in the various lists of griefs which make
+life a burden and a sorrow, how often the climax of these woes is the
+lack of sleep, or the troubled dreams bearing their train of "gorgons,
+hydras, and chimeras dire," which come with broken rest. Lady Percy says
+to Hotspur:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"Why hast thou lost the fresh blood in thy cheeks,</p>
+<p>And given my treasures and my rights of thee</p>
+<p>To thick-eyed musing and curst melancholy?</p>
+<p>Tell me, sweet lord, what is't that takes from thee</p>
+<p>Thy stomach, pleasure, and thy golden sleep?"</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>Macbeth says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"But let the frame of things disjoint, both the worlds suffer,</p>
+<p>Ere we will eat our meal in fear, and sleep</p>
+<p>In the affliction of these terrible dreams</p>
+<p>That shake us nightly; better be with the dead."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>In "Othello" is a striking picture of the sudden change, in the
+direction we are considering, which comes over a tranquil mind from the
+commission of a great crime. Iago says to Othello, after he has wrought
+"the deed without a name":&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"Not poppy nor mandragora,</p>
+<p>Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world,</p>
+<p>Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep</p>
+<p>Which thou own'dst yesterday."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>The greatest punishment which comes to Macbeth after the murder of
+Duncan is lack of sleep. Nowhere in the language, in the same space, can
+be found so many pictures of the blessedness of repose as in the
+familiar lines:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"Methought I heard a voice cry, 'Sleep no more!</p>
+<p>Macbeth does murder sleep,' the innocent sleep;</p>
+<p>Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleave of care,</p>
+<p>The death of each day's life, sore labor's bath,</p>
+<p>Balm of hurt minds, great Nature's second course,</p>
+<p>Chief nourisher in life's feast."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>And the principal reason which deters Hamlet from suicide is the fear
+that even if he does sleep well "after life's fitful fever is over,"
+still, that sleep may be full of troubled dreams.</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there's the rub;</p>
+<p>For in that sleep of death what dreams may come</p>
+<p>When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,</p>
+<p>Must give us pause."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>Richard III. says, when the catalogue of his crimes is full, and when he
+"sees as in a map the end of all":&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"The sons of Edward sleep in Abraham's bosom,</p>
+<p>And Anne, my queen, hath bid the world good night."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>In addition to the fuller phrases wherein are shown the blessedness of
+sleep, or the remediless nature of its loss, many brief sentences occur
+scattered throughout the plays, and emphasizing the same great lesson.
+For instance:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p class="i10">   "Now o'er one half the world</p>
+<p>Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse</p>
+<p>The curtained sleep."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p class="i10">   "With Him above</p>
+<p>To ratify our work, we may again</p>
+<p>Give to our tables meat, sleep to our nights."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"You lack the season of all natures, sleep."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"My soul is heavy, and I fain would sleep."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"For never yet one hour in his bed</p>
+<p>Have I enjoyed the golden dew of sleep."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"For some must watch and some must sleep,</p>
+<p>So runs the world away."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon that bank."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"The best of rest is sleep."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"Our little lives are rounded with a sleep."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>The various passages cited above prove and illustrate that no author has
+written so feelingly, so appreciatingly, as Shakespeare on the subject
+of sleep and its loss.</p>
+
+<p>The diligent commentators on his works have investigated laboriously the
+sources from which he drew his plots and many of the very lines of his
+poems. He was a great borrower; absorbing, digesting, and making his own
+much of the material of his predecessors. But it is a noteworthy fact,
+that none of the exquisite lines in praise of sleep&mdash;that gift which the
+Psalmist says the Lord giveth to his beloved&mdash; can be traced to other
+source than the master. These are jewels of his own; transcripts from
+his own mournful experience. In middle life he remembered hopelessly the
+tranquil sleep of his lost youth, as</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"He that is stricken blind cannot forget</p>
+<p>The precious treasure of his eyesight lost."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>He had suffered from insomnia, and he writes of this, not "as
+imagination bodies forth the forms of things <i>unknown</i>," but as one
+who, in words burning with indestructible life, lays open to us the
+sombre record of what was experience before it was song; who makes us
+the sharers of his griefs; who would awaken in the similarly afflicted
+of all time that compassionate sympathy which goes out to those whose
+burdens are almost greater than they can bear.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3>II.</h3>
+
+
+<p>The meagre information we have as to the life and habits of Shakespeare
+would seem to make it an almost hopeless task now to discover the causes
+of his insomnia. He wrote a marvellous body of literature, and it might
+be thought this labor itself would suffice as an explanation: that the
+furnace heat in which the conceptions of Hamlet and Macbeth and Lear
+were wrought in the crucible of his brain would be fatal to repose. But
+his contemporaries speak of him as an easy and rapid writer; one whose
+imagination is only paralleled by the ease, the force and beauty of the
+phrase in which it is embodied. We are told, too, by Dr. H.A. Johnson,
+an eminent medical authority, in the second volume of his treatise on
+the pathology of the optic nerve, that it is not work, even heavy and
+continuous, but worry over this work, which drives away repose and
+shortens life.</p>
+
+<p>I had observed, in collating the many passages in Shakespeare concerning
+sleep, that the greater number, and those bearing evidence of deepest
+earnestness, occurred in six plays: "Richard III.," "Macbeth," "1 Henry
+IV.," "Hamlet," "2 Henry IV.," and "Henry V." The chronology of
+Shakespeare's plays seems almost hopeless, scarcely any two writers
+agreeing as to the order of the plays or the years in which they were
+written. Several of the most critical authorities, however,&mdash;Dyce,
+White, Furnival, and Halliwell-Phillipps,&mdash;are agreed that two of the
+plays above named were written in 1593, three in 1602, and one in 1609.
+This would seem to indicate that during these three years unusual
+perplexities or anxieties had surrounded our author; and on noting this,
+it occurred to me that on these points the series of papers recently
+discovered and called the Southampton manuscripts, which are not yet
+published, might give light. I accordingly addressed a letter to the
+Director of the British Museum, where the manuscripts are placed for
+safe keeping, and received the following reply:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+    BRITISH MUSEUM, OFFICE OF CHIEF CURATOR, DEPARTMENT OF MANUSCRIPTS,
+    LONDON, Feb. 14, 1886.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">SIR,&mdash;I am directed by the Curator to acknowledge the receipt of
+    your valued favor of February 1, transmitting for preservation and
+    reference in the library of this institution&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="i4">1. The manuscript of the farewell address of Dr. Charles Gilman
+    Smith, on his retirement to private life from the presidency of the
+    Chicago Literary Club;</p>
+
+<p class="i4">2. The manuscript of the inaugural address of his successor in the
+    office,&mdash;which is a public trust,&mdash;James S. Norton, Esq.;</p>
+
+<p class="i4">3. An affidavit of Dr. W.F. Poole, that both manuscripts are
+    originals, and in the handwriting of their eminent authors.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">The Curator further instructs me to convey to you the thanks of the
+    Board of Governors for these highly important papers, and to state
+    to you that they may be found on file in sub-compartment No. 113,280
+    of Contemporary Documents.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">I am further instructed by the Curator to inform you that compliance
+    with your request that this institution reciprocate your kindness by
+    loaning to you all papers from the recently discovered Southampton
+    Shakespeare Collection, bearing date in the years 1593, 1602, and
+    1609, is contrary to the regulations of this institution. If you
+    cannot visit London to examine these interesting manuscripts, copies
+    will be made and transmitted you for three halfpence per folio,
+    payment by our rules invariably in advance. I note that you are
+    evidently in error upon one point. The collection contains no
+    letters or manuscripts of Shakespeare. It is composed principally of
+    letters written to Shakespeare by various people, and which, after
+    his death, in some way came into the possession of the Earl of
+    Southampton. His death, so soon after that of Shakespeare, doubtless
+    caused these letters to be lost sight of, and they were but last
+    year discovered in the donjon of the castle. I have examined the
+    letters for the years you name, and find that copies of the same can
+    be made for £3 3s., exclusive of postage.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">Very respectfully yours,</p>
+
+<p class="i4">JOHN BARNACLE,</p>
+
+<p class="i4"><i>10th Ass't Sub-Secretary.</i>
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The money having been forwarded, I received in due time the copies. At
+the first date, 1593, Shakespeare was a young dramatist and actor
+struggling for recognition, poor and almost unknown; in 1602 he had won
+an assured position among his fellows, and, with the thrift which
+characterized him, had secured an interest in the Globe Theatre, where
+his plays were performed; in 1609 he was in the fulness of his
+contemporary fame, had bought valuable property in Stratford, and was
+contemplating retirement to his country home.</p>
+
+<p>The following are the letters from the Southampton collection which
+serve to throw light upon the insomnia of Shakespeare. They are given in
+their chronological order, and verbatim, but not literatim, the
+orthography having been modernized. The first of the letters, dated in
+1593, is from a firm of lawyers, Messrs. Shallow &amp; Slender, and is as
+follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+    INNER TEMPLE, LONDON, Feb. 15, 1593.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:</p>
+
+<p class="i4">Mr. Moses Solomons, an honored client of our firm, has placed with
+    us, that payment may be straightway enforced, a bill drawn by John
+    Heminge, for £10, due in two months from the date thereof, and the
+    payment of which was assured by you in writing. This bill has been
+    for some days overdue, and Mr. Solomons is constrained to call upon
+    you for payment at once. Your prompt attention to this will save the
+    costs and annoyance of an arrest.
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The second letter is from the same parties, and bears date four days
+later than the first.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+    Inner Temple, Feb. 19, 1593. Mr. William Shakespeare:</p>
+
+<p class="i4">Recurring to certain statements made by yourself at our chambers
+    yesterday, we have considered the same, and have likewise the
+    opinion thereon of our client, Mr. Solomons. As we do now recall
+    them, you nominated three principal grounds why you should not be
+    pressed to pay the bill drawn by Mr. Heminge. First, that you
+    received no value therefor, having put your name to the bill upon
+    the assurance that it was a matter of form, and to oblige a friend.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">To this we rejoin, that by the law of estoppel you are precluded to
+    deny the consideration after the bill hath passed into the holding
+    of a discounter unnotified of the facts.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">Second, That, as our client paid but £1 for the bill, he should not
+    exact £10 thereon. To the which we reply, that, so a valuable
+    consideration was passed for the bill, the law looketh not to its
+    exact amount. It is also asserted by our client that, beyond actual
+    coin given for the bill, he did further release to John Heminge
+    certain tinsel crowns, swords, and apparel appurtenant to the
+    representation of royalty, which had before then&mdash;to wit, two weeks
+    before&mdash;been pledged to him for the sum of 8 shillings, borrowed by
+    the said Heminge.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">Third, That it was impossible for you to pay the bill, you having no
+    money, and receiving no greater income than 22 shillings per week,
+    all of which was necessary to the maintenance of yourself and
+    family. We regret again to call to your notice the Statute of 16
+    Eliz., entitled, "Concerning the Imprisonment of Insolvent Debtors,"
+    which we trust you will not oblige us to invoke in aid of our
+    suffering client's rights. To be lenient and merciful is his
+    inclination, and we are happy to communicate to you this most
+    favorable tender for an acquittance of his claim. You shall render
+    to us an order on the Steward of the Globe Theatre for 20 shillings
+    per week of your stipend therein. This will leave to you yet 2
+    shillings per week, which, with prudence, will yield to you the
+    comforts, if not the luxuries, of subsistence. In ten weeks the face
+    of the bill will be thus repaid. For his forbearance in the matter
+    of time, which hath most seriously inconvenienced him, he requires
+    that you shall pay him the further sum of £2 as usury, and likewise
+    that you do liquidate and save him harmless from the charges of us,
+    his solicitors, which charges, from the number of grave and
+    complicated questions which have become a part of this case and
+    demanded solution, we are unable to make less than £4. We should say
+    guineas, but your evident distress hath moved us to gentleness and
+    mercy. These added sums are to be likewise embraced in the Steward's
+    order, and paid at the same rate as the substance of the bill, and
+    should you embrace this compassionate tender, in the brief period of
+    sixteen weeks you will be at the end of this indebtedness.
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The next letter is dated the following month, and is from Henry Howard,
+an apparent pawnbroker.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+    QUEER STREET, LONDON, 10 March, 1593.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, Actor:</p>
+
+<p class="i4">These presents are to warn you that the time has six days since
+    passed in which you were to repay me 8 shillings, and thereby
+    redeem the property in pledge to me; namely, one Henry VIII. shirt
+    of mail and visor, and Portia's law book, and the green bag
+    therefor. Be warned that unless the 8 shillings and the usance
+    thereof be forthcoming, the town-crier shall notify the sale of the
+    sundry articles named.
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The next letter, and the last in this period of the poet's career
+(1593), is from Mordecai Shylock.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+    FLEET STREET, NEAR THE SIGN OF THE HOG IN ARMOR, NOV. 22, 1593.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:</p>
+
+<p class="i4">I have been active in the way you some days since besought me;
+    namely, the procuring for you of a loan of £5, that you might retire
+    a bill upon which you were a guarantor. As I then told you, I have
+    no money myself, being very poor; but I have a friend who has money
+    with which I can persuade him to relieve your wants. Had I myself
+    the money, I should gladly meet your needs at a moderate usance, not
+    more than twenty-five in the hundred; but my friend is a hard man,
+    who exacts large returns for his means, and will be very urgent that
+    repayment be made on the day named in the bill. He hath empowered me
+    to take your bill at two months,&mdash;for him, mind you,&mdash;for £10, the
+    payment to be assured, as you wished, by the pledge of your two new
+    plays in manuscript,&mdash;"Midsummer Night's Dream" and "Romeo and
+    Juliet,"&mdash;for which bill he will at my strong instance, and because
+    you are a friend to me, give £5. My charge for services in this
+    behalf, which hath consumed much time, will be £1, which I shall
+    straightway pay out in the purchase of a new gown, much needed by my
+    little daughter Jessica, who loves you and recalls often the
+    pleasant tales you do repeat for her diversion.
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The letters in the second period (1602) are nine years later than those
+just read. The first is from the same Mordecai Shylock, who, with the
+poet, seems to have prospered in worldly affairs, as his letters are
+dated in a more reputable portion of the city.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+    THREADNEEDLE STREET, LONDON, April 17, 1602.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:</p>
+
+<p class="i4">In January last past you purchased of Richard Burbage four shares of
+    the stock of the Globe Theatre for £100, and inasmuch as you had not
+    available the whole means to pay therefor, borrowed from me the £60
+    wanting, paying yourself £40 of such purchase price, and giving me
+    in pledge for my £60 such four shares of stock. Owing to special
+    attractions at Blackfriars' Theatre, the stock of the Globe hath
+    greatly declined in value, and I fear these four shares may not
+    longer be salable at the price of even £60, and I therefore must
+    importune that you forthwith do make a payment of £20 on your said
+    bill, or the four shares of stock will be sold at public vendue.
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The next letter is from the same writer, and is dated nine days later.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+    THREADNEEDLE STREET, April 26, 1602.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:</p>
+
+<p class="i4">I acknowledge to have received from you by the hand of Henry Condell
+    £5, and two of your own shares in the stock of the Globe Theatre in
+    further pledge of your bill of £60, as was engaged between us
+    yesterday. It pains me to make known to you that, owing to the great
+    demands recently made upon the goldsmiths by her sacred Majesty,
+    money hath become very dear; and as it was not my own lent you, I
+    have been obliged to pay above the usance expected a further premium
+    of seventeen in the hundred, which I pray you to presently repay
+    me. I am told that shares in the Globe can now be bought at £15;
+    and inasmuch as yours were bought at £25, should you acquire other
+    shares at £15, it would serve to equate your havings.
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The next letter, from the same broker, is written but a few days later.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+    THREADNEEDLE STREET, May 12, 1602.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:</p>
+
+<p class="i4">Acting as requested by you, I did one week ago buy for you three
+    shares in the Globe Theatre for £15 each, using in such purchase the
+    £15 given me by you, and £30, not of mine own, but which was
+    furnished me by a goldsmith of repute. Yesterday I learned that
+    shares were offered at £10 each, perchance from the efforts of
+    forestallers, as also from the preaching of a dissenter, who
+    fulminates that the end of the world is but three weeks away, which
+    hath induced great seriousness among the people. Unless you can pay
+    me, therefore, as much as £40, on the morrow I shall be constrained
+    to offer such shares to the highest bidder at the meeting of the
+    guild.
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The next letter is also from the same Mordecai Shylock, and is dated
+four days later.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+    THREADNEEDLE STREET, May 16, 1602.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:</p>
+
+<p class="i4">My earnest epistle to thee of four days since having elicited no
+    response, I did on the following day offer at the meeting of the
+    Brokers' Guild some of the shares of the stock in the Globe pledged
+    to me, and three shares were bidden at £9 each by my brother,
+    Nehemiah Shylock. As I offered next all the rest, one Henry
+    Wriothsley, Earl of Southampton, did ask to whom the shares
+    belonged, and when he was enlightened, did straightway take all the
+    shares and pay me the whole balance owing, and called me divers
+    opprobrious names. I answered not his railing with railing, for
+    sufferance is the badge of all our tribe, but such slander is illy
+    bestowed on one who has been your friend for long, and who was but
+    striving to avert his own destruction.
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The next letter in order is from one William Kempe, who would seem to be
+the business manager of the Globe Theatre, or the person having in
+charge the unskilled labor connected with the playhouse.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+    GLOBE PLAYHOUSE, EMPLOYMENT BUREAU, May 25, 1602.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:</p>
+
+<p class="i4">In much tribulation do I write thee as to the contention which hath
+    arisen among our stock actors and supes of the Globe. Nicholas
+    Bottom, whom you brought from the Parish workhouse in Stratford, is
+    in ill humor with thee in especial. He says when he played with you
+    in Ben Jonson's comedy, "Every Man in his Humor," he was by far the
+    better actor and did receive the plaudits of all; despite which he
+    now receives but 6 shillings each week, while you are become a man
+    of great wealth, having gotten, as he verily believes, as much as
+    £100. Vainly did I oppose to him that the reason you had money when
+    he had none was in verity that you had labored when he was drunken,
+    and that this was to his profit, since, had not you and the other
+    holders of shares in the Globe saved somewhat of money, unthrifty
+    groundlings of his ilk would starve, as there would be none to hire
+    them at wages; but he avers that he is ground in the dust by the
+    greed of capital, and hath so much prated of this that he hath much
+    following, and accounteth himself a martyr. I said to him that at
+    your especial order he was paid 6 shillings per week, which was
+    double his worth, and that he should go elsewhere if he was not
+    content, as I could daily get a better man for half his wages; but
+    he will not go hence, nor will he perform, and has persuaded others
+    to join with him, his very worthlessness having made him their
+    leader, and they threaten, unless they may receive additional 4
+    shillings per week, and a groat each night for sack, they will have
+    no plays performed, nor will they allow others to be hired in their
+    stead. They do further demand that you shall write shorter plays;
+    that you shall write no tragedies requiring them to labor more than
+    three hours in the rendition; that you shall cut out as much as
+    twelve pages each in "Richard III." and "Othello," and fifteen pages
+    from "Hamlet," that they may not labor to weariness, and may have
+    more hours to recreation and improvement at the alehouse. I know not
+    what to do. If I yield them their demands, nothing will be left for
+    the owners of shares in the Globe; and if I do not, I fear mobs and
+    riots. Fain would I receive thy counsel, which shall have good
+    heed.
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The next letter is the last in the period under review, and bears date
+four days later than the one just quoted from William Kempe.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+    AT THE ELEPHANT &amp; MAGPIE INN, LONDON, May 29, 1602.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">TO WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:</p>
+
+<p class="i4">This is written to thee by John Lely, a clerk, in behalf of Nicholas
+    Bottom, who useth not the pen, and who says to me to tell William
+    Shakespeare, fie upon him that he did order the aforesaid Bottom to
+    be locked out of the Globe Playhouse. Hath he forgotten the first
+    play he, William Shakespeare, did ever write, to wit, "Pyramus and
+    Thisbe," when a boy at Stratford, which was played by himself and
+    Nicholas Bottom and Peter Quince and others, in a barn, for the
+    delectation of the townsmen? And is not this same play a part of his
+    "Midsummer Night's Dream," which beggarly play he did sell for £10,
+    and hath not Nicholas Bottom first and always been an ass therein?
+    Doth he refuse to render to Nicholas Bottom 10 shillings per week
+    when he can get £10 or even £11 for a beggarly play, which is nought
+    unless it be acted? Many a time hath he paid me from a sponging
+    house; often hath he given me groats for sack, and for purges when
+    sack hath undone me; and did I ever insult him to offer to repay him
+    a penny? Say to him, remembereth he not when the horses ridden by
+    Duncan and Macbeth upon the stage did break through the floor, who,
+    affrighted, did run howling away, whereby Burbage was aroused and
+    did pick him, William Shakespeare, from among the horses' feet and
+    save his life? And now, sweet Will, fie upon thee that thou didst
+    frown upon thy townsman. Delay not to send me sundry shillings for
+    the publican, who believes you will discharge, as often before, my
+    reckoning. This, and much more of like tenor, saith Nicholas Bottom
+    to William Shakespeare by your worship's humble servant,</p>
+
+<p class="i4">JOHN LELY.
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The letters in the third period bear date in 1609, seven years later
+than those last quoted. The first is from Rev. Walter Blaise, who
+appears to be the clergyman at Stratford-on-Avon.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+    STRATFORD, Feb. 23, 1609.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">TO WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:</p>
+
+<p class="i4">John Naps, of Greece, who did recently return to his home here from
+    London, safely has delivered to Anne, your wife, the package
+    entrusted to him for carriage. As your wife hath not the gift of
+    writing, she does desire that I convey to you her thanks for the
+    sundry contents of the hamper. She hath also confided to me as her
+    spiritual adviser that she did diligently ply John Naps with
+    questions as to his visit to you in London, and that said John Naps,
+    under her interrogatories, has revealed to her much that doth make
+    her sick at heart and weary of life.</p>
+
+<p class="i4"><i>Item</i>. He doth report that you do pass among men as a bachelor,
+    and, with sundry players and men of that ilk, do frequent a house of
+    entertainment kept by one Doll Tearsheet, and do kiss the barmaid
+    and call her your sweetheart.</p>
+
+<p class="i4"><i>Item</i>. He doth also report that you did give to the daughter of the
+    publican at whose house you do now abide, a ring of fine gold, and
+    did also write to her a sonnet in praise of her eyebrows and her
+    lips, and did otherwise wickedly disport with the said damsel.</p>
+
+<p class="i4"><i>Item</i>. He doth further report of you that you did visit, with one
+    Ben Jonson, on the Sabbath-day, a place of disrepute, where were
+    cock-fights and the baiting of a bear, and that with you were two
+    brazen women, falsely called by you the wife and sister of Ben
+    Jonson.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">These things do overmuch grieve Anne, who hath been to you a loyal
+    wife and a true, and she desires that you do forthwith renounce your
+    evil ways and return to the new house at Stratford, and in ashes and
+    sackcloth repent of your wanderings from the straight and narrow
+    way.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">Thus far have I spoken to you as the mouthpiece and vicegerent of
+    Anne, your wife, who is in sore affliction and deep grief by reason
+    of your transgressions. But, beloved lamb of my flock, I should be
+    unworthy my high and sacred calling did I not lift up also my
+    rebuking voice as a pelican in the wilderness, and adjure you to
+    beware of concupiscence and fleshly lust, which unceasingly do war
+    upon the human soul. Thinkest thou to touch pitch and remain
+    undefiled?
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The next letter is from the firm of Coke &amp;
+Dogberry, lawyers in London.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+    INNER TEMPLE, March 8, 1609.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:</p>
+
+<p class="i4">We have been retained by Mistress Anne Page as her solicitors to
+    bring against you an action, for that you have not fulfilled and in
+    sooth cannot fulfil with her a contract of marriage, and to seek
+    against you under the laws of this realm heavy damages and an
+    imprisonment of the body, in that you have in unholy ways trifled
+    with her affections, contrary to the statute in such cases provided.
+    She especially avers that you did, two days before Michaelmas, swear
+    to her on a parcel gilt goblet that you did love her alone, and did
+    then give to her a bracelet of price. But yesterday, as she was
+    bargaining with a yeoman named Christopher Sly, from Stratford, for
+    the purchase of a spotted pig of his own fattening, the said Sly did
+    reveal to her that you were his friend, and that you had wife and
+    children in your native town where he dwelt. We beg you to
+    straightway name to us your solicitors, that we may confer with them
+    and attend to the issuance of the writs.
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>I have aimed to select from the letters sent me only those bearing on
+some trouble tending to cause sleeplessness on the part of the poet, but
+make an exception in case of a letter of Sir Walter Raleigh, next in
+chronological order, which refers to matters of general interest.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+    The Mermaid, March 20, 1609.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:</p>
+
+<p class="i4">Full well do I know, my dearest Will, that often hast thou wondered
+    of the fate of thy £50, which, with a hundred times as much of mine
+    own, was adventured to found an empire in America. Great were our
+    hopes, both of glory and of gold, in the kingdom of Powhatan. But it
+    grieves me much to say that all hath resulted in infelicity,
+    misfortune, and an unhappy end. Our ships were wrecked, or captured
+    by the knavish Spaniards. Our brave sailors are perished. As I was
+    blameworthy for thy risk, I send by the messenger your £50, which
+    you shall not lose by my over-hopeful vision. For its usance I send
+    a package of a new herb from the Chesapeake, called by the natives
+    tobacco. Make it not into tea, as did one of my kinsmen, but kindle
+    and smoke it in the little tube the messenger will bestow. Be not
+    deterred if thy gorge at first rises against it, for, when thou art
+    wonted, it is a balm for all sorrows and griefs, and as a dream of
+    Paradise. And now, my sweet Will, whom my soul loveth, why comest
+    thou not as of yore to the "Mermaid," that I may have speech with
+    thee? Thou knowest that from my youth up I have adventured all for
+    the welfare and glory of our Queen Elizabeth. On sea and on land and
+    in many climes have I fought the accursed Spaniards, and am honored
+    recognize thy supreme merit, for daily and hourly are sung to her
+    the praises of this loveliness until the story is as a tale that is
+    told and a weariness to the understanding; but thy commendations of
+    her wisdom will be as fresh and fragrant incense, nor will their
+    truthfulness be too closely scanned.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">Thou knowest that I have taken all knowledge to be my province, and
+    therefore have I oft and longingly gazed into the flowery fields of
+    that divine art where to-day in our much-loved England thou art
+    disporting thyself supremely and alone. But when I consider thy
+    tragedies, throughout which is diffused the inmost soul of poesy, my
+    crude yet labored metres seem to me as the body of a maiden, not
+    indeed devoid of a certain comeliness and grace, yet into whose
+    waiting bosom hath not yet been breathed the spirit of life.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">In thy tragedies thou hast the majestic grace which in the Attic
+    ages belonged to Sophocles alone; thou hast the stately march and
+    music of Aeschylus, without in thy themes his ceaseless iteration
+    of predestined woe which ranks his heroes outside humanity; yet the
+    sombre hand of fate hath not more inflexibly driven the gentle
+    Iphigenia to her doom than it hath followed Macbeth to his
+    foreshadowed crime and end. But in thy canticles it is not an
+    o'ershadowing, mysterious, and tragic fate, but a gracious and
+    loving Providence which, as thyself hath phrased it,</p>
+
+<p class="i6">"Holds in His hands the shears of destiny,
+       And has commandment on the pulse of life."</p>
+
+<p class="i4">In comedy, Aristophanes is not thy master, yet must I greatly choose
+    thy tragedies as monuments of thy abiding fame. Funeral dolors
+    rather than bridal carols inspire even the harp of David, beloved of
+    the Lord; and the pencil of the Holy Ghost toucheth ever the
+    shadowed phases of our earthly lives.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">I am minded to now advert to another topic from the tale told me by
+    Southampton that thou wert presently to publish a volume of thy
+    sugared sonnets. May I pray thee that this collection compass not
+    the two sonnets written by thee for me in laud of our Queen
+    Elizabeth, and the one of this morning? As thou knowest, these first
+    were presented to our gracious Sovereign as mine own, and did so
+    pleasure her as to chiefly prosper my advancement. Were the true
+    author now known it might sadly mar my fortunes. In the vastness of
+    thy riches, the absence of these gems shall not be noted. The loss
+    of a star dims not the splendor of the constellations. The glorious
+    sun seeks not to reclaim the lustre his rays have given to the tiny
+    dewdrop. Withal I have rendered to thee somewhat of recompense as I
+    have spoken at sundry times to her gracious Majesty and to our
+    present anointed Sovereign of thy dramas, and fostered as best I
+    might thy interests when they crossed not mine own. So I trust this
+    boon may be awarded me, and that my borrowed splendors may not be
+    stripped away. Thy immeasurable superiority, as again evidenced in
+    the sonnet to the Lady Mary, has fixed anew my resolve as to my
+    predestined field of labor. Not for my brow shall be woven the
+    Poet's garland of bays. Yet abundant self-confidence is mine, and I
+    augur that in the great work for which I would fain believe the ages
+    are waiting, will be made clear my award to be the high priest of
+    Nature. Exact sciences not yet born shall be my servitors and the
+    augmenters of my fame. By the methods I have discerned shall mankind
+    discover and apply those beneficent innovations which are the
+    chiefest births of time. Yet even this hope hath its flavor of
+    bitterness, as thus guided my pupils may far overpass me and my
+    memory be lost. But the love of beauty and melody in poesy is of
+    perennial life, and thy memory shall survive the mutations of time,
+    and shall be the Nation's heritage while fancy and imagination dwell
+    in the souls of men.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">Anew do I now discern that the meditation of Nature and her laws,
+    mysterious yet exact, consorteth not with the airy fancies of the
+    Poet's vision, and that our paths are diverse, yet each guiding to
+    what is useful and divine.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">Farewell! and until the dolors of death are mine shall I remember
+    thy sweet, loving kindness, and admire thy shining genius where wit
+    and wisdom guide the flight of a sovereign imagination.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">Ever thy friend, FRANCIS BACON.
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>One special point is notable in this letter from Bacon. His ordinary
+correspondence is thickly sprinkled with quotations in the ancient
+tongues. As he was well acquainted with Shakespeare, this omission of
+his customary Latin phrases would indicate that he recognized
+Shakespeare's lack of a thorough classical education.</p>
+
+<p>The next, and the last letter in the collection which seems to have a
+bearing upon the sleeplessness of Shakespeare, is also from Rev. Walter
+Blaise.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+    STRATFORD, April 3, 1609.</p>
+
+<p class="i4">TO WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:</p>
+
+<p class="i4">Sir Thomas Lucy, who is in her Majesty's commission as a Justice of
+    the Peace in this bailiwick, yesterday did inform me that he had
+    been questioned from London if you were a married man, and if yes,
+    when and to whom you were wedded. As the parish records are in my
+    keeping, I could but bestow the information sought, although with
+    great sinking of heart, as a well-wisher to you, who, though given
+    overmuch to worldly frivolities and revels, yet are a worthy
+    citizen, and a charitable and a just. Greatly did I fear this
+    knowledge was sought to thy injury. Hast thou led a blameless life,
+    the gates of hell shall not prevail against thee; but the wicked
+    stand on slippery ways. Anne, thy wife, to whom I did unbosom my
+    fears, is in much tribulation lest thou art unfaithful to thy
+    marriage vows, and again beseeches me to urge thee to come forth
+    from wicked Babylon and dwell in thy pleasant home in Stratford.
+    Thou art become a man of substance; and hast moneys at usury. I have
+    read of thy verses and plays, which, albeit somewhat given to
+    lewdness, and addressed to gain the favor of the baser sort, yet
+    reveal thee to be a man of understanding. I cannot, as it is rumored
+    do some of thy town associates, award thee the title of poet, which
+    title is reserved for the shining ones; but thou hast parts. There
+    are many parish clerks, and even some curates in this realm,
+    scarcely more liberally endowed in mind than thou. But greatly do I
+    fear that thou art little better than one of the wicked. How hast
+    thou put to use this talent entrusted thee by the Master of the
+    vineyard? In the maintenance of the things which profit not; in
+    seeking the applause of the unworthy; in the writing of vain plays,
+    which, if of the follies of youth, may be forgiven and remembered
+    not against thee, provided in riper years you put behind you these
+    frivolities, and atone for the mischief thou hast wrought by
+    rendering acceptable service to the Master; by coming to the help of
+    the Lord against the mighty. Gladly would I take thy training in
+    charge, and guide thy tottering feet along the flowery paths of
+    Homiletics. Who knoweth into what vessels the All-seeing One may
+    elect to pour his spirit? Perchance in mercy I may be spared to
+    behold thee a faithful though humble preacher of the Word. Anne, thy
+    wife, often hath likened me to a great light upon a high hill-top,
+    shining in the darkness far away. I would not magnify my powers, but
+    not to all is it given to be mighty captains of a host. Yet,
+    according to thy gifts might thy work be, and a little candle
+    shining in a darkened valley hath its place.
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>In the light of these letters, some passages in "Richard III." and the
+"Comedy of Errors," written in the same year (1609), have an added
+significance. In "Richard III.," Gloster says to Anne:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"Your beauty was the cause of that effect:</p>
+<p>Your beauty, that did haunt me in my sleep,</p>
+<p>To undertake the death of all the world,</p>
+<p>So I might live one hour in thy sweet bosom."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>In the "Comedy of Errors," the Abbess says to Adriana:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"The venom clamors of a jealous woman</p>
+<p>Poison more deadly than a mud dog's tooth.</p>
+<p>It seems his sleep was hindered by thy railing.</p>
+  </div><div class="stanza">
+<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*</p>
+  </div><div class="stanza">
+<p>In food, in sport, and life-preserving rest</p>
+<p>To be disturbed, would mad or man or beast.</p>
+<p>The consequence is, then, thy jealous fits</p>
+<p>Have scared thy husband from the use of wits."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>Note, too, the kindred thought:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"Love hath chased sleep from my enthrall&egrave;d eyes."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>And again this passage, called forth possibly by the letters of the
+Rev. Walter Blaise:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"Slander,</p>
+<p>Whose edge is sharper than the sword; whose tongue</p>
+<p>Outvenoms all the worms of Nile; whose breath</p>
+<p>Rides on the posting winds and doth belie</p>
+<p>All corners of the world."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>As also this:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,</p>
+<p>Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven,</p>
+<p>Whiles, like a puffed and reckless libertine,</p>
+<p>Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,</p>
+<p>And recks not his own rede."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>From these several letters sufficiently appear the causes for the
+insomnia of Shakespeare, which are some of the same causes resulting in
+its prevalence to-day. They illustrate anew that history repeats itself
+forever; that humanity is always the same; that like temptations and
+errors come to men with like results in all the centuries; that the
+sleeplessness of Shakespeare came, because, merely as a matter of form,
+he had indorsed for a friend,&mdash;because he had bought more stocks than he
+could pay for, and when his margins were absorbed, came forth a shorn
+and shivering lamb,&mdash;because of the turbulence of labor,&mdash;because, alas!
+he too had been dazzled and bewildered by</p>
+
+<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
+<p>"The light that lies</p>
+<p>In woman's eyes."</p>
+  </div>  </div>
+
+<p>Marvellous as were the endowments of the master, yet was he human and as
+one of us.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>CHICAGO, 1886.</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Shakespeare's Insomnia, And the Causes
+Thereof, by Franklin H. Head
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHAKESPEARE'S INSOMNIA ***
+
+***** This file should be named 11990-h.htm or 11990-h.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/9/9/11990/
+
+Produced by Steven desJardins and Distributed Proofreaders
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's
+eBook number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII,
+compressed (zipped), HTML and others.
+
+Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks replace the old file and take over
+the old filename and etext number.  The replaced older file is renamed.
+VERSIONS based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving
+new filenames and etext numbers.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+EBooks posted prior to November 2003, with eBook numbers BELOW #10000,
+are filed in directories based on their release date.  If you want to
+download any of these eBooks directly, rather than using the regular
+search system you may utilize the following addresses and just
+download by the etext year.
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org/etext06
+
+    (Or /etext 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99,
+     98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90)
+
+EBooks posted since November 2003, with etext numbers OVER #10000, are
+filed in a different way.  The year of a release date is no longer part
+of the directory path.  The path is based on the etext number (which is
+identical to the filename).  The path to the file is made up of single
+digits corresponding to all but the last digit in the filename.  For
+example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234
+
+or filename 24689 would be found at:
+     https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689
+
+An alternative method of locating eBooks:
+     https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+</body>
+</html>
+
+
diff --git a/old/11990.txt b/old/11990.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f12541a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/11990.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,1475 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Shakespeare's Insomnia, And the Causes
+Thereof, by Franklin H. Head
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Shakespeare's Insomnia, And the Causes Thereof
+
+Author: Franklin H. Head
+
+Release Date: April 11, 2004 [EBook #11990]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHAKESPEARE'S INSOMNIA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Steven desJardins and Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+SHAKESPEARE'S INSOMNIA _And the Causes Thereof_
+
+BY FRANKLIN H. HEAD
+
+
+
+1887
+
+
+[**Transcriber's Note: The following is a literary hoax, and the letters
+quoted below are fictitious.]
+
+
+
+
+SHAKESPEARE'S INSOMNIA, AND THE CAUSES THEREOF.
+
+
+
+I.
+
+
+Insomnia, the lack of "tired Nature's sweet restorer," is rapidly
+becoming the chronic terror of all men of active life who have passed
+the age of thirty-five or forty years. In early life, while yet he
+"wears the rose of youth upon him," man rarely, except in sickness,
+knows the want of sound, undreaming sleep. But as early manhood is left
+behind and the cares and perplexities of life weigh upon him, making
+far more needful than ever the rest which comes only through unbroken
+sleep, this remedial agent cannot longer be wooed and won. Youth would
+"fain encounter darkness as a bride and hug it in his arms." To those of
+riper years the "blanket of the dark" often ushers in a season of
+terrors,--a time of fitful snatches of broken sleep and of tormenting
+dreams; of long stretches of wakefulness; of hours when all things
+perplexing and troublesome in one's affairs march before him in sombre
+procession: in endless disorder, in labyrinths of confusion, in
+countless new phases of disagreeableness; and at length the morning
+summons him to labor, far more racked and weary than when he sought
+repose.
+
+It has been of late years much the fashion in the literature of this
+subject to attribute sleeplessness to the rapid growth of facilities for
+activities of every kind. The practical annihilation of time and space
+by our telegraphs and railroads, the compressing thereby of the labors
+of months into hours or even minutes, the terrific competition in all
+kinds of business thereby made possible and inevitable, the intense
+mental activity engendered in the mad race for fame or wealth, where the
+nervous and mental force of man is measured against steam and
+lightning,--these are usually credited with having developed what is
+considered a modern and even an almost distinctively American disease.
+
+As the maxim, "There is nothing new under the sun," is of general
+application, it may be of interest to investigate if an exception occurs
+in the case of sleeplessness; if it be true that among our ancestors,
+before the days of working steam and electricity, the glorious sleep of
+youth was prolonged through all one's three or four score years.
+
+Medical books and literature throw no light upon this subject three
+hundred years ago. We must therefore turn to Shakespeare--human
+nature's universal solvent--for light on this as we would on any other
+question of his time. Was he troubled with insomnia, then, is the first
+problem to be solved.
+
+Dr. Holmes, our genial and many-sided poet-laureate, who is also a
+philosopher, in his "Life of Emerson," has finely worked out the theory
+that no man writes other than his own experience: that consciously or
+otherwise an author describes himself in the characters he draws; that
+when he loves the character he delineates, it is in some measure his
+own, or at least one of which he feels its tendencies and possibilities
+belong to himself. Emerson, too, says of Shakespeare, that all his
+poetry was first experience.
+
+When we seek to analyze what we mean by the term Shakespeare, to
+endeavor to define wherein he was distinct from all others and easily
+pre-eminent, to know why to us he ever grows wiser as we grow wise, we
+find that his especial characteristic was an unequalled power of
+observation and an ability accurately to chronicle his impressions. He
+was the only man ever born who lived and wrote absolutely without bias
+or prejudice. Emerson says of him that "he reported all things with
+impartiality; that he tells the great greatly, the small
+subordinately,--he is strong as Nature is strong, who lifts the land
+into mountain slopes without effort, and by the same rule as she floats
+a bubble in the air, and likes as well to do the one as the other." Says
+he, further: "Give a man of talents a story to tell, and his partiality
+will presently appear: he has certain opinions which he disposes other
+things to bring into prominence; he crams this part and starves the
+other part, consulting not the fitness of the thing but his fitness and
+strength." But Shakespeare has no peculiarity; all is duly given.
+
+Thus it is that his dramas are the book of human life. He was an
+accurate observer of Nature: he notes the markings of the violet and the
+daisy; the haunts of the honeysuckle, the mistletoe, and the woodbine.
+He marks the fealty of the marigold to its god the sun, and even touches
+the freaks of fashion, condemning in some woman of his time an usage,
+long obsolete, in accordance with which she adorned her head with "the
+golden tresses of the dead." But it was as an observer and a delineator
+of man in all his moods that he was the bright, consummate flower of
+humanity. His experiences were wide and varied. He had absorbed into
+himself and made his own the pith and wisdom of his day. As the fittest
+survives, each age embodies in itself all worthy of preservation in the
+ages gone before. In Shakespeare's pages we find a reflection, perfect
+and absolute, of the age of Elizabeth, and therefore of all not
+transient in the foregone times,--of all which is fixed and permanent
+in our own. He "held the mirror up to Nature." So "his eternal summer
+shall not fade," because
+
+  "He sang of the earth as it will be
+  When the years have passed away."
+
+If, therefore, insomnia had prevailed in or before his time, in his
+pages shall we find it duly set forth. If he had suffered, if the
+"fringed curtains of his eyes were all the night undrawn," we shall find
+his dreary experiences--his hours of pathetic misery, his nights of
+desolation--voiced by the tongues of his men and women.
+
+Shakespeare speaks often of the time in life when men have left behind
+them the dreamless sleep of youth. Friar Laurence says:--
+
+  "Care keeps his watch in every old man's eye,
+  And where care lodges, sleep can never lie;
+  But where unbruised youth with unstuffed brain
+  Doth couch his limbs, there golden sleep doth reign."
+
+Shakespeare describes, too, with lifelike fidelity, the causes of
+insomnia, which are not weariness or physical pain, but undue mental
+anxiety. He constantly contrasts the troubled sleep of those burdened
+with anxieties and cares, with the happy lot of the laborer whose
+physical weariness insures him a tranquil night's repose. Henry VI.
+says:--
+
+  "And to conclude, the shepherd's homely curds,
+  His cold thin drink out of his leather bottle,
+  His wonted sleep under a fresh tree's shade,
+  All which secure and sweetly he enjoys,
+  Are far beyond a prince's delicates."
+
+And Henry V. says:--
+
+  "'Tis not the balm, the sceptre and the ball,
+  The sword, the mace, the crown imperial,
+  The intertissued robe of gold and pearl,
+  The farced title running 'fore the king,
+  The throne he sits on, nor the tide of pomp
+  That beats upon the high shore of this world,--
+  No, not all these, thrice gorgeous ceremony,
+  Not all these, laid in bed majestical,
+  Can sleep so soundly as the wretched slave,
+  Who, with a body filled and vacant mind,
+  Gets him to rest, crammed with distressful bread;
+  Never sees horrid night, that child of hell,
+  But, like a lackey, from the rise to set,
+  Sweats in the eye of Phoebus, and all night
+  Sleeps in Elysium....
+  And, but for ceremony, such a wretch,
+  Winding up days with toil and nights with sleep,
+  Hath the forehand and vantage of a king."
+
+Prince Henry says, in "Henry IV.":--
+
+  "O polished perturbation! Golden care!
+  That keep'st the ports of slumber open wide
+  To many a watchful night, sleep with it now!
+  Yet not so sound and half so deeply sweet
+  As he whose brow with homely biggin bound
+  Snores out the watch of night."
+
+In this same play, too, is found the familiar and marvellous soliloquy
+of Henry IV.:--
+
+  "How many thousand of my poorest subjects
+  Are at this hour asleep! O Sleep, O gentle Sleep,
+  Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee,
+  That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down
+  And steep my senses in forgetfulness?
+  Why rather, Sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs,
+  Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee,
+  And hushed with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber,
+  Than in the perfumed chambers of the great,
+  Under the canopies of costly state,
+  And lulled with sounds of sweetest melody?
+  O thou dull god, why liest thou with the vile
+  In loathsome beds, and leav'st the kingly couch
+  A watch-case, or a common 'larum-bell?
+  Wilt thou upon the high and giddy mast
+  Seal up the ship-boy's eyes, and rock his brains
+  In cradle of the rude, imperious surge,
+  And in the visitation of the winds,
+  Who take the ruffian billows by the top,
+  Curling their monstrous heads, and hanging them
+  With deafening clamor in the slippery shrouds,
+  That with the hurly, death itself awakes?
+  Canst thou, O partial Sleep, give thy repose
+  To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude,
+  And in the calmest and most stillest night,
+  With all appliances and means to boot,
+  Deny it to a king? Then, happy low, lie down!
+  Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown."
+
+Caesar, whom Shakespeare characterizes as "the foremost man of all this
+world," says:--
+
+  "Let me have men about me that are fat;
+  Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights."
+
+And again, it is not an "old man broken with the storms of state" whom
+he describes when he says:--
+
+  "Thou hast no figures nor no fantasies
+  Which busy care draws in the brains of men;
+  Therefore thou sleep'st so sound."
+
+The poet also in various passages expresses his emphatic belief as to
+what is the brightest blessing or the deadliest calamity which can be
+laid upon our frail humanity. Rarely is a blessing invoked which does
+not include the wish for tranquil sleep; and this, too, as the best and
+greatest boon of all. His gracious benediction may compass honors and
+wealth and happiness and fame,--that one's "name may dwell forever in
+the mouths of men;" but
+
+  "The earth hath bubbles as the water hath,
+  And these are of them,"
+
+as compared with the royal benison, "Sleep give thee all his rest."
+
+The spectres of the princes and Queen Anne, in "Richard III.," invoking
+every good upon Richmond, say:--
+
+  "Sleep, Richmond, sleep in peace and wake in joy."
+
+And again:--
+
+  "Thou quiet soul, sleep thou a quiet sleep."
+
+Romeo's dearest wish to Juliet is,--
+
+  "Sleep dwell upon thine eyes; peace in thy breast."
+
+The crowning promise of Lady Mortimer, in "Henry IV.," is that
+
+  "She will sing the song that pleaseth thee,
+  And on thy eyelids crown the god of sleep."
+
+Titania promises her fantastic lover,--
+
+  "I'll give thee fairies to attend on thee,
+  And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep,
+  And sing, while thou on pressed flowers dost sleep."
+
+Titus, welcoming again to Rome the victorious legions, says of the
+heroes who have fallen:
+
+  "There greet in silence, as the dead are wont,
+  And sleep in peace, slain in your country's wars,"
+
+promising them that in the land of the blest
+
+                        "are no storms,
+  No noise, but silence and eternal sleep."
+
+Constantly also in anathemas throughout the plays are invoked, as the
+deadliest of curses, broken rest and its usual accompaniment of
+troublous dreams. Thus note the climax in Queen Margaret's curse upon
+the traitorous Gloster:--
+
+  "If Heaven have any grievous plague in store
+  Exceeding those that I can wish upon thee,
+  Oh, let them keep it till thy sins be ripe,
+  And then hurl down their indignation
+  On thee, the troubler of the poor world's peace!
+  The worm of conscience still begnaw thy soul!
+  Thy friends suspect for traitors while thou liv'st,
+  And take deep traitors for thy dearest friends!
+  No sleep close up that deadly eye of thine,
+  Unless it be while some tormenting dream
+  Affrights thee with a hell of ugly devils!"
+
+The witch, in "Macbeth," cataloguing the calamities in store for the
+ambitious Thane, says:
+
+  "Sleep shall neither night nor day
+  Hang upon his pent-house lid;
+  He shall live a man forbid."
+
+It is curious also to remark, in the various lists of griefs which make
+life a burden and a sorrow, how often the climax of these woes is the
+lack of sleep, or the troubled dreams bearing their train of "gorgons,
+hydras, and chimeras dire," which come with broken rest. Lady Percy says
+to Hotspur:--
+
+  "Why hast thou lost the fresh blood in thy cheeks,
+  And given my treasures and my rights of thee
+  To thick-eyed musing and curst melancholy?
+  Tell me, sweet lord, what is't that takes from thee
+  Thy stomach, pleasure, and thy golden sleep?"
+
+Macbeth says:--
+
+  "But let the frame of things disjoint, both the worlds suffer,
+  Ere we will eat our meal in fear, and sleep
+  In the affliction of these terrible dreams
+  That shake us nightly; better be with the dead."
+
+In "Othello" is a striking picture of the sudden change, in the
+direction we are considering, which comes over a tranquil mind from the
+commission of a great crime. Iago says to Othello, after he has wrought
+"the deed without a name":--
+
+  "Not poppy nor mandragora,
+  Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world,
+  Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep
+  Which thou own'dst yesterday."
+
+The greatest punishment which comes to Macbeth after the murder of
+Duncan is lack of sleep. Nowhere in the language, in the same space, can
+be found so many pictures of the blessedness of repose as in the
+familiar lines:--
+
+  "Methought I heard a voice cry, 'Sleep no more!
+  Macbeth does murder sleep,' the innocent sleep;
+  Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleave of care,
+  The death of each day's life, sore labor's bath,
+  Balm of hurt minds, great Nature's second course,
+  Chief nourisher in life's feast."
+
+And the principal reason which deters Hamlet from suicide is the fear
+that even if he does sleep well "after life's fitful fever is over,"
+still, that sleep may be full of troubled dreams.
+
+  "To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there's the rub;
+  For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
+  When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
+  Must give us pause."
+
+Richard III. says, when the catalogue of his crimes is full, and when he
+"sees as in a map the end of all":--
+
+  "The sons of Edward sleep in Abraham's bosom,
+  And Anne, my queen, hath bid the world good night."
+
+In addition to the fuller phrases wherein are shown the blessedness of
+sleep, or the remediless nature of its loss, many brief sentences occur
+scattered throughout the plays, and emphasizing the same great lesson.
+For instance:--
+
+               "Now o'er one half the world
+  Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
+  The curtained sleep."
+
+               "With Him above
+  To ratify our work, we may again
+  Give to our tables meat, sleep to our nights."
+
+  "You lack the season of all natures, sleep."
+
+  "My soul is heavy, and I fain would sleep."
+
+  "For never yet one hour in his bed
+  Have I enjoyed the golden dew of sleep."
+
+  "For some must watch and some must sleep,
+  So runs the world away."
+
+  "How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon that bank."
+
+  "The best of rest is sleep."
+
+  "Our little lives are rounded with a sleep."
+
+The various passages cited above prove and illustrate that no author has
+written so feelingly, so appreciatingly, as Shakespeare on the subject
+of sleep and its loss.
+
+The diligent commentators on his works have investigated laboriously the
+sources from which he drew his plots and many of the very lines of his
+poems. He was a great borrower; absorbing, digesting, and making his own
+much of the material of his predecessors. But it is a noteworthy fact,
+that none of the exquisite lines in praise of sleep--that gift which the
+Psalmist says the Lord giveth to his beloved--can be traced to other
+source than the master. These are jewels of his own; transcripts from
+his own mournful experience. In middle life he remembered hopelessly the
+tranquil sleep of his lost youth, as
+
+  "He that is stricken blind cannot forget
+  The precious treasure of his eyesight lost."
+
+He had suffered from insomnia, and he writes of this, not "as
+imagination bodies forth the forms of things _unknown_," but as one
+who, in words burning with indestructible life, lays open to us the
+sombre record of what was experience before it was song; who makes us
+the sharers of his griefs; who would awaken in the similarly afflicted
+of all time that compassionate sympathy which goes out to those whose
+burdens are almost greater than they can bear.
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+
+The meagre information we have as to the life and habits of Shakespeare
+would seem to make it an almost hopeless task now to discover the causes
+of his insomnia. He wrote a marvellous body of literature, and it might
+be thought this labor itself would suffice as an explanation: that the
+furnace heat in which the conceptions of Hamlet and Macbeth and Lear
+were wrought in the crucible of his brain would be fatal to repose. But
+his contemporaries speak of him as an easy and rapid writer; one whose
+imagination is only paralleled by the ease, the force and beauty of the
+phrase in which it is embodied. We are told, too, by Dr. H.A. Johnson,
+an eminent medical authority, in the second volume of his treatise on
+the pathology of the optic nerve, that it is not work, even heavy and
+continuous, but worry over this work, which drives away repose and
+shortens life.
+
+I had observed, in collating the many passages in Shakespeare concerning
+sleep, that the greater number, and those bearing evidence of deepest
+earnestness, occurred in six plays: "Richard III.," "Macbeth," "1 Henry
+IV.," "Hamlet," "2 Henry IV.," and "Henry V." The chronology of
+Shakespeare's plays seems almost hopeless, scarcely any two writers
+agreeing as to the order of the plays or the years in which they were
+written. Several of the most critical authorities, however,--Dyce,
+White, Furnival, and Halliwell-Phillipps,--are agreed that two of the
+plays above named were written in 1593, three in 1602, and one in 1609.
+This would seem to indicate that during these three years unusual
+perplexities or anxieties had surrounded our author; and on noting this,
+it occurred to me that on these points the series of papers recently
+discovered and called the Southampton manuscripts, which are not yet
+published, might give light. I accordingly addressed a letter to the
+Director of the British Museum, where the manuscripts are placed for
+safe keeping, and received the following reply:--
+
+    BRITISH MUSEUM, OFFICE OF CHIEF CURATOR, DEPARTMENT OF MANUSCRIPTS,
+    LONDON, Feb. 14, 1886.
+
+    SIR,--I am directed by the Curator to acknowledge the receipt of
+    your valued favor of February 1, transmitting for preservation and
+    reference in the library of this institution--
+
+    1. The manuscript of the farewell address of Dr. Charles Gilman
+    Smith, on his retirement to private life from the presidency of the
+    Chicago Literary Club;
+
+    2. The manuscript of the inaugural address of his successor in the
+    office,--which is a public trust,--James S. Norton, Esq.;
+
+    3. An affidavit of Dr. W.F. Poole, that both manuscripts are
+    originals, and in the handwriting of their eminent authors.
+
+    The Curator further instructs me to convey to you the thanks of the
+    Board of Governors for these highly important papers, and to state
+    to you that they may be found on file in sub-compartment No. 113,280
+    of Contemporary Documents.
+
+    I am further instructed by the Curator to inform you that compliance
+    with your request that this institution reciprocate your kindness by
+    loaning to you all papers from the recently discovered Southampton
+    Shakespeare Collection, bearing date in the years 1593, 1602, and
+    1609, is contrary to the regulations of this institution. If you
+    cannot visit London to examine these interesting manuscripts, copies
+    will be made and transmitted you for three halfpence per folio,
+    payment by our rules invariably in advance. I note that you are
+    evidently in error upon one point. The collection contains no
+    letters or manuscripts of Shakespeare. It is composed principally of
+    letters written to Shakespeare by various people, and which, after
+    his death, in some way came into the possession of the Earl of
+    Southampton. His death, so soon after that of Shakespeare, doubtless
+    caused these letters to be lost sight of, and they were but last
+    year discovered in the donjon of the castle. I have examined the
+    letters for the years you name, and find that copies of the same can
+    be made for L3 3s., exclusive of postage.
+
+    Very respectfully yours,
+
+    JOHN BARNACLE,
+
+    _10th Ass't Sub-Secretary._
+
+The money having been forwarded, I received in due time the copies. At
+the first date, 1593, Shakespeare was a young dramatist and actor
+struggling for recognition, poor and almost unknown; in 1602 he had won
+an assured position among his fellows, and, with the thrift which
+characterized him, had secured an interest in the Globe Theatre, where
+his plays were performed; in 1609 he was in the fulness of his
+contemporary fame, had bought valuable property in Stratford, and was
+contemplating retirement to his country home.
+
+The following are the letters from the Southampton collection which
+serve to throw light upon the insomnia of Shakespeare. They are given in
+their chronological order, and verbatim, but not literatim, the
+orthography having been modernized. The first of the letters, dated in
+1593, is from a firm of lawyers, Messrs. Shallow & Slender, and is as
+follows:--
+
+    INNER TEMPLE, LONDON, Feb. 15, 1593.
+
+    To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:
+
+    Mr. Moses Solomons, an honored client of our firm, has placed with
+    us, that payment may be straightway enforced, a bill drawn by John
+    Heminge, for L10, due in two months from the date thereof, and the
+    payment of which was assured by you in writing. This bill has been
+    for some days overdue, and Mr. Solomons is constrained to call upon
+    you for payment at once. Your prompt attention to this will save the
+    costs and annoyance of an arrest.
+
+The second letter is from the same parties, and bears date four days
+later than the first.
+
+    Inner Temple, Feb. 19, 1593. Mr. William Shakespeare:
+
+    Recurring to certain statements made by yourself at our chambers
+    yesterday, we have considered the same, and have likewise the
+    opinion thereon of our client, Mr. Solomons. As we do now recall
+    them, you nominated three principal grounds why you should not be
+    pressed to pay the bill drawn by Mr. Heminge. First, that you
+    received no value therefor, having put your name to the bill upon
+    the assurance that it was a matter of form, and to oblige a friend.
+
+    To this we rejoin, that by the law of estoppel you are precluded to
+    deny the consideration after the bill hath passed into the holding
+    of a discounter unnotified of the facts.
+
+    Second, That, as our client paid but L1 for the bill, he should not
+    exact L10 thereon. To the which we reply, that, so a valuable
+    consideration was passed for the bill, the law looketh not to its
+    exact amount. It is also asserted by our client that, beyond actual
+    coin given for the bill, he did further release to John Heminge
+    certain tinsel crowns, swords, and apparel appurtenant to the
+    representation of royalty, which had before then--to wit, two weeks
+    before--been pledged to him for the sum of 8 shillings, borrowed by
+    the said Heminge.
+
+    Third, That it was impossible for you to pay the bill, you having no
+    money, and receiving no greater income than 22 shillings per week,
+    all of which was necessary to the maintenance of yourself and
+    family. We regret again to call to your notice the Statute of 16
+    Eliz., entitled, "Concerning the Imprisonment of Insolvent Debtors,"
+    which we trust you will not oblige us to invoke in aid of our
+    suffering client's rights. To be lenient and merciful is his
+    inclination, and we are happy to communicate to you this most
+    favorable tender for an acquittance of his claim. You shall render
+    to us an order on the Steward of the Globe Theatre for 20 shillings
+    per week of your stipend therein. This will leave to you yet 2
+    shillings per week, which, with prudence, will yield to you the
+    comforts, if not the luxuries, of subsistence. In ten weeks the face
+    of the bill will be thus repaid. For his forbearance in the matter
+    of time, which hath most seriously inconvenienced him, he requires
+    that you shall pay him the further sum of L2 as usury, and likewise
+    that you do liquidate and save him harmless from the charges of us,
+    his solicitors, which charges, from the number of grave and
+    complicated questions which have become a part of this case and
+    demanded solution, we are unable to make less than L4. We should say
+    guineas, but your evident distress hath moved us to gentleness and
+    mercy. These added sums are to be likewise embraced in the Steward's
+    order, and paid at the same rate as the substance of the bill, and
+    should you embrace this compassionate tender, in the brief period of
+    sixteen weeks you will be at the end of this indebtedness.
+
+The next letter is dated the following month, and is from Henry Howard,
+an apparent pawnbroker.
+
+    QUEER STREET, LONDON, 10 March, 1593.
+
+    To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, Actor:
+
+    These presents are to warn you that the time has six days since
+    passed in which you were to repay me 8 shillings, and thereby
+    redeem the property in pledge to me; namely, one Henry VIII. shirt
+    of mail and visor, and Portia's law book, and the green bag
+    therefor. Be warned that unless the 8 shillings and the usance
+    thereof be forthcoming, the town-crier shall notify the sale of the
+    sundry articles named.
+
+The next letter, and the last in this period of the poet's career
+(1593), is from Mordecai Shylock.
+
+    FLEET STREET, NEAR THE SIGN OF THE HOG IN ARMOR, NOV. 22, 1593.
+
+    To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:
+
+    I have been active in the way you some days since besought me;
+    namely, the procuring for you of a loan of L5, that you might retire
+    a bill upon which you were a guarantor. As I then told you, I have
+    no money myself, being very poor; but I have a friend who has money
+    with which I can persuade him to relieve your wants. Had I myself
+    the money, I should gladly meet your needs at a moderate usance, not
+    more than twenty-five in the hundred; but my friend is a hard man,
+    who exacts large returns for his means, and will be very urgent that
+    repayment be made on the day named in the bill. He hath empowered me
+    to take your bill at two months,--for him, mind you,--for L10, the
+    payment to be assured, as you wished, by the pledge of your two new
+    plays in manuscript,--"Midsummer Night's Dream" and "Romeo and
+    Juliet,"--for which bill he will at my strong instance, and because
+    you are a friend to me, give L5. My charge for services in this
+    behalf, which hath consumed much time, will be L1, which I shall
+    straightway pay out in the purchase of a new gown, much needed by my
+    little daughter Jessica, who loves you and recalls often the
+    pleasant tales you do repeat for her diversion.
+
+The letters in the second period (1602) are nine years later than those
+just read. The first is from the same Mordecai Shylock, who, with the
+poet, seems to have prospered in worldly affairs, as his letters are
+dated in a more reputable portion of the city.
+
+    THREADNEEDLE STREET, LONDON, April 17, 1602.
+
+    To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:
+
+    In January last past you purchased of Richard Burbage four shares of
+    the stock of the Globe Theatre for L100, and inasmuch as you had not
+    available the whole means to pay therefor, borrowed from me the L60
+    wanting, paying yourself L40 of such purchase price, and giving me
+    in pledge for my L60 such four shares of stock. Owing to special
+    attractions at Blackfriars' Theatre, the stock of the Globe hath
+    greatly declined in value, and I fear these four shares may not
+    longer be salable at the price of even L60, and I therefore must
+    importune that you forthwith do make a payment of L20 on your said
+    bill, or the four shares of stock will be sold at public vendue.
+
+The next letter is from the same writer, and is dated nine days later.
+
+    THREADNEEDLE STREET, April 26, 1602.
+
+    To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:
+
+    I acknowledge to have received from you by the hand of Henry Condell
+    L5, and two of your own shares in the stock of the Globe Theatre in
+    further pledge of your bill of L60, as was engaged between us
+    yesterday. It pains me to make known to you that, owing to the great
+    demands recently made upon the goldsmiths by her sacred Majesty,
+    money hath become very dear; and as it was not my own lent you, I
+    have been obliged to pay above the usance expected a further premium
+    of seventeen in the hundred, which I pray you to presently repay
+    me. I am told that shares in the Globe can now be bought at L15;
+    and inasmuch as yours were bought at L25, should you acquire other
+    shares at L15, it would serve to equate your havings.
+
+The next letter, from the same broker, is written but a few days later.
+
+    THREADNEEDLE STREET, May 12, 1602.
+
+    To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:
+
+    Acting as requested by you, I did one week ago buy for you three
+    shares in the Globe Theatre for L15 each, using in such purchase the
+    L15 given me by you, and L30, not of mine own, but which was
+    furnished me by a goldsmith of repute. Yesterday I learned that
+    shares were offered at L10 each, perchance from the efforts of
+    forestallers, as also from the preaching of a dissenter, who
+    fulminates that the end of the world is but three weeks away, which
+    hath induced great seriousness among the people. Unless you can pay
+    me, therefore, as much as L40, on the morrow I shall be constrained
+    to offer such shares to the highest bidder at the meeting of the
+    guild.
+
+The next letter is also from the same Mordecai Shylock, and is dated
+four days later.
+
+    THREADNEEDLE STREET, May 16, 1602.
+
+    To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:
+
+    My earnest epistle to thee of four days since having elicited no
+    response, I did on the following day offer at the meeting of the
+    Brokers' Guild some of the shares of the stock in the Globe pledged
+    to me, and three shares were bidden at L9 each by my brother,
+    Nehemiah Shylock. As I offered next all the rest, one Henry
+    Wriothsley, Earl of Southampton, did ask to whom the shares
+    belonged, and when he was enlightened, did straightway take all the
+    shares and pay me the whole balance owing, and called me divers
+    opprobrious names. I answered not his railing with railing, for
+    sufferance is the badge of all our tribe, but such slander is illy
+    bestowed on one who has been your friend for long, and who was but
+    striving to avert his own destruction.
+
+The next letter in order is from one William Kempe, who would seem to be
+the business manager of the Globe Theatre, or the person having in
+charge the unskilled labor connected with the playhouse.
+
+    GLOBE PLAYHOUSE, EMPLOYMENT BUREAU, May 25, 1602.
+
+    WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:
+
+    In much tribulation do I write thee as to the contention which hath
+    arisen among our stock actors and supes of the Globe. Nicholas
+    Bottom, whom you brought from the Parish workhouse in Stratford, is
+    in ill humor with thee in especial. He says when he played with you
+    in Ben Jonson's comedy, "Every Man in his Humor," he was by far the
+    better actor and did receive the plaudits of all; despite which he
+    now receives but 6 shillings each week, while you are become a man
+    of great wealth, having gotten, as he verily believes, as much as
+    L100. Vainly did I oppose to him that the reason you had money when
+    he had none was in verity that you had labored when he was drunken,
+    and that this was to his profit, since, had not you and the other
+    holders of shares in the Globe saved somewhat of money, unthrifty
+    groundlings of his ilk would starve, as there would be none to hire
+    them at wages; but he avers that he is ground in the dust by the
+    greed of capital, and hath so much prated of this that he hath much
+    following, and accounteth himself a martyr. I said to him that at
+    your especial order he was paid 6 shillings per week, which was
+    double his worth, and that he should go elsewhere if he was not
+    content, as I could daily get a better man for half his wages; but
+    he will not go hence, nor will he perform, and has persuaded others
+    to join with him, his very worthlessness having made him their
+    leader, and they threaten, unless they may receive additional 4
+    shillings per week, and a groat each night for sack, they will have
+    no plays performed, nor will they allow others to be hired in their
+    stead. They do further demand that you shall write shorter plays;
+    that you shall write no tragedies requiring them to labor more than
+    three hours in the rendition; that you shall cut out as much as
+    twelve pages each in "Richard III." and "Othello," and fifteen pages
+    from "Hamlet," that they may not labor to weariness, and may have
+    more hours to recreation and improvement at the alehouse. I know not
+    what to do. If I yield them their demands, nothing will be left for
+    the owners of shares in the Globe; and if I do not, I fear mobs and
+    riots. Fain would I receive thy counsel, which shall have good
+    heed.
+
+The next letter is the last in the period under review, and bears date
+four days later than the one just quoted from William Kempe.
+
+    AT THE ELEPHANT & MAGPIE INN, LONDON, May 29, 1602.
+
+    TO WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:
+
+    This is written to thee by John Lely, a clerk, in behalf of Nicholas
+    Bottom, who useth not the pen, and who says to me to tell William
+    Shakespeare, fie upon him that he did order the aforesaid Bottom to
+    be locked out of the Globe Playhouse. Hath he forgotten the first
+    play he, William Shakespeare, did ever write, to wit, "Pyramus and
+    Thisbe," when a boy at Stratford, which was played by himself and
+    Nicholas Bottom and Peter Quince and others, in a barn, for the
+    delectation of the townsmen? And is not this same play a part of his
+    "Midsummer Night's Dream," which beggarly play he did sell for L10,
+    and hath not Nicholas Bottom first and always been an ass therein?
+    Doth he refuse to render to Nicholas Bottom 10 shillings per week
+    when he can get L10 or even L11 for a beggarly play, which is nought
+    unless it be acted? Many a time hath he paid me from a sponging
+    house; often hath he given me groats for sack, and for purges when
+    sack hath undone me; and did I ever insult him to offer to repay him
+    a penny? Say to him, remembereth he not when the horses ridden by
+    Duncan and Macbeth upon the stage did break through the floor, who,
+    affrighted, did run howling away, whereby Burbage was aroused and
+    did pick him, William Shakespeare, from among the horses' feet and
+    save his life? And now, sweet Will, fie upon thee that thou didst
+    frown upon thy townsman. Delay not to send me sundry shillings for
+    the publican, who believes you will discharge, as often before, my
+    reckoning. This, and much more of like tenor, saith Nicholas Bottom
+    to William Shakespeare by your worship's humble servant,
+
+    JOHN LELY.
+
+The letters in the third period bear date in 1609, seven years later
+than those last quoted. The first is from Rev. Walter Blaise, who
+appears to be the clergyman at Stratford-on-Avon.
+
+    STRATFORD, Feb. 23, 1609.
+
+    TO WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:
+
+    John Naps, of Greece, who did recently return to his home here from
+    London, safely has delivered to Anne, your wife, the package
+    entrusted to him for carriage. As your wife hath not the gift of
+    writing, she does desire that I convey to you her thanks for the
+    sundry contents of the hamper. She hath also confided to me as her
+    spiritual adviser that she did diligently ply John Naps with
+    questions as to his visit to you in London, and that said John Naps,
+    under her interrogatories, has revealed to her much that doth make
+    her sick at heart and weary of life.
+
+    _Item_. He doth report that you do pass among men as a bachelor,
+    and, with sundry players and men of that ilk, do frequent a house of
+    entertainment kept by one Doll Tearsheet, and do kiss the barmaid
+    and call her your sweetheart.
+
+    _Item_. He doth also report that you did give to the daughter of the
+    publican at whose house you do now abide, a ring of fine gold, and
+    did also write to her a sonnet in praise of her eyebrows and her
+    lips, and did otherwise wickedly disport with the said damsel.
+
+    _Item_. He doth further report of you that you did visit, with one
+    Ben Jonson, on the Sabbath-day, a place of disrepute, where were
+    cock-fights and the baiting of a bear, and that with you were two
+    brazen women, falsely called by you the wife and sister of Ben
+    Jonson.
+
+    These things do overmuch grieve Anne, who hath been to you a loyal
+    wife and a true, and she desires that you do forthwith renounce your
+    evil ways and return to the new house at Stratford, and in ashes and
+    sackcloth repent of your wanderings from the straight and narrow
+    way.
+
+    Thus far have I spoken to you as the mouthpiece and vicegerent of
+    Anne, your wife, who is in sore affliction and deep grief by reason
+    of your transgressions. But, beloved lamb of my flock, I should be
+    unworthy my high and sacred calling did I not lift up also my
+    rebuking voice as a pelican in the wilderness, and adjure you to
+    beware of concupiscence and fleshly lust, which unceasingly do war
+    upon the human soul. Thinkest thou to touch pitch and remain
+    undefiled?
+
+The next letter is from the firm of Coke &
+Dogberry, lawyers in London.
+
+    INNER TEMPLE, March 8, 1609.
+
+    To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:
+
+    We have been retained by Mistress Anne Page as her solicitors to
+    bring against you an action, for that you have not fulfilled and in
+    sooth cannot fulfil with her a contract of marriage, and to seek
+    against you under the laws of this realm heavy damages and an
+    imprisonment of the body, in that you have in unholy ways trifled
+    with her affections, contrary to the statute in such cases provided.
+    She especially avers that you did, two days before Michaelmas, swear
+    to her on a parcel gilt goblet that you did love her alone, and did
+    then give to her a bracelet of price. But yesterday, as she was
+    bargaining with a yeoman named Christopher Sly, from Stratford, for
+    the purchase of a spotted pig of his own fattening, the said Sly did
+    reveal to her that you were his friend, and that you had wife and
+    children in your native town where he dwelt. We beg you to
+    straightway name to us your solicitors, that we may confer with them
+    and attend to the issuance of the writs.
+
+I have aimed to select from the letters sent me only those bearing on
+some trouble tending to cause sleeplessness on the part of the poet, but
+make an exception in case of a letter of Sir Walter Raleigh, next in
+chronological order, which refers to matters of general interest.
+
+    The Mermaid, March 20, 1609.
+
+    To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:
+
+    Full well do I know, my dearest Will, that often hast thou wondered
+    of the fate of thy L50, which, with a hundred times as much of mine
+    own, was adventured to found an empire in America. Great were our
+    hopes, both of glory and of gold, in the kingdom of Powhatan. But it
+    grieves me much to say that all hath resulted in infelicity,
+    misfortune, and an unhappy end. Our ships were wrecked, or captured
+    by the knavish Spaniards. Our brave sailors are perished. As I was
+    blameworthy for thy risk, I send by the messenger your L50, which
+    you shall not lose by my over-hopeful vision. For its usance I send
+    a package of a new herb from the Chesapeake, called by the natives
+    tobacco. Make it not into tea, as did one of my kinsmen, but kindle
+    and smoke it in the little tube the messenger will bestow. Be not
+    deterred if thy gorge at first rises against it, for, when thou art
+    wonted, it is a balm for all sorrows and griefs, and as a dream of
+    Paradise. And now, my sweet Will, whom my soul loveth, why comest
+    thou not as of yore to the "Mermaid," that I may have speech with
+    thee? Thou knowest that from my youth up I have adventured all for
+    the welfare and glory of our Queen Elizabeth. On sea and on land and
+    in many climes have I fought the accursed Spaniards, and am honored
+    recognize thy supreme merit, for daily and hourly are sung to her
+    the praises of this loveliness until the story is as a tale that is
+    told and a weariness to the understanding; but thy commendations of
+    her wisdom will be as fresh and fragrant incense, nor will their
+    truthfulness be too closely scanned.
+
+    Thou knowest that I have taken all knowledge to be my province, and
+    therefore have I oft and longingly gazed into the flowery fields of
+    that divine art where to-day in our much-loved England thou art
+    disporting thyself supremely and alone. But when I consider thy
+    tragedies, throughout which is diffused the inmost soul of poesy, my
+    crude yet labored metres seem to me as the body of a maiden, not
+    indeed devoid of a certain comeliness and grace, yet into whose
+    waiting bosom hath not yet been breathed the spirit of life.
+
+    In thy tragedies thou hast the majestic grace which in the Attic
+    ages belonged to Sophocles alone; thou hast the stately march and
+    music of Aeschylus, without in thy themes his ceaseless iteration
+    of predestined woe which ranks his heroes outside humanity; yet the
+    sombre hand of fate hath not more inflexibly driven the gentle
+    Iphigenia to her doom than it hath followed Macbeth to his
+    foreshadowed crime and end. But in thy canticles it is not an
+    o'ershadowing, mysterious, and tragic fate, but a gracious and
+    loving Providence which, as thyself hath phrased it,
+
+      "Holds in His hands the shears of destiny,
+       And has commandment on the pulse of life."
+
+    In comedy, Aristophanes is not thy master, yet must I greatly choose
+    thy tragedies as monuments of thy abiding fame. Funeral dolors
+    rather than bridal carols inspire even the harp of David, beloved of
+    the Lord; and the pencil of the Holy Ghost toucheth ever the
+    shadowed phases of our earthly lives.
+
+    I am minded to now advert to another topic from the tale told me by
+    Southampton that thou wert presently to publish a volume of thy
+    sugared sonnets. May I pray thee that this collection compass not
+    the two sonnets written by thee for me in laud of our Queen
+    Elizabeth, and the one of this morning? As thou knowest, these first
+    were presented to our gracious Sovereign as mine own, and did so
+    pleasure her as to chiefly prosper my advancement. Were the true
+    author now known it might sadly mar my fortunes. In the vastness of
+    thy riches, the absence of these gems shall not be noted. The loss
+    of a star dims not the splendor of the constellations. The glorious
+    sun seeks not to reclaim the lustre his rays have given to the tiny
+    dewdrop. Withal I have rendered to thee somewhat of recompense as I
+    have spoken at sundry times to her gracious Majesty and to our
+    present anointed Sovereign of thy dramas, and fostered as best I
+    might thy interests when they crossed not mine own. So I trust this
+    boon may be awarded me, and that my borrowed splendors may not be
+    stripped away. Thy immeasurable superiority, as again evidenced in
+    the sonnet to the Lady Mary, has fixed anew my resolve as to my
+    predestined field of labor. Not for my brow shall be woven the
+    Poet's garland of bays. Yet abundant self-confidence is mine, and I
+    augur that in the great work for which I would fain believe the ages
+    are waiting, will be made clear my award to be the high priest of
+    Nature. Exact sciences not yet born shall be my servitors and the
+    augmenters of my fame. By the methods I have discerned shall mankind
+    discover and apply those beneficent innovations which are the
+    chiefest births of time. Yet even this hope hath its flavor of
+    bitterness, as thus guided my pupils may far overpass me and my
+    memory be lost. But the love of beauty and melody in poesy is of
+    perennial life, and thy memory shall survive the mutations of time,
+    and shall be the Nation's heritage while fancy and imagination dwell
+    in the souls of men.
+
+    Anew do I now discern that the meditation of Nature and her laws,
+    mysterious yet exact, consorteth not with the airy fancies of the
+    Poet's vision, and that our paths are diverse, yet each guiding to
+    what is useful and divine.
+
+    Farewell! and until the dolors of death are mine shall I remember
+    thy sweet, loving kindness, and admire thy shining genius where wit
+    and wisdom guide the flight of a sovereign imagination.
+
+    Ever thy friend, FRANCIS BACON.
+
+One special point is notable in this letter from Bacon. His ordinary
+correspondence is thickly sprinkled with quotations in the ancient
+tongues. As he was well acquainted with Shakespeare, this omission of
+his customary Latin phrases would indicate that he recognized
+Shakespeare's lack of a thorough classical education.
+
+The next, and the last letter in the collection which seems to have a
+bearing upon the sleeplessness of Shakespeare, is also from Rev. Walter
+Blaise.
+
+    STRATFORD, April 3, 1609.
+
+    TO WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:
+
+    Sir Thomas Lucy, who is in her Majesty's commission as a Justice of
+    the Peace in this bailiwick, yesterday did inform me that he had
+    been questioned from London if you were a married man, and if yes,
+    when and to whom you were wedded. As the parish records are in my
+    keeping, I could but bestow the information sought, although with
+    great sinking of heart, as a well-wisher to you, who, though given
+    overmuch to worldly frivolities and revels, yet are a worthy
+    citizen, and a charitable and a just. Greatly did I fear this
+    knowledge was sought to thy injury. Hast thou led a blameless life,
+    the gates of hell shall not prevail against thee; but the wicked
+    stand on slippery ways. Anne, thy wife, to whom I did unbosom my
+    fears, is in much tribulation lest thou art unfaithful to thy
+    marriage vows, and again beseeches me to urge thee to come forth
+    from wicked Babylon and dwell in thy pleasant home in Stratford.
+    Thou art become a man of substance; and hast moneys at usury. I have
+    read of thy verses and plays, which, albeit somewhat given to
+    lewdness, and addressed to gain the favor of the baser sort, yet
+    reveal thee to be a man of understanding. I cannot, as it is rumored
+    do some of thy town associates, award thee the title of poet, which
+    title is reserved for the shining ones; but thou hast parts. There
+    are many parish clerks, and even some curates in this realm,
+    scarcely more liberally endowed in mind than thou. But greatly do I
+    fear that thou art little better than one of the wicked. How hast
+    thou put to use this talent entrusted thee by the Master of the
+    vineyard? In the maintenance of the things which profit not; in
+    seeking the applause of the unworthy; in the writing of vain plays,
+    which, if of the follies of youth, may be forgiven and remembered
+    not against thee, provided in riper years you put behind you these
+    frivolities, and atone for the mischief thou hast wrought by
+    rendering acceptable service to the Master; by coming to the help of
+    the Lord against the mighty. Gladly would I take thy training in
+    charge, and guide thy tottering feet along the flowery paths of
+    Homiletics. Who knoweth into what vessels the All-seeing One may
+    elect to pour his spirit? Perchance in mercy I may be spared to
+    behold thee a faithful though humble preacher of the Word. Anne, thy
+    wife, often hath likened me to a great light upon a high hill-top,
+    shining in the darkness far away. I would not magnify my powers, but
+    not to all is it given to be mighty captains of a host. Yet,
+    according to thy gifts might thy work be, and a little candle
+    shining in a darkened valley hath its place.
+
+In the light of these letters, some passages in "Richard III." and the
+"Comedy of Errors," written in the same year (1609), have an added
+significance. In "Richard III.," Gloster says to Anne:--
+
+  "Your beauty was the cause of that effect:
+  Your beauty, that did haunt me in my sleep,
+  To undertake the death of all the world,
+  So I might live one hour in thy sweet bosom."
+
+In the "Comedy of Errors," the Abbess says to Adriana:--
+
+  "The venom clamors of a jealous woman
+  Poison more deadly than a mud dog's tooth.
+  It seems his sleep was hindered by thy railing.
+
+         *       *       *       *       *
+
+  In food, in sport, and life-preserving rest
+  To be disturbed, would mad or man or beast.
+  The consequence is, then, thy jealous fits
+  Have scared thy husband from the use of wits."
+
+Note, too, the kindred thought:--
+
+  "Love hath chased sleep from my enthralled eyes."
+
+And again this passage, called forth possibly by the letters of the
+Rev. Walter Blaise:--
+
+  "Slander,
+  Whose edge is sharper than the sword; whose tongue
+  Outvenoms all the worms of Nile; whose breath
+  Rides on the posting winds and doth belie
+  All corners of the world."
+
+As also this:--
+
+  "Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,
+  Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven,
+  Whiles, like a puffed and reckless libertine,
+  Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,
+  And recks not his own rede."
+
+From these several letters sufficiently appear the causes for the
+insomnia of Shakespeare, which are some of the same causes resulting in
+its prevalence to-day. They illustrate anew that history repeats itself
+forever; that humanity is always the same; that like temptations and
+errors come to men with like results in all the centuries; that the
+sleeplessness of Shakespeare came, because, merely as a matter of form,
+he had indorsed for a friend,--because he had bought more stocks than he
+could pay for, and when his margins were absorbed, came forth a shorn
+and shivering lamb,--because of the turbulence of labor,--because, alas!
+he too had been dazzled and bewildered by
+
+  "The light that lies
+  In woman's eyes."
+
+Marvellous as were the endowments of the master, yet was he human and as
+one of us.
+
+CHICAGO, 1886.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Shakespeare's Insomnia, And the Causes
+Thereof, by Franklin H. Head
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHAKESPEARE'S INSOMNIA ***
+
+***** This file should be named 11990.txt or 11990.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/9/9/11990/
+
+Produced by Steven desJardins and Distributed Proofreaders
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's
+eBook number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII,
+compressed (zipped), HTML and others.
+
+Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks replace the old file and take over
+the old filename and etext number.  The replaced older file is renamed.
+VERSIONS based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving
+new filenames and etext numbers.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+EBooks posted prior to November 2003, with eBook numbers BELOW #10000,
+are filed in directories based on their release date.  If you want to
+download any of these eBooks directly, rather than using the regular
+search system you may utilize the following addresses and just
+download by the etext year.
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org/etext06
+
+    (Or /etext 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99,
+     98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90)
+
+EBooks posted since November 2003, with etext numbers OVER #10000, are
+filed in a different way.  The year of a release date is no longer part
+of the directory path.  The path is based on the etext number (which is
+identical to the filename).  The path to the file is made up of single
+digits corresponding to all but the last digit in the filename.  For
+example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234
+
+or filename 24689 would be found at:
+     https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689
+
+An alternative method of locating eBooks:
+     https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL
+
+
diff --git a/old/11990.zip b/old/11990.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f509502
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/11990.zip