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diff --git a/5112-h/5112-h.htm b/5112-h/5112-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2813803 --- /dev/null +++ b/5112-h/5112-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6368 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" /> +<title>Citation and Examination of William Shakspeare, by Walter Savage Landor</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + P.gutsumm { margin-left: 5%;} + P.poetry {margin-left: 3%; } + .GutSmall { font-size: 0.7em; } + H1, H2 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + } + H3, H4, H5 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + table { border-collapse: collapse; } +table {margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;} + td { vertical-align: top; border: 1px solid black;} + td p { margin: 0.2em; } + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .pagenum {position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: small; + text-align: right; + font-weight: normal; + color: gray; + } + img { border: none; } + img.dc { float: left; width: 50px; height: 50px; } + p.gutindent { margin-left: 2em; } + div.gapspace { height: 0.8em; } + div.gapline { height: 0.8em; width: 100%; border-top: 1px solid;} + div.gapmediumline { height: 0.3em; width: 40%; margin-left:30%; + border-top: 1px solid; } + div.gapmediumdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 40%; margin-left:30%; + border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} + div.gapshortdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 20%; + margin-left: 40%; border-top: 1px solid; + border-bottom: 1px solid; } + div.gapdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 50%; + margin-left: 25%; border-top: 1px solid; + border-bottom: 1px solid;} + div.gapshortline { height: 0.3em; width: 20%; margin-left:40%; + border-top: 1px solid; } + .citation {vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: none;} + img.floatleft { float: left; + margin-right: 1em; + margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; } + img.floatright { float: right; + margin-left: 1em; margin-top: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 0.5em; } + img.clearcenter {display: block; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 0.5em} + --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Citation and Examination of William +Shakspeare, by Walter Savage Landor + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most +other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + + + + +Title: Citation and Examination of William Shakspeare + + +Author: Walter Savage Landor + + + +Release Date: February 9, 2015 [eBook #5112] +[This file was first posted on April 30, 2002] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CITATION AND EXAMINATION OF +WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE*** +</pre> +<p>Transcribed from the 1891 Chatto & Windus edition by David +Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org</p> +<h1>CITATION AND EXAMINATION<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">OF</span><br /> +William Shakspeare</h1> +<p style="text-align: center">EUSEBY TREEN JOSEPH CARNABY AND<br +/> +SILAS GOUGH <span class="smcap">Clerk</span></p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">BEFORE THE +WORSHIPFUL</span></p> +<p style="text-align: center">SIR THOMAS LUCY <span +class="smcap">Knight</span></p> +<p style="text-align: center">TOUCHING DEER-STEELING</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall"><i>On the +Nineteenth Day of September in the Year of Grace +1582</i></span></p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">NOW FIRST +PUBLISHED FROM ORIGINAL PAPERS</span></p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">TO WHICH IS +ADDED</span></p> +<p style="text-align: center"><b>A Conference of Master Edmund +Spenser</b><br /> +<span class="GutSmall">A GENTLEMAN OF NOTE</span><br /> +<span class="GutSmall">WITH</span><br /> +THE EARL OF ESSEX<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">TOUCHING THE STATE OF IRELAND A.D. +1595</span></p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">BY</span><br +/> +WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><b>London</b><br /> +CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY<br /> +1891</p> +<h2>EDITOR’S PREFACE.</h2> +<blockquote><p>“<span class="smcap">It</span> was an +ancestor of my husband who <i>brought out</i> the famous +Shakspeare.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>These words were really spoken, and were repeated in +conversation as most ridiculous. Certainly such was very +far from the lady’s intention; and who knows to what extent +they are true?</p> +<p>The frolic of Shakspeare in deer-stealing was the cause of his +<i>Hegira</i>; and his connection with players in London was the +cause of his writing plays. Had he remained in his native +town, his ambition had never been excited by the applause of the +intellectual, the popular, and the powerful, which, after all, +was hardly sufficient to excite it. He wrote from the same +motive as he acted,—to earn his daily bread. He felt +his own powers; but he cared little for making them felt by +others more than served his wants.</p> +<p>The malignant may doubt, or pretend to doubt, the authenticity +of the <i>Examination</i> here published. Let us, who are +not malignant, be cautious of adding anything to the noisome mass +of incredulity that surrounds us; let us avoid the crying sin of +our age, in which the “Memoirs of a Parish Clerk,” +edited as they were by a pious and learned dignitary of the +Established Church, are questioned in regard to their +genuineness; and even the privileges of Parliament are inadequate +to cover from the foulest imputation—the imputation of +having exercised his inventive faculties—the elegant and +accomplished editor of Eugene Aram’s apprehension, trial, +and defence.</p> +<p>Indeed, there is little of real history, excepting in +romances. Some of these are strictly true to nature; while +histories in general give a distorted view of her, and rarely a +faithful record either of momentous or of common events.</p> +<p>Examinations taken from the mouth are surely the most +trustworthy. Whoever doubts it may be convinced by Ephraim +Barnett.</p> +<p>The Editor is confident he can give no offence to any person +who may happen to bear the name of Lucy. The family of Sir +Thomas became extinct nearly half a century ago, and the estates +descended to the Rev. Mr. John Hammond, of Jesus College, in +Oxford, a respectable Welsh curate, between whom and him there +existed at his birth eighteen prior claimants. He took the +name of Lucy.</p> +<p>The reader will form to himself, from this “Examination +of Shakspeare,” more favourable opinion of Sir Thomas than +is left upon his mind by the dramatist in the character of +Justice Shallow. The knight, indeed, is here exhibited in +all his pride of birth and station, in all his pride of +theologian and poet; he is led by the nose, while he believes +that nobody can move him, and shows some other weaknesses, which +the least attentive observer will discover; but he is not without +a little kindness at the bottom of the heart,—a heart too +contracted to hold much, or to let what it holds ebulliate very +freely. But, upon the whole, we neither can utterly hate +nor utterly despise him. Ungainly as he is.—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: center">Circum præcordia +ludit.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The author of the “Imaginary Conversations” seems, +in his “Boccacio and Petrarca,” to have taken his +idea of <i>Sir Magnus</i> from this manuscript. He, +however, has adapted that character to the times; and in <i>Sir +Magnus</i> the coward rises to the courageous, the unskilful in +arms becomes the skilful, and war is to him a teacher of +humanity. With much superstition, theology never molests +him; scholarship and poetry are no affairs of his. He +doubts of himself and others, and is as suspicious in his +ignorance as Sir Thomas is confident.</p> +<p>With these wide diversities, there are family features, such +as are likely to display themselves in different times and +circumstances, and some so generically prevalent as never to lie +quite dormant in the breed. In both of them there is +parsimony, there is arrogance, there is contempt of inferiors, +there is abject awe of power, there is irresolution, there is +imbecility. But Sir Magnus has no knowledge, and no respect +for it. Sir Thomas would almost go thirty miles, even to +Oxford, to see a fine specimen of it, although, like most of +those who call themselves the godly, he entertains the most +undoubting belief that he is competent to correct the errors of +the wisest and most practised theologian.</p> +<h2>EDITOR’S APOLOGY.</h2> +<p>A <span class="smcap">part</span> only of the many +deficiencies which the reader will discover in this book is +attributable to the Editor. These, however, it is his duty +to account for, and he will do it as briefly as he can.</p> +<p>The <i>fac-similes</i> (as printers’ boys call them, +meaning <i>specimens</i>) of the handwriting of nearly all the +persons introduced, might perhaps have been procured had +sufficient time been allowed for another journey into +Warwickshire. That of Shakspeare is known already in the +signature to his will, but deformed by sickness; that of Sir +Thomas Lucy is extant at the bottom of a commitment of a female +vagrant, for having a sucking child in her arms on the public +road; that of Silas Gough is affixed to the register of births +and marriages, during several years, in the parishes of Hampton +Lucy and Charlecote, and certifies one death,—Euseby +Treen’s; surmised, at least, to be his by the letters +“E. T.” cut on a bench seven inches thick, under an +old pollard-oak outside the park paling of Charlecote, toward the +northeast. For this discovery the Editor is indebted to a +most respectable, intelligent farmer in the adjoining parish of +Wasperton, in which parish Treen’s elder brother lies +buried. The worthy farmer is unwilling to accept the large +portion of fame justly due to him for the services he has thus +rendered to literature in elucidating the history of Shakspeare +and his times. In possession of another agricultural +gentleman there was recently a very curious piece of iron, +believed by many celebrated antiquaries to have constituted a +part of a knight’s breast-plate. It was purchased for +two hundred pounds by the trustees of the British Museum, among +whom, the reader will be grieved to hear, it produced dissension +and coldness; several of them being of opinion that it was merely +a gorget, while others were inclined to the belief that it was +the forepart of a horse-shoe. The Committee of Taste and +the Heads of the Archæological Society were +consulted. These learned, dispassionate, and benevolent men +had the satisfaction of conciliating the parties at +variance,—each having yielded somewhat and every member +signing, and affixing his seal to the signature, that, if indeed +it be the forepart of a horse-shoe, it was probably +Ismael’s,—there being a curved indentation along it, +resembling the first letter of his name, and there being no +certainty or record that he died in France, or was left in that +country by Sir Magnus.</p> +<p>The Editor is unable to render adequate thanks to the Rev. +Stephen Turnover for the gratification he received in his curious +library by a sight of Joseph Carnaby’s name at full length, +in red ink, coming from a trumpet in the mouth of an angel. +This invaluable document is upon an engraving in a frontispiece +to the New Testament. But since unhappily he could procure +no signature of Hannah Hathaway, nor of her mother, and only a +questionable one of Mr. John Shakspeare, the poet’s +father,—there being two, in two very different +hands,—both he and the publisher were of opinion that the +graphical part of the volume would be justly censured as +extremely incomplete, and that what we could give would only +raise inextinguishable regret for that which we could not. +On this reflection all have been omitted.</p> +<p>The Editor is unwilling to affix any mark of disapprobation on +the very clever engraver who undertook the sorrel mare; but as in +the memorable words of that ingenious gentleman from Ireland +whose polished and elaborate epigrams raised him justly to the +rank of prime minister,—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: center">“White was not +<i>so very</i> white,”—</p> +</blockquote> +<p>in like manner it appeared to nearly all the artists he +consulted that the sorrel mare was not <i>so sorrel</i> in +print.</p> +<p>There is another and a graver reason why the Editor was +induced to reject the contribution of his friend the engraver; +and this is, a neglect of the late improvements in his art, he +having, unadvisedly or thoughtlessly, drawn in the old-fashioned +manner lines at the two sides and at the top and bottom of his +print, confining it to such limits as paintings are confined in +by their frames. Our spirited engravers, it is well-known, +disdain this thraldom, and not only give unbounded space to their +scenery, but also melt their figures in the air,—so +advantageously, that, for the most part, they approach the +condition of cherubs. This is the true aërial +perspective, so little understood heretofore. Trees, +castles, rivers, volcanoes, oceans, float together in absolute +vacancy; the solid earth is represented, what we know it actually +is, buoyant as a bubble, so that no wonder if every horse is +endued with all the privileges of Pegasus, save and except our +sorrel. Malicious carpers, insensible or invidious of +England’s glory, deny her in this beautiful practice the +merit of invention, assigning it to the Chinese in their tea-cups +and saucers; but if not absolutely new and ours, it must be +acknowledged that we have greatly improved and extended the +invention.</p> +<p>Such are the reasons why the little volume here laid before +the public is defective in those decorations which the exalted +state of literature demands. Something of compensation is +supplied by a Memorandum of Ephraim Barnett, written upon the +inner cover, and printed below.</p> +<p>The Editor, it will be perceived, is but little practised in +the ways of literature; much less is he gifted with that +prophetic spirit which can anticipate the judgment of the +public. It may be that he is too idle or too apathetic to +think anxiously or much about the matter; and yet he has been +amused, in his earlier days, at watching the first appearance of +such few books as he believed to be the production of some +powerful intellect. He has seen people slowly rise up to +them, like carp in a pond when food is thrown into it; some of +which carp snatch suddenly at a morsel, and swallow it; others +touch it gently with their barb, pass deliberately by, and leave +it; others wriggle and rub against it more disdainfully; others, +in sober truth, know not what to make of it, swim round and round +it, eye it on the sunny side, eye it on the shady, approach it, +question it, shoulder it, flap it with the tail, turn it over, +look askance at it, take a pea-shell or a worm instead of it, and +plunge again their heads into the comfortable mud. After +some seasons the same food will suit their stomachs better.</p> +<h2>EXAMINATION,<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">ETC., ETC.</span></h2> +<p><span class="smcap">About</span> one hour before noontide the +youth <span class="smcap">William Shakspeare</span>, accused of +deer-stealing, and apprehended for that offence, was brought into +the great hall at Charlecote, where, having made his obeisance, +it was most graciously permitted him to stand.</p> +<p>The worshipful Sir Thomas Lucy, Knight, seeing him right +opposite, on the farther side of the long table, and fearing no +disadvantage, did frown upon him with great dignity; then, +deigning ne’er a word to the culprit, turned he his face +toward his chaplain, Sir Silas Gough, who stood beside him, and +said unto him most courteously, and unlike unto one who in his +own right commandeth,—</p> +<p>“Stand out of the way! What are those two varlets +bringing into the room?”</p> +<p>“The table, sir,” replied Master Silas, +“upon the which the consumption of the venison was +perpetrated.”</p> +<p>The youth, William Shakspeare, did thereupon pray and beseech +his lordship most fervently, in this guise:—</p> +<p>“Oh, sir! do not let him turn the tables against me, who +am only a simple stripling, and he an old codger.”</p> +<p>But Master Silas did bite his nether lip, and did cry +aloud,—</p> +<p>“Look upon those deadly spots!”</p> +<p>And his worship did look thereupon most staidly, and did say +in the ear of Master Silas, but in such wise that it reached even +unto mine,</p> +<p>“Good honest chandlery, methinks!”</p> +<p>“God grant it may turn out so!” ejaculated Master +Silas.</p> +<p>The youth, hearing these words, said unto him,—</p> +<p>“I fear, Master Silas, gentry like you often pray God to +grant what <i>he</i> would rather not; and now and then what +<i>you</i> would rather not.”</p> +<p>Sir Silas was wroth at this rudeness of speech about God in +the face of a preacher, and said, reprovingly,—</p> +<p>“Out upon thy foul mouth, knave! upon which lie +slaughter and venison.”</p> +<p>Whereupon did William Shakspeare sit mute awhile, and +discomfited; then turning toward Sir Thomas, and looking and +speaking as one submiss and contrite, he thus appealed unto +him:—</p> +<p>“Worshipful sir! were there any signs of venison on my +mouth, Master Silas could not for his life cry out upon it, nor +help kissing it as ’twere a wench’s.”</p> +<p>Sir Thomas looked upon him with most lordly gravity and +wisdom, and said unto him, in a voice that might have come from +the bench:</p> +<p>“Youth, thou speakest irreverently;” and then unto +Master Silas: “Silas! to the business on hand. Taste +the fat upon yon boor’s table, which the constable hath +brought hither, good Master Silas! And declare upon oath, +being sworn in my presence, first, whether said fat do proceed of +venison; secondly, whether said venison be of buck or +doe.”</p> +<p>Whereupon the reverend Sir Silas did go incontinently, and did +bend forward his head, shoulders, and body, and did severally +taste four white solid substances upon an oaken board; said board +being about two yards long, and one yard four inches +wide,—found in, and brought thither from, the tenement or +messuage of Andrew Haggit, who hath absconded. Of these +four white solid substances, two were somewhat larger than a +groat, and thicker; one about the size of King Henry the +Eighth’s shilling, when our late sovereign lord of blessed +memory was toward the lustiest; and the other, that is to say the +middlemost, did resemble in some sort, a mushroom, not over +fresh, turned upward on its stalk.</p> +<p>“And what sayest thou, Master Silas?” quoth the +knight.</p> +<p>In reply whereunto Sir Silas thus averred:—</p> +<p class="poetry">“Venison! o’ my conscience!<br /> +Buck! or burn me alive!</p> +<p>The three splashes in the circumference are verily and indeed +venison; buck, moreover,—and Charlecote buck, upon my +oath!”</p> +<p>Then carefully tasting the protuberance in the centre, he spat +it out, crying,—</p> +<p>“<i>Pho</i>! <i>pho</i>! <i>villain</i>! +<i>villain</i>!” and shaking his fist at the culprit.</p> +<p>Whereat the said culprit smiled and winked, and said +off-hand,—</p> +<p>“Save thy spittle, Silas! It would supply a gaudy +mess to the hungriest litter; but it would turn them from whelps +into wolvets. ’T is pity to throw the best of thee +away. Nothing comes out of thy mouth that is not savoury +and solid, bating thy wit, thy sermons, and thy +promises.”</p> +<p>It was my duty to write down the very words, irreverent as +they are, being so commanded. More of the like, it is to be +feared, would have ensued, but that Sir Thomas did check him, +saying, shrewdly,—</p> +<p>“Young man! I perceive that if I do not stop thee +in thy courses, thy name, being involved in thy company’s, +may one day or other reach across the county; and folks may +handle it and turn it about, as it deserveth, from Coleshill to +Nuneaton, from Bromwicham to Brownsover. And who knoweth +but that, years after thy death, the very house wherein thou wert +born may be pointed at, and commented on, by knots of people, +gentle and simple! What a shame for an honest man’s +son! Thanks to me, who consider of measures to prevent +it! Posterity shall laud and glorify me for plucking thee +clean out of her head, and for picking up timely a ticklish +skittle, that might overthrow with it a power of others just as +light. I will rid the hundred of thee, with God’s +blessing!—nay, the whole shire. We will have none +such in our county; we justices are agreed upon it, and we will +keep our word now and forevermore. Woe betide any that +resembles thee in any part of him!”</p> +<p>Whereunto Sir Silas added,—</p> +<p>“We will dog him, and worry him, and haunt him, and +bedevil him; and if ever he hear a comfortable word, it shall be +in a language very different from his own.”</p> +<p>“As different as thine is from a +Christian’s,” said the youth.</p> +<p>“Boy! thou art slow of apprehension,” said Sir +Thomas, with much gravity; and taking up the cue, did +rejoin,—</p> +<p>“Master Silas would impress upon thy ductile and tender +mind the danger of evil doing; that we, in other words that +justice is resolved to follow him up, even beyond his country, +where he shall hear nothing better than the Italian or the +Spanish, or the black language, or the language of Turk or +Troubadour, or Tartar or Mongol. And, forsooth, for this +gentle and indirect reproof, a gentleman in priest’s orders +is told by a stripling that he lacketh Christianity! Who +then shall give it?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“Who, indeed? when the founder of the feast leaveth an +invited guest so empty! Yea, sir, the guest was invited, +and the board was spread. The fruits that lay upon it be +there still, and fresh as ever; and the bread of life in those +capacious canisters is unconsumed and unbroken.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Silas</span> (<i>aside</i>).</p> +<p>“The knave maketh me hungry with his mischievous +similitudes.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Thou hast aggravated thy offence, Wil Shakspeare! +Irreverent caitiff! is this a discourse for my chaplain and +clerk? Can he or the worthy scribe Ephraim (his worship was +pleased to call me worthy) write down such words as those, about +litter and wolvets, for the perusal and meditation of the grand +jury? If the whole corporation of Stratford had not +unanimously given it against thee, still his tongue would catch +thee, as the evet catcheth a gnat. Know, sirrah, the +reverend Sir Silas, albeit ill appointed for riding, and not +over-fond of it, goeth to every house wherein is a venison feast +for thirty miles round. Not a buck’s hoof on any +stable-door but it awakeneth his recollections like a red +letter.”</p> +<p>This wholesome reproof did bring the youth back again to his +right senses; and then said he, with contrition, and with a +wisdom beyond his years, and little to be expected from one who +had spoken just before so unadvisedly and rashly,—</p> +<p>“Well do I know it, your worship! And verily do I +believe that a bone of one being shovelled among the soil upon +his coffin would forthwith quicken <a name="citation8a"></a><a +href="#footnote8a" class="citation">[8a]</a> him. Sooth to +say, there is ne’er a buckhound in the county but he +treateth him as a godchild, patting him on the head, soothing his +velvety ear between thumb and forefinger, ejecting tick from +tenement, calling him ‘fine fellow,’ ‘noble +lad,’ and giving him his blessing, as one dearer to him +than a king’s debt to a debtor, <a name="citation8b"></a><a +href="#footnote8b" class="citation">[8b]</a> or a bastard to a +dad of eighty. This is the only kindness I ever heard of +Master Silas toward his fellow-creatures. Never hold me +unjust, Sir Knight, to Master Silas. Could I learn other +good of him, I would freely say it; for we do good by speaking +it, and none is easier. Even bad men are not bad men while +they praise the just. Their first step backward is more +troublesome and wrenching to them than the first +forward.”</p> +<p>“In God’s name, where did he gather all +this?” whispered his worship to the chaplain, by whose side +I was sitting. “Why, he talks like a man of +forty-seven, or more!”</p> +<p>“I doubt his sincerity, sir!” replied the +chaplain. “His words are fairer now—”</p> +<p>“Devil choke him for them!” interjected he, with +an undervoice.</p> +<p>“—and almost book-worthy; but out of place. +What the scurvy cur yelped against me, I forgive him as a +Christian. Murrain upon such varlet vermin! It is but +of late years that dignities have come to be reviled. The +other parts of the Gospel were broken long before,—this was +left us; and now this likewise is to be kicked out of doors, amid +the mutterings of such mooncalves as him yonder.”</p> +<p>“Too true, Silas!” said the knight, sighing +deeply. “Things are not as they were in our glorious +wars of York and Lancaster. The knaves were thinned +then,—two or three crops a year of that rank squitch-grass +which it has become the fashion of late to call the people. +There was some difference then between buff doublets and iron +mail, and the rogues felt it. Well-a-day! we must bear what +God willeth, and never repine, although it gives a man the +heart-ache. We are bound in duty to keep these things for +the closet, and to tell God of them only when we call upon his +holy name, and have him quite by ourselves.”</p> +<p>Sir Silas looked discontented and impatient, and said, +snappishly,—</p> +<p>“Cast we off here, or we shall be at fault. Start +him, sir!—prithee, start him.”</p> +<p>Again his worship, Sir Thomas, did look gravely and grandly, +and taking a scrap of paper out of the Holy Book then lying +before him, did read distinctly these words:—</p> +<p>“Providence hath sent Master Silas back hither, this +morning, to confound thee in thy guilt.”</p> +<p>Again, with all the courage and composure of an innocent man, +and indeed with more than what an innocent man ought to possess +in the presence of a magistrate, the youngster said, pointing +toward Master Silas,—</p> +<p>“The first moment he ventureth to lift up his visage +from the table, hath Providence marked him miraculously. I +have heard of black malice. How many of our words have more +in them than we think of! Give a countryman a plough of +silver, and he will plough with it all the season, and never know +its substance. ’T is thus with our daily +speech. What riches lie hidden in the vulgar tongue of the +poorest and most ignorant! What flowers of Paradise lie +under our feet, with their beauties and parts undistinguished and +undiscerned, from having been daily trodden on! O, sir, +look you!—but let me cover my eyes! Look at his +lips! Gracious Heaven! they were not thus when he +entered. They are blacker now than Harry Tewe’s +bull-bitch’s!”</p> +<p>Master Silas did lift up his eyes in astonishment and wrath; +and his worship, Sir Thomas, did open his wider and wider, and +cried by fits and starts:—</p> +<p>“Gramercy! true enough! nay, afore God, too true by +half! I never saw the like! Who would believe +it? I wish I were fairly rid of this examination,—my +hands washed clean thereof! Another time,—anon! +We have our quarterly sessions; we are many together. At +present I remand—”</p> +<p>And now, indeed, unless Sir Silas had taken his worship by the +sleeve, he would may-hap have remanded the lad. But Sir +Silas, still holding the sleeve and shaking it, said, +hurriedly,—</p> +<p>“Let me entreat your worship to ponder. What black +does the fellow talk of? My blood and bile rose up against +the rogue; but surely I did not turn black in the face, or in the +mouth, as the fellow calls it?”</p> +<p>Whether Master Silas had some suspicion and inkling of the +cause or not, he rubbed his right hand along his face and lips, +and, looking upon it, cried aloud,—</p> +<p>“Ho, ho! is it off? There is some upon my +finger’s end, I find. Now I have it,—ay, there +it is. That large splash upon the centre of the table is +tallow, by my salvation! The profligates sat up until the +candle burned out, and the last of it ran through the socket upon +the board. We knew it before. I did convey into my +mouth both fat and smut!”</p> +<p>“Many of your cloth and kidney do that, good Master +Silas, and make no wry faces about it,” quoth the +youngster, with indiscreet merriment, although short of laughter, +as became him who had already stepped too far and reached the +mire.</p> +<p>To save paper and time, I shall now, for the most part, write +only what they all said, not saying that they said it, and just +copying out in my clearest hand what fell respectively from their +mouths.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Silas</span>.</p> +<p>“I did indeed spit it forth, and emunge my lips, as who +should not?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“Would it were so!”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Silas</span>.</p> +<p>“<i>Would it were so</i>! in thy teeth, +hypocrite!”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“And, truly, I likewise do incline to hope and credit +it, as thus paraphrased and expounded.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“Wait until this blessed day next year, sir, at the same +hour. You shall see it forth again at its due season; it +would be no miracle if it lasted. Spittle may cure sore +eyes, but not blasted mouths and scald consciences.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Why! who taught thee all this?”</p> +<p>Then turned he leisurely toward Sir Silas, and placing his +hand outspreaden upon the arm of the chaplain, said unto him in a +low, judicial, hollow voice,—</p> +<p>“Every word true and solemn! I have heard less +wise saws from between black covers.”</p> +<p>Sir Silas was indignant at this under-rating, as he appeared +to think it, of the church and its ministry, and answered +impatiently, with Christian freedom,—</p> +<p>“Your worship surely will not listen to this wild wizard +in his brothel-pulpit!”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“Do I live to hear Charlecote Hall called a +brothel-pulpit? Alas, then, I have lived too +long!”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Silas</span>.</p> +<p>“We will try to amend that for thee.”</p> +<p>William seemed not to hear him, loudly as he spake and +pointedly unto the youngster, who wiped his eyes, +crying,—</p> +<p>“Commit me, sir! in mercy commit me! Master +Ephraim! Oh, Master Ephraim! A guiltless man may feel +all the pangs of the guilty! Is it you who are to make out +the commitment? Dispatch! dispatch. I am a-weary of +my life. If I dared to lie, I would plead +guilty.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Heyday! No wonder, Master Ephraim, thy entrails +are moved and wamble. Dost weep, lad? Nay, nay; thou +bearest up bravely. Silas, I now find, although the example +come before me from humble life, that what my mother said was +true—’t was upon my father’s +demise—‘In great grief there are few +tears.’”</p> +<p>Upon which did the youth, Willy Shakspeare, jog himself by the +memory, and repeat these short verses, not wide from the same +purport:</p> +<p class="poetry">“There are, alas, some depths of woe<br +/> +Too vast for tears to overflow.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Let those who are sadly vexed in spirit mind that +notion, whoever indited it, and be men. I always was; but +some little griefs have pinched me woundily.”</p> +<p>Master Silas grew impatient, for he had ridden hard that +morning, and had no cushion upon his seat, as Sir Thomas +had. I have seen in my time that he who is seated on +beech-wood hath very different thoughts and moralities from him +who is seated on goose-feathers under doe-skin. But that is +neither here nor there, albeit, an’ I die, as I must, my +heirs, Judith and her boy Elijah, may note it.</p> +<p>Master Silas, as above, looked sourishly, and cried +aloud,—</p> +<p>“The witnesses! the witnesses! testimony! +testimony! We shall now see whose black goes deepest. +There is a fork to be had that can hold the slipperiest eel, and +a finger that can strip the slimiest. I cry your worship to +the witnesses.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Ay, indeed, we are losing the day; it wastes toward +noon, and nothing done. Call the witnesses. How are +they called by name? Give me the paper.”</p> +<p>The paper being forthwith delivered into his worship’s +hand by the learned clerk, his worship did read aloud the name of +Euseby Treen. Whereupon did Euseby Treen come forth through +the great hall-door which was ajar, and answer most +audibly,—</p> +<p>“Your worship!”</p> +<p>Straightway did Sir Thomas read aloud, in like form and +manner, the name of Joseph Carnaby; and in like manner as +aforesaid did Joseph Carnaby make answer and say,—</p> +<p>“Your worship!”</p> +<p>Lastly did Sir Thomas turn the light of his countenance on +William Shakspeare, saying,—</p> +<p>“Thou seest these good men deponents against thee, +William Shakspeare.” And then did Sir Thomas +pause. And pending this pause did William Shakspeare look +steadfastly in the faces of both; and stroking down his own with +the hollow of his hand from the jaw-bone to the chin-point, said +unto his honour,—</p> +<p>“Faith! it would give me much pleasure, and the +neighbourhood much vantage, to see these two fellows good +men. Joseph Carnaby and Euseby Treen! Why! your +worship! they know every hare’s form in Luddington-field +better than their own beds, and as well pretty nigh as any +wench’s in the parish.”</p> +<p>Then turned he with jocular scoff unto Joseph Carnaby, thus +accosting him, whom his shirt, being made stiffer than usual for +the occasion, rubbed and frayed,—</p> +<p>“Ay, Joseph! smoothen and soothe thy collar-piece again +and again! Hark ye! I know what smock that was +knavishly cut from.”</p> +<p>Master Silas rose up in high choler, and said unto Sir +Thomas,—</p> +<p>“Sir! do not listen to that lewd reviler; I wager ten +groats I prove him to be wrong in his scent. Joseph Carnaby +is righteous and discreet.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“By daylight and before the parson. Bears and +boars are tame creatures, and discreet, in the sunshine and after +dinner.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Euseby +Treen</span>.</p> +<p>“I do know his down-goings and uprisings.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“The man and his wife are one, saith holy +Scripture.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Euseby +Treen</span>.</p> +<p>“A sober-paced and rigid man, if such there be. +Few keep Lent like unto him.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“I warrant him, both lent and stolen.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Peace and silence! Now, Joseph Carnaby, do thou +depose on particulars.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Joseph +Carnaby</span>.</p> +<p>“May it please your worship! I was returning from +Hampton upon Allhallowmas eve, between the hours of ten and +eleven at night, in company with Master Euseby Treen; and when we +came to the bottom of Mickle Meadow, we heard several men in +discourse. I plucked Euseby Treen by the doublet, and +whispered in his ear, ‘Euseby! Euseby! let us slink along +in the shadow of the elms and willows.’”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Euseby +Treen</span>.</p> +<p>“<i>Willows and elm-trees</i> were the words.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“See, your worship! what discordances! They cannot +agree in their own story.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Silas</span>.</p> +<p>“The same thing, the same thing, in the main.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“By less differences than this estates have been lost, +hearts broken, and England, our country, filled with homeless, +helpless, destitute orphans. I protest against +it.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Silas</span>.</p> +<p>“Protest, indeed! He talks as if he were a member +of the House of Lords. They alone can protest.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Your attorney may <i>object</i>, not <i>protest</i>, +before the lord judge.</p> +<p>“Proceed you, Joseph Carnaby.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Joseph +Carnaby</span>.</p> +<p>“In the shadow of the willows and elm-trees, +then—”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“No hints, no conspiracies! Keep to your own +story, man, and do not borrow his.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Silas</span>.</p> +<p>“I overrule the objection. Nothing can be more +futile and frivolous.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“So learned a magistrate as your worship will surely do +me justice by hearing me attentively. I am young; +nevertheless, having more than one year written in the office of +an attorney, and having heard and listened to many discourses and +questions on law, I cannot but remember the heavy fine inflicted +on a gentleman of this county who committed a poor man to prison +for being in possession of a hare, it being proved that the hare +was in his possession, and not he in the hare’s.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Silas</span>.</p> +<p>“Synonymous term! synonymous term!”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“In what term sayest thou was it? I do not +remember the case.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Silas</span>.</p> +<p>“Mere quibble mere equivocation! Jesuitical! +Jesuitical!”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“It would be Jesuitical, Sir Silas, if it dragged the +law by its perversions to the side of oppression and +cruelty. The order of Jesuits, I fear, is as numerous as +its tenets are lax and comprehensive. I am sorry to see +their frocks flounced with English serge.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Silas</span>.</p> +<p>“I don’t understand thee, viper!”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Cease thou, Will Shakspeare! Know thy +place. And do thou, Joseph Carnaby, take up again the +thread of thy testimony.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Joseph +Carnaby</span>.</p> +<p>“We were still at some distance from the party, when on +a sudden Euseby hung an —” <a +name="citation21a"></a><a href="#footnote21a" +class="citation">[21a]</a></p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“As well write <i>drew back</i>, Master Ephraim and +Master Silas! Be circumspecter in speech, Master Joseph +Carnaby! I did not look for such rude phrases from that +starch-warehouse under thy chin. Continue, man!”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Joseph +Carnaby</span>.</p> +<p>“‘Euseby,’ said I in his ear, ‘what +ails thee, Euseby?’ ‘I wag no farther,’ +quoth he. ‘What a number of names and +voices!’”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Dreadful gang! a number of names and voices! Had +it been any other day in the year but Allhallowmas eve! To +steal a buck upon such a day! Well! God may pardon +even that. Go on, go on. But the laws of our country +must have their satisfaction and atonement. Were it upon +any other day in the calendar less holy, the buck were nothing, +or next to nothing, saving the law and our conscience and our +good report. Yet we, her Majesty’s justices, must +stand in the gap, body and soul, against evil-doers. Now do +thou, in furtherance of this business, give thine aid unto us, +Joseph Carnaby!—remembering that mine eye from this +judgment-seat, and her Majesty’s bright and glorious one +overlooking the whole realm, and the broader of God above, are +upon thee.”</p> +<p>Carnaby did quail a matter at these words about the +judgment-seat and the broad eye, aptly and gravely delivered by +him moreover who hath to administer truth and righteousness in +our ancient and venerable laws, and especially, at the present +juncture, in those against park-breaking and deer-stealing. +But finally, nought discomfited, and putting his hand valiantly +atwixt hip and midriff, so that his elbow well-nigh touched the +taller pen in the ink-pot, he went on.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Joseph +Carnaby</span>.</p> +<p>“‘<i>In the shadow of the willows and +elm-trees</i>,’ said he, ‘<i>and get +nearer</i>.’ We were still at some distance, maybe a +score of furlongs, from the party—”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Thou hast said it already—all save the score of +furlongs.”</p> +<p>“Hast room for them, Master Silas?”</p> +<p>“Yea,” quoth Master Silas, “and would make +room for fifty, to let the fellow swing at his ease.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Hast room, Master Ephraim?”</p> +<p>“’T is done, most worshipful!” said I. +The learned knight did not recollect that I could put fifty +furlongs in a needle’s eye, give me pen fine enough.</p> +<p>But far be it from me to vaunt of my penmanship, although +there be those who do malign it, even in my own township and +parish; yet they never have unperched me from my calling, and +have had hard work to take an idle wench or two from under me on +Saturday nights.</p> +<p>I memorize thus much, not out of any malice or any soreness +about me, but that those of my kindred into whose hands it please +God these papers do fall hereafter, may bear up stoutly in such +straits; and if they be good at the cudgel, that they, looking +first at their man, do give it him heartily and unsparingly, +keeping within law.</p> +<p>Sir Thomas, having overlooked what we had written, and +meditated a while thereupon, said unto Joseph,—</p> +<p>“It appeareth by thy testimony that there was a huge and +desperate gang of them afoot. Revengeful dogs! it is +difficult to deal with them. The laws forbid precipitancy +and violence. A dozen or two may return and harm me; not +me, indeed, but my tenants and servants. I would fain act +with prudence, and like unto him who looketh abroad. He +must tie his shoe tightly who passeth through mire; he must step +softly who steppeth over stones; he must walk in the fear of the +Lord (which, without a brag, I do at this present feel upon me), +who hopeth to reach the end of the straightest road in +safety.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Silas</span>.</p> +<p>“Tut, tut! your worship! Her Majesty’s +deputy hath matchlocks and halters at a knight’s disposal, +or the world were topsyturvy indeed.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“My mental ejaculations, and an influx of grace +thereupon, have shaken and washed from my brain all thy last +words, good Joseph! Thy companion here, Euseby Treen, said +unto thee—ay—”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Joseph +Carnaby</span>.</p> +<p>“Said unto me, ‘What a number of names and +voices! And there be but three living men in all! And +look again! Christ deliver us! all the shadows save one go +leftward; that one lieth right upon the river. It seemeth a +big, squat monster, shaking a little, as one ready to spring upon +its prey!’”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“A dead man in his last agonies, no doubt! Your +deer-stealer doth boggle at nothing. He hath alway the +knife in doublet and the devil at elbow.</p> +<p>“I wot not of any keeper killed or missing. To +lose one’s deer and keeper too were overmuch.</p> +<p>“Do, in God’s merciful name, hand unto me a glass +of sack, Master Silas! I wax faintish at the big, squat +man. He hath harmed not only me, but mine. +Furthermore, the examination is grown so long.”</p> +<p>Then was the wine delivered by Sir Silas into the hand of his +worship, who drank it off in a beaker of about half a +pint,—but little to his satisfaction, for he said shortly +afterward,—</p> +<p>“Hast thou poured no water into the sack, good Master +Silas? It seemeth weaker and washier than ordinary, and +affordeth small comfort unto the breast and stomach.”</p> +<p>“Not I, truly, sir,” replied Master Silas +“and the bottle is a fresh and sound one. The cork +reported on drawing, as the best diver doth on sousing from +Warwick bridge into Avon. A rare cork! as bright as the +glass bottle, and as smooth as the lips of any cow.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“My mouth is out of taste this morning; or the same +wine, mayhap, hath a different force and flavor in the +dining-room and among friends. But to business—what +more?”</p> +<p>“Euseby Treen, what may it be?” said I.</p> +<p>“I know,” quoth he, “but dare not breathe +it.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“I thought I had taken a glass of wine, verily. +Attention to my duty as a magistrate is paramount. I mind +nothing else when that lies before me.</p> +<p>“Carnaby! I credit thy honesty, but doubt thy +manhood. Why not breathe it, with a vengeance?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Joseph +Carnaby</span>.</p> +<p>“It was Euseby who dared not.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Stand still! Say nothing yet; mind my +orders. Fair and softly! compose thyself.”</p> +<p>They all stood silent for some time, and looked very composed, +awaiting the commands of the knight. His mind was clearly +in such a state of devotion that peradventure he might not have +descended for a while longer to his mundane duties, had not +Master Silas told him that, under the shadow of his wing, their +courage had returned and they were quite composed again.</p> +<p>“You may proceed,” said the knight.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Joseph +Carnaby</span>.</p> +<p>“Master Treen did take off his cap and wipe his +forehead. I, for the sake of comforting him in this his +heaviness, placed my hand upon his crown; and truly I might have +taken it for a tuft of bents, the hair on end, the skin immovable +as God’s earth!”</p> +<p>Sir Thomas, hearing these words, lifted up his hands above his +own head, and in the loudest voice he had yet uttered did he +cry,—</p> +<p>“Wonderful are thy ways in Israel, O Lord!”</p> +<p>So saying, the pious knight did strike his knee with the palm +of his right hand; and then gave he a sign, bowing his head and +closing his eyes, by which Master Carnaby did think he signified +his pleasure that he should go on deposing. And he went on +thus:—</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Joseph +Carnaby</span>.</p> +<p>“At this moment one of the accomplices cried, +‘Willy! Willy! prithee stop! enough in all +conscience! First thou divertedst us from our undertaking +with thy strange vagaries, thy Italian girls’ nursery sigh, +thy Pucks and pinchings, and thy Windsor whimsies. No +kitten upon a bed of marum ever played such antics. It was +summer and winter, night and day with us within the hour; and in +such religion did we think and feel it, we would have broken the +man’s jaw who gainsaid it. We have slept with thee +under the oaks in the ancient forest of Arden, and we have +wakened from our sleep in the tempest far at sea. <a +name="citation29a"></a><a href="#footnote29a" +class="citation">[29a]</a> Now art thou for frightening us +again out of all the senses thou hadst given us, with witches and +women more murderous than they.’</p> +<p>“Then followed a deeper voice: ‘Stouter men and +more resolute are few; but thou, my lad, hast words too weighty +for flesh and bones to bear up against. And who knows but +these creatures may pop amongst us at last, as the wolf did, sure +enough, upon him, the noisy rogue, who so long had been crying +<i>wolf</i>! and <i>wolf</i>!’”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Well spoken, for two thieves; albeit I miss the meaning +of the most part. Did they prevail with the scapegrace and +stop him?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Joseph +Carnaby</span>.</p> +<p>“The last who had spoken did slap him on the shoulder, +saying, ‘Jump into the punt, lad, and across.’ +Thereupon did Will Shakspeare jump into said punt, and begin to +sing a song about a mermaid.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“Sir! is this credible? I will be sworn I never +saw one; and verily do believe that scarcely one in a hundred +years doth venture so far up the Avon.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“There is something in this. Thou mayest have sung +about one, nevertheless. Young poets take great liberties +with all female kind; not that mermaids are such very unlawful +game for them, and there be songs even about worse and staler +fish. Mind ye that! Thou hast written songs, and hast +sung them, and lewd enough they be, God wot!”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“Pardon me, your worship! they were not mine then. +Peradventure the song about the mermaid may have been that +ancient one which every boy in most parishes has been singing for +many years, and, perhaps, his father before him; and somebody was +singing it then, mayhap, to keep up his courage in the +night.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“I never heard it.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“Nobody would dare to sing in the presence of your +worship, unless commanded,—not even the mermaid +herself.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Canst thou sing it?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“Verily, I can sing nothing.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Canst thou repeat it from memory?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“It is so long since I have thought about it, that I may +fail in the attempt.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Try, however.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p class="poetry">“‘The mermaid sat upon the rocks<br +/> + All day long,<br /> +Admiring her beauty and combing her locks,<br /> + And singing a mermaid song.’”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“What was it? what was it? I thought as +much. There thou standest, like a woodpecker, chattering +and chattering, breaking the bark with thy beak, and leaving the +grub where it was. This is enough to put a saint out of +patience.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“The wishes of your worship possess a mysterious +influence,—I now remember all.</p> +<p class="poetry">“‘And hear the mermaid’s song +you may,<br /> + As sure as sure can be,<br /> +If you will but follow the sun all day,<br /> + And souse with him into the sea.’”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“It must be an idle fellow who would take that trouble; +besides, unless he nicked the time he might miss the +monster. There be many who are slow to believe that the +mermaid singeth.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“Ah sir! not only the mermaid singeth, but the merman +sweareth, as another old song will convince you.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“I would fain be convinced of God’s wonders in the +great deeps, and would lean upon the weakest reed like unto thee +to manifest his glory. Thou mayest convince me.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">1.</p> +<p class="poetry">“‘A wonderful story, my lasses and +lads,<br /> +Peradventure you’ve heard from your grannams or dads,<br /> +Of a merman that came every night to woo<br /> +The spinster of spinsters, our Catherine Crewe.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">2.</p> +<p +class="poetry"> “‘But +Catherine Crewe<br /> + Is now seventy-two,<br /> + And avers she hath half forgotten<br /> +The truth of the tale, when you ask her about it,<br /> +And says, as if fain to deny it or flout it,<br /> + “<i>Pooh</i>! <i>the merman is dead and +rotten</i>.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center">3.</p> +<p class="poetry">“‘The merman came up as the mermen +are wont,<br /> +To the top of the water, and then swam upon ’t;<br /> +And Catherine saw him with both her two eyes,<br /> +A lusty young merman full six feet in size.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">4.</p> +<p +class="poetry"> “‘And +Catherine was frighten’d,<br /> + Her scalp-skin it +tighten’d,<br /> +And her head it swam strangely, although on dry land;<br /> + And the merman made bold<br /> + Eftsoons to lay hold<br /> +(<i>This</i> Catherine well recollects) of her hand.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">5.</p> +<p class="poetry">“‘But how could a merman, if ever +so good,<br /> +Or if ever so clever, be well understood<br /> +By a simple young creature of our flesh and blood?</p> +<p style="text-align: center">6.</p> +<p +class="poetry"> “‘Some +tell us the merman<br /> + Can only speak German,<br /> + In a voice between grunting and snoring;<br /> +But Catherine says he had learned in the wars<br /> +The language, persuasions, and oaths of our tars,<br /> + And that even his voice was not foreign.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">7.</p> +<p class="poetry">“‘Yet when she was asked how he +managed to hide<br /> +The green fishy tail, coming out of the tide<br /> + For night after night above twenty,<br /> +“You troublesome creatures!” old Catherine +replied,<br /> + “<i>In his pocket</i>; won’t that now +content ye?”’”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“I have my doubts yet. I should have said unto +her, seriously, ‘Kate! Kate! I am not +convinced.’ There may be witchcraft or sortilege in +it. I would have made it a star-chamber matter.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“It was one, sir.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“And now I am reminded by this silly, childish +song,—which, after all, is not the true +mermaid’s,—thou didst tell me, Silas, that the papers +found in the lad’s pocket were intended for +poetry.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Silas</span>.</p> +<p>“I wish he had missed his aim, sir, in your park, as he +hath missed it in his poetry. The papers are not worth +reading; they do not go against him in the point at +issue.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“We must see that,—they being taken upon his +person when apprehended.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Silas</span>.</p> +<p>“Let Ephraim read them, then; it behooveth not me, a +Master of Arts, to con a whelp’s whining.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Do thou read them aloud unto us, good Master +Ephraim.”</p> +<p>Whereupon I took the papers which young Willy had not bestowed +much pains on; and they posed and puzzled me grievously, for they +were blotted and scrawled in many places, as if somebody had put +him out. These likewise I thought fit, after long +consideration, to write better, and preserve, great as the loss +of time is when men of business take in hand such unseemly +matters. However, they are decenter than most, and not +without their moral; for example:—</p> +<p style="text-align: center">“TO THE OWLET.</p> +<p class="poetry">“Who, O thou sapient, saintly bird!<br /> +Thy shouted warnings ever heard<br /> + Unbleached by fear?<br /> +The blue-faced blubbering imp, who steals<br /> +Yon turnips, thinks thee at his heels,<br /> + Afar or near.</p> +<p class="poetry">“The brawnier churl, who brags at +times<br /> +To front and top the rankest crimes,—<br /> + To paunch a deer,<br /> +Quarter a priest, or squeeze a wench,—<br /> +Scuds from thee, clammy as a tench,<br /> + He knows not where.</p> +<p class="poetry">“For this the righteous Lord of all<br /> +Consigns to thee the castle-wall,<br /> + When, many a year,<br /> +Closed in the chancel-vaults, are eyes<br /> +Rainy or sunny at the sighs<br /> + Of knight or peer.”</p> +<p>Sir Thomas, when I had ended, said unto me,</p> +<p>“No harm herein; but are they over?”</p> +<p>I replied, “Yea, sir!”</p> +<p>“I miss the <i>posy</i>,” quoth he; “there +is usually a lump of sugar, or a smack thereof at the bottom of +the glass. They who are inexperienced in poetry do write it +as boys do their copies in the copy-book, without a flourish at +the finis. It is only the master who can do this +befittingly.”</p> +<p>I bowed unto his worship reverentially, thinking of a surety +he meant me, and returned my best thanks in set language. +But his worship rebuffed them, and told me graciously that he had +an eye on another of very different quality; that the plain sense +of his discourse might do for me, the subtler was certainly for +himself. He added that in his younger days he had heard +from a person of great parts, and had since profited by it, that +ordinary poets are like adders,—the tail blunt and the body +rough, and the whole reptile cold-blooded and sluggish: +“whereas we,” he subjoined, “leap and caracole +and curvet, and are as warm as velvet, and as sleek as satin, and +as perfumed as a Naples fan, in every part of us; and the end of +our poems is as pointed as a perch’s back-fin, and it +requires as much nicety to pick it up as a needle<a +name="citation38a"></a><a href="#footnote38a" +class="citation">[38a]</a> at nine groats the hundred.”</p> +<p>Then turning toward the culprit, he said mildly unto +him,—</p> +<p>“Now why canst thou not apply thyself unto study? +Why canst thou not ask advice of thy superiors in rank and +wisdom? In a few years, under good discipline, thou +mightest rise from the owlet unto the peacock. I know not +what pleasant things might not come into the youthful head +thereupon.</p> +<p>“He was the bird of Venus, <a name="citation39b"></a><a +href="#footnote39b" class="citation">[39b]</a> goddess of +beauty. He flew down (I speak as a poet, and not in my +quality of knight and Christian) with half the stars of heaven +upon his tail; and his long, blue neck doth verily appear a +dainty slice out of the solid sky.”</p> +<p>Sir Silas smote me with his elbow, and said in my +ear,—</p> +<p>“He wanteth not this stuffing; he beats a pheasant out +of the kitchen, to my mind, take him only at the pheasant’s +size, and don’t (upon your life) overdo him.</p> +<p>“Never be cast down in spirit, nor take it too +‘grievously to heart, if the colour be a suspicion of the +pinkish,—no sign of rawness in that; none whatever. +It is as becoming to him as to the salmon; it is as natural to +your pea-chick in his best cookery, as it is to the finest +October morning,—moist underfoot, when partridge’s +and puss’s and renard’s scent lies +sweetly.”</p> +<p>Willie Shakspeare, in the mean time, lifted up his hands above +his ears half a cubit, and taking breath again, said, audibly, +although he willed it to be said unto himself alone,—</p> +<p>“O that knights could deign to be our teachers! +Methinks I should briefly spring up into heaven, through the very +chink out of which the peacock took his neck.”</p> +<p>Master Silas, who like myself and the worshipful knight, did +overhear him, said angrily,—</p> +<p>“To spring up into heaven, my lad, it would be as well +to have at least one foot upon the ground to make the spring +withal. I doubt whether we shall leave thee this +vantage.”</p> +<p>“Nay, nay! thou art hard upon him, Silas,” said +the knight.</p> +<p>I was turning over the other papers taken from the pocket of +the culprit on his apprehension, and had fixed my eyes on one, +when Sir Thomas caught them thus occupied, and +exclaimed,—</p> +<p>“Mercy upon us! have we more?”</p> +<p>“Your patience, worshipful sir!” said I; +“must I forward?”</p> +<p>“Yea, yea,” quoth he, resignedly, “we must +go through; we are pilgrims in this life.”</p> +<p>Then did I read, in a clear voice, the contents of paper the +second, being as followeth:—</p> +<p style="text-align: center">“THE MAID’S LAMENT.</p> +<p class="poetry">“I loved him not; and yet, now he is +gone,<br /> + I feel I am alone.<br /> +I check’d him while he spoke; yet, could he speak,<br /> + Alas! I would not check.<br /> +For reasons not to love him once I sought,<br /> + And wearied all my thought<br /> +To vex myself and him: I now would give<br /> + My love could he but live<br /> +Who lately lived for me, and when he found<br /> + ’T was vain, in holy ground<br /> +He hid his face amid the shades of death!<br /> + I waste for him my breath<br /> +Who wasted his for me! but mine returns,<br /> + And this loin bosom burns<br /> +With stifling heat, heaving it up in sleep,<br /> + And waking me to weep<br /> +Tears that had melted his soft heart. For years<br /> + Wept he as bitter tears!<br /> +<i>Merciful God</i>! such was his latest prayer,<br /> + <i>These may she never share</i>!<br /> +Quieter is his breath, his breast more cold,<br /> + Than daisies in the mould,<br /> +Where children spell, athwart the churchyard gate,<br /> + His name and life’s brief date.<br /> +Pray for him, gentle souls, whoe’er you be,<br /> + And, oh! pray too for me!”</p> +<p>Sir Thomas had fallen into a most comfortable and refreshing +slumber ere this lecture was concluded; but the pause broke it, +as there be many who experience after the evening service in our +parish-church. Howbeit, he had presently all his wits about +him, and remembered well that he had been carefully counting the +syllables, about the time when I had pierced as far as into the +middle.</p> +<p>“Young man,” said he to Willy, “thou givest +short measure in every other sack of the load. Thy +uppermost stake is of right length; the undermost falleth off, +methinks.</p> +<p>“Master Ephraim, canst thou count syllables? I +mean no offence. I may have counted wrongfully myself, not +being born nor educated for an accountant.”</p> +<p>At such order I did count; and truly the suspicion was as just +as if he had neither been a knight nor a sleeper.</p> +<p>“Sad stuff! sad stuff, indeed!” said Master Silas, +“and smelling of popery and wax-candles.”</p> +<p>“Ay?” said Sir Thomas, “I must sift +that.”</p> +<p>“If praying for the dead is not popery,” said +Master Silas, “I know not what the devil is. Let them +pray for us; they may know whether it will do us any good. +We need not pray for them; we cannot tell whether it will do them +any. I call this sound divinity.”</p> +<p>“Are our churchmen all agreed thereupon?” asked +Sir Thomas.</p> +<p>“The wisest are,” replied Master Silas.</p> +<p>“There are some lank rascals who will never agree upon +anything but upon doubting. I would not give ninepence for +the best gown upon the most thrifty of ’em; and their +fingers are as stiff and hard with their pedlary, knavish +writing, as any bishop’s are with chalk-stones won honestly +from the gout.”</p> +<p>Sir Thomas took the paper up from the table on which I had +laid it, and said after a while,—</p> +<p>“The man may only have swooned. I scorn to play +the critic, or to ask any one the meaning of a word; but, +sirrah!”</p> +<p>Here he turned in his chair from the side of Master Silas, and +said unto Willy,—</p> +<p>“William Shakspeare! out of this thraldom in regard to +popery, I hope, by God’s blessing, to deliver thee. +If ever thou repeatest the said verses, knowing the man to be to +all intents and purposes a dead man, prythee read the censurable +line as thus corrected,—</p> +<p style="text-align: center" class="poetry">‘Pray for our +Virgin Queen, gentles! whoe’er you be.’</p> +<p>although it is not quite the thing that another should impinge +so closely on her skirts.</p> +<p>“By this improvement, of me suggested, thou mayest make +some amends—a syllable or two—for the many that are +weighed in the balance and are found wanting.”</p> +<p>Then turning unto me, as being conversant by my profession in +such matters, and the same being not very worthy of learned and +staid clerks the like of Master Silas, he said,—</p> +<p>“Of all the youths that did ever write in verse, this +one verily is he who hath the fewest flowers and devices. +But it would be loss of time to form a border, in the fashion of +a kingly crown, or a dragon, or a Turk on horseback, out of +buttercups and dandelions.</p> +<p>“Master Ephraim! look at these badgers! with a long leg +on one quarter and a short leg on the other. The wench +herself might well and truly have said all that matter without +the poet, bating the rhymes and metre. Among the girls in +the country there are many such <i>shilly-shallys</i>, who give +themselves sore eyes and sharp eye-water; I would cure them rod +in hand.”</p> +<p>Whereupon did William Shakspeare say, with great +humility,—</p> +<p>“So would I, may it please your worship, an they would +let me.”</p> +<p>“Incorrigible sluts! Out upon ’em! and thou +art no better than they are,” quoth the knight.</p> +<p>Master Silas cried aloud, “No better, marry! they at the +worst are but carted and whipped for the edification of the +market-folks. <a name="citation44a"></a><a href="#footnote44a" +class="citation">[44a]</a> Not a squire or parson in the +country round but comes in his best to see a man +hanged.”</p> +<p>“The edification then is higher by a deal,” said +William, very composedly.</p> +<p>“Troth! is it,” replied Master Silas. +“The most poisonous reptile has the richest jewel in his +head; thou shalt share the richest gift bestowed upon royalty, +and shalt cure the king’s evil.” <a +name="citation45a"></a><a href="#footnote45a" +class="citation">[45a]</a></p> +<p>“It is more tractable, then, than the +church’s,” quoth William; and, turning his face +toward the chair, he made an obeisance to Sir Thomas, +saying,—</p> +<p>“Sir! the more submissive my behaviour is, the more +vehement and boisterous is Master Silas. My gentlest words +serve only to carry him toward the contrary quarter, as the south +wind bloweth a ship northward.”</p> +<p>“Youth,” said Sir Thomas, smiling most benignly, +“I find, and well indeed might I have surmised, thy utter +ignorance of winds, equinoxes, and tides. Consider now a +little! With what propriety can a wind be called a south +wind if it bloweth a vessel to the north? Would it be a +south wind that blew it from this hall into Warwick +market-place?”</p> +<p>“It would be a strong one,” said Master Silas unto +me, pointing his remark, as witty men are wont, with the +elbow-pan.</p> +<p>But Sir Thomas, who waited for an answer, and received none, +continued,—</p> +<p>“Would a man be called a good man who tended and pushed +on toward evil?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“I stand corrected. I could sail to Cathay or +Tartary <a name="citation46a"></a><a href="#footnote46a" +class="citation">[46a]</a> with half the nautical knowledge I +have acquired in this glorious hall.</p> +<p>“The devil impelling a mortal to wrong courses, is +thereby known to be the devil. He, on the contrary, who +exciteth to good is no devil, but an angel of light, or under the +guidance of one. The devil driveth unto his own home; so +doth the south wind, so doth the north wind.</p> +<p>“Alas! alas! we possess not the mastery over our own +weak minds when a higher spirit standeth nigh and draweth us +within his influence.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Those thy words are well enough,—very well, very +good, wise, discreet, judicious beyond thy years. But then +that <i>sailing</i> comes in an awkward, ugly way across +me,—that <i>Cathay</i>, that <i>Tartarus</i>!</p> +<p>“Have a care! Do thou nothing rashly. Mind! +an thou stealest my punt for the purpose, I send the constable +after thee or e’er thou art half way over.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“He would make a stock-fish of me an he caught me. +It is hard sailing out of his straits, although they be carefully +laid down in most parishes, and may have taken them from actual +survey.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Silas</span>.</p> +<p>“Sir, we have bestowed on him already well-nigh a good +hour of our time.”</p> +<p>Sir Thomas, who was always fond of giving admonition and +reproof to the ignorant and erring, and who had found the seeds +(little mustard-seeds, ’t is true, and never likely to +arise into the great mustard-tree of the Gospel) in the poor lad +Willy, did let his heart soften a whit tenderer and kindlier than +Master Silas did, and said unto Master Silas,—</p> +<p>“A good hour of our time! Yea, Silas! and thou +wouldst give <i>him</i> eternity!”</p> +<p>“What, sir! would you let him go?” said Master +Silas. “Presently we shall have neither deer nor dog, +neither hare nor coney, neither swan nor heron; every carp from +pool, every bream from brook, will be groped for. The +marble monuments in the church will no longer protect the leaden +coffins; and if there be any ring of gold on the finger of knight +or dame, it will be torn away with as little ruth and ceremony as +the ring from a butchered sow’s snout.”</p> +<p>“Awful words! Master Silas,” quoth the +knight, musing; “but thou mistakest my intentions. I +let him not go; howbeit, at worst I would only mark him in the +ear, and turn him up again after this warning, peradventure with +a few stripes to boot athwart the shoulders, in order to make +them shrug a little, and shake off the burden of +idleness.”</p> +<p>Now I, having seen, I dare not say the innocence, but the +innocent and simple manner of Willy, and pitying his tender +years, and having an inkling that he was a lad, poor Willy! whom +God had endowed with some parts, and into whose breast he had +instilled that milk of loving-kindness by which alone we can be +like unto those little children of whom is the household and +kingdom of our Lord,—I was moved, yea, even unto +tears. And now, to bring gentler thoughts into the hearts +of Master Silas and Sir Thomas, who, in his wisdom, deemed it a +light punishment to slit an ear or two, or inflict a wiry +scourging, I did remind his worship that another paper was yet +unread, at least to them, although I had been perusing it.</p> +<p>This was much pleasanter than the two former, and overflowing +with the praises of the worthy knight and his gracious lady; and +having an echo to it in another voice, I did hope thereby to +disarm their just wrath and indignation. It was thus +couched:—</p> +<p style="text-align: center">“FIRST SHEPHERD.</p> +<p class="poetry">“Jesu! what lofty elms are here!<br /> +Let me look through them at the clear,<br /> +Deep sky above, and bless my star<br /> +That such a worthy knight’s they are!</p> +<p style="text-align: center">“SECOND SHEPHERD.</p> +<p class="poetry">“Innocent creatures! how those deer<br /> +Trot merrily, and romp and rear!</p> +<p style="text-align: center">“FIRST SHEPHERD.</p> +<p class="poetry">“The glorious knight who walks beside<br +/> +His most majestic lady bride,</p> +<p style="text-align: center">“SECOND SHEPHERD.</p> +<p class="poetry">“Under these branches spreading wide,</p> +<p style="text-align: center">“FIRST SHEPHERD.</p> +<p class="poetry">“Carries about so many cares<br /> +Touching his ancestors and heirs,<br /> +That came from Athens and from Rome—</p> +<p style="text-align: center">“SECOND SHEPHERD.</p> +<p class="poetry">“As many of them as are come—</p> +<p style="text-align: center">“FIRST SHEPHERD.</p> +<p class="poetry">“Nought else the smallest lodge can +find<br /> +In the vast manors of his mind;<br /> +Envying not Solomon his wit—</p> +<p style="text-align: center">“SECOND SHEPHERD.</p> +<p class="poetry">“No, nor his women not a bit;<br /> +Being well-built and well-behavèd<br /> +As Solomon, I trow, or David.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">“FIRST SHEPHERD.</p> +<p class="poetry">“And taking by his jewell’d hand<br +/> +The jewel of that lady bland,<br /> +He sees the tossing antlers pass<br /> +And throw quaint shadows o’er the grass;<br /> +While she alike the hour beguiles,<br /> +And looks at him and them, and smiles.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">“SECOND SHEPHERD.</p> +<p class="poetry">“With conscience proof ’gainst +Satan’s shock,<br /> +Albeit finer than her smock, <a name="citation50a"></a><a +href="#footnote50a" class="citation">[50a]</a><br /> +Marry! her smiles are not of vanity,<br /> +But resting on sound Christianity.<br /> +Faith, you would swear, had nail’d <a +name="citation50b"></a><a href="#footnote50b" +class="citation">[50b]</a> her ears on<br /> +The book and cushion of the parson.”</p> +<p>“Methinks the rhyme at the latter end might be +bettered,” said Sir Thomas. “The remainder is +indited not unaptly. But, young man, never having obtained +the permission of my honourable dame to praise her in guise of +poetry, I cannot see all the merit I would fain discern in the +verses. She ought first to have been sounded; and it being +certified that she disapproved not her glorification, then might +it be trumpeted forth into the world below.”</p> +<p>“Most worshipful knight,” replied the youngster, +“I never could take it in hand to sound a dame of +quality,—they are all of them too deep and too practised +for me, and have better and abler men about ’em. And +surely I did imagine to myself that if it were asked of any +honourable man (omitting to speak of ladies) whether he would +give permission to be openly praised, he would reject the +application as a gross offence. It appeareth to me that +even to praise one’s self, although it be shameful, is less +shameful than to throw a burning coal into the incense-box that +another doth hold to waft before us, and then to snift and simper +over it, with maidenly, wishful coyness, as if forsooth one had +no hand in setting it asmoke.”</p> +<p>Then did Sir Thomas, in his zeal to instruct the ignorant, and +so make the lowly hold up their heads, say unto him,—</p> +<p>“Nay, but all the great do thus. Thou must not +praise them without leave and license. Praise unpermitted +is plebeian praise. It is presumption to suppose that thou +knowest enough of the noble and the great to discover their high +qualities. They alone could manifest them unto thee. +It requireth much discernment and much time to enucleate and +bring into light their abstruse wisdom and gravely featured +virtues. Those of ordinary men lie before thee in thy daily +walks; thou mayest know them by converse at their tables, as thou +knowest the little tame squirrel that chippeth his nuts in the +open sunshine of a bowling-green. But beware how thou +enterest the awful arbours of the great, who conceal their +magnanimity in the depths of their hearts, as lions +do.”</p> +<p>He then paused; and observing the youth in deep and earnest +meditation over the fruits of his experience, as one who tasted +and who would fain digest them; he gave him encouragement, and +relieved the weight of his musings by kind interrogation.</p> +<p>“So, then, these verses are thine own?” The +youth answered,—</p> +<p>“Sir, I must confess my fault.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“And who was the shepherd written here <i>Second +Shepherd</i>, that had the ill manners to interrupt thee? +Methinks, in helping thee to mount the saddle, he pretty nigh +tossed thee over, <a name="citation53a"></a><a +href="#footnote53a" class="citation">[53a]</a> with his jerks and +quirks.”</p> +<p>Without waiting for any answer, his worship continued his +interrogations.</p> +<p>“But do you woolstaplers call yourselves by the style +and title of shepherds?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“Verily, sir, do we; and I trust by right. The +last owner of any place is called the master more properly than +the dead and gone who once held it. If that be true (and +who doubts it?) we, who have the last of the sheep, namely, the +wool and skin, and who buy all of all the flock, surely may more +properly be called shepherds than those idle vagrants who tend +them only for a season, selling a score or purchasing a score, as +may happen.”</p> +<p>Here Sir Thomas did pause a while, and then said unto Master +Silas,—</p> +<p>“My own cogitations, and not this stripling, have +induced me to consider and to conclude a weighty matter for +knightly scholarship. I never could rightly understand +before how Colin Clout, and sundry others calling themselves +shepherds, should argue like doctors in law, physic, and +divinity.</p> +<p>“Silas! they were woolstaplers; and they must have +exercised their wits in dealing with tithe-proctors and parsons, +and moreover with fellows of colleges from our two learned +universities, who have sundry lands held under them, as thou +knowest, and take the small tithes in kind. Colin Clout, +methinks, from his extensive learning, might have acquired enough +interest with the Queen’s Highness to change his name for +the better, and, furthermore, her royal license to carry armorial +bearings, in no peril of taint from so unsavoury an +appellation.”</p> +<p>Master Silas did interrupt this discourse, by +saying,—</p> +<p>“May it please your worship, the constable is +waiting.”</p> +<p>Whereat Sir Thomas said, tartly,—</p> +<p>“And let him wait.” <a name="citation55a"></a><a +href="#footnote55a" class="citation">[55a]</a></p> +<p>Then to me,—</p> +<p>“I hope we have done with verses, and are not to be +befooled by the lad’s nonsense touching mermaids or worse +creatures.”</p> +<p>Then to Will,—</p> +<p>“William Shakspeare! we live in a Christian land, a land +of great toleration and forbearance. Three score cartsful +of fagots a year are fully sufficient to clear our English air +from every pestilence of heresy and witchcraft. It hath not +alway been so, God wot! Innocent and guilty took their +turns before the fire, like geese and capons. The spit was +never cold; the cook’s sleeve was ever above the +elbow. Countrymen came down from distant villages into +towns and cities, to see perverters whom they had never heard of, +and to learn the righteousness of hatred. When heretics +waxed fewer the religious began to grumble that God, in losing +his enemies, had also lost his avengers.</p> +<p>“Do not thou, William Shakspeare, dig the hole for thy +own stake. If thou canst not make men wise, do not make +them merry at thy cost. We are not to be paganised any +more. Having struck from our calendars, and unnailed from +our chapels, many dozens of decent saints, with as little +compunction and remorse as unlucky lads throw frog-spawn and +tadpoles out of stagnant ditches, never let us think of bringing +back among us the daintier divinities they ousted. All +these are the devil’s imps, beautiful as they appear in +what we falsely call works of genius, which really and truly are +the devil’s own,—statues more graceful than humanity, +pictures more living than life, eloquence that raised single +cities above empires, poor men above kings. If these are +not Satan’s works, where are they? I will tell thee +where they are likewise. In holding vain converse with +false gods. The utmost we can allow in propriety is to call +a knight Phœbus, and a dame Diana. They are not meat +for every trencher.</p> +<p>“We must now proceed straightforward with the business +on which thou comest before us. What further sayest thou, +witness?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Euseby +Treen</span>.</p> +<p>“His face was toward me; I saw it clearly. The +graver man followed him into the punt, and said, roughly, +‘We shall get hanged as sure as thou pipest.’</p> +<p>“Whereunto he answered,—</p> +<p class="poetry">‘Naturally, as fall upon the ground<br /> +The leaves in winter and the girls in spring.’</p> +<p>And then began he again with the mermaid; whereat the graver +man clapped a hand before his mouth, and swore he should take her +in wedlock, to have and to hold, if he sang another stave. +‘And thou shalt be her pretty little bridemaid,’ +quoth he gaily to the graver man, chucking him under the +chin.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“And what did Carnaby say unto thee, or what didst thou +say unto Carnaby?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Euseby +Treen</span>.</p> +<p>“Carnaby said unto me, somewhat tauntingly, ‘The +big squat man, that lay upon thy bread-basket like a nightmare, +is a punt at last, it seems.’</p> +<p>“‘Punt, and more too,’ answered I. +‘Tarry awhile, and thou shalt see this punt (so let me call +it) lead them into temptation, and swamp them or carry them to +the gallows; I would not stay else.’”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“And what didst thou, Joseph Carnaby?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Joseph +Carnaby</span>.</p> +<p>“Finding him neither slack nor shy, I readily +tarried. We knelt down opposite each other, and said our +prayers; and he told me he was now comfortable. ‘The +evil one,’ said he, ‘hath enough to mind yonder: he +shall not hurt us.’</p> +<p>“Never was a sweeter night, had there been but some mild +ale under it, which any one would have sworn it was made +for. The milky way looked like a long drift of hail-stones +on a sunny ridge.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Hast thou done describing?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Joseph +Carnaby</span>.</p> +<p>“Yea, an please your worship.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“God’s blessing be upon thee, honest +Carnaby! I feared a moon-fall. In our days nobody can +think about a plum-pudding but the moon comes down upon it. +I warrant ye this lad here hath as many moons in his poems as the +Saracens had in their banners.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“I have not hatched mine yet, sir. Whenever I do I +trust it will be worth taking to market.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Joseph +Carnaby</span>.</p> +<p>“I said all I know of the stars; but Master Euseby can +run over half a score and upward, here and there. ‘Am +I right, or wrong?’ cried he, spreading on the back of my +hand all his fingers, stiff as antlers and cold as icicles. +‘Look up, Joseph! Joseph! there is no Lucifer in the +firmament!’ I myself did feel queerish and qualmy +upon hearing that a star was missing, being no master of +gainsaying it; and I abased my eyes, and entreated of Euseby to +do in like manner. And in this posture did we both of us +remain; and the missing star did not disquiet me; and all the +others seemed as if they knew us and would not tell of us; and +there was peace and pleasantness over sky and earth. And I +said to my companion,—</p> +<p>“‘How quiet now, good Master Euseby, are all +God’s creatures in this meadow, because they never pry into +such high matters, but breathe sweetly among the pig-nuts. +The only things we hear or see stirring are the glow-worms and +dormice, as though they were sent for our edification, teaching +us to rest contented with our own little light, and to come out +and seek our sustenance where none molest or thwart +us.’”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“Ye would have it thus, no doubt, when your pockets and +pouches are full of gins and nooses.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“A bridle upon thy dragon’s tongue! And do +thou, Master Joseph, quit the dormice and glow-worms, and tell us +whither did the rogues go.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Joseph +Carnaby</span>.</p> +<p>“I wot not after they had crossed the river they were +soon out of sight and hearing.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Went they toward Charlecote?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Joseph +Carnaby</span>.</p> +<p>“Their first steps were thitherward.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Did they come back unto the punt?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Joseph +Carnaby</span>.</p> +<p>“They went down the stream in it, and crossed the Avon +some fourscore yards below where we were standing. They +came back in it, and moored it to the sedges in which it had +stood before.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“How long were they absent?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Joseph +Carnaby</span>.</p> +<p>“Within an hour, or thereabout, all the three men +returned. Will Shakspeare and another were sitting in the +middle, the third punted.</p> +<p>“‘Remember now, gentles!’ quoth William +Shakspeare, ‘the road we have taken is henceforward a +footpath for ever, according to law.’</p> +<p>“‘How so?’ asked the punter, turning toward +him,</p> +<p>“‘Forasmuch as a corpse hath passed along +it,’ answered he.</p> +<p>“Whereupon both Euseby and myself did forthwith fall +upon our faces, commending our souls unto the Lord.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“It was then really the dead body that quivered so +fearfully upon the water, covering all the punt! Christ, +deliver us! I hope the keeper they murdered was not +Jeremiah. His wife and four children would be very +chargeable, and the man was by no means amiss. Proceed! +what further?”</p> +<p>“On reaching the bank, ‘I never sat pleasanter in +my lifetime,’ said William Shakspeare, ‘than upon +this carcass.’”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Lord have mercy upon us! Thou upon a carcass, at +thy years!”</p> +<p>And the knight drew back his chair half an ell farther from +the table, and his lips quivered at the thought of such +inhumanity.</p> +<p>“And what said he more? and what did he?” asked +the knight.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Joseph +Carnaby</span>.</p> +<p>“He patted it smartly, and said, ‘Lug it out; +break it.’”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“These four poor children! who shall feed +them?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Silas</span>.</p> +<p>“Sir! in God’s name have you forgotten that +Jeremiah is gone to Nuneaton to see his father, and that the +murdered man is the buck?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“They killed the buck likewise. But what, ye +cowardly varlets! have ye been deceiving me all this time? +And thou, youngster! couldst thou say nothing to clear up the +case? Thou shalt smart for it. Methought I had lost +by a violent death the best servant ever man had—righteous, +if there be no blame in saying it, as the prophet whose name he +beareth, and brave as the lion of Judah.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“Sir, if these men could deceive your worship for a +moment, they might deceive me for ever. I could not guess +what their story aimed at, except my ruin. I am inclined to +lean for once toward the opinion of Master Silas, and to believe +it was really the stolen buck on which this William (if indeed +there is any truth at all in the story) was sitting.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“What more hast thou for me that is not enigma or +parable?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Joseph +Carnaby</span>.</p> +<p>“I did not see the carcass, man’s or +beast’s, may it please your worship, and I have recited and +can recite that only which I saw and heard. After the words +of lugging out and breaking it, knives were drawn +accordingly. It was no time to loiter or linger. We +crope back under the shadow of the alders and hazels on the high +bank that bordereth Mickle Meadow, and, making straight for the +public road, hastened homeward.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Hearing this deposition, dost thou affirm the like upon +thy oath, Master Euseby Treen, or dost thou vary in aught +essential?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Euseby +Treen</span>.</p> +<p>“Upon my oath I do depose and affirm the like, and truly +the identical same; and I will never more vary upon aught +essential.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“I do now further demand of thee whether thou knowest +anything more appertaining unto this business.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Euseby +Treen</span>.</p> +<p>“Ay, verily; that your worship may never hold me for +timorsome and superstitious, I do furthermore add that some other +than deer-stealers was abroad. In sign whereof, although it +was the dryest and clearest night of the season, my jerkin was +damp inside and outside when I reached my house-door.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“I warrant thee, Euseby, the damp began not at the +outside. A word in thy ear—Lucifer was thy tapster, I +trow.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Irreverent swine! hast no awe nor shame. Thou +hast aggravated thy offence, William Shakspeare, by thy +foul-mouthedness.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Silas</span>.</p> +<p>“I must remind your worship that he not only has +committed this iniquity afore, but hath pawed the puddle he made, +and relapsed into it after due caution and reproof. God +forbid that what he spake against me, out of the gall of his +proud stomach, should move me. I defy him, a low, ignorant +wretch, a rogue and vagabond, a thief and cut-throat, a — +<a name="citation66a"></a><a href="#footnote66a" +class="citation">[66a]</a> monger and mutton-eater.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“Your worship doth hear the learned clerk’s +testimony in my behalf. ‘Out of the mouth of babes +and sucklings’—”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Silas, the youth has failings—a madcap; but he is +pious.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“Alas, no, sir! Would I were! But Sir Silas, +like the prophet, came to curse, and was forced to bless me, even +me, a sinner, a mutton-eater!”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Thou urgedst him. He beareth no ill-will toward +thee. Thou knewedst, I suspect, that the blackness in his +mouth proceeded from a natural cause.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“The Lord is merciful! I was brought hither in +jeopardy; I shall return in joy. Whether my innocence be +declared or otherwise, my piety and knowledge will be forwarded +and increased; for your worship will condescend, even from the +judgment-seat, to enlighten the ignorant where a soul shall be +saved or lost. And I, even I, may trespass a moment on your +courtesy. I quail at the words <i>natural cause</i>. +Be there any such?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Youth! I never thought thee so staid. Thou +hast, for these many months, been represented unto me as one +dissolute and light, much given unto mummeries and mysteries, +wakes and carousals, cudgel-fighters and mountebanks and wanton +women. They do also represent of thee—I hope it may +be without foundation—that thou enactest the parts, not +simply of foresters and fairies, girls in the green-sickness and +friars, lawyers and outlaws, but likewise, having small reverence +for station, of kings and queens, knights and privy-counsellors, +in all their glory. It hath been whispered, moreover, and +the testimony of these two witnesses doth appear in some measure +to countenance and confirm it, that thou hast at divers times +this last summer been seen and heard alone, inasmuch as human eye +may discover, on the narrow slip of greensward between the Avon +and the chancel, distorting thy body like one possessed, and +uttering strange language, like unto incantation. This, +however, cometh not before me. Take heed! take heed unto +thy ways; there are graver things in law even than homicide and +deer-stealing.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Silas</span>.</p> +<p>“And strong against him. Folks have been consumed +at the stake for pettier felonies and upon weaker +evidence.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“To that anon.”</p> +<p>William Shakspeare did hold down his head, answering +nought. And Sir Thomas spake again unto him, as one mild +and fatherly, if so be that such a word may be spoken of a knight +and parliament-man. And these are the words he +spake:—</p> +<p>“Reason and ruminate with thyself now. To pass +over and pretermit the danger of representing the actions of the +others, and mainly of lawyers and churchmen, the former of whom +do pardon no offences, and the latter those only against God, +having no warrant for more, canst thou believe it innocent to +counterfeit kings and queens? Supposest thou that if the +impression of their faces on a farthing be felonious and +rope-worthy, the imitation of head and body, voice and bearing, +plume and strut, crown and mantle, and everything else that +maketh them royal and glorious, be aught less? Perpend, +young man, perpend! Consider, who among inferior mortals +shall imitate them becomingly? Dreamest thou they talk and +act like checkmen at Banbury fair? How can thy shallow +brain suffice for their vast conceptions? How darest thou +say, as they do: ‘Hang this fellow; quarter that; flay; +mutilate; stab; shoot; press; hook; torture; burn +alive’? These are royalties. Who appointed thee +to such office? The Holy Ghost? He alone can confer +it; but when wert thou anointed?”</p> +<p>William was so zealous in storing up these verities that he +looked as though he were unconscious that the pouring-out was +over. He started, which he had not done before, at the +voice of Master Silas; but soon recovered his complacency, and +smiled with much serenity at being called low-minded varlet.</p> +<p>“Low-minded varlet!” cried Master Silas, most +contemptuously, “dost thou imagine that king calleth king, +like thy chums, <i>filcher</i> and <i>fibber</i>, +<i>whirligig</i> and <i>nincompoop</i>? Instead of this low +vulgarity and sordid idleness, ending in nothing, they throw at +one another such fellows as thee by the thousand, and when they +have cleared the land, render God thanks and make +peace.”</p> +<p>Willy did now sigh out his ignorance of these matters; and he +sighed, mayhap, too, at the recollection of the peril he had run +into, and had ne’er a word on the nail. <a +name="citation70a"></a><a href="#footnote70a" +class="citation">[70a]</a></p> +<p>The bowels of Sir Thomas waxed tenderer and tenderer; and he +opened his lips in this fashion:—</p> +<p>“Stripling! I would now communicate unto thee, on +finding thee docile and assentaneous, the instruction thou +needest on the signification of the words <i>natural cause</i>, +if thy duty toward thy neighbour had been first instilled into +thee.”</p> +<p>Whereupon Master Silas did interpose, for the dinner hour was +drawing nigh.</p> +<p>“We cannot do all at once,” quoth he. +“Coming out of order, it might harm him. Malt before +hops, the world over, or the beer muddies.”</p> +<p>But Sir Thomas was not to be pricked out of his form even by +so shrewd a pricker; and like unto one who heareth not, he +continued to look most graciously on the homely vessel that stood +ready to receive his wisdom.</p> +<p>“Thy mind,” said he, “being unprepared for +higher cogitations, and the groundwork and religious duty not +being well rammer-beaten and flinted, I do pass over this +supererogatory point, and inform thee rather, that bucks and +swans and herons have something in their very names announcing +them of knightly appurtenance; and (God forfend that evil do +ensue therefrom!) that a goose on the common, or a game-cock on +the loft of a cottager or villager, may be seized, bagged, and +abducted, with far less offence to the laws. In a buck +there is something so gainly and so grand, he treadeth the earth +with such ease and such agility, he abstaineth from all other +animals with such punctilious avoidance, one would imagine God +created him when he created knighthood. In the swan there +is such purity, such coldness is there in the element he +inhabiteth, such solitude of station, that verily he doth remind +me of the Virgin Queen herself. Of the heron I have less to +say, not having him about me; but I never heard his lordly croak +without the conceit that it resembled a chancellor’s or a +primate’s.</p> +<p>“I do perceive, William Shakspeare, thy compunction and +contrition.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“I was thinking, may it please your worship, of the +game-cock and the goose, having but small notion of herons. +This doctrine of abduction, please your worship, hath been alway +inculcated by the soundest of our judges. Would they had +spoken on other points with the same clearness. How many +unfortunates might thereby have been saved from crossing the +Cordilleras!” <a name="citation72a"></a><a +href="#footnote72a" class="citation">[72a]</a></p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Ay, ay! they have been fain to fly the country at last, +thither or elsewhere.”</p> +<p>And then did Sir Thomas call unto him Master Silas, and +say,—</p> +<p>“Walk we into the bay-window. And thou mayest +come, Ephraim.”</p> +<p>And when we were there together, I, Master Silas, and his +worship, did his worship say unto the chaplain, but oftener +looking toward me,—</p> +<p>“I am not ashamed to avouch that it goeth against me to +hang this young fellow, richly as the offence in its own nature +doth deserve it, he talketh so reasonably; not indeed so +reasonably, but so like unto what a reasonable man may listen to +and reflect on. There is so much, too, of compassion for +others in hard cases, and something so very near in semblance to +innocence itself in that airy swing of lightheartedness about +him. I cannot fix my eyes (as one would say) on the +shifting and sudden <i>shade-and-shine</i>, which cometh back to +me, do what I will, and mazes me in a manner, and blinks +me.”</p> +<p>At this juncture I was ready to fall upon the ground before +his worship, and clasp his knees for Willy’s pardon. +But he had so many points about him, that I feared to discompose +’em, and thus make bad worse. Besides which, Master +Silas left me but scanty space for good resolutions, +crying,—</p> +<p>“He may be committed, to save time. Afterward he +may be sentenced to death, or he may not.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“’T were shame upon me were he not; ’t were +indication that I acted unadvisedly in the commitment.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Silas</span>.</p> +<p>“The penalty of the law may be commuted, if expedient, +on application to the fountain of mercy in London.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Maybe, Silas, those shall be standing round the fount +of mercy who play in idleness and wantonness with its waters, and +let them not flow widely, nor take their natural course. +Dutiful gallants may encompass it, and it may linger among the +flowers they throw into it, and never reach the parched lip on +the wayside.</p> +<p>“These are homely thoughts—thoughts from a-field, +thoughts for the study and housekeeper’s room. But +whenever I have given utterance unto them, as my heart hath often +prompted me with beatings at the breast, my hearers seemed to +bear toward me more true and kindly affection than my richest +fancies and choicest phraseologies could purchase.</p> +<p>“’T were convenient to bethink thee, should any +other great man’s park have been robbed this season, no +judge upon the bench will back my recommendation for mercy. +And, indeed, how could I expect it? Things may soon be +brought to such a pass that their lordships shall scarcely find +three haunches each upon the circuit.”</p> +<p>“Well, Sir!” quoth Master Silas, “you have a +right to go on in your own way. Make him only give up the +girl.”</p> +<p>Here Sir Thomas reddened with righteous indignation, and +answered,—</p> +<p>“I cannot think it! such a stripling! poor, penniless; +it must be some one else.” And now Master Silas did +redden in his turn, redder than Sir Thomas, and first asked +me,—</p> +<p>“What the devil do you stare at?” And then +asked his worship,—</p> +<p>“Who should it be if not the rogue?” and his lips +turned as blue as a blue-bell. Then Sir Thomas left the +window, and again took his chair, and having stood so long on his +legs, groaned upon it to ease him. His worship scowled with +all his might, and looked exceedingly wroth and vengeful at the +culprit, and said unto him,—</p> +<p>“Harkye, knave! I have been conferring with my +learned clerk and chaplain in what manner I may, with the least +severity, rid the county (which thou disgracest) of +thee.”</p> +<p>William Shakspeare raised up his eyes, modestly and fearfully, +and said slowly these few words, which, had they been a better +and nobler man’s, would deserve to be written in letters of +gold. I, not having that art nor substance, do therefore +write them in my largest and roundest character, and do leave +space about ’em, according to their rank and +dignity:—</p> +<p>“Worshipful sir!”</p> +<p>“A <span class="smcap">word in the ear is often as good +as a halter under it, and saves the groat</span>.”</p> +<p>“Thou discoursest well,” said Sir Thomas, +“but others can discourse well likewise. Thou shalt +avoid; I am resolute.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“I supplicate your honour to impart unto me, in your +wisdom, the mode and means whereby I may surcease to be +disgraceful to the county.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“I am not bloody-minded.</p> +<p>“First, thou shalt have the fairest and fullest +examination. Much hath been deposed against thee; something +may come forth for thy advantage. I will not thy death; +thou shalt not die.</p> +<p>“The laws have loopholes, like castles, both to shoot +from and to let folks down.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Silas</span>.</p> +<p>“That pointed ear would look the better for paring, and +that high forehead can hold many letters.”</p> +<p>Whereupon did William, poor lad! turn deadly pale, but spake +not.</p> +<p>Sir Thomas then abated a whit of his severity, and said, +staidly,—</p> +<p>“Testimony doth appear plain and positive against thee; +nevertheless am I minded and prompted to aid thee myself, in +disclosing and unfolding what thou couldst not of thine own wits, +in furtherance of thine own defence.</p> +<p>“One witness is persuaded and assured of the evil spirit +having been abroad, and the punt appeared unto him diversely from +what it appeared unto the other.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“If the evil spirit produced one appearance, he might +have produced all, with deference to the graver judgment of your +worship.</p> +<p>“If what seemed <i>punt</i> was <i>devil</i>, what +seemed <i>buck</i> might have been <i>devil</i> too; nay, more +easily, the horns being forthcoming.</p> +<p>“Thieves and reprobates do resemble him more nearly +still; and it would be hard if he could not make free with their +bodies, when he has their souls already.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“But, then, those voices! and thou thyself, Will +Shakspeare!”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“O might I kiss the hand of my deliverer, whose +clear-sightedness throweth such manifest and plenary light upon +my innocence!”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“How so? What light, in God’s name, have I +thrown upon it as yet?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“Oh! those voices! those faeries and spirits! whence +came they? None can deal with ’em but the devil, the +parson, and witches. And does not the devil oftentimes take +the very form, features, and habiliments of knights, and bishops, +and other good men, to lead them into temptation and destroy +them? or to injure their good name, in failure of seduction?</p> +<p>“He is sure of the wicked; he lets them go their ways +out of hand.</p> +<p>“I think your worship once delivered some such +observation, in more courtly guise, which I would not presume to +ape. If it was not your worship, it was our glorious lady +the queen, or the wise Master Walsingham, or the great Lord +Cecil. I may have marred and broken it, as sluts do a +pancake, in the turning.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Why! ay, indeed, I had occasion once to remark as +much.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“So have I heard in many places; although I was not +present when Matthew Atterend fought about it for the honour of +Kineton hundred.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Fought about it!”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“As your honour recollects. Not but on other +occasions he would have fought no less bravely for the +queen.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“We must get thee through, were it only for thy +memory,—the most precious gift among the mental powers that +Providence hath bestowed upon us. I had half forgotten the +thing myself. Thou mayest, in time, take thy satchel for +London, and aid good old Master Holingshed.</p> +<p>“We must clear thee, Will! I am slow to surmise +that there is blood upon thy hands!”</p> +<p>His worship’s choler had all gone down again; and he sat +as cool and comfortable as a man sitteth to be shaved. Then +called he on Euseby Treen, and said,—</p> +<p>“Euseby Treen! tell us whether thou observedst anything +unnoticed or unsaid by the last witness.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Euseby +Treen</span>.</p> +<p>“One thing only, sir!</p> +<p>“When they had passed the water an owlet hooted after +them; and methought, if they had any fear of God before their +eyes they would have turned back, he cried so lustily.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“Sir, I cannot forbear to take the owlet out of your +mouth. He knocks them all on the head like so many +mice. Likely story! One fellow hears him cry lustily, +the other doth not hear him at all!”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Joseph +Carnaby</span>.</p> +<p>“Not hear him! A body might have heard him at +Barford or Sherbourne.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Why didst not name him? Canst not answer +me?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Joseph +Carnaby</span>.</p> +<p>“<i>He</i> doubted whether punt were punt; I doubted +whether owlet were owlet, after Lucifer was away from the +roll-call.</p> +<p>“We say, <i>Speak the truth and shame the devil</i>; but +shaming him is one thing, your honour, and facing him +another! I have heard owlets, but never owlet like +him.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“The Lord be praised! All, at last, a-running to +my rescue.</p> +<p>“Owlet, indeed! Your worship may have remembered +in an ancient book—indeed, what book is so ancient that +your worship doth not remember it?—a book printed by Doctor +Faustus—”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Before he dealt with the devil?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“Not long before, it being the very book that made the +devil think it worth his while to deal with him.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“What chapter thereof wouldst thou recall unto my +recollection?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“That concerning owls, with the grim print afore it.</p> +<p>“Doctor Faustus, the wise doctor, who knew other than +owls and owlets, knew the tempter in that form. Faustus was +not your man for fancies and figments; and he tells us that, to +his certain knowledge, it was verily an owl’s face that +whispered so much mischief in the ear of our first parent.</p> +<p>“One plainly sees it, quoth Doctor Faustus, under that +gravity which in human life we call dignity, but of which we read +nothing in the Gospel. We despise the hangman, we detest +the hanged; and yet, saith Duns Scotus, could we turn aside the +heavy curtain, or stand high enough a-tiptoe to peep through its +chinks and crevices, we should perhaps find these two characters +to stand justly among the most innocent in the drama. He +who blinketh the eyes of the poor wretch about to die doeth it +out of mercy; those who preceded him, bidding him in the garb of +justice to shed the blood of his fellow-man, had less or +none. So they hedge well their own grounds, what care +they? For this do they catch at stakes and thorns, at quick +and rotten—”</p> +<p>Here Master Silas interrupted the discourse of the +devil’s own doctor, delivered and printed by him before he +was the devil’s, to which his worship had listened very +attentively and delightedly. But Master Silas could keep +his temper no longer, and cried, fiercely, “Seditious +sermonizer! hold thy peace, or thou shalt answer for ’t +before convocation.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Silas! thou dost not approve, then, the doctrine of +this Doctor Duns?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Silas</span>.</p> +<p>“Heretical Rabbi!”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“<i>If two of a trade can never agree</i>, yet surely +two of a name may.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Silas</span>.</p> +<p>“Who dares call me heretical? who dares call me rabbi? +who dares call me Scotus? Spider! spider! yea, thou hast +one corner left; I espy thee, and my broom shall reach thee +yet.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“I perceive that Master Silas doth verily believe I have +been guilty of suborning the witnesses, at least the last, the +best man (if any difference) of the two. No, sir, no. +If my family and friends have united their wits and money for +this purpose, be the crime of perverted justice on their +heads! They injure whom they intended to serve. +Improvident men!—if the young may speak thus of the +elderly; could they imagine to themselves that your worship was +to be hoodwinked and led astray?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“No man shall ever dare to hoodwink me, to lead me +astray,—no, nor lead me anywise. Powerful +defence! Heyday! Sit quiet, Master +Treen!—Euseby Treen! dost hear me? Clench thy fist +again, sirrah! and I clap thee in the stocks.</p> +<p>“Joseph Carnaby! do not scratch thy breast nor thy pate +before me.”</p> +<p>Now Joseph had not only done that in his wrath, but had +unbuckled his leathern garter, fit instrument for strife and +blood, and peradventure would have smitten, had not the knight, +with magisterial authority, interposed.</p> +<p>His worship said unto him, gravely,—</p> +<p>“Joseph Carnaby! Joseph Carnaby! hast thou never +read the words ‘<i>Put up thy sword</i>’?”</p> +<p>“Subornation! your worship!” cried Master +Joe. “The fellow hath ne’er a shilling in +leather or till, and many must go to suborn one like +me.”</p> +<p>“I do believe it of thee,” said Sir Thomas; +“but patience, man! patience! he rather tended toward +exculpating thee. Ye have far to walk for dinner; ye may +depart.”</p> +<p>They went accordingly.</p> +<p>Then did Sir Thomas say, “These are hot men, +Silas!”</p> +<p>And Master Silas did reply unto him,—</p> +<p>“There are brands that would set fire to the bulrushes +in the mill-pool. I know these twain for quiet folks, +having coursed with them over Wincott.”</p> +<p>Sir Thomas then said unto William, “It behooveth thee to +stand clear of yon Joseph, unless when thou mayest call to thy +aid the Matthew Atterend thou speakest of. He did then +fight valiantly, eh?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“His cause fought valiantly; his fist but seconded +it. He won,—proving the golden words to be no +property of our lady’s, although her Highness hath never +disclaimed them.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“What art thou saying?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“So I heard from a preacher at Oxford, who had preached +at Easter in the chapel-royal of Westminster.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Thou! why, how could that happen? Oxford! +chapel-royal!”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“And to whom I said (your worship will forgive my +forwardness), ‘<i>I have the honour</i>, <i>sir</i>, <i>to +live within two measured miles of the very Sir Thomas Lucy who +spake that</i>.’ And I vow I said it without any hope +or belief that he would invite me, as he did, to dine with him +thereupon.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“There be nigh upon three miles betwixt this house and +Stratford bridge-end.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“I dropt a mile in my pride and exultation, God forgive +me! I would not conceal my fault.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Wonderful! that a preacher so learned as to preach +before majesty in the chapel-royal should not have caught thee +tripping over a whole lawful mile,—a good third of the +distance between my house and the cross-roads. This is +incomprehensible in a scholar.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“God willed that he should become my teacher, and in the +bowels of his mercy hid my shame.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“How camest thou into the converse of such eminent and +ghostly men?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“How, indeed?—everything against me!”</p> +<p>He sighed, and entered into a long discourse, which Master +Silas would at sundry times have interrupted, but that Sir Thomas +more than once frowned upon him, even as he had frowned +heretofore on young Will, who thus began and continued his +narration:—</p> +<p>“Hearing the preacher preach at Saint Mary’s (for +being about my father’s business on Saturday, and not +choosing to be a-horseback on Sundays, albeit time-pressed, I +footed it to Oxford for my edification on the Lord’s day, +leaving the sorrel with Master Hal Webster of the <i>Tankard and +Unicorn</i>)—hearing him preach, as I was saying, before +the University in St. Mary’s Church, and hearing him use +moreover the very words that Matthew fought about, I was +impatient (God forgive me!) for the end and consummation, and I +thought I never should hear those precious words that ease every +man’s heart, ‘<i>Now to conclude</i>.’ +However, come they did. I hurried out among the foremost, +and thought the congratulations of the other doctors and dons +would last for ever. He walked sharply off, and few cared +to keep his pace,—for they are lusty men mostly; and +spiteful bad women had breathed <a name="citation89a"></a><a +href="#footnote89a" class="citation">[89a]</a> in the faces of +some among them, or the gowns had got between their legs. +For my part, I was not to be balked; so, tripping on aside him, I +looked in his face askance. Whether he misgave or how, he +turned his eyes downward. No matter—have him I +would. I licked my lips and smacked them loud and smart, +and scarcely venturing to nod, I gave my head such a sort of +motion as dace and roach give an angler’s quill when they +begin to bite. And this fairly hooked him.”</p> +<p>“‘Young gentleman!’ said he, ‘where is +your gown?’</p> +<p>“‘Reverend sir!’ said I, ‘I am +unworthy to wear one.’</p> +<p>“‘A proper youth, nevertheless, and mightily +well-spoken!’ he was pleased to say.</p> +<p>“‘Your reverence hath given me heart, which failed +me,’ was my reply. ‘Ah! your reverence! those +words about the devil were spicy words; but, under favour, I do +know the brook-side they sprang and flowered by. ’T +is just where it runs into Avon; ’t is called +Hogbrook.’</p> +<p>“‘Right!’ quoth he, putting his hand gently +on my shoulder; ‘but if I had thought it needful to say so +in my sermon, I should have affronted the seniors of the +University, since many claim them, and some peradventure would +fain transpose them into higher places, and giving up all right +and title to them, would accept in lieu thereof the poor +recompense of a mitre.’</p> +<p>“I wished (unworthy wish for a Sunday!) I had Matthew +Atterend in the midst of them. He would have given them +skulls mitre-fashioned, if mitres are cloven now as we see them +on ancient monuments. Matt is your milliner for gentles, +who think no more harm of purloining rich saws in a mitre than +lane-born boys do of embezzling hazel-nuts in a woollen +cap. I did not venture to expound or suggest my thoughts, +but feeling my choler rise higher and higher, I craved permission +to make my obeisance and depart.</p> +<p>“‘Where dost thou lodge, young man?’ said +the preacher.</p> +<p>“‘At the public,’ said I, ‘where my +father customarily lodgeth. There, too, is a mitre of the +old fashion, swinging on the sign-post in the middle of the +street.’</p> +<p>“‘Respectable tavern enough!’ quoth the +reverend doctor; ‘and worthy men do turn in there, even +quality,—Master Davenant, Master Powel, Master Whorwood, +aged and grave men. But taverns are Satan’s chapels, +and are always well attended on the Lord’s day, to twit +him. Hast thou no friend in such a city as +Oxford?’</p> +<p>“‘Only the landlady of the Mitre,’ said +I.</p> +<p>“‘A comely woman,’ quoth he, ‘but too +young for business by half.</p> +<p>“‘Stay thou with me to-day, and fare frugally, but +safely.</p> +<p>“‘What may thy name be, and where is thy +abode?’</p> +<p>“‘William Shakspeare, of Stratford-upon-Avon, at +your service, sir.’</p> +<p>“‘And welcome,’ said he; ‘thy father +ere now hath bought our college wool. A truly good man we +ever found him; and I doubt not he hath educated his son to +follow him in his paths. There is in the blood of man, as +in the blood of animals, that which giveth the temper and +disposition. These require nurture and culture. But +what nurture will turn flint-stones into garden mould? or what +culture rear cabbages in the quarries of Hedington Hill? To +be well born is the greatest of all God’s primary +blessings, young man, and there are many well born among the poor +and needy. Thou art not of the indigent and destitute, who +have great temptations; thou art not of the wealthy and affluent, +who have greater still. God hath placed thee, William +Shakspeare, in that pleasant island, on one side whereof are the +sirens, on the other the harpies, but inhabiting the coasts on +the wider continent, and unable to make their talons felt, or +their voices heard by thee. Unite with me in prayer and +thanksgiving for the blessings thus vouchsafed. We must not +close the heart when the finger of God would touch it. +Enough, if thou sayest only, <i>My soul</i>, <i>praise thou the +Lord</i>!’”</p> +<p>Sir Thomas said, “<i>Amen</i>!” Master Silas +was mute for the moment, but then quoth he, “I can say amen +too in the proper place.”</p> +<p>The knight of Charlecote, who appeared to have been much taken +with this conversation, then interrogated Willy:—</p> +<p>“What farther might have been thy discourse with the +doctor? or did he discourse at all at trencher-time? Thou +must have been very much abashed to sit down at table with one +who weareth a pure lambskin across his shoulder, and moreover a +pink hood.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“Faith! was I, your honour! and could neither utter nor +gulp.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“These are good signs. Thou hast not lost all +grace.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“With the encouragement of Dr. Glaston—”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“And was it Dr. Glaston?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“Said I not so?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“The learnedst clerk in Christendom! a very Friar +Bacon! The Pope offered a hundred marks in Latin to who +should eviscerate or evirate him,—poisons very potent, +whereat the Italians are handy,—so apostolic and desperate +a doctor is Doctor Glaston! so acute in his quiddities, and so +resolute in his bearing! He knows the dark arts, but stands +aloof from them. Prithee, what were his words unto +thee?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“Manna, sir, manna! pure from the desert!”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Ay, but what spake he? for most sermons are that, and +likewise many conversations after dinner.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“He spake of the various races and qualities of men, as +before stated; but chiefly on the elect and reprobate, and how to +distinguish and know them.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Did he go so far?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“He told me that by such discussion he should say enough +to keep me constantly out of evil company.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“See there! see there! and yet thou art come before +me!—Can nothing warn thee?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“I dare not dissemble, nor feign, nor hold aught back, +although it be to my confusion. As well may I speak at once +the whole truth for your worship could find it out if I +abstained.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Ay, that I should indeed, and shortly. But, come +now, I am sated of thy follies and roguish tricks, and yearn +after the sound doctrine of that pious man. What expounded +the grave Glaston upon signs and tokens whereby ye shall be +known?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“Wonderful things! things beyond belief! +‘There be certain men,’ quoth he—”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“He began well. This promises. But why canst +not thou go on?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“‘There be certain men, who, rubbing one corner of +the eye, do see a peacock’s feather at the other, and even +fire. We know, William, what that fire is, and whence it +cometh. Those wicked men, William, all have their marks +upon them, be it only a corn, or a wart, or a mole, or a hairy +ear, or a toe-nail turned inward. Sufficient, and more than +sufficient! He knoweth his own by less tokens. There +is not one of them that doth not sweat at some secret sin +committed, or some inclination toward it unsnaffled.</p> +<p>“‘Certain men are there, likewise, who venerate so +little the glorious works of the Creator that I myself have known +them to sneeze at the sun! Sometimes it was against their +will, and they would gladly have checked it had they been able; +but they were forced to shew what they are. In our carnal +state we say, <i>What is one against numbers</i>? In +another we shall truly say, <i>What are numbers against +one</i>?’”</p> +<p>Sir Thomas did ejaculate, “<i>Amen</i>! +<i>Amen</i>!” And then his lips moved silently, +piously, and quickly; and then said he, audibly and +loudly,—</p> +<p>“<i>And make us at last true Israelites</i>!”</p> +<p>After which he turned to young Willy, and said, +anxiously,—</p> +<p>“Hast thou more, lad? give us it while the Lord +strengtheneth.”</p> +<p>“Sir,” answered Willy, “although I thought +it no trouble, on my return to the <i>Mitre</i>, to write down +every word I could remember, and although few did then escape me, +yet at this present I can bring to mind but scanty sentences, and +those so stray and out of order that they would only prove my +incapacity for sterling wisdom, and my incontinence of spiritual +treasure.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Even that sentence hath a twang of the doctor in +it. Nothing is so sweet as humility. The mountains +may descend, but the valleys cannot rise. Every man should +know himself. Come, repeat what thou canst. I would +fain have three or four more heads.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“I know not whether I can give your worship more than +one other. Let me try. It was when Doctor Glaston was +discoursing on the protection the wise and powerful should afford +to the ignorant and weak:—</p> +<p>“‘In the earlier ages of mankind, your Greek and +Latin authors inform you, there went forth sundry worthies, men +of might, to deliver, not wandering damsels, albeit for those +likewise they had stowage, but low-conditioned men, who fell +under the displeasure of the higher, and groaned in thraldom and +captivity. And these mighty ones were believed to have done +such services to poor humanity that their memory grew greater +than they, as shadows do than substances at day-fall. And +the sons and grandsons of the delivered did laud and magnify +those glorious names; and some in gratitude, and some in +tribulation, did ascend the hills, which appeared unto them as +altars bestrown with flowers and herbage for heaven’s +acceptance. And many did go far into the quiet groves, +under lofty trees, looking for whatever was mightiest and most +protecting. And in such places did they cry aloud unto the +mighty who had left them, “<i>Return</i>! <i>return</i>! +<i>help us</i>! <i>help us</i>! <i>be blessed</i>! <i>for ever +blessed</i>!”</p> +<p>“‘Vain men! but had they stayed there, not +evil. Out of gratitude, purest gratitude, rose +idolatry. For the devil sees the fairest, and soils it.</p> +<p>“‘In these our days, methinks, whatever other sins +we may fall into, such idolatry is the least dangerous. For +neither on the one side is there much disposition for gratitude, +nor on the other much zeal to deliver the innocent and +oppressed. Even this deliverance, although a merit, and a +high one, is not the highest. Forgiveness is beyond +it. Forgive, or ye shall not be forgiven. This ye may +do every day; for if ye find not offences, ye feign them; and +surely ye may remove your own work, if ye may re-remove +another’s. To rescue requires more thought and +wariness; learn, then, the easier lesson first. Afterward, +when ye rescue any from another’s violence, or from his own +(which oftentimes is more dangerous, as the enemies are within +not only the penetrals of his house but of his heart), bind up +his wounds before ye send him on his way. Should ye at any +time overtake the erring, and resolve to deliver him up, I will +tell you whither to conduct him. Conduct him to his Lord +and Master, whose household he hath left. It is better to +consign him to Christ his Saviour than to man his murderer; it is +better to bid him live than to bid him die. The one word +our Teacher and Preserver said, the other our enemy and +destroyer. Bring him back again, the stray, the lost one +bring him back, not with clubs and cudgels, not with halberts and +halters, but generously and gently, and with the linking of the +arm. In this posture shall God above smile upon ye; in this +posture of yours he shall recognize again his beloved Son upon +earth. Do ye likewise, and depart in +peace.’”</p> +<p>William had ended, and there was silence in the hall for some +time after, when Sir Thomas said,—</p> +<p>“He spake unto somewhat mean persons, who may do it +without disparagement. I look for authority, I look for +doctrine, and find none yet. If he could not have drawn us +out a thread or two from the coat of an apostle, he might have +given us a smack of Augustin, or a sprig of Basil. Our +older sermons are headier than these, Master Silas! our new beer +is the sweeter and clammier, and wants more spice. The +doctor hath seasoned his with pretty wit enough, to do him +justice, which in a sermon is never out of place; for if there be +the bane, there likewise is the antidote.</p> +<p>“What dost thou think about it, Master Silas?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Silas</span>.</p> +<p>“I would not give ten farthings for ten folios of such +sermons.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“These words, Master Silas, will oftener be quoted than +any others of thine; but rarely (do I suspect) as applicable to +Doctor Glaston. I must stick unto his gown. I must +declare that, to my poor knowledge, many have been raised to the +bench of bishops for less wisdom and worse than is contained in +the few sentences I have been commanded by authority to +recite. No disparagement to any body I know, Master Silas, +and multitudes bear witness, that thou above most art a dead hand +at a sermon.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Silas</span>.</p> +<p>“Touch my sermons, wilt dare?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“Nay, Master Silas, be not angered; it is courage enough +to hear them.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Now, Silas, hold thy peace and rest contented. He +hath excused himself unto thee, throwing in a compliment far +above his station, and not unworthy of Rome or Florence. I +did not think him so ready. Our Warwickshire lads are +fitter for football than courtesies; and, sooth to say, not only +the inferior.”</p> +<p>His worship turned from Master Silas toward William, and said, +“Brave Willy, thou hast given us our bitters; we are ready +now for any thing solid. What hast left?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“Little or nothing, sir.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Well, give us that little or nothing.”</p> +<p>William Shakspeare was obedient to the commands of Sir Thomas, +who had spoken thus kindly unto him, and had deigned to cast at +him from his <i>lordly dish</i> (as the Psalmist hath it) a +fragment of facetiousness.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“Alas, sir! may I repeat it without offence, it not +being doctrine but admonition, and meant for me only?”</p> +<p>“Speak it the rather for that,” quoth Sir +Thomas.</p> +<p>Then did William give utterance to the words of the preacher, +not indeed in his sermon at St. Mary’s, but after +dinner.</p> +<p>“‘Lust seizeth us in youth, ambition in midlife, +avarice in old age; but vanity and pride are the besetting sins +that drive the angels from our cradle, pamper us with luscious +and most unwholesome food, ride our first stick with us, mount +our first horse with us, wake with us in the morning, dream with +us in the night, and never at any time abandon us. In this +world, beginning with pride and vanity, we are delivered over +from tormentor to tormentor, until the worst tormentor of all +taketh absolute possession of us for ever, seizing us at the +mouth of the grave, enchaining us in his own dark dungeon, +standing at the door, and laughing at our cries. But the +Lord, out of his infinite mercy, hath placed in the hand of every +man the helm to steer his course by, pointing it out with his +finger, and giving him strength as well as knowledge to pursue +it.</p> +<p>“‘William! William! there is in the moral straits +a current from right to wrong, but no re-flux from wrong to +right; for which destination we must hoist our sails aloft and +ply our oars incessantly, or night and the tempest will overtake +us, and we shall shriek out in vain from the billows, and +irrecoverably sink.’”</p> +<p>“Amen!” cried Sir Thomas most devoutly, sustaining +his voice long and loud.</p> +<p>“Open that casement, good Silas! the day is sultry for +the season of the year; it approacheth unto noontide. The +room is close, and those blue flies do make a strange +hubbub.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“In troth do they, sir; they come from the kitchen, and +do savour woundily of roast goose! And, +methinks—”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“What bethinkest thou?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“The fancy of a moment,—a light and vain +one.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Thou relievest me; speak it!”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“How could the creatures cast their coarse rank odour +thus far?—even into your presence! A noble and +spacious hall! Charlecote, in my mind, beats Warwick +Castle, and challenges Kenilworth.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“The hall is well enough; I must say it is a noble +hall,—a hall for a queen to sit down in. And I +stuffed an arm-chair with horse-hair on purpose, feathers over +it, swan-down over them again, and covered it with scarlet cloth +of Bruges, five crowns the short ell. But her highness came +not hither; she was taken short; she had a tongue in her +ear.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“Where all is spring, all is buzz and murmur.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Quaint and solid as the best yew hedge. I marvel +at thee. A knight might have spoken it, under favour. +They stopped her at Warwick—to see what? two old towers +that don’t match, <a name="citation105a"></a><a +href="#footnote105a" class="citation">[105a]</a> and a portcullis +that (people say) opens only upon fast-days. Charlecote +Hall, I could have told her sweet Highness, was built by those +Lucys who came over with Julius Cæsar and William the +Conqueror, with cross and scallop-shell on breast and +beaver.”</p> +<p>“But, <i>honest Willy</i>!?—”</p> +<p>Such were the very words; I wrote them down with two signs in +the margent,—one a mark of admiration, as thus (!), the +other of interrogation (so we call it) as thus (?).</p> +<p>“But, honest Willy, I would fain hear more,” quoth +he, “about the learned Doctor Glaston. He seemeth to +be a man after God’s own heart.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“Ay is he! Never doth he sit down to dinner but he +readeth first a chapter of the Revelation; and if he tasteth a +pound of butter at Carfax, he saith a grace long enough to bring +an appetite for a baked bull’s <a +name="citation106a"></a><a href="#footnote106a" +class="citation">[106a]</a> —zle. If this be not +after God’s own heart, I know not what is.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“I would fain confer with him, but that Oxford lieth +afar off,—a matter of thirty miles, I hear. I might, +indeed, write unto him; but our Warwickshire pens are mighty +broad-nibbed, and there is a something in this plaguy ink of ours +sadly ropy—”</p> +<p>“I fear there is,” quoth Willy.</p> +<p>“And I should scorn,” continued his worship, +“to write otherwise than in a fine Italian character to the +master of a college, near in dignity to knighthood.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“Worshipful sir! is there no other way of communicating +but by person, or writing, or messages?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“I will consider and devise. At present I can +think of none so satisfactory.”</p> +<p>And now did the great clock over the gateway strike. And +Bill Shakspeare did move his lips, even as Sir Thomas had moved +his erewhile in ejaculating. And when he had wagged them +twice or thrice after the twelve strokes of the clock were over, +again he ejaculated with voice also, saying,—</p> +<p>“Mercy upon us! how the day wears! Twelve +strokes! Might I retire, please your worship, into the +chapel for about three quarters of an hour, and perform the +service <a name="citation108a"></a><a href="#footnote108a" +class="citation">[108a]</a> as ordained?”</p> +<p>Before Sir Thomas could give him leave or answer, did Sir +Silas cry aloud,—</p> +<p>“He would purloin the chalice, worth forty-eight +shillings, and melt it down in the twinkling of an eye, he is so +crafty.”</p> +<p>But the knight was more reasonable, and said, +reprovingly,—</p> +<p>“There now, Silas! thou talkest widely, and verily in +malice, if there be any in thee.”</p> +<p>“Try him,” answered Master Silas; “I +don’t kneel where he does. Could he have but his +wicked will of me he would chop my legs off, as he did the poor +buck’s.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“No, no, no; he hath neither guile nor revenge in +him. We may let him have his way, now that he hath taken +the right one.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Silas</span>.</p> +<p>“Popery! sheer popery! strong as harts-horn! Your +papists keep these outlandish hours for their masses and +mummery. Surely we might let God alone at twelve +o’clock! Have we no bowels?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“Gracious sir! I do not urge it; and the time is +now past by some minutes.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Art thou popishly inclined, William?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“Sir, I am not popishly inclined; I am not inclined to +pay tribute of coin or understanding to those who rush forward +with a pistol at my breast, crying, ‘<i>Stand</i>, <i>or +you are a dead man</i>.’ I have but one guide in +faith,—a powerful, an almighty one. He will not +suffer to waste away and vanish the faith for which he +died. He hath chosen in all countries pure hearts for its +depositaries; and I would rather take it from a friend and +neighbour, intelligent and righteous, and rejecting lucre, than +from some foreigner educated in the pride of cities or in the +moroseness of monasteries, who sells me what Christ gave +me,—his own flesh and blood.</p> +<p>“I can repeat by heart what I read above a year agone, +albeit I cannot bring to mind the title of the book in which I +read it. These are the words,—</p> +<p>“‘The most venal and sordid of all the +superstitions that have swept and darkened our globe may, indeed, +like African locusts, have consumed the green corn in very +extensive regions, and may return periodically to consume it; but +the strong, unwearied labourer who sowed it hath alway sown it in +other places less exposed to such devouring pestilences. +Those cunning men who formed to themselves the gorgeous plan of +universal dominion were aware that they had a better chance of +establishing it than brute ignorance or brute force could supply, +and that soldiers and their paymasters were subject to other and +powerfuller fears than the transitory ones of war and +invasion. What they found in heaven they seized; what they +wanted they forged.</p> +<p>“‘And so long as there is vice and ignorance in +the world, so long as fear is a passion, their dominion will +prevail; but their dominion is not, and never shall be, +universal. Can we wonder that it is so general? Can +we wonder that anything is wanting to give it authority and +effect, when every learned, every prudent, every powerful, every +ambitious man in Europe, for above a thousand years, united in +the league to consolidate it?</p> +<p>“‘The old dealers in the shambles, where +Christ’s body is exposed for sale in convenient marketable +slices, <a name="citation111a"></a><a href="#footnote111a" +class="citation">[111a]</a> have not covered with blood and filth +the whole pavement. Beautiful usages are remaining +still,—kindly affections, radiant hopes, and ardent +aspirations!</p> +<p>“‘It is a comfortable thing to reflect, as they +do, and as we may do unblamably, that we are uplifting to our +Guide and Maker the same incense of the heart, and are uttering +the very words, which our dearest friends in all quarters of the +earth, nay in heaven itself, are offering to the throne of grace +at the same moment.</p> +<p>“‘Thus are we together through the immensity of +space. What are these bodies? Do they unite us? +No; they keep us apart and asunder even while we touch. +Realms and oceans, worlds and ages, open before two spirits bent +on heaven. What a choir surrounds us when we resolve to +live unitedly and harmoniously in Christian +faith!’”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Now, Silas, what sayest thou?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Silas</span>.</p> +<p>“Ignorant fool!”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“Ignorant fools are bearable, Master Silas! your wise +ones are the worst.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Prithee no bandying of loggerheads.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p class="poetry">“Or else what mortal man shall say<br /> +Whose shins may suffer in the fray?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Thou reasonest aptly and timest well. And surely, +being now in so rational and religious a frame of mind, thou +couldst recall to memory a section or head or two of the sermon +holden at St. Mary’s. It would do thee and us as much +good as <i>Lighten our darkness</i>, or <i>Forasmuch as it hath +pleased</i>; and somewhat less than three quarters of an hour +(maybe less than one quarter) sufficeth.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Silas</span>.</p> +<p>“Or he hangs without me. I am for dinner in half +the time.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Silas! Silas! he hangeth not with thee or without +thee.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Silas</span>.</p> +<p>“He thinketh himself a clever fellow; but he (look ye) +is the cleverest that gets off.”</p> +<p>“I hold quite the contrary,” quoth Will +Shakspeare, winking at Master Silas from the comfort and +encouragement he had just received touching the hanging.</p> +<p>And Master Silas had his answer ready, and shewed that he was +more than a match for poor Willy in wit and poetry.</p> +<p>He answered thus:—</p> +<p class="poetry">“If winks are wit,<br /> +Who wanteth it?</p> +<p>Thou hadst other bolts to kill bucks withal. In wit, +sirrah, thou art a mere child.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“Little dogs are jealous of children, great ones fondle +them.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“An that were written in the Apocrypha, in the very +teeth of Bel and the Dragon, it could not be truer. I have +witnessed it with my own eyes over and over.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Silas</span>.</p> +<p>“He will take this for wit, likewise, now the arms of +Lucy do seal it.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Silas, they may stamp wit, they may further wit, they +may send wit into good company, but not make it.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“Behold my wall of defence!”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Silas</span>.</p> +<p>“An thou art for walls, I have one for thee from Oxford, +pithy and apposite, sound and solid, and trimmed up becomingly, +as a collar of brawn with a crown of rosemary, or a boar’s +head with a lemon in the mouth.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“Egad, Master Silas, those are your walls for lads to +climb over, an they were higher than Babel’s.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Silas</span>.</p> +<p>“Have at thee!”</p> +<p class="poetry">“Thou art a wall<br /> +To make the ball<br /> + Rebound from.</p> +<p class="poetry">“Thou hast a back<br /> +For beadle’s crack<br /> + To sound from, to sound from.</p> +<p>The foolishest dolts are the ground-plot of the most wit, as +the idlest rogues are of the most industry. Even thou hast +brought wit down from Oxford. And before a thief is hanged, +parliament must make laws, attorneys must engross them, printers +stamp and publish them, hawkers cry them, judges expound them, +juries weigh and measure them with offences, then executioners +carry them into effect. The farmer hath already sown the +hemp, the ropemaker hath twisted it; sawyers saw the timber, +carpenters tack together the shell, grave-diggers delve the +earth. And all this truly for fellows like unto +thee.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“Whom a God came down from heaven to save.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Silas! he hangeth not. William, I must have the +heads of the sermon, six or seven of ’em; thou hast whetted +my appetite keenly. How! dost duck thy pate into thy hat? +nay, nay, that is proper and becoming at church; we need not such +solemnity. Repeat unto us the setting forth at St. +Mary’s.”</p> +<p>Whereupon did William Shakspeare entreat of Master Silas that +he would help him in his ghostly endeavours, by repeating what he +called the <i>preliminary</i> prayer; which prayer I find nowhere +in our ritual, and do suppose it to be one of those Latin +supplications used in our learned universities now or +erewhile.</p> +<p>I am afeard it hath not the approbation of the strictly +orthodox, for inasmuch as Master Silas at such entreaty did close +his teeth against it, and with teeth thus closed did say, +Athanasiuswise, “Go and be damned!”</p> +<p>Bill was not disheartened, but said he hoped better, and began +thus:—</p> +<p>“‘My brethren!’ said the preacher, ‘or +rather let me call you my children, such is my age confronted +with yours, for the most part,—my children, then, and my +brethren (for here are both), believe me, killing is +forbidden.’”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“This, not being delivered unto us from the pulpit by +the preacher himself, we may look into. Sensible man! +shrewd reasoner! What a stroke against deer-stealers! how +full of truth and ruth! Excellent discourse!”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“The last part was the best.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“I always find it so. The softest of the +cheesecake is left in the platter when the crust is eaten. +He kept the best bit for the last, then? He pushed it under +the salt, eh? He told thee—”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“Exactly so.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“What was it?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“‘Ye shall not kill.’”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“How I did he run in a circle like a hare? One of +his mettle should break cover and off across the country like a +fox or hart.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“‘And yet ye kill time when ye can, and are uneasy +when ye cannot.’”</p> +<p>Whereupon did Sir Thomas say, aside unto himself, but within +my hearing,—</p> +<p>“Faith and troth! he must have had a head in at the +window here one day or other.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“‘This sin cryeth unto the Lord.’”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“He was wrong there. It is not one of those that +cry; mortal sins cry. Surely he could not have fallen into +such an error! it must be thine; thou misunderstoodest +him.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“Mayhap, sir! A great heaviness came over me; I +was oppressed in spirit, and did feel as one awakening from a +dream.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Godlier men than thou art do often feel the right hand +of the Lord upon their heads in like manner. It followeth +contrition, and precedeth conversion. Continue.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“‘My brethren and children,’ said the +teacher, ‘whenever ye want to kill time call God to the +chase, and bid the angels blow the horn; and thus ye are sure to +kill time to your heart’s content. And ye may feast +another day, and another after that—’”</p> +<p>Then said Master Silas unto me, concernedly,</p> +<p>“This is the mischief-fullest of all the devil’s +imps, to talk in such wise at a quarter past twelve!”</p> +<p>But William went straight on, not hearing him,</p> +<p>“‘—upon what ye shall, in such pursuit, have +brought home with you. Whereas, if ye go alone, or two or +three together, nay, even if ye go in thick and gallant company, +and yet provide not that these be with ye, my word for it, and a +powerfuller word than mine, ye shall return to your supper tired +and jaded, and rest little when ye want to rest +most.’”</p> +<p>“Hast no other head of the Doctor’s?” quoth +Sir Thomas.</p> +<p>“Verily none,” replied Willy, “of the +morning’s discourse, saving the last words of it, which, +with God’s help, I shall always remember.”</p> +<p>“Give us them, give us them,” said Sir Thomas.</p> +<p>“He wants doctrine; he wants authority; his are grains +of millet,—grains for unfledged doves; but they are sound, +except the <i>crying</i>.</p> +<p>“Deliver unto us the last words; for the last of the +preacher, as of the hanged, are usually the best.”</p> +<p>Then did William repeat the concluding words of the discourse, +being these:—</p> +<p>“‘As years are running past us, let us throw +something on them which they cannot shake off in the dust and +hurry of the world, but must carry with them to that great year +of all, whereunto the lesser of this mortal life do tend and are +subservient.’”</p> +<p>Sir Thomas, after a pause, and after having bent his knee +under the table, as though there had been the church-cushion, +said unto us,—</p> +<p>“Here he spake <i>through a glass</i>, <i>darkly</i>, as +blessed Paul hath it.”</p> +<p>Then turning toward Willy,—</p> +<p>“And nothing more?”</p> +<p>“Nothing but the <i>glory</i>,” quoth Willy, +“at which there is always such a clatter of feet upon the +floor, and creaking of benches, and rustling of gowns, and bustle +of bonnets, and justle of cushions, and dust of mats, and +treading of toes, and punching of elbows, from the spitefuller, +that one wishes to be fairly out of it, after the scramble for +<i>the peace of God</i> is at an end—”</p> +<p>Sir Thomas threw himself back upon his armchair, and exclaimed +in wonderment, “How!”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“—and in the midst of the service again, were it +possible. For nothing is painfuller than to have the pail +shaken off the head when it is brim-full of the waters of life, +and we are walking staidly under it.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Had the learned Doctor preached again in the evening, +pursuing the thread of his discourse, he might, peradventure, +have made up the deficiencies I find in him.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“He had not that opportunity.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“The more’s the pity.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“The evening admonition, delivered by him unto the +household—”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“What! and did he indeed shew wind enough for +that? Prithee out with it, if thou didst put it into thy +tablets.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“Alack, sir! there were so many Latin words, I fear me I +should be at fault in such attempt.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Fear not; we can help thee out between us, were there a +dozen or a score.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“Bating those latinities, I do verily think I could tie +up again most of the points in his doublet.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“At him then! What was his bearing?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“In dividing his matter, he spooned out and apportioned +the commons in his discourse, as best suited the quality, +capacity, and constitution of his hearers. To those in +priests’ orders he delivered a sort of +catechism.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Silas</span>.</p> +<p>“He catechise grown men! He catechise men in +priests’ orders!—being no bishop, nor bishop’s +ordinary!”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“He did so; it may be at his peril.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“And what else? for catechisms are baby’s +pap.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“He did not catechise, but he admonished the richer +gentlemen with gold tassels for their top-knots.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Silas</span>.</p> +<p>“I thought as much. It was no better in my +time. Admonitions fell gently upon those gold tassels; and +they ripened degrees as glass and sunshine ripen cucumbers. +We priests, forsooth, are catechised! The worst question to +any gold tasseller is, ‘<i>How do you do</i>?’ +Old <i>Alma Mater</i> coaxes and would be coaxed. But let +her look sharp, or spectacles may be thrust upon her nose that +shall make her eyes water. Aristotle could make out no +royal road to wisdom; but this old woman of ours will shew you +one, an you tip her.</p> +<p>“Tilley valley! <a name="citation124a"></a><a +href="#footnote124a" class="citation">[124a]</a> catechise +priests, indeed!”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Peradventure he did it discreetly. Let us examine +and judge him. Repeat thou what he said unto +them.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“‘Many,’ said he, ‘are ingenuous, many +are devout, some timidly, some strenuously, but nearly all +flinch, and rear, and kick, at the slightest touch, or least +inquisitive suspicion of an unsound part in their doctrine. +And yet, my brethren, we ought rather to flinch and feel sore at +our own searching touch, our own serious inquisition into +ourselves. Let us preachers, who are sufficiently liberal +in bestowing our advice upon others, inquire of ourselves whether +the exercise of spiritual authority may not be sometimes too +pleasant, tickling our breasts with a plume from Satan’s +wing, and turning our heads with that inebriating poison which he +hath been seen to instil into the very chalice of our +salvation. Let us ask ourselves in the closet whether, +after we have humbled ourselves before God in our prayers, we +never rise beyond the due standard in the pulpit; whether our +zeal for the truth be never over-heated by internal fires less +holy; whether we never grow stiffly and sternly pertinacious, at +the very time when we are reproving the obstinacy of others; and +whether we have not frequently so acted as if we believed that +opposition were to be relaxed and borne away by self-sufficiency +and intolerance. Believe me, the wisest of us have our +catechism to learn; and these, my dear friends, are not the only +questions contained in it. No Christian can hate; no +Christian can malign. Nevertheless, do we not often both +hate and malign those unhappy men who are insensible to +God’s mercies? And I fear this unchristian spirit +swells darkly, with all its venom, in the marble of our hearts, +not because our brother is insensible to these mercies, but +because he is insensible to our faculty of persuasion, turning a +deaf ear unto our claim upon his obedience, or a blind or sleepy +eye upon the fountain of light, whereof we deem ourselves the +sacred reservoirs. There is one more question at which ye +will tremble when ye ask it in the recesses of your souls; I do +tremble at it, yet must utter it. Whether we do not more +warmly and erectly stand up for God’s word because it came +from our mouths, than because it came from his? Learned and +ingenious men may indeed find a solution and excuse for all these +propositions; but the wise unto salvation will cry, +“Forgive me, O my God, if, called by thee to walk in thy +way, I have not swept this dust from the +sanctuary!”’”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“All this, methinks, is for the behoof of clerks and +ministers.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“He taught them what they who teach others should learn +and practise. Then did he look toward the young gentlemen +of large fortune; and lastly his glances fell upon us poorer +folk, whom he instructed in the duty we owe to our +superiors.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Ay, there he had a host.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“In one part of his admonition he said,—</p> +<p>“‘Young gentlemen! let not the highest of you who +hear me this evening be led into the delusion, for such it is, +that the founder of his family was <i>originally</i> a greater or +a better man than the lowest here. He willed it, and became +it. He must have stood low; he must have worked +hard,—and with tools, moreover, of his own invention and +fashioning. He waved and whistled off ten thousand strong +and importunate temptations; he dashed the dice-box from the +jewelled hand of Chance, the cup from Pleasure’s, and trod +under foot the sorceries of each; he ascended steadily the +precipices of Danger, and looked down with intrepidity from the +summit; he overawed Arrogance with Sedateness; he seized by the +horn and overleaped low Violence; and he fairly swung Fortune +round.</p> +<p>“‘The very high cannot rise much higher; the very +low may,—the truly great must have done it.</p> +<p>“‘This is not the doctrine, my friends, of the +silkenly and lawnly religious; it wears the coarse texture of the +fisherman, and walks uprightly and straightforward under +it. I am speaking now more particularly to you among us +upon whom God hath laid the incumbrances of wealth, the sweets +whereof bring teazing and poisonous things about you, not easily +sent away. What now are your pretensions under sacks of +money? or your enjoyments under the shade of genealogical +trees? Are they rational? Are they real? Do +they exist at all? Strange inconsistency! to be proud of +having as much gold and silver laid upon you as a mule hath, and +yet to carry it less composedly! The mule is not answerable +for the conveyance and discharge of his burden,—you +are. Stranger infatuation still! to be prouder of an +excellent thing done by another than by yourselves, supposing any +excellent thing to have actually been done; and, after all, to be +more elated on his cruelties than his kindnesses, by the blood he +hath spilt than by the benefits he had conferred; and to +acknowledge less obligation to a well-informed and +well-intentioned progenitor than to a lawless and ferocious +barbarian. Would stocks and stumps, if they could utter +words, utter such gross stupidity? Would the apple boast of +his crab origin, or the peach of his prune? Hardly any man +is ashamed of being inferior to his ancestors, although it is the +very thing at which the great should blush, if, indeed, the great +in general descended from the worthy. I did expect to see +the day, and although I shall not see it, it must come at last, +when he shall be treated as a madman or an impostor who dares to +claim nobility or precedency and cannot shew his family name in +the history of his country. Even he who can shew it, and +who cannot write his own under it in the same or as goodly +characters, must submit to the imputation of degeneracy, from +which the lowly and obscure are exempt.</p> +<p>“‘He alone who maketh you wiser maketh you +greater; and it is only by such an implement that Almighty God +himself effects it. When he taketh away a man’s +wisdom he taketh away his strength, his power over others and +over himself. What help for him then? He may sit idly +and swell his spleen, saying,—<i>Who is this</i>? <i>who is +that</i>? and at the question’s end the spirit of inquiry +dies away in him. It would not have been so if, in happier +hour, he had said within himself, <i>Who am I</i>? <i>what am +I</i>? and had prosecuted the search in good earnest.</p> +<p>“‘When we ask who <i>this</i> man is, or who +<i>that</i> man is, we do not expect or hope for a plain answer; +we should be disappointed at a direct, or a rational, or a kind +one. We desire to hear that he was of low origin, or had +committed some crime, or been subjected to some calamity. +Whoever he be, in general we disregard or despise him, unless we +discover that he possesseth by nature many qualities of mind and +body which he never brings into use, and many accessories of +situation and fortune which he brings into abuse every day. +According to the arithmetic in practice, he who makes the most +idlers and the most ingrates is the most worshipful. But +wiser ones than the scorers in this school will tell you how +riches and power were bestowed by Providence that generosity and +mercy should be exercised; for, if every gift of the Almighty +were distributed in equal portions to every creature, less of +such virtues would be called into the field; consequently there +would be less of gratitude, less of submission, less of devotion, +less of hope, and, in the total, less of +content.’”</p> +<p>Here he ceased, and Sir Thomas nodded, and said,—</p> +<p>“Reasonable enough! nay, almost too +reasonable!”</p> +<p>“But where are the apostles? Where are the +disciples? Where are the saints? Where is +hell-fire?”</p> +<p>“Well! patience! we may come to it yet. Go on, +Will!”</p> +<p>With such encouragement before him, did Will Shakspeare take +breath and continue:—</p> +<p>“‘We mortals are too much accustomed to behold our +superiors in rank and station as we behold the leaves in the +forest. While we stand under these leaves, our protection +and refuge from heat and labour, we see only the rougher side of +them, and the gloominess of the branches on which they +hang. In the midst of their benefits we are insensible to +their utility and their beauty, and appear to be ignorant that if +they were placed less high above us we should derive from them +less advantage.’”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Ay; envy of superiority made the angels kick and run +restive.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“May it please your worship! with all my faults, I have +ever borne due submission and reverence toward my +superiors.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Very right! very scriptural! But most folks do +that. Our duty is not fulfilled unless we bear absolute +veneration; unless we are ready to lay down our lives and +fortunes at the foot of the throne, and every thing else at the +foot of those who administer the laws under virgin +majesty.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“Honoured sir! I am quite ready to lay down my +life and fortune, and all the rest of me, before that great +virgin.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Silas</span>.</p> +<p>“Thy life and fortune, to wit!</p> +<p>“What are they worth? A June cob-nut, maggot and +all.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Silas, we will not repudiate nor rebuff his Magdalen, +that bringeth a pot of ointment. Rather let us teach and +tutor than twit. It is a tractable and conducible youth, +being in good company.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Silas</span>.</p> +<p>“Teach and tutor! Hold hard, sir! These base +varlets ought to be taught but two things: to bow as beseemeth +them to their betters, and to hang perpendicular. We have +authority for it, that no man can add an inch to his stature; but +by aid of the sheriff I engage to find a chap who shall add two +or three to this whoreson’s.” <a +name="citation133a"></a><a href="#footnote133a" +class="citation">[133a]</a></p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Nay, nay, now, Silas! the lad’s mother was always +held to be an honest woman.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Silas</span>.</p> +<p>“His mother may be an honest woman for me.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“No small privilege, by my faith! for any woman in the +next parish to thee, Master Silas!”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Silas</span>.</p> +<p>“There again! out comes the filthy runlet from the +quagmire, that but now lay so quiet with all its own in +it.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“Until it was trodden on by the ass that could not leap +over it. These, I think, are the words of the +fable.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“They are so.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Silas</span>.</p> +<p>“What fable?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Tush! don’t press him too hard; he wants not wit, +but learning.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Silas</span>.</p> +<p>“He wants a rope’s-end; and a rope’s-end is +not enough for him, unless we throw in the other.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Peradventure he may be an instrument, a potter’s +clay, a type, a token.</p> +<p>“I have seen many young men, and none like unto +him. He is shallow but clear; he is simple, but +ingenuous.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Silas</span>.</p> +<p>“Drag the ford again, then. In my mind he is as +deep as the big tankard; and a mouthful of rough burrage will be +the beginning and end of it.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“No fear of that. Neither, if rightly reported by +the youngster, is there so much doctrine in the doctor as we +expected. He doth not dwell upon the main; he is worldly; +he is wise in his generation,—he says things out of his own +head.</p> +<p>“Silas, that can’t hold! We want +<i>props—fulcrums</i>, I think you called ’em to the +farmers; or was it <i>stimulums</i>?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Silas</span>.</p> +<p>“Both very good words.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“I should be mightily pleased to hear thee dispute with +that great don.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Silas</span>.</p> +<p>“I hate disputations. Saint Paul warns us against +them. If one wants to be thirsty, the tail of a stockfish +is as good for it as the head of a logician.</p> +<p>“The doctor there, at Oxford, is in flesh and mettle; +but let him be sleek and gingered as he may, clap me in St. +Mary’s pulpit, cassock me, lamb-skin me, give me pink for +my colours, glove me to the elbow, heel-piece me half an ell +high, cushion me before and behind, bring me a mug of mild ale +and a rasher of bacon, only just to con over the text withal; +then allow me fair play, and as much of my own way as he had, and +the devil take the hindermost. I am his man at any +time.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“I am fain to believe it. Verily, I do think, +Silas, thou hast as much stuff in thee as most men. Our +beef and mutton at Charlecote rear other than babes and +sucklings.</p> +<p>“I like words taken, like thine, from black-letter +books. They look stiff and sterling, and as though a man +might dig about ’em for a week, and never loosen the +lightest.</p> +<p>“Thou hast alway at hand either saint or devil, as +occasion needeth, according to the quality of the sinner, and +they never come uncalled for. Moreover, Master Silas, I +have observed that thy hell-fire is generally lighted up in the +pulpit about the dog-days.”</p> +<p>Then turned the worthy knight unto the youth, +saying,—</p> +<p>“’T were well for thee, William Shakspeare, if the +learned doctor had kept thee longer in his house, and had shewn +unto thee the danger of idleness, which hath often led unto +deer-stealing and poetry. In thee we already know the one, +although the distemper hath eaten but skin-deep for the present; +and we have the testimony of two burgesses on the other. +The pursuit of poetry, as likewise of game, is unforbidden to +persons of condition.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“Sir, that of game is the more likely to keep them in +it.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“It is the more knightly of the two; but poetry hath +also her pursuers among us. I myself, in my youth, had some +experience that way; and I am fain to blush at the reputation I +obtained. His honour, my father, took me to London at the +age of twenty; and, sparing no expense in my education, gave +fifty shillings to one Monsieur Dubois to teach me fencing and +poetry, in twenty lessons. In vacant hours he taught us +also the laws of honour, which are different from ours.</p> +<p>“In France you are unpolite unless you solicit a judge +or his wife to favour your cause; and you inevitably lose +it. In France there is no want of honour where there is no +want of courage; you may lie, but you must not hear that you +lie. I asked him what he thought then of lying; and he +replied,—</p> +<p>“‘<i>C’est selon</i>.’</p> +<p>“‘And suppose you should overhear the +whisper?’</p> +<p>“‘<i>Ah</i>, <i>parbleu</i>! <i>Cela +m’irrite</i>; <i>cela me pousse au bout</i>.’</p> +<p>“I was going on to remark that a real man of honour +could less bear to lie than to hear it; when he cried, at the +words <i>real man of honour</i>,—</p> +<p>“‘<i>Le voilà</i>, <i>Monsieur</i>! <i>le +voilà</i>!’ and gave himself such a blow on the +breast as convinced me the French are a brave people.</p> +<p>“He told us that nothing but his honour was left him, +but that it supplied the place of all he had lost. It was +discovered some time afterward that M. Dubois had been guilty of +perjury, had been a spy, and had lost nothing but a dozen or two +of tin patty-pans, hereditary in his family, his father having +been a cook on his own account.</p> +<p>“William, it is well at thy time of life that thou +shouldst know the customs of far countries, particularly if it +should be the will of God to place thee in a company of +players. Of all nations in the world, the French best +understand the stage. If thou shouldst ever write for it, +which God forbid, copy them very carefully. Murders on +their stage are quite decorous and cleanly. Few gentlemen +and ladies die by violence who would not have died by +exhaustion. ‘For they rant and rave until their voice +fails them, one after another; and those who do not die of it die +consumptive. They cannot bear to see cruelty; they would +rather see any image than their own.’ These are not +my observations, but were made by Sir Everard Starkeye, who +likewise did remark to Monsieur Dubois, that ‘cats, if you +hold them up to the looking-glass, will scratch you terribly; and +that the same fierce animal, as if proud of its cleanly coat and +velvety paw, doth carefully put aside what other animals of more +estimation take no trouble to conceal.’</p> +<p>“‘Our people,’ said Sir Everard, ‘must +see upon the stage what they never could have imagined; so the +best men in the world would earnestly take a peep of hell through +a chink, whereas the worser would skulk away.’</p> +<p>“Do not thou be their caterer, William! Avoid the +writing of comedies and tragedies. To make people laugh is +uncivil, and to make people cry is unkind. And what, after +all, are these comedies and these tragedies? They are what, +for the benefit of all future generations, I have myself +described them,—</p> +<p class="poetry">‘The whimsies of wantons and stories of +dread,<br /> +That make the stout-hearted look under the bed.’</p> +<p>Furthermore, let me warn thee against the same on account of +the vast charges thou must stand at. We Englishmen cannot +find it in our hearts to murder a man without much difficulty, +hesitation, and delay. We have little or no invention for +pains and penalties; it is only our acutest lawyers who have wit +enough to frame them. Therefore it behooveth your +tragedy-man to provide a rich assortment of them, in order to +strike the auditor with awe and wonder. And a tragedy-man, +in our country, who cannot afford a fair dozen of stabbed males, +and a trifle under that mark of poisoned females, and chains enow +to moor a whole navy in dock, is but a scurvy fellow at the +best. Thou wilt find trouble in purveying these +necessaries; and then must come the gim-cracks for the second +course,—gods, goddesses, fates, furies, battles, marriages, +music, and the maypole. Hast thou within thee +wherewithal?”</p> +<p>“Sir!” replied Billy, with great modesty, “I +am most grateful for these ripe fruits of your experience. +To admit delightful visions into my own twilight chamber is not +dangerous nor forbidden. Believe me, sir, he who indulges +in them will abstain from injuring his neighbour; he will see no +glory in peril, and no delight in strife.</p> +<p>“The world shall never be troubled by any battles and +marriages of mine, and I desire no other music and no other +maypole than have lightened my heart at Stratford.”</p> +<p>Sir Thomas, finding him well-conditioned and manageable, +proceeded:—</p> +<p>“Although I have admonished thee of sundry and +insurmountable impediments, yet more are lying in the +pathway. We have no verse for tragedy. One in his +hurry hath dropped rhyme, and walketh like unto the man who +wanteth the left-leg stocking. Others can give us rhyme +indeed, but can hold no longer after the tenth or eleventh +syllable. Now Sir Everard Starkeye, who is a pretty poet, +did confess to Monsieur Dubois the potency of the French tragic +verse, which thou never canst hope to bring over.</p> +<p>“‘I wonder, Monsieur Dubois!’ said Sir +Everard, ‘that your countrymen should have thought it +necessary to transport their heavy artillery into Italy. No +Italian could stand a volley of your heroic verses from the best +and biggest pieces. With these brought into action, you +never could have lost the battle of Pavia.’</p> +<p>“Now my friend Sir Everard is not quite so good a +historian as he is a poet; and Monsieur Dubois took advantage of +him.</p> +<p>“‘Pardon! Monsieur Sir Everard!’ said +Monsieur Dubois, smiling at my friend’s slip, ‘We did +not lose the battle of Pavia. We had the misfortune to lose +our king, who delivered himself up, as our kings always do, for +the good and glory of his country.’</p> +<p>“‘How was this?’ said Sir Everard, in +surprise.</p> +<p>“‘I will tell you, Monsieur Sir Everard!’ +said Monsieur Dubois. ‘I had it from my own father, +who fought in the battle, and told my mother, word for word.</p> +<p>“‘The king seeing his household troops, being only +one thousand strong, surrounded by twelve regiments, the best +Spanish troops, amounting to eighteen thousand four hundred and +forty-two, although he doubted not of victory, yet thought he +might lose many brave men before the close of the day, and rode +up instantly to King Charles, and said,—</p> +<p>“‘“My brother! I am loath to lose so +many of those brave men yonder. Whistle off your Spanish +pointers, and I agree to ride home with you.”</p> +<p>“‘And so he did. But what did King +Charles? Abusing French loyalty, he made our Francis his +prisoner, would you believe it? and treated him worse than ever +badger was treated at the bottom of any paltry stable-yard, +putting upon his table beer and Rhenish wine and wild +boar.’</p> +<p>“I have digressed with thee, young man,” continued +the knight, much to the improvement of my knowledge, I do +reverentially confess, as it was of the lad’s. +“We will now,” said he, “endeavour our best to +sober thee, finding that Doctor Glaston hath omitted +it.”</p> +<p>“Not entirely omitted it,” said William, +gratefully; “he did after dinner all that could be done at +such a time toward it. The doctor could, however, speak +only of the Greeks and Romans, and certainly what he said of them +gave me but little encouragement.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“What said he?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“He said, ‘The Greeks conveyed all their wisdom +into their theatre,—their stages were churches and +parliament-houses; but what was false prevailed over what was +true. They had their own wisdom, the wisdom of the +foolish. Who is Sophocles, if compared to Doctor Hammersley +of Oriel? or Euripides, if compared to Doctor Prichard of +Jesus? Without the Gospel, light is darkness; and with it, +children are giants.</p> +<p>“‘William, I need not expatiate on Greek with +thee, since thou knowest it not, but some crumbs of Latin are +picked up by the callowest beaks. The Romans had, as thou +findest, and have still, more taste for murder than morality, +and, as they could not find heroes among them, looked for +gladiators. Their only very high poet employed his +elevation and strength to dethrone and debase the Deity. +They had several others, who polished their language and pitched +their instruments with admirable skill; several who glued over +their thin and flimsy gaberdines many bright feathers from the +widespread downs of Ionia, and the richly cultivated rocks of +Attica.</p> +<p>“‘Some of them have spoken from inspiration; for +thou art not to suppose that from the heathen were withheld all +the manifestations of the Lord. We do agree at Oxford that +the Pollio of Virgil is our Saviour. True, it is the +dullest and poorest poem that a nation not very poetical hath +bequeathed unto us; and even the versification, in which this +master excelled, is wanting in fluency and sweetness. I can +only account for it from the weight of the subject. Two +verses, which are fairly worth two hundred such poems, are from +another pagan; he was forced to sigh for the church without +knowing her. He saith,—</p> +<p class="poetry">“May I gaze upon thee when my latest hour +is come!<br /> +May I hold thy hand when mine faileth me!”</p> +<p>This, if adumbrating the church, is the most beautiful thought +that ever issued from the heart of man; but if addressed to a +wanton, as some do opine, is filth from the sink, nauseating and +insufferable.</p> +<p>“‘William! that which moveth the heart most is the +best poetry; it comes nearest unto God, the source of all +power.’”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Yea; and he appeareth unto me to know more of poetry +than of divinity. Those ancients have little flesh upon the +body poetical, and lack the savour that sufficeth. The Song +of Solomon drowns all their voices: they seem but whistlers and +guitar-players compared to a full-cheeked trumpeter; they +standing under the eaves in some dark lane, he upon a +well-caparisoned stallion, tossing his mane and all his ribbons +to the sun. I doubt the doctor spake too fondly of the +Greeks; they were giddy creatures. William, I am loath to +be hard on them; but they please me not. There are those +now living who could make them bite their nails to the quick, and +turn green as grass with envy.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“Sir, one of those Greeks, methinks, thrown into the +pickle-pot, would be a treasure to the housewife’s young +jerkins.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Simpleton! simpleton! but thou valuest them +justly. Now attend. If ever thou shouldst hear, at +Oxford or London, the verses I am about to repeat, prithee do not +communicate them to that fiery spirit Mat Atterend. It +might not be the battle of two hundreds, but two counties; a sort +of York and Lancaster war, whereof I would wash my hands. +Listen!”</p> +<p>And now did Sir Thomas clear his voice, always high and +sonorous, and did repeat from the stores of his memory these rich +and proud verses,—</p> +<p class="poetry">“‘Chloe! mean men must ever make +mean loves;<br /> +They deal in dog-roses, but I in cloves.<br /> +They are just scorch’d enough to blow their fingers;<br /> +I am a phœnix downright burnt to cinders.’”</p> +<p>At which noble conceits, so far above what poor Bill had ever +imagined, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and +exclaimed,—</p> +<p>“The world itself must be reduced to that condition +before such glorious verses die! <i>Chloe</i> and +<i>Clove</i>! Why, sir! Chloe wants but a V toward the tail +to become the very thing! Never tell me that such matters +can come about of themselves. And how truly is it said that +we mean men deal in dog-roses.</p> +<p>“Sir, if it were permitted me to swear on that holy +Bible, I would swear I never until this day heard that dog-roses +were our provender; and yet did I, no longer ago than last +summer, write, not indeed upon a dog-rose, but upon a +sweet-briar, what would only serve to rinse the mouth withal +after the clove.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Repeat the same, youth. We may haply give thee +our counsel thereupon.”</p> +<p>Willy took heart, and lowering his voice, which hath much +natural mellowness, repeated these from memory:—</p> +<p class="poetry"> “My briar that +smelledst sweet<br /> + When gentle spring’s first heat<br /> + Ran through thy quiet +veins,—<br /> + Thou that wouldst injure none,<br /> + But wouldst be left alone,—<br /> +Alone thou leavest me, and nought of thine remains.</p> +<p class="poetry"> “What! hath no +poet’s lyre<br /> + O’er thee, sweet-breathing briar,<br /> + Hung fondly, ill or well?<br /> + And yet methinks with thee<br /> + A poet’s sympathy,<br /> +Whether in weal or woe, in life or death, might dwell.</p> +<p class="poetry"> “Hard usage both must +bear,<br /> + Few hands your youth will rear,<br /> + Few bosoms cherish you;<br /> + Your tender prime must bleed<br /> + Ere you are sweet, but freed<br /> +From life, you then are prized; thus prized are poets +too.”</p> +<p>Sir Thomas said, with kind encouragement, “He who +beginneth so discreetly with a dog-rose, may hope to encompass a +damask-rose ere he die.”</p> +<p>Willy did now breathe freely. The commendation of a +knight and magistrate worked powerfully within him; and Sir +Thomas said furthermore,—</p> +<p>“These short matters do not suit me. Thou mightest +have added some moral about life and beauty,—poets never +handle roses without one; but thou art young, and mayest get into +the train.”</p> +<p>Willy made the best excuse he could; and no bad one it was, +the knight acknowledged; namely, that the sweet-briar was not +really dead, although left for dead.</p> +<p>“Then,” said Sir Thomas, “as life and beauty +would not serve thy turn, thou mightest have had full enjoyment +of the beggar, the wayside, the thieves, and the good +Samaritan,—enough to tapestry the bridal chamber of an +empress.”</p> +<p>William bowed respectfully, and sighed.</p> +<p>“Ha! thou hast lost them, sure enough, and it may not be +quite so fair to smile at thy quandary,” quoth Sir +Thomas.</p> +<p>“I did my best the first time,” said Willy, +“and fell short the second.”</p> +<p>“That, indeed, thou must have done,” said Sir +Thomas. “It is a grievous disappointment, in the +midst of our lamentations for the dead, to find ourselves +balked. I am curious to see how thou couldst help +thyself. Don’t be abashed; I am ready for even worse +than the last.”</p> +<p>Bill hesitated, but obeyed:—</p> +<p class="poetry"> “And art thou yet +alive?<br /> + And shall the happy hive<br /> + Send out her youth to cull<br /> + Thy sweets of leaf and flower,<br /> + And spend the sunny hour<br /> +With thee, and thy faint heart with murmuring music lull?</p> +<p class="poetry"> “Tell me what tender +care,<br /> + Tell me what pious prayer,<br /> + Bade thee arise and live.<br /> + The fondest-favoured bee<br /> + Shall whisper nought to thee<br /> +More loving than the song my grateful muse shall give.”</p> +<p>Sir Thomas looked somewhat less pleased at the conclusion of +these verses than at the conclusion of the former, and said, +gravely,—</p> +<p>“Young man! methinks it is betimes that thou talkest of +having a muse to thyself; or even in common with others. It +is only great poets who have muses; I mean to say who have the +right to talk in that fashion. The French, I hear, +<i>Phœbus</i> it and <i>muse-me</i> it right and left; and +boggle not to throw all nine, together with mother and master, +into the compass of a dozen lines or thereabout. And your +Italian can hardly do without ’em in the +multiplication-table. We Englishmen do let them in quietly, +shut the door, and say nothing of what passes. I have read +a whole book of comedies, and ne’er a muse to help the +lamest.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“Wonderful forbearance! I marvel how the poet +could get through.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“By God’s help. And I think we did as well +without ’em; for it must be an unabashable man that ever +shook his sides in their company. They lay heavy restraint +both upon laughing and crying. In the great master Virgil +of Rome, they tell me they come in to count the ships, and having +cast up the sum total, and proved it, make off again. Sure +token of two things,—first, that he held ’em +dog-cheap; secondly, that he had made but little progress (for a +Lombard born) in book-keeping at double entry.</p> +<p>“He, and every other great genius, began with small +subject-matters, gnats and the like. I myself, similar unto +him, wrote upon fruit. I would give thee some copies for +thy copying, if I thought thou wouldst use them temperately, and +not render them common, as hath befallen the poetry of some among +the brightest geniuses. I could shew thee how to say new +things, and how to time the same. Before my day, nearly all +the flowers and fruits had been gathered by poets, old and young, +<i>from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop on the wall</i>; roses +went up to Solomon, apples to Adam, and so forth.</p> +<p>“Willy! my brave lad! I was the first that ever +handled a quince, I’ll be sworn.</p> +<p>“Hearken!</p> +<p class="poetry">“Chloe! I would not have thee +wince<br /> +That I unto thee send a quince.<br /> +I would not have thee say unto ’t<br /> +<i>Begone</i>! and trample ’t underfoot,<br /> +For, trust me, ’t is no fulsome fruit.<br /> +It came not out of mine own garden,<br /> +But all the way from Henly in Arden,—<br /> +Of an uncommon fine old tree,<br /> +Belonging to John Asbury.<br /> +And if that of it thou shalt eat,<br /> +’Twill make thy breath e’en yet more sweet;<br /> +As a translation here doth shew,<br /> +<i>On fruit-trees</i>, <i>by Jean Mirabeau</i>.<br /> +The frontispiece is printed so.<br /> +But eat it with some wine and cake,<br /> +Or it may give the belly-ache. <a name="citation153a"></a><a +href="#footnote153a" class="citation">[153a]</a><br /> +This doth my worthy clerk indite,<br /> +I sign,</p> +<p style="text-align: right" class="poetry"><span +class="smcap">Sir Thomas Lucy</span>, Knight.”</p> +<p>“Now, Willy, there is not one poet or lover in twenty +who careth for consequences. Many hint to the lady what to +do, few what not to do although it would oftentimes, as in this +case, go to one’s heart to see the upshot.”</p> +<p>“Ah, sir,” said Bill, in all humility, “I +would make bold to put the parings of that quince under my +pillow, for sweet dreams and insights, if Doctor Glaston had +given me encouragement to continue the pursuit of poetry. +Of a surety it would bless me with a bedful of churches and +crucifixions, duly adumbrated.”</p> +<p>Whereat Sir Thomas, shaking his head, did inform +him,—</p> +<p>“It was in the golden age of the world, as pagans call +it, that poets of condition sent fruits and flowers to their +beloved, with posies fairly penned. We, in our days, have +done the like. But manners of late are much corrupted on +the one side, if not on both.</p> +<p>“Willy! it hath been whispered that there be those who +would rather have a piece of brocade or velvet for a stomacher +than the touchingest copy of verses, with a bleeding heart at the +bottom.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“Incredible!”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“’T is even so!”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“They must surely be rotten fragments of the world +before the flood,—saved out of it by the devil.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“I am not of that mind.</p> +<p>“Their eyes, mayhap, fell upon some of the bravery cast +ashore from the Spanish Armada. In ancienter days, a few +pages of good poetry outvalued a whole ell of the finest +Genoa.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“When will such days return?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“It is only within these few years that corruption and +avarice have made such ghastly strides. They always did +exist, but were gentler.</p> +<p>“My youth is waning, and has been nigh upon these seven +years, I being now in my forty-eighth.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“I have understood that the god of poetry is in the +enjoyment of eternal youth; I was ignorant that his sons +were.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“No, child! we are hale and comely, but must go the way +of all flesh.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“Must it, can it, be?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Time was, my smallest gifts were acceptable, as thus +recorded:—</p> +<p class="poetry">“From my fair hand, O will ye, will ye<br +/> +Deign humbly to accept a gilly-<br /> + Flower for thy bosom, sugared maid!</p> +<p class="poetry">“Scarce had I said it ere she took it,<br +/> +And in a twinkling, faith! had stuck it,<br /> + Where e’en proud knighthood might have +laid.”</p> +<p>William was now quite unable to contain himself, and seemed +utterly to have forgotten the grievous charge against him; to +such a pitch did his joy o’erleap his jeopardy.</p> +<p>Master Silas in the meantime was much disquieted; and first +did he strip away all the white feather from every pen in the +inkpot, and then did he mend them, one and all, and then did he +slit them with his thumb-nail, and then did he pare and slash +away at them again and then did he cut off the tops, until at +last he left upon them neither nib nor plume, nor enough of the +middle to serve as quill to a virginal. It went to my heart +to see such a power of pens so wasted; there could not be fewer +than five. Sir Thomas was less wary than usual, being +overjoyed. For great poets do mightly affect to have little +poets under them; and little poets do forget themselves in great +company, as fiddlers do, who <i>hail fellow well met</i> even +with lords.</p> +<p>Sir Thomas did not interrupt our Bill’s wild +gladness. I never thought so worshipful a personage could +bear so much. At last he said unto the lad,—</p> +<p>“I do bethink me, if thou hearest much more of my +poetry, and the success attendant thereon, good Doctor Glaston +would tear thy skirt off ere he could drag thee back from the +occupation.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“I fear me, for once, all his wisdom would sluice out in +vain.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“It was reported to me that when our virgin +queen’s highness (her Dear Dread’s <a +name="citation157a"></a><a href="#footnote157a" +class="citation">[157a]</a> ear not being then poisoned) heard +these verses, she said before her courtiers, to the sore travail +of some, and heart’s content of others,—</p> +<p>“‘We need not envy our young cousin James of +Scotland his ass’s bite of a thistle, having such flowers +as these gillyflowers on the chimney-stacks of +Charlecote.’</p> +<p>“I could have told her highness that all this poetry, +from beginning to end, was real matter of fact, well and truly +spoken by mine own self. I had only to harness the rhymes +thereunto, at my leisure.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“None could ever doubt it. Greeks and Trojans may +fight for the quince; neither shall have it</p> +<p class="poetry">While a Warwickshire lad<br /> +Is on earth to be had,<br /> +With a wand to wag<br /> +On a trusty nag,<br /> +He shall keep the lists<br /> +With cudgel or fists.<br /> +And black shall be whose eye<br /> +Looks evil on Lucy.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Nay, nay, nay! do not trespass too soon upon +heroics. Thou seest thou canst not hold thy wind beyond +eight lines. What wouldst thou do under the heavy mettle +that should have wrought such wonders at Pavia, if thou findest +these petards so troublesome in discharging? Surely, the +good doctor, had he entered at large on the subject, would have +been very particular in urging this expostulation.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“Sir, to my mortification I must confess that I took to +myself the counsel he was giving to another; a young gentleman +who, from his pale face, his abstinence at table, his cough, his +taciturnity, and his gentleness, seemed already more than half +poet. To him did Doctor Glaston urge, with all his zeal and +judgment, many arguments against the vocation; telling him that, +even in college, he had few applauders, being the first, and not +the second or third, who always are more fortunate; reminding him +that he must solicit and obtain much interest with men of rank +and quality, before he could expect their favour; and that +without it the vein chilled, the nerve relaxed, and the poet was +left at next door to the bellman. ‘In the coldness of +the world,’ said he, ‘in the absence of ready friends +and adherents, to light thee upstairs to the richly tapestried +chamber of the muses, thy spirits will abandon thee, thy heart +will sicken and swell within thee; overladen, thou wilt make, O +Ethelbert! a slow and painful progress, and ere the door open, +sink. Praise giveth weight unto the wanting, and happiness +giveth elasticity unto the heavy. As the mightiest streams +of the unexplored world, America, run languidly in the night, <a +name="citation159a"></a><a href="#footnote159a" +class="citation">[159a]</a> and await the sun on high to contend +with him in strength and grandeur, so doth genius halt and pause +in the thraldom of outspread darkness, and move onward with all +his vigour then only when creative light and jubilant warmth +surround him.’</p> +<p>“Ethelbert coughed faintly; a tinge of red, the size of +a rose-bud, coloured the middle of his cheek; and yet he seemed +not to be pained by the reproof. He looked fondly and +affectionately at his teacher, who thus proceeded:</p> +<p>“‘My dear youth, do not carry the stone of +Sisyphus on thy shoulder to pave the way to disappointment. +If thou writest but indifferent poetry none will envy thee, and +some will praise thee; but nature, in her malignity, hath denied +unto thee a capacity for the enjoyment of such praise. In +this she hath been kinder to most others than to thee; we know +wherein she hath been kinder to thee than to most others. +If thou writest good poetry many will call it flat, many will +call it obscure, many will call it inharmonious; and some of +these will speak as they think; for, as in giving a feast to +great numbers, it is easier to possess the wine than to procure +the cups, so happens it in poetry; thou hast the beverage of thy +own growth, but canst not find the recipients. What is +simple and elegant to thee and me, to many an honest man is flat +and sterile; what to us is an innocently sly allusion, to as +worthy a one as either of us is dull obscurity; and that moreover +which swims upon our brain, and which throbs against our temples, +and which we delight in sounding to ourselves when the voice has +done with it, touches their ear, and awakens no harmony in any +cell of it. Rivals will run up to thee and call thee a +plagiary, and, rather than that proof should be wanting, similar +words to some of thine will be thrown in thy teeth out of +Leviticus and Deuteronomy.</p> +<p>“‘Do you desire calm studies? Do you desire +high thoughts? Penetrate into theology. What is +nobler than to dissect and discern the opinions of the gravest +men upon the subtlest matters? And what glorious victories +are those over Infidelity and Scepticism! How much loftier, +how much more lasting in their effects, than such as ye are +invited unto by what this ingenious youth hath contemptuously and +truly called</p> +<p class="poetry">“The swaggering drum, and trumpet hoarse +with rage.”</p> +<p>And what a delightful and edifying sight it is, to see +hundreds of the most able doctors, all stripped for the combat, +each closing with his antagonist, and tugging and tearing, tooth +and nail, to lay down and establish truths which have been +floating in the air for ages, and which the lower order of +mortals are forbidden to see, and commanded to embrace. And +then the shouts of victory! And then the crowns of amaranth +held over their heads by the applauding angels! Besides, +these combats have other great and distinct advantages. +Whereas, in the carnal, the longer ye contend the more blows do +ye receive; in these against Satan, the more fiercely and +pertinaciously ye drive at him, the slacker do ye find him; every +good hit makes him redden and rave with anger, but diminishes its +effect.</p> +<p>“‘My dear friends, who would not enter a service +in which he may give blows to his mortal enemy, and receive none; +and in which not only the eternal gain is incalculable, but also +the temporal, at four-and-twenty, may be far above the emolument +of generals, who, before the priest was born, had bled profusely +for their country, established her security, brightened her +glory, and augmented her dominions?’”</p> +<p>At this pause did Sir Thomas turn unto Sir Silas, and +asked,—</p> +<p>“What sayest thou, Silas?”</p> +<p>Whereupon did Sir Silas make answer,—</p> +<p>“I say it is so, and was so, and should be so, and shall +be so. If the queen’s brother had not sopped the +priests and bishops out of the Catholic cup, they could have held +the Catholic cup in their own hands, instead of yielding it into +his. They earned their money; if they sold their +consciences for it, the business is theirs, not ours. I +call this facing the devil with a vengeance. We have their +coats; no matter who made ’em,—we have ’em, I +say, and we will wear ’em; and not a button, tag, or +tassel, shall any man tear away.”</p> +<p>Sir Thomas then turned to Willy, and requested him to proceed +with the doctor’s discourse, who thereupon +continued:—</p> +<p>“‘Within your own recollections, how many good, +quiet, inoffensive men, unendowed with any extraordinary +abilities, have been enabled, by means of divinity, to enjoy a +long life in tranquillity and affluence?’</p> +<p>“Whereupon did one of the young gentlemen smile, and, on +small encouragement from Doctor Glaston to enounce the cause +thereof, he repeated these verses, which he gave afterward unto +me:—</p> +<p class="poetry"> “‘In the names on +our books<br /> + Was standing Tom Flooke’s,<br /> +Who took in due time his degrees;<br /> + Which when he had taken,<br /> + Like Ascham or Bacon,<br /> +By night he could snore and by day he could sneeze.</p> +<p class="poetry"> “‘Calm, pithy, +pragmatical, <a name="citation164a"></a><a href="#footnote164a" +class="citation">[164a]</a><br /> + Tom Flooke he could at a call<br /> +Rise up like a hound from his sleep;<br /> + And if many a quarto<br /> + He gave not his heart to,<br /> +If pellucid in lore, in his cups he was deep.</p> +<p class="poetry"> “‘He never did +harm,<br /> + And his heart might be warm,<br /> +For his doublet most certainly was so;<br /> + And now has Torn Flooke<br /> + A quieter nook<br /> +Than ever had Spenser or Tasso.</p> +<p class="poetry"> “‘He lives in his +house,<br /> + As still as a mouse,<br /> +Until he has eaten his dinner;<br /> + But then doth his nose<br /> + Outroar all the woes<br /> +That encompass the death of a sinner.</p> +<p class="poetry"> “‘And there oft +has been seen<br /> + No less than a dean<br /> +To tarry a week in the parish,<br /> + In October and March,<br /> + When deans are less starch,<br /> +And days are less gleamy and garish.</p> +<p class="poetry"> “‘That Sunday +Tom’s eyes<br /> + Look’d always more wise,<br /> +He repeated more often his text;<br /> + Two leaves stuck together,<br /> + (The fault of the weather)<br /> +And . . . <i>the rest ye shall hear in my next</i>.</p> +<p class="poetry"> “‘At mess he lost +quite<br /> + His small appetite,<br /> +By losing his friend the good dean;<br /> + The cook’s sight must fail her!<br /> + The eggs sure are staler!<br /> +The beef, too!—why, what can it mean?</p> +<p class="poetry"> “‘He turned off +the butcher,<br /> + To the cook could he clutch her,<br /> +What his choler had done there’s no saying—<br /> + ’T is verily said<br /> + He smote low the cock’s head,<br /> +And took other pullets for laying.’</p> +<p>“On this being concluded, Doctor Glaston said he +shrewdly suspected an indigestion on the part of Mr. Thomas +Flooke, caused by sitting up late and studying hard with Mr. +Dean; and he protested that theology itself should not carry us +into the rawness of the morning air, particularly in such +critical months as March and October, in one of which the sap +rises, in the other sinks, and there are many stars very +sinister.”</p> +<p>Sir Thomas shook his head, and declared he would not be +uncharitable to rector, or dean, or doctor, but that certain +surmises swam uppermost. He then winked at Master Silas, +who said, incontinently,—</p> +<p>“You have it, Sir Thomas! The blind buzzards! with +their stars and saps!”</p> +<p>“Well, but Silas! you yourself have told us over and +over again, in church, that there are <i>arcana</i>.”</p> +<p>“So there are,—I uphold it,” replied Master +Silas; “but a fig for the greater part, and a fig-leaf for +the rest. As for these signs, they are as plain as any page +in the Revelation.”</p> +<p>Sir Thomas, after short pondering, said, +scoffingly,—</p> +<p>“In regard to the rawness of the air having any effect +whatsoever on those who discourse orthodoxically on theology, it +is quite as absurd as to imagine that a man ever caught cold in a +Protestant church. I am rather of opinion that it was a +judgment on the rector for his evil-mindedness toward the cook, +the Lord foreknowing that he was about to be wilful and vengeful +in that quarter. It was, however, more advisedly that he +took other pullets, on his own view of the case, although it +might be that the same pullets would suit him again as well as +ever, when his appetite should return; for it doth not appear +that they were loath to lay, but laid somewhat +unsatisfactorily.</p> +<p>“Now, youth,” continued his worship, “if in +our clemency we should spare thy life, study this higher +elegiacal strain which thou hast carried with thee from Oxford; +it containeth, over and above an unusual store of biography, much +sound moral doctrine, for those who are heedful in the weighing +of it. And what can be more affecting than—</p> +<p class="poetry"> ‘At mess he lost +quite<br /> + His small appetite,<br /> +By losing his friend the good dean’?</p> +<p>And what an insight into character! Store it up; store +it up! <i>Small appetite</i>, particular; <i>good dean</i>, +generick.”</p> +<p>Hereupon did Master Silas jerk me with his indicative joint, +the elbow to wit, and did say in my ear,—</p> +<p>“He means <i>deanery</i>. Give me one of those +bones so full of marrow, and let my lord bishop have all the meat +over it, and welcome. If a dean is not on his stilts, he is +not on his stumps; he stands on his own ground; he is a +<i>noli-metangeretarian</i>.”</p> +<p>“What art thou saying of those sectaries, good Master +Silas?” quoth Sir Thomas, not hearing him distinctly.</p> +<p>“I was talking of the dean,” replied Master +Silas. “He was the very dean who wrote and sang that +song called the <i>Two Jacks</i>.”</p> +<p>“Hast it?” asked he.</p> +<p>Master Silas shook his head, and, trying in vain to recollect +it, said at last,—</p> +<p>“After dinner it sometimes pops out of a filbert-shell +in a crack; and I have known it float on the first glass of +Herefordshire cider; it also hath some affinity with very stiff +and old bottled beer; but in a morning it seemeth unto me like a +remnant of over-night.”</p> +<p>“Our memory waneth, Master Silas!” quoth Sir +Thomas, looking seriously. “If thou couldst repeat +it, without the grimace of singing, it were not ill.”</p> +<p>Master Silas struck the table with his fist, and repeated the +first stave angrily; but in the second he forgot the admonition +of Sir Thomas, and did sing outright,—</p> +<p class="poetry"> “Jack Calvin and Jack +Cade,<br /> + Two gentles of one trade,<br /> + Two tinkers,<br /> + Very gladly would pull down<br /> + Mother Church and Father Crown,<br /> + And would starve or would drown<br /> + Right thinkers.</p> +<p class="poetry"> “Honest man! honest +man!<br /> + Fill the can, fill the can,<br /> +They are coming! they are coming! they are coming!<br /> + If any drop be left,<br /> + It might tempt ’em to a theft—<br /> +Zooks! it was only the ale that was humming.”</p> +<p>“In the first stave, gramercy! there is an awful +verity,” quoth Sir Thomas; “but I wonder that a dean +should let his skewer slip out, and his fat catch fire so +wofully, in the second. Light stuff, Silas, fit only for +ale-houses.”</p> +<p>Master Silas was nettled in the nose, and answered,—</p> +<p>“Let me see the man in Warwickshire, and in all the +counties round, who can run at such a rate with so light a +feather in the palm of his hand. I am no poet, thank God! +but I know what folks can do, and what folks cannot +do.”</p> +<p>“Well, Silas,” replied Sir Thomas, “after +thy thanksgiving for being no poet, let us have the rest of the +piece.”</p> +<p>“The rest!” quoth Master Silas. “When +the ale hath done with its humming, it is time, methinks, to +dismiss it. Sir, there never was any more; you might as +well ask for more after Amen or the see of Canterbury.”</p> +<p>Sir Thomas was dissatisfied, and turned off the discourse; and +peradventure he grew more inclined to be gracious unto Willy from +the slight rub his chaplain had given him, were it only for the +contrariety. When he had collected his thoughts he was +determined to assert his supremacy on the score of poetry.</p> +<p>“Deans, I perceive, like other quality,” said he, +“cannot run on long together. My friend, Sir Everard +Starkeye, could never overleap four bars. I remember but +one composition of his, on a young lady who mocked at his +inconsistency, in calling her sometimes his Grace and at other +times his Muse.</p> +<p class="poetry">‘My Grace shall Fanny Carew be,<br /> + While here she deigns to stay;<br /> +And (ah, how sad the change for me!)<br /> + My Muse when far away!’</p> +<p>And when we laughed at him for turning his back upon her after +the fourth verse, all he could say for himself was, that he would +rather a game at <i>all fours</i> with Fanny, than <i>ombre</i> +and <i>picquet</i> with the finest furbelows in +Christendom. Men of condition do usually want a belt in the +course.”</p> +<p>Whereunto said Master Silas,—</p> +<p>“Men out of condition are quite as liable to lack it, +methinks.”</p> +<p>“Silas! Silas!” replied the knight, +impatiently, “prithee keep to thy divinity, thy strong hold +upon Zion; thence none that faces thee can draw thee without +being bitten to the bone. Leave poetry to me.”</p> +<p>“With all my heart,” quoth Master Silas, “I +will never ask a belt from her, until I see she can afford to +give a shirt. She has promised a belt, indeed,—not +one, however, that doth much improve the wind,—to this lad +here, and will keep her word; but she was forced to borrow the +pattern from a Carthusian friar, and somehow it slips above the +shoulder.”</p> +<p>“I am by no means sure of that,” quoth Sir +Thomas. “He shall have fair play. He carrieth +in his mind many valuable things, whereof it hath pleased +Providence to ordain him the depository. He hath laid +before us certain sprigs of poetry from Oxford, trim as +pennyroyal, and larger leaves of household divinity, the most +mildly-savoured,—pleasant in health and wholesome in +sickness.”</p> +<p>“I relish not such mutton-broth divinity,” said +Master Silas. “It makes me sick in order to settle my +stomach.”</p> +<p>“We may improve it,” said the knight, “but +first let us hear more.”</p> +<p>Then did William Shakspeare resume Dr. Glaston’s +discourse.</p> +<p>“‘Ethelbert! I think thou walkest but +little; otherwise I should take thee with me, some fine fresh +morning, as far as unto the first hamlet on the Cherwell. +There lies young Wellerby, who, the year before, was wont to pass +many hours of the day poetising amid the ruins of Godstow +nunnery. It is said that he bore a fondness toward a young +maiden in that place, formerly a village, now containing but two +old farm-houses. In my memory there were still extant +several dormitories. Some love-sick girl had recollected an +ancient name, and had engraven on a stone with a garden-nail, +which lay in rust near it,—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: center"><span +class="GutSmall">“POORE ROSAMUND.”</span></p> +</blockquote> +<p>I entered these precincts, and beheld a youth of manly form +and countenance, washing and wiping a stone with a handful of wet +grass; and on my going up to him, and asking what he had found, +he shewed it to me. The next time I saw him was near the +banks of the Cherwell. He had tried, it appears, to forget +or overcome his foolish passion, and had applied his whole mind +unto study. He was foiled by his competitor; and now he +sought consolation in poetry. Whether this opened the +wounds that had closed in his youthful breast, and malignant +Love, in his revenge, poisoned it; or whether the disappointment +he had experienced in finding others preferred to him, first in +the paths of fortune, then in those of the muses,—he was +thought to have died broken-hearted.</p> +<p>“‘About half a mile from St. John’s College +is the termination of a natural terrace, with the Cherwell close +under it, in some places bright with yellow and red flowers +glancing and glowing through the stream, and suddenly in others +dark with the shadows of many different trees, in broad, +overbending thickets, and with rushes spear-high, and +party-coloured flags.</p> +<p>“‘After a walk in Midsummer, the emersion of our +hands into the cool and closing grass is surely not the least +among our animal delights. I was just seated, and the first +sensation of rest vibrated in me gently, as though it were music +to the limbs, when I discovered by a hollow in the herbage that +another was near. The long meadow-sweet and blooming burnet +half concealed from me him whom the earth was about to hide +totally and for ever.</p> +<p>“‘Master Batchelor,’ said I, ‘it is +ill-sleeping by the water-side.’</p> +<p>“‘No answer was returned. I arose, went to +the place, and recognised poor Wellerby. His brow was +moist, his cheek was warm. A few moments earlier, and that +dismal lake whereunto and wherefrom the waters of life, the +buoyant blood, ran no longer, might have received one vivifying +ray reflected from my poor casement. I might not indeed +have comforted—I have often failed; but there is one who +never has; and the strengthener of the bruised reed should have +been with us.</p> +<p>“‘Remembering that his mother did abide one mile +further on, I walked forward to the mansion, and asked her what +tidings she lately had received of her son. She replied +that, having given up his mind to light studies, the fellows of +the college would not elect him. The master had warned him +beforehand to abandon his selfish poetry, take up manfully the +quarterstaff of logic, and wield it for St. John’s, come +who would into the ring. “‘We want our +man,’” said he to me, “‘and your son hath +failed us in the hour of need. Madam, he hath been foully +beaten in the schools by one he might have swallowed, with due +exercise.’”</p> +<p>“‘“I rated him, told him I was poor, and he +knew it. He was stung, and threw himself upon my neck, and +wept. Twelve days have passed since, and only three rainy +ones. I hear he has been seen upon the knoll yonder; but +hither he hath not come. I trust he knows at last the value +of time, and I shall be heartily glad to see him after this +accession of knowledge. Twelve days, it is true, are rather +a chink than a gap in time; yet, O gentle sir, they are that +chink which makes the vase quite valueless. There are light +words which may never be shaken off the mind they fall on. +My child, who was hurt by me, will not let me see the +marks.”</p> +<p>“‘“Lady,” said I, “none are left +upon him. Be comforted! thou shalt see him this hour. +All that thy God hath not taken is yet thine.” She +looked at me earnestly, and would have then asked something, but +her voice failed her. There was no agony, no motion, save +in the lips and cheeks. Being the widow of one who fought +under Hawkins, she remembered his courage and sustained the +shock, saying calmly, “God’s will be done! I +pray that he find me as worthy as he findeth me willing to join +them.”</p> +<p>“‘Now, in her unearthly thoughts she had led her +only son to the bosom of her husband; and in her spirit (which +often is permitted to pass the gates of death with holy love) she +left them both with their Creator.</p> +<p>“‘The curate of the village sent those who should +bring home the body; and some days afterward he came unto me, +beseeching me to write the epitaph. Being no friend to +stonecutters’ charges, I entered not into biography, but +wrote these few words:—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: center">JOANNES WELLERBY,<br /> +LITERARUM QUÆSIVIT GLORIAM,<br /> +VIDET DEI.’”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>“Poor tack! poor tack!” sourly quoth Master +Silas. “If your wise doctor could say nothing more +about the fool, who died like a rotten sheep among the darnels, +his Latin might have held out for the father, and might have told +people he was as cool as a cucumber at home, and as hot as pepper +in battle. Could he not find room enough on the whinstone, +to tell the folks of the village how he played the devil among +the dons, burning their fingers when they would put thumbscrews +upon us, punching them in the weasand as a blacksmith punches a +horse-shoe, and throwing them overboard like bilgewater?</p> +<p>“Has Oxford lost all her Latin? Here is no +<i>capitani filius</i>; no more mention of family than a Welchman +would have allowed him; no <i>hîc jacet</i>; and, worse +than all, the devil a tittle of <i>spe redemptionis</i>, or +<i>anno Domini</i>.”</p> +<p>“Willy!” quoth Sir Thomas, “I shrewdly do +suspect there was more, and that thou hast forgotten +it.”</p> +<p>“Sir!” answered Willy, “I wrote not down the +words, fearing to mis-spell them, and begged them of the doctor, +when I took my leave of him on the morrow; and verily he wrote +down all he had repeated. I keep them always in the tin-box +in my waistcoat-pocket, among the eel-hooks, on a scrap of paper +a finger’s length and breadth, folded in the middle to +fit. And when the eels are running, I often take it out and +read it before I am aware. I could as soon forget my own +epitaph as this.”</p> +<p>“Simpleton!” said Sir Thomas, with his gentle, +compassionate smile; “but thou hast cleared +thyself.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Silas</span>.</p> +<p>“I think the doctor gave one idle chap as much solid +pudding as he could digest, with a slice to spare for +another.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“And yet after this pudding the doctor gave him a +spoonful of custard, flavoured with a little bitter, which was +mostly left at the bottom for the other idle chap.”</p> +<p>Sir Thomas not only did endure this very goodnaturedly, but +deigned even to take in good part the smile upon my countenance, +as though he were a smile collector, and as though his estate +were so humble that he could hold his laced bonnet (in all his +bravery) for bear and fiddle.</p> +<p>He then said unto Willy,</p> +<p>“Place likewise this custard before us.”</p> +<p>“There is but little of it; the platter is +shallow,” replied he; “’t was suited to Master +Ethelbert’s appetite. The contents were these:</p> +<p>“‘The things whereon thy whole soul brooded in its +innermost recesses, and with all its warmth and energy, will pass +unprized and unregarded, not only throughout thy lifetime but +long after. For the higher beauties of poetry are beyond +the capacity, beyond the vision of almost all. Once perhaps +in half a century a single star is discovered, then named and +registered, then mentioned by five studious men to five more; at +last some twenty say, or repeat in writing, what they have heard +about it. Other stars await other discoveries. Few +and solitary and wide asunder are those who calculate their +relative distances, their mysterious influences, their glorious +magnitude, and their stupendous height. ’T is so, +believe me, and ever was so, with the truest and best +poetry. Homer, they say, was blind; he might have been ere +he died,—that he sat among the blind, we are sure.</p> +<p>“‘Happy they who, like this young lad from +Stratford, write poetry on the saddle-bow when their geldings are +jaded, and keep the desk for better purposes.’</p> +<p>“The young gentlemen, like the elderly, all turned their +faces toward me, to my confusion, so much did I remark of sneer +and scoff at my cost. Master Ethelbert was the only one who +spared me. He smiled and said,—</p> +<p>“‘Be patient! From the higher heavens of +poetry, it is long before the radiance of the brightest star can +reach the world below. We hear that one man finds out one +beauty, another man finds out another, placing his observatory +and instruments on the poet’s grave. The worms must +have eaten us before it is rightly known what we are. It is +only when we are skeletons that we are boxed and ticketed, and +prized and shewn. Be it so! I shall not be tired of +waiting.’”</p> +<p>“Reasonable youth!” said Sir Thomas; “yet +both he and Glaston walk rather <i>a-straddle</i>, +methinks. They might have stepped up to thee more +straightforwardly, and told thee the trade ill suiteth thee, +having little fire, little fantasy, and little learning. +Furthermore, that one poet, as one bull, sufficeth for two +parishes, and that where they are stuck too close together they +are apt to fire, like haystacks. I have known it myself; I +have had my malignants and scoffers.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“I never could have thought it!”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“There again! Another proof of thy +inexperience.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“Mat Atterend! Mat Atterend! where wert thou +sleeping?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“I shall now from my own stores impart unto thee what +will avail to tame thee, shewing the utter hopelessness of +standing on that golden weathercock which supporteth but one at a +time.</p> +<p>“The passion for poetry wherewith Monsieur Dubois would +have inspired me, as he was bound to do, being paid beforehand, +had cold water thrown upon it by that unlucky one, Sir +Everard. He ridiculed the idea of male and female rhymes, +and the necessity of trying them as rigidly by the eye as by the +ear,—saying to Monsieur Dubois that the palate, in which +the French excel all mortals, ought also to be consulted in their +acceptance or rejection. Monsieur Dubois told us that if we +did not wish to be taught French verse, he would teach us +English. Sir Everard preferred the Greek; but Monsieur +Dubois would not engage to teach the mysteries of that poetry in +fewer than thirty lessons,—having (since his misfortunes) +forgotten the letters and some other necessaries.</p> +<p>“The first poem I ever wrote was in the character of a +shepherd, to Mistress Anne Nanfan, daughter of Squire Fulke +Nanfan, of Worcestershire, at that time on a visit to the +worshipful family of Compton at Long Compton.</p> +<p>“We were young creatures,—I but twenty-four and +seven months (for it was written on the 14th of May), and she +well-nigh upon a twelve-month younger. My own verses, the +first, are neither here nor there; indeed, they were imbedded in +solid prose, like lampreys and ram’s-horns <a +name="citation181a"></a><a href="#footnote181a" +class="citation">[181a]</a> in our limestone, and would be hard +to get out whole. What they are may be seen by her answer, +all in verse:—</p> +<p class="poetry">“‘Faithful shepherd! dearest +Tommy!<br /> +I have received the letter from ye,<br /> + And mightily delight therein.<br /> +But mother, <i>she</i> says, “Nanny! Nanny!<br /> +<i>How</i>, <i>being staid and prudent</i>, <i>can ye</i><br /> + <i>Think of a man and not of sin</i>?”</p> +<p class="poetry">“‘Sir shepherd! I held down +my head,<br /> +And “<i>Mother</i>! <i>fie</i>, <i>for shame</i>!” I +said;<br /> + All I could say would not content her;<br /> +Mother she would for ever harp on’t,<br /> +“<i>A man’s no better than a sarpent</i>,<br /> + <i>And not a crumb more +innocenter</i>.”’</p> +<p>“I know not how it happeneth; but a poet doth open +before a poet, albeit of baser sort. It is not that I hold +my poetry to be better than some other in time past, it is +because I would shew thee that I was virtuous and wooed +virtuously, that I repeat it. Furthermore, I wished to +leave a deep impression on the mother’s mind that she was +exceedingly wrong in doubting my innocence.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“Gracious Heaven! and was this too doubted?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Maybe not; but the whole race of men, the whole male +sex, wanted and found in me a protector. I shewed her what +I was ready to do.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“Perhaps, sir, it was for that very thing that she put +the daughter back and herself forward.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“I say not so; but thou mayest know as much as +befitteth, by what follows:—</p> +<p class="poetry">“‘Worshipful lady! honoured +madam!<br /> +I at this present truly glad am<br /> + To have so fair an opportunity<br /> +Of saying I would be the man<br /> +To bind in wedlock Mistress Anne,<br /> + Living with her in holy unity.</p> +<p class="poetry">“‘And for a jointure I will +gi’e her<br /> +A good two hundred pounds a year<br /> + Accruing from my landed rents,<br /> +Whereof see t’other paper, telling<br /> +Lands, copses, and grown woods for felling,<br /> + Capons, and cottage tenements.</p> +<p class="poetry">“‘And who must come at sound of +horn,<br /> +And who pays but a barley-corn,<br /> + And who is bound to keep a whelp,<br /> +And what is brought me for the pound,<br /> +And copyholders, which are sound,<br /> + And which do need the leech’s help.</p> +<p class="poetry">“‘And you may see in these two +pages<br /> +Exact their illnesses and ages,<br /> + Enough (God willing) to content ye;<br /> +Who looks full red, who looks full yellow,<br /> +Who plies the mullen, who the mallow,<br /> + Who fails at fifty, who at twenty.</p> +<p class="poetry">“‘Jim Yates must go; he’s one +day very hot,<br /> +And one day ice; I take a heriot;<br /> + And poorly, poorly’s Jacob Burgess.<br /> +The doctor tells me he has pour’d<br /> +Into his stomach half his hoard<br /> + Of anthelminticals and purges.</p> +<p class="poetry">“‘Judith, the wife of Ebenezer<br +/> +Fillpots, won’t have him long to tease her;<br /> + Fillpots blows hot and cold like Jim,<br /> +And, sleepless lest the boys should plunder<br /> +His orchard, he must soon knock under;<br /> + Death has been looking out for him.</p> +<p class="poetry">“‘He blusters; but his good yard +land<br /> +Under the church, his ale-house, and<br /> + His Bible, which he cut in spite,<br /> +Must all fall in; he stamps and swears<br /> +And sets his neighbours by the ears—<br /> + Fillpots, thy saddle sits not tight!’</p> +<p>“The epitaph is ready:—</p> +<p +class="poetry"> “‘<i>Here</i><br +/> +<i>Lies one whom all his friends did fear</i><br /> + <i>More than they ever feared the Lord</i>;<br /> +<i>In peace he was at times a Christian</i>;<br /> +<i>In strife</i>, <i>what stubborner Philistine</i>!<br /> + <i>Sing</i>, <i>sing his psalm with one +accord</i>.</p> +<p class="poetry">“‘And he who lent my lord his +wife<br /> +Has but a very ticklish life;<br /> + Although she won him many a hundred,<br /> +’T won’t do; none comes with briefs and wills,<br /> +And all her gainings are gilt pills<br /> + From the sick madman that she plundered.</p> +<p class="poetry">“‘And the brave lad who sent the +bluff<br /> +Olive-faced Frenchman (sure enough)<br /> + Screaming and scouring like a plover,<br /> +Must follow—him I mean who dash’d<br /> +Into the water and then thrash’d<br /> + The cullion past the town of Dover.</p> +<p class="poetry">“‘But first there goes the blear +old dame<br /> +Who nurs’d me; you have heard her name,<br /> + No doubt, at Compton, Sarah Salways;<br /> +There are twelve groats at once, beside<br /> +The frying-pan in which she fried<br /> + Her pancakes.</p> +<p style="text-align: center" class="poetry">Madam, I am always, +etc.,</p> +<p style="text-align: right" class="poetry">Sir <span +class="smcap">Thomas Lucy</span>, Knight.’</p> +<p>“I did believe that such a clear and conscientious +exposure of my affairs would have brought me a like return. +My letter was sent back to me with small courtesy. It may +be there was no paper in the house, or none equalling mine in +whiteness. No notice was taken of the rent-roll; but +between the second and third stanza these four lines were +written, in a very fine hand:—</p> +<p class="poetry">“‘Most honour’d knight, Sir +Thomas! two<br /> +For merry Nan will never do;<br /> +Now under favour let me say ’t,<br /> +She will bring more herself than that.’</p> +<p>I have reason to believe that the worthy lady did neither +write nor countenance the same, perhaps did not ever know of +them. She always had at her elbow one who jogged it when he +listed, and although he could not overrule the daughter, he took +especial care that none other should remove her from his +tutelage, even when she had fairly grown up to woman’s +estate.</p> +<p>“Now, after all this condescension and confidence, +promise me, good lad, promise that thou wilt not edge and elbow +me. Never let it be said, when people say, <i>Sir Thomas +was a poet when he will edit</i>,—<i>So is Bill +Shakspeare</i>! It beseemeth not that our names do go +together cheek by jowl in this familiar fashion, like an old +beagle and a whelp, in couples, where if the one would, the other +would not.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Silas</span>.</p> +<p>“Sir, while these thoughts are passing in your mind, +remember there is another pair of couples out of which it would +be as well to keep the cur’s neck.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Young man! dost thou understand Master +Silas?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“But too well. Not those couples in which it might +be apprehended that your worship and my unworthiness should +appear too close together; but those sorrowfuller which +peradventure might unite Master Silas and me in our road to +Warwick and upwards. But I resign all right and title unto +these as willingly as I did unto the other, and am as ready to +let him go alone.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Silas</span>.</p> +<p>“If we keep wheeling and wheeling, like a flock of +pigeons, and rising again when we are within a foot of the +ground, we shall never fill the craw.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Do thou then question him, Silas.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Silas</span>.</p> +<p>“I am none of the quorum; the business is none of +mine.”</p> +<p>Then Sir Thomas took Master Silas again into the bay window, +and said softly,—</p> +<p>“Silas, he hath no inkling of thy meaning. The +business is a ticklish one. I like not overmuch to meddle +and make therein.”</p> +<p>Master Silas stood dissatisfied awhile, and then +answered,—</p> +<p>“The girl’s mother, sir, was housemaid and +sempstress in your own family, time back, and you thereby have a +right over her unto the third and fourth generation.”</p> +<p>“I may have, Silas,” said his worship, “but +it was no longer than four or five years agone that folks were +fain to speak maliciously of me for only finding my horse in her +hovel.”</p> +<p>Sir Silas looked red and shiny as a ripe strawberry on a +Snitterfield tile, and answered somewhat peevishly,—</p> +<p>“The same folks, I misgive me, may find the +rogue’s there any night in the week.”</p> +<p>Whereunto replied Sir Thomas, mortifiedly,</p> +<p>“I cannot think it, Silas! I cannot think +it.”</p> +<p>And after some hesitation and disquiet,—</p> +<p>“Nay, I am resolved I will not think it; no man, friend +or enemy, shall push it into me.”</p> +<p>“Worshipful sir,” answered Master Silas, “I +am as resolute as any one in what I would think and what I would +not think, and never was known to fight dunghill in either +cockpit.</p> +<p>“Were he only out of the way, she might do duty, but +what doth she now?</p> +<p>“She points his young beard for him; persuading him it +grows thicker and thicker, blacker and blacker; she washes his +ruff, stiffens it, plaits it, tries it upon his neck, removes the +hair from under it, pinches it with thumb and fore-finger, +pretending that he hath moiled it, puts her hand all the way +round it, <i>setting it to rights</i>, as she calleth +it—</p> +<p>“Ah, Sir Thomas! a louder whistle than that will never +call her back again when she is off with him.”</p> +<p>Sir Thomas was angered, and cried tartly,—</p> +<p>“Who whistled? I would know.”</p> +<p>Master Silas said submissively,—</p> +<p>“Your honour, as wrongfully I fancied.”</p> +<p>“Wrongfully, indeed, and to my no small disparagement +and discomfort,” said the knight, verily believing that he +had not whistled; for deep and dubious were his cogitations.</p> +<p>“I protest,” went he on to say, “I protest +it was the wind of the casement; and if I live another year I +will put a better in the place of it. Whistle +indeed—for what? I care no more about her than about +an unfledged cygnet,—a child, <a name="citation189a"></a><a +href="#footnote189a" class="citation">[189a]</a> a chicken, a +mere kitten, a crab-blossom in the hedge.”</p> +<p>The dignity of his worship was wounded by Master Silas +unaware, and his wrath again turned suddenly upon poor +William.</p> +<p>“Hark-ye, knave! hark-ye again, ill-looking stripling, +lanky from vicious courses! I will reclaim thee from them; +I will do what thy own father would, and cannot. Thou shalt +follow his business.”</p> +<p>“I cannot do better, may it please your worship!” +said the lad.</p> +<p>“It shall lead thee unto wealth and +respectability,” said the knight, somewhat appeased by his +ready compliancy and low, gentle voice. “Yea, but not +here,—no witches, no wantons (this word fell gravely and at +full-length upon the ear), no spells hereabout.</p> +<p>“Gloucestershire is within a measured mile of thy +dwelling. There is one at Bristol, formerly a parish-boy, +or little better, who now writeth himself <i>gentleman</i> in +large, round letters, and hath been elected, I hear, to serve as +burgess in parliament for his native city; just as though he had +eaten a capon or turkey-poult in his youth, and had actually been +at grammar school and college. When he began, he had not +credit for a goat-skin; and now, behold ye! this very coat upon +my back did cost me eight shillings the dearer for him, he bought +up wool so largely.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“May it please your worship! if my father so ordereth, I +go cheerfully.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Thou art grown discreet and dutiful. I am fain to +command thy release, taking thy promise on oath, and some +reasonable security, that thou wilt abstain and withhold in +future from that idle and silly slut, that sly and scoffing +giggler, Hannah Hathaway, with whom, to the heartache of thy +poor, worthy father, thou wantonly keepest company.”</p> +<p>Then did Sir Thomas ask Master Silas Gough for the Book of +Life, bidding him deliver it into the right hand of Billy, with +an eye upon him that he touch it with both lips,—it being +taught by the Jesuits, and caught too greedily out of their +society and communion, that whoso toucheth it with one lip only, +and thereafter sweareth falsely, cannot be called a perjurer, +since perjury is breaking an oath. But breaking half an +oath, as he doth who toucheth the Bible or crucifix with one lip +only, is no more perjury than breaking an eggshell is breaking an +egg, the shell being a part, and the egg being an integral.</p> +<p>William did take the Holy Book with all due reverence the +instant it was offered to his hand. His stature seemed to +rise therefrom as from a pulpit, and Sir Thomas was quite +edified.</p> +<p>“Obedient and conducible youth!” said he. +“See there, Master Silas! what hast thou now to say against +him? Who sees farthest?”</p> +<p>“The man from the gallows is the most likely, bating his +nightcap and blinker,” said Master Silas, peevishly. +“He hath not outwitted me yet.”</p> +<p>“He seized upon the Anchor of Faith like a +martyr,” said Sir Thomas, “and even now his face +burns red as elder-wine before the gossips.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“I await the further orders of your worship from the +chair.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“I return and seat myself.”</p> +<p>And then did Sir Thomas say with great complacency and +satisfaction in the ear of Master Silas,—</p> +<p>“What civility, and deference, and sedateness of mind, +Silas!”</p> +<p>But Master Silas answered not.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">William +Shakspeare</span>.</p> +<p>“Must I swear, sirs?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Yea, swear; be of good courage. I protest to thee +by my honour and knighthood, no ill shall come unto thee +therefrom. Thou shalt not be circumvented in thy simpleness +and inexperience.”</p> +<p>Willy, having taken the Book of Life, did kiss it piously, and +did press it unto his breast, saying,</p> +<p>“Tenderest love is the growth of my heart, as the grass +is of Alvescote mead.</p> +<p>“May I lose my life or my friends, or my memory, or my +reason; may I be viler in my own eyes than those men +are—”</p> +<p>Here he was interrupted, most lovingly, by Sir Thomas, who +said unto him,—</p> +<p>“Nay, nay, nay! poor youth! do not tell me so! they are +not such very bad men, since thou appealest unto +Cæsar,—that is, unto the judgment-seat.”</p> +<p>Now his worship did mean the two witnesses, Joseph and Euseby; +and, sooth to say there be many worse. But William had them +not in his eye; his thoughts were elsewhere, as will be evident, +for he went on thus:—</p> +<p>“—if ever I forget or desert thee, or ever cease +to worship <a name="citation193a"></a><a href="#footnote193a" +class="citation">[193a]</a> and cherish thee, my +Hannah!”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Silas</span>.</p> +<p>“The madman! the audacious, desperate, outrageous +villain! Look-ye, sir! where he flung the Holy +Gospel! Behold it on the holly and box boughs in the +chimney-place, spreaden all abroad, like a lad about to be +whipped!”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Miscreant knave! I will send after him +forthwith!</p> +<p>“Ho, there! is the caitiff at hand, or running +off?”</p> +<p>Jonas Greenfield the butler did budge forward after a while, +and say, on being questioned,—</p> +<p>“Surely, that was he! Was his nag tied to the iron +gate at the lodge, Master Silas?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Silas</span>.</p> +<p>“What should I know about a thief’s nag, Jonas +Greenfield?”</p> +<p>“And didst thou let him go, Jonas,—even +thou?” said Sir Thomas. “What! are none found +faithful?”</p> +<p>“Lord love your worship,” said Jonas Greenfield; +“a man of threescore and two may miss catching a kite upon +wing. Fleetness doth not make folks the faithfuller, or +that youth yonder beats us all in faithfulness.</p> +<p>“Look! he darts on like a greyhound whelp after a +leveret. He, sure enough, it was! I now remember the +sorrel mare his father bought of John Kinderley last Lammas, +swift as he threaded the trees along the park. He must have +reached Wellesbourne ere now at that gallop, and pretty nigh +Walton-hill.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“Merciful Christ! grant the country be rid of him for +ever! What dishonour upon his friends and native +town! A reputable wool-stapler’s son turned gipsy and +poet for life.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Silas</span>.</p> +<p>“A Beelzebub; he spake as bigly and fiercely as a soaken +yeoman at an election feast,—this obedient and conducible +youth!”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Sir +Thomas</span>.</p> +<p>“It was so written. Hold thy peace, +Silas!”</p> +<p style="text-align: center">LAUS DEO.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">E. B.</p> +<h3>POST-SCRIPTUM<br /> +BY ME, EPHRAIM BARNETT.</h3> +<p>Twelve days are over and gone since William Shakspeare did +leave our parts. And the spinster, Hannah Hathaway, is in +sad doleful plight about him; forasmuch as Master Silas Cough +went yesterday unto her, in her mother’s house at Shottery, +and did desire both her and her mother to take heed and be +admonished, that if ever she, Hannah, threw away one thought +after the runagate William Shakspeare, he should swing.</p> +<p>The girl could do nothing but weep; while as the mother did +give her solemn promise that her daughter should never more think +about him all her natural life, reckoning from the moment of this +her promise.</p> +<p>And the maiden, now growing more reasonable, did promise the +same. But Master Silas said,</p> +<p>“<i>I doubt you will</i>, <i>though</i>.”</p> +<p>“<i>No</i>,” said the mother, “<i>I answer +for her she shall not think of him</i>, <i>even if she see his +ghost</i>.”</p> +<p>Hannah screamed, and swooned, the better to forget him. +And Master Silas went home easier and contenteder. For now +all the worst of his hard duty was accomplished,—he having +been, on the Wednesday of last week, at the speech of Master John +Shakspeare, Will’s father, to inquire whether the sorrel +mare was his. To which question the said Master John +Shakspeare did answer, “<i>Yea</i>.”</p> +<p>“<i>Enough said</i>!” rejoined Master Silas.</p> +<p>“<i>Horse-stealing is capital</i>. <i>We shall +bind thee over to appear against the culprit</i>, <i>as +prosecutor</i>, <i>at the next assizes</i>.”</p> +<p>May the Lord in his mercy give the lad a good deliverance, if +so be it be no sin to wish it!</p> +<p><i>October</i> 1, <span class="GutSmall">A.D.</span> 1582.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">LAUS DEO.</p> +<h2><a name="page199"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 199</span>A +CONFERENCE<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">OF</span><br /> +MASTER EDMUND SPENSER,<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">A GENTLEMAN OF NOTE,</span><br /> +<span class="GutSmall">WITH</span><br /> +THE EARL OF ESSEX,<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">TOUCHING</span><br /> +THE STATE OF IRELAND.</h2> +<p style="text-align: center">ANNO DOM. 1598.</p> +<h3><a name="page201"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +201</span>PREFACE.</h3> +<p><span class="smcap">To</span> the same worthy man who +preserved the <i>Examination of Shakspeare</i>, we are indebted +for what he entitles on the cover, <i>A Conference of Master +Edmund Spenser</i>, <i>etc.</i>, <i>with the Earl of +Essex</i>. It must be confessed that this Conference throws +little light upon the great rebellion of Ireland. +Nevertheless, there are some curious minds, which perhaps may +take an interest in the conversation of two illustrious men, one +distinguished by his genius, the other by the favour of his +sovereign. The Editor, it will be perceived, is but little +practised in the ways of literature; much less is he gifted with +that prophetic spirit which can anticipate the judgment of the +public. It may be that he is too idle or too apathetic to +think anxiously or much about the matter; and yet he has been +amused, in his earlier days, at watching the first appearance of +such few books as he believed to be the production of some +powerful <a name="page202"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +202</span>intellect. He has seen people slowly rise up to +them, like carp in a pond when food is thrown among them; some of +which carp snatch suddenly at a morsel, and swallow it; others +touch it gently with their barbe, pass deliberately by, and leave +it; others wriggle and rub against it more disdainfully; others, +in sober truth, know not what to make of it, swim round and round +it, eye it on the sunny side, eye it on the shady, approach it, +question it, shoulder it, flap it with the tail, turn it over, +look askance at it, take a pea-shell or a worm instead of it, and +plunge again their contented heads into the comfortable mud; +after some seasons the same food will suit their stomachs +better.</p> +<p>The Editor has seen all this, and been an actor in it, whether +at Chantilly or Fontainebleau is indifferent to the reader; and +it has occurred to him that Shakspeare and Spenser were thrown +among such carp, and began to be relished (the worst, of course, +first) after many years. He is certain that these two +publications can interest only the antiquary and biographer; +enough if even such find their account in them.</p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p><a name="page203"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 203</span><span +class="smcap">It</span> happened by mere accident that so obscure +a man as Ephraim Barnett, with no peculiar zeal for genius, and +with no other scope or intention than a lesson for his +descendants, has preserved an authentic memorial of the principal +event both in the life of Shakspeare and of Spenser; the one +event was very near the cause of terminating Shakspeare’s, +the other did terminate Spenser’s. He accounts for +his knowledge of the facts naturally enough, as those will +readily admit who have the patience to read his paper on the +subject. It would be inhumane in the Editor to ask any of +it for himself, when it is about to undergo such an exertion.</p> +<h3><a name="page205"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +205</span>ESSEX AND SPENSER.</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"><span +class="smcap">Essex</span>.</p> +<p>“<span class="smcap">Instantly</span> on hearing of thy +arrival from Ireland I sent a message to thee, good Edmund, that +I might learn from one so judicious and dispassionate as thou +art, the real state of things in that distracted +country,—it having pleased the queen’s majesty to +think of appointing me her deputy, in order to bring the +rebellious to submission.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span +class="smcap">Spenser</span>.</p> +<p>“Wisely and well considered; but more worthily of her +judgment than her affection. May your lordship overcome, as +you have ever done, the difficulties and dangers you +foresee.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span +class="smcap">Essex</span>.</p> +<p>“We grow weak by striking at random; and knowing that I +must strike, and strike heavily, I would fain see exactly where +the stroke shall fall.</p> +<p><a name="page206"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +206</span>“Some attribute to the Irish all sorts of +excesses; others tell us that these are old stories; that there +is not a more inoffensive race of merry creatures under heaven, +and that their crimes are all hatched for them here in England, +by the incubation of printers’ boys, and are brought to +market at times of distressing dearth in news. From all +that I myself have seen of them, I can only say that the +civilized (I mean the richer and titled) are as susceptible of +heat as iron, and as impenetrable to light as granite. The +half-barbarous are probably worse; the utterly barbarous may be +somewhat better. Like game-cocks, they must spur when they +meet. One fights because he fights an Englishman; another +because the fellow he quarrels with comes from a distant county; +a third because the next parish is an eyesore to him, and his +fist-mate is from it. The only thing in which they all +agree as proper law is the tooth-for-tooth act. Luckily we +have a bishop who is a native, and we called him before the +queen. He represented to her majesty that every thing in +Old Ireland tended to re-produce its kind,—crimes among +others; and he declared, frankly, that if an honest man is +murdered, or what is dearer to an honest man, if his honour is +wounded in the person of his wife, it must be <a +name="page207"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 207</span>expected +that he will retaliate. Her Majesty delivered it as her +opinion that the latter case of vindictiveness was more likely to +take effect than the former. But the bishop replied that in +his conscience he could not answer for either if the man was +up. The dean of the same diocese gave us a more favorable +report. Being a justice of the peace, he averred most +solemnly that no man ever had complained to him of murder, +excepting one who had lost so many fore-teeth by a cudgel that +his deposition could not be taken exactly,—added to which, +his head was a little clouded with drunkenness; furthermore, that +extremely few women had adduced sufficiently clear proofs of +violence, excepting those who were wilful and resisted with tooth +and nail. In all which cases it was difficult, nay +impossible, to ascertain which violence began first and lasted +longest.</p> +<p>“There is not a nation upon earth that pretends to be so +superlatively generous and high-minded; and there is not one (I +speak from experience) so utterly base and venal. I have +positive proof that the nobility, in a mass, are agreed to sell, +for a stipulated sum, all their rights and privileges, so much +per man; and the queen is inclined thereunto. But would our +parliament consent to pay money for a <a name="page208"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 208</span>cargo of rotten pilchards? And +would not our captains be readier to swamp than to import +them? The noisiest rogues in that kingdom, if not quieted +by a halter, may be quieted by making them brief-collectors, and +by allowing them first to encourage the incendiary, then to +denounce and hang him, and lastly to collect all the money they +can, running up and down with the whining ferocity of +half-starved hyenas, under pretence of repairing the damages +their exhausted country hath sustained. Others ask modestly +a few thousands a year, and no more, from those whom they +represent to us as naked and famished; and prove clearly to every +dispassionate man who hath a single drop of free blood in his +veins that at least this pittance is due to them for abandoning +their liberal and lucrative professions, and for endangering +their valuable lives on the tempestuous seas, in order that the +voice of Truth may sound for once upon the shores of England, and +Humanity cast her shadow on the council-chamber.</p> +<p>“I gave a dinner to a party of these fellows a few weeks +ago. I know not how many kings and princes were amongst +them, nor how many poets, and prophets, and legislators, and +sages. When they were half-drunk, they coaxed and +threatened; when they had gone <a name="page209"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 209</span>somewhat deeper, they joked, and +croaked, and hiccoughed, and wept over sweet Ireland; and when +they could neither stand nor sit any longer, they fell upon their +knees and their noddles, and swore that limbs, life, liberty, +Ireland, and God himself, were all at the queen’s +service. It was only their holy religion, the religion of +their forefathers— Here sobs interrupted some, howls +others, execrations more, and the liquor they had ingulfed, the +rest. I looked down on them with stupor and astonishment, +seeing faces, forms, dresses, much like ours, and recollecting +their ignorance, levity, and ferocity. My pages drew them +gently by the heels down the steps; my grooms set them upright +(inasmuch as might be) on their horses; and the people in the +streets, shouting and pelting, sent forward the beasts to their +straw.</p> +<p>“Various plans have been laid before us for civilising +or coercing them. Among the pacific, it was proposed to +make an offer to five-hundred of the richer Jews in the +Hanse-towns and in Poland, who should be raised to the dignity of +the Irish peerage, and endowed with four thousand acres of good +forfeited land, on condition of each paying two thousand pounds, +and of keeping up ten horsemen and twenty foot, Germans or Poles, +in readiness for service.</p> +<p><a name="page210"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +210</span>“The Catholics bear no where such ill-will toward +Jews as toward Protestants. Brooks make even worse +neighbours than oceans do.</p> +<p>“I myself saw no objection to the measure; but our +gracious queen declared she had an insuperable one—<i>they +stank</i>! We all acknowledged the strength of the +argument, and took out our handkerchiefs. Lord Burleigh +almost fainted; and Raleigh wondered how the Emperor Titus could +bring up his men against Jerusalem.</p> +<p>“‘Ah!’ said he, looking reverentially at her +Majesty, ‘the star of Berenice shone above him! and what +evil influence could that star not quell? what malignancy could +it not annihilate?’</p> +<p>“Hereupon he touched the earth with his brow, until the +queen said,—</p> +<p>“‘Sir Walter! lift me up those laurels.’</p> +<p>“At which manifestation of princely goodwill he was +advancing to kiss her Majesty’s hand, but she waved it, and +said, sharply,—</p> +<p>“‘Stand there, dog!’</p> +<p>“Now what tale have you for us?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span +class="smcap">Spenser</span>.</p> +<p>“Interrogate me, my lord, that I may answer each +question distinctly, my mind being <a name="page211"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 211</span>in sad confusion at what I have seen +and undergone.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span +class="smcap">Essex</span>.</p> +<p>“Give me thy account and opinion of these very affairs +as thou leftest them; for I would rather know one part well than +all imperfectly; and the violences of which I have heard within +the day surpass belief.</p> +<p>“Why weepest thou, my gentle Spenser? Have the +rebels sacked thy house?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span +class="smcap">Spenser</span>.</p> +<p>“They have plundered and utterly destroyed +it.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span +class="smcap">Essex</span>.</p> +<p>“I grieve for thee, and will see thee +righted.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span +class="smcap">Spenser</span>.</p> +<p>“In this they have little harmed me.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span +class="smcap">Essex</span>.</p> +<p>“Howl I have heard it reported that thy grounds are +fertile and thy mansion <a name="citation211"></a><a +href="#footnote211" class="citation">[211]</a> large and +pleasant.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><a name="page212"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 212</span><span +class="smcap">Spenser</span>.</p> +<p>“If river, and lake, and meadow-ground, and mountain, +could render any place the abode of pleasantness, pleasant was +mine, indeed!</p> +<p>“On the lovely banks of Mulla I found deep +contentment. Under the dark alders did I muse and +meditate. Innocent hopes were my gravest cares, and my +playfullest fancy was with kindly wishes. Ah! surely, of +all cruelties the worst is to extinguish our kindness. Mine +is gone: I love the people and the land no longer. My lord, +ask me not about them; I may speak injuriously.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span +class="smcap">Essex</span>.</p> +<p>“Think rather, then, of thy happier hours and busier +occupations; these likewise may instruct me.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span +class="smcap">Spenser</span>.</p> +<p>“The first seeds I sowed in the garden, ere the old +castle was made habitable for my lovely bride, were acorns from +Penshurst. I planted a little oak before my mansion at the +birth of each child. ‘My sons,’ I said to +myself, ‘shall often play in the shade of them when I am +gone, and every year shall they take the measure of their growth, +as fondly as I take theirs.’”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><a name="page213"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 213</span><span +class="smcap">Essex</span>.</p> +<p>“Well, well; but let not this thought make thee weep so +bitterly.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span +class="smcap">Spenser</span>.</p> +<p>“Poison may ooze from beautiful plants; deadly grief +from dearest reminiscences.</p> +<p>“I <i>must</i> grieve, I <i>must</i> weep; it seems the +law of God, and the only one that men are not disposed to +contravene. In the performance of this alone do they +effectually aid one another.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span +class="smcap">Essex</span>.</p> +<p>“Spenser! I wish I had at hand any arguments or +persuasions of force sufficient to remove thy sorrow; but really +I am not in the habit of seeing men grieve at any thing except +the loss of favour at court, or of a hawk, or of a +buck-hound. And were I to swear out my condolences to a man +of thy discernment, in the same round, roll-call phrases we +employ with one another upon these occasions, I should be guilty, +not of insincerity, but of insolence. True grief hath ever +something sacred in it, and when it visiteth a wise man and a +brave one, is most holy.</p> +<p>“Nay, kiss not my hand; he whom God <a +name="page214"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 214</span>smiteth +hath God with him. In his presence what am I?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span +class="smcap">Spenser</span>.</p> +<p>“Never so great, my lord, as at this hour, when you see +aright who is greater. May He guide your counsels, and +preserve your life and glory!”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span +class="smcap">Essex</span>.</p> +<p>“Where are thy friends? Are they with +thee?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span +class="smcap">Spenser</span>.</p> +<p>“Ah, where indeed? Generous, true-hearted Philip! +where art thou? whose presence was unto me peace and safety, +whose smile was contentment, and whose praise renown. My +lord! I cannot but think of him among still heavier losses; he +was my earliest friend, and would have taught me +wisdom.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span +class="smcap">Essex</span>.</p> +<p>“Pastoral poetry, my dear Spenser, doth not require +tears and lamentations. Dry thine eyes; rebuild thine +house. The queen and council, I venture to promise thee, +will make ample amends for every evil thou hast sustained. +What! does that enforce thee to wail yet louder?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><a name="page215"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 215</span><span +class="smcap">Spenser</span>.</p> +<p>“Pardon me, bear with me, most noble heart! I have +lost what no council, no queen, no Essex can restore.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span +class="smcap">Essex</span>.</p> +<p>“We will see that! There are other swords, and +other arms to wield them, besides a Leicester’s and a +Raleigh’s. Others can crush their enemies and serve +their friends.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span +class="smcap">Spenser</span>.</p> +<p>“O my sweet child! And of many so powerful, many +so wise and so beneficent, was there none to save thee? +None! none!”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span +class="smcap">Essex</span>.</p> +<p>“I now perceive that thou lamentest what almost every +father is destined to lament. Happiness must be bought, +although the payment may be delayed. Consider; the same +calamity might have befallen thee here in London. Neither +the houses of ambassadors, nor the palaces of kings, nor the +altars of God himself, are asylums against death. How do I +know but under this very roof there may sleep some latent +calamity, that in an instant shall cover <a +name="page216"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 216</span>with gloom +every inmate of the house, and every far dependent?”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span +class="smcap">Spenser</span>.</p> +<p>“God avert it!”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span +class="smcap">Essex</span>.</p> +<p>“Every day, every hour of the year, do hundreds mourn +what thou mournest.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span +class="smcap">Spenser</span>.</p> +<p>“Oh, no, no, no! Calamities there are around us; +calamities there are all over the earth; calamities there are in +all seasons; but none in any season, none in any place, like +mine.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span +class="smcap">Essex</span>.</p> +<p>“So say all fathers, so say all husbands. Look at +any old mansion-house, and let the sun shine as gloriously as it +may on the golden vanes, or the arms recently quartered over the +gateway, or the embayed window, and on the happy pair that haply +is toying at it; nevertheless, thou mayest say that of a +certainty the same fabric hath seen much sorrow within its +chambers, and heard many wailings; and each time this was the +heaviest stroke of all. Funerals have passed along through +the stout-hearted <a name="page217"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +217</span>knights upon the wainscot, and amidst the laughing +nymphs upon the arras. Old servants have shaken their +heads, as if somebody had deceived them, when they found that +beauty and nobility could perish.</p> +<p>“Edmund! the things that are too true pass by us as if +they were not true at all; and when they have singled us out, +then only do they strike us. Thou and I must go too. +Perhaps the next year may blow us away with its fallen +leaves.” <a name="citation217"></a><a href="#footnote217" +class="citation">[217]</a></p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span +class="smcap">Spenser</span>.</p> +<p>“For you, my lord, many years (I trust) are waiting; I +never shall see those fallen leaves. No leaf, no bud will +spring upon the earth before I sink into her breast for +ever.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span +class="smcap">Essex</span>.</p> +<p>“Thou, who art wiser than most men, shouldst bear with +patience, equanimity, and courage, what is common to +all.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span +class="smcap">Spenser</span>.</p> +<p>“Enough! enough! enough! Have all men seen their +infant burnt to ashes before their eyes?”</p> +<h3><a name="page220"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +220</span>MEMORANDUM BY EPHRAIM BARNETT.</h3> +<p style="text-align: center">WRITTEN UPON THE INNER COVER.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Studying</span> the benefit and advantage +of such as by God’s blessing may come after me, and willing +to shew them the highways of Providence from the narrow by-lane +in the which it hath been his pleasure to station me, and being +now advanced full-nigh unto the close and consummation of my +earthly pilgrimage, methinks I cannot do better, at this +juncture, than preserve the looser and lesser records of those +who have gone before me in the same, with higher heel-piece to +their shoe and more polished scallop to their beaver. And +here, beforehand, let us think gravely and religiously on what +the pagans, in their blindness, did call fortune, making a +goddess of her, and saying,—</p> +<blockquote><p>“One body she lifts up so high<br /> +And suddenly, she makes him cry<br /> +And scream as any wench might do<br /> +That you should play the rogue unto.<br /> +<a name="page221"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 221</span>And the +same Lady Light sees good<br /> +To drop another in the mud,<br /> +Against all hope and likelihood.” <a +name="citation221"></a><a href="#footnote221" +class="citation">[221]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>My kinsman, Jacob Eldridge, having been taught by me, among +other useful things, to write a fair and laudable hand, was +recommended and introduced by our worthy townsman, Master Thomas +Greene, unto the Earl of Essex, to keep his accounts, and to +write down sundry matters from his dictation, even letters +occasionally. For although our nobility, very unlike the +French, not only can read and write, but often do, yet some from +generosity, and some from dignity, keep in their employment what +those who are illiterate, and would not appear so, call an +<i>amanuensis</i>, thereby meaning <i>secretary</i> or +<i>scribe</i>. Now it happened that our gracious +queen’s highness was desirous of knowing all that could be +known about the Rebellion in Ireland; and hearing but little +truth from her nobility in that country, even the fathers in God +inclining more unto court favour than will be readily believed of +spiritual lords, and moulding <a name="page222"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 222</span>their ductile depositions on the +pasteboard of their temporal mistress, until she was angry at +seeing the lawn-sleeves so besmirched from wrist to elbow, she +herself did say unto the Earl of Essex,—</p> +<p>“Essex! these fellows lie! I am inclined to +unfrock and scourge them sorely for their leasings. Of that +anon. Find out, if you can, somebody who hath his wit and +his honesty about him at the same time. I know that when +one of these paniers is full the other is apt to be empty, and +that men walk crookedly for want of balance. No +matter—we must search and find. Persuade—thou +canst persuade, Essex!—say any thing, do any thing. +We must talk gold and give—iron. Dost understand +me?”</p> +<p>The earl did kiss the jewels upon the dread fingers, for only +the last joint of each is visible; and surely no mortal was ever +so foolhardy as to take such a monstrous liberty as touching it, +except in spirit! On the next day there did arrive many +fugitives from Ireland; and among the rest was Master Edmund +Spenser, known even in those parts for his rich vein of poetry, +in which he is declared by our best judges to excel the noblest +of the ancients, and to leave all the moderns at his feet. +Whether he notified his <a name="page223"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 223</span>arrival unto the earl, or whether +fame brought the notice thereof unto his lordship, Jacob knoweth +not. But early in the morrow did the earl send for Jacob, +and say unto him,—</p> +<p>“Eldridge! thou must write fairly and clearly out, and +in somewhat large letters, and in lines somewhat wide apart, all +that thou hearest of the conversation I shall hold with a +gentleman from Ireland. Take this gilt and illumined +vellum, and albeit the civet make thee sick fifty times, write +upon it all that passes! Come not out of the closet until +the gentleman hath gone homeward. The queen requireth much +exactness; and this is equally a man of genius, a man of +business, and a man of worth. I expect from him not only +what is true, but what is the most important and necessary to +understand rightly and completely; and nobody in existence is +more capable of giving me both information and advice. +Perhaps if he thought another were within hearing he would be +offended or over-cautious. His delicacy and mine are +warranted safe and sound by the observance of those commands +which I am delivering unto thee.”</p> +<p>It happened that no information was given in this conference +relating to the movements or designs of the rebels. So that +Master Jacob Eldridge was left possessor of the costly vellum, <a +name="page224"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 224</span>which, now +Master Spenser is departed this life, I keep as a memorial of +him, albeit oftener than once I have taken pounce box and +penknife in hand, in order to make it a fit and proper vehicle +for my own very best writing. But I pretermitted it, +finding that my hand is no longer the hand it was, or rather that +the breed of geese is very much degenerated, and that their +quills, like men’s manners, are grown softer and +flaccider. Where it will end God only knows; I shall not +live to see it.</p> +<p>Alas, poor Jacob Eldridge! he little thought that within +twelve months his glorious master, and the scarcely less glorious +poet, would be no more! In the third week of the following +year was Master Edmund buried at the charges of the earl; and +within these few days hath this lofty nobleman bowed his head +under the axe of God’s displeasure,—such being our +gracious queen’s. My kinsman Jacob sent unto me by +the Alcester drover, old Clem Fisher, this, among other papers, +fearing the wrath of that offended highness which allowed not her +own sweet disposition to question or thwart the will +divine. Jacob did likewise tell me in his letter that he +was sure I should be happy to hear the success of William +Shakspeare, our townsman. And in truth right glad was I to +hear of it, being <a name="page225"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +225</span>a principal in bringing it about, as those several +sheets will shew which have the broken tile laid upon them to +keep them down compactly.</p> +<p>Jacob’s words are these:—</p> +<p>“Now I speak of poets, you will be in a maze at hearing +that our townsman hath written a power of matter for the +playhouse. Neither he nor the booksellers think it quite +good enough to print; but I do assure you, on the faith of a +Christian, it is not bad; and there is rare fun in the last thing +of his about Venus, where a Jew, one Shiloh, is choused out of +his money and his revenge. However, the best critics and +the greatest lords find fault, and very justly, in the +words,—</p> +<blockquote><p>“‘Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew +hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with +the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same +diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same +winter and summer, as a Christian is?’</p> +</blockquote> +<p>“Surely, this is very unchristianlike. Nay, for +supposition sake, suppose it to be true, was it his business to +tell the people so? Was it his duty to ring the +crier’s bell and cry to them, <i>The sorry Jews are quite +as much men as you are</i>? The impudentest thing +(excepting some bauderies) that ever came from the stage! +The church, luckily, has let him alone for the <a +name="page226"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 226</span>present; +and the queen winks upon it. The best defence he can make +for himself is that it comes from the mouth of a Jew, who says +many other things as abominable. Master Greene may overrate +him; but Master Greene declares that if William goes on improving +and taking his advice, it will be desperate hard work in another +seven years to find so many as half a dozen chaps equal to him +within the liberties. Master Greene and myself took him +with us to see the burial of Master Edmund Spenser in Westminster +Abbey, on the 19th of January last. The halberdmen pushed +us back as having no business there. Master Greene told +them he belonged to the queen’s company of players. +William Shakspeare could have said the same, but did not. +And I, fearing that Master Greene and he might be halberded back +into the crowd, shewed the badge of the Earl of Essex. +Whereupon did the serjeant ground his halberd, and say unto +me,—</p> +<p>“‘That badge commands admittance everywhere; your +folk likewise may come in.’</p> +<p>“Master Greene was red-hot angry, and told me he would +bring him before the <i>council</i>.</p> +<p>“William smiled, and Master Greene said,—</p> +<p>“‘Why! would not you, if you were in my +place?’</p> +<p><a name="page227"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +227</span>“He replied,—</p> +<p>“‘I am an half inclined to do worse,—to +bring him before the <i>audience</i> some spare hour.’</p> +<p>“At the close of the burial-service all the poets of the +age threw their pens into the grave, together with the pieces +they had composed in praise or lamentation of the deceased. +William Shakspeare was the only poet who abstained from throwing +in either pen or poem,—at which no one marvelled, he being +of low estate, and the others not having yet taken him by the +hand. Yet many authors recognised him, not indeed as +author, but as player; and one, civiller than the rest, came up +unto him triumphantly, his eyes sparkling with glee and +satisfaction, and said, consolatorily,—</p> +<p>“‘In due time, my honest friend, you may be +admitted to do as much for one of us.’</p> +<p>“‘After such encouragement,’ replied our +townsman, ‘I am bound in duty to give you the preference, +should I indeed be worthy.’</p> +<p>“‘This was the only smart thing he uttered all the +remainder of the day; during the whole of it he appeared to be +half-lost, I know not whether in melancholy or in meditation, and +soon left us.”</p> +<p>Here endeth all that my kinsman Jacob wrote <a +name="page228"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 228</span>about +William Shakspeare, saving and excepting his excuse for having +written so much. The rest of his letter was on a matter of +wider and weightier import, namely, on the price of Cotteswolde +cheese at Evesham fair. And yet, although ingenious men be +not among the necessaries of life, there is something in them +that makes us curious in regard to their goings and doings. +It were to be wished that some of them had attempted to be better +accountants; and others do appear to have laid aside the copybook +full early in the day. Nevertheless, they have their uses +and their merits. Master Eldridge’s letter is the +wrapper of much wholesome food for contemplation. Although +the decease (within so brief a period) of such a poet as Master +Spenser, and such a patron as the earl, be unto us appalling, we +laud and magnify the great Disposer of events, no less for his +goodness in raising the humble than for his power in +extinguishing the great. And peradventure ye, my heirs and +descendants, who shall read with due attention what my pen now +writeth, will say, with the royal Psalmist, that it inditeth of a +good matter, when it sheweth unto you that, whereas it pleased +the queen’s highness to send a great lord before the +judgment-seat of Heaven, having fitted him by <a +name="page229"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 229</span>means of +such earthly instruments as princes in like cases do usually +employ, and deeming (no doubt) in her princely heart that by such +shrewd tonsure his head would be best fitted for a crown of +glory, and thus doing all that she did out of the purest and most +considerate love for him,—it likewise hath pleased her +highness to use her right hand as freely as her left, and to +raise up a second burgess of our town to be one of her company of +players. And ye, also, by industry and loyalty, may +cheerfully hope for promotion in your callings, and come up (some +of you) as nearly to him in the presence of royalty, as he cometh +up (far off, indeed, at present) to the great and wonderful poet +who lies dead among more spices than any phœnix, and more +quills than any porcupine. If this thought may not prick +and incitate you, little is to be hoped from any gentle +admonition, or any earnest expostulation, of</p> +<p style="text-align: center">Your loving friend and kinsman,</p> +<p style="text-align: right">E. B.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">ANNO +ÆT. SUÆ 74, DOM. 1599,</span><br /> +<span class="GutSmall">DECEMB. 16;</span><br /> +<span class="GutSmall">GLORIA DP. DF. ET DSS.</span><br /> +<span class="GutSmall">AMOR VERSUS VIRGINEM REGINAM!</span><br /> +<span class="GutSmall">PROTESTANTICE LOQUOR ET HONESTO +SENSU:</span><br /> +<span class="GutSmall">OBTESTOR CONSCIENTIAM MEAM!</span></p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center"><a name="page230"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 230</span><span class="GutSmall">PRINTED +BY</span><br /> +<span class="GutSmall">SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET +SQUARE</span><br /> +<span class="GutSmall">LONDON</span></p> +<h2>FOOTNOTES</h2> +<p><a name="footnote8a"></a><a href="#citation8a" +class="footnote">[8a]</a> Quicken, bring to life.</p> +<p><a name="footnote8b"></a><a href="#citation8b" +class="footnote">[8b]</a> Debtors were often let out of +prison at the coronation of a new king; but creditors never paid +by him.</p> +<p><a name="footnote21a"></a><a href="#citation21a" +class="footnote">[21a]</a> The word here omitted is quite +illegible. It appears to have some reference to the +language of the Highlanders. That it was rough and +outlandish is apparent from the reprimand of Sir Thomas.</p> +<p><a name="footnote29a"></a><a href="#citation29a" +class="footnote">[29a]</a> By this deposition it would +appear that Shakspeare had formed the idea, if not the outline, +of several plays already, much as he altered them, no doubt, in +after life.</p> +<p><a name="footnote38a"></a><a href="#citation38a" +class="footnote">[38a]</a> The greater part of the value of +the present work arises from the certain information it affords +us on the price of small needles in the reign of Elizabeth. +Fine needles in her days were made only at Liege, and some few +cities in the Netherlands, and may be reckoned among those things +which were much dearer than they are now.</p> +<p><a name="footnote39b"></a><a href="#citation39b" +class="footnote">[39b]</a> Mr. Tooke had not yet published +his <i>Pantheon</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote44a"></a><a href="#citation44a" +class="footnote">[44a]</a> This was really the case within +our memory.</p> +<p><a name="footnote45a"></a><a href="#citation45a" +class="footnote">[45a]</a> It was formerly thought, and +perhaps is thought still, that the hand of a man recently hanged, +being rubbed on the tumour of the king’s evil, was able to +cure it. The crown and the gallows divided the glory of the +sovereign remedy.</p> +<p><a name="footnote46a"></a><a href="#citation46a" +class="footnote">[46a]</a> And yet he never did sail any +farther than into Bohemia.</p> +<p><a name="footnote50a"></a><a href="#citation50a" +class="footnote">[50a]</a> <i>Smock</i>, formerly a part of +the female dress, corresponding with <i>shroud</i>, or what we +now call (or lately called) <i>shirt</i> of the +man’s. Fox, speaking of Latimer’s burning, +says, “Being slipped into his <i>shroud</i>.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote50b"></a><a href="#citation50b" +class="footnote">[50b]</a> Faith nailing the ears is a +strong and sacred metaphor. The rhyme is +imperfect,—Shakspeare was not always attentive to these +minor beauties.</p> +<p><a name="footnote53a"></a><a href="#citation53a" +class="footnote">[53a]</a> Shakspeare seems to have +profited afterward by this metaphor, even more perhaps than by +all the direct pieces of instruction in poetry given him so +handsomely by the worthy knight. And here it may be +permitted the editor to profit also by the manuscript, correcting +in Shakspeare what is absolute nonsense as now +printed:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“<i>Vaulting</i> ambition that +o’erleaps <i>itself</i>.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>It should be its <i>sell</i>. <i>Sell</i> is +<i>saddle</i> in Spenser and elsewhere, from the Latin and +Italian.</p> +<p>This emendation was shewn to the late Mr. Hazlitt, an acute +man at least, who expressed his conviction that it was the right +reading, and added somewhat more in approbation of it.</p> +<p><a name="footnote55a"></a><a href="#citation55a" +class="footnote">[55a]</a> It has been suggested that this +answer was borrowed from Virgil, and goes strongly against the +genuineness of the manuscript. The Editor’s memory +was upon the stretch to recollect the words; the learned critic +supplied them:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“Solum Æneas vocat: <i>et vocet</i>, +oro.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The Editor could only reply, indeed weakly, that +<i>calling</i> and <i>waiting</i> are not exactly the same, +unless when tradesmen rap and gentlemen are leaving town.</p> +<p><a name="footnote66a"></a><a href="#citation66a" +class="footnote">[66a]</a> Here the manuscript is blotted; +but the probability is that it was <i>fishmonger</i>, rather than +<i>ironmonger</i>, fishmongers having always been notorious +cheats and liars.</p> +<p><a name="footnote70a"></a><a href="#citation70a" +class="footnote">[70a]</a> <i>On the nail</i> appears to be +intended to express <i>ready payment</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote72a"></a><a href="#citation72a" +class="footnote">[72a]</a> The Cordilleras are mountains, +we know, running through South America. Perhaps a pun was +intended; or possibly it might, in the age of Elizabeth, have +been a vulgar term for <i>hanging</i>, although we find no trace +of the expression in other books. We have no clue to guide +us here. It might be suggested that Shakspeare, who shines +little in geographical knowledge, fancied the Cordilleras to +extend into North America, had convicts in his time been +transported to those colonies. Certainly, many adventurers +and desperate men went thither.</p> +<p><a name="footnote89a"></a><a href="#citation89a" +class="footnote">[89a]</a> In that age there was prevalent +a sort of cholera, on which Fracastorius, half a century before, +wrote a Latin poem, employing the graceful nymphs of Homer and +Hesiod, somewhat disguised, in the drudgery of pounding certain +barks and minerals. An article in the Impeachment of +Cardinal Wolsey accuses him of breathing in the king’s +face, knowing that he was affected with this cholera. It +was a great assistant to the Reformation, by removing some of the +most vigorous champions that opposed it. In the Holy +College it was followed by the <i>sweating sickness</i>, which +thinned it very sorely; and several even of God’s +vicegerents were laid under tribulation by it. Among the +chambers of the Vatican it hung for ages, and it crowned the +labours of Pope Leo XII., of blessed memory, with a crown +somewhat uneasy.</p> +<p><a name="footnote105a"></a><a href="#citation105a" +class="footnote">[105a]</a> Sir Thomas seems to have been +jealous of these two towers, certainly the finest in +England. If Warwick Castle could borrow the windows from +Kenilworth, it would be complete. The knight is not very +courteous on its hospitality. He may, perhaps, have +experienced it, as Garrick and Quin did under the present +occupant’s grandfather, on whom the title of Earl of +Warwick was conferred for the eminent services he had rendered to +his country as one of the lords of the bedchamber to his Majesty +George the Second. The verses of Garrick on his invitation +and visit are remembered by many. Quin’s are less +known.</p> +<p class="poetry">He shewed us Guy’s pot, but the soup he +forgot;<br /> + Not a meal did his lordship allow,<br /> +Unless we gnaw’d o’er the blade-bone of the boar,<br +/> + Or the rib of the famous <i>Dun Cow</i>.</p> +<p class="poetry">When Nevile the great Earl of Warwick lived +here,<br /> + Three oxen for breakfast were slain,<br /> +And strangers invited to sports and good cheer,<br /> + And invited again and again.</p> +<p class="poetry">This earl is in purse or in spirit so low,<br +/> + That he with no oxen will feed ’em;<br /> +And all of the former great doings we know<br /> + Is, he gives us a book and we read ’em.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Garrick</span>.</p> +<p class="poetry"><i>Stale</i> peers are but tough morsels, and +’t were well<br /> + If we had found the <i>fresh</i> more eatable;<br /> +Garrick! I do not say ’t were well for <i>him</i>,<br +/> + For we had pluck’d the plover limb from +limb.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Quin</span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote106a"></a><a href="#citation106a" +class="footnote">[106a]</a> Another untoward blot! but +leaving no doubt of the word. The only doubt is whether he +meant the <i>muzzle</i> of the animal itself, or one of those +leathern muzzles which are often employed to coerce the violence +of ferocious animals. In besieged cities men have been +reduced to such extremities. But the <i>muzzle</i>, in this +place, we suspect, would more properly be called the +<i>blinker</i>, which is often put upon bulls in pastures when +they are vicious.</p> +<p><a name="footnote108a"></a><a href="#citation108a" +class="footnote">[108a]</a> This would countenance the +opinion of those who are inclined to believe that Shakspeare was +a Roman Catholic. His hatred and contempt of priests, which +are demonstrated wherever he has introduced them, may have +originated from the unfairness of Silas Gough. Nothing of +that kind, we may believe, had occurred to him from friars and +monks, whom he treats respectfully and kindly, perhaps in return +for some such services to himself as Friar Lawrence had bestowed +on Romeo,—or rather less; for Shakspeare was +grateful. The words quoted by him from some sermon, now +lost, prove him no friend to the filchings and swindling of +popery.</p> +<p><a name="footnote111a"></a><a href="#citation111a" +class="footnote">[111a]</a> It is a pity that the old +divines should have indulged, as they often did, in such images +as this. Some readers in search of argumentative subtility, +some in search of sound Christianity, some in search of pure +English undefiled, have gone through with them; and their labours +(however heavy) have been well repaid.</p> +<p><a name="footnote124a"></a><a href="#citation124a" +class="footnote">[124a]</a> <i>Tilley valley</i> was the +favourite adjuration of James the Second. It appears in the +comedies of Shakspeare.</p> +<p><a name="footnote133a"></a><a href="#citation133a" +class="footnote">[133a]</a> <i>Whoreson</i>, if we may +hazard a conjecture, means the son of a woman of +ill-repute. In this we are borne out by the context. +It appears to have escaped the commentators on Shakspeare.</p> +<p><i>Whoreson</i>, a word of frequent occurrence in the +comedies; more rarely found in the tragedies. Although now +obsolete, the expression proves that there were (or were believed +to be) such persons formerly.</p> +<p>The Editor is indebted to two learned friends for these two +remarks, which appear no less just than ingenious.</p> +<p><a name="footnote153a"></a><a href="#citation153a" +class="footnote">[153a]</a> <i>Belly-ache</i>, a disorder +once not uncommon in England. Even the name is now almost +forgotten; yet the elder of us may remember at least the report +of it, and some, perhaps, even the complaint itself, in our +school-days. It usually broke out about the cherry season; +and in some cases made its appearance again at the first +nutting.</p> +<p><a name="footnote157a"></a><a href="#citation157a" +class="footnote">[157a]</a> Sir Thomas borrowed this +expression from Spenser, who thus calls Queen Elizabeth.</p> +<p><a name="footnote159a"></a><a href="#citation159a" +class="footnote">[159a]</a> Humboldt notices this.</p> +<p><a name="footnote164a"></a><a href="#citation164a" +class="footnote">[164a]</a> <i>Pragmatical</i> here means +only <i>precise</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote181a"></a><a href="#citation181a" +class="footnote">[181a]</a> It is doubtful whether Doctor +Buckland will agree with Sir Thomas that these petrifactions are +ram’s-horns and lampreys.</p> +<p><a name="footnote189a"></a><a href="#citation189a" +class="footnote">[189a]</a> She was then twenty-eight years +of age. Sir Thomas must have spoken of her from earlier +recollections. Shakspeare was in his twentieth year.</p> +<p><a name="footnote193a"></a><a href="#citation193a" +class="footnote">[193a]</a> It is to be feared that his +taste for venison outlasted that for matrimony, spite of this +vow.</p> +<p><a name="footnote211"></a><a href="#citation211" +class="footnote">[211]</a> It was purchased by a victualler +and banker, the father or grandfather of Lord Riversdale.</p> +<p><a name="footnote217"></a><a href="#citation217" +class="footnote">[217]</a> It happened so.</p> +<p><a name="footnote221"></a><a href="#citation221" +class="footnote">[221]</a> The editor has been unable to +discover who was the author of this very free translation of an +Ode in Horace. He is certainly happy in his amplification +of the <i>stridore acuto</i>. May it not be surmised that +he was some favourite scholar of Ephraim Barnett?</p> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CITATION AND EXAMINATION OF WILLIAM +SHAKSPEARE***</p> +<pre> + + +***** This file should be named 5112-h.htm or 5112-h.zip****** + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/5/1/1/5112 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law 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. 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