We know

with a story of deer-stealing at Charlecote. that three companies of players visited Stratford in 1584, and we may well believe that the young Shakspeare felt moved to follow their example. In 1587 the "Queen's Players" visited Stratford, and perhaps Shakspeare was already enrolled among them, and in 1589 his name appears in a list of sixteen who are described as "Her Majesty's poor players, and all of them sharers in the Blackfriars Playhouse".

This company of the "Queen's Players," which was known at first as the "Servants of the Earl of Leicester," received royal letters patent in 1574; and in 1576 they erected the Blackfriars Theatre, just outside the city walls; and here Shakspeare's earliest plays, his "Henry VI.," "Love's Labour's Lost," and others, were exhibited.

In 1594 a second or summer theatre, the Globe on Bankside, was built for the " Queen's Players," and in the same year Shakspeare dedicated his poem of "Lucrece" to the young Earl of Southampton. In the previous year he had dedicated his "Venus and Adonis" to the same patron, who is reported to have given him "a thousand pounds to enable him to go through with a purchase which he heard he had a mind to ".

While Shakspeare was thus prospering we are told that he went every year to Stratford. In 1597 he bought a house there called New Place, and in 1602 he made a purchase of land, and was looking forward to the time when he should retire and end his days in peace there.

The closing years of Elizabeth's reign were times of trouble for Shakspeare's friend and patron the Earl of Southampton, and the poet was doubtless saddened. thereby. He had also his own domestic griefs: his only son had died, and in 1601 his father was taken from him. The works that probably belong to this period, "Hamlet," "Measure for Measure,"" Timon," "As You Like it," "Lear," and others, are marked by an air of sadness and weariness of the world.

The accession of the new king, James I., brought new fame and dignity to Shakspeare. Southampton was released from prison; the "King's Players" were frequently called to the Court, and Shakspeare's plays were those most frequently performed. But the poet himself probably soon afterwards retired from London, though we do not know the exact year.

In 1607 his daughter Susannah was married to Dr. John Hall, a physician of Stratford, and in 1608 a

In this year

daughter, Elizabeth, was born to them. Mary Shakspeare, the poet's mother, died, having lived to see and enjoy her son's great fame. After a few quiet, uneventful years, spent with his wife and children among the scenes of his childhood, the great poet died on 23rd April, 1616, and was buried in the church of his native town. His grave and the house where he was born are visited by tens of thousands of people every year.

TO THE MEMORY OF MY BELOVED MASTER, WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE, AND WHAT HE HATH LEFT US.

SOUL of the age!

The applause, delight, the wonder of our stage!
My Shakspeare, rise! I will not lodge thee by
Chaucer, or Spenser, or bid Beaumont lie
A little further, to make thee a room:
Thou art a monument without a tomb,
And art alive still while thy book doth live,
And we have wits to read, and praise to give.
Sweet Swan of Avon! what a sight it were
To see thee in our waters yet appear,

And make those flights upon the banks of Thames,
That so did take Eliza and our James !

But stay, I see thee in the hemisphere
Advanced, and made a constellation there!
Shine forth, thou Star of Poets, and with rage
Or influence chide or cheer the drooping stage,

Which, since thy flight from hence, hath mourned like night,
And despairs day but for thy volumes' light.

BEN JONSON.

Arcadia. A district in ancient Greece. The people were chiefly shepherds, and lived a simple, innocent country life. Hence poets called any peaceful rural district Arcadia.

Mortgaged. Borrowed money upon an undertaking that if it were not paid back in time his wife's estate would become the lender's. Notary. Lawyer.

Technical terms. Terms belonging only to some particular art or profession.

Similes. Comparisons.

Royal letters patent. A deed sealed with the great seal, and giving the holder certain exclusive privileges.

The City Walls.

The Corporation had made a rule forbidding the opening of any theatres in the City. They were therefore built at Shoreditch, just beyond the walls on the east, and at

Blackfriars and Bankside, just across the Thames on the south. Times of trouble. The Earl of Southampton was a friend and follower of the Earl of Essex, and fell with him. Both were tried for treason, and both were condemned to die. Southampton's execution was remitted, but he was kept close prisoner till the death of Elizabeth. Hemisphere, rage, influence, and star all refer to the notions of the middle ages about the sun, moon, and stars. The earth was supposed to be the centre of the universe, and to be surrounded by a number of spheres, in and with each one of which a particular heavenly body moved. They also believed that a man's fortune depended upon the planet in the "ascendant" at the time of his birth. The word influence was always used for the effects supposed to flow from the stars.

COMPOSITION.-1. Write an Shakspeare's life.

account of the chief events in

2. Make a list of the chief plays of Shakspeare.
3. Tell the story of one of these plays.

LESSON 4.

KING HENRY IV. AND HIS SON.

P. HEN. I never thought to hear you speak again.
K. HEN. Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought:

honours

I stay too long by thee, I weary thee.
Dost thou so hunger for mine empty chair
That thou wilt needs invest thee with my
Before thy hour be ripe? O foolish youth!
Thou seek'st the greatness that will overwhelm thee.
Stay but a little; for my cloud of dignity
Is held from falling with so weak a wind
That it will quickly drop: my day is dim.

5

10

Thou hast stolen that which, after some few hours,
Were thine without offence; and at my death
Thou hast seal'd up my expectation:

Thy life did manifest thou lovedst me not, 15 And thou wilt have me die assured of it.

Thou hidest a thousand daggers in thy thoughts,
Which thou hast whetted on thy stony heart,

To stab at half an hour of my life.

What! canst thou not forbear me half an hour?
20 Then get thee gone and dig my grave thyself,
And bid the merry bells ring to thine ear
That thou art crownèd, not that I am dead.
Let all the tears that should bedew my hearse
Be drops of balm to sanctify thy head:
25 Only compound me with forgotten dust;

Give that which gave thee life unto the worms.
Pluck down my officers, break my decrees;
For now a time is come to mock at form:

Harry the Fifth is crown'd: up, vanity!

30 Down, royal state! all you sage counsellors, hence! And to the English court assemble now

From every region, apes of idleness!

Now, neighbour confines, purge you of your scum :
Have you a ruffian that will swear, drink, dance,

35 Revel the night, rob, murder, and commit
The oldest sins the newest kind of ways?
Be happy, he will trouble you no more;
England shall double gild his treble guilt,

England shall give him office, honour, might;

40 For the fifth Harry from curb'd licence plucks
The muzzle of restraint, and the wild dog
Shall flesh his tooth on every innocent.
O my poor kingdom, sick with civil blows!
When that my care could not withhold thy riots,

45 What wilt thou do when riot is thy care?