Nevertheless there is a mine of wealth in their works from which hundreds of feebler poets have theftuously enriched themselves, and in which the careful student will always find much precious ore, easily separable from the surrounding alloy.

The twenty years which Shakespeare spent in London cannot but have passed pleasantly in the society that surrounded and caressed him. He had his choice of all that was most intellectual and all that was most refined. His moral character was without reproach; his disposition magnanimous and gentle; his manner open and unassuming. "I loved the man," says Ben Jonson, "and do honour his memory on this side idolatry as much as any: he was indeed honest, and of an open and free nature." Other contemporaries speak of his "uprightness of dealing," his "generosity of mind and mood," his "pleasurable wit," his "unfailing candour." Aubrey, in his plain, prosaic way, says,“He was a handsome, well-shaped man, very good company, and of a very ready and pleasant smooth wit." His "sugered sonnets among his friends," as Meres calls them, seem to have been circulated and much talked of before they were published. The epithets most commonly applied to him were 'honey-tongued," or "silver-tongued," "sweet swan of Avon," "mellifluous," "gentle," "beloved." He reciprocated all the affection that was lavished on him, for it is evident from his writings that friendship was the chief solace of his life. It was friends who were "precious" to him that filled his heart,—

"When to the sessions of sweet silent thought

He summoned up remembrance of things past."

The Earls of Southampton, Pembroke, and Montgomery, especially the first, were his cherished and constant companions. The only two letters written by Shakespeare which have come down to us, and which possess, therefore, a heightened interest, are those in which he dedicates to Southampton his "Venus and Adonis" and his "Rape of Lucrece." The first was published in 1593, and its style indicates that the friendship was then only in its bud which afterwards ripened so fully. It is as follows:

"To the Right Honourable HENRY WRIOTHESLY, Earl of Southampton and Baron of Tichfield.

"RIGHT HONOURABLE,

"I know not how I shall offend in dedicating my unpolished lines to your lordship, nor how the world will censure me for choosing so strong a prop to support so weak a burden: only, if your honour seem but pleased, I account myself highly praised, and vow to take advantage of all idle hours till I have honoured you with some graver labour. But if the first heir of my invention prove deformed, I shall be sorry it had so noble a godfather, and never after ear (cultivate) so barren a land, for fear it yield me still so bad a harvest. I leave it to your honourable survey, and your honour to your heart's content; which I wish may always answer your own wish and the world's hopeful expectation. Your honour's in all duty, "WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

The "Lucrece" was published in May, 1594, and the more familiar style of the letter prefixed

to it indicates the rapid progress which had been made in the personal relationships of the earl and the poet. It runs thus:

"The love I dedicate to your lordship is without end, whereof this pamphlet, without beginning, is but a superfluous moiety (portion). The warrant I have of your honourable disposition, not the worth of my untutored lines, makes it assured of acceptance. What I have done is yours; what I have to do is yours: being part in all I have devoted yours. Were my worth greater my duty would show greater: meantime, as it is, it is bound to your lordship; to whom I wish long life, still lengthened with all happiness. Your lordship's in all duty,

"WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE."

Southampton was an enthusiastic lover of the drama; spent much time at the theatre; and no doubt frequently mingled with Shakespeare's friends there. He might meet sometimes with Spenser and Bacon, with Raleigh and Pembroke, with Ben Jonson, Selden, Carew, and Massinger. With some of these and Shakespeare he may have adjourned to that famous club at the Mermaid, in Cornhill, where Fuller says there were many witcombats between Shakespeare and Jonson; and of which Beaumont writes,

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"What things have we seen Done at the Mermaid! heard words that have been

So nimble, and so full of subtle flame,

As if that every one from whom they came
Had meant to put his whole soul in a jest.
We left an air behind us, which alone
Was able to make the two next companies
Right witty, tho' but downright fools."

Nor did that "merrie companie" confine itself to the Mermaid. Shakespeare has himself immortalized the Boar's Head in Eastcheap and the Garter at Windsor; and Herrick asks affectionately of Jonson,

"Ah, Ben!

Say how or when

Shall we thy guests
Meet at those lyric feasts
Made at the Sun,

The Dog, the Triple Tun!

Where we such clusters had

As made us nobly wild, not mad;

And yet each verse of thine

Outdid the meat, outdid the frolic wine!"

He had also his annual, if not more frequent, visits to Stratford, round which all his early associations centred, and where his family lived. His father did not die till 1601, and his mother survived for seven years later, having reached the ripe age of seventy. His brother Gilbert had grown into manhood; his sister Joan was passing through her teens; Richard was at school; and Edmund, his youngest brother, was still so young as to be a playmate for his daughter Susannah. Anne Hathaway watched over his two girls and his son Hamnet till the sad year 1596, when the dark shadow crossed their threshold, and the boy was taken from them on the 11th August. Shakespeare no doubt attended the funeral with a saddened heart: but in general his visits must have been occasions of great happiness to himself and his

e

relatives. He was rising in the world; he had gained a handsome independence; his name was becoming famous. Rumours had reached Stratford that he was beloved by great nobles, and that the Queen herself had smiled upon him. Sentiments of wonder and admiration would mingle with the affection of his old friends: in him, however, they would find no change,-no lofty airs, no paltry affectation, the same simplicity, the same gentle earnestness. How should the passing breath of popular applause excite any complacent vanity in one who was too great to be conscious of effort, too full of immortality to be dependent on the "ignorant present!"

Some striking historical events happened during Shakespeare's residence in London. There were, or had been immediately before, religious wars in France and the Netherlands; conquests in the West Indies; discoveries in most quarters of the globe; Drake's voyage round the world; a firmer establishment of English dominion in Ireland; and the overthrow of the ancient form of faith, and of the youthful Queen who was at its head, in Scotland. He witnessed the cruelties which attended the execution of Babington and his thirteen fellowconspirators. He heard the proclamation of the sentence of death against Mary Queen of Scots; and he must have shuddered over the details of the remorseless execution at Fotheringham on the 8th of February, 1587. He beheld the gorgeous pageant at the public funeral of Sir Philip Sydney, the brightest