Page 3.—Michael Drayton. He was born in Warwickshire in 1563. Of his personal history very little is known. His most famous work, the Poly-Olbion (or Polyolbion, as it is often printed), is a poem of about 30,000 lines, the subject of which, as he himself states it, is "a chorographical description of all the tracts, rivers, mountains, forests, and other parts of this renowned Isle of Great Britain; with intermixture of the most remarkable stories, antiquities, wonders, etc., of the same." His Ballad of Agincourt (see Tales from English History, p. 39) has been called "the most perfect and patriotic of English ballads." Drayton was made poet-laureate in 1626. He died in 1631, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Page 4.—Her Bear. The badge of the Earls of Warwick.

Wilmcote. A small village about three miles from Stratford-on-Avon. The name is also written Wilmecote, and Wilnecote; and in old documents, Wilmcott, Wincott, etc. It is probably the Wincot of The Taming of the Shrew (ind. 2. 23) and the Woncot of 2 Henry IV. (v. 1. 42).

Dugdale. Sir William Dugdale (1605–1686), one of the most learned of English antiquaries. His Antiquities of Warwickshire (1656) is said to have been the result of twenty years' laborious research.

Page 7.—Beauchamp. Pronounced Beech'-am.

The herse of brass hoops. The word herse (the same as hearse) originally meant a harrow; then a temporary framework, often shaped like a harrow, used for supporting candles at a funeral service, and placed over the coffin; then a kind of frame or cage over an effigy on a tomb; and finally a carriage for bearing a corpse to the grave. For the third meaning (which we have here), compare Ben Jonson's Epitaph on the Countess of Pembroke:—

The garter. Showing that he was a Knight of the Garter.

The noble Impe. The word imp originally meant a scion, shoot, or slip of a tree or plant; then, figuratively, human offspring or progeny, as here and in many passages in writers of the time. Holinshed the chronicler speaks of "Prince Edward, that goodlie impe," and Churchyard calls Edward VI. "that impe of grace." Fulwell, addressing Anne Boleyn, refers to Elizabeth as "thy royal impe." As first applied to a young or small devil, the word had this same meaning of offspring, "an imp of Satan" being a child of Satan. How it came later to mean a mischievous urchin I leave the small folk themselves to guess.

Page 10.—The famous "dun cow." This, according to the legend, was "a monstrous wild and cruel beast" which ravaged the country about Dunsmore. Guy also slew a wild boar of "passing might and strength," and a dragon "black as any coal" which was long the terror of Northumberland. Compare the old ballad of Sir Guy:—

Page 13.—Master Robert Laneham. He was an English merchant who became "doorkeeper of the council-chamber" to the Earl of Leicester. He wrote an account, in the form of a letter, of the festivities in honor of this visit of Elizabeth to Kenilworth, which was afterwards printed. He is one of the characters in Scott's Kenilworth.

Page 14.—Theatres, etc. The cut facing page 14 shows one of the movable stages referred to by Dugdale; also two of "the three tall spires" mentioned by Tennyson in the poem of Godiva. The nearer church is St. Michael's, said to be the largest parish church in England, with a steeple 303 feet high. Beyond it is Trinity Church, with a spire 237 feet high.

Page 15.—The most beautiful in the kingdom. There is a familiar story of two Englishmen who laid a wager as to which was the finest walk in England. After the money was put up, one named the walk from Stratford to Coventry, and the other that from Coventry to Stratford. How the umpire decided the case is not recorded.

Page 16.—The Cappers. The makers of caps.

Page 17.—King Herod. Longfellow, in his Golden Legend, introduces a miracle-play, The Nativity, which is supposed to be acted at Strasburg. Herod figures in it after the blustering fashion of the ancient dramas. Young readers will get a good idea of these plays from this imitation of them.

Page 18.—Other allusions to these old plays. See, for instance, Twelfth Night, iv. 2. 134, 2 Henry IV. iii. 2. 343, Richard III. iii. 1. 82, Hamlet, iii. 4. 98, etc., and the notes in my edition.

Page 19.—The legend of Godiva. See Tennyson's Godiva.

Page 22.—Dr. Forman. Simon Forman (1552–1611), a noted astrologer and quack, who wrote several books, and left a diary, in which he describes at considerable length the plot of Shakespeare's Macbeth, which he saw performed "at the Globe, 1610, the 20th of April, Saturday." See my edition of Macbeth, p. 9.

Page 23.—The head of Sir Thomas Lucy is from his monument in Charlecote church.

Page 24.—A willow grows aslant a brook. See Hamlet, iv. 7. 165. Some editions of Shakespeare follow the reading of the early quartos, "ascaunt the brook," which means the same. This willow (the Salix alba) grows on the banks of the Avon, and from the looseness of the soil the trees often partly lose their hold, and bend "aslant" the stream.

Page 26.—The banished Duke in As You Like It, etc. See the play, ii. 1. 1–18.

His maidens ever sing of "blue-veined violets," etc. The "blue-vein'd violets" are mentioned in Venus and Adonis, 125; the "daisies pied" (variegated), and the "lady-smocks all silver-white," in Love's Labour's Lost, v. 2. 904, 905; and the "pansies" in Hamlet, iv. 5. 176.

Page 27.—A manor of the Bishop of Worcester. Under the feudal system, a manor was a landed estate, with a village or villages upon it the inhabitants of which were generally villeins, or serfs of the owner or lord. These villeins were either regardant or in gross. The former "belonged to the manor as fixtures, passing with it when it was conveyed or inherited, and they could not be sold or transferred as persons separate from the land"; the latter "belonged personally to their lord, who could sell or transfer them at will." The bordarii, bordars, or cottagers, "seem to have been distinguished from the villeins simply by their smaller holdings." For the menial services rendered by the villeins, and their condition generally, see the following pages.

Page 32.—A chantry. A church or a chapel (as here) endowed with lands or other revenues for the maintenance of one or more priests to sing or say mass daily for the soul of the donor or the souls of persons named by him. Cf. Henry V. iv. 1. 318:—

Page 40.—Present her at the leet, etc. Complain of her for using common stone jugs instead of the quart-pots duly sealed or stamped as being of legal size.

A substantial ducking-stool, etc. The ducking-stool was kept up as a punishment for scolds in some parts of England until late in the 18th century. An antiquary, writing about 1780, tells of seeing it used at Magdalen bridge in Cambridge. He says: "The chair hung by a pulley fastened to a beam about the middle of the bridge; and the woman having been fastened in the chair, she was let under water three times successively, and then taken out.... The ducking-stool was constantly hanging in its place, and on the back panel of it was an engraving representing devils laying hold of scolds. Some time after, a new chair was erected in the place of the old one, having the same device carved on it, and well painted and ornamented."

Page 41.—Butts. Places for the practice of archery, the butts being properly the targets.

Page 45.—Pinfold. Shakespeare uses the word in The Two Gentlemen of Verona (i. 1. 114): "I mean the pound—a pinfold"; and in Lear (ii. 2. 9): "in Lipsbury pinfold." It was so called because stray beasts were pinned or shut up in it.

Page 46.—One wagon tract. That is, track. Tract in this sense is obsolete.

Page 49.—In which William Shakespeare was probably born. We have no positive information on this point; but we know that John Shakespeare resided in Henley Street in 1552, and that he became the owner of this house at some time before 1590. The tradition that this was the poet's birthplace is ancient and has never been disproved. Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps, one of the most careful and conservative of critics, says: "There can be no doubt that from the earliest period at which we have, or are likely to have, a record of the fact, it was the tradition of Stratford that the birthplace is correctly so designated"; and he himself accepts the tradition as almost certainly founded upon fact.

The cut facing page 50, like that facing page 56, gives an idea of the interior appearance of these old houses. The room in which tradition says that Shakespeare was born is the front room on the second floor (what English people call the "first floor"), at the left-hand side of the house as seen in the cut on page 49.

In the other cut (the interior of the cottage in which Anne Hathaway, whom Shakespeare married, is said to have lived at Shottery) the very large old-fashioned fire-place is to be noted. Persons could actually sit "in the chimney corner," like the woman in the picture. The grate is a modern addition.

Page 51.—New Place. Sir Hugh Clopton, for whom this mansion was erected, speaks of it in 1496 as his "great house," a title by which it was commonly known at Stratford for more than two centuries. Shakespeare bought it in 1597 for £60, a moderate price for so large a property; but in a document of the time of Edward VI. it is described as having been for some time "in great ruin and decay and unrepaired," and it was probably in a dilapidated condition when it was transferred to Shakespeare. It had been sold by the Clopton family in 1563, and in 1567 came into the possession of William Underhill, whose family continued to hold it until Shakespeare bought it. He left it by his will to his daughter Susanna, who had married Dr. John Hall, and who probably occupied it until her death in 1649, when she had been a widow for fourteen years. The estate descended to her daughter Elizabeth, who was first married to Thomas Nash, and afterwards to Sir Thomas Barnard. In 1675 it was sold again, and was ultimately re-purchased by the Clopton family. Sir John Clopton rebuilt the house early in the next century, and it was subsequently occupied by another Hugh Clopton. He died in 1751, and in 1756 the estate was sold to Rev. Francis Gastrell, who pulled the house down in 1759, on account of a quarrel with the town authorities concerning the taxes levied upon it. The year before (1758) he had cut down Shakespeare's mulberry-tree, in order, as tradition says, to save himself the trouble of showing it to visitors. The Stratford people were indignant at this act of vandalism. Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps says that an old inhabitant of the town told him that his father, when a boy, "assisted in breaking Gastrell's windows in revenge for the fall of the tree." It is possible, however, that some injustice has been done the reverend gentleman. Davies, in his Life of Garrick (1780), asserts that Gastrell disliked the tree "because it overshadowed his window, and rendered the house, as he thought, subject to damps and moisture." There is also some evidence that the trunk of the tree, which was now a hundred and fifty years old and grown to a great size, had begun to decay. That Gastrell was not indifferent to the poetical associations of the tree is evident from the fact that he kept relics of it, his widow having presented one to the Lichfield Museum in 1778. It is described in a catalogue (1786) of the museum as "an horizontal section of the stock of the mulberry-tree planted by Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon."

Page 52.—William Harrison. An English clergyman, of whose history we know little except that he was born in London, became rector of Radwinter, Essex, and canon of Windsor, wrote a Description of Britaine and England and other historical books, and probably died in 1592. His detailed account of the state of England and the manners and customs of the people in the 16th century is particularly valuable.

Page 54.—Strewn with rushes. There are many allusions to this in Shakespeare. In The Taming of the Shrew (iv. 1. 48), when Petruchio is coming home, Grumio asks: "Is supper ready, the house trimmed, rushes strewed, cobwebs swept?" Compare Romeo and Juliet, i. 4. 36: "Tickle the senseless rushes with their heels" (that is, in dancing); Cymbeline, ii. 2. 13:—

Page 55.—Thomas Coryat, born in 1577 and educated at Oxford, was celebrated for his pedestrian journeys on the Continent of Europe. In 1608 he travelled through France, Germany, and Italy, "walking 1975 miles, more than half of which were accomplished in one pair of shoes, which were only once mended, and on his return were hung up in the Church of Odcombe." Of this tour he wrote an account entitled "Coryat's Crudities hastily gobled up in five months' Travels in France," etc. He died at Surat in 1617, after explorations in Greece, Egypt, and India.

Page 56.—Bullein. William Bullein, or Bulleyn, born about 1500, was a learned physician and botanist. His Government of Health was very popular in its day. He wrote several other books of medicine. He died in 1576.

Page 57.—His Anatomy of Melancholy. Of this famous work, written by Robert Burton (1577–1640), Dr. Johnson said that it was "the only book that ever took me out of bed two hours sooner than I wished to rise."

Page 60.—Francis Seager. Of his personal history, as of that of Hugh Rhodes, nothing of importance is known.

Page 61.—He is then to make low curtsy. This form of obeisance was used by both sexes in Shakespeare's day. Cf. 2 Henry IV. ii. 1. 135: "if a man will make courtesy and say nothing, he is virtuous"; and the epilogue to the same play: "First my fear, then my courtesy, last my speech." Curtsy is a modern spelling of the word in this sense.

Page 62.—Caraways. The word occurs once in Shakespeare (2 Henry IV. v. 3. 3: "a dish of caraways"), where it probably has the same meaning as here; but some have thought that the reference is to a variety of apple.

Page 63.—Treatably. Tractably, smoothly. Cf. Marston, What You Will, ii. 1: "Not too fast; say [recite] treatably."

Much forder. We find d and th used interchangeably in many words in old writers; as fadom and fathom, murder and murther, etc.

Page 64.—To charge thee with than. We find than for then in Shakespeare, Lucrece, 1440:—

Here, it will be seen, the word rhymes with ran and began. On the other hand, than in the early eds. of Shakespeare and other writers of the time is generally then.

Page 65.—Utterly detest. That is, detested. The omission of -ed in the participles of verbs ending in d and t (or te) was formerly not uncommon in prose as well as poetry. Cf. Bacon, Essay 16: "Their means are less exhaust"; and Essay 38: "They have degenerate." See also Richard III., iii. 7. 179: "For first was he contract to Lady Lucy," etc.

Page 66.—To enter children. To begin their training. The word is now obsolete in this sense of introducing to, or initiating into, anything. Cf. Ben Jonson, Epicoene, iii. 1: "I am bold to enter these gentlemen in your acquaintance"; Walton, Complete Angler: "to enter you into the art of fishing," etc.

Thorow. Thorough and through were originally the same word, and we find them and their derivatives used interchangeably in Shakespeare and other old writers. Cf. A Midsummer-Night's Dream, ii. 1. 3:—

So we find thoroughly and throughly (Hamlet, iv. 5. 36, etc.), thoroughfares and throughfares (Merchant of Venice, ii. 7. 42, etc.).

Page 67.—The Ship of Fools. A translation (with original modifications) of the Narrenschiff of Sebastian Brandt (or Brant), a German satire (1494) upon the follies of different classes of men. It was made in 1508 by Alexander Barclay, who died at an advanced age in 1552. He was educated at Oxford, became a priest, and was vicar of several parishes in England before he was promoted to that of All Saints, Lombard Street, London, a few weeks previous to his death. The Ship of Fools was the first English book in which any mention is made of the New World.

Strutt. Joseph Strutt (1742–1802) was an eminent English antiquarian, who wrote several valuable works in that line of literature and others. The first edition of his Sports and Pastimes of the People of England appeared in 1801.

Page 69.—Taylor the Water Poet. John Taylor (1580–1654), a waterman who afterwards became a collector of wine duties in London. He wrote much in prose and verse, and was very popular in his day.

Page 70.—Dr. John Jones. A physician, who practised at Bath and Buxton, England, and wrote a number of medical works between 1556 and 1579.

Page 71.—No other clear allusion to the game, etc. Some critics have thought there may be a punning allusion to the stale-mate of chess in The Taming of the Shrew, i. 1. 58: "To make a stale of me among these mates"; but this is doubtful.

Page 73.—She was pinch'd. The she is used in a demonstrative sense, referring to one of the company (this maid), as he (that man) is in the next line. The Friar is the Friar Rush of the fairy mythology, whom Milton seems here to identify with Jack-o'-the-Lantern, or Will-o'-the-Wisp, the luminous appearance sometimes seen in marshy places; but Friar Rush, according to Keightley, "haunted houses, not fields, and was never the same with Jack-o'-the-Lantern."

Page 74.—The drudging goblin. Robin Goodfellow, the Puck of Shakespeare. Cf. A Midsummer-Night's Dream, ii, 1. 40:—

To bed they creep. Somewhat reluctantly and timidly after the stories of fairies and goblins.

Charles Knight. An English publisher and author (1791–1873), one of the leading editors and biographers of Shakespeare.

Page 75.—William Painter. He was born in England about 1537, and died about 1594. He studied at Cambridge in 1554, and in 1561 was made clerk of the ordnance in the Tower of London. In 1566 he published the first volume of The Palace of Pleasure, containing sixty tales from Latin, French, and Italian authors. The second volume (1567) contained thirty-four tales. In later editions six more were added, making a hundred in all. The collection is the source from which Shakespeare and other Elizabethan dramatists drew many of their plots.

Page 76.—Giletta of Narbonne. The story dramatized by Shakespeare in All's Well that Ends Well.

Page 77.—The "Gesta Romanorum." A popular collection of stories in Latin, compiled late in the 13th or early in the 14th century, and often reprinted and translated. The two stories (of the caskets and of the bond) combined in the Merchant of Venice are found in it; and also the story of Theodosius and his daughters, which is like that of Lear, though Shakespeare did not take the plot of that tragedy directly from it.

Page 78.—The trumpet to the morn. The trumpeter that announces the coming of day. Trumpet in this sense occurs several times in Shakespeare; as in Henry V. iv. 2. 61: "I will the banner from a trumpet take," etc.

Extravagant and erring. Both words are used in their etymological sense of wandering. Extravagant is, literally, wandering beyond (its proper confine, or limit).

Arden. There was a Forest of Arden in Warwickshire as well as on the Continent in the northeastern part of France. Drayton, in his Matilda (1594), speaks of "Sweet Arden's nightingales," etc.

The ringlets of their dance. The "fairy rings," so called, which were supposed to be made by their dancing on the grass. In The Tempest (v. 1. 37) Prospero refers to them thus, in his apostrophe to the various classes of spirits over whom he has control:—

Dr. Grey, in his Notes on Shakespeare, says that they are "higher, sourer, and of a deeper green than the grass which grows round them." They were long a mystery even to scientific men, but are now known to be due to the spreading of a kind of agaricum, or fungus, which enriches the ground by its decay.

Who tasted the honey-bag of the bee, etc. All these allusions to the fairies are suggested by passages in A Midsummer-Night's Dream. The cankers are canker-worms, as often in Shakespeare.

Page 79.—A laund. An open space in a forest. See 3 Henry VI. iii. 1. 2: "For through this laund anon the deer will come," etc. Lawn is a corruption of laund.

Page 80.—Who had command over the spirits, etc. Like Prospero in The Tempest.

Vervain and dill. These were among the plants supposed to be used by witches in their charms; but many such plants were also believed to be efficacious as counter-charms, or means of protection against witchcraft. Vervain was called "the enchanter's plant," on account of its magic potency; but Aubrey says that it "hinders witches from their wills," and Drayton refers to it as "'gainst witchcraft much availing."

Page 81.—The ancient font represented in the cut was in use in the Stratford Church until about the middle of the 17th century. Shakespeare was doubtless baptized at it.

Page 82.—John Stow. A noted English antiquarian and historian (1525–1604). His Survey of London (1598) is the standard authority on old London.

Page 83.—The calendars of their nativity. Referring to the twin Dromios, who were born at the same time with the twin children of the Abbess, who is really Emilia, the long-lost wife of Egeus. By a similar figure Antipholus of Syracuse (i. 2. 41) says of Dromio, "Here comes the almanac of my true date."

Caraways. See on page 62 above. Marmalet is an obsolete form of marmalade. Marchpane was a kind of almond-cake, much esteemed in the time of Shakespeare. Compare Romeo and Juliet, i. 5. 9: "Good thou, save me a piece of marchpane." Sweet-suckers are dried sweetmeats or sugar-plums, also called suckets, succades, etc.

Page 85.—Wote. Know; more commonly written wot. It is the first and third persons singular, indicative present, of the obsolete verb wit. Unweeting (unwitting), unknowing or unconscious, is from the same verb.

Page 86.—Thomas Lupton. He wrote several books besides his Thousand Notable Things, which was a collection of medical recipes, stories, etc. Little is known of his personal history.

Robert Heron. He was a Scotchman (1764–1807), who wrote books of travel, geography, history, etc.

Warlocks. Persons supposed to be in league with the devil; sorcerers or wizards.

Page 87.—Beshrew. Originally a mild imprecation of evil, but often used playfully, as here. Compare the similar modern use of confound, which originally meant ruin or destroy; as in the Merchant of Venice, iii. 2. 271: "So keen and greedy to confound a man," etc.

Page 88.—Astrologaster. The full title was "The Astrologaster, or the Figurecaster: Rather the Arraignment of Artless Astrologers and Fortune Tellers."

Page 89.—In the following form. There were other forms, but this was regarded as one of the most potent. It will be seen that the word, as here arranged, can be read in various ways; as, for instance, following each line to the end and then up the right-hand side of the triangle, etc. An old writer, after giving directions to write the word in this triangular form, adds: "Fold the paper so as to conceal the writing, and stitch it into the form of a cross with white thread. This amulet wear in the bosom, suspended by a linen ribbon, for nine days. Then go in dead silence, before sunrise, to the bank of a stream that flows eastward, take the amulet from off the neck, and fling it backwards into the water. If you open or read it, the charm is destroyed." It was thought to be efficacious for the cure of fevers, "especially quartan and semi-tertian agues."

Thomas Lodge. He was born about 1556, and died in 1625, and wrote plays, novels, songs, translations, etc. His Rosalynde (1590) furnished Shakespeare with the plot of As You Like It.

Page 90.—Robert Greene (1560–1592) was a popular dramatist, novelist, and poet in his day. In his Groatsworth of Wit (published in 1592, after his death) he attacked the rising Shakespeare as "an upstart crow," who was "in his own conceit the only Shake-scene in a country." Shakespeare afterwards took the story of The Winter's Tale from Greene's Pandosto, or Dorastus and Fawnia, as it was subsequently entitled.

Webster's White Devil. John Webster, who wrote in the early part of the 17th century, was a dramatist noted for his tragedies, among which The White Devil (1612) is reckoned one of the best. Of his biography nothing worth mentioning is known.

Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy. See on page 57 above.

Reginald Scot, who died in 1599, is chiefly known by his Discoverie of Witchcraft, the main facts concerning which are given here.

Page 91.—Wierus. The Latin form of the name of Weier, a German physician, who in 1563 published a book (De PrÆstigiis Demonum) in which the general belief in magic and witchcraft was attacked.

We infer that Shakespeare had read Scot's book. However this may be, we are sure that he had read a book by Dr. Samuel Harsnet (1561–1631) entitled Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures, etc., under the pretence of casting out devils (1603), from which he took the names of some of the devils in Lear (iii. 4).

Page 96.—Henry Peacham. "A travelling tutor, musician, painter, and author," who wrote on drawing and painting, etiquette, education, etc. His father, whose name was the same, was also an author, and it is doubtful whether certain books were written by him or by his son.

Roger Ascham (1515–1568) was a noted classical scholar and author. He was tutor to Elizabeth (1548–1550), and Latin Secretary to Mary and Elizabeth (1553–1568). His chief works were the Toxophilus (1545) and the Scholemaster (see page 115 below).

Page 97.—Took on him as a conjurer. Pretended to be a conjurer. Compare 2 Henry IV. iv. 1. 60: "I take not on me here as a physician."

Page 98.—Who could speak Latin, etc. Latin, the language of the church, was used in exorcising spirits. Compare Hamlet (i. 1. 42), where, on the appearance of the Ghost, Marcellus says: "Thou art a scholar; speak to it, Horatio." So in Much Ado About Nothing (ii. 1. 264), Benedick, after comparing Beatrice to "the infernal Ate," adds: "I would to God some scholar would conjure her!" See also Beaumont and Fletcher, The Night-Walker, ii. 1:—

Page 99.—Transparent horn. Used to protect the paper, as explained in the quotation from Shenstone on page 101. The horn-book was really "of stature small," the figure on page 100 being of the exact size of the specimen described. One delineated by Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps is of about the same size. See Chambers's Book of Days, vol. i. p. 46.

Page 101.—Shenstone. William Shenstone (1714–1763) was educated at Pembroke College, Oxford. His best-known work is The Schoolmistress.

Page 102.—The modern plastered ceiling, etc. This has been removed within the past few years. Its appearance before the restoration is shown in the cut (from Knight's Biography of Shakspere).

Page 103.—SententiÆ Pueriles. Literally, Boyish Sentences, or Sentences for Boys.

Sir Hugh Evans. The title of Sir (equivalent to the Latin dominus) was given to priests. The "hedge-priest" in As You Like It (iii. 3) is called "Sir Oliver Martext." In Twelfth Night (iii. 4. 298) Viola says: "I had rather go with sir priest than sir knight."

'Od's nouns. Probably a corruption of "God's wounds," which is also contracted into Swounds and Zounds. So we find "od's heartlings," "od's pity," etc. Dame Quickly confounds 'od and odd.

Page 104.—Articles. Sir Hugh uses the word in the sense of "demonstratives." This shows that the Accidence mentioned above as the book from which Shakespeare got his first lessons in Latin (as Halliwell-Phillipps and other authorities state) gave some of the elementary facts in precisely the same form in which they appear in the Latin Grammar written in English and published in 1574 with the title, "A Short Introduction of Grammar, generally to be used: compiled and set forth for the bringing up of all those that intend to attaine to the knowledge of the Latine Tongue." I transcribe this from the edition published at Oxford in 1651 (a copy in the Harvard University library, which appears to be the one studied by President Ezra Stiles when he was a boy). In this book (page 3), under the head of "Articles," we read:—

"Articles are borrowed of the Pronoune, and be thus declined:

It will be noticed that the names of the cases are in Latin, as in Shakespeare. He may have used this very grammar.

Hang-hog is Latin for Bacon. Suggested by the hanging up of the pork during the process of curing. There is an old story of Sir Nicholas Bacon (father of the philosopher), who was a judge. A criminal whom he was about to sentence begged mercy on account of kinship. "Prithee, said my lord, how came that in? Why, if it please you, my lord, your name is Bacon and mine is Hog, and in all ages Hog and Bacon are so near kindred that they are not to be separated. Ay, but, replied the judge, you and I cannot be of kindred unless you be hanged; for Hog is not Bacon till it be well hanged."

Leave your prabbles. That is, your brabbles. The word literally means quarrels or broils; as in Twelfth Night, v. 1. 68: "In private brabble did we apprehend him." Sir Hugh uses it loosely with reference to the Dame's interruptions and criticisms.

O!—vocativo, O! The boy hesitates, trying to recall the vocative, but Sir Hugh reminds him that it is wanting—caret in Latin, which suggests carrot to the Dame. The O is suggested by its use before the vocative case of nouns in the paradigms in the Accidence, which probably here also agrees with the Short Introduction, where in the first declension we find: "Vocativo Ô musa"; in the second: "Vocativo Ô magister," etc.

William Lilly (or Lily), the author of the Latin Grammar mentioned on page 105, was born about 1468 and died in 1523. He was an eminent scholar and the first master of St. Paul's School, London. His Grammar (written in Latin) was entitled "Brevissima Institutio, seu, Ratio Grammatices cognoscendÆ, ad omnium puerorum utilitatem prÆscripta." Of this book more than three hundred editions were printed, the latest mentioned by Allibone (who, by the way, gives the title of the Grammar in an imperfect and ungrammatical form) having been issued in 1817. A copy of the 1651 edition is bound with the Short Introduction of the same date in the Harvard Library. Lilly was the author of both.

You must be preeches. That is, you must be breeched, or flogged. Compare The Taming of the Shrew (iii. 1. 18), where Bianca says to her teachers: "I am no breeching scholar in the schools."

Sprag. That is, sprack, which meant quick, ready. The word is Scotch, as well as Provincial English, and Scott uses it in Waverley (chap, xliii.): "all this fine sprack [lively] festivity and jocularity."

Page 105.—A passage from Terence. In the play, as in the Grammar, it reads: "Redime te captum quam queas minimo." The original Latin is: "Quid agas, nisi ut te redimas captum," etc.

Page 106.—Richard Mulcaster. The poet Spenser was one of his pupils at Merchant-Taylors School in 1568 see (Church's Spenser in "English Men of Letters" series). In 1596 Mulcaster became master of St. Paul's School. He died in 1611. The title of the book quoted here was The First Part of the Elementarie ... of the Right Writing of our English Tung. The author's theory was better than his practice, as the specimen of his "right writing" given here will suffice to show. It is to be hoped that his oral style was less clumsy and involved.

Correctors for the print. Whether this refers to persons correcting manuscript for the press or to proof-readers is doubtful, but probably the former. Some have denied that there was any proof-reading in the Elizabethan age; but variations in copies of the same edition of a book (the First Folio of Shakespeare, published in 1623, for instance) prove that corrections in the text were sometimes made even after the printing had begun. The author also sometimes did some proof-reading. At the end of Beeton's Will of Wit (1599) we find this note: "What faults are escaped in the printing, finde by discretion, and excuse the author, by other worke that let [hindered] him from attendance to the presse."

Rip up. That is, analyze.

Page 107.—The natural English. That is, natives of England.

Will not yield flat to theirs. Will not conform exactly to theirs.

Page 108.—Bewrayeth. Shows, makes known. Cf. Proverbs, xxvii. 16; Matthew, xxvi. 73.

Enfranchisement. This evidently refers to the "naturalization" of foreign words taken into the language, or making their orthography conform to English usage.

Prerogative, etc. This paragraph is somewhat obscure at first reading; but it appears to mean that common use, or established usage, settles certain questions concerning which there might otherwise be some doubt.

Likes the pen. Suits the pen. Compare Hamlet ii. 2. 80: "it likes us well"; Henry V. iii. prol. 32: "The offer likes not," etc.

Particularities. Peculiarities.

Which either cannot understand, etc. The relative is equivalent to who, and refers to the preceding many. This use of which was common in Shakespeare's day. Compare The Tempest, iii. 1. 6: "The mistress which I serve," etc.

Or cannot entend to understand, etc. That is, cannot intend (of which entend is an obsolete form), but the word is here used in a sense which is not recognized in the dictionaries. The meaning seems to be that these "plain people" cannot understand a rule either at sight or after some effort to comprehend it, having neither the time nor the conceit (intellect) to master it. Conceit in this sense is common in Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Compare 2 Henry IV. ii. 4. 263: "He a good wit?... there's no more conceit in him than is in a mallet."

Page 109.—John Brinsley became master of the grammar school at Ashby-de-la-Zouche in 1601, where he remained for sixteen years. The full title of his book is Ludus Literarius, or the Grammar Schoole (1612). He writes much better English than Mulcaster, and young people will find no difficulty in understanding the passage quoted from him.

Proceed in learning. That is, pursue their studies after leaving the grammar school.

Page 110.—Present correction. Immediate correction, or punishment. For this old sense of present, compare 2 Henry IV. iv. 3. 80:—

Countervail. Counterbalance, make up for.

Page 112.—Willis. All that is known of this "R. Willis" is from his autobiography, the title of which is, "Mount Tabor, or Private Exercises of a Penitent Sinner, published in the yeare of his age 75, anno Dom. 1639." He is the same person who is quoted on page 161 below.

Page 113.—His references to schoolboys, etc. Perhaps we ought not to lay much stress on these. The description of "the whining schoolboy" is from the "Seven Ages" of the cynical Jaques, who describes all these stages of human life in sneering and disparaging terms; and the other passages simply refer to the proverbial dislike of boys to go to school.

Page 114.—Thomas Tusser (1527?-1580?) was a poet and writer on agriculture. Besides his One Hundred Points of Good Husbandry (1557), he wrote Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry, United to as Many of Good Wiferie (1570), etc. He was educated at Oxford, spent ten years at court, and then settled on a farm, where the rest of his life was passed.

Page 115.—In few of Shakespeare's references to school life, etc. See on You must be preeches, page 227 above; and compare Much Ado About Nothing, ii. 1. 228:—

Page 118.—A sanctuary against fear. The allusion is to those sacred places in which criminals could take refuge and be exempt from arrest. There was such a sanctuary within the precincts of Westminster Abbey, which retained its privileges until the dissolution of the monastery, and for debtors until 1602. Compare Richard III. (ii. 4. 66), where Queen Elizabeth says: "Come, come, my boy; we will to sanctuary."

Page 122.—Hoodman-blind. In All's Well that Ends Well (iv. 3. 136), when Parolles is brought in blindfolded to his companions in arms, whom he supposes to be enemies that have captured him, one of them says aside, "Hoodman comes."

Loggats. When I was at Amherst College, forty or more years ago, we had this same exercise under the name of "loggerheads"; but I have not seen it or heard of it anywhere else.

Page 125.—The spirited description of the horse. Compare page 147 below, where it is quoted at length.

Page 126.—Alexander Barclay. See on page 67 above.

Edmund Waller (1605–1687) was an English poet, who was a leader in the Long Parliament, afterwards exiled for being concerned in Royalist plots, returned to England under Cromwell, and was a favorite at court after the Reformation.

Page 127.—The caitch. Catch was another name for tennis. Palle-malle, or pall-mall (pronounced pel-mel´), was a game in which a wooden ball was struck with a mallet, to drive it through a raised iron ring at the end of an alley. It was formerly played in St. James's Park, London, and gave its name to the street known as Pall Mall.

Bishop Butler. Joseph Butler (1692–1752), bishop of Bristol and afterwards of Durham, and author of the famous Analogy of Religion, etc. (1736).

Gifford. William Gifford (1757–1826), an English critic and satirical poet, editor of the Quarterly Review from 1809 to 1824.

Page 130.—Mulcaster. See on page 106 above.

Page 132.—At Kenilworth in 1575. See page 12 above.

Page 134.—A certain place in Cheshire. The story is told of Congleton in that county, but it is denied by the modern inhabitants. The other place referred to is Ecclesfield in Yorkshire, and I do not know that the statement concerning the pawning of the Bible has been disputed.

Page 135.—Paris-garden. It is mentioned in Henry VIII. (v. 4. 2), where the Porter of the Palace Yard says to the crowd: "You'll leave your noise anon, ye rascals! do you take the court for Parish-garden?" This was a vulgar pronunciation of Paris-garden. The place was noted for its noise and disorder.

Page 136.—Dean Colet. John Colet (1456–1519), dean of St. Paul's in 1505. The school was founded in 1512.

Page 138.—Sir Thomas More. The well-known English author and statesman, born in 1473, and executed on Tower Hill in 1535.

No planets strike. That is, exert a baleful influence; an allusion to astrology.

No fairy takes. Blasts, or bewitches. Compare The Merry Wives of Windsor, iv. 4. 32: "blasts the tree and takes the cattle," etc.

Page 140.—It irks me. It is irksome to me, troubles me.

Fool was sometimes used as a term of endearment or pity. Compare The Winter's Tale (ii. 1. 18), where Hermione says to her women who are grieved at the unjust charge against her, "Do not weep, poor fools!"

The forked heads are heads of arrows. Ascham refers to such in his Toxophilus.

Page 141.—A poor sequester'd stag. Separated from his companions.

Page 145.—Professor Baynes. Thomas Spencer Baynes (1823–1887), professor of English Literature at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, and editor of the ninth edition of the EncyclopÆdia Britannica.

Page 146.—The vaward of the day. The vanguard, or early part of the day. Compare Coriolanus, i. 6. 53: "Their bands i' the vaward," etc.

Such gallant chiding. The verb chide often meant "to make an incessant noise." Compare As You Like It, ii. 1. 7: "And churlish chiding of the winter's wind"; Henry VIII. iii. 2. 197: "As doth a rock against the chiding flood," etc.

So flew'd, so sanded. Having the same large hanging chaps and the same sandy color.

Like bells. That is, like a chime of bells.

Tender well. Take good care of.

Emboss'd was a hunter's term for foaming at the mouth in consequence of hard running.

Brach. The word properly meant a female hound, but came to be applied to a particular kind of scenting-dog.

Page 147.—In the coldest fault. When the scent was coldest (or faintest), and the hounds most at fault. Compare the quotation from Venus and Adonis, page 150 below: "the cold fault."

He cried upon it at the merest loss. He gave the cry when the scent seemed utterly lost. See the passage just referred to. Mere was formerly used in the sense of absolute or complete. Compare Othello, ii. 2. 3: "the mere perdition of the Turkish fleet" (its entire destruction); Henry VIII. iii. 2. 329: "the mere undoing of the kingdom" (its utter ruin), etc.

A youthful Work of Shakespeare's. It was first published in 1593, when he was twenty-nine years of age; and some critics believe that it was written several years earlier, perhaps before he went to London.

Page 148.—Glisters. Glistens. Both Shakespeare and Milton use glister several times, glisten not at all.

Told the steps. Counted them. Compare The Winter's Tale, iv. 4. 185: "He sings several tunes faster than you'll tell money." The teller in a bank is so called because he does this.

Page 149.—The hairs, who wave, etc. Who was often used where we should use which, and which (see on page 108 above) where we should use who.

It yearn'd my heart. That is, grieved it. Compare Henry V. iv. 3. 26: "It yearns me not when men my garments wear," etc.

Page 150.—Jauncing. Riding hard.

Musits. Holes (in fence or hedge) for creeping through. The word, also spelled muset, is a diminutive of the obsolete muse, which means the same. Amaze here means bewilder.

Wat. A familiar name for a hare, as Reynard for a fox, etc.

Page 151.—Mr. John R. Wise. Compare page 26 above.

Page 155.—The cut is a fac-simile of one in The Booke of Falconrie (1575), by George Turbervile, or Turberville (1520?-1595?), an English poet, translator, and writer on hunting, hawking, etc.

Page 156.—Cotgrave. Randle Cotgrave, an English lexicographer, who died about 1634. His French-English Dictionary (first published in 1611) is still valuable in the study of French and English philology.

Page 159.—John Skelton. An English scholar and poet, a protÉgÉ of Henry VII. and the tutor of Henry VIII. He was born about 1460, and probably died in 1529. "His rough wit and eccentric character made him the hero of a book of 'merry tales.'"

Page 160.—Some in their horse. That is, their horses, the word here being plural. Plurals and possessives of nouns ending in s-sounds were often written without the additional syllable in the time of Shakespeare. Cf. King John, ii. 1. 289: "Sits on his horse back at mine hostess' door"; Merchant of Venice, iv. 1. 255: "Are there balance here to weigh the flesh?" etc.

Page 163.—William Kemp dancing the Morris. Kemp was a favorite comic actor in the latter years of the reign of Elizabeth. He acted in some of Shakespeare's plays and in some of Ben Jonson's, when they were first put upon the stage. In 1599 he journeyed from London to Norwich, dancing the Morris all the way. The next year he published an account of the exploit, entitled The Nine daies wonder. The cut here is a fac-simile of one on the title-page of this pamphlet. It represents Kemp, with his attendant, Tom the Piper, playing on the pipe and tabor. They spent four weeks on the journey, nine days of which were occupied in the dancing. At Chelmsford the crowd assembled to receive them was so great that they were an hour in making their way through it to their lodgings. At this town "a maid not passing fourteen years of age" challenged Kemp to dance the Morris with her "in a great large room," and held out a whole hour, at the end of which he was "ready to lie down" from exhaustion. On another occasion a "lusty country lass" wanted to try her skill with him, and "footed it merrily to Melford, being a long mile." Between Bury and Thetford he performed the ten miles in three hours. On portions of the journey the roads were very bad, and his dancing was frequently interrupted by the hospitality or importunity of the people along the route. At Norwich he was received as an honored guest by the mayor of the city.

Page 168.—Corresponded to our 3d of May. The difference between Old and New Style in reckoning dates, and the fact that the Gregorian Calendar (or New Style) was not adopted in England until 1752, or nearly two hundred years after it was accepted by Catholic nations on the Continent, have often led historians, biographers, and other writers into mistakes concerning dates in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. For instance, it has been often asserted that Shakespeare and the Spanish dramatist Cervantes died on the same day, April 23, 1616; but Shakespeare actually died ten days later than his great contemporary, New Style having been adopted in Spain in 1582. If we were certain that Shakespeare was born on the 23d of April, 1564, we ought now to celebrate the anniversary of his birth on the 3d of May. As we do not know the precise date of his birth, and the 23d of April has come to be generally recognized as the anniversary, there is no particular reason for changing it.

Richard Johnson. He was born in 1573 and died about 1659. He is chiefly noted as the author of this Famous History of the Seven Champions of Christendom. These, according to him, were St. George of England, St. Denis of France, St. James of Spain, St. Antony of Italy, St. Andrew of Scotland, St. Patrick of Ireland, and St. David of Wales.

Mr. A. H. Wall, of Stratford-on-Avon, was for several years the librarian of the Shakespeare Memorial Library there, and is the author of many scholarly articles in English periodicals on subjects connected with Shakespeare and Warwickshire.

The Percy Reliques. A collection of old ballads, entitled Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765), made by Thomas Percy (1729–1811), a clergyman (in 1782 made Bishop of Dromore in Ireland) and poet.

Page 170.—Chambers. These are mentioned in more than one account of the burning of the Globe Theatre in London, on the 29th of June, 1613, when, as the critics generally agree, Shakespeare's Henry VIII. was the play being performed. A letter written by John Chamberlain to Sir Ralph Winwood, describing the fire, says that it "fell out by a peale of chambers," and a letter from Thomas Lorkin to Sir Thomas Puckering, dated "this last of June, 1613," says: "No longer since than yesterday, while Bourbege[6] his companie were acting at y^e Globe the play of Hen=8, and there shooting of certayne chambers in way of triumph, the fire catch'd." Another account states that these cannon were fired on King Henry's arrival at Cardinal Wolsey's house; and the original stage-direction in Henry VIII. (iv. 1.) orders "chambers discharged" at the entrance of the king to the "mask at the cardinal's house."

Page 171.—Ambrose Dudley. He was born about 1530, made Earl of Warwick when Elizabeth came to the throne, and died in 1589.

Page 172.—The Cage. This house, on the corner of Fore Bridge Street (see map on page 42), was occupied by Thomas Quiney after he married Judith Shakespeare. "The house has long been modernized, the only existing portions of the ancient building being a few massive beams supporting the floor over the cellar" (Halliwell-Phillipps).

Page 173.—Sir Thomas Browne (1605–1682) was an eminent physician and author. Among his books were the Religio Medici (1643), Vulgar Errors (1646), etc.

Sir John Suckling (baptized Feb. 10, 1609, and supposed to have died by suicide at Paris about 1642) was a Royalist poet in the Court of Charles I. He wrote some plays, but is best known by his minor poems, one of the most noted of which is the Ballad upon a Wedding.

Page 174.—Izaak Walton (1593–1683) is famous as the author of The Complete Angler (1653), one of the classics of our literature. He also wrote Lives of Donne, Hooker, Herbert, and other English divines.

Richard Hooker (1553?-1600) was a celebrated theologian, author of Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, four books of which appeared in 1592, a fifth in 1597, and the remaining three after his death.

Page 180.—Warner's Albion's England. William Warner (1558?-1609) was the author of Albion's England (1586), a rhymed history of the country, and the translator of the MenÆchmi of the Latin dramatist Plautus (1595), on which Shakespeare founded the plot of the Comedy of Errors.

Page 182.—Watchet-colored. Light blue. Compare Spenser, F. Q. iii. 4. 40: "Their watchet mantles frindgd with silver rownd."

Like a wild Morisco. That is, a morris-dancer. The quotation is from 2 Henry VI. iii. 1. 365:—

Page 183.—The featliest of dancers. The most dexterous. Compare The Winter's Tale, iv. 4. 176: "She dances featly"; and The Tempest, i. 2. 380: "Foot it featly," etc.

William Browne (1591–1643?) published book i. of Britannia's Pastorals in 1613. He also wrote The Shepherd's Pipe (1614) and other poems.

Page 184.—A carved hook, that is, a shepherd's crook (called a "sheep-hook" in The Winter's Tale, iv. 4. 431), as the scrip is his pouch or wallet. Compare As You Like It (iii. 2. 171), where Touchstone says to Corin: "Come, shepherd, let us make an honourable retreat; though not with bag and baggage, yet with scrip and scrippage."

John Aubrey (1626–1697), besides assisting Anthony Wood in his Antiquities of Oxford (1674), wrote Miscellanies, a collection of short stories and other tales of the supernatural.

Page 185.—The Puritan Stubbes. Concerning this Philip Stubbes little appears to be known except that he was educated at Oxford and Cambridge, but became a rigid Puritan, and wrote several books besides the famous Anatomie of Abuses.

Richard Carew (1555–1620) was a poet and antiquarian, and for a time high sheriff of Cornwall.

Page 186.—Pageants. The word in Shakespeare's day was generally applied to theatrical entertainments.

Play the woman's part. Female parts were played by boys or young men until after the middle of the 17th century. Samuel Pepys, in his Diary, under date of January 3, 1660, writes: "To the Theatre, where was acted 'Beggar's Brush,' it being very well done; and here the first time that ever I saw women come upon the stage." Again, under February 12, 1660, he records a performance of The Scornful Lady, adding: "now done by a woman, which makes the play appear much better than ever it did to me."

Made her weep a-good. That is, heartily.

Passioning. Grieving, lamenting. Compare Venus and Adonis, 1059: "Dumbly she passions," etc.

Page 190.—Steevens. George Steevens (1736–1800) was an eccentric but accomplished editor and critic. "He was often wantonly mischievous, and delighted to stumble for the mere gratification of dragging unsuspicious innocents into the mire with him. He was, in short, the very Puck of commentators."

John Heywood (1500?-1580) was a dramatist and epigrammatist. His interludes "prepared the way for English comedy," the characters having some individuality instead of being mere walking virtues and vices. Of these plays The Four P's (printed between 1543 and 1547) is the best known. The characters that give it the name are a Palmer, a Pardoner, a Potecary (apothecary) and a Pedlar. A palmer was a pilgrim to the Holy Land, so called from the palm-branch he brought back in token of having performed the journey. A pardoner was a person licensed to sell papal indulgences, or pardons.

No night is now, etc. The quotation is from A Midsummer-Night's Dream, ii. 1. 102.

Page 191.—Housen. An obsolete plural of house, formed like oxen, etc.

Page 192.—The offices. The rooms in an old English mansion where provisions are kept; that is, the pantry, kitchen, etc.

Waes-hael. Anglo-Saxon for "Be hale (whole, or well)," equivalent to "Here's to your health." Wassail is a corruption of this salutation, which from this meaning was transferred to festive gatherings where it was used, and then to the liquor served on such occasions—generally, spiced ale.

The tenant of Ingon. When Knight wrote this, fifty or more years ago, he supposed that a certain John Shakespeare who in 1570 held a farm known as Ingon or Ington, in the parish of Hampton Lucy near Stratford, was the poet's father; but that he was one of the many other Shakespeares in Warwickshire (see page 207 below) appears from an entry in the parish register at Hampton Lucy, showing that he was buried on the 25th of September, 1589. The poet's father lived until September, 1601, his funeral being registered as having taken place on the 8th of that month. There was another John Shakespeare, a shoemaker, who was a resident of Stratford from about 1584 to about 1594. In the town records he is generally called the "shumaker," or "corvizer" (an obsolete word of the same meaning), or "cordionarius" (the Latin equivalent); but occasionally he appears simply as "John Shakspere," and some of these entries were formerly supposed to refer to the father of the dramatist.

The Lord of Misrule. The person chosen to direct the Christmas sports and revels. His sovereignty lasted during the twelve days of the holiday season. Stow, in his Survey of London (see on page 82 above), says: "In the feast of Christmas, there was in the king's house, wheresoever he lodged, a Lord of Misrule, or Master of Merry Disports, and the like had ye in the house of every nobleman of honour or good worship, were he spiritual or temporal." Stubbes (see on page 185 above) inveighed against the practice in his usual bitter way: "First, all the wild heads of the parish, conventing together, choose them a grand captain (of mischief) whom they innoble with the title of my Lord of Misrule, and him they crown with great solemnity, and adopt for their king. This king anointed chooseth forth twenty, forty, three score, or a hundred lusty guts like to himself, to wait upon his lordly majesty, and to guard his noble person. Then every one of these his men he investeth with his liveries, of green, yellow, or some other light wanton color.... And they have their hobby-horses, dragons, and other antics, together with their bawdy pipers and thundering drummers, to strike up the devil's dance withal; ... and in this sort they go to the church (though the minister be at prayer or preaching) dancing and swinging their handkerchiefs over their heads in the church, like devils incarnate, with such a confused noise that no man can hear his own voice.... Then after this, about the church they go again and again, and so forth into the churchyard, where they have commonly their summer halls, their bowers, arbors, and banqueting houses set up, wherein they feast, banquet, and dance all that day, and (peradventure) all that night too. And thus these terrestrial furies spend their Sabbath day." He goes on to tell how the people give money, food, and drink for these festivities, and adds: "but if they knew that, as often as they bring any to the maintenance of these execrable pastimes, they offer sacrifice to the Devil and Sathanas [Satan], they would repent, and withdraw their hands, which God grant they may." The Lords of Misrule in colleges were preached against at Cambridge by the Puritans in the reign of James I. as inconsistent with a place of religious education, and as a relic of Pagan worship. In Scotland, the "Abbot of Unreason" (as the Lord of Misrule was called there), with other festive characters, was suppressed by legislation as early as 1555. Thomas Fuller (1608–1681), in his Good Thoughts in Worse Times (1647), says: "Some sixty years since, in the University of Cambridge, it was solemnly debated betwixt the heads [of the colleges] to debar young scholars of that liberty allowed them in Christmas, as inconsistent with the discipline of students. But some grave governors mentioned the good use thereof, because thereby, in twelve days, they more discover the dispositions of scholars than in twelve months before."

Page 193.—The Clopton who is gone. William Clopton, whose tomb is in the north aisle of Stratford Church. He was the father of the William Clopton of Shakespeare's boyhood, who resided at Clopton House, an ancient mansion less than two miles from Stratford on the brow of the Welcombe Hills. It is still standing, though long ago modernized. It is said to have been originally surrounded with a moat, like the "moated grange" of Measure for Measure (iii. 1. 277).

To burn this night with torches. That is, to prolong the festivities. The quotation is from Antony and Cleopatra, iv. 2. 41.

John Dyer (1700–1758) was an English poet, author of Grongar Hill (1727), The Ruins of Rome (1740), etc.

Page 194.—Flawns. A kind of custard-pie. Compare Ben Jonson, Sad Shepherdess, i. 2:—

The fools were also a kind of custard, or fruit with whipped cream, etc. Gooseberry-fool is still an English dish.

Page 195.—The cost of the sheep-shearing feast. Mr. Knight makes a little slip here. The Clown, on his way to buy materials for the feast, tries to reckon up mentally what the wool from the shearing will bring. "Let me see," he says; "every 'leven wether tods [that is, yields a tod, or 28 pounds of wool]; every tod yields pound and odd shilling; fifteen hundred shorn,—what comes the wool to?" Then, after vainly attempting to make out what the amount will be, he adds: "I cannot do 't without counters" (round pieces of metal used in reckoning), and, giving up the problem, turns to considering what he is to buy for his sister: "Let me see; what am I to buy for our sheep-shearing feast? Three pound of sugar, five pound of currants, rice,—what will this sister of mine do with rice? But my father hath made her mistress of the feast, and she lays it on. She hath made me four-and-twenty nosegays for the shearers,—three-man songmen all, and very good ones; but they are most of them means and bases; but one Puritan amongst them, and he sings psalms to hornpipes. I must have saffron to colour the warden pies; mace, dates—none; that's out of my note: nutmegs, seven; a race or two of ginger,—but that I may beg; four pound of prunes, and as many of raisins o' the sun." Three-man songmen are singers of catches in three parts. Means are tenors. Warden pies are pies made of wardens, a kind of large pears, which were usually baked or roasted. A race of ginger is a root of it; and raisins o' the sun are raisins dried in the sun.

Page 196.—Paul Hentzner. He was a native of Silesia (1558–1623) who wrote a Journey through Germany, France, Italy, etc.

Matthew Stevenson wrote several other books in prose and verse, published between 1654 and 1673.

The furmenty-pot. The word furmenty is a corruption of frumenty (see page 197), which is derived from the Latin frumentum, meaning wheat. The hulled wheat, boiled in milk and seasoned, was a popular dish in England, as it still is in the rural districts.

Robert Herrick (1591–1674) was an English lyric poet. The Hesperides was his most important work. A complete edition of his poems, edited by Mr. Grosart, was published in 1876.

Page 197.—A mawkin. A kitchen-wench, or other menial servant. The word is only a phonetic spelling of malkin, which Shakespeare has in Coriolanus, ii. 1. 224: "the kitchen malkin." Compare Tennyson, The Princess, v. 25:—

that is, a female swineherd.

Prank them up. Adorn themselves.

The fill-horse. The word fill, for the thills or shafts of a vehicle, used by Shakespeare and other writers of that day, is now obsolete in England, though still current in New England. Cross means to make the sign of the cross upon or over the animal.

Page 199.—Sheffield whittles. Knives made at Sheffield. Chaucer, in the Canterbury Tales (3931) refers to a "Shefeld thwitel," or whittle. Compare Shakespeare, Timon of Athens, v. 1. 173: "There's not a whittle in the unruly camp," etc.

Rings with posies. Rings with mottoes inscribed inside them. Posy is the same word as poesy, which we also find used in this sense. Compare Hamlet, iii. 2. 162: "Is this a prologue, or the poesy of a ring?" The fashion of putting such posies on rings prevailed from the middle of the 16th century to the close of the 17th. In 1624 a little book was published with the title, Love's Garland, or Posies for Rings, Handkerchiefs, and Gloves; and such pretty tokens, that lovers send their loves. Compare page 53 above.

Page 201.—Qui est la? Who is there? (French). The reply is, "Peasants, poor French people."

Whipped three market-days. For some petty offence he had committed.

Page 202.—Wick-yarn. For making wicks for the oil-lamps then in common use. It was a familiar article in this country fifty years ago, when whale-oil was used for household illumination.

Napery. Linen for domestic use, especially table-linen.

Inkles, caddises, coifs, stomachers, pomanders, etc. All these things are found in the peddler's pack of Autolycus in The Winter's Tale (iv. 4). Compare page 204 below. Caddises are worsted ribbons, or galloons. Inkles are a kind of tape. Pomanders were little balls made of perfumes, and worn in the pocket or about the neck, for the sake of the fragrance or as a mere ornament, and sometimes to prevent infection in times of plague.

The ivy-bush. A bush or tuft of ivy was in olden time the sign of a vintner. Compare the cut of the Morris-Dance, opposite page 178. The old proverb, "Good wine needs no bush" (As You Like It, v. epil.), means that a place where good wine is kept needs no sign to attract customers. Gascoigne, in his Glass of Government (1575), says: "Now a days the good wyne needeth none ivye garland."

Page 203.—The juggler with his ape. The ape being used to perform tricks, as monkeys are nowadays by organ-grinders to amuse their street audiences. In The Winter's Tale (iv. 3. 101) the Clown says of Autolycus: "I know this man well: he hath been since an ape-bearer"; that is, he carried round a trained ape as a show.

Cantabanqui. Strolling ballad-singers; literally, persons who sing upon a bench (from the Italian catambanco, formerly cantinbanco). Compare Sir Henry Taylor, Philip van Artevelde, i. 3. 2:—

The Tale of Sir Topas. One of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, The Rime of Sir Topas, a burlesque upon the metrical romances of the time. It is written in ballad form.

Bevis of Southampton. A fabulous hero of the time of William the Conqueror. He is mentioned in Henry VIII. i. 1. 38:—

that is, so that the old romantic legend became credible. In 2 Henry VI., after the words (ii. 3. 89), "have at thee with a downright blow," some editors add from the old play on which this is founded: "as Bevis of Southampton fell upon Ascapart," a giant whom he was said to have conquered. Figures of Bevis and Ascapart formerly adorned the Bar-gate at Southampton, as shown in the cut on the next page; but when the gate was repaired some years ago they were removed to the museum.

Adam Bell and Clymme of the Clough (that is, of the Cliff) figure in a popular old ballad, which may be found in Percy's Reliques.

The woolen statute-caps. Caps which, by Act of Parliament in 1571, the citizens were required to wear on Sundays and holidays. The nobility were exempt from the requirement, which, as Strype informs us, was "in behalf of the trade of cappers"—one of sundry such "protection" measures in the time of Elizabeth. Compare Love's Labour's Lost, v. 2. 282: "Well, better wits have worn plain statute-caps." As Knight intimates here, the law was a very unpopular one.

The Wife of Bath's husbands. Alluding to the Wife of Bath, one of Chaucer's Canterbury pilgrims. In the prologue to her tale, she says of her husbands (of whom she had five in succession):—

That is, as she goes on to explain, they were glad to bring her presents from the fair to keep her in good humor, as otherwise she was apt to treat them "spitously," or spitefully.

Where a coxcomb will be broke. That is, a head will be broken; but it should be understood that this does not mean a fractured skull, but merely a bruise sufficient to break the skin and make the blood flow. Shakespearian critics have sometimes misapprehended this and similar expressions. In Romeo and Juliet (i. 2. 52), where the hero says, "Your plantain-leaf is excellent for that" (referring to a "broken shin"), Ulrici, the eminent German commentator, thinks that he must be speaking ironically, as plantain "was used to stop the blood, but not for a fracture of a bone." Compare Twelfth Night, v. 1. 178, where Sir Andrew says: "He has broke my head across and has given Sir Toby a bloody coxcomb too."

Page 206.—Junkets. The word here means sweetmeats or delicacies.

Properties. In the theatrical sense of stage requisites, such as costumes and other equipments and appointments.

Incurious. Not curious, in the original sense of careful; not fastidious, and therefore pleased with these inferior actors.

And possess. The subject of possess is omitted, after the loose fashion of the time, being obviously implied in rustics. Compare Hamlet, iii. 1. 8:—

that is, he keeps aloof.

Page 207.—We see not its workings. We see the results, but not the processes by which they have been brought about.

The "green lap" in which the boy poet was "laid." The quotations are from the passage referring to Shakespeare in The Progress of Poesy by Thomas Gray (1716–1771):—

The name of Shakespeare was very common. See note on The tenant of Ingon, page 192, above.

Page 208.—Volumes have been written on the plant-lore, etc. The best of these is Rev. H. N. Ellacombe's Plant-Lore and Garden-craft of Shakespeare, which is quoted on the next page.

Apricocks. An old form of apricots.

Page 209.—In the compass of a pale. Within the limits of an enclosure, or walled garden.

Knots. Interlacing beds. Compare Milton, P. L. iv. 242: "In beds and curious knots"; and Love's Labour's Lost, i. 1. 249: "thy curious-knotted garden."

He that hath suffer'd, etc. King Richard.

At time of year. That is, at the proper season.

Confound itself. Ruin or destroy itself. Compare The Merchant of Venice, iii. 2. 278:—

Page 210.—To prove his real profession. Books and essays have been written to prove Shakespeare's intimate knowledge of various professions and occupations—law, medicine, military science, seamanship, etc.