THE

YOUTH

OF

SHAKSPEARE.

BY THE AUTHOR OF

"SHAKSPEARE AND HIS FRIENDS."

All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players,
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts.

SHAKSPEARE.

Triumph, my Britain! thou hast one to show
To whom all scenes of Europe homage owe.
BEN JONSON.

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. II.

PHILADELPHIA:

LEA AND BLANCHARD,

SUCCESSORS TO CAREY AND CO.

1840.

These strange and sudden injuries have fallen

So thick upon me, that I lose all sense

Of what they are. Methinks I am not wronged;
Nor is it aught, if from the censuring world

I can but hide it. Reputation!

Thou art a word, no more.

BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER.

He

ON recovering consciousness, the youthful Shakspeare found himself lying stretched on the grass, with a confused sense of pain and sickness, which prevented him from forming any distinct idea of where he was. could just discern divers black masses of sundry shapes, moving around and about him, whilst above, myriads of stars were twinkling upon the surface of the surrounding sky; a thick white haze floated over the grassy earth as far as he could see; and not a sound, save the rustling of the leaves, which at first came upon his ear with a most unnatural strangeness-could be heard. His earliest perception was that the ground was wet with the dews, and he almost immediately afterwards discovered