to mean the part of King in any dramatic performance, such as he habitually sustained; and we may understand Davies to intimate that such was the estimation in which Shakespeare was held by James, that in all probability he would have made him his companion, if his profession had not raised a bar. Indeed, it was after the presumed rupture that Shakespeare was in most friendly communication with the King, for Malone and Chalmer agree in naming 1606 as the earliest date for Macbeth,' and there is no mention of its having been performed before 1610, when it was witnessed by Forman. It is considered to have been suggested by an incident of the King's reception at Oxford in 1605, when he was welcomed by three Collegians of St. John's personating the witches who met Macbeth and Banquo; but we may rather think that the play suggested the incident. If produced at the beginning of 1605, it would be just in the height of its popularity at the time, and very likely to have this effect. In fact, everything attests that there was no interruption of the good understanding between Shakespeare and the King. Eighty years after he had been committed to the grave, Otway embalms this tradition : "Our Shakespeare, too, wrote in an age so blest A gracious prince's favour cheered his Muse, The "amicable letter," written by James, was addressed to him at Stratford, in his retirement; and we know that his plays were in high favour at Court at the very time of his supposed occultation. Mr. Cunningham's 'Revels at Court' contains notices of their frequent performance, as recorded in the accounts at the Audit Office.1 Charles the First entertained the same veneration for Shakespeare, as we learn from Milton, who was not one of his eulogists; and, indeed, 1 See Appendix. U he has left a memento of it himself, in his copy of the first complete edition of the poet's works, preserved in the library at Windsor Castle. This volume reveals traces of frequent and careful perusal, and perhaps was the companion of his solitary hours, in the gloomy chamber of Carisbrooke. It may have prepared him, by the story of the deposed Richard, to act his part as became a King, and throw over his end a majesty that redeemed his life. It is worthy of remark that Henrietta Maria took up her abode at New Place when she marched into Stratford at the head of the King's troops; and it is more reasonable to conclude that she was determined in this choice by other considerations than the size of the house. The daughter of Henry the Fourth felt the attraction of the daughter of Shakespeare. 291 XXVII. HIS HAUNTS AND FRIENDS. LITTLE is known of Shakespeare's intercourse with his friends, so little as to indicate that he went seldom into society during his residence in London. If he had been a man about town, we should hear something of his favourite places of resort, and they might even have found a niche in his works. But on this point we are met by the same obscurity that envelopes his social relations, and he cannot be tracked to a single haunt. It is said that he frequented the Mitre tavern in Bread Street, but the only ground for the assertion is, what seems rather illogical, that the Mitre was patronized by Ben Jonson. Rare Ben Jonson was notoriously partial to taverns, and the evidence on which he is convicted would not be wanting against Shakespeare had he been equally guilty. But no hint from his contemporaries, and no tradition of his life in town ascribe to him such a habit, or name any tavern as his retreat. It has been contended, indeed, that he resorted to a house with the sign of the Tabor, kept by Tarleton the Clown, and that it is alluded to in 'Twelfth Night,' "Dost thou live by the Tabor;" but Tarleton's sign was the Saba, and the allusion is plainly to the tabor carried by the Clown. Nor can anything be urged in favour of the Falcon at Bankside, which he is said to have made a house of call. This tavern took its name from the Falcon Theatre, with which he was never connected; and it 1 Twelfth Night,' act iii. 1. 1 did not lie in his way to the Globe, which stood near Maid Lane, within the space now occupied by Barclay's brewery. Gifford affirms that Shakespeare was a member of a club which met at the Mermaid, under the presidency of Sir Walter Raleigh, and he professes to take the fact from Fuller; but Fuller does not give the least colour to such a statement. Indeed, it is very unlikely that Shakespeare would have made a boon companion of Raleigh, who was the political opponent of his patrons, and who, moreover, by his gasconading schemes provoked his own satire. Raleigh's pamphlet on "The discovery of the large, rich, and beautiful Empire of Guiana, with a relation of the great and golden city of Manva (which the Spaniards call El Dorado), &c., performed by Sir Walter Raleigh, Knight," had, by the wonders it set forth, produced a very mischievous effect on the public mind, exciting a universal disposition to speculate in the wildest enterprises, if they held out the bait of a large profit, and many were even tempted to embark personally in expeditions which, fitted out at their joint expense, were vaunted as promising a return of five for one, but ended in disappointment and failure. Shakespeare considered such a publication a fair object for ridicule; and 'The Tempest' assures us that there was at least one of Raleigh's contemporaries who did not believe "That there were such men Whose heads stood in their breasts! which now we find Each putter out of five for one will bring us Good warrant of." 1 Tempest,' act iii. 3. The passage in Raleigh was as follows:-"Next unto Arai there are two rivers, Atoica and Cavra, and on that branch which is called Cavra are a nation of people whose heads appear not above their shoulders, which, though it may be thought a mere fable, yet, for my own part, I am resolved it is true, because every child in the province of Arronaceia and Cavari affirm the same; they are called Ewaipanoma; they are reported to have their eyes in their shoulders, and their mouths in the middle of their breasts." Beau It is quite possible that the "wit-combats" mentioned by Fuller as very frequent between Shakespeare and Ben Jonson came off at the Mermaid,' though not under the auspices of Raleigh. The Mermaid' is supposed to have been in Friday Street, and here we are close upon one of Shakespeare's footprints-London Stone,' which is niched in the wall of St. Swithin's church, in Cannon Street. mont describes the 'Mermaid' as a perfect hotbed of wit, where the words flew about like subtle flame, so that each of the company seemed to condense his whole intellect in a single jest, as though-so hot was the contention—he would be satisfied to remain a fool for the rest of his life if he could excel for that moment. This, it must be owned, was a fitting spot for an encounter between the two foremost wits of the time. Hot and fierce was the collision, in spite of all we have heard of a different tenour; and we can almost imagine Ben floundering into the room as he is described by Fuller," a Spanish galloon, built high in learning." Of course, he instantly gives his friend a full charge of Latin, and then parades his Greek fire, while Shakespeare, "the English man-of-war," as Fuller calls him, "lesser in bulk, but lighter in sailing," opens a broadside of good English hail, "turns with all tides, tacks about, and takes advantage of all winds," and "by the quickness of his wit and invention," makes the galloon either strike her flag or roll off, a log on the waves. Shakespeare's small Latin was a constant target for Ben Jonson at this period. But the real grievance was his great English, and Ben would have given all his own Latin, and thrown in the Greek, for the same mastery of his native tongue. 'Why, here's our fellow Shakespeare puts them 6 66 1 King Henry VI, Part II.,' act iv. 6. 2 Francis Beaumont's Poetical Epistle to Ben Jonson.' |