a few days at a palace he has near Flanflasnic, a city within
eighteen English miles of the seaside. Glumdalclitch and I were
much fatigued: I had gotten a small cold, but the poor girl was so
ill as to be confined to her chamber. I longed to see the ocean,
which must be the only scene of my escape, if ever it should
happen. I pretended to be worse than I really was, and desired
leave to take the fresh air of the sea, with a page whom I was
very fond of, and who had sometimes been trusted with me. I shall
never forget with what unwillingness Glumdalclitch consented, nor
the strict charge she gave the page to be careful of me, bursting
at the same time into a flood of tears, as if she had some
foreboding of what was to happen. The boy took me out in my box,
about half an hour's walk from the palace, toward the rocks on the
sea-shore. I ordered him to set me down, and lifting up one of my
sashes, cast many a wistful melancholy look toward the sea. I
found myself not very well, and told the page that I had a mind
to take a nap in my hammock, which I hoped would do me good. I got
in, and the boy shut the window close down to keep out the cold. I
soon fell asleep, and all I can conjecture is that, while I slept,
the page, thinking no danger could happen, went among the rocks to
look for birds' eggs, having before observed him from my window
searching about, and picking up one or two in the clefts. Be that
as it will, I found myself suddenly awakened with a violent pull
upon the ring, which was fastened at the top of my box for the
convenience of carriage. I felt my box raised very high in the
air, and then borne forward with prodigious speed. The first jolt
had like to have shaken me out of my hammock, but afterward the
motion was easy enough. I called out several times as loud as I
could raise my voice, but all to no purpose. I looked toward my
windows, and could see nothing but the clouds and sky. I heard a
noise over my head, like the clapping of wings, and then began to
perceive the woful condition I was in: that some eagle had got the
cord of my box in his beak, with an intent to let it fall on the
rock, like a tortoise in a shell, and then pick out my body and
devour it: for the sagacity and smell of this bird enable him to
discover his quarry at a great distance, though better concealed
than I could be within a two-inch board. In a little time I
observed the noise and flutter of wings to increase very fast, and
my box was tossed up and down, like a sign on a windy day. I heard
several bangs or buffets, as I thought, given to the eagle (for
such I am certain it must have been that held the cord of my box
in his beak), and then, all on a sudden, felt myself falling
perpendicularly down, for above a minute, but with such incredible
swiftness, that I almost lost my breath. My fall was stopped by a
terrible squash, that sounded louder to my ears than the cataract
of Niagara; after which I was quite in the dark for another
minute, and then my box began to rise so high that I could see
light from the tops of the windows. I now perceived I was fallen
into the sea. My box, by the weight of my body, the goods that
were in it, and the broad plates of iron fixed for strength at the
four corners of the top and bottom, floated about five feet deep
in water. I did then, and do now suppose, that the eagle which
flew away with my box was pursued by two or three others, and
forced to let me drop, while he defended himself against the rest,
who hoped to share in the prey. The plates of iron fastened at the
bottom of the box (for those were the strongest) preserved the
balance while it fell, and hindered it from being broken on the
surface of the water. Every joint of it was well grooved; and the
door did not move on hinges, but up and down like a sash, which
kept my closet so tight that very little water came in. I got with
much difficulty out of my hammock, having first ventured to draw
back the slip-board on the roof already mentioned, contrived on
purpose to let in air, for want of which I found myself almost
stifled.
How often did I then wish myself with my dear Glumdalclitch, from
whom one single hour had so far divided me! And I may say with
truth, that in the midst of my own misfortunes I could not
forbear lamenting my poor nurse, the grief she would suffer for my
loss, the displeasure of the queen, and the ruin of her fortune.
Perhaps many travellers have not been under greater difficulties
and distress than I was at this juncture, expecting every moment
to see my box dashed to pieces, or at least overset by the first
violent blast or rising wave. A breach in one single pane of glass
would have been immediate death: nor could anything have preserved
the windows, but the strong lattice wires placed on the outside,
against accidents in travelling. I saw the water ooze in at
several crannies, although the leaks were not considerable, and I
endeavored to stop them as well as I could. I was not able to lift
up the roof of my closet, which otherwise I certainly should have
done, and sat on the top of it: where I might at least preserve
myself some hours longer, than by being shut up (as I may call it)
in the hold. Or if I escaped these dangers for a day or two, what
could I expect but a miserable death of cold and hunger? I was for
four hours under these circumstances, expecting, and indeed
wishing, every moment to be my last.
I have already told the reader that there were two strong staples
fixed upon that side of my box which had no window; and into which
the servant who used to carry me on horseback would put a leathern
belt, and buckle it about his waist. Being in this disconsolate
state, I heard, or at least thought I heard, some kind of grating
noise on that side of my box where the staples were fixed; and
soon after I began to fancy that the box was pulled or towed
along the sea; for I now and then felt a sort of tugging, which
made the waves rise near the tops of my windows, leaving me almost
in the dark. This gave me some faint hopes of relief, although I
was not able to imagine how it could be brought about. I ventured
to unscrew one of my chairs, which were always fastened to the
floor; and having made a hard shift to screw it down again
directly under the shipping-board that I had lately opened, I
mounted on the chair, and putting my mouth as near as I could to
the hole, I called for help in a loud voice, and in all the
languages I understood. I then fastened my handkerchief to a stick
I usually carried, and thrusting it up the hole, waved it several
times in the air, that if any boat or ship was near, the seamen
might conjecture some unhappy mortal to be shut up in the box.
I found no effect from all I could do, but plainly perceived my
closet to be moved along; and in the space of an hour, or better,
that side of the box where the staples were, and had no windows,
struck against something that was hard. I apprehended it to be a
rock, and found myself tossed more than ever. I plainly heard a
noise upon the cover of my closet, like that of a cable, and the
grating of it as it passed through the ring. I then found myself
hoisted up by degrees, at least three feet higher than I was
before. Whereupon I again thrust up my stick and handkerchief,
calling for help till I was almost hoarse. In return to which I
heard a great shout repeated three times, giving me such
transports of joy as are not to be conceived but by those who
feel them. I now heard a trampling over my head, and somebody
calling through the hole with a loud voice, in the English tongue,
If there be anybody below, let them speak. I answered, I was an
Englishman, drawn by ill fortune into the greatest calamity that
ever any creature underwent, and begged, by all that was moving,
to be delivered out of the dungeon I was in. The voice replied, I
was safe, for my box was fastened to their ship; and the carpenter
should immediately come and saw a hole in the cover, large enough
to pull me out. I answered that was needless, and would take up
too much time; for there was no more to be done, but let one of
the crew put his finger into the ring, and take the box out of the
sea into the ship, and so into the captain's cabin. Some of them,
upon hearing me talk so wildly, thought I was mad; others laughed;
for indeed it never came into my head, that I was now got among
people of my own stature and strength. The carpenter came, and in
a few minutes sawed a passage about four feet square, then let
down a small ladder, upon which I mounted, and thence was taken
into the ship in a very weak condition.
The sailors were all amazement, and asked me a thousand questions,
which I had no inclination to answer, I was equally confounded at
the sight of so many pygmies, for such I took them to be, after
having so long accustomed mine eyes to the monstrous objects I had
left. But the captain, Mr. Thomas Wilcocks, an honest worthy
Shropshire man, observing I was ready to faint, took me into his
cabin, gave me a cordial to comfort me, and made me turn in upon
his own bed, advising me to take a little rest, of which I had
great need. Before I went to sleep I gave him to understand that I
had some valuable furniture in my box, too good to be lost: a fine
hammock, a handsome field-bed, two chairs, a table, and a cabinet;
that my closet was hung on all sides, or rather quilted, with silk
and cotton; that if he would let one of the crew bring my closet
into his cabin I would open it there before him and show him my
goods. The captain, hearing me utter these absurdities, concluded
I was raving; however (I suppose to pacify me), he promised to
give order as I desired, and going upon deck, sent some of his men
down into my closet, whence (as I afterward found) they drew up
all my goods, and stripped off the quilting; but the chairs,
cabinet, and bedstead, being screwed to the floor, were much
damaged by the ignorance of the seamen, who tore them up by force.
Then they knocked off some of the boards for the use of the ship,
and when they had got all they had a mind for, let the hull drop
into the sea, which, by reason of many breaches made in the bottom
and sides, sunk outright. And, indeed, I was glad not to have been
a spectator of the havoc they made; because I am confident it
would have sensibly touched me, by bringing former passages into
my mind which I would rather have forgot.
I slept some hours, but perpetually disturbed with dreams of the
place I had left, and the dangers I had escaped. However, upon
waking, I found myself much recovered. It was now about eight
o'clock at night, and the captain ordered supper immediately,
thinking I had already fasted too long. He entertained me with
great kindness, observing me not to look wildly or talk
inconsistently; and when we were left alone, desired I would give
him a relation of my travels; and by what accident I came to be
set adrift in that monstrous wooden chest. He said that about
twelve o'clock at noon, as he was looking through his glass, he
spied it at a distance, and thought it was a sail, which he had a
mind to make, being not much out of his course, in hopes of buying
some biscuit, his own beginning to fall short. That upon coming
nearer, and finding his error, he sent out his long-boat, to
discover what it was; that his men came back in fright, swearing
they had seen a swimming house. That he laughed at their folly,
and went himself in the boat, ordering his men to take a strong
cable along with them. That the weather being calm, he rowed round
me several times, observed my windows and wire lattices that
defended them. That he discovered two staples upon one side, which
was all of boards, without any passage for light. He then
commanded his men to row up to that side, and fastening a cable to
one of the staples, ordered them to tow my chest, as they called
it, toward the ship. When it was there he gave directions to
fasten another cable to the ring fixed in the cover, and to raise
up my chest with pulleys, which all the sailors were not able to
do above two or three feet. He said they saw my stick and
handkerchief thrust out of the hole, and concluded that some
unhappy man must be shut up in the cavity. I asked whether he or
the crew had seen any prodigious birds in the air about the time
he first discovered me? To which he answered, that discoursing
this matter with the sailors while I was asleep, one of them said
he had observed three eagles flying toward the north, but remarked
nothing of their being larger than the usual size; which I suppose
must be imputed to the great height they were at; and he could not
guess the reason of my question. I then asked the captain how far
he reckoned we might be from land? He said, by the best
computation he could make, we were at least a hundred leagues. I
assured him that he must be mistaken by almost half, for I had not
left the country whence I came above two hours before I dropped
into the sea. Whereupon he began again to think that my brain was
disturbed, of which he gave me a hint, and advised me to go to bed
in a cabin he had provided. I assured him I was well refreshed
with his good entertainment and company, and as much in my senses
as ever I was in my life. He then grew serious, and desired to ask
me freely whether I were not troubled in my mind by the
consciousness of some enormous crime, for which I was punished, at
the command of some prince, by exposing me in that chest; as great
criminals, in other countries, have been forced to sea in a leaky
vessel without provisions: for although he should be sorry to have
taken so ill a man into his ship, yet he would engage his word to
set me safe ashore in the first port where we arrived? He added
that his suspicions were much increased by some very absurd
speeches I had delivered at first to his sailors, and afterward to
himself, in relation to my closet or chest, as well as by my odd
looks and behavior while I was at supper.
I begged his patience to hear me tell my story, which I faithfully
did, from the last time I left England, to the moment he first
discovered me. And as truth always forces its way into rational
minds, so this honest worthy gentleman, who had some tincture of
learning, and very good sense, was immediately convinced of my
candor and veracity. But, further to confirm all I had said, I
entreated him to give order that my cabinet should be brought, of
which I had the key in my pocket; for he had already informed me
how the seamen disposed of my closet. I opened it in his own
presence, and showed him the small collection of rarities I made
in the country from which I had been so strangely delivered. There
was the comb I had contrived out of the stumps of the king's
beard, and another of the same materials, but fixed into a paring
of her Majesty's thumb-nail, which served for the back. There was
a collection of needles and pins, from a foot to half a yard long;
four wasp stings, like joiners' tacks; some combings of the
queen's hair; a gold ring which one day she made me a present of,
in a most obliging manner, taking it from her little finger and
throwing it over my head like a collar. I desired the captain
would please to accept this ring in return of his civilities,
which he absolutely refused. I showed him a corn that I had cut
off, with my own hand, from a maid of honor's toe; it was about
the bigness of a Kentish pippin, and grown so hard that when I
returned to England I got it hollowed into a cup, and set it in
silver. Lastly, I desired him to see the breeches I had then on,
which were made of a mouse's skin.
I could force nothing on him but a footman's tooth, which I
observed him to examine with great curiosity, and found he had a
fancy for it. He received it with abundance of thanks, more than
such a trifle could deserve. It was drawn by an unskilful surgeon,
in a mistake, from one of Glumdalclitch's men, who was afflicted
with the toothache, but it was as sound as any in his head. I got
it cleaned, and put it into my cabinet. It was about a foot long
and four inches in diameter.
The captain was very well satisfied with this plain relation I had
given him, and said he hoped, when we returned to England, I would
oblige the world by putting it on paper, and making it public. My
answer was that I thought we were overstocked with books of
travels; that nothing could now pass which was not extraordinary;
wherein I doubted some authors less consulted truth than their own
vanity, or interest, or the diversion of ignorant readers; that my
story could contain little besides common events, without those
ornamented descriptions of strange plants, trees, birds, and other
animals; or of the barbarous customs and idolatry of savage
people, with which most writers abound. However, I thanked him for
his good opinion, and promised to take the matter into my
thoughts.
He said he wondered at one thing very much, which was to hear me
speak so loud; asking me whether the king and queen of that
country were thick of hearing? I told him it was what I had been
used to for above two years past, and that I admired as much at
the voices of him and his men, who seemed to me only to whisper,
and yet I could hear them well enough. But when I spoke in that
country it was like a man talking in the streets to another
looking out from the top of a steeple, unless when I was placed on
a table or held in any person's hand. I told him I had likewise
observed another thing, that when I first got into the ship, and
the sailors stood all about me, I thought they were the most
contemptible little creatures I had ever beheld. For, indeed,
while I was in that prince's country, I could never endure to look
in a glass after mine eyes had been accustomed to such prodigious
objects, because the comparisons gave me so despicable a conceit
of myself. The captain said that while we were at supper he
observed me to look at everything with a sort of wonder, and that
I often seemed hardly able to contain my laughter, which he knew
not well how to take, but imputed it to some disorder in my brain.
I answered, it was very true; and I wondered how I could forbear,
when I saw his dishes of the size of a silver threepence, a leg of
pork hardly a mouthful, a cup not so big as a nutshell; and so I
went on, describing the rest of his household stuff and provisions
after the same manner. For, although the queen had ordered a
little equipage of all things necessary for me while I was in her
service, yet my ideas were wholly taken up with what I saw on
every side of me, and I winked at my own littleness as people do
at their own faults. The captain understood my raillery very well,
and merrily replied with the old English proverb that he doubted
mine eyes were bigger than my belly, for he did not observe my
stomach so good, although I had fasted all day; and, continuing in
his mirth, protested he would have gladly given a hundred pounds
to have seen my closet in the eagle's bill, and afterward in its
fall from so great a height into the sea: which would certainly
have been a most astonishing object, worthy to have the
description of it transmitted to future ages: and the comparison
of Phaeton was so obvious that he could not forbear applying it,
although I did not much admire the conceit.
The captain having been at Tonquin, was, in his return to England,
driven northeastward to the latitude of 44 degrees and longitude
of 143. But meeting a trade-wind two days after I came on board
him, we sailed southward a long time, and, coasting New Holland,
kept our course west-southwest, and then south-southwest, till we
doubled the Cape of Good Hope. Our voyage was very prosperous, but
I shall not trouble the reader with a journal of it. The captain
called in at one or two ports, and sent in his longboat for
provisions and fresh water; but I never went out of the ship till
we came into the Downs, which was on the third day of June, 1706,
about nine months after my escape. I offered to leave my goods in
security for payment of my freight, but the captain protested he
would not receive one farthing.
We took a kind leave of each other, and I made him promise he
would come to see me at my house in Redriff. I hired a horse and
guide for five shillings, which I borrowed of the captain.
As I was on the road, observing the littleness of the houses, the
trees, the cattle, and the people, I began to think myself in
Lilliput. I was afraid of trampling on every traveller I met, and
often called aloud to them to have them stand out of the way, so
that I had like to have gotten one or two broken heads for my
impertinence.
When I came to my own house, for which I was forced to inquire,
one of my servants opening the door, I bent down to go in (like a
goose under a gate), for fear of striking my head. My wife ran out
to embrace me, but I stooped lower than her knees, thinking she
could otherwise never be able to reach my mouth. My daughter
kneeled to ask my blessing, but I could not see her till she
arose, having been so long used to stand with my head and eyes
erect to above sixty feet; and then I went to take her up with one
hand by the waist. I looked down upon the servants, and one or two
friends who were in the house, as if they had been pygmies, and I
a giant. I told my wife she had been too thrifty, for I found she
had starved herself and daughter to nothing.
In short, I behaved myself so unaccountably that they were all of
the captain's opinion when he first saw me, and concluded I had
lost my wits.
This I mention as an instance of the great power of habit and
prejudice.
In a little time I and my family and friends came to a right
understanding: but my wife protested I should never go to sea any
more; although my evil destiny so ordered, that she had not power
to hinder me, as the reader may know hereafter. In the meantime, I
here conclude the Second Part of my unfortunate Voyages.
THE PLAYS OF SHAKESPEARE
_William Shakespeare, the greatest of English writers, was born
in 1564, and was pretty well educated for those days. The free
school of the town was open to all boys, and his father could
afford to send him to it. He early became an actor, and from
correcting plays by other people he came to writing plays himself.
Shakespeare possessed a very unusual combination of two rare
gifts. On the one side he had to a great degree the ability to
understand men and women and read the thoughts that were passing
through their minds.
But his second gift, which was more wonderful still, was his
ability to write down on paper words that, as soon as we read
them, make us feel just as he did, make us see just the pictures
he saw.
Four of his plays are here represented by short stories, in which
the plot of each play is briefly told. To play Shakespeare's plays
is the height of an actor's ambition. To read and enjoy them has
been for over three hundred years one of the greatest pleasures
known to English-speaking people._
A MIDSUMMER-NIGHTS DREAM
Retold by E. Nesbit
HERMIA and Lysander were lovers; but Hermia's father wished her to
marry another man, named Demetrius.
Now, in Athens, where they lived, there was a wicked law, by which
any girl who refused to marry according to her father's wishes,
might be put to death. Hermia's father was so angry with her for
refusing to do as he wished, that he actually brought her before
the Duke of Athens to ask that she might be killed, if she still
refused to obey him.
The duke gave her four days to think about it, and, at the end of
that time, if she still refused to marry Demetrius, she would have
to die.
Lysander of course was nearly mad with grief, and the best thing
to do seemed to him for Hermia to run away to his aunt's house at
a place beyond the reach of that cruel law; and there he would
come to her and marry her. But before she started, she told her
friend, Helena, what she was going to do.
Helena had been Demetrius's sweetheart long before his marriage
with Hermia had been thought of, and being very silly, like all
jealous people, she could not see that it was not poor Hermia's
fault that Demetrius wished to marry her instead of his own lady,
Helena. She knew that if she told Demetrius that Hermia was going,
as she was, to the wood outside Athens, he would follow her, "and
I can follow him, and at least I shall see him," she said to
herself. So she went to him, and betrayed her friend's secret.
Now this wood where Lysander was to meet Hermia, and where the
other two had decided to follow them, was full of fairies, as most
woods are, if one only had the eyes to see them, and in this wood
on this night were the king and queen of the fairies, Oberon and
Titania. Now fairies are very wise people, but now and then they
can be quite as foolish as mortal folk. Oberon and Titania, who
might have been as happy as the days were long, had thrown away
all their joy in a foolish quarrel. They never met without saying
disagreeable things to each other, and scolded each other so
dreadfully that all their little fairy followers, for fear, would
creep into acorn cups and hide them there.
So, instead of keeping one happy court and dancing all night
through in the moonlight, as is fairies' use, the king with his
attendants wandered through one part of the wood, while the queen
with hers kept state in another. And the cause of all this trouble
was a little Indian boy whom Titania had taken to be one of her
followers. Oberon wanted the child to follow him and be one of his
fairy knights; but the queen would not give him up.
On this night, in a mossy moonlit glade, the king and queen of the
fairies met.
"Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania," said the king.
"What! jealous, Oberon?" answered the queen. "You spoil everything
with your quarreling. Come, fairies, let us leave him. I am not
friends with him now."
"It rests with you to make up the quarrel," said the king.
"Give me that little Indian boy, and I will again be your humble
servant and suitor."
"Set your mind at rest," said the queen. "Your whole fairy kingdom
buys not that boy from me. Come, fairies."
And she and her train rode off down the moonbeams.
"Well, go your ways," said Oberon. "But I'll be even with you
before you leave this wood."
Then Oberon called his favorite fairy, Puck. Puck was the spirit
of mischief. He used to slip into the dairies and take the cream
away, and get into the churn so that the butter would not come,
and turn the beer sour, and lead people out of their way on dark
nights and then laugh at them, and tumble people's stools from
under them when they were going to sit down, and upset their hot
ale over their chins when they were going to drink.
"Now," said Oberon to this little sprite, "fetch me the flower
called Love-in-idleness. The juice of that little purple flower
laid on the eyes of those who sleep will make them, when they
wake, to love the first thing they see. I will put some of the
juice of that flower on my Titania's eyes, and when she wakes she
will love the first thing she sees, were it lion, bear, or wolf,
or bull, or meddling monkey, or a busy ape."