CHAPTER XXV.

SIR HARRY AND LADY MARRYOTT.

"This wild-goose chase is done; we have won o' both sides."--_The

Wild-Goose Chase._

Marryott, in the midst of the fight with Mercutio, had in a flash two

thoughts, one springing from the contact of his glance with the balcony,

the other following instantly upon the first. The first was, that a man

might gain the balcony by one swift effort of agility and strength; the

second was, that when momentous action holds the attention of spectators

to one part of a stage, a person elsewhere on the stage may move

unobserved before their eyes, if his movement be swift, silent, and in

harmony with what has preceded,--a fact well known to people of stage

experience. No incident in the drama more focuses attention than the

dying scene of Mercutio; spectators have no eyes for Tybalt, of whom

they retain but a vague impression of hasty flight.

The thing was scarce thought, when the time had come to act it. To make

all seem right to those he must pass near, and inspired by necessity, he

indeed spoke, for their ears alone, the words, "Away! Nay, I'll to the

balcony;" at the same time casting his sword against the curtain, so

that it fell less loudly to the stage. He seized two balusters, swiftly

raised himself, and then--not proceeding exactly as the rustic beau had

described--lodged a foot in the angle of a brace supporting the balcony,

set his other foot on the balcony's edge, and rose ready to swing his

body over the rail. To do this, and to glide across the balcony and

through the way left open for Juliet, was the matter of a second. He was

conscious, as he crossed the balcony, of slightly surprised looks from

the musicians at one side, and from a few spectators at the other; but

as he plunged into the room, he heard behind him only the lamenting

voice of Romeo. Most of the spectators, and those chiefly concerned in

his doings, had not observed his flight; like the dupes of a juggler, in

watching one thing they had missed another; and those who perforce had

seen his exit thought all was as it should be.

Across the room he ran, to a door leading into a passage. He traversed

this to the end, where a window gave upon the street. Through the window

ere he had time to think of possible broken bones, he hung from the

ledge, and dropped. The fall was from the second story only. He slipped

sidewise on alighting, jarred his elbow, and bruised his leg. But he was

up in a moment. The street was deserted,--everybody in the neighborhood

was at the play.

He looked in both directions, but saw no horse. Then he started on a

run, to make a circuit of the inn. If the horse was not in sight on one

side, it must be so on another. Fortune could not so cruelly will it

that when at last he had made the dash, performed the miracle, his

friends should, for the first time, fail him. He directed his steps so

as first to pass the inn gate, and be gone from it ere Barnet's men

should have time to sally out. This he accomplished, but without glimpse

of the horse. He turned into a street on the third side of the inn;

traversed it to its junction with a lane leading toward the side where

he had landed from the window; darted into this lane with the

fast-beating heart of a dying hope, passed half-way through it, glanced

with dreading eyes down a narrow passage conducting from it, and saw, in

a street beyond, the waiting horse.

How he covered the length of the passage, and vaulted into the saddle,

he never could recall. His first remembered impression, after sight of

the horse, was of being surrounded by Anne, Kit, and Anthony, all

mounted; and seeing Francis glide away afoot in quest of a horse for his

own riding. There was more gravity than joy in the faces of the three;

the sight of him alive and free of his guards was too marvellous for

outward rejoicing. Such joy is like passions, of which Raleigh wrote,

that they--

"... are likened best to floods and streams:

The shallow murmur, but the deep are dumb."

Anthony avoided Hal's glance by looking down; Kit Bottle cleared his

throat; from Anne's eyes there was the least gush of tears, and her

voice trembled as she spoke:

"God be thanked! I dared not hope for this!"

"Nor I," he replied. "Whither do we ride?"

"You, to the Lincolnshire coast, with Anthony. He knows secret ways of

embarkation to France."

"But you?--you waited with the horse, that you might ride with me, is't

not so?"

"No; that I might see all done, with mine own eyes, and you escaped.

Anthony has money for your needs to France. I will ride home, with

Captain Bottle and Francis. Tarry not another moment. You are to ride

first alone. Anthony will leave this town with us, and then make by

cross-ways to join you soon on the Stamford road. This paper tells where

one shall wait for the other, for Anthony may ride the faster, knowing

better the ways. I have writ it so, for greater surety and less delay.

Go now; here's money, of Anthony's lending. Nay, for God's sake, tarry

not!"

"But thou? When shall I see or hear?"

"Anthony will tell you how to send word. Tarry not, I entreat!"

"Thou'st been too good to me!"

"Nay, 'tis not goodness alone--"

And she finished with a look straight and deep into his eyes. He seized

her hand, and kissed it fervently.

"And thou'lt wait?" he whispered.

"Forever, if need!--but let it not be so long."

With his free hand, he grasped Kit Bottle's, and wrung from the old

soldier a husky "God bless thee, boy!" Then he spurred forward in the

direction silently pointed out by Anthony. At a bend of the street, he

turned in his saddle, and cast a look back. His friends were motionless

upon their horses, gazing after him with saddened, softened faces. A

slight movement of Mistress Hazlehurst's gloved hand, and his horse had

carried him from the scene; but he bore that scene ever in his heart's

eye, day and night, to the coast, which, thanks to his good start and

tireless riding, he reached uncaught; over sea to France, where Anthony

soon brought him into sight of Sir Valentine Fleetwood, who had arrived

at Dieppe not a day sooner than Hal had disembarked at Boulogne; in

Paris, where Hal got an honorable post in a great man's household

through the influence of Sir Valentine's wife,--for it turned out that

the knight, unknown to Queen Elizabeth, had a wife, after all, a French

lady whose virtue and beauty easily explained her husband's willingness

to save his life at another's risk.

She was of great wealth, and, it happened, of equal gratitude; whence it

fell out that, when Master Marryott returned to England, after the

accession of King James, he came as owner of an estate previously

purchased in his name by Anthony Underhill; an estate sold by the crown,

under confiscation,--no other estate, in fact, than that pertaining to

Foxby Hall, in Yorkshire.

Now it had come out that Mistress Hazlehurst's brother, before getting

himself killed by Sir Valentine Fleetwood, had overladen his estate with

debt, and, in conspiracy with his sister's man of business, had made way

with her portion also. When the courts of law had finally established

beyond doubt that she was penniless, Master Marryott was about returning

to his own country, fully informed, by Anne's correspondence, of the

state of her affairs. So there was afforded the unique spectacle of a

lady who had remained unmarried while she was supposably an heiress,

obtaining a husband the moment she was shown to be a beggar.

* * * * *

"I think, love," said Sir Harry (he was knighted under King James, on no

better pretext than having, with his own servants, rid the northern

counties of a famous robber called Rumney the Highway, whom Marryott's

man Bottle slew in single combat), "I think I will write my memoirs, as

everybody in France does." He sat idly touching a viol in an upper

window-seat of Foxby Hall, one summer evening, while Lady Marryott as

idly fingered a virginal near him.

"How now, Hal? Hast done aught wonderful in thy time? 'Faith, thou

shouldst have told me!"

"Rail an thou wilt, sweet! But there is much for wonder in the matter

that brought us together,--not in any doing of mine, forsooth, but in

Fortune's doing. For look you, had I not indeed tarried here that night

you counterfeited illness in this room, you might perforce have talked

with Roger Barnet ere the six days were done, and he have sent back to

Sir Valentine, who left not Fleetwood house till the last hour. Thus,

perchance, Sir Valentine had not escaped to France; had he not done so,

I had not fared well there, and met his lady, whose gratitude took the

shape of filling my purse. I had not then come back as owner of Foxby

Hall at the very time my love was disowned of Fortune. But for the sad

quarrel 'twixt your brother and Sir Valentine, and for my having taken

up the queen's thankless errand, I had not met you in the road that

night; but for the continuance of my pretence to be Sir Valentine, thou

hadst not followed me to the end we wot of."

The queen's death had unsealed his lips,--though only to his wife, who

was one woman that could keep a secret,--regarding her Majesty's

commission.

"Why, then," said Anne, "but for the queen's lingering love of the

knight, and but for her dread of seeming weak to her councillors,--for

that I will take oath was her reason,--we should not be here together

this moment. Ne'ertheless, 'twas a cruel queen, merely to save her pride

a brief unpleasantness, to send a young gentleman to risk his life!"

"Marry, Anne, I have heard of ladies who were not queens, sending great

lords further, for less! But look you, I took the errand for no reward,

being minded like to Master Spenser's knight:

"'Upon a great adventure he was bond.

That greatest Gloriana to him gave

(That greatest glorious Queen of Faerie land).

To win him worship, and her grace to have.'

"Nay, I know thou'lt say, much virtue in her grace! But bethink you, if

I looked for no other direct reward, and got none, neither did I look

for the indirect rewards Fortune took it on herself to pay me withal. If

I sought only the queen's grace, and mayhap received small share of

that, was I not put in the way of winning thy grace, my sweet, and of

all else I have?"

"Nay, perhaps Fortune had found other ways to bring these things to

thee. Look out of the window, Harry, and bid Kit Bottle not make little

Will run so fast. Thine old bully is the child's undoing!"

"Nay, the lad is safe with Kit; though indeed the old rascal spoils him

some. What was he doing yesterday, but teaching him to counterfeit

Anthony Underhill's psalm-singing? A steward of Anthony's years deserves

more courtesy."

"If the boy grow up as brave a gentleman as thou, Hal, I shall be

content. There be honors waiting for him in the world, I trow."

"Why, he hath some honor already, methinks, in being Will Shakespeare's

godson. 'Sooth, the players will not know him for the same lad when we

go again to London, he hath shot up so tall. But thou wert speaking of

that night, when thy feigned tears conquered me in this room--"

"Nay, thou wert speaking of it, love."

"Thou hast never told me; never have I dared ask: was--all--counterfeit

that night?"

"Why,--my lord,--the illness, indeed, was counterfeit; but the

kisses--though perhaps I had withheld them, save for my purpose--were

real enough. God wot, once my lips were loosed! And I marvel I could

still cling to my revenge, yet yield myself to thine arms so willingly!

Nay, Hal, there's no need to act the scene anew! Out on thee, madcap,

thou'st crushed my kirtle--!"

THE END.

NOTES.

NOTE 1. (Page 12.)

Mr. Fleay seems satisfied that 1601 was the year of the production of

Shakespeare's first "Hamlet." But he believes it was "hurriedly prepared

during the journey to Scotland," where the players had arrived by

October, when they were at Aberdeen. "In their travels this year they

visited the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, where they performed

'Julius Caesar' and 'Hamlet.'" That "Hamlet" was the second of these two

plays produced, seems evident from the allusion of "Corambis"

("Polonius") to his having played "Julius Caesar" at the University. But

this speech might have been added to the first version after its

original production, and before the publication in 1603 of the garbled

first quarto; for two plays whose London productions are assigned by

Fleay to 1601 ("Satiromastix" and "The Malcontent") contain allusions to

"Hamlet." If the lord chamberlain's company did not act again in London

in 1601 after its departure on its travels, how account for these

allusions, unless "Hamlet" had been acted in London before the company's

departure? Dr. Furnivall would forestall this question by saying that

"the 'Hamlet' allusions in and before 1602 are to an old play." But it

seems as fair to conjecture a slightly earlier production of the new

play, in accounting for these allusions, as a general revival of

interest in an old play; and the fact that the allusions are not true to

speeches actually occurring in Shakespeare's first "Hamlet" will not

weigh with those who consider the methods of satire and burlesque. The

lines in the play that seemingly attribute the company's travelling to

the popularity of the "little eyases" (the Chapel Royal children acting

at the Blackfriars Theatre) are rather such as would have been designed

for a London audience on the eve of the company's departure, as a

pretext for an exile due to royal disfavor, than for University

audiences, to whom the players would less willingly confess a waning of

London popularity; or than for a London audience after the company's

return, when the allusion, though still of interest, would be the less

likely to serve a purpose. The conclusion here driven at is, that Sir

Henry Marryott's narrative is not to be impugned because he places the

first "Hamlet" performance before the company's departure from London,

while the investigators place it after. Heaven forfend that, even on a

single unimportant question, the present writer should rush in where

angels fear to tread, to the arena of Shakespearean controversy, to

whose confusion even such a master as Mr. Saintsbury refrains from

adding!

NOTE 2. (Page 14.)

The occasion for the lord chamberlain's players to travel was one of the

numerous minor episodes of the Essex conspiracy. That plot to seize

Whitehall, and dictate a change of government to the queen, was hatched

at Drury House by the Earl of Essex and his friends, in January. Early

in February Essex was ordered to appear before the council, and he

received an anonymous letter of warning. It was decided that the rising

should occur Sunday, February 8th. On Thursday, February 5th, Essex's

friends went to the Globe Theatre to see Shakespeare's "Richard II."

performed,--a play affording them a kind of example for their intended

action. (In the trials in March, Meyrick was indicted for "having

procured the out-dated tragedy of 'Richard II.' to be publicly acted at

his own charge, for the entertainment of the conspirators.") Of the

shareholding members of the company of players, the one who had arranged

this performance was Augustine Phillips. The rising in London, when it

occurred, was abortive, and Essex was taken to the Tower, those of his

adherents who surrendered, or were caught, being distributed among

different London prisons. On February 18th, the confessions of several

of Essex's friends were taken. The next day, Essex and Southampton,

Shakespeare's friend, were brought before a commission of twenty-five

peers and nine judges, in Westminster Hall. Things were done

expeditiously in that reign: at 7 P.M., the same day, sentence of death

was pronounced upon Essex, and he was taken back to the Tower. Six days

later, February 25th, he was beheaded. Southampton was kept a long time

in prison. Four of Essex's associates were executed. One of several

remarkable features of this little affair was that the band of

conspirators included Catholics and Puritans, as well as men of the

established church. To return to the players: Mr. Fleay says it is

"clear that the subjects chosen for historical plays by Marlowe and

Shakespeare were unpopular at court, but approved of by the Essex

faction, and that at last the company incurred the serious displeasure

of the queen. So they did not perform at court at Christmas, 1601." In

the previous Christmas season, they had given three performances at

court. In Elizabeth's reign, this company acted at court twenty-eight

plays, twenty of which were by Shakespeare, eight by other men. This

shows that the age which could produce a Shakespeare could appreciate

him,--as somebody has said, or ought to have said.

NOTE 3. (Page 18.)

"Boys were regularly apprenticed to the profession in those days," says

the anonymous author of "Lights of the Old English Stage." "Each

principal was entitled to have a boy or apprentice, who played the young

and the female characters, and for whose services he received a certain

sum." This certain sum was, of course, paid out, like the rent and other

common expenses of the theatre, before money taken in was divided among

the different shareholders. All the principals were shareholders. The

Globe Theatre was owned by the Burbages. Hence Richard Burbage would

first receive rent, as owner of the playhouse, and would later receive

his part of the profits as a shareholder. As to these apprentices, one

finds mention of "coadjutors," "servitors," and "hired men," not to

speak of "tire-boys," "stage-boys," etc. Those boys that played female

parts must have played them effectively, notwithstanding the

unwillingness of Shakespeare's Egyptian queen to see, on the Roman

stage, "some squeaking Cleopatra boy my greatness." Else would

Shakespeare have dared to write, for acting, such parts as Juliet and

Beatrice, and, above all, such as Rosalind and Viola, in which a boy,

dressed as a boy, should yet have to seem a girl disguised? The

anonymous writer already quoted says of these boys: "Thus trained under

great masters, it is not to be wondered at that they grew up to be such

consummate masters of their art." It is well known that women did not

appear on the stage in England before 1662, forty-six years after

Shakespeare's death.

NOTE 4. (Page 19.)

If anybody supposes that Burbage would not be thought a great or a

finished actor, were he now alive and acting just as he did in his own

day, let that person read the various poems written at his death and

descriptive of the effect produced by him on his audiences. His Romeo

"begot tears." His Brutus and Marcius "charmed the faculty of ears and

eyes." "Every thought and mood might thoroughly from" his "face be

understood." "And his whole action he could change with ease, from

ancient Lear to youthful Pericles." In the part of the "grieved Moor,"

"beyond the rest he moved the heart." "His pace" suited with "his

speech," and "his every action" was "grace." His tongue was

"enchanting" and "wondrous." Bishop Corbet tells in verse how his host

at Leicester, in describing the battle of Bosworth field, used the name

of Burbage when he meant King Richard. Or let the skeptic read what

Flecknoe says: "He was a delightful Proteus, so wholly transforming

himself into his part, and putting off himself with his clothes, as he

never (not so much as in the tyring-house) assumed himself again until

the play was done.... His auditors" were "never more delighted than when

he spoke, nor more sorry than when he held his peace; yet even then he

was an excellent actor still, never failing in his part when he had done

speaking; but with his looks and gesture, maintaining it still unto the

height." His death, in 1618, so over-shadowed that of the queen of James

I., as a public calamity, that after weeping for him, the people had no

grief left for her Majesty.

NOTE 5. (Page 20.)

As to false beards worn on the stage at that time, recall Nick Bottom's

readiness to discharge the part of "Pyramus" in "either your straw-color

beard, your orange-tawny beard, your purple-in-grain beard, or your

French crown-color beard, your perfect yellow;" and, later, his

injunction to his fellow actors to get good strings to their beards;

regarding which injunction. George Steevens says: "As no false beard

could be worn without a ligature to fasten it on, Bottom's caution must

mean more than the mere security of his comrades' beards. The good

strings he recommends were probably ornamental. This may merely show

how little a former-day Shakespearean commentator might know of the

acting stage. A bad "ligature" might give way and make the actor

ridiculous by the sudden shedding of his beard. Such an accident was one

against which Bottom, being of an active jaw, might be particularly

precautious. In a full beard, ascending at the sides of the face to meet

the hair of the head, the ligature could be completely concealed. But

often glue was used, to fasten on false beards. "Some tinker's trull,

with a beard glued on," says a character in Beaumont and Fletcher's "The

Wild-Goose Chase." Sir Walter Raleigh wore a false beard in his betrayed

attempt to escape down the Thames, night of August 9, 1618. Real beards

of the time were of every form,--pointed, fan-shaped, spade-shaped,

T-shaped, often dyed.

NOTE 6. (Page 32.)

"Fencing was taught as a regular science," says George Steevens, in a

note to "The Merry Wives of Windsor." "Three degrees were usually taken

in this art, a master's, a provost's, and a scholar's. For each of these

a prize was played. The weapons they used were the axe, the pipe, rapier

and target, rapier and cloak, two-swords, the two-hand sword, the

bastard-sword, the dagger and staff, the sword and buckler, the rapier

and dagger, etc. The places where they exercised were, commonly,

theatres, halls, or other enclosures." A party of young gallants at a

tavern, says Thornbury, would often send for a fencing-master to come

and breathe them. The great dictator in fencing, duelling, etc., in

London, about 1600, was Vincentio Savolio, whose book on the "Use of the

Rapier and Dagger" and on "Honor and Honorable Quarrels" was printed in

London in 1595. The Dictionary of National Biography says he was born in

Padua, and, after obtaining a reputation as a fencer, came to England

and was taken into the service of the Earl of Essex. "In 'As You Like

It,' Touchstone's description of the various forms of a lie is obviously

based on Savolio's chapter 'Of the Manner and Diversitie of Lies.'"

Though a great swordsman, Savolio seems to have been anything but a

brawler, or an abettor of fighting. In his book he deprecates quarrels

upon insufficient causes.

NOTE 7. (Page 45.)

Nobody needs to be reminded that the original of Justice Shallow is

supposed to have been Sir Thomas Lucy, the knight of Charlecote Hall,

whose deer the legend has it Shakespeare stole; as steal them he

probably did, if deer there were to steal, and if Shakespeare was not

totally different from other boys with the opportunities for dangerous

frolic afforded by a rustic environment and a middle-class condition of

life. On this subject one might pleasurably re-read Washington Irving's

account (in "The Sketch Book") of his visit to Charlecote Hall.

Regarding the proneness of provincial great men to boast of their

wickedness in the metropolis, Falstaff hits off the type, as it is not

yet entirely dead, when he says of Shallow: "This same starved justice

hath done nothing but prate to me of the wildness of his youth, and the

feats he hath done about Turnbull Street: and every third word a lie,

duer paid to the hearer than the Turk's tribute." The rest of the

speech, wherein it is shown what figure Master Shallow really made in

Turnbull Street, is not here quotable; but it is none the less readable.

NOTE 8. (Page 46.)

One might fill pages with the mere names of the different

classifications of Elizabethan rogues, and of the several members of

each kind of gang. We have not at all advanced in thievery since

Elizabeth's day. The "confidence game" played by New York "crooks" on

visitors from the interior, this present year, was played under another

name, in Shakespeare's time. The "come-on" of present-day New York is

but the lineal descendant of the "cony" of Sixteenth Century London. Of

thieves, impostors, and beggars, a few of the varieties were: Rufflers,

upright men, hookers, wild rogues, priggers of prancers (horse-thieves),

pallyards, fraters, prigs, curtals, Irish rogues, ragmen, jackmen, abram

men, mad Toms of Bedlam, whipjacks, cranks, dommerers, glimmerers,

travelling tinkers, and counterfeit soldiers, besides the real soldiers

who turned to crime. "Laws were made against disbanded soldiers who took

to robbing and murder," says Thornbury; "and the pursuit by hue and cry,

on horse and foot, was rendered imperative in every township." There

were ferreters, falconers, shifters, rank riders,--the list is endless.

The generic name for gambling cheats was rooks, and these were divided

into puffs, setters, gilts, pads, biters, droppers, filers.

Gull-gropers were gamblers who hunted fools in the ordinaries

(eating-houses); each gang was composed of four men,--leader, eagle,

wood-pecker, gull-groper (this name serving for the variety as well as

for the species). A gambling gang with another method of operation was

made up of the setter or decoy duck, the verser and barnacle, the

accomplice, the rutter or bully. Some gamesters used women as decoys. Of

dice tricks, there were those known as topping, slurring, stabbing,

palming, knapping, besides various others. In addition to having all

these--and many more--varieties of rogues to support, the nation was

overrun with gipsies, who thieved in a world of ways. The whole

population of England in 1604 is said to have been only about 5,000,000;

that of London was little more than 150,000. And yet, the known rogues

being deducted, and the secret rogues, there seem to have been some

honest people left.

NOTE 9. (Page 48.)

The Marryott memoirs (chief source of this narrative), in recounting the

talk at the Mermaid, naturally do not pause to describe the tavern. The

slight description here given has had to be pieced together, of scraps

found in various places, one being a magazine article containing what

purport to be actual details, but which have the look of coming from

some bygone work of fiction. Stow, in his "Survay of London" (1598), has

nothing to say of the Mermaid; he twice mentions the "fair inns" in

Bread Street. I fancy that if there were anywhere the authentic

materials for a full description of the house, such zealous lighters-up

of the past as Besant (who in his "London" describes the Falcon but not

the Mermaid), F. F. Ordish ("Shakespeare's London," a charming little

book, inside and out), Loftie (in his excellent history of London).

Hubert Hall (who in his "Society in the Elizabethan Age" describes the

Tabard in Southwark but not the Mermaid), Walter Thornbury (whose two

volumes on the England of Shakespeare are rich especially on tavern

life, mainly as reflected in plays and pamphlets of the time). Edwin

Goadby (whose compact little book on the same subject is crowded with

matter), and the host of others, including the most recent biographers

of Shakespeare, would have found it out. A thing we certainly know of

the Mermaid, in addition to its location and its three entrances, is

that the wine and the wit there elicited from Francis Beaumont to Ben

Jonson these famous "Lines sent from the country with two unfinished

comedies, which deferred their merry meetings at the Mermaid:"

"In this warm shine

I lie and dream of your full Mermaid wine.

* * * * *

Methinks the little wit I had is lost.

Since I saw you, for wit is like a rest

Held up at tennis, which men do the best

With the best gamesters. What things have we seen

Done at the Mermaid! Heard words that have been

So nimble, and so full of subtle flame.

As if that every one from whence they came

Had meant to put his whole wit in a jest,

And had resolved to live a fool the rest

Of his dull life; than when there hath been thrown

Wit able enough to justify the town

For three days past, wit that might warrant be

For the whole city to talk foolishly.

Till that were cancelled; and when that was gone.

We left an air behind us, which alone

Was able to make the two next companies

Right witty, though but downright fools more wise."

NOTE 10. (Page 48.)

For the better observance of the Lenten statutes, in every ward of

London a jury was sworn, and charged by the aldermen, "for the true

inquisition of killing, selling, dressing, or eating of flesh this

present Lent, contrary to the laws and statutes of this realm and her

Majesty's proclamation and express commandment." In accordance with this

the jury "made diligent search divers and sundry times in all inns,

tabling-houses, taverns, cook-houses, and victualling-houses within

their ward," and thereupon either "resolved that they" had "not hitherto

found any to offend against these laws," or they presented the names of

those who had "so continued to offend, to the officer." Mr. Hubert Hall

says: "The non-observance of these fast-days was no slight matter. Not

only did the fisheries suffer in consequence, but the benefits of an

occasional variation of the interminable diet of salt beef and bad beer

must have been incalculable. The obligation of the crown toward one

class of its subjects may not have been economically imperative, but a

patriarchical government was bound to consult the welfare of each."

When Philip Sidney was at Oxford, his uncle solicited for him "a license

to eat flesh during Lent," he being "somewhat subject to sickness."

NOTE 11. (Page 50.)

According to Mr. Fleay, "Every Man out of His Humor," produced at the

Globe Theatre in 1599, was the first of Ben Jonson's personal satires

against his contemporaries. Jonson had to remove these satires to the

Blackfriars, that same year; when began the "war of the theatres," a war

conducted, through plays laden with personalities, by the writers and

actors of one theatre against the writers and actors of another. This

"war" seems to have endured till after the time of our narrative, and to

have died a natural death. Its most celebrated productions were Jonson's

"The Poetaster" and Thomas Dekker's reply thereto, "Satiromastix."

Jonson's "comical satires" were acted at the Blackfriars by the Chapel

Royal boys, the "little eyases" derided in "Hamlet." Mr. Fleay finds

that Jonson's satires were directed against Shakespeare as well as

against Dekker and Marston. Certain allusions and characters, in

Shakespeare's plays produced apparently about this time, have been taken

as his contributions to this war. With another rival company, also of

boys,--those of St. Paul's cathedral,--the lord chamberlain's players

were friendly. Mr. Saintsbury says that Jonson, Dekker, Chapman, and

Marston "were mixed up, as regards one another, in an extricable but not

uninteresting series of broils and friendships, to some part of which

Shakespeare himself was, it is clear, by no means a stranger." But he

observes that the direct connection of these quarrels, "even with the

literary work which is usually linked to them, will be better

established when critics have left being uncertain whether A was B, or

B, C." I have heard it suggested, in fun, that the war may have been a

device to stimulate public interest in the theatres. The Elizabethan age

had its visitations of the plague, and was therefore, by the not too

cruel dispensers of good and evil, spared the advertising malady of our

nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Should anything like this war of the

theatres occur to-day, it would not take a Scotland Yard or Mulberry

Street detective to smell out ulterior motives at the back of it. The

Elizabethans, besides their other advantages, enjoyed that of living too

soon to know or even foresee the crafty self-advertiser or the "clever

press agent;" else had there surely been an additional verse in their

Litany, followed by a most fervent "Good Lord, deliver us!"

NOTE 12. (Page 51.)

"But that a gentleman should turn player hath puzzled me." To make an

actor of a young gentleman, might, indeed, become a "Star Chamber

matter." Among other "misdemeanors not reducible to heads," given in a

Bodleian Library MS., entitled "A Short View of Criminal Cases

Punishable and Heretofore Punished in the Court of the Star Chamber in

the Times of Queen Elizabeth. King James, and His Late Majesty King

Charles," is this: "Taking up a gentleman's son to be a stage player."

See John S. Burn's notices of the "Star Chamber."

NOTE 13. (Page 56.)

All the world knows that in 1623, seven years after Shakespeare's death,

the first collected edition of his plays appeared, under the supervision

of, and from manuscripts provided by, Masters Heminge and Condell. "We

have but collected them," say they in their dedication inserted in the

subsequent folio (1632), "and done an office to the dead, to procure his

orphans, guardians; without ambition either of self-profit or fame: only

to keep the memory of so worthy a friend and fellow alive, as was our

Shakespeare." In the first folio are printed "The names of the principal

actors in all these plays." "William Shakespeare," heading the list, is

followed in order by "Richard Burbadge," "John Hemings," and "Augustine

Philips;" further down come "William Slye" and "Henry Condell." Harry

Marryott's association with the company was too brief, his position too

far from that of a "principal actor," for his name to be included in the

list.

NOTE 14. (Page 59.)

Shakespeare's London residence in October, 1598, was in the parish of

St. Helen's, Bishopsgate (Fleay, Ordish, and others). Countless

biographers make him a resident of the Southwark side of the river, as,

"He lived near the Bear Garden, Southwark, in 1596. In 1609 he occupied

a good house within the liberty of the Clink." "His house was somewhere

in Clink Street. As he grew more prosperous, he purchased a dwelling on

the opposite shore near the Wardrobe, but he does not seem to have

occupied it." But it turns out that William Shakespeare had two

brothers, either or both of whom dwelt in Southwark, a fact that

confuses the apparent evidence of his own residence there. His house in

Blackfriars, "near the Wardrobe," descended by will to his daughter,

Susannah Hall. His purchase of New Place, at Stratford, was made in

1597; but, though he may have at once installed his family there, he

certainly remained for some years afterward a Londoner.

NOTE 15. (Page 63.)

Turnbull Street was a notorious nest of women of ill fame, and of men

equally low in character. Falstaff's mention of it has been quoted in a

previous note. In Beaumont and Fletcher's burlesque, "The Knight of the

Burning Pestle," the speech of a prisoner, alluding to his fair

companion, contains this bit of humor:

"I am an errant knight that followed arms

With spear and shield; and in my tender years

I stricken was with Cupid's fiery shaft.

And fell in love with this my lady dear.

And stole her from her friends in Turnbull Street."

It was also known as Turnmill Street. "Turnemill Street," says Stow,

"which stretcheth up to the west of Clerkenwell" (from the "lane called

Cow Cross, of a cross sometime standing there").

NOTE 16. (Page 69.)

Concerning Queen Elizabeth's temper, there is, besides a wealth of other

evidence, this from the "Character of Queen Elizabeth," by Edmund Bohun,

Esq., published in Nichols's "Progresses and Public Processions of Queen

Elizabeth:" "She was subject to be vehemently transported with anger,

and when she was so, she would show it by her voice, her countenance,

and her hands. She would chide her familiar servants so loud, that they

that stood afar off might sometimes hear her voice. And it was reported

that for small offences she would strike her maids of honor with her

hand; but then her anger was short and very innocent. And when her

friends acknowledged their offences, she, with an appeased mind, easily

forgave them many things."

NOTE 17. (Page 78.)

The famous story of the ring is perhaps too well known to be repeated

here. The queen had once given the Earl of Essex a ring, which, if ever

sent to her as a token of his distress, "might entitle him to her

protection." While under sentence of death, the earl, looking out of his

prison window one morning, engaged a boy to carry the ring to Lady

Scroope, the Countess of Nottingham's sister, an attendant on the queen,

and to beg that she would present it to her Majesty. "The boy, by

mistake," continues Birch's version of the story, "carried it to the

Lady Nottingham, who showed it to her husband, the admiral, an enemy of

Lord Essex. The admiral forbid her to carry it, or return any answer to

the message, but insisted on her keeping the ring." When, two years

later, this countess was on her death-bed, she sent for the queen, told

her all, and begged forgiveness. "But her Majesty answered, 'God may

forgive you, but I never can,' and left the room with great emotion. Her

mind was so struck with the story, that she never went into bed, nor

took any sustenance from that instant, for Camden is of opinion that her

chief reason for suffering the earl to be executed was his supposed

obstinacy in not applying to her for mercy."

NOTE 18. (Page 80.)

Of one of Queen Elizabeth's most characteristic traits. Miss Aikin says:

"It has been already remarked that she was habitually, or

systematically, an enemy to matrimony in general; and the higher any

persons stood in her good graces, and the more intimate their

intercourse with her, the greater was her resentment at detecting in

them any aspirations after this state; for a kind of jealousy was in

these cases superadded to her malignity; and it offended her pride that

those who were honored with her favor should find room in their thoughts

to covet another kind of happiness, of which she was not the dispenser."

When Leicester married the widowed Countess of Essex, the queen had him

confined in a small fort in Greenwich Park, and would probably have sent

him to the Tower, but that the Earl of Sussex dissuaded. Later, when

Essex married Sir Philip Sidney's widow, Walsingham's daughter,

Elizabeth showed rage and chagrin in a degree only less than in the case

of Leicester. One of her attendants wrote, "Yet she doth use it more

temperately than was thought for, and, God be thanked, doth not strike

at all she threats." Both these marriages were conducted secretly, and

without previous request for the permission her Majesty would have

refused. So was that of Southampton, in 1598, by which that nobleman so

incurred the queen's displeasure that, when she heard that Essex,

commanding the troops in Ireland, had appointed him general of the

horse, she reprimanded and ordered Essex to recall his commission. It

was her unhappy fate that all her favorites, save Hatton, should marry.

NOTE 19. (Page 82.)

"She was jealous of her reputation with the old and cool-headed lords

about her," writes Leigh Hunt, of Elizabeth at the time of the Essex

conspiracy. That she had grown loath to betray the weaknesses which in

earlier years she had made no attempt to conceal, is to be inferred also

from the lessening degrees of wrath she evinced as her favorites, one

after another, married; and from Bohun's statement, regarding her anger,

that "she learned from Xenophon's book of the Institution of Cyrus, the

method of curbing and correcting this unruly passion." A wonderfully

human and pathetic figure: the vain woman whose glass belied the gross

flattery of her courtiers, yet who could delude herself into believing

them sincere; the "greatest Gloriana" whose worshippers declared her

favor their breath of life, yet risked it for the smiles of mere

gentlewomen; the stateswoman, wise enough to see her kingdom's future

safety in the death of her beautiful rival, courageous enough to

sanction that death, weak enough to shift the blame on poor Davison; the

queen, who could say on horseback, to her "loving people," "I know I

have but the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart of a

king, and of a king of England, too, and think foul scorn that Parma, or

Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my

realms;" and yet had to study in a classic author, how to keep from

slapping the faces of her maids!

NOTE 20. (Page 85.)

The pursuivants who, in this and the next reign, executed warrants of

arrest, are not to be confused with the pursuivants of the Heralds'

College. "Send for his master with a pursuivant, presently," orders

Suffolk, concerning an apprentice's master accused of treason, in "Henry

VI., Part II." It is of these pursuivants that Hume writes as follows,

concerning persons who sued great lords for debt in Elizabeth's reign:

"It was usual to send for people by pursuivants, a kind of harpies, who

then attended the orders of the council and high commission; and they

were brought up to London, and constrained by imprisonment, not only to

withdraw their lawful suits, but also to pay the pursuivants great sums

of money." The pursuivant, with his warrants, proclamations, and his

constant "In the queen's name," is a familiar figure in Elizabethan

literature. In Sir Valentine Fleetwood's case, the council would have

been perhaps equally or more in custom had it entrusted the prisoner's

conveyance to London to some gentleman of equal rank to his.

NOTE 21. (Page 86.)

In telling Marryott that she was "not wont to go so strong in purse,"

the queen spoke figuratively, rather than meant that she had for once

assumed the functions of purse-bearer, or that a purse habitually

carried by her was now uncommonly well provided. True, either of these

may have been the case. Shakespeare must have modelled the minor habits

of his queens somewhat upon those of Elizabeth; and he makes Cleopatra

give a messenger gold, presumably with her own hand. But Elizabeth's

allusion was to her poverty, and in keeping with her extreme economy,

concerning which Hume says: "But that in reality there was little or no

avarice in the queen's temper, appears from this circumstance, that she

never amassed any treasure, and even refused subsidies from the

Parliament, when she had no present occasion for them. Yet we must not

conclude that her economy proceeded from a tender concern for her

people; she loaded them with monopolies and exclusive patents. The real

source of her frugal conduct was derived from her desire of

independency, and her care to preserve her dignity, which would have

been endangered had she reduced herself to the necessity of having

frequent recourse to Parliamentary supplies. The splendor of a court

was, during this age, a great part of the public charge; and as

Elizabeth was a single woman, and expensive in no kind of magnificence

except clothes, this circumstance enabled her to perform great things by

her narrow revenue. She is said to have paid four millions of debt, left

on the crown by her father, brother, and sister,--an incredible sum for

that age."

NOTE 22. (Page 87.)

Elizabeth's forenoons, according to Bohun, were usually thus passed:

"First in the morning, she spent some time at her devotions; then she

betook herself to the despatch of her civil affairs, reading letters,

ordering answers, considering what should be brought before the council,

and consulting with her ministers. When she had thus wearied herself,

she would walk in a shady garden, or pleasant gallery, without any other

attendance than that of a few learned men. Then she took her coach, and

passed in sight of her people to the neighboring groves and fields; and

sometimes would hunt or hawk. There was scarce a day but she employed

some part of it in reading and study."

NOTE 23. (Page 92.)

"The circuit of the wall of London on the land side" (writes Stow in

1598), "to wit, from the Tower of London in the east unto Aldgate, is 82

perches; from Aldgate to Bishopsgate, 86 perches; from Bishopsgate in

the north, to the postern of Cripplegate, 162 perches; from Cripplegate

to Aldersgate, 75 perches; from Aldersgate to Newgate, 66 perches; from

Newgate in the west, to Ludgate, 42 perches; in all, 513 perches of

assize. From Ludgate to the Fleet Dike west, about 60 perches; from

Fleet Bridge south, to the river Thames, about 70 perches; and so the

total of these perches amounteth to 643, ... w hich make up two English

miles, and more by 608 feet." The gates here mentioned, as Besant says,

"still stood, and were closed at sunset, until 1760. Then they were all

pulled down, and the materials sold." Even in Stow's time, the city had

much outgrown its walls; of its outer part, the highways leading to the

country had post-and-chain bars, which were closed at night.

NOTE 24. (Page 100.)

Plays of the time, notably Ben Jonson's "Bartholomew Fair," show in what

contempt and ridicule the first Puritans were held. Shakespeare's

Malvolio, as Maria says, is "sometimes a kind of Puritan." The attitude

of the obtrusive kind of Puritanism to the world, and of the world to

that kind of Puritanism, is expressed once and forever in what Hazlitt

terms Sir Toby's "unanswerable answer" to Malvolio, "Dost thou think,

because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?" Though

fellow sufferers of governmental severity, the Catholics and Puritans

were no less naturally antipathetic to each other. Ben Jonson, satirist

of the Puritans, was, in his time, alternately Catholic and Anglican.

But if the government, in support of the established church, was

outwardly severe against the Puritans, they had much covert protection

at court, some of the chief lords and ministers inclining their way. As

to the quality of voice affected by these early Puritans in their

devotions, recall the clown's speech in the "Winter's Tale:" "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."

NOTE 25. (Page 131.)

The Babington conspiracy gave the occasion for removing that constant

menace to England's future peace,--Mary Stuart. The skill with which Sir

Francis Walsingham possessed himself, one by one, of the secrets of the

conspirators, and nursed the plot forward until he had complete evidence

of every participant's guilt, and of Mary's complicity, is fascinating

to study. Mary of course, as an unwilling prisoner, had a perfect moral

right to plot for herself; but she knew what she risked in doing so, and

she and her adherents ran against their fatal rock in Walsingham. This

man's journal is characteristic of himself: merely the briefest entries,

of this messenger's arrival from France, or that one's departure for the

Low Countries, or of a letter from X, or an order transmitted to B. What

news the messengers brought, what the letters told, or the orders were,

is not confided to the paper. In vigilance and craft, he was the

Elizabethan predecessor of Richelieu and Fouche; yet a quiet, virtuous

man, who loved his wife, died poor, and leaned toward Puritanism. His

spy system has excited the righteous horror of certain historians who

would never have ceased to admire it, had it been exercised for, not

against, their heroine, Mary Stuart. His own direct instruments served

him better than he was served by the rank and file of the law's

servants, as this letter to him, from Lord Burleigh, August 10, 1586,

shows: "As I came from London homeward in my coach, I saw at every

town's end, a number of ten or twelve, standing with long staves, and

until I came to Enfield I thought no other of them but that they had

staid for the avoiding of the rain, or to drink at some ale-houses, for

so they did stand under pentices at ale-houses; but at Enfield, finding

a dozen in a plump, when there was no rain, I bethought myself that they

were appointed as watchmen for the apprehending of such as are missing;

and thereupon I called some of them to me apart, and asked them

wherefore they stood there, and one of them answered, to take three

young men; and, demanding how they should know the persons, one answered

with the words, 'Marry, my lord, by intelligence of their favor.' 'What

mean you by that?' 'Marry,' said they, 'one of the parties hath a hooked

nose.' 'And have you,' quoth I,'no other mark?' 'No,' said they. And

then I asked who appointed them, and they answered one Banks, a head

constable, whom I willed to be sent to me. Surely, sir, whosoever had

the charge from you hath used the matter negligently; for these watchmen

stand so openly in plumps as no suspected person will come near them,

and if they be no better instructed but to find three persons by one of

them having a hooked nose, they may miss thereof. And this I thought

good to advertise you, that the justices who had the charge, as I think,

may use the matter more circumspectly." Harrison (writing 1577-87)

complains of the laxity of these lesser arms of the law, saying: "That

when hue and cry have been made even to the faces of some constables,

they have said, 'God restore your loss! I have other business at this

time.'"

NOTE 26. (Page 229.)

"But now of late years," writes Stow (1598), "the use of coaches,

brought out of Germany, is taken up, and made so common, as there is

neither distinction of time nor difference of persons observed; for the

world runs on wheels with many whose parents were glad to go on foot."

As to their rate of travel, Mr. Goadby instances that Mary, Queen of

Scots, was from early morning to late evening of a January day, in going

from Bolton Castle to Ripon, sixteen miles. Charles Dudley Warner (in

"The People for Whom Shakespeare Wrote") says that, in 1640. Queen

Henrietta was four days on the way from Dover to London, the best road

in England (distance, 71 miles); and quotes the Venetian ambassador,

whose journey to Oxford and back (in all, 150 miles, as he travelled)

consumed six days, his coach often sticking in the mud, and once

breaking down. Queen Mary had established a kind of postal service.

Elizabeth had a postmaster-general in 1581. After the Armada, a

horse-post was ordered established in every town, a foot-post (to live

near the church) in every parish. But letter-writers usually sent their

own messengers, or relied on the slow carriers' wagons.

NOTE 27. (Page 255.)

In this reign, many were the cases wherein people took vengeance into

their own hands, in true feudal fashion, whether from the heat of their

impulses, or in view of that "bad execution of the laws" and "neglect of

police," for which Hume found it not easy to account. Miss Aikin gives

an instance, arising from a long-standing feud between two proud

families. Orme, a servant of Sir John Holles, killed in a duel the

master of horse to the Earl of Shrewsbury. "The earl prosecuted Orme,

and sought to take away his life; but Sir John Holles caused him to be

conveyed away to Ireland, and afterward obtained his pardon of the

queen. For his conduct in this business, he was himself challenged by

Gervase Markham, champion and gallant to the Countess of Shrewsbury; but

Holles refused the duel, because the demand of Markham, that it should

take place in a park belonging to the earl, his enemy, gave him ground

to apprehend treachery. Anxious, however, to wipe away the aspersions

cast upon his courage, he sought a reencounter which might wear the

appearance of accident; and soon after he met Markham on the road, when

the parties immediately dismounted and attacked each other with their

rapiers; Markham fell, severely wounded; and the Earl of Shrewsbury lost

no time in raising his servants and tenantry to the number of 120, in

order to apprehend Holles, in case Markham's hurt should prove fatal.

On the other side Lord Sheffield, the kinsman of Holles, joined him with

sixty men; and he and his company remained at Houghton till the wounded

man was out of danger. We do not find the queen and council interfering

to put a stop to this private war." Markham, who wrote the poem on the

last fight of "The Revenge," is a minor but prolific figure in

Elizabethan literature.

NOTE 28. (Page 266.)

Moll Cutpurse, whose real name was Mary Frith, a shoemaker's daughter,

born probably in 1584, is described by her biographer as in her girlhood

a "very tomrig or rumpscuttle" who "delighted and sported only in boy's

plays and costume." She was put to domestic service, but her calling lay

not in tending children. She donned man's attire and found true outlet

for her talents as a "bully, pick-purse, fortune-teller, receiver, and

forger." She is the heroine of Middleton and Dekker's breezy comedy,

"The Roaring Girl" (1611), and of a work thus entered on the Stationers'

Register in August, 1610: "A Booke called the Madde Prancks of Merry

Mall of the Bankside, with her walkes in Man's Apparel, and to what

purpose. Written by John Day." Her career is set forth in the very

interesting "Lives of Twelve Bad Women," recently published in a

beautiful edition.

NOTE 29. (Page 314.)

The use of firearms was slow work in the earlier centuries. Concerning

the wheel-lock, invented in 1515, at Nuremburg, Greener says: "When

ready for firing, the wheel was wound up, the flash-pan lid pushed back,

and the pyrites held in the cock allowed to come in contact with the

wheel. By pressure on the trigger a stop was drawn back out of the

wheel, and the latter, turning round its pivot at considerable speed,

produced sparks by the friction against the pyrites, and thus ignited

the priming." "We find the greater portion of the pistols of the

sixteenth and seventeenth centuries fitted with wheel-locks."

Wheel-locks being expensive, the old match-locks, as a rule, were still

fitted to the longer firearms, such as the arquebus, of which Greener

says: "The slow match is kept burning in a holder on the top of the

barrel; the flash-pan and touch-hole are at the side. The serpentine is

hung upon a pivot passing through the stock, and continued past the

pivot, forming a lever for the hand. To discharge the piece, the match

in the serpentine is first brought into contact with the burning match

on the barrel until ignited; then by raising the lever and moving it to

one side, the serpentine is brought into the priming in the touch-hole,

and the gun discharged,--though it is highly probable that the first

arquebuses did not carry the fire in a holder on the barrel, but only

the match in the serpentine." "All the early firearms were so slow to

load, that, as late as the battle of Kuisyingen in 1636, the slowest

soldiers managed to fire seven shots only during eight hours."

NOTE 30. (Page 374.)

In London the playhouses were allowed to be open in Lent on all days

but sermon days,--Wednesday and Friday. In 1601, Lent began February

25th; Easter Sunday was April 12th. The historical year--conforming to

our present calendar--is here meant. The civil year then began March

25th.

* * * * *

_SELECTIONS FROM

L.C. PAGE AND COMPANY'S

LIST OF FICTION_

[Illustration]

* * * * *

Selections from

L. C. Page and Company's

List of fiction

[Illustration]

=An Enemy to the King.= (_Twentieth Thousand._)

From the Recently Discovered Memoirs of the Sieur de la Tournoire. By

ROBERT NEILSON STEPHENS. Illustrated by H. De M. Young.

1 vol., lib. 12mo, cloth =$1.25=

"Brilliant as a play; it is equally brilliant as a romantic

novel."--_Philadelphia Press._

"Those who love chivalry, fighting, and intrigue will find it, and

of good quality, in this book."--_New York Critic._

=The Continental Dragoon.= (_Eighteenth Thousand._)

A Romance of Philipse Manor House, in 1778. By ROBERT NEILSON STEPHENS,

author of "An Enemy to the King." Illustrated by H. C. Edwards.

1 vol., lib. 12mo, cloth =$1.50=

"It has the sterling qualities of strong dramatic writing, and

ranks among the most spirited and ably written historical romances

of the season. An impulsive appreciation of a soldier who is a

soldier, a man who is a man, a hero who is a hero, is one of the

most captivating of Mr. Stephens's charms of manner and

style."--_Boston Herald._

=The Road to Paris.= (_Sixteenth Thousand._)

By ROBERT NEILSON STEPHENS, author of "An Enemy to the King," "The

Continental Dragoon," etc. Illustrated by H. C. Edwards.

1 vol., lib. 12mo, cloth =$1.50=

"Vivid and picturesque in style, well conceived and full of action,

the novel is absorbing from cover to cover."--_Philadelphia Public

Ledger._

"In the line of historical romance, few books of the season will

equal Robert Neilson Stephens's 'The Road to Paris.'"--_Cincinnati

Times-Star._

=A Gentleman Player.=

His Adventures on a Secret Mission for Queen Elizabeth. By ROBERT

NEILSON STEPHENS, author of "An Enemy to the King," "The Continental

Dragoon," "The Road to Paris," etc. Illustrated by Frank T. Merrill.

1 vol., lib. 12mo, cloth, 450 pages =$1.50=

"A Gentleman Player" is a romance of the Elizabethan period. It

relates the story of a young gentleman who, in the reign of

Elizabeth, falls so low in his fortune that he joins Shakespeare's

company of players, and becomes a friend and protege of the great

poet. Throughout the course of his adventures the hero makes use of

his art as an actor and his skill as a swordsman, and the

denouement of the plot is brought about by means of a performance

by Shakespeare's company of a play in an inn yard.

=Rose a Charlitte.= (_Eighth Thousand._)

An Acadien Romance. By MARSHALL SAUNDERS, author of "Beautiful Joe,"

etc. Illustrated by H. De M. Young.

1 vol., lib. 12mo, cloth =$1.50=

"A very fine novel we unhesitatingly pronounce it ... one of the

books that stamp themselves at once upon the imagination and remain

imbedded in the memory long after the covers are

closed."--_Literary World, Boston._

=Deficient Saints.=

A Tale of Maine. By MARSHALL SAUNDERS, author of "Rose a Charlitte,"

"Beautiful Joe," etc. Illustrated by Frank T. Merrill.

1 vol., lib. 12mo, cloth, 400 pages =$1.50=

In this story Marshall Saunders follows closely the fortunes of a

French family whose history is bound up with that of the old

Pine-tree State. These French people become less and less French

until, at last, they are Americans, intensely loyal to their State

and their country. Although "Deficient Saints" is by no means a

historical novel, frequent references are made to the early

romantic history of Maine.

=Her Sailor.= (_In Press._)

A Novel. By MARSHALL SAUNDERS, author of "Rose a Charlitte," "Beautiful

Joe," etc. Illustrated.

1 vol., lib. 12mo, cloth, 250 pages =$1.25=

A story of modern life of great charm and pathos, dealing with the

love affairs of a Canadian girl and a naval officer.

=Midst the Wild Carpathians.=

By MAURUS JOKAI, author of "Black Diamonds." "The Lion of Janina," etc.

Authorized translation by R. Nisbet Bain. Illustrated by J. W. Kennedy.

1 vol., lib. 12mo, cloth =$1.25=

"The story is absorbingly interesting and displays all the virility

of Jokai's powers, his genius of description, his keenness of

characterization, his subtlety of humor and his consummate art in

the progression of the novel from one apparent climax to

another."--_Chicago Evening Post._

=Pretty Michal.=

A Romance of Hungary. By MAURUS JOKAI, author of "Black Diamonds," "The

Green Book," "Midst the Wild Carpathians," etc. Authorized translation

by R. Nisbet Bain. Illustrated with a photogravure frontispiece of the

great Magyar writer.

1 vol., lib. 12mo, cloth decorative, 325 pages =$1.50=

"It is at once a spirited tale of 'border chivalry,' a charming

love story full of genuine poetry, and a graphic picture of life in

a country and at a period both equally new to English

readers."--_Literary World, London._

=In Kings' Houses.=

A Romance of the Reign of Queen Anne. By JULIA C. R. DORR, author of "A

Cathedral Pilgrimage," etc. Illustrated by Frank T. Merrill.

1 vol., lib. 12mo, cloth =$1.50=

"We close the book with a wish that the author may write more

romance of the history of England which she knows so

well."--_Bookman, New York._

"A fine strong story which is a relief to come upon. Related with

charming simple art."--_Philadelphia Public Ledger._

=Manders.=

A Tale of Paris. By ELWYN BARRON. Illustrated.

1 vol., lib. 12mo, cloth, 350 pages =$1.50=

"Bright descriptions of student life in Paris, sympathetic views of

human frailty, and a dash of dramatic force, combine to form an

attractive story. The book contains some very strong scenes, plenty

of life and color, and a pleasant tinge of humor. ... It has grip,

picturesqueness, and vivacity."--_The Speaker (London)._

"A study of deep human interest, in which pathos and humor both

play their parts. The descriptions of life in the Quartier Latin

are distinguished for their freshness and liveliness."--_St. James

Gazette (London)._

"A romance sweet as violets."--_Town Topics (New York)._

=In Old New York.= (_In Press._)

A Romance. By WILSON BARRETT, author of "The Sign of the Cross," etc.,

and ELWYN BARRON, author of "Manders." Illustrated.

1 vol., lib. 12mo, cloth, 350 pages =$1.50=

A historical romance of great vigor and interest. The collaboration

of Mr. Barrett with Mr. Barron, the successful author of "Manders,"

is a sufficient guarantee of the production of a volume of fiction

which will take very high rank.

=Omar the Tentmaker.=

A Romance of Old Persia. By NATHAN HASKELL DOLE. Illustrated by F. T.

Merrill.

1 vol., lib. 12mo, cloth =$1.50=

"The story itself is beautiful and it is beautifully written. It

possesses the true spirit of romance, and is almost poetical in

form. The author has undoubtedly been inspired by his admiration

for the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam to write this story of which Omar

is the hero."--_Troy Times._

"Mr. Dole has built a delightful romance."--_Chicago Chronicle._

"It is a strong and vividly written story, full of the life and

spirit of romance."--_New Orleans Picayune._

=The Golden Dog.=

A Romance of Quebec. By WILLIAM KIRBY. New authorized edition.

Illustrated by J. W. Kennedy.

1 vol., lib. 12mo, cloth =$1.25=

"A powerful romance of love, intrigue, and adventure in the time of

Louis XV, and Mme. de Pompadour, when the French colonies were

making their great struggle to retain for an ungrateful court the

fairest jewels in the colonial diadem of France."--_New York

Herald._

=The Making of a Saint.=

By W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM. Illustrated by Gilbert James.

1 vol., lib. 12mo, cloth =$1.50=

"An exceedingly strong story of original motive and design.... The

scenes are imbued with a spirit of frankness ... and in addition

there is a strong dramatic flavor."--_Philadelphia Press._

"A sprightly tale abounding in adventures, and redolent of the

spirit of mediaeval Italy."--_Brooklyn Times._

=Friendship and Folly.=

A novel. By MARIA LOUISE POOL, author of "Dally," "A Redbridge

Neighborhood," "In a Dike Shanty," etc. Illustrated by J. W. Kennedy.

1 vol., lib. 12mo, cloth =$1.25=

"The author handles her elements with skillful fingers--fingers

that feel their way most truthfully among the actual emotions and

occurrences of nineteenth century romance. Hers is a frank,

sensitive touch, and the result is both complete and full of

interest."--_Boston Ideas._

"The story will rank with the best previous work of this

author."--_Indianapolis News._

=The Knight of King's Guard.=

A Romance of the Days of the Black Prince. By EWAN MARTIN. Illustrated

by Gilbert James.

1 vol., lib. 12mo, cloth, 300 pages =$1.50=

An exceedingly well written romance, dealing with the romantic

period chronicled so admirably by Froissart. The scene is laid at a

border castle between England and Scotland, the city of London, and

on the French battle-fields of Cressy and Poitiers. Edward the

Third. Queen Philippa, the Black Prince, Bertrand du Guesclin, are

all historical characters, accurate reproductions of which give

life and vitality to the romance. The character of the hero is

especially well drawn.

=The Rejuvenation of Miss Semaphore.=

A farcical novel. By HAL GODFREY. Illustrated by Etheldred B. Barry.

1 vol., lib. 12mo, cloth =$1.25=

"A fanciful, laughable tale of two maiden sisters of uncertain age

who are induced, by their natural longing for a return to youth and

its blessings, to pay a large sum for a mystical water which

possesses the value of setting backwards the hands of time. No more

delightfully fresh and original book has appeared since 'Vice

Versa' charmed an amused world. It is well written, drawn to the

life, and full of the most enjoyable humor."--_Boston Beacon._

=Cross Trails.=

By VICTOR WAITE. Illustrated by J. W. Kennedy.

1 vol., lib. 12mo, cloth =$1.50=

"A Spanish-American novel of unusual interest, a brilliant,

dashing, and stirring story, teeming with humanity and life. Mr.

Waite is to be congratulated upon the strength with which he has

drawn his characters."--_San Francisco Chronicle._

"Every page is enthralling."--_Academy._

"Full of strength and reality."--_Athenaeum._

"The book is exceedingly powerful."--_Glasgow Herald._

=The Paths of the Prudent.=

By J. S. FLETCHER, author of "When Charles I. was King," "Mistress

Spitfire," etc. Illustrated by J. W. Kennedy.

1 vol., lib. 12mo, cloth, 300 pages =$1.50=

"The story has a curious fascination for the reader, and the theme

and characters are handled with rare ability."--_Scotsman._

"Dorinthia is charming. The story is told with great humor."--_Pall

Mall Gazette._

"An excellently well told story, and the reader's interest is

perfectly sustained to the very end."--_Punch._

=Bijli the Dancer.=

By JAMES BLYTHE PATTON. Illustrated by Horace Van Rinth.

1 vol., lib. 12mo, cloth =$1.50=

"A novel of Modern India.... The fortunes of the heroine, an Indian

Nautch girl, are told with a vigor, pathos, and a wealth of poetic

sympathy that makes the book admirable from first to

last."--_Detroit Free Press._

"A remarkable book."--_Bookman._

"Powerful and fascinating."--_Pall Mall Gazette._

"A vivid picture of Indian life."--_Academy (London)._

=Drives and Puts.=

A Book of Golf Stories. By WALTER CAMP and LILLIAN BROOKS. Illustrated.

1 vol., lib. 12mo, cloth decorative =$1.50=

Considering the great and growing interest in golf,--perhaps the

king of sports,--this volume, written by Walter Camp, the eminent

authority on sports, in collaboration with Lillian Brooks, the well

known writer of short stories, is sure to be a success.

="To Arms!"=

Being Some Passages from the Early Life of Allan Oliphant, Chirurgeon,

Written by Himself, and now Set Forth for the First Time. By ANDREW

BALFOUR. Illustrated by F. W. Glover.

1 vol., lib. 12mo, cloth =$1.50=

"A tale of 'Bonnie Tweedside,' and St. Dynans and Auld Reekie,--a

fair picture of the country under misrule and usurpation and all

kinds of vicissitudes. Allan Oliphant is a great hero."--_Chicago

Times-Herald._

"A recital of thrilling interest, told with unflagging

vigor."--_Globe._

"An unusually excellent example of a semi-historic

romance."--_World._

=The River of Pearls=; OR, THE RED SPIDER.

(_In Press._) A Chinese Romance. By RENE DE PONT-JEST, with sixty

illustrations from original drawings by Felix Regamey.

1 vol., lib. 12mo, cloth, 300 pages =$1.50=

Close acquaintance with the manners and customs of the Chinese has

enabled the author to write a story which is instructive as well as

interesting. The book, as a whole, shows the writer to be possessed

of a strong descriptive faculty, as well as keen insight into the

characters of the people of whom he is writing. The plot is

cleverly conceived and well worked out, and the story abounds with

incidents of the most exciting and sensational character. Enjoyment

of its perusal is increased by the powerful illustrations of Felix

Regamey.

The book may be read with profit by any one who wishes to realize

the actual condition of native life in China.

=Frivolities.=

Especially Addressed to Those who are Tired of being Serious. By

RICHARD MARSH, author of "Tom Ossington's Ghost," etc.

1 vol., lib. 12mo, cloth, 340 pages =$1.50=

A dozen stories in an entirely new vein for Mr. Marsh. The humor is

irresistible, and carries the reader on breathlessly from one laugh

to another. The style, though appealing to a totally different side

of complex human nature, is as strong and effective as the author's

intense and dramatic work in "Tom Ossington's Ghost."

=Via Lucis.=

By KASSANDRA VIVARIA. With portrait of the author.

1 vol., lib. 12mo, cloth =$1.50=

"'Via Lucis' is--we say it unhesitatingly--a striking and

interesting production."--_London Athenaeum._

"Without doubt the most notable novel of the summer is this strong

story of Italian life, so full of local color one can almost see

the cool, shaded patios and the flame of the pomegranate blossom,

and smell the perfume of the grapes growing on the hillsides. It is

a story of deep and passionate heart interests, of fierce loves and

fiercer hates, of undisciplined natures that work out their own

bitter destiny of woe. There has hardly been a finer piece of

portraiture than that of the child Arduina,--the child of a sickly

and unloved mother and a cruel and vindictive father,--a morbid,

queer, lonely little creature, who is left to grow up without love

or training of any kind."--_New Orleans Picayune._

=Lally of the Brigade.=

A Romance of the Irish Brigade in France during the Time of Louis the

Fourteenth. By L. MCMANUS, author of "The Silk of the Kine," "The Red

Star," etc. Illustrated.

1 vol., lib. 12mo, cloth, 250 pages =$1.25=

The scene of this romance is partly at the siege of Crimona (held

by the troops of Louis XIV.) by the Austrian forces under Prince

Eugene. During the siege the famous Irish Brigade renders valiant

service, and the hero--a dashing young Irishman--is in the thick of

the fighting. He is also able to give efficient service in

unravelling a political intrigue, in which the love affairs of the

hero and the heroine are interwoven.

=Sons of Adversity.=

A Romance of Queen Elizabeth's Time. By L. COPE CORNFORD, author of

"Captain Jacobus," etc. Illustrated by J. W. Kennedy.

1 vol., lib. 12mo, cloth =$1.25=

"A tale of adventure on land and sea at the time when Protestant

England and Catholic Spain were struggling for naval supremacy.

Spanish conspiracies against the peace of good Queen Bess, a vivid

description of the raise of the Spanish siege of Leyden by the

combined Dutch and English forces, sea fights, the recovery of

stolen treasure, are all skilfully woven elements in a plot of

unusual strength."--_Pittsburg Bulletin._

=The Archbishop's Unguarded Moment.=

By OSCAR FAY ADAMS. Illustrated.

1 vol., lib. 12mo, cloth decorative =$1.25=

Mr. Adams is well known as a writer of short stories. As the title

indicates, these stories deal with dignitaries of the Episcopal

Church. The mingled pathos and humor, which Mr. Adams has handled

so admirably in describing his characters, make a book of more than

average interest for the reader of fiction.

=Captain Fracasse.=

Translated from the French of Gautier. By ELLEN MURRAY BEAM.

Illustrated by Victor A. Searles.

1 vol., lib. 12mo, cloth =$1.25=

"The story is one of the best in romantic fiction, for upon it

Gautier lavished his rare knowledge of the twelfth century."--_San

Francisco Chronicle._

"One of those rare stories in which vitality is abundant."--_New

York Herald._

=The Count of Nideck.=

From the French of Erckmann-Chatrian, translated and adapted by RALPH

BROWNING FISKE. Illustrated by Victor A. Searles.

1 vol., lib. 12mo, cloth =$1.25=

"'The Count of Nideck,' adapted from the French of

Erckmann-Chatrian by Ralph Browning Fiske, is a most interesting

tale, simply told, and moving with direct force to the end in

view."--_Minneapolis Times._

"Rapid in movement, it abounds in dramatic incident, furnishes

graphic descriptions of the locality and is enlivened with a very

pretty love story."--_Troy Budget._

=Muriella=; OR, LE SELVE.

By OUIDA. Illustrated by M. B. Prendergast.

1 vol., lib. 12mo, cloth =$1.25=

"Ouida's literary style is almost perfect in 'Muriella.'"--_Chicago

Times-Herald._

"'Muriella' is an admirable example of the author's best

work."--_Brooklyn Times._

"It dwells in the memory, and bears the dramatic force, tragic

interest, and skilfulness of treatment that mark the work of Ouida

when at her best."--_Pittsburg Bulletin._

=Bobbie McDuff.=

By CLINTON ROSS, author of "The Scarlet Coat." "Zuleika," etc.

Illustrated by B. West Clinedinst.

1 vol., large 16mo, cloth =$1.00=

"'Bobbie McDuff,' by Clinton Ross, is a healthy romance, tersely

and vigorously told."--_Louisville Courier-Journal._

"It is full of mystery and as fascinating as a fairy tale."--_San

Francisco Chronicle._

"It is a well-written story, full of surprises and abounding in

vivid interest."--_The Congregationalist, Boston._

=The Shadow of a Crime.=

A Cumbrian Romance. By HALL CAINE, author of "The Manxman," "The

Deemster," etc., with twelve full-page illustrations in half-tone, from

drawings by M. B. Prendergast.

1 vol., cloth, illustrated, gilt top =$1.25=

* * * * *

_The Works of Gabriel d'Annunzio._

=The Triumph of Death.=

=The Intruder.=

=The Maidens of the Rocks.=

=The Child of Pleasure.=

Each, 1 vol., lib. 12mo, cloth =$1.50=

"The writer of the greatest promise to-day in Italy, and perhaps

one of the most unique figures in contemporary literature, is

Gabriel d'Annunzio, the poet-novelist."--_The Bookman._

"This book is realistic. Some say that it is brutally so. But the

realism is that of Flaubert and not of Zola. There is no plain

speaking for the sake of plain speaking. Every detail is justified

in the fact that it illuminates either the motives or the actions

of the man and woman who here stand revealed. It is deadly true.

The author holds the mirror up to nature, and the reader, as he

sees his own experiences duplicated in passage after passage, has

something of the same sensation as all of us know on the first

reading of George Meredith's 'Egoist.' Reading these pages is like

being out in the country on a dark night in a storm. Suddenly a

flash of lightning comes and every detail of your surroundings is

revealed."--_Review of the Triumph of Death, in the New York

Evening Sun._

=Mademoiselle de Berny.=

A Story of Valley Forge. By PAULINE BRADFORD MACKIE. With five

full-page photogravures from drawings by Frank T. Merrill.

Printed on deckle-edged paper, with gilt top, and

bound in cloth. 272 pages =$1.50=

"The charm of 'Mademoiselle de Berny' lies in its singular

sweetness."--_Boston Herald._

"One of the very few choice American historical stories."--_Boston

Transcript._

"Real romance ... admirably written."--_Washington Post._

"A stirring romance, full of life and action from start to

finish."--_Toledo Daily Blade._

"Of the many romances in which Washington is made to figure, this

is one of the most fascinating, one of the best."--_Boston

Courier._

=Ye Lyttle Salem Maide.=

A Story of Witchcraft. By PAULINE BRADFORD MACKIE, with four full-page

photogravures from drawings by E. W. D. Hamilton.

Printed on deckle-edged paper, with gilt top, and

bound in cloth. 321 pages =$1.50=

A tale of the days of the reign of superstition in New England, and

of a brave "lyttle maide," of Salem Town, whose faith and hope and

unyielding adherence to her word of honor form the basis of a most

attractive story. Several historical characters are introduced,

including the Rev. Cotton Mather and Governor and Lady Phipps, and

a very convincing picture is drawn of Puritan life during the

latter part of the seventeenth century. An especial interest is

added to the book by the illustrations, reproduced by the

photogravure process from originals by E. W. D. Hamilton.

=In Guiana Wilds.=

A Study of Two Women. By JAMES RODWAY, author of "In the Guiana

Forest," etc. Illustrated.

1 vol., library 12mo, cloth, decorative cover, 250

pages =$1.25=

"In Guiana Wilds" may be described as an ethnological romance. A

typical young Scotchman becomes, by the force of circumstances,

decivilized, and mates with a native woman.

It is a psychological study of great power and ability.

=Vivian of Virginia.=

Being the Memoirs of Our First Rebellion, by John Vivian, Esq., of

Middle Plantation, Virginia. By HULBERT FULLER. With ten full-page

illustrations by Frank T. Merrill.

1 vol., library 12mo, cloth, gilt top, deckle-edge

paper =$1.50=

"A stirring and accurate account of the famous Bacon

rebellion."--_Los Angeles Sunday Times._

"We shall have to search far to find a better colonial story than

this."--_Denver Republican._

"A well-conceived, well-plotted romance, full of life and

adventure."--_Chicago Inter-Ocean._

"A story abounding in exciting incidents and well-told

conversations."--_Boston Journal._

"Mr. Fuller will find a large circle of readers for his romance who

will not be disappointed in their pleasant expectations."--_Boston

Transcript._

"Instead of using history as a background for the exploits of the

hero, the author used the hero to bring out history and the

interesting events of those early days in Virginia. The author has

preserved the language and customs of the times

admirably."--_Philadelphia Telegram._

=The Gray House of the Quarries.=

By MARY HARRIOTT NORRIS. With a frontispiece etching by Edmund H.

Garrett.

1 vol., 8vo, cloth, 500 pages =$1.50=

"The peculiar genre, for which, in a literary sense, all must

acknowledge obligation to the author of a new type, is the

Dutch-American species. The church-goings, the courtings, the

pleasures and sorrows of a primitive people, their lives and

deaths, weddings, suicides, births and burials, are Rembrandt and

Rubens pictures on a fresh canvas."--_Boston Transcript._

"The fine ideal of womanhood in a person never once physically

described will gratify the highest tone of the period, and is an

ennobling conception."--_Time and The Hour, Boston._

=A Man-at-Arms.=

A Romance of the days of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, the Great Viper. By

CLINTON SCOLLARD, author of "Skenandoa," etc. With six full-page

illustrations and title-page by E. W. D. Hamilton.

1 vol., library 12mo, cloth, gilt top, deckle-edge

paper =$1.50=

The scene of the story is laid in Italy, in the latter part of the

fourteenth century. The hero, Luigi della Verria, unable to bear

the restrictions of home or to reconcile himself to the profession

of law, as desired by his father, leaves his family and, as the

result of chance, becomes a man-at-arms in the service of Gian

Galeazzo Visconti, the cunning and unscrupulous Lord of Pavia,

known as the Great Viper. Thenceforward the vicissitudes and

adventures, both in love and war, of Della Verria, are told in a

way to incite the interest to the highest point; and a strong

picture is drawn of Italian life at this period, with its petty

vendettas, family broils, and the unprincipled methods employed by

the heads of noble families to gain their personal ends.

An individual value is added to the book by the illustrations and

title-page, drawn by Mr. E. W. D. Hamilton.

"The style is admirable, simple, direct, fluent, and sometimes

eloquent; and the story moves with rapidity from start to

finish."--_The Bookman._

"A good story."--_N. Y. Commercial Advertiser._

"It is a triumph in style."--_Utica Herald._

=Cyrano de Bergerac.=

A Heroic Comedy from the French of Edmond Rostand, as accepted and

played by Richard Mansfield. Translated by HOWARD THAYER KINGSBURY.

1 vol., cloth decorative, with a photogravure frontispiece =$1.00=

1 vol., paper boards =.50=

The immediate and prolonged success of "Cyrano de Bergerac." in

Paris, has been paralleled by Mr. Mansfield's success with an

English version, dating from its first night at the Garden Theatre,

New York. October 3, 1898.

As a literary work, the original form of Rostand took high rank;

and the preference of Mr. Mansfield for Mr. Kingsbury's new

translation implies its superior merit.

Transcriber's Notes:

* Obvious punctuation and spelling errors repaired.

* Text enclosed between equal signs was in bold face in the

original (=bold=).

* Deleted a duplicate title named NOTES in Notes section.

* Several compound words had dual spellings: They were changed

for consistency's sake to the hyphenated form as follows:

Changed inn-keeper to innkeeper, alehouse to ale-house,

whereupon to where-upon, crossroad to cross-road, firewood to

fire-wood, inkhorn to ink-horn, nonconformity to non-conformity,

out-doors to outdoors. Gentle-woman was not changed to

gentlewoman as the dash was an end-of-page dash.

* Page 199: Added period to the end of Much Ado about Nothing.

* Advertisements, page 3: Changed single quote to double quote in

"The Road to Paris."

* Advertisements, page 14: Added opening quote to "It is a triumph

in style."

* Advertisements, page 14: Edward Rosstand corrected to Edmond Rostand.

End of Project Gutenberg's A Gentleman Player, by Robert Neilson Stephens