before Queen Elizabeth at Richmond Palace, February 24, the evening before the death of Essex. Lord Southampton, Shakespeare's patron, was a bosom friend of Essex.

The poet's father was buried at Stratford on the 8th of September.

"The Queen kept her Court at Whitehall in the Christmas of 1601-1602, and during the holidays four plays were exhibited before her by Shakespeare's company." (H.-P. i. 201.)

The following is copied from the Diary of John Manningham, a barrister of the Middle Temple, London, 1601-1602

66

"At our feast wee had a play called 'Twelve Night; Or, What you Will,' much like the Commedy of Errores, or Menechmi in Plautus, but most like and neere to that in Italian called Inganni. A good practise in it to make the Steward beleeve his Lady widdowe was in love with him, by counterfeyting a letter as from his Lady in generall termes, telling him what shee liked best in him, and prescribing his gesture in smiling, his apparaile, &c., and then when he came to practise making him beleeve they tooke him to be mad.

"Upon a tyme when Burbidge played Richard III. there was a citizen grone soe farr in liking with him, that before shee went from the play shee appointed him to come that night unto hir by the name of Richard the Third. Shakespeare overhearing their conclusion went before, was intertained and at his game ere Burbidge came. Then message being brought that Richard the Third was at the dore, Shakespeare caused returne to be made that William the Conqueror was before Richard the Third. Shakespeare's name William."

Mr. Phillipps says that "there is no doubt that the comedy was performed by the Lord Chamberlain's servants, and very little that Shakespeare himself was one of the actors who were engaged."

No play or poem, save the "Turtle and Phoenix," is registered this year.

The following copyright entry appears :

"1601-2, 18 Januarij. Jo. Busby, -entred for his copie, vnder the hand of Mr. Seton, a booke called An excellent and pleasant conceited commedie of Sir Jo. Faulstof and the merry wyves of windesor."

Immediately after this under the same day is the following entry:

"Arthure Johnson, entred for his copye, by assignement from John Busbye, A booke called an excellent and pleasant conceyted Comedie of Sir John Faulstafe and the merye wyves of windsor."

The execution of the Earl of Essex takes place. 1602. In May the dramatist bought from William and John Combe, for £320, one hundred and seven acres of land near Stratford-on-Avon. veyance begins with these words:

The con

"This indenture made the firste daie of Maye, in the fowre and fortieth yeare of the raigne of our Soveraigne Ladie Elizabeth, by the grace of God, of England, Fraunce, and Ireland, Queene, Defendresse of the Faithe, &c., betweene William Combe of Warrwicke, in the countie of Warrwick, esquier, and John Combe of Olde Stretford, in the countie aforesaide, gentleman, on the one partie, and William Shakespere of Stretford-upponAvon, in the countie aforesaide, gentleman, on thother partye."

Mr. Phillipps says that "it may be that this acquisition is referred to by Crosse in his 'Vertues Commonwealth,' 1603, when he speaks thus ungenerously of the actors and dramatists of the period, as these copper-lace gentlemen growe rich, purchase lands by adulterous playes, and not fewe of them usurers and extortioners, which they exhaust out of the purses of their haunters, so are they puft up in such pride and selfe-love as they envie their equalles and scorne theyr inferiours.""

Stratford-on-Avon, in the poet's time, did not contain more than "five hundred inhabited houses, exclusive of mere hovels," according to Mr. Phillipps.

A defect in the poet's title to New Place was remedied this year.

"On September the 28th, at a Court Baron on the Manor of Rowington, one Walter Getley transferred to the poet a cottage and garden which were situated in Chapel Lane opposite the lower grounds of New Place." (H.-P. i. 204.)

A cottage in Stratford at this time was a structure whose walls were mud and whose roof was thatched. The following is copied from the surrender of Walter Getley: —

"Ad hanc curiam venit Walterus Getley, per Thomam Tibbottes, juniorem, attornatum suum, unum customariorum tenencium manerii predicti, predicto Thoma Tobbottes jurato pro veritate inde, et sursum reddidit in manus domine manerii predicti unum cotagium, cum pertinenciis, scituatum, jacens et existens in Stratfordsuper-Avon, in quodam vico ibidem vocato Walkers

Streete alias Dead Lane, ad opus et usum Willielmi Shackespere et heredum suorum imperpetuum, secundum consuetudinem manerii predicti; et sic remanet in manibus domine manerii predicti, quousque predictus Willielmus Shakespere venerit ad capiendum premissa predicta."

Of the value of money in Shakespeare's time Mr. Phillipps says:

"In balancing the Shakespearean and present currencies, the former may be roughly estimated from a twelfth to a twentieth of the latter in money, and from a twentieth to a thirtieth in landed or house property. Even these scales may be deceptively in favour of the older values, there having been in Shakespeare's days a relative and often a fictitious importance attached to the precious metals, arising from their comparative scarcity and the limited applicances for dispensing with their use." (i. 21.)

By this standard of money the poet was then considered a man whose "pecuniary resources were very considerable."

Of dates, Mr. Phillipps says:

"It will be useful also to be constantly bearing in mind the difference between the Old and New Styles. According to the former (the one which of course prevailed during the whole of the Shakespearean period), each month commenced ten days later than it does at the present time. It is especially important that this variation should be recollected in the consideration of all that relates to the country and to rural life." (i. 21.)

"If, for example, there was a migratory bird that uniformly reached England on one particular day, and that day was April the 23d in the time of Shakespeare, it

would now be first seen, according to our modern computation, on May the 3d; and so nearly accurate is the present Gregorian system of reckoning, that more than three thousand years would have to elapse before there would be an error of a single day in the recognized period of the bird's arrival." (ii. 366.)

"The Revenge of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark," was first produced in the spring of this year by the Lord Chamberlain's players at the Globe theatre. It was not printed until the summer of 1603. The date of its stage representation appears "from the entry in the books of the Stationers' Company on July 26, 1602, of 'a booke called the Revenge of Hamlett, Prince Denmarke, as yt was latelie acted by the Lo: Chamberleyne his servantes."" Mr. Phillipps says that "there was an old English tragedy on the subject of Hamlet which was in existence as early as the year 1589," and was alluded to by Nash, Decker, and other writers. Shakespeare's tragedy was founded on the older drama. "Hamlet is the only one of Shakespeare's plays," remarks Mr. Phillipps, "which is noticed as having been acted in his lifetime before the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. The distinction was a rare one."

The following works were published this year:

"A most pleasaunt and excellent conceited Comedie of Syr Iohn Falstaffe and the merrie Wiues of Windsor: entermixed with sundrie variable and pleasing humors of Syr Hugh the Welch Knight, Iustice Shallow, and his wise Cousin M. Slender; with the swaggering vaine of Auncient Pistoll and Corporall Nym. By William