treme shifts as what I spoke of. I did it out of no unkindness to you, or slight upon your merit, believe me. When you know me well enough, I doubt not you shall give me credit for better intentions." “Indeed, I am in too pleasant a mood to think of it," replied Master Francis, who was as rejoiced at this favorable turn in his fortunes as may be conceived of him. It was just that sort of employment he had most inclination for, and that seemed to give his ambitious hope the most ground to build upon. I pray you, good sir, follow me," said the old butler, "I must about my master's bidding-so while he is engaged with the noble lords and the men of war, I will see that you have proper entertainment." Then entering the house (talking a fair part of the time) he led Master Francis through divers spacious rooms, furnished very costly, and along sundry passages, wherein were many servingmen, dressed like those before spoken of (some of whom he reproved sharply for not seeming sufficiently attentive to their duties), till he entered a chamber of more humble appearance. "I would fain find you more honorable lodging," observed Stephen, "but this being my room, and one in which you are not like to meet intruders, methought 'twould be best. I pray you put up with it for the nonce-feel as content in it as you may, and when all proper provision be made for your residence with us, then shall you be more becomingly accommodated." awhile-for what may be thought more attractive matter. It was about the afternoon of the same day that a gallant, well dressed, without affectation, of a free carriage and noble aspect-somewhat careless in his demeanor, yet evidently meaning no sort of offence-in fact, no other than Master Shakspeare himself was seen walking up and down upon London bridge, now looking in at the shops, and sauntering about the houses there, with very much the look of one who is in waiting for another. He amused himself for some time with regarding the passengers, whether of foot or on horse, and speculating from their looks of what disposition they might be; but he seemed to tire of this at lastas who will not tire who is kept an unconscionable time waiting for one who delays coming? and after looking wistfully several times toward the city side of the bridge, as it seemed without avail, he was on the point of leaving the place with what philosophy he might, when all at once his look brightened up wonderfully, and with the pleasantest air possible, he made for a very pretty woman, well and daintily attired, who was approaching him. "Thanks, my sweet, for this coming!" exclaimed he gallantly, as he took his place by her side, and they walked together. "But in honest truth, I had like to have been out of patience." "If you loved me but half as well as you have sworn you have,” replied she, in an admirable soft voice, "you would have had patience enough to have tarried here till doomsday and longer than that. But I was detained, gentle sir, or I would have been truer to mine appointment." Me gazing on your perfections doth counterbalance whatever disquietude I found in your delay. Truly never hath true lover suffered as have I since that most endearing hour I chanced to meet you seeing the archery in Finsbury Fields. thought the queen's company of liege bowmen showed marvellous skill-but it hath since been made known to me, that there was one nearer than they, whose archery beat them hollow." Master Francis found no dissatisfaction in the chamber, which in truth was well stored with comforts, so that when "I doubt it not," said Master ShakStephen Shortcake left him with a cour-speare; "and the delight I now enjoy in teous excuse for his absence, he flung himself in a convenient chair, and did make comparisons with it and the room he had at his uncle's, in the which the former gained prodigiously, as may be supposed. He then gave himself up to his own reflections, which were gratifying to him in a very prodigal measure. He felt like a prisoner that hath cast_off his gyves, and is a free man, after a long and terrible imprisonment; for he had got away from his miserly old kinsman, who had led him a pretty life of it-so far as his remembrance might go. Then his thoughts reverted to his adored Joanna, and he for some time found very exquisite satisfaction in imagining how pleased she would be to know of his success. Here I must leave him for "An excellent fine conceit, by my troth," exclaimed his fair companion, laughingly, "and cometh with marvellous good grace from one who out of all contradiction draweth 'the longbow' very prettily." 66 O' my life I swear to you"Nay, swear not, good sir," cried the other, interrupting him; "for that be somewhat more than is required of you. Would you not take oath upon it that mine eyes outflash the diamond-my lips be ruddier than the cherry-and that my cheek putteth to shame the blushing of the rose ?" "Doubtless would I," replied he, looking upon her features,-which in truth were exceeding comely. "And think you I can find interest in that I have heard so oft?" inquired she. "Other gallants have I met with, who were of such bountiful disposition that they would put all nature into disgrace for allowing me to leave her excellences so far behind. Was not that liberal of them? But methinks it would have sounded better from their lips had their object been as generous as their words. They would have had me believe myself a deity forsooth; but had I granted their prayers, what a poor idol of clay I should quickly have been thought." Master Shakspeare said nothing; but he marvelled greatly at the tone and manner of the speaker, the which, differing from his experience, made him the more inclined to a nearer intimacy. "Count me not as one of those, I pray you," he exclaimed at last. "I look upon you as a truly admirable woman-one withal no woman's son could look on without admiring, and could not admire without loving desperately. Then as for comparisons between your excellences and those of nature, I do assert, and hope to live and die in that opinion, that of all fair things that give beauty to this flowery earth, the loveliness of woman exceedeth them infinitely. Place wide by side with those thrilling orbs the brightest stone that ever glistened in the sunbeam, and while the spectator admireth the latter only for its brilliance, he must find quickly he can not gaze upon the warmer and more glorious radiance of your eyes, without feeling the flood of life rushing through his veins like a mighty river breaking from its banks. The one hath no expression-the other hath a thousand. And let him who preferreth fruits and flowers, note the honey-sweet smile that playeth round those tempting lips, or press the eloquent softness of those blushing cheeks; and I will wager my life on it, he will presently leave the poor unloving things he hath so much admired, for the rich beauty of such delicate flesh and blood as it is now my happiness to behold." 'I'faith these are brave words," re Let me at least see you to the street in which you dwell," said he, as he was standing with her at the end of the bridge. "I should hold myself but a sorry gallant to leave so fair a creature to find her way home unattended." 66 Oh, if your name is such that it may not be told, the sooner we part company the better for me," observed Joanna, smiling in her turn. "Nay, it is not so bad as that, believe me," answered the other. "In truth, I may say, it is a name in some repute. But it may just as well be told walking as standing." And at that she hesitated not to proceed onward. "Doth it not strike you," he continued, "that what is fair in one case is honest in another; for as you have given me but your Christian name, have I given you but mine: and yet are you not content." "Were you as well disposed toward me as you have asserted," observed his fair companion, who, as is usual, grew more inquisitive the longer her curiosity remained ungratified, "you would have made no question about the matter. I' faith it says but little for your regard. Methinks you must either have an ill name, or hold me of so little account, that Neither, o' my life!" exclaimed Master Shakspeare. Never met I a pretty woman I so much desired to be well known unto-and as for my name, I do assure you it standeth well in the public estimation." you think me undeserving of knowing | sually as he pleased, and they would you." never wag a tongue at him; but if another, who liveth honestly with what little he gains, be but suspected of kissing a pretty wench on the sly, they would raise such a hubbub about his ears, and seem so shocked at his iniquity, that the poor fellow should be right glad to escape out of the city with a whole skin. These be they-but why stop you here?" he inquired suddenly, finding that his companion proceeded no further. 66 By my troth, 'tis hard to credit," replied Joanna, though the more intent from what he said, of getting the knowledge she required. Just at that moment the Lord Southampton, the Lord Pembroke, and other noble gallants, to whom he was well known, came riding by very finely apparelled, and pulled off their hats to him. Know you those princely-looking gentlemen ?" she inquired. "It is mine excellent good friend the Lord Southampton and certain of his acquaintance," replied he: at which she became all the more curious, and as they arrived at the corner of Eastcheap, she said, “Here is the street in which I live, where I must leave you: but your name hath not yet been told to me." Nay, let me behold the dwelling in which lives so inestimable a creature," asked the other very pressingly. "And as for my name-it may be told in one street as well as in another,” and they continued to walk together. "What a place for traffic is this!" exclaimed Master Shakspeare, "and how busy do the citizens seem in the different shops and warehouses! Methinks I can hear the chink of the money; or at least the ready laugh of the chapman at his customer's jest. These be they, fair Joanna! who are up early and late, laboring to the utmost every day of their lives that others may have the advantage of it-whose greatest pleasure consisteth in the counting their gains, and greatest consolation is the knowing that they are worth something more than their neighbors. These be they who are acquainted with no virtue unless it be in the possession of wealth; and believe there can not be any vice so abominable as poverty. In their idea, aldermen are on a footing with angels; and to be in the city compter is to be damned to all eternity. They will wink at one who defrauds the orphan and robs the widow of her right, if he hath done it to some tune; but at the necessitous wretch, who is driven to do any small villany, they shout, 'Oh, the horrid rogue!' and would have him hanged forthwith. A man who hath his thousands might turn his wife and children into the street, and live as sen "This is the house in which I live," replied she, who had not been inattentive to what had passed. "But shame upon you for keeping me unanswered! you have not told me your name yet." “O' my life I am exceeding tired, fair Joanna," said Master Shakspeare. "It would be but a charity to ask me in-and as for my name-why it may as well be told sitting as walking.' It is scarcely necessary to add that Master Shakspeare was ushered up stairs into the best room; in the which he quickly made himself at home, as may be believed. Indeed, Joanna found his conversation so agreeable, that for a time she quite forgot to ask his name of him; but in truth he gave her not the opportunity, for as soon as one subject seemed about to be exhausted, he launched out with another; and displayed such abundance of wit, genius, and knowledge of the world, that she appeared quite in a maze with wonder and admiration. "Since you talk so well upon poetry," said she, when she found opportunity for speech, "I have some lines here of which I should like mightily to have your judgment." Then from a drawer she took a paper, which she brought toward him; and added, "they were writ by a worthy gentleman, who doth faney, much after your own fashion, that he is in love with me, and pays me such fine compliments, as you will therein peruse. Perhaps you also write verses?"" "A little," replied Master Shakspeare with a smile; and, believing that he had a rival in the field, he opened the paper. His astonishment may in some degree be conceived when it is known that he began to read the very poem he had given to Master Burbage. He saw in an instant how the affair stood, and was in no small degree amused thereat. "What think you of them?" inquired Joanna. 66 "O' my life, I think of them very indifferently," answered he. "Indeed!" she exclaimed with some 66 Hist! hist! adorable Joanna," exclaimed Master Burbage, through the keyhole, “'tis I, Richard the Third." surprise, "I marvel at that-for they | pray you," he advanced softly to the seem to me admirably ingenious. By my door. troth, between ourselves, I have my doubts that they were writ by him who brought them me; for he seemeth such a mad, hare-brained, wild, wilful gallant. I have given him but monstrous little encouragement, yet doth he go on at such a rate, one would think he was in so poor a case for the love of me, that he would be a knocking at death's door unless I smiled upon him." "Oh, the exaggerating varlet!" cried the other, laughing exceedingly as he compared in his own mind Master Burbage's statement with what he had just beard. "And when I told him I doubted his authorship," continued his fair companion, he swore by Apollo and all the Nine that he wrote every line on't; and that it was the worst stuff he ever did." "He said that, did he!" exclaimed Master Shakspeare. "Ay, that he did," added Joanna ;" and moreover, vowed to me most solemnly that he was considered such an exquisite fine hand at the making of verses, that his friend Will Shakspeare, among many others, was oft obliged to borrow a line of him when he came to a halt in his measure." "Oh! Dick, Dick, Dick," cried he, in a more subdued voice. "And when I asked of him his opinion of Master Shakspeare and his plays," continued the other, "he answered slightingly,- Why, a-to be sure, he was very well; but no one knows how much he hath been beholden to me for all his best verses.' " "If he deserved not cudgeling for this, then am I no judge of merit," exclaimed Master Shakspeare; "but of course you know him, fair Joanna ?" "He hath told me that he was one of the queen's players," replied she; "but else I know of him as little as I do of you. Tell me, I pray you, of what name you are, for in truth I am near tired of asking." “Hush !” cried he, “ there cometh some one to the door;" for a knocking was heard at that moment. ""Tis he," replied the mercer's daughter, "and till now I had forgot he promised to pay me a visit." "Hist! hist! Joanna," cried a voice from the other side of the door, "'is I, Richard the Third." ""Tis Dick sure enough," thought Master Shakspeare: then whispering to his fair companion,-"Leave him to me, I "Go, get thee hence, thou crook-backed tyrant," replied Master Shakspeare aloud; "knowest thou not that William the Conqueror reigned before Richard the Third." 66 What, Will!" cried the other in the utmost astonishment; "what ill wind brought thee here? Oh! thou abhorred traitor, thou hast betrayed me." "Nay, thou errest in that, Master Dick," responded his old associate, "for knew I not till this moment that the truly adorable Joanna was known to thee. But if I had taken advantage of thy confidence, it would have been but proper return for the most atrocious things thou hast said of me to this exquisite creature. So get thee gone, and quickly; for in truth thou hast interrupted the infinite gratification I have been receiving." 66 Oh! most sweet Joanna," cried Master Burbage, in a marvellous moving voice," my heart's treasure!-my soul's idol!-my angel upon earth !—my everything!-I do implore you, through the keyhole (because the door is fast, and I can not get in), by that fathomless ocean of love I bear for your inconceivable excellences, get rid of that villain straight, for it be utter destruction to be seen in his pestilent company." "Who is he ?" asked she, laughingly; although she began to have some suspicion of who he was. "The very notoriousest villain that walks, adorable Joanna," replied he, outside; "he hath done such mischief among women as you would find it horrible to think on. Item, five-and-twenty maids utterly undone-fifty widows sent stark mad-and a hundred and odd wives made miserable for life. I do assure you, sweet Joanna, that through him there hath lately been such abundance of crowner's quests, that the like hath not been known since the memory of man. Indeed, it be beyond dispute, that half a dozen stout fellows are kept in constant employ fishing distracted damsels out of the conduit, such a traitor is he to your dear sex. And as for hanging, the citizens scarce dare leave a nail sticking in their wainscots, so many of their wives and daughters have of late been found suspended to them, with these melancholy words pinned upon their kirtles,'Oh! cruel-cruel Shakspeare.' "Are you such a wretch as this, Master Shakspeare?" inquired Joanna, as seriously as she could. "No, on my life," replied he, laughing very heartily. "Believe him not, dear Joanna," exclaimed Master Burbage, "he hath a tongue that would undo the Gordian knot; therefore your undoing would be but an easy matter with such a thorough villain. Oh! incomparably sweet Joanna! here on my bended knees, outside the door (for lack of being in); I conjure you injure not your delicate reputation by talking to such a fellow. Listen not to what he hath to say, for truth and he are in no sort of acquaintance: he will swear you black's white, such a horrid reprobate is he; and then, on the instant, turn round and take oath it be crimson. I have preached to him by the hour, in hopes of getting him to repent of his villanies; but, I say it with tears in my eyes, adorable Joanna, he is incorrigible; and as clean past all good counsel as a chicken with the pip." "Prythee go on, Dick," cried Master Shakspeare, very merrily-his fair companion evidently being in much the same mood; "I admire thy invention hugely." "Out, traitor!" exclaimed the other. Away, villain!" "But since I have known thou art such an exquisite fine hand at making verses," continued Master Shakspeare, “that I, of many others, am oft obliged to borrow a line of thee when I happen to come to a halt in my measure; and remember how much I am beholden to thee for all my best scenes, I marvel not at all at thy present cleverness, and do promise to have a better opinion of thee than I have done." "A fico for thy opinion," replied Master Burbage; "all stratagems are fair in love and war; and when I gave her thy verses" Joanna," exclaimed he through the keyhole, "and I will say such things to you that you shall be satisfied of my behavior." 66 Nay, if you can put on me Master Shakspeare's lines as your own," said Joanna, "I doubt hugely you can be more sincere in other matters." "Pardon me this one small fault," replied he, very movingly, "which I have been led into from exceeding love of your ravishing perfections, and send away that fellow, who, by this hand, is the errantest deceiver that lives; and let me see you more commodiously than through the chinks of the door, which in truth afford me but a mere glimpse of your infinite beauties; and if I do not love you for it, in such a sort as will make amends for my transgression, then banish me for ever.' "Dost take me for thy friend, Dick ?" inquired Master Shakspeare, leaning against the door. 66 Open the door, and get thee gone, and then thou shalt be held a friend indeed," replied Master Burbage. "Well-my bowels yearn toward thee exceedingly," continued the other. "Ah! do they so? Thou wert ever a true friend," said he on the outside: "do open the door-there's a sweet Will." "But am I the very notoriousest villain that walks, Dick ?" "By this light thou art a very angel! Excellent Will, open the door." "And have I really undone so many women as thou hast said ?" "Nay, on my life, thou hast so good a heart, thou wouldst not undo a mouse. Open the door, sweet Will, I prythee.” "Well, Dick" What sayest, old friend?" For thy consolation in this extrem "Ah!" "Dost listen, Dick ?" "With all my ears, excellent Will." "I do assure thee-she is a mostdelicious creature." "Out on thee, thou aggravating-tantalizing-abominable caitiff!" cried Master Burbage, impatiently; for Master Shakspeare had said the preceding sentence so slowly, and with so much emphasis on the last words; and the sentence was so different from what he had expected, that he seemed terribly put out at it. "I do forswear thy acquaintance from this. Nay, I will not remain another moment in thy villanous neighborhood ;" and whilst Master Shakspeare |