THE END.
[1] "Twelfth Night."
[2] This song, which, no doubt, was a favourite in its day, is inserted in Beaumont and Fletcher's "Bloody Brother."
[3] Schegel's estimate of Shakespeare.
[4] See Correspondence of Sir Christopher Hatton.
[5] All these were popular beliefs.
[6] Clobie's "Divine Glimpses." I adopt these lines because they allude to the curious old opinion, that bread carried about the person was a charm against tricks of Robin Goodfellow, though they bear date 1659.
[7] This song has been attributed to Ben Jonson, and in the old black-letter copies it is directed to be sung to the tune of Dulcina. As it embodies some of the freaks of Robin, I have given it here.
[8] The sprite was sometimes so named at this period.
[9] This was the first attempt of the English to form such settlements; and although they have since surpassed all European nations, they had been so unsuccessful that they abandoned the place.
[10] "Cymbeline."
[11] A name at that time to be found at Stratford.
[12] "Twelfth Night."
[13] "Much ado about Nothing."
[14] People of condition in the country generally rode with numerous followers at the period.
[15] "As you like it."
[16] Such an account was in reality given by the adventurers who sailed with Sir Humphrey Gilbert, the father of our plantations, and the brother of Sir Walter Raleigh, and who was lost in the storm following the portentous sounds we have described. Might not this very incident have suggested to Shakespeare the description of the island in the "Tempest."
[17] This sort of ejectment was not uncommon in Elizabeth's reign.
[18] The Earl, besides other things, had represented Arion on a dolphin, with rare music, whilst fireworks were seen in the air. Shakespeare, more than once, alludes to Arion on a dolphin's back. Might not these things have made early impression upon his mind?
[19] A saying of Sir Francis Drake's at this time.
[20] Cæsar denominated this county, Cantium; time, therefore, has made no further alteration than in giving it an English sound.
[21] "Henry the Fifth."
[22] Oldy's "Life of Raleigh."
[23] Stow mentions a little jobbing tailor who absolutely went mad for love of, and died glorifying the perfections of the Queen.
[24] Raleigh.
[25] Elizabeth, with her court, frequently moved to these places.
[26] There is an anecdote extant in Oxfordshire, of the intimacy subsisting between this hostess and Shakespeare. Shakespeare is said to have always rested at the Crown, at Oxford, whilst _en route_ from London to Stratford.
[27] Elizabeth was expressed in those letters by the figures 1500; Essex by 1000; _a—a_ was the crown.
[28] A seditious Catholic publication, dedicated to Essex, to ruin him.
[29] Amongst the few traditions concerning Shakespeare, in Warwickshire, there is one which was kindly communicated to me by a nobleman resident there, namely, that he wrote the character of Jaques, in the park of Stoneleigh.