PREFACE.
The nature of the following work is sufficiently indicated by the title. In it the most interesting portions of the career of Shakespeare, taken from the best accredited sources, are brought forward in a pleasing narrative, the dialogue being in the style of the Elizabethan period.
Throughout the work the writer has endeavoured, amidst a great deal of stirring incident, and a subordinate tale of much interest, to place the Poet constantly before the reader, whether on or off the scene. The story commences when he was about seventeen years of age, and carries him through some of the eventful "chances" of that glorious epoch which called forth his own "muse of fire," and caused him to ascend "the brightest heaven of invention;" and, after showing him the sharp "uses of adversity," leaves him at the moment of success, whilst Elizabeth and the entire Court-circle are turned to him whose matchless genius has just enchanted them.
CONTENTS.
[CHAPTER I. A Forest Scene]
[CHAPTER II. The Youthful Shakespeare]
[CHAPTER III. Charlotte Clopton]
[CHAPTER IV. The Family of the Cloptons]
[CHAPTER V. A Domestic Party in Elizabeth's Day]
[CHAPTER VI. A Disagreeable Visitor]
[CHAPTER VII. Plots and Counterplots]
[CHAPTER VIII. Stratford-upon-Avon]
[CHAPTER IX. The Tavern]
[CHAPTER X. The Churchyard of Stratford-upon-Avon]
[CHAPTER XI. The Stratford Lawyer]
[CHAPTER XII. The Sonnet]
[CHAPTER XIII. Mother and Son]
[CHAPTER XIV. The Lovers]
[CHAPTER XV. Charlecote]
[CHAPTER XVI. The Attack]
[CHAPTER XVII. The Capture]
[CHAPTER XVIII. A Revel at Clopton]
[CHAPTER XIX. The Plague at Stratford]
[CHAPTER XX. More Trouble at Clopton]
[CHAPTER XXI. Domestic Affliction]
[CHAPTER XXII. Bereavement]
[CHAPTER XXIII. The Vault]
[CHAPTER XXIV. The Village Fete—Ann Hathaway]
[CHAPTER XXV. The Twelfth-tide Revelry]
[CHAPTER XXVI. The Misled Wanderer]
[CHAPTER XXVII. The Suitor]
[CHAPTER XXVIII. Shottery Hall]
[CHAPTER XXIX. The Lovers]
[CHAPTER XXX. The Adventurers]
[CHAPTER XXXI. The Benedict]
[CHAPTER XXXII. The Hostel]
[CHAPTER XXXIII. The Deer Stealers]
[CHAPTER XXXIV. The Adventure]
[CHAPTER XXXV. More Matter for a May Morning]
[CHAPTER XXXVI. The Lampoon]
[CHAPTER XXXVII. The Garden]
[CHAPTER XXXVIII. The Flight to London]
[CHAPTER XXXIX. Old London]
[CHAPTER XL. The Poor Player]
[CHAPTER XLI. The Tavern Revel]
[CHAPTER XLII. More Strange than True]
[CHAPTER XLIII. England on the Defensive]
[CHAPTER XLIV. The Boar's Head, in East Cheap]
[CHAPTER XLV. The Camp at Tilbury]
[CHAPTER XLVI. The Invincible Armada]
[CHAPTER XLVII. The Player at Court]
[CHAPTER XLVIII. Sir Thomas Lucy in London]
[CHAPTER XLIX. The Theatre of the Blackfriars]
[CHAPTER L. The Scenic Hour]
[CHAPTER LI. The Tavern]
[CHAPTER LII. The Player in his Lodging]
[CHAPTER LIII. The Poet and his Patron]
[CHAPTER LIV. A Consultation]
[CHAPTER LV. Ill Weaved Ambition]
[CHAPTER LVI. The Associates]
[CHAPTER LVII. The Poet and his Friends]
[CHAPTER LVIII. Stratford and its Neighbourhood]
[CHAPTER LIX. Kenilworth]
[CHAPTER LX. The Return]
[CHAPTER LXI. The Discomfited Scrivener]
[CHAPTER LXII. Old Friends]
[CHAPTER LXIII. Which ends this strange eventful History]