Page 160.—Some in their horse. That is, their horses, the word here being plural. Plurals and possessives of nouns ending in s-sounds were often written without the additional syllable in the time of Shakespeare. Cf. King John, ii. 1. 289: "Sits on his horse back at mine hostess' door"; Merchant of Venice, iv. 1. 255: "Are there balance here to weigh the flesh?" etc.
Page 163.—William Kemp dancing the Morris. Kemp was a favorite comic actor in the latter years of the reign of Elizabeth. He acted in some of Shakespeare's plays and in some of Ben Jonson's, when they were first put upon the stage. In 1599 he journeyed from London to Norwich, dancing the Morris all the way. The next year he published an account of the exploit, entitled The Nine daies wonder. The cut here is a fac-simile of one on the title-page of this pamphlet. It represents Kemp, with his attendant, Tom the Piper, playing on the pipe and tabor. They spent four weeks on the journey, nine days of which were occupied in the dancing. At Chelmsford the crowd assembled to receive them was so great that they were an hour in making their way through it to their lodgings. At this town "a maid not passing fourteen years of age" challenged Kemp to dance the Morris with her "in a great large room," and held out a whole hour, at the end of which he was "ready to lie down" from exhaustion. On another occasion a "lusty country lass" wanted to try her skill with him, and "footed it merrily to Melford, being a long mile." Between Bury and Thetford he performed the ten miles in three hours. On portions of the journey the roads were very bad, and his dancing was frequently interrupted by the hospitality or importunity of the people along the route. At Norwich he was received as an honored guest by the mayor of the city.
Page 168.—Corresponded to our 3d of May. The difference between Old and New Style in reckoning dates, and the fact that the Gregorian Calendar (or New Style) was not adopted in England until 1752, or nearly two hundred years after it was accepted by Catholic nations on the Continent, have often led historians, biographers, and other writers into mistakes concerning dates in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. For instance, it has been often asserted that Shakespeare and the Spanish dramatist Cervantes died on the same day, April 23, 1616; but Shakespeare actually died ten days later than his great contemporary, New Style having been adopted in Spain in 1582. If we were certain that Shakespeare was born on the 23d of April, 1564, we ought now to celebrate the anniversary of his birth on the 3d of May. As we do not know the precise date of his birth, and the 23d of April has come to be generally recognized as the anniversary, there is no particular reason for changing it.
Richard Johnson. He was born in 1573 and died about 1659. He is chiefly noted as the author of this Famous History of the Seven Champions of Christendom. These, according to him, were St. George of England, St. Denis of France, St. James of Spain, St. Antony of Italy, St. Andrew of Scotland, St. Patrick of Ireland, and St. David of Wales.
Mr. A. H. Wall, of Stratford-on-Avon, was for several years the librarian of the Shakespeare Memorial Library there, and is the author of many scholarly articles in English periodicals on subjects connected with Shakespeare and Warwickshire.
The Percy Reliques. A collection of old ballads, entitled Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765), made by Thomas Percy (1729–1811), a clergyman (in 1782 made Bishop of Dromore in Ireland) and poet.
Page 170.—Chambers. These are mentioned in more than one account of the burning of the Globe Theatre in London, on the 29th of June, 1613, when, as the critics generally agree, Shakespeare's Henry VIII. was the play being performed. A letter written by John Chamberlain to Sir Ralph Winwood, describing the fire, says that it "fell out by a peale of chambers," and a letter from Thomas Lorkin to Sir Thomas Puckering, dated "this last of June, 1613," says: "No longer since than yesterday, while Bourbege[6] his companie were acting at ye Globe the play of Hen=8, and there shooting of certayne chambers in way of triumph, the fire catch'd." Another account states that these cannon were fired on King Henry's arrival at Cardinal Wolsey's house; and the original stage-direction in Henry VIII. (iv. 1.) orders "chambers discharged" at the entrance of the king to the "mask at the cardinal's house."
Page 171.—Ambrose Dudley. He was born about 1530, made Earl of Warwick when Elizabeth came to the throne, and died in 1589.
Page 172.—The Cage. This house, on the corner of Fore Bridge Street (see map on [page 42]), was occupied by Thomas Quiney after he married Judith Shakespeare. "The house has long been modernized, the only existing portions of the ancient building being a few massive beams supporting the floor over the cellar" (Halliwell-Phillipps).
Page 173.—Sir Thomas Browne (1605–1682) was an eminent physician and author. Among his books were the Religio Medici (1643), Vulgar Errors (1646), etc.