AUTHOR OF "THE VOYAGE OF THE LADY," ETC. ETC.

LONDON: HENRY S. KING & Co.

65 CORNHILL AND 12 PATERNOSTER ROW

1873

270. f.

343.

(All rights reserved.'

Ν Ο Τ Ε.

Some of these Papers have already appeared in Magazines. STUDIES AND ROMANCES.

.

SHAKSPEARE IN BLACKFRIARS;

OR,

THE FIRST PERFORMANCE OF HAMLET.

A TUDOR VISION.

“What were the wise man's plan?

Through this sharp, toil-set life,
To fight as best he can,
And win what's won by strife.”

-MATTHEW ARNOLD.

“And for my part, if only one allow

The care my labouring spirits take in this,
He is to me a theatre large enow,
And his applause only sufficient is.”

-DANIEL.

IN
N one of the closing years of the great sixteenth

century—towards the end of the spacious times . of great Elizabeth, and of the life of the last Tudor

monarch-a father and a son were speaking eagerly together in the great bay window of the old Hall of Greyscote, in Kent. The subject of their talk was a theme often discussed, but never yet settled, between them—the question, namely, of the future career and prospects of the young man. The on wished to push his fortune, and the fortunes of his house, by sailing with Raleigh, or by fighting under Vere; the father desired to keep his only child with him and at home. The father was sitting in the deep embrasure

A