STUDIES AND ROMANCES BY H. SCHÜTZ WILSON AUTHOR OF "THE VOYAGE OF THE LADY," ETC. ETC. "This is the very coinage of the brain." HAMLET "Hier hilft nun weiter kein Bemühn, Sind's Rosen, nun sie werden blühn." GOETHE LONDON: HENRY S. KING & Co. 65 CORNHILL AND 12 PATERNOSTER ROW 1873 270. f 373 STUDIES AND ROMANCES. SHAKSPEARE IN BLACKFRIARS; OR, THE FIRST PERFORMANCE OF HAMLET. A TUDOR VISION. I 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 son 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 |