A Gentleman Player

at midnight, Master Shal

ere, in brief, the most richly dressed in the world; that most ordinary London houses were of wood and plaster, and gabled, and built so that the projecting upper stories darkened the narrow streets below; that the many-colored moving spectacle in those streets was diversified by curious and admiring foreigners from everywhere; that although coaches were yet of recent introduction, the stone paving sounded with them as well as with the carts and drays of traffic; that gray churches, and desolated convents, and episcopal palaces, and gentlemen's inns, and turreted mansions of nobility, abounded in city and suburbs; that the Catholics were still occasional sufferers from such persecution as they in their time had dealt to the Protestants; that there were still some very proud and masterful great lords, although they now came to court, and had fine mansions in the Strand or other suburbs, and no longer fostered civil or private war in their great stone castles in the country; that bully 'prentices, in woollen caps and leather or canvas doublets, were as quick to resent

ty of the theatre. But the audience had gone its countless ways; at the Falcon river-stairs the watermen's cries and the noise of much embarking had subsided; and the

easy leather jerkin, an old worn-out red velvet doublet, and patched brown silk trunk-hose, and with a sorry-feathered remnant of a big-brimmed felt hat, a long sword and a dagger, these weapons hanging at his girdle.

urish, quoting from the play of the afternoon. "A good piece

to spoil it,-bawling out in the fenci

ly taking on dignity; "at least when I carried Sir Philip Sidney off th

in Kit?" inquired Mr. Shakespeare, with

"Still marching to this music!" And he shook a pouch

f Hal Marryott, who was the last. When the two were alone in a c

y sword. I have moneys coming; that is, with a few testers to start dicing withal, I shall have the

e pieces thou wert jingli

thee, lad!" The soldier took from the pouch two or three links of a worthless iron chain.

," said Hal, smiling, "how did you

I satisfy both with a sixpence? No. What should it be, then? Beef and beer for the belly? Or a sight of the new play, to feed the mind withal? Thou know'st Kit Bott

slighting of his stomach, Hal instantly pulled out what remained of his salary for the pre

th thee, Kit. The o

ers, "I'll never rob thee, persuade me as thou wilt. Two shillings I'll take, not a farthing more. Thou'rt a hea

dly from the place. Hal Marryott proceeded to the room where his fellow actors were. H

it some state affair that

aught me the best of what swordsmanship I know. He is no counterfeit s

t the door of the theatre, now and again casting a wishful glance within, and then scanning the people as they came up, as if t

in a breath," said Mr. Shakespeare. "Would the t

is friends of the Essex faction were suffering, but also when the affair of the "dark lady," in w

gs by appearing to have spent his last sixpence for the play; and forgave the lie, in admi

ly lord. He then remembered to have picked it up from the stage, where it had accidentally fallen, and to have thrust it into his pocket in his haste to leave the theatre and see if the girl in murrey was still about. He now put it bac

, mercers, and haberdashers, that of old were built thereon. The river's roar, through the arches beneath, required the players to shout when they talked, in crossing. Continuing northward and up-hill, past the taverns and fish-market of New Fish Street, their int

site him was a young man in a gay satin doublet and red velvet cloak, and with an affected air of self-importanc

ut Mr. Sly; "must ever be shaking thine el

"No money risked, worth speaking of. God's body, doth a sixpence or two signify?" And he

le plays, it cannot be called

A babe in swaddling clothes! 'Tis by the most marvellous chance I've been winning from you, these few minutes. 'Twill come your way soo

to the players, drew them arou

dandy of some market town, the son of some rustical justice, the cock of some village. He comes up to London once a year, sees a little of the outside of our life here, thinks he plays the mad rascal in a tavern or tw

s. These village coxcombs ought to pay something for their egregious vanity and ignorance. This fellow will have the less means of str

o another room, Hal rema

try, and how they prated of London, and of their w

Do we not use our skill there, and every advantage God hath given us? Is not a game a kind of mimic war, and shall not a man use skill and stratagem in games? Go to, l

gh he had already won several times two shillings from the country fopl

gray. So rich and vivid became his impression of the unknown beauty, that there began to be a seeming as if she were present in spirit. It was as if her immaterial presence pervaded the atmosphere, as if she overheard the talk that now rattled from him, as if her fine eyes were looking from Gothic church windows and the overhanging gables of merchants' houses, while he walked on with the players in the gathering dusk of evening. The party went westward, out of Eastcheap, past London stone in Candlewick Street, through Budge Row and Watling Street, and northward into Bread Str

Master Heminge had stepped into the kitchen to order a supper little in accord with the season (it was now Lent) or with the statutes, but obtainable by the privileged,-ribs of beef, capon, sauces, gravies, custard, and other trifles, with a bit of fish for the scrupulous. For players are hungriest after a performance, and there have ever been stomachs least fishily inclined on fish-days, as there are always throa

ing back in his chair, with a relish of its comfort after a day of exertion and tension. "'Tis no

id Sly, standing by the carved chimneypiece,

et us now," said Laurence Fletcher, "after

witnessed from a window in the Towe

at court in our present disfavor. But while our friends of one side are now in prison or seclusion, those of the other side stand aloof from us. And f

ny Ben used to sit with us

sat here again,"

avern, where his heavy wisdom hath no fear of bein

her writers, in the silly pedantic stuff those brats squeak out at the Blackfriars!" Master Fletcher was, evidently, easily heated on the subject of the satirical pieces written by Jonson for the Chapel Royal boy

g, and too scant applause. So the wit in him hath soured a litt

may I never drink again but of hell flame, nor eat but at the devil's own table,

not benefited thee, no

rks were not known in England till ten years later). "To open thy door to a gentleman just thrown out of an ale-house, to feed him whe

en he took thee as coadjutor?" Fl

red Hal. "Hath Mr. Shak

an desirous of turning player.

For a player to turn gentleman is nothing wonderful now,

ing judges and unnatural kin! I told my cousin what he might do with the dirty scholarship he offered me, and a pox on it! and swore I would hang for a thief ere I would take anything of his giving. All that I had in the world was a horse, the clothes on my body,-for I would not go back to his house for others, having once left it,-my rapier and dagger, and a little purse of crowns and angels. There was but one friend whom I thought it would avail me to seek, and to his house I rode, in Hertfordshire. He was a Catholic knight, whose father had sheltered my grandfather, a Protestant, in the days of Queen Mary, and now went I to him, to make myself yet more his debtor in gratitude. Though he had lived most time in France, since the Babington conspiracy, he now happened to be at home; yet he could do nothing for me, his estate being sadly diminished, and he about to sail again for the country where Catholics are safer. But he gave me

his ears for it. The dispute was

ing bought rags in Houndsditch in the meantime. Rather than go back to Oxfordshire I would have died in the street, and was like to do so, at last; for my host, having asked for his money one night when I was drunk and touchy, got such an answer that he and his drawer cudgelled me and threw me out. So bruised I was, that I could scarce move; but I got up, and walked to the Conduit in Cheapside. There I

an, when I trod on thee, 'twas no commo

in the drinking. The room was now full of tobacco smoke, for most of the players had set their pipes a-going. Mr. Shakespeare did not smoke; but Ha

minge, the talk having led thereto; and he went on, not waiting for answer,

ten king oweth a resurrection and posthumous fa

men remembered, are by the very nature of our craft doomed to be for

e printing of them in the books of the plays we

printers make of our plays," sai

r blundering, distorted versions of any pla

one book, from the true manuscripts we have at the theatre, and our names put in the book,

dly, but said nothing, a

thinks; buried in dusty, unsold volumes in t

Master Heminge, thoughtfully, "that a b

ancients have endured to this day; but if the world grows in learning as it hath in our own time, each age making its own books, and better and wiser ones, what r

for his having acted in some certain play or set of plays." He did not add, but did he think, that Will

yott, by way of changing the subject, "and thy gaze lost

eager to unbosom himself. "Would I were a poet, like thee, that I might describe it. Ye

be since yeste

the clock to-

ore than have seen he

her. Drink with me to her e

cheeks and ears, an thou wilt,"

n thee, lad," said Fletcher

plays are wr

s scorch for a time; a mere seedling of love, a babe smothered at birth. But an there be closer commerce, to give fuel and breeze to the spark, it shall grow into flame, a flame, look you, that with proper feeding shall endure forever, like sacred fires judiciously replenished

nd one would have thought Hal was trying to do so. But the more he drank, the more was he engulfed in ideas of her who ha

nbury; and sturdy varlets were below to serve others of the company in like duty. At this late hour such guards against robbers were necessary in London streets. But Harry, who then lodged in the same house with Mr. Shakespeare, in St. Helen's, Bishopsgate,14 was not yet for going home. He would make the cannikin clink for some hours more. Knowing the lad's ways, and his ability to take care of himself, Mr. Shakespeare left him to his desires; and at last

at sum then would buy more than a pound buys to-day-had gone at the Mermaid. He bethought himself of the taverns at which

mysterious sounds of the night. Once he heard a sudden rush of feet from a narrow lane, and instantly backed against a doorway, whipping out rapier and dagger. Two gaunt, ill-looking rascals, d

before the constable as a night-walker; and so down the hill he went into Fleet Street. The taverns were now closed for the night to all outward appearance, the bells of Bow and other churches having rung the curfew some hours since,-at nine o'clock. But Hal knew that merriment was awake behind more than one cross-barred door-post or red lattice; and he tried several doors, but in

reat chair at one side of a square table, and was discoursing to a group of variously attired gentlemen. Temple students, and others, this audience being in all different stages of wine. He greeted Master Hal in a somewhat severe yet paternal manner, beckoned him to his chair-side, and inquired in

action of Master Jonson, who mounted the table, making it groan beneath his weight, and thrust himself between the two, cut short the brawl. But now, each antagonist deeming himself the aggrieved person, and the Templar being upheld by several of the company, and a great noise of

alled out loudly for the return of his weapon; but his efforts being misinterpreted, he was left to pound and shout in vain. Baffled and enraged, he started back toward Ludgate, with some wild thought of enlisting a band o

s. I've just been helping my friend to his lodging here at the sign of the Hanging Sword. 'Twas the least I could do for him. Art for a merry night of it, my bawcock? Come with me to Turnbull Street. There b

s of Smithfield, and so-undeterred by sleeping watchmen or by the post-and-chain bar-into Turnbull Street.15 Kit knocked several times at the door o

ld Kit, by the flame of his

wait a minute, and wit

open doors. To say true, I was afeard my welcome here might be a little

up at the window. A pair of hands, holding an upturned pail, was

Wert caught in any of that

Hal, with a hiccough. "Ma

n. Moved by the spirit of violence, Hal joined him in this demonstration. The upper windows opened, and voices began screaming "Murder!" and "Thieves!" In a short time several denizens of the neig

end of the street. He speedily was out of pursuit, and the sound of Bottle's voice growling out objurgations, close behind him, satisfied him that the old soldier was at his heels. Hal,

him in the darkness, Hal returned southward. When he arrived in Fleet Street he retained but a confused, whirling recollection of what had occurred. Yet his mood was still for company and carouse.

oat and cap, such as were worn by apprentices, to protect him from chill on the way homeward. Hal, who was now half comatose, passively let himself be thus fortified against the weather. With the sum repaid him

ow saw things vaguely, they were but fellow mortals, and thirsty. He welcomed them with a flourish and an imperative invitation to drink. This they readily accepted, grinning the while with boorish amusement. When they perforce departed, Hal, unwilli

ways and as many courtyards; of being passed on, with the companions to whom he clung, by dull warders, and by a busy, inattentive, pompous man of authority to whom his comrades reported in a body; of traversing with them, at last, a passage and a kind of postern, and emerging in a great garden. Here the carpenters seemed to become sensible of having committed a serious brea

rprise, a slight, yellow-haired, pale-faced, high-browed, dark-eyed, elderly lady, with a finely curved nose, a resolute mouth, and a sharp chin, and wearing a tight-bodied, wide-skirted costume of si

ith cold, "I seem to be an intruder.

sharply for a moment,

of Whitehall pala

d seen the lady: 'twas at the Christmas court performances. He flung

ost loyal, most worshi

re you doing here?" a