"Nor do we find him forward to be sounded, But with a crafty madness keeps aloof"; that is, _he_ keeps aloof. =Page 207.=--_We see not its workings._ We see the results, but not the processes by which they have been brought about. _The "green lap" in which the boy poet was "laid."_ The quotations are from the passage referring to Shakespeare in _The Progress of Poesy_ by Thomas Gray (1716-1771):-- "Far from the sun and summer gale, In thy green lap was Nature's darling laid, What time, where lucid Avon stray'd, To him the mighty mother did unveil Her awful face; the dauntless child Stretch'd forth his little arms and smil'd. 'This pencil take,' she said, 'whose colors clear Richly paint the vernal year: Thine too these golden keys, immortal boy! This can unlock the gates of joy; Of horror that, and thrilling fears, Or ope the sacred fount of sympathetic tears.'" _The name of Shakespeare was very common._ See note on _The tenant of Ingon_, page 192, above. =Page 208.=--_Volumes have been written on the plant-lore_, etc. The best of these is Rev. H. N. Ellacombe's _Plant-Lore and Garden-craft of Shakespeare_, which is quoted on the next page. _Apricocks._ An old form of _apricots_. =Page 209.=--_In the compass of a pale._ Within the limits of an enclosure, or walled garden. _Knots._ Interlacing beds. Compare Milton, P. L. iv. 242: "In beds and curious knots"; and _Love's Labour's Lost_, i. 1. 249: "thy curious-knotted garden." _He that hath suffer'd_, etc. King Richard. _At time of year._ That is, at the proper season. _Confound itself._ Ruin or destroy itself. Compare _The Merchant of Venice_, iii. 2. 278:-- "Never did I know A creature that did bear the shape of man So keen and greedy to confound a man." =Page 210.=--_To prove his real profession._ Books and essays have been written to prove Shakespeare's intimate knowledge of various professions and occupations--law, medicine, military science, seamanship, etc. ADDENDA =Page 21.=--_The letters E. R._ Young readers may need to be informed that these letters stand for _Elizabeth Regina_ (Latin for _Queen_). See cut on next page. =Page 37.=--_The elder Robert of Stratford._ Sidney Lee says: "Robert, the father of the prelates Robert and John, was a well-to-do inhabitant of Stratford, who appears to have set his sons an example in local works of benevolence. He it is to whom has been attributed the foundation, in 1296, of the chapel of the guild, and of the hospital or almshouses attached to it."