CHAPTER X. Queen Elizabeth. War. Shakspere in Ireland 82 CHAPTER XI. Rural England. "Romeo and Juliet" 91 CHAPTER XII. "Julius Caesar" 110 CHAPTER XIII. Two Tramps. By Land and Sea 130 CHAPTER XIV. Windsor Park. "Midsummer Night's Dream" 156 CHAPTER XV. The Jew. Shylock. "Merchant of Venice" 175 CHAPTER XVI. The Supernatural. "Hamlet" 202 CHAPTER XVII. Death of Queen Elizabeth. Coronation of King James 233 CHAPTER XVIII. Shakspere as Monologist. King James 244 CHAPTER XIX. Stratford. Shakspere's Death. Patriotism Down the Ages 270 * * * * * FACSIMILE PAGES. Autograph Letter of Shakspere xxiii Autograph Poem of Shakspere 170 Autograph Letter of King James 248 Autograph Epitaph of Shakspere 280 SWEEPSTAKES. Shakspere was the greatest delver into the mysterious mind of man and Nature, and sunk his intellectual plummet deeper into the ocean of thought than any mortal that ever lived, before or after his glorious advent upon the earth. He was a universal ocean of knowledge, and the ebb and flow of his thoughts pulsated on the shores of every human passion. He was a mountain range of ideals, and has been a quarry of love, logic and liberty for all writers and actors since his day and age, out of which they have built fabrics of fame. No matter how often and numerous have been the "blasts" set off in his rocky foundations, the driller, stone mason and builder of books have failed to lessen his mammoth resources, and every succeeding age has borrowed rough ashlers, blocks of logic and pillars of philosophy from the inexhaustible mine of his divine understanding. He was an exemplification and consolidation of his own definition of greatness: _"Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them."_ The poet finds in Shakspere a blooming garden of perennial roses, the painter finds colors of heavenly hues, the musician finds seraphic songs and celestial aspirations, the sculptor finds models of beauty and truth, the doctor finds pills and powders of Providence, the lawyer finds suits and briefs of right and reason, the preacher finds prophecies superior to Isaiah or Jeremiah, the historian finds lofty romance more interesting than facts and the actor "struts and frets" in the Shaksperian looking-glass of to-day, in the mad whirl of the mimic stage, with all the pomp and glory of departed warriors, statesmen, fools, princes and kings.