_Old Printers can still call to mind that period of our history when a stalwart Pressman, on his way to work, ran considerable risk in the streets of London of being seized by another kind of pressmen, viz., the Press-gang, and forced_ nolens volens _into the service of the King. Some readers (not Printers) may think that I have exercised over quotations from Shakspere's works a similar compulsion, by pressing into my service passages whose bearing is by no means in a typographical direction. They may even go so far as to strain somewhat the self-accusation of Falstaff (Henry IV, iv, 2), and bring against me the charge that_ _I have misused the King's press most damnably, by printing such evidences._ _I can only reply that if, notwithstanding a careful consideration of the proofs here laid before him, the reader should consider my case 'not proven', I must submit with all humility to his penetration and judgment._ _At the same time, since my proofs that Shakspere was a Printer are at least quite as conclusive as the evidence brought forward by others to demonstrate that he was Doctor, Lawyer, Soldier, Sailor, Catholic, Atheist, Thief, I would claim as a right that my opponent, having rejected my theory that he was a Printer, should be consistent, and at once, reject all theories which attribute to him special knowledge, and repose upon the simple belief that Shakspere, the Actor and Playwright, was a man of surpassing genius, of keen observation, and never-failing memory._ W. B. I. SHAKSPERE IN THE PRINTING OFFICE In November, 1589, the company acting at the Blackfriars Theatre thought it would be advantageous to their interests to send in to the Privy Council a memorial, certifying that they had never given cause of displeasure by introducing upon the stage 'matters of State or Religion'. The actors who signed this memorial styled themselves 'Her Majesty's Poor Players', and among them appears the name of William Shakspere. We here meet the Poet's name for the first time after he had left his home at Stratford-on-Avon, about four years previously. What his employment had been in the intervening period is a question which few of his biographers have cared to ask, and which not one has answered. It is usually supposed that immediately upon his arrival in London he became in some way associated with the Stage,--but there is no evidence of this. On the contrary, we shall give reasons for believing that coming to London poor, needy, and in search of employment, he was immediately taken into the service of Vautrollier the Printer.