The Star-Chamber: An Historical Romance, Volume 1Ainsworth, William Harrison
History
The Star-Chamber: An Historical Romance, Volume 1
Ainsworth, William Harrison
Great Britain -- History -- James I, 1603-1625 -- Fiction
"I only arrived in London yesterday," was the reply; "yet I have been
here long enough to make me loth to return to the woods and moors of
Norfolk. As to my lodging, it is without the city walls, near St.
Botolph's Church, and within a bow shot of Aldgate: a pleasant situation
enough, looking towards the Spital Fields and the open country. I would
fain have got me others in the Strand, or near Charing Cross, if my
scanty means would have allowed me. Chance, as I have said, brought me
here to-day. Strolling forth early to view the sights of town, I crossed
London Bridge, the magnificence of which amazed me; and, proceeding
along the Bankside, entered Paris Garden, of which I had heard much, and
where I was greatly pleased, both with the mastiffs kept there, and the
formidable animals they have to encounter; and, methought, I should like
to bait mine enemies with those savage dogs, instead of the bear.
Returning to the opposite shore in a wherry, the waterman landed me at
this wharf, and so highly commended the Three Cranes, as affording the
best French ordinary and the best French wine in London, that seeing
many gentlefolk flocking towards it, which seemed to confirm his
statement, I came in with them, and have reason to be satisfied with my
entertainment, never having dined so sumptuously before, and, certes,
never having tasted wine so delicious."
"Let me fill your glass again. As I am a true gentleman, it will not
hurt you; a singular merit of pure Bordeaux being that you may drink it
with impunity; and the like cannot be said of your sophisticated sack.
We will crush another flask. Ho! drawer--Cyprien, I say! More wine--and
of the best Bordeaux. The best, I say."
And for a wonder the order was obeyed, and the flask set before him.
"You have been at the Bankside you say, young Sir? On my credit, you
must cross the river again and visit the theatres--the Globe or the
Rose. Our great actor, Dick Burbadge, plays Othello to-day, and, I
warrant me, he will delight you. A little man is Dick, but he hath a
mighty soul. There is none other like him, whether it be Nat Field or
Ned Alleyn. Our famous Shakespeare is fortunate, I trow, in having him
to play his great characters. You must see Burbadge, likewise, in the
mad Prince of Denmark,--the part was written for him, and fits him
exactly. See him also in gentle and love-sick Romeo, in tyrannous and
murderous Macbeth, and in crookback Richard; in all of which, though
different, our Dick is equally good. He hath some other parts of almost
equal merit,--as Malevole, in the 'Malcontent;' Frankford, in the 'Woman
Killed with Kindness;' Brachiano, in Webster's 'White Devil;' and
Vendice, in Cyril Tournour's 'Revenger's Tragedy.'"
"I know not what may be the nature of that last-named play," the young
man rather sternly remarked; "but if the character of Vendice at all
bears out its name, it would suit me. I am an avenger."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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