Produced by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was made using scans of public domain works from the University of Michigan Digital Libraries.) WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE AS HE LIVED. An Historical Tale. BY CAPTAIN CURLING, AUTHOR OF "JOHN OF ENGLAND." "SOLDIER OF FORTUNE." "Sweet are the uses of adversity, Which like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head." _As you Like it._ _WARWICK_: H. T. COOKE & SON, PUBLISHERS, HIGH STREET. (COPYRIGHT.) PREFACE. The nature of the following work is sufficiently indicated by the title. In it the most interesting portions of the career of Shakespeare, taken from the best accredited sources, are brought forward in a pleasing narrative, the dialogue being in the style of the Elizabethan period. Throughout the work the writer has endeavoured, amidst a great deal of stirring incident, and a subordinate tale of much interest, to place the Poet constantly before the reader, whether on or off the scene. The story commences when he was about seventeen years of age, and carries him through some of the eventful "chances" of that glorious epoch which called forth his own "muse of fire," and caused him to ascend "the brightest heaven of invention;" and, after showing him the sharp "uses of adversity," leaves him at the moment of success, whilst Elizabeth and the entire Court-circle are turned to him whose matchless genius has just enchanted them. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. A Forest Scene CHAPTER II. The Youthful Shakespeare CHAPTER III. Charlotte Clopton CHAPTER IV. The Family of the Cloptons CHAPTER V. A Domestic Party in Elizabeth's Day CHAPTER VI. A Disagreeable Visitor CHAPTER VII. Plots and Counterplots CHAPTER VIII. Stratford-upon-Avon CHAPTER IX. The Tavern CHAPTER X. The Churchyard of Stratford-upon-Avon CHAPTER XI. The Stratford Lawyer CHAPTER XII. The Sonnet CHAPTER XIII. Mother and Son CHAPTER XIV. The Lovers CHAPTER XV. Charlecote CHAPTER XVI. The Attack CHAPTER XVII. The Capture CHAPTER XVIII. A Revel at Clopton CHAPTER XIX. The Plague at Stratford CHAPTER XX. More Trouble at Clopton CHAPTER XXI. Domestic Affliction CHAPTER XXII. Bereavement CHAPTER XXIII. The Vault CHAPTER XXIV. The Village Fete--Ann Hathaway CHAPTER XXV. The Twelfth-tide Revelry CHAPTER XXVI. The Misled Wanderer CHAPTER XXVII. The Suitor CHAPTER XXVIII. Shottery Hall CHAPTER XXIX. The Lovers CHAPTER XXX. The Adventurers CHAPTER XXXI. The Benedict CHAPTER XXXII. The Hostel CHAPTER XXXIII. The Deer Stealers CHAPTER XXXIV. The Adventure CHAPTER XXXV. More Matter for a May Morning CHAPTER XXXVI. The Lampoon CHAPTER XXXVII. The Garden CHAPTER XXXVIII. The Flight to London CHAPTER XXXIX. Old London CHAPTER XL. The Poor Player