ABOUT the close of the year 1599, the Blackfriars Theatre was remarkable for the constant presence of two men of high rank, who were there seeking amusement and instruction as some solace for the bitter mortifications of disappointed ambition. "My Lord Southampton and Lord Rutland came not to the Court; the one doth but very seldom: they pass away the time in London merely in going to plays every day.' Essex had arrived from Ireland on the 28th of September, 1599-not

66

Bringing rebellion broached on his sword,"

not surrounded with swarms of citizens who

"Go forth, and fetch their conquering Caesar in,"

* Letter of Rowland Whyte to Sir Robert Sydney, in the Sydney Papors.

"

but a fugitive from his army; one who in his desire for peace had treated with rebels, and had brought down upon him the censures of the Court; one who knew that his sovereign was surrounded with his personal enemies, and who in his reckless anger once thought to turn his army homeward to compel justice at their hands; one who at last rushed alone into the Queen's presence, "full of dirt and mire," and found that he was in the toils of his foes. From that Michaelmas till the 26th of August, 1600, Essex was in the custody of the Lord Keeper; in free custody as it was termed, but to all intents a prisoner. It was at this period that Southampton and Rutland passed away the time in London merely in going to plays every day." Southampton in 1598 had married Elizabeth Vernon, a cousin of Lord Essex. The marriage was without the consent of the Queen; and therefore Southampton was under the ban of the Court, having been preremptorily dismissed by Elizabeth from the office to which Essex had appointed him in the expedition to Ireland. Rutland was also connected with Essex by family ties, having married the daughter of Lady Essex, by her first husband, the accomplished Sir Philip Sidney. The season when these noblemen sought recreation at the theatre was one therefore of calamity to themselves, and to the friend who was at the head of their party in the state. At Shakspere's theatre there were at this period abundant materials for the highest intellectual gratification. Of Shakspere's own works we know that at the opening of the seventeenth century there were twenty plays in existence. Thirteen (considering Henry IV. as two parts) are recorded by Meres in 1598; Much Ado About Nothing, and Henry V. (not in Meres' list), were printed m 1600; and we have to add the three parts of Henry VI., The Taming of the Shrew, and the original Hamlet, which are also wanting in Meres' record, but which were unquestionably produced before this period. We cannot with extreme precision fix the date of any novelty from the pen of Shakspere when Southampton and Rutland were amongst his daily auditors; but there is every reason to believe that As You Like It belongs as nearly as possible to this exact period. It is pleasant to speculate upon the tranquillizing effect that might have been produced upon the minds of the banished courtiers, by the exquisite philosophy of this most delicious play. It is pleasant to imagine Southampton visiting Essex in the splendid prison of the Lord Keeper's house, and there repeating to him from time to time those lessons of wisdom that were to be found in the woods of Arden. The two noblemen who had once revelled in all the powers and privileges of Court favouritism had now felt by how precarious a tenure is the happiness held of

"That poor man that hangs on princes' favours."

The great dramatic poet of their time had raised up scenes of surpassing loveliness, where happiness might be sought for even amidst the severest penalties of fortune :

"Now, my co-mates, and brothers in exile,
Hath not old custom made this life more sweet
Than that of painted pomp? Are not these woods
More free from peril than the envious court?"

It was for them to feel how deep a truth was there in this lesson :

"Sweet are the uses of adversity."

Happy are those that can feel such a truth;

"That can translate the stubbornness of fortune

:

Into so quiet and so sweet a style."

And yet the same poet had created a character that could interpret the feelings of those who had suffered undeserved indignities, and had learnt that the greatest crime in the world's eye was to be unfortunate. There was one in that play

who could moralize the spectacle of

"A poor sequester'd stag,

That from the hunter's aim had ta'en a hurt,"

and who thus pierced through the hollowness of "this our life: "—

"Poor deer,' quoth he, 'thou mak'st a testament

As worldlings do, giving thy sum of more

To that which had too much.' Then, being there alone,

Left and abandon'd of his velvet friend;

"T is right,' quoth he; 'thus misery doth part

The flux of company:' Anon, a careless herd,

Full of the pasture, jumps along by him,

And never stays to greet him; 'Ay,' quoth Jaques,

'Sweep on, you fat and greasy citizens;
'Tis just the fashion: Wherefore do you look

Upon that poor and broken bankrupt there?""

We could almost slide into the belief that As You Like It had an especial reference to the circumstances in which Essex and Southampton were placed in the spring of 1600. There is nothing desponding in its tone, nothing essentially misanthropical in its philosophy. Jaques stands alone in his railing against mankind. The healing influences of nature fall sweetly and fruitfully upon the exiled Duke and his co-mates. But, nevertheless, the ingratitude of the world is emphatically dwelt upon, even amidst the most soothing aspects of a pure and simple life "under the greenwood tree." The song of Amiens has perhaps a deeper meaning even than the railing of Jaques :

There was one who had in him much of the poetical temperament—a gorgeous imagination for the externals of poetry-upon whose ear, if he ever sought. common amusement in the days of his rising power these words must have fallen like the warning voice that cried There was one who, when Essex in the days of his greatness had asked a high place for him and had

"woe.

been refused, received from the favourite a large private gift thus bestowed:'I know that you are the least part of your own matter, but you fare ill because you have chosen me for your mean and dependence. You have spent your time and thoughts in my matters. I die, if I do not somewhat towards your fortune. You shall not deny to accept a piece of land, which I will bestow upon you." The answer of him who accepted a park from the hands of the generous man who had failed to procure him a place, was prophetic. The Duke of Guise, he said, was the greatest usurer in France, “because he had turned all his estates into obligations, having left himself nothing.

I would not have you imitate this course, for you will find many bad debtors." It was this man who, in the darkest hour of Essex, when he was hunted to the death, said to the Lord Steward, " My lord, I have never yet seen in any case such favour shown to any prisoner."

"Blow, blow, thou winter wind,
Thou art not so unkind
As man's ingratitude."

Who can doubt that the ingratitude had begun long before the fatal catastrophe of the intrigues of Cecil and Raleigh? Francis Bacon, the ingrate, justifies himself by the "rules of duty" which opposed him to his benefactor, at the bar in his "public service." The same rules of duty were powerful enough to lead him to blacken his friend's character after his death, by garbling with his own hand the depositions against the victim of his faction, and publishing them as authentic records of the trial.* Essex, before the last struggles, had acquired experience of "bad debtors." The poet of As You Like It might have done something in teaching him to bear this and other afflictions bravely :

"Thou seest, we are not all alone unhappy

This wide and universal theatre

Presents more woeful pageants than the scene
Wherein we play in."

Essex was released from custody in the August of 1600; but an illegal sentence had been passed upon him by commissioners, that he should not execute the offices of a Privy Councillor, or of Earl Marshal, or of Master of the Ordnance. The Queen signified to him that he was not to come to Court without leave. He was a marked and a degraded man. The wily Cecil, who at this very period was carrying on a correspondence with James of Scotland, that might have cost him his head, was laying every snare for the ruin of Essex. He desired to do what he ultimately effected, to goad his fiery spirit into madEssex was surrounded with warm but imprudent friends. They relied upon his unbounded popularity not only as a shield against arbitrary power, but as a weapon to beat down the strong arm of authority. During the six months which elapsed between the release of Essex and the fatal outbreak of 1601, Essex House saw many changing scenes, which marked the fitful temper and the wavering counsels of its unhappy owner. Within a month after he had

ness.

* See Jardine's Criminal Trials,' vol. i., p. 387.

been discharged from custody, the Queen refused to renew a valuable patent to Essex, saying that "to manage an ungovernable beast he must be, stinted in his provender." On the other hand, rash words that had been held to fall from the lips of Essex were reported to the Queen. He was made to say,

She

The

was now grown an old woman, and was as crooked within as without."* door of reconciliation was almost closed for ever. Essex House had been strictly private during its master's detention at the Lord Keeper's. Its gates were now opened, not only to his numerous friends and adherents, but to men of all persuasions, who had injuries to redress or complaints to prefer. Essex had always professed a noble spirit of toleration, far in advance of his age; and he now received with a willing ear the complaints of all those who were persecuted by the government for religious opinions, whether Roman Catholics or Puritans. He was in communication with James of Scotland, urging him to some open assertion of his presumptive title to the crown of England. It was altogether a season of restlessness and intrigue, of bitter mortifications and rash hopes. Between the closing of the Globe Theatre and the opening of the Blackfriars, Shakspere was in all likelihood tranquil amidst his family at Stratford.

There is a slight resemblance in a passage in The Tempest:

"And as with age his body uglier grows.

So his mind cankers."

The