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Lifting to heav'n her everlasting fame:
Then on her head they set a garland green,
And crownéd her twixt earnest and twixt game:
Who, in her self-resemblance well beseen,
Did seem, such as she was, a goodly Maiden Queen.

And after all the rascal many ran,
Heapéd together in rude rabblement,
To see the face of that victorious man,
Whom all admiréd as from heav'n sent,
And gaz'd upon with gaping wonderment.
But when they came where that dead dragon
lay,

Stretcht on the ground in monstrous large extent,

The sight with idle fear did them dismay, Ne durst approach him nigh, to touch, or once assay.

Some fear'd and fled; some fear'd, and well it feign'd;

One, that would wiser seem than all the rest, Warn'd him not touch, for yet perhaps remain'd

Some ling'ring life within his hollow breast, Or in his womb might lurk some hidden nest Of many dragonettes, his fruitful seed; Another said, that in his eyes did rest Yet sparkling fire, and bade thereof take heed; Another said, he saw him move his eyes indeed.

One mother, whenas her foolhardy child
Did come too near, and with his talons play,
Half dead through fear, her little babe revil'd,
And to her gossips gan in counsel say;
"How can I tell, but that his talons may
Yet scratch my son, or rend his tender hand?"
So diversely themselves in vain they fray;
Whiles some more bold to measure him nigh
stand,

To prove how many acres he did spread of land.

Thus flockéd all the folk him round about; The whiles that hoary king, with all his train, Being arrived where that champion stout After his foe's defeasaunce did remain, Him goodly greets, and fair does entertain With princely gifts of ivory and gold, And thousand thanks him yields for all his pain. Then when his daughter dear he does behold, Her dearly doth embrace, and kisseth manifold.

And after to his palace he them brings, With shawms, and trumpets, and with clarions sweet;

And all the way the joyous people sings, And with their garments strews the pavéd street;

Whence mounting up, they find purveyance

meet

Of all, that royal princes' court became; And all the floor was underneath their feet Bespread with costly scarlet of great name, On which they lowly sit, and fitting purpose frame.

What needs me tell their feast and goodly guise,
In which was nothing riotous nor vain ?
What needs of dainty dishes to devise,
Of comely services, or courtly train?

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Should have mine only daughter to his dame, And of my kingdom heir apparent be: Therefore since now to thee pertains the same, By due desert of noble chivalry, [thee." Both daughter and eke kingdom lo! I yield to

Then forth he called that his daughter fair, The fairest Un', his only daughter dear, His only daughter, and his only heir; Who forth proceeding with sad sober cheer, As bright as doth the morning star appear Out of the east, with flaming locks bedight, To tell that dawning day is drawing near, And to the world does bring long-wished light: So fair and fresh that Lady show'd herself in sight:

So fair and fresh, as freshest flower in May; For she had laid her mournful stole aside, And widow-like sad wimple thrown away, Wherewith her heavenly beauty she did hide, Whiles on her weary journey she did ride; And on her now a garment she did wear All lily white, withouten spot or pride, That seem'd like silk and silver woven near; But neither silk nor silver therein did appear.

The blazing brightness of her beauty's beam, And glorious light of her sunshiny face, To tell, were as to strive against the stream: My ragged rhymes are all too rude and base Her heavenly lineaments for to enchase. Ne wonder; for her own dear lovéd Knight, All were she daily with himself in place, Did wonder much at her celestial sight: Oft had he seen her fair, but never so fair dight.

So fairly dight when she in presence came, She to her sire made humble reverence, And bowéd low, that her right well became, And added grace unto her excellence: Who with great wisdom and grave eloquence Thus gan to say-But, ere he thus had said, With flying speed, and seeming great pretence, Came running in, much like a man dismay'd, A messenger with letters, which his message said.

All in the open hall amazéd stood

At suddenness of that unwary sight, And wonder'd at his breathless hasty mood: But he for naught would stay his passage right, Till fast before the king he did alight; Where falling flat great humbless he did make, And kist the ground whereon his foot was pight; Then to his hands that writ he did betake, Which he disclosing, read thus, as the paper spake;

"To thee, most mighty King of Eden fair, Her greeting sends in these sad lines addrest The woeful daughter and forsaken heir Of that great Emperor of all the West; And bids thee be advizéd for the best, Ere thou thy daughter link, in holy band Of wedlock, to that new unknowen guest: For he already plighted his right hand Unto another love, and to another land.

"To me, sad maid, or rather widow sad,
He was affiancéd long time before,
And sacred pledges he both gave, and had,
False errant Knight, infamous, and forswore!

Witness the burning altars, which he swore, And guilty heav'ns of his bold perjury; Which though he hath polluted oft of yore, Yet I to them for judgment just do fly, And them conjure t' avenge this shameful injury!

"Therefore since mine he is, or free or bond, Or false or true, or living or else dead, Withhold, O sov'raine prince, your hasty hond From knitting league with him, I you aread, Ne ween my right with strength adown to tread, Through weakness of my widowhood or woe: For Truth is strong her rightful cause to plead, And shall find friends, if need requireth so. So bids thee well to fare, thy neither friend nor foe, FIDESSA."

When he these bitter biting words had read,
The tidings strange did him abashéd make,
That still he sat long time astonished,
As in great muse, ne word to creature spake.
At last his solemn silence thus he brake,
With doubtful eyes fast fixéd on his guest;
"Redoubted Knight, that for mine only sake,
Thy life and honor late adventurest; [prest.

Let naught be hid from me, that ought to be ex

"What mean these bloody vows and idle threats, Thrown out from womanish impatient mind? What heav'ns? what altars? what enragéd heats,

Here heaped up with terms of love unkind, My conscience clear with guilty bands would bind?

High God be witness, that I guiltless am! But if yourself, Sir Knight, ye faulty find, Or wrappéd be in loves of former dame, With crime do not it cover, but disclose the same." To whom the Redeross Knight this answer [may'd, My lord, my king; be naught hereat disTill well ye wote by grave intendiment, What woman, and wherefore, doth me upbraid With breach of love and loyalty betray'd. It was in my mishaps, as hitherward

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sent;

I lately travell'd, that unwares I stray'd Out of my way, through perils strange and hard; [clar'd.

That day should fail me ere I had them all de

"There did I find, or rather I was found Of this false woman that Fidessa hight, Fidessa hight the falsest dame on ground, Most false Duessa, royal richly dight, That easy was t' inveigle weaker sight: Who by her wicked arts and wily skill, Too false and strong for earthly skill or might, Unwares me wrought unto her wicked will, And to my foe betray'd, when least I fearéd ill."

Then stepped forth the goodly royal maid, And, on the ground herself prostrating low, With sober countenance thus to him said; O pardon me, my sov'raine lord, to show The secret treasons, which of late I know To have been wrought by that false sorceress: She, only she, it is, that erst did throw This gentle Knight into so great distress, That death him did await in daily wretchedness.

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WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

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beth,"
"Julius Cæsar," 66 Antony and Cleopa-
tra,"
""Coriolanus," <<
Cymbeline," "Timon of
Athens," "The Winter's Tale,"
"The Tem-
pest," and "King Henry VIII." "Pericles,"
published in his lifetime as his, was probably
the work of an inferior writer, which he under-
took to improve, and which shows some marks
of his latest style. He wrote in all thirty-three
plays, or thirty-seven if the separate parts into
which some of them are divided be counted.
He also wrote "A Lover's Complaint," a charm-
ing amatory elegy, and a miscellany of minor
pieces called "The Passionate Pilgrim."

ten.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, the greatest not only of English but of all poets, was born at Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, on April 23, 1564. His father was John Shakespeare, who is called, in parish record and tradition, successively a glover, a yeoman, a gentleman and freeholder, a butcher, and a dealer in wool. John Shakespeare married Mary Arden, the youngest daughter of Robert Arden, of Wilmecote, who was a gentleman of ancient family, and a considerable proprietor of land. William Shakespeare was the third child and the first son of a family of eight. He was educated at the grammar-school of Stratford, where he learned a little His sonnets, which were published in 1609, Latin and less Greek. It seems probable, from are one hundred and fifty-four in number, and the knowledge of law-terms shown in his works, are the best in the English language, perhaps in that there is some truth in the tradition that he any language, though their fame is eclipsed by served for a while as an attorney's clerk. At the splendor of his dramatic poetry. They were the age of eighteen he was intimate with Anne dedicated by the publisher to a "Mr. W. H.,” Hathaway, the daughter of a yeoman living near whom he styles their "only begetter," and of Stratford. This woman, who was eight years whom nothing is really known, though it has older than Shakespeare, bore a daughter in May, been conjectured that he was William Herbert, 1583, of which Shakespeare acknowledged the Earl of Pembroke. They seem to be addressed paternity by marrying the mother about six to various persons, some of them to, a beautiful months before the child was born. Nothing is young man, others to a beautiful and faithknown of his life for six or seven years, except less woman. A few belong to the class which that two other children were born to him. In may be called "occasional." But whatever or 1589, at the age of twenty-five, he was an actor whoever prompted them, it is certain that they in London, where he had probably been living give us a better insight into Shakespeare's heart for three or four years. He soon began to write and character than any thing else he has writplays, at first in conjunction with Robert Greene and Christopher Marlowe. At the age of twentyeight he was already distinguished as a dramatist. In 1593 appeared his first published poem, "Venus and Adonis," of which five editions were called for within nine years. It was dedicated to the Earl of Southampton, an amiable and accomplished nobleman, who was exceedingly kind to the author, and, it is said, at one time made him a present of a thousand pounds, a sum equivalent, in those days, to five or six thousand in ours. In 1594 Shakespeare published "Lucrece," a poem which he also dedicated to Southampton. His earliest plays, written before 1592, seem to have been "The Taming of a Shrew," "King Henry VI.," "Titus Andronicus," "Love's Labor's Lost," "The Two Gentlemen of Verona," and "The Comedy of Errors." Between 1595 and 1596, he probably wrote in the following order: Richard III.," "All's Well that Ends Well," "A MidsummerNight's Dream," "King Richard II.," and "The Merchant of Venice." From 1596 to 1600 was his most productive period. In it he wrote "King John,' "King Henry IV.," "The Merry Wives of Windsor," "As You Like It," "Much Ado about Nothing," "King Henry V.," "Twelfth Night," and "Hamlet." In the following thirteen years he wrote probably in the following order: "Troilus and Cressida," "Measure for Measure," "Othello," "King Lear," "Mac- |

66

At some time between 1610 and 1613 Shakespeare left London forever, and took up his abode in his native town of Stratford, where he had purchased, as his residence, the largest and best house in the town, and where he lived as “a gentleman in easy circumstances" until April 23, 1616, when he died, at the age of fifty-two, tradition says of a fever. Little more than what we have stated is known of his life. In character he was deemed honest, sweet, and gentle, by the best of his contemporaries. In person he was handsome and dignified, with a large and well-shaped head. His body was buried in the chancel of Stratford Church, where there is a monument to him with a very poor bust.

The editions of Shakespeare's plays are very numerous. The earliest, known as the first folio, was published in 1623, seven years after the poet's death. It was carelessly printed, but contains the only authentic text. One of the most recent and convenient editions is that of Mrs. Mary Cowden Clarke, which gives the text very carefully and judiciously. It was reprinted in one volume in New York, in 1868, by D. Appleton & Co. There are several German translations, of which Schlegel and Tieck's is singularly excellent. The best French translation is by F. Michel, and appeared in 1840.

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