Chapter XVI The Domestic Life of Shakspere's Time — II j"^

To give a ground-plan of the romance of Shakspere's youth for which time is lacking — the night visit of the Earl of Leicester's man to John Shakspere, the glover — night work on the Earl's gloves — young Shakspere starts out to deliver the parcel at Long Ichington for the hunt — his lunch by the brookside — falls asleep over Wyatt's '*And wilt thou leave me thus?" — Leicester's plans for the hunt — Queen Elizabeth rides off alone and comes upon young Shakspere asleep — she rallies Leicester upon this new rival, and invites the boy to Kenilworth — Robert Laneham, the Queen's usher, and his letter to Master Hum- phrey Martin on the pageant — probably the original of Don Adriano de Armado in Lovers Labour* s Lost — passages from this letter and its amusing portraiture of the writer — the eat- ables and drinkables consumed — detailed description of the Queen's progress and reception — Gascoigne's account of the Echo — Laneham's picture of the bear-baiting — the fireworks — Arion, Triton, and the dolphin with music in his belly — suggestions of Midsummer Night* s Dream in all this — Shakspere stops at the Warwick inn on his way home to see a play — the
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inn-yards in which plays were then given — the inn -yard was the original of the pit — our modern theatres constructed on the same general model as these early makeshifts — first theatre erected by James Burbage in 1576 — John Heywood's inter- lude of The Four P*s and the spirit of the first English comedy
— nature of the interlude — Puttenham's sneer at *'John Hey- wood the Epigrammatist" — suggestion in The Four P^s of the porter's soliloquy in Macbeth — its flippant treatment of great matters — childishness of sixteenth-century audience — the interlude has really a moral purpose — Shakspere's own more reverential nature — extracts from The Four P^s — ras- cality of the characters and low plane of the whole thing — the contest in lying — childish idea of hell exhibited — the Palmer wins the contest by declaring he never saw a woman out of patience — good doctrine from the Pedler.
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