tional church will
give a performance of 'King Henry Sixt' in the town hall next
Thursday evening. Reuben Bobbin, our talented tinsmith, enacting the
role of his majesty. This play, being written by one of our townsmen
and the greatest poet of the age; should be patronized by all.
Ice-cream will be served inter actes."--November 6th, 1589.

"We print elsewhere to-day an excerpt from the Sadler's Wells Daily
Blowpipe, critically examining into the literary work of W.
Shakspeyr, late of this village. The conclusion reached by our
discriminating and able exchange is that Mr. Shackspeere is without
question a mighty genius. We have said so all along, and we have
known him ten years. Now that the Metropolitan press indorses us, we
wonder what will the doddering dotard of the Avon Palladium have to
say for his festering and flyblown self."--December 14th, 1589.

In 1592 the Palladium reprinted an opinion given by Robert Greene:
"Here is an upstart crow," said Greene of Shakespeare, "beautified
with our feathers, that supposes he is as well able to bombast out a
blank verse as the rest of you, and, being an absolute Johannes
factotum, is, in his own conceit, the only shake-scene in the
country." Another contemporaneous critic said of the scene between
Brutus and Cassius in "Julius Caesar": "They are put there to play
the bully and the buffoon, to show their activity of face and
muscles. They are to play a prize, a trial of skill and hugging and
swaggering, like two drunken Hectors, for a two-penny reckoning."
Shakespeare's contemporaries--or, at least, many of them--sought to
belittle his work in this wise. Why, even in later years so acute a
critic as John Dennis declared that "his lines are utterly void of
celestial fire," and Shaftesbury spoke of his "rude, unpolished
style and antiquated phrase and wit."

In the year 1600, having written his _chef d'oeuvre_, the poet
retired to Stratford for a brief period of rest.

"Our distinguished poet-townsman, Shakespyr, accompanied us on an
angling last Thursday, and ye editor returned well-laden with
spoils. Two-score trouts and a multitude of dace and chubs were
taken. Spending the night at the Rose and Crown, we were hospitably
entertained by Jerry Sellars and his estimable lady, who have
recently added a buttery to their hostelry, and otherwise adorned
the premises. Over our brew in the evening the poe