tation as a poet, favored by the great and the accomplished, and
beloved by all who knew him."

That Shakspeare had religious principle, I infer not merely from the
indications of his will and tombstone, but from those strong evidences
of the working of the religious element which are scattered through his
plays. No man could have a clearer perception of God's authority and
man's duty; no one has expressed more forcibly the strength of God's
government, the spirituality of his requirements, or shown with more
fearful power the struggles of the "law in the members warring against
the law of the mind."

These evidences, scattered through his plays, of deep religious
struggles, make probable the idea that, in the latter, thoughtful, and
tranquil years of his life, devotional impulses might have settled into
habits, and that the solemn language of his will, in which he professes
his faith, in Christ, was not a mere form. Probably he had all his life,
even in his gayest hours, more real religious principle than the
hilarity of his manner would give reason to suppose. I always fancy he
was thinking of himself when he wrote this character: "For the man doth
fear God, howsoever it seem not in him by reason of some large jests he
doth make."

Neither is there any foundation for the impression that he was
undervalued in his own times. No literary man of his day had more
success, more flattering attentions from the great, or reaped more of
the substantial fruits of popularity, in the form of worldly goods.
While his contemporary, Ben Jonson, sick in a miserable alley, is forced
to beg, and receives but a wretched pittance from Charles I.,
Shakspeare's fortune steadily increases from year to year. He buys the
best place in his native town, and fits it up with great taste; he
offered to lend, on proper security, a sum of money for the use of the
town of Stratford; he added to his estate in Stratford a hundred and
seventy acres of land; he bought half the great and small tithes of
Stratford; and his annual income is estimated to have been what would at
the present time be nearly four thousand dollars.

Queen Elizabeth also patronized him after her ordinary fashion of
patronizing literary men,--that is to say, she expressed her gracious
pleasure that he should burn incense to her, and pay his own bills:
economy was not one of the least of the royal graces. The Earl of
Southampton patronized him in a more material fashion.

Queen