irations, but as he had given so much of his poetry in
illustration of our recent travels, and knowing that I was in honor bound
to report to posterity all he said and did as his mental stenographer, I
begged him to "give us a rest," and "let it go at that."

The next day the Albion bore away for the Strait of Gibraltar, rounding
Portugal, Spain and France, sailing into the Strait of Dover, passed
Gravesend, until we anchored in safety under the shadow of the Blackfriars
Theatre, where a jolly crowd of bohemians greeted our rapid and successful
tour of continental and classic lands.

_"This accident and flood of Fortune
So far exceed all instance, all discourse,
That I am ready to distrust mine eyes
And wrangle with my reason that
Persuades me to any other trust."_

CHAPTER XIV.

WINDSOR PARK. "MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM."

_"This is the fairy land; O spite of spites
We talk with goblins, owls, and elfish sprites._

* * * * *

_'Tis still a dream, or else such stuff as
Madmen tongue and brain!"_

* * * * *

_"If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it."_

Shakspere had blocked out the play of "Midsummer Night's Dream" in the year
1593, and completed it in the summer of 1599.

The story of Palamon and Arcite by Chaucer, and the love of Athenian
Theseus for the Amazonian Queen Hippolyta, as told by Plutarch, gave
William his first idea of composing a play where the acts of fairies and
human beings would assimilate in their loves and jealousies.

One evening while seated at the Falcon Tavern, in company with the Earl of
Southampton, Essex, Florio, Bacon, Cecil, Warwick, Burbage, Drayton and
Jonson, William read the main points of the play, which was lauded to the
skies by all present.

Burbage, the manager of the Globe, suggested to Essex and Southampton that
it would be a grand idea to have the "Dream" enacted in the park and woods
of Windsor!

It was a novel idea, and one sure to catch the romantic sentiments of Queen
Elizabeth, as old Duke Theseus, the cross-purposed lovers, Bottom and his
rude theatrical troop, and the fairies, led by Oberon, Titania and Puck
could have full swing in the forest, sporting in their natural elements.

In reading or viewing the play, the mind wanders in a mystic grove by
moonlight and breathes at every step odors of sweet flowers, while