ler save one who had cast a spell over the hearts of Englishmen.
His thoughts were absorbed, as those of the country were absorbed, in
the struggle for national existence which centred round the Queen. "King
John" is a trumpet-call to rally round Elizabeth in her fight for
England. Again a Pope was asserting his right to depose an English
sovereign and to loose Englishmen from their bond of allegiance. Again
political ambitions and civil discord woke at the call of religious war.
Again a foreign power was threatening England at the summons of Rome,
and hoping to master her with the aid of revolted Englishmen. The heat
of such a struggle as this left no time for the thought of civil
liberties. Shakspere casts aside the thought of the Charter to fix
himself on the strife of the stranger for England itself. What he sang
was the duty of patriotism, the grandeur of loyalty, the freedom of
England from Pope or Spaniard, its safety within its "water-walled
bulwark," if only its national union was secure. And now that the nation
was at one, now that he had seen in his first years of London life
Catholics as well as Protestants trooping to the muster at Tilbury and
hasting down Thames to the fight in the Channel, he could thrill his
hearers with the proud words that sum up the work of Elizabeth:--

"This England never did, nor never shall,
Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror,
But when it first did help to wound itself.
Now that her princes are come home again,
Come the three corners of the world in arms,
And we shall shock them! Nought shall make us rue
If England to itself do rest but true."

[Sidenote: Shakspere's prosperity.]

With this great series of historical and social dramas Shakspere had
passed far beyond his fellows whether as a tragedian or as a writer of
comedy. "The Muses," said Meres in 1598, "would speak with Shakspere's
fine-filed phrase, if they would speak English." His personal popularity
was now at its height. His pleasant temper and the vivacity of his wit
had drawn him early into contact with the young Earl of Southampton, to
whom his "Adonis" and "Lucrece" are dedicated; and the different tone of
the two dedications shows how rapidly acquaintance ripened into an
ardent friendship. Shakspere's wealth and influence too were growing
fast. He had property both in Stratford and London, and his
fellow-townsmen made him their suitor to Lord Burleigh for favours to be
besto