e Stratford country and some of its
worthies, contemporaries of the poet. In the two-part play of "Henry
IV." that followed we have further references to Shakespeare's
birthplace, and he introduces us to Mr. Justice Shallow, who was to come
into prominence again in the "Merry Wives of Windsor." Clearly the
dramatist was closely concerned at this period of his life with certain
happenings in the place of his birth. These references help us, in place
of authenticated records, to show that Shakespeare still kept in fairly
close touch with his early home. "Henry IV." is famous for its scenes in
the Boar's Head at Eastcheap, and lest the enumeration of plays should
become a little tiresome, let us turn aside for a brief space to
consider the taverns of Queen Elizabeth's day and the company to be met
in them.

=CHARLECOTE HALL=

CHAPTER VIII

THE ELIZABETHAN TAVERNS

The London taverns were the clubs of London's literary men, and in
Shakespeare's time the most famous houses were "The Mermaid" in Bread
Street, "The Boar's Head" in Eastcheap, "The Devil" at Temple Bar, "The
Falcon," "The Tabard," "The George," and some few others, situated on
the south side of the river. In the days when he lived by the river-side
at Southwark, Shakespeare would have counted among the members of his
tavern club Edmund Spenser, Beaumont, Fletcher, and Ben Jonson, "rare
Ben Jonson," who wrote of his great rival, "I loved the man, and do
honour his memory on this side idolatry as much as any"; tribute over
which the mind loves to linger. Fuller tells of the contests of wit that
used to ensue when Shakespeare and Ben Jonson met, "which two I beheld
like a great Spanish galleon and an English man-of-war. Master Jonson,
like the former, was built far higher in learning, solid, but slow in
his performances; Shakespeare, with the English man-of-war, lesser in
bulk, but lighter in sailing, could turn with all tides, tack about and
take advantage of all winds by the quickness of his wit and invention."
We see in this simile that the lesson of the Spanish Armada had not been
forgotten, and that its appearance was still vividly present in men's
minds.

Although the taverns were open to all comers, it was easy for small
companies of men, banded together by common interests and devoted to
similar aims, to keep aloof from casual patrons. Strangers who had no
literary interests would not find any excuse for intrusion, and the
landlord, proud o