himself in
the brightest vein that could not bear misinterpretation. He turned to
an Italian author, probably Ariosto, for a part of "Much Ado about
Nothing," but he drew the least vital part from the foreign source; the
most of the comedy ran sparkling from his own brain. "As You Like It"
followed "Much Ado," and the date must be about 1600. It is another
clear case of adaptation, and the scenes of the play given to the Forest
of Arden breathe the pastoral spirit in a fashion that we look for in
vain elsewhere. "Twelfth Night" would appear to have been the third
comedy following the sequence of historical plays, and the date would
seem to be 1601.

About this time the poet found himself in a very delicate situation. He
had referred to the expedition of the Earl of Essex in terms of eulogy,
and when that enterprise failed, Essex revolted against his sovereign,
aided and abetted by the poet's patron, the Earl of Southampton. Part of
the preliminary arrangements for the conspiracy consisted in arranging
for performances of Shakespeare's "Richard II.," in which, of course,
the king is murdered, the object being to show that regicide was of no
very distant date. Shakespeare's company was persuaded to revive the
play at the "Globe" just before the abortive rising in favour of Essex,
who, having lost his head metaphorically, was now to lose it literally.
Happily for England, Shakespeare himself was not involved in the
trouble. Oddly enough, he published in the year of Essex's death and
Southampton's imprisonment a curious poem, "The Phoenix and the
Turtle." Nobody has been able to fathom its meaning, though it may be
that those who connect it with the Essex _debacle_ may yet find a clue
to the mystery.

After this year even comedy would seem to have lost its appeal and
savour for a time. The poet had received a shock that we cannot quite
estimate or understand, and turning to Plutarch's Lives for inspiration,
he wrote the famous tragedy "Julius Caesar," in many respects a work that
must always defy adequate representation on the stage. How it could have
passed muster on the bare Elizabethan boards is a puzzle. Next in order
came the masterpiece by which his name is known to the widest circle of
his followers, "Hamlet," yet another adaptation of a work that had
enjoyed popularity for some years in London and the country. There are
many references in Shakespeare's "Hamlet" to contemporary events,
including the triumph of the