company of boy actors known as "The
Children of the Chapel," who in a few years had advanced in popular
favour, and were now threatening the receipts of the established houses
and companies. History repeats itself. Then as now there was a demand
for novelty, sensation, and the infant prodigy was in demand. In
"Hamlet," too, Shakespeare shows that technical knowledge of his art to
which reference has been made earlier in this little survey. Richard
Burbage was the first Hamlet, and the tragedy was played in
Shakespeare's time both at Oxford and Cambridge.

=THE FIRST GLOBE THEATRE=

Dr. Sidney Lee, than whom no greater authority is needed, is inclined to
set "Troilus and Cressida" next in the list of plays, and to give it
date 1603. Some hold that the play hides a satire upon some of the
poet's contemporaries, but there is insufficient evidence to justify the
rather laboured conclusions that uphold the contention, which at least
is of no more than momentary interest. It is easy to find, and difficult
to deny, these hidden meanings in the work of one who left no clue to
any suggestion or satire embodied in his plays.

CHAPTER X

THE LATEST PLAYS

At this point in Shakespeare's career he lost his first royal patron.
Queen Elizabeth, whose long and fateful reign drew to its appointed
close on March 24, 1603. The poet gave to the world no expression of
grief at her loss. Perhaps he could not do so in loyalty to his first
and well-beloved patron, Henry Wriothesley, who still languished in
prison for his complicity in the Essex rising of two years before. There
had been times in his career when, through no fault of his own,
Shakespeare had been looked upon with suspicion, and it may have been
that the path to royal patronage had been at times a thorny and
difficult one. In any case Elizabeth's generosity had been limited; she
had not intervened to check the attack upon the theatres by the "unco
guid" of London in 1601, when, but for the supineness of the Surrey and
Middlesex magistrates, the poet's financial prosperity might have met
with a serious set-back. Here, as in so many other places, we are too
far from the time to see the truth clearly, and those who seek to fill
in the shadowy outline of the poet's life must rely upon such conjecture
as may have been put forward in good faith by the people who were
nearer to him. King James loved the theatre; Queen Elizabeth tolerated
it; nor must it be forgotten th