at in the days when the poet's star was
in the ascendant his royal mistress had seen the greater glories of her
reign and was entering upon her declining years, not without many
troubles and much sorrow to mark the last milestones of the road.

One of the first acts of King James's reign was to confer special rights
upon the Lord Chamberlain's company, of which the poet was a prominent
member. Henceforward he was one of "The King's Servants," and the King
took a special interest in Shakespeare's plays, which were often
performed before him. Unhappily the plague drove the Court from London
in the autumn of 1603 to the Earl of Pembroke's seat at Wilton; but in
1604, when the Court returned to London, Shakespeare was first of the
nine actors who walked in the royal procession, and received a gift of
scarlet cloth for the making of a cloak worthy the occasion. Many other
honours followed. Great State occasions called for plays; Shakespeare's
were chosen, and his company acted them. The scenic art began to receive
a rather belated attention--in short, there was all the requisite
stimulus for a man of genius, and the poet responded to it nobly.

"Othello" was the first play written by Shakespeare in the reign of King
James, but he seems to have had "Measure for Measure" on the stocks at
the same time, for each was produced at Whitehall towards the close of
1604. "Macbeth," written in 1605 and 1606, was clearly intended as a
compliment to the king, who was a descendant of the unfortunate Banquo
whose royal line Macbeth saw "stretch to the crack of doom." Dr. Lee
makes the shrewd suggestion that inasmuch as this is the shortest of
Shakespeare's tragedies, we may have no more than an abbreviated acting
version. Other critics of note find certain corrupt passages in the text
that go far to justify this contention. We may be sure that Shakespeare,
then at the zenith of his power, would not have stinted the measure of a
work which seems to have taken more of his time than any previous play.
Following closely upon "Macbeth" came "King Lear," produced at Whitehall
for the Christmas festivities of 1606, and founded, like several of its
predecessors, upon Holinshed's Chronicles.

After this supreme effort the pace of genius faltered for a while.
"Timon of Athens" and "Pericles" are not pure Shakespeare; they do not
show us the master at his best--though the first named is fine enough to
have given enduring reputation to a lesser man.