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PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY BY

LITTELL & GAY, BOSTON.

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TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION.

For EIGHT DOLLARS, remitted directly to the Publishers, the LIVING AGE will be punctually forwarded for a year, free of postage. But we do not prepay postage on less than a year, nor when we have to pay commission for forwarding the money; nor when we club the LIVING Age with another periodical.

An extra copy of THE LIVING AGR is sent gratis to any one getting up a club of Five New Subscribers. Remittances should be made by bank draft or check, or by post-office money-order, if possible. If neither of these can be procured, the money should be sent in a registered letter. All postmasters are obliged to register letters when requested to do so. Drafts, checks and money-orders should be made payable to the order of LITTELL & GAY.

STRENGTH IN ADVERSITY.

BY ANDREW DICKINSON.

Deut. xxxiii. 25.

PILGRIM on life's rugged road,
Tearful, fainting 'neath thy load,
On thy Lord thy burden roll;
He with strength renews thy soul :
Hath not Jesus said to thee,
"As thy day, thy strength shall be!"

In the bitterness of grief,
Though thy prayer find no relief;
Bowed, forsaken, and forlorn,
Though thy sighs prevent the morn,
Tarrying long, he comes at length,
To revive thy fainting strength!

Though thy Saviour long forbear,
He will hear his people's prayer!
What though He, when sorrowing sought,
Make as though he heard thee not?
Watch, and without ceasing pray,
That thy strength be as thy day.

When temptation cometh in,
With a surging flood of sin,
And the burning billows swell
From the lowest deeps of hell;
O my Saviour! say to me,
"As thy day, thy strength shall be!"

Some, distrustful of their Lord,
Fear to lean upon his Word;
One day, by the hand of Saul,
They are fearful they shall fall!
Still that word is sweet to me,
"As thy day, thy strength shall be."

What though his approach be late?
It is good on God to wait :
He will prove his promise true,
By his gifts, not small, nor few;
His salvation thou shalt see,
"As thy day, thy strength shall be."

When wild winds thy vessel sweep
O'er the dreary, boisterous deep,
And thy prostrate strength shall fail
As she drives before the gale,
Then cry mightily, and say,
"Let my strength be as my day!"

Dark may be the midnight hour,
With Death's shadow covered o'er;
Yet, how drear so e'er the night,
God hath said, "Let there be light!"
Jesus can, if thou wilt pray,
Turn thy darkness into day.

Art thou tempted oft to say,

God with thorns hath hedged my way!
Dost thou sit alone and weep,
Doth thy heart sad vigils keep?
Weeping may endure a night;
Joy shall come with morning light.

As Thy people once were fed, With the heaven-descended bread,

Feed me thus in righteousness
In life's howling wilderness;
And, when fainting by the way,
Let my strength be as my day.
O thou comfortless and tost,
In thy Lord and Saviour trust!
Lo! the dayspring from on high
Speaks thy great Deliverer nigh!
Leave thy fatherless to me;
"As thy day, thy strength shall be!"
Oh! when Death with iron blow,
Strikes some dearly loved one low,
Vale of Shadows! though Despair
Walk in awful silence there;
Light in darkness thou may'st see;
"As thy day, thy strength shall be!"

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From Blackwood's Magazine.
SHAKESPEARE'S FUNERAL.

bler's-hath not the master, without cataloguing one of these things, implied all,

Place.-STRATFORD-ON-AVON. Time. -THE in half-a-score of pregnant words, for all

25TH OF APRIL 1616.

SCENE L.- The Taproom of the Falcon Tavern in the High Street, kept by Eleanor Comyng.

HOSTESS and SLY.

Hostess. Kit Sly, Kit Sly, dost thou hear? There be guests alighting in the yard; run thou and help Robin ostler hold their stirrups, and so do somewhat for the ale thou ne'er pay'st for.

Sly. If I do, wilt thou let this one day slip without rating and prating of thy score

that I owe thee?

Hostess. Yea, good Kit, if thou run quickly.

Sly. But wilt thou bid Francis draw me what ale I may chance call for ?

the future? What a skill is that can make a poor sot immortal!

Sly. Sot, saidst thou! - but I care not. Will ye stand me, gentles, in a pot of ale? Raleigh. Wilt thou answer, then, a few questions I would put to thee?

Sly. Ay-but the ale first; and be brief; I love not much question. Say on,

and let the world slide.

Raleigh. A pot of ale, drawer, for this worthy man. And now tell me, Sly, is't not thy custom to use that phrase "let the world slide"?*

Sly. It may well be; 'tis a maxim I love; 'tis a cure for much. I am coldlet the world slide, for anon I shall be Hostess. Nay, that will I not, or thou warmer. I am dry- let the world slide, wouldst empty my great tun. Thou for time will bring ale. I sit, pottle-pot wouldst serve me as thou didst the ale-in hand, i' the chimney-nook- let the wife of Wincot,* who says, poor soul, that world slide while I taste it. she ne'er had cask in cellar these twelve

years but thou wert more fatal to it than a leaking tap. By these ears, I heard her say so when the deputy's men were seizing her goods. Thou shalt not cozen me as thou didst Marian.

Sly. Hold stirrup thyself, then. I'll not budge. I'll to sleep again by the chimney till it please God send me drink.

Drayton. 'Tis a pretty philosophy, and might serve for greater uses. But, for a further question Wert thou acquainted with old John Naps of Greece? †

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Sly. John Naps, quotha! what, old John! by Jeronimy, I knew him many a year, mended his pots and helped him empty them. 'A had been a sailor, or to say pirate would be to shoot nearer the Enter DRAYTON† (the poet) and YOUNG RA- clout; when sober his fashion was to say LEIGH (son of Sir Walter).

Drayton. Sly, said she! Didst thou not hear, Walter, yon valet's name? but 'twas scarce needful. The sodden face, the shaken nether lip, the eye watery and impudent, the paunch ale-swelled, the doublet liquor-stained, the hat crushed from being much slept in, the apparel ruinous, because the tapster intercepts the fee that should be the tailor's and the cob

•“Ask Marian Hacket, the fat ale-wife of Wincot, if she know me not," says Kit Sly in the "Taming of the Shrew." Wincot is a village about three miles from

Stratford.

↑ Michael Drayton, a Warwickshire poet of great repute in his day, was about a year older than Shakespeare, and had known him long and familiarly.

Young Walter Raleigh was Sir Walter's eldest son, and was now twenty-two years old. He accompanied his father, soon after, to South America, as commander of one of the companies that formed the military part of the expedition, to prepare for which was the express condition on which Sir Walter was released from the Tower in January 1616.

nought, but when drunk his talk was of the things 'a had seen in Greece — whereby they called him Naps of Greece.

Drayton. And didst thou know, too, Peter Turf and Henry Pimpernell?

Sly. Yea, as this pot handle knows these fingers. For Turf, he was deputysexton of Wincot, and indeed digged Naps' grave, and was found lying drunk therein, with his spade beside him, at the hour of burial. For Pimpernell, 'twas a half-witted companion, but his grandam kept money in 's purse, and 'a served to pay scores, and 'a could join in a catch on

* A phrase much affected by Sly the Tinker in the prelude to the "Taming of the Shrew."

† One of Sly's acquaintances at Wincot. "Stephen Sly, and Old John Naps of Greece, And Peter Turf and Henry Pimpernell." "Taming of the Shrew." A manuscript memorandum, in which Stephen Sly is mentioned, written at Stratford in 1614, is still extant.

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occasion, thof 'a had but a small, cracked | twilight. The radiant intellect is gone,

voice, and mostly sung his part to psalmtunes. And, now, masters, a question to an ye answer not, faith I care not but how should such as ye know Naps and the others?

ye

Drayton. They have been recorded, and thou too, in what will outlast your epitaphs. Doubtless thou hast heard of Master William Shakespeare of New Place.*

and hath left but its pale reflection in his works — tho' these shall be immortal Methinks, in future, the sky will be less blue, the air less warm, the flowers less gay; for I honoured this man more than any, and whate'er I essayed to do 'twas with a secret thought of his judgment over me, as if he had been the conscience of mine intellect.

Hostess. Ye look pale -a cup of sack, sweet sirs; for, ye know, a cheerful cup the heart bears up.

Drayton. Nay, woman, nay.

Sly. Heard of him, said he! Ay, and seen him and talked with him both here and at Wincot when he came thither to Hostess. 'Tis of the best, I warrant you; his kinsfolk. By this malt-juice, a merry gentleman, and a free - 'a should have 'tis from the stores of Master Quiney— been a lord, for, look you, to bestow liq-him that hath married Master Shakeuor on the thirsty is a lordly fashion, and speare's daughter Judith, and he deals in I have owed him many a skinful. Marry, none but the best. that tap's dry now.

Drayton. What, knave, hath he found at last that it is more virtuous to forget thee than to countenance thee?

Sly. Nay, I will say nought in his dispraise; 'a was good to me, and hath oft spoke with me, and I'll ne'er deny it now's dead and gone. Mayhap ye have come to

the burial?

Drayton. Dead !

Raleigh. Master Shakespeare dead! Hostess. Oh, masters, he hath spoke the truth, tho' he be no true man; by these tears, he hath. Master Shakespeare parted 'o Tuesday, and he will be buried this dientical day; the coffin will be brought forth of New Place upon the stroke of two. I have talked with the bearers, and all. Raleigh. Thus perish the hopes which drew me to Stratford. I thought to look on the foremost poet of the world to hear his voice — perchance to be honoured with some discourse of him—and now I shall look but on his coffin. Oh, Master Drayton !

Drayton. We looked not, indeed, for this. 'Tis as if the sun were drawn from the firmament, and had left us to perpetual

New Place was a large house, with garden attached, in the town of Stratford-built by Sir Hugh Clopton in Henry VII.'s time, and purchased by Shakespeare in

1597.

The Ardens, Shakespeare's relations by the mother's

side, lived in the parish of Wincot.

Drayton. 'Tis not sack that will help us. But canst thou tell us, good hostess, aught concerning his end?

Hostess.

Yea, well-a-day, that can I, for 'twas Gossip Joan Tisick who goeth out nursing, the same your worships, that brought young Elizabeth Hall, his grandchild, into the world, that was sent for to him when 'twas seen which way 'a was likely to go; whereby, she told me thereof yesternight over a cup of ale and sugar with a toasted crab in 't — for, said she, there's none in Stratford, Mistress Comyng, that Master Shakespeare thought more on than you. The doctor, Master Hall, says to her, "Have a care, Joan, of my father-in-law Shakespeare, says he; for 'tis a parlous case, says he; we be all mortal, says he and the breath goeth therefore keep thou the when it listeth better watch, for 'tis a man we could ill "Fear not, Master Hall," quoth spare." Joan, “I'll tend him an 'twere his mother." So, o' Tuesday night he said he felt easier, and he bid Mistress Hall and the Doctor that they should leave him and take And 'a says to Joan, "Art good rest. drowsy, good Joan?" Whereupon she made answer "A little; for I have been up," saith she, "all last night at a labour with Mistress Coney her thirteenth child." "Ay," quoth he, "in thy calling thou seest both ends of life; well, thou shalt sleep to-night, and all night if thou wilt.”

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Nay, sir," saith Joan, "not so; but your

-

worship being of so good cheer to-night, | solaced mine enforced solitude in the mayhap if I take a short nap 'twill do no Tower with studying all of his works that harm." "If thou take a long one, good have been given to us; and entreat him, Joan," said Master Shakespeare, "it mat- in my name, not to leave those plays of his ters not, for, I warrant you, I shall take a to the chances of the world, as fathers longer." "It doth me good to hear your leave their misbegotten children, but to worship speak so," says Joan, "for sleep make them truly the heirs of his invention, well is keep well, and a night's rest and to spend on them that paternal care physic's best" and so tucks up the bed- which shall prove them worthy of their clothes, and draws the hangings, and source. leaves him as 'a was closing his eyes. Well, sweet sirs, all the night he lay quiet, and with the dawn Joan peeps me in through the curtains, and there he lay, quiet and smiling — and as the sun rose she peeps me in again and he was still quiet and smiling and she touched his forehead; and he had been lying for hours (so the doctor said when Joan called him) as dead as his grandam.

Hostess. Please you come in here to the Dolphin chamber, where Master Shakespeare loved to sit.

Raleigh. Well now we are in it, I find it convenient and well-lighted; and yet methinks 'tis but a small one.

Drayton. Ay, but seest thou that, through the door, one that sits here can mark the whole company of ale-drinkers in the tap-room without, and therefore Drayton. 'Twas, then, with good heart Shakespeare loved it; here would he sit that this great soul passed to what himself and note the humours of such guests as hath called the undiscovered country: of yonder Sly. For in such, he would say, whose inhabitants he must sure take his you see humanity with its vizard off; and place among the most illustrious. Thou he held that nurture, though it oft cherart sad, Walter-this grief touches thee, ishes a good apprehension, yet as oft doth and, sooth, it becomes thee well. It be- overlay and smother it. He hath said to speaks thy youth generous; 'tis an assur-me, pointing to the company without, "If ance that thou hast thy father's spirit, who, great himself, owns near kinship with greatness, and will sorrow for Shakespeare as for a brother.

Raleigh. 'Twas my father's wish, when he knew I was to be thy guest in Warwickshire, that I should pay my duty to Master Shakespeare, for, said he, there is no worthier thing in life, than to take note of the greatest of thy companions in earth's pilgrimage; in them thou seest the quintessence of man's spirit, cleared of the muddy vapours which make common humanity so base and foolish: and this man is of the greatest, a companion indeed for princes, nay, himself a king, whose kingdom is of the imagination, and therefore boundless. Tell him, Walter, said my father, that in my long captivity * I have oft remembered our pleasant encounters at the Mermaid; † tell him, too, that I have

you find wit here 'tis the bird's own feather, and no borrowed plume; if you see courtesy 'tis inborn, and will bear the rub; if you note a quaint humour 'tis in the man by the grace of God or the force of circumstance, your weaver or your tinker, whatsoever other gift he hath, hath not the skill to counterfeit, for that comes by art, and leisure, and commerce with men of condition, and desire of their good opinion; wherefore methinks I oft see deeper through your leathern jerkin than your satin doublet."

"Mis

Hostess. Yea, here would 'a come many a time and oft, with Master Ben, that was full of quips as as egg of meat. tress Quickly!" Ben would say (for so 'a called me, I know not wherefore), "set us in the Dolphin chamber; * and let us have a sea-coal fire," 'a would say "and I will drink none if thou give me not a parcel-gilt goblet," whereby Master

The twelve years' imprisonment in the Tower to club, of which Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Beaumont, which James I. had consigned him.

↑ The Mermaid was a tavern in London where Sir Walter had established, before his imprisonment, a

Fletcher and others were members.

For the allusions here made by Master Ben, see the "Second Part of King Henry IV.," act ii. sc. I.

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