SHAKESPEARE'S ENGLAND

BY

WILLIAM WINTER

SHAKESPEARE'S

ENGLAND

BY

WILLIAM WINTER

New Edition, Revised, withIllustrations

New York
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., LTD.
1898

All rights reserved

Copyright, 1892,
BY MACMILLAN AND CO.

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Illustrated Edition,
COPYRIGHT, 1893,
BY MACMILLAN AND CO.

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First published elsewhere.
Set up and electrotyped by Macmillan & Co., April, 1892.Reprinted
November, 1892; January, 1893.

Illustrated edition, revised throughout, in crown 8v0, set up and
Electrotyped June, 1893. Reprinted October, 1893; August, 1895;September,
1898.

Norwood Press
J. S. Cushing & Co.—Berwick & Smith
Norwood Mass. U.S.A.

To

Whitelaw Reid

IN HONOUR OF EXALTED VIRTUES

ADORNING A LIFE OF

NOBLE ACHIEVEMENT AND PATIENT KINDNESS

AND IN REMEMBRANCE OF

FAITHFUL AND GENTLE FRIENDSHIP

I DEDICATE THIS BOOK


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"Tum meae, si quid loquar audiendum,
Vocis accedet bona pars"

PREFACE TO THEILLUSTRATED EDITION OF SHAKESPEARE'S ENGLAND

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The favour with which this book has been received, alike inGreat Britain and America, is thought to warrant a reproduction of itwith pictorial embellishment, and accordingly it is offered in thepresent form. I have revised the text for this reprint, and my friendMr. George P. Brett, of the house of Messrs. Macmillan andCompany,—at whose suggestion the pictorial edition wasundertaken,—has supervised the choice of pictures for itsadornment. The approval that the work has elicited is a source ofdeep gratification. It signifies that my endeavour to reflect thegentle sentiment of English landscape and the romantic character ofEnglish rural life has not proved altogether in vain. It also showsthat an appeal may confidently be made,—irrespective oftransitory literary fashions and of popular caprice,—to thelove of the ideal, the taste for simplicity, and the sentiment ofveneration. In these writings there is, I hope, a profound practicaldeference to the perfect standard of style that is represented bysuch illustrious exemplars as Addison, Goldsmith, Sterne, and Gray.This frail fabric may perish: that standard is immortal; and whatevermerit this book may possess is due to an instinctive and passionatedevotion to the ideal denoted by those shining names. These sketcheswere written out of love for the subject. The first book o