a desultory mode of life, was induced to sanction a partiality which I had for some time entertained for a young woman in this neighbourhood, about eight years older than myself, under the hope that, as a husband and a father, I should feel the necessity of becoming more attentive to the concerns of business."

"If I might venture, without offence, to form a conjecture as to the issue of this engagement," remarked Montchensey, as descending from the grammar-school, they turned to re-enter NewPlace, "I would say, that though, as might be expected from the poet of Venus and Adonis,' you proved an ardent disciple of the tender passion, and, no doubt, a faithful and affectionate husband, yet, as to business, the experiment did not altogether succeed."

"I cannot say it did," returned the bard, somewhat archly surveying both Montchensey and his daughter, whilst on the countenance of the latter dwelt a smile of the most enchanting playfulness; “and I rather suspect that you are better acquainted with my juvenile adventures than I had imagined. Yet I can assure you, that though at an age when love and liberty are

objects of dearest estimation, I had formed, on entering into the marriage state, such a serious determination to direct all the talents I possessed to business, that not satisfied with merely assisting my father in his own peculiar line, I endeavoured, as an additional means of supporting a family, to acquire a knowledge of a lucrative branch of the law; and, in fact, through the aid of a near relative, himself a member of the legal profession, I became in a little time sufficiently versed in what is termed the Art of Conveyancing, as to have rendered it, but for some untoward circumstances, a source of no inconsiderable emolument."

"Ah! my dear Sir," cried Helen, laughing, and encouraged by the sly expression of humour which mantled on the features of the poet as he closed the above detail," you will pardon me, I am sure, if in alluding to what fame has recorded of this frolic period of your life, I venture to remind you, that, in the opinion of your neighbour Sir Thomas Lucy, you carried your newly-acquired art of conveyancing somewhat beyond the limits which either he or his brethren in the magistracy could approve!"

"A mad exploit, my young friend," rejoined the bard," and one which even the ebullition of youth, and the warmth of an undisciplined imagination, can scarcely palliate, much less excuse. It was my misfortune, indeed, at this period, to have formed an intimacy with several lawless and hair-brained spirits, and the incursion which they proposed was but too accordant with that love of the wild and adventurous which had for some years animated my breast, and played before my fancy, to be rejected with the indignation which it merited. I can well remember, in fact, that it struck me in the light of one of those bold achievements I had read of in the predatory warfare of ancient times, and the danger it involved served only to recommend it the more."*

* Notwithstanding all that Mr. Malone has brought forward to prove that no park existed, either at Charlecote or Fulbroke in Shakspeare's time, I cannot help thinking that the story of our poet's frolic must, from the universality and iteration of the tradition connected with it, have had some foundation in truth. "It is," as Mr. Malone himself has observed, “ an old and just observation, that omnis fabula fundatur in historia; the most fictitious accounts which tradition has handed down to us, have generally had some little resemblance or admixture of truth in them.”—(Vol. ii. p. 72.) I am therefore inclined to believe,

As Shakspeare uttered these words they reached the threshold of New-Place; and being all engaged to dinner at Mr. Combe's, of Strat

that Sir Thomas Lucy, though he never possessed a legal park, had yet deer within enclosed grounds; and that Shakspeare was proceeded against by, or threatened with, an action of trespass for his misdemeanour. It should also be observed, that when Mr. Malone declares that this mode of accrediting the story is scarcely worth considering, for that " of keeping deer in unenclosed grounds no example can be produced," he seems to have forgotten the import of a passage which he has quoted from Blackstone in the preceding page, who expressly says, "the word park, properly signifies an enclosure: but yet it is not every field or common, which a gentleman chooses to surround with a wall or paling, and to stock with a herd of deer, that is thereby constituted a legal park ;" an observation which evidently implies, not only that such a species of enclosed lands for keeping deer, though in the eye of the law considered as unenclosed, had occurred, but that it had also not unfrequently occurred. We are likewise told by Mr. Malone, in a previous part of his volume, (p. 131.) that in parliament Sir Thomas Lucy" was very active in the preservation of the game," an activity not very likely to have existed, unless he was, in some way or other, immediately interested in the protection of it, but which will very sufficiently account for what Mr. Malone has remarked, that "the first scene of the Merry Wives of Windsor, certainly affords ground for believing that our author, on some account or other, had not the most profound respect for Sir Thomas Lucy."-Vol. ii. p. 141.

The frequency also of this kind of depredation in the days of Shakspeare, and the moral light in which it was considered by his contemporaries, add further credence to the story.

ford College, Helen had only time, ere she retired to make some alteration in her dress, to petition her kind host that they might visit the

"To form a right judgment," says Mr. Malone, " on this, as on many other subjects, it is necessary to take into our consideration the prevalent opinions and practices of the time. If these be attended to, in the present case, the act which has been imputed to our poet, however unjustifiable, will rather appear in the light of a youthful indiscretion, in which light it is frequently represented, than as a very criminal offence. That it was a common practice among the young men of those days, and being wholly unmixed with any sordid or lucrative motive, (for the venison thus obtained was not sold, but freely participated at a convivial board,) was considered merely a juvenile frolic, may be inferred from a passage in a tract of that age, where it is classed with the other ordinary levities and amusements of youth. • Time of recreation,' (says a writer against stage plays in 1599,) is necessarie, I graunt, and thinke as necessarie for scholars, that are scholars in deede, as it is for any. Yet in my opinion it were not fit for them to play at stoole-ball among wenches, nor at chance or maw with idle loose companions, nor at trunkes in guile-halls, nor to danse about may-poles, nor to ruffle in ale houses, nor to carouse in tavernes, nor to steale deere, nor to rob orchards.' — Overthrow of Stage Plaies, 4to. 1599. p. 23.) In like manner, Anthony Wood, speaking of Dr. John Thornborough, who was admitted a member of Magdalen College in Oxford, in 1570, at the age of eighteen, and was successively bishop of Limerick, in Ireland, and bishop of Bristol and Worcester, in England, informs us, that he and his kinsman, Robert Pinkney, seldom studied or gave themselves to their bookes; but spent their time in the fencing-schools, and dancing-schools, in stealing deer and conies, in hunting the hare,