The Story of the "Grafton" Portrait of William Shakespeare "Aetatis Svae 24, 1588,": With an Account of the Sack and Destruction of the Manor House of Grafton Regis by the Parliamentary Forces on Christmas Eve, 1643

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S.W. Partridge, 1914 - "Grafton" portrait of William Shakespeare - 82 pages

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Page 24 - Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, But not express'd in fancy ; rich, not gaudy ; For the apparel oft proclaims the man ; And they in France, of the best rank and station, Are most select and generous, chief in that.
Page 24 - A made a finer end, and went away an it had been any christom child. A parted even just between twelve and one, even at the turning o' the tide. For after I saw him fumble with the sheets, and play with flowers, and smile upon his fingers...
Page 17 - TO THE READER. This Figure, that thou here seest put, It was for gentle Shakespeare cut ; Wherein the Graver had a strife , With Nature, to out-doo the life: O, could he but have drawne his wit As well in brasse, as he hath hit His face ; the print would then surpasse All that was ever writ in brasse. But, since he cannot, Reader, looke Not on his Picture, but his Booke.
Page 21 - Stranger, to whom this monument is shown, Invoke the poet's curse upon Malone ; Whose meddling zeal his barbarous taste betrays, And daubs his tombstone, as he mars his plays.
Page 34 - Though, as Ben Jonson says of him that he had but little Latin and less Greek, he understood Latin pretty well, for he had been in his younger years a schoolmaster in the country.
Page 29 - The clerk that showed me this church is above eighty years old ; he says that this Shakespeare was formerly in this town bound apprentice to a butcher, but that he run from his master to London, and there was received into the playhouse as a servitor, and by this means had an opportunity to be what he afterwards proved.
Page 28 - ... when he came to London, he was without money and friends, and being a stranger, he knew not to •whom to apply, nor by what means to support himself. At that time, coaches not being in use, and as gentlemen were accustomed to ride to the play-house, Shakspeare, driven to the last extremity, went to the play-house door, and picked up a little money by taking care of gentlemen's horses who came to the play ; he became eminent even in that profession, and* was taken notice of for diligence and...
Page 57 - It was a melancholy end to so fine a house, and so regally connected, that it should have fallen into the hands of the Parliamentarian forces in 1643. On Christmas Eve, in that year, being Sunday, the Roundheads, reinforced by troops from Northampton, entered the house, ' where they found great and rich plunder which they had for their paines,'£ and — the better the day, the better the deed — on Christmas morning fired it. Out of its ruins was constructed a building, now occupied by one of the...
Page 33 - Johnson was never a good actor, but an excellent instructor). He began early to make essayes at dramatique poetry, which at that time was very lowe ; and his playes tooke well. He was a handsome...
Page 73 - It is the bravest and best seat in the Kingdom, a seat for a Prince and not a subject. For the good of His Majesty's children hopes he will redeem the mortgage. The forfeiture is taken, and all His Majesty's tenants pay their rents to Sir Francis Crane. Hopes His Majesty will provide for his children as others do whom he has advanced. There is a general inclosing and converting...

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