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Project Gutenberg surfs with a modem donated by Supra.
E >> E. Nesbit >> Project Gutenberg surfs with a modem donated by Supra. Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 This Etext prepared by Morrie Wilson
Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare
By E. Nesbit
"It may be said of Shakespeare, that from his works may be collected
a system of civil and economical prudence. He has been imitated
by all succeeding writers; and it may be doubted whether from all
his successors more maxims of theoretical knowledge, or more rules
of practical prudence can be collected than he alone has given to
his country."--Dr. SAMUEL JOHNSON.
PREFACE
The writings of Shakespeare have been justly termed "the richest,
the purest, the fairest, that genius uninspired ever penned."
Shakespeare instructed by delighting. His plays alone (leaving
mere science out of the question), contain more actual wisdom than
the whole body of English learning. He is the teacher of all
good-- pity, generosity, true courage, love. His bright wit is
cut out "into little stars." His solid masses of knowledge are
meted out in morsels and proverbs, and thus distributed, there is
scarcely a corner of the English-speaking world to-day which he
does not illuminate, or a cottage which he does not enrich. His
bounty is like the sea, which, though often unacknowledged, is
everywhere felt. As his friend, Ben Jonson, wrote of him, "He
was not of an age but for all time." He ever kept the highroad
of human life whereon all travel. He did not pick out by-paths
of feeling and sentiment. In his creations we have no moral
highwaymen, sentimental thieves, interesting villains, and amiable,
elegant adventuresses--no delicate entanglements of situation, in
which the grossest images are presented to the mind disguised
under the superficial attraction of style and sentiment. He
flattered no bad passion, disguised no vice in the garb of virtue,
trifled with no just and generous principle. While causing us to
laugh at folly, and shudder at crime, he still preserves our love
for our fellow-beings, and our reverence for ourselves.
Shakespeare was familiar with all beautiful forms and images, with
all that is sweet or majestic in the simple aspects of nature, of
that indestructible love of flowers and fragrance, and dews, and
clear waters--and soft airs and sounds, and bright skies and
woodland solitudes, and moon-light bowers, which are the material
elements of poetry,--and with that fine sense of their indefinable
relation to mental emotion, which is its essence and vivifying
soul--and which, in the midst of his most busy and tragical scenes,
falls like gleams of sunshine on rocks and ruins--contrasting with
all that is rugged or repulsive, and reminding us of the existence
of purer and brighter elements.
These things considered, what wonder is it that the works of
Shakespeare, next to the Bible, are the most highly esteemed of
all the classics of English literature. "So extensively have the
characters of Shakespeare been drawn upon by artists, poets, and
writers of fiction," says an American author,--"So interwoven are
these characters in the great body of English literature, that to
be ignorant of the plot of these dramas is often a cause of
embarrassment."
But Shakespeare wrote for grown-up people, for men and women, and
in words that little folks cannot understand.
Hence this volume. To reproduce the entertaining stories contained
in the plays of Shakespeare, in a form so simple that children
can understand and enjoy them, was the object had in view by the
author of these Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare.
And that the youngest readers may not stumble in pronouncing any
unfamiliar names to be met with in the stories, the editor has
prepared and included in the volume a Pronouncing Vocabulary of
Difficult Names. To which is added a collection of Shakespearean
Quotations, classified in alphabetical order, illustrative of the
wisdom and genius of the world's greatest dramatist.
E. T. R.
A BRIEF LIFE OF SHAKESPEARE.
In the register of baptisms of the parish church of Stratford-upon-Avon,
a market town in Warwickshire, England, appears, under date of
April 26, 1564, the entry of the baptism of William, the son of
John Shakspeare. The entry is in Latin--"Gulielmus filius Johannis
Shakspeare."
The date of William Shakespeare's birth has usually been taken as
three days before his baptism, but there is certainly no evidence
of this fact.
The family name was variously spelled, the dramatist himself not
always spelling it in the same way. While in the baptismal record
the name is spelled "Shakspeare," in several authentic autographs
of the dramatist it reads "Shakspere," and in the first edition
of his works it is printed "Shakespeare."
Halliwell tells us, that there are not less than thirty-four ways
in which the various members of the Shakespeare family wrote the
name, and in the council-book of the corporation of Stratford,
where it is introduced one hundred and sixty-six times during the
period that the dramatist's father was a member of the municipal
body, there are fourteen different spellings. The modern
"Shakespeare" is not among them.
Shakespeare's father, while an alderman at Stratford, appears to
have been unable to write his name, but as at that time nine men
out of ten were content to make their mark for a signature, the
fact is not specially to his discredit.
The traditions and other sources of information about the occupation
of Shakespeare's father differ. He is described as a butcher, a
woolstapler, and a glover, and it is not impossible that he may
have been all of these simultaneously or at different times, or
that if he could not properly be called any one of them, the nature
of his occupation was such as to make it easy to understand how
the various traditions sprang up. He was a landed proprietor and
cultivator of his own land even before his marriage, and he received
with his wife, who was Mary Arden, daughter of a country gentleman,
the estate of Asbies, 56 acres in extent. William was the third
child. The two older than he were daughters, and both probably
died in infancy. After him was born three sons and a daughter.
For ten or twelve years at least, after Shakespeare's birth his
father continued to be in easy circumstances. In the year 1568
he was the high bailiff or chief magistrate of Stratford, and for
many years afterwards he held the position of alderman as he had
done for three years before. To the completion of his tenth year,
therefore, it is natural to suppose that William Shakespeare would
get the best education that Stratford could afford. The free
school of the town was open to all boys and like all the
grammar-schools of that time, was under the direction of men who,
as graduates of the universities, were qualified to diffuse that
sound scholarship which was once the boast of England. There is
no record of Shakespeare's having been at this school, but there
can be no rational doubt that he was educated there. His father
could not have procured for him a better education anywhere. To
those who have studied Shakespeare's works without being influenced
by the old traditional theory that he had received a very narrow
education, they abound with evidences that he must have been
solidly grounded in the learning, properly so called, was taught
in the grammar schools.
There are local associations connected with Stratford which could
not be without their influence in the formation of young Shakespeare's
mind. Within the range of such a boy's curiosity were the fine
old historic towns of Warwick and Coventry, the sumptuous palace
of Kenilworth, the grand monastic remains of Evesham. His own
Avon abounded with spots of singular beauty, quiet hamlets, solitary
woods. Nor was Stratford shut out from the general world, as many
country towns are. It was a great highway, and dealers with every
variety of merchandise resorted to its markets. The eyes of the
poet dramatist must always have been open for observation. But
nothing is known positively of Shakespeare from his birth to his
marriage to Anne Hathaway in 1582, and from that date nothing but
the birth of three children until we find him an actor in London
about 1589.
How long acting continued to be Shakespeare's sole profession we
have no means of knowing, but it is in the highest degree probable
that very soon after arriving in London he began that work of
adaptation by which he is known to have begun his literary career.
To improve and alter older plays not up to the standard that was
required at the time was a common practice even among the best
dramatists of the day, and Shakespeare's abilities would speedily
mark him out as eminently fitted for this kind of work. When the
alterations in plays originally composed by other writers became
very extensive, the work of adaptation would become in reality a
work of creation. And this is exactly what we have examples of
in a few of Shakespeare's early works, which are known to have
been founded on older plays.
It is unnecessary here to extol the published works of the world's
greatest dramatist. Criticism has been exhausted upon them, and
the finest minds of England, Germany, and America have devoted
their powers to an elucidation of their worth.
Shakespeare died at Stratford on the 23rd of April, 1616. His
father had died before him, in 1602, and his mother in 1608. His
wife survived him till August, 1623. His so Hamnet died in 1596
at the age of eleven years. His two daughters survived him, the
eldest of whom, Susanna, had, in 1607, married a physician of
Stratford, Dr. Hall. The only issue of this marriage, a daughter
named Elizabeth, born in 1608, married first Thomas Nasbe, and
afterwards Sir John Barnard, but left no children by either
marriage. Shakespeare's younger daughter, Judith, on the 10th of
February, 1616, married a Stratford gentleman named Thomas Quincy,
by whom she had three sons, all of whom died, however, without
issue. There are thus no direct descendants of Shakespeare.
Shakespeare's fellow-actors, fellow-dramatists, and those who knew
him in other ways, agree in expressing not only admiration of his
genius, but their respect and love for the man. Ben Jonson said,
"I love the man, and do honor his memory, on this side idolatry,
as much as any. He was indeed honest, and of an open and free
nature." He was buried on the second day after his death, on the
north side of the chancel of Stratford church. Over his grave
there is a flat stone with this inscription, said to have been
written by himself:
Good friend for Jesus sake forbeare
To digg the dust encloased heare:
Blest be ye man yt spares these stones,
And curst be he yt moves my bones.
CONTENTS PAGE
PREFACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
A BRIEF LIFE OF SHAKESPEARE . . . . . . . . . . . 7
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM . . . . . . . . . . . 19
THE TEMPEST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
AS YOU LIKE IT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
THE WINTER'S TALE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
KING LEAR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
TWELFTH NIGHT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
ROMEO AND JULIET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
PERICLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
HAMLET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
CYMBELINE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
MACBETH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
THE COMEDY OF ERRORS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
THE MERCHANT OF VENICE . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
TIMON OF ATHENS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
OTHELLO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
THE TAMING OF THE SHREW . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
MEASURE FOR MEASURE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL . . . . . . . . . . . 272
PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY OF NAMES . . . . . . . . 286
QUOTATIONS FROM SHAKESPEARE . . . . . . . . . . 288
ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE
TITANIA: THE QUEEN OF THE FAIRIES . . . . . . . 20
THE QUARREL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
HELENA IN THE WOOD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
TITANIA PLACED UNDER A SPELL . . . . . . . . . 30
TITANIA AWAKES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
PRINCE FERDINAND IN THE SEA . . . . . . . . . . 36
PRINCE FERDINAND SEES MIRANDA . . . . . . . . . 39
PLAYING CHESS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
ROSALIND AND CELIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
ROSALIND GIVES ORLANDO A CHAIN . . . . . . . . 47
GANYMEDE FAINTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
LEFT ON THE SEA-COAST . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
THE KING WOULD NOT LOOK . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
LEONTES RECEIVING FLORIZEL AND PERDITA . . . . 60
FLORIZEL AND PERDITA TALKING . . . . . . . . . 62
HERMOINE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
CORDELIA AND THE KING OF FRANCE . . . . . . . . 67
GONERIL AND REGAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
CORDELIA IN PRISON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
VIOLA AND THE CAPTAIN . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
VIOLA AS "CESARIO" MEETS OLIVIA . . . . . . . . 76
"YOU TOO HAVE BEEN IN LOVE" . . . . . . . . . . 78
CLAUDIA AND HERO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
HERO AND URSULA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
BENEDICK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
FRIAR FRANCIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
ROMEO AND TYBALT FIGHT . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
ROMEO DISCOVERS JULIET . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
MARRIAGE OF ROMEO AND JULIET . . . . . . . . . 111
THE NURSE THINKS JULIET DEAD . . . . . . . . . 115
ROMEO ENTERING THE TOMB . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
PERICLES WINS IN THE TOURNAMENT . . . . . . . . 122
PERICLES AND MARINA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
THE KING'S GHOST APPEARS . . . . . . . . . . . 131
POLONIUS KILLED BY HAMLET . . . . . . . . . . . 135
DROWNING OF OPHELIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
IACHIMO AND IMOGEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
IACHIMO IN THE TRUNK . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
IMOGEN STUPEFIED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
IMOGEN AND LEONATUS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
THE THREE WITCHES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
FROM "MACBETH" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
LADY MACBETH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
KING AND QUEEN MACBETH . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
MACBETH AND MACDUFF FIGHT . . . . . . . . . . . 163
ANTIPHOLUS AND DROMIO . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
LUCIANA AND ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE . . . . . . 175
THE GOLDSMITH AND ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE . . . 178
AEMILIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
THE PRINCE OF MOROCCO . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
ANTONIO SIGNS THE BOND . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
JESSICA LEAVING HOME . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
BASSANIO PARTS WITH THE RING . . . . . . . . . 192
POET READING TO TIMON . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
PAINTER SHOWING TIMON A PICTURE . . . . . . . 197
"NOTHING BUT AN EMPTY BOX" . . . . . . . . . . 200
TIMON GROWS SULLEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
OTHELLO TELLING DESDEMONA HIS ADVENTURES . . . 211
OTHELLO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
THE DRINK OF WINE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
CASSIO GIVES THE HANDKERCHIEF . . . . . . . . 222
DESDEMONA WEEPING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
THE MUSIC MASTER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
KATHARINE BOXES THE SERVANT'S EARS . . . . . . 232
PETRUCHIO FINDS FAULT WITH THE SUPPER . . . . 235
THE DUKE IN THE FRIAR'S DRESS . . . . . . . . 244
ISABELLA PLEADS WITH ANGELO . . . . . . . . . 247
"YOUR FRIAR IS NOW YOUR PRINCE" . . . . . . . 253
VALENTINE WRITES A LETTER FOR SILVIA . . . . . 258
SILVIA READING THE LETTER . . . . . . . . . . 259
THE SERENADE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
ONE OF THE OUTLAWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
HELENA AND BERTRAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
HELENA AND THE KING . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
READING BERTRAM'S LETTER . . . . . . . . . . . 281
HELENA AND THE WIDOW . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
LIST OF FOUR-COLOR PLATES PAGE
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE . . . . . . . . . Frontispiece
TITANIA AND THE CLOWN . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
FERDINAND AND MIRANDA . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
PRINCE FLORIZEL AND PERDITA . . . . . . . . . . 54
ROMEO AND JULIET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
IMOGEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
CHOOSING THE CASKET . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
PETRUCHIO AND KATHERINE . . . . . . . . . . . 228
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
Hermia and Lysander were lovers; but Hermia's father wished her to
marry another man, named Demetrius.
Now, in Athens, where they lived, there was a wicked law, by which
any girl who refused to marry according to her father's wishes,
might be put to death. Hermia's father was so angry with her for
refusing to do as he wished, that he actually brought her before
the Duke of Athens to ask that she might be killed, if she still
refused to obey him. The Duke gave her four days to think about
it, and, at the end of that time, if she still refused to marry
Demetrius, she would have to die.
Lysander of course was nearly mad with grief, and the best thing
to do seemed to him for Hermia to run away to his aunt's house at
a place beyond the reach of that cruel law; and there he would
come to her and marry her. But before she started, she told her
friend, Helena, what she was going to do.
Helena had been Demetrius' sweetheart long before his marriage with
Hermia had been thought of, and being very silly, like all jealous
people, she could not see that it was not poor Hermia's fault that
Demetrius wished to marry her instead of his own lady, Helena.
She knew that if she told Demetrius that Hermia was going, as she
was, to the wood outside Athens, he would follow her, "and I can
follow him, and at least I shall see him," she said to herself.
So she went to him, and betrayed her friend's secret.
Now this wood where Lysander was to meet Hermia, and where the
other two had decided to follow them, was full of fairies, as most
woods are, if one only had the eyes to see them, and in this wood
on this night were the King and Queen of the fairies, Oberon and
Titania. Now fairies are very wise people, but now and then they
can be quite as foolish as mortal folk. Oberon and Titania, who
might have been as happy as the days were long, had thrown away
all their joy in a foolish quarrel. They never met without saying
disagreeable things to each other, and scolded each other so
dreadfully that all their little fairy followers, for fear, would
creep into acorn cups and hide them there.
So, instead of keeping one happy Court and dancing all night through
in the moonlight as is fairies' use, the King with his attendants
wandered through one part of the wood, while the Queen with hers
kept state in another. And the cause of all this trouble was a
little Indian boy whom Titania had taken to be one of her followers.
Oberon wanted the child to follow him and be one of his fairy
knights; but the Queen would not give him up.
On this night, in a mossy moonlit glade, the King and Queen of the
fairies met.
"Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania," said the King.
"What! jealous, Oberon?" answered the Queen. "You spoil everything
with your quarreling. Come, fairies, let us leave him. I am not
friends with him now."
"It rests with you to make up the quarrel," said the King.
"Give me that little Indian boy, and I will again be your humble
servant and suitor."
"Set your mind at rest," said the Queen. "Your whole fairy kingdom
buys not that boy from me. Come, fairies."
And she and her train rode off down the moonbeams.
"Well, go your ways," said Oberon. "But I'll be even with you
before you leave this wood."
Then Oberon called his favorite fairy, Puck. Puck was the spirit
of mischief. He used to slip into the dairies and take the cream
away, and get into the churn so that the butter would not come,
and turn the beer sour, and lead people out of their way on dark
nights and then laugh at them, and tumble people's stools from
under them when they were going to sit down, and upset their hot
ale over their chins when they were going to drink.
"Now," said Oberon to this little sprite, "fetch me the flower
called Love-in-idleness. The juice of that little purple flower
laid on the eyes of those who sleep will make them, when they
wake, to love the first thing they see. I will put some of the
juice of that flower on my Titania's eyes, and when she wakes she
will love the first thing she sees, were it lion, bear, or wolf,
or bull, or meddling monkey, or a busy ape."
While Puck was gone, Demetrius passed through the glade followed
by poor Helena, and still she told him how she loved him and
reminded him of all his promises, and still he told her that he
did not and could not love her, and that his promises were nothing.
Oberon was sorry for poor Helena, and when Puck returned with
the flower, he bade him follow Demetrius and put some of the juice
on his eyes, so that he might love Helena when he woke and looked
on her, as much as she loved him. So Puck set off, and wandering
through the wood found, not Demetrius, but Lysander, on whose eyes
he put the juice; but when Lysander woke, he saw not his own
Hermia, but Helena, who was walking through the wood looking for
the cruel Demetrius; and directly lie saw her he loved her and
left his own lady, under the spell of the purple flower.
When Hermia woke she found Lysander gone, and wandered about the
wood trying to find him. Puck went back and told Oberon what lie
had done, and Oberon soon found that he had made a mistake, and
set about looking for Demetrius, and having found him, put some
of the juice on his eyes. And the first thing Demetrius saw when
he woke was also Helena. So now Demetrius and Lysander were both
following her through the wood, and it was Hermia's turn to follow
her lover as Helena had done before. The end of it was that Helena
and Hermia began to quarrel, and Demetrius and Lysander went off
to fight. Oberon was very sorry to see his kind scheme to help
these lovers turn out so badly. So he said to Puck--
"These two young men are going to fight. You must overhang the
night with drooping fog, and lead them so astray, that one will
never find the other. When they are tired out, they will fall
asleep. Then drop this other herb on Lysander's eyes. That will
give him his old sight and his old love. Then each man will have
the lady who loves him, and they will all think that this has been
only a Midsummer Night's Dream. Then when this is done, all will
be well with them."
So Puck went and did as he was told, and when the two had fallen
asleep without meeting each other, Puck poured the juice on
Lysander's eyes, and said:--
"When thou wakest,
Thou takest
True delight
In the sight
Of thy former lady's eye:
Jack shall have Jill;
Nought shall go ill."
Meanwhile Oberon found Titania asleep on a bank where grew wild
thyme, oxlips, and violets, and woodbine, musk-roses and eglantine.
There Titania always slept a part of the night, wrapped in the
enameled skin of a snake. Oberon stooped over her and laid the
juice on her eyes, saying:--
"What thou seest when thou wake,
Do it for thy true love take."
Now, it happened that when Titania woke the first thing she saw
was a stupid clown, one of a party of players who had come out
into the wood to rehearse their play. This clown had met with
Puck, who had clapped an ass's head on his shoulders so that it
looked as if it grew there. Directly Titania woke and saw this
dreadful monster, she said, "What angel is this? Are you as wise
as you are beautiful?"
"If I am wise enough to find my way out of this wood, that's enough
for me," said the foolish clown.
"Do not desire to go out of the wood," said Titania. The spell of
the love-juice was on her, and to her the clown seemed the most
beautiful and delightful creature on all the earth. "I love you,"
she went on. "Come with me, and I will give you fairies to attend
on you."
So she called four fairies, whose names were Peaseblossom, Cobweb,
Moth, and Mustardseed.
"You must attend this gentleman," said the Queen. "Feed him with
apricots and dewberries, purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries.
Steal honey-bags for him from the bumble-bees, and with the wings
of painted butterflies fan the moonbeams from his sleeping eyes."
"I will," said one of the fairies, and all the others said, "I
will."
"Now, sit down with me," said the Queen to the clown, "and let me
stroke your dear cheeks, and stick musk-roses in your smooth,
sleek head, and kiss your fair large ears, my gentle joy."
"Where's Peaseblossom?" asked the clown with the ass's head. He
did not care much about the Queen's affection, but he was very
proud of having fairies to wait on him. "Ready," said
Peaseblossom.
"Scratch my head, Peaseblossom," said the clown. "Where's Cobweb?"
"Ready," said Cobweb.
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