The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1914-06-16
A GLIMPSE OF SHAKESPEARE
AND HIS FRIENDS AT THE.
MERMAID TAVERN"

and now joking of how, after he and
Will had built the perfect stage, VIII
had promised that he, Ben, should
write a piece for his own company.
How Jolly is the Mermaid" tonight
until Sir Walter tells his tale of the
knight of the Ocean-Sea," of the he
role way in which Sir Humphrey Gill
bert went down on his sinking ship, a
tale which SoberS the whole company
| and causes Michael Drayton to raise
his cup and drink to him and to the
other adventurous captains on the
high seas who were daring all to make
new discoveries for the glory of Eng
lande
Atmosphere Changed.
A few nights later what a different
atmosphere pervadeS the "Mermaidi"
For, hist, all night Ben Jonson and
Kit Marlowe have been in the gayest
of humorS, singing songs of how thei
burly sheriff of Stratford-toWn had
once fooled sweet VIII for a preach
err for stealing a buck in CharlecOte
woods and carrying it home to the lit
tie white cottage Of sweet Anne Hath
away. And now look, see how, just
as Richard Bame enterS-Bame, the
Puritan. who scorns all the f~requenters
of the "Mermaid,' especially Shakes
, peare--Ben and Kit, feigning not to
see him, begin to praise S~hakeSpeare's
Venus and Adonis' and then break
off in pretended surprise as they see
the COOLEST hypOcrite on earth cas-
Marlowe calls him in a whispered
aside who says he brings a message
! from one of their former friends and
[ companions in vice who is now groan-
ing in sulphurOus fires namely,
Robert Greene, the message being his
? "Groatsworth of Wit Bought with a
Million of Repentance" This pam
phlet Marlowe takes and, as he reads
!, with knitted brows. Trust them not,
L for there is an upstart crow beauti-
[ fled with our feathers who, being an
absolute Johannes fac-totum, is in his
5 own cOnceit the only Shake-Scene in q
country the quiet figure of Will en-
ters and seats himself to listen. AS
$ Kit finishes, exploding with wrath,
I Shakespeare breaks in, bidding them
T read another Testament, in blood,
written, not printed. for the "Mermaid
1nn," the death-bed letter Robert
Greene had sent straight to Shakes
e peare to be read by the "Mermaid'
and then burned. This also Marlowe
q takes and reads, reads of the high
n ideals and tragic life and more than
tragic death of Robert Greene, reads
a how, on his d~eath-bed, he asks pardon
'r of Shakespeare for the peacock
o phrase flung out in a sudden blaze
u for which he now SO bitterly repents
= confessing that his quill was but {
"a Jackdaw's feather, while Ben's hat
fallen through the azure fields from
49, &C ~ - oOiA1 "tAo GA iAAhNo
I'd peare's, his was no earth-bOrne hin
but the rainbow plume dropped from
~ the wing of an angel. And when tn
Il letter is finished naught can be heart
o. round the silent "Mermaid' save tn
ly wailing of the wind. which seems t
q, voice the sigh of all for one who's
Il life, so full Of promise and literar,
fame, was rl:sSpent and cut short il
el it's very prime.
n, "Greene's One Poor Shirt"
no \ Tha ,J1~@~ - 49,
ry ing remarks of Bame IN Greene's on
poor shirt and the Surfeit Of RheniS
e. wine and picked behring's reported t
eS have been the cause Of his death. No,
Sc follows a whispered conference {
m rank conspiracy, in truthD betWee
Kit and Ben and the rest. after which
ne with mysterious air, they bring fort
ell paper and ink, saying they have
or great secret. a wonderful plan, to pre-
pose to Master Bame: in short, the
It's have discovered a way to coin none
crowns. mobiles. and even angels
'or and if Bame will join with them an
lend them his honest face, he Wi
ng carry more angels in his pocket tina
Ter he'd ever meet in heaven. A mOmeI
in. Bame heSitates, then, seeing malmse!
rst casks and silken hose and double
"a slashed with satin (the price of whicl
all it's said. he asked or many a moo
al thereafter then he agrees and sign
Sc, But here Kit, pocketinS the pape
says there's one condition for MAST
Bame: that he Will breathe no mo
nc scandal on Robert Greene. for Il
day he airs G%reene's shirt they w
IN. air this paper. Bame, without SEER
ltn through the plot, promises, and mu
Tor murinS why, there's good in all mel
ceS departs. while behind him echoes Il
ri pent-up laughter of the "Mormaid
'ter laughter which ceases. however
d." Will losses on the glowing hear
es the last poor Testament of Robe
ure Greene. But Kit. the ever-ready X
the proposes that they give, with hun
atly ing chorus. the Little Red Rims
ure the song Of the Mermaid Inn" H
we'll they heed his words. for ste
was never so ringing true as t
net chorus. We'll. if God saved me alo
of of seven Telling me you must
damned or you, This I would 81
This is hell. not heaven, Give me /
Ty- fire and a friend or two"
yet Old Familiar Faces Pass.