Evening star., 1925-05-23

and laceS; hQmespun gawkS from the
country popeyed with amaze. The
shops were wide. and the brilliant
sun caught on diamonds and jet, on
taffeta and linsey-woolsey, on silver
and leather, on feathers and laces.
Above, swinging vigorously in the
wind, the shop signs made a moving
aerial frieze, painted in violent scenes
with colors equally violent. Horse
men passed with an imperious, reck
less swiftness through the crowd,
which edged off to give them room.
Once, one of the decades new-fangled
riding contrivances-a coach-drove
leisurely with its span of horses into
their midst. Still a rarity in that
busy district, it provoked all the ridi-
cule, ribaldry and nervousness of
which the 'prentices of Cheap were
capable Notwithstanding the lovely
lady inside, who. displaying a rosy
| Indignation, hastily put on her mask.
In the midst of all this, an inquisitely
fellow lolling at his Cork, an idle
eye ranking the street, got glimpse
of Shakspere. Immediately his
shrill cry, ''EIo lads, tits VIII Shaks-
pere! VIII of the Globe. VIII of the
Kings men, was caught up by his
fellows till all about the streets rang
with Hi, Win"' and "Ho, Will"
Shakspere doffed his hat and waved
it with his most professional-and
mecha How his heart
had jumped the first time Cheap had
cheered him! He had not written. on
that long-ago thrilled day. single
word-but it was not from mental
sterility, only from surplusage of
charmed emotion. Now that chorus
was as hollow to him as the beating
of a child's hand on drum. He was
conscious only of the city-stinks and.
for the first time, of longing for the
sweet freshness of the WarwickShire
air: N"Hi Will. Ho VIII" The cry
ran down the street as successive
lines of shopmen took it up. Shak-
spere continued mechanically to smile,
gracefully to wave his hat. Presently
the cheers ran down. He turned on
the bridge, slowed down his brisk
walk to a Saunter. Now the scene,
though less gay, was more beautiful.
He stopped and listlessly surveyed 1t.
The Thames-it was the brief interval
between tides-stretched like a vast
carpet of satin, taut except where now
and then, as though inSecurely fasten-
ed. it rippled in the breeze: and blue
save where the sun-his mind made
little flicker at verse: Faint, gilded
pools where yet the" And then it
caught with violence on that oral
snag, "gilded," and ceased. Was ever
poet haunted by a single word as he
by "gilded"? A cold, stark disgust
with certain crystalliZed habits of ex-
preston added its burden to his mood.
Alphabetically he continued to gaze on
the scene.
Boats were gliding from shore to
shore over the Suave river surface,
and the cries of the boatmen, East
ward no." and Westward ho"' came
in faint music to his ears. Close to
the banks swans drifted. Along the
north shore-flower gardens linking
them softly with the river and the
velvet lawns holding them rigidly
apart-stretched the splendid pile of
palaces which was the haughtiest ele-
ment in the city's any-faceted beau
tv Along the same bank, but back of
him, nondeScript shops and dwellings
ran to the square, geometic gray hulk
of the Tower. Between them. as
though offering a sacred barricade
against social admixture-huGe as a