BREAK, BREAK, BREAK. ALFRED TENNYSON. For a sketch of the life of Tennyson, see Book V, page 102. BREAK, break, break, On thy cold gray stones, O Sea! And I would that my tongue could utter The thoughts that arise in me. O well for the fisherman's boy That he shouts with his sister at play! O well for the sailor lad That he sings in his boat on the bay! And the stately ships go on To their haven under the hill: But O for the touch of a vanished hand, And the sound of a voice that is still! Break, break, break, At the foot of thy crags, O Sea! But the tender grace of a day that is dead Will never come back to me. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE was born in the year 1564, at Stratford-on-Avon, in England. Queen Elizabeth was on the throne then, and it was one of the most brilliant periods in all English history. The poems and plays that Shakespeare wrote are the greatest in the English language, and one cannot appreciate the best there is in literature unless he has studied them. It is strange that no one thought, in the time that he lived, of writing his history, so that we might know as much about him and his boyhood as we do of most other great men. Stratford is in the heart of England, and the stream 20 of Avon winds through a beautiful country. There were two famous old castles near by, which had been peopled by knights in armor, and out of whose great stone gateways they had ridden to battle. We are sure that Shakespeare loved to listen to the 25 tales of these old battles, for in later years he based several of his great historical plays upon them. One of these plays is called "Richard III.," and part of the scenes are laid in the old Warwick Castle, near his home. He tells how the young son of the Duke of Clarence was kept a prisoner in one of the great 5 gloomy towers, by the wicked Duke of Gloucester, who afterward became King Richard III.; and the play ends with the Battle of Bosworth Field, where King Richard is slain. We know that Shakespeare was fond of the woods 10 and the fields, for his plays are filled with charming descriptions of their beauty. The forest of Arden was near Stratford, and its streams and woods filled him with such delight that when he became a man he made them forever famous by writing a play called "As 15 You Like It," the most beautiful scenes of which are laid in this forest. He liked to imagine that fairies dwelt in the Arden woods, and though he could not see them in their frolics, he could picture them in his brain. When he 20 saw the grass and flowers wet with dew, it pleased him to think that this had been a task set by the Queen of the Fairies in the night for her tiny subjects. So in his play, "A Midsummer Night's Dream," he makes a fairy say: 25 "Over hill, over dale, Thorough brush, thorough brier, I do wander every where, Then the fairy tells its companion it must hasten away to its task: "I must go seek some dewdrops here And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear." Shakespeare must have been in the forest of Arden often in the summer mornings and seen the dewdrops clinging to the cowslips and glistening in the sunlight like pearls. The exact day that Shakespeare was born is not certain, but it was about the 23d of April, and many men 10 who have made a study of the poet's life accept that as his birthday. The house in which he was born is still standing, although it has, of course, undergone many changes in the last three hundred years. During the early boyhood of the poet, his father, 15 John Shakespeare, was a prosperous tradesman. He was a wool dealer and farmer. When Shakespeare was four old his father became high-bailiff, or mayor of the town. years 5 The future dramatist was sent to the village school at about the age of seven. He could already read, having learned his letters at home from a very queer primer. It was called the "horn-book," because it was made of a single printed leaf, set in a frame of 10 wood like our slates, and covered with a thin plate of horn. The boy remained at school only about six years. His father had failed in many enterprises, and it is probable he needed his son to help him in his work. 15 Just what Shakespeare learned at school we do not know, but his writings show some knowledge of Greek and Latin, for these languages were taught in the schools at that time. It is certain that Shakespeare's education went on 20 after he left school. That is, he learned something from everything he saw about him and from all that he read. Even the trees in the forest and the streams in the meadows taught him lessons about nature. And this idea he expresses in his own beautiful way 25 in the play "As You Like It," when he makes the banished Duke in the forest of Arden say: "And this our life, exempt from public haunt, Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, |