KENILWORTH - Penn State University

Kenilworthsome, to such as sound strangely in our ears, when connectedwith the ordinary matters of human life, above which thegratitude of posterity has long elevated them. A few ofLeicester’s interlocutory sentences ran as follows:—“Poynings, good morrow; and how does your wife and fairdaughter? Why come they not to court?—Adams, your suitis naught; the Queen will grant no more monopolies. But Imay serve you in another matter.—My good AldermanAylford, the suit of the City, affecting Queenhithe, shall beforwarded as far as my poor interest can serve.—MasterEdmund Spenser, touching your Irish petition, I would willinglyaid you, from my love to the Muses; but thou hastnettled the Lord Treasurer.”“My lord, “ said the poet, “were I permitted to explain—”“Come to my lodging, Edmund,” answered the Earl “notto-morrow, or next day, but soon.—Ha, Will Shakespeare—wild Will!—thou hast given my nephew Philip Sidney, lovepowder;he cannot sleep without thy Venus and Adonis underhis pillow! We will have thee hanged for the veriest wizardin Europe. Hark thee, mad wag, I have not forgotten thymatter of the patent, and of the bears.”The player bowed, and the Earl nodded and passed on—sothat age would have told the tale; in ours, perhaps, we mightsay the immortal had done homage to the mortal. The nextwhom the favourite accosted was one of his own zealousdependants.“How now, Sir Francis Denning,” he whispered, in answerto his exulting salutation, “that smile hath made thy faceshorter by one-third than when I first saw it this morning.—What, Master Bowyer, stand you back, and think you I bearmalice? You did but your duty this morning; and if I rememberaught of the passage betwixt us, it shall be in thy favour.”Then the Earl was approached, with several fantastic congees,by a person quaintly dressed in a doublet of black velvet, curiouslyslashed and pinked with crimson satin. A long cock’sfeather in the velvet bonnet, which he held in his hand, andan enormous ruff; stiffened to the extremity of the absurdtaste of the times, joined with a sharp, lively, conceited expressionof countenance, seemed to body forth a vain, harebrainedcoxcomb, and small wit; while the rod he held, andan assumption of formal authority, appeared to express somesense of official consequence, which qualified the natural pert-204