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Untitled Article
* Sir Silas ( aside ^)— «* The knave niaketh me hungry with his mischievous similitudes . " ' Sir Thomas . — ' * Thou hast aggravated thy offence , Will Shakspeare ! Irreverent caitiff ! is this a discourse for my chaplain and clerk ? Can he or the worthy scribe Ephraim ( his worship was pleased to call me worthy ) write down such words as those , about litter and wolvets , for
the perusal and meditation of the grand jury ? If the whole corporation of Stratford had not unanimously given it against thee , still his tongue would catch thee , as the evet catcheth a gnat . Know , sirrah , the reverend Sir Silas , albeit ill-appointed for riding , and not over-fond of it , goeth to every house wherein is a venison feast for thirty miles round . Not a buck ' s hoof on any stable-door , but it awakeneth his recollections like a red letter' '
This wholesome reproof did bring the youth back again to his right senses ; and then said he , with contrition , and with a wisdom beyond his years , and little to be expected from one who had spoken just before so unavoidably and rashly , ' Well do I know it , your worship ! And verily do I believe , that a bone of one being shovelled among the soil upon his coffin would forthwith quicken * him . Sooth to say , there is ne ' er a buckhound in
the county but he treateth him as a godchild , patting him on the head , soothing his velvety ear between thumb and fore-finger , ejecting tick from tenement , calling him Jine fellow , noble lad % and giving him his blessing , as one dearer to him than a king ' s death to a debtor , t or a bastard to a dad of eighty . This is the only kindness I ever heard of
Master Silas towards his fellow-creatures . Never hold me unjust , Sir Knight , to Master Silas . Could I learn other good of him , I would freely say it ; for we do good by speaking it , and none is easier . Even bad men are not bad men while they praise the just . Their first step backward is more troublesome and wrenching to them than , the first forward /'
, c " In God ' s name , where did he gather all this ? " whispered his worship to the chaplain , by whose side I was sitting . " Why , he talks like a man of forty-seven or more ! " ' —p . 1—11 . Shakspeare conducts himself , as worthy Ephraim observes , with all the courage and composure of an innocent man , and
indeed with more than what an innocent man ought to possess in the presence of a magistrate . ' And now the knight , trie chaplain , the witnesses , and the culprit , are admirably played off for many a page , the record itself serving as the running commen tary of the scribe .
The usual operation of searching the pockets of the accused is not forgotten : we are favoured with their contents , amongst which is ,
* Quicken , bring to life . f ' Debtors were often let out pf prison at the coronation of a new King , but creditors not paid by him . '
Untitled Article
: 'Examination of Shakspeare . 47
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1835, page 47, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2641/page/47/
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