II
SHAKESPEARE AND THE ELIZABETHAN PLAYGOER[4]
[Footnote 4: This paper, which was first printed in "An English
Miscellany, presented to Dr Furnivall in honour of his seventy-fifth
birthday" (Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1901), was written as a
lecture for delivery on Tuesday afternoon, March 20, 1900, at Queen's
College (for women) in Harley Street, London, in aid of the Fund for
securing a picture commemorating Queen Victoria's visit to the College
in 1898.]
I
In a freak of fancy, Robert Louis Stevenson sent to a congenial spirit
the imaginary intelligence that a well-known firm of London publishers
had, after their wont, "declined with thanks" six undiscovered
tragedies, one romantic comedy, a fragment of a journal extending over
six years, and an unfinished autobiography reaching up to the first
performance of _King John_ by "that venerable but still respected
writer, William Shakespeare." Stevenson was writing in a frivolous
mood; but such words stir the imagination. The ordinary person, if he
had to choose among the enumerated items of Shakespeare's
newly-discovered manuscripts, would cheerfully go without the six new
tragedies and the one romantic comedy if he had at his disposal, by
way of consolation, the journal extending over six years and the
autobiography reaching up to the first performance of _King John_.
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