of a less estate. Co. Litt, 22 b.; Watk.'s Prin.
Couv., ch. 18; Burton's Comp. pp. 28, 29, 30;
Noy's Dial, p. 30." Queen says in Richard
the Second, " 'Tis in reversion that I do
possess." King Richard says, " As were our
England in reversion his" and so on. Here
then, is William Shakespeare's poetry proved
to be quite up to the mark of Co. Litt, Walk.'s
Prin. Conv., Barton's Comp., and Noy's Dial,
argal he was or might have been Mr. W.
Shakespeare, Solicitor. Why, he makes
frequent legal use of additions, obligations,
indentures, even indentures tripartite, counterparts,
and talks of benefit of clergy. " What,
billing again? " says one of his speakers to
two lovers. " Here's IN WITNESS WHEREOF
THE PARTIES INTERCHANGEABLY." A medical
man would have compared soft kisses to
poultices, and the long adhesive ones to
cataplasms. Austria wouldn't say in King John,

Upon thy cheek I lay this zealous kiss,
As seal to this indenture of my love;

but rather "as strengthening plaster to my
chest of love," with a play on the word chest,
quasi medicine-chest, as containing any
quantity of healing stuff. When Rosalind,
in As You Like It, speaks of " bills on their
necks:—Be it known unto all men by these
presents, a blaze of light tails out of the
dazzling comment." The bills Rosalind
mentions are deeds poll, which commonly begin,
Know all men by these presents. And when
Macbeth says,

But yet I'll make assurance double sure,
And take a bond of fate,

he does so, "referring not to a single, but to a
conditional bond, under or by virtue of which,
when forfeited, double the principal sum was
recoverable." Will Messrs. Dyce, Collier,
Singer, Halliwell, Staunton, and Company,
be good enough to make a note of that?

Then what an exquisite sense of the spirit
of the law Shakespeare shows, when he
defines it as

past depth
To those that, without heed, do plunge into it.

It may be that the law is not the only thing
into which gentlemen may plunge beyond
their depth. Water, of course, is another
thing. Such stories I could tell you of the
other water doctors down here. Never mind,
for the present.

There's a brother of mine in these parts
who is bookish, but who lies in bed while his
coats rot at the elbows. He read that law
pamphlet in bed, and told me there was sense
in it. " Shakespeare, you see," he says,
"Shakespeare was one of your early birds.
The other day, I sauntered into the city,
and happened to become the ear of the
walls of the City Library in Guildhall,
when a great man, an alderman, perhaps,
brought a friend to see the sights there.
One of them is Shakespeare's autograph.
'There's another,' said the beadle, 'at the
British Museum. One ia to a deed of
purchase of land, that, by the other, he got rid
of again immediately.' 'It would seem by
this,' said the friend of the magnate, ' that
Shakespeare was a needy man.' The
magnate took alarm, and answered with a mighty
air, ' Yes, no doubt. I must tell you that I
never read him.' What but poor stuff, could
a poor man write? The alderman wouldn't be
suspected of attending seriously to the works
of any pitiful fellow under the rank of a
fundholder. Then, if the wall that had ears could
but have spoken, it would have said, 'Cheese-
monger, or tallow-melter, or whatever you
might happen to be, there's not a man behind
a ledger in this country, who has a clearer eye
for business than this William Shakespeare
had, who keeps his chin in better trim, pares
his nails oftener, sticks to his work closer,
intends more firmly to make a fortune. He
was a gentleman so decent, that when Ben
Jonson smoked every page of his comedies
with tobacco, and the whole town was alight
with it, Shakespeare never deigned once to
name it in his writings. He was sober, civil,
kind, and very canny, sir. He bought land,
went deep into questions of tithes. He had
his lawyer and his deed-box, and he made his
money, sir, as surely by his plays as
if they had been butter-firkins. I don't
wonder that he knew a good deal of law
business, as it was connected with his own
successful thrift. He was just the man,
too, to be precise over the general law
matters that got to be involved in any of his
pictures of society. What he did, I knew he
could learn for the asking. They say he
never blotted what he wrote. Of course he
didn't. The methodical fellow got everything
straight in his mind the moment it
entered, and he couldn't bear to see a mess
upon his paper. I believe that he kept
needle and thread in his pocket, to sew on
for himself any dropped buttons, or take up
a stitch in the good time that saveth nine.
There never was a minute in which he didn't
—know—what o'clock—" My brother at
this juncture fell asleep again; not knowing
that it was eleven o'clock in the forenoon.

MR. CHARLES DICKENS'S
READINGS.
MR. CHARLES DICKENS will read at NOTTINGHAM on
the 21st of October; at DERBY on the 22nd; at MANCHESTER
on the 23rd; at YORK on the 25th; at HULL on the
26th and 27th; at LEEDS on the 28th; and at SHEFFIELD
on the 29th of October; at LEAMINGTON on the 2nd of
November; at WOLVERHAMPTON on the 3rd; at LEICESTER
on the 4th; at OXFORD on the 5th and 6th; at SOUTHAMPTON
on the 9th and 10th; at PORTSMOUTH on the
11th; and. at BRIGHTON on the 12th and 13th of
November.