rit? Perchance in mercy I may be spared to
behold thee a faithful though humble preacher of the Word. Anne, thy
wife, often hath likened me to a great light upon a high hill-top,
shining in the darkness far away. I would not magnify my powers, but
not to all is it given to be mighty captains of a host. Yet,
according to thy gifts might thy work be, and a little candle
shining in a darkened valley hath its place.

In the light of these letters, some passages in "Richard III." and the
"Comedy of Errors," written in the same year (1609), have an added
significance. In "Richard III.," Gloster says to Anne:--

"Your beauty was the cause of that effect:
Your beauty, that did haunt me in my sleep,
To undertake the death of all the world,
So I might live one hour in thy sweet bosom."

In the "Comedy of Errors," the Abbess says to Adriana:--

"The venom clamors of a jealous woman
Poison more deadly than a mud dog's tooth.
It seems his sleep was hindered by thy railing.

* * * * *

In food, in sport, and life-preserving rest
To be disturbed, would mad or man or beast.
The consequence is, then, thy jealous fits
Have scared thy husband from the use of wits."

Note, too, the kindred thought:--

"Love hath chased sleep from my enthralled eyes."

And again this passage, called forth possibly by the letters of the
Rev. Walter Blaise:--

"Slander,
Whose edge is sharper than the sword; whose tongue
Outvenoms all the worms of Nile; whose breath
Rides on the posting winds and doth belie
All corners of the world."

As also this:--

"Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,
Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven,
Whiles, like a puffed and reckless libertine,
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,
And recks not his own rede."

From these several letters sufficiently appear the causes for the
insomnia of Shakespeare, which are some of the same causes resulting in
its prevalence to-day. They illustrate anew that history repeats itself
forever; that humanity is always the same; that like temptations and
errors come to men with like results in all the centuries; that the
sleeplessness of Shakespeare came, because, merely as a matter of form,
he had indorsed for a friend,--because he had bought more stocks than he
could pay for, and when his margins were absorbed, came forth a shorn
and shivering lamb,--because of th