he last Saturday of
December, 1595.

Queen Elizabeth, in a special box, was there incog, with a royal train of
lords and ladies; and such another audience for dress and stunning show was
never seen in London.

Burleigh, Bacon, Essex, Southampton, Derby, Raleigh, Spenser, Warwick,
Gray, Montague, Lancaster, Mountjoy, Blake, and all the great soldiers and
sailors of the realm then in London were boxed for a sight of the greatest
love tragedy ever enacted on the dramatic stage. All the dramatic authors
were present.

William himself took the part of Romeo, for he was a perfect
exemplification of the hero of the play. Jo Taylor took the part of Juliet,
and I can assure you that his makeup, in the form and dress of the
fourteen-year-old Italian beauty, was a great success.

Dick Burbage took the part of Friar Laurence, Condell played Mercutio,
Arnim the part of Paris, Field played old Capulet, and Florio played
Montague, Hemmings played Benvolio, and John Underwood played the part of
Tybalt, and Escalus, the Prince, was played by Phillips.

The curtain went up on a street scene in Verona, where the partisans of the
houses of Capulet and Montague quarreled, while Paris, Mercutio, Romeo and
Tybalt worked up their hot blood and came to blows.

Romeo and his friends, in mask, attended a ball at the home of Juliet, in a
clandestine fashion, and on first sight of this immaculate beauty Romeo
exclaims:

_"O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
Her beauty hangs upon the cheek of night
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear;
Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear!
So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows,
As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows.
The dancing done, I'll watch her place of stand,
And, touching hers, make happy my rude hand,
Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight,
For I ne'er saw true beauty till to-night!"_

The poetic apostrophe of Romeo to his new discovered beauty elicited
universal applause, led by the "Virgin Queen," who imagined, no doubt, that
his tribute to beauty was intended for herself. She never lost an
opportunity to appropriate anything that came her way. An epigram of
strenuous audacity. A winner!

In the second act Romeo climbs the wall, hemming in his beautiful Juliet,
and in defiance of the family feud, locks and bars of old man Capulet, and
seeks a clandestine interview with his true love, although at the risk of
his life.

It wa