t's Dream":

_"If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended--
That you have but slumbered here,
While these visions did appear;
And this weak and idle theme
No more yielding but a dream;
Gentles, do not reprehend;
If you pardon we will mend.
And, as I am honest Puck,
If we have unearned luck,
How to escape the serpent's tongue,
We will make amends ere long;
Else the Puck a liar call,
So good night unto you all,
Give me your hands if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends!"_

Unanimous cheers rang through Windsor forest at the conclusion of this
mystic play, and Queen Elizabeth called up Theseus (William), Hippolyta,
Oberon, Titania and Puck, presenting to each a five-carat solitaire
diamond--a slight token of Her Majesty's appreciation of dramatic genius.

It was after two o'clock in the morning when a thousand sky rockets filled
the heavens with variegated colors, indicating for fifty miles around, that
"Midsummer Night's Dream" had been successfully launched on the ocean of
dramatic imagination!

CHAPTER XV.

THE JEW. SHYLOCK. "MERCHANT OF VENICE."

_"O, it is excellent
To have a giant's strength, but it is tyrannous
To use it like a giant."_

_"Had I power, I should
Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell,
Uproar the universal peace, confound
All Unity on earth."_

In my peregrinations and bohemian investigations I have met on several
occasions, and in strange lands, Mr. Ahasuerus, the Jerusalem shoemaker,
who is reported to have jeered and scoffed at Christ as he passed his shop,
bearing the heavy cross up the rugged heights of Calvary.

That was a terrible day for Jesus of Nazareth (dying for the sins of
others), but worse for his foolish brother, the Jew shoemaker; for as
punishment to the scoffing and heartless Ishmaelite, the "Son of God,"
bending under the weight of the cross, exclaimed to the "Son of Saint
Crispin": "Tarry thou 'till I come! Move on!"

And from that hour to this the "Wandering Jew" has been traveling and
seeking for peace and death, but has never found surcease from everlasting
sorrow and misery.

I have often met his business partners, Solomon Isaacs and David Levy; and
while these gentlemen are compelled by nations to "move on," they have the
great gift of loading up their pack with the rarest jewels--silver, gold
and diamonds being their great