About This Book
" ...]Charlecote, where, having made his obeisance, it was most graciously permitted him to stand. The worshipful Sir Thomas Lucy, Knight, seeing him right opposite, on the farther side of the long table, and fearing no disadvantage, did frown upon him with great dignity; then, deigning ne'er a word to the culprit, turned he his face toward his chaplain, Sir Silas Gough, who stood beside him, and said unto him most courteously, and unlike unto one who in his own right commandeth, - "Stand out of the way What are those two varlets bringing into the room?" "The table, sir," replied Master Silas, "upon the which the consumption of the venison was perpetrated." The youth, William Shakspeare, did thereupon pray and beseech his lordship most fervently, in this guise: - "Oh, sir do not let him turn the tables against me, who am only a simple stripling, and he an old codger." But Master Silas did bite his nether lip, and did cry aloud, - "Look upon those deadly spots " And his worship did look thereupon most staidly, and did say in the ear of Master Silas, but in such wise that it reached even unto mine, "Good honest chandlery, methinks " "God grant it may turn out so " ejaculated Master Silas. The youth, hearing these words, said unto him, - "I fear, Master Silas, gentry like you often pray God to grant what he would rather not; and now and then what you would rather not." Sir Silas was wroth at this rudeness of speech about God in the face of a preacher, and said, reprovingly, - "Out upon thy foul mouth, knave upon which lie slaughter and venison." Whereupon did William Shakspeare sit mute awhile, and discomfited; then turning toward Sir Thomas, and looking and speaking as one submiss and contrite, he thus appealed unto him: - "Worshipful sir were there any signs of venison on my mouth, Master Silas could not for his life cry out upon it, nor help kissing it as 'twere a wench's." Sir Thomas looked upon him with most lordly gravity and wisdom, and said unto him, in a voice that might have come from the bench: "Youth, thou speakest irreverently;" and then unto Master Silas: "Silas to the business on hand. Taste the fat upon yon boor's table, which the constable hath brought hither, good Master Silas And declare upon oath, being sworn in my presence, first, whether said fat do proceed of venison; secondly, whether said venison be of buck or doe." Whereupon the reverend Sir Silas did go incontinently, and did bend forward his head, shoulders, and body, and did severally taste four white solid substances upon an oaken board; said board being about two yards long, and one yard four inches wide, - found in, and brought thither from, the tenement or messuage of Andrew Haggit, who hath ...]."
