The Lives of the Most Eminent British Painters and Sculptors, Volume 2

The legacy and reputation of even the most eminent writers can sometimes be secured by accident. CHAPTER 84. And Beautie Making Beautifull Old Rime The plague raged through London for the entire year of 1609. Dekker lamented the condition of the period when БЂњPleasure itself finds now no pleasure but in sighing and bewayling the Miseries of the Time.БЂ«He recorded that БЂњplay-houses stand (like Tavernes that have cast out their Maisters) the dores locked up, the Flagges (like their Bushes) taken down; or rather like houses lately infected, from whence the affrighted dwellers are fled, in hope to live better in the Country.БЂ«And he added that БЂњPlaying vacations are diseases now as common and as hurtful to them as the Foul Evil to a Northern Man or the Pox to a Frenchman.БЂ«1 The KingБЂ™s Men were once more on a provincial tour to escape the miasma of the capital. They visited, among other places, Ipswich, New Romney and Hythe. For much of this journey they sailed around the coast. Shakespeare, probably relieved of his acting duties, was certainly now considering a permanent removal to Stratford ...»