"
Sir Thomas took the paper up from the table on which I had laid it,
and said after a while, -
"The man may only have swooned. I scorn to play the critic, or to
ask any one the meaning of a word; but, sirrah!"
Here he turned in his chair from the side of Master Silas, and said
unto Willy, -
"William Shakspeare! out of this thraldom in regard to popery, I
hope, by God's blessing, to deliver thee. If ever thou repeatest
the said verses, knowing the man to be to all intents and purposes a
dead man, prythee read the censurable line as thus corrected, -
'Pray for our Virgin Queen, gentles! whoe'er you be.'
although it is not quite the thing that another should impinge so
closely on her skirts.
"By this improvement, of me suggested, thou mayest make some amends-
-a syllable or two--for the many that are weighed in the balance and
are found wanting."
Then turning unto me, as being conversant by my profession in such
matters, and the same being not very worthy of learned and staid
clerks the like of Master Silas, he said, -
"Of all the youths that did ever write in verse, this one verily is
he who hath the fewest flowers and devices. But it would be loss of
time to form a border, in the fashion of a kingly crown, or a
dragon, or a Turk on horseback, out of buttercups and dandelions.
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