THE LITTLE TEA BOOK 



gets when, where, how, why, and 

 from whom, he receives that. 



What a pity that, in Shakespeare's 

 time, there was no tea-table ! What 

 a delightful comedy he could, and 

 would, have written around it, plac- 

 ing the scene in his native Stratford! 

 What a charming hostess at a tea- 

 table his mother, Mary Arden (love- 

 liest of womanly names), would have 

 made ! Any of the ladies of the de- 

 lightful "Cranford" wouldn't be a 

 circumstance to a tea-table scene in 

 a Warwickshire comedy, with lovely 

 Mary Arden Shakespeare as the pro- 

 tagonist, if the comedy were from 

 the pen of her delightful boy, Will. 

 Had tea been known in Shakespeare's 

 time, how much more closely he 

 would have brought his sexes, under 

 one roof, instead of sending the more 



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