VI 



SPORT IN SHAKESPEARE 



^ I ^HE allusions to the pastimes of his day 

 in Shakespeare's plays are so endless 

 that I propose to avoid them altogether, 

 and to confine myself to those which refer 

 to our most prominent field sports. Hawk- 

 ing, of course, was the principal one of that 

 day, but I do not propose to enter into that 

 either, because so few of us know anything 

 about it nowadays. 



Shakespeare certainly was a sportsman, or 

 he could not have written as he did ; and it 



