378 A Century of Science 



tion had come to be such that he could extend 

 patronage to others. It was in 1598 that through 

 his influence Ben Jonson obtained, after many re- 

 buffs, his first hearing before a London audience, 

 when " Every Man in his Humour " was brought 

 out at Blackfriars Theatre, with Shakespeare act- 

 ing one of the parts. 



To suppose that such a man as this, in a town 

 the size of Minneapolis, connected with a princi- 

 pal theatre, writer of the most popular plays of the 

 day, a poet whom men were already coupling with 

 Homer and Pindar, to suppose that such a man 

 was not known to all the educated people in the 

 town is simply absurd. There were probably very 

 few men, women, or children in London, between 

 1595 and 1610, who did not know who Shake- 

 speare was when he passed them in the street ; and 

 as for such wits as drank ale and sack at the Mer- 

 maid, as for Raleigh and Bacon and Selden and 

 the rest, to suppose that Shakespeare did not know 

 them well nay, to suppose that he was not the 

 leading spirit and brightest wit of those ambrosial 

 nights is about as sensible as to suppose that he 

 never saw a maypole. 



The facts thus far contemplated point to one 

 conclusion. The son of a well-to-do magistrate in 

 a small country town is born with a genius which 



