CHAPTER XXxXIX
ALL ’8 WELL THAT ENDS WELL

HE table had been cleared of trenchers and napkins,
the crumbs brushed away, and a clean platter set
before each guest with pared cheese, fresh cherries, biscuit,
caraways, and wine.
There were about the long table, beside Master Shak-
spere himself, who sat at the head of the board, Masters
Richard and Cuthbert Burbage, Henry Condell, and Peter
Hemynge, Master Shakspere’s partners; Master Ben Jon-
son, his dearest friend; Thomas Pope, who played his
finest parts; John Lowin, Samuel Gilburne, Robert Nash,
and William Kemp, players of the Lord Chamberlain’s
company ; Edmund Shakspere, the actor, who was Master
‘William Shakspere’s younger brother, and Master John
Shakspere, his father ; Michael Drayton, the Midland bard ;
Burgess Robert Getley, Alderman Henry Walker, and
William Hart, the Stratford hatter, brother-in-law to Mas-
ter Shakspere.
On one side of the table, between Master Jonson and

Master Richard Burbage, Cicely was seated upon a high
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