SHAKESPEARE'S INSOMNIA _And the Causes Thereof_

BY FRANKLIN H. HEAD



1887


[**Transcriber's Note: The following is a literary hoax, and the letters
quoted below are fictitious.]




SHAKESPEARE'S INSOMNIA, AND THE CAUSES THEREOF.



I.


Insomnia, the lack of "tired Nature's sweet restorer," is rapidly
becoming the chronic terror of all men of active life who have passed
the age of thirty-five or forty years. In early life, while yet he
"wears the rose of youth upon him," man rarely, except in sickness,
knows the want of sound, undreaming sleep. But as early manhood is left
behind and the cares and perplexities of life weigh upon him, making
far more needful than ever the rest which comes only through unbroken
sleep, this remedial agent cannot longer be wooed and won. Youth would