sundry articles named.

The next letter, and the last in this period of the poet's career
(1593), is from Mordecai Shylock.

FLEET STREET, NEAR THE SIGN OF THE HOG IN ARMOR, NOV. 22, 1593.

To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:

I have been active in the way you some days since besought me;
namely, the procuring for you of a loan of £5, that you might retire
a bill upon which you were a guarantor. As I then told you, I have
no money myself, being very poor; but I have a friend who has money
with which I can persuade him to relieve your wants. Had I myself
the money, I should gladly meet your needs at a moderate usance, not
more than twenty-five in the hundred; but my friend is a hard man,
who exacts large returns for his means, and will be very urgent that
repayment be made on the day named in the bill. He hath empowered me
to take your bill at two months,--for him, mind you,--for £10, the
payment to be assured, as you wished, by the pledge of your two new
plays in manuscript,--"Midsummer Night's Dream" and "Romeo and
Juliet,"--for which bill he will at my strong instance, and because
you are a friend to me, give £5. My charge for services in this
behalf, which hath consumed much time, will be £1, which I shall
straightway pay out in the purchase of a new gown, much needed by my
little daughter Jessica, who loves you and recalls often the
pleasant tales you do repeat for her diversion.

The letters in the second period (1602) are nine years later than those
just read. The first is from the same Mordecai Shylock, who, with the