Merchant of Venice. - Repositories

INTROD UCTION
xix
stage itself sat the gay gallants of the town, smoking
and laughing, and joking the boy actors who appeared
in the character of women. Those not favored with
seats of such prominence found places in the galleries,
or stood with the jostling crowd on the ground below.
Yet rude as was the play-house, scholars and poets were
turning their attention to the plays, and the theatres
did not fail to attract crowds of citizens. The drai^a
had already won favor with the queen, who soon gained
the reputation of loving plays as much as she loved
the ostentation of her court and of her own apparel.
Life as an Actor and Playwright. — Two years after
Shakespeare came to London he had formed some connection
with the theatres, but not until five years later
is there any record of what he was doing. Then (1592)
we find that he had already become known as an actor,
and that his popularity as a writer of plays was exciting
the jealousy of other London dramatists, one of whom
referred to him as " an upstart crow, beautified with our
feathers . . . and being, ... in his owne conceit, the
only Shakes-scene in a countrie." From now on until
a few years before his death (1616) Shakespeare was
continually acting with some of the theatrical companies,
playing before the queen in her palace on holidays,
— especially in the Christmas time, — wandering
from one town to another with the players when their
'Services were not required in the capital, and all the