Shakespeare's Christmas and other stories
                        
                     
                                                         
                
                    Shakespeare's Christmas and other stories
                                            
                            By Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
                            
                                27 Feb, 2020                            
                            
                         
                                        
                                                                        At the theatre in Shoreditch, on Christmas Eve, 1598, the Lord Chamberlain's servants presented a new comedy. Never had the Burbages played to such a house. It cheered every speech—good, bad, or indifferent. To be sure, some of the dramatis person�
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                                                At the theatre in Shoreditch, on Christmas Eve, 1598, the Lord Chamberlain's servants presented a new comedy. Never had the Burbages played to such a house. It cheered every speech—good, bad, or indifferent. To be sure, some of the dramatis personæ—Prince Hal and Falstaff, Bardolph and Mistress Quickly—were old friends; but this alone would not account for such a welcome. A cutpurse in the twopenny gallery who had been paid to lead the applause gave up toiling in the wake of it and leaned back with a puzzled grin. Less