Oil on canvas, 53 x 68 inches. The collection of Mr. and Mrs. Sandor Korein.

This painting is also known as Shakespeare and His Friends at the Mermaid Tavern. Sir Walter Raleigh created the Friday Street Club, a gathering of men of letters who met at the Mermaid Tavern; the club was named for the address--Friday Street--of the tavern. The owner of the Mermaid William Johnson was a business associate of Shakespeare, but we do not know if Shakespeare actually attended the meetings. In the painting, which Richard Altick calls a "kind of Tudor hall of fame," Faed puts Shakespeare in the center of the group, which includes Sir Francis Bacon, John Donne, Ben Jonson, and Sir Walter Raleigh.