his admirable wit, and the natural turn of it to the ftage, foon distinguished him, if not as an extraordinary actor, yet as an excellent writer. His name is printed, as the custom was in those times, amongst those of the other players, before fome old plays, but without any particular account of what fort of parts he used to play; and though I have inquired, I could never meet with any further account of him this way, than that the top of his performance was the Ghoft in his own Hamlet.3 I should have been much more pleased, to have learned from certain authority, which was the firft play he wrote;4 it would be without doubt a pleasure to any man, curious in things of this kind, to fee and know what was the firft effay of a fancy like Shakspeare's. Perhaps we are not to look for his beginnings, like those of other authors, among their leaft perfect writings; art had fo little, and nature fo large a fhare in what he did, that, for aught I know, the performances of his youth, as they were the most vigorous, and had the moft fire and ftrength of imagination in them, were the beft.5 I would not

3

than that the top of his performance was the Ghost in his own Hamlet.] See fuch notices as I have been able to collect on this fubject, in the Lift of old English actors, poft.

MALONE.

to have learned from certain authority, which was the first play he wrote;] The higheft date of any I can yet find, is Romeo and Juliet in 1597, when the author was 33 years old; and Richard the Second, and Third, in the next year, viz. the 34th of his age. POPE.

Richard II. and III. were both printed in 1597.-On the order of time in which Shakspeare's plays were written, see the Effay in the next volume. MALONE.

5 for aught I know, the performances of his youthwere the beft.] See this notion controverted in An Attempt to afcertain the Order of Shakspeare's Plays.. MALONE.

be thought by this to mean, that his fancy was fo loofe and extravagant, as to be independent on the rule and government of judgment; but that what he thought was commonly fo great, fo juftly and rightly conceived in itself, that it wanted little or no correction, and was immediately approved by an impartial judgment at the first fight. But though the order of time in which the feveral pieces were written be generally uncertain, yet there are paffages in fome few of them which feem to fix their dates. So the Chorus at the end of the fourth act of Henry the Fifth, by a compliment very handfomely turned to the Earl of Effex, fhows the play to have been written when that lord was general for the Queen in Ireland; and his elogy upon Queen Elizabeth, and her fucceffor King James, in the latter end of his Henry the Eighth, is a proof of that play's being written after the acceffion of the latter of these two princes to the crown of England. Whatever the particular times of his writing were, the people of his age, who began to grow wonderfully fond of diverfions of this kind, could not but be highly pleased to fee a genius arife amongst them of fo pleasurable, fo rich a vein, and fo plentifully capable of furnishing their favourite entertainments. Befides the advantages of his wit, he was in himself a good-natured man, of great sweetness in his manners, and a moft agreeable companion; fo that it is no wonder, if, with fo many good qualities, he made himfelf acquainted with the best converfations of thofe times. Queen Elizabeth had feveral of his plays acted before her, and without doubt gave him many gracious marks of her favour it is that maiden princess plainly, whom he intends by

a fair veftal, throned by the weft."

A Midfummer-Night's Dream. F

and that whole paffage is a compliment very pro perly brought in, and very handfomely applied to her. She was fo well pleased with that admirable character of Falstaff, in The Two Parts of Henry the Fourth, that the commanded him to continue it for one play more, and to fhow him in love. This is faid to be the occafion of his writing The Merry Wives of Windfor. How well fhe was obeyed, the play itself is an admirable proof. Upon this occafion it may not be improper to obferve, that this part of Falstaff is faid to have been written originally under the name of Oldcastle : fome of that family being then remaining, the Queen was pleased to command him to alter it; upon which he made ufe of Falftaff. The prefent offence was indeed avoided; but I do not know whether the author may not have been fomewhat to blame in his fecond choice, fince it is certain that Sir John Falftaff, who was a knight of the garter, and a lieutenant-general, was a name of distinguished merit in the wars in France in Henry the Fifth's and Henry the Sixth's times. What grace foever the Queen conferred upon him, it was not to her only he owed the fortune which the reputation of

fhe commanded him to continue it for one play more,] This anecdote was firft given to the publick by Dennis, in the Epiftle Dedicatory to his comedy entitled The Comical Gallant, 4to. 1702, altered from The Merry Wives of Windfor.

MALONE.

7 this part of Falftaff is faid to have been written originally under the name of Oldcastle ;] See the Epilogue to Henry the Fourth. POPE.

In a note fubjoined to that Epilogue, and more fully in Vol. XI. p. 194, n. 3, the reader will find this notion overturned, and the origin of this vulgar error pointed out. Mr. Rowe was evidently deceived by a paffage in Fuller's Worthies, mifunderstood.

MALONE.

his wit made. He had the honour to meet with many great and uncommon marks of favour and friendship from the Earl of Southampton, famous in the hiftories of that time for his friendship to the unfortunate Earl of Effex. It was to that noble lord that he dedicated his poem of Venus and Ado nis. There is one inftance fo fingular in the magnificence of this patron of Shakspeare's, that if I had not been affured that the ftory was handed down by Sir William D'Avenant, who was probably very well acquainted with his affairs, I fhould not have ventured to have inferted; that my Lord Southampton at one time gave him a thoufand pounds, to enable him to go through with a purchase which he heard he had a mind to. A bounty very great, and very rare at any time, and almoft equal to that profufe generofity the prefent age has fhown to French dancers and Italian fingers.

What particular habitude or friendships he contracted with private men, I have not been able to learn, more than that every one, who had a true tafte of merit, and could diftinguifh men, had ge→ nerally a juft value and efteem for him. His exceeding candour and good-nature muft certainly have inclined all the gentler part of the world to fove him, as the power of his wit obliged the men of the moft delicate knowledge and polite learning to admire him.

8

His acquaintance with Ben Jonfon began with a

from the Earl of Southampton,] Of this amiable nobleman fuch memoirs as I have been able to collect, may be found in the tenth volume, [i. e. of Mr. Malone's edition] prefixed to the poem of Venus and Adonis. MALONE.

9

he dedicated his poem of Venus and Adonis.] To this nobleman alfo he dedicated his Rape of Lucrece, printed in 4to. in 1594. MALONE.

remarkable piece of humanity and good-nature; Mr. Jonfon, who was at that time altogether unknown to the world, had offered one of his plays to the players, in order to have it acted; and the perfons into whofe hands it was put, after having turned it carelessly and fupercilioufly over, were juft upon returning it to him with an ill-natured answer, that it would be of no fervice to their company; when Shakspeare luckily caft his eye upon it, and found fomething fo well in it, as to engage him first to read it through, and afterwards to recommend Mr. Jonfon and his writings to the publick.

to recommend Mr. Jonfon and his writings to the publick.] In Mr. Rowe's first edition, after these words was inferted the following paffage :

"After this, they were profeffed friends; though I do not know whether the other ever made him an equal return of gentlenefs and fincerity. Ben was naturally proud and infolent, and in the days of his reputation did fo far take upon him the fupremacy in wit, that he could not but look with an evil eye upon any one that seemed to ftand in competition with him. And if at times he has affected to commend him, it has always been with some reserve; infinuating his uncorrectnefs, a careless manner of writing, and want of judgment. The praise of feldom altering or blotting out what he writ, which was given him by the players, who were the first publifhers of his works after his death, was what Jonfon could not bear: he thought it impoffible, perhaps, for another man to ftrike out the greatest thoughts in the finest expreffion, and to reach thofe excellencies of poetry with the ease of a firft imagination, which himself with infinite labour and study could but hardly attain to."

I have preferved this paffage because I believe it ftrictly true, except that in the last line, inftead of but hardly, I would read

never.

Dryden, we are told by Pope, concurred with Mr. Rowe in thinking Jonfon's pofthumous verfes on our author sparing and invidious. See alfo Mr. Steevens's note on those verses.

Before Shakspeare's death Ben's envious difpofition is mentioned by one of his own friends; it must therefore have been even then notorious, though the writer denies the truth of the charge: