harmonious, that only Virgil, whom he has pro⚫ feffedly imitated, hath furpaffed him among the Romans; and only Waller among the English."

Mr. Hughes juftly obferves, that the chief merit of this poem confifts in that furprifing vein of fabulous invention which runs through it, and enriches it every where with imaginary deferiptions, more than we meet with in any modern poem. The author feems to be poffeffed of a kind of poetical magic; and the figures he calls up to our view, rife up fo thick upon us, that we are at once pleafed and diftracted with the inexhauftible variety of them; fo that his faults may, in a manner, be imputed to his excellencies. His abundance betrays him into excefs; and his judgment is overborne by the torrent of his imagination.

Upon the whole, Mr. Warton feems to have given the most accurate, candid criticism on this celebrated poem, of all the writers on this delicate fubject.

"If the Fairy Queen be deftitute of that arrangement and economy which epic feverity requires, yet we fcarcely regret the lofs of thefe, while their place is fo amply fupplied by fomething which more powerfully attracts us; fomething which engages the affections, the feelings of the heart, rather than the cold approbation of the head. If there be any poem, whofe graces please, because they are fituated beyond the reach of art, and where the force and faculties of creative imagination delight, because they are unaffifted and unreftrained by thofe of deliberate judgment, it is this: In reading Spenfer, if the critic is not fatisfied, yet the reader is transported."

Spenfer's works were publifhed in 6 vols. 12mo. by Mr. John Hughes, with an account of his life and a gloffary. Reprinted in 175c. Dr. Birch published an edition of the Fairy Queen, 3 vols.

in 4to. 1751. Three more editions of this poem were published in 1758. In 1734, Dr. Jortin published remarks on Spenfer's poems in 8vo. And lastly, Mr. Warton published Obfervations on the Fairy Queen, which were fo well received, that a fecond edition was published in 1762. These being the feveral authorities from which our memoirs of this celebrated poet are taken, it is needlefs to add any other.

The LIFE of

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

(A. D. 1564, to 1613.)

WILLIAM

ILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, the immortal father of the Britifh theatre, the glory of his age and of his country, was the fon of Mr. John Shakespeare, and was born at Stratford upon Avon in Warwickshire, in April,, 1564. In the public records of that town, the family from which he was defcended, are mentioned as perfons of good figure and fashion in that place, and of the rank of gentry. His father, who was a confiderable dealer in wool, being encumbered with a large family of ten children, could afford to give his eldeft fon but a flender education. He had bred him at a free-fchool, where he acquired what Latin he was mafter of; but the narrowness of his circumftances, and the want of his affiftance at home,

forced

forced his father to withdraw him from thence, and thereby prevented his receiving any farther advan tage from fcholaftic inftruction.

Upon his quitting the grammar-fchool, he feems to have entirely devoted himfelf to that way of living which his father purfued; and, in order to fettle in the world in a family manner, he thought fit to marry while he was yet very young. His wife was the daughter of one Hatchway, faid to have been a fubftantial yeoman in the neighbourhood of Stratford.

In this kind of domeftic obfcurity he continued for fome time, till, by an unhappy inftance of misconduct, he was obliged to quit the place of his nativity, and take shelter in London; which fortunately proved the occafion of difplaying his fublime genius for dramatic poetry. He had the misfortune to fall into ill company. Among these were fome who made a frequent practice of deerftealing, and who engaged him more than once in robbing a park that belonged to Sir Thomas Lucy, of Charlecot, near Stratford; for which he was profecuted by that gentlemen, as he thought, fomewhat too feverely; and, in order to revenge. himself for this fuppofed ill ufage, he made a ballad upon him ; and this, probably the firft effay of his poetry, is loft; but it is faid to have been fo very bitter, that it redoubled the profecution against him to that degree, that he was obliged to leave his bufinefs and family for fome time, and to feck for employment in London.

This Sir Thomas Lucy was, it is faid, afterwards ridiculed by Shakespeare, under the wellknown character of Juftice Shallow. It was at this time, and upon this accident, that he is faid to have made his firft acquaintance in the playhouse.

Concerning Shakespeare's firft mean occupation at the playhouse, the following particulars have been ftated. When he came to London he was without money and friends; and, being a ftranger, he knew not to whom to apply, nor by what means to fupport himself. At that time, coaches not being in ufe, as gentlemen were accustomed to ride on horfeback to the playhouse, Shakespeare, it is said, driven to the laft neceffity, attended at the door, and picked up a little money by taking care of the gentlemen's horfes who came to the play. He became eminent, even in that humble ftation, and was taken notice of for his diligence and skill in it. He had quickly more bufinefs than he himself could manage, and at laft hired boys under him, who were known by the name of Shakespeare's boys. And though he foon found means of acting in his proper fphere, that of a dramatic writer, yet as long as the cuftom of going to the theatre on horfeback continued, the waiters who held the horses retained the appellation of Shakefpeare's boys.

Some of the players accidentally converfing with him, found him poffeffed of an admirable fund of wit, and talents adapted to the stage, and aftonished at this unexpected discovery, they introduced and recommended him to the company, into whose fociety he was admitted, but in a very humble walk, and upon low terms. He did not, however, long remain fo, for he foon diftinguished himself, if not as an extraordinary actor, at least as a fine writer. His name is printed, as the cuf tom was in thofe times, amongst thofe of the other players, before fome old plays, but without any particular account of what caft of characters he ufed to play and after the moft diligent refearches, it appears, that the most confiderable part he ever

per

performed, was the Ghoft, in his own hiftorical tragedy of Hamlet.

It would undoubtedly afford great fatisfaction to the curious to be able to ascertain, from proper authorities, what was the first poetical effay of the immenfe genius of Shakespeare, that it might be traced through its gradual progreffions to that fummit of perfection it at length attained. But here likewife we are left in the dark.

The highest date which Rowe has been able to trace, is Romeo and Juliet, in 1597, when the author was thirty-three years old; and Richard II. and III. the next year. But whatever the particular times of his writings were, the people of the age he lived in, who began to grow wonderfully fond & of diverfions of this kind, could not but be highly pleased to see a genius arife amongst them, of fo pleafurable, fo rich, and fo abundant a vein, capable of furnishing variety of their favourite entertainments.

Befides the advantage which Shakespeare had over all men in the article of wit, he was of a fweet, gentle, amiable difpofition, and was a moft agreeable companion; by which he endeared himfelf to all who knew him, both as a friend and as a poet; fo that he was introduced into the best w company, and converfed with the finest characters ~ of his time.

Queen Elizabeth had feveral of his plays acted before her; and the was too quick a difcerner of merit, to fuffer Shakespeare's to escape her notice. It is affuredly that maiden princefs whom he thus defcribes

A fair veftal, throned by the west."

Midfummer Night's Dream. Queen Elizabeth was fo well pleafed with the admirable character of Falftaff, in the two parts