But then bright Salmacis began to feare, And sayd, Fayre Stranger, I will leaue thee here So, turning back, she fayned to be gone; But from his sight she had no power to passe, Therefore she turn'd, and hid her in the grasse, When to the ground bending her snow-white knee, He then supposing he was all alone, (Like a young boy that is espy'd of none) Runnes here, and there, then on the bankes doth looke, Then on the cristall current of the brooke, Then with his foote he toucht the siluer streames, For feare of spoyling that same iu'ry skin, But might not; for the lawes of heauen deny, To shew men's secrets to a woman's eye; When beauteous Salmacis awhile had gaz'd Scarce can she stay from running to the boy, Or a white Lilly in a cristall glasse. Then rose the water-Nymph from where she lay, As hauing wonne the glory of the day, And her light garments casts from off her skin. Inclaspe the huge trunke of an aged tree, Inclasp in wanton Salmacis's hands: Betwixt those iu'ry armes she lockt him fast, Striuing to get away, till at the last, Fondling, she sayd, why striu'st thou to be gone? Why shouldst thou so desire to be alone? Thy cheeke is neuer faire when none is by; For what is red and white, but to the eye? And for that cause the heauens are darke at night, Because all creatures close their weary sight; For there's no mortall can so earely rise, But still the morning waytes vpon his eyes. The earely-rising and soone-singing larke Can neuer chaunt her sweete notes in the darke; For sleepe she ne're so little or so long, Yet still the morning will attend her song. The ouerflowing waues would haue a bound And all their shady currents would be plaste But that they lothe to let their soft streames sing, So graunt, iust gods, that neuer day may see The separation twixt this boy and mee. The gods did heare her pray'r and feele her woe; And in one body they began to grow. She felt his youthfull bloud in euery vaine, And euer since was woman's loue so blest, Grant that who e're, heated by Phoebus beames May neuermore a manly shape retaine, But halfe a virgine may returne againe. His parents hark'ned to his last request, And with that great power they the fountaine blest; And since that time who in that fountaine swimmes, A mayden smoothnesse seyzeth halfe his limmes. FINIS. ART. XIV. The new Fact regarding Shakespeare and his Wife, contained in the Will of Thomas Whittington. I wish to offer a few remarks on the new fact regarding Shakespeare and his wife, recently discovered at Worcester, and transmitted not long since by Sir Thomas Phillipps to the Society of Antiquaries. It is contained in the will of a person of the name of Thomas Whittington, of Shottery, in the county of Warwick, husbandman, in the following words : Item, I give and bequeath unto the poor people of Stratford, forty shillings, that is in the hand of Anne Shaxspere, wife unto Mr. William Shaxspere, and is debt due unto me, being paid to mine Executor by the said William Shaxspere, or his assigns, according to the true meaning of this my will." This is the whole that relates to our great poet, and what does it seem to show? It is a question upon which Sir Thomas Phillipps has not touched in his brief communication, and it is a deficiency I shall endeavour briefly to supply. May we not fairly gather, from the words of Whittington's will, (which bears date 25th March, 1601) that Shakespeare was then in London-that, at all events, he was absent from Stratford or the testator would not have said that the money was" in the hand of Anne Shakespeare," but in that of William Shakespeare, her husband: it was due from him as a “debt,” because it had been borrowed by his wife, probably to supply some temporary emergency at a period when she could not conveniently apply to her husband, who was at a distance of more than a hundred miles. The end of March was not long before the company of the Lord Chamberlain's players usually removed from the Blackfriars theatre, where they performed in the winter, to the Globe, on the Bankside, where they usually acted from the middle of April until late in the autumn. Dr. Simon Forman saw "Macbeth" acted "at the Globe, 1610, the 20th of April," which, we apprehend, was soon after it opened for what we now call "the season." The 25th of March, 1601, was the first day of the new legal year, for the historical year 1601 commenced on 1st January preceding. Whittington's will was no doubt drawn by a scrivener of Stratford, who observed the division of the legal year, and it was rather less than six months anterior to the death of our poet's father. Shakespeare had bought "New Place," (the house built by the Cloptons in the reign of Henry VIII.) in or about 1597, and there his wife Anne was doubtless living in March, 1601, the date when she owed £2 to Thomas Whittington. That sum was then equal, it is supposed, to about £10 of our present money; and having some claim made upon her, which she could not discharge by instantly resorting to her husband, she perhaps supplied her immediate necessity by obtaining the money from the testator. This may have been the mode in which the "debt" was contracted, which we may presume was fully discharged when our great dramatist made his next visit to his native town, if not before. When Thomas Whittington died is not stated by Sir Thomas Phillipps, but probably the entry of his burial may be found in the registers of Stratford. He was "of Shottery,” as we are told in his will, and Shottery was the place from which Shakespeare's wife, Anne Hathaway, perhaps had originally come before she settled at Stratford, and where some members of her family had long resided. Two Hathaways, it will be seen presently, are mentioned in Whittington's will, although the circumstance does not appear to have attracted the attention it deserves. It may seem to render it likely that Anne Hathaway had come from Shottery, when we find her many |