......... Phillis ........................... ............................ 669 Wild Beauty ........................................ 691 A Wish ......................... Constant Love .......................... ....... To Chloris ............................................ 692 A Lover's Heaven ................ 670 Thyrsis in Dispraise of Beauty .................. ib. Epitaph. This dear, though not respected earth Eurymedon's Praise of Mira ..................... ib. doth hold ....................... ib. Thaumantia at the Departure of Idmon ....... ib. Erycine at the Departure of Alexis ............. Lalus' Death ................... Comparison of his Thoughts to Pearls ......... Flowers of Sion : or, Spiritual Pocms ........... ib. ........ ib. / All changeth ......................................... ib. An Hymn on the Fairest Fair..................... 676 ......... 676 | Silenus to King Midas.. .......................... ib. The Wandering Muses, or the River of Forth To his amorous Thought........................... ib. feasting. Being a Panegyric to the high and Phillis on the Death of her Sparrow ............ ib. mighty Prince James, King of Great Britain, On the Portrait of the Countess of Perth. Sonnet. 694 ....... 679 Madrigal. If light be not beguild ................ ib. SPEECHES TO PRINCE CHARLES, AT HIS ENTERING HIS A Reply .......................... ....................... ib. The Statue of Alcides ............... Kingdom ........ ..... ........ ........ 689 Wiseman, Schoolmaster there, inclosed in The Character of an Anti-covenanter, or Ma- lignant ............................................. ib. .......... 686 | The Abstract ................... ....................... ib. A Pastoral Song, Phillis and Damon ....... 687 On one named Margaret ........................... All good hath left this age, all tracks of shame. ib. On a young Lady ................................ Doth then the world go thus, doth all thus Aretinus's Epitaph ................. ................... ib. Verses on the late William Earle of Pembroke ib. ib. A Reply ................." Look how in May the rose ......... Upon the Death of John Earl of Lauderdale ... ib. To a Swallow building near the Statue of Medea 688 On the Death of a Nobleman in Scotland, buried To the Obsequies of the blessed Prince James, King of Great Britain .......... Another on the same subject .................... 699 Five Sonnets for Galatea .......... i Rose ................................................... 700 Sonnet. Care's charming sleep, son of the sable To Sir William Alexander, with the Author's Epitaph .......................... To Thaumantia, singing ............. Upon a Glass ....................................... A Translation ...................................... Of a Bee .......................... Of the same .........................**** The Shadow of the Judgment .................. 702 Four Hymns...................................... Idmon to Venus ................................... A Lover's Plaint ............................ Hymn for Sunday ................................. Hymn for Monday .................................. His Firebrand ....................................... Hymn for Tuesday ................................ 707 Hymn for Wednesday ............................. The Statue of Venus sleeping ........... Hymn for Thursday ................................ Anthea's Gift ...................................... Hymn for Friday .................................... To Thaumantia ............................ Hymn for Saturday ................................. A Lover's Day and Night ................ The Statue of Adonis ............................... Hymn upon the Nativity .......................... Clorus to a Grove...................................... Hymn upon the Innocents ....................... 708 Upon the Sundays in Lent ........................ ib. A Couplet encomiastic ....................... ..... On the Ascension Day ............................... ib. Upon a Bay Tree not long since growing in the Ruins of Virgil's Tomb ........... On the Transfiguration of our Lord, the sixth of August ...................... ................... Flora's Flower ........................................ ib. Melampus's Epitaph ............................... On the feast of St. Michael the Archangel ... 709 The Happiness of a Flea ............................ ib. Peter, after the Denial of his Master ........... Of the same ....................................... On the Virgin Mary ........... Complaint of the blessed Virgin ................. Lina's Virginity ................................. Love naked ............................. Dedication of a Church .............................. ib. Niobe ................................... ib. Sonnets and Madrigals ........................... ib. ........... 691 Polemo-Meddinia inter Vitarvam et Nebernam 711 THE LIFE OF SHAKSPEARE, BY MR. CHALMERS. WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE was born at Stratford-upon-Avon, in Warwickshire, on the 23d day of April, 1564. Of the rank of his family it is not easy to form an opinion. Mr. Rowe says, that by the register and certain public writings relating to Stratford, it appears that his ancestors were “ of good tigure and fashion” in that town, and are mentioned as " gentlemen," an epithet which was certainly more determinate then than at present, when it has become an unlimited phrase of courtesy. His father, John Shakspeare, was a considerable dealer in wool, and had been an officer and bailiff (pro bably high-bailiff or mayor) of the body corporate of Stratford. He held also the office of justice of the peace, and at one time, it is said, possessed lands and tenendents to the amount of five hundred pounds, the reward of his grandfather's faithful and approved services to king Henry the Seventh. This, however, has been asserted upon very doubtful authority. Mr. Malone thinks “ it is higbly probable that he distinguished himself in Bosworth Field on the side of king Henry, and that he was rewarded for his military services by the bounty of that parsimonious prince, though not with a grant of lands. No such graut appears in the chapel of the Rolls, from the beginning to the end of Henry's reign." But whatever may have been bris former wealth, it appears to have been greatly reduced in the latter part of his life, as we find, from the books of the corporation, that in 1579 he was excused the trifling weekly tax of four-pence levied on all the alderen ; and that in 1586 another alderman was appointed in his room, in consequence of his declining to attend on the business of that office. It is even said by Aubrey', a man sufficiently accurate in facts, although credulous in superstitious narratives and traditions, that he followed for some time the occupation of a butcher, which Mr. Malone thinks not inconsistent with probability. It must have been, however, at this time, no inconsiderable addition to his difficulties that he had a family of ten children. His wife was the daughter and heiress of Robert Arden of Wellingcote, in the county of Warwick, who is styled, "a gentleman of worship.” The family of Arden is tery ancient, Robert Arden of Bromich, esq. being in the list of the gentry of this county, ' MSS. Aubrey, Mus. Ashmol. Oxon, examined by Mr. Malone. returned by the commissioners in the twelfth year of king Henry the Sixth, anno Domini 1433. Edward Arden was sheriff of the county in 1568. The woodland part of this county was anciently called Ardern, afterwards softened to Arden: and hence the name. Our illustrious poet was the eldest son, and received his early education, whether narrow or liberal, at a free-school, probably that founded at Stratford; but from this he appears to have been soon removed, and placed, according to Mr. Malone's opinion, in the office of some country attorney, or the seneschal of some manor court, where it is si highly probable be picked up those technical law phrases that so frequently occur in his plays, and could not have been in common use unless among professional men. Mr. Capell conjectures that his early marriage prevented his being sent to some university, It appears, however, as Dr. Farmer observes, that his early life was incompatible with a course of education, and it is certain that “his contemporaries, friends and foes, vay, and himself likewise, agree in his want of what is usually termed literature.” It is, judeed, a strong argument in favour of Shakspeare's illiterature, that it was maintained by all his contemporaries, many of whom have left upon record every merit they could bestow on him ; and by his successors, who lived nearest to his time, when“ bis memory was green;" and that it has been denied only by Gildon, Sewell, and others, down to Upton, who could have no means of ascertaining the truth. alue In his eighteenth year, or perhaps a little sooner, he married Anne Hathaway, who was eight years older than himself, the daughter of one Hathaway, who is said to have been a substantial yeoman in the neiglıbourhood of Stratford. Of his domestic economy, or professional occupation, at this time, we have no information, but it would appear that both were in a considerable degree neglected by his associating with a gang of deerstealers. Being detected with them in robbing the park of sir Thomas Lucy of Charle ? cote, near Stratford, he was so rigorously prosecuted by that gentleman as to be obliged Blade to leave his family and business, and take shelter in London. Sir Thomas, on this occasion, is said to have been exasperated by a ballad Shakspeare wrote, probably his en. first essay in poetry, of which the following stanza was communicated to Mr. Oldys; These lines, it must be confessed, do no great honour to our poet, and probably were unjust, for although some of his admirers have recorded sir Thomas as a “ vain, weak, and vindictive magistrate,” he was certainly exerting no very violent act of oppress sion, in protecting his property against a man who was degrading the commonest rank of life, and had at this time bespoke no indulgence by superior talents. The ballad, however, must have made some noise at sir Thomas's expense, as the author took care it should be affixed to his park-gates, and liberally circulated among his neighbours. On his arrival in London, which was probably in 1586, when he was twenty-two |