Let them turn to a forgotten book, by Thomas Heywood, called, Britaines Troy, printed by W. Jaggard in 1609, fol. and they will find these identical Epistles," which being so pertinent to our historie," says Heywood, "I thought necessarie to translate."-How then came they ascribed to Shakespeare? We will tell them that likewise. The same voluminous writer published an Apology for Actors, 4to. 1612, and in an Appendix, directed to his new printer, Nic. Okes, he accuses his old one, Jaggard, of "taking the two Epistles of Paris to Helen and Helen to Paris, and printing them in a less volume, and under the name of another :-but he was much offended with Master Jaggard, that altogether unknown to him, he had presumed to make so bold with his name." In the same work of Heywood are all the other translations, which have been printed in the modern editions of the poems of Shakespeare. You now hope for land: We have seen through little matters, but what must be done with a whole book ?— In 1751, was reprinted, "A compendious or briefe Examination of certayne ordinary Complaints of diuers of our Countrymen in these our Days: which although they are in some Parte unjust and friuolous, yet are they all by way of Dialogue throughly debated and discussed by William Shakespeare, Gentleman." 8vo. This extraordinary piece was originally published in 4to. 1581, and dedicated by the author, "To the most vertuous and learned lady, his most deare and soveraigne princesse, Elizabeth; being inforced by her Majesties late and singular clemency in pardoning certayne his unduetifull misdemeanour." And by the modern editors, to the late King; as "a treatise composed by the most extensive and fertile genius, that ever any age or nation produced." Here we join issue with the writers of that excellent, though very unequal work, the Biographia Britannica : "If," say they, "this piece could be written by our poet, it would be absolutely decisive in the dispute about his learning; for many quotations appear in it from the Greek and Latin classics.' The concurring circumstances of the name, and the misdemeanour, which is supposed to be the old story of deer-stealing, seem fairly to challenge our poet for the author: but they hesitate.-His claim may appear to be confuted by the date 1581, when Shakespeare was only seventeen, and the long experience, which the writer talks of.-But I will not keep you in suspense: the book was not written by Shakespeare. Strype, in his Annals, calls the author some learned man, and this gave me the first suspicion. I knew very well, that honest John (to use the language of Sir Thomas Bodley) did not waste his time with such baggage books as plays and poems; yet I must suppose, that he had heard of the name of Shakespeare. After awhile I met with the original edition. Here in the title-page, and at the end of the dedication, appear only the initials, W. S. Gent. and presently I was informed by Anthony Wood, that the book in question was written, not by William Shakespeare, but by William Stafford, Gentleman: which at once accounted for the misdemeanour in the dedication. For Stafford had been concerned at that time, and was indeed afterward, as Camden and the other annalists inform us, with some of the conspirators against Elizabeth; which he properly calls his unduetifull behaviour. I hope by this time, that any one open to conviction may be nearly satisfied; and I will promise to give you on this head very little more trouble. The justly celebrated Mr. Warton hath favoured us, in his Life of Dr. Bathurst, with some hearsay particulars concerning Shakespeare from the papers of Aubrey, which had been in the hands of Wood; and I ought not to suppress them, as the last seems to make against my doctrine. They came originally, I find, on consulting the MS. from one Mr. Beeston: and I am sure Mr. Warton, whom I have the honour to call my friend, and an associate in the question, will be in no pain about their credit. "William Shakespeare's father was a butcher,-while he was a boy he exercised his father's trade, but when he killed a calf, he would do it in a high style, and make a speech. This William being inclined naturally to poetry and acting, came to London, I guess, about eighteen, and was an actor in one of the playhouses, and did act exceedingly well. He began early to make essays in dramatique poetry. The humour of the Constable in the Midsummer Night's Dream he happened to take at Crendon in Bucks.→ - 103 I think, I have been told, that he left near three hundred pounds to a sister.—He understood Latin pretty well, FOR he had been in his younger yeares a schoolmaster in the country." I will be short in my animadversions; and take them in their order. The account of the trade of the family is not only contrary to all other tradition, but, as it may seem, to the instrument from the Herald's Office, so frequently reprinted.Shakespeare most certainly went to London, and commenced actor through necessity, not natural inclination.-Nor have we any reason to suppose, that he did act exceeding well. Rowe tells us, from the information of Betterton, who was inquisitive into this point, and had very early opportunities of inquiry from Sir W. D'Avenant, that he was no extraordinary actor; and that the top of his performance was the Ghost in his own Hamlet. Yet this chef-d'œuvre did not please: I will give you an original stroke at it. Dr. Lodge, who was for ever pestering the town with pamphlets, published in the year 1596, Wits Miserie, and the Worlds Madnesse, discovering the Devils incarnat of this Age, 4to. One of these devils is Hate-virtue, or Sorrow for another man's a foule lubber, good successe, who, says the Doctor, is and looks as pale as the visard of the Ghost, which cried so miserably at the theatre, like an oister-wife, Hamlet Thus you see Mr. Holt's supposed proof, in revenge. the Appendix to the late edition, that Hamlet was written after 1597, or perhaps 1602, will by no means hold good; whatever might be the case of the particular passage on which it is founded. 66 Nor does it appear, that Shakespeare did begin early to make essays in dramatic poetry: The Arraignment of Paris, 1584, which hath so often been ascribed to him on the credit of Kirkman and Winstanley, was written by George Peele; and Shakespeare is not met with, even as an assistant, till at least seven years afterward.— Nash, in his Epistle to the Gentlemen Students of both Universities, prefixed to Green's Arcadia, 4to. black letter, as the chiefe supporter recommends his friend, Peele, of pleasance now living, the Atlas of poetrie, and primus verborum artifex whose first increase, The Arraignment of Paris, might plead to their opinions his pregnant dexteritie of wit, and manifold varietie of inuention." : 66 In the next place, unfortunately, there is neither such a character as a Constable in the Midsummer Night's Dream: nor was the three hundred pounds legacy to a sister, but a daughter. And to close the whole, it is not possible, according to Aubrey himself, that Shakespeare could have been some years a schoolmaster in the country: on which circumstance only the supposition of his learning is professedly founded. He was not surely very young, when he was employed to kill calves, and commenced player about eighteen!-The truth is, that he left his father, for a wife, a year sooner; and had at least two children born at Stratford before he retired from thence to London. It is therefore sufficiently clear, that poor Anthony had too much reason for his character of Aubrey. You will find it in his own account of his life, published by Hearne, which I would earnestly recommend to any hypochondriac: "A pretender to antiquities, roving, magotie-headed, and sometimes little better than crased; and being exceedingly credulous, would stuff his many letters sent to A. W. with folliries and misinformations." P. 577. Thus much for the learning of Shakespeare with respect to the ancient languages: indulge me with an observation or two on the supposed knowledge of the modern ones, and I will promise to release you. "It is evident," we have been told, "that he was not unacquainted with the Italian :" but let us inquire into the evidence. Certainly some Italian words and phrases appear in the works of Shakespeare; yet if we had nothing else to observe, their orthography might lead us to suspect them to be not of the writer's importation. But we can go further, and prove this. When Pistol" cheers up himself with ends of verse," he is only a copy of Hanniball Gonsaga, who ranted on yielding himself a prisoner to an English captain in the Low Countries, as you may read in an old collection of tales called Wits, Fits, and Fancies, Si fortuna me tormenta, And Sir Richard Hawkins, in his voyage to the South Sea, 1593, throws out the same jingling distich on the loss of his pinnace. "Master Page, sit; good Master Page, sit; Proface What you want in meat, we'll have in drink," says Justice Shallow's fac totum, Davy, in the Second Part of Henry IV. Proface, Sir Thomas Hanmer observes to be Italian, from profaccia, much good may it do you. Mr. Johnson rather thinks it a mistake for perforce. Sir Thomas however is right; yet it is no argument for his author's Italian knowledge. Old Heywood, the epigrammatist, addressed his readers long before, Readers, reade this thus: for preface, proface, Woorkes, Lond. 4to. 1562. And Dekker in his play, If it be not good, the Devil is in it, (which is certainly true, for it is full of devils,) makes Shackle-soule, in the character of Friar Rush, tempt his brethren with "choice of dishes," To which proface; with blythe lookes sit yee. Nor hath it escaped the quibbling manner of the Waterpoet, in the title of a poem prefixed to his Praise of Hempseed: "A Preamble, Preatrot, Preagallop, Preapace, or Preface; and Proface, my Masters, if your Stomacks serve." But the editors are not contented without coining Italian. "Rivo, says the drunkard," is an expression of the madcap Prince of Wales; which Sir Thomas Hanmer corrects to Ribi, drink away, or again, as it should be rather translated. Dr. Warburton accedes to this; and Mr. Johnson hath admitted it into his text; but with an observation, that Rivo might possibly be the cant of English taverns. And so indeed it was: it occurs frequently in Marston. Take a quotation from his comedy of What you will, 1607: Musicke, tobacco, sacke, and sleepe, VOL. I. E2 |