The juftly celebrated Mr. Warton hath favoured us, in his Life of Dr. Bathurst, with fome hearsay particulars concerning Shakspeare from the papers of Aubrey, which had been in the hands of Wood; and I ought not to fupprefs them, as the last feems to make against my doctrine. They came originally, I find, on confulting the MS. from one Mr. Beefton and I am fure Mr. Warton, whom I have the honour to call my friend, and an affociate in the question, will be in no pain about their credit. "William Shakspeare's father was a butcher,while he was a boy he exercifed 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 guefs, about eighteen, and was an actor in one of the playhoufes, and did act exceedingly well. He began early to make effays in dramatique poetry. The humour of the Conftable in the Midfummer Night's Dream he happened to take at Crendon in Bucks.-I think, I have been told, that he left near three hundred pounds to a fifter.He underflood Latin pretty well, FOR he had been in his younger yeares a fchoolmaster in the country." I will be fhort in my animadverfions; 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 feem, to the inftrument from the Herald's Office, It was obferved in the former edition, that this place is not met with in Spelman's Villare, or in Adams's Index; nor, it might have been added, in the firft and the last performance of this fort, Speed's Tables, and Whatley's Gazetteer: perhaps, however, it may be meant under the name of Crandon ;-but the inquiry is of no importance. It fhould, I think, be written Credendon; though better antiquaries than Aubrey have acquiefced in the vulgar corruption. fo frequently reprinted.Shakspeare most certainly went to London, and commenced actor through neceffity, not natural inclination.-Nor have we any reafon to fuppofe, that he did act exceeding well. Rowe tells us, from the information of Betterton, who was inquifitive 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'oeuvre 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 Miferie, and the Worlds Madneffe, difcovering the Devils incarnat of this Age, 4to. One of these devils is Hate-virtue, or Sorrow for another man's good fucceffe, who, fays the Doctor, is " a foule lubber, and looks as pale as the vifard of the Ghost, which cried fo miferably at the theatre, like an oifter-wife, Hamlet revenge."9 Thus you fee Mr. 9 To this obfervation of Dr. Farmer it may be added, that the play of Hamlet was better known by this scene, than by any other. In Decker's Satiromaftix, 1602, the following paffage occurs: Afinius. “Would I were hang'd if I can call you any names but captain, and Tucca." Tucca. "No, fye; my name's Hamlet Revenge: thou haft been at Paris-Garden, haft thou not?" Again, in Westward Hoe, by Decker and Webster, 1607: "Let these husbands play mad Hamlet, and cry, revenge!" STEEVENS. Dr. Farmer's obfervation may be further confirmed by the following paffage in an anonymous play, called A Warning for faire Women, 1599. We also learn from it the ufual drefs of the stage ghofts of that time: 66 A filthie whining ghoft, Holt's fuppofed proof, in 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 cafe of the particular paffage on which it is founded. Nor does it appear, that Shakspeare did begin early to make effays in dramatick poetry: The Arraignment of Paris, 1584, which hath fo often been afcribed to him on the credit of Kirkman and Winftanley, was written by George Peele; and Shakspeare is not met with, even as an affiflant, till at least seven years afterward.'-Nash, in his Epistle to the Gentlemen Students of both Universities, prefixed to Greene's Arcadia, 4to. black letter, recommends his friend, Peele, " as the chiefe fupporter of pleafance now living, the Atlas of poetrie, and primus verborum artifex: whofe first increase, The Arraignment of Paris, might plead to their opinions his pregnant dexteritie of wit, and manifold varietie of inuention."+ "Comes fereaming like a pigge half stickt, The leathern pilch, I fuppofe, was a theatrical fubftitute for armour. MALONE. 2 These people, who were the Curls of the laft age, afcribe likewife to our author, thofe miferable performances, Mucidorus, and The Merry Devil of Edmonton. 3 Mr. Pope afferts, "The troublesome Raigne of King John," in two parts, 1611, to have been written by Shakspeare and Rowley-which edition is a mere copy of another in black letter, 1591. But I find his affertion is fomewhat to be doubted: for the old edition hath no name of author at all; and that of 1611, the initials only, W. Sh. in the title-page, 4 Peele feems to have been taken into the patronage of the Earl of Northumberland about 1593, to whom he dedicates in that year, "The Honour of the Garter, a poem gratulatorie-the firfling See the Fay on the Order of Shakspeare's Plays, Article, King John. MALONE. In the next place, unfortunately, there is neither fuch a character as a Conftable in the Midsummer Night's Dream: nor was the three hundred pounds legacy to a fifter, but a daughter. And to close the whole, it is not poffible, according to Aubrey himself, that Shakspeare could have been fome years a fchoolmaster in the country: on which circumftance only the fuppofition of his learning is profeffedly founded. He was not furely 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 fooner; and had at least two children born at Stratford before he retired from thence to London. It is therefore fufficiently clear, that poor Anthony had too much reafon for his character of Aubrey. You will find it in his own account of his life, publifhed by confecrated to his noble name."-" He was esteemed," fays Anthony Wood, "a most noted poet, 1579; but when or where he died, I cannot tell, for so it is, and always hath been, that most POETS die poor, and confequently obscurely, and a hard matter it is to trace them to their graves. Claruit 1599." Ath. Oxon. Vol. I. p. 300. We had lately in a periodical pamphlet, called, The Theatrical Review, a very curious letter under the name of George Peele, to one Mafter Henrie Marle; relative to a difpute between Shakspeare and Alleyn, which was compromised by Ben Jonfon." I never longed for thy companye more than laft night; we were all verie merrie at the Globe, when Ned Alleyn did not fcruple to affyrme pleafauntly to thy friende Will, that he had ftolen hys fpeeche about the excellencie of acting in Hamlet hys tragedye, from converfaytions manifold, whych had paffed between them, and opinions gyven by Alleyn touching that fubject. Shakspeare did not take this talk in good forte; but Jonfon did put an end to the ftryfe wyth wittielie faying, thys affaire needeth no contentione: you ftole it from Ned no doubte: do not marvel: haue you not feene hym acte tymes out of number?"-This is pretended to be printed from the original MS. dated 1600; which agrees well enough with Wood's Claruit: but unluckily, Peele was dead at least two years before. "As Anacreon died by the pot, fays Meres, fo George Peele by the pox." Wit's Treajury, 1598, p. 286. Hearne, which I would earnestly recommend to any hypochondriack : "A pretender to antiquities, roving, magotieheaded, and fometimes little better than crafed: and being exceedingly credulous, would stuff his many letters fent to A. W. with folliries and mifinformations." P. 577. Thus much for the learning of Shakspeare with refpect to the ancient languages: indulge me with an obfervation or two on the fuppofed 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 fome Italian words and phrafes appear in the works of Shakspeare; yet if we had nothing elfe to obferve, their orthography might lead us to fufpect them to be not of the writer's importation. But we can go further, and prove this. When Piftol "cheers up himself with ends of verfe," he is only a copy of Hanniball Gonfaga, 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, "Il fperanza me contenta." And Sir Richard Hawkins, in his voyage to the South-Sea, 1593, throws out the fame jingling diftich on the lofs of his pinnace. By one Anthony Copley, 4to. black letter, it seems to have had many editions: perhaps the laft was in 1614.-The firft piece of this fort, that I have met with, was printed by T. Berthelet, though not mentioned by Ames, called, "Tales, and quicke anfweres very mery and pleasant to rede." 4to. no date. |