extremely probable, that the French ribaldry was at first inferted by a different hand, as the many additions moft certainly were after he had left the stage.—Indeed, every friend to his memory will not easily believe, that he was acquainted with the fcene between Catharine and the old gentlewoman; or furely he would not have admitted fuch obfcenity and nonfenfe. Mr. Hawkins, in the Appendix to Mr. Johnson's edition, hath an ingenious obfervation to prove, that Shakspeare, fuppofing the French to be his, had very little knowledge of the language. "Eft-il impoffible d'efchapper la force de ton bras?" fays a Frenchman.-" Brafs, cur?" replies Pistol. "Almost any one knows, that the French word bras is pronounced brau; and what refemblance of found does this bear to brafs?" Mr. Johnfon makes a doubt, whether the pro hee will affoord you whole Hamlets, I fhould fay, handfuls of tragicall fpeeches."-I cannot determine exactly when this Epifle was first published; but, I fancy, it will carry the original Hamlet fomewhat further back than we have hitherto done: and it may be ob ferved, that the oldeft copy now extant is faid to be " enlarged to almost as much againe as it was." Gabriel Harvey printed at the end of the year 1592, Foure Letters and certaine Sonnetts, especially touching Robert Greene: in one of which his Arcadia is mentioned. Now Nath's Epiftle muft have been previous to thefe, as Gabriel is quoted in it with applaufe; and the Foure Letters were the beginning of a quarrel. Nafh replied, in Strange newes of the intercepting certaine Letters, and a Convoy of Verfes, as they were going privilie to victual the Low Countries, 1593. Harvey rejoined the fame year in Pierce's Supererogation, or a new praise of the old Affe." And Nafh again, in Have with you to Saffron Walden, or Gabriell Harvey's Hunt is up; containing a full anjower to the eldeft Sonne of the halter-maker, 1596. Dr. Lodge calls Nash our true English Arctine: and John Taylor in his Kickley Winfey, or a Lerry Come-trang, even makes an oath by fweet faty ricke Nafh his urne."-He died before 1606, as appears from an old comedy, called The Return from Parnaffus. nunciation of the French language may not be changed, fince Shakspeare's time, " if not," fays he, "it may be fufpected that fome other man wrote the French fcenes:" but this does not appear to be the cafe, at leaft in this termination, from the rules of the grammarians, or the practice of the poets. I am certain of the former from the French Alphabeth of De la Mothe, and the Orthoepia Gallica of John Eliot ;" and of the latter from the rhymes of Marot, Ronfard, and Du Bartas.-Connections of this kind were very common. Shakfpeare himself affifted Ben Jonfon in his Sejanus, as it was originally written; and Fletcher in his Two Noble Kinfmen. But what if the French fcene were occafionally introduced into every play on this fubject? and perhaps there were more than one before our poet's.-In Pierce Penileffe, his Supplication to the Deuill, 4to. 1592, (which, it seems, from the Epiftle to the Printer, was not in the first edition,) the author, Nash, exclaims, "What a glorious thing it is to have Henry the Fifth represented on the stage leading the French King prifoner, and forcing both him and the Dolphin to fwear fealty!"-And it appears from the Jefts of the famous comedian, Tarlton, 4to. 1611, that he had been particularly celebrated in the part of the Clown, in Henry the Fifth; but no fuch character exifts in the play of Shakspeare. Lond. 1592, 8vo. 9 Lond. 1593, 4to. Eliot is almoft the only witty grammarian that I have had the fortune to meet with. In his Epittle prefatory to The Gentle Doctors of Gaule, he cries out for perfecution, very like Jack in that moft poignant of all fatires, the Tale of a Tub, "I pray you be readie quicklie to cauill at my booke, I befeech you heartily calumniate my doings with speede, I request you humbly controll my method as foone as you may, I earnestly entreat you hiffe at my inventions," &c. Henry the Sixth hath ever been doubted; and a paffage in the above-quoted piece of Nafh may give us reafon to believe, it was previous to our author. "Howe would it haue joyed braue Talbot (the terror of the French) to thinke that after he had lyen two hundred yeare in his toomb, he should triumph again on the ftage; and haue his bones new embalmed with the teares of ten thousand fpectators at least (at feuerall times) who in the tragedian that reprefents his perfon, imagine they behold him fresh bleeding."—I have no doubt but Henry the Sixth had the fame author with Edward the Third, which hath been recovered to the world in Mr. Capell's Prolufions. It hath been obferved, that the Giant of Rabelais is fometimes alluded to by Shakspeare: and in his time no tranflation was extant.-But the story was in every one's hand. In a letter by one Laneham, or Langham, for the name is written differently, concerning the entertainment at Killingwoorth Caftle, printed 1575, we have a lift of the vulgar romances of the age: "King Arthurz book, Huon of Burdeaus, Friar Rous, Howleglafs, and GARGANTUA." Meres 2 It is indeed of no importance, but I fufpect the former to be right, as I find it corrupted afterward to Lanam and Lanum. 3 This author by a pleafant miftake in fome fenfible Conje&ures on Shakspeare lately printed at Oxford, is quoted by the name of Maifter. Perhaps the title-page was imperfect; it runs thus: "Palladis Tamia. Wits Treafury. Being the fecond part of Wits Commonwealth, By Francis Meres Maifter of Artes of both Univerfities." I am glad out of gratitude to this man, who hath been of frequent fervice to me, that I am enabled to perfect Wood's account of him; from the afiiftance of our Master's very accurate lift of graduates, (which it would do honour to the univerfity to print at the publick expenfe) and the kind information of a friend from the regifter of his parish :-He was originally of Pembroke-Hall, mentions him as equally hurtful to young minds with the Four Sons of Aymon, and the Seven Champions. And John Taylor hath him likewife in his catalogue of authors, prefixed to Sir Gregory Nonfence. But to come to a conclufion, I will give you an irrefragable argument, that Shakspeare did not understand two very common words in the French and Latin languages. According to the articles of agreement between the conqueror Henry and the king of France, the latter was to style the former, (in the corrected French of the modern editions,) "Noftre tres cher filz Henry roy d'Angleterre; and in Latin, Præclariffimus filius," &c. "What," fays Dr. Warburton, "is tres cher in French, præclariffimus in Latin! we fhould read precariffimus."-This appears to be exceedingly true; but how came the blunder? it is a typographical one in Holinfhed, which Shakspeare copied; but muft indifputably have corrected, had he been acquainted with the languages." Our faid B. A. in 1587, and M. A. 1591. About 1602 he became rector, of Wing in Rutland; and died there, 1646, in the 81ft year of his age. I have quoted many pieces of John Taylor, but it was impoffible to give their original dates. He may be traced as an author for more than half a century. His works were collected in folio, 1630, but many were printed afterward; I will mention one for the humour of the title: "Drinke and welcome, or the famous History of the mott part of Drinkes in ufe in Greate Britaine and Ireland; with an efpecial Declaration of the Potency, Vertue, and Operation of our English Ale: with a defcription of all forts of Waters, from the Ocean Sea to the Tears of a Woman, 4to. 1633." In Witt Merriment, or Lufty Drollery, 1656, we have an Epitaph on John Taylor, who was born in the city of Glocefter, and dyed in Phoenix Alley, in the 75 yeare of his age; you may find him, if the worms have not devoured him, in Covent Garden church-yard," p. 130.-He died about two years before. 66 father, during his life, fhall name, call, and write us in French in this maner: Noftre tres chier filz, Henry roy d'Engleterre-and in Latine in this maner, Præclariffimus filius nofter.” Edit. 1587, P. 574. To corroborate this inftance, let me obferve to you, though it be nothing further to the purpose, that another error of the fame kind hath been the fource of a miftake in an hiftorical paffage of our author; which hath ridiculously troubled the criticks. Richard the Third' harangues his army before the battle of Bofworth: "Remember whom ye are to cope withal, 66 "Our mother," Mr. Theobald perceives to be 5 Some inquiry hath been made for the first performers of the capital characters in Shakspeare. We learn, that Burbage, the alter Rofcius of Camden, was the original Richard, from a paffage in the poems of Bishop Corbet; who introduces his hoft at Bofworth describing the battle: "But when he would have faid King Richard died, "And call'd a horse, a horse, he Burbage cried." The play on this fubject mentioned by Sir John Harrington in his Apologie for Poetrie, 1591, and fometimes miftaken for Shakfpeare's, was a Latin one, and written by Dr. Legge; and acted at St. John's in our univerfity, fome years before 1588, the date of the copy in the Museum. This appears from a better MS. in our library at Emmanuel, with the names of the original performers. It is evident from a paffage in Camden's Annals, that there was an old play likewife on the fubject of Richard the Second; but I know not in what language. Sir Gelley Merrick, who was concerned in the harebrained bufinefs of the Earl of Effex, and was hanged for it with the ingenious Cuffe, in 1601, is accufed amongst other things, "quod exiletam Tragediam de tragicà abdicatione Regis Ricardi Secundi in publico theatro coram conjuratis datâ pecunia agi curaffet." |