ing the repute of bearing a richer kind by grafting; and this was the reafon he omitted it." The fame ftory, without the names of the perfons, is printed among the jefts of John Taylor the Water poet, in his works, folio, 1630, page 184, N° 39: and, with fome variations, may be found in one of Hearne's pocket books. "One of Shakespeare's younger brothers, who lived to a good old age, even fome years, as I compute, after the reftoration of K. Charles II. would in his younger days come to London to vifit his brother Will, as he called him, and be a fpectator of him as an actor in fome of his own plays. This cuftom, as his brother's fame enlarged, and his dramatic entertainments grew the greateft fupport of our principal, if not of all our theatres, he continued it seems fo long after his brother's death, as even to the latter end of his own life. The curiofity at this time of the most noted actors to learn fomething from him of his brother, &c. they justly held him in the highest veneration. And it may be well believed, as there was besides a kinsman and defcendant of the family, who was then a celebrated actor among them, [Charles Harte. See Shakefpeare's Will] this opportunity made them greedily inquifitive into every little circumftance, more especially in his dramatick character, which his brother could relate of him. But he, it feems, was fo ftricken in years, and poffibly his memory fo weakened with infirmities (which might make him the easier pass for a man of weak intellects) that he could give them but little light into their enquiries; and all that could be recollected from him of his brother Will, in that ftation was, the faint, general, and almoft loft ideas he had of having once feen him act a part in one of his own comedies, wherein being to perfonate a decrepit old man, he wore a long beard, and appeared fo weak and drooping and unable to walk, that he was forced to be supported and carried by another perfon to a table, at which he was feated among fome company, who were eating, and one of them fung a fong." See the character of Adam in As you like it. Act. II. Sc. ult. "Verses by Ben Jonson and Shakespeare, occafioned by the motto to the Globe Theatre.—Totus mundus agit bijtrionem. Jonson. Fonfon. If, but flage actors, all the world difplays, Little, or much, of what we fee, we do; Poetical Characteristicks, 8vo. MS. vol. I. fome time in the Harleian Library; which volume was returned to its owner." "Old Mr. Bowman the player reported from Sir William Bifhop, that fome part of Sir John Falftaff's character was drawn from a townfman of Stratford, who either faithlessly broke a contract, or spitefully refufed to part with fome land, for a valuable confideration, adjoining to Shakespeare's, in or near that town." To thefe anecdotes I can only add the following. At the conclufion of the advertisement prefixed to Lintot's edition of Shakespeare's poems, it is faid, "That most learned prince and great patron of learning, King James the First, was pleased with his own hand to write an amicable letter to Mr. Shakespeare; which letter, though now loft, remained long in the hands of Sir William Davenant, as a credible perfon now living can teftify." Mr. Oldys, in a MS. note to his copy of Fuller's Worthies, obferves, that "the story came from the duke of Buckingham, who had it from Sir William D'Avenant.” It appears from Rofcius Anglicanus, (commonly called Downes the prompter's book) 1708, that Shakespeare took the pains to inftruct Jofeph Taylor in the character of Hamlet, and John Lowine in that of K. Henry VIII. STEEVENS. Extract from the Rev. Dr. Farmer's Efay on the Learning of Shakespeare. In 1751, was reprinted "A compendious or briefe examination of certayne ordinary complaints of diuers of our Countrymen in thefe our days: which although they are in fome parte unjust and friuolous, yet are they all by way of dialogue thoroughly debated and difcuffed by William Shakepeare, Gentleman." 8vo. This extraordinary piece was originally published in 4to, 1581, and dedicated by the author, "To the most vertu ous ous and learned Lady, his moft deare and foveraigne Princeffe, Elizabeth; being inforced by her majefties late and fingular clemency in pardoning certayne his unduetifull mifdemeanour." And by the modern editors, to the late king; as "a treatise compofed by the most extenfive and fertile genius, that ever any age or nation produced." Here we join iffue with the writers of that excellent, though very unequal work, the Biographia Britannica: if, fay they, this piece could be written by our poet, it would be abfolutely decifive in the difpute about his learning; for many quotations appear in it from the Greek and Latin clafficks. The concurring circumftances of the name, and the mifdemeanor, which is fuppofed to be the old ftory of deer-fealing, feem 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 feventeen, and the long experience, which the writer talks of.-But I will not keep the reader in fufpenfe: 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 honeft John (to use the language of Sir Thomas Bodley) did not waste his time with fuch baggage books as plays and poems; yet I must fuppofe, that he had heard of the name of Shakespeare. After a while 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 mif demeanour in the dedication. For Stafford had been concerned at that time, and was indeed afterward, as Camden "and the other annalifts inform us, with fome of the confpirators against Elizabeth; which he properly calls his unduetifull behaviour. I hope by this time, that any one open to conviction may be nearly fatisfied; and I will promise to give on this head very little more trouble. The juftly celebrated Mr. Warton hath favoured us, in Fafti. 2d Edit. V. 1. 208.-It will be feen on turning to the former edition, that the latter part of the paragraph belongs to another Stafford.--I have fince obferved, that Wood is not the firft, who hath given us the true author of the pamphlet. his Life of Dr. Bathurst, with fome hearfay particulars concerning Shakespeare 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 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 fpeech. This William being inclined naturally to poetry and acting, came to London, I guefs, about eighteen, and was an actor in one of the playhouses, and did act exceedingly well. He began early to make effays in dramatique poetry.-The humour of the Conftable in the Midsummer Night's Dream he happen'd to take at Crendon in Bucks.-I think, I have been told, that he left near three hundred pounds to a fifler. He underflood Latin pretty well, FOR he had been in his younger years 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, fo frequently reprinted.Shakespeare moft certainly went to London, and commenced actor through neceffity, not natural inclination.-Nor have we any reafon to fuppofe, that he did act, exceedingly well. Rowe tells us from the information of Betterton, who was inquifitive into this point, and had very early opportunities of enquiry from Sir W. Davenant, that he was no extraordinary actor; and that the top of his performance was the Ghoft in his own Hamlet. Yet this chef d'oeuvre did not pleafe: I will give you an original ftroke at it. Dr. Lodge, who was for ever peftering the town with pamphlets, published in the year 1596, Wits Miferie, and the Worlds This place is not met with in Spelman's Villare, or in Adam's Index; nor in the first and the laf 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. Madnefe, Madneffe, difcovering the Devils incarnat of this Age, 4to. One of thefe devils is Hate-virtue, or Sorrow for another man's good fu ceffe, who, fays the doctor, is "a foule lubber, and looks as pale as the vifard of the Ghoft, which cried fo miferably at the theatre, like an oifter-wife, Hamlet revenge." Thus you fee Mr. 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 Shakespeare did begin early to make effays in dramatique poetry: the Arraignment of Paris, 1584, which hath fo often been afcribed to him on the credit of Kirkman and Winstanley t, was written by George Peele; and Shakespeare is not met with, even as an affiftant, 'till at least feven years afterward ‡.-Nafh in his epiftle to * To this obfervation of Dr. Farmer it may be added, that the play of Hamlet was better known by this fcene, than by any other. In Decker's Satiromaftix the following paffage occurs. Afinius. "Would I were hang'd if I can call you any names but captain, and Tucca." Тисса. "No, fye; my name's Hamlet Revenge: thou hast been at Paris Garden, haft thou not?" Again, in Weftward Hoe, by Decker and Webster, 1607. "Let thefe hufbands 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 usual drefs of the stage ghofts of that time. 66 A filthie whining ghoft "Lapt in fome foule fheet, or a leather pilch, The leathern pilch, I fuppofe, was a theatrical fubstitute for armour. MALONE. Thefe people, who were the Curls of the laft age, ascribe likewife to our author thofe miferable performances, Mucedorus, and the Merry Devil of Edmonton. Mr. Pope afferts "The troublesome Raigne of King John,' in 2 parts, 1611, to have been written by Shakespeare 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. the |