children of the queen's chapel *, and the actors of the established theatres, is alluded to. At what time that contest began, is uncertain. But, should it appear not to have commenced till some years after the date here assigned, it would not, I apprehend, be a sufficient reason for ascribing this play to a later period; for, as we are certain that considerable additions were made to it after its first production, and have some authority for attributing the first sketch of it to 1596, till that authority is shaken, we may presume, that any passage which is inconsistent with that date was not in the play originally, but a subsequent insertion.. With respect to the allusion in question, it probably was an addition; for it is not found in the quarto of 1604 (which has not the appearance of a mutilated or imperfect copy), nor did it appear in print till the publication of the folio in 1623. The same observation may be made on the passage produced by Mr. Holt, to prove that this play was not written till after 1597: "Their inhibition comes by means of the late innovation." This, indeed, does *Between the years 1595 and 1600, some of Lilly's comedies were performed by these children. Many of the plays of Jonson were represented by them between 1600 and 1609.-From a passage in Jack Drum's Entertainment, or the Comedy of Pasquil and Catherine, which was printed in 1601, we learn that they were much followed at that time. appear appear in the quarto of 1604, but, we may presume, was added in the interval between 1597 (when the statute alluded to-39 Eliz. ch. 4.- -was enacted), and that year. * Hamlet Sadler was one of the witnesses to Shakspere's Will. He was probably born soon after the first exhibition of this play; and, according to this date, was twenty years old at the time of his attes tation. If this tragedy had not appeared till some years after the date here assigned, he would not have been at the time of Shakspere's death above sixteen or seventeen years old; at which age he scarcely would have been chosen as a witness to so solemn an act. The following passage, in An Epistle to the Gentlemen Students of the Two Universities, by Thomas Nashe, prefixed to Greene's Arcadia (which has no date), has been thought to allude to this play."I will turn back to my first text of studies of delight, and talk a little in friendship with a few of our trivial It has been observed to me, that there are other instances of this being used as a Christian name; it is certainly very uncommon, and may be fairly supposed, in this case, to have taken its rise from the play. After all, how ever, it is not quite clear that this was his name. The name subscribed to Shakspere's original Will (which I have seen) seems to be Hamnet; but in the body of the Will he is called Hamlet Sadler. translators, translators *. It is a common practice now-a-days, among a sort of shifting companions, that runne through every art, and thrive by none, to leave the trade of Noverint, whereto they were born, and busię themselves with the endeavours of art, that could scarcely latinize their neck-verse if they should have neede; yet English Seneca, read by candle-light, yeelds many good sentences, as Bloud is a beggar, and so forth and if you intreat him faire in a frosty morning, he will affoord you whole hamlets, I should say, handfuls of tragical speeches. But, O grief! Tempus edax rerum-what is that will last always? The sea exhaled by drops will in continuance be drie; and Seneca, let bloud line by line and page by page, at length must needes die to our stage.” : This passage does not, in my apprehension, decisively prove that our author's Hamlet was written so early as 1591 (in which year † Dr. Farmer, on good grounds, conjectures that Greene's Arcadia was published; for supposing this to have been a sneer at *The person, whom Nashe had in contemplation in this I believe, Thomas Kyd. The only play to passage, was, which his name is affixed (Cornelia), is a professed translation from the French of Garnier, who imitated Seneca, as did also Kyd. MALONE. Mr. Oldys, in his MS. Additions to Langbaine's Lives of the Dramatick Poets, says, on I know not what authority, that Greene's Arcadia was printed in 1589. If he is right, it is still less probable that this passage should have related to our author's Hamlet. Shakspere, Shakspere, it might have been inserted in some new editions of this tract after 1596, it being a frequent practice of Nashe and Greene, to make additions to their pamphlets at every re-impression. But it is by no means clear, that Shakspere was the person whom Nashe had here in contemplation. He seems to point at some dramatick writer of that time, who had been originally a scrivener or attorney "A clerk foredoom'd his father's soul to cross, Who, instead of transcribing deeds and pleadings, chose to imitate Seneca's plays, of which a translation had been published not many years before." The Trade of Noverint" is the trade of an attorney or notary *. Shakspere was not bred to the law, at least we have no such tradition; nor, however freely he may have borrowed from North's Plutarch and Holinshed's Chronicle, does he appear to be at all indebted to the translation of Seneca. Of all the writers of the age of queen Elizabeth, Nashe is the most licentious in his language; perpe "The country lawyers too jog down apace, Ravenscroft's Prologue prefixed to Titus Our ancient deeds were written in Latin, and frequently began with the words, Noverint Universi. The form is still retained: Know all men, &c. Ff tually tually distorting words from their primitive signification, in a manner often puerile and ridiculous, but more frequently incomprehensible and absurd. His prose works, if they were collected together, would perhaps exhibit a greater farrago of unintelligible jargon, than is to be found in the productions of any author ancient or modern. An argument that rests on a term used by such a writer, has but a weak foundation. The phrase "whole hamlets of tragical speeches"is certainly intelligible, without supposing an allusion to the play; and might have only meant a large quantity. -We meet a similar expression in our author's Cymbeline. "I'd let a parish of such Clotens blood.' It should also be observed, "that hamlets," in the foregoing passage, is not printed in Italicks*, though the word Seneca, in the same sentence, is; and all the quotations, authors' names, and books mentioned in this epistle, are distinguished by that character. 12. KING JOHN, 1596. This is the only one of our poet's uncontested plays that is not entered in the books of the StationersCompany. It was not printed till 1623, but is mentioned by Meres in 1598, unless he mistook the old It is so printed in the edition of 1589. FARMER. .play |