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to by our author; by which he insinuates, that some then created had hands indeed, but not hearts; that is, money to pay for the creation, but no virtue to purchase the honour."

Such is the observation of this critick. But by what chymistry can the sense which he has affixed to this passage be extracted from it? Or is it probable, that Shakspere, who has more than once condescended to be the encomiast of the unworthy founder of the order of Baronets, who had been personally honoured by a letter from his Majesty, and substantially benefited by the royal licence granted to him and his fellow-comedians, should have been so impolitick as to satirize the king, or to depreciate his new-created dignity?

These lines appear to me to afford an obvious meaning, without supposing them to contain such a multitude of allusions:

Of old (says Othello) in matrimonial alliances, the heart dictated the union of hands; but our modern junctions are those of hards, not of hearts.

On every marriage the arms of the wife are united to those of the husband. This circumstance, I believe, it was, suggested heraldry, in this place, to our author. I know not whether a heart was ever used as an armorial ensign*, nor is it, I conceive, for this interpretation, necessary to inquire. It was the office of the herald to join, or, to speak technically, to

It is, in the arms of Douglas.

quarter

quarter the arms of the new-married pair *. Hence, with his usual licence, Shakspere uses heraldry for junction, or union in general.

of Lucrece, the same term is

Thus, in his Rape employed to denote

that union of colours which constitutes a beautiful complexion:

"This heraldry in Lucrece' face was seen,

"Argued by beauty's red, and virtue's white."

This passage not affording us any assistance, we are next to consider one in The Alchymist, by Ben Jonson, which, if it alluded to an incident in Othello (as Mr. Steevens seems to think it does), would ascertain this play to have appeared before 1610, in which year The Alchymist was first acted:

"Lovewit. Didst thou hear a cry, say'st thou ?

66

Neighb. Yes, Sir, like unto a man that had been strangled an hour, and could not speak."

But I doubt whether Othello was here in Jonson's contemplation. Old Ben generally spoke out; and if he had intended to sneer at the manner of Desdemona's death, I think, he would have taken care that his meaning should not be miss'd, and would have written -"like unto a woman," &c.

This tragedy was not entered on the books of the

*I may quarter, coz," says Slender, in The Merry Wives of Windsor. "You may (replies justice Shallow) by marrying."

Stationers,

Stationers-Company till October 6, 1621, nor printed till the following year; but it was acted at court early in the year 1613*. How long before that time it had appeared, I have not been able to ascertain, either from the play itself, or from any contemporary production. I have, however, persuaded myself that it was one of Shakspere's latest performances: a supposition, to which the acknowledged excellence of the piece gives some degree of probability. It is here attributed to the year 1611, because Dr. Warburton's comment on the passage above-cited may convince others, though I confess, it does not satisfy me.

Emilia and Lodovico, two of the characters in this play, are likewise two of the persons represented in MayDay, a comedy by Chapman, first printed in 1611.

35. THE TEMPEST, 1612.

Though some account of the Bermuda-Islands, which are mentioned in this play, had been published in 1600 (as Dr. Farmer has observed), yet as they were not generally known till Sir George Somers arrived there in 1609, The Tempest may be fairly attributed to a period subsequent to that year; especially as it exhibits such strong internal marks of having been a late production.

The entry at Stationers-Hall does not contribute to ascertain the time of its composition; for it appears not

*MS. Vertue,

on

on the Stationers' books, nor was it printed till 1623, when it was published with the rest of our author's plays in folio in which edition, having, I suppose, by mere accident, obtained the first place, it has ever since preserved a station to which indubitably it is not entitled.

As the circumstance from which this piece receives its title, is at an end in the very first scene, and as many other titles, all equally proper, might have occurred to Shakspere (such as The Enchanted-Island The Banished Duke-Ferdinand and Miranda, &c.) it is possible, that some particular and recent event determined him to call it The Tempest. It appears from Stowe's Chronicle, p. 913, that in the October, November, and December of the year 1612, a dreadful tempest happened in England," which did exceeding great damage, with extreame shipwrack throughout the ocean." "There perished (says the historian) above an hundred ships in the space of two houres."-Several pamphlets were published on this occasion, decorated with prints of sinking vessels, castles topling on their warder's heads, the devil overturning steeples, &c. In one of them, the author, describing the appearance of the waves at Dover, says, "the whole seas appeared like a fiery world, all sparkling red." Another of these narratives recounts the escape of Edmond Pet, a sailor; whose preservation appears to have been no less marvellous than that of Trinculo or Stephano: and so great a terror did this tempest create in the minds of the people, that a form of prayer was ordered

ordered on the occasion, which is annexed to one of the publications above mentioned.

There is reason to believe that some of our author's dramas obtained their names from the seasons at which they were produced. It is not very easy to account for the title of Twelfth Night, but by supposing it to have been first exhibited in the Christmas holydays*. Neither the title of A Midsummer Night's Dream, nor that of The Winter's Tale, denotes the season of the action; the events which are the subject of the latter, occurring at the time of sheep-shearing, and the dream, from which the former receives its name, happening on the night preceding May-day.-These titles, therefore, were probably suggested by the season at which the plays were exhibited, to which they belong; A Midsummer Night's Dream, having, we may presume, been first represented in June, and The Winter's Tale in December.

It was formerly an established custom to have plays represented at court in the Christmas holidays, and particularly on Twelfth Night. Two of Lilly's comedies (Alexander amd Campaspe, 1591-and Mydas, 1592) are said, in their title-pages, to have been played before the queenes majestie on Twelfth-day at night; and several of Ben Jonson's masques were presented at White-Hall, on the same festival. Our author's Love's Labour Lost was exhibited before queen Elizabeth in the Christmas holidays; and his King Lear was acted before king James on St. Stephen's night (the night after Christmas-day).

Perhaps,

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