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having the repute of bearing a richer kind by grafting; and this was the reason he omitted it *."

The same story, without the names of the persons, is printed among the jests of John Taylor, the Water Poet, in his works, folio, 1630, page 184, No. 39; and, with some variations, may be found in one of Hearne's pocket-books †.

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and this was the reason he omitted it." Mr. Oldys might have added, that he was the person who suggested to Mr. Pope the singular course which he pursued in his edition of Shakspere. "Remember (says Oldys in a MS. note to his copy of Langbaine, article Shakspere) what I observed to my Lord Oxford for Mr. Pope's use, out of Cowley's preface." The observation here alluded to, I believe, is one made by Cowley in his preface, p. 52, edit. 1710. "This has been the case with "Shakspere, Fletcher, Jonson, and many others, part of "whose poems I should take the boldness to prune and lop away, if the care of replanting them in print did belong "to me; neither would I make any scruple to cut off from some the unnecessary young suckers, and from "others the old withered branches."-Pope adopted this very unwarrantable idea; striking out from the text of his author whatever he did not like: and Cowley himself has suffered a sort of poetical punishment for having suggested it, the learned bishop of Lichfield having pruned and lopped away his beautiful luxuriances, as Pope, on Cowley's suggestion, did those of Shakspere. MALONE.

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† Antony Wood is the first and original author of the anecdote, That Shakspere, in his journies from Warwick

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"One of Shakspere's younger brothers, who lived to a good old age, even some years, as I compute, after the restoration of King Charles II. would, in his younger days, come to London, to visit his brother Will,

shire to London, used to bait at the Crown-Inn on the west side of the corn-market in Oxford.. He says, that Davenant the poet was born in that house in 1606. "His “ father (he adds) John Davenant, was a sufficient vintner,

kept the tavern now known by the sign of the Crown, "and was mayor of the said city in 1621. His mother "was a very beautiful woman, of a good wit and conver"sation, in which she was imitated by none of her chil "dren but by this William [the poet]. The father, who "was a very grave and discreet citizen (yet an admirer "and lover of plays and play-makers, especially Shakspere, "who frequented his house in his journies between War"wickshire and London), was of a melancholick dispo"sition, and was seldom or never seen to laugh, in which "he was imitated by none of his children but by Robert "his eldest son, afterwards Fellow of St. John's College, "and a venerable Doctor of Divinity." Wood Ath. Oxon. vol. ii. p. 292. edit. 1692. I will not suppose that Shakspere could have been the father of a Doctor of Divinity who never laughed: but it was always a constant tradition in Oxford, that Shakspere was the father of Davenant the poet. And I have seen this circumstance expressly men tioned in some of Wood's papers. Wood was well qua lified to know these particulars; for he was a townsman of Oxford, where he was born in 1632. Wood says, that Davenant went to school in Oxford. Ubi supra.

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Will, as he called him, and be a spectator of him as an actor in some of his own plays. This custom, as his brother's fame enlarged, and his dramatick entertainments grew the greatest support of our principal, if not of all our theatres, he continued it seems so long after his brother's death, as even to the latterend of his own life. The curiosity at this time of the most noted actors to learn something from him of his brother, &c. they justly held him in the highest veneration. And it may be well believed, as there

As to the Crown-Inn, it still remains as an inn, and is an old decayed house, but probably was once a principal inn in Oxford. It is directly in the road from Stratford to London. In a large upper room, which seems to have been a sort of Hall for entertaining a large company, or for accommodating (as was the custom) different parties at once, there was a bow window, with three pieces of excellent painted glass. About eight years ago, I remember visiting this room, and proposing to purchase of the landlord the painted glass, which would have been a curiosity, as coming from Shskspere's inn. But going thither soon after, I found it was removed; the inn-keeper having communicated my intended bargain to the owner of the house, who began to suspect that he was possessed of a curiosity too valuable to be parted with, or to remain in such a place and I never could hear of it afterwards. If I remember right, the painted glass consisted of three armorial shields, beautifully stained. I have said so much on this subject, because I think that Shakspere's old hostelry at Oxford deserves no less respect than Chaucer's Tabarde in Southwark. T. WARTON.

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was besides a kinsman and descendant of the family, who was then a celebrated actor among them (Charles Hart. See Shakspere's Will), this opportunity made them greedily inquisitive into every little circumstance, more especially in his dramatick character, which his brother could relate of him. But he, it seems, was so stricken in years, and, possibly, his memory so 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 inquiries; and all that could be recollected from him of his brother Will, in that station, was the faint, general, and almost lost ideas he had of having once seen him act a part in one of his own comedies, wherein being to personate a decrepid old man, hé wore a long beard, and appeared so weak and drooping, and unable to walk, that he was forced to be supported and carried by another person to a table, at which he was seated among some company who were eating, and one of them sung a song.' See the cha

racter of Adam in As You Like It. Act II. Sc. ult.

"Verses by Ben Jonson and Shakspere, occasioned by the motto to the Globe-Theatre. Totus mundus

agit histrionem.

Jonson.

If, but stage-actors, all the world displays,
Where shall we find spectators of their plays?

Shakspere.

Shakspere.

Little or much, of what we see, we do;
We're all both actors and spectators too.

Poetical Characteristicks, 8vo. MS. vol. I. some time in the Harleian Library; which volume was returned to its owner."

"Old Mr. Bowman the player reported from Sir William Bishop, that some part of Sir John Falstaff's character was drawn from a townsman of Stratford, who either faithlessly broke a contract, or spitefully refused to part with some land, for a valuable consideration, adjoining to Shakspere's, in or near that town."

To these anecdotes I can only add the following: At the conclusion of the advertisement prefixed to Lintot's edition of Shaks pere's poems, it is said, "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. Shakspere; which letter, though now lost, remained long in the hands of Sir William Davenant, as a credible person now living can testify.”

Mr. Oldys, in a MS. note to his copy of Fuller's Worthies, observes, that "the story came from the Ttij

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