But the sharpness of the fatire is faid to have flung the man fo feverely, that he never forgave it. He died in the 53d year of his age*, and was buried on the north fide of the chancel, in the great church at Stratford, where a monument, as engraved in the plate, is placed in the wall. On his grave-ftone underneath is, Good friend, for Jesus' fake forbear Bleft be the man that spares these ftones, He had three daughters, of which two lived to be married; Judith, the elder, to one Mr. Thomas Quiney, by whom fhe had three fons, who all died without children; and Sufannah, who was his favourite, to Dr. John Hall, a physi cian of good reputation in that country. She left one child only, a daughter, who was married first to Thomas Nash, efq. and afterwards to Sir John Bernard of Abbington, but died likewife without iffue. This is what I could learn of any note, either relating to himself or family: the character of the man is best seen in his writings. But fince Ben Jonfon has made a fort of an effay towards it in his Difcoveries, I will give it in his words: "I remember the players have often mentioned it as an "honour to Shakespeare, that in writing (whatsoever he penned) he never blotted out a line. My anfwer hath "been, Would he had blotted a thoufand! which they thought "a malevolent fpeech. I had not told pofterity this, but "for their ignorance, who chofe that circumftance to com"mend their friend by, wherein he moft faulted: and to juftify mine own candour, for I loved the man, and do "honour his memory, on this fide idolatry, as much as any. He was, indeed, honeft, and of an open and free nature, had an excellent fancy, brave notions, and gen"tle expreffions; wherein he flowed with that facility, that "fometimes it was neceffary he should be stopped: Suffla“minandus erat, as Augustus said of Haterius. His wit was "in his own power, would the rule of it had been so too. Many times he fell into those things which could not ef He died on his birth-day, April 23, 1616, and had exactly compleated his fifty-fecond year. [M 3] MALONE. cape cape laughter; as when he faid in the perfon of Caefar, "one fpeaking to him, "Cæfar thou doft me wrong. "He replied: "Cafar did never wrong, but with just caufe. "And fuch like, which were ridiculous. But he redeemed "his vices with his virtues: there was ever more in him to "be praised than to be pardoned." As for the paffage which he mentions out of Shakespeare, there is fomewhat like it in Julius Cæfar, but without the abfurdity; nor did I ever meet with it in any edition that I have feen, as quoted by Mr. Jonfon. Befides his plays in this edition, there are two or three afcribed to him by Mr. Langbain, which I have never seen, and know nothing of, He writ likewife Venus and Adonis, and Tarquin and Lucrece, in ftanzas, which have been printed in a late collection of poems. As to the character given of him by Ben Jonson, there is a good deal in it: but I believe it may be as well expreffed by what Horace fays of the firft Romans, who wrote tragedy upon the Greek models (or indeed tranflated them) in his epistle to Auguftus. Natura fublimis & acer, Nam fpirat tragicum fatis & feliciter audet, As I have not propofed to myself to enter into a large and complete collection upon Shakespeare's works, fo I will only take the liberty, with all due fubmiflion to the judgment of others, to obferve fome of thofe things I have been pleafed 'with in looking him over. Ilis plays are properly to be diftinguished only into comedies and tragedies. Thofe which are called hiftories, and even fome of his comedies, are really tragedies, with a run or mixture of comedy amongst them. That way of tragicomedy was the common mistake of that age, and is indeed become fo agreeable to the English tafte, that though the feverer criticks among us cannot bear it, yet the generality. of our audiences feem to be better pleafed with it than with an exact tragedy. The Merry Wives of Windfor, The Comey of Errors, and The Taming of the Shrew, are all pure co medy; medy; the reft, however they are called, have fomething of both kinds. It is not very easy to determine which way of writing he was moft excellent in. There is certainly a great deal of entertainment in his comical humours; and though they did not then ftrike at all ranks of people, as the fatire of the prefent age has taken the liberty to do, yet there is a pleafing and a well-diftinguifhed variety in thofe characters which he thought fit to meddle with. Falftaff is allowed by every body to be a mafter-piece; the character is always well fuftained, though drawn out into the length of three plays; and even the account of his death, given by his old landlady Mrs. Quickly, in the firft act of Henry the Fifth, though it be extremely natural, is yet as diverting as any part of his life. If there be any fault in the draught he has made of this lewd old fellow, it is, that though he has made him a thief, lying, cowardly, vain-glorious, and in fhort every way vicious, yet he has given him fo much wit as to make him almoft too agreeable; and I do not know whether fome people have not, in remembrance of the diverfion he had formerly afforded them, been forry to fee his friend Hal ufe him fo fcurvily, when he comes to the crown in the end of The Second Part of Henry the Fourth. Amongst other extravagancies, in The Merry Wives of IVindfor he has made him a deer-stealer, that he might at the fame time remember his Warwickshire profecutor, under the name of Justice Shallow; he has given him very near the fame coat of arms which Dugdale, in his Antiquities of that county, defcribes for a family there, and makes the Welsh parfon defcant very pleafantly upon them. That whole play is admirable; the humours are various and well oppofed; the main defign, which is to cure Ford of his unreasonable jealoufy, is extremely well conducted. In Twelfth Night there is fomething fingularly ridiculous and pleafant in the fantastical fteward Malvolio. The parafite and the vain-glorious in Parolles, in All's Well that Ends Well, is as good as any thing of that kind in Plautus or Terence. Petruchio, in The Taming of the Shrew, is an uncommon piece of humour. The converfation of Benedict and Beatrice, in Much Ado about Nothing, and of Rofalind in As you like it, have much wit and fprightlinefs all along. His clowns, without which character there was hardly any play writ in that time, are all very entertaining: and, I believe, Therfites in Troilus and Creffida, and Apemantus in Timon, will be allowed to be mafter-pieces of ill-nature, and fatirical fnarling. To thefe [M 4] I might I might add, that incomparable character of Shylock the Jew, in The Merchant of Venice; but though we have feen that play received and acted as a comedy, and the part of the Jew performed by an excellent comedian, yet I cannot but think it was defigned tragically by the author. There appears in it a deadly fpirit of revenge, fuch a favage fiercenefs and fellnefs, and fuch a bloody defignation of cruelty and mifchief, as cannot agree either with the ftile or characters of comedy. The play itself, take it altogether, feems to me to be one of the most finished of any of Shakefpeare's. The tale indeed, in that part relating to the caskets, and the extravagant and unusual kind of bond given by Antonio, is too much removed from the rules of probability; but taking the fact for granted, we must allow it to be very beautifully written. There is fomething in the friendship of Antonio to Baffanio very great, generous, and tender. The whole fourth act (fuppofing, as I faid, the fact to be probable) is extremely fine. But there are two paffages that deferve a particular notice. The firft is, what Portia fays in praife of mercy, and the other on the power of mufick. The melancholy of Jaques, in As you like it, is as fingular and odd as it is diverting. And if, what Horace fays, Difficile eft proprie communia dicere, it will be a hard tafk for any one to go beyond him in the defcription of the feveral degrees and ages of man's life, though the thought be old, and common enough. All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; Ev'n in the cannon's mouth. And then the juftice In fair round belly, with good capon linʼd, His images are indeed every where fo lively, that the thing he would reprefent ftands full before you, and you poffefs every part of it. I will venture to point out one more, which is, I think, as ftrong and as uncommon as any thing lever faw; it is an image of patience. Speaking of a maid in love, he fays, What an image is here given! and what a task would it have been for the greatest mafters of Greece and Rome to have expreffed the paffions defigned by this sketch of ftatuary! The ftile of his comedy is, in general, natural to the characters, and eafy in itself; and the wit moft commonly fprightly and pleafing, except in those places where he runs into doggerel rhimes, as in The Comedy of Errors, and some other plays. As for his jingling fometimes, and playing upon words, it was the common vice of the age he lived in: and if we find it in the pulpit, made ufe of as an ornament to the fermons of fome of the graveft divines of those times; perhaps it may not be thought too light for the stage. But certainly the greatnefs of this author's genius does no where fo much appear, as where he gives his imagination an entire loofe, and raifes his fancy to a flight above mankind, and the limits of the vifible world. Such are his at tempts |