his Life of Dr. Bathurst, with fome hearsay 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 queftion, will be in no pain about their credit. "William Shakespeare's father was a butcher,-while he was a boy he exercifed his father's trade, but when he killed a calf, he would do it in a high ftyle, and make a speech. This William being inclined naturally to poetry and acting, came to London, I gucfs, 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 fifter: He underfood Latin pretty well, FOR he had been in his younger years a fchoolmafier 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 most 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 aclor; 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 stroke at it. Dr. Lodge, who was for ever peftering the town with pamphlets, publifhed in the year 196, Wits Miferie, and the Worlds * This place is not met with in Spelman's Villare, or in Adam's Index; nor in the firft and the lafi 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 so often been ascribed 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 seven years afterward ‡.—Nash in his epistle 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 cap tain, and Tucca." Tucca. "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!" 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 ufual dress of the stage ghofts of that time. A filthie whining ghoft "Lapt in fome foule fheet, or a leather pilch, The leathern pilch, I fuppofe, was a theatrical substitute for armour. MALONE. Thefe people, who were the Curls of the laft age, afcribe likewife to our author thofe miferable performances, Macedorus, and the Merry Devil of Edmonton. Mr. Pope afferts "The troublefome 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 the gentlemen ftudents of both universities, prefixed to Greene's Arcadia, 4to. black letter, recommends his friend, Peele," as the chiefe fupporter of pleafance now living, the Atlas of poetrie, and primus verborum artifex: whofe first increafe, the Arraignment of Paris, might plead to their opinions his pregnant dexteritie of wit and manifold varietie of inuention *.' In the next place, unfortunately, there is neither fuch a character as a Constable in the Midsummer Night's Dream: nor was the three hundred pounds legacy to a fifter, but a daughter. And to close the whole, it is not pbffible, according to Aubrey himself, that Shakespeare could have been fome years a fchoolmaster in the country: on which circumstance only the fuppofition of his learning is profeffedly founded. He was not furely very young, when he was employed to kill calves, and he commenced player about eighteen! - The *Peele feems to have been taken into the patronage of the Earl of Northumberland about 1593, to whom he dedicates in that year, "The Honour of the Garter, a poem gratulatorie-the Firfling confecrated to his noble name. "He was efteemed,* fays Anthony Wood, a most noted poet, 1579; but when or where he died, I cannot tell, for fo it is, and always hath been, that moft POETS die poor, and confequently obfcurely, and a hard matter it is to trace them to their graves. Claruit 1599." Ath. Oxon. vol. I. p. 300. We had lately in a periodical pamphlet, called, The Theatrical Review, a very curious letter under the name of George Peele, to one Master Henrie Marle; relative to a difpute between Shakespeare and Alleyn, which was compromifed by Ben Jonfon.→→→→ "I never longed for thy companye more than last night; we were all verie merrie at the Globe, when Ned Alleyn did not fcruple to affyrme pleafauntly to thy friende Will, that he had ftolen hys fpeeche about the excellencie of acting in Hamlet hys tragedye, from converfaytions manifold, whych had paffed between them, and opinions gyven by Alleyn touchyng that. fubjecte. Shakespeare did not take this talk in good forte; but Jonfon did put an end to the ftryfe wyth wittelie faying, thys affaire necdeth no contentione: you stole it from Ned no doubte: do not marvel: haue you not feene hym acte tymes out of number?"—This is pretended to be printed from the original MS. dated 1600; which agrees well enough with Wood's Claruit: but unluckily, Podle was dead at least two years before. "As Anacreon died by the pot, fays Meres, fo George Peele by the pox." Wit's Treasury, 1598. p. 286. VOL. I. [0] truth truth is, that he left his father, for a wife, a year fooner and had at least two children born at Stratford before he retired from thence to London. It is therefore fufficiently clear, that poor Anthony had too much reafon for his character of Aubrey: we find it in his own account of his life, published by Hearne, which I would earnestly recommend to any hypochondriack: "A pretender to antiquities, roving, magotie-headed, and fometimes little better than crafed: and being exceedingly credulous, would ftuff his many letters fent to A. W. with folliries and mifinformations." p. 577. FARMER. The late Mr. Thomas Ofborne, bookfeller, (whofe exploits are celebrated by the author of the Dunciad) being ignorant in what form or language our Paradife Loft was written, employed one of his garreteers to render it from a French tranflation into Englifh profe. Left, hereafter, the compofitions of Shakespeare fhould be brought back into their native tongue from the version of Monfieur le Comte de Catuelan, le Tourneur, &c. it may be neceffary to observe, that all the following particulars, extracted from the preface of thefe gentlemen, are as little founded in truth as their defcription of the Jubilee at Stratford, which they have been taught to reprefent as an affair of general approbation and national concern. They fay, that Shakespeare came to London without a plan, and finding himself at the door of a theatre, inftinctively stopped there, and offered himself to be a holder of horfes: that he was remarkable for his excellent performance of the Ghaft in Hamlet:-that he borrowed nothing from preceding writers:-that all on a fudden he left the ftage, and returned without eclat into his native county:that his monument at Stratford is of copper:-that the cour tiers of James I. paid feveral compliments to him which are ftill preferved:-that he relieved a widow, who, together with her numerous family, was involved in a ruinous lawfait: that his editors have restored many paffages in his plays, by the affistance of the manufcripts he left behind him, &c. &c. Let me not however forget the juftice due to thefe ingenious Frenchmen, whofe ikill and fidelity in the execution of their very difficult undertaking, is only exceeded by fuch a difplay of candour as would ferve to cover the imperfections of much lefs elegant and judicious writers. STEEVENS.. * Baptifms, Marriages, and Burials of the Shakfpeare family; tranfcribed from the Register-book of the Parish of Stratford upon Avon, Warwickfhire. +JONE, daughter of John Shakspere, was baptized Sept. 15, 1558. Margaret, daughter of John Shakspere, was buried April 30, 1563. ‡ WILLIAM, fon of John Shakspere, was baptized April 26, 1564. Gilbert, fon of John Shakfpere, was baptized Oct. 13, 1566. § Jone, daughter of John Shakfpere, was baptized April 15, 1569. Anne, daughter of Mr. John Shakspere, was baptized Sept. 28, 1571. Richard, fon of Mr. John Shakspere, was baptized March II, 1573. Anne, daughter of Mr. John Shakspere, was buried April 4, 1579. Edmund, fon of Mr. John Shakspere, was baptized May 3, 1580. Elizabeth, daughter of Anthony Shakspere, of Hampton, was baptized Feb. 10, 1583. Sufanna, daughter of WILLIAM SHAKSPERE, was baptized May 26, 1583. Samuel and Judith, fon and daughter of WILLIAM SHAKSPERE, were baptized Feb. 2, 1584. John Shakspere and Margery Roberts were married Nov. 25, 1584. Margery, wife of John Shakspere, was buried Oct. 29, 1587. Urfula, daughter of John Shakfpere, was baptized March 11, 1588. Thomas Greene, alias Shakfpere, was buried March 6, 1589. Humphrey, fon of John Shakfpere, was baptized May 24, 1590. * With this extract from the register of Stratford, I was favour ed by the Hon. James Weft, efq. STEEVENS. She married the ancestor of the Harts of Stratford. $ This feems to be a grand-daughter of the first John. |