him very near the fame Coat of Arms, which Dugdale, in his Antiquities of that County, defcribes for a Family there. There are two Coats, I obferve, in Dugdale, where three Silver Fishes are borne in the Name of Lucy; and another Coat, to the Monument of Thomas Lucy, Son of Sir William Lucy, in which are quarter'd in four feveral Divifions, twelve little Fishes, three in each Divifion, probably Luces. This very Coat, indeed, seems alluded to in Shallow's giving the dozen White Luces. And in Slender saying he may quarter. When I confider the exceeding Candour and Good-nature of our Author, (which inclin'd all the gentler Part of the World to love him; as the Power of his Wit obliged the Men of the most delicate Knowledge and Polite Learning to admire him ;) and that he should throw this humorous Piece of Satire at his Profecutor, at least twenty Years after the Provocation given; I am confidently perfuaded it must be owing to an unforgiving Rancour on the Profecutor's Side and if This was the Cafe, it were Pity but the Difgrace of fuch an Inveteracy should remain as a lafting Reproach, and Shallow ftand as a Mark of Ridicule to ftigmatize his Malice. It is faid, our Author spent fome Years before his Death, in Eafe, Retirement, and the Converfation of his Friends, at his Native Stratford. I could never pick up any certain Intelligence, when He relinquish'd the Stage. I know, it has been mistakenly thought by fome, that Spenfer's Thalia, in his Tears of his Mufes, where he laments the Lofs of her Willy in the Comic Scene, has been apply'd to our Author's quitting the Stage. But Spenfer himself, 'tis well known, quitted the Stage of Life in the Year 1598; and, five Years after this, we find Shakespear's Name among the Actors in Ben Johnson's Sejanus, which first made its Appearance in the Year 163. Nor, furely, could he then have any Thoughts of retiring, fince, that very Year, a Licence under the Privy Seal f 2 was was granted by K. James I. to him and Fletcher, Burbage, Phillippes, Hemings, Condell, &c. authorizing them to exercise the Art of playing Comedies, Tragedies, &c. as well at their ufual House call'd the Globe on the other Side of the Water, as in any other Parts of the Kingdom, during his Majefty's Pleasure : (A Copy of which Licence is preferved in Rymer's Fædera.) Again, 'tis certain, that Shakespear did not exhibit his Macbeth, till after the Union was brought about, and till after King James I. had begun to touch for the Evil: for 'tis plain, he has inferted Compliments, on both thofe Accounts, upon his Royal Master in that Tragedy. Nor, indeed, could the Number of the Dramatic Pieces, he produced, admit of his retiring near so early as that Period. So that what Spenfer there fays, if it relate at all to Shakespear, must hint at fome occafional Recefs he made for a Time upon a Difguft taken: or the Wily, there mention'd, muft relate to fome other favourite Poet. I believe, we may fafely determine that he had not quitted in the Year 1610. For in his Tempeft, our Author makes mention of the Bermuda Inlands, which were unknown to the English, till in 1609, Sir John Summers made a Voyage to North-America, and difcover'd them: and afterwards invited fome of his Countrymen to fettle a Plantation there. That he became the private Gentleman, at least three Years before his Deceafe, is pretty obvious from another Circumftance: I mean, from that remarkable and well-known Story, which Mr. Rowe has given us of our Author's Intimacy with Mr. John Combe, an old Gentleman noted thereabouts for his Wealth and Ufury: and upon whom Shakespear made the following facetious Epitaph. Ten in the hundred lies bere ingrav'd, 'Tis a hundred to ten bis Soul is not fav'd; Oh! ob! quoth the Devil, 'iis my John-a-Combe. 7519 This farcaftical Piece of Wit was, at the Gentleman's own Requeft, thrown out extemporally in his Company. And this Mr. John Combe I take to be the fame, who, by Dugdale in his Antiquities of Warwickshire, is faid to have dy'd in the Year 1614, and for whom at the upper end of the Quire, of the Guild of the Holy Crois at Stratford, a fair Monument is erected, having a Statue thereon cuc in Alabaster, and in a Gown, with this Epitaph. "Here lyeth interr'd "the Body of John C mbe Efq; who dy'd the roth "of July, 1614, who bequeathed several Annual "Charities to the Parish of Stratford, and 100l. to "be lent to fifteen poor Tradefmen from three Years to three Years, changing the Parties every third "Year, at the Rate of fifty Shillings per Annum, the "Increase to be diftributed to Almes poor there The Donation has all the air of a rich and faga cious Ufurer. Shakespear himself did not furvive Mr. Combe long, for he dy'd in the Year 1616, the 53d of his Age. He lies buried on the North Side of the Chancel in the great Church at Stratford; where a Monument, decent enough for the Time, is erected to him, and plac'd againit the Wall. He is represented under an Arch in a fitting Posture, a Cushion spread before him, with a Pen in his Right Hand, and his left rested on a Scrowl of Paper. The Latin Diftich, which is placed under the Cushion, has b en given us by Mr. Pope, or his Graver, in this Manner. INGENIO Pylium, Genio Socratem, Arte, Terra tegit, Populus maret Olympus habet. I confefs, I don't conceive the Difference betwixt In enio and Genio in the firft Verfe. They feem to me intirely fynonymous Terms; nor was the Pylian Sage Neftor celebrated for his Ingenuity, but for an Ex f 3 perience perience and Judgment owing to his long Age. Dugdale, in his Antiquities of Warwickshire, has copied this Diftich with a Diftinction which Mr. Rowe has follow'd, and which certainly reftores us the true Meaning of this Epitaph. JUDICIO Pylium, Genio Socratem, &c. In 1614, the greater Part of the Town of Stratford was confumed by Fire; but our Shakespear's House, among fome others, efcap'd the Flames. This Houfe was firft built by Sir Hugh Clopton, a younger Brother of an ancient Family in that Neighbourhood, who took their Name from the Manor of Clopton. Sir Hugh was Sheriff of London in the Reign of Richard III. and Lord Mayor in the Reign of King Henry VII. To this Gentleman the Town of Stratford is indebted for the fine Stone-bridge, confifting of fourteen Arches, which at an extraordinary Expence he built over the ivon, together with a Caufe way running at the Westend thereof; as alfo for rebuilding the Chapel adjoining to his Houfe, and the Crofs-Ifle in the Church there. It is remarkable of him, that, tho' he liv'd and dy'd a Bachelor, among the other extenfive Charities which he left both to the City of London and Town of Sratford, he bequeath'd confiderable Legacies for the Marriage of poor Maidens of good Name and Fame both in London and at Stratford. Notwithftanding which large Donations in his Life, and Bequefts at his Death, as he had purchas'd the Manor of Clopton, and all the Eflate of the Family, fo he left the fame again to his elder Brother's Son with a very great Addition: (a Proof how well Beneficence and Œconomy may walk hand in hand in wife Familis:) Good Part of which Eftate is yet in the Poffeffion of Edward Clopton, Efq; and Sir Hugh Clopton, Knt. lineally defcended from the elder Brother of the firit Sir Hugh: Who particularly bequeath'd to his Nephew, Nephew, by his Will, his Houfe, by the Name of bis Great-Houfe in Stratford. The Eftate had now been fold out of the Clopton Family for above a Century, at the Time when ShakeSpear became the Purchafer: who, having repair'd and modell'd it to his own Mind, chang'd the Name to New-place; which the Manfion house, fince erected upon the fame fpot, at this Day retains. The House and Lands, which attended it, cont nued in Shakefpear's Defcendants to the Time of the Refaration : when they were repurchafed by the Clopton Family, and the Manfion now belongs to Sir Hugh Copton, Knt. To the Favour of this worthy Gentleman I owe the Knowledge of one Particular, in Honour of our Poet's once Dwelling-houfe, of which, I prefume, Mr. Rowe never was appriz'd. When the Civil War raged in England, and K. Charles the First's Queen was driven by the Neceffity of Affairs to make a Recefs in Warwickshire, fhe kept her Court for three Weeks in Newplace. We may reafonably fuppofe it then the best private Houfe in the Town; and her Majefty preferr'd it to the College, which was in the Poffeffion of the Combe Family, who did not fo firongly favour the King's Party. How much our Author employ'd himself in Poetry, after his Retirement from the Stage, does not fo evidently appear: Very few pofthumous Sketches of his Pen have been recover'd to afcertain that Point. We have been told, indeed, in Print, but not till very lately, That two large Chefts full of this Great Man's loofe Papers and Manufcripts, in the Hands of an ignorant Baker of Warwick, (who married one of the Defcendants from our Shakespear) were carelefly featter'd and thrown about, as Garret-Lumber, and Litter, to the particular Knowledge of the late Sir Williom Bibop, till they were all confumed in the general Fire and Destruction of that Town. I cannot help being a little apt to diftruft the Authority of this Tradition; becaufe £.4 |