The fable of As you like it, which is fuppofed to be copied from Chaucer's Gamelyn, was a little pamphlet of thofe times; and old Mr. Cibber remembered the tale of Hamlet in plain English profe, which the criticks have now to feek in Saxo Grammaticus.

His English hiftories he took from English chronicles and English ballads; and as the ancient writers were made known to his countrymen by verfions, they fupplied him with new fubjects; he dilated fome of Plutarch's lives into plays, when they had been tranflated by North.

His plots, whether hiftorical or fabulous, are always crouded with incidents, by which the attention of a rude people was more eafily caught than by fentiment or argumentation; and fuch is the power of the marvellous even over thofe who defpife it, that every man finds his mind more frongly feized by the tragedies of Shakespeare than of any other writer; others pleafe us by particular fpeeches, but he always makes us anxious for the event, and has perhaps excelled all but Homer in fecuring the first purpofe of a writer, by exciting reftless and unquenchable curiofity, and compelling him that reads his work to read it through.

The fhows and bustle with which his plays abound have the fame original. As knowledge advances, pleasure paffes from the eye to the car, but returns, as it declines, from the ear to the eye. Thofe to whom our authour's labours were exhibited had more fkill in pomps or proceffions than in poetical language,

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and perhaps wanted fome vifible and difcriminated events, as comments on the dialogue. He knew how he fhould moft pleafe; and whether his practice is: more agreeable to nature, or whether his example has prejudiced the nation, we ftill find that on our ftage fomething must be done as well as faid, and inactive declamation is very coldly heard, however musical or elegant, paffionate or fublime:

Voltaire expreffes his wonder, that our authour's extravagancies are endured by a nation, which has feen the tragedy of Cato. Let him be answered, that Addison speaks the language of poets, and ShakeSpeare, of men. We find in Cato innumerable beauties which enamour us of its authour, but we fee nothing that acquaints us with human fentiments or human actions; we place it with the faireft and the noblest progeny which judgment propagates by conjunction with learning, but Othello is the vigorous and vivacious offspring of obfervation impregnated by genius. Cato affords a fplendid exhibition of artificial and fictitious manners, and delivers just and noble fentiments, in diction eafy, elevated and harmonious, but its hopes and fears communicate no vibration to the heart; the compofition refers us only to the writer; we pronounce the name of Cato, but we think on Addifon.

The work of a correct and regular writer is a garden accurately formed and diligently planted, varied with fhades, and fcented with flowers; the compofition of Shakespeare is a foreft, in which oaks extend their

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their branches, and pines tower in the air, interfperfed fometimes with weeds and brambles, and fometimes giving shelter to myrtles and to rofes; filling the eye with awful pomp, and gratifying the mind with endless diverfity. Other poets difplay cabinets of precious rarities, minutely finished, wrought into fhape, and polished unto brightness. Shakespeare opens a mine which contains gold and diamonds in unexhaustible plenty, though clouded by incruftations, debafed by impurities, and mingled with a mass. of meaner minerals.

It has been much difputed, whether Shakespeare owed his excellence to his own native force, or whether he had the common helps of scholastick education, the precepts of critical science, and the examples of ancient authours.

There has always prevailed a tradition, that ShakeSpeare wanted learning, that he had no regular education, nor much fkill in the dead languages. Johnfon, his friend, affirms, that he had small Latin, and no Greek; who, befides that he had no imaginable temptation to falfehood, wrote at a time when the character and acquifitions of Shakespeare were known to multitudes. His evidence ought therefore to decide the controversy, unless fome teftimony of equal force could be opposed.

Some have imagined, that they have discovered. deep learning in many imitations of old writers; but the examples which I have known urged, were drawn from books tranflated in his time; or were

fuch

fuch eafy coincidencies of thought, as will happen to all who confider the fame fubjects; or fuch remarks on life or axioms of morality as float in converfation, and are tranfmitted through the world in proverbial fentences.

I have found it remarked, that, in this important fentence, Go before, I'll follow, we read a tranflation of, I prae, fequar. I have been told, that when Ca liban, after a pleafing dream, fays, I cry'd to fleep again, the authour imitates Anacreon, who had, like every other man, the fame with on the fame occafion.

There are a few paffages which may pass for imitations, but fo few, that the exception only confirms the rule; he obtained them from accidental quotations, or by oral communication, and as he ufed what he had, would have ufed more if he had obtained it.

The Comedy of Errors is confeffedly taken from the Menæchmi of Plautus; from the only play of Plautus which was then in English. What can be more probable, than that he who copied that, would have copied more; but that thofe which were not tranflated were inacceffible?

Whether he knew the modern languages is uncertain. That his plays have fome French scenes proves but little; he might eafily procure them to be written; and probably, even though he had known the language in the common degree, he could not have written it without affiftance. In the ftory of Romeo and Juliet he is obferved to have followed the Ergli tranflation, where it deviates from the Ita

lian; but this on the other part proves nothing against his knowledge of the original. He was to copy, not what he knew himself, but what was known to his audience.

It is most likely that he had learned Latin fufficiently to make him acquainted with conftruction, but that he never advanced to any eafy perufal of the Roman authours. Concerning his skill in modern languages, I can find no fufficient ground of determination; but as ro imitation of French or Italian authours have been difcovered, though the Italian poetry was then high in efteem, I am inclined to believe, that he read little more than English, and chofe for his fables only fuch tales as he found tranflated.

That much knowledge is fcattered over his works is very justly obferved by Pope, but it is often fuch knowledge as books did not fupply. He that will underftand Shakespeare, muft not be content to ftudy him in the clofet, he muft look for his meaning fometimes among the fports of the field, and fometimes among the manufactures of the fhop.

There is however proof enough that he was a very diligent reader, nor was our language then fo indigent of books, but that he might very liberally in,dulge his curiofity without excurfion into foreign literature: Many of the Roman authours were tranflated, and fome of the Greek; the reformation had filled the kingdom with theological learning; moft of the topicks of human difquifition had found Engif writers; and poetry had been cultivated, not only