families:) Good part of which estate is yet in the poffeffion of Edward Clopton, Efq; and Sir Hugh Clopton, Knt. lineally defcended from the elder brother of the first Sir Hugh: Who particularly bequeathed to his nephew, by his will, his house, by the name of his Great-house in Stratford. The eftate had now been fold out of the Clopton family for above a century, at the time when Shakespeare became the purchaser: who, having repaired and modelled it to his own mind, changed the name to New-place; which the manfion-house, fince erected upon the fame spot, at this day retains. The house and lands, which attended it, continued in Shakespeare's descendants to the time of the Restoration: when they were repurchased by the Clopton family, and the mansion now belongs to Sir Hugh Clopton, Knt. To the favour of this worthy gentleman I owe the knowledge of one particular, in honour of our poet's once dwelling-house, of which, I prefume, Mr. Rowe never was apprized. When the civil war raged in England, and King Charles the First's Queen was driven by the neceffity of affairs to make a recefs in Warwickshire, the kept her Court for three Weeks in New-place. We may reasonably suppose it then the best private house in the town; and her Majesty preferred it to the College, which was in the poffeffion of the Combe-Family, who did not so strongly favour the King's party. VOL. I. How How much our author employed himself in poetry, after his retirement from the stage, does not fo evidently appear: Very few pofthumous fketches of his pen have been recovered 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 manuscrips, in the hands of an ignorant baker of Warwick, (who married one of the defcendants from our Shakespeare) were carelessly scattered and thrown about, as garret-lumber, and litter, to the particular knowledge of the late Sir William Bishop, till they were all confumed in the general fire and deftruction of that Town. I cannot help being a little apt to distrust the authority of this tradition; because as his wife furvived him feven years, and as his favourite daughter Sufanna furvived her twenty-fix years, 'tis very improbable, they should fuffer fuch a treasure to be removed, and translated into a remoter branch of the family, without a scrutiny first made into the value of it. This, I fay, inclines me to diftruft the authority of the relation: but, notwithstanding fuch an apparent improbability, if we really loft fuch a treasure, by whatever fatality or caprice of fortune they came into fuch ignorant and neglectful hands, I agree with the Relater, the misfortune is wholly irreparable. f To these particulars, which regard his person and private life, fome few more are to be gleaned from from Mr. RowE's account of his Life and Writings: Let us now take a short view of him in his publick capacity, as a Writer: and, from thence, the tranfition will be eafy to the State in which his Writings have been handed down to us. No age, perhaps, can produce an author more various from himself, than Shakespeare has been univerfally acknowledged to be. The diversity in ftile, and other parts of compofition, fo obvious in him, is as variously to be accounted for. His education, we find, was at best but begun and he ftarted early into a fcience from the force of genius, unequally affifted by acquir'd improvements. His fire, spirit, and exuberance of imagination gave an impetuofity to his pen: His ideas flowed from him in a ftream rapid, but not turbulent; copious, but not ever overbearing its shores. The ease and sweetness of his temper might not a little contribute to his facility in writing: as his employment, as a Player, gave him an advantage and habit of fancying himself the very character he meant to delineate. He used the helps of his function in forming himself to create and express that Sublime, which other actors can only copy, and throw out, in action and graceful attitude. But nullum fine veniâ placuit ingenium, says Seneca. The genius, that gives us the greatest pleasure, fometimes ftands in need of our indulgence. Whenever this happens with regard to Shakespeare, I would willingly impute it to a vice of his times. We fee complaifance enough, in our own days, paid to a bad tafte. His clinches, falfe wit, and defcending beneath himself, feem to be a deference paid to reigning barbarism. He was a Sampfon in ftrength, but he suffer'd fome fuch Dalilab to give him up to the Philistines. As I have mention'd the sweetness of his difpofition, I am tempted to make a reflection or two on a fentiment of his, which, I am perfuaded, came from the heart. L The man, that hath no mufic in himself, Shakespeare was all openness,candour, and complacence; and had such a share of harmony in his frame and temperature, that we have no reason to doubt from a number of fine passages, allusions, fimilies, &c. fetched from mufick, but that he was a paffionate lover of it. And to this, perhaps, we may owe that great number of fonnets, which are fprinkled thro' his plays. I have found, that the ftanzas fung by the Grave-digger in Hamlet, are not of Shakespeare's own compofition, but owe their original to the old Earl of Surrey's poems. Many other of his occafional little fongs, I doubt not, but he purposely copied from his contemporary writers; fometimes, out of banter; fometimes, to do them honour. The manner of their introduction, and the ufes to which he has affigned them, will easily determine for which of the reasons they are respectively employed. In As you like it, there are feveral little copies of verfes on Rofalind, which are faid to be the right Butterwoman's rank to market, and the very false gallop of verses. Dr. Thomas Lodge, a physician who flourished early in Queen Elizabeth's reign, and was a great Writer of the Paftoral Songs and Madrigals, which were fo much the ftrain of those times, compofed a whole volume of poems in praise of his mistress, whom he calls Rofalinde. I never yet could meet with this collection; but whenever I do, I am perfuaded, I fhall find many of our Author's Canzonets on this fubject to be fcraps of the Doctor's amorous Muse: as, perhaps, those by Biron too, and the other lovers in Love's Labour's loft, may prove to be. It has been remarked in the courfe of my notes, that musick in our author's time had a very different ufe from what it has now. At this time, it is only employed to raise and inflame the pasfions; it, then, was applied to calm and allay all kinds of perturbations. And, agreeable to this observation, throughout all Shakespeare's plays, where mufick is either actually used, or its powers. described, it is chiefly faid to be for thefe ends. His Twelfth Night, particularly, begins with a fine reflection that admirablymarks its foothingproperties.. That strain again;-It had a dying fall. Oh, it came o'er ny ear like the fweet south, |