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 A N 
 
 ESSAY 
 
 O N T H E 
 
 LEARNING of SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 I
 
 ^ A N 
 
 ESSAY 
 
 ON THE 
 
 LEARNING of SHAKESPEARE: 
 
 ADDRESSED TO 
 
 JOSEPH CRADOCK, Efqj 
 THE SECOND EDITION, 
 
 WITH 
 
 LARGE ADDITIONS. 
 
 E Y 
 
 RICHARD F A I^ M E R, B. D. 
 Fellow of Emmanuel-College, Cambridge; 
 
 A N D o F 
 
 The Society of A n t i q^u aries, London. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE: 
 Printed by J. Archdeacon, Printer to the Un i ve r s i t r. 
 For J. Wood YE R, in Caf?ibridge ; and Sold by J. Bee- 
 croft, in Pater-nofter-Row ; J. Dodsley, in Pall- 
 Mall ; T. Ca dell, in the Strand; and M. Hinges- 
 ton, near Temple Bar, London. 
 
 M.DCC.LXVll.^
 
 
 F3 
 
 •L-^ 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 TO THE 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 THE Author of the following Essay was fof- 
 licitous only for the honour of Shakefpeare : he 
 hath however, in his ozvn capacity, little reafon to 
 complain of occa/jorial Cnt'icks, or Qniicks by proftjfion. 
 The very Few, who have been plenfed to controvert 
 any part of his DoiStrine, have favoured him with 
 better manners, than arguments ; and claim his 
 thanks for a further opportunity of demonftrating 
 the futility of Theoretick reafoning againfi Matter of 
 Fa£l. It is indeed flrange, that any real Friends of 
 our immortal Poet (hould be ftill willing to force 
 him into a fituation, which is not tenable: treat him 
 as a learned Man, and what (liall excufe the moft 
 grofs violations of Hiftory, Chronology, and Geo- 
 graphy ? ^ 
 
 OJ -arf/irfK, if >)y •steio-j)? is the Motto of every 
 Pokmick : like his Brethren at the Amphitheatre^ he 
 holds it a merit to die hard; and will not fay, Enough ^ 
 though the Battle be decided. " Were it Ihewn, 
 fays fome one, that the old Bard borrowed all his 
 allufions from Engli/I) books then publiflied, our 
 F-Jfayijl might have pofiibly ellablifhed his Syftem." 
 
 — In
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 In good time! — This had fcnrccly been at- 
 tempted by Peter Burman himfelf, with the Library 
 
 of Shakefpeare before him. " Truly, as Mr. 
 
 Dogberry lays, for jnim own part, if I were as tedious as 
 a King, I could find in my heart to beftow it all on this 
 SubjecSt :" but where (hnuld I meet with a Reader ? 
 ■ — When the main Pillars are taken away, the whole 
 Building falls in courfc : Nothing hath been, or can 
 be, pointed out, which is not eafily removed ; or 
 rather, which was not virtually removed before : a 
 very little Ajialcgy will do the bufinefs. I fhall there- 
 fore have no occafion to trouble myfelf any further; 
 and may venture to call my Pamphlet, in the words 
 of a pleafant Declaimer againfl: SermcJiS on the thirtieth 
 of January^ '* an Anfwcr to every thing that (hall 
 hereafter be written on the Subjecft." 
 
 But " this method of reafoning will prove any one 
 Ignorant of the Languages, who hath written when 
 
 Tranllations were extant." Shade of Burgerfdi- 
 
 cius ! — does it follow, becaufe Shakefpeare' 5 early life 
 was incompatible with a courfe of Education — whofe 
 Contemporaries, Friends and Foes, nay, and himfelf 
 likewife, agree in his want of what is ufually called 
 Literature — whofe milliakes from equivocal Tranlla- 
 tions, and even typographical Errors, cannot polUbly 
 be accounted for oiherwife, — that Locke^ .to whom 
 not one of thefe circumflances is applicable, under- 
 ftood no Greek f — I fufpc6t, Rollins Opinion of our 
 Philofopher was not founded on this argument. 
 
 Shakefpeare wanted not the Stilts of Languages to 
 raife him above all other men. The quotation from 
 Lilly in the Taming of the Shrew, if indeed it be his, 
 ftrongly proves the extent of his reading : had he 
 known Terence, he would not have quoted erroneoufly 
 
 from
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 from his Grammar. Every one liath met with men 
 in common life, who, according to the language of 
 the Water-poet^ " got only from PoJJ'im to Pojfet^^ 
 2nd yet will throw out a line occafionally from their 
 Jccidence or their Cato de Morihm with tolerable pro- 
 priety. If, however, the old Editions be trufted 
 
 in this paflage, our Author's memory fomewhat fail- 
 ed him in point of Concord. 
 
 The rage of Parallclifms is almofl: over, and in 
 truth nothing can be more abfurd. " This was 
 ftolen from one Claffick, — That from another ;" — 
 and had I not ftept in to his refcue, ^oov Shakcfpcare 
 had been ftript as naked of ornament, as when he 
 firft held Horfes at the door of the Playhoufe. 
 
 The late ingenious and modeft Mr. Dodjlcy de- 
 clared himfelf 
 
 *' Untutor'd in the lore of Greece or Rome .•" 
 Yet let us take a paflage at a venture from any of his 
 performances, and a thoufand to one, it is ftolen. 
 Suppofe it be his celebrated Compliment to the 
 Ladies, in one of his earliefl: pieces. The Toy-jhop : 
 " A good Wife makes the cares of the World (it 
 eafy, and adds a fwcetnefs to its pieafures ; (lie is a 
 Man's beft Companion in Profperity, and his only 
 Friend in Adverfity; the carefulleft preferver of his 
 Health, and the kindert Attendant in his Sicknefs ; 
 a faithful Advifer in Diftrefs, a Comforter in Afflic- 
 tion, and a prudent Manager in all his domeftic Af- 
 fairs." — Plainly, from a fragment of Euripides pre- 
 ferved by Stobaus. 
 
 " Fuvii yy.^ h >ix-/.o7<Ti xj vctrotg ttco-sj 
 rldirov Eft, duj[X!x.T nv otjcv) xxXuig, 
 
 '^Myviv jiAt^tf-<x(r* ! " Par. 4to. 1623. 
 
 A'lahoIiQ
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Makolio in the TivcJftb-Night of Shahfpeare hath 
 foine expreiTions very fimilar to Alnafchar in the Ara- 
 bian Tales : which perhaps may be fufficient ior fame 
 Criticks to prove his acquaintance with Arabic! 
 
 It feems however, at laft, tliat " Tajle ibould de- 
 termine the matter." This, as Bardolph exprefles it, 
 is a word of exceeding good c:mmand : but I am wilhng, 
 that tlie Standard itfelf be fomewhat better afcertain- 
 ed before it be oppofed to demonrtrative Evidence. 
 
 Upon the whole, I may confider myfelf, as the 
 
 Pioneer of the Conmuntators : I have removed a deal 
 of learned Rubb'Jh^ and pointed out to them Shake- 
 fpeare's track in the ever-plcafing Paihs of Nature. 
 This was neceflarily a previous Inquiry ; and I hope 
 I may affume with feme confidence, what one of 
 the firll Criticks of the Age was pleafed to declare 
 on reading the former Edition, that " The Queftion 
 is now for ever decided." 
 
 ^*^ I may juft remark, left they be miftaken for 
 Errata, that the word Catherine in the 4-th page is writ- 
 ten, according to the old Orthography, for Catharine ; 
 and that the paflage in the 5 ill page is copied from Up- 
 ton, who improperly calls HoKatio and Marcellus in Ham- 
 let, " the Cent'mehy 
 
 In p. 23. 1, 23. for had probably read might have &c. 
 
 In p. 2. 1. II. for EfTay cf, read en Sbake/peare, 
 
 In p 77. 1.26, 3her ncntJcrjon, add, cr Henry/on, according to other 
 Auihorities. 
 
 In p. 52. at the bottom, read, Tullius cf olde agt, printed with the 
 hoke cfFrendJh'ipe, by -Yohn Tituft, Earl of Worcefter. I believe the 
 former was tranflattd by ii'yllyam Wyrcejire, alias Bstaner. 
 
 In p. S4. 1,28, iotj'uficior, read Jujficieii.
 
 A N 
 
 ESSAY 
 
 ON THE 
 
 LEARNING of SHAKESPEARE: 
 
 ADDRESSED TO 
 
 JOSEPH C R A D O C K, Efqj 
 
 " QHakespeare, fays a Brother of the Crafty a 
 *^ is a vaft garden of criticifm:" and certainly 
 no one can be favoured with more weeders gratis. 
 
 But how often, my dear Sir, are weeds and 
 flowers torn up indifcriminately^? — the ravaged fpot 
 is re-planted in a moment, and a profufion of cri- 
 tical thorns thrown over it for fecurity. 
 
 ** A prudent man therefore would not venture 
 his fingers amongft them." 
 
 a Mr. Sexvard in his Preface to Beaumont and Fletcher^ 
 10 Vol. 8vo. 1750. 
 
 A Be
 
 2 AnESSAYonthe 
 
 Be however in little pain for your friend, who re- 
 gards himfelf fufficiently to be cautious : — yet he af- 
 ferts with confidence, that no improvement can be 
 expeded, whilft the natural foil is miftaken for a 
 hot-bed, and the Natives of the banks of Jvon are 
 fcientifically choked with the culture of exoticks. 
 
 Thus much for metaphor ; it is contrary to the 
 Statute to fly out fo early : but who can tell, whe- 
 ther it may not be demonftrated by fome critick or 
 other, that a deviation from rule is peculiarly happy 
 in an Eflay of ShahJ'peare ! 
 
 You have long known my opinion concerning 
 the literary acquifitions of our immortal Dramatift j 
 and remember how I congratulated myfelf on my 
 coincidence with the laft and beft of his Editors. I 
 told you however, that his fmall Latin and kfs 
 Greek^ would ftill be litigated, and you fee very aflli- 
 rcdly that I was not miftaken. The trumpet hath 
 been founded againft " the darling projecfl of repre- 
 fenting Shakefpeare as one of the illiterate vulgar ;** 
 and indeed to fo good purpofe, that I would by all 
 means recommend the performer to the army of 
 
 b This paflage o^ Ben. Jcyifon, fo often quoted, is giv- 
 en us in the admirable preface to the late Edition, with 
 a various reading, *' fraall Latin and no Greek," which 
 hath been held up to the Publick for a modern fophiili- 
 cation : yet whether an error or not, it was adopted a- 
 bove a Century ago by W. Tovoers in a Panegyrick on 
 Cart'wngl.'t . His Eulogy, with more than fifty others, oa 
 this now forgotten Poet, was prefixed to the Edit. 1651. 
 
 the
 
 Learning of Shakespeare. 3 
 
 the braying Fa6lion^ recorded by Cervantes. The 
 teftimony of his contemporaries is again difputed ; 
 conftant tradition is oppofed by flimfy arguments j 
 and nothing is heard, but confufioa and nonfenfe. 
 One could fcarcely imagine this a topick very like- 
 ly to inflame the paflions : it is aflerted by Dryden^ 
 that " thofe who accufe him to have wanted learn- 
 ing, give him the greateft commendation ■" yet an 
 attack upon an article of faith hath been ufually re- 
 ceived with more temper and complacence, than the 
 unfortunate opinion, which I am about to defend. 
 
 But let us previoufly lament with every lover of 
 Shakefpeare, that the Qiieftion was not fully difcufled , 
 by Mr. Johtifon himfelf : what he fees intuitively, 
 others muft arrive at by a feries of proofs ; and I 
 have not time to teach with prccifion : be contented 
 therefore with a few curfory obfcrvations, as they 
 may happen to arife from the Chaos of Papers, you 
 have fo often laughed at, " a ftock fufficient to fet 
 up an Editor in form" I am convinced of the 
 ftrength of my caufe, and fuperior to any little ad- 
 vantage from fophiftical arrangements. 
 
 General pofitions without proofs will probably 
 have no great weight on either fide, yet it may not 
 feeni fair to fupprefs them : take them therefore as 
 their authors occur to me, and we will afterward 
 proceed to particulars. 
 
 The teftimony of Ben. ftands foremoft ; and 
 A 2 fome
 
 4 An essay on the 
 fome have held it fufficient to decide the contro- 
 verfy : in the warmeft Panegyrick, that ever was 
 written, he apologizes ^ for what he fuppofed the only 
 defedl in his " beloved friend, 
 
 Soul of the age ! 
 
 Th' applaufe ! delight ! the wonder of our ftage ! — 
 whofe memory he honoured almoft to idolatry :" 
 and confcious of the worth of ancient literature, like 
 any other man on the fame occafion, he rather carries 
 his acquirements above, than below the truth, 
 *' Jealoufy ! cries Mr. Upton; People will allow 
 others any qualities, but thofe upon which they 
 highly value themfdves" Yes, where there is a 
 competition, and the competitor formidable : but, 
 I think, this Critick himfelf hath fcarcely fet in op- 
 pofition the learning oi Shakefpeare znAJonfon. When 
 a fuperiority is univerfally granted, it by no means 
 appears a man's literary intereft to deprefs the re- 
 putation of his Antagonift. 
 
 In truth the received opinion of the pride an4 
 malignity of Jcnfoti, at leall in the earlier part of 
 life, is abfolutely groundlefs : at this time fcarce a 
 play or a poem appeared without Bens encomium, 
 from the original Shakifpeare to the tranflator of Du 
 Bart as. 
 
 But Jofjfon is by no means our only authority. 
 
 ' ♦• Though thou had& /mall Latif:, &c." 
 
 Drayton
 
 Learning of Shakespeare. 5 
 
 Drayton the countryman and acquaintance of Shake- 
 fpeare, determines his excellence to the naturall 
 Braine'^ only. Digges, a wit of the town before 
 our Poet left the ftage, is very ftrong to the pur- 
 pofe, 
 
 . ** Nature only helpt him, for looke thorow 
 
 This whole book, thou fhalt find he doth not borow 
 One phrafe from Greekes, not Latines imitate. 
 Nor once from vulgar Languages tranflate.''^ 
 
 Suckling oppofes his eafier Jlrain to the fweat of 
 learned Jonfon. Denham aflures us, that all he had 
 vvas from old Mother-wit, His native ivood-notes wildy 
 every one remembers to be celebrated by Alilton. 
 Dryden obferves prettily enough, that *' he wanted 
 not the fpedacles of books to read Nature." He 
 came out of her hand, as fome one elfe exprefles it, 
 like Pallas out of Jove's head, at full growth and 
 mature. 
 
 The ever memorable Hale soi Eton., (who, notwith- 
 ftanding his Epithet, is, I fear, almoft forgotten,) had 
 too great a knowledge both of Shakefpeare and the 
 
 ^ In his Elegie on Poets and Poefie. p. 206. Fol. 
 1627. 
 
 ^ From his Poem " upon Mafter William Shakefpeare, ^^^ 
 intended to have been prefixed, with the other of his 
 compofition, to the Folio of 1623 ; and afterward print- 
 ed in feveral mifcellaneous Collections : particularly the 
 fpurious Edition of Shakefpeare' s Poems, 1640. borne 
 jiccount of him may be met with in Wood^s Athene. 
 
 3 Ancients
 
 6 AnESSAYonthe 
 
 Ancients to allow much acquaintance between them : 
 and urged very juftly on the part of Genius in oppo- 
 fition to Pedantry, That " if he had not read the 
 Claflicks, he had likewife not Jlolsn from them ; and 
 if any Topick was produced from a Poet of antiquity 
 he would undertake to (how fomewhat on the fame 
 fubjecl, at leaft as well written by Sbakejpeare." 
 
 Fuller^ a diligent and equal fearcher after truth and 
 quibbles, declares pofitivcly, that *' his learning was 
 ■very little, — Nature was all the Art ufedupon him, 
 as he himfelfy if alive, would confefs." And may 
 we not fay, he did confefs it, when he apologized 
 for his untutored lines to his noble patron the Earl of 
 Southampton? — this lift of witnefTes might be eafily 
 enlarged ; but I flatter myfelf, I fliall rtand in no 
 need of fuch evidence. 
 
 One of the firft and moft vehement aflertors of 
 the learning of Shakefpearc, was the Editor of his 
 Poems, the well-known Mr. Gildoni^ and his fteps 
 
 ^ Hence perhaps the ill-flar'd rage between this Critick 
 and his elder Brother, John Dennis^ fo pathetically la- 
 mented in the Dunciad. Whilil the former was perfuaded, 
 that " the man who doubts of the Learning oi Shahfpeare, 
 hath none of his own:" the latter, above regarding the 
 attack in his prii'ate capacity, declares with great pa- 
 triotic vehemence, that " he who allows 5/6fl/f^/f/7;r had 
 Learning, and a familiar acquaintance with the Ancients, 
 ought to be looked upon as a detraftor from the Glory of 
 Gr:at Britain." Dennis was expelled his College for at- 
 tempting to ftab a man in the dark: P<?/^ would have 
 been glad of this anecdote, 
 
 were
 
 Learning OF Shak£spear£. i 
 
 were mod pundually taken by a fubfequent labourer 
 in the fame department, Dr. Sewel. 
 
 Mr. Pope fuppofed " little ground for the common 
 opinion of his want of learning :" once indeed he 
 made a proper diftindion between Uarnlng and lan- 
 guages^ as I would be underftood to do in my Title- 
 page ; but unfortunately he forgot it in the courfe of his 
 difquifition, and endeavoured to perfuade himfelfthat 
 Shakefpeare' s acquaintance with the Ancients might 
 be acflually proved by the fame medium as Jonfori's, 
 
 Mr. Theobald is " very unwilling to allow him io 
 poor a fcholar, as many have laboured to reprefent 
 him;" and yet is " cautious of declaring too pofi- 
 tively on the other fide the queftion." 
 
 Dr. Warburton hath expofed the weaknefs of fome 
 arguments from fnfpe^ed imitations ; and yet offers 
 others, which, I doubt not, he could as eafily have 
 refuted. 
 
 Mr. Upton wonders " with what kind of reafoning 
 any one could be fo far impofed upon, as to imagine 
 that Shakefpeare had no learning j" and lafhes with 
 much zeal and fatisfaclion " the pride and pertnefs 
 of dunces, who under fuch a name would gladly 
 (belter their own idlenefs and ignorance." 
 
 He, like the learned Knight, at every anomaly \a 
 
 grammar or metre, 
 
 *' Hath hard words ready to fhew why. 
 
 And tell what Ruk he did it by.'* 
 
 How
 
 8 An E SS AY on the 
 
 How would the old Bard have been afbonlfhed t6 
 have found, that he had very (kilfully given the 
 trochaic dimeter brachycatale^ic^ commonly called the 
 ithyphalUc meafure, to the Witches in Macbeth ! and 
 that now and then a halting Verfe afforded a mofl 
 beautiful inftance of the Pes proceleufmaticus ! 
 
 " But, continues Mr. Upton, it was a learned age; 
 Roger AJ'cham afliires us, that Queen Elizabeth read 
 more Greek every day, than fome Dignitaries of the 
 Church did Latin in a whole week." This appears 
 very probable ; and a plcafant proof it is of the gene- 
 ral learning of the times, and of Shakefpeare in par- 
 ticular. I wonder, he did not corroborate it with 
 an extra<5l from her injuncftions to her Clergy, that 
 *' fuch as were but 7ncan Readers (hould perufe over 
 before, once or twice, the Chapters and Homilies, 
 to the intent they might read to the better under- 
 ftanding of the people." 
 
 Dr. Grey declares, that Shakefpeare's knowledge in 
 the Greek and Latin tongues cannot reafonahly be call- 
 ed in queftion. Dr. Dodd fuppofes it proved, that he 
 was not fuch a novice in learning and antiquity as 
 fome people would pretend. And to clofe the whole, 
 for I fufpe6l you to be tired of quotation. Mr. TVhalley, 
 the ingenious Editor of Jonfon, hath written a piece 
 exprefsly on this fide the queftion: perhaps from 
 a very excufable partiality, he was willing to draw 
 
 Shake-
 
 Lear NiNG OF Shake sPEARE. 9 
 Shakefpeare from the field of Nature to clafTick ground, 
 where alone, he knew, his Author could poflibly 
 cope with him. 
 
 Thefe criticks, and many others their coadjutors, 
 have fuppofed themfelves able to trace Shake fpeare in 
 the writings of the Ancients ; and have fometimes 
 perfuaded us of their own learning, whatever became 
 of their Author's. Plagiarifms have been difcovered 
 in every natural defcription and every moral fenti- 
 ment. Indeed by the kind afTiftance. of the various 
 Excerpta, Sententia, and FloreSy this bufinefs may be 
 effected with very little expenfe of time or fagacity ^ 
 as Addifon hath demonftrated in his Comment or^ 
 Chevy-chace, and Wagflaff on Tcm Thumb : and I my- 
 felf will engage to give you quotations from the elder 
 Englijh writers (for to own the truth, I was once idle 
 enough to colledl fuch) which (hall carry with theni 
 at leaft an equal degree of fimilarity. But there car^ 
 be no occafion of wafting any future time in this de- 
 partment : the world is now in pofTelTion of the 
 Marks of Imitation. 
 
 " Shakefpeare however hath frequent allufions to 
 thefa/ts ^nd fables of antiquity.*' Granted: — anc^s 
 Mat. Prior fays, to fave the effufion of moreChriftian 
 ink, I will endeavour to (hew, how they came to his 
 acquaintance. 
 
 It is notorious, that much of his matter of fa£l 
 B know-
 
 10 AnESSAYonthe 
 
 knowledge is deduced from Plutarch: but in what 
 language he read him, hath yet been the queftion. 
 Mr. Upton is pretty confident of his fkill in the Ori- 
 ginal, and corre6\s iiccordingly the Errors of his 
 Copyifls by the Greek ftandard. Take a few inftances, 
 which will elucidate this matter fufficiently. 
 
 In the third a(5t of Anthony and Cleopatra^ O^avius 
 reprefents to his Courtiers the imperial pomp of 
 thofe illuftrious lovers, and the arrangement of their 
 dominion, 
 
 . _— ** Unto her 
 
 He gave the 'Itablifhment of Egypt, made her 
 
 Of lower Syria, Cyprus, Lydiut 
 
 Abfolute Queen." 
 
 Read Libyj^ fays the critick authoritatively, as is 
 plain from Plutarch^ ll^u>Tr\y ^eu xTripmi KXcottxt^xv 
 (Sao-jAKTirau AlyC-sTTH y^ Kvurps xj AIBTHE, j<y xoiArjf 
 
 This is very true : Mr. Heath s accedes to the cor- 
 redion, and Mr. Johnjon admits it into the Text : 
 but turn to the tranilation, from the French oi Jmyoty 
 
 % It is extraordinary, that this Gentleman fhould at-* 
 tempt To voluminous a work, as \.\\q Revij'al of Shakefpeare^s 
 Text, when, he tells us in his Preface, " he was not fo 
 fortunate as to be furniihed with either of the Folio Edi- 
 tions, much lefs any of the ancient ^arto^s:" and even 
 " Sir Themes Hi<f:mc>''s performance was known to him 
 only by Mr. Warl^Hrtoti's reprefentation.'*
 
 Learning of Shakespeare. ir 
 hy Thomas North, in Folio 1579;'' and you will at 
 once fee the origin of the miftake. 
 
 " Firft of all he did eftablifh Cleopatra Queene of 
 ^gypt, of Cyprus, oi Lydia, and the lower Syria." 
 Again in the Fourth Adl, 
 
 .^ . " My meflenger 
 
 He hath whipt with rods, dares me to perfonal combat, 
 Ca;/ar to Anthony. Let th' old Ruffian know 
 I have many other ways to die ; mean time 
 Laugh at his challenge." — 
 
 " What a reply is this, cries Mr. Upton? 'tis ac- 
 knowledging he (hould fall under the unequal com- 
 bat. But if we read, 
 
 . " Let th' old Ruffian know 
 
 He hath many other ways to die ; mean time 
 
 /laugh at his challenge." 
 
 We have the poignancy and the very repartee of 
 Cafar in Plutarch:' 
 
 This corredion was firft made by Sir Thofnas Han- 
 mer, and Mr. John/on hath received it. Moft indif- 
 putably it is the fenfe oi Plutarch, and given fo in the 
 modern tranflations : but Shakefpeare was milled by 
 the ambiguity of the old one, " Antonius fent again 
 
 ^ I find the charafter of this work pretty early deline- 
 ated; 
 
 " 'Twas Greek at firft, that Greek -wz^ Latin made. 
 That Latin French, that French to EngUfh ftraid : 
 Thus 'twixt one Plutarch there's more difference. 
 Than i'th' fame EngUJhman return'd from France:^ 
 B2 to
 
 12 AnESSAYonthe 
 
 to challenge Cafar to fight him : Cafar anfwered. 
 
 That he had many other ways to die, than fo." 
 In the Third Adl of Julius Cajar^ Anthony in his 
 
 ■well-known harangue to the people, repeats a part 
 
 of the Emperor's will, 
 
 ■ ♦' To every Roman citizen he gives, 
 To every fev'ral man, fevcnty five drachma's ■ 
 
 Moreover he hath left you all his walks. 
 His private arbours, and new-planted orchards. 
 On this fide Tyber." 
 
 *' Our Author certainly wrote, fays Mr. Theobald.^ 
 On that fide Tyber — 
 
 Travs Tiberim — prope Ca;faris hortos. 
 And Plutarch^ vi\\ovciShakcfpear€\try 6i]\genilyjludud 
 exprefsly declares, that he left the publick his gardens 
 and walks, ni^av t» IIoTa^B, heyond the Tyber" 
 
 This emendation likewife hath been adopted by 
 the fubfequent Editors ; but hear again the old 
 Tranllation, where Shahfptare'sjiudy lay, " He be- 
 queathed unto every citizen of Rome, fcventy-five 
 drachmas a man, and he left his gardens and arbours 
 unto the people, which he had on this fide of the 
 river of Tyber." I could furnifli you with many 
 more inftances, but thefe are as good as a thoufand. 
 
 Hence had our author his characfleriftick know- 
 ledge of Brutus and Anthcny, upon which much ar- 
 gumentation for his learning hath been founded : and 
 
 hence
 
 Learning OF Shakespeare, i;* 
 hencQ liter atim the Epitaph on Timon^ which it was 
 once prefumed, he had correded from the blunders 
 of the Latin verfion, by his own fuperior knowledge 
 of the Original.! 
 
 I cannot however omit a pafTage of Mr. Pope. 
 ** Tht fpeeches copy'd from Plutarch in Coriolanus may, 
 I think, be as well made an inftance of the learning 
 t){ Shakefpeare, as thofe copy'd from C'uero mCatiliney 
 of Ben. Jonfoti's.''^ Let us inquire into this matter, and 
 tranfcribe zfpeech for a fpecimen. Take the famous 
 one of Volumnic 
 
 ** Should we be filent and not fpeak, our raiment 
 And ftate of bodies would bewray what life 
 We've led fince thy Exile. Think with thyfelf. 
 How more unfortunate than all living women 
 Are we come hither ; fince thy fight, which fliould 
 Make our eyes flow with joy, hearts dance with comforts, 
 Conftrains them weep, and ftiake with fear and forrow j 
 Making the mother, wife, and child to fee 
 The fon, the hufljand, and the father tearing 
 His Country's bowels out : and to poor we 
 Thy enmity's moft capital ; thou barr'ft us 
 Our prayers to the Gods, which is a comfort 
 That all but we enjoy. For how can we, 
 Alas ! how can we, for our Country pray. 
 Whereto we're bound, together with thy Vidlory, 
 
 * ^^^ Theobald' f Preface to Yi,Rkbard z^. Zvo. 1720. 
 
 Whereto
 
 J4 AnESSAYonthe 
 
 Whereto we're bound ? Alack ! or we mufl lofe 
 The Country, our dear nurfe; or elfe thy Perfon, 
 Our comfort in the Country. We muft find 
 An eminent calamity, tho' we had 
 Our wifti, which fide fhou'd win. For either thou 
 ■ Muft, as a foreign Recreant, be led 
 With manacles thorough our ftreets ; or elfe 
 Triumphantly tread on thy Country's ruin. 
 And bear the palm, for having bravely fhed 
 Thy wife and children's blood. For myfelf, fon, 
 I purpofe not to wait on Fortune, 'till 
 Thefe wars determine : if I can't perfuade thee 
 Rather to ftiew a noble grace to both parts. 
 Than feek the end of one ; thou (halt no fooner 
 March to affault thy Country, than to tread 
 (Truft to't, thou Ihalt not) on thy mother's womb. 
 That brought thee to this world." 
 
 • I will now give you the old Tranflation, which 
 Ihall efFeflually confute Mr. Pope : for our Author 
 hath done little more, than thrown the very words 
 of North into blank verfe, 
 
 " If we helde our peace (my fonne) and determin- 
 ed not to fpeake, th.e ftatc of our poore bodies, and 
 prefent fight of our rayraent, would eafely bewray to 
 thee what life we haue led at home, fince thy exile 
 and abode abroad. But thinke now with thy kMe, 
 howe much more unfortunately, then all the women 
 liuinge we are come hether, confidering that the 
 
 fight
 
 Learning OF Shakespeare. 15 
 light which fliould be moft pleafaunt to all other to 
 beholde, fpitefull fortune hath made moft fearfull to 
 us : making my felfe to fee my fonne, and my daugh- 
 ter here, her hufband, befieging the walles of his 
 natiue countrie. So as that which is the only com- 
 fort to all other in their adverfitie and miferie, to 
 pray unto the goddes, and to call to them for aide ; 
 is the onely thinge which plongeth us into moft deepe 
 perplexitie. For we cannot (alas) together pray, both 
 for vi<5lorie, for our countrie, and for fafety of thy 
 life alfo : but a worlde of grievous curfes, yea more 
 then any mortall enemie can heape uppon us, are 
 forcibly wrapt up in our prayers. For the bitter foppe 
 of moft harde choycc is offered thy wife and children, 
 to forgoe the one of the two : either to lofe the per- 
 fone of thy felfe, or the nurfe of their natiue contrie. 
 For my felfe (my fonne) I am determined not to tar- 
 rie, till fortune in my life time doe make an ende of 
 this warre. For if I cannot perfuade thee, rather to 
 doe good unto both parties, then to ouerthrowe and 
 deftroye the one, preferring loue and nature before 
 the malice and calamitie of warres : thou (halt fee, 
 my fonne, and truft unto it, thou ftialt no foner 
 marche forward to aflault thy countrie, but thy foote 
 (hall tread upon thy mother's wombe, that brought 
 thee firft into this world." 
 The length of this quotation will be excufed for 
 4 it's
 
 j6 AnESSAYonthe 
 
 it's curlofity ; and it happily wants not the afliftance 
 of a Comment. But matters may not always be fo 
 cafily managed: — a plagiarifm from Jnacreon hath 
 been detected ! 
 
 " The Sun's a thief, and with his great attraftion 
 Robs the vafl Sea. The Moon's an arrant thief. 
 And her pale fire fhe fnatches from the >Sun. 
 The Sea's a thief, vvhofe liquid furge refolves 
 The Moon into fait tears. The Earth's a thief. 
 That feeds and breeds by a composure ftol'n 
 From gen'ral excrements : each thing's a thief." 
 *' This, fays Dr. Dodd, is a good deal in the man- 
 ner of the celebrated drinking Ode^ too well known 
 to be inferted." Yet it may be alleged by thofe, 
 who imagine Shakefpeare to have been generally able 
 to think for himfelf, that the topicks are obvious, 
 and their application is different. — But for argument's 
 fake, let the Parody be granted ; and " our Author, 
 fays fome one, may be puzzled to prove, that there 
 was a Latin tranflation oi Jnacreon at the time Shake- 
 fpeare wrote his Timon of Athens." This challenge 
 is peculiarly unhappy : for I do not at prefent recol- 
 ledl any other Clajfick, (if indeed, with great deference 
 to Mynheer De PauWy Jnacreon may be numbered 
 amongft them) that was originally publirtied with iwit 
 
 Latin ^ tranflatlons. 
 
 But 
 
 ^ By Huary Stephens and Elias AnJreas. Par. I 5 54. 4to. 
 ten years before tlie birth of Shake/pearr. The former 
 
 Vcrfioa
 
 Learning of Shakespeare. 17 
 
 But this is not all. Puttenham in his Arte of Eng- 
 
 lijh Poefiey 1589, quotes feme one of a " reafonable 
 
 good facilitie in tranflation, who finding certaine of 
 
 Anacreotii Odes very well tranilated by Ronfard the 
 
 French poet comes our Minion, and tranflates 
 
 the fame out of French into Englifi :" and his ftric- 
 tures upon him evince the publication. Now this 
 identical Ode is to be met with in Ronfard! and as 
 his works are in few hands, I will take the liberty 
 of tranfcribing it. 
 
 ** La terra les eaux va boivant, 
 L' arbre la boit par fa racine. 
 La mer falee boit le vent, 
 Et le Soleil boit la marine. 
 Le Soleil eft beu de la Lune, 
 Tout boit foit en haut ou en bas : 
 Suivant cefte reigle commune, 
 Pourquoy done ne boirons-nous pas?" 
 
 Edit. Fol. p. 507. 
 
 I know not, whether an obfervation or two rela- 
 tive to our Author's acquaintance with Horner^ be 
 ■worth our inveftigation. The ingenious Mrs. Lenox 
 obferves on a pafTage of Troilus and Creffida^ where 
 
 Verfion hath been afcrlbed without reafon to John Doraf. 
 Many other Tranflators appeared before the end of the 
 Century : and particularly the Ode in queftion was made 
 popular by Buchanan, whofe pieces were foon to be met 
 with in almoft every modern language.
 
 i8 AnESSAYonth^ 
 
 Achilles Is roufed to battle by the death of Patrodus, 
 that Shake/pear e muft here have had the Iliad m view, 
 as *' the old Story, i which in many places he hath 
 faithfully copied, is abfolutely filent with refpe^t to 
 this circumftance." 
 
 And Mr. Upton is pofitivc that the fiveet oblivious 
 Antidote, inquired after by Macbeth, could be nothing 
 but the Nepenthe defcribed in the Odyjfcy, 
 
 I will not infift upon the Tranflations by Chapman ; 
 as the firfl: Editions are without date, and it may be 
 difficult to afcertain the exacl time of their publica- 
 tion. But the former clrcumftance might have bticn 
 learned from Alexander Barclay ; "^ and the latter 
 n:ore fully from Spen/er,^ than from Homer himfeif. 
 
 ' It was originally draivn into Englijke by Caxton under 
 the name of the Rccuyel of the Hijioryes cfTrcy, from the 
 French of the ryght 'venerallc Per/on a7idiverjhipfull man Raoul 
 le Feure, ZSi^fynyJhed in the holy citye of Colcu, the 19 day of 
 SeptembrCy the yere of cur LcrdGcdy a thcufand f cure hundred 
 Jixty and enleiten. Wynken de Worde printed an Edit. Fol. 
 1503. and there have been feveral fubfequent ones. 
 
 "> *' Who lift thiftory of Patrodus to reade, &'C." 
 
 Ship of F coles. 1 5 70. p. 2 1 , 
 " *' Nepenthe is a drinck of fouenignc grace, 
 Deuizcd by the Gods, for to aflwage 
 
 Harts grief, and bitter g.ill away to chace 
 
 In ftead thereof fweet peace and quietage 
 It doth eftablifli in the troubled mynd, &c." 
 
 Faerie '^coie, 1596. B.4. C.3. St. 43. 
 
 5 « But
 
 Learning of Shakespeare. 19 
 
 « But Shakefpeare, perfuls Mr. Upton, hath fome 
 Greek ExpreJJicns" Indeed! — " We have one in 
 Coriolanus, 
 
 ' " It Is held 
 
 That valour is the chicfefl Virtue, and 
 
 Moft dignifies the Haver." 
 
 and another in Macbeth, where Banquo addrefTes the 
 TVeird-Si/lers, 
 
 ■ . '< My noble Partner 
 
 You greet with prefent grace, and great predidllon 
 
 Of noble Havhig." 
 
 Gr. "E;^£ja. — and -rr^oi; tov "E^o-jtx, to the Haver." 
 
 This was the common language of Shakefpeare's 
 time. " Lye in a water-bearer's houfe ! fays Mafter 
 Mathczu 0^ Bobadil, a Gentleman of his Havings!'* 
 
 Thus likevvife John Davies in his PJeafcnt Dcfcant 
 upon EngliJI) Proverbs, printed with his Scourge of 
 Folly, about 1612 ; 
 
 *' Do avell and have nvcll ! — neyther fo ftill : 
 
 For fome are good Doers, whofe Havings are ill." 
 and Daniel the Hiftorian ufes it fiequently. Having 
 feems to be fynonymous with Behaviour in Gawiti 
 Douglas o and the elder Scotch writers. 
 
 o It is very remarkable, that the Bifhop is called by 
 his Countryman, Sir David Lindfey, in his Complaint of 
 cur Souerane Lcrdis Papingo, 
 
 " In our Ingli/chc Rethorick the Rofe." 
 And Dunbar hath a fimilar expreflion in his beautiful 
 Poem of The Goldin Terge. 
 
 C 2 Haver,
 
 20 AnESSAYonthe 
 
 Haver^ in the fenfe of Pofejfor, is every where 
 met with : tho' unfortunately the ir^oq tou^E^^ovt* 
 of Sophocles, produced as an authority for it, is fuf- 
 pe6led by Kujier, p as good a critick. in thefe matters, 
 to have abfolutely a different meaning. 
 
 But what (hall we fay to the learning of the Chivn 
 in Hamlet, " Ay, tell me that, and unyoke?" alluding* 
 to the BsXuTos of the Greeks : and Homer and his 
 Scholiaft are quoted accordingly ! 
 
 If it be not fufficient to fay, with Dr. TJ/arburton, 
 that the phrafe might be taken from Hufbandry, 
 without much depth of reading; we may produce it 
 from a Dittieoi the workmen of Dover, preferved in 
 the additions to Holingjhcd, p. 1546. 
 
 *' My bow Is broke, I would unyoke. 
 My foot is fore, I can worke no more.'* 
 
 An expreffion of my Dnme.^«/Vif/y is next fattened 
 upon, which you may look for in vain in the modern 
 text ; (he calls fome of the pretended Fairies in the 
 
 Merry Wives of Wind/or, 
 
 " Orphan'^ Heirs of fixed Delliny." 
 
 and 
 
 p Arifiophams Comcediae undecim. Gx. & Lat. Amji, 
 1710. Fol. p. 596. 
 
 1 Dr. Warhurton corre£ls Orphan to Ouphen ; and not 
 without plaufibility, as the word Ouphes occurs both 
 before and afterward. But 1 fancy, in acquiefcence to the 
 vulgar dodlrine, the addrefs in this line is to a part of the 
 
 Troopi
 
 Learning of Shakespeare, ai 
 
 and how elegant is this, quoth Mr. Uptcn, fuppofing 
 the word to be ufed, zsz Grecian would haveufedit? 
 9^(pocvog ab o^(pvog — adlingin darknefsand obfcurity.'* 
 
 Mr. Heath affures us, that the bare mention of 
 fuch an interpretation, is a fufficient refutation of it ; 
 and his critical word will be rather taken in Greek 
 than in Efiglijb : in the fame hands therefore I will 
 venture to leave all our author's knowledge of the 
 Old Comedy, and his etymological learning in the 
 word, Defdemona. ^ 
 
 Surely poor Mr. Upton was very little acquainted 
 with Fairies^ notwithftanding his laborious ftudy of 
 Spenfer. The laft authentick account of them is from 
 our countryman William Lilly ; ^ and it by no means 
 agrees with the learned interpretation : for the angC" 
 
 Troop, as Mortals by birth, but adopted by the Fairies : 
 Orphans, with refped to their ?W Parents, and now only 
 dependant on Dejliny herfelf. A few lines from Spenfer 
 will fufficiently illullrate the pafTage. 
 
 ** The man whom heauetis have ordayndxo bee 
 The fpoufe of Britoinart, is Arthegall .* 
 He wonneth in the land oi Fayeree, 
 
 Yet is no Fary borne, ne fib at all 
 To Elfes, but fprong of feed terreftriall. 
 
 And whilome by falfe Furies ftolen away, 
 Whyles yet in infant cradle he did crall, &C." 
 
 Edit. 1590. B. 3. C. 3. St. 26. 
 
 ' Re-vifal. p. 75. 323. & 561. 
 
 s Hiftory of his Life and Times, p. 102. prefervedby 
 Jiis Dupe, Mr. JJhmok, 
 
 licai
 
 22 AnESSAYonthe 
 
 lied Creatures appeared in his Hurji wood in a mo/i 
 iUuJirious Glory., — " and indeed, fays the Sage, it is 
 not given to very many perfons to endure their glo- 
 rious afpeSis." 
 
 The only i.fe of tranfcribhig thefe things, is to 
 fliew what abfurdities men for ever run into, when 
 they lay down an Hypothefis, and afterward feek for 
 arguments in the fupport of it. What elfe could in- 
 duce this man, by no means a bad fcholar, to doubt 
 whether Truepenny might not be derived from T^u- 
 Travou; and quote upon us with much parade an old 
 Scholiaft on Arijlophanes ? — I will not flop to confute 
 him : nor take any notice of two or three more Ex- 
 prefllons, in which he was pleafed to fuppofe fome 
 learned meaning or other ; all which he might have 
 found in every Writer of the time, or ftill more eafily 
 in the vi.lgar Tranflation of the Bible, by confulting 
 the Concordance of Alexander Cruden. 
 
 But v^hencc have we the Plot of Timcn, except 
 from the Greek of Lucian ? — The Editors and Cri- 
 ticks have been never at a greater lofs than in their 
 inquiries of this fort ; and the fource of a Tale hath 
 been often in vain fought abroad, which might eafily 
 have been found at home : My good friend, the very 
 ingenious Editor of the Reliques of ancient Englifh 
 Poetry, hath fhewn our Author to have been fome- 
 
 times contented with a legendary Ballad. 
 
 The
 
 Learning of Shakespeare. 23 
 The Story of the Mifanthrope is told in almoft 
 every Colledtion of the time ; and particulary in two 
 books, with which Shakefpeare was intimately ac- 
 quainted J the Palace of Pleafure, and the Englijb 
 Plutarch. Indeed from a paflage in an old Play, called 
 yack Drums Entertaimment^ I conje6ture that he had 
 before made his appearance on the Stage. 
 
 Were this a proper place for fuch a difquifition, I 
 could give you many cafes of this kind. We arefent 
 for inftance to Cinthio for the Plot of Meafure for 
 Meafure^ and Shakefpeare' s judgement hath been at- 
 tacked for fome deviations from him in the condudl 
 of it : when probably all he knew of the matter was 
 from Madam Ifabella in the Heptameron oilVhetflone. t 
 Ariofo is continually quoted for the Fable of A'luth 
 ado about Nothing ; but I fufpe6t our Poet to have been 
 fatisfied with the Geneura of Turberville. " y^s you like 
 it was certainly borrowed, if we believe Dr. Gtey, and 
 Mr. Upton, from the Coke's Tale of Gamelyn ; which by 
 
 * Lond. 4to. iq82. She reports in the fourth daye? ex- 
 ercife, the rare Hijlorie of Promos and Cajfandra. A mar- 
 ginal note informs us, that Whetjione was the Author of 
 the Commedie on that fubjedl ; which likewife had pro- 
 bably fallen into the hands of Shakefpeare, 
 
 " " The tale is a pretie comical! matter, and hath bin 
 written in Englf? verfe fome few years paft, learnedly 
 and with good grace, by M. George Turberuil" Harring- 
 ton s Ariofio. Fol, 1 59 1, p. 39« 
 
 the
 
 ji4 AnESSAYonthe 
 
 the way was not printed 'till a century afterward : 
 when in truth the old Bard, who was no hunter of 
 MSS. contented himfelf folely with Lodge's Rofalynd 
 or Euphucs' Golden Legacye. 410. 1590. The Story 
 of AWs well that ends well, or, as I fuppofe it to liave 
 been fometimes called. Love's labour wonne,^ is ori- 
 ginally indeed the property of Boccacc, y but it came 
 immediately to Shakcfpearc from Painter's Giletta of 
 Narbon. z Mr. Langbaine could not conceive, whence 
 the Story of Pericles could be taken, *' not meeting 
 in Hiflory with any fuch Prince of Tyre -y" yet his le^ 
 
 X See Meres*s Wiis Trcafury. 1 598. p. 282. 
 
 y Our ancient Poets are under greater obligations to 
 Boccace, than is generally imagined. Who would fufpeft, 
 that Chaucer hath borrowed from an Italian the facetious 
 Tale of the Miller of Trianpingtoii ? 
 
 Mr. DryJcn obferves on the Epic performance, Palamon 
 and Arcltey a poem little inferior in his opinion to the 
 Iliad or the JEneid, that the name of it's Author is wholly 
 loft, and Chaucer is now become the Original. But he 
 is miftaken : this too was the work of Boccace, and 
 printed at Ferrara in Folio, con il commento di Andrea 
 BaJJi, 1475. I have feen a copy of it, and a Tranflation 
 into modern Greek, in the noble Library of the very- 
 learned and communicative Dr. AJke--vj. 
 
 It is likewife to be met with in old French, under the 
 Title of La Thefcidc de Jean Boccace, contenant les belles 
 & chaftes amours de deux jeunes Chevaliers Thcbains 
 Arcite l£ Palemon. 
 
 "^ In the firft Vol. of the Palca of PUafurt. 4to. 
 1566. 
 
 gend
 
 L E A~"R N I N G OF Shakespeare. 25. 
 
 gcnd may be found at large in old Gower, under the 
 name of Jppolynus. ^ 
 
 Pericles is one of the Plays omitted in the later 
 Editions, as well as the early Folio's, and not im- 
 properly J tho' it was publilhed many years before 
 the death of Shakefpeare, with his name in the Title- 
 page. Julus Gellius informs us, that fome Plays are 
 afcribed abfolutely to Plautus, which he only retouch- 
 ed and poiijhed; and this is undoubtedly the cafe with 
 our Author likewife. The revival of this perform- 
 ance, which Bcft. Jonfon calls J}ale and mouldy^ was 
 probably his earlieft attempt in the Drama. I know, 
 that another of thefe difcarded pieces, the Yorkjhire 
 Tragedy^ hath been frequently called fo ; but moft 
 certainly it was not written by our Pcet at all : nor 
 indeed was it printed in his life-time. The FaiSt on 
 which it is built, was perpetrated no fooner than 
 1604:'=' much too late for fo mean a performance 
 from the hand of Shake/pear e. 
 
 » ConfeJJio Amantis , printed by T. Berthekt. Fol. 1532. 
 p. 175, &c. 
 
 '' '* William Caluerley, o^ Caluerley inTorkJJjire, Efquire, 
 murdered two of his owne children in his owne houfe, 
 then ftabde his wife into the body with full intent to 
 haue killed her, and then inftantlie with like fury went 
 from his houfe, to haue flaine his yongefl childe at nurfe, 
 but was preuented. Hee was preft to death in 7'orke the 
 5 of Auguft. 1604." ^dm. Ho-wes* Continuation of 
 y(3i'«5/cive'/ Summarie. 8vo. 1607, p. 574. The Story 
 appeared before in a 410. Pamphlet. 1605. it is omitted 
 in the Folio Chronicle. 1631. 
 
 D Some-
 
 26 An ESS AY ON THE 
 
 Sometimes a very little matter detects a forgery. 
 You may remember a Play called the Double Faljhood, 
 which Mr. Theobald was defirous of palming upon the 
 world for a pofthumoas one of Sbakcjpeare : and I 
 fee it is ciafTed as fuch in the laft Edition of the 
 Bodhian Catalogue. Mr. Pope himfelf, after all the 
 ftridures of ScribJefUs,^ in a Letter to jiaron Hill^ 
 fuppofcs it of that age; but a miftakcn accent de- 
 termines it to have been written fmce the middle oi 
 the laft century. 
 
 " This late example 
 
 Of bafe Henriquez, bleeding in me now. 
 From each good Jfpeii takes away my truft.'* 
 
 And in another place, 
 
 *' You have an y^/^f^. Sir, of wondrous wifdom." 
 
 The word AJpc^.^ you perceive, is here accented on 
 %\\Qjirft Syllabic, which, I am confident, in ^wyfenfe 
 of it, was never the cafe in the time of Shjkejpeare ; 
 though it may fometimes appear to be fo, when we 
 do not obferve a preceding Elifton. ^ 
 
 Some of the profeffed Imitators of our old Poets 
 have not attended to this and many other Minutia : 
 
 « Thefe however, he aflures Mr. Hill, were the pro- 
 perty of Dr. Arbvihnot, 
 
 Thus a line in Hamlet^s dcfcription of the Playefy^ 
 ftiould be printed as in the old Folio's, 
 
 " Tears in his eyes, dilh-a£tJon in's afpeft.** 
 agreeably to the accent in a hundred other places- 
 
 6 I
 
 Learwitcg of Shakespeare. 27 
 
 I could point out to you feveral performances in the 
 refped^ive Styles of Chaucer^ Spenfer, and Shakcfpeare^ 
 which thtimitated^zn] could not pofTrbly have either 
 read or conftrued. 
 
 This very accent hath troubled the Annotators on 
 Milton. Dr. Bentley obferves it to be " a tone different 
 from the prefent ufe." Mr. Manwaringy in h'lsTreatife 
 of Harmony and Numbers, very folemnly informs us, 
 that " this Verfe is defedive both in Accent and 
 Quantity, B. 3. V. 266. 
 
 ^* His words here ended, but his meek JifpeR 
 . Silent yet fpake."— — 
 
 Here, fays he, a fyllable is emied and long, whereas 
 it fhould he/hort and graved T^ 
 
 And a ftill more extraordinary Gentleman, one 
 Green, who publiflied a Specimen of a fieiv Verfton 
 of the Paradife Lojl, into Blank verfe, " by which 
 that amazing Work is brought fomewhat nearer the 
 Summit of Perfe6tion," begins with corre(5ting a 
 blunder in the fourth book, V. 540. 
 
 " The fetting Sun 
 
 - Slowly defcended, and with right J/pe^-^ 
 
 Levell'd his evening rays." 
 
 Notfo in the New Verfton. 
 *' Meanwhile the fetting Sun defcending flow— 
 Level'd with a/pe^ right his ev'ning rays." 
 Enough of fuch Commentators.— -The celebrated 
 D 2 Dr.
 
 28 AnESSAYonthe 
 
 Dr. Dee had a Spirit^ who would fometimes conde- 
 fcend to correcft him, when peccant in ^antity : 
 and it had been kind of him to have a little aflTifted 
 
 the IFights abovementioned. Miltcn afFecfted the 
 
 Antique \ but it may feem more extraordinary, that 
 the old Accent fhould be adopted in Hudibras, 
 
 After all, the Double Faljhood is fuperior to Theobald. 
 One pafTage, and one only in the whole Play, he 
 pretended to have written : 
 
 * — " Strike up, my Mafters ; 
 
 " But touch the Strings witli a religious foftnefs : 
 •* Teach found to languilh thro' the Night's dull Ear, 
 *' 'Till Melancholy ftart from her lazy Couch, 
 ** And Careleflhefs grow Convert to Attention,'* 
 
 Thefe lines were particularly admired ; and his 
 vanity could not refift the opportunity of claiming 
 them : but his claim had been more eafily allowed to 
 any other part of the performance. 
 
 To whom then (hall we afcrlbe it ? — Somebody 
 hath told us, who fliould feem to be a Nojirum- 
 inonger by his argument, that, let Accents be how 
 they will, it is called an original Play of William 
 Shakefpeare in the King's Patent^ prefixed to Mr. 
 Theobald's Edition, 1728, and confequently there 
 eouldbe no fraud in the matter. Whilft, on the con- 
 trary, the Jrijh Laureat, Mr. Fi^or, remarks, (and 
 were it true, it would be certainly decifive) that the 
 
 Plot
 
 Learning of Shakespeare; 29 
 Plot is borrowed from a Novel of Cervantes, not 
 publifhed 'till the year after Shakefpeare' s death. But 
 unluckily the fame Novel appears in a part of Don 
 fixate, which was printed in SpaniJJ}, 1605, ^"^ ^^ 
 
 Engli/h by Sbelto/:, 1612. The fame reafoning 
 
 however, which exculpated our Author from the 
 YoriJJnre Tragedy, may be applied on the prefent oc- 
 cafion. 
 
 But you want my opinion : — and from every mark 
 of Style and Manner, I make no doubt of afcribing 
 it to Shirley. Mr. Langbairie informs us, that he left 
 fome Plays in MS. — Thefe were written about the 
 time of the Rejloration, when the Accent in queftion 
 was more generally altered. 
 
 Perhaps the miftake arofe from an abbreviation of 
 the name. Mr. Dcdjley knew not that the Tragedy of 
 Andromana was Shirley's, from the very fame caufe. 
 Thus a whole ftream of Biographers tell us, that 
 Marjloris Plays were printed at London, 1633, *' by 
 the care of William Shakefpeare, the famous Come- 
 dian." — Here again I fuppofe, in fome Tranfcript, 
 the real Publiftier's name, William Sheares, was ab- 
 breviated. No one Jiath protraded the life of Shake- 
 fpeare beyond 1616, except Mr. Hume; who is 
 pleafed to add a year to it, in contradidion to all 
 manner of evidence. 
 Shirley is fpoken of with contempt In Mac Fkcknoe ; 
 
 but
 
 »o AnESSAYonthe 
 
 but his Imagination is fometimes fine to an extraordi- 
 nary degree. I recoUcift a paflage in the fourth book of 
 the ParadifeLoJl, which hath been fufpeded of ImitC' 
 tion, zs :i pretthiffshdow theGeniusof Afilton : I mean, 
 where Uriel glides backward and forward to Heaven 
 on a SHTi-beam. Dr. Newton informs us, that this 
 might poflibly be hinted by a Picture of Jnnibal Car- 
 rruci in the King of France's Cabinet : but I am apt 
 to believe \.\\-x\. Milton had been ftruck with a Portrait 
 in Shirky. Fernandoy in the Comedy of the Brother^f 
 1652, defcribes Jacinta at Vefpcn : 
 
 <* Her eye did feem to labour wiih a tear, 
 Which fuddenly took birth, but overweigh'd 
 With it's own fwelling, drop'd upon her bofome ; 
 Which by reflexion of her light, appcar'd 
 As nature meant her forrow for an ornament : 
 After, her looks grew chearfull, and I faw 
 A fmile fhoot gracefull upward from her eyes. 
 As if they had gain'd a viftory o'er grief. 
 And with it many beams twiftcd themfelves. 
 Upon whofe goUen threads the Jtigels walk 
 
 To and again from Heirven." « 
 
 You muft not think me infe<5ted with the fpirit of 
 
 e Mlddleton^ In an obfcure Play, called, A Game at 
 Cheje, hath fome very pleafing lines on a fimilar occafion : 
 ** Upon thofe lip?, the fweete frclh buds of youth. 
 The holy dew of prayer lies like pearle, 
 Dropt from the opening eye-lids of the mornc 
 
 Upon the balhfull Rofe." 
 
 Lauder,
 
 Learning of Shakespeare. 31 
 
 Lauder, if I give you another of Milton's Imitations : 
 
 «■ ** The Swan nuith arched neck 
 
 *' Between her white wings mantling proudly, rows ' 
 
 •* Her ftate with oary feet." — B. 7. V. 438, &c. 
 
 ** The ancient Poets, fays Mr. Ruhardfon^ have 
 not hit upon this beauty ; fo lavifh as they have 
 been in their defcriptions of the S-wan. Homer calls 
 the Swan long-necked, S^Kiyo^i^ov •, but how much 
 TC\oxtpittorefque, if he had <2/t^^^ this length of neck ?" 
 
 For this beauty however, Milton was beholden to 
 Donne j whofe name, I believe, at prefent is better 
 known than his writings : 
 
 ** Like a Ship in her full trim. 
 
 A Sivan, fo white that you may unto him 
 
 Compare all whitenefTe, but himfelfe to none. 
 Glided along, and as he glided watch'd, 
 And with his circled neck this poore fifli catch'd."— 
 
 Progtrjfe of the Soul. St. 24, 
 
 Thofe highly finifhed Landfcapes, the Seafons, are 
 Indeed copied from Nature : but Thomfon fometimes 
 recollected the hand of his Mafler : 
 
 — — — — " The flately failing Swan 
 
 Gives out his fnowy plumage to the gale ; 
 And arching proud his Neck, i.'jith oary feet. 
 Bears forward fierce, and guards his ofier lile, 
 Ptoteftive of his young." ■ ■ "■■ -< 
 
 But
 
 32 AnESSAYonthe 
 
 But to return^ as we fay on other occafions. — Per-*, 
 haps the Advocates for Shakefpeares knowledge of 
 the Latin language may be more fuccefsful. Mr. Gtl- 
 don takes the Van. " It is plain, that He was ac- 
 quainted with the Fables of antiquity very well : that 
 fome of the Arrows of Cupid arc pointed with Lead, 
 and others with Gold, he found in Ovid \ and 
 what he fpeaks of Diio, in Virgil : nor do I 
 know any tranflation of thefe Poets fo ancient as 
 Shakefpeare's time." The pafiages on which thefc 
 fagacious remarks arc made, occur in the Midfummir 
 Night^s Dream ; and exhibit, wc fee, a clear proof 
 of acquaintance with the Latin Claflicks. But we are 
 not anfwerable for Mr. Gildons ignorance ; he might 
 have been told of Caxton and Douglas^ of Surrey and 
 StanyhurJ}^ of Phacr and Tivynt, of Flcyniug and Geld- 
 ings of Turbevjille and Churchyard! but thefe Fablci 
 were eafily known without the help of either the ori- 
 ginals or the tranflations. The Fate of Dido had 
 been fung very early by Gozver^ Chaucer ^ and Lydgate ; 
 Marloe had even already introduced her to the Stage: 
 and Cupid's arrows appear with their charadleriftick 
 differences in Surrey y in Sidney ^ in Spenfer, and every 
 Sonettccr of the time. Nay, their very names were 
 exhibited long before in the Romaunt of the Rofe : a 
 work, you may venture to look into, notwithftand- 
 ing Mafter pry.ine hath fo pofitivcly aflured us, on 
 
 the
 
 Learning OF Shakespeare. 33 
 the word of John Gerforiy that the Author is moft 
 certainly damned, if he did not care for a ferious re- 
 pentance, f 
 
 Mr. Whalley argues in the fame manner, and 
 with the fame fuccefs. He thinks a paffage in the 
 
 " High Queen of State, 
 
 Great *Juno comes ; I know her by her Gait.''* 
 a remarkable inftance of Shakefpeare^s knowledge of 
 ancient Poetick ftory ; and that the hint was furnifli- 
 ed by the Divum imedo Regina of Virgil, s 
 
 f Had our zealous Puritan been acquainted with the 
 real crime of De Mehun, he would not have joined in the 
 clamour againft him. Poor Jehan, it feems, had raifed 
 the expedations of a Monaftery in France, by the Legacy 
 of a great Cheft, and the weighty Contents of it ; but 
 it proved to be filled with nothing better than Fetches, 
 The Friars, enraged at the ridicule and difappointment, 
 would not fufFer him to have Chriftian burial. See the 
 Hon. Mr. Barrington's very learned and curious Obfernja- 
 tions on the Statutes. 4to. 1 766. p. 24. From the ^;/»«/fj </* 
 Acqi^tayne., Par. I 5 37. 
 
 Our Author had his full fliare in diftrefling the Spirit 
 of this reftlefs man. " Some Play-books are grown from 
 ^arto into Folio ; which yet bear fo good a price and 
 
 fale, that I cannot but with griefe relate it. Sha.ck- 
 
 Jpeers Plates are printed in the bell Crowne-paper, far 
 better than moft Bibles T^ 
 
 s Others would give up this paflage for the Fera incejit 
 
 patuit Dea-j but I am not able to fee any improvement 
 
 in the matter : even fuppofing the Poet had been fpeak- 
 
 ing of June, and no previous Tranflation were extant. 
 
 E You
 
 34 AnESSAYonthe 
 
 You know, honeft John Taylor^ the IFater-poef'^ 
 declares that he never learned his Accidence^ and that 
 Latin and French were to him Heathen-Greek j yet by 
 the help of Mr. TVhalhy's argument, I will prove him 
 a learned Man, in fpite of every thing, he may fay 
 to the contrary: for thus he makes a Gallant addrefs 
 his Lady, 
 
 ** Moft ineftimable Magazine of Beauty in 
 
 ■whom the Port and Majcjly of Juno, the Wifdom of 
 ^(jz^Abraine-bred Girle,and the Feature of Cy/^^^^j,'* 
 have their domeftical habitation." 
 
 In the Merchant of Venice, we have an oath " By 
 iwo-headed Janus -y^ and here, fays Dr. Warhurton^ 
 Shakefpeare fhews his knowledge in the Antique : and 
 
 h This pafTage recalls to my memory a very extraordi- 
 nary faft. A few years ago, at a great Court on the Con- 
 tinent, a Countryman of our's of high rank and character, 
 [Sir C. H. //'.] exhibited with many other Candidates 
 his compHmental Epigram on the Birth-day, and carried 
 the prize in triumph, 
 
 " O Regina orbis prima Sc pulchcrrima : ridens 
 Es Venus, incedens Juno, Minerva loquens." 
 loiter ally llolen from Aiigerianus, 
 
 " Tres quondam nudas vidit Priamcius heros 
 Luce deas ; video tres quoquc luce deas. 
 
 Hoc majus ; tres uno in corporc : Calia ridens 
 EJl Venus, incedens Juno, Mincrnja loqu£ns" 
 
 DeliticT Ital. Poet, by Gruter, under the anagrammatif 
 '^:imt o( Ranutius G herns. 1608. V. I. p. 189. 
 
 Perhaps the latter part of the Epigram was met with 
 in a whimfical book, which had it's day of Fame, Robert 
 burton's Anatomy of Milamholy , Fol. 1 65 2. 6th Edit, p.5 20.
 
 Learning OF Shakespeare. 35 
 
 jfo again does the Water-poet^ who defcribes Fortune^ 
 
 *' Like a Janus with a double-face.^* 
 
 But Shakefpeare hath fomewhere at Z^//« Motto, 
 quoth Dr. Sezvel; and fo hath y^j^w Taylor, and a 
 whole Poem upon it into the bargain. 
 
 You perceive, my dear Sir, how vague and inde- 
 terminate fuch arguments mufl: be : for in fa<fl this 
 fiueei Swan of Thames, as Mr. Pope calls him, hath 
 more fcraps of Latin, and allufions to antiquity than 
 are any where to be met with in the writings of 
 Shakefpeare. I am forry to trouble you with trifles, 
 yet what muft be done, when grave men infift upon 
 them ? 
 
 It (hould feem to be the opinion of fome modern 
 criticks, that the perfonages of claflick land began only 
 to be known in England in the time of Shakefpeare ; 
 or rather, that he particularly had the honour of in- 
 troducing them to the notice of his countrymen. 
 
 For inftance, — Rumour painted full of tongues, gives 
 us a Prologue to one of the parts of Henry the Fourth ; 
 and, fays Dr. Dodd, Shakefpeare had doubtlefs a view 
 to either Virgil or Ovid in their defcription of Fame. 
 
 But why fo ? Stephen Hawes in his Pajlime of Plea- 
 fure had long before exhibited her in the fame manner, 
 
 ** A goodly Lady envyroned about 
 With tongues of fyre."'— — 
 
 » Cap. I. /j.to. 1555. 
 
 E a and
 
 36 AnESSAYonthe 
 
 and fo had Sir Thomas More in one of his Pageaniiy^ 
 ** Fame I am called, mervayle you nothing 
 Though with tonges I am compafled all rounde." 
 not to mention her ehborate Portrait by Chaucer j in 
 the Boke of Fame ^ and by John Higgins, one of the 
 Afllftants in the Mirourfor Magijlrates, in his Legend 
 eiK\ngAlbana^e. 
 
 A very liberal Writer on the Beauties of Poetry, 
 who hath been more converfant in the ancient Lite- 
 rature of other Countries, than his own, " cannot 
 but wonder, that a Poet, whofe claflical Images 
 are compofed of the fineft parts, and breath the very 
 fpirit of ancient Mythology, (hould pafs for being 
 illiterate :" 
 
 *' See what a grace was feated on his brow! 
 
 Hyperion's curls : the front of Jo've himfelf : 
 
 An eye like Mars to threaten and command : 
 
 A ftation like the herald Mercury, 
 
 New lighted on a heaven-kiffing hill." Hamlet, 
 
 Illiterate is an ambiguous term : the queftion is, 
 "whether Poetick Hiftory could be only known by an 
 Adept in Languages. It is no reflection on this inge- 
 nious Gentleman, when I fay, that I ufe on this oc- 
 cafion the words of a better Critick, who yet was not 
 willing to carry the illiteracy of our Poet too far : — 
 
 k Amongft ** the things, which MayfterAfor^ wrote in his 
 yputh for his paltime," prefixed to his ^er^w. 1557. Fol. 
 
 ♦' They
 
 Learning OF Shakespeare. 37 
 ** They who are in fuch aftonifhment at the learning 
 of Shakefpeare, forget that the Pagan Imagery was 
 famihar to all the Poets of his time ; and that abun- 
 dance of this fort of learning was to be picked up 
 from almoft every Englijh book, that he could take 
 into his hands." For not to infifl: upon Stephen Bate- 
 man^s Golden booke of the leaden Goddes, 1577, 
 and feveral other laborious compilations on the fub- 
 jedl, all this and much more Mythology might as 
 perfedly have been learned from the Tejiament of 
 Crefeide, • and the Fairy ^een, ^ as from a regular 
 Pantheon or Polymetis himfelf. 
 
 Mr. Upton, not contented with Heathen learning, 
 when he finds it in the text, muft neceflarily fuper- 
 add it, when it appears to be wanting j becaufe Sbake- 
 fpeare moft certainly hath loft it by accident ! 
 
 In Much ado about Nothing, Don Pedro fays of the 
 jnfenfible Benedi^, " He hath twice or thrice cut 
 Cupid's bow-ftring, and the little Hangman dare not 
 Ihoot at him." 
 
 This mythology is not recollecfled in the Ancients, 
 and therefore the critick hath no doubt but his Au- 
 thor wrote ^^ Henchman, — a Page,Pufio : and this word 
 feeming too hard for the Printer, he tranflated the 
 
 ' Printed amongft the Works of Chaucer, but really 
 written by Robert Hender/on. 
 
 "> It is obfervable, that Hyperion is ufed by Spetifev 
 with the fame error in quantity. 
 
 little
 
 3$ AnESSAYonthe 
 
 little Urchin into a Hangman,, a chara^er no way 
 
 belonging to him." 
 
 But this charadler was not borrowed from the 
 Ancients j — it came from the Arcadia of Sir Philip 
 Sidney : 
 
 ** Millions of yeares this old drlvell C»/;^ lives; 
 While ftill more wretch, more wicked he doth prove :^ 
 Till now at length that Jove him office gives, 
 (At Juno's fiiite who much did Argus love) 
 In this our world a Hangman for to be 
 Of all thofe fooles that will have all they fee." 
 
 B. 2. Ch. 14. 
 
 I know it may be obje£ted on the authority of 
 fuch Biographers, as Tbeophilus Cibbery and the Writer 
 of the Life of Sir Philips prefixed to the modern 
 Editions ; that the Arcadia was not publiflied before 
 1613, and confequently too late for this imitation : 
 but I have a Copy in my own poflefTion, printed for 
 IV. Ponjonhie^ 15905 4^0' which hath efcaped the 
 notice of the induftrious Amcs^ and the reft of our 
 typographical Antiquaries. 
 
 Thus likewife every word of antiquity is to be cut 
 down to the clafllcal fiandard. 
 
 In a Note on the Prologue to Troilus and CreJJida, 
 (which, by the way, is not met wiih in the ^arto) 
 Mr. Theobald informs us, that the very nafties of the 
 gates of Troy^ have been barbaroufly demoliflied by 
 the Editors : and a deal of learned duft he makes in 
 
 fetting
 
 Learning of Shakespeare. 39 
 
 fetting them right again ; much however to Mr, 
 Hiath's fatisfadion. Indeed the learning is modeftly 
 withdrawn from the later Editions, and we are quiet- 
 ly in{lru(5led to read, 
 
 *' Dardany and Thyjnbria, Ilia, Scaa, Troian, 
 
 And Anienorides." 
 But had he looked into the Troye bole of Lydgate^ 
 inftead of puzzling himfelf with Dare^ Pbrygius^ he 
 would have found the horrid demolition to have 
 been neitiier the work of Shakefpeare nor his Editors. 
 
 ** Therto his cyte \ compafTed enuyrowne 
 
 Hadde gates VI to entre into the towne : 
 
 The firfte of all ' and ftrengeft eke with all, 
 
 Largcll alfo ' and mofte pryncypall, 
 
 Of myghty byldyng' alone perelefs. 
 
 Was by the kynge called I Dardanydes ; 
 
 And in ftorye ' lyke as it is founde, 
 
 Tymbria ' was named the feconde ; 
 
 And the thyrde ' called Helyas, 
 
 The fourthe gate' hyghte alfo Cetheas'y 
 
 The fyfthe Trojancy ' the fyxth Ar.thonydes, 
 
 Stronge and myghty I both in werre and pes." " 
 Lond. empr. by /?. i^-^a«. 15 13. Fol. B. 2. Ch. ii. 
 
 Our 
 
 1 The Troye Boke was fomewhat modernized, and 
 reduced into regular Stanza's, about the beginning 
 of the laft century, under the name of the " Life and 
 Death of Hector — who fought a hundred mayne Battailes 
 in open field againll the Grecians ; wherein there were 
 flaine on both fides Fourtcsrie Hundred and Sixe Thoufaud, 
 
 Fiur/cote
 
 4© AnESSAYonthe 
 
 Our excellent friend Mr. Hurd hath born a noble 
 teftimony on our fide of the queftion. " Shakefpearet 
 
 Four/core and Sixe men.''* Fol. no date. This work, Dr. 
 Fuller and feveral other criticks have erroneoufly qooted 
 as the Original; and obferve in confequence, that " if 
 Chaucer'' s Coin were oi greater iveight for deeper learnings 
 Lydgate's were of a more refined Jlandard for purer language : 
 {o that one might miftake him for a modern Writer !" 
 
 Let me here make an obfervation for the benefit of the 
 next Editor of C^^jwr^T. Mr. f//r)', probably mifled by 
 his predeceflbr, Speghty was determined, Procrujies-liket 
 to force every line in the Canterbury Tales to the fame 
 Standard : but a precife number of Syllables was not the 
 Objeft of our old Poets. Lydgate, after the example of 
 his Mailer, very fairly acknowledges, 
 
 *' Well wot I ' moche thing is wronge, 
 Falfely metryd I both of (hort and longe." 
 and Chaucer himfelf was perfuaded, that the Rime might 
 poffibly be 
 
 " Somewhat agreable. 
 
 Though fome Verfe faile in a Syllable," 
 
 In fhort, the attention was directed to the C^faral paufey 
 as the Grammarians call it ; which is carefully marked in 
 every line oi Lydgate : and Ga/coigne in his Certayne notes 
 of lnjlru^lion cojiccrning the making of Verfe., obferves very 
 truly of Chaucer y " Whofoeucr do pcrufe and well con- 
 lider his workes, he Ihall find, that although his lines 
 aie not alwayes of one fclfe fame number of Syllables, 
 yet bcyng redde by one that hath underftanding, the 
 longert vcrfe and that which hath moft fyllables in it, 
 will fall to the Eare correfpondent unto that which hath 
 feweft fyllables in it: and likewife that whiche hath in 
 it feweft fyllables fliall be founde yet to confift of wordcs 
 that have fuchc naturall founde, as may feeme equall in 
 length to a verfe which hath many moe fyllables of 
 lighter accents." 4to. 1575. 
 
 fays
 
 LEAftNING OF SHAKES^EAftE. ^t 
 
 Tays this true Crltick, owed the felicity of freedom 
 from the bondage of claffical fuperftition, to the luant 
 of what is called the advantage of a learned Educa- 
 tion. — This, as well as a vaft fuperiority of Genius 
 hath contributed to lift this aftonifhing man to the 
 glory of being efteemed the moft original thinker and 
 fpeaJter, fince the times of Homer." And hence in- 
 difputably the amazing Variety of Style and Manner, 
 unknown to all other Writers : an argument of it/elf 
 fufficient to emancipate Shakefpeare from the fuppo- 
 fition of a Clajfual training. Yet, to be honell:, one 
 Imitation is fajiened on our Poet : which hath been 
 infifted upon likewlfe by Mr. Upton and Mr. IVhalley. 
 You remember it in the famous Speech of Claudia 
 ill Meafure for Meafure : 
 
 ** Ay, but to die and go we know not where ! &c.'* 
 
 Moft certainly the Ideas of a *' Spirit bathing in 
 fiery floods," of refiding *' in thrilling regions of 
 thick-ribbed ice," or of being " imprifoned in the 
 viewlefs winds," are not original in our Author ; but 
 I am not fure, that they came from the Platofiick Hell 
 of Virgil, o The Monks alfo had their hot and their 
 cold Hell, " the fyrfte is fyre that ever brenneth, 
 
 « «, ., , .. ., " Allx panduntur inanes 
 
 Sufpenfiae ad ventos : aliis fub gurgite vafto 
 I^eftum eluitwr fcelus, aut exurilur igni.'* 
 
 F and
 
 42 AnESSAYonthe 
 
 and never gyveth lighte, fays an old Homily : P — * 
 The feconde is pafTyng colde, that yf a grete hylle of 
 fyre were caften therin, it fliolde torne to yce." One 
 of their Legends, well remembered in the time of 
 Shakefpcare^ gives us a Dialogue between a Bilhop 
 and a Soul tormented in a piece of ice, which was 
 brought to cure a grete brentiing heate in his foot : q 
 take care you do not interpret this the Gout, for I 
 remember M. Alenage quotes a Canon upon us, 
 
 *' Si quis dixerit Epifcopum podagra laborare, Ana- 
 thema fit." 
 
 Another tells us of the Soul of a Monk faftencd 
 to a Rock, which the winds were to blow about for 
 a twelvemonth, and purge of it's Enormities. In- 
 deed this do6trine was before now introduced into 
 poetick fi<5lion, as you may fee in a Poem *' where 
 the Lover declareth his pains to exceed far the pains 
 of Hell," among the many mifcellaneous ones fub- 
 joined to the Works of Surrey. Nay, a very learned 
 and inquifitive Brother-Antiquary, our Greek Pro- 
 feflbr, hath obferved to me on the authority of Blef^ 
 ienius, that this was the ancient opinion of the inha- 
 
 p At the ende of the Tejlyuall, drawen cute of Legenda 
 aurea. 4to. 1508. it was firft printed by Caxton, 1483. 
 "in helpe of fuch Clerkes who excufetheym fordefaute of 
 bokes, and alfo by fymplenesof connynge." 
 
 *5 On all/ouks daye, p. 152. 
 
 bitants
 
 Leartjing of Shakespeare. 43 
 bitants of Iceland;^ who were certainly very little 
 read either in the Poet or the Philofopher, 
 
 After all, Shakefpeare's curiofity might lead him to 
 Tranjlations . Gawin Douglas really changes the Pla- 
 tonick Hell into the " punytion of Saulis in Purgatory :** 
 and it is obfervable, that when the Ghoji informs 
 Hamlet of his Doom there, 
 
 ' ** Till the foul crimes done in his days of nature 
 Are burnt and purged aivay," ■ 
 
 the Exprelllon is very fimilar to the Bifhop's : I will 
 give you his Verfion as concifely as I can ; " It is a 
 nedeful thyng to fufFer panis and torment — Sum in 
 the wyndis, Sum under the watter, and in the fire 
 uthir Sum : — thus the mony Vices 
 
 " Contrakkit In the corpis be done aivay 
 
 And purgit" 
 
 SixteBookeofEneados. Fol. p. igr. 
 
 It feems however, that " Shakefpeare himfelf in the 
 Tempefl hath tranflated fome expreflions of Virgil: 
 •witnefs the O Dea certe" I prefume, we are here 
 directed to the pafTage, where Ferdinand fays oi Mi^ 
 randa, after hearing the Songs of Jriel, 
 
 ■ *' Moft fure, the Goddefs 
 
 On whom thefe airs attend." 
 and fo very/mall Latin is fufficient for this formidable 
 tranflation, that if it be thought any honour to our 
 
 ^ IJlandic^ Defcript. Lvgd. Bat. 1607. p. 46. 
 
 f 2 Poet,
 
 44 AnESSAYonthe 
 
 Poet, I am loth to deprive him of it ; but his honour 
 is not built on fuch a fandy foundation. Let us turn 
 to a real Tranjlatory and examine whether the Idea 
 might not be fully comprehended by an £«;^///2; reader; 
 fuppofing it neceflarily borrowed from Virgil. Hex^ 
 ameters in our own language are almoft forgotten; 
 we will quote therefore this time from Stanyhurji : 
 
 *' O to thee, fayre Virgin, what terme may rightly be 
 
 fitted? 
 Thy tongue, thy vifage no mortal frayltie refembleth, 
 No doubt, a Godejfe /" Edit. 1583. 
 
 Gabriel Harvey defired only to be " Epitaph' d, the 
 Inventor of the Englijh Hexameter " and for a while 
 every one would be halting on Roman feet -, but the 
 ridicule of our Fellow- Collegian Hall^ in one of his 
 Satires, and the reafoning of Daniel, in his Defence 
 of Rhyme againft Campion, prefently reduced us to 
 our original Gothic. 
 
 But to come nearer the purpofe, what will you 
 fay, if I can fliew you, that Shakefpeare, when, in 
 the favourite phrafe, he had a Latin Poet in his 
 Bye, mod afTuredly made ufe of a Tranflation. 
 
 Profpero in the Tempejl begins the Addrefs to iiis 
 attendant Spirits, 
 
 " Ye Elves of Hills, of Handing Lakes, and Groves." 
 This fpeech, Dr. Warburton rightly obferves to be 
 borrowed from Medea in Ovid: and *' it proves, fays 
 
 Mr,
 
 Learning OF Shakespeare. 45 
 
 Mr. Holty s beyond contradii5tion, that Shahfpiare 
 was perfecftly acquainted with the Sentiments of the 
 Ancients on the Subjei5t of Inchantments." The 
 original lines are thefe. 
 
 " Auraeque, & vend, montefque, amnefque, lacufque, 
 
 Diique omnes neraorum, diique omnes noftis adefte." 
 It happens however, that the tranflation by Arthur 
 Golding^ is by no means literal, and Shakefpcare hath 
 clofely followed it ; 
 
 *' Ye Ayres and Winds ; Te Ehes of Hills, of Brookes, 
 of Woods alone, 
 
 Ofjlanding Lakes, and of the Night approche ye everych 
 one." 
 
 I think it is unneceflary to purfue this any fur- 
 ther ; efpecially as more powerful arguments await us. 
 
 In the Merchant of Venice, the JeiVy as an apology 
 for his cruelty to Anthon'io, rehearfes many Sy?npa-^ 
 thies and Antipathies for which no reafon can be ren^ 
 dered, 
 
 " Some love not a gaping Pig— — 
 
 And others when a Bagpipe fings i'th' nofe 
 Cannot contain their urine for affe£lion.^'' 
 
 * In fome Remarks on the Tejnpefi, publiflied under 
 the quaint Title of " An attempte to refcue that aun- 
 ciente Englifh Poet and Play-wrighte, Maifter Williaume 
 Shake/peare, from the many Errours, faulfely charged 
 upon him by certaine new-fangled Wittes." Loncl. 8vo. 
 1749. p. 81. 
 
 ' His work is dedicated to the Earl of Leicejler in a 
 Jon^ Epiftle in verfe, from £erivicie, Apr. 20. 1567. 
 
 This
 
 -46 AnESSAYonthe 
 
 This incident. Dr. JVarhurton fuppofes to be taken 
 from a pafTage in Scaliger's Exercitat'iom againft Car- 
 dan^ " Narrabo tibi jocofam Sympathiam Reguli, 
 f'cifccjiis Equitis : Is Hum viveret audito Phcrmingis 
 fono, urlnam illico facere cogebatur." And, proceeds 
 the Dodoi\ to make this jocular ftory ftill more ridi- 
 culous, Shahfpeare^ I fuppofe, tranflatcd Phorminx 
 •by Bagpipes. 
 
 Here we feem fairly caught ; — for ScaUgers work 
 v.'as never, as the ic-m goes, done into Englijh. But 
 luckily in an old tranflation from the French of P^ler 
 Le Lciir, entitled, J treatife of Spe^ers, or Jiraunge 
 Sig/jls, Viftons and Jpparitions appearing fenftbly unto 
 men, we have this identical Story from Scaliger : an<J 
 what is ftill more, a marginal Note gives us in all 
 probability the very fact alluded to, as well as the 
 word of Shakefpecrc, *' Another Gentleman of this 
 "quality liued of late in Deuon neere Excefter, who 
 could not endure the playing on a Bagpipe-^' " 
 
 We may juft add, as fome obfervation hath been 
 n":ade upon it, ihztjffedlion in the fenfe oiSympathy was 
 
 " M. ^<7>'/,? hath delineated the fingular charafterof our 
 fantajlical a\u\.\\ot. His work was originally tranflatedby 
 one Zachuriefofies. My Edit, is in 410. 1605. with aa 
 anonymous Dedication to the King : ihtDe-vor?Jhire Story 
 was tlierefore well known in the time of ShakeJ'peare. — r 
 The pafllige from Scaliger is likewife to be met with i^ 
 The Optick Glajjc of Humors, written, I believe, by 7'. Womb^ 
 nucll ', and in feveral other places, 
 
 formerly
 
 Learning of Shakespeare. 47. 
 
 formerly technical ; and fo ufed by Lord Bacon, Sir 
 Kenelm D'lghy^ and many other Writers. 
 
 A fmgle word in Queen Catherine's Character of 
 Wolfey, in Henry the 8th, is brought by the Doctor 
 as another argument for the learning of ShakeJ'peare, 
 
 " He was a man 
 
 Of an unbounded Stomach, ever ranking 
 Himfelf with Princes ; one that by Suggefikn 
 Ty'd all the kingdom. Simony was fair play. 
 His own opinion was his law, i'th' prcfence 
 He would fay untruths, and be ever double 
 Both in his words and meaning. He was never 
 But where he meant to ruin, pitiful. 
 His promifes were, as he then was, mighty ; 
 But his performance, as he now is, nothing. 
 Of his own body he was ill, and gave 
 The Clergy ill example." 
 
 The word Suggejlion^ fays the Critick, is here ufed, 
 with great propriety, and feemitig knowledge of the 
 Latin tongue : and he proceeds to fettle the fenfe of 
 it from the late Roman writers and their gloffers. But 
 Shakefpeare' s knowledge was from HoUng/bedy whom 
 he follows verbatim : 
 
 ** This Cardinal was of a great ftomach, for he 
 compted himfelf equal with princes, and by craftie 
 Suggejlicn got into his hands innumerable treafure : 
 lie forced little on fimonie, and was not pitifull, and 
 
 ftood
 
 48 AnESSAYontMe 
 
 flood affei5tionate in his own opinion : in open pre-* 
 fence he would lie and feie untruth, and was double 
 both in fpeech and meaning : he would promife 
 much and performe little: he was vicious of his 
 bodie, and gaue the clergie euil example." Edit. 
 1587. p. 922. 
 
 Perhaps after this quotation, you may not think, 
 that Sir Thomas Hanmcr^ who reads Tyth'd — in- 
 ftead of Tyd all the kiugdoniy deferves quite fo 
 
 much of Dr. Jf^arburtoti" s feverity. Indifput- 
 
 ably the paflage, like every other in the Speech, 
 is intended to exprefs the meaning of the parallel 
 one in the Chronicle : it cannot therefore be credit- 
 ed, that any man, when the Original was produced, 
 fliould ftill chufe -to defend a cant acceptation j and 
 inform us, perhaps, ytr;':;///?)', that in gaming language, 
 from I know not what practice, to tye is to equal ! A 
 fenfe of the word, as far as I have yet found, unknown 
 to our old Writers ; and, \^ knozun, would not fure- 
 ly have been ufed in this place by our Author. 
 
 But let us turn from conjc<5lure to Shakefpeare's 
 authorities. Hall, from whom the above defcription 
 is copied by Holbigjhed, is very explicit in the de- 
 mands of the Cardinal: who having infolently told 
 the Lord Mayor and Aldermen^ " For fothe I thinke, 
 that halfe your fubftaunce were to litle," aflurcs them 
 by way of comfort at the end of his harangue, that 
 2 tipcn
 
 Learning of Shakespeare. 49 
 iipon an average the tythe (hould be fufficient ; " Sers, 
 fpeake not to breake that thyng that is concluded, 
 for Jome (hal not paie the tenth parte, T^nAfome more." 
 — And again ; " Thei faied, the Cardinall by Vifi- 
 tacions,makyngof Abbottes, probates ofteftamentes, 
 graunting of faculties, licences, and other pollyngs 
 in his Courtes legantines, had made his ihreafore 
 egall with the kynges.''' Edit. 1548. p. 138. and 143. 
 Skelton,^ in his TVhy co?ne ye not to Court, gives us, 
 
 after 
 ^ His Poems are printed with the title of " Pithy, 
 Pleafaunt, and Profitable Workes of Maifter Skelton, Poete. 
 Laureate.''^ — But, fays Mr. Cibber, after feveral other 
 Writers, " how or by what Intereft he was made Lanreat, 
 or whether it was a title he aflumed to himfelf, cannot 
 
 be determined." This is an error pretty generally 
 
 received, and it may be worth our while to remove it. 
 
 A facetious Author fays fomewhere, that a Peet Lau- 
 reate in the modern Idea, is a Gentleman, who hath an 
 annual Stipend for reminding us of the ISenfj Tear, and 
 the Birth-day : but formerly a Poet Laureat was a real 
 Uni'verjity Graduate. 
 
 " Skelton wore the Lawrell wreath 
 And pall mfchocls ye knoe." 
 fays Churchyarde in the Poem prefixed to his Works. And 
 Mafler Caxton in his Preface to The boke of Eneydos, 1490. 
 hath a pafTage, which well deferves to be quoted with- 
 out abridgment : "I praye mayfter John Skelton, late 
 created poete laureate in the uny-uerjite ofOxenforde, to over- 
 fee and correfte thys fayd booke, and taddrefle and ex- 
 povvne whereas fhall be founde faulte, to theym that 
 fhall requyre it ; for hym I knowe for fufFycyent to ex- 
 powne and Englyfshe every dyfficulte that is therein ; 
 for he hath late travi dated the epyftles of Tidki and the 
 G book
 
 50 AnESSAYonthe 
 
 after his, rambling manner, a curious charad^er of 
 
 Wolfey: 
 
 • ' ' •' By and by 
 
 He will drynke us fo dry 
 And fucke us fo nye 
 That men fhall fcantly 
 Haue penny or halpennye 
 God faue hys noble grace 
 And graunt him a place 
 EndlefTe to dwel 
 With the deuill of hcl 
 For and he were there 
 We nead neuer feare 
 
 book of Dyodorus Syculus, and diverfe otJier workes, out 
 oi Latynvcwo Englijshe^ not in rude and old langage, but 
 in poiyfhed and ornate termes, craftely, as he that hath 
 redde Vyrgyle, Ouyde, Tullyc, and all the other noble poets 
 and oratours, to me unknowen : and alfo he hath redde 
 the IX mufes, and undcrilands their muficalle fcyences, 
 and to whom of them eche fcycnce is appropred : I fup- 
 pofe he hath dronken of Elycoiis well !" 
 
 I find, from Mr. Bakcr''s MSS. that our Laureat was 
 admitted ad luiidcm at Cambridge : " An. Dom. 1493. & 
 Hen.'j. nono. Conceditur y^^r •^'f^Z/ow Poete in partibua 
 tranfmarinis atque Qxon. Laurca ornato, ut apud nos 
 eadem decoraretur." And afterward, " An. 150^ Conce- 
 dS.x.M.xJoh'i SkcltoH, Poetas Laureat. quod poflit ftare codem 
 gradu hie, quo iletit O.xomis^ &. quod poflit uti habitu 
 iibi concefTo a Principe." 
 
 See likewife Dr. Knight'' s Life of CoUt. p. 122. And 
 Tlechefches fur les Poetes couronnez, par M. 1' Abbe du 
 Re/nel, in i\i^Memoires dcLiitirature. Vol. 10. Paris. 410. 
 1736. 
 
 7 Of
 
 Learning of Shakespeare. 51 
 
 Of the feendes blacke 
 
 For I undertake 
 
 He wold fo brag and crake 
 
 That he wold than make 
 
 The deuils to quake 
 
 To fh udder and to Ihake 
 
 Lyke a fier drake 
 
 And with a cole rake 
 
 Brufe them on a brake 
 
 And binde them to a ftake 
 
 And fet hel on fyre 
 
 At his owne defire 
 
 He is fuch a grym fyre!'* Edit. 1568. 
 
 Mr. Upton and feme other Criticks have thought 
 it very fcholar-lih in Hamlet to fwear the Centinels 
 on a Sword: but this is for ever met with, f^or 
 inftance, in the Pajfus primus of Pierce Plowman^ 
 
 *' Dauidm his daies dubbed knightes. 
 
 And did hemfwere on her f=-Mord to ferue truth euer." 
 
 And in Hieronymo^ the common Butt of our Author, 
 and the Wits of the time, fays Lorenzo to Pedri?igano, 
 
 " Swear on this crofs, that what thou fayft is true — 
 But if I prove thee perjured and unjuft. 
 This very /ix'ord, whereon thou tcok'ft thine oath 
 Shall be the worker of thy Tragedy !" 
 
 We have therefore no occafion to go with Mr. Gar^ 
 
 rid as far as the French of Brant Sme to illuftrate this 
 
 G Z ceremony :
 
 52 AnESSAYonthe 
 
 ceremony : y a Gentleman., who will be always allow- 
 ed thefirji Commentator on Shalefpeare^ when he does 
 not carry us beyond himjelf. 
 
 Mr. Upton however, m the next place, produces a paf- 
 fage from Henry thefixthy whence he argues it to be very 
 plain, that our Author had not only read Cicero's Offices., 
 but even more critically than many of the Editors ; 
 
 " This Villain here 
 
 Being Captain of a Pinnace, threatens more 
 Than Bargulus, the ftrong lllyrian Pirate." 
 
 So the Wight ^ he obferves with great exultation, 
 is named by Cicero in the Editions of Shakefpeare's 
 time, " Bargulus, Illyrius latro ;" tho' the mo- 
 dern Editors have chofen to call him Bardylis : — 
 
 •' and thus I found it in two MSS." And thushc 
 
 might have found it mtivo Tranflations, before 5'/:'^^^- 
 fpeare was born. Robert IVhytinton, 1533, calls him, 
 " Bargulus, a Pirate upon the fee of Illiry'y" and 
 Nicholas Grimald, about twenty years afterward, 
 *' Bargulus, the lllyrian Robber." z 
 
 But it had been eafy to have checked Mr. Upton's 
 exultation, by obferving, that Bargulus does not ap- 
 pear in \\\t ^arto. — Which alfo is the cafe with 
 
 y Mr. John/on' s Edit. V. 8. p, 171. 
 
 z I have met with a Writer who tells us, that a Tranf- 
 lation of the Offices was printed by Caxton, in the year 
 148 1 : but fuch a book never exifled. It is a miftake for 
 ^' Tulliiis ofolde age,'^ by John Tiptoft, Earl of Worcejier. 
 
 feme
 
 Learning of Shakespeare. 53 
 
 fome fragments oi Latin verfes, in the different Parts 
 of this doubtful performance. 
 
 It is fcarcely worth mentioning, that two or three 
 more Latin palTages, which are met with in our Au- 
 thor, are immediately tranfcribed from the Story or 
 Chronicle before him. Thus in Henry the fifths 
 whofe right to the kingdom of France is copioufly 
 demonftrated by the Archbijhop. 
 
 ■ *' There is no bar 
 
 To make againll your Highnefs' claim to Francey 
 But this which they produce from Pharamond : 
 In terram Salica??i mulieres ne fuccedant ; 
 No Woman (hall fucceed in Salikc land : 
 Which Salike land the French unjuflly gloze 
 To be the realm of France, and Pharamcnd 
 The founder of this law and female bar. 
 Yet their own authors faithfully affirm. 
 That the land Sdlikc lies in Germany, 
 Between the floods of Sala and oi' E/ve, c'vc." 
 
 Archbifhop Chichelie, fays HolingJIjed^ *' did much in- 
 ueie againft the furmlfed and falfe fained law Salike^ 
 which the Frenchmen alledge euer againft the kings of 
 England in barre of their jull title to the crowne of 
 France. The very words of that fuppofed law are thefe. 
 In \.txx-^vc\Salicam inulieres ne fuccedant, that is to faie. 
 Into the Salike land let not women fucceed ; which 
 the French gloffers expound to be the realm of France, 
 and that this law was made by King Pharamond: 
 
 whereas
 
 54 AnESSAYonthe 
 
 vvhereas yet their owne authors aftirme, that the land 
 Salikc is in Germanic^ between the rivers of Elbe and 
 Sala, &c." p. 545. 
 
 It hath lately been repeated from Mr. Guthrie's 
 *' EfTay upon EngUJh Tragedy,"' that the Portrait of 
 J^acbcth's IVife is copied from Buchanan^ " whofe 
 fpirit, as well as words, is tranflated into the Play 
 of Shake/pear e : and it had fignified nothing to have 
 
 pored only on Holingfied for Fa^s." " Animus 
 
 etiam, per fe ferox, prope quotidianis conviciis uxoris 
 (quae omnium confiliorum ei erat confcia) ftimula- 
 batur." — This is the whole, thzt Buchanan fays of the 
 Lady, and truly I fee no more fpirit in the Scotchy 
 than in the EngUJh Chronicler. " The wordes of 
 the three weird Sifters alfo greatly encouraged him 
 £to the Murder of Duncan'], but fpecially his wife 
 lay fore upon him to attempt the thing, as (he that 
 was very ambitious, brenning in unquenchable de- 
 fire to bcare the name of a Queene." Edit. 1577. 
 p. 244. 
 
 This part of HcUng/lKd is an Abridgment of 
 Jokne BcUenden's tranflation of the noble clerk, He£ior 
 Boece, imprinted at Edingburgh, in FoL 1541. I will 
 give the pafTagc as it is found there, *' His wyfe im- 
 pacient of lang tary [as all zvcmen ar) fpecially quhare 
 theyar defirus of ony purpos, gaif hym gret artation 
 to purfew the thrid weird, that fche micht be ane 
 
 quene.
 
 Learning of Shakespeare. 55 
 quene, calland hymoft tymis febyl cowart andnocht 
 defyrus of honouris, fen he durfl: not afTailze the thing 
 with manheid and curage, quhilk is ofFerit to hym 
 be beniuolence of fortoun. Howbeit findry otheris 
 hes aflailzelt fic thinges afore with maift terribyl 
 jeopardyis, quhen thay had not fic fickernes to fuc-r 
 ceid in the end of thairlaubourisashehad." p. 173. 
 But we can dernonjlrate., that Shakifpeare had not 
 the Story from Buchanan. According to hiniy the 
 Weird-Sifters falute Macbeth, " Una Angufia Tha- 
 
 num, altera Moravia, tertia Regem." Thane of 
 
 Angus, and of Murray, i^c. but according to Holing- 
 Jhed, immediately from Bellendcn, as it ftands in 
 Shakefpeare, " The firfl: of them fpakc and fayde. 
 All hayle Makbeth Thane of Glammis, — the fecond 
 of them faid, Hayle Makbeth Thane of Cawder ; but 
 the third fayde, All hayle Makbeth, that hereafter 
 fliall be king of Scotland." p. 243. 
 
 «« I Witch. All hail, Macbeth' Hail to thee, Thatx 
 of Clamis / 
 
 2 Witch. All hail, Macbeth ! Hail to thee. Thane of 
 
 Qa<u;dor ! 
 
 3 Witch. All hail, Macbeth ! that Ihalt be Kin^ 
 
 hereafter !" 
 
 Here too our Poet found the equivocal Predictions, 
 on which his Hero fo fatally depended. *' He had 
 learned of certain wyfards, how that he ought to 
 
 take
 
 56 A N E S S A Y O N T H E 
 
 take heede oi Macduf^'e ; and furely hereupon hzi 
 
 he put Macdujfe to death, but a certaine witch whom 
 he had in great truft, had tolde, that he fliould neuer 
 be flain with man borne of any woman^ nor vanquifhed 
 till the Wood of Bernane came to the Caftell of Dun- 
 finaneT p. 244. And the Scene between Malcolm 
 and Macdujf'm the fourth a(5t is almoft literally taken 
 from the Chronicle. 
 
 Macbeth was certainly one of Shakefpeare's lateft 
 Produ6tions, and it might poflibly have been fug- 
 gefted to him by a little performance on the fame 
 fubjedl at Oxford^ before King Ja?ncs^ 1605. I will 
 tranfcribe my notice of it from Wake's Rex Platonicus: 
 " Fabulae anfam dedit antiqua de Regia profapia 
 hiftoriola apud Scoto-Britannos celebrata, quas narrat 
 tres olim Sibyllas occurrifl*e duobus Scctice proceribus, 
 Machetho & Bancboni^ & ilium prasdixilTe Regem fu- 
 turum, fed Regem nullum geniturum ; hunc Regem 
 non futurum, fed Reges geniturum multos. Vatici- 
 nii veritatem rerum eventus comprobavit. Banchonis 
 cnim e ftirpe Potentiinmus Jacobui oriundus." p. 29. 
 
 A ftronger argument hath been brought from the 
 Plot of Hamlet. Dr. Grey and Mr. Whalley aflure 
 us, that for //;/;, ShsKcfpcare mufl have read Saxo Gram- 
 maticui in Latin, for no tranflation hath been made 
 into any modern Language. But the truth is, he 
 did not take it from Sa\o at all ; a Novel called the 
 
 Hy/lorie
 
 trfeARNlkc OF SHAkfesPEARE. 57 
 Hyjiorie of Hamblet was his original : a fragment of 
 Vvhich, in black Letter^ I have been favoured with 
 by a very curious and intelligent Gentleman, to 
 whom the lovers of Shakcfpeare will feme time or 
 other owe great obligations. 
 
 It hath indeed been faid, that '^ it fuch an hijlory ex- 
 ijlsy it is almoft impoflible that any poet unacquainted 
 with the Latin language (fuppofing his perceptive 
 faculties to have been ever fo acute) could have caught 
 the charadeiiftical madnefs of Hamlet, defcribed by 
 Saxo Grammaticus, ^ fo happily as it is delineated by 
 Shakefpeare." 
 
 Very luckilyj our Fragment gives us a part of 
 Hamkt^s Speech to his Mother, which fufficiently re- 
 plies to this obfcrvation. — *' It was not without caufe, 
 and jufte occafion, that my geftures, countenances 
 and words feeme to proceed from a madman, and 
 that I defire to baue all men efteeme mee wholy de- 
 priued of fence and reafonable underfl:anding,bycaufe 
 I am well aflurcd, that he that hath made no con- 
 fcience to kill his owne brother, (accurtomed to mur- 
 thcrs, and allured with defire of gouernement with- 
 
 « " Falfitatis enim {Hamlethus) alieniis haberi cupldus, 
 ita aftutiam veriloquio permifcebat, ut nee diftis veraci- 
 tas deeflet, nee acuminis modus verorum judicio prode- 
 retur." This is quoted, as it had been before, in Mr. 
 Guthrie's EfTay on Tragedy, with -^fmall variation from 
 the Original. See Edit. Fol. 164^. p-50^ 
 
 H out
 
 58 An ESS A Y ON tMfe 
 
 out controll in his treafons) will not fpare to fau# 
 himfelfe with the like crudtie, in the blood, and flefll 
 of the loyns of his brother, by him maflacred : and 
 therefore it is better for me to fayne madnefle tlren ■ 
 to ufe my right fences as nature hath bellowed them 
 upon me, 7'he bright fliining clearnes therof I am 
 forced to hide vnder this fhadow of diflimulation, as 
 the fun doth hir beams vnder fome great cloud, when 
 the wether in fummer time ouercafteth : the face of 
 a mad man, ferueth to couer my gallant countenance, 
 and the geftures of a fool are fit for me, to the end 
 that guiding my fclf wifely therin I may preferue my 
 Jife for the Danes and the memory of my late deceafed 
 father, for that the defire of reuenging his death is 
 fo ingrauen in my heart, that if I dye not fhortly, I 
 hope to take fuch and fo great vengeance, that thefe 
 Countryes fliall for euer fpeake thereof. Neuerthe- 
 Icfle I muft flay the time, meanes, and occafion, left 
 by making ouer great haft, I be now the caufe of 
 of mine owne fodaine ruine and ouerthrow, and by 
 that meanes, end, before I beginne to efFecfl my hearts 
 defire : hee that hath to doe with a wicked, difloyall, 
 crucll, and difcourteous man, muft vfe craft, and po- 
 litike inuentions, fuch as a fine witte can beft imagine, 
 not todifcouer his interprife : for feeing that by force 
 I cannot effed my dcfire, rcafon alloweth me by dif- 
 fimulation, fuLtilue, and fgcret practife* to proceed 
 therein." 
 
 But
 
 Learning of Shakespeare. 5^ 
 But to put the matter out of all queftion, my com- 
 municative Friend above-mentioned, Mr. Capell^ (for 
 why fhould I not give myfelf the credit of his name r) 
 hath been fortunate enough to procure from the Col- 
 ledion of the Duke of Newcajlle^ a complete Copy of 
 the Hyjlorie of Hamblet^ which proves to be a tranfla-^ 
 tion from the French of Belleforejl \ and he tells me, 
 that '* all the chief incidents of the Play, and all the 
 capital Charadlers are there in embryo^ after a rudq 
 and barbarous manner : fentiments indeed there are 
 none, that Shakefpeare could borrow ; nor any ex- 
 preflion but (?;//?, which is, where Hamlet kills Pobnius. 
 behind the arras : in doing which he is made to cry 
 
 out, as in the Play, " a rat, a rat !" So much 
 
 for Saxo Grammaticus ! 
 
 It is fcarcely conceivable, how induftrioufly the 
 puritanical Zeal of the laft age exerted itfelf in de- 
 (Iroying, amongfl; better things, the innocent amufe- 
 ments of the former. Numberlefs Tales and Poe7ns 
 are alluded to in old Books, which are now perhaps 
 no where to be found. Mr. Capell informs me, (and 
 he is in thefe matters, the moft able of all men to 
 give information) that our Author appears to have 
 been beholden to fome Novels^ which he hath yet 
 only feen in Freticb or Italian : but he adds, " to fay 
 they are not in fome EngliJJj drefs, profaic or metrical, 
 and perhaps with circumftances nearer to his flories, 
 H 2 is
 
 «p AnESSAYonthe 
 
 is what T will not take upon me to do : nor indeed 
 is it what I believe ; but rather the contrary, and that 
 time and accident will bring fome of them to light, 
 
 if not all." 
 
 IF. Painter^ at the conclufion of the fecond Tome 
 of \\\% Palace of Pkafure^ 1567? ^^t'^r/Z/^i the Reader, 
 ^* bicaufe fodaynly (contrary to expe(5tation) this 
 Volume is rifen to greater heape of leaues, I doe 
 omit for this prefent time fundry Nouch of mery de- 
 vife, referuing the fame \o be joyned with the reft 
 of an other part, wherein (hall fucceede the remnant 
 of Bandello^ fpecially futch (fuffrable) as the learned 
 French man Francois de Belleforreji hath feleded, and 
 the choyfeft done in the Italian. Some alfo out of 
 ErizzOy Ser Giouanni Florent'ino^ Parahofco^ Cynthioy 
 Straparole., Sanfouinoy and the beft liked out of the 
 Qucene o( NauarrCy and other Authors. Take thefe 
 in good part, with thofe that haue and (hall come 
 
 forth." But I am not able to find, that a third 
 
 Tome was ever publifhed : and it is very probable, 
 that the Interefl: of his Bookfellers, and more efpe- 
 cially the prevailing Mode of the time, might lead 
 him afterward to print his fundry Novels feparately. 
 If this were the cafe, it is no wonder, that fuch fu- 
 gitive Pieces are recovered with difiiculty ; when the 
 two Tomes, which Tom. Raivlinfon would have called 
 JuJIa Folumina, are almoft annihilated. Mr. Jmrs, 
 
 who
 
 Learning OF Shakespeare. 6i 
 who fearched after books of this fort with the ut- 
 moft avidity, moft certainly had not feen them, 
 when he publifhed his Typographical Antiquities ; as 
 appears from his blunders about them : and poffibJy 
 I myfelf might have remained in the fame predica- 
 ment, had I not been favoured with a Copy by my 
 generous Friend, Mr. Lort. 
 
 Mr, Colman, in the Preface to his elegant Tranlla- 
 tion of Terence^ hath offered fome arguments for the 
 Learning of Shakefpeare, which have been retailed 
 with much confidence, fince the appearance of Mr. 
 yohnfcri's Edition. 
 
 *' Befides the refemblance of particular paflages 
 fcattcred up and down in different plays, it is well 
 known, that the Comedy cf Errors is In great meafure 
 founded on the Menachm of Plauius ; but I do not 
 recolledt ever to have ken it obferved, that tlic dif- 
 guife of the Pedant in the Taming of the Shrezv, and 
 his affuming the name and character of Vincentio, 
 feem to be evidently taken from the difguife of the 
 Bycophanta in the Trinummus of the faid Author ; ^ and 
 
 there 
 
 k This obfervation of Mr. Colman is quoted by his very 
 ingenious Colleague, Mr. Thornton^ in his Tranflation of 
 this Play : who further remarks, in another part of it, 
 that a paffage in Romeo and Juliet, where Shake/peare fpeaks 
 pf the contradidion in the nature of Xoi/^, is very much in 
 the manner of his Author : 
 
 f Amor — mores hominummoros & morofos efficit. 
 
 Minus
 
 62 AnESSAYonthe 
 
 There is a quotation from the Eunuch oi Terence z\(o, 
 
 fo familiarly introduced into the Dialogue of the 
 
 Taming 
 
 Minus placet quod fuadetur, quod difuadetur placet. 
 Quom inopia'lt, cupias, quandoejus copia'ft, turn non 
 veils. &c." 
 Which he tranflates with eafe and elegance, 
 
 " Love makes a man a fool. 
 
 Hard to be pleas'd. What you'd perfuade him to. 
 
 He likes not, and embraces that, from which 
 
 You would difl'uade him. — What there is a lack of. 
 
 That will he covet ; when 'tis in his power. 
 
 He'll none on't." ^Sl 3. Scene 3. 
 
 Let us now turn to the pafiage in Shake/peare : 
 
 •' O brawllngLovc! O loving hate ! — — 
 
 O heavy lightnefs ! fcrious vanity ! 
 Mif-fhapen Chaos of well-feeming forms ? 
 Feather of lead, bright fmoke, cold fire, fick health \ 
 Still-waking Sleep ! that is not what it is !" 
 Shakcfpeare, I am fure, in the opinion of Mr. Thornton^ 
 did not want a Plautus to teach him the workings of Na- 
 ture ; nor are his Parallclifms produced with any fuch \vs\- 
 plication : but, I fuppofe, a peculiarity appears here in 
 the manner of expreflion, which however was ex- 
 tremely the humour of the Age. Every Sonettcer cha- 
 rafterifes Love by contrarieties. JVat/on begins one of his 
 Canzonets, 
 
 ** Love is a fowre delight, a furred griefe 
 A living death, an euer-dying life, &c." 
 TurbtrvtUe makes Rea/on harangue againft it in the fame 
 nianner, 
 
 '* A fierie Froft, a Flame that frozen is with Jfe ! 
 A heavie Burden light to beare ! a Vertue fraught with 
 Vice ! &c." 
 Immediately from the Romaunt nf the Rofe, 
 " Lone it is an hatefuU pees 
 A free acquitaunce without reles — 
 
 dm
 
 Learning of Shakespeare. 63 
 
 Taming of the Shrew,, that I think it puts the queftion 
 
 of Shakejpeares having read the Roman Comick Poets 
 
 in the original language out of all doubt, 
 
 Redime te captum, quam queas, minimo.'* 
 
 With refpedl to refemblances, I fhall not trouble 
 
 you any further. — That the Comedy of Errors is 
 
 founded on the Menachmi^ it is notorious : nor is it 
 
 lefs fo, that a Tranflation of it by W. W. perhaps 
 
 JViUiam IVarner^ the Author of Alhions England, was 
 
 extant in the time oi Shakefpeare-^^ tho' Mr. Upton, 
 
 and 
 
 j^n heavie burthen light to heare 
 A wicked wawe awaie to weare : 
 And health full of maladie 
 And charitie full of envie — 
 A laughter that is weping aie 
 Reft that trauaiieth night and dale, &c." 
 This kind of .//^////'f/fj was very much the tafte of the 
 Prfvenfal and Italian Poets ; perhaps it might be hinted 
 by the Ode of Sappho preferved by Longinm : Petrarch is 
 full of it, 
 
 " Pace non trovo, & non ho da far guerra, 
 Et temo, & fpero, & ardo, & fon un ghiaccio, 
 Et voio fopra'l cielo, & ghiaccio in terra, 
 Et nulla ftringo, & tuttol mondo abbraccio. &c." 
 
 Sonet to 105. 
 Sir Thomas Wyat gives a tranflation of this Sonnet, with- 
 out any notice of the Original, under the title of " De- 
 fcription of the contrarious paffions in a Loucr." A- 
 mongft the Songes and Soneites, by the Earle of Surrey, 
 and Others. 1574. 
 
 <^ It was publifhcd in 4to. 1595. The Printer 0^ Lang- 
 iaim, p. 524. hath accidently given the date, 151?, 
 
 which
 
 .64 AnESSAYonthe 
 
 and fome other advocates for his learning, havecaii- 
 tioufly dropt the mention of it. Befides this^ (if in- 
 deed it were different) in the Gejla Grayorum, th^ 
 Chriftmas Revels of the Gray s- Inn Gentlemen, 1594, 
 • " a Comedy of Errors like to Plautiis his Menccbmus 
 ■was played by the Players." And the fame hath beeu 
 fufpected to be the Subjecfl of the gocdlie Comedie of 
 Plautus acted zxGreenwich before the King and Queea 
 in 1520 J as we learn from Hall and HoUngJhed : — - 
 Riccoboni highly compliments the Knglljh on opening 
 their ftage fo well ; but unfortunately, Cavendi/h in 
 his Lite of JJ'oIfy, calls it, an excellent Interlude in 
 Latine. About the fame time it was exhibited in Ger~ 
 man at Nuremburghy by the celebrated Hanffach the 
 Shoemakir. 
 
 " But a character in the Taming of the Shrew is 
 borrowed from the Trinummus, and no tranflation of 
 that was extant." 
 
 Mr. Cohnan indeed hath been better employ'd : but 
 if he had met with an old Comedy, called Suppofes, 
 tranilated from Arioflo by George Gafcoigne^ ^ he cer- 
 tainly 
 which hath been copied implicitly by Gildoii, TUobaU^ 
 Cooke, and fcveral others. Warner is now almoft forgot- 
 ten, yet the old Criticks eftcemed him one of " our chiefe 
 hcroical Makers." — Meres informs us, that he had " heard 
 him termed of the bell v.'its of both our Univerfities, our 
 Eiiglljh Homer." 
 
 d His works were firft collecled under the fingular title 
 
 of ** A liundreth fundrie Flowres bounde up iu one fmall 
 
 5 Poefie.
 
 Learning o f S h a k e'5P e ar e. 65 
 
 tainly would not have appealed to Plautus. Thence 
 Shake/pear ehoxrovi^d this part of the Plot, (as well as 
 foraeof thephrafeology) though y/^^/j^^Vi pronounces 
 it his own invention : there likewife he found the quaint 
 name of Petruchio. My young Mafter and his Man 
 exchange habits and charaders, and perfuade a 
 Scenafe^ as he is called, to perfonate the Father^ ex- 
 adly as in the Taming of the Shreiv, by the pretend- 
 ed danger of his coming from Sienna to Ferrara^ con- 
 trary to the order of the government. 
 
 Still, Shakefpeare quotes a -line from the Eunuch of 
 Terence : by memory too, and what is more, " pur- 
 pofely alters it, in order to bring the fenfe within 
 the compafs of one line." This remark was pre- 
 vious to Mr. "Johnforii ; or indifputably it would not 
 
 have been made at all. " Our Author had this 
 
 line from Lilly\ which I mention that it may not be 
 brought as an argument of his learning." 
 
 But how, cries an unprovoked Antagonift, can 
 you take upon you to fay, that he had it from Lillyy 
 
 Poefie. Gathered partly (by tranflation) in thefyneout- 
 landifh Gardins of Euripides, Quid, Petrarke, Ariojlo, and 
 others : and partly by inuention, outofour owne fruitefull 
 Orchardes in Englande : yelding fundrie fweete fauours of 
 Tragical, Comical, and Morall Difcourfes, bothe plea- 
 faun t and profitable to the well fmellyng nofes of leaned 
 Readers." BJad fritter. 410. no date. 
 
 I not
 
 66 AnESSAYonthe 
 
 and not from Terence ? ^ \ will anfwer for Mr. "^ohn' 
 
 fouy who is above anfwering for himfelf. — Becaufe 
 
 it is quoted as it appears in the Grammarian, and not 
 
 as it appears in the Poet. — And thus we have done 
 
 with the purpofed alteration. Uclall likewife in his 
 
 *' Floures for Latin [peaking, gathered oute of Terence, 
 
 1560," reduces the palTage to a fingle line, and fub- 
 
 joins a Tranflation. 
 
 We have hitherto fuppofed Skakefpearc the Author 
 
 of the Taming of the Skrew, but his property in it is 
 
 extremely difputabie. I will give you my opinion, 
 
 and the reafons on which it is founded. I fuppofe 
 
 then the prefent Play not originally the work of Shake- 
 
 fpcare, but reftored by him to the Stage, with the 
 
 whole Indu^lion of the Tinker, and fome otlier occa- 
 
 fional improvements ; efpecially in the Charadler of 
 
 Petrucbio. It is very obvious, that the Indu6lion and 
 
 the Play were either the works of different hands, or 
 
 written at a great interval of time : the former is in 
 
 our Author's />*/? manner, and the greater part of the 
 
 latter in his icorjl, or even below it. Dr. IVarhurton 
 
 declares it to \it certainly fpurious : and without doubt, 
 
 fuppofing it to have been written by Shakefpeare, it 
 
 muft have been one of his earliejl produdlions ; yet 
 
 it is not mentioned in the Lift of his Works by Meus 
 
 in 1598. 
 
 « W. Kenrick's Review of Dr. John/on' s Edit, oi Shake- 
 fpeare. 1765. 8vo. p. 105.
 
 Learning OF Shakespeare. 67 
 I have met with a facetious piece of Sir 'John Har- 
 rington^ printed in 1596, (and poffibly there may be 
 an earlier Edition) called, The Metamorphofis of Ajax^ 
 where I fufpe^l an allufion to the old Play; " Read 
 the booke of Taming a Shrew, which hath made a 
 number of us fo perfedl, that now every one can rule 
 a Shrew in our Countrey, fave he that hath hir." 
 — I am aware, a modern Linguift may objed, that the 
 word Book does not at prefent feem dramatick, but it 
 was once almoft technically fo : GoJJon in his Schools 
 of Abufe, contayning a pleafaunt inuedive againfl 
 PoetSy PiperSy Players, Jefters, and fuch like G;/^r- 
 /•/7/:7nof a Common-wealth, 1579, mentions " twoo 
 profe Bookes plaied at the Bclfauage " and Hear^ie 
 tells us in a Note at the end of Jl/'iUia?n of Worcejlery 
 that he had feen a MS. in the nature of a Play ox In- 
 terlude, intitled, the Booke of Sir Thomas Moore'' f 
 
 And 
 *■ I know indeed, there is extant a very old Poem, 
 in black Letter, to which it might have been fuppofed Sir 
 John Harrington alluded, had he not fpoken of the Dif- 
 covery as a nexv one, and recommended it as worthy the 
 notice of his Countrymen : I am perfuaded the method 
 in the old Bard will not be thought either. At the end of 
 the fixth Volume of Leland's Itinerary , we are fa'uoured 
 by Mr. Heame with a Macaronic Poem on a Battle at Ox- 
 ford between the Scholars and the Tovvnfmen : on a line 
 of which, 
 
 *' Invadunt aulas lychefon cum forth geminantes," 
 our Commentator very wifely and gravely remarks : 
 " Bycbefon, id eft, ^on of a Byche, ut e Codice Raivlin/o- 
 I 2 niatfo
 
 68 AnESSAYonthe 
 
 And in fa6V, there is fuch an old anonymous Play in 
 Mr. Pope's Lift. " A pleafant conceited Hiftory, 
 called, The Taming of a Shrew — fundry times a6led 
 by the Earl of Pembroke his Servants." Which feems 
 to have been republifhed by the Remains of that Com- 
 pany in 1607, when Shakefpeare's copy appeared at 
 xht Black- Friars or the Globe. — Nor let this feem 
 derogatory from the chara(5lcr of our Poet. There is 
 no reafon to believe, that he wanted to claim the 
 Play as his own ; it was not even printed 'till fome 
 
 niano fidldi. Eo nempe modo quo et dim Wborfon dixerunt 
 pro Son of a JVhcrc. Exempla habemus cum alibi turn in 
 libello qiiodam lepido & antiquo (inter Codices StUenia- 
 ros in Biol. Bodl.) qui infcribitur : The Wife lapped in 
 Morels Skyn : or the Taming of a Shreiv. Ubi pag. 36. 
 fic legimus ; 
 
 " They wreftled togvther thus they two 
 So long that the cjothcs afunder went. 
 And to the ground he threwe her tho. 
 
 That clcane from the backe her fmock he rent. 
 In every hand a rod he gate. 
 
 And layd upon her a right good pace : 
 Aflcing of lier what game was that. 
 
 And {he cried out, Hcrefcrit alas, alas." 
 Etpag.43. 
 
 Come downe now in this feller fo deepe. 
 
 And Morels fkin there fhall you fee : 
 "With many a rod that hath made me to weepe, 
 
 When the blood rannc downe faft by my knee. 
 The Mother this beheld, and cryed out, alas : 
 
 And ran out of the feller as flie had been wood. 
 She came to the table where the company was, 
 And fayd out, Hore/ony I will fee thy harte blood." 
 
 years
 
 Learning of Shakespeare. 69 
 years after his death : but he merely revived it on 
 
 his Stage as a Manager. Raven/croft aflures us, 
 
 that this was really the cafe with Titus Andronicus \ 
 which, it may be obferved, hath not Shakefpeare's 
 name on the Title-page of the only Edition publifti- 
 ed in his life-time. Indeed, from every internal mark, 
 I have not the leaft doubt but this horrible Piece was 
 originally written by the Author of the Lines thrown 
 into the mouth of the Player in Hamlet^ and of the 
 Tragedy of Locrine : which likewife from fome alfift- 
 ance perhaps given to his Friend, hath been unjuft- 
 ly and ignorantly charged upon Shakefpeare. 
 
 But iht Jheet-anchor holds faft : Shakefpeare himfelf 
 hath left fome Tranflations from Ovid. The Epiftles, 
 fays One, of Paris and Helen give a fufficient proof 
 of his acquaintance with ikat poet ; and it may be 
 concluded, fays Another, that he was a competent 
 judge of other Authors, who wrote in the fame lan- 
 guage. 
 
 This hath been the unlverfal cry, from Mr. Pope 
 himfelf to the Criticks of yefterday. Pofllbly, how- 
 ever, the Gentlemen will hefitate a moment, if we 
 tell them, that Shakefpeare was not the Author of 
 thefe Tranflations. Let them turn to a forgotten 
 book, by Thomas Heyjuood., called Britaines Troy, 
 printed by JV. Joggard in 1609, FoL and they 
 )vill find thefe identical Epiftles, " which being fo 
 
 pertinent
 
 ^o AnESSAYonthe 
 
 pertinent to our Hiftorie, fays Heywood, I thought 
 neceflarie to tranflate." — How then came they afcrib- 
 ed to Shakefpeare ? We will tell them that likewife. 
 The fame voluminous Writer published an Apology 
 for J^ors^ 4to. 1612, and in an Appendix directed 
 to his new Printer Nic. Okes^ he accufes his old One, 
 Jaggard^ of " taking the two Epiftles oi Paris io Helen, 
 and Hele?i to Paris, and printing them in a lefs vo- 
 lume under the name oi Jnother : —r-hu\.he was much 
 offended with Mafter "Jaggard, that altogether un- 
 knowne to him, he had prefumed to make fo bold 
 with his Name." s In the fame work of Heywood are 
 all the other Tranflations, which have been printed 
 in the modern Editions of the Poems of Shakefpeare, 
 You now hope for land : We have feen through 
 little matters, but what muft be done with a whole 
 book? — In 1751, was reprinted " A compendious 
 or briefe examination of certayne ordinary complaints 
 of diuers of our Countrymen in thefe our days : 
 which although they are in fome parte unjuft and 
 friuolous, yet are they all by way of Dialogue 
 
 g It may feem little matter of wonder, that the name of 
 Shakefpeare fhould be borrowed for the benefit of the Book- 
 feller ; and by the way, as probably for a Play as a Poem : 
 but modern Criticks may be furprifed perhaps at the 
 complaint oi John Hall, that *' certayne Chapters of the 
 Pro-verbes, tranflated by him into £«?///^ metre, 1550, 
 had before been untruely entituled to Be the doyngs of 
 Mi)'ller Thomas Sternholdr 
 
 throughly
 
 Learning of Shakespeare. 71 
 
 throughly debated and difcufled by JVilliam Shake- 
 fpeare. Gentleman." 8vo. 
 
 This extraordinary piece was originally publiftied 
 in 4to, 1581, and dedicated by the Author, " To 
 the moft vertuous and learned Lady, his moft deare 
 and foveraigne Princefle, Elizabeth; being inforced 
 by her Majefties late and fingular clemency in par- 
 doning certayne his unduetifull mifdemeanour." And 
 by the modern Editors, to the late King ; as " a 
 Treatife compofed by the moft extenfive and fertile 
 Genius, that ever any age or nation produced." 
 
 Here we join iflue with the Writers of that excel- 
 lent, tho' very unequal work, the Biographia Bri- 
 tannica : ^ if, fay they, this piece could be written by 
 
 our 
 Ji I mufl however corre6l a remark in the Life o{ Spe?ifery 
 which is inipotently levelled at the firft Criticks of the 
 age. It is obferved from the correfpondence of Spenfer 
 and Gabriel Hawcy., that the Plan of the Fairy ^een was 
 laid, and part of it executed in 1580, three years before 
 t\icGieru/alc7nme Liherata wzs printed : " hence appears the 
 impertinence of all the apologies for his choice o{ Ariofto's 
 manner in preference to Taffo's /" 
 
 But the faft is not true with refpeft to TaJJo. Man/hand 
 Nicerof! inform us, that his Poem was publilhed, though 
 imperfcflly, in 1574 ; and I myfelf can affure the Bio- 
 grapher, that I have met with at leafty/;f other Editions, 
 preceding his date for it's firft publication. I fufpeft, 
 that Baillet is accountable for this miftake : who in the 
 Jugemens des Swvaris, Tom. 3. p. 399. mentions no Edi- 
 tion previous to the 410. Venice, 1583. 
 
 It is a queftion of long ftanding, whether a part of the 
 6 Fairy
 
 y2 AnESSAYonthe 
 
 our Poet, it would be abfolutely decifive In the dif- 
 pute about his learning ; for many quotations ap- 
 pear in it from the Greek and Latin ClaiTicks. 
 
 The concurringcircumftances of the A^tfw^,and the 
 Mi/demeanor^ which is fuppofed to be the old Story 
 of Deer-jlealing., feem fairly to challenge our Poet 
 for the Author : but they hefitate. — His claim may 
 appear to be confuted by the date 1581, when Shake- 
 fpeare was only Seventeen, and the long experience. 
 
 Fairy ^een hath been Icjl, or whether the work was left 
 unfinijhed : which may effeftually be anfwered by a fingle 
 quotation. VVilliatn Brovjne publifhed fame Poems in Fol. 
 1 616, under the name oi Britannia's Pcjiorais, " efteemed 
 then, fays Wood, to be written in a fublime ftrain, and 
 
 for fubjeft amorous and 'very pleajing." In one of which. 
 
 Book 2. Song I. he thus fpeaks of Spsnfer : 
 
 " He fung th' heroickc Knights of Faiery land 
 In lines fo elegant, of fuch command, 
 That had the Thracian plaid but halfe fo well, 
 He had not left Eurydice in hell. 
 But e^re he ended his melodious Song, 
 An hoft of Angels flew the clouds among, 
 And rapt x.\\h Swan from his attentive mates. 
 To make him one of their afToclates 
 In heauens faire Quire : where now he fings the praife 
 Of him that is the Firjl and Laji c/Dayes." 
 It appears, that Bro^wte was intimate with Draylon, 
 Jon/on, and SeldiV:, by their poems prefixed to his Book : 
 he had therefore good opportunities of being acquainted 
 with the fadl abovcmentioned. Many of his Poems re- 
 main in MS. We have in our Library at Emmatiuel a 
 Mafque of his, prcfented at the Inner Temple, Jojt. 13. 
 1614. The fubjcd is the Stor) of Uly£es and Ctrce. 
 
 which
 
 Learning OF Shakesp£are. 73; 
 
 "which the Writer talks of. — But I will not keep you 
 infufpenfe : the book was not written by Skakefpeare, 
 
 Strype, in his Annah^ calls the Author some 
 learned Man, and this gave me the firft fufpicion. I 
 knew very well, that honeft John (to ufe the lan- 
 guage of Sir Thomas Bodley) did not wafte his time 
 with fuch baggage books as Plays and Poems j yet I 
 muft fuppofe, that he had heard of the name of Shake- 
 fpeare. After a while I met with the original Edi-. 
 tion. Here in the Title-page, and at the end of the 
 Dedication, appear only the Initials, W. S. Gent, 
 and prefently I was informed by Anthony Wood, that 
 the book in queftion was written, not by JViUiam. 
 Shakefpeare, but by IVilliam Stafford, Gentleman : '*■ 
 which at once accounted for the Mifdemeanour in the 
 Dedication. For Stafford had been concerned at that 
 time, and was indeed afterward, as Camden and the 
 other Annalifts inform us, with fome of the confpi- 
 rators againft Elizabeth ; which he properly calls 
 his unduetifull behaviour. 
 
 I hope by this time, that any One open to con- 
 viction may be nearly fatisfied ; and I will promife 
 to give you on this head very little more trouble. 
 
 i Fajii. 2d Edit. V. I. 208. — It will be feen on turn- 
 ing to the former Edition, that the latter part of the Pa- 
 ragraph belongs to another Stafford. — I have fince ob- 
 ferved, that Wood is not the firit, who hath given us the 
 true Author of the Pamphlet. 
 
 K The
 
 ^4 AnESSAYonthe 
 
 The juftly celebrated Mr. Warton hath favoured 
 lis, in his Life of Dr. Bathurfl^ with fome hearfay 
 particulars concerning Shakefpeare from the papers of 
 Aubrey^ which had been in the hands of Wood; and 
 I ought not to fupprefs them, as the hfi feems to 
 make againft my dodrine. They came originally, I 
 lind, on confulting the MS. from one Mr. Beeflon : 
 and I am fureMr. Warton^ whom I have the honour 
 to call my Friend, and an Aflbciate in the queftion, 
 will be in no pain about their credit. 
 
 *' JVilliam Shakefpeare^ $ 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 
 ftile, and make a fpeech. This JVilliam being in- 
 clined naturally to Poetry and A(5ling, came to Lort' 
 don, I guefs, about eighteen, and was an A(5lor in one 
 of the Playhoufes, and did vnSt exceedingly well. He 
 began early to make EfTays in dramatique Poetry.— 
 The humour of the Conflahle in \\\t Midfummer Nighf 5 
 Dream he happen'dto take at Crendon ^ in Bucks. — I 
 
 ^ It was obferved in the former Edition, that this place 
 5s not met with in Spelman^s Villarey or in Adam^s 
 Index ; nor, it might liave been added, in thejirji and 
 the lajl performance of this fort. Speed's Tables, and What^ 
 iefs Gazetteer : perhaps, however, it may be meant un- 
 der the name oiCrandon ; — but the inquiry is of no im- 
 portance. — It fhould, I think, be written Credendon ; 
 tho' better Antiquaries than Aubrey have acquiefcedin the 
 vulgar corruption. 
 
 think.
 
 Learning OF Shakespeare. 75 
 think, I have been told, that he left near three hun- 
 dred pounds to a Sijier. — He underjlood Latin pretty 
 xvelly TQKhe had been in his younger yeares a SchooJmaJlcr 
 in the Country" 
 
 I will be (hort 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. Shakefpcarc mofi: certainly 
 
 "went to London^ and commenced A<5tor thro' necef- 
 fity, not natural inclination. — Nor have we any rea- 
 fon to fuppofe, that he did a<5l exceedingly well. Rowe 
 tells us from the information of Betterton, who was 
 inquifitive into this point, and had very early op- 
 portunities of Inquiry from Sir TF. Davenant, that 
 he was no extraordinary A£ior ; 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 ftroke at it. Dr. Lodge, who was for 
 ever peftering the town with Pamphlets, publilhed 
 in the year 1596, IVits miferie, and the TForlds mad- 
 nejfe, difcovering the Devils incarnat of this Age. 4to. 
 One of thefe Devils is Hate-virtue, or Sorrow 
 for another mans good fuccejfe, who, fays the Dodor, 
 is ** a foule lubber^ and looks as pale as the Vi- 
 K 2 fard
 
 76 AnESSAYonthei 
 
 fard of the GhoJ}, which cried fo miferably at the 
 Theatre, hke an Oifler-wife, Hamlet revenge," Thus 
 you fee Mr. HoWs fuppofed proof, in the Appendix 
 to the late Edition, th.at Hamlet was written after 
 1597, or perhaps 1602, will by no means hold good ; 
 whatever might be the cafe of the particular paflage 
 on which it is founded. 
 
 Nor does it appear, that Shahcfpeare did begin early 
 to make EJJays in Dramaiique Poetry : the Arraign- 
 ment of Paris, 1584, which hath fo often been afcribed 
 to him on the credit of Kirhnan and fVinJlafiley,^ was 
 written by George Peek; and Shaktfpeareisnot met with, 
 even as an JJ/iJIant, 'till at leafl: feven years afterward. i" 
 "—Najh in his Epiftle to the Gentlemen Students of 
 both Univerfities, prefixed to Greene's Arcadia, 4to. 
 Hack Letter, recommends his Friend, Peele, " as the 
 chiefe fupporter of pleafance now living, the Atlas of 
 Poetrie, and primus Verlorum artifex : whofe firft in- 
 creafe, iht Arraignment of Paris, might plead to their 
 
 1 Thefe people, who were the Curls of the laft age, af- 
 crlbe likewife to our Author thofe miferable Performances, 
 Mucidorus, and the Merry De'vil of Edmonton. 
 
 »n Mr. Pope aflerts ** The troublefome Raigne of King 
 Johni" in 2 parts, 161 1, to have been written by Shake- 
 j'peare and Ro-ix-ky : — which Edition is a mere Copy of 
 another in black Letter, 1591. But I find his aflertion is 
 fomewhat to be doubted: for the old Edition hath no 
 name o{ Author at all; and that of 1611, the Initials 
 only, IV, 5h, in the Title-page, 
 
 opinions
 
 Learning of Shakespeare. 77 
 
 opinions his pregnant dexterltie of wit and manifold 
 varietie of inuention." " 
 
 In the next place, unfortunately, there is neither 
 fuch a Charadter as a Conjiable in the Midfummer 
 
 " Peek fcems to have been taken into the patronage of 
 the Earl oi Northumberland <^q\x\. 1 593, to whom he de- 
 dicates in that year, " The Honour of the Garter, a Poem 
 
 Gratulatorie the Firjlling confecrated to his noble 
 
 name." *' He was efteemcd, fays Anthony Woody a 
 
 jnoft noted Poet, 1579; but when or where he died, I 
 cannot tell, for Jo it is, and always hath been, that moft 
 Poets 6.\e 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 Re'vieiu, a very curious Letter under the name 
 of George Peek, to one Mafter Henrie Marie ; relative to a 
 difpute between Shakefpeare and Alleyn, which was com- 
 
 promifed by Ben. Jotifon. " I never longed for thy 
 
 companye more than laft night ; we were all verie merrie 
 at the Globe, when Ned Alleyn did not fcrnple to afFyrme 
 pleafauntly to thy friende Will, that he had llolen hys 
 fpeeche about the excellencie of afting in Hamlet hys 
 Tragedye, from converfaytions manifold, whych had 
 paffed between them, and opinions gyven by Alleyn 
 touchyng that fubjefte. Shake/peare did not take this talk 
 in good forte ; but "Jon/on did put an end to the ftryfe 
 wyth wittielie faying, thys affaire needeth no conten- 
 tione : you ftoleit from Ned no doubte : do not marvel : 
 
 haue you not feene hym afte tymes out of number ? 
 
 This is pretended to be printed from the original MS, 
 dated 1 600 ; which agrees well enough with Weed's Cla- 
 ruit : but unluckily, Peele was dead at leall two years be- 
 fore. " As Aiu'.creon died by the Pot, fays Meres, fo 
 George Peek by the Pox" Wit's Treafury^ 1598. P- 286.
 
 ^8 AnESSAYonthe 
 
 Night's Drcivn : nor was the three hufidred poundshz" 
 gacy to a Siller, but a Daughter. 
 
 And to clofe the whole, it is notpoflible, accord- 
 ing to Aubrey himfcif, that Shakcfpcdre could have 
 been Ibme years a Schcolmajhr in the Country^ : on 
 ■which circumflancc only the fuppofition of his learn- 
 ing is profefledly founded. He was not furely very 
 young, when he was employed to kill Calves^ and he 
 commenced Player about Eij^hteen ! — The truth is, 
 tliat he left his Father, for a Wife, a year fooner ; and 
 had at leaft two Children born at Stratford htioxc he 
 retired from thence to Z^;:^/i7/z. It is therefore fufficient- 
 ly clear, that poor yf/7/^5/;>' had too much reafon for his 
 character of Aubrey : You will find it in his own Ac- 
 count of his Life, published by Hearfie, which I 
 would earneftly recommend to any Hypochondriack ; 
 
 *'^ A pretender to Antiquities, roving, magotie- 
 headed, and fometimes little better than crafed : and 
 beinfT exceedingly credulous, would ftutf his many 
 Letters fcnt to A. W. with fsl.'iries and mifinforma- 
 tions." p. 577. 
 
 Thus much for the Learning of Shakefpeare with 
 refpe(St to the ancient languages : indulge me with 
 an obfcrvation or two on his fuppofed knowledge of 
 the modern ones, and I will promife to releafe you. 
 
 "• It is evident, we have been told, that he was 
 not unacquainted with the Italian ;" but let us- in- 
 quire into the Evide;:ce. 
 
 Certainly
 
 Learning of Shakespeare. 7^ 
 Certainly fome Italian words and phrafes appeaf 
 in the Works oi Shokefpcare ; yet if we had nothing 
 clfe to obferve, their Orthography might lead us to 
 fufpecSl them to be not of the JFriter's importation^ 
 But we can go further, aud prove this. 
 
 When Ptjlol *' chears up hlmfelf with ends of 
 Verfe," he is only a copy of Htvmlball Gonfaga, who 
 ranted on yielding himfelf a Prifoner to an £'7z^/;)7j Cap- 
 tain in the Loiv Countries^ as you may read in an old 
 Colledlion of Tales, called TVits^ Fits, and Faucus,'^'' 
 
 *' Si Fortuna me tormenta, 
 II fperanza me contenta." 
 
 And Sir Richard Hawkins, in his Voyage to the South- 
 Sea, 1593, throws out the fame jingling Diftich on 
 the lofs of his Pinnace. 
 
 " Mafter Page, fit ; good Mader Page, fit ; Pro- 
 face. What you want in meat, we'll have in drink," 
 fays Juftice Shallow's Fac totiun, Davy, in the 2(1 
 Part oi Henry the 4th. 
 
 Prof ace. Sir Thomas Hanmer obferves to be Italian 
 from profaccia, much good may it do you. Mr. Johnfon 
 rather thinks it a miftake for perforce. Sir Thomai 
 
 «> By one Anthony Copley, 410. black Letter, it fcems to 
 have had many Editions : perhaps the laft was in 1614. 
 — The firft piece of this fort, that I have met with, was 
 printed by T. Bcrthelcf, the' not mention'd by y/r;«, 
 called, " Talcs, and quicke anfweres very mery and 
 pleafant to rede." 410, no date. 
 
 4 howcveir
 
 go AnESSAYonthe 
 
 however is right ; yet it is no argument for his Au- 
 thor's Italian knowledge. 
 
 Old Heywood, the Epigrammatift, addrefled his 
 Readers long before, 
 
 " Readers, reade this thus : for Preface, Proface, 
 Much good do it you, the poore repaft here, &c.** 
 
 IVoorkes. Lend. 410. 1562. 
 
 And Dckker in his Play, If it be not good^ the Diuel 
 is in it, (which is certainly true, for it is full of 
 Devils) makes Shackle-fmie, in the character of />;^r 
 Rujh, tempt his Brethren with " choice of difhes'^ 
 
 •' To which profaa ; with blythe lookes fit yee." 
 Nor hath it efcaped the quibbling manner of the 
 Water-poet, in the title of a Poem prefixed to his 
 Fraifc of Hcmpfced, " A Preamble, Preatrot, Prea- 
 gallop, Prcapace, or Preface ; and Proface, my 
 Matters, if your Stomacks ferve." 
 
 But the Editors are not contented without coining 
 Italian. " R:-JG,fays the Drunkard,'' is an Expreffion 
 of the madcap prince of Wales-, which Sir Tf)omas 
 Hanmcr corre(51s to Rihi, Drink away, or again, as 
 it fliould rather be tranflated. Dr. IVarhurton accedes 
 to this i and Mr. Johnfon hath admitted it into his 
 7'ext ; but with an obfervation, that Rivo might 
 pofTibly be the cant of Englijh Taverns. And fo in- 
 deed it was : it occurs frequently in Marfan. Take 
 a quotation from his Comedy oi What yon will; 1607. 
 
 " Muficke,
 
 Le ARN I NG OF Sh A K ESP E AR E. 8l 
 
 " Muficke, Tobacco, Sacke, and Sleepe, 
 The Tide of Sorrow backward keep : 
 If thou art fad at others fate, 
 Ri'voy drink deep, give care the mate.** 
 In Love's Labour loji, Boyet calls Don Armado^ 
 
 ** A Spaniard that keeps here in Court, 
 
 A Phantafme, a Monarcho.*^ 
 
 Here too Sir Thomas is willing to palm Italian upon 
 us. We (hould read, it feems, Mammuccio^ a Mam- 
 met, or Puppet : Ital. Mammuccia. But the allufion 
 is to a fantaftical CharaSler of the time, — " Popular 
 applaufe, fays Meres., dooth nourifh fome, neither 
 do they gape after any other thing, but vaine praife 
 and glorie, — as in our age Peter Shakerlye of Paules^ 
 and MoNARCHO that liued about theCourt." p. 178. 
 I fancy, you will be fatistied with one more in- 
 ftance. 
 
 *' Baccare, You are marvellous forward, quoth 
 Gremio to Petruchio in the Taming of the Shrew. 
 
 "But not fo forward, fays Mr. Theobald, as ouf 
 Editors are indolent. This is a ftupid corruption of 
 the prefs, that none of them have dived into. We 
 muft read Baccalare, as Mr. TFarburton acutely ob- 
 ferved to me, by which the Italians mean. Thou ig- 
 norant, prefumptuous Man." — " Properly indeed, 
 adds Mr. Heath, a graduated Scholar, but ironically 
 and farcaftically, z pretender to Scholarfhip." 
 
 This is admitted by the Editors and Criticks of 
 L every
 
 8;2 AnESSAYonthe 
 
 every Denomination. Yet the word is neither wrong, 
 nor Italian : it was an old proverbial one, ufed fre- 
 quently by 'Johii Heywood-y who hath made, what he 
 pleafes to call. Epigrams upon it. 
 
 Take two of them, fuch as they are, 
 » *' Backare, quoth Mortimer to his Sow : 
 
 Went that Sow iacke at that biddyng trowe you r" 
 ** Backare, quoth Mortimer to his fow : fe 
 Mortimers fow fpeakth as good latin as he." 
 
 Howel takes this from Heywood^ in his Old Sawes and 
 Adages : and Philpot introduces it into the Proverbs 
 colle61ed by Camden. 
 
 We have but few obfervations concerning Shake" 
 fpeare's knowledge of the SpaniJI} tongue. Dr. Grey 
 indeed is willing to fuppofe, that the Plot of Romeo 
 and Juliet may be borrowed from a Comedy 
 of Lopes de Vega. But the Spaniard, who was cer- 
 tainly acquainted with Bandello, hath not only changed 
 the CatalUophe, but the names of the Charadters. 
 Neither Romeo nor Juliet ; neither Montague nor Ca^ 
 pulet appears in this performance : and how came 
 they to the knowledge of Shakefpeare ? — Nothing is 
 more certain, than that he chiefly followed the Tranf- 
 lation by Painterfrom the French ofBoiJleau, and hence 
 arife the Deviations from Bandello's original Italian. P 
 
 It 
 
 P It is remarked, that " Paris, tho' in one place called 
 Early is moft commonly ftiled the Countie in this Play. 
 
 Shake'
 
 Learning OF Shakespeare. 83 
 
 It feems however from a paflage in Ames's Typogra- 
 phical Antiquities, that Painter was not the only 
 Tranflator of this popular Story : and it is poffibic 
 therefore, that Shakefpeare Tt\\^X. have other affiftance. 
 In the Induction to the Taming of the Shrewy the 
 Tinker attempts to talk Spanijl) : and confequently the 
 Author himfelf was acquainted with it, 
 
 *' Pauctis pallabris, let the World Aide, Sefa.'* 
 But this is a burlefque on Hieronymo ; the piece of 
 Bombaft, that I have mentioned to you before : 
 
 Shakefpeare feems to have preferred, for fome reafon or 
 ©ther, the Italian Conte to our Count : — perhaps he took 
 it from the old Englijh Novel, from which he is faid to 
 have taken his Plot." — He certainly did fo : Paris is 
 there firft Ililed a young Earle, and afterward Counte, 
 Countee, and County; according to the unfettled Ortho- 
 graphy of the time. 
 
 The word however is frequently met with in other 
 Writers ; particularly in Fairfax : 
 
 ** As when a Captaine doth beliege fome hold. 
 Set in a marifh or high on a hill. 
 
 And trieth waies and wiles a thoufand fold. 
 To bring the piece fubjefled to hLs will ; 
 
 So far'd the Countie with the Pagan bold. &c." 
 
 Godfrey of Bulloigne. Book 7. St. go^ 
 ** Fairfax, fays Mr. Hume, hath tranflated Tafo with 
 an elegance and eafe, and at the fame time with an ex- 
 adlnefs, which for that age are furprifmg. Each line in 
 the original is faithfully rendered by a correfpondent line 
 in the tranflation." The former part of this charafter 
 is extremely true ; but the latter not quite fo. In the 
 Book above-quoted TaJJb and Fairfax do not even agree 
 in the Number of Stanza! s. 
 
 L2 "What
 
 84 AnESSAYonthe 
 
 *' What new device have they devifed, trow ? 
 Pocas pallabras, &C. '■ 
 
 Mr. Whalley tells us, " the Author of this piece 
 hath the happinefs to be at this time unknown, the 
 remennbrance of him having perilhed with himfelf :" 
 Philips and others afcribe it to one William Smith : 
 but I take this opportunity of informing him, that it 
 vas written by Thomas Kyd j if he will accept the 
 authority of his Contemporary, Heyivood. 
 
 More hath been faid concerning Sbakefpeare's ac- 
 quaintance with the French language. In the Play of 
 Henry the fifths we have a whole Scene in it : and in 
 other places it occurs familiarly in the Dialogue. 
 
 We may obferve in general, that the early Edi- 
 tions have not half the quantity ; and every fentence, 
 or rather every word mofl: ridiculoufly blundered. 
 Thefe, for feveral reafons, could not pofllbly be pub- 
 lished by the Author i <? and it is extremely probable, 
 
 that 
 
 q Every writer on Shakeffeare hath cxpreffed his afto- 
 jiifhment, that his author was not felicitous to fecure 
 his Fame by a correft Edition of his performances. This 
 matter is not underftood. When a Poet was connedled 
 with a particular Playhoufe, he conftantly fold his Works 
 to the Company, and it was tlieir intereft to keep them 
 from a number of Rivals. A favourite Piece, zs Hey^vsod 
 informs us, only got into print, when it was copied by 
 the ear, ** for a double fale would bring on a fupicion of 
 honeftie." Shakefpeare therefore himfelf publifhed nothing 
 in tlie Drama : when he left the Stage, his copies re- 
 mained
 
 Learning of Shakespeare. 8^ 
 
 that the French ribaldry was at firft inferted by a dif- 
 ferent hand, as the many additions mod certainly 
 
 were after he had left the Stage. Indeed, every 
 
 friend 
 
 mained with his Fellow-Managers, Hsmivge and Condell\ 
 who at thejr own retirement, about feven years after the 
 death of the Author, gave the world the Edition now 
 known by the name of the firjl Folio \ and call the pre- 
 vious publications *' ftolne and furreptitious, maimed 
 and deformed by the frauds and Healths of injurious im- 
 poftors." But this was printed from the Playhoufe Copies; 
 which in a feries of years had been frequently altered 
 thro' convenience, caprice, or ignorance. We have a 
 Sufficient inftance of the liberties taken by the Aftors, 
 in an old pamphlet, by l>lajhy called Lenten Stuffe, 
 twit h the Prayfe of the red Herring, \X.O. 1599. where he 
 affures us, that in a Play of his, called the IJle of DogSf 
 *■'■ foure a£is, without his confent, or the lealt gueffe of 
 his drift or fcope, were fupplied by the Players." 
 
 This however was not his firft quarrel with them. In 
 the Epiftle prefixed to Greeners Arcadia, which I have 
 quoted before, Tom. hath a lafh at fome '• vaine glorious 
 Tragedians," and very plainly at Shakefpeare in particu- 
 lar ; which will ferve for an anfwer to an obfervation of 
 Mr. Pope, that had almoft been forgotten : " It was 
 thought a praife to Shakefpeare, that he fcarce ever blot- 
 ted a line : — I believe the common opinion of his want 
 of learning proceeded from no better ground. This too 
 
 might be thought a praife by fome." But hear Najh, 
 
 who was far from praifing: " I leaue all thefe to the mer- 
 cy of their Mother-tongue, that feed on nought but the 
 
 crums that fall from the Tranfator's trencher. That 
 
 could fcarcely Latinize their neclc verfe if they fliould 
 haue neede, yet Englijh Seneca read by Candlelight yeelds 
 
 many good fentences hee will affoord you whole 
 
 Ha7nkt5, I fhould fay, Handfuh of tragicail fpeeches." 
 6 —I
 
 86 AnESSAYonthe 
 
 friend to his memory will not eafily believe, that he 
 was acquainted with the Scene between Catharine 
 and the old Gentlewoman ; or furely he would not 
 have admitted fuch obfcenity and nonfenfe. 
 
 Mr. Hawkins, in the Appendix to Mr. Johnfon'i 
 Edition, hath an ingenious obfervation to prove, 
 that Shakefpeare, fuppofing the French to be his, had 
 very little knowledge of the language. 
 
 *' Eft-il impoflible d'efchapper la force de ton Bras?" 
 fays a Frenchman. — " Brafs, cur ?" replies Pijlol. 
 
 — I cannot determine exadlly when this Epijlle was firft 
 publifhed; but, I fancy, it will carry the original Hatn- 
 let fomewhat further back than we have hitherto done : 
 and it may be obferved, that the oldeft Copy now extant 
 is faid to be " Enlarged to almoft as much againe as it 
 was." Gabriel Har-vey printed at the end of the year 1 592, 
 *' Foure Letters and certaine Sonnetts, efpecially touch- 
 ing Robert Greene ;" in one of which his Arcadia is men- 
 tioned. Now Nap^s Epillle mull have been previous to 
 thefc, as Gabriel is quoted in it with applaufe ; and the 
 Foure Letters were the beginning of a quarrel. Nafi? re- 
 plied, in " Strange newes of the intercepting certaine 
 Letters, and a Convoy of Verfes, as they were going 
 privilie to viftuall the Lonv Countries^ 1593." Harvey re- 
 joined the fame year in *' Pierce's Supererogation, or a 
 new praife of the old AfTe." And Najh again, in " Have 
 with you to Saffron-- vaUen, or Gabriell Har'vey's hunt is 
 up ; containing a full anfwer to the eldeft Sonne of the 
 halter-maker, i 596." 
 
 Dr. Lodge calls Nojh our true Evglijh Aretine : and John 
 ^a\'lor, in his Kiclfty Wiifey, or a Lerrv Come-tvoang., even 
 makes an oath " by fweet Satyricke Kajh hisurne." — 
 Kc died before 1606, as appears from an old Comedy, 
 called, " The return from Parnoffus.''^ 
 
 " Almoft
 
 Learning of Shakespeare. 87 
 
 *' Almoft any one knows, that the French word 
 Bras is pronounced Brau j and what refcmblance of 
 found does this bear to Brafs ?" — 
 
 Mr. Johnfon makes a doubt, whether the pro- 
 nunciation of the French language may not be 
 changed, fince Shakefpcaris time, " if not, fays he, 
 it may be fufpeded that fome other man wrote the 
 French fcenes :" but this does not appear to be the 
 cafe, at lead in this termination, from the rules of 
 the Grammarians, or the pradice of the Poets. I 
 am certain of the former from the French Alphaheth 
 of De la Mothe^ ^ and the Orthoepia Gallica of John 
 Eliot ; s and of the latter from the Rhymes of Maroty 
 Ronfard, and Du Bartas. — Connexions of this kind 
 
 were very common. Shakefpeare himfelf aflifted 5if//. 
 
 Jon/on in "his Sejanus, as it was originally written ; 
 
 and Fletcher in his Two noble Kinfmen. 
 
 But what if the French fcene were occafionally in-. 
 
 troduced into every Play on this Subject ? and per- 
 
 ^ Lond. 1592. 8vo. 
 
 "^ Lond. 1 593. 4to, Elim Is almoft the only 'witty Gram- 
 marian, that I have had the fortune to meet with. In 
 his Eplftle prefatory to the Gentle Dolors of Gaule, he 
 cries out for perfecution, very like Jack in that moll 
 poignant of Satires, the Tale of a Tub, '* I pray you be 
 readie quickly to cauill at my booke, I befeech you 
 heartily calumniate my doings with fpeede, I requeftyou 
 humbly con troll my method as foone as you may, I ear- 
 neftly entreat you hi/Te at my inventions, &c." 
 
 haps
 
 88 AnESSAYonthe 
 
 haps there were more than one before our Poet's.— 
 In Pierce PeniJrJfe his Supplication to the Diuell, 4to. 
 1592. (which, it feemsjfrom the Epirtic to the Printer, 
 was not the firft Edition,) the Author, A^t?/^, exclaims, 
 ** What a glorious thing it is to have Henry the fifth 
 reprefented on the Stage leading the French King 
 prifoner, and forcing both him and the Dolphin to 
 fweare fealty !" — And it appears from the Jefts of 
 the famous Comedian, TarltoHy 4to. i6ri. that he 
 had been particularly celebrated in the Part of the 
 Clown in Henry the fifth y but no fuch Charader 
 
 exifts in the Play of Shakcfpeare. Henry the 
 
 ftxlh hath ever been doubted; and a palTage in 
 the above- quoted piece of Naflj may give us rea- 
 fon to believe, it was previous to our Author. 
 *' How would it haue joyed braue Talbot (the 
 terror of the French) to thinke that after he had lyen 
 two hundred yearc in his Toomb, he fliould triumph 
 again on the Stage ; and haue his bones new em- 
 balmed with the tcarcs of ten thoufand fpedators at 
 lead: (at feuerall times) who in the Tragedian that 
 reprefents his perfon, imagine they behold him frefli 
 
 bleeding." 1 have no doubt but Henry the fjxth 
 
 had the fame Author with Edward the thirds which 
 hath been recovered to the world in Mr. CapcWi 
 Prolufions. 
 It hath been obferved, that the Giant of Rabelais 
 
 is
 
 Learning of Shakespeare. 8g 
 IS fometimes alluded to by Shakefpeare : and in h'n 
 time no tranllation was extant. — But the Story was 
 in every one's hand. 
 
 In a Letter by one Laneham^ or Langham^ for the 
 name is written differently, ^ concerning the Enter- 
 tainment at Killingwoorth Cajlle^ printed 1575, we 
 have a lift of the vulgar Romances of the age, " Kin"- 
 Jrthurz book, Huon ofBurdeaus, Friar Rous^ Hozvle- 
 glafs, and Gargantua. Meres^ mentions him as 
 equally hurtful to young minds with the Four Sons 
 of Jymotii and the Seven Champions. And John Taylor 
 
 * It is indeed of no importance, but I fufpedl the for- 
 mer to be right, as I find it corrupted afterward to La- 
 natn and Lanum. 
 
 " This Author by a pleafant miftake in feme fenfible 
 ConjeSlures on Shake/peare lately printed at Oxford, is quot- 
 ed by the name of Maijier. Perhaps the Title-page was 
 imperfeft ; it runs thus " Palladis Tamia. Wits Trea- 
 fury. Being the fecond part of Wits Common-wealth, 
 By Francis Meres MaiJler of Artes of both Univerfities.'* 
 
 I am glad out of gratitude to this man, who hath been 
 of frequent fervice to me, that I am enabled to perfedl 
 Wood^s account of him ; from the afiillance of our Mafier''% 
 very accurate Lift of Graduates, (which it would do 
 honour to the Univerfity to print at the publick expenfe) 
 and the kind information of a Friend from the Regifter 
 of his Parifti : — He was originally of Pembroke-Hall, 
 B. A. in 1587, and M. A. 1591. About 1602 he became 
 Reftor oi Wing in Rutla?id ; and died there, 164.6, in the 
 Sift year of his Age. 
 
 M hath
 
 go AnESSAYonthe 
 
 hath him likewife in his catalogue of Authors, pre- 
 fixed to Sir Gregory Nonfence. '^ 
 
 But to come to a conclufion, I will give you an. 
 irrefragable argument, that Shakefpeare did not un- 
 derhand tivo very common words in the French and 
 Latiti languages. 
 
 According to the Articles of agreement between 
 the Conqueror Henry and the King of France, the 
 latter was to ftilc the former, (in the corredlcd French 
 of the modern Editions,) " Noftre ires cher filz 
 Henry Roy d' Anglctgrre\ and in Latin, PraclariJJimus 
 Filius, &c." What, fays Dr. JVarhmton, is tres cher 
 in French, praclarijfimus in Latin ! we fliould read 
 pracarijfimus. — This appears to be exceedingly true j 
 but how came the blunder ? it is a typographical one 
 
 ' I have quoted many pieces of John Taylor, but it was 
 impofllble to give their original dates. He may be traced 
 as an Author for more than half a Century. His Works 
 were colledted in Fdio, 1630. but many were printed 
 afterward ; I will mention one for the Humour of the 
 Title. " Drinke and welcome, or the fimous Hiftoryof 
 the moft part of Drinkes in ufc in Create Britain and Ire- 
 land ; with an efpecial Declaration of the Potency, Vcr- 
 tue, and Operation of our Englijh Ale ; with a defcription 
 of all forts of Waters, from the Ocean Sea to the Tears of 
 a Woman. 4to. 1633."— —In Wits Merriment, cr Lttjiy 
 Drollery, 1656. we have an *' Epitaph on y*/'« T^y/or, • 
 who was born in the City of Glocejler, and died in Phce- 
 nix Alley, in the 75 yeareof his age ; you may find him, 
 if the worms have not devoured him, in Ccvent Garden 
 Church-yard." p. 1 30 He died about two years before. 
 
 5 "^
 
 Learning of Shakespeare. ^c 
 jn Holin^floed^ which Shakefpeare co^\c6 ; but muft in- 
 difputably have correfled, had he been acquainted 
 with the languages. — *' Our faid Father, during his 
 life, (hall name, calJ, and Vv-rite us in French in this 
 maner : Noftre ires chier filz, Henry Roy d^Engkterre 
 «— and in Lat'me in this maner, PradariJJimia fill us 
 nofter." Edit 1587. p. 574. 
 
 To corroborate this inftance, let me obferve to 
 you, though it be nothing further to the purpofe, 
 that another error of the fame kind hath been the 
 fource of a miftake in an hiftorical paflage of our 
 Author ; which hath ridiculoufly troubled the Criticks. 
 
 Richard the thirds harangues his army before the 
 Battle of Bofworthf 
 
 " Remember 
 
 y Some inquiry hath been made for the firft Performers 
 of the capital Charaftcrs in Shakefpeare. 
 
 We learn, that Burbage, the alter Ro/cius of Camdetip 
 was the original Richard, from a paflage in the Poems of 
 Bifliop Corbel ; who introduces his Hoft at Bopworih dcr 
 icribing the Battle, 
 
 " But when he would have faid King Richard died. 
 And call'd a Hor/e, a Horfe, he Burbage cried." 
 
 The Play on this fubjed: mentioned by Sir John Har- 
 rington in \\\i Apologie for Poetrie, 159 1, a-nd fometimes 
 miltaken for Shakefpe are's, was a Latin one, written by 
 Dr. Legge ; and adled at 5/. Juhn^s in our Univerfity, 
 fome years before 1588, the date of the <^opy in the 
 Mufeutn. This appears from a better MS. in our Library 
 at Emmanuel, with the names of the original Performers. 
 
 It is evident from a pafl"age in Camden^ s Annals, that 
 
 ithere was an old Plav likewiie on the fubjedt of Richard 
 
 M 2 ihf
 
 g2 AnESSAYontue 
 
 " Remember whom ye are to cope withal, 
 A fort of vagabonds, ofrafcals, runaways— ir 
 And who doth lead them but a paltry fellow 
 Long kept in Britaine at our Mother'' s coft, 
 
 A milklop, &c." 
 
 " Our Mother," Mr. Theobald perceives to be 
 wrong, and Henry was fomewherc fecreted on the 
 Coniitiint : he reads therefore, and all the Editors 
 after him, 
 
 *f Long kept in Bretagjie at his mother's coft." 
 But give me leave to tranfcribe a few more lines 
 from HoUngjhcdy and you will find at once, that 
 
 Shakefpeare had been there before me : '* Ye fee 
 
 further, how a companie of traitors, theeves, out- 
 laws and runnagatcs be aiders and partakers of his 
 feat and enterprife. — And to begin with the erle of 
 Richmond captaine of this rebellion, he is a Welfh 
 milkfop — brought up by my AIoo!hcr''s meanes and 
 mine, like a captive in a clofe cage in the court of 
 Francis duke of Britaine." p. 756. 
 
 HoHngJJ)ed copies this verbatim from his Brother 
 Chronicler Halli Edit. 1548./^/. 54. but his Printer 
 
 the/ccovd ; but I know not in what language. Sir Gelley 
 Merrick, who was concerned in the harebrained bufmefs 
 of the Earl of EJJcx, and was hanged for it with the in- 
 genious CuJJ'c in 1601, is accufed amongft other things, 
 *' quad cxoietam ""iragcediam de tragica abdicatione Re- 
 gis Ricardi Jecundi iii publico Thcatro coram Conjuratis 
 data pecunia agi curafTet." 
 
 hath
 
 Learning op Shake spf are. 93 
 hath given us by accident the word Moother inftead 
 pf Brother ; as it is in the Original, and ought to be 
 in Shakefpeare. "^ 
 
 I hope, my good Friend, yoa have by this time 
 acquitted cur great Poet of all piratical depredations 
 on the Ancients, and are ready to receive my Con^ 
 clufton. — He remembered perhaps enough of his 
 fchool-boy learning to put the Hig, hag, hog, into the 
 mouth of Sir Hugh Evans ; and might pick up in 
 the Writers of the time, a or the courfe of his con- 
 
 verfation 
 
 * I cannot take my leave of HJingJhed without clearing 
 up a difficulty, which hath puzzled his Biographers, 
 Nicholfon and other Writers )\2Me fuppofed him a Clergyman. 
 Tanner goes further, and tells us, that he was educated 
 at Cambridge, and adlually took the Degree of M. A. in 
 
 154.4.. Yet it appears by his Will, printed by Hearney 
 
 that at the end of life he was only a Steward, or a Ser- 
 <vant in fome capacity or other, to Tho?nas Burdett Efq; 
 of Bromcote in Warvjickjhire. — Thefe things Dr. Camp- 
 bell could not reconcile. The truth is, we have no claim 
 to the education of the Chronicler : the M. A. in 1544, 
 was not Raphael, but one Ottinvell Holingjhed, who was 
 afterward named by the Founder one of the firft Fellows 
 oi Trinity College. 
 
 ^ Afcham in the Epiftle prefixed to his Tvxophilus, i^yi, 
 obferves of them, that " Manye Englijhe wnters, ufmge 
 ftraunge wordes, as La/tine, Frenche, and Italian, do make 
 all thinges darke and harde. Ones, fays he, 1 communed 
 with a man which reafoned the Englijhe tongue to be en- 
 riched and encreafei thereby, fayinge : Who will not 
 prayfe that feaft, where a man fhali drincke at a dinner 
 both wync, ale, and beere ? Truly (quoth I) they be 
 
 A
 
 o^ AnESSAYonthe 
 
 verfation a familiar phrafe or two of French or Italian : 
 but his Studies were mod demonftratively confined 
 to Nature and his own Language. 
 
 In the courfe of this difquifition, you have often 
 fmiled at " all fuch reading, as was never read :" 
 and pofllbly I may have indulged it too far: but it is 
 the reading neceflary for a Comment on Skakejpeare. 
 Thofe who apply folely to the Ancients for this pur- 
 pofe, may with equal wifdom ftudy the Talmud 
 for an Expofition of Tristram Shandy. Nothing 
 but an intimate acquaintance with the Writers of 
 the time, who are frequently of no other value, can 
 point out his allufions, and afcertain his Phrafeology. 
 The Reformers of his Text are for ever equally po- 
 fitive, and equally wrong. The Cant of the Age, a 
 provincial Exprefilon, an obfcure Proverb, an obfo- 
 Jcte Cuftom, a Hint at a Perfon or a Fad no longer 
 remembered, hath continually defeated the befl: of 
 pur Gucjfcrs : You mud not fuppofe me to fpeak at 
 random, when I allure you, that from fome forgot- 
 ten book or other, I can demonftrate this to you in 
 many hundred Places j and I ahnoft wifii, that I 
 had not been perfuaded into a different Employment. 
 
 a1 good, euery one taken by himfelfe alone, but if you 
 put Malmefye, and facke, redde wyne and white, ale 
 and beere, and al in one pot, you fliall make a drinke 
 neither eafye to be knowen, nor yet holfome for the 
 bodye.'* 
 
 Tho»
 
 Learning of Shakespeare. 95 
 
 Tho' I have as much of the Natale Solum about 
 
 me, as any man whatfoevei- ; yet, I own, the Prim- 
 
 rofe Path is ftill more pleafing than the Fojje or the 
 
 Watl'mg Street : 
 
 *' Age cannot wither It, nor cuilom ftale 
 It's infinite variety." 
 
 And when I am fairly rid of the Duft of topogra- 
 phical Antiquity, which hath continued much longer 
 about me than I expedled ; you may very probably 
 be troubled again with the ever fruitful SubjecSl of 
 Shakespeare and his Commentators. 
 
 FINIS,
 
 
 -09t)l4' THE LIBRARY 
 
 '^^^ UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 Santa Barbara 
 
 THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE 
 STAMPED BELOW. 
 
 M 
 
 ^D^'--,} ipi 
 
 p^my 
 
 1981 
 
 Series 9482
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 A A 001 433 121
 
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