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T HE

COMPLETE WORKS

OF

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE,

A. FULL AND COMPREHENSIVE LIFE; A HISTORY OF THE EARLY

DRAMA; AN INTRODUCTION TO EACH PLAY; THE READINGS

OF FORMER EDITIONS; GLOSSARIAL AND OTHER

NOTES, ETC., ETC., FROM THJi WORKS OF

COLLIER, KMGHT, DYCE, DOUCE, HALLIWELL, HUNTER, RICHARDSON,
YERPLANCK, and HUDSON.

EDITED BY

GEORGE LONG DUYCKINCK.

PORTER & C A T E S.

6^

^1

PUBLISHERS' PREFACE.

The want of an edition oi Shakespeare which would give the student oi
reader the w^orks of the Great Poet in a convenient form, with large type,
unburdened with discursive or critical notes, but only such as would be neces-
sary to a more perfect understanding of the text, has been so often expressed
as to induce t)ie publishers to issue the present edition. The text is that of
the Collier Folio of 1632.

The preparation of the Notes was confided to the late George Long Duy-
ckinck, Es(]^., a gentleman of rare taste. It has been the aim, by close con-
densation, to convey a greater amount of information directly illustrative of
the text than has ever been presented in a similar form.

The notes illustrative of obsolete words, expressions, and customs, have
b<^en derived from Mr. Collier's first edition. Knight's Pictorial Shakespeare,
the works of Dyce, Douce, Halliwell, Hunter, Richardson, and the American
editions of Messrs. Verplanck and "Hudson, with such aid as Mr. Duyckinck's
long acquaintance with the Dramatic and general Literature of the <age of
Ehzabeth and James could furnish.

The head of the Poet, which forms the frontispiece, is a faithful co'py of
the engraving by Martin Droeshout, which is printed on the title-page of the
folios of 1G23 and 1032, and upon which Ben Jonson wrote the celebrated
lines testifying so decidedly to the faithfulness of the likeness, — a stronger
guaranty than can be claimed for any other portrait of the Dramatist existing.

By the addition of the exhaustive Life of Shakespeare, Players' Dedi-
verses of men of the time, a thorough History of the Drama and Stage,
a full descriptive introduction to each play, ample elucidatory notes, the
Poetical Works, and the numerous spirited illustrations, it is believed nothing
more can be desired to make this a truly complete edition of the Works of
Siiakespeare.

(V)

[A Literal Cepy from the Edition of ifiij.]

THE EPISTLE DEDICATORIE.

To the mod Noble and Incoinparaole Paire of Brethren. William Earle of Pembroke, 8fc
Lord Chamberlaine to the Kings moft Excellent Maiefty.
And Philip Earle of Montgomery, &c. Gentleman of his Maiefties Bed-Chamber.
Both Knights of the moft Noble Order of the Garter, and our fingular good Lords.

Right Honourable,

HILST we ftudie to be thankful in our oarticular, for the many fauors
we haue receiued from your L. L. we are falne vpon the ill fortune, to
mingle two the moft diuerfe things that can bee, feare, and rafhnefle ;
riflinefte in the enterprize, and feare of the fuccefle. For, when we valew
the places your H. H. fuftaine, we cannot but know their dignity greater,
then to defcend to the reading of thefe trifles : and, while we name them
trifles, we have depriu'd our felues of the defence of our Dedication. But
fince your L.L. haue beene pleas'd to thinke thefe trifles fome-thmg, heere-
tofore ; and haue profequuted both them, and their Author liuing, with fo much fauour : we
hope, that (they out-liuing him, and he not hauing the fate, common with fome, to be exe-
quutor to his owne writings) you will vfe the like indulgence toward them, vou haue done
vnto their parent. There is a great difference, whether any Booke choofe his Patrones, or
finde them : This hath done both. For, fo much were your L. L. likings of the feuerall
parts, when they were a£ted, as before they were publifhed, the Volume afk'd to be yours.
We haue but collefted them, and done an office to the dead, to procure his Orphanes,
Guardians ; without ambition either of felfe-profit, or fame ; oneJ[^ to keepe the memory of
fo worthy a Friend, & Fellow aliue, as was our SHAKESPEARE^ by humble offer of his
playes, to your moft noble patronage. Wherein, as we haue iuftly obferued, no man to
come neere your L. L. but with a kind of religious addrefle; it hath bin the height of our
care, who are the Prefenters, to make the prefent worthy of your H. H. by the perfection.
But, there we muft alfo craue our abilities to be confiderd, my Lords. We cannot go
beyond Our owne powers. Country hands reach foorth milke, creame, fruites, or what
they haue : and many Nations (we haue heard) that had not gummes & incenfe, obtained
their requefts with a leauened Cake. It was no fault to approch their Gods, by what
meanes they could : And the moft, though meaneft, of things are made more precious,
when they are dedicated to Temples. In that name therefore, we moft humbly confecrate
to your H. H. thefe remaines of your feruant Shakefpeare : that what delight is in them,
may be euer your L. L. the reputation his, & the faults ours, if any be committed, by a
pavre fo carefuU to fhew their gratitude both to the liuing, and the dead, as is

loHN Heminge.
Henry Condell,

[A Literal Copy from the Edition of 1623.]

TO THE GREAT VARIETY OF READERS.

ROM the moft able, to him that can but fpell : There you are number' d.
We had rather you were weighd. Efpecially, when the fate of all Bookes
Well ! it is now publique, Sc you wil Hand for your priuiledges wee know :
to read, and cenfure. Do fo, but buy it firft. That doth beft commend a
Booke, the Stationer faies. Then, how odde foeuer vour braines be, or your
(hillings worth, your fiue {hillings worth at a time, or higher, fo you rife to the iuft rates,
and welcome. But, what euer you do, Buv. Cenfure will not driue a Trade, or make
the lacke go. And though you be a Magiftrate of wit, and fit on the Stage at Black-Friers,
or the Cock-pit, to arraigne Playes dailie, know, thefe Playes haue had their triall alreadie,
and ftood out all Appeales ; and do now come forth quitted rather by a Decree of Court,
then any purchas'd Letters of commendation.

It had bene a thing, we confefle, worthie to haue bene wiflied, that the Author him-
felfe had liu'd to haue fet forth, and ouerfeen his owne writings ; But fince it hath bin
ordain'd otherv.'ife, and he by death departed from that right, we pray you do not envie his
Friends, the office of their care, and paine, to haue collefted & publifh'd them ; and fo to
haue publifh'd them, as where (before) vou were abus'd with diuerfe fl:olne, and furreptitious
copies, maimed, and deformed by the frauds and flealthes of iniurious importers, that expos'd
them : euen thofe, are now ofFer'd to \our view cur'd, and perfeifl: of their limbes ; and all
the reft, abfolute in their»numbers, as he conceiued them. Who, as he was a happie imi-
tator of Nature, was a moft gentle exprefTer of it. His mind and hand went together :
And what he thought, he vttered with that eafineffe, that wee haue fcarfe receiued from
him a blot in his papers. But it is not our prouince, who onely gather his works, and giue
them you, to praife him. It is yours that reade him. And there we hope, to your diuers
capacities, you will finde enough, both to draw, and hold you : for his wit can no more lie
hid, then it could be loft. Reade him, therefore; and againe, and againe : And if then
you doe not like him, furely you are in fome manifeft danger, not to vnderftand him. And
fo we leaue you to other of his' Friends, whom if you need, can bee your guides : if you

loHN Heminge.
Henrie Condell
(viii)

A CATALOGUE

OF ALL THE COMEDIES, HISTORIES. AND TRAGEDIES CONTAINED

IN THIS BOOK.

THE TEMPEST

THE Tvro GENTLEMEN OF VERONA

THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR

MEASURE FOR MEASURE

THE COMEDY OF ERRORS

love's LABOUR 's LOST .

MIDSUMMER NIGHt's DREAM

THE MERCHANT OF VENICE .

AS TOU LIKE IT . . .

THE TAMING OF THE SHRZW

ALL 's WELL THAT ENDS WELL

TWELFTH NIGHT, OR WHAT YOU WILo

THE winter's TALE

BISTORUS8.

THE LIFE AND DEATH OF KINO JOHN

THE LIFE AND DEATH OF KING RICHARD H.

THE LIFE AND DEATH OF KING HENRT IT.

THE SECONO PART OF KING HENRY IT ,

THE LIFE OF KING HENRY T.

THE FIRST PART OF KING HENRY VI.

THE SECOND PART OF KING HENRY VI.

THE THIRD PART OF KING HENRY VI.

THE TRAGEDY OP RICHARD III.

THE FAMOUS HISTORY OK HENRY VIII.

TRAGEDIES.

TROILUS AND CRESSIDA .
THE TRAGEDY OF CORIOLANUS
TITUS ANDRONICUS .
ROMEO AND JULIET
TIMON OF ATHENS .
THE TRAGEDY OF JULIUS CBSAR
THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH .
THE TRAGEDY OF HAMLET
THE TRACEDT OF KING LEAR
THE MOOR OF VENICE .
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
THE TRAGEDY OF CY.MBELINE
PERICLES, PRINCE OF TYRE
POEMS .....

PAGI
1

20

39

62

86

102

124

148

166

188

210

232

257

278

305

327
351
377
405
432
456
483
509
541

568
597
627
649
676
697
719
739
772
802
831
860
890
911

COMMENDATORY YEESES.

I'for. the Effigtes of my worthy Friend, the Author,
Master William Shakespeare, and his Works.
Spectatoi', this life's shadow is : — to see
ITie truer image, and a livelier he.
Turn reader. But observe his comie vein,
Laugh ; and proceed next to a tragic strain,
Then weep : so, — when thou find'st two contraries,
Two ditt'eient passions from thy wrapt soul rise, —
Say, (who alone effect such wondere could)
Rare Shiike-speare to the life thou dost behold.

. In Epitaph on the admirable Dramatic Poet, W. Shake-
speare.'
Wliat need my Shakespeare for his honour'd boneg.
The labour of an age in piled stones ;
Or that his hallow'd reUques should be hid
Under a star-ypoiuting pyramid i
Dear son of memory, great heir of fame.
What need'st thou such dull witness of thy name ?
Thou, in our wonder and astonishment.
Hast built thyself a lasting monument :
For whilst, to the shame of slow-endeavouring art,
Thy easy numbers flow ; and that each part
Hath, fiom the leaves of thy unvalued book.
Those Delphic lines with deep impression took ;
Then thou, our fancy of herself bereaving.
Dost make us marble with too much conceiving ;
And, so sepulchred, in such pomp dost lie,
That kings for such a tomb would wish to die.

/b the Memory of the deceased Author, Master W. Shake-
speare.
Shake-speare, at length thy pious fellows give
The world thy works ; tliy works, by which outlive
Thy tomb thy name must: when that stone is rent.
And time dissolves thy Stratford monument,
Here we alive shall view thee still : this book.
When brass and marble fade, shall make thee look
Fresh to all ages ; when posterity
Shall loathe what 's new, think all is prodigy
That is not Shakespeare's, every line, each verse,
Here shall revive, redeem thee from thy heai'se.
Nor fii'e, nor cankering age, as Naso said
Of bis, thy wit-fraught book shall once invade :

I An Epitaph on the admirable Draraatio Poet. W. Shakespeare. 1
rtese lines, lilte the preceding, have no name appended to them in
Che folio, 1G3'J. but the aulhorsnip is ascertained Sy the publication
n/ them as iMilton's, in the edition of his Poems in 101.3. Svo. Wa
give them as they stand there, because it is evident that they irera
then printed from a copy corrected by the author : the Tariations arc
interesting, and Malone pointed out only one, and that certainly the
least important. Instead of " weak witness'' in line (i the folio 1G32
has '■ dull witness ;" instead of " live-long monument," in line 8, the
folio has " tftsling monument :" instead of " heart," in line 10, the
folio hajj 'par:,'' an evident misprint: and instead of *' itself be-
reaving," in line 1:1, the folio has ■'A(?r.^e// bereaving." The last is
the difierence mentioned by Malone, who aUo places " John Milton"
at the end, as if the name were found in the folio of Hi-3'.i.

^ Than when thy half-sword parleying Romans spake :] Leonard
Diggee prefixed a long copy of verses to the edition of Shakespeare's
Poems in IfttO. Svo, in which he makes this passage, referring to
" Julius C-esar." more distinct ; he also there speaks of the audi.;nces
Bhakespeare's plays at that time drew, in comparison with Ben. Jon-
•on's. This is the only part of his production worth adding in a note.
"So have 1 seen, when Ceesar would appear.
And on the stage at half-sword parley were
Brutup and Cassius, 0, how the audience
Were ravish 'd ! with what wonder they went thence '

Nor shall I e'er believe or think thee dead,

(Though miss'd) until our bankrupt stage be sped

(Impossible) with some new strain t" outrdo

Passions of Juliet, and her Romeo;

Or till I hear a scene more nobly take.

Than when thy half-sword parleying Romans spake :*

Till these, till any of thy volume's rest.

Shall with more file, more feeling, be express'd.

Be sure, (our Shake-speare,) thou canst never die.

But, crowu'd with laurel, live eternally.

* L. DiooEs.

To the Memory of M. W. Shake-speare.
We wonder'd (Shake-speare) that thou went'st so soon
Fi'om the world's stage to the grave's tiring-room :
We thought thee dead ; but this thy printed worth
Tells thy spectators, that thou went'st but forth
To enter with applause. An actors art
Can die, and live to act a second part :
That 's but an exit of mortality,
This a re-entrance to a plaudite. L M'

To the Memory of my beloved, the Author, Mr. Willinn.
Shakespeare, and what he hath left lus.
To draw no envy (Shakespeare) on thy name,
Am I thus ample to thy book, and fame ;
While 1 confess thy writings to be such.
As neither man, nor muse, can praise too much ;
'T is ti'ue, and all men's suffrage ; but these ways
Wei'e not tlie paths I meant unto thy praise :
For seeliest ignorance on these may light,
Which, when it sounds at best, but eolroes right ,
Or blind affection, which doth ne'er advance
The truth, but gropes, and urgeth all by chance ;
Or crafty malice might pretend this praise.
And think to ruin, where it seem'd to raise :
These are, as some infamous bawd, or whore,
Sliould praise a matron ; what could hurt her more
But thou art proof against tliem ; and, indeed.
Above th' ill fortune of them, or the need.
I, thei'efore, will begin : — Soul of the age,
The applause, delight, the wouder of our stage,
My Shakespeare, rise ! I will not lodge thee by
Chaucer, or Spenser ; or bid Beaumont lie
A little further, to make thee a room* :

When, some new day, they would not brook a line

Of tedious, though well-labour'd, Cataline;

Sejanus too, was irksome : they priz'd more

' Honest' iago, or the jealous ISIoor.

And though the Fox and subtil Alchymist,

Long intermitted, could not quite be mist.

Though these have sham'd all th' ancients, and might fi.»

Their author's merit with a crown of bays,

Yet these sometimes, even at a friend's desire,

Acted, have scarce defray'd the sea-coal fire.

And door-keepers : when, let but Falstaff come,

Hal, Poins, the rest, — you scarce shall have a room.

All is so pesterM : let but Beatrice

And Benedick be seen, lo I in a trice

The cock-pit, galleries, boxes, all are full,

To hear Malvolio. that crcss-garter'd gull.

Brief, there is nothing in his wit-fraught book,

Wliose sound we would not hear, on whose worth lo<*k," &c

* Perhaps the initials of John Marston.

* Referring to lines by William Basse, then circulating in MS .
and not printed (as far as is now known) until IG3.'3, when they -were
falsely imputed to Dr. Donne, in the edition of his poems in in*i
year. All the MS3. of the lines, now extant, differ in min'ite pa;
ticulan

xi

xn

COMMENDATORY VERSES.

Thou art a nioniiiiient without a tomb ;

And aii alive still, while thy book doth live.

And we have wits to read, aud praise to give.

That I not n)ix thee so, my biaiu excuses ;

I mean, with great but disproportion'd niuseu:

For, if I thought my judgmcut were of yeai*,

I should commit thee surely with thy peers ;

And tell how far thou did»t our Lyiy outshiue,

Or sporting Kyd, or Marlowe's mighty line :

And thougn thou hadst small Latin, and less Greek,

From thence to houour thee, 1 would not seek

For names ; but call forth thundering .iEschylus,

Euripides, and Sophocles, to us,

I'acuvius, Aeeius. him of Cordova dead.

To live again, to hear thy buskin tread

And shake a stage : or, when tliy socks were on.

Leave thee alone, for the comparison

Of all that insolent Greece, or haughty Rome,

Sent forth, ov since did from their ashes come.

Tiiurnph, my IJiitjiin I thou hast one to show,

To whom all scenes oi Europe homage owe.

He was nut of au age, but for all time ;

And all the muses still were in tlfeir prime,

When like Apollo he came forth to warm

Our ears, or like a Mercury to chann.

Nature herself was pr-oud of his designs,

And joy'd to wear the dressing of his hues ;

Which were so richly spun, and woveg so fit,

As since she will vouclisafe no other wit

Tlie meri'y Greek, tart Aristuphanes,

Neat Terence, witty Plautus, now not please ;

But antiquated and deserted lie,

As tliey were not of Nature's family.

■yet must I not give Nature all ; thy art.

My gentle Shakespeare, must eujoy a part:

For though the poet's matter nature be,

His nj't doth give the fashion ; and that he.

Who casta to write a living line, must sweat,

(Such as thine ai'e) and stiike the second heat

Upf)n the muses' auvil ; tui'u the same,

(And himself with it) that he thinks to frame ;

Oj' foi' the laurel he may gain a scorn,

Koi- a good poet 's made, as well as boi-n :

And such wert thou. Look, how the father's face

Lives in his issue ; even so the I'ace

Of Shakespeare's mind, aixl manueis, brightly shines

In his well-turned and true-tiled lines;

In each of which he seems to sliake a lance,

As brandish'd at the eyes of ignorance.

Sweet Swan of Avon, what a sight it were,

To see thee in our water yet appear ;

And make those flights upon the banks of Thames,

That so did take I'Ui/.a, and our .James.

liut stay ; I see thee in the hemisphere

Shine forth, thou star of poets ; aud with rage,

Or influence, chide, o'' cheer, the dioojiing stage ;

Which, since thy flight from hence, hath niouru'd like

night.
And despairs day, but for thy volume 'e light.

BlS.V JONSON.

On worthy Master Sluiknapciirc. and his poems.'
A mind reflecting ages past, whose clear

And equal surface can make things appear,

Dist.'ml a thousand yeais, and rcpiesont

Them in their lively colours, ju.st extent :

To outrun hasty time, retrieve the fates,

UaM back the heavens, blow ope the iron gates

Of death and Lethe, where (confused) lie

Great heaps of luiuous mortality :

I In that deep duslcy dungeon to disccin
A royal ghost from churls ; by art to learn
The physiognomy of shades, and give
Tlieiu sudden birth, wondering how oft they live ;
What story coldly tells, what poets feign
At second hand, and picture without brain.
Senseless and soul-less shows : to give a siago
(Ample, and true with Ufe) voice, action, age,
As Plato's year, and new scene of the woi-Id,
Them unto us, or us to them had hurl'd :
To raise our ancient sovereigns from their hearse,
Make kings his subjects ; by exchanging vei-ee
Enlive their pale trunks, that the present age
Joys in their joy, and trembles at tlieir rage :
Yet 80 to temper pas.sion, that our ears
Take pleasure in their pain, and eyes in tears
Botli weep aud smile ; fearful at plots so sad,
Then laughing at our fear ; abus'd, and glad
To be abus'd ; affected with that truth
Which we perceive is false, pleas'd in that ruth
At which we start, and. by elaboi ate play,
Tortur'd aud tickled ; by a crab-like way
Time past made pastime, and in ugly sort
Disgorging up his ravin for our sport : —
— While the plebeian imji, from lofty throne.
Creates and rules a world, and works upon
Mankind by secret engines ; now to move
A chilling pity, then a rigorous love ;
To strike up and stroke down, both j'ly and ire ;
To steer th' affections ; and by heavenly fire
Mould us anew, stuYn from ourselves : —

This, and much more, which cannot be exprcss'd
But by himself, his tongue, and his own breast,
Was Shakespeare's freehold ; which his cunuing braio
Improv'd by favour of the nine-fold train ;
The l)uskiu'd muse, the comic queen, the grand
And hinder t^aie of Clio, nimble hand
Aud uimbler foot of the melodious pair,
The silver-voiced lady, th'3 most fail-
Calliope, whose speaking silence daunts.
And she whose praise the heavenly body chants
These jointly woo'd him, envying one another,
(Obey'd by all as spouse, but lov'd as brother)
And wrought a eui'ious robe, of sable grave,
Fresh green, and pleasant yellow, red most brave
And constant blue, rich purple, guiltless white.
The lowly russet, and the scarlet bright ;
Branch'd aud embroider'd like the painted spring
Each leaf mateh'd with a tiowei*, and each string
Of golden wire, each line of silk ; there run
Italian works, whose thread the sisters spun ;
Aud there did sing, or seem Jo sing, the choice
Birds of a foreign note and various voice :
Here hangs a mossy rock ; there plays a fair
But chiding f.iuntain, pm-led : not the air.
Nor clouds, nor thunder, but were living drawn ;
Not out of common tiifany or lawn.
But tine materials, which the muses know.
And only know the countries where they grow.

Now, when they could no longer him enjoy.
In mortal garments pent, — death may destroy,
They say, his body ; but his verse shall live.
And more than nature takes our hands shall give
In a less volume, but more strongly bound,
Shakespeare shall breathe and speak; with Iinrel

erown'd,
Which never fades ; fed with ambrosian meat,
In A well-lined vesture, rich, and neat.
So with this robe they clothe him, bid him wear it ;
For tune shidl never stain, nor envy tear it.

The friendly admirer of his endowments.

I. M. S.

I On worthy Muter Shakeiipeare, and hi» Poema] Thew linflnnj-'i I may have bepn appended to the other copy of verseK by him prefixed
ijbboribed I .M. 8. in the lolio Ui:rj, •• probably Jiif'per Mayne," Kays ' to the folio of lli:j'i, in order that lii» initials should stand at the end
Malone. Mo«t prob.nbly not, becauite Mayne haa lell nothing behind of tiie precont. We know of no other poet of tlic time capable ot
I. in to lead unto KUppone that he could have produced thiesurpnjoiin;,' writin}. the ensuing lines. We feel morally certain that they are b)
trioute [ M. 8. may possibly be lohii .Milton. .Vruf/.'Hr, and no name Miltou.

COililEXDATOEY VERSES.

XI n

Upon the Lines, and Life, of the famous Scenic Poet.
Master W. Shaiespeare.

Thns« bands which voa so cbipp'd. go now and wring,
Tou Britons brave ; for done are Shake-speare"s davs :
His days are done th:it made the dainty plays,

WTiicb made the Globe of heaven and earth to ring.

Dried is that vein, dried is the Thespian spring,
Tum'd all to tears, and Phcebus clouds his rays ;
That corpse, that coffin, now bestick those bays.

Which crown'd him poet first, then poet's king
'J tragedies might any prvlogne have,

AU those he made would scarce make one to this ;
Whure fame, now that he gone is to the grave,

(D«ath's public tiring-house) the Xuntius is:

For. though his line of life went soon about.

He life yet of his lines shall never out.

HOGH HoiXAXD,

The foUoinng are Ben Jonsoti's lines on the Portrait o'
Shakespeare, precisely as they stand on a separate leaf
opposite to the titte-pase of the edition of 1623, ana
urhich are reprinted in the same place, irith some trifling
variation of typography, in the folio of 1633.

This Figure, that thou here seest put.
It was for gentle Sh:ikespeare cut ,
TVTierein the Gi-aver had a strife
With Xature, to out-do the life :
0, could he but have drawn his wit
A s well in brass, as he hath hit
His face ; the Print would then surpass
AU, that was ever writ in brass.
But since he cannot Reader, look
Not at bis picture, but his book.

BL]

THE NA.MES OF THE PKIXCIPAL ACTORS IX ALL THESE PL.WS.

WlLUAM SH.\KESPKAaK.

Richard Bdsbai>ge.
John Hesoiisgs,

ACGCSTIXE PhIUJPS.

William Kkvpt.
TnosLiS PooPE.
George Bet.\x,

HE,>aY COXDELI,
WlLUAM SlT«.

Richard Cowlt.
johx lowcjk.

SAMtJEL CrCSSI.

Alex-i-vder Cooke.

SiSnjELL GlLBCRXS.

Robert Akmis,

WiLtlAM OSTLKR.

Nathan Field.

Joan USOIEBWOCD.

XlCHOUlS TOOLET.
WiLLLOi EcCLESrOXR

Joseph Taylor.
Robert Bexfield.
Robert Gocghe.
Richard RoBi>soat
JoHX Shasc^b.
JoH> Rio.

HISTORY

THE ENGLISH DRAMA AND STAGE

TO

THE TIME OF SHAKESPEARE.

Ix or '«r to make the reader acquainted with the ori^ of |
the Kiighsh stage, Bueh as Shakespeare fouud it when he
Deoarae conueoted with it, it is necessaiy to mentioD that a
miracle-plaj- or mystery, (as it has been termed in modern
times), is the oldest form of dramatic composition in our
lano;uat;e. The stories of productions of this kind were
derived fjnra the Sacred Writings, from the pseudo-evan-
gelium, or fj-om the hves and legends of saints and martyi'S.

Miracle-j^lays were common in London in the year 1170 ;
and as early as 1119 the miracle-play of St Katheiine had
been represented at Diinstaple. It has been conjectured,
and indeed in part estabhsbed', that some of these perform-
ances were in French, as well as in Latin ; and it was not
until the reign of Edward IIL that they were generally
acted m Knglish. We have thiee existing series of miracle-
plays, all of which have been recently printed ; the Towne-
tey coUeetion by the Surtees Club, and those known as the
Covent)-y and Cbester pageants by the Shakespeare Society.
The Abbotsford Club has Uke'wise printed, from a majiu-
script lit Oxford, three detiiched miracle-plays which once,
probably, formed a portion of a connected succession of pro-
ductions of that class and description.

During about 300 years this species of theatrical enter-
tainment seems to have flourished, often under the auspices
of the clergy, who used it as the means of religious instruc-
tion ; but prior to tlie reign of Henry VI., a new kind of
drama had become popular, which by wi'iters of the time
was denominated a moral, or moral play, and more recently
a moraUty. It acquh'ed this name fioni the natm'e and

f)urpo9e of the representation, which usually conveyed a
esson for the better conduct of human life, the characters
employed not being scriptural, as in mh'.acle-plays, but alle-
gorical, or symbolicaL Miracle-plays continued to be repre-
sented long after moral plays were inti'oduced, but fi'om a
remote date abstrai-t impersonations bad by degi'ees, not
Dow easily traced, fmind their way into miracle-plays: thus,
perhaps, moral plays, consisting only of such characters,
grew out of tliem.

A very lemarkable and interesting miracle-play, not
foimded upon the Sacred Wntings, but upon a popular
legend, and all the characters of wliich, with one exception,
purpoi't t»j be real personages, has recently been discovered
in tlie library of Trinity College, Dubbn, in a manuscript
certainly as old as the later part of the reign of Edward
tV.' It is peihaps the only specimen of the kind in our
language ; and as it was unknown to all who have hitherto
written on tlie history of our ancient drama, it will not here
oe out of place to give some account of the incidents to

I See Hist, of Engl. Dram. Poetry and the Stage, vol. ii. p. 131.

' We are ind-^bted for a correct transcript of the original to the zeal
uid kindness of Dr. J. H. Todd, V.P., R.S.A.

> In another part of the manuscript it is called "The Play of the
ConTersion of Sir Jonathas, the Jew, by the Miracle of the Blessed
Sacrament ;" but inferior Jews are converted, besides Sir Jouathas,
who is the head of the tribe iin the " famous city of Araclea."

which it relates, and of the persons concerned m th« m. Tlie
title of the piece, and the year in which the events are sup
posed to have occurred, are given at the close, where we
are told that it is " The Plav of the Blessed Sacrament',"
and that the miracle to which it refers was wrought " is
the forest of Arragon, in the famous city of Araclea, in the
year of our Lord God 1461." There can be no doubt that
the scene of action was imaginary, being fixed merely for
the greater satisfaction of the spectators as to the reahtv
of the occurrences, and as Uttle that a legend of the k-iud.
was of a much older date than that assigned in the mainr
script, which was probably near the time when the di'ama

In its form it closely resembles the miracle- plays which
had their origin in Seripture-history, and one of the charac-
ters, that of the Saviour, common in productions of that
class, is introduced into it : the rest of the personages
engaged are five Jews, named Jonathas, Jason, Jasdon,
Masphat, and Malchus ; a Christian merchant called Aris-
torius, a bishop. Sir Isidore a priests a phvsieian from
Ifrabant called " Mr. Brundyche," and CoUe his servant'
The plot relates t»i the pm'chase of the Eucharist by the
Jews from Aristorius for 100/., under an assurance also
that if they find its miraculous powers veiified, they will
become converts to Christianity. Aristorius, having pos
session of the key of the church, enters it secretly, taket
away the Host, and sells it to the Jews. They put it to
various tests and torments : they stab "the cake" with
their daggers, and it bleeds, while one of the Jews goes
mad at the sight. They next attempt to nail it to a post,
but the Jew who uses the hammer has his hand torn off,
and here the doctor and his servant, Mr. Brundyche and
Colle, make their appearance in ordertc attend the wound-
ed Jew ; but after a long comic scene between the quack
and his man, highly illustrative of the manners of the
time, they are driven out as impostors. The Jews then
proceed to boil the Host, but the water turns blood-red,
and taking it out of the cauldron with pincers, they throw
it into a blazing oven : the oven, after blood has run ont
" at the crannies," bursts asunder, and an image of the
Saviour rising, he addresses the Jews, who are as good
as their word, for they are converted on the spot. They
keel to the Christian bishop, and Aristorius having con-
f-ssed his crime and declared his repentance, is forgiven
after a suitable admonition, and a strict charge never

This very singular and striking performance is opened,
as was usual with miracle-plays, by two Vexillators, who

* This name may possibly throw some light on an obscure passage,
in a letter dated about 1535, and quoted in "The History of Knj;i.
Dram. Poetry, and the Stage," I. 131, where a person of the name ol
Thomas Wyliey informs Cromwell. Earl of Esses, that he had writlet/
a play in which a character called Colle, dogger of Conscience," wa»
introduced, to the great offence of the Boman Catholic cletgy.

XV

yn

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE

ixplnin tlie nature of the story about to be repreBented, in
altfirnate stanzas ; and tbe wbule performance i» wound nj)
by an epilogue from tbe bisbop, enfttroing tlie mural, wlii<*h
of course was intended to illustrate, and impress upon the
»uiUence, tlie divine origin of tbe doctrine of transubstantia-
tion. Wei'e it necessary to our design, and did space allow
of it, we should be strongly tempted to introauce some
characteristic extiacts from this hitherto unseen production ;
but we must content ourselves with saying, that tbe language
in several places appears t« be older than the reign of
Edward IV., or even of Henry VI., and that we might be
disposed to carry back the original composition of tbe drama
to file period of Wickliffe, and the Lollards.

It \i as not until the reign of Elizabeth that miracle-plays
were generally abandoned, but in some distant parts of the
kingdom they were persevered with even till the time of
James I. Miracle-plays, in fact, gradually gave way to
moral plays, which pieseuted more variety of situation and
character ; and moral plays in turn were superseded by a
species of mi.\ed drama, which was strictly neither moral
play nor historical play, but a combination of both in the
same representjxtion.

Of this singular union of discordant materials, no person
who has hitherto written upon the history of our dramatic
poeti'y has taken due notice ; but it is very necessary not to
pass it over, inasmuch as it may be said to have led ulti-
mately to the introduetii:>n of tragedy, comedy, and history,
as we now understimd the terms, upon the boards of our
public theatres. No blame for tbe omission can fairly be
imputed to our predecessors, because the earliest specimens
of this sort of mixed drama which remain to us have been
bi'ougbt to light within a comparatively few years. Tbe
nil -si importimt of these is the " Kyiige Joban " of Bisbop
Bale. We are not able to settle with precision the date
when it was originally writteu, but it was evidently per-
formed, with additions and alterations, after EUzabeth came
to the throne.' Tbe purpose of the author was to promote
the Reformation, by applying to tbe eireumstauees of his
Dwu times the events of the reign of King John, when tbe
kingdom was placed by the Pope under an interdict, and
when, according tt) popular belief, the sovereign was poisoned
by a draught admiuistei-ed Ut him by a monlc This ilrama
resembles a moral play in tbe mtroduction of abstract im-
pers* nations, and a historical play in the adapt.atiou of a
po.-lion of uur national annals, with real euaracters, to the
imposes of the stage. Though peifirmed in tbe reign of
i^Uzabetb, we may carry back the tii'st composition aud
representjition of " Kynge Joban" to tbe time of Edward
VI.; but, as it has been pi'inted by the Camden Society, it
is not necessary that we should enlarge upon it.

The object of Bale's play waa, aa we have stated, to
advmice the Reformation under Edward VI.; but in tbe
reign of bis successor a drama of a smiilar description, aud
of u directly opposite tendency, was written and acted. It
has never been mentioned, and as it e.\ists only in manu-
Borip' of the time," it will not be out of place to quote its
title, and to e,\plaiii briefly in what manner the anonymous
author carries out bis design. He calls bis di'ama " Res-
puWica," and he adds that it was " made in the year of our
Lord 1653,.and tbe first year of the most prosperous reign
of our most gracious Sovereign, Queen Mary the First."
He was sup]iosed to speak the prologue himself, in the
ebaracter of " a Poet ;" and altbough eveiy person he intro-
duces is in fact called by some abstract name, be avowedly
brings forward the Queen herself as " Nemesis, tbe Goddess

* Bale died in Nov. 1563: but he is nevertheless thus spoken of, as
•'.iU living, in B. Googe's E[jlog3, Epitaphes, and Sonncttes." piib-
lislicd, we (lave rea-Hon to believe, in the spring of that year ; we nave
■evei seen this tribute quoted, and therefore subjoin it.
*' Good aged Bale, that with thy hoary iiearos
Dofite yet persyste to turne the paynefull booke ;
O hapye, man I that hast obtaynde such yeares,
And leav'at not yet on papers pale to looke ;
Gyve over now to boats thy weryoti braine.
And rest thy penne, that long hath labour d sooret
For aged men uiifyt sure is auche paino.
And thee beseems to labour now no more :
But thou, I thynke, Don I'latoes part will playe,
With booke in hand to have thy dying daye."

^.

of redress ajid connection," while iier Idngdora of Eughiud u
intendeii by " Respubliea," and its inhabitants represeute-
by " People:" the Reforiuatiou in the Church is distinguished
as " Oppression ;" and Policy, Authority, and Honesty, are
desiguated " Avarice," " Insolence," und " Adulation." AL
this is distinctly stated by tbe author on his title-page, wliile
he also emjiloys the impersonations of Misericordia, Veri-
tas, Justitia, and V^ax, (agents not mifrequently resorted to
in the older miracle-plays) as the friends of " Nemesis," tlif
Queen, aud as the supporters of the Roman Cathobc religior
in her dominions.

Nothing would be gaiued by a detail of the import of the
tedious interlocutions between tbe chaiacters, represent^'tl,
it would seem, by boys, who were perhaps the children (if
the Chapel Royal ; for there are traces in the performance
that it was oi'iginally acted at court. Respubliea is a widow
gieatly injured and abused by Avarice, Insolence, Oppres-
sion, and Adulation ; while People, using throughout a
rustic dialect, also coniphun bitterly of their sutfeiings,
especially since the introduction of what had been termed
" Reformation" in matters of faith : in the end Justitia
brings in Nemesis, to effect a total change by restoring the
former condition of religious affairs; aud the piece closen
with the delivery of the offenders to condign punishment
The production was evidently wiitten by a man of educa-
tion ; but, although there are many attempts at humour,
and some at variety, both in character and sitgation, the
whole must have been a very wearisome performance
Uttle calculated to aeeonipUsh any other purpose entertained
by the writer. In aU respects it is much inferior to the
"Kynge Joban" of Bale, which it followed m point cf date,
and to which, perhaps, it was meant to be a coimterpart.

In tbe midst of the performance of dramatic proiiuetiona
of a religious or political character, each party suppoi'tiug
the views which most accorded with the autln.^r's individual
opinions, John Heywood, who was a zealous Roniim Catho-
lic, and who subsequently suffered for his creed imder
Edward VI. aud Ehzabeth, discovered a new species of
entertainment, of a highly humorous, and not altogether
of an uoiustructive kind ; which seems to have been veiy
acceptable to the sovereign and nobiUty, and to have
obtained for the author a thstinguisbed chai'acter as a coml
dramatist, and ample rewards as a court dependent.'
These were properly callal " interludes," being short comic
pieces, represented oriliuarily in tbe interval between the
feast and the bimquet; and we may easily believe that
they had considerable influence in tlie settlement of the
form which our stage-performances ultimately assumed.
HejTVOod does not appear to have begun writing until
after Henry VIII. had been some years on the throne ; but,
while Skelton was composing such tedious elaborations as
his " Magniiicence," which, without any improvement, merely
carries to a still greater length of absurdity the ol<! style
of moral plays, HeyT\'ood was writing his "John Tib aud
Sir John," his "Four Ps," bis "Pardoner and Friar," and
pieces of that description, which prescntetl both variety of
matter and novelty of construction, as well as considerable
wit and drollery in the language. He was a very origuial
writer, aud certainly merits more admiration than any of
his dramatic contemporaries.

To the commencement of the reign of Eliznbeth we may
refer several theatrical productions which make approaches
more or less near, to comedy, tragedy, and history, and stib
retain many of the known features of moral plays. " Tom

Besides "King Johan," Bale was the author of four extant draiuafia
productions, which may be looked upon as miracle-plays, both in their
lorm and characters: viz. 1. "The Three Laws of Nature, Moses and
Christ;" a. "God's Promises:" 3. "John the Baptist;" 4. "The
Temptation of Christ." He also wrote fourteen other dramas of vari-
ous kinds, none of which have come down to us.

3 In the library of I\Ir. Hudson Gurney, to whom we beg to expresl
ottr obligations for the use of it.

3 John Heywood, who flourished in the reign of Henry VITI., is not
to be confounded, as some modern editors of Shakespeare have con*
founded him, with Thomas Heywood, who became a dramatist more
than half a century afler\vards, and who continued a writer for the
stage until near the date of the closing of the theatres by the I^iintana.
John Heywood, -ji all probability, died before Thomas Heywood vrasbom.

TO THE TIME OF SHAKESPEAKE.

xvii

nier and his Wife" is a comedy in its incidents ; but the
allegcieal personages, Desire, Destiny, Strife, and Patience,
connect it immediately with the earlier species of stage-
entei'tainment " The Contiict of Conscience," on the other
hand, is a tragedy on the fate of an historical personage ;
but Conscience, Hypocrisy, Avarice, Horror, ifee., are called
lu aid of the pm'pose of the writer. " Appius and Virginia"
is m most respects a history, founded upon facts; but
Rumour, Comfort, and Doctrine, are importantly concerned
in the representation. These, and other productions of the
same class, which it is not neoessaiy to pai-ticularize, show
more natural, species of theatrical composition.' Into miracle-
lays were gi-adually introduced allegorical personages, who
nally usurped the whole stage ; wMe they in turn yielded
f<i real and historical characters, at first only intended to
give variety to abstract impersonations. Hence the origin
of comedy, tragedy, and history, such as we find them in
the works of Shakespeare, and of some of his immediate
predecessors.

What is justly to be considered the oldest known comedy
in our language is of a date not much posterior to the reign
of Henry VIII., if, indeed, it were not composed while he
was on the throne. It has the title of " Ralph Roister
Doister," and it was writteu by Nicholas Udall, who was
master of Eton school iu 1540, and who died in 1557.' It
is on eyerv account a veiy remarkable perfonnance ; and
as the scene is lull in London, it affords a curious picture
of metropohtan manners. The regulaiity of its construction,
even at that early date, may be gathered from the fact,
that in the single copy which has descended to us' it is
divided into acts and scenes. The story is one of common,
every-day life ; and none of tlie characters are such as peo-
ple had been accustomed to find in ordinary dramatic enter-
tainment.s. The piece takes its name from its hero, a young
t<jwn-gallant, who is mightily enamoured of himself, and
who is encouraged in the good opinion he entertains of his
own persiin and accomplishments by Matthew Merrygi-eek,
a poor relation, who attends him in the double capacity of
companion and servant Ralph Roister Doister is iu love
with a lady of property, called Custance, betrothed to
Gawin Goorlluck, a merchant, who is at sea when the
comedy begins, but who returns before it concludes. The
main incidents relate to the mode in which the hero, with
the treacherous help of his associate, endeavours to gain
the affections of Custance. He writes her a letter, which
Merrygreek reads without a due observance of the punctua-
tion, so that it entirely perverts tlie meaning of the wiiter:
he visits her while she is surrounded by her female domes-
tics, but he is unceremouiou.sly rejected: he resolves to
carry her by force of arms, and makes an assaiUt upon her
habitation; but with the assistance of her maids, armed
witb mops and brooms, she di'ives him from the attack.
Then, her betrothed lover returns, who has been misinformed
on the subject of her fidelity, but he is soon reconciled on
an explanation of the facts; and Ralph Roister Doister,
finding that he has no chance of success, and that he has

' One of the latest pieces without mixture of history or fable, and
consisting wholly of abstract personages, is, "The Tide tarryeth no
Man." by George Wapal^ printed in 1 J7(i : only a single copy of it has
b»ep. preserved, and that is in the library of the Duke of Devonshire.
The principal persona introdnced into it have the following names; —
Painted-profit. No-good-neighbourhood, Wastefulness, Christianity,
Correction, Courage, Feigned-furtherance, Greediness, Wantonness,
and Authority-in-Jespair.

* A very interesting epistle from Udall is to be found in Sir Henry
Ellis's volume (edited for the Camden Society) •■ Original Letters of
Eminent Literary Men." ^hat of Udall is first in the series.

' This single copy is withbut title-page, so that the year when it was
printed cannot be ascertained ; but Thomas Haoket had a licence in
l5(jG for the publication of " a play entitled Ranf Ruyster Duster,'' as
It is oalled on t.qe registers of the Stationers' company. We may pre-
sume that it was published in that year, or in the next.

* By " the older drama," we mean moral plays, into which the Vice
was introduced for the amusement of the spectators : no character so
oalLed, or with similar propensities, is to be traced in miracle-plays. [
He was, in fact, the buffoon of our drama in, what may be termed, its '
•ecoiid stage; after audiences began to grow weary of plays founded
upon Scripture-history, and when even moral plays, in order to be
relished, re:}iiiTed the insertion of a character of broad humour, md
vicious inclinations, who vas sometimeB to be the companion, and at

2

only been cajoled and Liughed at, makes up his mind to be

merry at the wedding of Goodluck and Custance.

In all this we have no trace of anything like a moral
play, with the exception, perhaps, of the eliaraeter of
Matthew MeiTj-greek, wliich, in some of its features, its
love of mischief and its drollei'y, bears a reseuiblanc tty
the Vice of the older drama.' Were the dialogue modern-
ised, the comedy might be performed, even in our own
day, to the satistaetion of many of the usual atteudanto at
our theatres.

In considering the merits of tliis piece, we are to reeoUed
that Bishop Still's "-Gammer Gurton's Needle," which, untii
of late, was held to be our earliest comedy, was written
some twenty years after " Ralph Roister Doister :" it was
not acted at Cambridge until 1566, nine years subsequent
to the death of Udall ; and it is in every point of view an
inferior production. The plot is a mere piece of absurditv,
the language is provincial (well fitted, indeed, to the country
where the scene is laid, and to the clownish persons engagecl
in it) and the manners depicted are chiefly those of iUiter'jte
rustics. The story, such as it is, relates to the loss of a needle
with which Gammer Gurton had mended Hodge's breeches,
and which is afterwards found by the hero, when he is about
to sit down. The humour, generally speaking, is as coai-se
as the dialogue ; and though it is hupossible to deny that
the author was a man of talents, they were hardly such as
could have produced " Ralph Roister Doister."

The drama which we have been accustomed to regard as
our oldest tragedy, and which probably has a just claun
to the distinction, was acted on 18th Januarv, 1562. and
pi-inted in 1565.' It was origiuaUy called " Gorboduc ;" but
it was reprinted iu 1571 under the title of "Forrex and
Porrex," and a third time iu 1590 as " Gorboduc." The first
three acts were written by Thomas Norton, and the last two
by Thomas Sackville, afterwards Earl of Dorset, and it
was performed "by the gentlemen of the Inner Temple."
Although the form of the Greek di-ama is observed in
" Gorboduc," and each act concluded by a chorus, yet Sir
PhiUp Sidney, who admitted (in his " Apology of Poeti-y")
that it was " full of stately speeches and well-sounding
phrases," could not avoid complaining that the unities ot
time and place had been disregarded. Thus, in the verv
outset and origin of our stage, as regai-ds what may be
termed the regular drama, the hbertj', which allowed full
exercise to the imagination of the audience, and which was
afterwards happily carried to a greater excess, was distinctly
asserted and maintained. It is also to be remarked, that
" Gorboduc" is the earliest known play in our language in
which blank-verse was employed ;° but of the introduction
of blank-verse upon our public stage, we shall have occasii m
to speak hereafter. It was an important change, which
requires to be separately considered.

We have now entered upon the reign of Ehzabeth; and
although, as already observed, moral plays and even miracle-
plays were stiU acted, we shall soon see what a variety of
subjects, taken from ancient history, from mythology, fable,
and romanoe, were employed for the purposes of *Jie di'ama

others, the casticator, of the devil, who represented the principle of evil
among mankinj. The Vice of moral plays subsequently became the
fool and jester of comedy, tragedy, and history, and forms another, and
an important, link of connexion between them.

* In the Hist, of Engl. Dram. Poetry and the Stage, ii. 48*2, it is said
that the earliest edition of '- Gorboduc" has no date. "This is a mistake,
as is shown by the copy in the collection of Lord Francis Egerton,
whici. has "anno 1.50.5, Septemb. ^i" at the bottom of the title-page.
Mr. Hallam, in his admirable "Introduction to the Literature of
Europe," A:c. (Second Edit. vol. ii. p. 1G7), expresses his dissent from
the position, that the three Jirst acts were by Norton, and the two last
by Sackville. The old title-page states, that " three acts were written
by Thomas Norton, and the two last by Thomas Sackville." Unless
the printer, William Griffith, were misinform-d, this seems decisive.
iforlon's abilities have not had justice done to them.

^ Richard Edwards, a very distinguished dramatic poet, who died in
1500, and who w-rote the lost play (*f "Palamon and Ajcite," which
was acted before the Queen in September of that year, did not follow
the example of Sackville and Norton ; his "Damon and Pithias" (the
only piece by him that has survived) is in rhyme. See Dodsley's Old
Plays, last edition, vol. i. p. 177. Thomas Twine, an actor in -' Palamor
and Arcite," wrote an epitaph upon its author. " Gammer Gurton'f
are also inserted in vols. i. and ii. of Dodsley's Old Plavs

XVIU

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE

Bt«abeD Gosson, one of tie earliest enemies of theatrical
peifoniianeea, wiitirg his " Plays confuted in Five Actions"
a little lifter the period of whi<'h "we are now spealiing, but
tella us, that " the I'aluce of Pleasure, the Golden Ass, the
J^tbiopian History, Amadis of France, and the Kound
Table," as well as " comedies in Latin, Frencli, Italian, and
Spanish, have been thoroughly ransacked to furnish the
play-houses in London." Hence, unquestionably, many of
the materials of wliat is termetl our romantic drama were
obtained. The accounts of the Master (jf the Revels between
1670 and 1680 contain the names of various plays repre-
sented at court ; and it is to be noted, that it was certamly
the practice at a later date, and it was probably the pi'ae-
tice at the time to which we are now adverting, U> select
for performance before the Queen such pieces as were most
in fiivour with public .ludiences ; consequently the mention
of a few of the titles of productions represented before
Elizabeth at Greenwich, Whltc-hall, Kichmond, or Nonesuch,
will show the character of the jiopular performances of the
day. We derive the followuig uames from Mr P. (Junniug-
bani's " Extracts from the Revels' Accounts," printed for the
Shakespeare Society : — '

Iphigcnia.

Ajax and Ulysses.

Narci.'*su.s.

Paris and Vienna.

The Play of Fortune.

Alcni«oii.

Quiritus Fabius.

Mutius Sacvola.
Portio and Demorantes.
Titus aixi Gl8ij)puM.
Three Sisters ot Mantua.
Cruelty of a Stenuiother.
The Greek Maid.
Kape of the second Helen
Tlie Four Sons of Fabius.

Timoclcu at the Siege of Thebes. History of Surpedon.
Perseus and Andromeda. Murderous Michael,

Tlio Painter's Daugliter. Scipio Africanus.

The History of the Collier. The Duke of Milan.

The History of Error.

These are only a few ovit of many dramas, establishing the
multiplicity of sources U) wliieh the poets of the time
resortjed.' Nevertheless, we find on the same indisputable
authoritv, that moi-al plays were not yet altogether <iis-
carded lu the court enteitjiiuments; for we read, in the
original records, of productions the titles of which prove
that tliey were pieces of that allegorical description :
among tliese arc " Truth. Faithfulness, and Mercy," and
' The Marriage of Mind and Measure," which is expressly
cnlled " a moral."

Our main object in referring to these pieces has been to
show the great diversity of subjects which had been drama-
tised befejre 158U. In 1881 Kainabe Rich ]iubhshed his
" Farewell t« Militnry Profession,"" consisting (jf a collection
of eight novels; and at tlie chise of the work he inserts this
these histories to the end, 1 doubt not but thou wilt deem
of them as they worthily deserve, and tliink such vanities
more titter to bo presented on ii stage (as some of them
have been) than to be published in print." The fact is, that
three dramas are exttnt whieli more or less eloselv resem-
ble three of Rich's novels: one of them " Twelfth" Night ;"
another, " The Weakest gocth to the Wall ;" and the third
the old play of " Philr.tus.""

Upfpn the manncM- in which the materials thus procured
ware then handled, we have several contemporaneous
a-.ithorities. George Whetstone, (an author who has prin-
cipally acquired celebrity by writing an earUei' diama upon
the incidents eniphiyed by Shakespeare in his "Measure
tor Measure") in the dedication of his " Promos imd Cassan-
dra," gives a compendious description of the nature of popu-
lar theatrical representations in 1678. "The Englishman

*_''Tlio Play of Fortune." in the above Hit. is doubtlfisg tlifl piece
which hlB reached ur in a printed shape, as "The Rare Triumphs of
LoTe and Fortune :" it was acted at court as earljr as l.'»73, and again
in loSr!; but it did not come from the press until 15n!1, and the only
copy of it is in the library of Lord Francis Egerton. "The purpnso of
the anonvmous writer was to compose an entertainment *iiich should
possess the pri'at r.'.ininite of ^-ariety, with as much show .is could at
that early date be accomplished: and we are to recollect that the court
theatres possessed some unusual facilities for the purpose. The "Induo-
.len" is in blank-verae, but the body ef the drama is in rhvmo- "The

(he remarks) in this quality is most vam, indiscreet, and out
I of order. He first gi'ounds hie work on impossibilities;
then, in three hours, runs he through the worhl. marries, getu
■ children, makes children men, men to comiuer kingdoms,
murder monsters, and briugeth gods irom heaven, and
fetcheth devils from hell : and, that which is worst, their
ground is not so uuperfect as their working indiscreet ; not
weighing, so the people laugh, though they laugh them fot
their follies to scorn. Many times, to make mirth, they
make a clown companion with a king : in their grave coun
cils they allow the advice of fools ; yea, they use one order
of speech for all persons, a gross indecorum." Thia, it will
be perceived, is an accurate account of the ordinary liceiLW
I taken in our romantic drama, and of the reliauee of poets,
long before the time of Shakespeare, upon the imaginationa
i of theu' audit<-)rB.

To the same effect we may quote a work by Stephen
I Gosson, to which we have before been indebted, — " Play<
confuted in Five Actions." — which must have been printed
' about 1580 : — " If a true history (says Gosson) be taken in
I hand, it is made, hke our shadows, longest at the rising and
I falling of the sun, shoi'tcst of all at high noon ; for the poets
drive it commonly unto such points, as may best show the
majesty of their pen in tragical speeches, or set the hearers
agog with discourses of love ; or paint a few antics to fit
their own humours with scoffs and tjtmits ; or bring in a
show, to fiu'nish the stage when it is bare." Again, speak-
ing of plays professedly founded upon ri>mance, and not
upon "true history," he remarks: "Sometimes you shall
see nothing but the adventures of an amorous knight, pass-
ing from counti-y to country for the love of his lady, encoun-
tering many a terrible monster, made of brown paper, and
at his return is so wmiderfully changed, that he cannot be
latown but by some posy in his tablet, or by a broken ring,
or a handkerchief, or a piece of cockle-shell." We can
hardly doubt that when Gosson wrote this passage he had
particular productions in his mind, and several of the cha-
racter he describes are still extant.

Sir Philip .Sidney is believed to have written his "Apology
of Poetry" in 1583, and we have already referred t<5 it in
connexion with " Gorboduc." His observations, upon the
general character of dramatic representations in his time,
throw much light on the state of the stjige a very few
years before Shakespeare is supposed to have quitted
Stratford-upon-Avon, and attached himself to a theatrical
company. " Our tragedies and comedies (says Sidney) are
not without cause cried out against, observing neither rules

of honest civility, nor skilful poetry But if it be so

in Gorboduc, how much more in all the rest, where you
shall have Asia of the one side, and Afric of the other, and
so many other under-kingdfmis, that the player, when he
Comes in, must ever begin with telling where he is, or else
the tale will not be conceived. Now you shall have three
ladies walk to gather flowers, and then we must believe
the stage to be a garden : by and by we hear news of a
slii])wreek in the same place ; then, we are to blame if we
accept it not for a rock. lT])on the back of that comes out
a hideous monster with fire and smoke, and then the miser-
able bcholt^rs are bound to take it for a cave ; while, in
the meantime, two armies fly in, represented with four
swords and bucklers, and tlieu what nard heart will not
receive it for a pitched field ! Now, of time they are much
more liberal; for ordinary it is that two young-princes fall
in love . itfter many traverses she is got with child, delivered
of a fair boy; be is lost, groweth a man, falleth in love, and
is ready to got another child, and all tliis in two bouis'
space : which how absurd it is m sense, even sense mav
imagine, and art hath taught, and all ancient examples juetj-

History of the Collier," also mentioned, was perhaps the comedy subse-
(^uently known and printed as " Grim, the Collier of Croydon ;" and it
has been reasonably supposed, that " The History of Error" was an ol^
play on the sajne subject as .Shaki-speare's " Comedy of Errors."

3 Until recently no edition of an earlier date than that of 1G06 was
known; but thore is an impression of I.'i^^l at Oxford, which isaboul
to be reprinted by the Slialcespt;are Society. Malone had heard of a
copy in i5&-3. but it is certainly a mistake,

' It was repriuled for the Bannatyne Club iti 183.5, by J W, Mack
nnzje Ksu.

TO THE TIME OF SUAKESPEAHE.

XiX

ded" He afterwards ivme* U> a point previously unceti bv
Whetetoue; lor Siiinev compUiius that pUiys were "ucithir
right tr«ire<lieo uor riglit iviueitioSv miugliug kiiigs and
doTrns, uot beoause tiie matter so earrieth it, but tlirust iu
the oJowu b_T head aud shouldei's, to play a part in maiesti-
cal matters vritli ueither deeeuov nor rtiscretivni ; si> as neither
the adiiiiratiou and couuuisei-atioii. nor right sp»irtfiihiess is
by their mongrel tni^-'-wmieily obtaiueil."

It will be remarked that, with the exception of the |
iu£tauoe of " (.it^irlKRiue, " no writer we have had oe«isiou to
cite mentions the English Chivnicles, as having yet fuiiiishnl
dramatists with stories for the statre ; and we may perhaps
ixifer tliat res*>rt was not had to them for the purp<ises of tie
public theatres, until alter the date of which we ai-e ih'W
•peaking.

Having thus briefly adverted to the natui-e aud character
of di-aiitatic representations frx-m the earliest times t«i the
Tear I080. auo having establislied that our ivnmntic drama I
^as of ancient origin, il is neeessaiv shortly to descrilw the [
-jrcmnstjmces under whicfa plays were at didereut early
;eiiods performeii !

There were no regular tbeatjvs, or buildings permanently
Doostructed for the purpi'ses of the ilrjuiut, untu .liter 1575.
Miracle-plays were sometimes exhibited iu churches imd iu
the halls of corp^iratious, but more frequently upi>n move-
able stages, or scali'olils, erecteil iu the open air. Moral
plays weine subsequently performeil under really similar
circumstjiuces. excepting thjit a practice had grown up,
among the nobility aud wealthier geutiy. of having dramatic
eutertaimuents at pai'ticiilar seasi>ns in tlieir ».»wn residences.*
These wei-e sometimes performed by a cvm^xuiy of actoi*
retained iu the fimiily, aud souietiines by itinej'ant players.^
who belonged to hii'ge t*iwns, or who called themselves the
servants of members of the aristocracy. In 14 Kliz. an act
was passed allowing stivUing actors to perform, if liceuseii
by some lv»i\>n or uoblemau of higher degree, but subjecting
all othere to the penalties inflicted upt>n vagi-ants. There- ,
fore, althiiusih m:my compimies of phiyei-s went iwmd the !
country, and actetl as the servmits of s*>mc of the nobility,
they had uo legislative prv>teetiou until 1572. It is a singu-
lar &ct, that the earUest known company of plaveiis. travel-
ling under the uaiue aud ^xttrouage of one ui> tiie iK<bility.
was that of the Duke of Gloucester, afterwards Kichaixi
ILL' Henry YH. had two distinct IxkUcs of -act*'!^ of 1
interludes'" iu his pay. and fivm henceforwaixi the prt>fession
of a player became well undei-stiH>d imd recoguizeiL In L'le
later part of the reign of Henry VII.. the playei:s of the
Dukes of Norfolk and Buckingham, aud »'f the Eiirls of
Anmdel. Oxfoi-d. and Jforthuniberlimd. performed at court.

> As early as H6o a company of players had performed at the wed-
4ins of a person of the nJimp of Mi'iincs. who ^Ta5 nearly related to
Sir John HowTird. afterwards Duke of Norfolk. See " Manners and
Household Exi^nses ot Enirlaiid." printed by Mr. Botlield. M. P.. for
the Roiburshe Club in l^41. p. 511.

* The anonymous MS. play of " Sir Thomas More,'* Trrillen towards
the close of the rei^ of Elizabeth, girths a rery correct notion of the
mode in which ofl'crs to pefform were made by a comi>any of players,
and accepted by tlie owner of the mansion. Four players and n' boy '
(for the fel£ale characters) tender their senrices to the Lord Chancel'- 1
lor. jest as he is on the point of giving a grand suppeg to the Lor\l i
Mayc f and Corporation of l<»udon : Sir Thomas More inquires what
f iec«* :hey can perform, and the answer of the leader of the company
■applies the names of seven which were then pv^pular; viz., "The ]
Cradle of Security.*' " Hit Nail on the Head.'' "Impatient PovertT." |
"The Four Ps," " Dives and Laxarus." " Lusty Juventus," and " Ttie I
Marriage of Wit and Wisdom." Sir Thomas More ti.Nes uiK.n the last.
and it is accordingly represented, as a play within a play, hefore the )
tonquet. " S-r Thomas More " >yas regularly licensed for public per-
formanc« I

' Hither from preference or policy, Richard IH. appears to have '
been a great encouraeer of actors and mttsici.u\s: besides his players, I
he patronized two distinct Kxlies of " minstrels.'' and performers on
instruments calle.! ''shalms.'' These facts are derived Irom a manu- )
•cripl of the household-book of John Lord Howard, atterftartls duke of I
Norfolk, preserved in the library of the Society of Antiquaries- and '
recently pnnte.! for the use of the members oj'the Roxburghe Club, I
»■ a sequel to Mr. Botfield's volume. I

* At a considertbty subsequent date some of these infant companies |
performed before general audiences: and to them were added the
Chihlren of the Revels, who had n^ver been aitached To any religious j
•etablishment. but were chiefly encouraged as a nursery for actors. I
The Queen of James I had also a oo^lpan^ of theatrical children
•ndar her patronage j

I companies attached to particular places ; imd in w^ral
records we read of the players of \ ork. Coventry. Laven^
I ham. Wycombe, Chester. Manuingtree, Evesham. Mile-end.
! Kingston, Ac.

1 In the reign of Henry '\'ni, and perhajis in that of his
i predeeessi>r, the s^ntlemen and singing-boys of the Chapel
. RoyiU were employ txi to act plavs and iuteiludes before
I the cimrt ; aud atterwanls the children of \V estmmster. Sl
j Paul's, ami \Vinds<'r. imder their several mastet^ are not
uufrequently mentioned in the household bivks of the
]<djice, luid iu the accvnmts of the de|>artment of tlie revels,*

In 1514 the king added a uew cvmjiauy to the dr.uuntic
retinue I'f tlie c\airt, besides the two cuiupanies which Iju)
been paid by his father, and the ass*K-intious of theatriesl
childien. In fact, at this peri^xl dramatic enlei-taiumenta,
iuas*juts, disguisings, and revels <if every dcsci ipliou. wei*
carrie»l to a costly excess. Heniy VI 11. raised the sum,
1 until tlien paid for a play, fivm fi/.l.")*. 4<i. to lo/. \Villi.-uu
I Comyslie. the master >f the children of the chapel on one
occa.-5ou was paid no less a siuu than 200/_ in the money of
! that time, by wav of rewanl ; aud John HerwiKid. the author
of mterludes before mentioned, who w.ts also a plaver upi'U
the virgiu.-ils. had a salary of 30/. per annum, in ailihtioo t«i
his other eniolmneuts. During scas^ius of festivity a IjoiO
of Misiulc was regularly apjviuted to snperiutmd tlie
sports, aud he also was sep;u'atcly and lilx niUy remuue-
ratoil The example of the omrt was foUowei,! by the
c«nutiers, and the ivmp;mies of theatrical retainers, in the
pay. or actii^ in various parts of the kingdom under tW
Uiuiies of particular noMemen, became extremely numerous.
Religious liouses gave them eucouragement, and even assisted
ill the getting tip aud representation of the pelfonnanee^
espeeiiilly shortly Ivfore the dissolution of the monasteries
in the acoount-lxH>k of the IVior of Diiumow. between
March 15S'2 mid July 16oG. we find entries of |iaynieuta
to Ixirils of Misrule there apfK>iuted. as well as to the playe™
of the King, imd of the Earls of Derby. Exeter, imd bussex '
In 154S was passed a statute, rendered nccessju'v by tlie
pi'Iemii'al cltiracter of siime of the diimias publicly repie-
senteil. although, not niimy years before, the king had him-
self encouraged such performances at court, by being present
at a plav iu which Luther and his wife were i idiculed. The
act prohibits " ballads, phtys. rhymes, songs, and other iiui
tasies" of a rehgious or doetrimd tendency, but at the same
time eaicfuUy piwides. that the chiuses shall iKit exteud t<i
" Si'ugs, plays, aud interludes'' w hicli had for object " the
rebuking imd repivadiing of \-ices. aud the setting fortli of
virtue ; so always the said swings, plays, or interludes med-
dle not with the iuterprctatious ot Scripture.""
The permanent oflice of Master of the Revels, for the

* For this information we are indebted to Sir X. H. Xicholas, who
has the ori^ual document in his library. Similar facts might be
established Irom other aulhorities. both o'f an earlier aud somewhat
later date.

• See Hist, of Engl. Dram. Poetry and the Stage. "Vol. i. p. tU7.
The olficial account, made out by Richard Gibst^n. who h.ad the pre;.A-
ration of the dre-<ses. .Vc, is so curious and characteristic, thai w?
quote it in the words, though not in the uncouth orthography, of the
ori^nal document : the date is the 10th Nov. 15iJS. uot long before the
king saw reason to change the whole course of his jiolicy a« regardrii
the Reformation.

"The king's pleasure was that at the said rewls, by cierks in tb*
Latin tongue, should be played in his presence a play, wheroof cnsia-
eth the names. First an Orator in apparel of gold: a IWt in apparel
of cloth of g\>ld : Religion. Ecclesia, Veritas, like three Novices, in
garments of silk, and veils of lawn and eypress : Hervsy. Fal-^e-inter-
pretation. Corniptitt-scriptoris like ladies of Bohemi.v apparelled in
garments of silk of divers colours; the heretic Luther, like a party
friar, in russet, damask and black tatfeta : Luther's wile. like a frow
of Spiers in Almain, in red silk: Peter. Paul, and James, in three
habits oi white sarsenet and three red mantles, and hairs of silver of
damask and pelerines of scarlet, and a cardinal in his apparel ; twj
Sergeants in rich apparel : the Pauphin and his brother m coats of
velvet embroidere*! with gold, and caps of satin iH^iind with velvet ; a
Messen^r in tmsel-satin ; six men in gv^wns of green sarsenet ; six
women in go-rus of crimson sarsenet : War in rich cloth 3f gold and
feathers, and armed ; three A.mains in apparel all cut and slit of lilk ;
and 'Dame 'franquillity. richly beseen in la^lies' apparel.

The drama represented by these personages appears to have 'oeei
the compoaition of John Rightwise, then master of ^he eb'ldteii •<(
St. Paul's.

xx

HISTOEY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE

lupeiiutcndeuce jf all dramatic perfi>imBnce8, was created
in 1546, and Sir Thomas Cawarden was a]ipt>iuted to it with
an annual salary of 10/. A person of tne nam? of John
Bernard was made Clerk of the Revels, with an allowance
of 8<i per day and livery'.

It is a nniaikable point, estabUshed by Mr. Tytler', that
Henry VIII, was not yet bmied, and Bishop Gardiner and
his paiishiouers were about t<i sing a dii'i;e for his soul,
when the actors of the Earl of Oxford posted bills for the
perfonuance of a play in Southwark. This was long before
the construction of any regular theatre on the Bankside ;
but it shows at how early a date that pait of the town was
selected for such exliibitious. When Mr. Tytler adds, that
the players of the Earl of Oxford were " the first that were
kept bv iuiy nobleman," he falls into an error, because
Richiu' J. II I., and others of the nobihty , as already remark-
ed, had companies of players attached to their households.
We have the evidence of Puttenham, in his " Art of English
Poesie," 1589, for stating that the Earl of Oxford, ui\der
whose name the players in 1547 were about to perform,
was himself a di'amatist

Very soon after Edward VI. came to the throne, severe
measures were taken to restrain not only dramatic per-
formances, but tlie publication of dramas. Playing and
printing plays were first entirely suspended ; then, the
companies of noblemen were allowed to perform, but not
without special authoiity ; and, finally, the sign manual, or
the names of six of the Piivy Council were required to
their Ueenses. The objectii m stated was, that the plays liad
a political, not a polemical, purpose. One of the first acts
of Mary's government, was to issue a proclamation to put
a stop to the performance of interludes calculated to ad-
vance the principles of the Reformation ; and we may be
sure that the play ordered at the coronation of the queen
was of a conti-aiy description'. It appears on other autlio-
rities, that for two years there was an entire cessation of
DubUe dramatic performimces ; but in this reign the repre-
sentation of the old Roman Catholic miracle-plays was par-
tially and authoritatively revived.

It is not necessai-y to detail the proceedings in connexion
with theatrical representations at the opening of the reign
of Elizabeth. At first plays were discountenanced, but by
degrees they were permitted ; and the queen seems at all
times to have derived much pleasure from the services of
her own players, those of her nobiUty, and of the different
companies of children belonging to Westminster, St. PaiJ's,
Windsor, and the Chapel Royal The membei'S of the inns
of court also performed " Gorboduc" on 18th Jimuaiy, 1562 ;
and on February 1st, an historical play, under the name of
" Julius Caesar," was represented, but by what company is
uo where mentioned.

lu 1572 the act was passed (which was renewed with ad-
ditional force in 1597) to restrain the number of itinerant

^ The original appointment of John Bernard is preserved in the
W)7ary of Sir Thomas Philiippes, Bart., to whom we owe the addi-
l'j>aat information, that tliis Clerk of the Revels had a house assigned
to liim, strangely called, in the instrument, ''Egypt, and Flesh-
Hall," with a garden which had helonged to the dissolved monastery
of the Charter-house : the words of the original are, omnia ilia do-
mum et edijicia nitper vocala Egipte et FUshall, ct iUntn ilomum
mdjacenltni nuper vocatam U garneler. The theatrical wardrobe of
Ikw court was at this period kept at St. John's Gate, Clerkenwell.

> In his ■■ Edward VI. and Mary," laSO, vol. i. p. 2U.

* See Kempe's " Losely iVIanuscripts," 1^35, p. (il. The warrant
for the purpose was under the sign manual, and it was directed to
SirT. Cawarden, as Master of the Revels ; — ^' We will and command
y<m, upon the sight hereof, forthwith to make and deliver out of our
Revels, unto the Gentlemen of our Chapel, for a play to be played
before us at the feast of onr Coronation, as in times past hath been
accustomed to be done by the Gentlemen of the Chapel of our pro-
genitors, all such necessary garments, and other things for the fur-
niture thereof, as shall he thought meet," &.c. The play, although
ordered for this occasion, viz. 1st Oct. 155-'3, was for some unex-
plamcd reason deferred until Christmas.

* There is a material dilFerence between the warrant under the
privy seal, and the patent under the great seal, granted upon this
occasion : the former gives the players a right to perform •' as well
irithin the city of London and lioertiea of tlie same " as elsewhere ;
but the latter (dated three days afterwards, viz. 1(J May, 15T1) omits
tins paragraph; and we need' entertain little doubt that it was ex-
cluded at the instaikce of the Corporation of London, always opposed
^ theatrical performancca.

performers. Two years afterwards, the Earl of Leicester
obtjiined from EUzabeth a patent under the great seal, to
enable his players James Burbage, John Perkyn. John Lan-
ham, William Johnson, and Robert Wils<)n, to perform
" comedies, tragedies, interludes, and stage-plays," in any
part of the kingdom, witJi the exception of the mctropoUs*

The Lord Mayor and Aldermen succeeded in excluding
the players from the stiiet boundaiies of the city, but they
were not able to shut them out of the liberties ; and it ia
not to be forgotten that James Burbage and his associates
were supported by court favour generally, and by the pow-
erful patronage of the Earl of Leicester m particular. Ac-
cordingly, in the year after they had obtained thiir patent,
James Burbage and his fellows took a large house in the
precinct of the (.hssrilved monasteiy of the Black Friars, and
converted it into a theatre. This was accfmijilished in 1576,
and it is the first time we hear of any building set apart for
theatrical representatious. tjntil then the various compa-
nies of actors had been obhged to content themselves with
churches, halls, with temporaiy erections in the streets, or
with inn yards, in which they raised a stage, the spectators
standing below, or occupying the galleries that surrounded
the open space°.i Just about the same period two other
edifices were built for the exhibition of phiys in Shoreditch,
one of which was called " The Curtain"," and the other " The
Theatre." Both these are mentioned as in existence and
operation in 1577'. Thus we see that two buildings close
to the walls of the city, and a tliird within a privileged dis-
tiict in the city, all expressly applied to the purpose of
stage-plays, were in use almost immediatelv alter tiie date
of the Patent to the players of the Earl of Leicester. It is
extremely likely, though we have no distinct evidence of
the fact, that one or more play-houses were opened about
the same time in Southwark ; and we know that the Rose
theatre was standing there not many years afterwards'
John Stockwood, a put itanical preacher, pubhshed a sermon
in 1578, in which he asserted that there were " eight ordi
nary places " in and near London for dramatic exhibitions,
and that the united profits were not less than £2000 a year
at least £12,000 of our present money. Another divine, of
the name of White, equally opposed to such ])erformauces,
preaching in 1576, called the pl."iy-houses at that time
erected, " sumptuous theatres." No doubt, the puiitauical
zeal of these diviues had been excited by the ojieiiing of the
Blackfiiars, the Curtain, and the Theatre, in 1576 and 1577,
for the exclusive purpose of the drama ; and the five addi-
tional places, where plays, accorcUng to Stockwood, were
acted before 1678, were most likely a play-house at New-
ington-butts, or inn-yards, converted occasionally into
theatres.

An miportant fact, in connexion with the manner in which
dramatic performances were patronized by Queen Elizabeth,
has been recently brought to light'. It has been hitherto

* In 1557 the Boar's Head, Aldgate, had been used for the per-
formance of a drama called " The Sack full of News ;" and Stepnen
Gosson in his " School of Abuse," 157i), {reprinted by the Shakespeare
Society) mentions the Belle Savage and the Bull as inns at which
particular plays had been represented. R. Flecknao, in his '■ Short
Discourse of the English Stage." appended to his '' Love's Kingdum,-'
ItjGJ, says that " at this day is to be seen " that " t'le inn yards of th«
Cross-Keys, and Bull, in Grace and Bishopsgate Streets" had been
used as theatres. There is reason to believe that the Boar's Head,
Aldgate, had belonged to the father of Edward Alleyn.

fi It has been supposed by some, that the Curtain theatre owed it*
name to the curtain employed to separate the actors from the audi-
ence. We have before us documents (which on account of then
length we cannot insert) showing that such was probably not the fact,
and that the ground on which the building stood was called the Cur-
tain (perhaps as part of the fortifications of London) before any play-
house was built there. For this information we have to ofl'er out
thanks to Mr. T. E. Tomlins of Islington.

^ In John Northbrooke's ^' Treatise." Sec. against " vain plays or
interludes," licensed for the press in 1577, the work being then ready
and ill the printer's hands It has been reprinted by the Shaksspeare
Society.

s See the " Memoirs of Edward Alleyn," {published by the Shake-
speare Society) p. 169. It seeias that the Rose liad been the sign of
a house of public entertainment before it was converted into a theatre.
Such was also the ca|e with the Swan, and the Hope, in the same
neighbourhood.

• By .\Ir. Peter Cunningham, in his " Extracts from the Aocovnti
of the Revels," printed for the Shakespeare So3'etv, pp 32 an/

TO THE TIME OF SHAKESPEAEE.

XXI

lujiposed that in 1583 she selected one company of tirelve
peiforniers, to be called " the Queen's players ;" but it seems
that she had two separate associations in her pay. each dis-
tinguished as " the Queen's players." Tylney. the master
ijf the rerels at the time, records, in one of his account*,
that in March, 1583, he had been sent for by her Majesty
" to chuse out a company of players :" Richard Tarlton and
Robert Wilson were placed at the head of that association,
which was probably soon afterwards divided into two dis-
tinct bodies of performers. In 1590, John Lanham was the
leader of one body', and Lawrence Dutton of the other.

We have thus brought our sketch of dramatic perform-
ances and performers down to about the same period, the
year 1583. We propose to continue it to 1590. and to as-
sume that as the period not, of course, when Shakespeare
Iji-st joined a tlieatneal company, but when he began writing
original pieces for the stage. This is a matter which is
more distinctly considered in the biography of the poet;
but it is necessary here U> fix upon some date to which we
are to extend our introductory account of the progress and
condition of theatrical affairs. What we have still t« offer
will apply to the seven years from 1583 to 1590.

alford us little information, and indeed for several years,
when such entertainments were cei-tainly required by the
Queen, we are without any details either of the pieces per-
formed, or of the cost of preparatioa We have such par-
ticulars for the yeai-s 1581, 1582, 1584, and 1587, but for
the intermediate yeare they are wanting.'

The accounts of 1581, 1582, and 1584, give us the fol-
lowing names of dramatic performances of various kinds
exhibited before the Queen:

A comedy called Deliglit. Ariodante and Genevora.

The Story of ?ompey. Pastonil of Philhda and
A Game of the Cards. Clorin.

A comedy of Beauty and History of Felix and Phi

Housewifry. liomeua.

Love and Fortune. Five Pl:iys in One.

History of Ferrar. Tliree Piays in One.

History of Telomo. Agamemnon and Ulysses.

This list of dramas (the accounts mention that others
were acted without supplying their titles) establishes that
moral plays had not yet been excluded^ The " Game of
the Cai'ds" is expressly called " a comedy or moral." in the
accounts of 1582; and we may not unreasonably suppose
that " Delight," and " Beauty and Housewifry," were of the
eame class. " The Story of Pompey," and " Agamemnon
and Ulysses," were evidently performances founded upon
ancient histoi-y, and such maj' have been the ease with " The '
History of Telomo." •' Love and Fortune" has been called I
" tlie pUiy of Fortune" in the account of 1573 ; and we may
feel assured that " Ariodante and Genevora" was the st^ry
told by Ariosto, which also fonus part of the plot of
doubtless "The History of Error" of the account of 1577,
the clerk having written the title by his ear ; and we may
reasonably suspect that " Felix and Philiomena" was the
tale of Felix and Felismena, narrated in the - Diana" of
Montemayor. It is thus evident, that the Master of the

180. The editor's " Introduction " is fail of new and valnable infor-
nation.

^ Tarlton died on 3 Sept. 15S9. and we apprehend that it was not
antil after this dale that Lanham became leader of one comTianv of
the Queen's Players. Mr. Halliwell discovered Tarlton's wifl in the
Prerogative Office, bearing date on the day of his decease : he there
calls himself one of the grooms of the Queen's chamber, and leaves
all his " goods, cattels. chattels, plate, ready money, jewels, bonds
olili^lory. specialties, and debts," to his son Philip Tarlton, a minor.
He appoints his mother, Katherine Tarlton. his friend Robert Adams,
and "his fellow William Johnson, one also of the grooms of her
Majesty's chamber," trustees for his son. and executors of his will,
which was proved by Adams three days after the death of the testator!
As Tarlton says nothinp about his wife in his will, we may presume
that he was a widower ; and of his son, Philip Tarlton, we never hear
at\em-ards.

* From ISs* tc 1604, the most important period as reparde Shake-
speare, it does not appear that any official statements by the master
of tbe .erels have been preserved, in the same wav there is an nn-
fnrluaate interval between 16U4 and 1611.

* One of the last pieces represented before Queen Elizabeth was a

Revels and the actors exerted themselves to fui-nish variety
for the cnteitainment of the Queen and her nobditv ; but
we still see no trace (" Gorboduc" excepted) of any play at
court the materials for which were obtained fn 'in the Eng-
lish Chronicles. It is very certain, however, that anterior
to 1588 such pieces had been wiitten, and acted before pub-
lic audiences* ; but those who catered for the court in these
matters might not consider it expedient to erhibit. in the
presence of the Queen, any play which mvolved the actions
or condudt of her predecessors. The companies of players
engaged in these representations were those of the Queen,
the Earls t»f Leicester, Derby, Sussex, Oxford, the L::d«
Htmsdon and Strange, and the children of the Chapel RoyiJ
and of St. Paul's.

About tliis date the nimibei of companies of actors per
i forming pubhcly in and near London seems to have beer
very ctmsiderable. A person, wh» cidls himself " a soldier,"
writing to Secretary Walsingham, in January. 1586,' tells
him. that " eveiy day in the week the players' bills are set
up in sundry places of the city," and after mentioning the
actors of the Queen, the Earl of Leicester,' tlie Earl of
Oxford, and the Lord Admiral, he goes on t« state that not
fewer than two hundred persons, thus retained and em
ploj'ed, strutted in their silks about the streets. It may be
doubted whether this statement is much exaggerated, re-
collecting the many noblemen who had players acting under
their names at tliis date, and that each company consisted
probably of eight or ten performei's. On the same authority
we learn that theatncal re[3resentations upon the Sabbath
had been forbidden ; but this restriction does not seem to
have been imposed without a considerable struggle. Before
1581 the Privy Cotmcil had issued an order upon the sub-
ject, but it was disregarded in some of the suburbs of Lon-
don ; and it was not untU after a fatal exliibition of bear-
baitmg at Pails Garden, upon Sunday, 13 June, 1583,-wheH
many persons were killed and wounded by the falling of a
scaffc 'Id. that the practice of playing, as well as bear-baiting,
on the Sabbath was at all generally checked. In 1586, as
far as we can judge from the iuformatii 'U that has come
down to our day, the order which had been issued in this
respect was pretty strictly enforced. At this period, and
afterwards, plays were not unfrequently played at comt on
Simday, and the chief difficulty therefore seems to have
been t«^i induce the Privy Council to act with energy against
similar performances in pubUe theatres.

The annual official statement of the Master of the Revels
merely tells us. in general terms, that between Christmas
1686. and Shrovetide 1587, "seven plays, besides feats of
activity, and other shows by the children of Paul's, her
Majesty's sei-vants, and the gentlemen of Gray's Inn," wei'e
prepared and represented before the Queen at Cireenwich.
No names of plays are furnished, but in 1587 was printed a
trao;edy, under the title of " The Misfortunes of Arthur,"
which purports to have been acted by some of tJie members
of Gray's Inn before the Queen, on 28 Feb., 1587 : this, in •
fact, must be the very production stated in the revels' ac-
counts to have been got up and performed by these par-
ties; and it requires notice, not merely for its own iutiinsic
excellence as a drama, but because, in point of date, it is

moral play, under the title of '■ The Contention between Liheralitw
and ProdigaLiy," printed in 160*2, and acted, as appears by the strong
est internal evidence, in 16(10.

* Tarlton, who died, as we have already staled, in Sept. 15S6, o}>
tained great celebrity by his performance of the two parts of Derrick
and the Judge, in the old historical play of '' The Famous Victories
of Henry the Fifth."

' See the original letter in Harleian MSS. No. 2-:6.

away from Oxford is curious, and one of the items in the accounts
expressly applies to the Earl of Leicester's servants. We are obligwi
to the Rev. Dr. Bliss for the following extracts, relating to tiiis pe-

I riod and a little afterwards :

j 1567 Solut. Histrionibas Comitis Lecestrise. ut cum suis India
I sine majore Academis molestid discedant . . xx«

Solut. Histnonibus Honoratissimi Domini Howard . xxa
1588 Solut. Histrionibus, ne ludos inhonestos exercerenl in-
fra Universitatem .... (no suss*
1590 Solut. per D. Eedes, vice-cancellarii locum tenentera,
quibusdam Histrionibus. ut sine perta^batiine ftt
strepita ab Academic discederent ■ V

xxn

HISTOKT OF THE ENGLISH STAGE

the second nlav founded upon English history represented | stage is noticed, is an epistle ty Thomas Nash introducing
at court, as ^vell as the second original theatrical production ! to the world his friend Robert Greenes "Menapnon^ n:
in blank-verse that has been presei-ved'. 'ITie example, in 1587': there, in reference to " vaiu-glorious tragedians, he
this parlirular, had been set, as we have already shown, in I says, that they are " mounted ou the stage of airogance,
" Ooi'bodi.c," tilteen years before ; and it is pmbible, that in and_ that^ they " thmk to put^braye better P™^^ Jj_^__^,«
that interval uot a few uf the serious compositions exhibited " ' . -^ i „ . „..=» «= ^,™„,.,i

at couit were in bhink-versc, but it had not yet been used
on any of our public stages.

The main Iwdy of "The Misfortunes of Arthur" was the
authoi-ship of 'I'homas Hughes, a member of Gray's Inn;
but some speeches and two chomscs (which ai-e iu rhyme)
weie added by William Fulbecke aud Francis Flower,
while no less a man tliari Lord Bacon assisted Christopher
Yelvertou auJ John Laucaster in the preparation of the
ilumb-sbows. Hughes evidently took " Gorboduc" as his
model. Doth in subject and style, and, like Sackville aud
Norton, he adopted the form of the Greek aud Roman
drama, and adhered more strictly than liis predecessors to
tlie unities of time and place. The plot relates to the re-
belUon of Mordred against his father, king Arthur, and part
of the plot is very revolting, on account of the incest be-
tween Mordred and his stepmother Guenevora, Mordred
himself beiug the son of Arthur's sister : there is also a vast
deal of blood and slaughter throughout, and the catastrophe
is the Idlliug of the son by the father, and of the father by
the sou; so that a more painfully disagreeable story could
hardly have been selected. The'author, however, possessed
a very bold aud vigorous genius ; his characters are strongly
drawn, and the language they employ is consistent with
their situations and habits : his blank-veree, both in force
ind variety, is superior to that of either SackviUe or Nor-

It is yeiy clear, that up to the year 1580, about which
date Gossou published his " Plays confuted in Five Ac-
tions," ■dramatic performances on the public stages of Lon-
don were sometimes in prose, but more coustautly in rhyme.
In his "School of Abuse," 1519, Gosson speaks of "two
prose books played at the BeU Savage' ;" but in his " Plays
confuted" he tells us, that " poets send their verses to the
stage upon suoh feet as continually are rolled up in rhyme."
with one or two exceptions, all the plays pubhcly acted, of
a date anterior to 1590, that have come down to us, are
either in prose or in rhyme*. The case seems to have been
ditfereut, as already remarked, with some of the court-
shows and private entertainments ; but we are now advert-
ing to the pieces represented at such places as the Theatre,
the Curtjiiu, Blackfriars, and in inn-yards adapted tempo-
rarily to dramatic amusements, to which the public was
indiscriniinately admitted. The earliest work, m which the
employment of blank-verse for the purpose of the common

1 Gascoyne's ".Tocasta," printed in 1577, and represented by the
luthor and other members of the society at (Jray's Inn in 151iG aji a
private show, was a translation from Euripides. It is, a-s far as has
yet been ascertained, the second play in our language written in
•blank-verse, but it was not an original work. The same author's
■^ Supposes," taken from Ariosto, is in prose.

a "The Misfortunes of Arthur," with four other dramas, has been
reprinted in a supplementary volume to the last edition of liodsley's
Old Plays. It is not, therefore, necessary here to enter into an ex-
amination of its structure or versification. It is a work of extraor-
dinary power. ftn ,.. . L

3 See the Shakespeare Society's reprint, p. 30. Gosson gives them
Ihe highest praise, asserting that they contained "never a word
without wit, never a line without pith, never a letter placed in

vain." ' , ,

* Sometimes plays written in prose were, at a subsequent date,
when blank-verse had become the popular form of composition, pub-
lished as if thev had been composed in measured lines. The old his-
torical plav. "The Famous Victories of Henry tne Fifth," which
preceded that of SnaKespeare. is an instance directly in point : it was
written in prose, but the old printer chopped it up into lines of un-
equal length, so as to make it appear to the eye something like blank-

« Greene began writing in 1583, his "Maraillia" having been
then printed: his ''Mirror of Modesty" and " Monardo," bear the
date of 15t<4. His "Menaphon" (afterwards called "Greene's Ar-
cadia") first appeared in lot<7, and it was reprinted in IS.'i'J. Vfe
have never seen the earliest edition of it, but it is mentioned by
various biblingraphors ; and those who have thrown doubt upon the
point, (stated in the History „f English Dramatic I'oetry and the
Stage, vol. iii., p. ISO), for the sake of founding an argument upon
■■ have not adverted to the conclusive fact, that "Menaphon is

swelhug bimbast of bragging blank-verse." He aftei-warda
talks of the " dinunming decasyllibon" they employed, and
ritUcules them for " reposing eternity iu the mouth of a
player." This question is fartlier illustrated by a produc-
tion by Greene, published m the next year, " Perun«de«.
the Blacksmith," from which it is evident that Nash had at
iniUvidual allusion in what he had said in 1581. Clreena
fixes on the author of the tragedy of " Tamburlaine," whom
he accuses of " setting the end of sehohirism in an EngUsli
blank-verse," and who, it should seem, had somewhere ac-
cused Greene of not being able to -nn-ite it.

We learn from various authorities, that Christopher
Marlowe" was the author of " Tamburlaine the Great," a
dramatic work of the highest celebrity and popularity,
printed as eaily as 1590, and affording the first known in-
stance of the use of blank-verse in a pubhc theatre : the
title-page of the edition 1590 states, that it had been "sun-
di'y times shown upon stiiges in the city of London." In
the prologue the author claims to have intioiluced a nfw
form of composition : —

" From jigging veins of rhyming motlier-wits,
And such conceits as clownago keeps in pay,
We Ml lead you to the stately tent of war," &c.

Accordingly, nearly the whole drama, consisting of a first
and second part, is in blank-verse. Hence we see the value
of Dryden's loose assertion, in the dedication to Lord Oi'-
rery of his " Rival Ladies," in 1661, that " Shakespeare was
the first who, to shun the pains of continual i-hyming, in-
vnited that kind of writing which we call blank-vei-se."
The distinction belongs to Mai-lowe, the greatest of Shakes
peai'e's predecessors, and a poet wlio, if he had lived, might,
iieihaps, have been a formidable rival of his genius. We
liave too much reverence for the exhaustless oi'iginality of
our great dramatist, to thmk that he cannot afford this, or
any other tribute to a poet, who, as far as the public stage
is concerned, desei'ves to be regarded as the inventor of a
new style of composition.

That the attempt was viewed with jealousy, there can b«
no doubt, after what we have quoted from Nash and Greene.
It is most likely that Greene, who was older than Nash,
had previously written various drannis in rhyme ; and the
bold experiment of Marlowe having been instantly success-
ful, Gieeue was obliged to abandon his old course, and his
extant plays are all in blank-verse. Nash, who had at-

it,

TiCB' in the introductory matter to another

of Greene's pamphlets, dated in 1587— we mean "Euphues his
Censure to Phiiautus."

6 If Marlowe were born, as has been supposed, about \obi, (Uldyi
places the event earlier,) he was twenty-four when he wrote "Tam-
burlaine." as we believe, in 1.5«6, and only thirty-one when he WM
killed by a person of the name of Archer, in an affray arising out of
an amorous intrigue, in 1.593. In a manuscript note of the time, in
a copy of his version of "Hero and Leander," edit. lO'iO, in our pos-
iiession. it is said, among other things, that " Marlowe's father was a
shoemaker at Canterbury," and that he had an acquaintance at Dover
whom he infected with the extreme liberality of his opinions OB
matters of religion. At the back of the title-page of the samt
volume is inserted the following epitaph, subscribed with Marlowa'
name, and no doubt of his composition, although never befol

noticed : — . . .

"In obitum honoratissimi vin
RoGKRl .Man-wood, Militis. Ciuiestorii
Reginalis Capitalis Baronis.
Noctivagi terror, ganeonis triste fiagellum,
Et Jovis Alcides. rigido vulturque latroni,
Urnik subtegitur : scelerum gaudete nepotes.
Insons, luctifica sparsis cervice capiUis,
Flange, fori lumen, veneranda; gloria legis
Occidit : heu ! secum effoitas Acherontis ad oras
Multa abiit virtus. Pro tot virtutibus uni,
Livor. parce viro : non audpcissimus esto
Illius in cineres, cujus tot millia vultlis
Mortalium attonuit : sic cum te nuncia Ditis
Vulneret exanguis, feliciter ossa quiescant,
FamEBque marmorei snperet moniiinenta sepulchri.^'
It is added, that "Marlowe was a rare scholar, and died aged aboa*
thirty." The above is the only extant specimen of his LatinJom
position, and we insert it exa^t^r as .t stands in iDe,nuficr,pt

TO THE TIME OF SHAKESPEAKE.

XXlll

tacked Mailo-sce in 1687, before 1693 (when Marlowe was
billed) had joined him in the production of a blank-verse
li-agedy on the storj' of Dido, which was printed in 1594.

It has been objected to " TamburLiine," that it is written
in a turgid and ambitious style, such indeed as Nash and
Greene ridicule ; but we are to recollect that Marlowe was
at this time eudeavoming to wean audiences from the
"jigging veins of rhyming umther-wits," and that, in order to
satisfy the ear for the loss of the jingle, he was obliged to
give what Kash calls " the swelling bombast of bragging
blank-verse. " This consideration wUl of itself account for
breaches of a more correct taste to be found in " Tambur-
kine." In the Prolngue, besides what we have already
quoted, Marlowe tells the audience to expect " high as-
toutding terms," and he did not disappoint expectatioa
Perhaps the better to reconcile the ordinary frequenters of
pubhc theatres to the change, he inserted various scenes of
low comedy, which the prmter of tlie edition in 1690
thought fit "to exclude, as " digressing, and far unmeet for
the matter." Marlowe likewise sprinkled couplets here
and there, although it is to be remembered, that having ac-
complished his object of substituting blank-verse by the
drst part of " Tamburlaine," he did not, even in the second
part, think it necessaiy by any means so frequently to in-
troduce occasional rhymes. In those plays which there is
ground for believing to be the first works of Shakespeare,
couplets, and even stanzas, are more frequent than in any
of the surviving productions of Marlowe. This eiicum-
stance is, perhaps, in part to be accounted for by the fact
(as far as we may so call it) that our great poet retained
iu some of his performances portions of old rhyming drsmias,
which he altered and adapted to the stage ; but in early
plays, which are to be looked upon as entirely his own,
Shakespeare appears Ui have deemed rhyme more neces-
■■ary to satisfy the eai- of Ids auditory than Mai-lowe held it
when he wrote his " Tamburlaine the Great"

As the first employment of blank-verse upon the pubUe
stage by Mai'lowe is a matter of much importance, in rela-
tion to the history of our more ancient drama, and to the
subsequent adoption of that form of composition by Shakes-
peare, we ought not Ui dismiss it without afl'ording a single
specunen from " Tamburlaine the Great" The following
is a portion of a speech by the hero to Zenocrate, when first
he meets and sues to her :

" Disdains Zenocrate to live with me,
Or you, my lords, to be my followers ?
Think you I weigh tliis treiusure more than you '(
Not all the gold in India's wealtliy arms
Shall buy the meanest soKlier in my train.
Zenocrate, lovelier than the love of Jove,
Brighter than is the silver Khodore,
Fairer than whitest snow on Scythian hills,
Tliy person is more worth to Tamburlaine,
Than the possession of the Persian crown.
Which gracious stars have promis'd at my birth.
A hundred Tartars shall attend on thee,
Mounted on steeds swifter than Peirasus :
Thy garments shall be made of Median silk,
Knoh'as'd with precious jewels of mine own,
More rich and valuroua tliau Zenocrate's :
With milk-white harts upon an ivory sled
Thou sualt be drawn amidst the frozen poles,

0-1/ quotation is from a C5py of the edition of 1.590, 4to. in the
ti'xarf of Lord Francis Egerton, which we believe to be the earliest ;
en the title-pa?e it is stated that it is " now first and newly pub-
lished." It was several times reprinted. No modern edition is to be
trus»id ; they are full of the grossest errors, and never could have
been dilated.

3 Another play, not published until 1657, under the title of " Lust's
Dominion," has also been onstantly. but falsely, assigned to Mar-
lowe : some of the historical events contained in it did not happen
until five years after the death of that poet. This fact was distinctly
pointed out nearly twenty years ago, in the last edition of Dodsley's
Old Plays (vol li., p. 311) ; but nevertheless •■ Lust's Dominion" has
ftince been spoken of and treated as Marlowe's undoubted production,
and even included in editions of his works. It is in all probability
the same drama as that which, in Henslowe's Diary, is called '' The
t^panieh Moor's Tragedy." which was written by Delcker, Haughton,
and Day, in the beginning of the year 1(300.

' In the History of English Dramatic Poetry and the Stage, vol.
rii., p. 1.39, it is incautiously stated, that " the character of Shakes-
peare's R-ichai 1 II. seems modelled in no slight degree upon that of

And scale the icy mountains' lofty tops,
Wliich with thy beauty will bo soon dissolv'd."'

Nash having alluded to "Tamburlaine" in 1587, it is cvi
dent that it could hardly have been written later than 1685
or 1686, which is about the period when it has been gener
ally, and with much appearance of probabihty, supposed
that Shakespeare arrived in London. In considering the
state of the stage just before our great dramatist became a
•wi-iter for it it is clearly, therefore, neeessarv to advert
briefly to the other works of Marlowe, observmg iu addi-
tion, witli reference to " Tamburlaine," that it is a historical
drama, iu which not a single tmity is regarded ; time, plaoH,
and action, are equally set at defiance, and the scene shifti
at once to or from Persia, Scj'thia, Georgia, and Morocco,
as best suited the pui-pose of the poet

Marlowe was also, most Ukely, the author of a play in
which the Priest of the Sim was prominent as Greene men-
tions it with " Tambm'laine" iu 1588, but no such piece is
now known : he, however, wrote " The Tragical History of
the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus," " The Massacre at
Paris," " The rich Jew of Malta," aud an Enghsh historical
play, called " The troublesome Reign and lamentable Death
of Edward the Second," besides aiding Nash in " Dido
Queen of Carthage," as already meutit.mcd.^ If they were
not all of them of a date anterior to any of Shakespeare's
original works, they were "written Ly ti man "who had set
the example of the employment of blank-verse upon the
pubUe stage, and perhaps of tne historical imd romantic
di'ama in all its leading features and characteristics. His
" Edward the Second" aifords sufficient proof of both these
points : the versification displays, though not perliaps in the
same abundance, nearly all the excellences of Shakespeare ;
and in point of construction, as well as iu interest, it bears
a strong resemblance to the " Richard the Second" of our
great dramatist. It is unpossible U> read the one without
being reminded of the nther, and we can have no difficulty
in assigning " Edward the Second" to an anterior period.*

The same remark as to date may be made upon the
plays which came from the pen of Robert Greene, who
died in yeptembor, 1592, when Shakespeare was rising into
notice, and exciting the jealousy of dramatists who had
previously furnished the public stages. This joalousy broke
out on the part of Greene in, if not bf^ore, 159'2. (in which
year his " Groatsworth of Wit," a posthumous work, was
complained that Shakespeare had "beautified himself"
with the feathers of others : he alluded, as we apprehend,
to tlie maimer in which Shakespeare had availed liimself
of the two parts of the " Contention between the Houses,
York and Lancaster," in the autht^rship of which there is
much reasou to suppose Greene had been concerned.' Such
evidence as remams upon this point has been adduced in
our " Introduction" to " The Third Part of Henry V I. ;" and
a perusal of the two parts of the " Contention," in their
original state, wiU serve to show the condition of our dra-
matic literature at that great epoch of our static-history,"
when Shakespeare began to acquire celebrity.' •■ The True
Tiagedy of Richard ilL" is a drama of about the some
period, which has come down to us iu a much more imper-
feet state, the original manuscript having been obviously

Edward 11." We willingly adopt the qualification of Mr. Hallam
upon this point, where he says, (•' Introductiooi to the Literature of
Europe," vol. ii., p. 171, edit, Ivl't,) "1 am reluctant to admit that
Shakespeare modelled his characters by those of other,^; and it is
natural to ask whether there were not an extraordinary likeness in
the dispositions, as well as in the fortunes of the two kii>gs?"

* In our biographical account of Shakespeare, under the date of
1.392, we have necessarily entered more at large into this question.

* Mr. Hallam (" introduction to the Literature of Europe " "dI. ri.,
p. 171) supposes that the words of Greene, referring to Snakespeaje.
'' There is an upstart crow beautified with our feathers." are addressed
to .Marlowe, who may have had a principal share in the production
of the two parts of the "Contention " This conjecture is certainty
more than plausible ; but we may easily imagine Greene to have
alluded to himself also, and that he had been Marlowe's partner in
the composition of the two dramas, which Shakespeare remode'Jed,
perhaps, not very long before the death of Greene.

* They have been accurately reprinted by the Shakespeare S-xiety
under the care of Mr HalliweU, from the earliest impressi'nc i»
1594 and 1595

XXIV

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE.

very corrupt It. was piiut^d in 1694, and Shakespeare,
tincliiig it in. tlie possession of tbe conipnuv to -ffhieli be
was attiielail, probably bad no scruple iu constructing bis
" Ricliard the Third " of some of its rude mateiials. It
'Ceius not unlikely that Robert Greene, and perhaps some
ther popular dramatists of his day, hud been engaged
upon "The True Trageily of KieharJ III."'

The dramatic works published under the name or initials
of Robei't Greene, or by extraneous testimony ascertiimed
to be bis, were "Orlando Furioso," (founded upon the
poems of Boiardo and Ariosto,) first printed iu 169-1 -^
" Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay," also first printed iu 1594,
and taken from a popular st<u'y-b<iok of the time ; " Al-
phonsus Kiug of Arragon," 1699, for which we know of no
original ; and " James tbe Fourth" of Scotland, 1598,
l^arlly borrowed from history, and partly mere invention.
Greene also joined with Thomas Lodge in writing a species
of moral-minicle-play, (part;iking of the nature of both,)
under the title of " A Lookiiig-Glass for London and £ug-
huid," 1694, derived from sacred history ; and to him has
also been imputed " George a Greene, the Pinner of Wake-
field," and " The Contention between Liberality and Prodi-
gality," the one prmted in 1699, and the other in 16ua. It
may be seriously doubted whether he had any hand iii-the
two hist, but the productions above-named deserve atten-
tion, as works written at an early date for the gratification
of popular autiicaecs.

Ill the passage already referred to fiom the " Groats-
worth of Wit," 1592, Greene also objects to Shakespeare
on the ground that he thought himself " as well able to
bombast out a bhrnk-verse" as the best of his contempijra-
ries. The fact is, that iu this respect, as iu all others,
Greene was much inferior to ilarlowe, and still less can his
lines bear comparison with those of Shakespeare. He
doubtless begim to write for the stage in rhyme, and his
blank-verse preserves nearly all ttie defects of that early
form : it I'eads heavily and monotonously, without variety
ol pause and inflection, and almost the only difference be-
tween it and rhyme is the absence of corresponding sounds
at the ends of the lines.

Tha sjmie defects, and iu quite as striking a degree, be
long to another of the di'amatists who is entitled to be eon
sidered a jiredecessor of Shakespeare, and whose name has
been before introduced — Thomas Lodge. Only one play in
which he was unassisted has descended to us, and it bears
the title of " The Wounds of Civil War, lively set forth in
the True Tragedies of Marius and Sylliu" It was not
printed until 1594, but the author begiin to write as early
as 1580, and we may safely consider his tragedy anterior
to the original works of Shakespeare: it was probably
written aliout 1587 or 1588, as a not very successful expe-
riineut in blank-verse, in imitation of that style which
Marlowe had at once rendered popular.

As regards the dates when his pieces came from the
press, John Lyiy is entitled to earlier notice than Greene,
Lodge, or even Marlowe; and it is possil>Ic, as he was ten

> This drama has also been reprinted by the Shakespeare Society,
witli perfect fitielity to tbe original edition of 1694, in the library of
the Duke of Devonshire. The reprint was superintended by Mr B
Field,

»In "The History of EnKlish Dramatic Poetry and the Stage,''
vol. iii., p. 165, it is observed of " Orlando FuriuBo :"— " How far this
play was printed according to the author's copy, we have no meant
of deciding ; but it hijs evidently come down to us in a very iuiper-
tect state." Means of determining the point beyond dispute have
since been discovered in a manuscript of the part of Orlando (as writ-
ten out for Edward AUeyn by the copyist of tlie theatre) preserved at
Dulwich ColleRe. Hence it is clear that much was omitted and cor-
rupted in the two printed editions of 16<J4 and 15U0. See the "Me-
moirs of Edward Atleyn," p. I'Jy.

> They were acted by the children of the chapel, or by the children
of St. Paul's, and a few of them bear evidence on the title-pages that
they -were presenl-^d at a private theatre— none of them that tliey had
been played upoB public sla^zes before popular audiences.

♦ He is supposed to have been born about the year 1553. He was
probably son to .Stephen Feole. who was a bookseller and a writer of
baUads. Stephen feelc was the publisher of Bishop Bale's miracle-
play of "God's Promises," in 1.577, and his name is subscribed, as
author, to two Ballads printed -by the Percy Society in the earliest
production from their press. The connexion between Stephen and
Go'jrfe Peete has never struck any of the biographers of the latter.
Bt«phen I'eele was most likely the authoi of a pai;eant on the mayor-

years older than Shakespeare, that he was a writer before
any of them : it does not seem, however, that his dramas
were intended for the public stage, but for court-shows or
private entertainments.^ His " Alexander and Campaspe,"
the best of his productions, was represented at Court, and
it was twice pruited, in 1684, and again in 1691 : it is, like
most of this author's productions, in pi'ose ; but his " Wo'
m.oD in the Sloon" (printed iu 1697) is in blank-verse, and
the " Maid's Metamorphosis," 1000, (if indeed it be by him,)
is iu rhyme. As none of th^se dramas, generally com-
posed in a refined, affected, and artificial style, can be said
to have had any material influence upon stage-entertaio-
ments before miscellaneous audiences in London, it is un-
necessary for our present purpose to say more regarding
them.

George Peele was about the same age as Lyly ;* but his
theatrical productions (with the exception of " The Ar-
raignment of Paris," printed in 1584, and written for the
court) are of a difiercut description, having been intendea
for e.xliibition at the ordinary theatres. His " Edwaid the
First" he calls a " famous chronicle," and most of the inci-
dents are derived from history : it is, iu fact, one of our
earhest plays founded upon English annals. It was printed
iu 1693 and in 1699, but with so many imperfections, that
we cannot accept it as any fair representation of the state
in which it came from the author's pen. The most re-
mai'kable feature belonging to it is the imworthy manner
in which Peele sacrificed the character of the Queen to his
desire to gratify the popular antipathy to the Spaniards :
the opening of it is spirited, and aft'ords evidence of the
author's skill as a writer of blank-verse. His " Battle of
Alcazar" nuiy also be termed a historical drama, in which
he allowed himself the most extravagant hoence as to
time, incidents, and characters. It perhaps preceded hifl
" Edward the First" in point of date, (though uot printed
until 1594,) and the principal event it refers to occiu'ied in
ISTS. "Sir Clyomon and Clamydes" is merely a romance,
in the old form of a rhymiug play ;° and '' David and Beth-
sabe," a scriptural drama, and a great miprovement upon
older pieces of the same description : Peele here confined
himself strictly to the incidents in Holy Writ, tmd it cer
tainly contains the best specimens of his blank-verse com-
position. His "Old Wives' Tale," in the shape iu which it
has reached us, seems hardly deserving of criticism, and it
would have I'eceived little notice but for some remote, and
pertiaps accidental, resemblance between its story and that
of Milton's "Coinus."*

The " Jeronimo " of Thomas Kyd is to be looked upon as
a species of transition play: the date of its composition,
on the testimony of Ben Jonson, may be stated to be prior
to 1588,' just after Marlowe had pi'oduced his "Tambur-
laine," and when Kyd hesitated to follow bis hold step to
the full extent of his progress. "Jeronimo" is therefore
partly in blank- verse, and partly in rhyme: the same ob-
servation will apply, though uot in the same degree, tc
Kyd's " Spanish Tragedy :" it is in truth a second part of

ally of Sir W. Draper, in 15G6-7, of which an account is Eriven bv
Mr. Fairholt, in his work upon " Lord Mayors' Pageants,'^ printed
for the Percy Society : he erroneously supposed it to have been the
work of George Peele, who could not then nave been more than four-
teen years old, even if we carry back the date of his birth to 1553.
George Peele was dead in 15'J.-^.

* It may be doubted whether Peele wrote any part of this produc-
tion : It was printed anonymously in tSUy, and all the evidence of
authorship is the existence of a copy with the name oi Peele, in an
old hand, upon the title-page. If he wrote it at all, it was doubtless
a very early composition, and it belongs precisely to the class of ro-
mantic plays ridiculed by Stephen Gosson about 15bO.

« See Milton's Minor Poems, by T. Warton. p. 135, edit. 1701. Of
this resemblance, Warton, who Hrst pointed it out. rem-irks, "That
Milton had an eye on this ancient drama, which might have been a
favourite in his early youth, perhaps it may be affirmed with at least
as much credibility, as that he conceived the Paradise Lost from seeing
a mystery at Florence, written by Adreini, a Florentine, in 1017,
entitled Adarao." The fact may have been, that Peele and Milton
resorted to the same original, now lost : " The Old Wives' Tale"
reads exactly as if it were founded upon some popular story-
book.

' In the Induction to his " Cynthia's Revels "' acted in 1600
where he is speaking of the revival of playi^, and amtng othws of
'' the old Jeronimo," which, he adds, had '- departed a dczna yeuv
since."

TO THE TIME OF SHAKESPEARE.

XXV

" Jeronimo," the storv being continued from one play to the
other, and mnniiged with considerable dextei'ity. The in-
terest in the latter is great, and generally well sustained,
and some of the characters are drawn with no little art and
force. The success of " Jeronimo," doubtless, induced Kyd
to write the second part of it immediately; and we need
not hesitate in concluding that "The Spanish Ti-agedy"
had been acted before 1 590.

Besides Marlowe, Greene, Lodge, Lyly, Peele, and Kyd,
there were other dramatists, who may be looked upon as
the immediate predecessors of Shakespeare, but few ef
whose printed works are of an earlier date, as regards
composition, than some of those which came from the pen
of our great poet. Among the.se, Thomas Nash was the
most distinguished, whose contribution to "Dido,*' in con-
junction with Marlowe, has been before noticed; the por-
tions which came from the pen of Marlowe are, we think,
easily to be distinguished from those written by Nash,
whose genius does not seem to have been of an imaginative
or dramatic, but of a satirical and objurgatory character.
He produced alone a piece called " Summer's Last Will
and Testament," which was written in the autumn of 1592,
but not printed until 1600: it bears internal evidence that
it was exhibited as a private show, and it could never have
been meant for public performance.' Henry Chettle, who
was aUo senior to Shakespeare, has left behind him a
tragedy called " Hoffman," which was not printed until
1630; and he was engaged with Anthony Munday in pro-
ducing "The Death of Koliert Earl of Huntington,"
printed in 1601. From Henslowe's Diary we learn that
iioth these pieces were written subsequent to the date when
been a dramatist as early as 15S4, when a rhyming trans-
lation by him, under the title of " Tlie Two Italian Gentle-
men," came from the press ;^ and in the interval between
that year and 1602, he wrote the whole or parts of various
plays which have been lost.^ Robert Wilson ought not to
be omitted : he seems to have been a prolific dramatist,
but only one comedy by hin> has .'■urvived, under the title
of "The Cobbler's Prophecy," and it was printed in 1594.
According to the evidence of Heuslowe, he aided Drayton
and Munday iu writing "The First Part of the Life of Sir
John Oldcastle," printed in 1600; but he must at that date
have been old, if he were the same Robert Wilson who was
one of Lord Leicester's theatrical servants in 1574, and
who became one of the leaders of the company called the
Queen's Players in 1583. He seems to have been a low
comedian, and his "Cobbler's Prophecy" is a piece, the
drollery of which must have depended in a great degree
upon the performers.

With regard to mechanical facilities for the representa-
tion of plays before, and indeed long after, the time of
Shakespeare, it may be sufficient to state, that our old pub-
lic theatres were merely round wooden buildings, open to
the sky in the imdience part of the house, although the
stage was covered by a hanging roof: the spectators stood
on the ground in front or at the sides, or were accommo-
dated in boxes round the inner circumference of the editice,
or in galleries at a greater elevation. Our ancient stage

1 It can be bIiowd to have been represented at Croydon, no doubt
at Beddjngton, the residence of the Carews, under whose patronage
Nash acknowledges himself to have been living. See the dedication
to his "Terrors of the Niglit," 4to, 1694. The date of the death of
N'aflh, who probably took a part in the representation of his " Sum-
mer's Last Will and Testament," has been disputed — whether it was
before or after 16U1 ; but the production of a cenotaph upon him,
from Fitz-geoffrey's Ajfunios, printed in 16t)l. must put an end to all
doubt. See the Introduction to Niish's " Pierce Penn.vle^s," 1592, as
reprinted for the ShakespeHre Society.

* The only known copy of this comedy is without a title-page, but
It waa entered at Stationers' Hall for publication in 1584, aud we
may presume that it was printed about that date.

* He had some share in writing the first part of the " Life of Sir
John Oldcastle," which was printed as Shakespeare's work in 1600,
although some copies of the play exist without hia name on the title-
puge^

was unfurnished with moveable scenery ; and tables, ghairs,
a few boards for a battlemented wall, or a rude structure
for a tomb or an altar, seem to have been nearly all the
properties it possessed. It was usually hung round with
decayed taj>estry ; and as there was no other mode of con-
veying the necessary information, the author often provided
that the player, on his entrance, should take occasion to
mention the place of action. When the business of a piece
I required that the stage should represent two apartments,
the effect was accomplished by a curtain, called a traverse,
drawn across it ; and a sort of balcony in the rear enabled
I the wTiter to represent his characters at a window, on the
platform of a castle, or on an elevated terrace.

To this simplicity, and to these deficiencies, we doubt-
less owe some of the finest passages in our early plays ; for
it was part of the business of the dramatist to supply the
absence of coloured canvas by grandeur and luxuriance
of description. The ear was thus made the sulistitnte for
the eye, and the poet's pen, aided by the auditor's imagina-
tion, more than supplied the place of the painter's biush.
Moveable scenery was unknown in our public theatres until
after the Restoration; and, as has been observed elsewhere,
"the introduction of it gives the date to the commence-
j ment of the decline of our dramatic poetry."*

How far propriety of costume was regarded, we have
no sufficient means of deciding; but we apprehend that
more attention was paid to it than has been generally sup-
posed, or than was accomplished at a much later and more
refined period. It is indisputable that often in this depart-
ment no outlay was spared: the most costly dresses were
purchased, that characters might be consistently habited;
and, as a single proof, we may mention, that sometiine*
more than 20/. were given for a cloak,' an ononnous price,
when it is reeollected that money was then five or six timea

valuable as at present

We have thus briefly stated all that seems absolutely re-
quired to give the reader a correct notion of the state of
the English drama and stage at the period when, according
to the best judgment we can form from such evidence a?
remains to us, Shakespeare advanced to a forward place
among the dramatists of the da}'. As long ago as 16'79
Dryden gave cui'reucy to the notion, which we have shown
to be mistaken, that Shakespeare " created first the stage,"
and he repeated it in 1692:° it is not necessary to the just
admiration of our noble dramatist, that we should do injus-
tice to his predecessors or earlier contemporaries : on the
contrary, his miracubius powers are best to be estimated by
a comparison with his ablest rivals ; aud if he appear not
greatest when his works are placed beside those of Mar-
lowe, Greene, Peele, or Lodge, however distinguished their
rank as dramatists, and however deserved theu' popularity,
we shall be content to think, that for more than two cen-
turies the world has been under a delusion as to his claims.
He rose to eminence, aud he maintained it, imiid strogglee
for equality by men of high genius and varied talents ; and
with liis example ever since before us, no poet of our own,
or of any other country, has even approached his excel-
lence. Shakespeare is greatest by a cumpai'ison with great
or he is nothing.

• " History of Engl. Dram. Poetry and the Stage." vol. lii.. p. 369.

• See " The AUeyn Papers," pnnted by the Shakespeare Society,
p. 1-i.

• In his ProIogTje to the alteration of "Troilus and Cres^ida •"
1679, he puts these lines into the mouth of the Ghost of Sb&ciia
peare : —

" Untaught, unpraotis'd, in a barbarous age,
I found not, but created iirst the stage."
In the dedication of the translation of Juvenal, thirteen yeais after.
wards. Dryden repeats the same assertion in nearly the .same words
"he created the stage among us." Shakespeare did not create the
stage, and least of all did he create it snch as it existed in the time
of Dr>-c'en : " it wasj in truth, created by no one man, and in ro roe
age; and whatever improvements Shakespeare introcucetl, when he
began to write for the theatre our romantic drama was completely
formed, and firmly established,''— Pref. to ■■ The Hist, of Kngl. Drain
Poetry and the Sta^e," vol. i , p xi.

THE LIFE

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

CHAPTER L

S ft Sliakespenre ndvnnced or rewarded by Henry V'll. An-
tiquity of the Shakespeares in Warwickuliire, &c. Enrliest
oocurrence of the name at Stratford-upon-Avon. Tlie
Trade of John Sliakcspe<ire. Richard SliaKespearc of Snit-
terfield, probably father to Julin Sliakespeare, and cer-
tainly tenant to Kobert Arden, fatlier of John Shakespeare's
wife. Robert Arden's seven daughters. Autiijuity and
property of the Arden family. Marriage of John Sliakes-
peare and Mary Arden : their circumstances. Purchase
of two houses in Stratford by John Shakespeare. His
progress in the corporation.

It has been supposed that some of the paternal ances-
tors of Williiun Sliakcspeare were advaneei and rewarded
with hinds and tenements in Warwickshire, for services
rendered to Henry VIL' The rolls of that reign have
been recently most carefully searched, and the uiune of
Shakespeare, according to any mode of spelling it, does
n )t occur in them.

Many Shakespeares were resident in different parts of
Warwickshire, as well as in some of the adjoining counties,
&t an early date. The register of the Guild of St Aime of
Knolle, or Knowle, beginning in 1407 and ending in 1535,
when it was dissolved, contains various repetitions of the
name, duiing the reigns of Henry VI., Edward IV„ Rich-
ard III., Henry VIL, and Henry VIII: we there find a
Thomas Shakespere of Bahshalle, or Balsal, Thomas
Chaesper and Jolin Shjikespeyre of Rowington, Richard
Shakspere of Woldiche, together with Joan, Jane, and
WilUam Shakespeare, of phices not mentioned : an Isabella
Shakspere is alio there stated to have been jirioriasa de
U'raa-o/e in the 19th Henry VIL' The Shakespeares of
Wroxal, of Rowington, and of Balsal, are mentioned by
Malone, as well as other persons of the same name at
Claverdon and Hampton. He canies back his information
regarding tlie Shakespeares of Wai'wiek no higher than
1602, but a WiUiam Shakespeare was drowned in the
Avon near Warwick in 1674, a John Shakespeare was
resident on "the High Pavement" in 1578, and a-Thomas
Shakespeare in the same place in 1685.'

Tlie earliest date at which we hear of a Shakespeare in
the borough of Stratford-upon-Avon is 17th June, 1566,
when Thomas Siche instituted a proceeding in the court of

* On the authority of a ffrant of arms from the Herald's College to
Join] Shakespeare, which circumstance is considered hereafter.

» For this information we are indebted to Mr. Staunton, of Long-
bridge House, near Warwick, the owner of the original Rrgixttrium
Fratrum et Sororum Gitde Sancte Anne de Knotte, a MS. upon
TeUum.

* Kor the circumstance of the drowning of the namesake of our
iKMt, we are obliged to the Rev. Josej)h Hunter. Mr. Charles
Dickens wa* good enough to be the medium of the information
respecting the Shakespeares of Warwick, transmitted from Mr.
SandyB, who derived it from the land-revenue records of the respec-
tive periods.

* Aubrey's words, in his MS. in the Ashmolean Museum, at Ox-
ford, are these : — "WiUiam Shakespeare's fatlier was a butcher, and
i nave been told heretofore by some of the neighbours, that when he
was a boy he exercised his father's trade ; but when he killed a calf,
au would do it in a high style, and make a speech." This tradition
a«rtainW does not read like truth, and at what date Aabr«v obtained

the bailing for the recovery of the stmi of 8/. from John
Shakespeare, who has always been taltcn to be the father
of our great dramatist. Thomas Siche was of Arlescote,
or Arscotte, in Worcestershire, and in the Latin record of
the suit John Shakespeare is ^Ued " glover," in Enghsh.
Taking it for granted, as we have every reason to do, that
this John Shakespeare was the father of the poet, the
document satisfied Malone that he was a glover, and not a
butcher, as Aubrey had affirmed,' nor a deider in wool, as
Rowe had stated. We think that Malone was right, and
the testimony is tmquestionably more positive and authen-
tic than the traditii>us to which we have referred. As it is
also the most ancient piece of direct evidence connected
with the establishment of the Shakespeare family at Strat-
ford, and as Malone did not copy it quite accurately from
the register of the baiUff's court, we quote it as it there
stands : —

" Stretford, ss. Cur. Phi. et Muriee Dei gra, &c. secjiido et
tercio, ibui tent, die Marcurii videlicet xvij die Junij ann.
predict, coram Johiie Bnrbage Balliuo, &c.

Thomas Siche de Arscotte in com. Wigorn. qnerif versus
John Shakyspere de Stretford in com. Wurwic. Glou in plae.
quod reddat ei oct. libi'as &c."

Jolin Shakespeare's trade, " gloyer," is expressed by the
common contraction for the termination of the word ; and
it is, as usual at the time, spelt with the letter u instead of
v. It deserves remark also, that although John Shakes-
peare is often subsequently mentioned in the records of
the corporatiou of Stratford, no addition ever accompanies
his name. We may presume that in 1656, he was estab-
Ushed in his business, because on the 3uth Apiil of that
year he was one of twelve jurymen of a court-leet Hia
name in the list was at first struck thr<'Ugh with a pen, but
underneath it the word stet was written, probably by the
town-clerk. Thus we find him in 1566 acting as a regular
trading inhabitant of the borough of Stratford-upon-AvoiL

Little doubt can be enteit^iined that he came fi'om Snit-
tertield. three miles from Stratford ; and upnn this point we
have several new documents before ns. It appears from
them, that a person of the name of Richard Shakespeare
(no where before mentioned) was resident at Snitterfield in
1650:° he was tenant of a house and land belonging to

his information has not been ascertained : Malone conjectured that
Aubrey was in Stratford about IGyO : he died about 1700, and, in all
probability, obtained his knowledge from the same source as thj
writer of a letter, dated April 10, 1093, to Mr. Edward Southwell,
printed in IG.t-'ri. It appears from hence that the parish clerk of Strata
ford, who was "above eighty years old" in 16f)-'J, had told ^^r. Ed-
ward Southwell's correspondent that William Shakespeare had been
'• bound apprentice to a butcher;'' but he did not say that his father
was a butcher, nor did he add any thing as absurd as Aubrey sub-
joins, respecting the killing of a calf " in a high style."

* Rowe is supposed to have derived his materials from Betterton,
the actor, who tfied in 1710, and who. it is said, went to Stratford to
collect such particulars as could be obtained : the date of his visit if
not known.

* In 15*i9, a person of the name of Antony Shakespeare iived at
Snitterfield, and, as we learn from the Muster-book of the county t'f
Warwick for that year in the State Paper odice, he was Hppoiated *
'•blllman."

xxvi

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

zxrii

Rober' Arden (or Ardei'n, as the name was anciently spelt,
and as it stantis in the papers in our hands) of Wiknecote, in
the parish of Aston Cautlowe. By a conveyance, dated
21st Dec, nth Henry ^■III., we find that Robert Arden
then became possessed of houses and laud in Snittei'field,
from Richard Rushby and his wife : from Robert Arden the
propirty descended to his son, and it was part of this
estate which was occupied by Richard Shakespeare in 1650.
We have no distinct evidence upon the point ; but if we
suppose Richard Shakespeare of Snitterfield* Ut have been
the father of John Shakespeare of Stratford,^ who married
Mary Arden, the youngest daughter of Robert Arden, it
will easily and naturally explain the manner in which John
Shakespeare became introduced to the fimiily of tlie Ar-
deus, inasmuch as Richard Shakespeare, the fatJier of John,
and the grandfather of WiLham Shakespeare, was one of
the tenants of Robert Arden.

Malone, not having the information we now poBsess be-
fore him, was of opinion that Robert Arden, who marned
Agnes Webbe, and died in 1566, had only four daughters,
but the fact undoubtedly ia that he had at least seven. On
the 7th and 17th July, 156U, he executed two deeds, by
trust for Some of liis daughters, certain lauds and tene-
ments in Snitterfield.^ In these deeds he mentions six
daughters by name, four of them married and two single :
— viz., Agnes Stringer, (who had been twice married, first
to John Hewyns,) Joan Lambert, Katherine Etkins, Mar-
garet Webbe, Jocose Arden, and Alicia Arden. Mary, his
youngest daughter, was not meluded, and it is possible tliat
by a separate and subsequent deea of trust, he gave to her
t<i her sisters. It is quite certain, as will be seen hereafter,
that Mary Arden brought property in Snittei'field, as part
of her fortime, to her husband John Shakespeare.

Altliough the Ardens were an ancient and coneidei-able
family in Wai-wickshire, which deiived its name from the
forest of A'deii, or Ardern, in or near which they had pos-
sessions,, Robert Ai'den, in the two deeds above referred to,
which were of course prepared at his instance, is only
called "husbandman:" — •' Ruherlus Ardrrn de Wilmecote,
in jtarovhia dc Anton Caiitlowe, in vnmilatu Warwici,
nusbandman." Nevertheless, it is evident fi-om his will
(dateii 24th November, and proved on the 17th December,
1556) that he was a man of good landed estate. He men-
tions his wife's "jointure in Snitterfield," iiayable, no doubt,
out of some other property than that which, a few years
Defore, he had conveyed to trustees for the benefit of six of
his daughters; and his freehold and copyhold estates in
the parish of Aston Cantlowe could not have been iucon-
sideiable. Sir John Arden, the brother of his grandfather,
had been esquire of the body to Henry VII., and his ne-
phew had been page of the bedchamber to the same
monarch, who had bountifuUv rewarded their sei-vices and
fidelity. Sir John Arden di'ed in 1626, and it was his
aephew, Robert Arden, who purchased of Rushby and his
wife the estate in Snitterfield in 1B20. He was the father

* ' Riobord Shakespeare, who, upon this supposition, was the ^and-
t&ther oi the poet, was living in 15GU, when Agnes Arden, widow,
i;ra«ted a lease for forty years to Alexander Webbe (probably some
member of her own family) of two houses and a cottace in Snitter-
fcjld. in I', 3 occupation of Richard Shaitespeare ana two others.
Malone d;sc;/ered that there was also a Henry t^hakespeare resident
»t Snittetheld in IS-li, and he apprehended (there is little doubt of
"he fact) that he was the br' dier of John Shakespeare. Henry
Shakespeare was buried Dec :S)th, l-VJO. There was also a Thomas
Shakespeare in the same Tillage in 1582, and he may have been
another brcthei of John Shakespeare, and all three sons to Richard
Bbakespeare.

* This ij rj-ndered the more probable by the fact that John Shakes-
peare christened one of his children (born in 1573) Richard. Malone
found that another Richard Shakespeare was living at Rowington in

^ They are thus described : " Totum iUud virsfiin^ium rncum. rl
trejt qunrironas tirnr. cum protia ciadcm pertincnttius. cum suis per-
ttnentii.t, in Unytterfyide. tjutB jiuiic sunt in tenura cujusdam Hicardi
Henley^ nc totum itlud cotlnfftitm meum, cum gardmo et pvmarto
Mjaccntihus. cum /tuts perttvcnttia. in Snytterfuld. gutB nunc aunt in
tenura Hu^tnus Porter." Adam Palmer, the other trustee, does not
•eem tri hav9 occupied any part of the property.

of the Robert Arden who died in 1566, and to wboee
seventh daughter, Maiy, John Shakespeai-e was marned.

No i-egistration of that marriage has been discovered,
but we need not hesitate in deciding that the ceremony
took place in 1557. Mai-y Ai len and her sister Ahcia
were certainly unmarned, wheD they were appointed "fx*
eciitores" under their father's will, dated 24th Nov,, 16&6
and the probabihty seems to be that they were on that
account chosen for the i>ffice, in preference to their five
married sisters. Joan, the first child of John Shakespeare
and his wife Mary, wad baptized in the chui'ch of Sti-atford
upou-Avon on the 15th Sept., 1658,', so that we may fix
tbeii' union towards the close of 1567, about a yeiir aftei
the death of Robert Arden.

What were the circumstances of John Shakespeare nt
the tune of his marriage, we can otly conj.'ctuie. Il has
been shown that two years before that event, a clann of 8/.
was made upon him in the borough court of Stratford, and
we must conclude, either that the money was not due and
the demand unjust, or that he was unable to pay the debt,
and was therefore proceeded against The issue of the
suit is not known ; but in the next year he seems to hav-
much carried on in that part of the kingdom, and, as al-
ready mentioned, he certainly served upon the jury of a
eourt-leet in 1556. Therefore, we are, pcihups, justified in
thinking that his atl'airs wore sufficiently prosperous tti
warrant his union w ith the youngest of seven co-heiresses,
who brought him some independent property.

Under her father's will she inherited 6/. 13». id. in
money, and a small estate in fee, in tlie parish of Aston
Cautlowe, called Asbyes, consisting of a messuage, fifty
acres of arable land, six acres of meadow and pasture, and
a right of common for all kinds of cittle.'' Malone knew
nothing of Mary Arden's property in Snitterfield, to which
we have already referred, and, without it, he estimated that
her fortune was equal to 110/. 13«. 4d., which seems to us
rather an under calculation of its actual value." He also
speculated, that at the time of their mariiage John Shakes-
peare was twenty-seven years old, and Mary Arden
eighteen f but the truth is that we have not a particle of
direct evidence upon the point. Had she been so young,
it seems very unlikely that her father would have ap-
pointed her one of his executors in the preceding year, and
we are inclined to think that she must have been of full
age in Nov. 1556.

It was probably in contemplation of liis marriage that,
on 2d October, 1556, John Shakespeare became the owner
of two copy -hold houses in Sti afford, the one in Greenhill-
street, and the othei- in Henley -street, which were alienated
to liim by George Tumor and Edwaid West, respectively
the house in Grcenhill-street had a garden and croft h*t-
tached to it, ami the house in Henley -street only a garden ;
and for each he was to pay to the lojd of the manor an an
nual rent of sixpence.' In 1557 he was again sworn as a
juryman upon tue eourt-leet, and in the spring of the -fol-
lowing year he was amerced in the sum of fourpeOce for
not keeping clean the gutter in fi-out of his dwelling ; Frau-

* The register of this event is in the following form, under tjie
head " Bapti.-^me.=, Anno Dom. 155o :" —

"Septeber 15. Jone Shakspere daughter to John Shakspere."
It seems likely that the child was named after her aunt, Joan, mar-
ried to Edward Lambert of Barton on the Heath. Edward Lajnbert
was related to Edmund Lambert, afterwards mentioned.

* Shakspeare, by Boswell, vol. ii. p. ii.5.

* The terms of Robert Arden's bequest to his daughter Mary are
these ; — "Also I geve and bequelh to my youngste daughter. Marye,
all my lande in WiUmecote, called A.-^byes, and the crop upon the
ground, sowne and tyllede as hit is : and vj/i. xiij.-;. iiijrf. ol money, to
be payde over ere my goodes be devydede." Hence we are not to iin-
der.-;tand that he had no more land in Wilmecote than Asbyen, but
that he gave his daughter Mary all hia land in Wilmecote, uiliich
was known by the name of Asbyes.

" Shakspeare, by Boswell, vol. ii. p. 39.

1 We copy the following descriptions from the original borough
record, only avoiding the abbreviations, which render it less intel-
ligible : —
ftemy guodO corfftvg Turn or at ienavit.Johnnni Shitkcspere.&-c vmunite-
ncnicntum.cum ff'irdtii i:t rroft.cum pcTtiuentibus, inGrcnchyil stretf.i-e
Kt quod Edtcnrdus fVest aitenavit predicto .lohanni Sftakesper*
unum tenementum, cutn gardin adjaceittc. in Hcn'.cy atrtU.

xxnii

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAJvESPEARE.

tie Burbage, the then bniliff, Adnan Quiuey, " Mr. H;J1 and
Mr. Clopt^tu" (so theu' names stand in the iustriinieut) were
each of them at the same time fined a similai' sum for the
same neglect,' It is a point of Uttle importance, but it is
nighly probable that John Shakespeare wa.s first admitted
a member of the corporation of Stratford in 1557, when
he was made one of the ale-tasters of the town ; and iii
Sept., 1558, he was appointed one of the foui' constables,
his name following thfise of Humplu-ey Plymley, Roger
Sadler, and Jolin Taylor.^ He continued constable in 1559,
his associates then being John 1 aylor, William Tyler, and
WiUiam Smith, and he was besides one of four persons,
called sifTeerors, whose duty it was to impose fines upon
their fellow-townsmen (such as be had himself paid in 1557)
for offences ag.oinst the bye-laws of the borough.

CHAPTER 11.

Death of iTol.u Shakespeare's eldest child, Joan. Two John
Shakcspeares in Stratlbnl. Atnereements of members of
the corporation. Birth and death of John Shakespeai-e's
pecond child, Margaret. Birth of William Shakespeare :
iiis birth -day, and the house in which he was born. The
plague in Stratford. Contributions to the sick and poor by
John Shakespeare and others. John Shakespeare elected
alderman, and subsequently bailiff. Gilbert Shakespeare
born. Another daughter, baptized Joan, horn. Proofs
that John Shakespeare could not write.

It was while John Shakespeare executed the duties of
constable in looS, that liis eldest child, Joan, was born, hav-
ing been baptized, as already stated, on the 16th Septem-
ber, of that year ; she died in her infancy, and as her burial
does not appear in the register of Stratford, she was, per- 1
haps, interi'ed at Snitterfield, where Richard Shakespeare, ;
probably the father of John Shakespeare, still resided', as
tenant tn Agnes Arden, widow of Robert Arden. and mo-
ther of Mary Shakespeare. Id respect to the registers of
marriages, baptisms, and deaths at Stiatfi->rd, some confusion I
has been produced by the indisputable fact, that two per-
sons of the name of John Shakespeare were living in the
town at the same time, and it is ntpt always easy to dis-
tinguish between the entries which relate to the one, or to
the other : for instance, it was formerly thought that John
Shakespeare, the father of the poet, had lost his first wife,
Mary Ar-dcn, and had taken a second, in consequence of a
memorandinn iu the register, showing that on the 26th Nov.,
15S4, John Shakespeare had married Margery Roberts;
Maloue, however, took great pains to prove, and niay be
said to have succeeded iu proving, that this entry and '
others, of the births of PhiUp, Ursula, and Humphrey
Shakespeare, relate to Jolm Shakespeare, a shoemaker',
and not to John Shakespeare the glover.

Jolm Shakespeare wiis again chosen one of the four
affcerors of Stratford in 1561, and the Shakespeare Society

* The original memorandum runs thus ■ —

** Francis Berbajre, Ma.ster Baly that now ys, Adreane Quvnv.
Mr Hall, Mr. Clopton, for the putter alonpe the chappelt in Chap-
pell Lane. John Shakspeyr, for not kepynge of their gutters cleane,
^hey stand amerced,"

The sum wnich they were so amerced, 4ii., is placed above the names
?^ eich of the parties.

' The following are the terms used : —

'Item, ther trysty and welbelovyd Humfrey Plymley, Roger
l!.*dler, John Taylor, and John Shakspeyr, constabulles."

' This fact appears from a lease, before noticed, granted on '2Ist
Ma5 t.'^SO, by Mary Arden to Alexander Webbe, of two messuages,
with a cottage, one of which is stated then to be in the occupation of
R'chard Shnkespeasa. We quote the terms of the original deed in
the hands of the Shakespeare Society ; — " Wytnesseth, that the said
Agnes Arderne, for dyverse and sundry consyderations. hath de-
mysed, graunted. &c. to the said Alexander Webbe, and to his as-
signes, all those her two messuages, with a cottage, with all and
singu.ar their appurtenances in Snytterfeild. and a yarde and a halt'e
of ayrable lande thereunto belonging, &c., being in the towne and
fyldes of Snytterfeild atForsaid : all which now are in the occupation
^f Richarde Sbakspere. John Henley, and John Hargreve." Of course
this property formed part of the jointure of Agnes Arden, mentioned
in the will of her husband.

* John S'lakespeare. the shoemaker, seems not to have belonged to
lh« rt-ixiration, %t all events, till many years afterwards, so that the

is in possession of the original presentation made by theM
officers on the 4th May in that year, the name of the father
of our great dramatist, coming last, after those of Henry
Bydyll, Lewis ap William, and William Mynske. Th(?
most remarkable circumstance connected with it is tie
number of persons who were amerced in sums varjdng from
6s. 8d. U) 2d, " The bailiff that now is," was fined 3x. id
for " breaking the assize," he being a " common baker :" three
other bakers were severally compelled to pay similar
amounts on the same occiision. and for the same ofifence.*
In September following the date of this report Jolm Shake-
speare was elected one of the chamberlains of the boroiigli,
a very responsible post, in which he remidned two years.

His second child, Margaret, or Margareta, (as the name
stands in the register,) was baptized on the 2d Dee., 1662,
while he continued chamberlain. She was buried ou 30th
April, 1563».

The greatest event, perhaps, in the hteiary history of the
world occurred a year after%vards — WiUiam Shakespeare
was born. The day of his birth cannot be fixed with abso-
lute certainty, but he was baptized on the 26th April, 1664,
and the memorandum iu the register is precisely in the
following form : —

" 1564. April 26. GuUelmusfiUus Johannes Shahspere."

So that whoever kept the book (in all probability the clerk)
either committed a common clerical error, or was no great
proficient in the rules of grammar. It seems most likely
that our great dramatist had been brought iuto the world
only three days before he was baptized', and it was then
the custom to carry infants veiy early to the font. A house
is still pointed out by traditiou. in Henley-street, as that in
which William Shakespeare first saw the light, and we
have already shown that his father was the owner of two
copy-hold dwellings in Henley-street and Greeuhill-streel,
and we may, perhaps, conclutle that the birtli took pUice in
the former. John and Maty Shakespeare having previously
lost two girls, Joan and Margaret, William was at this time
the only child of his parents.

A malignant fever, denominated the plague, broke out at
Stratford while William Shakespeare was in extreme in-
fancy : he was not two months old when it made its appear-
ance, having been brought from London, where, according
to Stow, (Atiuales, p. 1112, edit. 1615,) it raged with great
violence throughout the year 1563, and illil not so far abate
that term could be kept, as usual at Westminster, until
Easter, 1564. It was most fatal at Stratford between June
and December, 1564, and Malone calculated that it carried
off in that interval more than a seventh ])ait of the whole
population, consisting of about 1400 iuhabitauts. It does
not appear that it reached any member of the immediate
family of Jolm Shakespeare, and it is not at all unlikely that
he avoided ita ravages by quitting Stratford for Snitterfield,
where he owned some pro])erty in right of his wife, and
where perhaps his father was still hving as tenant to Alex-
ander Webbe, who, as we have seen, iu 1660, had obtained

confusion to which we have referred does not extend itself to any ef
the records of that body. After John Shakespeare, the father of our
poet, had been baililf, he is always called .Mr. or JIatrister John
Shakespeare ; while the shoemaker, who married Margery Roberts,*
and was the father of Philip, Ursula, and Humphrey, is invariably
styled only John Shakespeare. There is no trace of any relationship
between the two.

^ The aff'eerorsseem to have displayed unusual vigilance, and con-
siderable severity: William Trout, Christopher Sniythe, Maud Har-
bage, and John Jamson were all fined 3*. 4(/. "for selling ale, and
having and keeping gaming contrary to the order of the C^ourt :"*
eleven other inhabitants were amerced in smaller sums on the same
ground Robert Perrot was compelled to pay Oi*. tid. "for makim
and selling unwholesome ale."

« The registrations of her birth and death are both in Latin :—
"l.^(>2. Vecemher 'Z. Mnr^nretn filia .hkannis Shakspere."
" 156:3. .^pri/ 30. Mnrfraretnfilia .lokavnis Shithspcre.^^
' The inscription on his monument supports the opinion that he
was born on the a3d April : without the contractions it runs thus :—
" Oljiit JInvii Domivi 1611)
JElatis 53. die S!3 Jlprilts."
and this, in truth, is the only piece of evidence upon the joint Ma-
lone referreo to the statement of the Rev. J. Greene, as an authority
but he was master of the frce-schooi at Stratford nearly two centurib*
after the death of Shakespeare, and. in all probability, sptkeonly front
the tenor of the inscription in the church

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEAEE.

XXlX

a lease for foi*,T years fi'om his relative, the widow ^gnes
Arilcn, of the mcssufi^e in which Richard Shakespeare re-
sided.

In order to ebow that John Shakespeare was at tbia date
ill moderate, and probably comfortable, though not in afflu-
ent circumstances, Malone adduced a piece of evidence de-
rived from the records of Stratford': it consists of the
names of persons in the borough who, on this calamitous
visitation of the plague, contributed various sums to the re-
lief of the poor. The meeting at which it was determined
to collect subscriptions with this object was convened in the
open air, " At a hall holden in our garden," &c. ; no doubt
ou accoimt of the infection. The donations varied between
7s. id. (given by only one individual of the name of Rich-
ard Symeus) and 6d. ; and the smu against the name of John
Shakespeare is Is. It is to be recollected that at this date
he was nut an alderman ; and of twenty-four persons
enumerated five oth'ers gave the same amount, while sis
gave less : the bailitf contributed 3s. id., and the head alder-
man 2s. S</., while ten more put down either 2s. 6rf. or 2-5.
each, and a person of the name of Botte 4s. These sub-
serijitions were raised on the 30th August, but on the 6th
September a failher sum seems to have been required, and
the baihtf and six aldermen gave l.f. each, Adrian Quyney
1 «. 6d., and John Shakespeare and four others 6d. each : only
one member of the corporation. Kobert Bratt, whose name
will afterwards occur, contributed id. We are. we think,
warranted in coucludmg, that in 1564 John Shakespeare
was an industrious and thriving tradesman.

in the eorpoiation, and was elected one of the fom'teen alder-
men of Stratford on the 4tb July, 1565 ; but he did not
take the usual oath until the 12th September following.
The bailiff of the year was Richard Hill, a woollen-draper;
Hud the father of our poet became the occupant of that
•situation rather more than three years afterwards, when
his son William was about four years and a half old. John
Shakespeare was bailiff of Stratford-upon-Avon from Mi-
chaelmas 1568, to Michaelmas 1569, the autumn being the
customary period of election. In the meantime his wife
bad brought him another son, who was christened Gilbert,
on 13th October. 1566^

Joan seems to have been a favourite name with the Shake-
speares : and Joan Shakespeare is mentioned in the records
of the guild of Kuowle, in the reign of Hem-y VIII. ; and j
John and Mary Shakespeare christened their first child, '
which died an infant, Joan. A third daughter was born to i
them while John Shakespeare was baiUff, and her they also
baptized Joan, on 15th April 1569^ The partiality for!
the nimie of Joan, in this instance, upon which some bi-
ographers have remarked without behig able t<j explain it, '
may be accounted f )r by the fact that a maternal aunt,
married to Edward Lambert, was cidled Joan ; and it is
very possible that she stood god-mother upon both occa-
sions. Joan Lambert was one of the daughters of Robert ;
Arden, regardmg whom, until recently, we have had no
information.

We have now traced John Shakespeare through various
offices in the borough of Stratford, until he reached the
highest distmction which it was in the power of his fellow-
townsmen to bestow : he was baihff, and ex-officio a magis-
trate.

Two new documents have recently come to light which
belong to this period, and which show, beyond all dispute,
that although John Shakespeare had risen to a station so

1 Shakspeare, by Boswell, toI. ii. p. 83.

3 Th« register of the parish-church contains the subsequent
«ntry ; —

"1566. October 1.1. Oilbertus fitiua Jukannis Skakspere.^''

^ Although John Shaltespeare was at this time bailift", no Mr. or
Ma^ister ig prefixed to his name in the register, a distinction which
ippears only to have been made after he had served that office.
■'13G9. April 15. Jone the daughter of John Shakspere."

* Malone gave both the confirmation and exemplification of arms,
btit with some variations, which are perhaps pardonable on account
of the state of the originals in the Heralds' College : thus ho printed
"parent and late antecessors," instead of '' pnrtnu and late ante-
cessors,'' in the confirmation ; and ••■whose parent and ^reat grandr
fatSer. and late antecessor," instead of •' whose parent, great grand-

respectable as that of baiUff of Stratford, -with his name in
the commission of the peace, he was not able lo write,
Malone referred to the records of the borough to estabhah
thjit in 1665, when John Wheler was called upon by nine-
teen aldermen and burgesses txj undertake the duties of
bailiff, John Shakespeare was among twelve other marks-
men, including George Whately, the then baihtf, and Roger
remarkable in this inabiUty to write ; and if there were
any doubt upon this point, (it being a little ambiguoua
whether the .vpiiu?/! referred to the name of Thomae
Dyxun, or of John Shakespeare,) it can never be enter-
tained hereafter, because the Shakespeare Society has been
put in possession of two wan-ants, granted by John Shake-
speare as baihff of Stratford, the one dated the Srd, and
the other the 9th December, 11 Elizabeth, for the caption
of John Ball and Richard Walcar, on account of debts
severally due from them, to both of which his mark only is
appended. The same fact is established by two other
documents, to which we shall have occasion "hereafter to
advert, belongmg to a period ten years subsequent to that
of which we are now speaking.

CHAPTER IIL

The grunt of arms to John Shakespeare considered. The con-
firmation and exemplification of arms. Sir W. Dethick'a
conduct. Ingon meadow in John Sliakespeare's tenancy.
Birth and death of liis daughter, Anne. Richard Shake-
speare born in 1574, and named, perhaps, after his grand-
father. John Shakespeare's purchase of two freehold
houses in Stratford. Decline in his pecuniary affairs, and
new evidence upon the point. Indenture of sale of JohL
Shakespeare's and liis wife's share of property at Snifter-
field, to Robert Webbe. Birth of Edmund Shakespeare ir
1580.

Although John Shakespeare could not -write Ids name
it has generally been stated, and believed, that while he
filled the office of bailiff he obtjiincd a grant of ai-ms from
Clarencieux Cooke, who was in office from 1566 to 1592.
We have cousiderable doubt of this fact, partly arising out
of the circumstance, that although Cooke's original book, in
which he entered the arms he granted, has been preserved
in the Hei-alds' College, we find in it no note of any such
concession to John Shakespeare. It is true that this book
might not contain memoranda of all* the arms Cooke had
granted, but it is a circumstance desei-ving notice, that in
this ease such an euti-y is wanting. A eonfii-mation of these
ai-ms was made m 1596, but we cannot help thinking, -with
Malone, that this instrument was obtained at the personal
instance of the poet, who had then actually pui-chased, or
was on the eve of purchasing. New Phice" (or " the great
house," as it was also called) in Stratford. The confirma-
tion states, thiit the heralds had been "by credible report
informed," that " the parents and late antecessors"' of John
Shakespeare '■ were for tlieir vaUant and faithful services
advanced and rewarded of the most prudent prince, Henry
the Seventh ;" but, as has been before stated, on examining
the rolls of that reign, we can discover no trace of ad-
vancement or reward to any person of the name of Shake-
speare. It is true that the Ardens, or Ardei-ns, were so
'■ advanced and rewarded ;"' and these, though not strictly
the " parents." were certainly the " antecessors" of William

father, and late antecessor," in the exemplification. We are bound
here to express our acknDwled"ments to Sir Charles Youngs the
present Garter King at Arms, for the trouble he took in minutely
collating Malone's copies with the documents themselves Othej_
errors he pointed out do not require particular notice, as they apply-
to parts of the instruments not necessary for our argument.

* Robert Ardern had two offices conferred upon him by Henry "VTl.,
in the lUth and 17th years of his reign; and he is spoken of in the
grants zsuniis g/rrcioFium camereE nostra: : the one office was that of
lieeper of the park at Aldercar, and the other that of bailitf of the
lordship ofCodnor. and keeper of the park there. He obtai ned a granl
of lands in -2;3 Henry Vll. ; viz. the large manor of Yoxsall, in l'n»
county of Stafford, on condition of a payment of a rent lo the \»-njr»t
4-2/. per annum

XXX

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

Shakespeare. In 1599, an exemplification of arms was
procured, and in this document it is assert eil that the " great
and rewarded with lands and teacraents" by Henry Vl[.
Our poet's "great griuidfather," by the mother's side, was
8o " advanced and rewarded ; " and we know that he did
' faithful and approved service" to that " most prudent
prince."

Another point, though one of less importance, is, that
it is stated, m a note at the foot of the conhrmation of 1590,
that John Shakespeare " showcth" a patent " under Clarence
Cooke's hand:" tlic word seems originally to have been
sent, over which " showeth" was written ; if the original
patent, under Cooke's hand, had been sent to the Heralds'
College in 1596, there could h.ave been little question about
it ; but the substituted word " showeth" is more indefinite,
and may mean only, that the party applying for the con-
firmation alleged tliat Cooke had granted such a coat of
arms'. That William Shakespeare could not have pro-
cured a grant of arms for himself in 159tj is highly proba-
ble, from the fact that he was an actor, (a profession then
much looked down upon) and not of a rank in life to eu-
title him tt> it: he, therefore, may have very fairly and
properly put firwai'd his father's name and claims as
having been bailiff of Stratford, and a "justice of peace,"
and e<jupled that fact with the deserts and rewards of the
Ardcns under Henry VH., one of whom was his maternal
"great grandfather," and all of whom, by reason of the
marriage of his father with an Arden, were his "ante^
cessors."

We only doubt whether John Shakespeare obtained any
^ant of arms, as has been supposed, in 1568-9 ; and it is
to be observed that the documents relating to this question,
still preserved in the Heralds' College, are fuU of correc-
tions and interlineations, particularly as regards the au-
oestors of John Shakespeai'e : we aie persuaded that when
WilUam Shakespeare applied to the oflice in 1596, Garter
of that day, or his assistants, made a confusion between the
" great grandfather" and the " antecessors" of John, and of
William Shakespeai'c. What is stated, Ixith in the confir-
mation and exemplification, as to parentage and descent, is
true as regards William Shakespeare, but erroneous as re-
gards John Sliakespeare''.

It appears that Sir William Dethiek, garter-king-at-
arms in 1596 and 1599, was subsequently called to account
for having grauted coats to persons whose station in society
and circumstances gjive them no right to the distinction.
The case of Johu Shakespeare was one of those complained
of in this respect ; and had Clareneieux Cooke really put
his name in 1568-9 to any such patent as, it was asserted,
had been exhibited to Sir William Detliick, a copy of it, or
some record of it, would probably have remained in the
office of arms in 1596 ; and the production of that alone,
proving that he had merely acted on the precedent of Cla-
reneieux Cooke would, to a considerable extent at least,
have justified Sir WiUiam Detliick. JVo copy, nor record,
vas however so produced, but merely a memorandum at
the foot of the coutirmation of 1596, that an original grant
had been sent or sliuwn, which memorandum may have

t The word '' showeth" is thus employed in nearly every petition,
»nd it is only there equivalent to uliueth. or selfelk furtk. The as-
bortion that such a eraiit had been alleged was. probably, that of the
heralds. , - . i

> The confirmation and the exemplification dmer slightly as to
thfi mode in which the arms are set out ; in the former it is thus :
*' I have therefore assijrned, graunted. and bv these have confirmed,
this shield oi cote of arms, viz. jjould. on a bend sable and a speare
ef the first, the point steeled, proper ; and for his crest or cognizance
a faulcon., his n'ings displayed, argent, standing on a wrethe of his
couUors, suppoiting a speare gouM Steele as aforesaid, sett uppon a
helmett with mantelles and tasselles as hath been accustomed." In
the exemplification the arms are stated as follows: "In a field of
Eould upon a bend sables a speare of the first, the poynt upward,
Eedded argent ; and for his crest or cognisance a falcon with his
wyngs displayed, standing on a wrethe of his couUors, supporting a
speare armed lieJJcd or steeled sylver. fyxed upon a helmet, with
mantelles and tasselles." In the confirmation, as well a.s in the ex-
emplification, it is stated that the arms are " depicted in the mar-
gin ;" and in the latter a reference is made to another escutcheon, in
which the arms of Shakespeare are impaled with "the auncyent
arms of Arden of Wellingcote, signifying thereby that it maye and
•nail be lawful! for the said John tfiiakespeare, gen., •<) beare and

been added when Sir William Dethick's conduct was called
in question ; and certain other statements are made at the
bottom of the same docuir.eut, which would be material to
Garter's vindication, but w'-^ich are not borne out by facts.
One of these statements iS, that John Shakespeare, in
1596, was worth 500/., an erroi- certainly as regarded him,
but a truth probably as regaided his sou.

It is really a matter of little moment whether John
Shakespeare did or did not obtjiiu a grant uf arms while lie
was baihtf of Stratford; but we are sti<jiigly inclined tn
think that he did not^ and that the assertion that he did, and
that he was worth 600/. in 1596, originated with Sir W.
Dethiek, when he subsequently wanted to make out his own
vindication from the charge of having conceded arms to
various persons without due caution and inquiry.

In IS'IO, when WiUiam Shakespeare was in his seventh
year, his father was in possessioi^ of ^ field called Ingi in.
or Ington, meadow, within two miles of Stratford, whicii
he held under William Clopton. We caimot tell in what
year he first rented it, because the instrument proving his
tenancy is d;ited llth June, 1581, and only states the fact,
that on llth Dec, 1570, it was in his occupation. The an-
nual payment for it was 8/., a considerable sum, certainly,
for that" time ; but if there had been "a gi>od dwelling-
house and orchard" upon the field, as Malone conjectured,
that circumstance would, in all probability, have been men-
tioned°. We may presume that John Shakespeare em-
ployed it for agricultural purposes, but upon tliis point we
are without information. That he lived in Stratford at tlie
time we infer from the fact, that i>n the 28th Septemln-r.
1S71, a second daughter, named Anne, was baptized at The
parish-church. He had thus four children living, two boys
and two girls, William, Gilbert., Joan, and Anne, but the
last died at an early age, having been buried on 4th April,
1579'. It will be remarked that, on the baptism of his
daughter Anne, he was, for the first time, called " AfagUler
Shakespeare" in the Latin entry in the Register, a distinc-
tion he seems to have acquired by having serveii the oftice
of baiUff two years before. Tiie same observation will
apply to the registratii m of his fifth child, Richard, who
was baptized on llth March, 1573-4, as the son of "i/r.
John Shakespeare'^." Richard Shakespeare may have been
named after his gi-andfather of Snitterfield, who perhaps

The increase of John Shakespeare's family seems, for
some time, to have been accompanied by an increase of his
means, and in 1574 he gave Echnund and Emma Hall 40/.
for two freehold houses, with gardens and orchards, in
Henley-street'. It will not be forgotten that he was al-
ready "the owner of a copyhold tenement in the same street
which he had bought of Edward West, in 1666, before his
marriage with Mary Arden. To one of the two last-pur-
chased dwellings John Shakespeare is supposed to have re-
moved his family ; but, for aught we know, he had lived
from the time of his marriage, and continued to five in
1574, in the house in Henley-street, which had been ahen-
ated to him eighteen years before. It does not appear that
he had ever parted with West's house, so that m 1574 he
was the owner of three houses in Henley-street Forty

use the same shield of arms, single, or impaled as aforesaid, during
his naturall lyfle." The motto, as given at the head of the confil
mation, is

NON SANZ DROICT.

For "Arden of Wellingcote" the heralds should have said Arden c^
Wilraecote.

3 Malone places reliance on the words of the close roll, ^rom which
the information is derived) "with the appurtenances;" but surely
"a good dwelling-house and orchard" would have been specified,
and not included in such general terms: they are not mere "ap-
purtenances."

* The following are copies ,>f the registration of the baptism anc
burial of Anne Shakespeare : —

'•1571 tiepteb^ -JS. Annafilia JiJniristri Skalcsperf!."
" 1.579 April 4. Anne daughter of Mr. John Shakspere,"
a The baptismal register runs thus : —

" 157:J .March U. Richard sonne to Mr. John Shakspeer."

• Malone speculated (Shakspeare, by Boswell, vol. ii. p. 106,) thai
Richard Hill, an alderman of Stratford, had stood godfather to thu
child, but he was not aware of the existence of any such pci^t n a»
Richard Shakespeare, of Snitterfield, who, there is good grODod U
believe, was father to John Shakespeare.

^ " Malone's Shakspeare, by Boswell," "3', ii. p !I:I

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

XXXI

poQodB, even allowing for great difference in value of
money, seems a small sum for the two fi'eehold houses,
with gardens and orchards, sold to him by Edmund and
Bmma HalL

It is, we apprehend, indisputable that soon after this
date the tide of John Shakespeare's affairs began to tui-n,
and that he experienced disappointments and losses which
seriously affected his pecuniary circumstances. Malone
was in possession of several impoi-tant facts upon this sub-
iect, and recently a str-ong piece of coufirmatoi-y testimony
has been procui-ed. We will first advert to that which was
in the bauds of Malone, applicable to the beginning of
1678. At a borougl haU on the 29th Jan. in that year, it
was ordered that eveiy alderman in Stratford should pay
6.5. 8(/., and evei-y burgess Zs. -id. towards " the furniture oi
three pikemeu, two billmen, and one archer." Nc:>w, al-
though Jtthn Shakespeare was not only an alderman, but
to contribute only S.f. id., as if he bad been merely a bur-
gess : Humphrey Plymley, another alderman, paid 6s.,
while Ji'hn Walker, Thomas Brogden, and Anthony Turner
contributed 2s. 6rf. each, William Brace 2.'!., and Robert
Bratt " nothing in this place." It is possible that Bratt
had been called upon to furnish a contribution iu some
other place, or perhaps the words are to be tjiken to mean,
that he was excused altogether ; and it is to be remarked
that in the contribution to the poor in Sept 1 664, Bratt
was the only individual who gave no more than fourpence.
In November, 1678, when it was required that every alder-
man should " pay weekly to the relief of the poor 4d.,"
John Shakespeare and Robert Bratt were excepted : they
were " uot to be taxed to pay auy thing," while two others
(one of them Alderman Plymley) were rated at 3(/. a week.
In Mai'ch, 1678-9, when another call was made upon the
town for the pui'pose of pui'chasiug corslets, caUvers, <te.,
the n.ame of John Shakespeaie is found, at the end of the
account, in a list of persons whose *' sums were unpaid and
unaccounted for." Another fact tends strongly to the con-
clusion that in 1678 John Shakespeare was distressed for
money : he owed a baker of the name of Roger Sadler 5/.,
for which Edmund Lambert, and a person v( the name of
dated 1-ith November, 1678, he included the foUowbg
among the debts due to him : — " Item of Edmund Lambert
and Cornishe, for the debt of Mr. John Shacksper, 6/."

Malone conjsctured that Edmund Lambert was some re-
lation to Mary Shakesjjeare, and there can be little doubt
of it, as an Edward Lambert had married her sister Joan
Arden. To Edmund Lambert John Shakespeare, m 1678,
mortgaged his wife's estate in Ashton Cantlowe, called
Asbyes, for 40/., an additional cireumstjinoe to prove that
he was in want of money ; and so severe the pressure of
1579 he parted with his wife's interest in two tenements in
Soitterfield to RobeH Webbe for the small sum of 41. This
IB a striking confirmation of John Shakespeare's embarrass- '
ments, with which Malone was not acquainted ; but the orig-
inal deed, with the bond for the fulfilment of covenants,
(both bearing date 15tli Oct. 1579) subscribed with the dis-
tinct marks of John and Maiy Shakespeare, and sealed with
their respective seals, is in the hands of the Shakespeare
Society. His houses iu Stratford descended to his son, but
they may have been mortgaged at this period, and it is in-
disputable that John Shakespeare divested himself in 1678
xnd 1679, of the landed property his wife had brought him,
being in the end driven to the extremity of raising the

> The property is thus described in the indenture between John
Bhakespeaje and his wife, and Robert Webbe. Fur and in conside-
ration of the sum of 4/. in hand paid, they " give, graunte, bar-
ra/ne, and sell unto the said Kobert Webbe, his heirea and assignes
for ever, all that theire moitye, parte, and partes, be it more or less*,
»f and in two messuages or tenementes, with thappurtennances, sett,
lyinge and beyng9 in Snitterfield aforesaid, in the said county of
Wirwiclie." The deed terminates thus :

" In witness© whereof the parlies above said to these present inden-
tures interchangeablie have put theire handes and scales, the day
and yeare fyrst above wrytten . ' |

'"the marke + of John Shackspere. The -narke M of Marye |
dhaclUDfnt I

trifling sum of 41. by the sale of her share of two mes-
suages iu Snitterfield'.

It has been supposed that he might not at this time
reside in Stratford-upon-Avon, and that for this reason he
only contributed 3s. 4d. for pikemen, &c., and nothing to the
poor of the town, in 1578. This notion is refuted by the
fact, that in the deed for the sale of his wife's property in
Snitterfield t<i Webbe, in 1679, he is called "John Shack-
spere of Stratford-upon-Avon,' and in the bond foi' the per-
formance of covenants, " Jo/iannein Shackxpere de Stratford-
upon-Avon, in cimiitat. Warwici" Had he been resident
at Ingon, or at Snitterfield,'he would hardly have been de-
scribed as of Stratford-upon-Avon. Another point re-
quiring notice in connexion with these two newly-discovered
documents is, that in both John Shakespeare is termed
"yeoman," and not glover: perhaps in 1579, although he
continued to occupy a house in Stratford, he had relin-
quished his original trade, and having embarked in agricul-
unsueeessfuL This may appear not an unnatural mode of
aceountmg for some of his diSiculties. In the midst of
them, iu the spring of 1680, another son, named Edmund,
(perhaps after Edmund Lambert, the mortgagee of As-
byes) was born, and christened at the parish church"

CHAPTER IV.

Education of William Shakespeare : probably at the free-
school of Stratford. At wliat time, and under what cir-
cumstances, he left school. Possilily tui assistant iu the
school, and afterwards in an attorney's office. His hand-
writing. His marriage with Anne Hatliawav. The prelimi-
nary bond given by Fulk ,'^andells and John Richardson.
Birth of Susanna, the first cliild of Williiim Shakespeare
and his wife Anne, in 1.'583. Shakespeare's opinion on the ■
marriage of persons of disproportioniite age. llis domestic
circumstances. Aune Hathaway's family.

At the period of the sale of their Snitterfield property by
his father and mother, William Shakespeare was in his six-
teenth year, and in what way he had been educated is mere
matter of eonieeture. It is highly probable that he was at
the free-school of Stratford, foundetf by Thomas Jolyffe in
the reign of Edward IV., and subsequently chartered bv
Edward V I; but we are destitute of tdl evidence beyond
Rowe's assertion. Of course, we know uothing of the time,
when he might have been first sent there ; but if so sent
between 1670 and 1578, Walter Roche. Thomas Hunt, and
Thomas Jeukins, were successively masters, and from them
he must have derived the rudiments of his Latin and Greek.
That his father and mother could give him no instruction
of the kind is quite certain from the proof we have adduced,
that neither of them could wi'ite; but this very deficiency
might render them more desirous that their eldest son, at
least, if not their children in general, should receive the
best education circumstances would allnw. The free gram-
mar-school of Stratford afforded an opportunity of which.
it is not unUkely, the parents of William Shakespeaie
availed themselves.

As we are ignoi'ant of the time when he went to eehrol,
we are also in the dark as to the peiiod when he left it
Rowe, indeed, has told us that the poverty of John Shake-
speare, and the necessity of employing his son profitably
at home, induced him, at an early age, to withdraw him

" Sealed and delivered in the presens oi

Nyciiolas KnooUes, Vicar of Anslon,

Wyllyam Maydes, and Anthony Os-

baston, with other moe."

The seal atKxed by .Tohn Shakespeare has his initials I S, upon it,
while that appended to the mark of his wife represents a rudely-cn
graved horse. The mark of Mary Shakespeare seems to have been
intended for an uncouth imitation of the letter M. With relen'nce
to the word " moiety," used throughout the indenture, it is to be re-
membered that at its date the term did not, as now, imply half, inl
any part, or share. Shakespeare repeatedly so uses it.

* The register contains the following ; —

"1580. Mar 3 Edmund aonne to Mr John Shakspere "

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

xxxu

be.- of the corporaUon ^»"^f .'^"f ^^"^^^ of his fathers
boy were ^-^^^'^^'^^^^S, his Btadies there
embarrasBrtients, tlie expins ,^ui„tiSn: he must have

could not have «°'«^«,\' '"^' ^'.^'^i ""ler to aid his father
been taken away, »%1^:^.^''-^X eonXting, after the death
in the mamtenanee of f''«f'l™''y'jX birth of his son Ed-j
""- ""l Sr:/.r;if and' Zt Se. However, wel
r^Sout^he power of confirming or contrad.etmg Rowe s

molean M"^'^"™',"'^' ."^^ the coimtry T nud the truth may
n^^1f^lt;'SoWer penoa)^^^^^

lirnli^trirm'iT-t-— ^ ^-^^ ^^'-^ ^"-

^"'Te Teldelw conenr with Malone in thinking, that after

-^ jiS^ S:^\^Xgu«g:a

and it would be easy U> multiply them.' ^e may pr«><m.«
that if so employed, he was paid sometlimg lor his sei^
vte; fo?, ifTe were to earn nothing, his father could hav«
had no other motive for takin- hi>n from BchooL buppfls-
in^him to have ceased to receive instruction from Jenkins
1^^1579 when John Shakespeare's distresses were appa-
"nt?; mo^. severe, we may easUy "-g'- ^ha^^^^ --' ^".^
the next vear or two, in tne oihce of .me of the sf venal,
tornevs in Stratford, whose nanies Malone mtroduces. Tha
he wr,rte a good hand we are perfectly sure, not only from
the ex ant specimens of h.s signature, when we may sup-
pose him to have been in health, but from the "d'cule wh^
El "Hamlet." (act v. sc. 2) he throws upon such as affected
to write illegibly ;

" I once did hold it, as our^statists do,
A baseness to write fulr."
In truth many of his dramatic contemporaries wrote ex-
Xntly Ben Jonson's penmanship was beautiful ; a,.d
I Peele Chapman. Dekker, and Marston, (to_ say nothing of
I some inferSr authors) must have given prmters and copy- .

"I^Sti- by mere tradition, we hear not a syllable re^
eaSwilUam Shakespeare from the time of his birth
Shf had considerably passed his eighteenth year, and
Zn we suddenly come t'o one of the most important eventa
„f his Ufe established upon irrefragable testmiony t we al-
hide to his marriage with Anne Hathaway, which could not
bave^aken place before the 28th Nov ,1582 because on
thit day two persons, named Fulk Sandells and John Rich-
ardson entereS into a preUmina.7 bond {which we subjom
^ o ?nto°^ in the Denalt%' of 40/. to be forfeited to the bishop
onheto eTe ofXlcSter.if it were thereafter found that
theie^'ted any lawful impediment to the solemnization
of mrimony between William Shakespeare and Anne
Hathaway, of Stratford. It is not known at what church the

^^"^':Z^^^^^^^'^" p.o«c.e„cy."-Ro..e s

'^'l-Aubrey c.les "Mr. Bee.W' -^•^'--^■ft^'rde^hTsh:."/.

that name were connected ^' >> t>'J'\",;%'^^^° ,he assertion with the

.peare, and long alterwaras, '•<> °"f J',' '° ,„tis Diary, was employed

.^ore respect. §imon ^'''^^''.'^''°l^Z\ll^li"cVi and wi paid

IVtle ;:.IZ S\hr.%s1^' h.';"^itance. The same m.^ht be

,,he case with Sh^^espeaie. y,^^^ ^^f„„ Greene;s

. l^ "C^- h^Xeen heS by some to apply to Shakespeare to h.s
'' Mpnapnon. na» peen n«m ? . - attorney s ottice. 1 ne

" Hanilet,- and to h.s «"\r °""P"'i°rei".on todatesi •' Menaphon "
best answer to th'S suppos.t on .s an attention t ^_^ ^^^^ .^^^

was not printed for 'he fi's"'™=' l^atospe^e haYwritJen any play,
in 1.W7-, .n.J,llP7^';^'^J,K'/^™^Ur' tSwhich Na^h alludes must
much less " Hamlet,'- The "^™'" existence long before Shake-
have been the old drama wh.ch ^^^'^^'^Xe^^'joys^are these ; and
speare took up the subject^ L*^,Wnrhe means an Attorney or attor-
-. is to be observed, that by "">"""' "° T commencing J^ovcrmt
nev-s clerk, employed to "J''^'' ^P ^^''"J,' n^w-a-d^^es, amS.,sst a s«t
u»«ers,-,&c. •'"■^^""?T"'; through every art' and thrive by
of shifting "'"J^"'°"/;'?''„U"r"nrwhereto they were borne, and
none, to leave the ."fi,' "fj";^^;^";,' oT art, that could scarcely Lat-
bus.e themselves w.th the ""}_'>'°y? °' " ' je • yet English Seneca,
,„.« the,rneck verse,, fhey^hould have n_eed_e^ ^ ^,^^ ^^ ^ ,^^.

read by :andle-light. yields many fe ^ ^^^^^^ morning,

ffr, and so forth; »"'*'fj^" '"/;,, Should say handfuls of trag.cal
le will affoord you whole H'''"''^?,''?Xr that the author of the old
speeches - Hence we may possibly ■"'" '^''^ J ^.^n an attorney's
•-Hamlet," preceding Shakespeare stragecy, "^ 1,;^^ ear, and

olerk. U ir,Hl. Shakespeare was ""'^ '" J'.Vj" ,^,„^„h every art.
fould hardly be sa.d by ^^at ™e 'o have^^^run^thro^g^ ^

^ei^ir;; n^^^Sbe^Xid^Xsir^;^'^^"

r;^„e^'.":;^^n^-trvrr;lrs;in\\e wrote the couplet,

"Pome clerk foredoom'd his father's soul to cross, ]

wTo pens a stanza when he should ingross.
. It is certain'also that Shakespeare wrot;.,.hg«atJac,l,^^^

- V^— T:^; ald^q^^l^a^eW 101. .-^^ ^^ ^_^

.^K?r(kiSS;5:i:^:^.ne^^rSt^d

rthiuVand ! 7''-'; ^'J-VIr theif gnoTaneTwho cruVe that circucn-
l?]ic'':fo"cIimenAe.^frW by^ wherein be most faulted; and to

justify mine own -^our for I l^ve^ the ™--d^do honour^ h.s
memory (on this ='*= ■3",y„=^„™"°" had an excellent fancy,

pardoned. Consisieniiy vvm. fnllowinfr in the address

Lyers had " »/«„ menr.oned ,-« A^f 'he ollo,,n^g .n^^

°^ "rT'Tl(i•?^-4i^m;nd and hand went together.and what he
'th^igh? hVut^ered ^ That_easiness, that we have scarce received
'■'rT^riL'trumL'^ril-Jed of useless formal contractions, ran.

ford in cornitatu "^.'^"'"'^^f, '„!,,:'; Ricardo Cosin. generoso, et

galis monet. ^"^''^i^^s sui"\d qu""aem sol^t.inem beni
executoribus, vel f^signatis suis, ad qua q nostrum, per s»

et fidel.ter faciendam °^'5^f'itce^°','ores et administratores nostros
pro toto et in sol.c o h redes »>;'=;«"'«; i,\\„,. i,,t,,„ 28 die No-
«^S:S,Cr^g:^l^^;-ir,S|^eth^Dei^tiaAng.:»,
Francae et H.berni^ Regina>, Fidei Defenscr.s &c ,!D . ^^^^

-The condition °f 'h.s ob ig on ys ^uche,j.ha^^ U ^^ ^^^

shall not appere any lawfull '«" or 'mp ^;, '„,her lawfuU

precontract, oonsanguimt.e, ^ftmtie, or by y^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^^

meanes whatsoever, hf ha J 'Uia.n -^'JJ Worcester, maiden,
and AnneHathwey, of Stratlord in tne i ^^^^^

may lawfully -'7"-',^„':^'\',r manind"lffe. according unto the
wards remaine and continew '.""Lr'L„„„,er, if there be not at this
lawes in that heha provided ^ ^"^ >^o ^maund. moved or depend-

brUiamlhl^p^^r^'o^iorprPe-J^^osolem^^^

bri^^Mujiio^SKr^^ra^

fend and save harmles the '^■ght Ke'eren j^^ ,(,j ^j^jj

force and vertue. ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^^^^ ^^^ Richa.d«.

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEAEE.

XXXlll'

3«remony wa« ferPirmed, but cei'tainly not at Stfatford-
upon-Avon,' to -n-bifh both the parties belonged, where the
bondsmen resided, ;ind where it might be expected that it
would have been registered. The object of the bond was
to obtain such a dispensation from the bishop of Worcester
as would authorize a clergyman to unite the bride and
groom after only a smglc pu6lication of the banns ; and it is
not to be concealed, or denied, that the whole proceeding
. seems to indicate haste and seeresy. However, it ought
not to escape notice that the seal used when the bond was
eseeuted, although damaged, has upon it the initials R. H,
88 if it bad belonged to R. Hathaway, the father of'the bride,
wd had been used on the occasion with his consent."

Considering all the circumstances, there might be good
reasons why the father of Anne Hathaway should concur in
the alliance, independently of any regard to the worldly
prospects of the )iarties. The first child of William and
Anne Shakespeare was christened Susanna on 26th May,
1583". Anne was between seven and eight years older
than her young husband, and several passages in Shake-
speare's plays have been pointed out by Maloue, and
repeated by other biographers, which seem to point directly
at the evils resulting from unions in which the parties were
" misgratfed in respect of vears." The most remarkable
of these is certainly the well-known speech of the Duke to
Viola, in " Twelfth Night," (act ii. so. 4) where he says,

" Let still the woman take
An elder than herself: so wears she to him;
So sways she level in her husband's heart:
For, boy, however we do praise ourselves,
Our fancies are more giddj' and unfirm,
More longing, wavering, sooner lost and worn,
Than women's are."

" Then let thy love be younger than thyself,
Or tliy nffcotion cannot liold the bent."

Whether these lines did or did not originate in the au-
thor's reflections upon his own marriage, they are so apph-
cable to his own case, that it seems impossible he should
have wi itten them without recalling the circumstances at
tending hie hast}' union, and the disparity of years betwee i
himself and his wife. Such, we know, was the confirmed
opinion of Coleridge, expressed on two distinct occasions in
his lectiu'es, and such we think will be the conclusion at
which most readers ■will arrive :— " I cannot hesitate in be-
lieving," observed Coleridge in 1815, " that in this passage
from ' Twelfth Night,' Shakespeare meant to give a caution
arising out of his own experience ; and, but for the fact of
the disproportion in point of years between himself and his
wife, I doubt much whether the dialogue between Viola imd
the Duke would have received this turn'." It is incident to
our nature that yi-)Uth8, just advancing to manhood, should
feel with peculiar strength the attraction of women whose
charms have reached tbe full-blown summer of beauty ; but
we cannttt think that it was so necessary a consequence, as
some have supposed', that Anne Hathaway should have pos-
sessed peeuhar personal advantages. It may be remarked,
tliat poets have (■ften appeared comparatively iudifferent
to the features and persons of their mistresses, since, in pro-
portion to the sti-ength of their imaginative faculty, they

1 Malone conjectured that the marriage took place at Weston, or
Billf sloy, but the old registers there having been lost or destroyed, it
is im possible to ascertain the fact. A inor« recent search in the reg-
isters of some other churches in the neiehbourhood of Stratford has
not been attended with any success. Possibly, the ceremony was
performed in the vicinity of Worcester, but the mere fact that the
bond -was there executed proves nothing. An examination of the
registers at Worcester has been equally fruitless.

" Rowe tells us. (and we are without any other authority) that
Hathaway was "said to have been a substantial yeoman," and he
was most likely iti possession of a seal, such as John Shakespeare had
Bsed in 1579

' The fact is registered in this form ; —

. -U'^^"'-. ''"y '*>■ Susanna daughter to WiUiam Shakspere "
^* We derive this opinion from our own notes of what fell from
woleridpe upon the occasion in question. The lectures, upon wh.ch
ne was then engaged, were delivered in a room belonging to the
Globe tavern, n Fleet-street. He repeated the same sentiment in

have been able to supply all physical deficiencies'. Cole-
ridge was aware, if not from his own particular case, from
recorded examples, that the beauty of the objects of the
affection of poets was sometimes more fanciful tlian real .
and his notion was, that Anne Hathaway was a womat
with whom the boyish Shakespeare had fallen in love, per-
haps from proximity of residence and frequency of inter
course, and that she had not any jjeculiar recommendations
of a personal description. The truth, however, is, that we
have no evidence eidier way ; and when Oldys remarks
upon the 98rd sonnet, that it " seems to have been addressefl
by Shakespeare to his beautiful wife, on some suspicion of
her infidelity'," it is clear that he was under an entire mis-
take as to the individual : the lines,

"So shall I live supposing thou art tnie
Like u deceived husband; so love's face
May still seem love to me," &c.

were most certainly not applied to his wife ; and Oldys could
have had no other ground for asserting that Anne Hatha-
way was " beautiful," than general supposition, and the er-
roneous belief that a sonnet like that from which we have
ject.

The present may not be an improper opportunity for
remarking (if, indeed, the remark might not be entirely
spared, and the reader left to draw his own inferences) that
the balance of such imperfect information as remains to us
leads us to the opinion that Shakesjjeare was not a veiy
happy married man. The disparity in age between him-
self and his wife from the first was sucli, that she could
not " sway level in her husband's heart ;" and this difl'erence.
for a certain time at least, became more apparent as they
advanced m years : may we say also, that the peculiar eir-
cmnstances attending their marriage, and the birth of their
first child, would riot tend, even in the most gi-ateful an.!
considerate mind, to increase that respect which is the chief
source of confidence and comfort in domestic Hfe. To this
may be added the fact (by whatever circumstances it may
have been occasioned, which we shall consider presently;
that Shakespeare quitted his home at Stratford a very few
years after he had become a husband and a father, and that
although he revisited his native town frequently, and ulti
mately settled there with his family, there is no proof thai
his wife ever returned with him to London, or resided witl:
him during imy of his lengthened sojourns in tlie metroptv
lis : that she "may have done so is very possible : and in
1609 he certainly paid a weekly poor-rate to an amount
that may indicate that he occupied a house in Southwark
capable of receiving his family^ but we are here, as upon
many other points, compelled to deplore the absence of dis-
tinct testimony. We put out of view the doubtful and am-
biguous indications to be gleaned from Shakespeare's Son-
nets, obsorving merely, that they contain little to show that
he was of a domestic turn, or that he found any great en-
joyment in the society of his wife. That such maj have
been the fact we do not pretend to deny, and we willingly
believe that much favourable evidence upon the point has
been lost : all we venture to advance on a question of so
much ditficultry and deUcacy is, that what remains to us ii
not, as far as it goes, perfectly satisfactory.

public in 1818, and we have more than once heard it from him in
private society.

6 The Rev. Mr. Dyce, in his Life of Shakespeare, prefixed to the
Aldine edition of his Poems, 12mo. IS.'ia. p. xi. It cumpiisesall t'ne
main points of the biography of our poet then known.

' When the Rev. iVlr. Dyce observes thet ".I is 'inlikely that l wo-
man devoid of personal charms should have won the youthfui affoo-
tiona of so imaginative a being as Shakespeare," he forgets tha: the
mere fact that Shakespeare was an "imaginative being" wtuld
render '-personal charms" in his wife less necessary to his happi-
ness.

' In his MS. notes to Langbaine, in the British Museum, as nuoted
by Steevens. Sea " Malone's Shakspeare, by Boswell," vol. XX.

p. 306. , ,.. . L

8 We have noticed this matter more at length hereafter, with re-
ference to the question, whether Shakespe.\re, in IW? were not rated
to the poor of Southwark in respect of his theatriccl property, ao4
not for any dwelling-house which he occupied.

jcxxvi

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAIOlSPEARE

in the town-

wher*' 1^' '

&-1^^i^ i'v^U'^lS^f^tS:^ in «l.-at^^ -T^f ^:!;^r;Sn>anees of various asso.at^ns of a.
•""""^Uht' date ^TSZ-^Mt tunAlers') also exWbited j hereby P^du^d -^^y^^^J^^,-^^ f,,„„, tUeir homes, to

E!rS^^ ^^r^ri^??| f^^Srr^^ ^^t^^;^:^-;^

i

1 oil J. ii«7»i*«.- -" ,j •

, aud of mei-e specula-

to h;;"e" visited the borough. ' In 1686 " the players '^ (with-
out mentiouiug what company) exhibited; and m 15S7 no

comtenanciug them not being named.

It ic t/i he remarked that several of the piayere, -n iiu pann,,t oeueve ue i..>.uv. -.- -.v — - "., - ,■

the.ebj the J-aao .rituessod did not give a

Aat vf l^nn. t beheve he foid his way into thiU gorgeous
mat we i..iuujt ^ ,.... -i „n, „r„a f.mrteeu miles dis-

r^,sr^^?is;s=ii:^ie:?Shim-?s:---'

PisHiiiiHgii

aid ihem on their road to another pl!««- , .jester very soon after-

"= The widow of Walter Devereux 7^°", J-'^Xi 14^2 the Earl
wards mamed. It is to be ''^f^'X^^MTJuIiT. the protection
of Essex l"'^ ^""JTJnfhe'^itrranuary Lord Howard, through one
M his name, and that on the ■"'^ •'^■""Yhis Earl of Essex was, how-
„f his stewards, gave them ^.y^^^^^^J^^'^^Xe" ,rto was created
„er, of a different family, ^z. "'"jy »;"Csehold Book of John
L-orfHowardra^rwia'-Dufeof'S^rfolk, printed .„ 1»44 for the

''fr.t:^^:^^^^^'^-^ cost of the ^^i^^srJ^-:^

are told that " sundrey feates ot_.nmbl;;g ^^f ToVd Strannge his ser-

the public archives. hal'eve upon no evidence be-

Greene was in some way related to ;,ha.>espeare^

•' 1.589. March 8. Thomas Green, alias bhakspere.

.1,. f„.h«r of Thomas Greene, the actor, who was a
This was perhaps the '''"'" oil nomas ^ became so famous

comedian of S'""''^'^'^"?/?^ J the ply of "he "City Gallant -
,n a character called "^i "^^^J '4^, occurs, with the constant

(acted by the au^en = ^ ^""y"^' "\y"'a 'fte, him In the account of
epeatedphrase,T«_5»o?"e,wasnameda erhim in

are told that " sundrey leates oi "" '- "^ "^ ^J^ Straunge hi. .
^ai-^e's-^rr-p.-CrnVinlhamf E'xltt3^■rom the Revels a.

'°r^'^,^„n'e"who gleaned these r-tioul^ f™m f^'^^y^^f^^
Chamberlains of Stratford, mis-stated this date luiu,
^:«ained ,. to b=1.5S0, a.s ''^\'f^!Z^'''^^TX.h ,he Queen had
. This ws. most likely one of the '^"".'I'^^'^'^'J'^hTbest actors from
Ji,ected to be formed, ""f't?f °Ll itv and noreither of the dis-
ll'n^tToreror.'fntrrutp^laVr-t'i'o^haS visited Stratford while

of Stratford many years after the date '" J^^^'',,'^, i^^ted in other

-f,lres''"a;l'ry^l^hr'l-^en''i?nrrd'^w,.h l ........ of

^"^^"^Z'T^: toS^;-: A| 'Hi. H=^i7e'ham°ber^';au"dh:iU
.hall be no plays or ■nterludes played in the Chamber^,^^^^^^^^^

!rS?!^!'y:f ^;i?i-t^: in:'ISX^t - "cl roallant " and afte.

ser- the Revels of lOU-U

■2 It is called hrit •' ine \^ii-y 'j^"-'."'-! • ■■ — -

wi5rT,r,«o,„. : it'was P-n-'i '"Q>f/,'''.r^;LeS:d''°by''an e fstle

" Greene's Tu ClrrVhich it anpe^ tSa't Greene was 'then 'dead,
from T. Hey wood, ^y -".hich it appearj ina ^____^^,^ .. ^ 3^

tr^^llrb^-rrm^rf^WtU may bedouM^^^^^^^^^
'^^Z ^^t^tS't-d-onl'^of S-U a solicitor ...d m

L<o"'i°"- jff», fr^m t>i« Uev Mr. Hn.lpin in his in-

, Upon this P"'"' r/,^'|" ''""^'obfron-s Vision!" printed b,
genious and agreeable ^yf^y "I,;;" ;„ 1,15 u Reliques," was th«
rhe Shakespeare Society Bi^H^P 1 e cy ^n h ^^ ^^ ^.^^

first to start the idea that Sh^jKespeare na 1 ^^^^^ .^ ^ ,.

tainment at kenilworth ?-"'i„'He K'' 'Hr^j by Malone and adopte.

i^ r^^u^ ^b^th^rf r s^r?^. .p^^rs .o u

than that of Percy, Malone. an

}S^S-^^ ,-^^t^:^=-l '^t;^.^ [Si. Wing '. of Thomas Greene.

Do*ougne

THE LIFE OF AVILLIAM SHAoiESPEAEE.

xxxvU

me whole of thi t part of the country ; and if the cele-
britod p:iss;i;L^e in " A Midsummer Night's Dream " (act. ii.
sc 1 ). had any reference to it, it did not require that Shake-
Bpeare should have been present in order to have written
it especially when, if necessary, he had Gascoyne's " Pi"iucely
Pleasures of Kenilworth " and Laneham's " Letter " to as-
sist hJB memory^

OHAi TER VL

■#obn Shakespeare removed from his situution as alderman
of Straifurd, aiul its possible connexion with WiHiam Shake-
speare's departure for London in .the latter end of 15S6.
wiUiam Shakespeare a sharer in the Blackfriars Theatre in
15S9. Complaints against actors : two companies .silenced
for bringing Martin Mar-prelate on the stage. Certiflcate
of the siiarers in the Bhickfriars. Shakespeare, in all prob-
ability, a good actor : our older dramatists otten players.
Shakespeare ■"« earliest compositions for the stage. His
"Venus and Adonis" and "Luerece" probably written
before he came to London.

In reference to the period when our great dramatist aban-
doned his native town for Londt)n, we tliiuk that sulficieut
attention has not been paid to im importimt incident in the
life of hie father. John Sliakespeare wjis deprived oi his
gown as alderniau of Stratford in the autumn of 1686 : we say
that be was deprived of his gown, not because any restdu-
tiou precisely warranting those terms was come to by the
rest of the corporation, but because it is quite evident that
such was the fact, from the tenor of the entry in the records
of the borough. On the 6th Sept 1586, the following me-
morandum was made in the register by the town clerk^ :

'* At this hall William Smythe and Kichard Courle are
chosen to be aldermen, in the place of John Wheler, and
John Shaxspere ; for that Mr. W heler doth desycr to be put
out of the companye, and Mr. Sliaxspere doth not come to
the halles, whuu they be warned, nor hath not done of a
long tyme."

According to this note, it was Wheler's wish to be re-
moved from his situation of alderman, and had such also
been the desire of John Shakespeare, we should, no doubt-,
have been told so : therefore, we must presume that he
was not a consenting, or at all events not a willing, party
to this proceeding; but there is no doubt as Malone ascer-
tained from an inspection of the ancient books of the bo-
rough, that he hacl cfeased to attend the halls^ when they

1 Gascoyne's "Princely Pleasures," Sec. waa printed in 157(>, and
Laneham's "Letter" from Kenilworth in the preceding year. Gas-
coyne was himself a performer in the shows, and, accorainp to Lane-
ham, represented "a :5avage Man," who made a speech to the Queen
&£ she came from hunting. Robert Laneham, the aiTected but clever
writer of the " Letter," was most likely [as is suggested in the
Bridgewater Catalogue, 4to. lS-'i7, p. \G2] related to John Laneham,
the player, who was one oif the Earl of Leicester's players, and is
named in the royal license of 1574. '^Robert Laneham." observes
the compiler of that Caialogue, "seems to have been quite as much
& comedian upon paper, as John Laneham was upon the stage."

3 William Tyler was the bailiff of the year. See Malone's ShaJc-
•peare )»y Boswell, vol. li. p. Ili4

' This use of the word "■ warned " occurs several times in Shake-
speare : in "Antony and Cleopatra," (p. ) Octavius tells Antony,

"They raeaa to irarri us at Philippi here ;"
fc:id in " King John," (p. ) after King Philip hassaid,

" Some trumpet summon hither to the walla
These men of Angiers,"
k ffitizcK exciaimi from the battlements,

" Who is it that hath wamt^d us to the walls ?"

* We id not imagine that one event, or the other, was influenced
in any way by the execution of Edward Arden, a maternal relative
of the family, at the close of l.'j.-vJ. According to Dugdale, it was
more than suspected that he came to his end through the power of
Leicester, who was exasperated against hira, " for galling him by
MTtain hareh expressions, touching his privat* acce&scs to tlie Counl-
SM of Essex," wh;ie she was still the wife of Walter Devereux. It
Joes not appear that there had been any intercourse between Edward
ArJen, then the head of his family, and Mary Shakespeare, the
foungest daughter of the junior branch.

* Sr.akspeare by BosweU, vol. ii. p. 157.

' The excess to which the enmity between the corporation of Lon-
i(it and th« plav*^ was carried may be judged by the following

were "waraed " or summoned^ from the year 1579 down-
wards. This date of 1679 is the more imjjortant, although
Malone was not aware of the fact, because it was the same
year in which John Shakespeare was so distressed for
raoneVi that he disposed of his wife's small property in Suit-
teiiieid for 41.

We have thus additional reasons for thinking, that the
unprosperous state of John Shakespeare's pecuniary cir-
cumsUinces had induced him t<.) abstiiin from attending the
ordinary meetings of the corporation, ami tinally led Uj his
removal from the office of alderman. What connexion thia
last event may have had with William Shakespeare's de-
termiuaticn t<.) quit Stratford canuot be known from any
circumstances that have since come to Ught, but it will not
fail t«> be remarked, thiit in point of date the events seem
to have been coincident*.

Malone " supposed " that our great poet left Stratford
"about the year 1686 or 1587V' but it seems to us more
likclv that the event happened in the former, than in the
latter year. His twins, Hamnet and Judith, were baptized,
as we have shown, early in February, 1585, and his father
did not cease to be an alderiuim until about a yeai' and seven
months afterwards. The fiict, that his sou hail bt;c<)me a
player, may have had something to do with the lowt-r rank
his brethren of the bench thought he ouglit to hold in the
corporation; or the resolution of the son to abandon his
home may have arisen out of the degradation of the father
in his native town ; but we canuot help thinking tliat the
two circumstances were in some way C'-)uuected, and that
the period of the departure of WiUiam Shakespeare, io seek
his iortune in a company of players in the metropolis, may
be fixed in the hitter end of 1586.

Nevertheless, we do not hear of him in Loudon until
three years afterwards, when we find him a sharer in the
Blackfriars theatre. It had been constructed (or, possibly,
it" not an entirely new building, some large edifice had been
adapted to tlie purpose) upon part of the site of the dis-
solved monastery, because it was beyond the jurisdiction of
the lord mayor and corporation of Loudon, who had always
evinced decided hostiUty to dramatic representations". The
undertaking seems to have been prosperous from the com-
mencement; and in 1589 no fewer than sixteen prrformers
were sharers in it, including, besides Shakespeare and Bur-
bage, Thomas Greene of Stratford-upon-Avon, and Nicholas
Tooley, also a Warwickshire man : tLe association Wits prob-
ably thus numerous on account of the tlourishing stiite of
the concern, many being desirous to obtiuu an interest in ita
receipts. In 1589 some general complaiuu i*eem toha^e

quotation from *' a Jig," or humorous theatrical ballad, called ^ Thu
Horse-load of Fools," which, in the manuscript in which it has been
handed down to us, is staled to have been written by Itichard Tarl-
ton, and in all probability was delivervd by him before applauding
audiences at the Theatre in Shoredilch. Tarlton introduces to tht
spectator a number of puppets, accompanying the exhibition by w
Uf'cad stanzas upon each, and ue thus speaks of one of them : —

" This foole comes from the citizens ;
Nay, prithee doe not frowne ;
I knowe him as well as you
By his liverie gowne ;

" He is a foole by prenticeship
And servitude, he saves.
And hates all kindeb ot wisedome.
But most of all in playes :

Of a verie obstinate familie.

"You have him in his liverie gowne,
But preseotlie he can
Qualifie for a mule or mare.
Or for an alderman ;

With a golde chaine in his famltie.

*' Being borne and bred for a foole,
Why should he be wise.
It would make hira not fitt to sitt
WitK his brethren of assize ;

Of a verie long earde familie."

Possibly the lord mayor and aldermen complained of th-.s very
zomposition, and it may have been one of the causes w lich, *ooa af-
terwards, led to the silencing of the company ; at all events it wai
not likely to conciliate the members of the corporation.

XXXVIU

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

oeen made, that improper matters were iotroduced iiito
pla3'9 ; aud it is quite certain tliat " the children of Paul's,"
33 the acting ehoir-boys if£ that cathedral were called, aud
the ass<fciaiion of regular professioual performers occupy-
ing the Theatre in Shoreditch at this date, had introduced
Martin Mar-prelate upon their stages, in a manner that had
given great offence to the Puritans. Tylney, the master of
the revels, had interposed, and having brouijht the matter
to the knowledge of Lord Burghley, two V'dies of players,
those of the Lord Admind aud Lord Strnnge, (the latter
beeu summoned before the lord mayor, and ordered to de-
sist fi'om all perfijrmance6\ The silencing of other associ-
ations would probably have been benetieial to that exhibit-
ing ai: Blackfriars, and if no proceeding of any kind had
been ii.stiiuted against James liurbage and his partners, we
may presuine that they would have continued quietly to
reap their augmented harvest. We are led to mfer, how-
ever, that they also apprehended, and experienced, some mea-
Bm*e of restrauit, and feeUng conscious tliat they had given
no just ground of offence, they transmitted to the privy
council a sort of certificate of their good couduet, asserting
that they had never introduced into their representations
matters of state aud religion, and that no complaint of that
kind had ever beeu preferred against them. This certificate
passed into the bauds of Lord EUesmere, then attorney-
general, and it has been preserved among his papers. We
eubjoiu a copy of it in a note^.

It seems rather strange that this testimonial should have
come from the players themselves ; we should rather have
expected that they would have procui-ed a certificate from
8ome disinterested parties ; and we are Xa) take it merely as
a statement on their own authority, and possibly as a
eoi't of challenge for inquiry. Wheu they say that no
compliant of the kind had ever been pi-eferred against them,
we are of course to understand that the assertion applies
to a time previous to some general representation against
sharers at the Blackfriars thought themselves unjustly in-
cluded. In this document we see the important fact, as re-
gards the biography of Shakespeare, that in 1589 he was,
not only an actor, but a sharer in the imdei'takiug at Black-
fi-iars ; and whatever inference may be drawn from it, we
find that his name, following eleven others, precedes those
of Kempe, Johnson, Goodale, imd Armyn. Kempe, we
know, was the successor of Tariton (who died in 1588) iu
oomic parts^, and must have been an actor of great value

1 AH the known details of these trarsactions maybe seen in "The
Hiat. of Engl. Dram. Poetry and the ritage," vol. i. p. '271, iVc.

a It is on a long slip of paper, very neatly written, but without
any names appended.

" These are to certifie your right Honble I^ordships, that her Ma-
Laneham, Thomas Greene, Robert Wilson, John Taylor, Anth.
Wadeson, Tiiomas Pope, George Peele, Augustine PhiUipps, Nicho-
las Towley, William Shakespeare, William Kempe, William John-
Bon, Baptiste Goodale, and Robert Armyn, being all of them sharers
in the blacke Fryers playehouse, have never given cause of displea-
sure, in that they have brought into their playes maters of state and
Religion, untilt to be handled by them, or to be presented before
lewde spectators : neither hath anie complaynte in that kinde ever
Dene preferrde against them, or anie of them. Wlierefore, they trust
most humblie in your Lordships consideration of their former good
rehaTiour. being at aL! tymes readie, and willing, to yeelde obedience
thinke ip such case meete, &,c.

"Nov. 15:^y.''

Here we see that Shakespeare's name stands twelfth in the enu-
meration of the members of the company ; but we do not rest much
on the succession in which they are inserted, because among the four
names which follow that of our great dramatist are certainly two
performers, one of them of the highest reputation, and the other of
long standing in the profession.

3 In the dedication of his " A Iraond for a Parrot." printed without
date, but not later than 1569, (the year of which we are now speak-
mg) Thomas Nash calls Kempe " Jestmonger and Vice-gerent gene-
ral to the ghost of Uick Tariton." Heywood, in his '■ Apology for
Actors," IGi'i, (Shakespeare Society's reprint, p. 43) tells us that
Kempe succeeded Tariton " a,s well in the favour of her Mijesty, as
in 1 tie opinion and good thoughts of the general audience."

* He was also one of the executors under Tarlton's will, and was
also truBifett for h'.s son Philip. See p. xiii. What became of Johnson
after ITi^^i, we have no information.

* Ufi was <^ne of the actors, with Laneham, in the anonymous

and eminence in the company : Jolioson, as appeait* by thi

royal heense, had beeu one of the theatrical servants of the
Earl of Leicester iu 157-i*: of Goodale we have no account,
but he bore a Stratf'.>rd uarne^; aud Armyn, though he had
beeu instructed by TarlUiU^, waa perhaps at this date quite
young, aud of low rank iu the association. The situation in
the list which the name of Shakespeare occupies may seen:
to show that, even iu 1589, he was a person of considerable
importjmce iu relation to the success of the sharers iu Black-
friars theatre. Iu November, 1589, he was in the middle
of his twenty-sixth year, and in the full strength, if not ir
the higliest maturity, of his mental aud bodily powei-e.

We can have no hesitation in believiug that he origUjally
came to Loudon, iu order to obtain his livehhood by the
stage, aud with no other view. Aubrey tells us that he
was " inclined naturally to poetry and acting ;" and the
poverty of his father, and the difficulty of obtaining pi'ofit-
able employment in the country for the maiuteuauce of liia
family, without other motives, may have induced him readily
to give way to that inclination. Aubi-ey, who had probably
taken due means to inform himself, adds, that " he did act
exceedingly well ;" and we are convinced that the opinion,
founded chiefly upon a statement by Rowe, that bhake-
speare was a very modei-ate performer, is erroneous. It
seems Ukely that for two or three years he employed hijn-
self chiefly iu the more active duties of the profession he
had chosen ; and Peele', who was a vei-y practised and popu-
lar play -Wright, considerably older than Shakespeare, was a
member of the company, without saying anything of Wade-
son, regarding whom we know nothing but that at a subse-
quent date he was cue of Heuslowe's dramatists; or of
Armyn, then only just coming forward as a comic performer.
There is reason to think that Peele did not continue one of
the Lord Chamberlain's servants after 1590, and his extant
di'amas were acted by the Queen's players, or by those of
the Lord Admiral : to the latter association Peele seems
subsequently to have been attached, and his "Battle of Al-
cazar," printed iu 159-4, purports on the title-page to have
beeu played by them. While Peele remained a member
of the company of the Lord Chamberlain's players, Sliake-
speare's services as a dramatist may not materially have
interfered with his exertions as an actor; but afterwards,
wheu Peele had joined a rival establishment, he may have
been nmeh more frequently called upon to employ Ins pen,
and then his value m that department becoming clearly
undei-stood, he was less frequently a performer.

Out of the sixteen sharers of which the company he be-

manuscript play of ** Sir Thoma.= More." (Harl. Coll., No. 73GS) which,
we may conjecture, was licensed for tde stage before 159^.

^ This fact is stated in a publication entitled '• Tarlton's Jests,'' of
which the earliest extant impression is in 1(U1. but they were no
doubt collected and published very soon after the death of Tariton
in liJSS.

' When the Rev. I\Ir. Dyce published his edition of Peele 's Works,
he was not aware that there was any impression of that author'i
•■* Tale of Troy," in l(iu4, as wel! as in IS-^ll, containing such varia-
tions vs show that it must have been corrected and augmented by
Peeh' after its first appearance. The impression of 16U4 is the most
dimir.utive volume, perhaps, ever printed, not exceeding an inch and
a half high by an inch wide, with the following title : — " The Tale
of Troy. By G. Peele, M. of Artes in Oxford. Printed by A. H.
1604." We will add only two passages out of many, to prove th«
publication. In the edition of 1004 the poem thus opens :

*' In that world's wounded part, whose waves yet swell
With everlasting showers of tears that fell,
And bosora bleeds with great etVuze of blood
That long war shed, Troy, Neptune's city, stoodj
Gorgeously built, like to the house of Fame,
Or court of Jove, as some describe the same," &c.

The four lines which commentfe the second page of Mr. Dywi'n
edition are thus extended in the copy of I(iU4 :

" His court presenting to our human eyes
An earthly heaven, or shining Paradise,
Where ladies troop'd in rich disguis'd attire,
Glistring like stars of pure immortal fire.
Thus happy, Priam, didst thou live of yoro,
That to thy fortune heavens could add no more."

Peele was dead in 159S, and it is likely that there were one ^■^l
more intervening impressions of "The Tale of Troy," betw *en l^r^l
and L6U4.

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

XXX IX

longed to consisted in 1589, (besides the usual proportion of
■ hired luen,"' who only took infeiior characters) there would
be more than a sufficient nun ber for the representation of
most plays, without the assistance of Shakespeare. He was,
doubtless, soon busily and profitably engaged as a dra-
matist; and this remark on the rareness of Ids appearance
on the stage will of coui-se apply more strongly iu his after-
life, when he produced one or more dramas every year.

His instructions to the playei^a in " Hamlet " have often
been noticed as estjiblishiug that he was admirably ac-
quainted with the theory of the art , and if, as Rowe as-
serts, he only took the short pait of the Ghost' in tiiis
tragedy, we are t4) recollect that even if he had considered
himself competent to it, the study of such a chai-acter as
Hamlet, (the longest on the stuge as it is now acted, and
etill longer as it was origiually written) must have con-
sumed moi-e time than he could well afford to bestow upon
it, especially when we call to mind that there was a mem-
ber of tlie (fompany who had hitherto represented most of
the heroes, and whose excellence was as undoubted, as his
popularity was extraordinary ^ To Richard Burbage was
therefore assigned the arduous chai-acter of the Priuce,
while the author U.)ok the brief, but important part of the
Ghost, which requii-ed pcreon, deportment, judgment, and
voice, with a debveiy distinct, solemn, and unpressive. All
the elements of a great actor were needed for the due per-
formance of " the buried majesty of DenmarkV

It may be observed, in passing, that at the period of our
ii'ama, such as it existed in the hands of Shakespeare's
umnediate predecessors, authors were most commouly ac-
tors also. Such was the case with Crreene, Marlowe*,
Lodge, Peele. pi-obiibly Nash, Munday, Wilson, and othei*s :
the same practice prevailed with some of their successors,
Ben Jonsou, Hey wood, Webster, Field, tfec. ; but at a &(->me-
what later date dramatists do not usually appear to have

^ "His name is printed, as the custom was in those times, amongst
those of the other jdayers, before some old plays, but without any

f articular account of what son of parts he used to play ; and tlioagh
have inquired. I never could meet with any further account of him
this way, than that the top of his performance wa^s the Ghost m his
own ' Hamlet.' " — Rowe's Life. Shakespeare's name stands first
among the players of " Every Man in his Humour," and fifth among
tliose of '■ Sejanui.''

2 From a .\lri. Kpitaph upon Burbage, (who died in 1619,) sold
ajnon^ the books of the late Mr. Heber, we find that he was the orig-
inal Hamlet, Romeo. Prince Henry, Henry V , Richard III., Mac-
beth, Rrutus. Coriolanus, Shylock, Lear, Pericles, and Othello, in
Shakespeare's Plays ; in those of other dramatists he was Jeronimo,
in Kyd's ":;panish Tragedy ;■' Anionio, in Marston"s "Antonio and
Mellida;" Frankford. in T. Heywood's '■ Woman killed with Kind-
ness ;" Philaster, in Beaumont and Fletcher's play of that name ;
Amintor, in their '-.Maid's Tragedy.'" — See "TheAUeyn Papers,''
printed by the Shakespeare Society, p. xxx. On a subsequent page
we have inserted tiie whole passage relating to his characters from
the Epitaph on Burbage.

3 Mj. Thomas Campbell, in his Life of Shakespeare, prefixed to
the edition, in one volume, IsSa". was, we believe, tiie first to remark
upon the almost absolute necessity of having a good, if not a great
actor, for the pan of the Ghost in '■ Hamlet."

* It seems Jrom an obscure ballad upon Marlowe's death, (handed
down to us in MS., and quoted in "New Particulars regarding the
Works of Shakespeare,'" -vo. 1^:30,) that he had broken his leg while
fccting at the Curtain Theatre, which was considered a judgment
ipon him for his irreligious and lawless life.

"BoLh Jay and night would he blaspheme,
And day and night would sweare ;
As if his life was but a dreame,
Not ending in despaire.

"A poet was he of repute,

And wrote full many a playe;
Now ^.-rutting in a silken sule,
JN'ow begging by the way.

" He had alsoe a player beenc
But brake his leg in one lewd scene,
When in his early age.

" He was a fellow to all those
That did God's lawes reject ;
Consorting with the Christian's foes,
And men of ill aspect," iScc.

The ballad consists of twenty-four similar stanzas of Marlowe's
Le&'h the auilior thus writes :

'• His lust was lawlesse &a his life,

trodden the stage. We have no hint that Dekker, Chap
man, or ilarstou, though contemporary with Ben Jonsou.
were actors ; aud Massiuger, Beaumont, Fletcher, Middleton,
Daborne, and Shirley, who may be said to have follow^
them, as far as we now know, never had anything to do with
the perfonuauce of their own dramas, or of those of othe^
poets. In their day the two departments of author aiiG
actor seem to have been generally distinct, while the con
trary was certainly the case some years anterior to the de-
mise of Elizabeth.

It is impossible to determine, almost impossible to gveea,
he had chiefly employed his pen in the revival, alteration,
and improvement of existing dramas we are strongly dis-
posed to beheve. but that he had not ventured upon origi-
nal composition it would be much too bold to assert " The
Comedy of EiTors " we take to be one of the pieces, which,
having been tirst written by an inferior dramatist^ was
heightened aud ameuded by Shakespeare, perhaps about
the date of wbich we are now speaking, aud " Love's La-
bour's Lost," or " The Two Gentlemen of Yei'oua," may have
been origiuiU compositions brought upou the stage prior to
1590. We also consider it more thim probable that " Titus
Andronious " belongs even to an earlier period ; but we feel
satistieJ, that although Shakespeare had by this time given
clear indications of powers superior to those of any of his
rivals, he could not have written any of his greater works
until some years afterwards^. With regard to productions
unconnected with the stage, there are several pieces among
his scattered poems, and some of his sonnets', that indispu-
tably beUing to an earlier part of his life. A youug man,
so gifted, woidd not, and could not, wait uutil he was five
or six and twenty before he made cousiderable and most
succesful attempts at poetical composition; and we feel
morally certain that " Venus and Adonis " was in being

For in a deadly mortal strife,
Striving to stop the breath

"Of one who was his rival foe,
With his owne dagger slaine,
He groan'd and word spoke never moe,
Pierc't through the eye and braine.'

Which pretty exactly accords with the tradition of the mode in
which he came to his end, in a scuffle with a person of the name of
Archer : the register of his death at St. Nicholas, Depiford, ascertains
the name : — "1st June, lo9;3. Christopher Marlowe slain by Francia
Archer.' He was just dead when Peele wrote his " Honour of the
Garter/' in 1593, and there spoke of him as '"unhappy in his end,"
and as having been "the jMuses' darling for his verse."

* See pp. ix. and xiii., where it is shown that there was an old
drama, acted at Court in 1573 and 15S'2, called "The History of Er-
ror" in one case, and *'The History of Ferrar" in the other. See
also the Introduction to '"The Comedy of Errors."

6 Upon this point we cannot agree with Mr. F. G. Tomlins, who
has written a very sensible and clever work called "A brief view of
the English Drama," l'.imo, 1^-lU. where he argues that Shakespeare
probably began with original composition, and not with tlie adapta-
tion and alteration of works he found in possession of the stage when
he joined the Lord Chamberlain's players. We know that the earli-
est charge against him by a fellow drajuatist was, that he had availed
himself of the productions of others, and we have every rea.son to be-
lieve that some of the plays upon which he was tirst employed were
not by any means entirely his own : we allude among others to the
three parts of "Henry Vl." It seems to us much more likely that
Shakespeare in the first instance confined himself to aiteraiizLs anc
improvements of the plays of predecessors, than that heat once found
himself capable of inventing and constructing a great originai,
drama. However, it is but fair to quote the words of Mr. Tomlins.
''We are thus driven to the conclusion that his writing must ha^•
procured him this distinction. What had he written .' is the next
queotion that presents itself. Probably original plays, for the adap-
tation of the plays of others could scarcely be entrusted to the inex-
perienced hands of a young genius, who had not manifested his know-
ledge of stage matters by any productions of his own. This kind of
work would be jealously watched by the managers, and must eve;
have required great skill and experience. Shakesj-eare. mighty as he
was. was human, and it is scarcely possible that a genius, so, ripe,
so rich, so overflowing ,is his, should not have its enthusiasm kin-
dled into an original production, and not by the mechanical botchii.^
of the inferior productions of others," p. 31.

Upon this passage we have only to remark that according to oui
view, it would have required much more "skill and experience'' te
write a new play, than merely to make additions to the speeches oi
scenes of an old one.

" " His sugair'd sonnets " were nanded about '" among his privat*
friends '= many years beforn they were printed : Francia Meres men
tions them in the wotds we have qaotedf.in. loOd.

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

anterior to Shakespeare's quitting Stratford*. It bears all
the marks of youthful vii!;our, of stroug passion, of luxuriant
imagination, together with a force and originality of ex- '
pression which beU>ken the first efforts of a great mind, not
always well regulated in its taste : it seems to have been
written in the opeu air of a fine country like Warwickshire,
with all the fi-eshuess of the recent impression of natural
i»bjects; aud we will go so far as to say, tluit we do not
think even Shakespeare himself could have produced it, in
the form it bears, after he had reached the age of furty. It
was quite new in its class, being founded upon no model,
either ancient or modern : nuthing like it had been attempted
rjefore, and nothing comparable to it was pr«.iduced after-
wards^. Thus in 1593 he might c:dl it, in the dedication to
Lord Southampton, "the first heir of Lis invention " in a
double seuse, uot merely because it was the first printed,
but because it was the tirst written of his productions.

The information we now possess enables us at unce to
reject the story, against the truth of which Maloue elabo-
rately argued, that Shakespeare's earliest employment at a
theatre was holding the horses of noblemen and gentlemen
who visited it, and that he had imder him a number of lads
who were known as " Shakespeare's b<:»yB." Shiels in his
" Lives uf the Poets." (published in 1763 in the name of
Gibber) was the first to give cuiTency to this idle inven-
tion : it was repeated by Dr. Jolinson, and has often been
reiterated since ; and we should liardly have thought it
accounts of our great di-amatist^. The company to which
he attached himself had not unfrequently performed in
Stratford, and at that date the Queen's Flayers and the
Lord Chamberlain's servants seem sometimes to have been
confounded in the provinces, although the difference was
well understood in London ; some of the chief members
of it had come from his own part of the country, aud even
from the very town in which he was born ; and he was not
in a station of life, nor so destitute of means and friends, as
to have been reduced to such an extremity.

Besides having written " Venus and Adonis" before he
came to London, Shakespeare may also have composed its
counterpart, " Lucrece," which, as our readers are aware,
first appeared in print in 1594. It is in a different stanza,
and in some respects in a dilTerent style ; and after he joined
the Blackfriars company, the author may possibly have
added pai'ts, (such, fur instance, as the lung and minute de-
scription of the siege of Troy in the tapestry) which indi-
cate a closer acquaintance with the modes and habits of
society ; but even here no knowledge is displayed tliat
might not have been acquired in Wai-wickshire. As he had

1 Malone was of opinion that ■' Venus and Adonis" was not writ-
len until after Shakespeare came to London, because in one stanza
it contains an allusion to the stage,

With tears, which, chorus-like^ her eyes did drain."
Surely, such a passage might have been written by a person who had
never seen a I'lay in London, or even seen a play at all. The stage-
Knowledge it displays is merely that of a schoolboy.

2 The work that comes nearest to it, in some respects, is Marlowe's
" Hero and Leander ;" but it was not printed until 1598, and although
its author was killed in 1593, he may have seen Shakespeare's '' Ve-
nus and Adonis" in manuscript: it is quite as probable, as that
Shakespeare had seen '• Hero and Leander" before it was printed.
iMarscon's " Pygmalion's Image," published five years after ^^ Venus
** Myrrha the Mother of Adonis " is a poor and coarse imitation : the
■ame poet's '^Hiren, or the Fair Greek," is of a similar character.
Shirley's ''Narcissus," which must have been written many years
afterwards, is a production of the same class as Marston's " Pygma-
lion," but in better taste. The poem called " Satma-sis and Herma-
phroditus," first printed in 1602, and assigned to Francis Beaumont
tn I(>40, when it was republished by Blaicklock the bookseller, we do
not believe to have been the authorship of Beaumont, and it is rather
ft.n imitation of " Hero and Leander " than of " Venus and Adonis."
At the date when it originally came out (16U'2) Beaumont was only
sixteen, and the first edition has no name nor initials to the address
"To Calliope," to which Blaicklock in 164U, for his own book-selling
purposeB, thought fit to add the letters F- B. In the same way, and
with the same object, he changed the initials to a commendatory
poem from A. F to I. F., in order to make it appear as if John
Fletcher had applauded his friend's early verses. These are facts
that hitherto have escaped observation, perhaps, on account of the
extreme rarity of copien of the original impression of '' Salmasis and
cIeriaaphrodi*"i«." pievetting a comparison of it with Blaicldook's

exhibited the wantonness of lawless passion \v '* Venus and
Adonis." he followed it by the exaltation of matron- likt
chastity in " Lucrece ;" and there is, we think, nothing in the
latter poem which a young man of one oi- two and tw«*uty,
so endowed, might not have written. Neitlier is it at all
impossible that he had done something in connexion with
the stage wlule he was yet resident in his native town, and
before he had made up'liis mind to quit it If his •* -ucUna-
tion for poeti-y aud acting." to repeat Aubrey's words, were
so strong, it may have led him to have both wiitten and
acted. He may have contributed temporary prologues or
epilogues, and without supposing him yet to have possessed
any extraoi-dinary art as a dramatistr— <.)iily to be acqiured
by practice, — he may have insei-ted speeches aud occasional
passages in older plays: he may even have assisted Bora*
of the companies in getting up, and performing the dramas
they represented in or near Stratford\ We own tliat this
conjecture appears to us at least plausible, and the Ivord
Chjunberlaiu's servants (known as the Earl ot^Leicestera
players until 1587) may have experienced his utihty in
both departments, and may have held out stroug induce-
ments to so promising a novice to continue his assistance by
accompanying tliem to London.

What we have here said seems a natural aud easy wa;-
of accounting for Shakespeare's station as a sharer at th
Blackfriars theatre in 1589, about three years after we snp
pose him to have finally adopted the profession of an actor
aud to have come to London for the pm-pose of pursuing it

CHAPTER VIL

The earliest allusion to Shakespeare in Spenser's *' Tears of
the Muses," 1591. Proofs of its applicability — What
Shakespeare had probably by this date written — Edmund
Spenser of Kingsbury, Warwickshire. No other dramatist
OI the time merited the character given by Spenser. Greene.
Kyd, Lodge, Peele, Marlowe, and Lvly, and their sevend
claims: that of Lyly supported by Mulone. Temporary
cessation of dramatic peribrmances in London. Prevalence
of the Plague in 1592. Probability or improbability that
Shakespeare went to Italy.

We come now to the earliest known allusion to Shakespeare
as a dramatist ; and although his surname is not given, we
apprehend that there can be no hesitation in applying what
is Siiid to him: it is contained in Spenser's "Teare of the
Muses," a poem printed in 1591^ The application of tlie
passage to Shakespeare has been much contested, but the

fraudulent reprint, which aleo contains various pieces to which, it m
known, Beaumont had no pretensions. To aiford the better means of
comparison, and as we know of only one copy of the edition of IGU^.
we subjoin the title-page prefixed to it : Salmasis and HermaphroditDh.
Siilmacida spolia sive sanguine et sudore. Imprinted at London foi
John Hodgels, &c. 16()-2." 4to.

3 It is almost to be wondered that the getters up of this piece of
information did not support it by reference to Shakespeare's obvioj^
knowledge of horses ana horsemanship, displayed in so many p&J'J
of his works. The description of the horse in " Venus and Adonis'*
will at once occur to every body ; and how much it was admired at
the time is evident from the fact, that it was plagiarised so soon aftei
it was published, {See the Introduction.) For his judgment of
skill in riding, among other passages, see his account of Lamord't
horsemanship in "Hamlet." The propagators and supportera of
the horse-holding anecdote ought to have added, that Shakespeai
probably derived his minute and accurate acquaintance with tn
subject from his early observation of the skill of the English nrSi.ity
and gentry, after they had remountei at the play-liouse door: —
" But chiefly skill to ride sei. <is a science
Proper to gentle blood." — Spenser"B F. Q.. b. ii. c. 4.

♦ We have already stated that although in 15S5 only one on-
named company performed in Stratford, in the very next year
(that in which we have supposed Shakespeare to have become a regu-
lar actor) five companies were entertained in the borough '■ one of
these consisted of the players of the Earl ^f Leicester, i.) wnom me
Blackfriars theatre belonged ; and it is very possible that Sh'akespeara
at that date exhibited before his fellow-townsmen in his new pro-
fessional capacity. Before this time his performances at Stratford
may have been merelyof an amateur description. It is, at al! events,
a striking circumstance, that in 158G only one comj)any performed,
and that in 1587 such extraordinary encouragement was civeo ir
theatricals in Stratford.

* Malone (Shakipeare by Boswell, vol. ii. p. 168) says that Speu-

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

xh

Jifliculty in our mind is, how the lines are to be explained
by reference to any other dramatist of the time, even sup-
posing, as we have supposed and believe, that our great
fMiet was at this period only rising into notice as a writer for
the stage. We will first quote the lines, literatim as they
tlnod in the edition of 1591, and afterwards say something
of the claims of others to the distinction they confer.

To mock her selfe, and Truth to imitate,

With kindly counter under Mimick shade,
Our pleusant Willy, ah I is dead of late :

With whom all joy and jolly meriment

Ig also deaded, and in dolour drent.

" In stead thereof scoffing Scurrilitie,

And scurnfull Foilie with contempt is crept,
Kollinff in rymes of shameless ribaudrie,
Without regard or due Decorum kept:
Each idle wit at will presumes to make.
And doth the Learned's tuske upon him take.

•' But that same gentle Spirit, from whose pen

Large streames of lionnie and sweete Nectar flowe,

Scorning the boldnes of such base-borne men,
Which dare their follies forth so rashlie Ihrowe,

Doth rather clioose to sit in idle Cell,

Thau so himselte to mockerie to sell."

The moat striking of these lines, with reference to our
present inquuy, is,

" Our pleasant Willy, ah ! is dead of late ;"
and hence, if it stood alone, we might infer that Willy, who-
ever he might be, was actually dead ; but the hitter part
of the third stanza we have quoted shows us in what sense
the word " dead " is to be imderstood : Willy was " dead "
1591, to outstrip all living rivalry, and to atford the most
certain indieiiti-ms of tlie still greater things Spenser saw he
would accomplish ; he was " dead," because he

" Doth rather choose to sit in idle Cell,
Thau so himselfe to mockerie to sell."

It is to be borne in mind that these stanzas, and six
others, are put into the mouth of ThaUa, whose lamenta-
tiou on the degeneracy of the stage, especially in comedy,
follows those of Calliope and Melpomene. Rowe, under
the impression that the whole passage referred to Shake-
speare, introduced it into his " Life," in his first edition of
1709, but silently withdrew it m his second edition of 1714:
his reason, perhaps, was that he did not see how, before
1591, Shakespeare could have shown that he merited the
character given of him and his productions—

To mock her selfe, and Truth to imitate."

Spenser knew what the object of his eulogy was capable
of doing, as well, perhaps, as what he had done ; and we
have established that more than a year before the publica-
tion of these lines. Shakespeare had risen to be a distin-
guished member of the Lord Chamberlain's company, and
a sharer in the undertaking at the Blackfriars. Although

■er^s '* Tears of the Muses " was published in 1590, but the volume
in which it first appeared bears date in 1591. It was printed with
koiue other pieces under the title of " Complaints. Containing sun-
irie small Poems of the Worlds Vanitie. Where.jf the next Page
maketh mention. Bv Ed. Sp. London. Imprinted for Wiiliam
ronsonbie, ko, 1591." It will be evident from what follows in our
taut, that a year is of considerable importance to the question.

' Perhaps it was printed otF before his "Bartholemew Fair" was
act«d in l(il4 ; or perhaps, the comedy being a new one, Ben Jonson
did not think he had a right to publish it to the detriment of the
company (the servants of the Princess Elizabeth) by whom it had
be«n purchased, and produced.

* Such as '■ The Widow," written soon after 1613, in which he was
assisted by Fetcher and Middleton ; ■' The Case is Altered," printed
in 16U9, in which his coadjutors are not known; and "Eaj*tward
Ho I" published in IGO", in which he was joined by Chapman and
Marston : this last play exposed the authors to great danger of pun-
ishment.

' We are not to be understood as according in the ascription to
Stall «<peare of rsiious plays imputed to him in the folio of lUtj4, and

we feel assured that he had not composed any of his greats
est works before 1591, he may have done much, besiden
what has come down to us. amply to warrant Spenser in
applauding him beyond all his theatrical contemporaries.
His earUest printed plays, " Romeo and Juliet," " Richard
II," and '■ Richard III.," "bear date in 1597 ; but it is indis-
putable that he had at that tune written considerably more,
and part of what he had so wi'itten is contained in the foUo
of 1623, never having made its appearance in any earhei
form. When Ben Jonson published the large volume of
his "Works" in 1616', he excluded several comedies a.
which he had been aided by other poets^, and re-wjote pari
of " Sejanus," because, as is supposed, Shakespeare, (wh.
performed in it, and whom Jonson terms a " happy genius ■)
had assisted him m the composition of tl e tragedy as it
was originally acted. The player-editors of the foi.o of
Shakespeare's " Comethes, "Tragedies, imd Histo-ies," ii
1623, may have thought it right to pursue the same course
excepting in the case of the three parts of " Heniy VI. :
the poet, or poets, who had contributed to these historiij
years ; but with respect to other pieces, persons still living
whether authors or booksellers, might have jomt chiimt
upon them, and hence their exclusiim'. We onlj put thin
as a possible circtmistance ; but we are pei'suaded that
Shakespeare, early in his theatrical hfe, must have wnitten
much, in the way of revivals, alterations, or joint produc-
tions with other poets, which has been forever lost We
here, as before, conclude that none of his greatest original
dramatic productions had come from his pen ; but if in 1591
he had only brought out " The Two Gentlemen of Verona"
and " Love's Laboiu- 's Lost," they are so infiuitely superior
to the best works of his predecessors, that the justice of the
tribute paid b)' Spenser to his genius would at once be ad
mitted. At all events, if before 1591 he had not aecom
plished, b)' any means, all that he was capable of, he had
given the clearest indications of high genius, abundantly
sufficient to justify the anticipation of Spenser, that he was
a man

To mock her selfe, and Truth to imitate :"

a p.is6age which in itself admirably comprises, and eom-
pi-esses nearly all the excellences of which dramatic poetry
13 susceptible — the mockery of nature, and the imitation of
truth.

Another point not hitherto noticed, because not hitherto
known, is, that there is some little ground for thinking, that
Spenser, if not a Warwickshire mim, was at one time resi-
dent in Wai-wickshire, and later in life he may have become
acquainted with Shakespeare. His birth had been conjee-
turallv placed in ISSS*, and on the authority of some lines
in his' " Prothalamion " it has been supposed that he was
bom m London : East Smithfield, near the Tower, has also
been fixed upon as the part of the town wliere he first
drew breath ; but the parish registers in that neighbour-
hood have been searched in vain for a record of the event^
An ?!;dmund Spenser unquestionably dwelt at Kiugsbuiy,
in Warwickshire, m 1569, which was the year when the
author of " The Faerie Queene " went to Cambridge, and

elsewhere. We believe that he was concerned in '* The Yorkshil
Tragedy," and that he may have contributed some parts of " Arde
of Feversham ;" but in spite of the ingenious letter, published at
Edinburgh in 1633, we do not think that he aided Fletcher in writ-
ing " The Two Noble Kinsmen." and there is not a single passage
in "The Birth of .Merlin" which is worthy of his most careless mo-
ments. Of '* The first part of Sir .Tohn Oldcajitle " we have else-
where spoken ; and several other supposititious dramas in the folio
of 16(14, which certainly would have done little credit to Shaive-
speare. have also been ascertained to be the ^ srk of other dramatists.

* This date has always appeared to us '.30 late, recollecting that
Spenser wrote some blank-verse sonnets, prefixed to Vandernoodt"*
"Theatre for Worldlings," printed in 15119. Il he were born in
1.553. in 1569 he was only in his sixteenth year, and the sonnets ir.
which we refer do not read like the productions of a very young man

s Chalmers was a very diUigent inquirer into such matters, and hs
could discover no entry of the kind. See his "' Supplemental Apol-
ogy," p. 22. Subsequent investigations, instituted with reference
t<i this question, have led to the same result. Oldys if respocsibli
for the statement.

xlii

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

was admitted a eizer at Pembroke College. The fact that
Edmund Spenser (a rather unusual combination of names')
was an inhabitant of Kingsbury in 1569 is established by
the muster-book of Warwieksliire, preserved in the state-
paper office, to which we have before had occasion to refer,
but it does not give the ages of the parties. Tliis Edmund
Spenser may possibly have been the father of the poet,
^whose Christian name is no where recorded) and if it were
tlie one or the other, it seems to afford a liuk of eounexiou,
however slight, between Spenser and Shakespeare, of which
we have had no previous knowledge. Spenser was at least
eleven years older than Shakespeare, but tneu' early resi-
dence m the same part of the kingdom may have given
rise to an intimacy afterwards' : Spenser must have appre-
ciated and admired the genius of Shakespeare, and the au-
thor of " The Tears of the Muses," at the age of tliirty-
Beven, may have paid a merited tribute to his young fl iend
of twenty-six.

The Edmimd Spenser of Kingsbury may have been en-
tirely a different person, of a distinct family, and perhaps
we are disposed to lay too much stress upon a mere ooinci-
deuce of names ; but we may be forgiven for clinging to
the conjecture that he may have been the author of " The
Faerie Queene," and that the greatest romantic poet of this
country was upon terms of fiiendship and cordiahty with
the greatest dramatist of the world. This ou'cumstance,
with which we were unacquainted when we wrote the In-
troduction to " A Midsummer-Night's Dream," may appear
to give new point, and a more certam application, to the
well-remembered lines of that drama ( Act v. so. i.) in which
Shakespeare has been supposed to refer to the death of
Spenser^ and which may have been a subsequent insertion,
for the sake of repaying by one poet a debt of gratitude to
the other. i

Without taking into consideration what may have been
lost, if we are asked what we think it likely that Shake-
that he had altered and added to three parts of " Henry
VI.," that he had written, or aided in writing, " Titus Au-
dronicus," that be had revived and amended " The Comedy
of Errors," and that he had composed " The Two Gentle-
men of Verona," and " Love's Labour 's Lost." Thus, look-
ing only at Ids extant works, we see that the eulogy of
Spenser was well warranted by the plays Shakespeare, at

If theevidence upon this point were even more seamy,
we should be couvmced that by " our pleasimt Willy," Spen-
ser meant WiUiara Shakespeare, by the fact that s\ich a
character as he gives could belong to no other dramatist of
the time. Greene can have no pretensions to it, nor Lodge,
nor Kyd, nor Peele; Marlowe had never touched comedy;
but if these have no title to the praise that they had mocked
Dature and imitated truth, the claim put in by Malone for
Lyly is little short of absurd. Lyly was, beyond dispute,
the most artiiioial and affected writer of his day : liis
dramas have nothing hke nature or truth in them ; and if it
could be established that Spenser and Lyly were on the
most intimate footing, even the exairgerate admu-ation of
the fondest friendship could hardly have eairied Spenser to

- And b» flging to no other family at tfiat time, as far as our re-
iearchee Lave extended. It has been too hastily concluded that the
Spnnser whom TurberviUe addressed from Russia, in some epistles
printed at the end of his " Tragical T'jles,'" 1-5&7, was not the poet.
Taking Wood's representation, that these letters were written as
eariy as 15lJ*J, it is still very possible that the author of *' The Faerie
Queene" was the person to whom they were sent; he was a very
young man, it is true, but perhaps not quite so young as has been
imagined.

2 Kobody has been able even to speculate where Spenser was at
school ; — possibly at Kingsbury. Drayton was also a Warwickshire
man.

3 Differences of opinion, founded upon discordances of contempo-
raneous or nearly contemporaneous, representations, have prevailed
respecting the extreme poverty of Spenser at the time of i.is death.
There is no doubt that he had a pension of 50^ a year (at .east •2501.
of our present money) from the royal bounty, which probably he

■rereived to the last. At the same time we think there is m'Jch plau-
sit*lrty in the story that Lord Burghley stood in the way of some
•pecial pecuniary gift from Klizabelh. The Rev. H. J. Todd disbe-
lieves it, and in his " Life of Soenser " calls it '* a calumny,'' on the
founJition of the pension, without considering, perhaps, that the

the extreme to which he has gone in his " Teai-s of tht
Muses." If Malone had wished to point out a dramatist of
that day to whom the words of Spenser could by no possi-
biUty fitly apply, he could not have made a better choice
than when he fixed upon Lyly. However, he labours the
contrary position with great ])ertiuucity and considerable
ingenuity, and it is extraordinary how a man of mueh read-
ing, and of sound judgment upon many points of literal'}
discussion, could impose upon himself and be led so fai
from the ti'uth, by the desire to establish a novelty. At all
eveuts, he might have contented liimself with an endeavour
to prove the negative as regards Shakespeare, without goin^j
the strange length of attempting to make out the affirma-
tive as regards Lyly.

We do not for an instant admit the right of any of ?hafcfc-
speare's predecessors or contemporaries to the ti-ibute of
Spenser ; but Malone might have made out a case for any
of them with more plausibihty than for Lj'ly. Greene wae
a writer of fertile fancy, but choked and smothered by the
overlaying of scholastic learning : Kyd was a man of strong
natural pai'ts, and a composer of vigorous lines : Lodge was a
poet of genius, though not in the department of the di'ania :
Peele had an elegant mind, and was a smooth and agreea-
ble versifier ; while Marlowe was gifted with a soaring and
a daring spirit, though imchecked by a well-regulated taste :
but all had more nature in their dramas thau Lyly, who
generally chose classical or mythological subjects, ana dealt
with those subjects with a wearisome monotony of style,
with thoughts quaint, conceited, and violent, and with on
utter absence of force and distinctness in his characteriza
tion.

It is not necessaiy to enter farther into this part of the
question, because, we think, it is now established that Spen-
ser's lines might apply to Shakespeare as I'egards the date
of their publication, and indisputably applied with most
feheitous exactness to the works he has left behind him.

With regard to the lines which state, that Willy

*' Dotli rather choose to sit in idle Cell,
Than so hiinself'e to mockerie to sell,'*

we have already shown that in 1689 there must have been
some compulsory cessation of theatrical performances,
which affected not only offending, but unoffending compa-
nies : hence the cei'tificate, or more prtipei'ly I'eraonstrance,
of the sixteen sharers in the Blackfiiars The choir-boys
of St. Paul's were silenced for bringing " matters of state
and rehgion " on their stjige, when they introduced Martin
Mar-prelate iut-j one of their dramas : and the players of
the Lord Admiral imd Lord Strange were piohibited from
acting, as far as we can learn, on a similai" grouud. The in-
terdiction of performances by the children of Paul's was
pei'severed in fir about ten years ; and although the pubUc
companies (after the completion of some inquiries by com-
missioners specially appointed) were allowed again to fol-
low their vocation, thei'c can be no doubt that tliere was a
temporary suspension of all theatricid exhibitions in Lon-
don. This suspension commenced a short time before
Spenser wrote his " Tears of the Muses," in which he
notices the silence of Shakespeare.

epigram, attributed to Spenser, may have been occasioned by th«
obstruction by the Lord Treasurer of some additional proof of th«
(Queens .^dnli^ation for the author of ''The Faerie Queene." Fuller
first published the anecdote in his '• Worthies," IGIJ-J ; but sixty yea«
earlier, and within a very short time after the death of Spenser, thf
story was current, for we find the lines in Manninghain's Diary
(Harl. MS. 5353) under the date of May 4, 11)02; they ale thus intro-
duced :

'' When her Majesty had given order that Spenser should have a
reward for his poems, but Spenser could have nothing, he presente-1
her with these verses ;

To grant me reason for my rhyme ;

But frcm that time until this season.

1 heard of neither rhyme nor reason."

The wording differs slightly from Fuller's copy. We add the fnl
lowing epigram upon the death of Spenser, also on the authority of
Manninghara : —

" III Spctiscruni.

" Famous alive, and dead, here is the odds;

Then god of poets, now poet of the gods."

THE LIFE OF WILH^M SHAKESPEAEE.

x.iu

We have no means of ascertaining how long the order,
iuhibitiug theatrical performances generally, was persevered
in ; but the plague broke out in London in 1592, and in the
autumn of the year, when the number of deaths was great-
est, '■ tlie Queen's players'," in their progress round the
country, whither they wimdered when thus prevented from
acting in the metropolis, performed at Chesterton, neai'
Cambi'idge, to the great auuoyance of the heads of the uui-
. versity.

It was at this juncture, probably, if indeed he ever were
in that country, that Shakespeare visited Italy. Mr. C.
Amiitage Erown, in his very clever, and in many respects
original work, " Shakespeare's AutobiogiaphiciJ Poems,"
has maintained the affirmative with great contideuce, and has
'Drought int<-i one view all the internal evidence afforded by
the productions of our great dramatists External evidence
there is none, since not even a tradition of such a journey
has descended to us. We own that the internal evidence,
in our estimation, is by no means as strong as it appeared
to Mr. Brown, who has evinced great ingenuity and ability
in the conduct of his case, and has made as much as possi-
ble of his proofs. He dwells, among other things, upon the
fact, that there were no contemporaneous translations of the
tales on which " The Merchant of 'Venice " and " OtheUo "
ai'e founded ; but Shakespeare may have understood as
much Italian as answered his purpose without having gone
to Venice. For the same reason we lay no stress upon the
recently-discovered fact, (not known when Mr. Brown
wrote) that Shakespeare constructed his " Twelfth Night "
with the aid of one or two ItiJiau comedies ; they may
have found their way into Eughmd, and he may have read
them in the original language. That Shakespeare was ca-
pable of translating Itidiau sufficiently for his own pur-
poses, we are morally certain ; but we think that if he had
travelled U) Venice, Verona, or Florence, we should have
had more distinct and positive testimony of the fact in his
works than can be adduced from them.

Other authors of the time have left such evidence behind
them as cannot be disputed. Lyly tells us so distinctly in
more than one of liis pieces, and Rich informs us that he
became ac'|uaiuted with tlie novels he translated on the
other side of the Alps ; Daniel goes the length of letting
us linow where ceitain of his sonnets were composed ;
Lodge wrote some of his tracts abroad : Nash gives us the
places where he met particular persons; and his friend
Greene adinits his obligations to Italy and Spain, whither
he had travelled early in hfe in pursuit of letters. In truth,
At that period and afterwards, there seems to have been a
prevaiUng rage for foreign travel, and it extended itself to
mere actors, as well as t*.) jjoets ; for we know that Wilham
Kenipe was in Rome in lijol'^, during the interval between
the tune when, for some unexplained reason, he quitted the
eomp;my of the Lord Chamberlain's players, and joined
that of the Lord Admiral". Although we do not beUeve
that Shakespeare ever was in Italy, we admit that we are
without evideuce to crove a negative ; and he may have

» They consisted of the company under the leadership of Lawrence
Uuttcn, one of the two associations acting at this period under the
(tiueea's name. Both were unconnected with the Lord Chainber-
la:n':} servants.

2 See Mr. HalUwell's " Ludus Coventri®'' (printed for the Shake-
ncare Society), p 410. Rowley, m his " Search for Money,'* speaks
•1 this expedition by Ken'.pe. who, it seems, had wagered a certain
wjm of money that he would go to Kome and back in a given num-
ber of days. In the ijf.troductiou to the reprint of that rare tract by
the Percy Society, i is shown that Kempe also danced a morns in
France. These ci'iumstances were unknown to the Rev. A. iJyce,
when he 5upe*:utended a republication of Kempe's "Nine Days'
Wonder," ItiUd for the Camden Society.

^ It is a new fact that Kempe at anytime quitted the company
playing at the Biaokfriars and Globe theatres ; it is however india-
futable, and we have it on the authority of Heaslowe's Diary, where
payments are recorded to Kenipe, and where entries are also made for
the expenses of dresses supplied to him in 11102. These memoranda
Malone overlooked, when the M.S., belonging to Dulwich College,
was in his hands ; but they may be verv important with reference
to the dates of some of Shakespeare's plays, and the particular actors
sngaged in Ihem ; they also account for the non-appearance of
Kempe's name in the royal license granted in May, HiU3, to the com-
pany to whi-h he had belonged. Mr. Dyce attributes the omission
if Kempe's name in that instrument to his death, because, in the

gone there without having left behind him any distind

record of the fact At the date to which we are now ad-
verting he might certainly have had a convenient opportu
nity tor domg so, in consequence of the temporaiy prohibi-
tion of dramatic performances in Londoa

CHAPTER VUL

Death of Robert Greene in 1592, and publication of h
"Groatswonh of Wit," by H. Chettle. Greene's addres*
to Marlowe, Lodge, and Peele, and his envious mention of
Shakespeare. Shakespeare's offence at Chettle, and th«
apology of the latter in his " Kind-heart's Dream." The
character of Shakespeare there given. Second allnsion by
Speuser to Shakespeare in " Colin Clout's come home
again," 1594. The " gentle Shakespeare." Change in the
chanicter of his composition between 1591 and 1594 : his
"Richard II." and " Richard III."

DuEi.NQ the prevalence of the infectious malady of 1592,
although not m consequence of it, died one of the most no
torious and distinguished of the Uteraiy men of the time, —
Robert Greene. He expired on the Sd of September, 1592,
and left behind him a work purporting to have been writ-
ten during his last illness : it was published a few months
afterwards by Henry Chettle, a fellow dramatist, under the
title of " A Groatsworth of Wit, bought ■with a MiUion of
Repentance," bearing the date of 1592, and preceded by an
address from Greene " To those Gentlemen, his quondam
acquaintance, who spend their wits in making Plays." Here
we meet with the second notice of Shakespeare, not indeet'
by name, but with such a near approach to it, that nobody
can entertiun a moment's doubt that he was intended. It
is necessary to quote the whole passage, and to observe,
before we do so, that Greene is adclressiiig hunself particu-
larly to Marlowe, Lodge, and Peele, and m'gmg them to
break off all connexion with players' : — " Base minded men
all three of you, if by my misery ye be not warned ; for
imto none of you, like me, sought those burs to cleave ,
those puppets, I mean, that speak from our mouths, those
autieks garnished in our colours. Is it not strange that I,
to whom they all have been beholdmg ; is it not like that
you, to whom they have all been beholding, shall (were ye
in that case that I am now) be both of them at once for-
sakeu ( Yes, trust them not ; for there is an upstart crow
beautified with om' feathers, that with his Tiger's heart
v:rajjpd m a player's hicle, supposes he is as well able
to bombast our blank-verse, as the best of you : and, being
an absolute Johannes Fac-totmn, is, in his own conceit,
the only Shake-scene in a coimtry. O ! that 1 might en-
treat your rare wits to be employed in more profitable
courses, and let these apes imitate your past excellence,
tions."

The chief and obvious pm'pose of this address is to in-

register of St. Saviour's, Southwark, Chalmers found an entry, dated
Nov. d, 1603, of the burial of "William Kempe, ii titan.'' The:e
were doubtless many men of the common names of William Kempt ;
and the William Kempe, who had acted Dogberry, Peter, &c., was
certainly alive in 1005, and had by that date rejoined the Lord Cham-
berlain's servantes, then called " the King's players-"' The follow-
ing unnoticed memoranda relating to hira are extracted from Hene
lowe's Diary ;

"Lent unto Wm Kempe, the 10 of Marche. Il'i0'.3, in redy mony,
twentye shillinges for his necesary uses, the some of xx».

" Lent unto W" Kempe, the "id of Auguste, 11)02, to buye buck
ram to make a payer of gyentes hosse, the some of v".

■' Pd unto the tyerman for mackynge of W"» Kempe's sewt, and
the boye-s, the 4 Septembr 1002, some of viij*. St."

* We have some doubts of the authenticity of the " Groatswortii
of "Wit,"' as a work by Greene. Chettle was a needy dramatist, and
possibly wrote it in order to avail himself of the high popolarity of
Greene, then just dead. Falling into some discredit, in consequence
of the publication of it. Chettle re-asserted that it was by Greene,
but he admitted that the manuscript from which it was printed wa»
in his own hand-writing : this circumstance he explained by stating
that Greene's copy was so illegible that he was obliged to transcnb*
it ; "it was ill-written." says Chettle, "as Greene's hand was none
of the best ;*' and therefore he re-wrote it.

xliv

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

duce Marlowe, Lodge, and Peele to cease to write for the
"Stage ; aud, in the course of his exiiortation, Greene bitterly
inveighs agaiust " uu upstart crow," who had availed liim-
eelf of the dramatic labours of othei's, who imagined him-
self able to write as good blank-verse as any of his con-
temporaries, who was a Johannes Fac-totwn^ and who, in
his own opiniou, was " the only Shake-scene in a couutry."
All this is clearly levelled at Shakespeare, under the pur-
posely-perverted name of Shake-scene, and the words,
" Tiger's heart wrapp'd in a player's hide," are a parody
upon a line iu a historical play, (most likely by Greene)
' 0, tiger's heait wrapp'd in a woman's hide," from which
Shakespeare had takeu his " Henry VI." part iii.'

From hence it is evident that Shakespeare, near the end
of 1592, had established such a reputation, aud was so im-
pjrtant a lival of the dramatists, who, until he came for-
ward, had kept uudisputed possession of the stage, as to ex-
cite the envy aud enmity of Gi'eene, even during his last and
fatal illness. It also, wc think, establishes another point not
hitherto adverted to, viz. tliat our great poet possessed such
variety of talent, that, for the purposes of the company of
which be was a member, be could do anything that he
might be called upon to perform : he was the Johannes Fac-
totum of the association : he was an actor, and he was a
writer of origiu.al plays, an adapter and improver of those
already in existence, (some of them by Greene, Marlowe,
Lodge, or Peele) and no doubt he contributed prologues or
epilogues, and inserted scenes, speeches or passages on any
temporary emergency. Having his ready assistance, the
Lord Chamberlain's servants required few other contribu-
tious from rival dramatists" : Shakespeare was the Johan-
nes Fac-totum who could turn his hand to any thing con-
nected with his profession, aud who, iu all probability, had
thrown men like Greene, Lodge, and Peele, and even Mar-
lowe himself, into the shade. In our view, therefore, the
quotation we have made from the " Groataworth of Wit "
proves more than has been usually collected from it

It was natural and proper that Shakespeare should take
offence at this gross and public attack : that he did there is
DO doubt, for we are told so by Chettle himself, the avowed
editor of the " Groatsworth of Wit :" he does not indeed
mention Shakespeare, but he designates him so intelligibly
that there is no i-oom for dispute. Marlowe, also, and not
without reason, complained of the manner in which Greene
had spoken of him iu the same work, but to him Chettle

^ See this point more fully illustrated in the Introduction to
" Henry VI." part iii.

2 At this date Peele had relinquished his connection with the com-
pany occupying the Blackfriara theatre, to which as will be renieia-
Dered, he was attached in 15s9. How far the rising genius of t^hake-
speare, and his increased utility and importance, had contributed to
.^.e withdrawal of Peele. and to his junction with the rival associa-
tion acting under the name of the Lord Admiral, it is impossible to
determiite. We have previously adverted to this point.

3 There were not separate impressions of " Kind-heart's Dream '■
in 1592, but the only three copies known vary in some minute par-
ticulars : thus, with reference to these words, one impression at Ox-
ford reads, ''his/atiO(i5 grace in writing," and the other, correctly, as
we have given it. "Kind-heart's Dream" has been re-printed, by
the Percy Society, from the third copy in the King's Library at the
British Moseum.

* More than ten years afterwards. Chettle paid another tribute to
Shakespeare, under the nameol Melicert, in his "England's Mourn-
ing Garment:" the author is reproaching the leading poets of the
iay, Daniel, Warner, Chapman, Jonson, Drayton. Sackville, Dekker,
Ilc., for not writing in honour of Queen Elizabeth, who was just
iaao ha thus addresses Shakespeare : —

" Nor doth the silver-tongued Melicert

Drop from his honied Muse one sable tear,
To mourn her death that graced his desert,

And to his lays open'd her royal ear.
Shepherd, remember our Elizabeth,
And sing her Rape, done by that Tarquin death."

This passage is important, with reference to the Royal encourage-
ment given to Shakespeare, in consequence of the approbation of his
plays at Court : Elizabeth had " graced his desert," and " open'd her
royal ear " to " his lays." Chettle did not long survive the publica-
tion of " England's Alourning Garment " in 160.3 : he was dead in
IG07, as he is spoken of in Dekker's " Knight's Conjuring." of that
year, (there is tn impression also without date, and possibly a few
months earlier) as a very corpulent ghost in the Elysian Fields. He
had been originally a printer, then became a bookseller, and, finally,
A pamphleteer and dramatist. He was, in various degrees, concerned

made no apology, while to Shakespeare he offered all the
amends in his power.

His apology to Shakespeare is contained in a tract called
" Kind-heart's Dream," which was published without date,
but as Greene expired on 3d September, 1692, and Chettle
tells us in " Kina-he.art's Dream," that Greene di .J " about
three months " before, it is certain that " Kind-heart's
Di'eara " came out prior to the end of 1.592, as we now cal-
culate the year, and about three months before it expired,
according to the reckouing of that period. The whole pas-
sage relating to Marlowe and Shakespeare is highly inter-
esting, aud we therefore extract it entire.—

" About three months since died M. Eoberl Greene, leav-
ing many papers in sundry booksellers' bunds : among otlierg
bis Crroatsu'orth of Wii^ lE which a letter, written to divera
play-mukers, is otfensively by one or two of them taken ; and
because on the dead they cannot be avenged, they wilfully
forge in their conceils a living author, and after tossing it to
and fro, no remedy but it mustlitjhl on me. How I have, ail
the time of my conversing in printing, hindered the bitter in-
veighing against scholars, it hath been very well known : and
how in that I dealt, I can sufficiently prove. With neither
of them, that take otTence, was I acquainted ; and with one
of theni [Marlowe] I care not if I never be : the other, [Shake-
speare] whom lit that time 1 did n^t so much spare, as since I
wish I had, for tiiat as I have moderated thelieat of living
writers, and might have used my owu discretion (especially
ill suclx a case, tiie author being dead) that I did not I am aa
sorry as if the original fault had been my fault; because my-
self have seen his demeanour no less civil, than he excellent
iu the quality he professes : besides, divera of worship have
reported his uprightness of dealing, which argues his honesty,
and his facetious grace iu writing, that approves his art. For
the first, [Marlowe] whose learning 1 reverence, and at the
perusing of Greene's book struck out what then in conscience
1 lliought he in some displeasure writ, or liad it been true,
yet to publish it was intolerable, him 1 would wish to use me
no worse than I deserve."

The accusation of Greene against Marlowe had reference
to the freedom of his religious opinions, of which it is not
necessary here to say more : the attack upon Shakespeare
we have already inserted and observed upon. In Chettle's
apology to the latter, one of the most noticeable points is
the tribute he pays to our great dramatist's abihties as an
actoi', " his demeanour no less civil, than he excellent in
the quaUty he professes :" the word " quality " was applied,
at that date, peculiai-ly and technically to acting, imd the
" quabty " Shakespeare " professed " was that of an actor.
" His facetious grace iu writing^ " is separately adverted to,
and admitted, while " his uprightness of dealing " is attested,
not only by Chettle's own experience, but by the evidence of
" divers of worship." Thus the amends made to Shake-
speare for the envious assault of Greeue shows most deci-
sively the high opinion entertained of him, towards the
close of 1592, as an actor, an author, aud a man*.

We have already inserted Spensei-'s warm, but not lest
judicious and well-merited, eulogium of Shakespeare in
1591, when iu his "Tears of the Muses" he addresses him
as Willy, and designates him

" that same gentle spirit, from whose pen

Large streames of honuie and sweete neotar iiowe."

If we wi:re to trust printed dates, it would seem that io
the same year the author of " The Faeiie Queene " gav*
another proof of his admiration of our great di'amatist.
we allude to a passage in " Colin Clout's come home again,"
which was published with a dedication dated 27th Detem-
ber, 1591 ; but Malone proved, beyoud all cavil, that for
1591 we ought to read 159-i, the printer having made an ex-
traordinary blimder. In that poem (after the author has
spoken of many Uving and dead poets, some by their names,
as Alabaster and Daniel, and others by fictitious and fanci-
ful appeUatious') he inserts these lines : —

• Malone, with a good deal of research and patience, goes over all
the pseudo-names in " Colin Clouls come home again." applying
each to poets of the time ; but how -jncertain and unsatisfactory any
attempt of the kind must necessarily be may be illustrated in
single instance. Malono refers the frllr^wing lines to Arthur tioUin^:

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEAEE.

xlv

" And there, though Inst not least, is ^tion ;
A gentler shepherd may no where be found.
Whose Muse, full of high thought's invention,
Doth, like himself, heroieally sound."

Malone takes umecessary pains to establish that this paa-
»agu applies to Shakespeare, although he pertinaciously
denied that " our pleasant Willy " of " The Tears of the
Muses " was intended for him. We have no doubt on either
point ; and it is singular, that it should never have struck
Malone that the same epithet is given in both cases to the
person addressed, and that epithet one which, at a subse-
quent date, almost constantly accompanied the name of
Shakespeare. In " The Tears" of the Muses" he is called a
'gentle spirit," and in " Colin Clout's come home again " we
are told that,

" A gentltr shepherd may no where be found."
In the same feeling Ben Jonson "calls him " my gentle Shake-
( peare," in the noble copy of verses prefixed Xu the folio of
1623, so that ere long lie term became peculiarly applied
lo om- great and amiable dramatist'. This ccjincidence of
expression is another uireumstunce to establish that Spenser
eertamly had Shixkespeare in his mind when he wrote his
' TeaJ-a of the Muses " in 1591, and his " Colin Clout's come
home again " in 1591. In the latter instance the whole de-
scription is nearly as appropriate as in the earlier, with the
addition of a line, which has a clear and obvious reference
t" the patronymic of our poet : his Muse, says Spenser,

" Doth, like himself, heroically sound."
These words alone may be taken to show, that between
1591 and 1594 Shakespeare had somewhat cluiuged the
character of his compositions : Spenser having applauded
him, in his " Tears of the Muses," for unrivalled talents in
comedy, (a department of the drama to which Shakespeare
had, perhaps, at that date especially, though not exclusively,
devoted himself) in his "Colin Clout" spoke of the "high
thought's invention," wliich then filled Shakespeare's muse,
and made her sound as " heroically " as his name. Of his
genius, in a loftier straui of poetry than belonged to comedj',
our great dramatist, by the year 1694, must have given
some remarkable and undeniable proofs. In 1591 he had
perhaps written his " Love's Labour 's Lost " and " Two
Gentlemen of Verona;" but in 1594 he had, no doubt, pro-
duced one or more of his great historical plays, his " Rich-
ard II." and " Richard III.," botli of which, as before re-
marked, together with " Romeo and JuUet," came from the
press in 1597, though the last in a very mangled, imperfect,
and unauthentic itate. One circumstance may be mentioned,
as leading to the belief that "Richard III." was brought
out in 1594, viz. that in that year an impression of "The
True Tragedy of Richard the T'hird," (an older play than
that of Shakespeare) was published, that it might be
bought under the notion that it was the new drama by the
most popular poet of the >lay, then in a course of repie-
sentation. It is most probable that " Richard II." liad been
composed before " Richard III," and to either or both of
them the lines,

" Whose Muse, full of high thought's invention,
Doth, like himself, heroically sound,"

will abundantly apply. The difference in the character of
Spenser's bibutes to Shakespeare in 1591 and 1594 was oc-
aasioned by the difference in the character of his produc-

'* And there is old Palemon, free from spite,

Whose careful pipe may raalce the iieajere rue ;
Yet he himself may rued be more right.
Who sung so long, until quite hoarse he grew."
The passage, in truth, applies to Thomas Churchyard, as he himself
Inlorris us in his " Pleasant Discourse of Court and Wars," 1596 : he
Jomp'ams of neglect, and tells us that the Court is
"The platform where all poets thrive,

Save one irfiose voice is hoarse^ they say ;
The stage, where time away we drive,
As children in a pageant play."
In the same way we mi^ht show that Malone was mistaken as to
other poets he supposes alluded to by Spenser ; but it would lead us
too fer out of our way. No body has disputed, that by .^tion, the
author « f Colin CI it " meant Shakespeare,

CHAPTER IX.

The dramas written by Shakespeare up to 1594. New doon-
ments relating to his father, under the authority of Sii
Thom.os Lucy^ Sir Fulk GreviUe, ifec. Recusants iu Stral-
ford-upon-Avon. John Shakespeare eurployed to value
the goods of H. Field. Publication of " Venus and Ado-
nis "during the plngiie in 1593. Dedication of it, and of
" Lucrece," 1594, to the Earl of Southampton. Bounty of
the Earl to Shakespeare, and coincidence between the dale
of the gift and the building of the Globe theatre on the
Bankside. Probability of the story that Lord Soulhamf-
ton presented Shakespeare with 1000^.

Having arrived at the year 1594, we may take this oppor-
tunity of stating which of Shakespeare's extant works, in
our opinion, had by that date been produced. We have al-
ready mentioned Uie three parta of " Henry VL," " Titus
Andronicus, ' " The Comedy of Errors," " The Two Gentle-
men of Verona," and " Love's Labour 's Lost," as in being in
1591 ; and in the interval between 1691 aud 1594, we ap-
prehend, he had added to them " Richard II." aud " Richard
III." Of these, the four last were entirely tie work of
our great dramatist : in the others he more or less availed
himself of previous dramas, or possibly, of the assistance
of contemporaries.

advert to a very different subject.

A document has been recently discovered in the State
Paper Office, which is highly interesting with respect to
the religious tenets, or worldly circumstances, of Shake-
speaie's father in 1592^ Sir Thomas Lucy, Sir Fulk Gre-
viUe, Sir Henry Goodere, Sir John Harrington, and four
others, having been appointed commissionei-s to make in
quiries " touching all such persons " as were "Jesuits, semi-
nary priests, fugitives, or recusantes," in the county of Wai
wick, sent to the Privy Council what they call their " second
certiiieate," on the 26th Sept 1592^ It is divided into
different heads, according to the respective hundreds, pa
rishes, ifcc, and each page is signecf by them. One of
these divisions applies to Stratford-upon-Avon, and the re-
turn of names there is thus introduced : —

" The names of all sutch Eecusantes as have bene hearto-
fore presented for not comin^e niouethlie to the
churcli, according to her Majesties lawes, and yet are
thought to forbeare the church for debt, and for feare
of processe, or for some other wor^e faultes, or for age,
sicknes, or impotencie of bodie."

The names which are appended to this introduction are the
following : —

William Bainton,
Richard Harrington,
William Fluilon,
George Bardolphe* :"

"Mr. John Wheeler,
John Wheeler, his SDn,
Mr. John Shackapere,
Mr. Nicholas Barnesliurste,
Thomas James, alias Gyles,

and opposite to them, separated by a bracket, we read these
words : —

" It is sayd, that these last nine coome not to churohe for
feare of processe of debte."

Here we find the name of " Mr. John Shakespeare " either
as a recusant, or as " forbearing the Chunch," on account of
the fear of process for debt, or on account of " age, sickness,
or impotency of body," mentioned in the introduction to
the document The question is, to which cause we are to
attribute his absence ; and with regard to process for debt,

t In a passage we have already extracted from Ben Jonson'a *' Dis-
coveries," he mentions Shakespeare's " gentle expressions ;" but he
is there perhaps rather referring to his style of composition.

2 We nave to express our best thanks to Mr. Lemon for directing oul
attention to this manuscript, and for supplying us with an analysis
of its contents.

' The/rst certificate has not been found in the State Paper Office,
after the most diligent search.

* Hence we see that Shakespeare took two names in his " Henry
V." from persons who bore them in his native town. Awdrey ws*
also a female appellation known in Stratford, as appears elsewhere jo
the same document.

xlvi

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

«e are to reculleot that it could not be served oq Sunday, i
do that apprehensioQ of that kiud need not have kept him
away from church on the Sabbath. Neither was it likely
that his son, who was at this date profitably eraploved in
Londtiu as an actor and author, and who three years before
was a sharer in the Blackfriars theatre, would have allowed
his father to continue so distressed for nioue\% as not Uj be
able to attend the usual place of divine worship'. There-
fore, although John Shakespeare was certaiulv in great pe-
cuniary difficulties at the time his son William quitted
Stratford, we altogetlier reject the notion that that sou had
permitted his father to Uve in comparative want, while he
tumself possessed more than compett'uce.

" Age, sickness, and impoteucy of body," may indeed
nave kept John Shakespeare from church, but upon this
point we have no information beyond the fact, that if he
were born, as Malone supposes, in 1530, he was at this date
only sixty-two.

With i-ej^ai'd to his religious opinions, it is certain that
after he beciime alderman of Stratford, on 4th July 1566,
he must have taken the usual oath required from all pro-
testants ; but, according to the records of the borough, it
was not administered to him until the 12th September fol-
lowing his election. This trifling circumstance perhaps
hardly deserves notice, as it may have been usual t;i choose
the corporate officers at one court, and to swear them in at
the nejct So far John Shakespeare may have ctpnformed
to the requirements of the law, but it is still possible that
he may not have adopted all the new protestaut tenets, or
Jiat having adopted them, hke various other conscientious
abandoned. We have no evidence on this point as regards
hun ; but we have evidence, as regards a person of the
name of Thomas Greene, (who, although it seems very un-
Ukely, may have been the same man who was an act< n' in
the company to which Shakespeare behmged, and who was
a co-sharer in the Blackfriars Theatre, in 1589) who is de-
scribed in the certificate of the commissioners as then of a
had been " reconciled to the Romish religion." The memo-
randum is in these terms : —

" It is here to be remembred that one Thomas Greene, of
tliis parisshe, heretofore presented and indicted for a recu-
saute, liath confessed to Mr. Eobt. Burgojn, one of the com-
missioners for this service, that an ould i*reest reconciled liim
to the Komishe rehgion, while he was prisoner in Worcester
goale. This Greene is not everie day to be fouude."

On the same authority we learn that the wife of Thomas
Greene was " a most wilful recusant ;" and although we are
by no means warranted in forming even an opinion on the
question, whether Mary Shakespeare adhered to the ancient
f;uth, it is mdisputable, if we may rely upon the represen-
tation of the commissioners, that some of her family con-
tinued Roman Catholics. In the document under considera-
tion it is stated, that Mrs. Mary Arden and her servant
John Browne had been presented to the commissioners as

> By an account of rents received by Thomas Rogers, Chamber-
Iain of Stratford, in Ijy'.t, it appears tlial ''John Shakespeare '' occu-
pied a house in Bridge-street, at an annual rent of twelve shillings,
nine shillings of which had been paid. Perhaps (as Malone thought)
this was John Shakespeare, the shoemaker ; because the father of the
poet, having been bailiif and head-alderman, was usually styled Jlr.
John Shakespeare, as we have before remarked. However, it is a co-
incidence to be noted, that the name of John Shakespeare immediately
follows that of Henry Tylde or Field, whose goods Mr. John Siiake-
epeare wa^ subsequently employed to value : they were therefore in
•11 probability neighbours.

a '"Shakspeare and hia Times," vol. i. p. 9. Dr. Drake seems to
be of the opinion that John Shakespeare may have refrained from
attending the corporation halls previous to I5S(j, on account of hie
religious opinions.

3 It has the following title : —

" A true and perfect Inventory of the Goodes and Cattells, which
were the Goodes and Cattells of Henry Feelde. late of Stretford-uppon-
Avon in the County of Warwyke, tanner, now decessed, beynge in
Stretford aforewayd, the tilst daye of Auguste, Anno Domini 150"2. By
Thomas Trussoll, Lrentl iraan, Mr. John Shaksper, Richard Sponer and
ethers."

The items of the inventory oonsist of nothing but an enumeration of
old bedsteads, paiited cloths, andirons. &c. of no curiosity and of
little value. It is to be observed that Thomas Tnjssel was an attor-
ocy of Stratford, and it seems likelv that the valuation waa made in

recusants, and that they had been so prior to the date ol
the former return by the same official persons.

In considering the subject of the faith of our poet's father,
we ought to put entirely out of view the paper upon which
Dr. Drake lays some stress^; we mean the sort of religious
will, or confession of faith, supposed to have been found,
about the year 1770, concealed in the tilmg of the house
John Shakespeare is conjectured to have inhabited. It was
printed by Malone in 1790, bflt it obviously mci-its no at-
tention, and there are many reasons for believing it to tie
spurious. Malone once looked upon it as authentic, but h
corrected his judgment respecting it afterwards.

Upon the new matter we have here been able to pro
duce, we shall leave the reader to draw his own concl-sioOi
and to decide for himself whether John Shakespeare fci^
bore church in 1592, because he was in fear of arrest, be-
cause he was " aged, sick, and impotent of body," or be-
cause he did not accord in the doctrines of tbe protestant faitk

We ought not, however, to omit to add, that if John
Shakespijare were infirm in 1592. or if he were harassed
and threatened by creditors, neithei' the one circumstance
nor the other prevented him from being employed in Au-
gust 1592 (in what particular capacity, or for what precise
purp<j8e is not stated) to assist " Thomas Trussell, gentle-
man," and " Richard Sponer and others," in taking an inven-
tory of the goods and chattels of Henry Feelde of Strat-
ford, tanner, after his decease. A contemporary copy of
the original document has recently been placed in the hands
of tile Shakespeare Society for publication, but the fact,
and not the details, is all that seems of miportimce here'
In the heading of the paper our poets father is called " Mr.
John Shakespeare," and at the end we find his name as
" John Shakespeare senior :" this appears to be the only in-
stance in which the adthtion of " senior " was made, and the
object of it might be to distinguish him more effectually
fixim John Shakespeare, the shoemaker in Stratford, with
whom, of old perhaps, as in modern times, he was now and
then confounded. The fact itself may be material in de-
ciding whether John Shakespeare, at the age of sixty-two,
was, or was not so " aged, sick, or impotent of body " as to
be unable to attend protestant divine worship. It certainly
does not seem likely that he would have been selected for
the performance of such a duty, however trifling, if he had
been so apprehensive of arrest as not to be able to leave
his dwelling, or if he had been very infirm from sickness or
old age.

Whether he were, or were not a member of the protes-
tant reformed Church, it is not to be disputed that his child-
ren, all of whom wei'e born between 155» and 1580, were
baptized at the ordinary imd established place of worship
in the parish. Tliat his son William was educated, liveo.
and died a protestant we have no dtiubt*.

We have already stated our distinct and dehberate opin
ion that " Venus and Adonis " was written befoi-e its authoi
left his home in Warwickshire. He kept it by him for some
years, and early in 1593 seems to have put it into the hands

relation to Field's will. The whole sum at which the goods were
estimated was £14. 14.*. Ud., and the total, with the names of th^
persons making the appraisement, is thus stated at the end of the ac
count

" Some totall— £14. Us. Od.
John Shaksper senior
By me Richard Sponer
Per me Thomas Trussel
Script, present."
Of course, unless, as does not appear in this coeval copy, John
Shakespeare made his mark, the document must have been subscribed
by some person on his behalf.

* Nearly aH the passages in his works, of a religious or doctrinal
character, have been brought into one view by Sir Frederick B. Wat-
son. K. C. H., in a very elegant volume, printed in 1^43, for the
benefit of the theatrical funds of our two great theatres. The object
of the very zealous and amiable compiler was to counteract a notion,
formerly prevailing, that William Shakespp're was a Roman Catholic,
and he has done so very ellectually, although we do not find among
his extracts one which seems to us of great value upon this question :
it forms part of the prophecy of Cranmer, at the christening of Ctueen
Elizabeth in " Henry VIII.'' act v. sc. 4. It consists of but five ex-
pressive words, which we think clearly refer to the completior ^f tht
Rfformation underour maiden queen.

"In her days • • • •
OoU skali be trultt knnrnn "

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

xlvii

of a printer, named Richard Field, who, it hgs been said,
was of Stratford, and might be the son of the Henry Feelde,
or Field, -whose goods John Shakespeare was employed to
value in 1592. It is to be recollected that at the time
" Vemis and Adonis " was sent t<i the press, while it was print-
ing, and when it was published, the pkgue prevailed in
London to such an excess, that it was cleemed expedient by
the privy council to put a stop to all tlieatrical perform-
ances'. Shakespeare seems to have availed h im self of this
interval, in order to bring before the world a production of
a different character to those which had been ordinarily seen
from his pen. Until " Venus and Adonis " came out, the
public at large could only have known him by the dramas
he had written, or by those which, at an earlier date, he had
altered, amended, and revived. The poem came from
Field's press in the spring of 1593, preceded by a'dedica-
tion to tie Earl of Soutlihamptou. Its popularity was great
and instjmtaueousi, for a new edition of it was called fur in
1594, a third in 1596, a fourth iu I60U, and a tifth in 16U2- :
there may have been, and probably were, intervening mi-
pressious, which have disappeared among the popular and
destroyed Uterature of the time. We may conclude that
this ailmirable and unequalled production first introduced
its author to the notice of Lord Southampton ; and it is
evident from the opening of the dedication, that Shake-
speare had not taken the precaution of ascertaining, in the
first instance, the wishes of the young nobleman on the sub-
ject Lord Southampton was more than nine yeai-s younger
than Shakespeare, having been born on 6th Oct 1573.

We may be sure that the dedication of " Venus and
Adonis " was, on every account, acceptable, and Shakespeare
followed it up by inscribing to the same peer, but in a much
more assured and confident strain, his " Lucrece " in the
succeeding year. He then "dedicated his love " to his ju-
venile patron, having " a wai'raut of his honourable dispo-
sition " towards his " pamphlet " and huuself. " Lucrece "
was not calculated, from its subject and the treatment of it,
to be so popular as "Venus and Adonis," and the first
edition having appeared from Field's press in 169-t, a re-
print of it does not seem to have been called for until after
the lapse of four years, and Uie tlurd edition bears the date
of 16u0.

Southimiptou bestowed'a most extraordinary proof of his
high-minded munificence upon the author tif " Venus and
Adonis" and " Lucrece." It was not unusual, at that time
and afterwards, for noblemen, and others to whom works
were dedicated, to make presents of money to the writers
of them ; but there is certainly uo instance upon record of
such generous boimty, on an occasion of the kind, as that
of which we are now to speak^ : nevertheless, we have
every rehance upon the authenticity of the anecdote, taking
jito uceouiit the unexampled merit of the poet, the known
li'oerality of the nobleman, and the evidence upon which
the story has been handed dowiu Rowe was the original
oaiTator of it in print, and he doubtless had it, with other
information, fi-om Betterton, who probably received it di-
rectly from Sir WiUiam Davenant, and communicated it to
Rowe. If it carmot be asserted that Davenant was strictly
contemporary with Shakespeare, he was contemporary with
Shakespeare's contemporaries, and from them he must have
tt'tained the original information. Rowe gives the state-
lOent in these words : —

" There is cue instance so singular in the munificence of

1 By the lollo\nng order, derived from the registers : —

" That for avoyding of great concourse of people, which causeth
increase of the infection, it were convenient that all Playes. Bear-
baytings, Cockpitts, common Bowling-alleyes, and such like unne-
:essarieaiseriiblies, should be suppressed during the time of infection,
for that Infected people, after their long keeping in. and before they
be cleared of their disease and infection, being desirous of recreation,
use t( resort to such assemblies, where, through heate and thronge,
ihey .nfect many sound personnes."

In ■ronsequence of the virulence and extent of the disorder, Mich-
aelmas lerm, 1593, was kept at St. Alban's. It was abjut this period
thai Xaeh's "Summer's Last Will and Testament'' was acted as a
private entertainment at Croydon.

' Malone knew nothing of any copy of 1594. The impression of
trfO'* was printed for W. Leake ; only a single copy of the edition has

this patron of Shakespeare's that if I had not been assured
that the story wns handed down by Sir William Davenant,
who was probably very well acquainted witli his [Sliake-
spcare's] an'airs, I should not have ventured to liave inserted ;
tliat my liOrd Southampton at one time gave him a thousand
pounds to enable him to go througli witli a purchase which
he heard he had a miud to."

No biographer of Shakespeare seems to have adverted
to the period when it was hkely that the gift was made, in
combination -with the nature of the purchase Lord South-
ampton had heard our great dramatist wished to com-
plete, or, it seems to us, they woulcl not have though*
the tradition by any means so improbable as some hav
held it.

The disposition to make a worthy return for the dedica
tioDS of " Venus and Adouis " and " Luci-ece '' would of
coui'se be produced in the mind of Lord Southampton by the
publication of those poems ; and we arc to recollect that it
was precisely at the same date that the Lord Chamberlain's
servants entered upon the project of building the Globe
Theatre on the Bankside, not very far to the west of the
Southwark foot of London Bridge. " Venus and Adonis "
■n';is pubhshed in 1593 ; and it was on the 22nd Dee. in that
year that Richard Burb.ige. the gi'eat actor, and the leader *
of the company to which Shakespeare was attached, signed
a bond to a carpenter of the name of Peter Street for the
construction of the Globe. It is not too much to allow at
least a year for its completion ; and it was during 1694,
while the work on the Bankside was in progress, that " Lu-
crece " came from the press. Thus we see th.it the build-
ing of the Globe, at the cost of the sharers in tlie Black-
friars theatre, was coincident in pomt of time with the ap-
pearance of the two poems dedicated to the Earl of South-
ampton. Is it, then, too much to believe that the young
and bountiful nobleman, having heard of this enterprise
from the peculiar interest he is kuowu to have taken m all
matters relating to the stage, imd havmg been incited by
iu the fore-front of which he rejoiced to see his own name,
presented Shakespeare with 1000/., to enable him to make
good the money he was to produce, as his proportion, for
the completion of the Globe!

We do not mean to say that our great dramatist stood in
need of the money, or that he could not have deposited it
as well as the other sharers in the Blackfriars' ; but Lord
Southampton may not have thought it uecessarv to inquire,
whether he did or did not want it, nor to consider precisely
what it had been customary to give ordinai-y versifiers, who
sought the pay and patronage of the nobility. Although
Shakespeare had not yet reached the climax of his excel-
lence, Lord Southampton knew him to be the greatest
dramatist this coimtry had yet produced ; he Icnew him also
to be the writer of two poems, dedicated to himself, with
which nothing else of the kind could bear comparison ; and
in the exercise of his bounty he measured the poet by hia
deserts, and " used him after his own honour and dignity."
bv bestowing upon him a sum wortliy of his title and char-
acter, and which his wealth probably enabled him -without
ditficultv to art'oi'd. We do not beheve that tliere has bem
any exaggeration in the amoimt, (although that is more pos-
siljle, than that the whole statement shovdd have been a fic-
tion) and Lord Soutliampton may thus hsive intended also
to indicate his hearty good will to the new undertaking c<
the company, and his determination to support it'.

come down to our day : it had been entered by him as early 84
l.Wli.

3 The author of the present Life of Shakespeare is bound to make
one exception, which has come particularly within his own knowl-
edge, but of which he does not teel at liberty to say more.

^ Neither are we to imagine that Snakespeare -would have to con-
tribute the whole sum of lUUU/. as his contribut.on to the cost of the
Globe ; probably much less ; but this was a consideration which, we
may feel assured, never entered the mind of a man like Lord South-
ampton.

s Alter the Globe bad been burned down in June. 1613, it was re-
built very much by the contributions of the king and the nobility
Lord Southampton may have intended the KKIU/ . in pan. as a con-
tribution to this enterprise, through the hands of an individual v'aom
he had good leeson to distinguish from the rest of the company.

xlviii

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

CHAPTER X.

The opccing of tlifi Globe theatre, on the Bankside, in 1595.
Onion of Shakeapeiire's iissociates with the Lord Admiral's
players. The theatre at Kewington Butts. Projected repair
and enlargement of the Blacklriars theatre: opposition by
the inliabitant.s of the preoiact. Shakespeare's rank in tlie
company in 1596. Petition from him and seven others to
the Privy Council, and its results. Repair of the Blackfriara
theatre. Sliakespeare a resident in Southwark in 1596:
proof tiiat lie was so from the papers at Dulwich College.

We have concluded, as we tliink that we may do very fairly,
hat the eonsti-uction of the new theatre on the Bankside,
ubsequently known as the Globe, having been commenced
soon after the signature of the bond of Burbage to Street,
on 22d Dec. 159:3, was continued through the year lo9-l :
we apprehend that it would be finished and ready for the
reception of audiences early m the spring of 1695. It was
a round wooden building, open to the sky, while the stage
was protected from the weather by an overhanging roof of
thatch. The number of jjei sons it would contain we have
Qo means of ascertaining, but it was certainly of larger di-
• mensions than the Rose, the Hope or the Swan, three other
edifices of the same kind and used for the same purpose, in
the immediate vicinity. The Blackfriars was a private
theatre, .is it was called, entirely covered in. and of smaller
size ; .and from thence the company, after the Globe had
been completed, was in the habit of removing in the spring,
perhaps ;is soon as there was any indication of the setting
m of tine elieci I'ul weather'.

Before the building of the Globe, for the exclusive use
of the theatrie.-tl servants of the Lord Chamberlain, there
can be little doiilit that they did not act all the year round
at the Blaekfi iais : they appear to have performed some-
times at the Curtain in Shurediteh, and Richard Burbage,
at the time of his death, still had shares in that playhouse'^
Wliether they occupied it in common with any other associa-
tion is not so clear ; but we learn from Henslowe's Diary, that
in 1594, and perhaps at an earlier date, the company of
which Shakespeare was a member had played at a theatre
in Newington Butts, where the Lord Admiral's servimts
also exhibited. At this period of our stage-history the per-
formances usually began at three o'clock in the afternoon ;
for the citizens transacted their business and dined early,
and many of them afterwards walked out into the fields
for recreation, often visiting such theatres as were open
purposely for their reception. Henslowe's Diai'y shows that
the Lord Chamberlain's and the Lord Admiral's servants
had joint possession of the Newington tlieatre from 3d June
1594, to the 15th November, 1696 ; and during that period
various pieces were performed, wliieh in theii' titles resemble
plays which unquestionably came from .Shakespeare's pen.
That none of these were productions by our great dramatist,
it is, of course, impi issible to aflirm ; but the strong proba-
bility seems to be, that they were older dramas, of which
be subsequently, more or less, availed himself Among
these was a "Hamlet," acted on 11th of June, 1594: a
"Taming of a Shrew," acted on 11th June, 1594; an " An-
dronicus," acted on 12th June, 1594 ; a " V^enetian Comedy,"
acted on 12th Aug. 1594 ; a "Caesar and Pompey," acted
Sth Nov. 1594: a "Second Part of Cajsar," acted 26th*
June, 1696 ; a " Henry V_" acted on 28th Nov. 1696 ; and
»" 'Troy," acted on the 22d June, 1596. To these we might
add a " Palamon and Aroite," (acted on 17th Sept. 1694) if
we suppose Shakespeare to have had any hand in writing

" The Two Noble Kinsmen ;" and an " Antony and Valleo,"
(acted on the 20th June, 1595) as it is called in the barbaroiin
record, which may possibly have had some connexion with
" Antony and Cleopatra." W e have no reason to think that
Shakespeare did not aid in these representations, although
he was perhaps, too much engaged with the duties of au-
thorship, at this date, to take a very busy or promineni
part as an actor.

The fact that the Lord Chamberlain's players acted at
Newington until November, 1596, may appear to militate
against our notion that the Globe was finished and ready
for performances in the spring of 1595 ; and it is very pos-
sible that the construction occupied more time thiui we have
iinagmed. Malone was of opinion that the Globe might have
been opened even in 1594^; but we postpone that event
until the following year, because we thiuk the time too
short, and because, unless it were entirely eiraipleted early
in 1594, it would not be required, inasmuch as the company
for which it was built seem to have acted at the Blackfriaif
in the winter. Our notion is, that, even after the Globe
was finished, the Lord Chamberlain's servants now and then

Eerformed at Newington in the summer, because audiences,
aving been accustomed to expect them there, assembled
for the purpose, and the pl.ayers did not think it prudent to
reUnquish the emolument thus to be obtained. The per-
formances at Newington, we presume, did not however in-
terfere with the representations at the Globe. If any mem-
bers of the company had continued U> play at Newington
after November 1596, we should, no doubt, have found some
trace of it in Henslowe's Diary.

Another reason for thinking that the Globe was opened
in the spring of 1695 is, that very soon afterwards the
sharers in that enterprise commenced the repair and en-
largement of their theatre in the Blackfriars, which had
been in constant use for twenty years. Of this proceeding
we shall have occasion to say more presently.

We may feel assured that the important incident of the
opening of a new theatre on the Bankside, larger than any
tljat then stood in that or in other parts of the town, was
celebrated by the production of a new play. Considering
his station and duties in the companv, and his popularity aa
a dramatist, we may be confident also that the new play
was written by Shakespeare. In the imperfect state of our
information, it would be vain to speculate which of his
dramas was brought out on the occasion ; but if the reader
will refer t<:> our several Introductions, he will see which of
the plays according to such evidence as we are acquainted
with, m.ay appear in his view to have the best claim to the
distinction. Many years ago we were strongly inclined to
think that " Henry V." was the piece : the Globe was roimd,
and the " wooden " is most pointedly mentioned in that
drama ; so that at all events we are satisfied that it was
acted in that theatre : there is also a nationality about the
subject, and a popularity in the treatment of it, which
would render it peculiarly appropriate ; but on farther re-
flection and information, we are unwillingly convinced that
" Henry V." was not written until some years afterwards.
We frankly own, therefore, that we are not in a condition
t*> offer an opinion upon the question, and we are disposed,
where we can, to refrain even from conjecture, when we have
no ground on which to rest a speculation.

Allowing about fifteen months for the erection and com-
pletion of the Globe, we may believe that it was in full
operation in the spring, summer, and autumn of 1596. Ou
the approach of cold weather, the company would of cour'se

* We know that thpy did so afterwards, and there is every reason to
believe that such was their practice from the beginninjr. Dr. For-
man records, in his Diary in the Ashmolean Museum, that he saw
"Macbeth " at the Globe, on the aOth April, lUlO; "Richard II." on
the 30th April. lliU, and "The Winter's Tale " on the 15th May, in
the same year. See the Introductions to those several plays.

' The same was preciselv the case with Pope, the celebrated come-
dian, who died in Feb. I(i04. His will, dated Hi July, l(io:3, con-
iains the following clause : " Item, I give and bequeath to the said
Mary Clark, alias Wood, and to the said Thomas Bromley, as well all
my part, right, title, and interest, which I have, or ought to have,
m and to all that playhouse, with the appurtenances, called the Cur-

tain, situate and being in Holywell, in the parish of St. Leonard's

in Shoreditch, in the county of Middlesex ; as also my part, estate, and
interest, which I have, or ought to have, in and to all that playhouse,
with the appurtenances, called the Globe, in the parish of St. Sa-
viour's, in the county of Surrey." — Chalmers' Supplemental Apolcgy
p. 1155.

Richard Burbage lived and died (in 1619) in Holywell-street, neal
the Curtain theatre, as if his presence were necessary for the superin-
tendence of the concern, although he had been an actor at the Blacn.
friars for many years, and at the Globe ever since its erection

* Inquiry ir'o the Authfnticity, ,Scc. p. S7

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

xlix

was enclosed, lighted from within, and comparatively warm,
rhifl theatre, as we have stated, at this date had been in
noDstant u?e for twenty years, and early in 1 5a6 the sharers
directed their attention to the extensive repair, enlargement,
and, possibly, entire re construction of the building. The
evidence that they entertained such a design is very deci-
iiive; and we may perhaps infer, tliat the prosperity of
their new experiment at the Globe encouraged them to
thia outlay. On the 9th Jan. 1596 (1695, according to the
then mode of Cidculating the year) Ivord Huusdon, who was
Lord ChaiuberUiiu at the time, but who died about six
looaths afterwards, wrote to Sii' William More, expressing
& wish to take a house of him in the Blackfriars, and addiug
> portion of his own rejiidence " to some th;it mean to make
a playhouse of it'."

The truth, no doubt, was, tluit in consequence of their in-
creased popularity, owing, we may readily imagine, in a
great degree to the success of the plays Shakespeare had
produced, tlie company which had occupied the Blackfriars
theatre found that tlieir house was too small for their andi-
enoes, and wished to enlarge it ; but it appeai-s rather sin-
gular that Lord Huusdon, the Lord Chimiberlain, should
not be at all aware of the intention of the players acting un-
der the sanction of his name and office, and should only have
heard that some persons '' mesmt to make a playhouse " of
part of Sir WiUiam More's residence. We have not a copy
of the whole of Lord Huusdon's letter — only an abstract
of it — which reads as if the I^ord Chamberhiin did not even
know that there was any theatre at all in the Blackfriars.
Two documents in the State Paper Office, and a third pre-
served at Duhvich College, enable us to state distinctly
what was the object of the actors at the Blackfriars in 1696.
The lii'st of these is a representation from certain inhabitants
of the precinct in which the playhouse w;t3 situated, not
only against the completion of the work of repair and en-
Uu'gement, then comjueuced, but against all farther per-
formances in the theatre.

Of this paper it is not necessary for our purpose to say
more ; but the answer to it, on the part of the assoMiation
of actors, is a very valuable relic, inasmuch as it gives the
names of eight playei-s who were the proprietoi-s of the
theatre or its appurtenances, that of Shakespeare being
fifth in the list it will not have been forgotten, that in
1589 no fewer than sixteen shjirers were enumerated, and [
that then Shakespeare's name was the twelfth ; but it did
not by any means follow, that because thei'c were sixteen
sharers in the receipts, they were also proprietors of the
building, properties, or wardrobe : in 1696 it is stated that
Thomas Pope, (from whose will we have already given an
extract) Richard Burbiige, John Hemiugs, (properly spelt
Heminge) Augustiuc Piiillips, William Shakespeare, Wil-
liam Kempe, (who withdrew from the company in 1601)
William Slye, and Nicholas Tooley, were " owners" of the
theatre as well as sharers iu the profits arising out of the
performances. The fact, however, seems to be that the sole
owner of the ediUce in which plays were represented, the

* See "The Loselev Manuscripts."' by A. J. Kempe, Esq., 8vo.
1835, p. 49ii; a very curious and iDleresting collection of original
jcnments.

' " To the right honourable the Lords of her Majesties most hon-
urable Pnvie Counceil.

■• The humble petition of Thomas Pope, Richard Burbage. John
Hemings, Augustine Phillips, William Shakespeare, William Kempe,
William Slye^ Nicholas Tooley, and others, ^ervaiints to the Right
Honorable the Lord Charaberlaine to her .\Iajestie.

" Sheweth most humbly, that your Petitioners are owners and
stayers of the private house, or theatre, in the precinct and libertie of
the filackfriers, which hath beene for many yearee used and occu-
pied for the playing of tragedies, coramedies, histories, enterludes,
and playes. That the same, by reason of its having beene so long
built, hath fallen into great decay, and that besides the reparation
thereof, it halh beene found necessarie to make the same more con-
Tenient for the entertainment of auditones coming thereto. That
<o this end your Petitioners have all ami eche of ttiem put down
■omracs of money, according to their shares in the said theatre, and
tFhich they have justly and honestly gained by the exercise of their
qualitie of stage-players ; but that certaine persons (some of them of
honour) inhabitants of the said precinct and libertie of the Black-
abU Lordshipps not to perraitt the said private house any longer to

proprietor of the freehold, was Richard Burbage, who iu
hented it from his father, and transmitted it to his sons ; but
as a body, the parties addressing the privy coimcil (for the
" petition " appears to have been sent thither) might in a
certain sense call themselves owners of, as well as shard's
iu, the Blackfriara theatre. We insert the document iu a
note, observing merely, that like many others of a similar
kind, it is without signatures'.

The date of the year when this petition of the actors was
presented to the privy council is ascertained from that of
the remonstrance of the inhabitants which had rendered it
necessary, viz. 1596 ; but by another paper, among the the-
atrical reUcs of Alleyn and Henslowe at Dulwich College,
we are enabled to show that both the remonstrance and Uit
petition were anterior to May in that year. Ueuslow«
(step-father to Alleyn's wife, and AUeyu's pai'tuei') seems
always, very prudently, to have kept up a good uuderstand-
ing with the officers of the department of the revels ; and
on 3rd May, 1596, a person of the uame of V'eale, servant
to Edmond Tyluey, master of the revels, wrote to Hens-
lowe, informing him (as of course he must take an interest
iu the result) that it had been decided by the privy council,
tliat the Lord Chamberlain's servants should be allowed
to complete their repairs, but not to enlarge their house in the
Blackfriars ; the note of V^eale Vj Henslowe is on a small
shp of paper, very clearly written ; and as it is shoit, we here
insert It : —

" Mr. Hinslowe. This is to enfourme you that my Mr., the
Maister of the revellcn, hath reo. from the LI. of the counsel!
order that the L. Chainberlen's servauntes shall not be dis
tourbed at the Blackefryars, according with their petition in
that betialfe, but leave shall be given unto theym to make
good tiie decuye of the saiie House, butt not to make the
same larger tlieti in former tyme luith bene. From thoffi-'e
of Che Kevellcs. this 8 of msiie, 1596. '* Rich. VKAUi."

Thus the whole transaction is made clear : the company,
soon after the opening of the Globe, contemplated t)ie repair
and enhtrgemeut of the Biackfriai-s theatre : the inhabitants
of the precincts objected not only to the repair and enlarge-
ment, but to any ch-amatic representations in tliat part of
the town : tlie company petitioned to be allowed to catrj
out their design, as regarded the resUiration of the editice,
and the increase of its size ; but the privy council consented
only that the building should be repaired. We are to con
elude, thei'efore, that after the repaii'S were tiuished, the
theatre would hold no more spectators than formerly ; but
that the dilapidations of time were substantially remedied,
we are sure from the fact, that 'Jie house continued long
afterwards to be employed for the purpose for which it had
been originally eonstructed^

What is of most unportance in this proceeding, with re-
ference to Shakespeare, is the circumstance upon which we
have already remarked; that whereas liis uame, ia 1689,
stood twelfth in a list of sixteen sharei-s, iu 1596 it was ad-
vanced to the hfth place iu an enumeration of eight persons,
who termed themselves " owners and players of the private
house, or theatre, in the precinct and Uberty of the Black-

remaine open, but hereafter to be shut up and closed, to the manifeet
and great injuria of your petitioners, who have no other mean«
whereby to maintain their wives and families, but by tne exerc.a,
of their qualitie as they have heretofore done. Furthermore, tha: lo
the sumi

miner season your Petitioners are able to playe at their neis
built house on the Bankside calde the Globe, but that in the winlei
they are compelled to come to the Blackfriers ; and it your honorab'*
Lordshipps give consent unto that which is prayde against your Pe-
titioners, thay will not onely, while the winter endures, loose tha
meanes whereby Ihey now support them selves and their familic,
but be unable to practise themselves m anie playes or enterludea,
when calde upon to performe for the recreation and solace of her
.Ma"^* and her honorable Court, as they have beene heretofore acc'is*
toined. The humble prayer of your Petitioners therefore is, that
your honorable Lordshipps grant permission to finish the reparations
and alterations they have begun ; and as your Petitioners have hith-
erto been well ordered in their behaviour, and just in their dealings,
that your honorable Lordshipps will not inhibit them from acting at
their above namde private house in the precinct and libertie 'if th«
Blackfriers. and your Petitioners, as in dutie most bounden, will
ever pray for the increasing honor and happinesse of Tour honorable
Lordshipps."'

3 The ultimate fate of this playhouse, and of otriers existing at th»
same time, will be found stated in a subse-^uent part of oar memAii

1

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEAEiC.

friare." It is not difficult to suppose that the speculation
at the Globe bad been remarkably successful in its fii'st
season, and that the Lord Chamberlain's servants had there-
by been induced to expend money upon the lilackfriars, in
order Uj render it more commodious, as well us more capa-
cious, under Uie calculation, that the receipts at the one
house dnring Uie winter would be greater in consequence of
their popularity at the other duiing the summer.

Where Shakespeare had resided from the time when he
first came to London, until the period of which we are now
speaking, we have no information ; but in July, 1596, he
was living in Sonthwark, perhaps to be close to the scene of
action, and more effectually to superintend the performances
at the Globe, which were continued through at least seven
mouths of the year. We know not whether he removed
there shortly before the opening of the Globe, o'' whether
from the tirat it had been his usual place of abode ; but
Maloue tells us, " From a paper now before me, which for-
merly belonged to Edward Alleyu, the player, our poet ap-
pears to have lived in Southwark, near the Bear-gai'deu, m
169(i'." He gives us no farther insight into the contents of
live paper ; but he probably referred to a small slip, bor-
lowed, with other rehcs of a Uke kind, from Dulwich Col-
lege, many of which were returned after his death. Among
those returned seems to have been the paper in question,
which is valuable only because it proves distinctly, that
our great di'aniatist was an inhabitant of Southwark very
soon after the Globe was in operation, although it by no
means estabUshea that he had not been resident there long
before. We subjoin it exactly as it stands in the original :
the hand-writing is ignorant, the spelling peculiar, and it
was evidently merely a hasty and imperfect memorandum.—

" luhabitimtes of Sowtherk as have complaned, this, — of
Jully, 1596.

Mr Markis

Mr Tuppin

Mr Langorth

Wilsone the pyper

Mr Barett

Mr Sliaksper

Fhellipos

Tonisou

Mother Golden the baude

Na£j>.res

Fillpott and no more, and soe well ended."

This is the whole of the fragment, for such it appears to
be, and wthout farther explanatiim, which we have not
been able to find in any other diwument, in the depository
where the above is preserved or elsewhere, it is impossible
to understand more, than that Shakespmire and other in-
1596, which, we may guess, was hostile to the wishes of the
writer, who congratulated himself that the matter was so
well at an end. Some of the parties named, iucluding our
gi-eat dramatist, continued resident in S^iuthwark long after-
wards, as we shall have occasion iu its proper place to
show. The writer seems to have been desirous of speaking
dcrogat^trily of all the persons he enumerates, but still he
designates some us " Mr. Markis, Mr. Tuppin, Mi'. Langorth,
Mr. Barett, and Mr. Shaksper ;" but " Phelhpes^ Tomson,
Nagges, and Fillpott," he only mentions by their surnames,
while he adds the words " the pyper " and " the baude " aftei-
" Wilsone" " and " Mother Golden," probably to indicate that
any complaint from them ought ti-> have but little weight All
tha,. we certainly collect from tlie memorandum is what Ma-
lone gathered from it, that in July 1596, (Malone only gives
the year, and adds " near the Bear garden," which we do not
find 'jonfirmed by the contents of the paper) in the middle

» "Tnquiry into the Authenticity," &c. p. 215. He seems to have
reeervd particulars (• r his " Life of Shakespeare," which he did not
hve to complete, and vhich was imperfectly finished by Boswell.

3 T lis may have been Augustine PhiUippes, who belonged to the
comp'\ny of the Lord Chamberlain's servants, and whose name stands
fourth in the royal license of May 160.3. He died aa nearly as possi-
b'.B two years afterwards, his will being dated on the 4th May, and
proved on the l;ith May, lf)U5. Among other bequests to his friends
and " fellows," he gave "a thirty-shillings piece of gold " to William
ShakespMu^ He was k distinguish*><^ comic performer and the

of what we have considered the second season at Ibe new
theatre called the Globe, Shakespeare was an inhabiL.tt of
Southwai-k. That he had removed thither fjr the sake of
convenience, and of being nearer to the sp*,)t, is not unlikely
but we have no evidence upon the point as there is reason
to believe that Burbage, tlie principal actor at the (r.'obe,
lived in Holywell Street Shoreditch, near the Cui'tait; play-
house", such an arrangement, as regards Shakespeare and the
Globe, seems the more probable

CHAPTER XL

Chancery suit in 1597 by John Shakespeare and his vlft to
recover Asbyes ; their bill ; tlie answer of John Liiiubbit;
and the replication of John and Mary Sluikespeiire. proba-
ble result of the suit. William Shakespeare's annual visit
to Stratford. Death of his sou Ilamiiet in l.')96. (joneral
scarcity in England, and its effects at Stratford. The .jnan-
tity of corn in the hands of William Shakespeare and his
neighbours in February, 1598. Ben Jonson's " Even' Man
in his Humour," and probable instramcnlality of Shake-
speare in the original production of it on the stage. Ilens-
lowe's letter respecting the death of Gabriel Speiiser.

We have already mentioned that in 1578 John Shakespeare
and his wife, in order to relieve themselves from pecuniary
embarrassment, mortgaged the small estate of the latt«r,
called Asbyes, at Wilmecote in the parish of Aston Cant-
lowe, to Edmund Lambert, for the sum of 40/. As it con-
sisted of neai'ly sixty acres of laud, with a dwelUug-housc,
it miist have been woith, perhaps, three times the sum ad-
vanced, and by the admission o£ all parties, the mortgagers
were again to be put in possession, if they repaid the money
borrowed on or before Michaelmas-day, 1580. According to
the assertion of John and Mary Shakespeare, they tendered
the iOl. on the day appointed, but it was refused, unless
other moneys, which they owed to the mortgagee, were re-
paid at the same time. Edmund Lambert (perhaps the
father of Edward Lambert, whom the eldest sister of Mary
Shakespeare had married) died in 1586, in possession of
Asbyes, and from him it descended to his eldest son, John
Lambert, who continued to withheld it in 1597 fi'oni tliose
who clamied ti.> be its I'ightful owners.

In order to recover the property, John and Mary Shake-
speare filed a bill in chancery, on 24th Nov. 1597, against
John Lanibei't of Baiton-on-the-Heath, in which they al-
leged the fact of the tender and refusal of the 40/. by Ed-
mund Lambert, who, wishing to keep the estate, no doubt
coupled with the tcutler a condition not included iu the deed
The advance of other moneys, the repayment of which wa«
required by Edmund Lambert, was not denied by John and
Mary Shakespeare, but they contended that they had done
all the law required, to entitle them to the restoration of
then' estate of Asbyes : in their bill they also set forth, that
John Lambert was " of great wealth and ability, and well
fi'iended and alUed amongst gentlemen imd freeholders of
the coimtry, in the county of Warwick," while, on the other
hand, they were " of small wealth, and very few friends and
alliance in the said county." The answer of John Lambert
merely denied that the 40/. had been tendered, in conse-
quence of which he alleged that his father became " law
fully and absolutely seised of the premises, iu his demess
as of fee." To this answer John and Mary Shakespeai
put in a repUeation, reiterating the assertion of the tendei
and refusal of the 40/. on Michaelmas-day, 1580, and pray
ing Lord Keeper Egerton (afterwards Baron EUesmere) U>
decree in theu- favour accordingly.

earliest notice we have of hira is prior to the death of Tarlton tn
loss.

3 It is just possible that by '' Wilsone the pyper " the writei meant
to point out '-Jack Wilson," the singer of " Sigh no more, ladies,"
in "Much ado about Nothing," who, might be, and probably was, l
ward AUeyn," (printed by the Shakespeare Society) p. 15;J, (or a al
tice of " Mr. Wilson, the singer," when he dined on one ooorjsior
with the founder of Dulwich Colleffe.

« Malone's Sbakspeare by BMwell, iii. p. 183.

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

li

If anj" decree xere pronounced, it ia singular that no
traw of it should have been preserved either in the records
of the Court of ('hancery, or among the papers of Lord
Ellesmere ; but such is tlie fact, and the inference is, that
the suit was settled by the parties without proceeding to
tliis extremity. We can have little doubt that the bill- had
been tiled with the concurrence, and at the instance, of our
great dramatist, who at this date was rapidly acquiring
wealth, although his father and mother put forward in their
bill theii" own poverty and powerlessness, c*.)mpared with
the riches and influence of their opponent Wilham Shake-
speare must have been aware, that during the last seven-
teen yeare his father and mother had been deprived of their
right to Asbyes : in all probability his money was employed
in order to commence and prosecute the suit in Chancery :
and unless we suppose them to have stated and re-stiited a
deliberate falsehood, respecting the tender of the 40/., it is
very clear that they had equity on their side. We think,
therefore, we may conclude that John Lambert, finding
he had no chance of success, relinquished liis claim to Asbyes,
perhaps on the payment of the 4(J/. and of the sums wliich
his father had required from John and Mary Shiikespeaie
in 1580, and which in 1597 they did not dispute to have
been due.

Among other matters set forth by John Lambert in his
answer is, that the Shakespeares were anxious to regain
possession of Asbyes, because the current lease was near
its e.xpiration, and they hoped to be able to obtain an im-
proved rent Supposing it to have been restored to their
hands, the fact may be that they did not let it again, but
cultivated it themselves ; and we have at this period some
new documeutary evidence to produce, leading to the belief
that our poet was a land-owner, or at all events a l»md-oc-
cupier, to some extent in the neighbourhood of Stratford-
upon-Avon.

■ Aubrey informs us, (and there is not only no reason for
disbeheving his statement but every ground for giving it
credit) that William Shakespeare was " wont to go to his
native country once a year." Without seeking for any evi-
dence upon the question, nothing is more natural or proba-
ble ; and when, therefore, he had acquired sufficient pro-
perty, he might be anxious U' settle his family comfortably
and indepeudently in Stratford. We must suppose that his
father and mother were mainly dependent upon him, not-
withstanding th« recovery of the small estate of the latter
at Wilmecote ; and he may have employed his brother
Gilbert, who was two years and a half younger than him-
self, and perhaps accustomed to agricultural pursuits, to
look after his farming concerns in the country, while he
himself was absent superintending his highly profitable
theatrical undertakings m London. In 1595, 1696,and 1597,
our poet must have been in the receipt of a considerable
and an increasing income : he was part proprietor of the
Blackfriars imd the Globe theatres, both excellent specula-
_ tions ; he was an actor, doubtless earning a good salary, in-
dependently of the proceeds of his shares ; and he was the
must popular and applauded dramatic poet of the day. In
the summer he might find, or make, leisure to visit his na-
tive town, and we may be tolerably sure that he was there
in August 1596, when he had the misfortune to lose his
only son Hamnet, one of the twins born early in the spring
of 1580 . the Ixiy completed his eleventh year in February,
1596, so that his death in August following must have been
I very severe trial for his parents'.

Stt)w informs us, that in 1596 the price of provisions in
Eugland was so high, that the bushel of wheat was sold for
six, seven, ainl eight shillings' : the dearth continued and
increaaed thjough 1597, au i in August of that year the
price of the bushel of wheat had risen to thirteen shillings,
fell to ten shillings, and rose again, in the words of the old

' The following is the form of the entiy of the burial in the regis-
lef of the church of Stratford ; — •

'' 159G. ^u^rust 11. HamnetJUiua tViUinm Sknkspere.^''

• JInnales. edit. 1615, p. 1279. 3 Ibid. p. 1304.

♦ Malone's Shakspeajre. by Boewell, Tol. ii. p, 566.

* In the indorsement of the document it is stated, that the Towns-
men's malt amounted to 449 quarters and tw^ '^ strike '* or bushels,

faithful chronicler, to " the late greatest price'." Malone
found, and printed, a letter from Abraham Sturley, of Strat-
ford-upon-Avou, dated 2-tth Jan., 1597-8, stating that his
" neighbours groaned with the wants they felt through the
dearnesa of corn', " and that malcontents in grejit numbers
had gone to Sir Thoms Lucy and Sir Fulke Greville to
complain of the maltsters for engrossing it Connected with
this dearth, the Shakespeare Society has been put in pos-
session of a document of much value as regards the bio
giaphy of our poet, although, at first sight, it may not ap
pear to deserve notice, it is sm-e in the end to attract. It is

" The noate of come and malte, taken the 4th of Februarj^
1597, in the 40lh year of the ruiene of our most gra-
cious Soveraigne Ladle, Queen Liizabeth, &c.^'

and in the margin opposite the title are the words " Strat-
forde Bunoughe, Warwieke." It was evidently prepared
in Older to ascertain how much corn and malt there really
was in the town ; and it is divided into two columns, one
showing the " Townsmen's corn," and the other the " Stran-
gers' maltV The names of the Townsmen and Strangers
(when known) are all given, with the wards in which they
resided, so that we are enabled by this document among
other things, to prove in what part of Stratford the family
of our great poet then dwelt ; it was in Chapel-street Ward,
and it appears that at the date of the account William
Shakespeare had ten quarters of corn in his possession. Aa
some may be curious to see who were his immediate neigh-
bours, and in what order the names are given, we copy tbt
account, as far aa it relates to Chapel-street Ward, exactly
as it stands. —

Chappu: Street Ward.

S Frauncia Smythe, Jun'., 8 quarters.

5 John Coxc, 5 quarters.

17s M'. Thomas Dyxon, 17i quarters.

3 M^ Thomas Barbor, 8 quarters.

5 Mychaell Hare, 5 quarters.

6 M^ Bitieide, 6 quarters.

6 Hugh Ayuger, 6 quarters.

6 Thomas Budsey, 6 quarters — bareley 1 quarter.
1. 2 str. John Kogers, 10 strikes.

8 W°>. Emmettes, 8 quarters.

11 M'. AspinuU, aboule 11 quarters,

10 W». Shackespere, 10 quarters.

7 Jul. Shawe, 7 quarters."

We shall have occasion hereafter again to refer to this
document upon another point, but in the mean time we may
any part of it This fact gives additional probability to the
belief that the two old people, possibly with some of their
children, were Uving in the house of their son William, for
such may be the reason why we do not find John Shake
speare mentioned in the account as the owner of any com.
It may likewise in part explain how it happened that Wil-
ham Shakespeare was in possession of so large a quantity :
in proportion to the number of his family, in time of scar
city, he would be naturally desirous to be well provided
with the main article of subsistence ; or it is very possible
that, as a grower of grain, he might keep some in store for
sale to those who were in want of it. Ten quarters doe*
not seem much more than would be needed for his owi
consumption ; but it affords some proof of his means ana
substance at this date, that only two persons in Chapel
street Ward had a larger quantity in their hands. We are
led to infer from this circumstimce that out great dramatist
may have been a cultivator of land, and it is not uuUkely
that the wheat in his granary had been grown on his mo-
ther's estate of Asbyes, at Wilmecote, of which we know

besides 9 quarters of barley — th^i^ peas, beans, and vetches to 15
quarters, and their oats to V'i quarters. The malt, the property of
Strangers, amounted to 24.S quarters and 5 strike, fcgetr.er with 3
quraters of peas. Besides matt, the Townsmen, it is said, were in'
possession of 43 quarters and a half of " whc.l and mill-corn," and
of 10 quraters and 6 strike of barli y ; but it seems to have been ccn-
sideraoly more, even in Chanel-stveet Wail.

hi

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

that DO fewer than fifty, out of about sixty, acres were
arable'.

there, and iii the first place advert to a passage iu Rowe's
Life ot Shakespeare, relating to the real or supposed com-
niencemont of the connexion between our great dramatist
and Ben Jonson^. Rowe tella us that " Shakespeare's ac-
quaintance with Ben Jonson began with a remarkable piece
of humanity and good nature. Mr. Jonson, who was at
that time altogether uuknown to the world, had offered one
of his plays to the players, in order to have it acted ; and
the I ersons into whose hands it was put, after having turned
it parelesslv and superciliously over, were just upon return-
ing it to him with an ill-natured answer, that it would be
of no service to their company, when Shakespeare, luckily,
oast his eye upon it, and found something so well in it, as to
engage him fii'st to reud it through, and afterwards to re-
commend Mr. Jonson and his writings to the public." This
anecdote is eutirely disbelieved by Mr. Gifford, and he rests
his incredulity upon the supposition, that Ben Jonson's ear-
liest known production, " Every Man iu his Humour," was
originally acted in 1597 at a difFereut theatre, aud he pro-
duces as evidence Heuslowe's Diary, which, he states, proves
that the comedy came out at the Rose".

The truth, however, is, that the play supposed, on the
authority of Henslowe, to be Ben Jonson's comedy, is only
called by Henslowe " Humimrs " or " Umers," as he igno-
rantly spells it*. It is a mere speculation that this was Ben
Jonson's play, for it may have been any other performance,
by any other poet, in the title of which the word " Hu-
mours " occurred ; and we have the indisputable juid une-
quivocal testimony of Ben Jonson himself, in his own au-
thoi-ized edition of his works in 1616, that " Every Man in
his Humour " was not acted until 1598 : he was not satisfied
with stating on the title-page, that it was " acted in the year
1598 by the then Lord Chamberlain his servants," which
might have been considered sutEcient ; but in this iustance
(as in all others in the same volume) he informs us at the
end that 1598 was the year in which it was first acted : —
"This comedy was first acted in the year 1698." Are we
prepared to disbelieve Ben Jonson's positive assertion (a
nmn of the highest and purest notions, as regarded truth
and integrity) for the sake of a theory founded upon the
bare assumption, that Henslowe by " Umers " not only
meant Ben Jonson's " Every Man in his Humour," but could
mean nothing else ?

ral's players at the Rose, and acted with so much success
that it was repeated eleven times, as Heuslowe's Diary
shows WHS the case with " Umers," there can be no appa-
rent reason why Ben Jonson should not have said so ; and
if he had afterwards withdrawn it on some pique, and car-
ried it to the Lord Chamberlain's players, we can hardly
conceive it possible that a man of Ben Jouson's temper and
spirit would not have told us why in some other part of his
works.

Mr. Gifford, passing over without notice the positive state-
ment we have quoted, respecting the first acting of " Every
Man in his Humour" by tne Lord Chamberlain's servants
ID 1698, proceeds to argue that Ben Jonson could stand iu
need of no such assistance, as Shakespeare is said to have

1 Malone'B Shakespeare, by Boswell, vol. ii, p. 25

> For the materials of the loUowing note, which sets right an im-
portant error relating to Ben Jonson's mother, we are indebted to Mr
i'eter Cunningham.

Malone and GiiTord {Ben Jonson's Works, vol. i. p. 5) both came to
rhe conclutiion tiiat the IMrs. Margaret Jonson. mentioned in the
'egieter of St. MarUn's in the Fielus as having been married, 17th
November, 1575, to Mr. Thomas Fowler, was the mother of Ben Jon-
lon, who then took a second husband. There cannot be a reasona-
ble doubt of it," says Gilford ; but the fact is neTerthelesa certainly
otherwise. It appears that Ben Jonson's mother was living after the
comedy of '■ Eastward Ho I'" which gave otfence to King James, (and
which was printed in 1605,) was brought out. — (Laing's edit, of
* Ben Jonson's Conversations," p. 20.) It is incontestable that the
!Wr«. Margaret Fowler, who was married in 1575, was dead before
\.'i9-'>; for ber husband, Mr. Thomas Fowler, was then buried, and in
the inscription upon his tomb, in the old church of St. Martin's in
the Fields, it was stated that he survived his three wives, Ellen^ Mar-
giaret, ael Flizabeth, who were buried ^n the same grave, 'I'he lU-

\ afforded him, because he was " as well known, and perbap<
j better," than Shakespeare himself. Surely, with all defer
s ence for Mr. Gilford's undisputed acuteuess and general ao
curacy, we may doubt how Ben Jonson could be better, ol
even as well known as Shakespeare, wlun the latter had
been. for twelve years connected with the stage as author
and actor, auH had written, at the lowest calculation, twelvb
[ dramas, while Uie former was only twentv-four years old,
I and had produced no known phiy but " Every Man in his
I Hunioui'.' It is also to be observed, that Hensl iwe had no
' pecuniary ti'ansactions with Ben Jonson prior tc the month
of August, 1598; whereas, if " Umere" hud beet; purchased
from him, we could scarcely have failed to find some me^
morandum of payments, antei'ior to the production if th«
comedy on the stage in May, 1697.

Add to this, that nothing could be more consistent with
the amiable and generous character of Shakespeare, than
that he should thus have iuterested himself in favour of a
writer who was teu years his juuioi", aud who gave such
undoubted proofs of genius as are displayed iu " Every Man
in his Humour." Our great dramatist, established in public
favour by such comedies as " The Merchant of Veuice" aud
" A Midsmnmei Night's Dream," by such a tragedy as
" Romeo and .Juhet," and by such histories as " King John,"
" Richard H.," and " Rirhard IU.," must have felt himself
above all rivalry, and could well afford this act of " hu-
manity aud good-nature," as Rowe terms it, (though Mr.
Gifford, quoting Rowe's words, accidentally omits the two
last,) on behalf of a young, needy, and nieritoi-ious author.
It is \a> be recollected also that Rowe, the original narrator
of the incident, does not, as in several other cases, give it as
if he at all doubted its correctness, but unhesitatingly and
distinctly, "S if it were a matter well known, and entirely
believed, at the time he wrote.

Another circumstance may be noticed as an ineidentid
confii'mation of Rowe's statement, with which Mr. Gifford
could not be acquainted, because the fact has only been re-
cently discovered. In 1598 Ben Jonson, being then only
twenty-four years old, had a quarrel with Gabriel Spencer,
one of Heuslowe's principal actors, in consequence of which
they met, fought, and Spencer was killed. Hensh>we, writ-
ing to AUeyn on the subject on the 26th September, uses
these words: — " Smoe you were 'with me, I have lost one
of my company, which hurteth me greatly ; that is Gabriel,
for he is slain in Hoxton Fields by the hands of Benjamin
Jonson. bricklayer'." Now, had Ben Jonson been at that
date the author of the comedy called " Umers," and had it
been his " Every man in his Humour," which was acted by
the Lord Admiral's players eleven times, it is not very
likely that Henslowe would have been ignorai.t who Benja-
min Jonson was, and have spoken of him, not as one of the
dramatists in his pay, and the author of a very successful
comedy, but merely as "bricklayer:" he was writing also
to his step-daughter's husband, the leading member of his
company, to whom he would have been ready to give the
fullest int'ormation regarding tlie disastrous affair. We only
the assumption, that Ben Jonson had anything to do with
the comedy of " Umei-s," acted by Heuslowe's company in
May, 1597 ; and the probabiUty of the position that, as Ben
Jonson himself states, it was originally brought out in 1698

scription (which we have seen in Strype's edit, of Stowe's Survey,
17'iu, b. vi. p. tiO) informs us also, that Mr Thomas Fowler was "born
at Wicam, in the county of Lancaster." and that he had been
"Comptroller and Paymaster of the Works'" to t^ueen .Mary, and
for the first ten years of Queen Elizabeth. The date of bis death ii
not stated in the inscription, but by the regi^lHt of the church it ap-
pears that he was buried on the *29th May. I.j95. The Mrs. Margaret
Fowler, who died before 1595, could not have been the mother of
Ben Jonson, who was living about 1094 ; and if Ben Jonson's mo-
ther married a second time, we have yet to ascertain who was he:
second husband-

3 The precise form in which the entry stands in Henelowe'i ao
count book is this : —

" NVaye 1597. 11. It. at the comodey of Vmers."

* Ben Jonson's Works, Bvo. 1H16, vol. i. p. 4(>.

» See " Memoirs of Edward AUeyn," p. 51. The author of thai
work has since seen reason to correct himself on this and several othei
points.

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SIIAKESPEAKE.

::ii

by "^ th« then Lord Chamberlain's servants." It may have i that the magistra ^s had been written to on the 28th July,
beoQ, and probably waa. acted by them, because Shake- 1 1597, requiring that no plays should be acted during the
speare had Idadly interposed with his associates on behalf j summer, and directing, in order to put an effectual stop to

of the deserving and unfriended author.

CHAPTER XXL

Restriction of dramatic performances in and near London in
1597. Thoinaa Nswh and his play, *' The Isle of Dogs:"
imprisontneiU of Nosh, and of some of the players of the

Lord Admiral. Favour shown to the companies of the i not calculated to lessen the objections eoteitained by aoy
Lord Chamberlain and of the Lord Admiral. Printing of , persons in authority about the Court

such perfonnances, because " lewd matters were handled on
stages," that the two places above named should be " plucked
downV The magisti^ates were also enjoined to send for
the owners of " any other common play-house " within their
Jmisdiction, and not only to fprbid performances of every
description, but " so to deface " all places erected fur theatn-
cal representations, " as they might not be employed again to
such use." This command was given just anterior to the
production of Nash's " Isle of Dogs," which was certainly

Shakespeare's Plays iu 1597- The liht of his known dra-
ized the pntitina; of none of his plays, and never corretted
the press. Ca re i ensues-* of dra^natic authors in this respect.
** The Pas.-*ionate Pilgrim," 1599. Shakespeafe's reputation
as a dramatist.

In the summer of 1597 an event occurred which seems to
have produced for a time a serious restriction upon dramatic
performances. The celebarted Thomas Nash, early in the
year, had writteu a comedy which he called " The Isle of
Dogs :" that he had pailners in the imdertaking there is no
doubt ; aud he t^lls us, in his tract called " Lenten Stuff,"
printed in 1599. that the players, when it was acted by the
Lord Admiral's servants m the beginning of August, 1597,
had Uiken most un war i-an table hberties with his piece, by

The Blackfriars, not being, according to the terms of the
order of the privy council, "a common play-house," but
what was called a private theatre, does not seem to hav«
been included in the general ban ; but as we know that
similar directions had been conveyed to the magistrates of
the county of Surrey, it is somewhat surprising thai thay
seem to have produced no effect upon the performances at
the Globe or the Rose upon the Baukside. We must attri-
bute this ciremnstance, perhaps, to the exercise of private
influence ; and it is quite certain that the necessity of keep-
ing some companie-s in practice, iu order that they might
be prepared to exhibit, when required, before the Queen,
was made the first pretext for granting exclusive " hcenses "
to the actors of the Lord Chamberlain, and of the Lord
Admiral We know that the Earls of Southampton aud

been responsible. The exact nature of the performance is
not known, but it was certainly satirical, no doubt personal
and it must have had reference also to some of the polemi-
cal and political questions of the day. The representation
of it was forbidden by authority, and Nash, with others,
was arrested under an order from the privy council, aud
»ent to the Fleet prison'. Some of the oftendiug actors had
c«eaj>ed for a time, aud the privy council, not satisfied with
wrot« from Greenwich on 15th August. 1697, to certain
magistrates, requiring them strictly to examine all the par-
ties in custody, with a view to the discovery of others not
yet apprehended. This important official letter, which has
hitherto been unmentioned, we have inserted in a note from
the registers of the privy council of that date ; and by it
we learn, not only that Njish was the author of the *' sedi-
tious and slanderous " comedy, but possibly himself an ac-
tor in it, and " the m;iker of part of the said play," especi-
ally pointed at, who was in custody^

Before the date of this incident the companies of various
play-houses in the county of Middlesex, but particularly at
the Cuiiain aud Theatre in Shoreditch had attracted atten-
tion, and given otl'ence, by the heentious character of their
performances ; and the registers of the privy council show

* The circumstance was thus alluded to by Francis Meres in the
next year : — ^" As Actaeon was wooried of hia owne hounds, so is Tom
Nash of his He of iJotr>. Dogges were the death of Euripides ; but
be« not disconsolate, gallant young Juvenall; Linus the sonne of
Apollo died the same death. Yet, God forbid, that so brave a wjtte
should so basely pen:^h : thine are but paper dogges ; neither is thy
banishment, like Ovid's, eternally to converse with the barbarois
G«tes : therefore, comfort thyselfe, sweete Torn, with Cicero's glori-
ous return to R^r^.e, and with the counsel Aeneas gives to his sea-
beaten soldiors, lib. i. Aeneid : —

' Pluck up thmd heart, and drive from thence both feare and care
away ,
To thinkeon this may pleasure be perhaps another day.*

" Diirnto, e/ Vwcf rebus tercato setundts.'''' — PaUadis TamiOj 1598,
fo. iati.

' The rair.ut* in the registers of the privy cpuncil (pointed out to
OS by Mr. Irf>mont is this : —

■■ A letfjr to Richard Topclyfe, Thomas Fowler, and Ric. Skeving-
ton, Esquiiex. Doccour Fletcher, and Mr. Wilbraham.

'* Upcn mforma'.ian given us of a lewd plaie, that was plaied in one
k»f the plaie howses on the Bancke side, containing very seditious
\ni Bclaunderous matters, we8 caused some of the players to be ap-
piehendcd and ccmytted lo pryson. whereof one of them was not only
an actor, but a maker of parte of the said plaie. For as much as yt
JTB thought meete that the rest of the players or actours in that mat-
ter shai be apprehended, to receave soche punyshm^^nt as there lewdo
aotf mutynous behavior dotii deserve ; these shall be. therefore, to ^'^•

frequent habit of visiting the theatres* ; the Earl of Not-
tingham also seems to have taken an unusual interest on
various occasions in favour of the company acting under
his name, and to the representations of these noblemen we
are, perhaps, to attribute the exemption of the Globe and
the Itoee from the operation of the order " to deface " all
buildings adapted to dramatic representations in Middlesex
and Surrey, in a manner that would render them unfit for
any such purpose in future. We have the authority of the
registers of the privy council, under date of 19th Feb. 1697-8,
for stating that the companies of the Lord Chamberlain
and of the Lord Admii'al obtained renewed permission ** to
use and practise stage-plays," in order that they might be
duly qualified, if called upon to perform before the Queen.
This privilege, as regards the players of the Lord Admi-
ral, seems the more extraordinai-y, because that was the very
company which only in the August preceding had given such
offence by the representation uf Nash's " Isle of Dugs," that
its farther performance was forbidden, the author aud some
of the players were arrested aud sent to the Fleet, and
vigorous steps taken to secure the persons of other parties
who for a time had made their escape. It is very likelv
that Nash was the scape-goat on the occasion, and that the
chief blame was thrown upon him, although, in his tract,

quire yow to examine these of the plaiers that are comytted. whose
names are knowne to you, Mr Topclyfe, what ii become of the reit
of theire fellowes that either had their partes in the devysinge of that
sedytious matter, or that were actours or plaiers in the saute, what
copies they have given forth of the said playe, and t« whomc, and
soch other pointes as you shall thinke meete to be deraaundeJ of
them j wherein you shall require of them to deale trulie. as Ihey will
looke to receave anie favour. Wee prate yow also to peruse socn pi-
pers as were fownde in Nash his lodgings, which Ferrys, a mossen-
ger of the Chamber, shaJl delyver unto yow, and to certytie us tb»
examynations you take. So Ice. Greenwich, 15. Aug. 1597.'*
Frora the Council Register.

Eliz. No. 13. p. »4ti.
3 We find evidence in a satinst of the time, that about l£_6 iaie
the Theatre was abandoned, though not " plucked down."

: -i 3ut geg yonder

One, like the unfrequented Theatre,
Walkes in darke silence, and vast solitude."

Edw. Guilpins " tkialetheia," bvo. 1593. Sign. D6

The theatre, in all probability, was not used for plays afterwards.

* See Vol. ii. p. 132 of the '"tjidney Papers.'' wher*- Rowlanw
White tells Sir Robert Sydney, '* My Lord Southampton and Lord
Rutland come not to the court : the one doth but very seldom. Thev
pass away the time is London merely in going to plays every day.
This letter is dated 11th October, lof^, and the Q.ueen was then al
Nonesuch.

av

THE LITE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

MHi4.kri

■waAat M««E<

•■• pH^ af aS *»« vk» vara

liiK ftaaoSB orakMLAK in 1»9« IkoravM i

22^

hdd

a* Ae Ba«tit
bare lK«a aa irtof fe Marin n t aifBliBe okare

ifa ifnot ■mi^t

T* lh> jaK la« ■ihaii ". ai^ fce itf

iviiiau ivau^ vis. *^amaD and Jafie^"^

i IL" and " Bkkacri ID.'' m Um, md ' lowes I«-

s l«aK' aai -^iiaBVT iT/ aart ija ism^; kaK. as «e

rittee

fehii*ai> ■lfe»»T
The
laf laaliniiMaa
Ua^ ia a vaak kjr Fmna Xoca irti J -^j^tifc Ta-
te s Adaaa oC lUa saaH ■
/<C (W8 SM.|iK:ai^kaiB5j^Tk l^O

froaa tke paaai'. & ■ s riiiaailiJ:
stoikioteiT ike aaooer in wkUk li:-
ackaas W tkst penid veta aU» w
popular pueea baa the pras» ^kot caicil Skakasp^>ar«
kad wen a vnter Sir das lord Cbamberiain'^ serrasis ten . -
eleTaa jrears bdc a angW plaj by kim vas ptifaEkked ; ac
&ea ftor of te first ptmbid piaf$vers vioKiat kis aam^ ^ if tke kooksdkr kad ba«a ignacaas of tbe &ec or as ii ke eoaeidered Aat eke omkan votdd not a&ct tbe sale : am qiiKi as ;fa: wak of Skaike^ewe, as will be seen from aor eagaat lapciaK of dK ada-pagiesaf tke tTJttnnn af U$~
19991 anl ItOS. («• Intrvkae.*) The repoto of* SiehL
IL'aBd *Bkkwii lU'ki lS96v k kefcre ekaCTred kftv .
Sbakespeat^s aame on de ade-pageSk and dwT -rere iBBDeii.
pfrkaps after Xeres kad dKOaeclr «nr;[Tn,aH thoee * kietu-
r^" avkBB.

I: is tmr eoanotiaa. after tke nuet maote aad paiaec.
■■nmrnaeiuQ o^ «« be&re, ererr obi jaapreaaaa, tka.
'"H ai l I n il ai e in Bg i mtj a ui a^honaed tke pofaaeatioo of ku
piBja*: wedaBot eaKUvefen^Baaalet" aa iMayiHiiiu
akka^^ tke nStimm of 1«M «as pnfaaUty mtmii\ kv
vitk tkelfcrarre.to jipeM ed e Ike
gaiUed aad f ml 1 iir niiriiw of I6CS : Skafa^nai^ ia
kad antkaig B>d»«ikk tke oae arviA tke
aeveiali of kia ytmtiit anacka to be oradited &r i

dU apt Ikiak JtvaKfa kaa vkde to espaae tke

(ke gceac kadf af tke pafaSewM eaaeeiwd vtil tke a^

aftfefafiaof I«S3. niB jiaf ifcaiaalil'i aaii "

tokave hf^nnkaii'ii kyaaatv

' af a^ oae «C ka piaja be aaore
BrpH,! nJij Aaa anarfai, we tsA aaaakad tkat it >
af aa keflier atoie af tka I
^tokktraClkei

aC draaaae aaksB af ikat panad REfectooB tke <

:jigkt ke adriiii ' li aako* aaak dMeafc^ kat aaaaa ke
Bape af Loao^' s daaaa Aa

■ uaLr ~

die rpadrt. k^—tog kaa (ikcaaaa aa

Saiama rf Cir»JM» <1iil fwlwto is <to-

*^. l-sSr- Kef^ 3F=sc i27« TsaeB, jDmecautf ia «e
- ' "■■"-* ' -ri3.2aa _a IdDl a* -was tit^

- T3 >"-". 1. ZU.

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKE? PTAEi:

•err rr. ^^^^■- '.-ri-^-^ ^l.rl \Zi :

fcvi i;s^* fc„j »*Hi :-i t"**^^ -^^^^ — ." ~ - "• " "'

VCR a»K aeSoeCirelT pnBtod. km Brrw^-ait -S«<
if laaeraec' «e is «igi»«Bf riT frn™ u« yrw* »^iii "«
aMh«r'c i^^'-im^Kr, U. «« ikiak, ike vara if k'iiihi af n^-
fggnfiky till erer »« ««r •taerra«i«».'

Bmrsis; M tae iKpcmaxt fiat af nr«lT« pbj!
W Mens, ve aaj ad^ tku al&aagh Be doer l
Acs, Acfe OS be B* Aoabt &>t ^be tkne }wnE V. -.^\
TX' kkd oeea npeua^ acted kcfiiR laS: ve siaj fi,f-
^Ht nfEr, A«t ther vete avt neerted bccaaw ux-t -rere
Ihea vefl keors s«t to be tke sale voifc vf ^KktsTf^^^
9j " BoDCT IV.~ ii is iBO)^ proUUe tj>a: Iiert« :i:-c3>a«u
lalk M£tc «f tkat * bisScej.** ' lrf»Te> Labour's "W l<£ * ba^
beea EB^^oeed, cuee dw tioae «f Dr. Fajaer, » be 'AIT;
Wd tbaz eais Veil,' >Bder a digg q t t dde : oet set'
(m biredaetMa) Aat the arigiaal aaae gina t* tL<
vac ' Vm'e lalmw't Wea:' aad thaz, vtiea it was i^-
wilk aMMMBE aad allinliw. ia 1C*» «r ICM, it i utc imc
afeaaaev a^prilatiaa.

la uumu atg Irish }^ qnealMB l e gaiJiBg &e iK«r>es:
\A(H bf Saakefpeare ia the pMSnAn aC He wrks. vt
mmj aioee ihe J"'!-"*— « &«ad pneMed a tfae Tear ane;
*e appeaiaaee «rthe fist ImmAuI hj Xeres. ' In 1599
11MT ocl aeaHeeboB «<' dhort anBeelhBBaaB poaas. icxkr
^ ride .i - Tbe PasEaoBte F%nB f tiier ■»■<■.-« all c/ tiiesE
a^ntej. br W. Jassard the printer, or irr W. Xtsasr uie
kM^seUit-.'so ^ntepeare. aimme^ scok cf dim Tcre
aatoric'siy br odier ptxss. Ia Sk UtroiaeHaa to om-
it piii a <tf lias little -vwfc v« lore strted aH Ae kaovn
partiedafe r^anfigg it; bat ShakeEpeare, as far as xp-
pean fren asr endenoe tint his deseenied to is.
took BB iMtieie o^ ifae tri^ F^aj^ ^f^ '^"^ - po^f'^ ^
meftr beard of ii. or if be neard at JL left i: to be cnra
ietoetian. Bot rtiWAing it -a-c>nb -vUe to imeifae *. It
ennes to »«'»>;>''*' vbax eertainlj «raU iMt ctbernse be
<loiiH«d. tbe popolaritT vt Sfaikeepeare ia I5»a. asd Ibe .
cuDoer in v^&A a iil'imiiaL ptmtor and staBoBer eadea- ]
Tv>ared >i> lace adraacase ctf dut pojiiilaiil.i.

V« !•. li siiiruU.'. if we rely upon sereral eoeral anib<>ri-
ties, boT liiuc '.•■IT ^real dramatkt '«as abcal tiu^ period
igaowa aaai admired fcr hk piam Bidiard Baiaoeid pab-
iahad biE * Eaei>mk.a <tf WlrFeeoeia.* in 1»9& (tbe rear
in 'vbid tbe li&v of rtrelve oi Shakefpe&r«'> {^ys iraf
printed br Meres i aaJ f:\«n a ev>py of varies eoriuttd
- BemembraDoe ol Eosoe £i^Iisb Fi^et^.* ve qa.-'.c :be
:' 'Umriag noooe of Shakespeare :

- Ar. i Sii5??r.- • - " .- -s-e;!!, '

"A-.^e '-^.k^i .-c _— <. .bss:*,

Tcy ruinie iu i'&aies iBatortol b . i ;

live e>er yoa, n least ia fiaas 1; ■
■Wei msy the bijdv die, ba« i

Here Shakespeare's popolaritT. as - p)easjn£r ib^ -sr ^rii'
is Botieed: but the proofe <.f it are sc-t derir^i tr.~ t:^
EUee. There las dramas irer* in daily perl.-rniaD« i>ri-^
cr.iTded aoSenoes, bat &aia the snoeess J bi* - Ve-:;s ioi
«±t>oes. P^ec>sely to tbe same e^exl. ba: a Sili sirvx^rer
■ataiKC , Te taay r<fer to s plsy in Thi<i b.^tb Bvc-itt^ aai

Tt"i:^C'ii j.'Tes foaii&b, iarr .

CHAFIX3 VTn

Seir Fiate. or, " tie crsti : - : '^

ShaiespeaTe in 1J*T. E- - f

ni»TT.rs.'fr.-*ic ibe Ba&feode *■.■ ..;« j .•^. »:«■ ;-^r*-rT „ -. -li-
fOe^ie. Bjrahr of the Imrd flhaiiihwriaai'ia aad la^ Aj-
BunJ's eoeijaiBf . Or&ar m MW raafiinas ne ittaw af
wajs «• the GMn aud Fonaas: the ai£BK>Be of ^latva
B»«ci«aci^ aeeafanag tboae tlininnis. SSsMwrnaaa* af

Ir --' y

forvi. -. -- ?

in tbsi it-
Thif Jis^ -
be said to :

srei.: -

iae iv.-- -
ia ibe "WTfc-

" irai^

IT SUIT

■■ iit'ther

ss-lh*

I5s>.— &.aaa tlui i>e -L.ac una cua.-^

J^-V -i-rr -T

i:-T v:i.

>>"«■

exeniitos. and u»e extcia?^ t>f Ilis ot^ 4juti;;£v «»■ :x:— :^ «> ;t.
and TO e^taKiiji bs> ttmijy in siv«>f Kiinl\«T az>d opaleane
tiisa. S5 tir as ii kD.'Tra, tJiey bad erer bef.vre eEyv^j-ed".

> W« caaasc -voate as 1^ whhi ia jAmys sm^r9j^tir>-a^v rtrt^rs:^
%Mi a&sX2lT jviawid. vkaek vas t^ caa» vita a&ar tatrcessoras .-^f
ibA' ciT X,pckB tAis acuBt H9T-vt«£ IS aa aa«xr<'|CtAaaKje -Tiis«s&.
•ai be :«Us as of cam €i k^ ^n^As.

t Tucue ira* 1.-^ ,

-rtf; .r 'f^'- ■"-;•*

.r»4 ;b it ia tSM, Tarx k» riwriViw* *J » ih»

ttBJ VT iXfcV

Ivi

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

We consider the point that Sbak^-^pcare bad become owner
of New Place in or before 1597 as completely made out, as,
at such a distance of time, and with siicn imperfect iuforma-
tlou upon ueaily all mattere couoected with his history
coidd be at all expected'.

We apprehend Ukewise, as we have already remarked
(p. xxi), th.it the ctuitirmation of arms in 1596, obtained as
we believe by William Shakespeare, had I'efereuce to the
permjiueut and substactial settlement of his family in
Stratford, and to the purchase of a residence there consistent
with the altered circumstances of that family — altered by
its increased wealth and consequence, owing to the success
of our great p<;)et b<jth :i3 an actor and a dramatist.

The removal of the Lord Admiral's players, under
Henslowe and Alleyn, from the Rose theatre on the Bank-
side, to the new house called the Fortune, in Goldiug-laue,
Cripplegate, soon after the date to which we are now
referring, may lead to the opinion that that company did
not iiud itself equal to sustain the rivalship with the Lord
Chambei'lain's servants, under Shakespeare and Burbage, at
the Globe. That theati-e was opened, as we have adduced
reasons to believe, in the spring of 1695: the Rose was a
considerably older building, and the necessity for repairing
it might enter into the calculation, when Henslowe and
Alleyn thought of trying the experiment in a different part
of the town, and on the Middlesex side of the water. Thea-
tres being at this date merely wooden structures, and much
frequented, they would soon fall into decay, especially in a
marshy situation like that of the Bankside : so damp was
the sod in the neighbourhood, that the Globe was surrounded
by a moat to keep it dry ; and, although we do not find the
fact any where stated, it is most likely that the Rose was
similarly drained The Rose was in the first mstance, and
as far back as the reign of Edward VL, a house of entertain-
ment with that sign, and it was converted into a theatre by
Henslowe and a grocer of the name of Cholmley about the
year 1584 ; but it seems to have early required considerable
reparations, and they might be again necessary prior to

eBpecia.ll cawse. Yo" shall frende me muche in helpeing me out of
&U the debeits I owe in London, I thanck god, and muchft quiet lo my
inynde w^'' wolde not be indebited. I am now towards the Cowrte,
in hope y answer for the dispatche of my Buysenes. Yo' shall
nether loose creddytt nor monney by me, the Lorde willing:e ; & nowe
butt pswade yo"*' setfe soe as I hope ic yo" shall nott need to feare ;
but with all hartie thanckfuUness I wyll holde my tyrae & content
yo*' frend, A. yf we Bargaine farther, yo" shall be the paie m'
yo"' selfe. My tyme bidds me to haiten to an ende, & soe I comitt
thys [to] yo*' care k. hope of yo"^ helpe. I feare I shall nott be backe
this night from the Cowrte. haste, the Lorde be w"* yo" k. w'** us
ill. amen. From the Bell in Carter Lane, the 2-^ October 1593.
" Yo*" in all kyndenes.

" Rye. QuYNBV.

**To my Loveing pood frend

k contryman M' W™

Shackespe thees."
The deficiency as regards the direction of the letter, lamented by
Malone, is not of so much importance, because we have proved that
Shakespeare was resident in Soulhwark in 1590; and he probably
was fo in 159H. because the rea^sons which we have supposed, in-
duced him to take up his abode there would still be in operation, ia
u mucn force as ever.

' In the garden of this house it is believed that Shakespeare planted
a mulberry tree, about the year 1G09 : such is the tradition, and we
are disposed to think that it is founded in truth. In HiOfl, King
James was anxious to introduce the mulberry {which had been ira-
|>orted about half a century earlier) into general cultivation, and the
records in the State Paper OHice show that in that year letters were
writte-n upon the subject to most of the justices of peace and deputy
I'jeutenants in the kingdom ; the plants were sold by the State at 65.
the hundred. On the 'i'ith November, 1609. 9ii5L were paid out of the
public purse for the planting of mulberry trees " near the palace of
Westminster. " The mulberry tree, said to have been planted by
Shakespeare, was in existence ap to about the year 175.5 ; and in the
spring of 174'2. Garrick. Macklin, and Delane the actor (not Dr.
Delany, the friend of Swift, as Mr Dyce, in his compendious Memoir.
p. 1.x. (States,) were entertained under it by Sir Hugh Clopton. New
rla*,e remained in possession of Shakeapeare's successors until the
Restoration ; it was then repurchased by the Clopton family : about
n^yi it was sold by the executor of Sir Hugh Clopton to a clergyman
of the name of Gastrell, who, on some offence taken at the authorities
of the borough of Stratford on the subject of rating the house, pulled
it down, and exit down the mulberry tree. According to a letter in
th« Annual Register of 17li0. the wood was bought by a silversmith,
who *' made many odd things of it for the cunous." In our time we
nave seen as many relics, said to have been formed from this one ,
roalbenTr tree, as could hardly have been furnished by all the mul-
^rry trees in the county of Warwick. I

1599. when Henslowe and Alleyn resolved t-o abandon
Southwark. However, it may bo doubted whether they
would not have continued where tlicy were, recullecting th«
couveuient proximity of Paris Garden, (where bears, bullSf
<tc. were baited, and in which they were also jointly inter-
ested) but for the success of the Lord Cliamberlaiu's playei-g
at the Globe, which had been in use fuur or tive yeara'
Henslowe and Alleyn seem to have found, that ueitlier xhf'it
plays nor their players could stand the competition of theii
rivals, and they accordingly removed to a vicinity where »'

The Fortune theatre was commenced in Golding Lane.
Cripplegate, in the year 1599. and tinished m 1 GOO, and
thither without delay Henslowe uud Alleyn transp* rted
their whole dramatic establishmeut, strengthened m the
spring of 160*2 by the addition of tliat great and popular
comic performer, William Kempe^ The association at the
Globe was then left in ahuost undisputed possession of the
Bankside. There were, indeed, occasional, and perhaps not
unfrequent, performances at the Hose, (although it had been
stipuluted with the public authorities that it should be
pulled down, if leave were given for the construction of the
Fortune) as well as at the Hope and the Swan, but not bv
the regular associations which had previously occupied
them ; and after the Fortune was opened, the speculation
there was so profitable, tiuit the Lord Admiral's players
had no motive for returning to their old quarters*.

The members of the two companies belonging to the
Lord Chamberlain and Ui the Lord Admiral appear to have
possessed so much influence in the summer of 1600, thai
(backed perhaps by the puritanical zeal of those who were
unfriendly to all theatrical performauces) they obtained au
order from the privy council, dated 2-2d June, that no other
public play-houses should be permitted but the Globe in
Surrey, and the Fortune in Middlesex, Nevertheless, the
privy council registers, where this order is inserted, also
contam distinct evidence that it was not obeyed, even in
May 1601 ; for on tlie lOih of thatmouth the Lorda wrot«

3 We may be disposed to a-ssign the following lines to about thii
period, or a little earlier: they reiaie to some theatrical wager in
which Alleyn, of the Lord Admiral's players, was, for a part not
named, to b« matched against Kempe, of the Lord Chamberlain"!
servants. By the words'' Will's new play," there can be little doubt
that some work by Shakespeare was intended; and we know from
Hey wood's •' Hierarchic of the Blessed Angels,'' lG:f.5, that Shake-
speare was constantly familiarly called '■ Will." The document it
preserved at Dulwich.and it was first printed in the "■ iMemoira o(
Kdward Alleyn," p. 13.

" Sweet Nedde. nowe wynne an other wager

For thine old frende. and fellow stager.

Tarlton hiraselfe thou doest excel!.

And Bentley beate, and conquer Knell,

And now shall Kempe orecome as well.

The moneyes downe. the place the Hope j

Philhppes shall hide his head and Pope.

Feare not, the victorie is thine ;

Thou still as macheles Ned shall shyne.

If Roscius Richard foames and fumes.

The Globe shall have but emptie roomes.

If thou doest act ; and Willes newe playa

Shall beiehearst some other daye.

Consent, then. Nedde ; do us thjs grace :

Thou cannot faile in anie case ,

Fcr in the triall, come what maye,

AU sides shall brave Ned Allin saye."
By "Roscius Richard " the writer of these lines, wno waj th«
backer of Alleyn against Kempe. could have meant nobody but
Richard Burbage. It will be recollected, that not very long afte:
wards Kempe became a member of the association of which Alley
was the leader, and quitted that to which f^hakespearp n.nd Burbag
were attached. It is possible that this wager, and Kempe's succ*n»
in it, led Alleyn and Henslowe to hold out inducements to him to
join them in their undertaking at the Fortune, Upon this point,
liowever, we have no other evidence, than the mere fact that Kemp«
went over to the enemy.

3 After his return from Rome, where he was seen in the autuma
of 1601.

* It was at the Fortune that Alleyn seems to have realized sc muck
money in the few first years of the undertaking, that he was uble In
Nov. 1604 to purchase the manor of Kennington for £106.') aud in int
next year the manor of Lewisham and Dulwich for X5000. Thws*
two sums, in money of the present day, would be equal to at least
£'25.Wi) ; but it is to be observed that for Dulwich, Alleyn o<ily paid
£'2000 down, while the remaining sum was left upon mortgige. In
the commencement of the seventeenth century theatrical spei. niationa
generally seem to have been highly lucrative. See "The Allaya
Fapsra," (printed by the Shakespeare Society.) p xiv

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

Ivii

to certain raagistratos of Middlesex requiriag them to put a
Btop to the performance of a phiy at the Curtain, ia which
were introduced *' some geutlenieu of good desert and
quality, that are yet alive," but sayins; nuthiD.i^ about the
CTOsing of the house, although it was open iu detiauce »tf the
miperative com,maud of the preceding year. We know
also upon other testmnmy, that not ouly the Curtain, but
theatres on the Bankside. besides the Globe, (where per-
formances were allowed) were then in occasional use. It is
fair to presume, therefure, that the order of the 22d June.
1600, was never strictly enforced, and oue of the most
remarkable circumstJinees of the times is, the little atten-
tion, as regards theatricals, that appears to have been paid
to the absolute authority of the eoui-t It seems exactly as
the importunity of particular individuals, but that there was i
DO disposition on the pai't of persons in authority to carry
them mto execution. Such was probably the fact; for a|
vear and a half after the order of the 22d June had been !
issued it was renewed, but, as far as we can leai'o, with just
as little effect as before.'

Besides the second edition of " Romeo and Juliet " in
manuscript, being very different from the mutilated and
mauufachired copy of 1597) five plays by our great dra-
matist found their way to the press iu 1600. viz. ** Titus An-
dronicus," (which as we have before remarked had probably
been originally published in 159-i) " The Merchant of Ve-
nice," ** A Midsummer Night's DreamV "Henry IV." part
u^ and " Mucii Ado about Nothing." The last only was not
mentioned by Meres in 1598 ; and as to the periods when
we may suppose the others to have been written, we must
refer the reader to our several Introductions, where we
have given the existing inf<jrmatiou upon the subject " The
Chronicle History of Henry V." also came out in the same
year, but without the name of Shakespeare upon the title-
page, and it is, if possible, a more imperfect and garbled
renrto=entation of the play, as it proceeded from the author's
pea, than the " Romeo and JuUet " of 1697. Whether any
of the managers of theatres at this date might not eorae-
tiiaes be concei'Uf d in selling impressions of dramas, we
hav« no sutiieieut means of deciding ; but we do not believe
it, and we are satistied that dramatic authoi"8 in general
were content with disposing of their plays to the several
companies, and looked for no emolument to be dei'ived
from pubUeation^ We are not without something like

Cof that actors now and then stdd their parts in plays to
ksellcrs. and thus, by the combination of them and other
assistance, editions of popular plays were surreptitiously
printed.

We ought not to pass over vitbout notice a circumstance
which happened in 1600, and is connected with the question
of the authorized or unauthorized publication of Shake-
speare's plays. In that year a quarto impression of a play, ;
called " The first part of the true and honourable History
of the Life of Sir John Oldcastle, the good Lord Cobham,"

I See "Hist. Engl, Dram. Poetry ana the Stajje." Vol. i. p. 316,
where the particulars, which are here necessarily briefly and summa-
rilj dismissed, are {jiven in detail.

* The clothing of Snug the joiner in a ''iion's fell " in this play,
Act T. bc 1, sferns to have suggested the humorous speech to King
.aaes at Linlithgow, on :30th June Hil7, eight lines of which only
we given in Nicholses '■ Progresses *' of that monarch. Vol. iii. p. ^.i26^
The whole address, of twenty-two lines, exists in the State Pajier
office, where it was discovered by Mr. Lemon. It seems to have been
the oiiginal MS. which was placed at the time in the hands of the
king, and as it is & curiosity, we su bjoin it.

'•A raoveing engine, representing a fountaine, and running wine,
9&me to the gate of the towne, in the midst of which was a lyin,
•.nd in the lyon a man, who delivered th:s learned speech to .lis
majeflCe.

"Most royal 1 sir, heere I doe you beseech,
"Who are a lyon, to hear a lyon's speech ;
A miracle ; for since the dayes of jfisop,
Till ours, noe lyon yet his voice did hois-up
To such a Majestie. Then, King of Men,
The king of beasts speaks to thee from his denn,
A fountaine nowe. That lyon, which was 'edd
More rational) ;hen this, bredd in thiii nation,
Whoe in thy presence wwbleth this or,.tion.

came out, on the title-page of which the name of William

Shakespeare appeared at length. We tiJid by Henslowe'e
Diary that this drama was in fact the authorship of four
poets, Anthony Munday, Michael Diaytou, Robert Wilson
and Richard Hathway ; and to attribute it to Shakespeare
was evidently a mere trick by the bookseller, T[homiia]
P[avier], in the hope that it would be buught as his work.
Maloue remarked upon this fraud, but he was not aware.
when he wrote, that it had been detected and corrected at
the time, for since liis day more than one copy of the *' KirsI
Part, &.C. of Sir John Oldcastle " has come to light, upon
the title-page of which no name is to be found, the lx»ok-
seller apparently having been compelled to cancel the leaf
containing it. From the indifference Shakespeare seems
uniformly to have displayed on matters of the kind, we
may, possibly, conclude that the cancel was made at the
instiince of one of the four poets who were the real authoi*9
of the play ; but we have no means of speaking decisively
upon the point, and the step niay have been in some way
connected with theobji'Ctiou taken by living members of the
Oldcastle family to the name, which had been assigned by
Shakespeare in the first instance to FaUtatf.

CHAPTER XIV.

Death of John Shakespenrein 1601. Performance of" Twelfth
Night" iu February^ 1602. Anecdote of Siiakespeare and
Burba<;e : Maiiiiiugham's Diary in the British Mu.seum the
authority for it. "'Othello," acted by Burbage and others
at the Lord Keeper's in August, 1602. Death of Elizabeth,
and Arrival of James I. at Theobalds. Kugiisli actors in
Scotland in 1589, and a^ain in 1599, 1600, and 1601 : larj^e
rewards to them. Tlie frec-dom of Aberdeen conferred in
1601 upon Laurence Fletcher, the leader of the EnglisJi
company in Scotland. Probability that Shake^pea^e never
was iu Scotland.

The father of our great poet died in the autumn of 1601
and he was buried at Stratford-upon-Avon\ He seems to
have left no will, and if he possessed any property, iu land
or houses, not made over to his family, we kuuw uot how it
was divided. Of the eight children which his wife, ilai-y
Arden, had brought him, the ff-)llowing were then alive, and
might be present at the funeral :— William, Gilbert, Joan,
Richard, and Edmund. The latter years of John Shake-
speare (who, if born in 1530 as Malone supposed, was id
his seventy-first year) were doubtless easy and comfortable,
and the prosperity of his eldest son must have placed him
beyond the reach of pecuniary difficulties.

Early in the spring of 160*2, we meet with one of those
rare &ct8 which distinctly show how uncei-tain all conjec-
ture must be respecting the date when Shakespeare's dramas
were originally written and produced. Malone and Tvr-
whitt, in 1790, conjectm*ed that " Twelfth Night " had beeu
written in 1614: in his second edition Malone altered it to

For though he heer inclosed bee in plaister,
This Well you see. is not that Areihusa,
The Nymph of Sicile : Noe, men may carous a
Health of the plump Lyreus, noblest grapes,
From these faire conduits, and turne drunk like apM.
This second spring I keep, as did that dragon
Hesperian apples. And nowe. sir, a plague on
This your poore towne. if to 't you bee not welcome
But whoe cin doubt of this, when, loe I a Well coma
Is nowe unto the gate ? I would say more,
But words now failing, dare not, l*ast I roare
The eight lines in Nichols's " Progresae* vf James [."are from
Drummond'g Poem, and there can be little doubt that the whrU
speech was from his pen.

' It was a charge against Robert Greene, that, driven by the pres-
sure of necessity, he had on one occa^iion raised money by making
*' a double sale '" of his play called " Orlando Furioso," 1.594. first to
the players and afterwards to the press. Such may have f)een the
fact, but it was unquestionably an exception to the ord ,nary rule.

* See the Introduction to '• Henry IV." Part I.

* On the 8th September, as we find by the subsequent ent") 'n iha

"1601. Septemb'.S, Mf. Johanes Shaksptare"

IVIU

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

1607, and Ohalniovs, weighing the evidence in favour of '
oue date and of the other, thought neither correct, and fixed
upon lt>13\ an opinion in wliich Dr, Drake fully concurred".
The truth is, that we have irrefi-agable evidence, from au
eye-witness, of its existence ou 2nd February, 1602, when
it was played at the Reader's Feast iu the Middle Temple.
This eye-witness wa^ a barrister of the name of Mauuing- ,
nam, who left a Diary beliiud him, which has been pre* I
Berved in the British Museum; but as we have inserted his
ttcc<iuut of the plut iu our introduction to the comedy, (Vol.
iii. p. 317) no more is required here, than a mere meution
of the circumstauf^e. However, iu another part of the same
manuscript^, he gives an anecdote of Shakespeare and Bur- j
Itagc, which we quote, without fartlier remark than that it I
has been supposed to depend upon the authority of Nicho-
las Ttiuley*, but on lookiug at the original record again, we
doubt whether it came from any such source. A " Mr. '
Towse " is repeatedly introduced as a person from whom
Maimingham derived information, and that name, though
blotted, seems to be placed at the end of the paragraph,
certainly without the addition of any Chiistian name. Tins ;
circumstance may make some difference as regards the au-
thenticity of the stui-y, because we know not who Mr.
Towse might be, while we are sure that Nichohis Tooley
was a fellow-actor in the same company as both the indi-
viduals to whom the story relates. At the same time it
was, very possibly, a mere invention of the " roguish play-
ws," originating, as was often the case, in some older joke,
and applied to Shakespeare and Burbage, because their
Christian names happened to be WilUam and Richa>'d^.

Elizabeth, from the commencement of her reign, seems
to have extended her pei'soual patronage, iis well as her
pubhc countenance, to the dcama ; and scarcely a Cluistmas
or a Shi'ovetide can be pointed out during the forty-five
years she occupied the throne, when there were not dra-
matic eutei'tainmeuts, either at Wiiitehall, Greenwich, None-
such, Richmond, or Windsor. The latest visit she paid tt)
any of her nobility in tiie country was to the Lord Keeper,
Sir Thomas Egerton, at Harefield, only nine or ten months
before ber death, and it was upon this occasit>n, in the very
beginning of August, 1602, that "Othello"' (having been
got up for her amusement, and the Lord Chamberlain's

* Sapplemental Apology, &c. p. 4(i7.

' Shafcspeare and his Times, vol. ii. p. 2G2.
> MS. Harl. No. 535:1.

* Hist, of Engl. Dram. Poetry and the Stage, vol. i. p. 331. I'he
Chnsiian name is wanting in the Harl. MS.

s See " Hist. Engl. Dram. Poetry and the Stage," vol. i. p. 331.
The writer of that work thus introduces the anecdote : — " If in the
couise of my inquiries, I have been unlucky enough (I may perhaps
say) to hnd anything which represents our great dramatist in a less
favourable light, as a humeii being with human infirmities, 1 may
lament it, but I do not the/ ifore feel myself at liberty to oonceaJ and
■uppress the fact '' The aiiecdote is this.

"Upon a tyme when Burbage played Rich. 3, there was a citizen
grew so farre in liking *-ith him, that before shee went from the
play, shee appointed him to come that oight unto her, by the name
of Rich, the 3. Shakespeare, overhearing their conclusion, went be-
fore, wa.s entertained, and at his game ere Burbage came. Then,
message being brought, that Rich, the 3. was at the dure, Shake-
speare caused returns to be made, that William the Conqueror was
before Rich, the 3. Shakespeare's name Willm."

This story may be a piece of scandal, but there is no doubt that
Burbage was the original Richard 111. As to the custom of ladies
ioviting players home to supper, ses Middleton'a ''Mad World, my
Masters,'' Act v. sc. '2. in " IJudsley's Old Plays," last edit. The
players, in turn, somHtiines invited the ladies, as we find by Field's
*' Amends for Ladies," Act iii. so. 4, in the supplementary volume to
" DodsUy's Old Pliys," published in lt*29.

* See the '' Introdi-ction '' to " Othello." Also "The Egerton Pa-
pers." printed by tho Camden Society, 1H40. p. 343.

' In a former note we have inserted the names of some of the
principal characters, in plays of the time, sustained by Burbage. as
they are given in the Epitaph upon his death, in 1619. Our readers
Qiay like to see the manner in which these characters are spoken of
by the contemporaneous versifier. The production opens with this
ooupUt : —

" Some skilful limner help me, if not so,
Some sad tragedian to express my woe ;"
which certainly does not promise much in the way of excellence ;
^at the enumeration of parts is all that is valuable, and it is this : —
" No more young Hamlet, though but scant of breath,
Shall cry. Revenge I for his dear father's death :
poor Romeo never more shall tears beget
For Juliet's love, and cruel Oa'-ulet ;

playere brought down to the liord Keeper's seat in Hert»
fordshire" for the purpose) was represented before her. Ic
this case, as in the preceding one respecting " Twelfth
Nii^ht," all that we positively learn is that such drama was
perftiimed, and we are left to infer that it was a new pla\
iVoni other circumstances, as wt^U as fi'otn the fact that it
was cu8t<:)niary on such festivities to exliibit sunie drama
that, as a novelty, was then attracting public attention.
Hence we are led to beUeve, that "Twelfth Night" (not
printed until it formed part of the fnlio of 1623) was writ-
ten at the end of 16U0, or in the beginning of 1601 ; aiid
that " Othello" (first published in 4to, 1622,) came from the
author's pen about a year afterwards. ^

In the memoranilum ascertaining the performance of
" Othello " at Harefield, the company by which it was re-
presented is called '* Burbages Players," that designation
arising out of the fact, that he was looked upon as the
leader of the association : he was certainly its most cele-
brated actor, and we find from other sources that he wji^
the representative of " the Moor of Venice''." Whether
Shakespeare had any and what part in the tragedy, either
then or upon other occasions, is not known ; but we do not
think any argument, oue way or the other, is tt> be drawn
from the fact that the C(.iiiipany. when at Harefield, does
not seem to have been under his immediate government
Whether he was or was not one of the "playera** in
"Othello," in August 1602, there can be httle doubt that aa
an actor, and moreover as one '* exeelU-nt in his quality," be
must have been often seen and apjilauded by Elizabeth
Chettle informs us after her death, iu a passage already
quoted, that she had "opened her royal ear to his laye;"
but this was obviously in his capacity of dramatist, and we
have no direct evidence to establish that Shakespeare bad
ever pei'formed at Court*.

James I. reached Theobalds, in his journey from Edin-
burgh to London, on the 7th May, IfJOS Before he quitted
nessing the performances of English actors ; and it is an in-
teresting, but at the same time a difiieult question, whether
Shakespeare had evei* appeared before him, or, in other
words, whether our great dramatist hud ever visited Scot-
land ) We have certainly no affii-mative testunony upon

Harry shall not be seen as King or Prince,

They died with thee, dear Dick, —

Not to revive again. Jeronimo

Shall cease to mourn his snn Horatio.

They cannot call thee from thy naked bed

By horrid outcry ;#and Antonio's dead.

Edward shall lack a representative ;

And Crookback, as befits, shall cease to live.

Tyrant Macbeth, with unwasih'd bloody hand,

We vainly wow may hope to understand.

Brutus and Marcius henceforth must be dumb.

For ne'er thy like upon our atage shall come,

To charm the faculty of ears and eyes,

Unless we could command the dead to rise

Vindex is gone, and what a loss was he I

Frankford. Brachiano, and iMalevoie.

Heart-broke Philabter, and Amintas too,

Are lost fur ever, with the red-liair"d Jew,

Which sought the bankrupt Merchant's pound of fleahf

By woman-lawyer caught in his own mesh • • •

And his whole action he would change with eatm

From ancient Lear to youthful Pericles.

But let me not forget one chiefest part

"Wherein. beyond tlie rest, he mov'd the heart ;

The grieved Moor, made jealous by a stave,

Who sent his wife to fill a tuneless grave,

Then slew himself upon the bloody bed.

All tnese. and many more, with him are dead.'' ice
The MS from which the above lines are cojiied seems, at least in oa«
place, defective, but it might be cured by the addition of the word*.
"and not long since "

** A liallad was published on the death of Elizabeth, in the com*
mencement of which Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and Thomas Greene,"
author of " A Poet's Vision and a Prince's Glorie,'' 4to. lliO'i ■^v^n
called upon to contribute some verses in honour of the late C^ueeu .
" You poets all, brave Shakespeare, Johnson, Greene,

Bestow your time to write for England's Queene," &a
Excepting for this notice of " brave Shakespeare," the prcduciion
is utterly contemptible, and must have been the work of some of the
" goblins and underelves '' of poetry, who, according to a poem in H
Chettle's " England's Mourning Garment." had put forth upon the
occasion " rude rhimes, and metres reasoulesa."

l-HE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

lix

the p.iint. bejond what maybe derived fiom some passages I
in " Macbeth," descriptive of particular localities, with ■
which passages our readera must be familiar: there is,
howevtr, ample room for conjeetiire ; and although, on the
whole, we are inclined to think that he was never north of
the Tweed, it is indisputable that the company to which he I
belonged, or a part of it, had performed in Edinburgh and ;
Aberdeen, and doubtless in some intermediate places. We
will bri*fly state the existing proofs of this fact |

The year 1699 has been commonly supposed the earliest
date at which an association of Euglisb actors was in Scot- '
land ; but it can be shown beyond contradiction that " her
Majesty's players," meaning those of Queen Elizabeth, were
in Edinburgh ten years earlier'. In 1589, Ashby, the am-
bassador extraordinary from England to James VI. of
Scotland, thus writes fo Lord Burghley, under date of the
I2d October:—

" M.v Lord Bothw[eU] begins to shew himself willing and
ready to do Jier Mujcsty any service, and desires hereafter to
be thought of as he shjiil fleserve : he slieweth great kindness
to our nation, using her Mnjcstiea Flayers and Oanoniers with
all courtesies."

In 1589, the date of Ashby's dispatch, Shakespeare had
quitted Stratford about three years, and the question is,
what company was intended to be designated as " her Ma-
jesty's players." It is an admitted fact, that in 1583 the
Queen selected twelve leading performers from the theatr
rical servants of some of her nobility, and they were after-
wards called " her Majesty's players ;" and we also now
know, that in 1590 the Queen had two companies acting
under her name' : in the autunm of the precedmg year, it is
likely that one of these associations had been sent to the
Scottish capital for the amusement of the young king, and
the company formed in 1683 may have been divided into
two bodies for this express purpose. Sir John Sinclair, in
his " Statistical Account of Scotland," established that a
K>dy of comedians was in Perth in June, 1589 ; and sil-
though we are without evidence tliat they were English
players, we may fairly enough assume that they were the
same company spoken of by Ashby, as having been used
oouileously by Lord Bothwell in the October following.
We have no means of ascertainiug the names of any of the
players, nor indeed, excepting the leaders Laneham and
Dutton, can we state who were the members of the Queen's
two companies in 1690. Shakespeare might be one of
them ; but if he were, he might not belong t<i that division
of the company which was dispatched to Scotland.

It is not at all improbable that English actors, having
found their way north of the Tweed in 1589, would speedily
repeat their visit ; but the next we hear of them is, not until
after a long interval, in the autumn of 1599. The pubUc
records of Scotland show that in October, 1599, (exactly the
suJue season as that in which, ten years earlier, they are
spoken of by Ashby) 43/. 6s. %d. were delivered to "his
Uighness' self," to be given to " the English comedians :" in
the next month they were paid 41/. 12s. at various times.
In December they received no less than 333/. 6s. 8<i ; in
April, 1600, 10/.; and in December, 1601, the royal bounty
ariounted to 400/.*

Thus we see, that English players were in Scotland from
Oct«.)ber, 1599, to December, 1601. a period of more than
two years ; but still we are without a particle of proof that
Shakespeare was one of the association. We cannot, how-
tver, entertain a doubt that Laurence Fletcher, (whose
name, we shall see presently, stands first in the patent
granted by King James <in his arrival in London) was the

leader of the assooiation wliich performiid in Edinburgh osa
elsewhere, because it appears from the registers of the town
council of Aberdeen, that on the 9th October, 1601, the
English players received 32 marks as a gratuity, and that
on 22d October the freedom of the city was conferred npon
Laurence Fletcher, who is especially styled " comedian to
his Majesty." The company had arrived in Aberdeen, and
tion of a special letter from James VI. ; and, although they
were in fact the players of the Queen of Engl.ond, they
might on this account be deemed and treated as the playen
of the King of Scotland.

Our chief reason ior tliinking it unlikely that Sbakespear*
would have accompanied his fellows to Scotland, at all
events between October, 1599, and December, 1601, is that,
as the principal writer for the company to which he wa»
attached, he could not well have been spared, and because
we have good ground for beUeving that about that pencd
he must have been unusually busy in the composition of
plays. No fewer than five dramas seem, as far as evidence,
positive or conjectural, can be obtamed, to belong to the
mterval between 1598 and 1602 ; and the proof appears to
us tolerably conclusive, that " Henry V.,"_" Twelfth Night,"
and " Hamlet," were written respectively in 1599, 1600, and
1601. Besides, as far as we are able to decide such a point,
the company to which our great dramatist belonged con-
tinued to perform in London ; for although a detachment
under Lam'ence Fletcher may have been sent to Scotland,
the main body of the association called the Lord Chamber-
lain's players exhibitad at court at the usual seasons in
1599, 1600, and 1601'. Therefore, if Shakespeare visited
Scotland at aU, we think it must have been at an earlier
period, and there was undoubtedly ample time between the
years 1589 and 1599 for him to "have done so. Neverthe-
less, we have no tidmgs that any English actors were in any
part of Scotland during those ten years.

» Between September. 15-^9, and September. ISDO. Queen Eliza-
beth had sent, as a present to the young King of Scotland on his
marriage, a gplendid mask, with ail the necessary appurtenances,
and we find it charged for in the accounts of the department of the
revels for that period. See "Hist, of Engl. Dram. Poetry and the
8l»ge,'- vol. i. p. 271). It is tnoi^t lifcely that the actors from London

■ From MS. Harl. 4li47. being copies of despatches from Mr. A^hby
to dtlferent members of the Council in London. We are indebted to
Ml. N. Hill for directing our attention to this curious notice.

• See Mr P. Cunningham's " Extracts from the Revels' Accounts,"
'printed for the Shaiiespeare Society.) p- xxxii.

CHAPTER XV.

Proclamation by .lames 1. against plays on Sunday. Renewaj
of theatrical performances in Loudon. Patent of May 17tli,
1603, to Laurence Fletcher, William Shakespeare, and
others. Koyal patronage of three companies of actors.
Shukespearo in Loudon iu tlie autumn of 1603: and a can-
didate for the office of Master of the Queen's Revels. Cha-
racters Shakespeare is known to have performed. His
retirement from the stage, as an actor, after April 9th, 1604.

Before he even set foot in London, James L thought it ne-
cessary to put a stop to dramatic performances on Sunday
This fact has never been mentioned, because the proclama-
tion he issued at Theobalds on 7th May, containing the para-
graph for this purpose, has only recently come to light
There had been a long pending struggle between the
Puritans and the pUyevs upon this point, and each party
seemed bv turns to gain the victory; for various ordere
were, from time to tune, issued from authority, forbidding
exhibitions of the kind on the S.abbath, and those orders had
been uniformly more or less contravened. We may sup-
p,ise, that strong remonstrances having been made to the
King by some of those who attended him from Scotland, a
clause with this special object was appended to a proelaina-
tion directed against monopohes and legal extort;. iTis. The
mere circumstance of the company hi which this paragraph,

* For these particulars of payments, and some other points con-
neoted with them, w« are indebted to Mr. Laing, of tJinburgh, who
has made extensive and valuable collections for a history of the Stage
in Scotland. , . . , .

I » The accounts of the revels' department at this period are not so
i complete as usual, and in Mr P. Cunningham s book we find no de.
t.ails of any kind between 15t<7 and ItiOl. The interval was a penod
of the greatest possible intere^t, as regards the performance ol the pro-
dnctions of Shakespeare, and we earnestly hjpe that the mieiml

accounts may yet be recovered.

Ix

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

a^ainet dramatic performances on Sunday, is found, seems
to prove timt it was an after-thought, and that it was in-
serted, booause liis courtiers had urged that James ought
not even to enter his new capital, imtil public steps hud
been taken to put an^end to the prtifanation'.

The King, having issued tliis command, amved at the
Charter-house on the same day, and all the tlieatricid com-
panies, which had teiuporarily suspended their performances,
began to act again on the 9th May^ Permission U> this
iffeet was given by James I., and conimuuicatcd through
ihe ordinary chiuiuel to the players, whu sotm fouud reason
to rejoice in the accession of the new sovereign ; for ten
days after he reached London he took the Lord Chambei"-
lain's players into his pay and patronage, calling them " the
Kini^'s servants," a title they always after-wards enjoyed.
For iLis purpose he issued a warrant, under the privy seal,
for making out a patent under the great seal^, authorizing
the nine foUuwiug actors, and others, Uj perform in his name,
not only at the GU»be on the Bankside, but in any pail of
the kingdom ; viz. Laurence Fleteher, William Shakespeare,
Richard Burbage, Augustine Phillippes, John Hemiuge,
Henry Condell, William Sly, Robert Armyn, and Richard
Cowley.

We miss from this list the names of Thomas Pope, Wil-
ham Kempe, and Nicholas Tooley, who had belonged to the
company in 1596; and instead of them we have Laurence
Fletcher, Henry Condell, and Robert Amiyn, with the ad-
(htion of Richard Cowley. Pope had been an actor in 1689,
and perhaps in May, 16U3, was an old man, for he died in
miral's players soon after the opening of the Fortune, on his
retuili from the Continent, for we find him in Henslowe's
pay in 16U2. Nichohis Tooley had also perhaps withdrawn
trom the association at this date, or his name would hardly

* The paragraph is in these terms, and we quote them because they
liave not been noticed by any historian of our stage.

'■And for that we are informed, that there hath been heretofore
great neglect in this kingdome of keeping the Sabbath day ; for the
better observing of the same and avoyding all impious proplianation,
We do straightly charge and comniaund that no Ueare-bayting. Bul-
bayting. Enterludes, common Playes, or tither like disordered or un-
lawful exercises, or pastimes, be frequented, kept, or used at any time
hereafter upon the Sabbath day.

Oiven at our Court at Theobalds, the 7 day of May, in the
first yeare of our Reigne."

' This fact we have upon the authority of Henslowe's Diary. See
the Hist. Engl. Dram- Poetry and the Stage, vol. i. p. 34tj.

' It runs verbatim et literatim thus : —

By Tue King.

" Right •rusty and welbeloved Counsellor, we greete you well, and
will and commaund you, that under our privie Seale in your custody
for the time being, you cause our letters to be derected to the keeper
of our greate seale of England, commaunding him under our said
greate Seale, he cause our letters to be made patents in forme follow-
ing. James, by the grace of God, King of England, Scotland, Fraunce,
and Irland, defender of the faith, &c. To all Justices. Maiors, Sheriff's,
Constables, Headboroughes, and other our officers and loving subjects
greeting. Know ye, that we of our speciall grace, ceriame know-
ledge, and meere motion have licenced and authorized, and by these
presentes doe licence and authorize, these our servants. Lawrence
Fletcher, William Shakespeare, Richard Burbage, Augustine Phil-
lippes, Jolin Hemmings, Henrie Condell, William Sly, Robert Armyn,
Richard Cowiye, and the rest of their a-^sociats, freely to use Sc exer-
eije the aste and faculty of playing Comedies, Tragedies. HistorieB,
Enterludes, Moralls, Pastoralls, Stage plaies, and s"ch other like, as
that thei have already studied or hereafter shall use or studic. aswell
for the recreation of our loving subjects, as for our solace and piea-
sare, when we shall thinke good to see them, dunng our pleasure.
And tka said Comedies, Tragedies, Histories, Enterludes, Moralls,
Pastoral. 3, Stage plaies, and such like, to shew !c exercise publiquely
to their best commoditie, when the infection of the plague shall de-
crease, as well within theire now usuall howse called the Globe,
within our county of Surrey, as also within anie towne halls, or mout
halls, or other convenient places within the liberties k (Veedome of
my other citie, universitie, townp, or borough whatsoever within our
said realmes and dominions. Willing and commaunding you, and
every of you, as you tender onr pleasure, not only to permit and suffer
them heerin, without any your letts, hinderances, or molestations,
during our said pleasure, but also to be ayding or assisting to them,
yf any wrong be to them offered. And to allowe them such former
courtesies, aj bathe bene given to men of their place and qualitie :
and also what further favour you shall shew to these our ser\'ants for
our s ike, we shall take kindly at your hands. And these our letters
ihall be your sufficient warrant and difi;cha,rge in this behalfe. Given
ander our Signet at our mannor of Greenewiche. the seaventeenth
4ay of May in the first yere of our raigne of England, France, and
Ireland, Ac. of Scotland the six k thirtieth. Ex per Lake."

have been omitted in the patent, as an estabhsheti aator
and a man of some property and influence ; but he, as weU
as Kempe, not lonjj subsequently rejoined the association
with which they had been so long conueetcd.

We may assume, pei'haps, in the absence of any direct
testimony, that Laurence Fletcher did not acquire liis prtm-
inence in the company by any remarkable excellence as ac
his associates before James in 1599, 16U0, and 1601, and in
the latter year he bad been registered as " his Majesty 'e
Comedian" at Aberdeen. He might, thciefore, have been a
favourite with the King, and being also a considerable sharer
in the association, he perhaps owed his place in the pateul
of ilay, 1603, to that circumstance*. The name of bbake
speare ct^mes next, and as author, actor, and sharer, w«
cannot be surprised at the situation he occupies. His pro-
gress upwarJ, in eonnoxiou with the profession, had been
gradual and uniform : in 1689 he was twelfth in a company
of sixteen members: in 1596 he was tifth in a company <»f
eight members; and in 1603 he was second in a company
of nine members.

The degree of encouragement and favour extended to ac-
tors by James I. in the very commencement of liis reign is
remarkable. Not only did he take the Lord Chamberlain e
players unto his own service, but the Queen adopted the
company which had acted under the name of the Earl of
\y^oreester, of which the celebrated dramatist, Thomas Hey-
Wood, was then one ; and the Prinee of Wales that of the
the founder of Dulwich College. These three royal asso-
ciations, as they may be termed, were independent of others
under the patronage of individual noblemen^

The poUcy of this course at such a time is evident, and
James L seems to have been impressed with the truth of

The patent under the great seal, made out in consequence of this
warrant, bears date two days afterwards.

* Nothing seems to be known of the birth or origin of Laurence
Fletcher, (who died in September, 16Ud,) but we may suapect that he
was an elder brother ol John Fletcher, the dramatist, ^ishop Fletcher,
the father, died on IS June, loilii, having made his will in October,
15114, before he was translated from Worcester to London. This doc-
ument seems never to have been examined, but it appears from it. ai
Mr. P. Cunningham informs us, that he had no tewer than nine
children, although he only mentions iiis sons Nathaniel and John by
name. He died poor, and among the Lansdowne Mti6. is one, enti-
tled "'Reasons to move her Majesty to some commiseration towarde
the orphans of the late Hishop of London, Dr. Fletcher :" this la
printed in Birch's '• Memoirs." He incurred the lasting displeasure
of Q.ueen Elizabeth by marrying, for his second wi.fe, Lady Bakei
of Kent, a woman of more than questionable character, if we may
believe general report, and a satirical poem of the time, handed dcA e
only in manuscript, which begins thus : — ;

*'The pride of prelacy, which now long since
Was banish'd with tlie Pope, is sayd of late
To have arrived at Bristowe, and from thence
3y Worcester into London brought his state."
It afterwards goe« on thus : —

*'The Romaine Tarquin, in his folly blind.
Of faire chaste Lucreoe did a Lais make ;
But owr proud Tarquin beares a braver mind,
And of a LaiF doth a Lucrece make."
We cannot venture to quote the coarse epithets liberally bestowed
upon Lady Baker, but the poem ends with these lineo : —
" But yet, if any will the reason find.

Why he that look'd as lofty aj a steeple,
Should be eo base as for to come behind,

And take the leavings of the common people,
'T is playne ; lor in processions, you know,
The priest must after all the people goe."

We ought to have mentioned that the poem is headed " Bishop
wife, Elizabeth, at Chelsea Church in December, 159-J. Nathaniel
Fletcher, mentioned above as included with his brother John in hit
father's will, is spoken of on a preceding page as "servant" lo Mrs
White; but who Mrs. White might be, or what was the preciw
nature of '' Nat. Fletcher's" servitude, we have no information.

* However, an Act of Parliament was very soon passed (I Jac. L r,.
7,) to expose strolling actors, although protected by the authority of
a peer, to the penaltie* of '.iO Eliz. c. 4. Itseems to have been founi!
that the evil had increased to an excess which required this degre*
of correction ; and Sir Edward Coke in his Charge to the Grand Ji.ry
at Norwich in 1607, (when at was printed) observes, ''The ahu^e of
Btage-players, wherewith I find the country much trouMed, m.'iy
easily be reformed, they having no commission to p)ii.y ir any p'at*
without leave ; and therefore by your wilUigness if thry be not eu
tertained, you may iK>oo be nd '.f them."

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

Ixi

the pasBape in " Hamlet," (brought out, as we apprehend,
»ery shortly before he came to the throne) where it is said
jf these " abstracts and brief chronicles of the time," that
it is " better to have a bad epitiiph, than their ill report while
you hve.* James made himself sure of their good report ;
and an epigram, attribute.) t<j Shakespeai-e, has descended
to us, which doubtless was mteuded in some sort as a grate-
ful return for the royal countenance bestowed upon the
itage, and upon those who were connected with it. We
copy it from a coeval manuscript in our possession, which
jeems to have belonged to a cuiious accumulator of mat-
ters of the kind, and which also contjiins an unknown pro-
duction by Dekker, as well as various other pieces by dra-
matists and poets of the time. The lines are entitled,

" SHAKEiPEARK ON THE KlNO.

'* Crowns have their compiiss, Ieii<;tli of days their date,
Triumphs their tomb, felicity her fate ;
Of nought hut eartli onn earth miike us partaker,
But knowledge makes a king moat like his Maker."

We have seen these lines in more than one other old
manuscript, and as they were constantly attributed to
Shakespeare, and in the form in which we have given them
above, are in no respect unworthy of his pen, we have little
i<tubt of their authenticity'.

Having established his family in " the great house " called
" New Place " in his native town in 1597, by the purchase
of it from Hercules Underbill, Shakespeare seems to have
contemplated considerable additions to his property there.
In May, 1602, he bud out £320 upon 107 acres of land,
which he bought of William and Jolin Combe', and attached
it to his dwerijng. The original indenture and its counter-
part are hi existence, bearing date Ist May, 1602, but to
neither of them is the signature of the poet affixed ; aad it
seems that he being absent, his bi'other G ilbert was his im-
mediate agent in the transaction, and to Gilbert Shakespeare
the property was delivered to the use of WilUam Shake-
speare. In the autumn of the same year he became the
owner of a copyhold tenement (called a cotagium in the
iustrmnent) in Walker's Street, alias Dead Lane, Stratford,
surrendered to him by Walter Getley*. In November of
the next year he gave Hercules Underbill £60 for a mes-
suage, barn, granary, garden, and orchard close to or in Strat-
ford ; but in the original fine, preserved in the Chapter House,
Westminster, the precise situation is not mentioned. In
1603, therefore, Shakespeare's property, in or near Strat-
ford-upon-Avon, besides wliat he might have bought of, or
inherited from, his father, consisted of New Place, with 107
acres of land attached to it, a tenement in Walker's Street,
chased from Underbill.

Whether our great dramatist was in London at the period
when the new king ascended the throne, we have no means
of knowing, but that he was so in the following autumn we
have pdsitive proof ; for iu a letter written by Mrs. AUeyn,
(the wife of Edward AUeyn, the actor) tt> her husband,
then m the ooimtry, dated 20th October, 1603, she tells liim
that she had seen " Mr. Shakespeare of the Globe " in
Southwark*. At this date, aeeordmg to the same authority,

* Boflwell appears to have had a manuscript copy of this epigram,
knt the general position in the lajst line wiu made to have a particu-
Itr application oy the change of "a" to tke. See Shakspeare by
Bo«well, vol. li. p. 4':'l. There were other variations for the worse in
Boswell's copy, but that which we have noticed completely altered
the character of the production, and reduced it from a great general
truth to a mere piece of personal tlattery — " But knowledge makes
thf. king most like his Maker."

2 Much ha£ been said in all the Lives of our poet, from the time
of Aubrey (who first gives the story) to our own. respecting a satirical
•pitaph upon a person of the name of John a Combe, supposed to
have been made extempore by Shakespeare : Aubrey words it thus : —
*'Ten in the hundred the devil allows.
But Combe will have twelve, he swears and he vows.
If any one ask. Who lies in this tomb ?
Ho! ,^uoth the devil, 'tis my John a Combe."
Rowe changes the terms a little, but thp point is the same, and in
Brathwaite's " Remains," 1018, we have another version of the lines,
where they are given 3s having been written by that author "upon
one John Combe, of Stratford-upon-Avon, a notable usurer." We
irfl by no means satisiied that they were originally penned by Brath-

most of the companies of players who had left London for
the provinces, on account of the prevalence of the plasiie,
and the consequent cessation of dramatic performances, had
returned to the metropohs; and it is not at all unlikely that
Shakespeare was one of those who had returned, having
taken the opportunity of visiting his family at Stratford-
upon-Avon.

Under Elizabeth the Children of the Chapel (originally
the choir-boys of the royal establishment) had become an
acknowledged company of players, and these, besides her
association of adult performers. Queen Anne took under
her immediate patrouage, with the style of the Children of
her Majesty's Revels, requiring that the pieces they pro-
posed to represent should first be submitted to, and hav*
the approval of, the celebrated poet Samuel Daniel Th«
instrument of their appointment bears date 30th January,
1603— i ; and from a letter from Daniel to his patron, Sii
Thomas Egerton, preserved among his papers, we may per-
haps ccmclude that Shakespeare, as well as Michael Dray-
ton, bad been candidates for the post of master of the
Queen's revels : be says in it, " I cannot but know, that I
am lesse deserving than some that sued by other of the no-
bility imto her Majestic for this roome ;" and, after inti'o-
ducing the name of " his good friend,*' Drayton, he adds th*
following, which, we apprehend, refers with sufficient dis
tinctuess to Shakespeare : — " It seemeth Xo myne humble
judgement that one who is the authour of playes, now day lie
preseuted on the pubhe stages of London, and the possessor
of no small gaines, and moreover him selfe an actor in the
Kinges companie of comedians, could not with reason pre-
tend to be Master of the Queene's Majesties Revells, for as
much as he wold sometimes be asked to approve and allow
of his own writings."

Tills objection would have applied with equal force to
Drayton, had we not every reason to believe that before
this date he had ceased to be a dramatic author. He had
been a writer for Henslowe and Alleyn's company duiing
sevei'al years, first at the Rose, and afterwards at the For-
tune ; but he seems to have reUnquished that species of
composition about a year prior to the demise of Elizabeth,
the last piece iu which he was concerned, of which we have
any intelligence, being noticed by Henslowe under date of
May, 1 502 : this play was called " The Harpies," and he
was assisted in it by Dekker, Middleton, Webster, and
Munday.

It is highly probable that Shakespeare was a suitor for
this office, in contemplation of a speedy retirement as an
actor. We have already spoken of the presumed excel-
lence of liis personations on the stage, and to the tradition
that he was the original player of the part of the Ghost in
" Hamlet." Another character he is said to have sustained
is Adam, in " As you like it;" and his brother Gilbert, (who
107 acres of land purchased from Wilham and John Combe)
who probably survived the Restoration, is supposed to have
Ben Jonson's " Every Man in his Humour," in 1598, after
(as we believe) introducing it to the company ; and he is
supposed to have written part of, as well as known to have

waite. from being imputed to him in that volurne, and by a passagt
in '-Alaroccus Extaticus," a tract printed as ear^ as l.'iil^, it is very
evident that the connexion between the Devil and John a Combe, or
John of Comber (as he is there called) was much older ; — " So hee haj
had his rent at the daie, the deviil and John of Comber should not
have fetcht Kate L. to Bridewell." There is no ground forsuppo^lnjj
that Shakespeare was ever on bad terms with any of the Combes,
and in his will he expressly left his sword to Mr Thomas Combe.
In a MS. of that time, now before us, we find the following givoa
as an epitaph upon Sir William Stone : —

" Heer ten in the hundred lies dead and ingraved :
But a hundred to ten his soul is not saved."
And the couplet is printed in no very different form in " The Mon
the Merrier, by H. P., ilillM. as well as in Camden's " Remains."

3 A coeval copy of the court-roll is in the hands of the Shakespeare
Society. Malone had seen it, and put his initials upon it. No doubt
it was his intention to have used it in his unfinished Life of Shake-
speare.

* See the " Memoirs of Edward AUeyn," printed for the Shak»

speare Society, p. ti'.i.

* See the Introduction to " As you likft it."

Ixii

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

performed in, the same author's " Sejanus," in 1 603'. This is
tie last we hear of him upon the stage, but that he continued
d member of the company until April 9, 1604, we have
the evidence of a document preserved at Dulwieh College,
where the mmies of the King's players are enumerated in
the following order: — Bui-bage, Shakespeare, Fletcher,
I'hillips, Coudell, Heraiuge, Armyn, Sly, Cowley, Ostler,
and Day. If Shsikespeare had not theu actually ceased to
perform, we ueed not hesitate in deciding that he quitted
that department of the profession very shortly afterwards.

CHAPTER XVL

'mmediate consequences of Shakespeare's retirement. Of-
fences given by tlie company to tlie court, and to private
iiiilividiials. " Gowry's Conspiracy:" " Biron's Conspi-
racy" and "Tragedy." Suspension of tlieatrical perform-
ances. Purchase of a lease of the tithes of Stratford, &c. ,
by Sliukespeare. "Hamlet" printed in 1603 and 1604.
" Henry VIII." "Macbeth." Supposed autograph letter
of King James to Shakespeare. Susanna Shakespeare and
Johii Hall married in 1607. Death of Edmund Shake-
speare in the same year. Death of Mary Shakespeare in
1608. Shakespeare's great popularity : rated to the poor
of Southwark.

No sooner had our great dramatist ceased to take part m
the pubUc performances of the King's players, than the
company appears to have thrown oif the restraint by which
it had been usually coutrolled ever since ita formation, and
to have produced plays which were objectionable to the
court, as well as offensive to private persons. Shakespeai'C,
from his abilities, station, and experience, must have pos-
sesHcd great influence with the body at large, aud due de-
ference, we may readily beUeve, was shown to his know-
ledge and judgment in the selection ana acceptance of
plays sent in for approbation by authors of the time. The
contrast between the eouduct of the association immediately
before, and immediately after his retirement, would lead us
to conclude, not only that he was a man of prudence and
discretion, but that the exercise of these qualities had in
many instances kept his fellows from incurring the displea-
sure of persons in power, aud from exciting the animosity
of particular individuals. We suppose Shakespeare to have
ceased to act in the summer of 1604, and in the winter of
that very year we find the King's players giving otfence to
" some great counsellors " by perfomimg a play upon the
subject of Gowry's conspiracy. This fact we have upon
the evidence of one of Sir R. Wiuwood's correspondents,
John Chamberlaine, who, in a letter dated 18th December
1604, uses these expressions: — "The tragedy of Gowry,
with all action and actors, hath been twice represented by
the King's players, with exceeding concourse of all sorts of
people ; but whether the matter or manner be not well
handled, or that it be thought unfit that princes should be
played on the stage in theii' lifetime, I hear that some great
counsellors are much displeased with it, and so, it is thought,
it shall be forbiddca" Whether it was so forbidden we do

1 From lines preceding it in the 4to, 160.'), Tve know that it was
t-ought out at the Iflobe, and Ben Jonson admits that it was ill re^
ceiveo by the audience.

2 We may here notice two productions by this great and various
author, one ot which is mentioned by Ant. Wood (Ath. Oxon. edit.
Bliss, vol. ii. p. o75), and the other by Warton {Hist. Engl. I'oetr.
vol. iv. p. 276, edit, ^vo), on the authority merely of the stationers'
registers; but none of our literary antiquaries seem to have been able
to meet with them. They are both in existence. The first is a de
fence of liis " Andromeda Liberata.'' 1614, which he wrote in cele
bration of the marriage of the Earl of Somerset and the Countess of
Kssex, which Chapman lells us had been " most maliciously misin
terpreted :"' it is called •' A free and oflenceless Justification '■ of hi;
poem, and it was printed in 1614. It is chiefly in prose, but at
the end is a dialogue in rhyme, between Pherae and Theodines, the
la-st being meant for Chapman : Wood only supposes that Chapman
wrote It. but if he could have read it he would have entertained no
toubl. It appears that Somerset himself had conceived that "An-
dromeda Liberata " was a covert attack upon him, and from this no-
tion Chapman was anxious to relieve himself. The poetical dialogue
U thm opened by Pheme, aud sufficiently explains the object of th«
Writer

not hear upon the same or any other authority, but no such
drama has come down to us.

In the next year (at what particular part of it is not
stated) Sir Leonard Hahday, tljen Loi-d Mayor of Loudoc
backed no doubt by his bi'ethren of the corporation, made
a complaint against the same company, " that Kempe. (who
at this date had rejoined the association) Armyn, aud others,
players at the Blackfiiars, have again not forborne to bring
upon their stage one or more of the worshipful aldermen
of tlie city of Loudon, to their great scaudal and the lessen-
ing of their authority," and the iutcT'position of the privy
council to prevent the abuse was therefore solicited. What
was done in consequence, if anything were done does not
appear in any extant document.

in the spring of the next year a still graver charge wa
brought against the body of actors of whiun Shakespeare
uutil very recently, had been one ; and it originated in no
less a person than the French ambassador. George Chap-
man'^ had written two plays upon the history aud execution
of the Duke of Biron. coutainiug, in the shape in which they
were originally produced on the starve such matter that M
Beaumont, the representative of the King of P^-ance in
London, thought it necessai-y to remonstrate against the re-
petition, aud the performance of it was prohibited : as soon,
however, as the court had quitted London, the King's play-
ers persisted in acting it ; in cousequeuce of which three
of the players were arrested, (theii' names are not given)
but the author made his escape. These two dr;uua3"were
printed in 1608, and again in 1625 ; and looking through
them, we are at a loss to discover anytliiug, beyond the his-
torical incidents, which could have given oifeuce ; but the
truth certainly is, that all the objectionable portions were
omitted ih the press : there can be no doubt, on the author-
ity of the despatch from the French ambassador to his
court, that one of the dramas originally contained a seeue
in which the Queen of France and Mademoiselle Verneuil
were introduced, the former, after having abused her, giving
the latter a box on the ear.

This information was conveyed to Paris under the date
of the 5th April, 1606 ; and the French ambassador, appa-
rently in order to make his court acquainted with the law-
less character of dramatic performances at that date in
England, adds a very singnlai' paragraph, proving that the
King's players, only a few days before they had brought the
Queen of France upon the stage, had not hesitated to intro-
duce upon the same boards their own reigning sovereign in
a most imseemly manner, making hiin swear violently, and
beat a gentleman for interfermg with his known propensity
for the chase. This course indicates a most extraordinary
degree of boldness ou the part of the players ; but, never-
theless, thoy were not prohibited from acting, until M.
Beaumont had directed the attention of the public authori-
ties to the insult offered to the Queen of France : then, an
order was issued putting a sti.)p to the acting of all plays
in London ; but, according to the same authority, the com-
panies had clubbed their money, and, attacking James L on
his weak side, had offered a large sum to be allowed to
continue their performances. The French ambassador him-
self apprehended that the appeiJ to the King's pecuniary

" Ho. you ' Theodines ' you must not dreame
Y'are thus dismist in peace : seas too extreame
Your song hath stir'd up to be calm'd so soone :
Nay, in your haven you shipwracke : y'are undoajl.
Your Perseus is displeasM. and sleighteth now
Your work as idle, and as servile yow.
The peoples god-voice hath exclaimM away
Your mistie clouds; and he sees, cleare asday,
Y'ave made him scandal'd for anothers wrong.
Wishing unpubl eht your unpopular song."
The otker production, ol vhich our knowledge lias aiso hltherti]
been derived from the sta* oners' registers, is called '' retrarch'l
Seven Penitentiall Psalms, paraphra-slically translated," lAilh other
poems of a miscellaneous kind at the end : it was printed m small
&V0, in 1612, dedicated to Sir Kdward Phillips, Master of the Rolls,
where Chapman speaks of his yet unfinished translation of Homer,
which, he adds, the Prince of Wales had commanded him to com-
plete. The editor of the present work has a copy of Chapman'ii
Memorable Masque " on the marriage of the Palsgiave and PrinceH
Elizabeth, corrected by Chapman in his owh hand ; but the erron
are few, and not very important. I: shows the palieat accuracy of
the accomplished writer

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEAEE.

Ixih

vnnts would be effectuij, and that permission, under certain
restrictions, would not long be withheld'.

Whatever emoluments Shakespeare had derived from the
Biaekfriars or the Globe theatres, as lui aetor merely, we
may be tolerably eei'taiu he relinquished when he ceased
to perform. He would thus be able tu devote more of his
tin\e to dnunatic composition, and, as be continued a sharer
in the two undertakings, perhaps his income on the whole
wajj not much lessened. Certain it is, that in 16U6 he was
in possession of a considerable sum, which he was anxious
to mvest advantageouslv in property in or near the place
uf his birtli. Whatever may have been the circumstances
under wliich he quitted Stratford, he always seems to have
contemplated a permanent return thitlier, and kept his eyes
eoustautiy turned in the direction of iiis birth-place. As
iu the matter of tithes " of Stratford'^ ; but perhaps at that
date, havmg recently purchased New i'lace. he Wiis not in
suliicieut funds for the purpose, or po.ssibly the party in
possession of the lease of the tithes, though not unwilling
to dispose of it, requii'cd more than it was deemed wo!*th.
^.t all events, nothing was done on the subject for more than
six years; but on the '2ith July, 16U5, we find William
Shakespeare, who is described as •' of Stratford-upon-Avon,
gentleman," executing im mdenture for the purchase of the
unexpired term of a long lease of tlie great tithes of "corn,
grain, blade, and hay." and of the small tithes of " wool,
himb, and other small and privy tithes, herbage, oblations,"
Ac. in Sti'atfoid, uld Stratford, Bishopton, and Weleombo,
in the county of Waiwick. The vendor was Raphe Hu-
baud. of Ippesley, Esquire ; and from the draft of the deed,
now before us', we learu that the original lease, dated as far
back as IStSg, was " for four score and twelve years ;'' so
that iu Itiuo it had still twenty-six yeai-s to run, and for
this our great dramatist agreed t« pay 440/ : by the receipt,
contained iu the same deed, it appears that he paid the
whole of the money before it was executed by the parties.
He might very fitly be described aa of Stratford-upon-
Avon, because he had there not only a substantial, settled
residence for his family, but he was the owner of consider-
able property, both iu hiud and houses, in the town and
neighbourhood ; and he had been before so described iu
16u2, when he bought the 107 acres of William and John
Combe, which he imuexed to his dwelling of New Place.

A spurious edition of " Hamlet " haviug been published
in 1 603', a more authentic copy came out in the next year,
been grossly disfigured and misrepresented. We do not
beUeve that Shivkespeare, individually, had anytliing to do
with this second and more correct impression, and we doubt
much whether it was authorized by the company, which
eeems at all times to have done its utmost to prevent the

* We derive these very curious and novel particulars from M. Von
Riuin*^r's ■■ Hi.story of the tfixleenlh and Seventeenth Centuries,"
transiited by I*ord Francis Egerton, vol. u. p. 219. The terms are
worth quoting.

"April 5, 1003. I cansed certain players to be forbid from acting
the History of the Duke of Biron ; when, however, they saw that
the whole court had left town, they persisted in acting it ; nay. they
brought upon the atage the l^ueen ol France and Mademoiselle Ver-
neuil. The loriner, having lirst accosted the latter with very hard
words, gave her a box on the ear. At ray suit tliree of them were
airesled ; but the principal person, the author, escaped.

" One or two days before, they had brought forward their own
King and all his favorites in a very strange fashion : they made him
•.ur»e and swear because he had been robbed of a bird, and beat a
gentleman because he had called olf the hounds from the scent.
They represent him as drunlt at least once a-day, &c.

■' He has upon this made order, that no play shall be henceforth
acted in Lonoon ; ^ir the repeal of which order they have already
offered llHi.uiJll livres. Perhaps ine permission will be again granted.
but upon condition that they represent no recent history, nor speak
y{ the present time ''

' In a letter from a resident in Stratford of the name of Abraham
Bturley. It was originally published by Boswell (vol. ii. p. aliO) at
lADgth, but the only part which relates to Shakespeare runs thus:
we have not thought it necessary to preserve the uncouth abbrevia-
tioiu of the original.

" This is one special remembrance of your father's motion. It
Memeth by him that our countnman, Mr. Shakespeare, is willing to
Jisbure* some money upon some od yardeland or other at Shottery,
•H near ab"Ut us ; he thinketh it a very fitt patteme to move him to

appearance of plays in print, lest to a certain extent th«
public curiosity should thereby be satisfied.

The point is, of course, hable to dispute, but wn have
little doubt that "Henry Vlll." was represeuted veiy Boon
after the accession of James I., to whom and to whose family
it contains a highly complimentary aUusiou ; and " Mac-
beth," having been written in 1W)5, we suppose to have
been produced at the Globe iu the spring of 1606. Al-
though it related to Scottish annals, it was not like the
piay of Gowry's Conspii'acy " (mentioned by Chamberlaine
at the close of 1603), founded, to use Von Haumer's words,
upon " recent hist<iry ;" and instead of running the slighte' t
nsk of giving offence, many of the sentimeuts and allusimn
it contained, especially that to the " two-fold balls and treH
sceptres," in Act iv. scene 1, must have been highly accept
able to the King. It has been supposed, upon the authority
of Sheffield Duke of Buckingham, that King James with
his own hand wrote a letter to Shakespeare in return for
the comphment paid to him in " Macbeth :" the Duke of
Buckingham is said to have had Davenant's evidence for
tnis anecdote, which was first told in print iu the advertise-
ment to Lintot's edition of Shakespeare's Poems m 1710'.
Rowe says uothiug of it m his "Life," either iu 1709 or 1714,
so that, at all events, he did not adopt it; and it seems very
improbable that James I. should have so far condescended,
should not have been very scrupulous. We may conjec-
ture, that a privy seal under the sign manual, (then the usual
form of proceeding) granting to the King's players some
exti'aordmary reward on the occasion, has been misrepre-
sented as a private letter from the KJug to the dramatist

Maloue speculated tliat " Macbeth " had been played be-
fore King James and the King of Denmark, (who arrived
in England on Bth July, 160B) but we have not a particle
of testimony to establish that a tragedy relating U) the as-
sassination of a monarch by an ambitious vassal was ever
represented at court : we should be surpi-ised to discover
any pi'oof of the kind, because such incidents seem usually
to have been carefully avoided.

The eldest daughter of William and Anne Shakespeare,
Susanna, haviug been born iu M.ay, 1583, was rather more
than twenty-four years old when she was married, on 5th
June, 1607, to Mr. John Hall, of Stratford, who is styled
" gentleman " iu the register'^, but he was a professor of
medicine, and subsequently practised as a physician. There
appeal's to have been no reason on any side for opposing
the match, and we may conjecture that the ceremony waa
performed in the presence of our great dramatist, during
one of his summer excursions to his native town. About six
months afterwards he lost his brother Edmund'', and hia
mother in the autucan of the succeeding year.

There is no doubt that Edmund Shakespeare, who was

deale in the matter of our tithes. By the Instructions you can give
him theareof, and by the frendes he can make therefore, we thinke n
a faire marke for him to shoote at, and not unpossible to hitt. It ob-
tained would advance him in de.^de. and would do us much good'."
The terms of this letter prove that Shakespeare's townsmen were of
opinion that he was desirous of advancing himself among the in-
habitants of Stratford.

'^ It IS about to be printed entire by the Shakespeare Society, to the
council of which it has been handed over by the owner for the
purpose

■1 The only copy of this impression is in the library of his Grao
the Duke of Devonshire, and we have employed it to a certain exten
in settling and explaining me text of the tragedy. See the Intitt
duction to •' Hamlet." i

^ That the story came through the Duke of Buckingham, from Da-
venant, seems to have been a conjectural add ticn byOldys: the
words in Lintot's advertiseinen; are the.se: — '^ That most learned
Prince, and great patron of learning. King James the First, was
pleased with his own hand to write an amicable letter to Mr. Shake-
speare ; which letter, though now lost, remained long in the hands
of Sir "William Davenant, as a credible person now living can tes-
tify." Dr. Farmer was the first to give currency to the notion, that
the compliment to^the Stuart family in " Macbeth " was the occasion
of the letter.

6 The terms are these ; —
"1607. Junil 5, John Hall gentlema & Susanna Shaxspere."

■1 He was buried at St. Saviou-'s, Southwark, in the immodiati'
vicinity of the Globe theatre ; the .egistration being in the frdluwin^
form, specifying, rather unusually, the occupation of the de leased.
1 " 1607, Jec..31, Edmund Shakespeare, a player '

Ixiv

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

not twenty -eiffht at the time of his death, had embraced the
profession of a player, having perhaps followed the fortunes
of his brother William, and attached himself to the same
company. We, howeyer, never meet with his name in any
list of the associations of the time, nor is he mentioned as an
actor among the characters of any old play with which we
are acquainted. We may presume, therefore, that he attain-
ed no eminence ; perhaps his principal employment might
be under his brother in the management of his theati'ical
concerns, while he only took inferior parts when the assistanee
of a larger number of peiformers than usual was necessary.

Mary Shakespeare survived her son Edmund about eight
months, and was buried at Stratford on the 9th Sept. 1B08'.
There are few points of his life which can be stated with
more confidence than that our great di'amatist attended the
funeral of his mother: filial piety and duty would of courae
impel him to visit Stratford on the occasion, and in proof
that he did so, we may mention that on the 16th of the
next mouth he stood godfather there to a boy of the name
of William Walker. Shakespeare's mother had probably
resided at New Place, the house of her son ; from whence,
we may presume also, the body of her husband had been
carried to the grave seven -years before. If she were of
full age when she was married to John Shakespeare in
1567, she was about 72 years old at the time of her decease.

The reputation of our poet as a dramatist seems at this
period t/) have been at its height. His "King Lear" was
printed three times for the same bookseller in 1608 ; and in
oi-der perhaps to increase its sale, (as well as to secure the
purchaser against the old " King Leir," a play upon the
same story, being given to him instead) the name of " M.
William Shakespeare" was placed veiy conspicuously, and
most unusually, at the top of the title-page. The same ob-
servation will in part apply to " Pericles," which came out
in 1609, with the name of the author rendered particularly
obvious, although in the ordinai'y place. " Troilus and
Cressida," which was published in the same year, also has
the name of the author very distinctly legible, but in a some-
what smaller type. In both the latter cases, it would like-
wise seem, that there were plays by older or rival drama-
tists upon the same incidents. The most noticeable proof
of the advantage which a bookseller conceived he should
derive from the announcement that the work he published
was by our poet, is afforded by the title-page of the collec-
tion of his dispersed sonnets, which was ushered into the
world as " Shaliespeare's Sonnets," in very large capitals, as
if that mere fact would be held a sufficient recommendation.

In a former part of our memoir (p. xxv.) we have alluded
to the circumstance, that in 1609 Sliakespeare was rated to
the poor of the Liberty of the Clink in a sum which might
possibly indicate that he was the occupant of a commodious
dwelhng-house in Southwark. The fact that our great
dramatist paid six-pence a week to the poor there, (as high
a sum as anybody in that immediate vicinity was jissessed
at) is stated in the account of the Life of Edward Alleyn,
pi'inted by the Shakespeare Society, (p. 90) and there it is
too hastily inferred that he was rated at this sum upon a

1 The following is a copy of the repister.

"160», Septemb. 9. Mayry yhaxsperc. Wydowe."
3 The account (preserved at Dutwich College) does not state that
he 'lartiea enumerated (co«isisting of 57 persons) were rated to the
»w. for dwelling-houses, but merely that they were rated and as-
iessed to a weekly payment towards the relief of the poor, some for
dwelling-houses, and others perhaps in respect to different kinds of
property : it is thus entitled ■ —

■' A breif noat taken out of the poores hooke, eontaynin^ the names
of all thenhabitantes of this Liberty, which are rated and assessed to
a weBkely paiment towardes the relief of the poore. As it slandes
now encreased, this Gtli day of ApriU, 10(19. Delivered up to Phillip
Henslowe, Esquior, churchwarden, by Francis Carter, one of the
ovreseers of the same Liberty." It commences with these names : —
Phillip Henslowe, esquior, assessed at weekely . . vjJ

Ed. Alleyn, assessed at weekely vj"!

The account is in three divisions; and in the first, besides the above
we find the names of

Mr. Lingworthe iij"*

Mr. Benfield iii'J

Mr. Griffin ... ij'i

Mr. Toppin i^

Mi Louens [t. e. Lowin] . . . . g<

dwelling-house occupied by himself Tliis is very possibly
the fact ; but, on the other hand, the truth may be, that h«
paid the rate not for any habitation, good or bad, large ot
small, but in respect of his theatrical property in the Globe,
which was situated in the same district'. The parish reg-
ister of St. Saviour's establishes, that in 1601 tiie church-
wardens had been instructed by the vestry " U:t talk with
the players " respecting the payment of tithes and jontribn-
tions to the maintenance of the ptior; and it is not very un-
likely that some arrangement was made under which the
sharers in the Globe, and Shakespeare as one of them, would
be assessed. As a confirmatory circumstance we may add,
that when Henslowe and Alleyn were about to build th«
Fortune play-house, in 1599-1600, the inhabitants of the
Lordship of Finsbury, in the parish of Cripplegate, peti
tioned the privy council in favour of the unilertaking one
of their reasons being. Unit " the erectors were contented to
give a very liberal portion of money weekly towards the
relief of the poor." Pei-haps the parties inter'ested in the
Globe were contented to come to similar terms, and the
parish to accept the money weekly from the various indi-
viduals. Henslowe, Alleyn, Lowiu, Town, Juby, <tc., who
were either sharers, or actors and sharers, in that or other
theatres in the same neighbourhood, contributed in different
proportions for the same purpose, the largest amoimt being
six-pence per week, which was paid by Shakespeare, Hens-
lowe, and Alleyn^

The oidinary inhabitants included in the same list, doubt-
less, paid Sor their dwellings, accoriling to their several
rents, and such may have been the case with Shakespeare
all we contend for is, that we ought not to conclude at once,
tliat Shakespeare was the tenant of a house in the Liberty
of the Clink, merely from the circumstance that he was
rated to the poor. It is not unhkely that he was the oecu
pier of a substantial dwelling-house in the immediate neigh
boui-hood of the Globe, where his presence and assistanee
would of^en be required ; and the amtiuut of his income al
this period would warrant such an expenditure, although we
have no reason for thinking that such a house would be
needed for his wife and family, because the existing evi-
dence is opposed to the notion that they ever resided with
hini in London.

CHAPTER XVIL

Attempt of the Lord Mayor and aldermen in 1603 to expel tho
King's players from tlie Blackfriars, and its failure. Necro-
tiation by the corporation to purchase the theatre aud its
appurtenances : interest and property of Slm'tcspeare and
other sharers. The income of Kicliard Burbage at his
death. Diary of the Kev. J. Ward, Vicnr of Stratford, and
his statement regiirdiiig Shakespeare's expenditure. Copy
of a letter from Lord Soutliainpton on behulf of Shakespeare
and Bnrhage. Probable decision of Lord Climieellor Elles-
mere in favour of tho company at the Blackfriars theatre.

We have referred to the probable amount of the income of
rour great di'amatist in 1609, and within the last ten years a

Francis Carter ijd

Gilbert Catherens ijd

and twenty-one others. The next division includes a list of nineteen
names, and at the head of it we find,

Mr. Shakespeare vj«)

Mr. Edw. Collins ... . . . . vj"!

John Burret Tjd

and all the rest pay a rate of either 2J>1 or li'', including the following
actors ;

Mr, Toune ij" ob.

Mr. Jubye j<» oh.

Richard Hunt . . . j<J ob.

Simon Bird jd ob

The third division consists of seven persons who only paid one penny
per week, and among them we perceive the name of no individual
who. according to other evidence, appears to have 'oeen in any wav
concerned with theatres: Malone (see his "Inquiry," p. 21.5,) had
seen this document, but he mis-states that it belongs to the year IGU,*^
and not l(i09.

3 John Korthbrooke, in his Treatise against Plays, Players, kc,
(.Shakespeare Society's reprint, p. llili.) informs us that in 1577 peop.'e
contributed weekly to tne support of the poor "according to then
ability, some a penny, some-two-pence, anolhar f-ur-pence, and Ibt
best commonly giveth but six-pence.''

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

Ixv

document fca< been discovered, which enables us to foim
tome judgment, thoijfjh not perhaps an accurate estimate,
uf the sum he annually derived from the private theatre in
the Plackfnars.

From the outset of the undertaking, the Lord Mayor and
aldermen of Loudon had been hostile to the establishment
of players within this precinct, so near to the boundaries,
but beyond the juristliotion of the corporation ; and, as we
to dislodge "them. Tlie attempt was renewed in 1608, when
Sir Henry Monti^, the Attorney General of the day, gave
on opinion in favour of the claim of the citizens to exercise
their mimicipiJ powers within the precinct of the late dis-
solved monastery of the Blackfriars. The question seems
m some shape to have been brought before Baron EUes-
mere, then Lord Chancellor of England, who required IVom
the Loi'd Maj-or and his brethren proofs that they had ex-
ercised any authority in the disputed liberty. The distin-
guished lawyers of the d^y retained by tlie city were imme-
diateiy employed iu searching for records apphcable to the
point at issue ; but as far as we can judge, no such proofs,
us were thought necessary by the highest legal authority
of the time, and applicable to any recent period, were forth-
coming. Lord Euesmere, therefore, we may conclude, was
opposed to the claim of the city.

Failing iu this endeavour to expel the King's players from
their hold by force of law, the ci->rporation appears to have
taken a milder course, and negotiated with the playei'S for
the purchase of the Blackfriars theatre, with all its proper-
ties and appurteuances. To tliis negotiation we are proba-
bly indebted for a paper, which shows with great exactness
and particularity the amount of interest then claimed by
each sharer, those sharers being Richard Burbage, Laurence
Fletcher', WilUam Shakespeare, John Heminge, Henry
Condell, Joseph Taylor, and John Lowin, with four other
pereons not named, each the owner of hjilf a share.

We have inserted the document entire in a note', and
hence we find that Richard Burbage was the owner of the
freehold or fee, (which he uv doubt inherited from his
father) as well as the owner of four shares, the value of all
which, tjiken together, he rated at 193,"!/. 6*. 8c?. Laurence
Fletcher (if it be he, for the Christian name is written
" Laz,") was proprietor of three shares, for which he claimed
700/. Shakespeare was proprietor of the wardrobe and
oropcrties of the theatre, estimated at 500/., as well as of
''our shares, valued, Uke those of Burbage and Fletcher, at
*3/. 6.<i. Sd. each, or 933/. Bs. 8(/., at seveu years' purchase :
nts whole demand was 1433/. 6s. Sd., or 500/. less than that
nf Burbage, in as much as the fee was considered worth
1000/., Tshile Shakespeare's wardrobe and properties were
valued at 500/. According to the* same calculation, Hem-
faige and Condell each requii'ed 466/. 13.«. id. for their two
shares, and "Taylor 350/. for his share and a half while the
four unnamed half sharers put ui their claim to be compen-
8ate<l at the same rate, 466/. 13s. id. This mode of esti-
mating the Blackfriars tbeati-e made the value of it 6166/.
13*. 4(i., and to this sum was to be added remuneration to
the hired men of the eomp:my, who were not sharers, as

' These traneactions most probably occurred before Sejitember,
lt>08, because Laurence Fletcher died in that month. However, it is
not quite certain that the "Laz. Fletcher," mentioned in the docu-
ment, wai Laurence Fletcher : we know cf no person named Lazarus
Fletcher, though he may have been the personal representative of
Laurence Fletcher.

* It is thus headed —
**For avoiding of the Playhouse in the Precinct of the Btacke Friers.

£. >. d.

Imp. Richard Burbidge oweth the Fee, and is alsoe a
sharer therein. H.s interest he rateth at the grosse
summe of lOUO/, for the Fee. and for his foure shares
in the tumme of 9y3/. (is. ad laT! 8 S

Item. Laz. Fletcheroweth three shares, which he rateth
at 700/., that is, at seven yeares purchase for each
share, or 3."i/. G.«. Sti., one yeare with another lUQ

lltrm. W. Shakespeare asketh for the wardrobe and
properties of the s-ame playhouse 500t., and for his
4 shares, the same as his fellowea, Burbidge and
Fletcher; viz. !W3/. lis. bii Ur)3 6 S

Item. Heminfre and Condell eche '2 shares . . . 9.'i3 6 8

ftem. Joseph Taylor 1 share and an half* . , 35U U

well as to the widows aud orphans of deceased ac'-oiw: tha
purchase money of the whole property was thus mised to
at least 7000/.

Each share, out of the twenty int<i which the receipts o(
the theatre were divided, vielded, as was alleged, an annual
profit of 33/. 6«. 8'/. ; and Shakespeare, owning four of these
shares, his annual income, fi-om them only, "was 133/. o--*. Sd :
he was besides proprietor of the wardrobe aud properties,
stated Ui be worth 600/. : these, we may conclude, he lent
t<i the company for a certain consideration, ami, reckoning
wear and tear, ten per cent, seems a very low rate of pay-
ment; we will take it, however, at that sum, which would
add 50/. a year to the 133/, 6.<. Sd. already mentioned, making
tfigether 183/. 6.i. Sd., besides what our gi-eat dramatist must
have gained by the profits of his pen, upon which we havt
no data for forming any thing like an accurate estimate
Without including anv thing on this accou-nt, and supposing
only that the Globe was as profitable for a summer theatre
as the Blackfiiars was for a winter theatre, it is evident
that Shakespeare's income could hardly have been less than
366/. 13.«. 4(/. Taking every known source of emolument
into view, wo consider 400/. a year the very lowest amount
at which his income can bo reckoned in 1608.

The document upon which this cjilculution is founded i»
preserved among the papers of Lord EUesmere, but a re
markable incidental confirmation of it has still more recently
been brought to light in the State-paper office. Sir Dudley
Carlti-)U was ambassador at the Hague in 1619, and John
Chamberlaiuc, writing to him on 19th of March in that
year, and mentioning the death of Queeu Auue, states tlial
" the funei-al is put off to the •29th of the next month, to tht
great hinderance of our playeis, which are forbidden to )ila)
so long as her body is above ground: one speeiall mat
among them, Burbage, is lately dead, and hath left, they
say, better than 300/. land'."

Biirb;ige was interred at St. Leonard's, Shoreditch, on
16th March, 1619, three days anterior U) the date of Cham-
berlaine's letter', having made his nuncupative will four
days before his burial ; in it he said nothing about tl"*
amount of his pi-operty, but merely left his wife Winifrt..'
his sole executrix. There can be no doubt, however, that
the correspondent of Sir Dudley Carlton was correct in his
inft)rmation, and that Burbage died worth " better than "
300/. a year in land, besides his "goods and chattels:" 300/.
a year at that date was about 15O0/. of our present money,
auti we have every reason to suppose that Shakcsjjeare was
quite in as good, if not iu better cireumstanees. Until the
letter of Chamberlaiuc w;is found" we had not the slightest
knowledge of the amount of property Burbage had accu-
mulated, he having been during his whole life merely ar
aetor, and not combining in his own person the profits of a
most successful dramatic author with those of a performer
Nevertheless, it must not be forgotten, that allliough Shake-
speare continued a large sharer with the leading membei?
of the company in 1608, he h.td retired from the stage about
four years before ; aud having ceased to act, but still re-
taining his shares in the profits of the theat:es with which
he was connected, it is impossible to say what arrangement

ftcm. Lowing also one share and an halfe . . 35U

tlem. Foure more playeres with one halfe share to echo
of them <«! 13 4

Summa totalis . nlli6 13 4
Moreover, the hired men of the Corapanie demaund some rccompence
tor their great tosse, and the Widowes and (irphanes of Players, who
are paide by the Sharers at divers rates and proportions, so as in the
whole it will cost the Lo. Mayor and the Citizens at leaat 70UW.'"

3 This new and valuable piece of information was pointed out ta
us by Mr. Lemon, who has been as indefatigable in his researches a«
liberal in the communication of the results of them.

* The passage above quoted renders Middlelon's epigram on the
death of Burbage (Works by Dyce, vol v, p. 503) quite clear: —
'" A3lronomer.s and star-gazers this year
Write but of four eclipses ; five appear.
Ileath interposing Burbage, and rhe.r staying,
Halh made a visible eclipse of playing.'"
It has been conjectured that "their staying"' relerrea to a temporary
suspension of plays in consequence of the death of Burb.agi* ; bst tbjt
Stan was the prohibition of acting until after the funeraj of Qu#0ti^
Anne

Ixvi

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESrEAEE.

be may have mnde witl the rest of tlio compauy for the
rc'ular eoutiibutiou of dramas, in lieu perhaps of his own
personal exertions.

la a work published a few years ago, containing extracts
fidiii the Uiiiry of the Rev. John Ward, who was .vicar of
Sti'atford-upiiU-Avon, and whose niemorauda extend from
1648 to 1619', it. is stated that Shakespeare "in his elder
days hved at Stratford, and supphed the stage with two
phiys every year, and for it had an allowance so large, th.it
Le spent at the rate of 1000^. a year, as I have heard." We
only adduce this passage to show what the opinion was as
to Shakespeare's circumstances sh<irtly after the Restora-
tion''. We take it for granted that the sum of 1000/. (equal
to nearly 5O00/. now) is a considerable exixggeration, but it
itay warraut the belief that Shakespeare lived in good style
and port, late in life, in his native town. It is very possible,
too, though we think not probable, that after he retired to
Stratford he continued to write, but it is utterly incredible
that subsequent to his retirement he " supphed the stage
with two plays every year." He might not be able at once
to reliuquish Ids old and confirmed habits of composition;
but such other evideace as we possess is opposed to Ward's
statement, to which he himself appends the cautionary
words, " as I have heard." Of course he could have known
nothing but by hearsay forty-six years after our poet's de-
cease. He might, however, easily have known inhabitants
of Stratford who well recollected Shakespeare, and, consid-
ering the opportunities he possessed, it strikes us as very
singular that he collected so httle information.

Southampton to Shakespeare, which we have supposed to
have been consequent upon the dedicatioa of " Venus and
Adonis," and " Lucrece," to that nobleman, and coincident
in pomt of date with the buildiug of the Globe Theatre.
Another document has been handed down to us among the
papers of Lord EUesmere, which proves the strong interest
Lord Southamjjtou still took, about fifteen years afterwards,
in Shakespeare's affairs, and in the jjrospeiity of the com-
pany to which he was attached : it has distinct reference
also to the pending and unequal struggle between the cor-
poration of Loudon and the players at the Blackfriars, of
which we have already spoken. It is the copy of a letter
subscribed H. S. (the initials of the Earl) to some nobleman
in favour of our great dramatist, and of the chief performer
in many of his plays, Richard Burbage ; and recollecting
what Lord Southampton had before done for Shakespeare,
and the manner in which from the first he had patronized
our stage and drama, it seems to us the most natural thiug
in the world for him to write a letter personally on behalf
of parties who had so many public and private claims. We
may conclude that the original was not addressed to Lord
EUesmere, or it would have been found in the depository
\ of his papers, and not merely a transcript of it ; but a copy
of it may have been furnished to the Lord Chancellor, in
order to give him some information respecting the charac-
tcre of the parties upon whose cause he was called upc >u to
decide. Loud EUesmere stood high in the confidence of his

1 Diary of the Rev. John Ward, &.C. Arranged by Charles Severn,
M.D. London, 8vo, ISJl).

* Mr Ward was appointed to the vicarage of Stratford-upon-Avon
ii iri«-2

The copy was made upon half a sheet of paper, and without ad-
■iresB : it runs as follows : —

" My vene honored Lord. The manie goou oifices I haue receiued
»T your Lordship's hands, which ought to make me backward in asking
funUer favors, onely iinbouldeneth n^e to re-iuiie more in the aame
Cinde. Your Lordship will be waiiiea nowo nereaftar you graunt
fcnie sute, seeing it draweth on more and greater demauii Is. This
which now presseth is to request vour Lordship, in all you can, to be
pood to the poore plavers of the Black Fryers, who call them selves by
authontie the servaiiotsof hie Majestic, and aske for the protection
of their most gracious Maister and Sovereigne in this the tyme of their
troble. Thev are threatened by the Lord .Mayor and Aldermen of
London, never friendly to their calling, with the distruction ot their
Dieanesof livelihood, by the pulling downe of their plaieliou.-^e. which

a priuate theatre, and hath neuer giuen occasion of anger by anie
iisordeio. These bearers are two of the chiefe of the companie ; one
>1 them by name Richard Burbidge. who huinblie sueth for your
Lordship's kinde heipe, for that he is a man famous as our English
Roscius, one who fiit"th the action to the word, and the word to the
ution most ai!iuir£.oiv Bv the exeicise oi his qualilye, industry.

sovereign ; he had many important public duties to discharg*
besides those belonging ti^ his great office ; and notwith
standing he had shown himself at all times a liberal patron
him, we may readily imagine, that although he must have
heard of Shakespeare and Buibage, he was in 'ome degree
of ignorance as to their individual deserts, whien ihis com
munication was mtended to remove. That it was not sent
to him by Lord Southampton, who probably was acquainted
with him, may afford a proof of the delioaey of the Earl's
mind, who would not seem directly to interpose while a
question of the sort was pending before a judge, (thiiui;h
possibly not in his judicial capacity) the hist*)ry of wlioee
life estabUshes that where the exercise of his high fuuetioM
was involved he was equally deaf to pubUe and to piivat*
influence.

We have introduced an exact copy of the document in a
note^ and it will be observed that it is without date ; but
tlie subject of it shows beyond displite that it belongs to this
period, while the lord mayor and aldermen were endeavour
ing to expel the players from a situation where they had
been ucinterruptedly established for iiKire tliau thirty years
There can be no doubt that the object the players had ir
view was attained, because we know that the lord mayor
and his brethren were not allowed, until many years after
wards, to exercise any authority within the precinct and
Uberty of the Blackfriars, and that the King's servants con-
tinued to occupy the theatre long after the death of Shake-
speare.

CHAPTER XVIIL

Warrant to Daborne, Shakespeare, Field, and Kirklinm, tot
the Children of the Queen s Revels, in Jan. 1610. Popu-
larity of juvenile companies of actors. Stay of Daborne's
warrant, and the reai^ons for it. Piiiys iiiteiKlcii to b« acted
by the Children of the QneenV Kevelw. Shakespearc'B
drauins between 1609 and 1612. His retirement to Stratford,
and disposal of liis property in the Blackfriars and Ukbe
theatres. Alleyn's purchases in Bliiekfriars in 1612. Sh/>«o
speiire's purchase of a house in Blackfriars from Heiir\
\Valker in 1618, and the possible cause of it exrlained
Sliakespeare described as ol Stratford- iipon-A von.

There is reason for believing that the important questicc
of jurisdiction had been decided in favour of the King'j
players before January, 1609-10, because we have an m-
strument of that date authorizing a juveuile company f<!
exhibit at Blackfriars, as well as the association which haii
been in possession of the theatre ever since its original con-
struction. One circumstance connected with this document
to which we shall presently advert, may however appeal
to cast a doubt upon the point, whether it had yet bef o
finally determined that the corporation of London was h)
law excluded from the precinct of the Blackfriars.

It is a fact, of which it may be said we have conclusive
proof, that almost from the first, if uot from the first, ilit

and good behaviour, he hath be come pos-sessed of the Blacke Fryen
playhouse, which hath bene imployed for playes silliL-iice it wiu
ouilded by his Father, now nere 51) yeres aggne The other is a mac
no whitt lesse deserving favor, and my especiall friend?, till of lat(
an actor of good account in the companie, now a -sharer in the s.\mt,
and writer of some of our best English playes. which, as your Lord-
ship knoweth, were most singularly liked of t^uene Eluabeth. whi'i
the companie was called uppon to perforine oct'ore her .Maiestie v
Court at Christmas and Shrovetide His must gracious Maiestie Kin j
James alsoe. sence his coming to the crowne. hath extended hii roya,
favour to the companie in divers wares and at sundrie tyraes Thii
other hath to name William Shakespeare, and they are both of on<
countie, and indeede allmostof one lowne : both are right famous if
their qualityes. theugh it longeth not of your Lo. grauitie and wise-
dome to resort vnto the places where they are wont to delight thi
publique eare Their trust and sute nowe is not to bee molested ii
their way of life, whereby they maintaine fliem selves and llwi:
wives and families, (being both married and of good reputation) aj
well as the widows and orphanea of some of their dead fellows.
" Your Lo most bounden at com
"Copiavera." "H.3.'"

Lord .Southampton was clearly mistaken when he stated ttial tJii
B.ackfriars theatre had been built nearly fifty years in 1608 A b*"

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SllAKESPEAEE.

Ixvii

Blaokfriai e theatre had been in the joint possession of the I
Lord Chamberlain's servants and of a juvenile company |
called tilt Children of the Chapel : they were also known as i
" her Majesty's Children," and " the Cliildren of the Black-
friars ," and it is Bot to be sujiposed that they employed
the theati'e on alternate days with their older competitors, [
but that, when the Lord Chamberlain's servants acted else- 1
where in the summer, the Cliildren of the Chapel com- 1
menced their performances at the Blackfriars.' After the
openiiig of the Globe in 1595, we may presume that the
Lord Clmmberlain's servants usually left the Blackfriars
theatre to be occupied by the Children of the Chapel during
the seven months from April to October.

The success of the juvenile companies in the commence-
ment of the reign of James L, and even at the hitter end
of that of Elizabeth, was great ; and we find Shakespeare
alluding tc it in veiy pointed terms in a well-known passage
ia " Hamlet," which we suppose to have been written in the
winter of 1601, or in the spring of 1602. They seem to
have gone on increasing in popularity, and vei'y soon after
James I. ascended the throne, Queen Anne t+)ok a company,
called " the Children of the Queen's Revels," under her
immediate patronage. There is no reason to doubt that
they continued to perform at Blackfriars, and in the very
commencement of the year 1610 we find that Shiikespeare
either was, or intended to be, connected with them. At this
period he probably contemplated an early retirement from
the metivppohs, and might wish to avail himself, for a short
period, of this new opportunity of profitable employment.

Robert Dab irne, the author of two di'amas that have been
printed, and of several others that have been lost,'^ seems to
nave been a man of good family, and of some interest at court ;
and in Jimuary 10O9-10, he was able to procure a royal
grant, authorizing him and others to provide and educate a
number of young actors, to be called " the Children of the
Queen's Revels." As we have observed, this was not a new
association, because it had existed under that appellation, and
under those of " the Children of the Chapel " and " the Chil-
dren of the Bhickfriars," from near the beginning of the reign
of Elizabetli. Daborne, in 1609-10, was placed at the head
of it, and not, perhaps, having sufficient means or funds of his
own, he had, as was not unusual, partners in the undertak-
ing : those partners were William Shakespeare, Nathaniel
Field, (the celebrated actor, and very clever author) and
Edward Kirkham, who had previously enjoyed a privilege
of the same kind'. A memorandum of the warrant to
" Daborne and others," not there named, is inserted in the
*■ Entrj' Book of Patents and Warrants for Patents," kept
by a person of the name of Tuthill, who was employed by
Lord EUesmere for the purpose, and which book is pre-
served amoug the papers himded down by his lordship to
his successors. In the same depository we also find a draft
of the warrant itselt under which Daborne and his partners,
therein named, viz. Shakespeare, Field, and Kirkham, were

> See Hist. E ngl. Dram. Poetry and the Stage, vol. iii. p. 275. -where
«nch IS conjectired to h.'\'' been the arrangement.

» '_' The Christian nirnej Turlt." luia, and " The Poor Man's Com-
fort,'' 16.55. In ■' The Alleyn Papers," (printed by the Shatcespeare
Society,) may be seen much correspondence between Daborne and
Henslowe respecting plays he was then writing for the Fortune the-
fctre. By a letter from hira, dated '2nd August, 1()14, it appears that
Lori Wiiloughby had sent for him, and it is most lilcely that Da-
borne went to Ireland under this nobleman's patronage. It is certain I
that, har-.ng been regularly educated, he went into the Church, and j
had a living at or near Waterlord, where, in ItilS, he preached a
•ermon which is extant. While writing for Henslowe he was in |
gnsat poverty, having sold most of the property he had with his wife.
We have no information as to the precise time of his death, but his \
*' Poor .Man's Comfort" was certainly a posthumous production : he
had sold it to one of the companies of the day before he took holy
orders, and. like various other plays, after long remaining in manu-
script, it wajj published. His lost plays, some of which he wrote in
aonjunction with other dramatists, appear from " The AUeyn Papers "
to have been — 1. Machiavel and the Devil; 2. The Arraignment of
London ; 3. The Bellman of London ; 4. The Owl ; 5. The Bhe Saint ;
buides others the titles of which are not given.

' He wa« one of the masters of the Children of the Queen's Revels
IB 160;M. See Hist, of Engl. Dram. Poetry and the Stags, vol. i.

f ;i52.

* It runs thus : —

"Rifiht trusty and welbeloved, &c.. James, Sec. To all Mayors
Bhenls, Justices of the Peace, ^c. Whereas the Queene, otu dearest

to proceed' ; and it is a circumstance deserving notice, that
" tlie Children of the Queen's Revels " were thereby
licensed not only to act " tragedies, comedies," &e. in the
Blackfriars theatre, but " elsewhere within the realm of
England ;" so Uiat even places where the city authoritiea
had indisputably a right to exercise jm-isdictiou were not
exempted.

It will be recollected that this had been a point in dis-
pute in 1574, and that the words "as well within our city
of Loudon " were on this account excluded from the patent
granted by EUzabeth to tlie players of Lord Leicester,
though found in the privy seal dated three days earlier*
For the same reason, probably, they are not contained ia
the patent of James I. to Fletcher, Shakespeare, and othe:H
in 1603. We may be satisfied that the warrant of 1609-10
to Daboi-ne and his partners was not carried into effect, aifa
possibly on that account : although it may have been decided
at this dale that the lord mayor and aldermen had no power
forcibly to exclude the actors from the Blackfriars, it may
have been held inexpedient to go the lenirth of authurizing
a young company U> act within the very Doundaries of the
city. So far the corporation may have prevailed, and this
may be the cause why we never hear of any 8t«ps having
been taken under the warrant of 1609-10. The word
" stayed " is added at the conclusion of the draft, as if some
good ground had been discovered for delaying, if not for
entirely withholding it Perhaps even the question of juris-
diction had not been completely settled, and it may have
been thought useless to concede a privilege which, after all,
by the operation of the law in favour of the claim of the
city, might turn out to be of no value, because it could no'
be acted upon. Certain it is, that the new scheme seemi
to have been entirely abandoned ; and whatever Shake
spe.arc may have intended when he became connected with
it, he continued, as long as he remained in Loudon, and as
far as any evidence enables us to judge, to writ* only for
the company of the King's playei-s, who persevered in their
performances at the Blackfriars m the winter, and at the
Globe in the summer.

It will be seen that to the draft in favour of " Daborne
and others," as directors of the performances of the Children
of the Queen's Revels, a list is appended, apparently of
dramatic performances in representing which the juvenile
company was to be employed. Some of these may be con-
sidered, known and estabUshed performances, such as " An-
tonio," which perhaps was int-ended for the " Antonio and
Mellida" of MarsUm, printed in 1602; " Grisell," for the
" Patient Grisell " of Dekker, Chettle, and Haughton, printed
in 16U3; and " K. Edw. 2.," for Marlowe's "Edward II.,"
printed in 1598. Of others we have no information from
any quarter, and only two remind us at all of Shakespeare :
" Kiusmen," may mean " The two Noble Kinsmen," iu writ-
ing which, some suppose our great dramatist to have been
ooucei-ned ; and " Taming of S," is possibly to be taken for

wife, hath for her pleasure and recreation appointed her servannts
Robert Daiborne, &c. to provide and bring upp a convenient nomber
of children, who shall be called the Children of her Majesties Revell.,
knowe ye that we have appointed and authorized, and by these pre-
sents doe appoint and authorize the said Robert Daiborne, William
Shakespeare, Nathaniel Finld. and Edward Kirkham, from time to
time to provide and bring upp a convenient nomber of children, and
them to instruct and exercise in the quality of playing 'I'ragedies
Comedies, kc, by the name of the Children of the Revelis to th
Queene. within the Blackfryers, in our Citie of London, or els whe»
within our realm of England. Wherefore we will and coinman
you, and everie of you, to permitt her said servaunts to keepe a con-
venient nomber of children, by the name of the Children of the
Revells to the Queene. and them to exercise in the qualitie of play-
ing according to her royal pleasure. Provided alwaies, that no ptayes
&c. shall be by them presented, but such playes, &.C. as have received
the approbation and allowance of our Maister of the Revells for the
tyme being. And these our Ires, shall be your sufficient -warrant a
this behalfe. In witnesse whereof, kc., 4'" die Janij. l(iU9.
" Proud Povertie. Engl. Tragedie.

Widow's Mite. False Friends.

Antonio. Hate and Love.

Kinsmen. Taming il S.

Triumph of Truth. K. Edw. 2.

Touchstone. Mi ror of Lif«

Grisell, ^

Stayed."
» Ueo Hist. Engl Dram Poetry and the SUge, vol i. p. (U.

Ixviii

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

• The Taming of lie Shrew," or for the older pUy, with
nearly the bame title, upon which it waa founded. i

" Troilus and Cressidii " and " Pericles " were printed in |
1609, and ^oour mind there seems but little doubt that they I
had been written and prepared for the sta^e only a short
time before they came from the press. With the single
exception of "Othello," which eame out in 4to in 1622, no
other new drama by Shakespeare appeared in a printed
form between 1609 and the date of the publication of the
folio in 1623'. We need not here discuss what plays, first
found in that volume, were penned by our great dramatist
after 1609, because we have separately considered the
elaims of each in our preliminary Introductitjus. " Timon
of Athens," " Coriolanus," " Antony and Cleopatra," " Cym-
beline," "The Winter's Tale," and' "The Tempest," seem to
belong to a late period of our poet's theatrical career, and
some of them were doubtless wj-itten between 16U9 and the
period, whatever that period might be, when he entirely
relinquished di'amatic composition.

Between January 1609-10, when Shakespeare was one
of the parties to whom the warrant for the Children of the
Queen's Revels was conceded, and the year 1612, when it
has been reasonably supposed that he quitted London to
take up his permanent residence at Stratford, we are in
possession of no facts connected with his personal history',
ft would seem both natural and prudeut that, before he
withdrew from the metropolis, he should dispose of his
theatrical property, which must necessarily be of fluctuating
and uncertain value, depending much upon the presence
and activity of the owner for its profitable management,
hi his will (uuhke some of his contemporaries who expired
in London) he says nothing of any such property, and v/a
are left to infer that he did not die in possession of it,
having disposed of it before he finally retired to Stratford.

It is to be recollected also that the species of iisterest he
had in the Blaekfriars theatre, mdependently of his shares
in the receipts, was pecuharly pei-ishable : it consisted of the
wardrobe and properties, which in 1608, when the city
luthorities contemplated the purchase of the whole estab-
lishment, were valued at 600/.; and we may feel assuied
that he would sell them to the company which had had tlie
constant use of them, and doubtless had paid an annual
c^onsideration to the owner. The fee, or freehold, of the
house and ground was in the hands of Richard Burbage,
and from him it descended to his two sons : that was a per-
manent and substantial possession, very dilfereut in its
character and dui-ability ^'om the dresses and machinery
which belonged to Shakespeare. The mere circmnstance
of the nature of Shakespeare's property in the Blackfiiars
eeems to authorize the conclusion, that he sold it before he
retired to the place of his birth, where he meant to spend
the rest of his days with his family, in the tranquil enjoy-
ment of the independence he had secured by the exertions
of tive and twenty years. Supposing him to have begun
his theatrical career at the end of 1586, as we have ima-
gined, the quarter of a century would be completed by the

» One copy of the folio is known with the date of 1622 upon the
title-page. The volume was entered at Stationers' Hall on the Hth
Nov. 1112.3, as if it had not been published until late in that year,
unless we suppose the entry made by Blouiit and Jaggard some time
after publication, in order to secure their right to the plays first
printed there, which they thought might be invaded.

» We ought, perhaps to except a writ issued by the borough court
In June llilU, at the suit of Shakespeare, for the recovery of a small
ram. A similar occurrence had taken place in 1604, when our poet
Bou'^ht to recover 1^ I5j. (id. from a person of the name of Rogers, for
corn sold to him. These facts are ascertained from the existing
records of Stratford.

3 See the '* Memoirs of Edward Alleyn,"' p. 10.5, where a conjecture
18 hastily hazarded that it might be Shake.ipeare'8 interest in the
Blaekfriars theatre. Upon this question we agree with Mr. Knight
in ■' Shakspere, a Biography," prefixed to his pictorial edition of the
Foets works.

• It is in the following form, upon & small damp-injured piece of
paper, and obviously a mere memorandum.
"April 1614,
" Money paid by me E . A. for the Blaekftyen . 160|.
More for the Blackfryeis . ... 12a^|

More again for the Leaase ..... 310'
The writinges lar the same and other small chugei 3" 6* 8^

close of 1612, and for aught we know, tliAt might be th«
period Shakespeare had in his miud fixed upou for the t«r
mination of his toils and an.vieties.

It has been luiccitaiued that Edward Alleyn, the actor
founder of the college of "God's Gift" at Diilwich, pur-
chased property in the Blackfiiars in April 1612", and al
though it may possibly have been theatrical, there seemr
sufficient reason to believe that it was not, but tliat it con
sisted of certain leasehold houses, for which according to
his own account-book, he paid a quarterly rent of 40/. The
brief memorandum upon this point, preserved at Dulwieh,
certainly relates to any thing rather than to th> species of
iuteiest which Shakespeare indisputably had in the ward-
robe and properties of the Blaekfriars theatre' : the termt
Alleyn uses would applv only ti^ tenements or ground, and
as Burbage valued his freehold of the theatre at lOOO/, w«
need not hesitate in deciding that the lease Alleyn pur-
chased for 599/. 6.«. 8<i was not a lease of the play-house.
We shall see presently that Shakespeare himself, tliousfh
under some peculiar circumstances, became the owner of a
dwelhug-house in the Blaekfriars, unconnected with jiie
theatre, very soon after he had taken up his abode at Strat-
investment in the same neighbourhood in 1612. Whatevei.
in fact, became of Shakespeare's interest in the Blackfriais
theatre, both as a sharer and as the owner of the wardroLe
and properties, we need not hesitate in concluding that in
the then prosperous state of theatrical affairs in the metro-
jKilis, he was easily able to procure a purchaser.

He must also have had a eonsideiabie stake in the Globe,
but whether he was also the owner of rtie same species of
property there, as at the Blaekfriars, we can only speculate.
We should think it highly probable that, as far as the mere
wardrobe was eoucerued, the same dresses were made to
serve for both theatres, and that when the summer seasou
commenced on the Bankside, the necessary ajiparel was
conveyed across the water from tlie Blaekfriars, and re-
mained there until the company returned Vj their wintei
quarters. There is no hint in anv existing document what
became of our great dramatist's interest in the Globe ; but
here again we need not doubt, fi'oiu the profit that had
always attended the undertaking, that he could have had no
dilfieulty in finding parties to take it off his hands. Burbaije
we know was rich, for he died in 1619^ worth SOOl. a year
in land, besides his personal property, and he and others
ously employed, by purchasing Shakespeare's interest

It is possible, as we have said, that Shakespeare conti-
nued to employ his pen for the stage after his retirement
to Stratford, and the buyers of his shares might even make
it a condition that he should do so for a time; but we much
doubt whether, with his long experience of the necessity of
personal superintendence, he would have continued a share-
holder in any concern of the kind over which he had no
control. During the whole of his fife in connexion \vith th^
stage, even after he quitted it as an actor, he seems to hav j

If this paper had any relation at all to the theatre in the Blackfria-w,
it is very evident that t^hakespeare could tiMither grant nor sell a
lease ; and it is quite clear that Burbage did not, because he remained
in possession of the playhouse at the time of his death : his sons en-
joyed it afterwards : and Alleyn continued to pay 40/. a quarter for
the property he held until his decease in 1620.

* We have already inserted an extract from an epitaph upon Bur-
bage, in which the writer enumerates manyof the characters he sus-
tained. The following lines in Sloaue MS. No. 17b6, (pointed out
to us by Mr. Bruce) are just worth preserving on account of the ami*
nencB of the man to whom they relate.

"An Epitaph on Mr. Richard Burbage. the Player.
" This life's a play, scean'd out by nature's art,

Where every man has his allotted parte.

This man hath now, as many men can tell.

Ended his part, and he hath acted well.

The play now ended, thinke his grave to bo«

The retiring house of his sad tragedie;

Where to give his farno this be not afraid : —

Here lies the best Tragedian ever play'd."
From hence we might infer, against other authorities, hat irhat
was called the " tiring room " in theatres, was ^o called becau-ie the
actors retired to it, and not attir<-d in it. ft most likely anewere*
both purposes, but we sometimes find it called ' the attiring room"
by authors of the time.

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

Ixix

been obliged to reside in London, apart from his family, for
the purpose of watching over his int-rests in the two thea-
tres to which he belonged : had he been merely an author,
after he ceased to be an actor, he might have composed his
ji'amas as well at Stratford as in London, visiting the me-
tropolis only while a new play was in rehearsal and pre-
paration; but such was clearly not the case, and we may
be coniideDt that when he retired to a place so distant
from the scene of his triumphs, he did not allow his mind
to be encumbered by tlie continuance of professional
anxieties.

It may seem difficult to reconcile with this consideration
the undoubted fact, that in the spring of 1613 Shakespeare
purchased a house, and a small piece of ground attached to
it, not far from the Blaekfriars theatre, in which we believe
hini to have disposed of his concern in the preceding year.
The documents relating t<i this transaction have come down
to us, and the indenture assigning the property from Henry
Walker, " citizen of London and minstrel of London," t»
William Shaki'.speare, " of Stratford-upon-Avon, in the
county of Warwick, gentleman," bears date 10th March,
1612-13': the consideration money was 140/.; the house
was filiated " within the precinct, circuit, and compass of
the late Blaekfriars," and we are farther informed that it
stood " right against his Majesty's Wardrobe." It appeai-s
to have been merely a dwelling-house with a small yard,
and not in any way connected with the theatre, which was
ic some diftiince from the royal wardrobe, although John
Heminge, tlie act< ir, was, with Shakespeare, a party to the
deed, as well as William Johnson, vintner, and John Jack-
son, gentleman.

Shakespeare may have made this purchase as an accom-
modation in some way to his " friend and fellow" Heminge,
and the two other persons named; and it is to be re-
marked that, on the day after the date of the conveyance,
Shakespeare mortgaged the house to Henry Walker, the
vendor, for GO/., having paid down only 80/. on the luth
March. It is very possible that our poet advanced the 80/.
to Heminge, J(>husv>n, and Jackson, expecting that they
would repay him, and furnish the remaining 6U/. before the
29th September, 1613, the time stipulated in the mortgage
deed ; but as they did not do so, but left it to hun. the
house of coui-se continued the property of Shakespeare, and
after his death it was necessarily surrendered to the uses
of his will by Heminge, Johnson, and Jackson'.

Such may have been the nature of the transaction ; and
If it were, it will account for the apparent (and, we have no
doubt, only apparent) want of means on the part of Shake-
epearc to pay down the whole of the purchase-money in the
first instance : he only agreed to lend 80/, leaving the par-
ties whom be assi-sted to provide the rest, and by repaying
themselves to the house in question. I

Shakespeare must have been in London when he put his
signature to the conveyance ; but we are to recollect, that
the circumstance of his being described in it as " of Strat-
foid-upon-Avon" is by no means decisive of the fact, that
his usual place of abode in the spring of 1613 was liis
native town : he had a similar description in the deeds by
which he purchased 107 acres of land fi-om John and Wil-
liam Combe in 1602, and a lease of a moiety of the tithes
from P-ivhe Huband in 1606, although it is indisput<ible
th^t at those periods he was generally resident in London.
From these facts it seems likely that our great dramatist

1 It was Bold by auction by Messra. Evans, of Pall Mall, in 1S41,
for 162^ 15s. The autograpl^ of our poet was appended to it. in the
ubua. manner. In the next year the instrument was again brought
to the hamnuT '.f the same partii .-, when it produced nearly the sum
for which it haa been sold in l^.L. The autograph of Shakespeare,
on the fly-leaf of Florio's translation of Montaigne's Essays, folio.
Uto;). Iwhicli we feel satisfied is genuine) had been previously sold
5v auction for idW., and it is now deposited in the British Museum.
We have a copy of the same book, but it has only upon the title-
page the comparatively worthless signature of the reigning
monarch.

3 By his will he left this house, occupied by & penon of the name
•f loha Robinson, to his daughter Susanna

pi-eferred to be cmlled " of Sti-atfoid-upon-Avon," contem-
plating, as he prob.tbly did through the whole of his theo-
trical life, a retuiD thither as soon as his circumst.'mccs
would enable him to do so with comfort and indcpendc:iee.
We are thoroughly convinced, however, that, anterior tc
March, 1613, Shakespeare had taken up hisNpermancnt re-
sidence with his family at Stratford.

CHAPTER XIX.

Members of the Shakespeare family at Stratford in 161^.
Joan Shakespeare and William Hart: their marriage and
fuMiily. William Shakespeare's chancery suit rcsfiecting
the tithes of Stratford ; and the income lie derived from
the lease. The Globe burnt in 1618 : its reconstrucUon.
Destructive fire at Stratford in 1614. ShnUesiieiirc's visit
to Ixindon afterwards. Proposed inclosnrc of Welcombe
fields. Alluaiun to Shakespeare in the historical poem of
'■ The Ghost of Richard the Third," publislied in 1614.

The immediate members of the Shakespeare family re-
sident at this date in Stratford were comparatively few.
Richard Shakespeare had died at the age of forty", only
aUiut a month before WilUam Shakespeare signed the
deed for the purchase of the house in Blaekfriars. Since
tlie death of Edmund, Richard had been our poet's youngest
brother, but regarding his way of life at Stratford we have
no information. Gilbert Shakespeare, born two years and
a half aft«r William, was also probably at this time an iii-
habitant of the borough, or its immeciiate neighbourhood.
and perhaps married, for in the register, under date of 3rd
Februai-y, 1611-12, we read an account of the buiial of
" Oilherlua Shakspeare, adolescens," who miglit be liis soa
Joan Shakespeare, who was five years yomiger than her
thirty to William Hart, a hatter, in Stratford ; but as the
ceremony was not performed in that parish, it does not ap-
pear in the register. Their first child, William, was bap-
tized on 28th August, 1600, and they li.td afterwards chil-
dren of tlie names of Mary, Thomas, and Michael, born re-
spectively in 1603', 1605, and 1608'. Our poet's eldest
daughter, Susanna, who, as we have elsewhere stated, was
married to Mr. John, afterwards Dr. HaU, m June, 1607,
produced a daughter who was baptized Elizabeth on 21st
February, 1607-8 ; sii that Shakespeare was a grandfather
before he had reached his forty-fiftb year ; but Mrs. HaU
had no fai ther increase of family.

By whom New Place, otherwise called "the great
hous'e." was mhabited at this period, we can only conjecture.
That Shakespeare's wife and his youngest daughter Judith
(who completed her twenty-eightli year in February, 1612,)
resided in it, we cannot doubt; but as it would be much
more than they would require, even after they were per-
manently joined by our great dramatist on his retirement
from Loudon, we may perhaps conclude that Mr. and Mrs.
Hall were joint occupiers of it, and aided in keeping up
the vivacity of the family circle. Shakespeitie himself
only completed his forty-eighth year in April, 1612, and
every tratUtion and circumstance of liis hfe tends to estab-
lish not only the gentleness and kindness, but the habitual
cheerfulness of his disposition.

Nevei-theless, although we suppose him to have sepa-
rated himself fi-om the labouis and anxieties attendant

' The register of Stratford merely contains the following among
the deaths in the parish : —

'• I61'2. Feb. 4 Rich. Shakspeaie. '

♦ It appears by the resister that Mary Hart died in 1607. When
Shakesneaie made his will, a blank wa- left lor the nimc of his no
phew Thomas Hart, as if he had not recollected it ; but perhaps it
was merely the omission of the scrivener. The Harts lived in a
house belonging to Shakespeare. „, , „ ,. i i . j

5 It has been generally stated that Charles Halt, the oelul-rated
actor after the Restoration, was the grand-nephew of Shakesjeare,
son to the eldest son of Shakespeare's sister Joan, but we are wl hout
positive evidence upon the point. In liiii a person of the name ol
Hart kept a house of entertainment close to the Fortune theatre, ana
he may have been the son of Shakespeare's sister Joan, and thn
father o' Charles Hart the actor, who died about ItiTS

Ixx

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEAKE.

npoD his theatrical concerna, he was not "without his an-
tkjyanees, thuU{;h of a different kind. We refer to a chan-
cery suit in which he seems to have been involved by the
purchase, in 1606, of the remaining term of a lease of jmrtof
the tithes of Stratford. It appears that a rent of 27/. 13.s. 4rd.
had been reserved, which was to be paid by certain lessees
under peril of foi-feiture, but that some of the pai-ties, disre-
gardiuj; the consequences, had refused to contribute their pro-
portions ; add Rielmrd Lime, of Awston, Esquire, Thomas
Greene, of Stratford-upon-Avon, Esquire, and William
Shakespeare, "of Stratford-upon-Avon, gentleman," were
under the necessity of filing a bill before Lord Ellesmere, to
■compel all the persons deriving estates under the dissolved
college of Stratford to pay their shares. What was the
issue of the suit is not any where stated ; and the culy im-
portant point in the draft of the bill, in the hands of the
Shakespeare Society, is, that our great dramatist therein
stated the value of his " moiety" of the tithes to be 60/. per
annum.

In the summer of 1613 a calamity happened which we
do not believe affected oiu- author's inimeifiate interests, on
account of the strong probability that he had taken eare to
divest himself of all theatrical property before he finallv
took up his residence in liis birth-place. The Globe, which
on 29th June, 1613, in consequence of the thatch, with
which it was partially covered, catching fire from the dis-
charge of some theatrical artillery^ It is doubtful what
play was then in a course of representtition : Sir Henry
WotUm gives it the title of " All is True," and calls it " a
new play ;" while Howes, in his continuation of Stowe's
Annales, distinctly states that it was " Henry the Eighth^"
It is very possible that both may be right, and that Shake-
speare's historical drama was that night revived under a
new name, and therefore mistakenly called '* a new play"
by Sir Heni-y Wottou, although it had been nearly ten
years on the stage. The Globe was rebuilt in the next
year, as we are Und on wliat may be considered good autho-
rity, at the cost of King James and of many noblemen and
gentlemen, who seem to have contributed sums of money
for the purpose. If James I. lent any pecuniary aid on the
occasion, it affords another out of many proofs of his dis-
position tq encourage the drama, and to assist the players
who acted under the royal uame^. Although Shakespeare
might not be in any way pecuniarily affected by the event,
we may be sure that he would not be backward in using
his influence, and perhaps in rendering assistance by a gift
of money, for the reconstruction of a playhouse in which he

1 John Taylor, the water-poet, was a spectator of the calamity,
(perhaps in his own wherry) and thus celebrated it in an epigram.
which he printed in 1614 in his " Nipping and Snipping of Abuses,"
&e. 4to.

"Upon the Burning of the Globe.
"Aspiring Phaeton, with pride inspirde.
Misguiding Phcebus carre, the worlds he firde ;
But Ovid did with fiction serve his turne.
And I in action saw the Globe to burne."

3 See "Hist, of Engl. Dram. Poetry and the Stage," vol. i. p.
3S6, and vol. iii. p. '298.

' This fact, with several other new and curious particulars respect-
ng the fate of the BlacklViars theatre, the Whitefriars (called the
Salisbury Court) theatre, the Phcenix, the Fortune, and the Hope
\which was also at times used for bear-baiting) is contained in some
Bianuscript notes to a copy of Stowe's ^'innales^ by Howes, folio, 1631,
in the possession of Mr. Pickering; they appear to have been made
just after the last event mentioned in them. The burning of the
Globe is there erroneously fixed in 1612. When, too, it is said that
the Hope was built in lOlO, the meaning must be that it was then
reconstructed, so as to be adapted to both purposes, stage-plays and
bear-baiting. The memoranda are thus headed: "A note of such
passages as have beene omitted, and as I have aeene, since the print-
ing of Stowe's Survey of London in 4to, 1618, and this Chronicle at
'.arge. 1631."

" Play Houses. — The Globe play house, on the Bank side in
Southwarke. was burnt downe to the ground in the yeare 1612. And
new built up againe in the yeare I6l3, at the great charge of King
Tames, and many noble men. and others. And now pulled downe to
the ground by Sir !\Tathew Brand on Munday, the 15 of April, 1644,
to make tenements in the rnme of it.

"The Black Friers play house, in Black Friers London, which had
Btood miny yeares, was pulled down to the ground on Munday, the
6 day of August, 1655, and tenements built in thR roome.

imd in the continuance of the performances at which so
many of his friends and fellows were deeply interested

He must himself have hud an escape from a similar dis
aster at Stratford in the very next year. Fires had broke*
out in the borough in 1694 and 1596, which had destroyed
many of the houses, then built of wood, or of materials not
calculated \fd resist combustion ; but that wliich occurred on
the 9th July, 1614, seems to have done more damage than
both its predecessors. At the instance of vai-ious gentlemen
in the neighbourhood, including Sir Fulk Greville, Sir Rich*
ard Verney, and Sir Thomas Lucy, King James issued a
proclamation, or brief, dated 11th May, 1615, in favour of
the inhabitants of Stratford, authorizing the collection uf
donations in the diflerent churches of the kiugdom for the
restoration of the town ; and alleging that within two houra
the fire had consumed *' fifty-four dwelling-houses, many of
them being very fair houses, besides barns, stables, and
other houses of office, together also with great store of cora,
hay, straw, wood, and timber." The amount of loss is stated,
on the same authority, to be "eight thousand pounds and
upwards*." "What was the issue of this charitable appeal
to the whole kingdom, we know not.

It is very certain that tlie dwelling of our great drama
tist, called New Place, escaped the conflagration, and hia
property, as far as we can judge, seems to have been siru-
atea in a part of the town which fortunately did not suifer
from the ravages of the fire.

inhabitants whose certihcate was stated t^ be the immediate
ground for issuing the royal brief, but it is not at all un-
likely tliat he was instrumental in obtaining it. We are
sure that he was in London in November following the fire*'
and possibly was taking some steps in favour of his feUt>w-
townsmen. However, his principal business seems to hav*>
related to the projected inclosure of certain common lands
in the neighbourhood of Stratford in which he had an in-
terest. Some inquiiies as to the rights of various parties
were instituted in September, 1614, as we gather from a
document yet preserved, and which is now before us. The
individuals whose claims are set out are, " Mr. Shakespeare,"
Thomas Pai'ker, Mr. Lane. Sir Francis Smith. Mace, Arthur
Cawdrey, and "Mr. "Wright, vicar of Bishopton." All that
it is necessary to quote is the following, which refei-s to
Shakespeare, and wiiich, hke the rest, is placed under the
head of " Auncient Freeholders in the fields ».>f Old Strat-
ford and Welcome."

'' Mr. Shakspeare, 4 rd land^: noe common, nor ground

" The play house in Salisbury Court, in Fleete streete, was pulled
down by a company of souldiers, set on by the Sectaries of these sad
times, on Saturday, the 24th day of March, l(i49.

"The Phenix. in Druery Lane, was pulled down also this day,
being Saturday the 24th of March, 1649. by the same souldiers.

" The Fortune play house, between White Crosse streete and Geld-
ing Lane, was burned down to the ground in the year 1618. And
built againe, with bricke worke on the outride, in the year 1(>2"2 ; and
now puUd downe on the inside by these souldiers, this 1(349.

'■ The Hope, on the Banke side in Southwarke, commonly called
the Beare tiarden : a play house for stage playes on Mundays, Wed-
nesdayes, Fridayjes, and Saterdayes ; and for the baiting of the beares
on Tuesdays and Thursdayes — the stage being made to take up and
downe when they please. It was built in the year IGIO; and now
pulled downe to make tenements by Thomas Walker, a peticoat*
maker in Cannon Streete, on Tuesday the 25 day of March, lOoti.
Seven of Mr. Godfries beares, by the command of Thomas Piide, then
hie Sherefe of Surry, were shot to death on Saturday, the 9 day of
February, 165.5, by a company of souldiers."

* We take these particulars from a copy of the document "printed
by Thomas Purfoot," who then had a patent for all proclamations,
he. It has the royal arms, and tlie initials I. R. at the top of it aa
usual. It is in the possession of the Shakesponre Society.

* The name of his friend William Combr; is found among the " es<
quires'' enumerated in the body of the instrument.

* This fact appears in a lettnr, written by Thomas Greene, on IVtb
November, UU4, in which he tells some person in Stratford that h«
had bepu to see '■ his cousin Shakespeare," who had reached town the
day before.

T Malone informs us, without mentioning his authority, that " in
the fields of Old Stratford, where our poet's estate lay. a yard land
contained only about twenty-seven acres." but that it varied mu^h
indifferent places: he derives the term from the Saxon i^j/rrf land,
virfftita terrtp. — Shakspeare, by Boswell, vol. i- p. 25. Aceording
to the same authority, a yard land in WiimfCote consisted of mcr<
tlian fifty acres.

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

Ixxi

M/ond Gospell bushe : noe ground in Siindfield, nor none in
Blow lliil Held beyond Bishopton, nor none in the enclosures
beyond Bishopton."

The date of this paper is 5th September, 1614, and, as
we have said, we may presume that it was chiefly upon this
business diat Shaliespeare came to Loudon ou tlie 16th No-
vember. It should appear that Thomas Greene, of Strat-
ford, was officially opposlui;; the iiiclosure ou the part of the
corporation ; and it is probable that Shakespeafe's wishes
were accordant with those of the majority of the inhabi-
tixuts : however this might be, (aud it is liable to dispute
which pai'ty Shakespeare favoured) the members of the mu-
nicipal body of the borough were nearly unanimous, and, as
far as we can learn from the imperfect particulars remain-
iug upon this subject* they wished our poet to use his influence
to i-esist the project, wljich seems to have been supported
by Mr. Arthur iiainwaimt;, then resident in the family of
Lord Elle^mere as audit(jr of his domestic expenditure.

It is very likely that Shakespeare saw Maiuwaring ; and,
as it was only five or six years since his name had been es-
pecially brought under tiie notice of the Lord Chancellor,
m relation to "the claim of the city authorities to jurisdiction
in the Blackfriars, it is not impossible that Shakespeare
may have had an interview with Lord EUesmere, who
seems at all times to have been of a very accessible and
kindly disposition. Greene was in Loudon on the nth No-
vember, and sent to Stratford a short account of his pro-
ceedings on the question of the inclosure, in ■which he men-
tioned that he had seen Shakespeare ainl Mr. Hall (proba-
bly meaning Shakespeare's son-in-law) on the preceding
day, who ti)ld him that they thought nothing would be
done'. Greene returned to Stratford soon afterwards, and
having left our poet in London, at the instance of the cor-
poration, he subsequently wrote two letters, one to Shake-
speare, and the other to Maiuwaring, (the latter only has
been preserved) sattiug forth in strong terms the injury the
inclosure would do to Stratiord, and the heavy loss the in-
habitants luul not long before sustained from the fire. A
petition was also prepared and presented to the privy
council, and we may gather that the opposition was eff'ect-
ual, because nothing was done in the business: the common
fields of Welcombe, which it had been intended to inclose,
remained open for pasture as before.

How soon after the matter I'elating to the inclosure had
been settled Shakespeare returned to Stratford, — how long
he remaiued there, or whether he ever came to London
o^in, — we are without information. He was very possibly
in the metropohs at the time when a narrative poem,
founded in part upon his historical play of " Richard III.,"
was published, and which until now has escaped observa-
tion, althougli it contains the clearest allusion, not indeed by
name, to our author and to his tragedy. It is called " The
Ghiet of Richard the Third," aud it bears date in 1614;
but the writer, C. B.. only gives his initials''. We know of
no poet of that day to wh<im they would apply, excepting
Charles Best, who has several pieces in Davison's " Poetical
Rhapsody," 1602, but he has left nothing behind him to m-

1 The memoranclum of the contents of his letter (to which we have
already referred on p Ixii.) is in these terms, avoiding abbreviations ; —

*' Jovis, 17 No. INIy cosen Shai^espeare comyng yesterday. I went
to see him. how he did. He told me that they a-ssured hira tliey ment
10 inclose no further than to Gospel bush, and so npp straight Oeaving
«it part of the Dyngies to the field) to the gate in Cloplon hedg, and
take in Salisburys peece ; and that they mean in Aprill to survey the
land, and then to gyve satisfaction, and not before ; and he and Mr.
HiU say they thinlt there will be nolhyng done at all."

In what way, or in what degree, Shakespeare and Greene were re-
lated, so that the latt'r should call the former his "cousin," must
remain a matter of speculation ; but it will be recollected that the
pariah register of Stratford shows that *' Thomas Greene, alias Shake-
ipeare,'' was buried on 6th IVlarch. l.')-^9-lH). Whether Thomas
breene, the solicitor, was any relation to Thomas Greene, the actor,
we have no means of ascertaining.

'■' And these not on the title-page, but at the end of the prefatory
matter ; the whole title runs thus :—

''The Ghost of Richard the Third. Expressing himseife in these
Ihiee Parts. 1 His Character, '.i His Legend. 3. His Tragedie.
Containing moio of him than hath been heretofore shewed, either in
Chronicles, Plaves, or Poems. Laurea DestditR prabetur vntla.
Printed bv G. Eid : for L Lisle ; and are to be soUi in Paules Churcb-
tud, a. the signe of the Tygers head. 1614 " 4to

dicate that he w. uld be capable of a work of such powei
and variety. It is dividea mto three portions, the " Cha-
racter," the "Legend," and Uie "Tragedy" of Richard IIL
and the second part opens with the following sfcinzas, which
show the high estimate the writer had foi-med of the genius
of Shakespeare: they are extremely interesting as a eon
temporaueous tribute. Richard, narrating his own history
thus speaks : —
" To him thnt impt my fame with Clio's quill,

Whose mngick rais'd me from Oblivion's den,

That writ my stoi-ie ou the Muses hill.

And with my. actions dignified his pen ;

He that from Helicon sends many a rill,

Whose nectared veines are druiike by thirstie men ;
CrownVl be his stile with fame, his head with hayes,
Aud uone dcti-act, but gratulate liis praise.

" Yet if his scoenes have not engrost all grace,
Tlie much fnni'd action could'extend on stage ;
If Time or Memory have left a place
For me to fill, I'eiiforme this ignorant age,
To that intent I sliew my horrid face.
Imprest with feure ami characters of rage :
Nor wits nor chronicles could ere coiitaine
The liell-deepe reaches of my soundlesse briiine.'."

The above is the last extant panegyric upon Shake-
speare during his lifetime, and it exceeds, in point of fervour
and zeal, if not in judicious criticism, any tliat liad gone be-
fore it ; for Richard tells the reader, that the writer of the
his fame witli the quill of the historic muse, and that, by
the magic of vei-se, he who had written so much and so
finelv, had raised him from oblivion. That C. B. was an
author of distinction, aud well known to some of the greatest
poets of the day, we have upon tlieir own evidence, fiom
the terms they use in their commendatory poems, sub-
scribed by no less names than those of Ben Jonson', George
Chapman, William Bi-owne, Robei't Daborne, ahd George
Wither. The author professes to follow no particular
original, whether in prose or vei'se, narrative or dramatic,
in " chronicles, plays, or poems," but to adopt the incidents
as they had been handed down on various authorities. As
we have stated, his work is one of great excellence, btit it
would be gouig too much out of our way to enter here into
any farther examination of it.

4 CHAPTER XX.

Judith to Thomas Quinev in February, 1616. Shiike-
spi'ai-e's will prepared in January, but dated March, 1616.
His last illness: iitteiided by Dr. Hall, his son-in-law.
Uncertainty as to the nature of Shakespeare's fatal malady.
His birtli-day and death-day the same. Entry of ids burial
in the register at Stratford. His will, and circumstances to
jirove that it vt as prepared two months before it was execut-
ed. His bequest to his wife, and provision for her by dower.

The autumn seems to have been a very usual time for
publishing new books, and Shakespeare having been in

It is about to be reprinted by the Shakespeare Society, and on every
account it well merits the distinction.

3 We may suspect, in the last line but one, that the word " wit»"
has been misprinted for acts. The stanza which follows the above
refers to another play, founded on a distinct portion of the same his-
tory, and relating especially to Jaue Shore : —

"And what a peece of justice did I shew
On mistresse .Shore, when (with a fained hate
To unchast life) 1 forced her to goe
Barefoote on pennance, with dejected state.
But now her fame by a vile play doth grow.
Whose fate the women do commisserate,'' Sec.
The allusion may here be to Heywood's historical drama of "Ed
ward IV." (reprinted by the Shakespeare Society), in which Shore'i
wife is introduced ; or it may be to a different drama upon the events
of her life, which, it is known on various authorities, had been
brought upon the stage.

* h appears from Henslowe's Diary, that in June, 1611'J, Ben Jon-
son was himself writing a historical play, called " Richard Crook
back," for the Lord Admiral's players at the Fortune. We have no
evidence that it was ever completed or represented. Ben Jonaon i
testimony in favoor of the poem of C. B. is coinpre.-jsed into a fen
lines

Ixxii

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

[Aindon in Ihe middle of November, 1614, as we have re-
marked, he WHS perhaps there when " The Ghost of Rich-
ard the Tliiid ' came out, and, like Ben Jonson, Chapman,
and others, mi£;ht be acquainted with the author. He pro-
bably returned home before the winter, and passed the
rest of his days in tranquil retirement, and in the enjoyment
of the society of his friends, whether residing in the country,
or occasionally visiting bim fi'om the metropolis. " The
latter part of his life," says Kowe, "was spent, as all men
■of good seose will wish theirs may be, iu ease, retirement,
and the society of his friends ;" and he adds what cannot be
doubted, that " his pleasurable wit and- good-nature en-
gaged him in the acquaintanoe, and entitled him to the
friendship of the gentlemen of tlie neiglibnnrhood." He
must have been of a lively and companionable disposition ;
and his long residence in London, amid the bustling and
varied scenes connected with his public life, independently
of his natural powers of conversation, could not fail to ren-
der his society most agreeable and d*8ir'able. We can
readily believe that when any of his old associates of the
stage, whether authors or actors, came to Sti'atfoid, they
fjund a hearty welcome and free entertainment at liis
house : and that he would be the last man, in his p]\)s-
perity, to treat with slight or inditference those with whom,
m tlie eailier |)art of his career, he had been on terms of
familiar intercourse. It could not be in Shakespeare's na-
ture to disregard the claims of ancient friendship, especially
if it approached him in a garb of comparative poverty.

One of the very latest acts of his life was bestowing the
hand of his daughter Judith upon Thomas Quiney, a vintner
and wine-mei-ehant of Stratford, the son of Richard Quiney.
She must have been fcui' years older than her husband,
having, as already stated, been born on 2nd P'ebruary, 1585,
while he was not born until 26th February, 1589: he was
oonsequently twenty-seven yeais old, a.nd she thiity-one, at
the time of their marriage in February, 1616' ; and Shake-
speare thus became father-in-law to the son of the friend
who, eigliteen years before, had borrowed of him SO/., and
who had died on 31st May, 1602, while he was bailiff of
Sti-atford. As there was a difference of four yeai'S in the
ages of Judith Shakespeare and her husband, we ought
pei'haps to receive tliat fact as some testimony, that our
great di'amatist did not see sufficient evil in such dispropor-
tion to induce liim to oppose the union.

His will had been prepai-ed as long before its actual date
as 25th January, 1616-16, and this fact is apparent on the
face of it: it originally began " Vicesittiu qninto die
Jammrij" (aot Fihnuirij, as Malone ei'roneously read it)
but the word Jon'tarij wa-^ subsequently struck through
witli a pen, and Martij substituted by interlineation. Pos-
sibly it was not thought necessary to alter vicexijito gtiinto,
or the 25th Mai-eh might be the very day the will was exe-
cuted : if it were, the signatures of the testator, upon each
of the three sheeta of paper of which the will consists, beat
evidence (from the want of firmness in the writing) that he
was at that time suffering under sickness. It opens, it is
Irue, by stating that he was " in perfect health and me-
mory," and such was doubtless the case when the instru-
ment was prepared in Jimuary, but the execution of it

1 The registration in the books of Stratford church is this :
'*161.'i-16 Feabruary 10. Tho Queeny tow Judith Shalvspere."
The fruits of this marriafia were three .sons; viz. Shaltespeare,
baptized 'A3rd November, 1016, and buried May Slh. 1617; Richard,
baptized 9th February, 1017-18. and buried 2(ith February, Ki-M-Q ;
and Thomas, baptized '2.3rd January. IGI9-'20. and buried 2Sth
January, U53S-9. Judith C-iuiney, their mother, did not die until
after the Restoration, and was buried Dili February, 16()l-2. The
Stratford recisters contain no entry of the burial of Thomas Quiney,
ner husband, and it is very possible, therefore, that he died and was
buried in London.

3 The Rev, John Ward^s Diary, to which we have before referred,
contains the foilowinc undated paragraph : —

" Shakespeare, Drayton, and Bca Jonson, had a merie meeting,
and, itt seems, drank too hard, for Shakespear died of a fevoilr there
contr.v:ted."

Wliat credit may be due to this statement, preceded as it iB by the
words ■' it seems.' implying a doubt on the subject in the writer's
mind, we irMst leave the reader to determine. That Shakespeare
was of sober, tliouch of companionable habits, we are thoroughly
loB'inced . he could not have written seven-and-thirty plays (not
Wfk oing alterations and additions now lost) in tive-and-twenty

might he deferred until he was attacked by serious indi*
position, and then the date of the month only might be
altered, leaving the assertion as to health and memory aa
it had originally stood. What was the natui'e of Shake
speare's fatal illness we have no satisfactory means of
knowing", but it was probably not of long duration ; and if
when he subscribed his will he had really been in health
we are persuaded that at the age of only fifty -two he would
have signed his name with greater steadiness and distinct
ness. All three signatures are more or less infirm and ille-
gible, especially the two first, but he seems to have made
an effort to wiite his best when he affixed b(jth his names
at length at the end, " By me William Shakspeare."

We hardly need entertain a doubt that he was nttendeil
in his last illness by his son-in-law. Dr. Hall, who had then
been mari'iedto Susanna Shakesjjeare nioi-ethan eight years:
we have expressed our opinion that Di-. and Mrs. Hall lived
in the same house with our poet, and it is to be recollected
that in his will he leaves New Place to his daughter Susan-
na. Hall must have been a man of c«>nsidei'able science for
the time at which he practised, and he has left behind him
proofs of his knowledge and sliill in a number of cases
which had come under his own eye, and which he desci'ibed
in Latin : these were afterwards translated from his manu-
script^ and published in 1657 by Jonas Cooke, with the title
of " Select Observations on English Bodies^" but the case
foi'tunately the "observations" only begin in 1617. One of
the earliest of them shows that an epidemic, called the " new
fever," then prevailed in Stratford and "invaded many."
Possibly Shakespeaie was one of these ; though, had such
been the fact, it is not unlikely that, when speaking of " the
Lady Beaufou" who suffered under it on July 1st. 1617, Dr.
Hall would have referred back to the earlier instjiuee of his
father-in-law*. He does advert to a tertian ague of which,
at a period not mentioned, he had cured Michael Drayton,
(•' an excellent poet," as Hall terms him) when he was, per-
haps, on a visit to Shakespeare. However, Dravton, as for-
merly remarked, was a native of Warwickshire, and Dr.
Hall may have been called iu to attend him elsewhere.

We are left, therefore, in utter uneei-tjnnty as Ui the im-
mediate cause of the death of Shjikespeare at an age when
he would be iu full possession of his faculties, and when iu
the ordinary course of nature he might have LHed many
years in the enjoyment of the society of his family and
fiiends, in that grateful and easy retirement, which had been
cained by his genius and industry, and to obtain wliieh had
appai'cntly been the main object of many years of toil,
anxiety, and deprivation.

Whatever doubt may prevail as to the day. of the birth
of Shakespeare, none can well exist as to the day of his
death. The inscription on his monument in Stratford church
tells us,

"Obfit Anno Domini 1616.
u£tatis 68. die 23 Apr."

And it is remarkable that he was bora and died on the same
day of tlie same month, supposing him, as we have every
reason to believe, to have first seen the light on the 23d

years had he been otherwise; and we are sure also, that if Drayton
and Ben Jonson visited him at Stratford, he would give them a free
and hearty welcome. We have no reason to think that Draytoa
was at all given to intoxication, although it is certain that Ben Jon»
son was a iiountiful liver.

^ For a copy of this curious and interesting work, we gladly express
our obligations to Mr. William Fricker. of Hyde, near Manchester.

• He several times speaks of sicknesses in his own family, and of the
manner in which he had removed them : a ca^e of his own. in which
he mentions his age, accords with the statement in his inscription,
and ascertains that he was thirty-two when he married Susanna
Shakespeare in 1007. "Mrs. Hall, of Stratford, my wife," is more
than once introduced in tlie course of the volimie, as we'l a* "Eliz-
abeth Hall, my only daughter."' Mrs. Susanna Hall died in 1040,
aged 00, and was buried at Stratford. Elizabeth Hall, her daughter
by Dr. Hall, (baptized on the 'Jlst Feb. lOO?--^.! and grand-daughter
to our poet, was married on the S-Jd April. lO'JO, to Mr. Thomas Nash,
(who died in 1047) and on 5th June, 1041). to Mr. John Bernard, --f
Abingdon, who waa knighted after the Restoration. Lady Bernard
died childless in 1079, and was buried, not at Stratford with her owe
family, but at Abingdon with that of her second husband. She wai
the last of the lineal descendants of William Shako'ipear*

THE LIFE. OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

Ixxiil

April, 156'!. It -waa most usual about that period to men-
tiou the day of death in in^cnptious upon tomb-stones, tub-
lets, and monuments; and suoh was the case with other
members of the Shakespeare family. We are thus informed
that his wife, Auue Shakespeare, " departed this life the 6th
day of Augu. 1623*:" Dr. Hall "deceased Nove. 25. A".
1635' :" Thomas Nash, who married Hall's daughter, *' died
April 4, A. 1647^:" Susanna Hall " deceased the llth of
July, A**. 1649*." Therefore, although the Latin iuscriptittn
ou the monument of our great dramatist may, from its form
jtnd punctuatiou, appear not so decisive as those we have
iiuoted in English, there is ir. fact uo ground for disputiug
that he died on 23d April, 1616. It is quit« certain from
the register of Stratfoi'd that he was interred on tlie 25th
April, and the record of that event is placed among the
burials in tlie following manner:

" 1616. April 25, Will' Sha.'kspere, Gent."

Whether from the frequent prevalence of infectious dis-
ordera, or from any other cause, the custom of keeping the
bodies of relatives unburied. for a week or more after death,
eeeuis comparatively of modem origin ; and we may illus-
trate this point also by reference to facts regarding some cf
the members of the Shakespeare family. Anne Shake-
speare was buried two days after she died. viz. on the 8th
Aug., 1623* : Dr. Hall and Thomas Nash were buried on the
day after they died" ; and although it is true that there was
an interval of five days between the death and burial of
Mrs. Hall, in 1649, it is very possible that her corpse was
conveyed from some distance, to be interred among her re-
lations at Stratfurd\ Nothing would be easier than to ac-
cumulate instimces to prove that in the time of Shakespeare,
as well as before and afterwards, the custom was to bury
persons vei"y shortly subsequent ttt their decease. In the
case of our poet, concluding that he expired on the 23d
April, there was. as in the instance of his wife, an interval
of two days before his interment

Into the particular provisions of his will we need not en-
ter at all at large, because we have printed it at the end of
the present memoir ft-om tlie original, as it was filed in the
Prerogative Cou^t^ probate having been gi'auted on the 22d
June following the date of it His daughter Judith is there
only called by her Christijm name, although she had been

' The inscription, upon a brass plate, let into a stone, is in these
terms: — We have to thank Mr. Bruce for the use of his copies of them,
with which we have compared our own.

•* Heere lyeth interred the Body of Anne, Wife of William Shake-
•peare. who departed this life the 6th day of Augu. 16'23. being of
«je ape of 67 yeares.

Uhera. tu mater, tu lac, vitamq ; dedisti,

Veb mihi : pro tanto munere saxa dabo.
Qaam mallem amoveat lapidem bonHs angel' ore'

Exeat ut Christi corpus imago tua.
Sed nil vota valent. venias cito Christe resurget
Clausa licet tuninlo mater, et astra petit."

* The fotlowiiifif is the inscription commemorating him.

" Heere lyeth the Body of lohn Hall. Gent : H«e marr : Susanna
f ■ daughter and coheire of Will : Shakespeare, Gent. Hee deceased
Nove. 25. A". KVlo, aged GO.

Hallius hic situs est, medica celeberrimus arte,

Expeclans regni gaudia Isla Dei.
Dignus erat meritis, qui Nestora vinceret amnis,

In terris omnes, sed rapit EEqua dies.
Ne tumulo quid desit, adest fidissima conjnx,
Et viUB comitem nunc quoq ; mortis habet,"

* His inscription, in several places difficult to be deciphered, is
tbis ;—

*• Heere resteth y* Body of Thomas Nashe. Esq. He mar. Fliza-
beth the dang, and heire of John Halle, Gent. He died Api-U 4.
A 1617, Aged 53.

Kata manent omnes hunc non Tirtute carentem,

Ut neque divitiis abstulit atra dies ;
Abstulit. at referet lux ultima: siste. viator,
Si peritura paras per male parta oeris."

* The inscription to her runs thus :

' Heere lyeth v body of Sueanna, Wife to Tohn Hall. Gent : yo
iaaghter of William Shakespeare, Gent. Shee deceased y" llih of
(u!y. A«>.Hi49. aged liG."

t)ugdale has handpd do*n the following verses upon her, which
were originally enjiraved on the stcne, but are not now to be fiund,
»alf of it having been cut away to make nxtm for an inscription tc
RjaKoii Walts, who I'ied in 1707.

married to Thomas Quiney considerably more than a month
anterior to the actual date of the will, and although his eld-
est daughter Susanna is mentioned by her husband's patro
nymic. It seems evident, from the tenor of the whole in
strument, that when it was prepared Judith was not mar
ried", although her speedy union with Thomas Quiney wat
contemplated: the attorney or scrivener, who drew it, had
first written " son and daughter," (meaning Judith and her
intended husband) but erased the words " son and" aft^er-
wards, asthe parties were not yet married, and were nnt
" son and daughter" to the testator. It is true that Ttomaa
Quiney would not have been Shakespeare's son, only lus
son-in-law ; but the degrees of consanG:uinity were not at
that time strictly marked and attended to, and in the same
will Elizabeth Hall is called the testator's "niece," "whfn
she was, in fact, his granddaughter.

13ie bequest which has attracted most attention is an it^-
terUneation in the following words, " Itm I gyve unto my
wief my second be«t bed with the furniture." Upon tliis
passage has been ft>unded, by Malone and others, a charge
against Shakespeare, that he only remembered his wife as
an aftertliought, and then merely gave her " an old bed."
As to the last part of the accusation, it may be answered,
that the " second best bed" was probably that in which the
husband and wife had slept, when he was in Stratford ear-
lier in life, and every night since his I'etiremeut from the
metropolis : the best bed was doubtless reserved for visitors :
if, therefore, he were to leave his wife any express legacy
of the kind, it was most natural and considerate that b«
should give her that piece of furniture, which for many years
they had jointly occupied. With regard to the second part
of the charge, our great dramatist has of late years been re-
lieved from the stigma, thus attempted to be thrown upon
him, by the mere remark, that Shakespeare's property be-
ing principally freehold, the widow by the ordinary opera-
tion of the law of England would be entitled to, what is le-
gally known by the term, duwer."* It is extraoi'dmary that
this explanation should never have occurred to Malone, who
was educated to the legal profession; but that many others
should have followed him in his unjust imputation is not
remarkable, recollecting how pi-one most of Shakespeare's
biographers have been to repeat errors, rather than take Ae
trouble to inquire for themselves, to sift out truth, and to
balance probabilities.

Witty above her sexe, but that's not all ;
Wise to salvation was good Mistress Hall.
Something of Shakespeare was in that, but this
Wholy of him with whom she's now in blisse.

Then, passenger, hast ne're a teare

To weepe with her that wept for all ?
That wept, yet set her selfe to cheere

Them up with comforts cordiall.
Her love shall live, her meicy spread,
When thou hast ne're a teare to shed."
The register informs us that she was buried on the 16th July, IMfl,
' The following is copied from the register . —

" 160.3, August 8. Mrs. Shakspeare."

• Their registrations of burial are in these terms : —

"lfi35. Nov. -26. Johannes Hall, KJedicus peTttissimus."
" 1647 Apnll 5. Thomas Nash, Gent,''
' The register contains as follows : —

"1649. July 16. Mrs. Susanna Hall, widow "
9 We are indebted to Sir F. Madden, Keeper of the MSS ia the
British Museum, for the use of a most exact collation of Shakespeare 'i
will; in addition tc which we have seveial times gone over every
line and word of it. We have printed it as nearly as passibl* u it
appears in the original.

* Another trifling circumstance leading to the conclusion that tho
will was prepared in January, though not executed until March, ie
that Shakespeare's sister is called Jone Hart, and not Jone Hart,ir/dMr.
Her husband had died a few days before Shakespeare, and he was
buried ou 17 April, lOlG, as "Will Hart, hatter.' She was buried
on 4 Nov. 1646. Both entries are contained in the parish registers oj
Stratford.

>" This vindication of Shakespeare's memory from the supposed ne-
glect of his wife we owe to Mr. Knight, in his '• Pictorial Shak-
spcre." See the Postscript to •' Twelfth Night." When the expla-
nation is once given, it seems so easy, that we wonder it was never
before mentioned ; but like many discoveries of difTerint kinds, it i»
not less simple than important, and it is jr^t that Mr. Knight Bhoald
have full credit for it.

Ixxiv

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

CHAPTER XXL

Monnment to Shnkesreare at Stratford-upon-Avon erected
before 1623; probaoly under the supennteiideuce of Dr.
Hall, and Shakespeare's daughter Snsanna. Ditference
between tho bnst on the monument and the portrait on the
title-page of the folio of 1623. Ben Jonson's testimony in
favour of the likeness of the latter. Shakespeare's personal
appenrunco. His social and convivial qualities. " Wit-
oombals" mentioned by Fuller in his '' Worthie.s." Epi-
taphs upon Sir Thomius Stanley and Elias James. Con-
olusion. HalUim's character o£ Shakespeare.

A MONTTMENT to Shakespeare was erected anterior to the
publication of the folio edition of his " Comedies, Histories,
and Tragedies" in 1623, because it is thus distinctly men-
tionf»d by Leonard Digges, in the earliest copy of commen-
datory verses prefixed to that volume, which he states shall
outlive the poet's tomb: —

" when that stone is rent,

And time dissolves thy Stratford Monument,
Here we alive shall view thee still."

This ie the most ancient notice of it ; but how long before
162S it had been placed in the church of Stratford-upon-
Avon, we have no means of deciding. It represents the
poet sitting under ati arch, with a cushion before him, a pen
iu his right hand, and his left resting upon a sheet of paper:
it has been the opinion of the best judges that it was cut by
an English sculptor, (perhaps Thomas Stanton) and we may
conclude, without much hesitation, that the artist was em-
ployed by Dr. Llall and his wife, and that the resemblance
was as faithful as a bust, not modelled from the life, but
probably, umler living instructions, from some picture or
cast, coidd be expected to be. Sha'kespeare is there con-
siderably fuller iu the face, than iu tlie engraving on the
title-page of the folio of 1623, which must have been made
from a different original It seems not unlikely that after
he separated himself fiom the business and anxiety of a
professional hfe, and withdrew to the permanent inhaling
of his native air, he became more robust, and the half-
length upon hh monument conveys the notion of a cheerful,
good-tempered, and somewhat jovial man. The expression,
we apprehend, is less intellectual than it must have been in
I'eality, and the forehead, though lofty and expansive, is not
strongly marked with thought : on the whole, it has rather
a look of gaiety and good humour than of thought and re-
tleetion, and the lips ai'e full, and apparently in the act of
giving utterance to some amiable pleasantry.

On a tablet below the bust are placed the followiDg
inscriptions, which we give literally : —

" Ivdicio Pyiivm, geuio Socrateni, arte Maronem,

Terra tegit, popvlvs mffiret, Olympvs habet.
Stay, Passenger, why goest thov by so fa-t 1
Read, if thov canst, whom enviovs Death hath plast
Witliin this monvment : Shakspeare; with whouie
Quick natvre dide: whose name doth deck y* Tombe
Far more then cost ; sieth all y' he hath writt
Leaves living art bvt ptxge to serve his witt

Oljiit lino Do'. 1616.
iEtatis. 58. die 23 Ap'."
On a flat grave stone in front of the monument, and not
fei from the wall against which it is fixed, we read these
lines ; and Southwell's correspondent (whose letter was
printed in 1838, from the original manuscript dated 1693)
mforms us, speaking of course from tradition, that they
were written by Shakespeare himself: —

'* Good frend, for lesvs sake forbear©
To digg the dvst encloased heare :

' It was originally, like many other monuments of the time, and
mme in Stratford church, coloured after the life, and 8o it continued
until Malone, in his mistaken zeal for classical taste and severity,
and forgetting the practice ot the |)eriod at which the work was pro-
duoed. had it painted one uniform stone-colour. He thus exposed
Himself to much not unmerited ridicule. It was afterwards tound
impoKsible to restore the oliginal colours.

* Besides, we may suppose that Jonson would be careful how he
tpplauded th» likeness, when there must have been so many persons

Blest be y* man y* spares thes stones.
And cvrst be he y' moves my bones."

The half-length on the title-page of the folio of 1628i
engraved by Martin Droeshout, has certainly an expression
of greater gravity than the bust on Shakespeare's monu-
ment; and, making some allowances, we can conceive the
original of that resemblance more capable of producing the
mighty works Shakespeare has left beliind him, than the
original of the bust: at all events, the fii'st rather looks like
the author of " Lear " and " Macbeth," and the last Hke the
Wives of Windsor:" the one may be said to represent
Shakespeare dm'ing his later years at Stratford, happy in
the intercourse of his family and friends and tlie cheerful
companion of his neighbours and townsmen ; and the other,
Shakespeare in London, revolving the great works he liad
written or projected, and with his mind somewhat burdened
by the cares of his professional life. The last, therefore,
is obviously the likeness which ought to accompany bis
phtys, and which his " friends and fellows," Heminge and
Condell, preferred to the head upon the " Stratford Monu-
ment," of the erection of which they must have been aware.

There is one point in which both the engraving and the
bust in a degree concur, — we mean in the length of th«
upper lip, although the peculiarity seems exaggerated in the
bust. We have no such testimony in favour of the truth
of the resemblance of the bust' as the engraving, opposite
to which are the following lines, subscribed witli the initials
of Ben Jonson, and doubtless from his pen. Let the reader
bear iu mind that Ben Jonson was not a man who could be
hired to commend, and that, taking it for gr-anted he was
sincere in his praise, he had liie most unquestionable means
of forming a judgment upon the subject of the likeness be-
tween the living man and tlie deatl representation^ Wo
give Ben Jonson's testimonial exactly as it stands in ths
folio of 1623, for it afterwards went through various litcr^
changes.

*' This Figure, that thou here peest put,

It was for gentle Shake^^peare cut;

Wherein tiie Grauer h.ad a strife

With Nature, to out-doo the life ;

0, could he but haue drawne his wit

As well in brasse, as he hath hit

His face; the Print would then surpasse

All, that was euer writ in braise.

Not on his Picture, out his Booke.

B. I."
With this evidence before us, we have not hesitated in
having an exact copy of Droeshotit's engraving executed
for the present edition of the Works of Skakespeare. It is,
we believe, the first time it has ever been selected for the
purpose since the appearance of the folio of 1623; and,
although it may not be recommended by the appearance
of so high a style of art as some other imputed resem-
blances, there is certainlv not one which has such tm-
doubted claims to our notice on the grounds of fidelity and
authenticity.

The fact that Droeshout was required to employ his skill
upon a bad jjicture may tend to confirm our reliance upon
the likeness : had there been so many pictui-es of Shake-
speare as some have contended, but as we are far from
beheving, Heminge and G<indell, when they were seeking
for an appropriate ornament for the title-page of their folio,
would hardly have chosen one which was an unskilful paint-
ing, if it had not been a striking resemblance. If only half
the pictures said, within the last century, to represent
Shakespeare, were in fact from the hfe, the poet must have

deserved. Jonson does not speak of the painter, but of the " graver,"
who we are inclined to think did full justice to the picture placed in
his hands Droeshout was a man of considerable eminence in hil
branch of art, and has left behind him uniloubled proofs of his skill
— some of them so much superior to the head of Shakespeare in the
folio of lG'i:f, as to lead to the conviction, that the picture from whion
he worked waa a very coarse specimen of art.

I

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

bcxv

a vast stock of patience, if not a larger share of
vanity, when he devoted so much time to sitting to the
artisU of the day ; and the player-editors could have found
00 difficulty in procuring a picture, which had better pre-
teusious to then' approval. To us, therefore, the very de-
fects of the engraviug, which accompanies the folio of 1623,
are a recoirmiendation, since they serve to show that it waa
both genuine and faithful.

Aubrey is the only authority, beyond the inferences that
may be urawn from the porti-aits, fur the personal appear-
anoe of Shakespeare ; and he sums up our great poet's phy-
sical and moral endowments in two lines ; — " He was a
handsome well-shaped man, very good company, and of a
very ready, and pleasant, and smooth wit^" We have every
reason to suppose that this is a correct description of his
personal appearance, but we are unable to add to it from
any other source, unless indeed we were to rely upon a few
equivocal passages m the " Sonnets." Upon this authority
it has been supposed by some that he was lauie, and cer-
tainly the 87th and 89th Sonnets, without allowing for a
figurative mode of expression, might be taken to unport as
much. If we were to consider tlie words literally, we
should imagine that some accident had befallen him, which
rendered it impossible that he should continue on the stage,
ami hence we could easily account for his early retirement
from it. We know that such was the case with one of his
moat fimious predecessors, Christopher Marlowe', but we
have no sufHciont reason for believing it was the fact as re-
gards Shakespeare: he is evidently speaking metaphori-
«ally in both places, where *' lame " and " lanieness " occur.

His social qualities, his good temper, hilarity, vivacity,
and what Aubrey calls his " very ready, and pleasant, and
smooth wit," (in imr author's own words, " pleasant without
scurrility, witty without affectation,") cannot be doubted,
since, besides what may be gathered from his works, we
have it from various quarters ; and although nothing vei-y
good of this kind may have descended to us, we have suffi-
cient to show that he must have been a most welcome
visitor in all companies. The epithet " gentle " has been
frequently applied to him, twice by Ben Jonson, (in his
lines before the engraving, aud in his laudatory verses pre-
fixed to the plays in the folio of 1623) and if it be not to be
understood precisely in its modern acceptation, we may be
sure that one distinguishiug feature in his character was gen-
eral kindliness : he may have been " sharp and sententious,"
but never needlessly bitter or ill-natured : his wit had no
malice for an ingredient Fuller speaks of the " wit-combats "
between Shakespeare and Ben Jonson at the convivial
meetings at the Mermaid club, established by Sir Walter
Raleigh' ; and he adds, •' which two I behold like a Spanish
great galleon and an English man-of-war : Master Jonson,
like the former, was built far higher in learning ; solid, but
slow in his performances : Shakespeare, with the English
man-of-war, lesser in bulk, but lighter in sailing, could turn

' See the extract from a ballad on Marlowe (p. ixii.). This cir-
eumstance, had he known it, would materially have aided the rat^
dam sceptick, who argued that Shakespeare and Marlowe were one
knd the same.

' GifTord (Ben Jonson's Works, vol. I. p. Ixv.) fixes the date of the
Mtabliahment of this club, at the Mermaid in Friday Street, about
l'iO;J, and he adds that '* here for many years Ben Jonson repaired
with Shakespeare, Beaumont, Fletcher, Selden, Cotton, Carew, Mar-
tin, Donne, and many others, whose names, even at this distant
p«riod, call up a mingled feeling of reverence and respect." Of what
passed at these many assemblies Beaumont thus speaks, addressing
Ben lonson : —

— ^— — "What things have we seen
Done at the Mermaid ! heard words that have been
So nimble, and so full of subtle flame.
As if that every one from whom they came
Had meant to put his whole wit in a jest."
The .Mitre, in Fleet Street, seems to have been another tavern where
Iho wits and poets of the day hilariously assembled.
' Worthies. Part iii. p. 1-26, folio edit.

* Fuller has another simile, on the same page, respecting Shake-
epear« and his acquirements, which is worth quoting. " He waa an
eminent instance of the truth of that rule, I' ■nation fit^sed vascitiir ;
one is not made, but born a poet. Indeed his learning was very little,
■o that as Cornish diamonds are not polished by anyTapidajry, but are

by the quickness of his wit and invention'." The simile ia
well chosen, and it came fi-om a writer who seldom sail
anything ill'. Connected with Ben .lonson's solidity and
shiwness is a witticism between him and Shakespeare, said
to have passed at a tavera Oue of the Ashmolean manu
scripts (No. 38) contains the following: —

" Mr. Ben Johnson and Mr. Wm. Shakespeare being
merrie at a tavern, Mr. Jonson begins this for hjs epitaph,

Here lies Ben Jonson
Who was once one :

he gives it to Mr. Shakespeare to make np, who presentlj

writt

That, while he liv'd, was a «?omi thing,
And now, being dead, is ?to-thiug."

It is certainly not of much value, but there is a great
difference between the estimate of an extempore joke
at the moment of delivery, and the opinion we may
form of it long afterwards, when it has been put upon
paper, and transmitted to posterity under such names
as those of Shakespeare and Jonson. The same ex-
cuse, if required, may be made for two other pieces of
unpretending pleasantly between the same parties, which
we subjoin in a note, because they relate to such men,
and have been handed down to us upon something like
authority'.

Of a different character is a production preserved by
Dugdale, at the end of his 'Visitation of Salop, in the
Heralds' College : it is an epitaph inscribed upon the tomb
of Sir Thomas Stanley, in Tongue church ; and Dugdale,
whose testimony is unimpeachable, distinctly states that
" the following verses were made by William Shakespeare,
the late famous tragedian."

" Written upon the east end of the tomb.

" Ask who lies here, but do not weep ;
He is not dead, he doth but sleep.
This stony register is for his bones ;
His fame is more perpetual than these stones :
And his own goodness, with himself being gone,
Shall live when earthly monument is none.

" Written on the west end thereof.
" Not monumental stone preserves our fame,
Nor sky-aspiring pyramids our name.
The memory of him for whom tliis stands
Shall out-live marble and defncers' hands.
When all to time's consumption shall he given,
Stanley, for whom this stands, shall stand in heaven."

With Malone and others, who have quoted them, we
feel satisfied of the authenticity of these verses, though we
may not perhaps think, as he did, that the last line bears

pointed and smooth even as they are taken out of the earth, so nature
itself was all the art which was used upon him." Of course Fuller
is here only referring to Sli.ikespeare's classical acquirements: hie
"learning "of a different kind, perhaps, exceeded that of all the
ancients put together.

* •' Shakespeare was god-father to one of Ben Jonson's children
and after the christening, being in a deepe study. Jonson came to
cheere him up. and askt him why he was so melancholy? — 'No
faith, Ben, (sayes he) not I ; but T have been considering a greet
while what should be the fittest gift for me to bestow upon my god-
child, and 1 have resolv'd at last.' — ' I pr'ythee what ?' says he.
' I 'faith, Ben, I'll e'en give him a douzen of Latten spoones, and
thou shalt translate them.' "

Of course the joke depends upon the pun between Latin, and the
mixed metal called !allen. The above is from a MS. of Sir X.
L'Estrange, who quotes the authority of Dr. Donne. It is inserted in
Mr. Thoms's amusing volume, printed for the Camden Society,
under the title of -'Anecdotes and Traditions." p. 2. "The next ii
from a MS. called " Poetical Characteristics," formerly in the H-.
leian Collection : —

'• "Verses by Ben Jonson and Shakespeare, occasioned bj the motto
to the Globe theatre — Totus muTtiiiis afrit Itistrinvrm.

■^Jonson. If but stage-actors all the world displays.

Where shall we find spectators of their play^*
" Shakespeare. Little, or much of what we see, we do;
We are both actors and sfiectators too."

lxxv»

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEAEE.

such " Btrong marks of the hand of Shakespeare'." The
ooiocidence betweea the line

" Nor sky -aspiring pyramids our name,"

and the passage in Milton's Epitaph upon Shakespeare,
prefixed t<5 the folio of 1682,

" Or tliat his hallow'd relics should be hid
Under a star-vpointing pyramid,"

seems, as far as we recollect, to have escaped notice.

We have thus brought into a consecutive narrative (with
as little interruption of its thread as, under the circum-
stances, and with such disjointed materials, seemed to us
possible) the particulai's respecting tile life of the " myriad-
minded Shakespeare'." with which our predecessors were
acquainted, or which, from vanous sources, we have been
able, duriug a long series of years, to collect. Yet, after all,
comparing what we really know of our great dramatist
with what we might possibly have known, we cannot but be
aware how little has been accomplished " Of William
Shakespeare," says one of our greatest living authors of

* The following reaches us in a more questionable shape : it is
from a MS. of the time of Charles I., preser/ed in the Bodleian Li-
brary, which contjiins also poems by Herrick and others.

" AN EPITAPH.

"When God was pleas'd, the world unwilling yet,
Elias James to nature paid his debt,
And here reposelh. As he lived he died.
The saying in him strongly verified.
Ench life, such death : then, the known truth to tell.
He liv'd a godly life, and died a£ well.

"Wm Shakespeare."

our greatest dead one, "whom, through the mouths of
those whom he has inspired to body foith the modificationa
of his immense mind, we seem to know better than any
human writer, it may be truly said that we scarcely know
anything. We see him, so far as we do see him, not in
himself, but in a reilex image from the objectivity in which
he is manifested : he is Falstaff, and Mercutio, and Mai
volio, and Jaques, and Portia, and Imogen, and Lear, and
Othello ; but to us he is scarcely a determined person, a sub-
stantial reality of past time, the man Shakespeare'." We
cannot flatter ourselves that we have done much to bring the
reader better acquainted with " the man Shakespeare,"
but if we have done anything we shall be content ; and, in-
stead of attempting any character of our own, we will subjoin
one. in the words of the distinguished wiiter we have abov*
quoted', as brief in its form as it is comprehensive in its mat-
ter : — " The name of Shakespeare is the greatest in our
literature, — it is the greatest in all literature. No man ever
came near to him in the creative powers of the mind ; no
man had ever such strength at once, and such variety of
imagination."

If the details of his life be imperfect, the history of hit
mind is complete ; and we leave the reader to tuni fi'om tb«
contemplation of " the man Shakespeare" to the etady of

THE POET ShAKSSPEAEE.

' Coleridge's Table Talk, vol. ii. p. .'SOI .—Ml. Hallam in his " In-
troduction to the Literature of Europe," vol. iii. p. 89. edit. 1843|
somewhat less literally translates the Greek epithet, uvpiovovs.
" thousand-souled."

> Hallam 's" latrodaction to the Literature of Europe," vol. ii. 7.I76

« Ibid. vol. iii. p. 89.

SHAKESPEARE'S WILL.'

Vicesimo Quinto Die Martij' Anno Regni Domini
nostri Jacob! nunc Eex Anglic <fee. Decimo quarto
A Scotie xlix° Annoq; Domini 1616.

T. W"! Shackspeare

In the name of god Amen I William Shackspeare
of Sti-atford vpon Avon in the countde of warr gent in per-
fect health &. memorie god be praysed doe make <t Ordayne
this my last will *fe testament in manner <fe forme followeing
That ys to saye Fu-st I Comend my Soule into the handes
of god my Creator hoping & assuredlie beleeving through
thonelie merites of Jesus Christe my Saviour to be made
partaker of lyfe everlastinge And my bodye to tlie Earth
whereof yt ys made Item I Gyve & bequeath vnto my
Daughter' Judyth Oue hundred i Fyftie poundes of law-
full English money to be paied vnto hei' in manner & forme
followeing That ys to saye One hundred pounds in discharge
of her marriage porcion* within one yeare after my deceas
with consideracion after the Rate of twoe ShiUinges in the
pound for soe long tyme as the same shalbe vnpaied vnto
per after ray deceas & the Fyftie poundes Residewe thereof
vpon her Surrendring of or gyving of such sufficient Secu-
ritie as the overseers of this my Will shall like of to Sur-
render or graunte All her estate & Right that shall discend
or come vnto her after my deceas or that 'shee" nowe hath
of in or to one Copiehold tenemente with thappurtenances
lyeing A being in Stratford vpon Avon aforesaied in the

> The following is from an exact transcript of the org:nai Will
Jepoiited in the Prerogative office, London, the only difference being
that we have not thought it necessary to give the legal contractions
rf the scrivener ; in all other respects, even to the mise.iiployment
uL capital letters, and the omission of points our copy is most faithful.

■ The word " Martii" is interlined above " January,'' which is
itrtck through with the pen. Malone (Shaksp. by Boswell, vol. i.
p. 601.) states that the word struck through is Fcbruarij^ bat *bia it
ft mistake.

eaied countie of warr being parcell or holden of the man-
nour of Rowington vnto my Daughter Susanna Hall A her
heires for ever Item I Gyve <St bequeath vnto my eaied
Daughter Judith One hundred and Fyftie Poundes more if
shee or Anie issue of her bodie be Lyvinge att thend of
three yeares next ensueing the Daie of the Date of this my
Will during which tyme my executours to paie her eonsiu-
eracion from my deceas according to the Rate aforesaied
And if she dye within the saied terme without issue of her
bodye then my will ys A I Doe gyve A bequeath One Hun-
dred Poundes thereof to my Neece Elizabeth Hall A the
Fiftie Poimdes to be sett fourth by my executours during the
lief of my Sister Johane Harte A the vse and pioffitt there-
of Cominge shalbe payed to my saied Sister lone A after
her deceas the saied 1'' shall Remaine Amongst the children
of my saied Sister Equallie to be Devided Amongst them
But if my saied Daughter Judith be lyving att thend of the
saied three Yeares or anie yssue of her bodye then my will
y s A soe I Devise A bequeath the saied Hundred and Fyftie
Poundes to be sett out by my executours A overseers' for the
best benefitt of her A her issue A the stock' not to be' paied
vnto her soe long as she shalbe marryed A Covert Baron"
but my will ys that she shall have the consideracion yearlie
paied vnto her during her lief A after her deceas the saied
stock and consideracion to bee paied to her children if sbe
have Anie A if not to her exeentours or assignes she lyving
the saied terme after my deceas Provided that if such hua

3 Before " Daughter" tonne and was originally written, Vat stmoh
through with the pen.

* The words "in discharge of her marriage porcion" are interlined.

* The word "of is interlined

• The words " that shee" are interlined.

^ The words " by my executours and overseers" are interlined.
e The words " the stock" are interlined.

• The words " to be" are interlined.
>• After " Baron" the words *' by my exeontonn fr tfreneer*'' v*

•rased -with the pen.

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEAEE.

Ixxvii

t> fkd as she shall att thend of the saied three yeares be mar-
ryed Tnto or attaine after doe sufficientlie Assure vnto her
ft thissue of her bodie landes Answereable to the porcion
Iry this my "will gyvea vnto her <it to be udiudged soe by my
executom's &■ overseers theu my will ys that the saied CI''
shalbe paied to such husbond as shall make such assui'ance
to his owne vse Item I gyve 6l bequeath vuto my saied sis-
ter lone xx" & all my wearing Apparrell to be paied <fe de-
liuered within one yeare after ray Deeeas And I doe will
it devise vnto her the house' with thappurtenaiices in Sti'at-
fi>rd wherein she dwelleth for her natural lief vnder the
yearUe Rent of xii'' Item I gyve <t bequeath" vnto her
three sonns William Harte Hart <fe Michaell Harte

Fyve Poundes A peece to be paied within one Yeare after
my deeeas' her Item I gyve <fc bequeath imto the saied
Elizabeth Hall* All my Plate (except my brod silver it gilt
bole') that I now have att the Date of this my will Item I
gyve lis bequeath vnto the Poore of Stratford aforesaied tenn
poundes to Mr ITiomas Combe my Sword to Tliomas Rus-
sell Esquier Fyve poimdes & to Frauncis Collins of the Bo-
rough of wan' in the countie of warr geutleman thirteene
poundes Sixe shillinges <fe Eight pence to be paied within
one Teare after my Deeeas Item I gyve & bequeath to
Raynoldes irent xxvj^ viij'^ to buy him a Riuge^ to my godson
William Walker xx" in gold to Anthonye Nashe gent xxvj>
viiji' i& to Mr John Nashe xxvj' viij^° <& to my Fellowes John
HemjTiges Richard Burba^e <fe Henry Cundcll xxvj' viij''
Apeece to buy them Ringes' Item I Gyve will bequeath &
devise vnto my Daughter Susanna Hall foi- better enabling
of hert<i pel forme this my will & towardes the performans
thereof "AH that Capitall messuage or tenemeute with thap-
purtonances in Stratford aforesaid" Called the new place
wherein I nowe Dwell A two Messuages or tenemeuteswith
thappurtenances scituat lyeing <t being in Henley streete
within the borough of Stratford afoi-esaied And all my
barnes stables Orehardes gardens laudes tenementes & here-
ditamentes whatsoeuer scituat lyeing <fe being or to be had
Receyved pcrceyved or taken withiu the towues Hamletes
-ViUiiges Fieldes <fe groundes of Stiatford vpou Avon Old-
8tratii<rd Bushopton tfe Welcombe or in aiiie of them in the
said countie of warr And alsoe AU that messuage or tene-
mente with thappurtenances wherein One John Robinson
dwelleth scituat lyeing i being in the biackfriers in London
uere the Wai-drobe & aU other ni)' landes tenementes <k
bereditamentes whatsoeuer To have <t to hold All & singu-
ler the saied premisses with their appurtenances vnto the

* The words " the house" are interlined.

' The first sheet ends with the word " bequeath," and the testator's
•ignature is tn the margin opposite.

' Aiter "deeeas" follow these words, struck throtijjh with the pen,
** to be sett out for her within one yeare after my deeeas by my execu-
toun with thadvise and direccions of my overseers for her best profitt
TBtill her manage and then the same with the increase thereof to be
paied vnto :" the erasure ought also to have included the word " her,"
which follows "vnto."

* The words "the saied Elizabeth Hall" are interlined above A«r,
which is struck through with the pen.

This parenthesis is an interlineation.

'" Hamlet Sadler" is an interlineation above Mr. Riekard Tyler
tAfUer, which is erased.

'Tke words " to William Raynoldes geotUaian xxvi' viii* t« buy
lim A Hinge" are interlined.

saied Susanna Hall for it during the tei-me of her naturall
lief ife after her deeeas to the first sonne of her bodic law-
fuUie yssueing A to the heires Males of the bodie of the saied
first Sonne lawfullie yssueing *fe for defalt of such issue to
the second Sonne of her bodie lawfullie issueiuge di to the
hehes males of the bodie of the saied Second Sonne lawful-
he yssueinge and for defalt of such heires to the third Sonne
of the btpdie of the saied Susanna Lawfullie yssuciug <fe of
the heires males of the bodie of the saied third snnue law-
fuUie yssueing And for defalt of such issue the same soe to
be (t Remaiue to the Fourth'" Fyfthsixteit Seaventb sonnes
of her bodie lawfullie issueing one after Another A to the
heii-es" Males of the bodies of the saied Fourth fifth Sixte
and Seaventh somies lawfuUie yssueing in such manner as
yt ys before Lymitted to be A Remaine to the first second
& third Sonns of her bodie A to their heires Males And for
defalt of such issue the saied premisses to be A Remaine to
my saved Neece Hall A the heires Males of her bodie law-
fullie yssueing A for defalt of such issue to my Daughter
Judith A the heires Males of her body lawfullte issueinge
And for defalt of such issue to the Right heii'es of
me the saied William Sbackspeare for ever Item I gyve
vnto my wief my second best bed with the furniture" Item
I gyve A bequeath to my saied Daughter Juchth my broad
silver gilt bole AU the I'est of my goodes Chattel Leases
plate Jewels A household stuffe whatsoeuer after my Dettes
and Legasies paied A my funerall expences discharged I
gyve devise and bequeath to my Sonne in Lawe John Hall
gent A ray Daughter Susanna his wief whom 1 ordaine A
make executoure of this my Last will and testament And I
doe intreat A Appomt the saied'* Thomas Russell Esquier A
Fraimcis Collins gent to be overseers hereof Ami doe Re-
voke AU former wills A pubhshethis to be my last wiU and
testameut In Witness whereof I have herevnto put my
hand'' the Daie A Yeare first aboue written.

" By me WilUam Shakspeare.

Witues to the publishing
hereof Era : CoUyns
Julyus Shawe
Jolin Robinson
Robert Wbattoott

Probatima cora Magr. Willim
Byrde DcorS Comiss. Ac. xx''" di<i
mensis Jtmij Anno Dni 1616
Juram'o Johannis Hall vnius
ex Ac Cui Ac De beue Ac Jurat
Resvat ptate Ac. Susanne Hall
alt ex Ac cQ veflit Ac petitur

(Inv' ex')

* After " xxvj* viijd" tn gotd was originally written, but erased
with the pen.

» The words " &, to ray Fellowes John Hemynges Richard Bur-
bage and Henry Cundell xxvj" viij-i to buy them Ringes" are inter-
lined.

10 The words " for better enabling of her to performe this my will
& towardes the performans thereof are interlined.

11 The words " in Stratford aforesaid" are interlined.

15 After " Fourth" the word sontu was first written, but erased with
the pen.

1' The second sheet ends with the word " heires," and the stgna-
ture of the testator is at the bottom of it

1* The words " Item I gyve vnto my wief ray second best bed with
the furniture" are interlined,

!• The words " the saied" are interlined.

>* The word ' hand" is lutetUaed above scale, which is enued will:
tba p«o.

INTRODUCTION TO THE PLAYS.

THE TEMPEST.

(•' 'Flie Tempest " waa first printed in the folio edition
of " Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, and
Tragedies," bearing date in 1628, where it stands first, and
ocoupies nineteen pages, viz. from p. 1, to p. 19 inclusive.
It fills the same place in the folios of 1682, 1664, and 1685.]

A MATERIAL fact, in reference to the date of the first pro-
'liiction of " The Tempest," has only been recently ascer-
tained : we allude to the notice of the performance of it, before
King James, on Nov. 1st, 1611,' which is contained in the
" Extracts from the Accounts of the Revels at Court," edited
by Mr. P. Cunningham for the Shakespeare Society, p. 211:
the memorandum is in the following form:

" Hallomas nyght was presented att Whithall before the
Kinges Majestie a play called the Tempest."

In the margin is inserted the additional circumstance, that
the perfortnance was " by the King's Players ;" and there can
oe no reiisrmable doubt that it was Shakespeare's drama,
so written, is still a point of difficulty; but the probability,
we think, is that it wiis selected by the Master of the Revels,
for representation at Court in 1611, on account of ita novelty
and popularity on the public stage. Eleven other dramas,
as appears by the same document, were exhibited between
;")ct. 81, 1611," find the same day in the next year; and it is
remarkable that ten of these (as far as we possess any uifor-
niHtion respecting tliem) were comparatively new plays, and
with regard to the eleventh, it was not more than three years
old.' We may, perhaps, be warranted in inferring, therefore,
th<it " The Tempest" was also not then an old play.

It seems to us, likewise, that the internal evidence, derived
from style and lanffuage, clearly indicates that it waa a late
production, and that it belongs to about the same period of
our great dramatist's literary history a-s his " Winter's Tale,"
which was also chosen for a Court-play, and represented at
Whitehall only four days after " The Tempest" had been ex-
hibited. In point of construction, it must be admitted at once
that there la the most obvious dissimilarity, inasmuch as
" The Winter's Tale" is a piece in which the unities are ut-
terly disregarded, while in " The Tempest " they are strictly
observed. It is only in the involved and parenthetical cha-
racter of some of the speeches, and in psychological resem-
blances, that we would institute a comparison between " The
Fempest " and the " Winter's Tale," and would infer from
*hence that they belong to about the same period.

Without here adverting to the real or supposed origin of
the story, or to temporary incidents which may have sug-
gested any part of the plot, we may remark that there is one
piece of external evidence which strongly tends to confirm
the opinion that "The Tempest" waa composed not very
long before t?en Jonson wrote one of his comedies : we allude
to Ilia " Bartholomew Fair," and to a passage in " the Induc-
tion," fretiuently mentioned, and which we concur in think-
ing was intended as a hit not only at '* The Tempest,' but at
"The Winter's Tale." Ben Jonaon's "Bartholomew Fair,"
was acted in 1614, and written perhaps in the preceding year,*
during the popularity of Shakespeare's two plays ; and there

' The earliest date hitherto diBcorered for the nerformanoe of
*T1>0 Tempest" was the beginning of the year 1013/' which Malone
established from Vertue's MSS. : it was then acted by " the King's
Coniijauy, before Prince Charles, the Princess Elizabeth, and the
Prince Palatine," but where, is not stated.

"See note 2 to the Introduction to " The Winter's Talo." The
particular play to which we refer is entitled in the Revels' Account
^' Lucrecia," which may have been either T. Heywood's " Rape of
LucrecB," first printed in 1608, or a different tragedy on the same
incidents.

' See " AJlejTl I'apera," printed by the Shakespeare Society, p. 67,
•here Dab >rne, under date of Nov. 13tli, 1613, speaks of " Jonson's
may " as then about to he performed. Possibly it was deferred for
a 4hnrt time, as the title-pago states tliat it was acted in 1614. It
may have been written in 1612, for performance in 1613.

Ixxviii

we find the following words, which we reprint, for the flr«
time, exactly as they stand in the orig^al edition, whcte
Italic type seems to have been used to make the allusioui
more distinct and obvious: — "If there bee never a SertarUf
monster i' the Fa^'€y who can helpe it, he saves; nor a ne*.
ot Antiques t Hee is loth to make Nature afraid in h\3 P!nye»-
like those that beget TnUs, Tempests, and such like Drout-
ries.''^ The words " servant'-monster," " antiques," " Tales,"
" Tempests," and " drolleries," which last Shakespeare him-
self employs in " The Tempest," (Act ill. sc. 3.) seem bo ap-
plicable, that they can hardly relate to any thing else.

It may be urged, however, that what was represented al
Court in 1611 was only a revival of an older play, acted beforo
1596, and such may have been the case : we do not, however .
think it probable, for several reasons. One of these is an
apparently trifling circumstance, pointed out by Farmer; viz.'
that in "The Merchant of Venice," written before 1598, the
name of Stephano is invariably prononnced with the accent
on the second syllable, while in " The Tempest," the proper
pronunciation ia aa constantly required by the verse. It
seems certain, therefore, that Shakespeare found his error in
the interval, and he may have learnt it from Ben Jonson's
" Every Man in his Humour," in which Shakespeare per-
formed, and in the original list of cliaracters to which, in the
edition of 1601, the names not only of Stephano, but of Pros-
pero occur.

Another circumstance shows, we think almost decisively,
that "The Tempest" was not written until after 1608^ when
the translation of Montaigne's Essays, by Florio, made its first
appearance in print. In Act II. sc. 1, is a passage so closely
copied from Florio's version, as to leave no doubt of identity .»
If it be said that these lines may have been an insertion eub-
sequent to the originul production of the play, we answer,
that the passage is not such as could have been introduced,
like some others, to answer a temporary or complimentary
purpose, and that it ia given as a necessary and continuoiu
portion of the dialogue.

The Rev. Mr. Hunter, in hia very ingenious and elaborate
" Disquisition on the Tempest," lias referred to this and to
other points, with a view of proving that every body has
hitherto been mistaken, and that this play instead of being
one of his latest, was one of Shakespeare's earliest works.
With regard to the point derived from Montaigne's Essays
by Florio, 1603, he has contended, that if the particular easay
were not separately printed before, (of which we have not the
slightest hint) Shakespeare may have seen the translation in
manuscript; but unless he so saw it in print or manuscript
as early as 1595, nothing is established in favour of Mr. Hun-
ter's argument ; and surely when other circumstances show
that "The Tempest" waa not written till 1610,' we need not
hesitate long in deciding that our great dramatist went to no
manuscript authority, but took the passage almost verbatim,
as he found it in the complete edition. In the same way
^ Mr. Hunter has argued, that " The Tempest" was not omitted
! by Meres in his list in 1598, but that it ia found there under
its second title, of " Love's Labours Won;" but this is little
better than a gratuitoua assumption, even supposing we were
to admit that "All's well that ends Well" ia not the play in-
tended by Meres." Our notion is, that "All 's well that ends
Well" waa originally called " Love's Labours Won," and

* Malone (Shaksp. by BoswelL vol. xv. p. 78.) quotes this impor-
tant passage from Florio's translation of Montaigne with a singulai
degree of incorrectness : with many minor variations he substitute*
partitions for " dividences." and omits the words " no manuring of
lands " altogether. This is a case in wliich verbal, and even literal,
accuracy is important

» In the Introduction to" The Winter's Tale," we have assign-
ed a reason, founded upon a passage in R- Greene's " Pandosto.**
for believing that " The Tempest " was anterior in composition to
that play.

'Mr. Hunter contends that in " The Tempest " " love's labours "
are "won ;" but such is the case with every play in which the issue
is successful passion, after difficulties and disappointments tin" The
Tempest" they are fewer than in most other playo, since from
first to lost the love of Ferdinand and Miranda ia prosperous. At

miEODUCTION TO THE PLAYS.

Ixxix

ihat it was revived, witt some other changes, under a new
lame in 1605 or 1606.

Neither can we agree with Mr. Hunter in thinking that he
Bos established, that nothing waa suggested to Sliakespeare
DV the storm, in July 1609, which dispersed the fleet under
sir George Somers and Sir Thomas Gates, of which an ac-
c<-'unt was published by a person of the name of Jourdun in
the following year. This point was, to our mind, satisfacto-
rily made outoy Malone, and the mention of " the still-vcx'd
Be'rmoothes" by Shakespeare seems directly to connect the
drama with Jourdan's " Discovery of the Bermudas, oiher-
♦ise ciill&d the Isle of Devils," printed in 1610. We are told
at the end of the play, in the folio of 1623, that the scene is
laid " in an uninhabited island," and Mr. Hunter ha» con-
tended that this island was Lampedusa, which unquestioniibly
lies in the track wl]ich the ships in "The Tempest ' would
lake. Our olijection to this theory is two-fold : ftrst, we can-
island in his mind; and secondly, if he had meant to lay his
scene in Lauipedusa, he could hardly have failed to introduce
it« name in some part of his performance : in consequence of
the deliciency of scenery, «fec,, it was the constant custom
with our early dramatists to nieutioa distinctly, and often
more than once, where the action was supposed to take place.
As a minor point, we may add, tliat we know of no extant
English authority to which he could have gone for informa-
tion, and we do not suppose that he consulted the Turco
GraciiB of Crusius, the only older authority quoted by Mr.
Huntor.

No novel, in y.rose or verse, to which Shakespeare resorted
for the incidents of " The Tempest" has yet been discovered ;
4tid although Collins, late in his brief career, mentioned to
T. Worton that he had seen such a tale, it ha.« never come to
light, and we apprehend that he must have been mistaken.
We have turned over the pages of, we believe, every Italian
novelist, anterior to the age of Shakespeare, in hopes of find-
ing some story containing traces of the incidents of "The
Tempest," but without success. Tlie ballad entitled " The
Inohanted Island," printed in "Farther Particulars regarding
Sluikespeare and his Works," is a more modern production
Mian the play, from which it varies in the names, as well as in
.^iUie points of the story, as if for the purpose of coticealing
its t-^nnectiun with a production which was popular on the
stiige. Utir opinion decidedly is, that it was founded upon
"The Tempest," and not upon any ancient narrative towhich
Sliakespeare also might have been indebted. It may be re-
inarkcff, that here also no locality is given to the island : on
the contrary, we are told, if it ever had any existence but in
the imagination of the poet, that it had disappeared: —

" From that daie forth the Isle has traene
By wandering sailors never seene :

Some say 't is buryed deepe
Beneath the sea, which breakes and rores
Above its savage rock^' shores.

Nor ere is knowne to sleepe."

Mr. Thoms has pointed out some resemblances in the inci-
dents of an early German play, entitled Die Schom Sidea^ and
" The Tempest :" his theory'is, that a drama upon a similar
story was at an early date performed in Germany, and that
if it were not token trom Shakespeare's play, it was perhaps
derived from the same unknown source. Mr. Thoms is
preparing a translation of it for the Shakespeare Society, and
we shall then be better able to form an opinion, as to the real
or supposed connection between the two.

When Coleridge tells us (Lit. Rem. ii. p. 94.) that " ' The
Tempest' is a specimen of the purely romantic Drama," he
of course refers to the nature of the plot and personages : in
oi;e sense of the words, it is not a " romantic drama,^' inas-
much as there are few plays, ancient or modern, in which the
unities are more exactly observed ; the whole of the events
occupy only a few hours. At the same time it is perfectly
truo, as the same enlightened and fanciful commentator adds,
" It ia a species of drama, which owes no allegiance to time
or space, and in which, therefore, errors of chronology and
geography — no mortal sins in any sj^cies — are venial fault.s,
and count for nothing ; it addresses itself entirely to the
imaginative faculty." This opinion was delivered in 1818;
and three years earlier Coleridge had spoken of " The Tem-
pest," as certainly one of Shakespeare's latest works, judg-
ni2 from the language only : Schlegel was of the same opinion,
without, however, assigning any distinct reason, and insti-
tuted a comparison between "The Tempest" and " Midsum-
mer Night's Dream," adding, "The preponderance of thought

' The Tempest,' exhibited in its profonnd and original cha-
racterisation, strikes us at once ; but we must also admire the
deep sense of the art (tie/sinnige KunM) which is apparent in
the structure of the whole, in the wise economy of its means,
and in the skill with which the scaffolding is raised tosustain
the marvellous acrhol structure." Uebtr Dram. Kunst imd
Lilt. Vol. iii. p. 128. edit. 1817.

THE

TWO GENTLEMEN OF YERONA.

[" The Two Gentlemen of Verona" was first printed in the
folio of 1623, where it occupies nineteen pages, viz. free, p
20 to p. 38, inclusive, in the division of " Comedies." It la
there divided into Acts and Scenes. It also stands seoood
in the later fohos.]

Tub only ascertained fact with which we are acquainted, in
reference to " The Two Gentlemen of Verona," is, that it is
included in the list of Shakespeare's Plays which Francis
Meres furnished in his Palladia Tamia, 1598. It comes first
in that enumeration, and although this is a very slight cir-
cumstance, it may aiford some confirmation to the opinion,
founded upon internal evidence of plot, style, and characters,
that it was one of the earliest, if not the very earliest of Shake-
speare's original dramatic compositions. It is the second play
in the folia of 1623, where it first appeared, but that is no
criterion of the period at whicli it was originally written.

It would, we think, be idle to attempt to fix upon any par-
ticular year : it is unquestionably the work of a young and
unpractised dramatist, and the conclusion is especially inar-
tificial and abrupt. It may have been written by our greiU
dramatist very soon after he joined a theati-ical company ; and
at all events we do not think it likely that it was comjjosed
subsequently to 1591. We should be inclined to place it, as
indeed it stands in the work of Meres, imuiediately before
" Love's Labour 's Lost." Meres calls it the " Gentlemen of
Verona." Malone, judging from two passages in the comedy,
first argued that it was produced in 1595, but he afterwards
adopted 1591 as the more probable date. The quotations to
which he refers, in truth, prove nothing, either as regards
1595 or 1591.

If "The Two Gentlemen of Verona" were not the offspring
merely of the author's invention, we have yet to discover the
source of its plot. Points of resemblance have been dwelt
upon in connection with Sir Philip Sidney's " Arcadia," 1590,
and the " Diana " of Monteniayor, which was nut translated
into English by B. Yonge until 1598 ; but the incidents, com-
mon to the drama and to these two works. S.K only such as
might be found in other romances, or would present thern-
selves spontaneously to the mind of a young poet; the one is
the command of banditti by Valentine; and the other the
assumption of male attire by Julia, for a purpose nearly simi-
lar to that of Viola in " Twelfth Night." Extracts from the

Arcadia" and the "Diana" are to be found in "Shake-
speare's Library," vol. ii. The notion of some critics, that
" The Two Geiitlemen of Verona" contains few or no marks
of Shakespeare's hand, is a strong proof of their incompetence
to form a judgment.

THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR.

[" A Most pleasaunt and excellent conceited Coniedie, of Syi
lohn Falstafi'e, and the merrie Wiues of Windsor. Entcr-
mixed with sundrie variable and pleasing humors, of Syr
Hugh the Welch knight, lustice Shallow, and his wise Cousin
M.§lender. With the swaggering vaine of AuncientPistoll,
and Corporal Nvm. By 'W'llliam Shakespeare. As it hath
bene diuers tirnes Acted bv the right Honorable my Lord
Chamberlaines seraants. fioth before her Maicstie, and
elsewhere, jxindon Printed by T. C. for Arthur Johnson,
and are to be sold at his shop in Powles Chureh-yard, at the
signe of the Flower de Leuse and the Crowue. 1602." 4to
27 leaves.

" A Most pleasant and excellent conceited Comedy, of Sir
lohn Falstaffe, and the Merry Wiues of Windsor. With the
swaggering vaine of Ancient Pistoll, and Corporall Nym.
Written bv W. Shakspeare. Printed for Arthur JohnsoL,
1619." 4to. 28 leaves.

ill events --The Temppsl" wasplaved at Court under that title in " Everv Man in his Humour;" but while we admit the acuteness
Kill .iihI Itii;!, Mr Hunter also endeavours to establish that Ben we cnniiol by any means allow the conclusiveness, of Mr. Uunlei s
Jontion alluded to "The Tempest" in 1596, in the Prologue to reasoning.

U£jC

IKTRODUCTION TO THE PLAYS.

The 4to. of 1630, was " printed by T. H. for E. Meighen." &c.
In the folio,1623, "The Merry Wines of Windsor" oc-
cupies twenty-two pages, viz. from p. 39 to p. 60 inclusive,
in the division of " Comedies." It also stands third in the
three later foUos.]

This comedy was printed for the first time in a perfect
Btiite in tlio folio of 1623: it had come out in an imperfect
otnte in 1602, and again in 1619, in both instances for a bools-
pcllor of the name of Arthur Johnson : Arthur Johnson ac-
quired tlie right to publish it from John Busby, and the
•jni/iniil entry, and the assii^jnnieiit of tlie play, run thus in
the Kogisters of tlie Stationers' Company.

" ]8 Jan. 1601. Juhn Busby] An excellent and pleasant
conceited commedie of Sir John Faulstof, and the
Merry wyves of Windesor

" Arth. Johnson] By assignment from Jno. Busbye
a B. An excellent and ple.isant conceited comedie
of Sir John Faulstafe, and the mery wyves of Wind-
sor."
January 1601, according to our present mode of reckoning
the year,' was January 1602, and the "most pleasaunt and
excellent cona-ited oomedie of Syr Jo)m FalstaCfc, and the
merric Wives of Windsor," (tlie title-page following the de-
scription in the ^ntry) appeared in quarto with the date
of 1602. It has been the custom to look upon this edition us
tlie first sketch of the drama, which Shakespeare afterwards
enlarged and improved to the form in whicli it appears in the
folio of 1623. After the most minute examination, we are
not of that iipinion : it has been universally admitted that the
4to. of 1602 was piratical ; and our conviction is that, like the
first edition of " Henry V." in 1600, it was made up, for the
purpose of sale, partly from notes taken at the theatre, and
partly from memory, without even the assistahca of any of the
parts as delivered out by the copyist of the theatre to the
actors. It is to be observed, that John Busby, wlio assigned
"The Merry Wives of Windsor" to Arthur Johnson in 1602,
wa-s the same bookseller who, two years before, had joined in
tlie publication of the undoubtedly surreptitious " Henry V."
An exact reprint of the 4to. of 1602 has recently been made
by the Shakespeare Society, under the care of Mr. J. O. Hal-
liwe'i ■, and any person possessing it may easily institute a
comparison between that very hasty and mangleii outline, and
the complete and authorized comedy in the folio of 1623,
mjnge and Condell : on this comparison we rely for evidence
to establish the position, that the 4to. of 1602 was not only
published without the consent of the author, or of the com-
pany for which it was written, but that it was fraudulently
made up by some person or persons who attended at the
theatre tor the purpose. It will be found that there is no va-
riation in the progress of the plot, and that although one or
two transpositions may be pointed out, of most of the speeches,
necessary to the conduct and development of the story, there
is some germ or fragment: all are made to look like prose or
verse, apparently at the mere caprice of the writer, and the
edition is wretchedly printed in a large type, as if the object
had been to bring it out with speed, in order to take advan-
tage of a temporary interest,

T'hat temporary interest perhaps arose more immediately
out the representation of the comedy before Queen Elizabeth,
daring the Christinas hnlidays preceding the date of the entry
in the Stationers' Registers: the tille-page states, that it had
been acted " by the £ord Chamberlain s servants " before the
Queen "and elsewhere:" "elsewhere," was perhaps at the
Globe on the Bankf-ide, and we may suppose, that it had been
brought out in the commencement of the summer season of
1900, before the death of Sir Thoma-s Lucy. If the " dozen
white luces" in the first scene were meant to ridicule him,
Shakespeare would certainly not have introduced the allusion
tttlrtr the death of the object of it. That it continued a fa-
vourite play we can readily believe, and we learn that it was
acted before James I., not long after he came to the throne :
the following memorandum is contained in the accounts of
ihe " Revels at Court" in the latter end of 1604.

" By his Maiestie's plaiers. The Sunday foUowinge A
"Plav of the Merry Wines of Winsor>."
This reiiresentation occurred on " the Sunday following "
Nov. Ist, 1604.

What has led some to imagine that the surreptitious im-
pression of 1602 was the comedy as it first came from the
hands of Shakespeare, is a tradition respecting the rapidity
with which it was composed. This tradition, when traced
to itB source, can be earned back no farther than 1702: John

• Bee Mr. Peter CunninKham's " Extracts from llie Accounts of
Iho RoveU at Court," (printed for the Shakes)!. Society) p. 30:J. We

Dennis in that year printed his "Comical Gallant, ' foundxi
upon the "Merry Wives of Windsor," and in the dedicatijji
he states, that " the comedy was written at the conunand ol
Queen Elizabeth, and by her direction ; and she was so eager
to see it acted, that she commanded it to be finished in four-
teen days." Dennis gives no authority for any part of this
assertion, but because he knew Dryden, it is supposed to have
come from him; and because Dryden was acquainted with
Davenant, it hius been conjectured that the latter might have
communicated it to the former. "U'e own that we place little
or no reliance on the story, especially recollecting that Den-
nis had to make out a case in favour of iiis alterations, by
showing that Shakespeare had composed the comedy in an
incredibly short period, and consequently that it was capable
of improvement. The assertion by Dennis w^ivs repeated by
Gildon, Pope, Theobald, &c., and hence it has ootained a
degree of currency and credit to wliich it seems by no nieana
entitled.

It has been a disputed question in what part of the serieis
of dramas in which Falstaff is introduced, " The Merrj
Wives of Windsor" ought to be read: Johnson thought it
came in between " Henry IV." part ii. and " Henry V. , ' Ma-
lone, on the other liand, anrued that it should be placed be-
tween the two parts of " Henry IV. ;" but the truth is, that
almost insuperable difficulties present themselves to either
hypothesis, and we doubt much whether the one or the other
is well founded. Shakespeare, having for some reason been
induced to represent Falstaff in love, considered by what

gersons he might bo immediately surrounded, and Bardolph,
istol, Nvni, and Mrs. Quickly, naturally presented them-
selves to Ids mind: he was aware that the audience, witii
whom they had been favourite characters, would expect them
still to be" Falstaff 'a companions; and though Shakespeare
hail in fact hanged two of them in " Henry V.," and Mrs.
Quickly had died, he might trust to the forgetfulness of those
before whom the comedy was to be represented, and care
little for the consideration, since so eagerly debated, in what
part of the series " The Merry Wives of Windsor" ought to
te read : Shakespeare might sit down to write the comedy
without refiecting upon the manner in which he had previ-
ously disposed of some of the characters he was about to in-
troduce. Any other mode of solving the modern difficulty
seems unsatisfactory, and we do not believe that it ever pre-
sented itself to the nnnd of our great dramatist.

The earliest notice of any of the persons in "The Merry
Wives of Windsor" is contained in Dckker's jilay called
"Satiromastix," 1602, where one of the characters obser\'es,
" We must have false fires to amaze these spanirle-babies,
these true heirs of master Justice Shallow." This allusion
appeared, unless, indeed, it were to the Justice Shallow of
" Henry IV." part ii.

With regard to the supposed sources of the plot, they have
all been collected by Mr. ilalliwell in the appendix to his re-
print of the imperfect edition of " The Merry Wives of Wind-
sor," in 1602: the tale of "The Two Lovers of Pisa," the
only known English version of the time, is also contained in
"Shakespeare's Library," Vol. ii.; but our opinion is, th.'it
the true original of the story (if Shakespeare did not himself
invent the incidents) has not come down to ub.

MEASURE FOE, MEASURE.

["Measure for Measure" was first printed in the folio of
" Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tra-
gedies," 1623, where it occupies twenty-four pages, viz.,
from p. 61 to p. S4, incUisive, in the division of "Come-
dies." It was, of course, reprinted in the later folios of
1632, 1664, and 1685.]

In the " History of English Dramatic Poetry," III. «8, it ik
remarked, that " although it seems clear that Shakespeare
kept Whetstone's 'Promos and Cassandra' in his eye, whilo
writing 'Measure for Measure,' it is probable that he aloo
made use of some other dramatic composition or novel, iu
which the same story was treated." I was led to form this
opinion from the constant habit of dramatists of that period
to employ the productions of their predecessors, and from the
extreme likelihood, that when our old play-writers were hunt-
ing in all directions for stories wliich they could convert to
their purpose, they would not have passed over the novel by
Giralcfi Cinthio, which had not only been translated, but

had no previous extrinsic knowledge of any early performance of
■'The Mjerry Wives of Windsor "

INTRODUCTION TO THE PLAYS.

Ixxxi

actually cnnverted into ft drama nearly n quarter of a century
before the deiith of Elizabeth. Whetntoiie's "Promos and
CaSHandra/' a play in two parts was printed in 1578, though,
ae far aa we know, never acted, uud iie f^ubsequently intro-
duced a translation of the novel (wliich he admitted to be its
origin), in liis " Heptameron of Civil Discourses." 4lo. 1582'.
No plavB, liowever, excepting " Promos and Ca-ssandra," and
" Measure fur Measure," founded on the same incident.s, have
reached our day, and Whetstone's is the only existing ancient
version of the Italian novel.

Th* Title of Cinthio's novel, the fifth of the eighth Decad
of hill Uerotommithiy gives a sufficient account of tlie progress
ot'th« Btory us he relates it, and will show its connexion with
6huk«8peare's play: — *'Juriste e mandate da Maisimiano,
Imperadore, in Ispruchi, ove fi prendere un giovane, viola-
tore di una vergine, e condannalo a mortc : la sorella cerca di
lihorarlo: Juriste da speranza aha donna di pigliurla per mog-
lie, di darle libero il fratello: ella con lui si gince, e la notte
istessa Juriste ta tagliur al giovane la testa, e la manda alia
ttorelia. Ella ne fa querela all' Imperadore, il quale f^ sposare
na lo libirra, e con lui si vive amorevulissinuunente." — Whet-
stone adupts these incidents pretty exactly in his "Promos
rtnd Cassandra;'* but Shakespeare varies from them chiefly
by tlie inlrnduction of Mariana, and by the final union be-
tween the Duke and Isabella. Whetstone lays his scene at
Julio in Hungary, whither Corvinus, the King, makes a pro-
jfreas to ascertain the truth of certain charges against Promos :
Shakeapciire lays his scene in Vienna, and represents the
Dake as retiring from public view, and placing his power in
the hands of two deputies. Shakespeare was not indebted to
Whetstone for a single thought, nor for a casual expression,
exceptintr as far as similarity of situation may be saia to have
necessarily occasioned corresponding states of feelinsr, and
employment of lanurinige. In Wlietstone's " nej>tameron,"
tlie name of the lady who narrates the stury of '* Pronu>s and
Cassandra," is Isabella, and hence possibly Shakespeare miglit

Ab to the date when " Measure for Measure " was written,
we have no positive information, but we now know that it
Wfts acted at Court on St. Stephen's niglit, (26 Dec.) 1604.
This fact is stated in Edmntid Tylney's account of tlie ex-
l>enKes of ihe revels from the end of Oct. 1604, till the same
date in 1605, preserved in the Audit Office: tlie original
memorandum of tlie master of the revels runs literatim^ as
follows: —

"By his Ma""Plaiers. On St. Stivens night in the Hall, a
Play caled Mesur for Mesur."

In the column of the account headed "The Poets which
'mayd the Plaies," we find the name of "Shaxberd" entered,
which was the mode in which the ignorant scribe, who pre-
pared tJiG account, spelt the name of our great dramatist.
Malone conjectured fi-om certain allusions (such as to "the
war" with Spain, "the sweat," meaning the plaguo, &c.),
that " Measure for Measure " was written in 1603 ; and if we
suppose it to have been selected for performance at Court on
li6tli Dec. 1604, on account of its popularity at the theatre
lifter its production, his supposition will receive some confir-
mation. However, su*ch could not have been the case with
" the Comedy of Errors," and " Love's Labours Lost," which
were written before 1598, and which were also performed at
Christmas and Twelfth-tide, 1604^5. Tyt-whitt was at one
lime of opinion, from the pnssage in A. II. sc. 4. —

" As these black ma.'^ks
Proclaim an enshieki beauty ten times louder
Than beauty could displayed,"

that this drama " was written to be acted at Court, as Shake-
sjreare would hardly have been guilty of such an indecorum
to flatter a common audience." He was afterwards disposed
to retract tiiis notion; but it is supported by the quotation
b'-n the Kevels' accounts, unless we imagine," as is not at all
iuipcdsible, that the lines respecting "black masks" and
some others (to use Tyrwhitt's wordsT, " of partieuiar flattery
.0 James," were inserted after it was known that the play, on
nccount of its popularity, had been chosen for performance
before the king. One of these passages seems to have been
the followinsr, which may have nad reference to the crowds
itt-endine tlie arrival of James I. in London, not very long
before " Mensure for Measure" was acted at Whitehall*:—

■ — •' and pven so

The treneral, subject to a wcll-wisliVl King,
Quit their ()wn part, and in obeequious fondness
Crowd to his presence, where their untaught -Jve
Must needs appear offence."

> Whetstone's "Heptameron" is not paged, but "the rare His-
lone ol Promos and Cassaadra." commenceB on Sign. N ij 6

Steevena quotes a passage from "a True Narration of Ihv
Entertainment " of the King on his way from Edinburgh to
London, printed in 1603, where it is said, "he was faine to
publish au inhibition against the inordinate and dayly accesse
of people comming." Taken with the context, tlie line^
above quoted read like an insertion.

We may, therefore, arrive pretty safely at the conclusion^
that " Measure for Measure" was written either at the close
of 1603, or in the beginning of 1604.

*' Measure fur Measure was first printed in the folio ot
1623; and exactly fifty years afterwards wa8 published Sir
William Davcnant's " Law against Lovers," lonnded upon
in the combination of the plots, he contrived to avail l\ims*::f
largely, and lor his purpose judiciously, of the muteriul
Shakespeare furuishea.

Of " Measure for Measure," Coleridge obserxes in his
"Literary Remains," ii. 122: "This play, which is ^llake-
speare's throughout, is to me the most painful, say rather,
the only painful part of his genuine works. Tlie comic anj
tragic parts equally border on the ^icrijrtdi/ — the one boinir
disgusting, the other horrible; and the pardon and marriage
of Angelo not merely baffles the strong indignant claim of
justice (for cruelty, with lust and damnable baseness, cannot
be forgiven, because we cannot conceive them as being mo-
rally repente-.l of), but it is likewise degrading to the charac-
ter of woman." In the course of Lectures on Shakespeare
delivered in the year 1818, Coleridge poiiited especially to the
artifice of Isabella, and her seeming consent to the suit of
Angelo, aa the circumstances which tended to lower the
character of the female sex. He then called " Monsure for
Measure" only the "least agreeable" of Shakespeare's
dramas.

THE COMEDY OF EREORS.

"The Comedie of Errors" was first printed in the folio of 1623,
where it occupies sixteen pages, viz. from p. 85 to p. 100
inclusive, in the division of " Comedies." It was re-printed
in the three subsequent impressions of the same volume.

Wk have distinct evidence of the existence of an old play
called " The Historic of Error," which was acted at Hampton
Court on new-year's night, 1576-7. Tiie same play, in all
probability, was repeated ut Windsor on twelfth night, 1582-8.
though, in the accounts of the Master of the Revels, it is called
" The liistorie of FeiTar." Boswell (Mai. Shakesp. Hi. 400. t
not very hiippily coniectured. that this "Historic of Ecrrai "'
was some piece i>y 6eorge Ferrara, as if it had been nanied
after its author, who had been dead some years : the fact, no
doubt, is, that the clerk who prepared the account merely
wrote the title by his ear. Thus we see that, shortly before
Shakespeare is supposed to have come to London, a play was
in course of performance upon which his own "Comedy of
Errors" might be founded. "The Historic of Error" was,
probably, an early adaptation of tlie Menaclimi of Plautus,
of which a free translation was published in 1596, under the
following title: —

" A pleasant and fine Conceited Comeedie, taken out of
the most excellent wittie Poet Plautus : Chosen pnrnosoly
from out the rest, as least harmefull, and yet most deligntfulL
Written in Engli^^h by W. W. — London, Printed by Tho.
Creede. and arc to be sold by William Barley, at his shop in
Gratious shecte. 1595." 4to.

The title-patre, therefore, does not (as we miffht be led to
supjinse from Stcevens's reprint in the "Six Old Plays") men-
tion the Men(Bchmi by name, but we learn it from the com-
mencement of the piece itself.

Rilson was of opinion, "that Shakespeare was not under
the slightest obligation" to the translation of the AItnarh?ni^
by W. W., supposed, by Ant. Wood f Ath. O.xon. by Blib**,
I. 766.), to be W. Warner: and most likely Ritann was ricrht,,
not from want of resemblance, but becau.se "-The Comedy of
Errors" was, in nil probability, anterior in poi-nt of date, ai.i
because Shakespeare may have availed himself of the old
drama which, as has been noticed, was performed at court in
1576-7. and in 1582-3. That court-drama, we mayinfer, had
its origin in Plautus; and it was, perhaps, the popularity of
Shakespeare's " Comedy of Errors " which induced Creede
to print Warner's versnm of tlie Mfndchmi in 1595. There
are various points of likeness between V\' arniir'' ^ Mentxchmi
and Shakespeare's "Comedy of Errors;" but those points
we may suppose to have been derived intermediately through
the court-drama, and not directly from Plautus'. Sir W.

1 In Act T. and Act II. of " The Comedy of Errors,'' in the folio if
162^ Antipholus of Syracuse is twice callpd Erotes and Frrotit, whicli

Ixxxh

INTRODUCTION TO THE PLAYS.

Blackstone cntertnine<l tl.e belief, from tlio "long hobbling
verse- ""u tl.e " Cmie.ly of Errors," tliut it w,ts "among
b" .kcspeare'H more e.rly proonctions :" th.s m plausible but
we imaline, from their /enaral dissimilanty to the style ot our
TerSmt St. that these '^ long hobbling verses " formed a
P ion of the old court-drama, of which Shakespeare made
as much use ,is answered Ins purpose: they are q»■t^ ■> " «
style of plavs anterior to the time of Shakespeare, and it is
eisy toMlstinguish such portions of the comedy as he must

'" Tbc"Ja'liest notice we have of " The Comedy of Errors," is
bv MiTOs in his PalladU Tamin, 1S98, whore he gives i to
8 lakes .:'«:" under the name of ''Errors'." How ■nucl, betore
khat time it had been written and produced ,<>">',',« ^'f «• J«
MU onlv speculate. Malone refers to a part of tlio dialogue
in Act III so 2 where Dromio of Syracuse is conversing with
h 9 master aboit the " kitcben wench " who insisted upon
nnkiVig love to him, and who was so tat and round-" spher-
ical like a globe "-that Dromio " could find out countries in
her:"—

" Dro. i h^Z foXld ; arm'd and reverted, ■n;.ki„g war ag^in.t
h^r heir." , j ii ^

It is supposed that an enuivoque was intended on the word
■■heir" (wfiich is printed tn the folio of 1628 " lic.re," at tl at
period an unusual way of spelling^" lunr") and that Shake-
Leare alluded to the civil war in>ra,ice, which begin in the
„ iddle of 1589, and did not terminate until the close ot 1593
This notion seems well-founded, tor otlierwise there won d

be no joke in the reply; and >' "f" ■■; ' P^"^' .'v 1L^' to
the time when we may believe " The Comedy of Errors o
have been written. But here we have a range of tour yea s
and a half, and we can arrive at no nearer appro.vimat on to
a precise date. As a mere conjecture it may be stated that
Shakespeare would not have inserted the allusion to the hos-
Tility bitwcen France and her " heir," after the war had been
so long carried on, that interest in, or attention to it in this
country would have been relaxed.

Another question by Antipholus, and the answer of Dromio
immediately preceding wliat is above quoted, is remarkable
on a different account: —

Ant. S. Where Scotland ? , . , , ^ ,v,=

• Dro. S. 1 found it by the barrenness; bird, in the pilm of the

hand."

in two persons, yet these are mere individual accidonta, canu
ludmtU ,Mtwm, and tlie ■verum will not cvcuse the «'"■':"'
mile. But farce dares add the two Dromios, and is^justifiod
in so doing by the laws of its end and constitution.

"From this passage," (says Malone) " we may learn that
tills comedy was not revived after the accession of the Scot-
tisli monarch to the English throne; otherwise "t would pro-
bably have been struck out by the Master of the Revels.
However, we are now ceriain (a curious fact hitherto un-
knuwii) that "The Comedv of Errors" was represented at
Whitehall on the 28ih December, UM. In the account of
the Master of the Kevcis of the expenses of his departmcnS
from the end of October 1604, to Shrove Tuesday, 161)5, pre-
served in the Audit Office, we read the snlwequent entry :--

"Bv his Ma'" riaiers. On Inosents ^lght, the plate ot
Errors," the name of Shaxberd, or Shakespeare being in-
serted in the margin a.s "the Poet which mayd the Plaie.^^
" The Comedy of Errors " was, therefore, not only revived,
Sut represented at-coiirt very soon after James I. canie to the
Ai-own: we mav be confident, however, that the question and
answer respecting Scotland were not repeated on tlie occasion,
though retained in the MS. used by the actor-editora for the

"^"in MrLectures on Shakespeare in 1818, Coleridge passed
over "Tlie Comedy ot Errors" without anj;^ particular or
separate observation; Imt in his " Liteiwy Remains we
find it twice mentioned (vol. ii. 90 and lU), in nuicli the same
terms. " Shakespeare," he observes, " has in this piece
presented us with a legitimate farce, in exactest consonance
with the philosopVical principles and character of tarce, as
distinguished from comedy and enterUnninents. A proper
farce 's mainly <Iistiiiguished from comedy by the license
allow k'., and even required, in the fable, in order to produce
ilrange and hmghable situations. The story need not be
probidile ; it is enough that it is poss^ble. A comedy would
Jcarcely n!llow even the two Antipholuses ; because although
there have been instances of almost undistiiiguishable likeness

i. oonJMtured w b« > corruption of erraticu!. AntiplioUis of Bpnesus
•" the Slime wav, is once called S.r.p(..Mm.spr,nted, perhaps for
«rr,p(»..; but in the I.i5t three acts they are distmguisbed as An-
tiphrtus ofSyracusia," and '-Antipholus of Ephesus " The epitl ,u
Jerralirus and surrrplus were not obtained by bhakespeare from
Wirner, but possibly from the old court drama. .

• The 11« supplird bv Meres is of twelve plays; and if anything i.
U) be gathered from the circjmstanc*, he places "Errors" wcond.
' Gentlemen of Verona ' coming before it.

publikely acted by the right honourable, the Lord Lliam-
herlaine his seruants. \V'^ritten by Williani bhakespeare.-
Loudon Printed by V. S. for Andrew W ise, and A\ ilham
Aspley. 1600." «o.. 36 leaves. „ „ f ,;„

It is alsJ printed in th5 division of " Oomedi<!s ,m the fiho
1623 where it occupies twenty-one pages, viz., troni p 101,
to p. 121, inclusive. It was reprinted in the other lohos.]
We have no information respecting " Much Ado aboBt
Nothiii>r" anterior to the appear.ance of the *to. ediliuii m
1600, excepting that it was entered foi; pub.icution on the
books of tW Stationers' Company, on the 28d of August in
that year, in the following raanner:—
■' ' "23 Aug. 1600.

And. Wise Wm. Aspley] Two books, the one called Much e
of the Historv of King Henry the iiiitli, with the Hujnors
of Sir John Fallstatt'; wryttcn by Mr. Shakespeare. ^
There is another memorandum in the same register beantig
date on the " 4th August," without the year, which runs Id
these terms:-" As you like yt, a book H<;;"-v tl>e «ift, a
book Everyman in his humor, a book. The Comcdie of
of those plavs are added the words, "to be stated 1 ns
last entry, there is little doubt, belongs to the year 16i 0. lor
such is the date immediately preceding it; and, as Midone
observes, the clerk seeing 1600 just above Ins P^;,"- »;''<=» "^
inserted the notice for staying the publication ot .Much Ado
about Nothing" and the two other plays, did not think it
necessary to repeat the figf.res. The caveat ol the 4th Aiigtjst
against the publication had most likely been withdrawn by
the 2Srd of tlie same month. The obiect ot the '' stay was
probably to prevent the publication of " IJcnry \ ., . Every
anv other booksellers than Wise and Asjiley.

in 1600, (and we know of no other impression in that lorm)
is a well-printed work for the time, and the type is unusua y
o-ood. It contains no hint from which we can at all distinctly
hifcr the date of its compositions but Malone supposed that
it wius written early in the year in which it c.une ff'.m the
press. Considering, however, that the comedy would have •
be got up, acted, and become popular, before it wius nub-
lisherl, or entered for publication, the time of its coinposit.oi.
bv Shakespeare may reasonably be carried back as far as «'«
autumn of 1599. That it was popular we on hardly doubt
and the extracts from the Stationers' Registers seem to show
that apprehensions were felt, lest rival booksellers shoult^
procure it to be printed. ,.,/.•! ■ \.-

^ It is not included by Meres in the list l'e/»""sbe.s in his
PttUadis Tamui, 1598; and " Englami's Parnassus, 1600,
contains no quotation from it. If any conclusion coud bo
drawn from this fact, it might be, that it was written subse-
quent to the appearance of one work, and prior to the publi-
cation of the other. Respecting an early performance of il at
Court, Steevens supplies us with the snbseouent intormation .
of Mr Vertue's MSS.) formerly passed under the title ot
'Benedick and Beatrix.' Heminge, the player, received on
the 20th Mav, 1618, the sum of MiO, and £20 more as hie
Majesty's gratuity, for exlii biting six |4aysal Hampton Court,
anion"' which wais this comedy." Tlie change ot title, if ■•-
deed it were made, could only have been temporary. lh«
divisions of Acts (Scenes are not marked) were first matle in

idents of another of

the folio of 1628. The adaptation of
Nothing," coupled with the oiiiet mcide...- _ - -
Shakespeare's jramas, (see the " Introduction to ««««,'■■;»
for Measure,") bv Sir William Daveiiunt, was first printed m
the edition of his works in 1673.
The serious portion of tlie plot of " Much Ado aboul

' Chalmers (Suppl. Apol. 331.) conjectures that when Beatricj 807.,
"Yes you had n?isty victuals, and he hath holp to e,a ,l," Shake-
speare meant a sarcasm upon the manner ,n which ,»>'« '\7r ""'''I
the Earl of Essex had been supplied with bad provisions during the
?,sh compaiKn. Most readers will consider Ihis an nverslramod .pe^
nlation, although, in point of d»te, ,t accords pre ty accuratdv will,
"he tune when " Much Ado ab.iut Nrthiiig " may h»ve S-er,
written

INTRODUCTION TO THE PLAYS.

Nothinjr," which relates to Hero, Clnndio, and " John the
linstaril, is extremely similar to the story of Ariodante and
Ocne-ira, in Ariosto's" Orlando Furioso," B. v. It was iepa-
ratelj versified in English by Peter Beverley, in imitation
of A"ithur Broolje's Kbmeus and Juliet," 1S62, and of Ber-
nard Garter's "Two English Lovers," 1568; and it was
printed by Thomas East, without date, two or three years
in 1565; and Warton informs us (Hist. Engl. Poetryj iv. 810,
edit. 1S24) that it was reprinted in :600, the year ni which
"Much Alio about Nothing" came from the press. This
fiiet is important, because either Shakespeare s attention
might be directed to the story by the circumstance, or (which
Bceins more probable) Beverley's poem might then be repub-
Uuhed, in consequence of its connexion in point ot story with
hftkespeare's coniedy.

Sir John HarinL'ton's translation of the whole " Orlando
Furioso" was originally published in 1591, but there is no
speare availed himself of it. In a note at the eiid of the canto
occupied by Ariodante and Geneura, Sir John Harington
added this sentence : — " Howsoever it was, surely the tale is
a pretty comical matter, and hath been written in English
verse some few years past (learnedly and with good grace),
though in verse of another kind by M. George Turbervil."
Ifthis note be correct, and Harington did not confound Tuber-
ville with Beverley, the translation by the former has been
lost Spenser's version of the same incidents, for they are
evidently borrowed trom Ariosto, in B. II. c. 4, of his
" FaerieQueene," was printed in 1590 ; but Shakespeare is not
to be traced to this source. In Ariosto and in Spenser the
rival of Ariodante has himself the interview with the female
attendant on Geneura; while in Shakespeare " John the Ba.'^
tard " employs a creature of his own for tlie purpose. Shake-
speare's plot may, therefore, liave had an entirely different
origin, possibly some translation, not now extant, of Bandello's
twer.ty-second novel, in vol. i. of the Lucca edition, 4to. 1554,
which is entitled, " Como il S. Timbreo di Cardona, esscndo
col Re Picro d'Aragona in Messina, s'innamora di Fenioia Lio-
nata; e i varii fortunevoli accidenti, che avvennero prima die
per moglie la prendesse." It is rendered the more likely that
Shakespeare employed a lost version of this novel by the c
cumsiance, that m Italian the incident in which she, who may
be called tlie false Hero, is concerned, is conducted much in
the same way as in Shakespeare. Moreover, Bandollo lays
his scene in Messina ; the father of the lady is n.anied Lionato ;
and Don Pedro, or I'icro, of Arragon, is the friend of the
lover who is duped by his rival.

Nobody has observed upon the important fact, in connexion
d.anto and Geneuora" was played before Queen Elizabeth, by
"Mulcaster's children," in 1582-8. How far Shakespeare
might be indebted to tliis production we cannot at all deter-
mine ; but it is certain that tlie serious incidents he employed
in his comedy had at an early date formed tlie subject of a
iramatic representation'.

In the ensuing text the 4to, 1600, has been followed, with
due notice of any variations in the folio of 1623. Tlie first
impression contains several passages not inserted in the re-
print (for such it undoubtedly was) under the eai'e of Hemingo
and Ccnd^'l, and the text of the 4to is to be preferred in
near"./ aj iiistiinces of variation.

LOYE'S LABOUR'S LOST.

["A plea«ant Conceited Comedie called, Iioues labors lost. As
it was presented before her Highiies this last Christmas.
Newlv corrected and augmented Bv W. Shakespere. Im-
printi.'. at London by W.AV. for Cutbert Burby. 1598." 4to,
38 leaves.

'r the folio, 1023, " Love's Labour 's Lost" occupies 23!

p. 44, '.nclusive. It was reprinted in 1681, 4lo; "by W. S.,

for JohnSniethw''eke;" and the title-page states that it wa«
published " as it was acted by his Majesties Scruants at
the Blacke-Friers and the Globe." It is merely a copy from
the folio, 1628, with the addition of some errors of the
press.]

There is a general concurrence of opinion that " Love's
Labour 's Lost '' was one of Shakespeare's earliest productions
for the stage. In his course of Lectures delivered in 1818
Coleridge was so convinced upon this point, that he said
" the internal evidence was indisputable;" and in his " Lit*
rary Remains," II. 102, we find him using these expressions;
— '"'The characters in this play are citlior impersonated otft
of Shakespeare's own multitorinity, by imaginative self-posi-
tion, or out of such as a country town and a school-boy's ob-
servation might supply'." The only ohieotion to this theory
is, that at the time " Love's Labour 's Lost " was composed,
the author seems to have been acquainted in some degree
with the nature of the Italian comic performances; but this
acquaintance he might have acquired comparatively early in
life. The character of Arinado is that of a Spanish braggart,
very much such a personage as was common on tlie Italian
stage, and figures in GV Inganruiti, (which, as the Rev. Jo-
sepli Hunter was the first to point out, Shakespeare saw before
he wrote his "Twelfth Night,") un.ler the name of Giglio :
in the same comedy we have M. Piero Pedantf, a not unusual
character in pieces'of that description. Holofcrnes is repeat-
edly called "the Pedant" in the old copies of "Love's La-
bour 's Lost^" while Armado is more frequently introduced
as " the Braggart " th.an by his name. Steevens, after stating
that he had not been able to discover any novel from which
this coniedy had been derived, adds that " the story has most
of the features of an ancient romance:" but it is not at all
impossible that Shakespeare found some corresponding inci-
dents in an Italian play. However, after a long search, i
have not met with any such production, although, if used by
Shakespeare, it most likely came into this country in a printed
form.

The question whether Shakespeare visited Italy, and at
what period of his life, cannot properly be considered here;
but it is a very important point in relation both to his bio-
graphy and works. It was certainly a very geuer;J custom
for our poets to travel thither towards the close of the reign
of Elizabeth, and various instances of the kind are on record.
Robert Greene tells us in his "Repentance," 1592, that he
had been in Italy and Spain : Thomas Nash, about the same
date, mentions what he had seen in France and Italy; and
Daniel has several early sonnets on his '-'going to Italy," and
on his residence there. Some of our mo-t celebrated actors
of that time .also made jonrneys across the Alps; and Mr. Ilal-
Hwell, in the notes to his "Coventry Mysteries," pirinted for
the Shakespeare Society, has shown that Kemp, the comedian,
who, as we have seen, performed Dogberry in " Much Ado
about Nothing," was in Rome in 1601.

It is vain to attempt to fix with any degree of precision
the date when " 1-ove's Labour 's Lost " came from the
author's pen. It is very certain that Biron and Rosaline are
eariv sketches of two cliuracters to which Shakespeare subse-
quently gave greater force and effect — Benedick and Beatrice;
but th'isonlv "shows, what cannot he doubted, that " Lc 'e's
Labour's Lost" was interior in composition to "Much Ado
about Nothing." " Love's Labour 's Lost " was first printed,
as far as we now know, in 1598, 4to, and then it professed on
the title-paire to have been " newly corrected and augmented:'
we are likewise there told that it was presented before Queen
Elizabeth " this la-st Christmas." It was not uncommon for
dramatists to revise and add to their plays when they were
selected for exhibition at court, and such may have been the
case with " Love's Labour 's Lost." " The last Christnia.s"
probably meant Christmas, 1598 ; for the year at this period
did not end until 25th March. It seems likely that the com-
edv had been written six or even eiuht years before, that :i

' Thomas J-wlan's " Royal Arllor of Loyal Poesie." 8vo. 16G4. con-
tains an iU-viitten lialLiJ. called "The Revolution, a Icve-story,''
fpunded upon tliK serious portion o*" " Much Ado about Nothinf; "

■ Farther or. this great psychological critic ooserres : — "If this
juvenile drama had been the only one extant of our Shakespeare, and
tt\ possessf d the tradition only of his riper works, or accounts of them
tc writers who had not even mentioned this play, how many of Shake-
Ipeare's characteristic features might we not still have discovered in
'Love's I.jfcour's Lost,' though as in a portrait taken of him in his
boyhood I I can never sufficiently admire the wonderful activity of
Ihougfit throughout the whole of the first scene of the play, rendered
natural, as it is, by the choice of tlie characters and the whimsical
detenniuaiun on which the drama is founded — a whimsical determina-
tion ceri-air.ly, yet no: altogether so vary improbable to those who are

pages, in the division of " Comedies," viz., from p. 122 to was revived in 1598, with certain corrections imd augments'

conversant in the nistory of the middle ages, with their Courts of
Love, and all that lighter drapery of chlrajry, which engaged even
mighty kings, with a sort of serio-comic interest, and may well be
supposed to have occupied more completely the smaller princes, at a
time when the noble's or prince's court contai:ied ine only theatre of
the domain or principality."

3 It was asserted by Warburton. that in the character of H.-'lciernes
Shakespeare intended to ridicule Plorio, and that our creat poet h«re
condescended to personal satire. The only apparent offence by Flono
was a passage in his "Second Fruits," 1.591, where he complained of
the want of decorum in English dra'natic representations. The pro-
vocation was evidently insufficient and we loay safely dism'BS the
whole conjecture as unfounded.

Ixxxiv

mTRODUCnON TO THE PLAYS.

lions for performunce before the Queen ; and this circnm-
RUmcc may have led to itt* pubiication immediately afterwards.
Tlie evidence derived from pussii^ea and alluniona in the
piece, to which Mulone refers in hia ''Chronological Order,"
IB clearly uf little value, and he does not himself place much
confidenoo in it. ''Love Labour Lost" is mentioned by
Meres in 1599, and in the same year came out a poem by
K[obert] T[ofte] entitled " Albu^" in tlie commencement of
one of the stanzas of which this comedy is introduced b}
name : —

" Love's Labour Lost I once did see, a play
Ycleped 50."

Tliia does not read as if the writer intended to say that he had
seen it recently. There ta a coincidence in Act III, sc. 1,
which requires notice; Costard there jokes upon the difference
between "remuneration "and "g'uerdon ;"and Steevens con-
tended that Shakespeare was " certainly indebted for his vein
of jocularity " in this instance to a tract by I[ervase] M[ark-
ham], called, " A Healtli to the Gentlemanly Profession of
Servint; Men," which Dr. Farmer informed him was pub-
lished in 1573. Tlie fact, however, is, that this tract dia not
appear until 1598, the year in wliich^' Love's Labour's Lost"
came from the pre.'^s. It was, possibly, a current jest, and it
will be found quoted correctly from the original, and not ae
Steevens inserted it, in a note upon the passage.

It is capable of proof that the play, as it stands in the folio
variqns errors of the press, which could not have found their
way into the folio, had it been taken from a distinct manu-
script. There are, liowevcr, variations, which mi»ht show that
the player-editors of the folio resorted occasionally to some
authority besides the 4to. These differences arc pointed out
in the notes. The 4to. has no divisions into Acts and Scenes ;
and the folio only distintrnishes the Acts, but with considera-
ble inequality : thus the third Act only occupies about a page
and a half, while the fifth Act (misprinted Actiis Quartus)
fills nine pages. Nevertheless, it would have been taking too
great a liberty to alter tlie arrangement in this respect, al-
though, as the reader will perceive, it might be improved
without much difficulty.

There is no entry of " Love's Labour's Lost" at Stationers'
Hall, until 22d Jan. 1606-7, when it was transferred by Burby
(the publisher of it in 1598) to Ling, who perhaps contem-
[)latca a new edition. If it were printed in 1606 or 1607, no
such impression has come down to us. Its next appearance
was in the folio, 1623; but another 4tn, of no authority, was
published in 1631, the year before the date of the second
folio.

MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DEEAM.

["A Midsommer nights dreame. As it hath beene sundry
times publickely acted, by the Right honourable, the Lord
Chamberlaine his seruants. Written by William Shake-
speare. Imprinted at London, for Thomas Fisher, and are
to be soulde at his ehoppe, at the Signe of the White Hart,
in Fleetestreete, 1600.'' 32 leaves.
"A Midsommer night's dreame. As it hath beene sundry
times publikely acted, by the Right honourable, the Lord
Chamberlaine his seniants. Written by William Shake-
speare. Printed by James Roberts, 1600." 82 leaves.
la the folio, 1628, it occupies 18 pages, viz., from p. 145 to
162 inclusive, in the division of "Comedies." It is of
course, like the other plays, inserted in the later folios.]
Tnrs drama, which on the title-pages of the earliest impres-
sions is not called come.iy, history, nor tragedy, but which is
included by the player-editors of the first folio among the
"comedies" of Shakespeare, was twice printed in 1600, '*for
Thomas Fisher" and " by James Roberts," Fisher was a
bookseller, and employed some unnamed printer ; but Roberts
was a printer as well as a bookseller. The only entry of it at
Btationers' Hall is to Fisher, and it rnns as follows: —

"8 Oct. 1600. Tho. Fyslier] A booke called a Mydsomer
nights Dreame."

I 8vo. 1841, p. G. The following are the terms Forman employs,
and they are subjoined, that the reader may compare them with the
passage in " Miiisumrr.er-Nicht's Dream," A. ii. sc 1. "Ther was
moch 5icknes but lyttle death, moch fruit, and many plombs of all
sorts this yeare and sm.ill nuts, but fewe walnuts. This inonethes
of June and July were ■?ery wet and wonderful cold like winter, that
th* 10 dae of Jutii many did syt by the Iyer, yt was so cold ; and soe
Was y* in Maye and June ; and scarce too fair dais together all that
tyme, but yt raynec every dav more or lesse. Yf yt did not raine,
then was yt cold and cloudye. Mani murders were done this quarter.
The"e were many great fludes this sommer, and about Michelmas,
tho-'^-e tVe abundaunce of raine that fell sodeinlv. the brige of

There is no memorandum regarding the impression ly Ro-
berts, which perhaps was unauthorized, although Hem n go
and Condell followed his text when they included " Midsum-
mer-Night's Dream" in the folio of 1623. In some instauoee
the folio adopts tlie evident misprints of Roberts, while such
improvements as it makes are not obtained from Fisher's
more accurate copy: both the errors and emendations, if not
merely trifling, are pointed out in our notes. The chief dilfer-
ence between the two quartos and the fnlio is, that in the
latter the Act-*, but not the Scenes, are distinguished.

We know from the PalUidU lamia of Meres, that " Mi-i-
summer Night's Dream" was in existence at least two yearp
before it came from the press. On the question when it waa
written, two pieces of internal evidence nave been especially
noticed. Mr. Halliwell, in his " Introduction to a Midsum-
mer-Night's Dreum " has produced a passage from the Diary
of Dr. Simon Forman, which in some points tallies with the
description of the state of the weather, and the condition ot
the country given by the Fairy Queen. » Tlie memorandun
in Forman's Diary relates to the year 1594, and Stowe's Chro
nicle may bo quoted to the same eft'ect.

The other supposed temporary allusion occurs in Act v
sc. 1. and is contained in the lines, —

"The thrice three Muses mourning for the death
Of learning, late deceas'd in beggary,"

which some have imagined to refer to the death of Spenser
If so, it tnust have been an in.sertion in the drama subsequent
to its first production, because Spenser was not dead in 1598,
when *' Midsummer-Night's Dream" was mentioned by
Meres. It is very doubtful whetlier any particular reference
were intended by Shakespeare, who, perhaps, only meant to
advert in strong terms to the general neglect of learning. • T.
Warton cjirriea the question back to shortly sub.sequent to
the year 1591, when Spenser's "Tears of the Mu>es " was
printed, which, from the time of Rowe to that of Matone, wiw
supposed to contain passages highly laudatory of Shakespeare.
There is a slight coincidence of expression between Spenser
and Shakespeare, in the poem of the one, and in the drama
of the other, wliich deserves remark : Spenser says, —

''Our pleasant Willy, ah, is dead of late.
And one of Shakespeare's lines is, —

"Of learning, late deceased in beggary."

Yet it is quite clear, from a subsequent stanza in ** The Tears
of the Muses," that Spenser did not refer to the natural death
of " Willy," whoever he were, but merely that he *' rather
chose to sit in idle cell," than write in such unfavourable
times. In the same manner, Shake-^peare might not mean
that Spenser (if the allusion indeed be to him) was actually
** deceased," but merely, as Spenser expresses it in his '• Colin
Clout," that he was " dead in dole." The allusion to Queen
Elizabeth as the " fair vestal, throned by the west," in A. ii.
sc. 1, affords no note of time.

It seems highly probable that "A Midsummer-Night's
Dream " was not written before the autumn of 1594, and if the
speech of Titania in A. ii. sc. 1, were intended to describe the
real state of the kingdom, from the extraordinary wetness of
the season, we may infer that the drama came irom the pen
of Shakespeare at the close of 1594, or iu the beginning of
1595.

"The Knight's Tale'* of Chaucer, and the same poet'e
" Tysbe of Babylone," together with Arthur Golding's trans-
lation of the story of Pyramus and Thisbe from Ovid, are the
only sources yet pointed out of the plots introduced and em-
ployed by Shakespeare. Oberon, Titania, and Robin Good-
fellow, or Puck, are mentioned, as belonging to the fairy
mythology, by many authors of the time. The Percy Society
not long since reprinted a tract called " Robin Good-fellow
his Mad Pranks and Merry Jests," from an edition in 1628
but there is little doubt that it originally came out at leas
forty years earlier^: together with a ballad inserted in th
Introduction to tliat reprint, it shows how Shukespear«
availed himself of existing popular superstitinns. In "■ Percv's
Reliques" (HI. 254, edit. 1812,) is a biJlad entitled "The

Ware was broken downe, and at Stratford Bowe, the water was nevet
seen so byg as yt was : and in the lat ere end of October, the waten
burst downe the bridge at Cambiidgp In Barkshire were many gret
waters, wherewith was moch harm di..ie sodenly." MS. Ashm. liol,
fol. iU5.

3 A wood-cut ia on the title-page, intended to represent Robin
Goodfellow : he is like a Satyr, with hoofs and horns, and a broom
over his shoulder. Sir Hugh Evans, in " The .Merry Wivea of Wind-
sor," was no doubt thus dressed, when he represented I'uck, or Kobio
Goodfellow. A copy of the wood-cut may be seen in "^ The Bridga-
watur Library Catalogue," 4to, 1837, p. 258.

ENTRODUCTIO^' TO THE PLAYS.

Ixxxv

attribute<l to Bon Jou- ' and tlmt of the caskets is cbap. xcix, of the same colleefion.
The /*fmra«^ of Ser Giovarmi riorentino also contains a novel

Merry fTaulis of Kobin Good-ftllow,

Boiu <lf which I liave a version in a MS. pf the tjmo : it is the . ^, ,. , ^„ • „ ■

inoM curious, because it has tlie initials B. J. at the end. It . very similar to that ot " Tlie ML-rohant of Venice, witii re^
coufai'is some; variations and an additional stanza, which/ spect to the bond, the disguise and agency of Portia, and the
cciisiderintr tlie siibieot of the poem, it may be worth while \ gift of the ring. This narrative (Giorn. ly. no?). 1) was wr»t-

btre to subjoin :

'* Wlicn a^ my fellow elfes an^ I
In circled ring do trip around
If that our sports by any eye
Do happen to be seen or found
If that they
*io words do say.
But mum continue as uiej go,
Eax:h night I do
Put groat in shoe
And wind out laughing, ho. ho. no "

Tne incidents connected with the life of Robin Good-follow
WW^ T3 doubt, worked up by difl'erent dramatists in diffor-
ant ways- and iu " Henslowe's Diary" are inserted two
e«itrie8 of money paid to ilenry Chettle for a play he wa.s
writing ill Sept. 1602, under the title of "Eobin Good-feilow."

Tbercia everj' reason to believe thai, " Midsummer-Night's
Di^im " was popular: ill 1622, the year before it was re-
firiuted ill tlie first folio, it is lluis mentioned by Taylor, the
water-poet, iu his "Sir Gregory Nonsense :" — " I say, as it In
appJauafully written, iuid commended to posterity, in tlui
KlKlsummtT-Niglit'B Bream: — if we offeno, it is with oitTi
good will: we came with no intent but to olTeiid, and show
our simple skill.'"— (See A. v. sc. 1.)

ten as early as the year 1378, but not jiriiited in Italy until
1554; and it is remarkable that the scene of certain runiantic
adventures, in which the hero was engaged, is there laid hi
afterwards to have been changed, in some English version,
for the incidents of the caskets. In Boccaccio's Decameron
(G-iiyrn. x., nm. 1) a choice of caskets is introduced, but it
does not in other respects resemble the choice as we find it
in Shakespeare : while the latter, even to the inscriptions, is
extremely like the history in tlie Geeta Rmrmnormn.

Tlie earliest notice in English, with a date, of any oircvuB-
stances connected with the bond and its forfeiture, L- ;on-
taiiied in "The Orator: handling a Hundred severv^ Dis-
courses," a translation from the French of Alexander Silvaynj
by Anthonv Mtuiday, who published it under the name ot
Lazarus Plot, iu 1596, 4lo. There, with the he.-id of " Deelu-
mation 95," we find one " Of a Jew, who would for his debt
have a pound of flesh of a Christian;" and it is followed by
"The Christian's Answer," but nothing is said of the inci-
dents, out of which these " declnmations " arose. Of the old
ballad of "The Crueltie of Gernutus, a Jewe," in "Percy's
Reliques," 1. 22S (edit. 1812) no dated edition is known ; but

.^» ..,.1* _n .^ . 1 .-. -c oMI 1..^ i.,/^K».ii'1 t r\ nirvaa ti'ltll Al' il rt fill /'* OK*if»I'-

; . , ,,v, , . ,, , , „v, ,1 I vations on the Faerie Queene," I."l28,)lhat it was not found-

It appears bv a MS. preserved in the Liorarj at Lambeth ^ Shakesi^are's play, and was anterior to it: it might

ilace, that " M.dsummer-^.ght s Dream 'was represented ^^^ \^ ^^..^ ^^^^^ ^,^ K^^^j j„,„,^ „,. ., t,,^ j,„,^„ ,„e,itioiied

Palace, .

at the house of John Williams, Bishop of Lincoln, on 27tl
Sept. 1631. Ilist. of Eug. Dram. Poetry and the Stage, ii. 26

THE MERCHANT OF VENICE.

1 origiu
by Gosson." " Henslowe's Diary," under date of 25tli Atig._
1594, Contains an entry relating to the jjerforniancc of "The
Venetian Comedy," which Malone conjectured might moan
" The Merchant of Venice ;" and it is a circumstance not to
be passed over, that in 1594 the coinpan.y of actors to wliicli
Shakespeare was attached was playing at the theatre iu Ne_w-

I" The excellent History of the Merchant of Venice. With

the extreme cruelty ot Shylocke the lew towards the saide ; ingion butts, in conjunction, as' far as we can now learn, with
Merchant, in cutting a iust pound of his flesh. And the the company of whiieh Henslowe was chief manager.

obtaining of Portia, by the cliovse of three caskets. Written
by W. Shakespeare. Printed' by J. Roberts, 1600." 4to,
40 leaves.

" The most excellent Historie of the Merchant of Venice.
With the cxtreame crueltie of Shylocke the lewe towards
the sayd Mei cliant, in cutting a iust pound of his flesh : and
the obtayning of Portia by the chojsc f»f three chests. As
it hath beene diners times acted by the Lord Chamberlaine
his Seruants. Written by William Shakespeare. At Lon-
don, Printed by I. R., for" Thomas Heyes, and are to be sold
in Paules Church-yard, at the signe of the Greene Dragon,
1600." 4lo, 83 leaves.

It is also printed in the folio, 1623, where it occupies 22 pages,
viz., from p. 163 to p. 184, inclusive, in the division of " Co-
medies." Besides its appearance in the later folios, the Mer-
chant of Venice was republished in 4to, in 1637 and 1652.]
The two plots of " The Merchant of Venice " are found as

distinct

English

has been

of our popular literatm-e. Vf hether the separate incidents, ! >« *^'vour of the last ol whom we meet with another entry in

relating to the bond and to the caskets, were ever combined ', "'^ Stationers' books, without any proviso, dated,--

in the same novel, at ail as Shakespeare combined them in

his drama, cannot of course be determined. Steevens asserts

broadly, that "a play comprebeiiding the distinct plots of

Bhakespcarc's Merchant of Venice had been exhibited long

before lie commenced a writer;" and the evidence iie adduces

Meres' has " The Merchant of Venice " in his list, which
was puhlished in 1598, and we have no means of knowing
how long prior to that date it was written. If it were " The
Venetian Comedy " of Henslowe, it was in a ci>urse of per-
formance in August, 1594. The earliest entry regarding " The
Merchant of Venice " in the Stationers' Register is curious,
Irom its particularity : —
"22 July, 1598, James Eobertes.] A booke of the Mar-
cbaunt of Venycc, or otherwise called the Jewe of Ve-
nyse. Provided that yt bee not prynted by the said
Jiimea Robertes, or a'nye other whatsoever, without
lycence first had from the right honourable the Lord
Chamberlen."
Shakespeare was one of the players of the Lord Chamber-
lain, and the object seems to have been to prevent the pub-

lication of the play without the consent of the company, to ba

28 Oct., 1600, Tho. Haies.] The booke of the Merohartt
of Vcnyce."
Bv this time the "licence" of the Lord Chamberlain for
prin'ting the play h.id probably been obtaine>t. At the bottom
of the title-page'of Roberts's edition of 1600, no place is stated
IS a pa.ssage from Gosson's "School of Abuse," 1579, where , where it was to be purchased: it is merely, "Printed by J.
hj especially praises two plavs " showiie at the Bull," one i Roberts, 1600 ;" while the imprint to the edition of Heye»
calsd " The Jew," and the o'ther " Ptolonie :" of the former ! informs us that it was " printed by I. R.," and that it wa
fissson states, that it "represented the greedinesse of worldly I " to be sohl in Pauls Church-yard," &c. I. R., the print*
diusers, and bloody min.ts of usurers."' (Shakespeare Socie- ! of the edition of Heyes, was, most likely, J. Roberts ; bul it
ly's Reprint, p. 80.) The terms, " worldly chusers," may I is entirely a distinct impression to that which appeared in the
certainly have reference to the choice of the" caskets ; and the ! same year with the name of Roberts. The edition of Roberts
conduct of Shylock mav very well be intended bv tlie words, I is, on the whole, to be preferred to that of Heyes ; but the
" bloo.ly minds of usurers." It is possible, therefore, that a' editors of the folio of 1623 indisputably employed that of
theatrical pertbrnianoe should have existed, anterior to the , Heyes, adopting various misprints, but inserting also several
tii.ieof Shakespeare, in whicli the separate plots were united: ! improvements of the icKt. These are pointed out in our
and it is not unlikely that some uovel had been published , notes in the course of the play. The similarity between the
which gave the same incidents in a narrative form. " On the , names of Salanio, Salarino, and Salcrio, in the llramatis Pfi-
whole," says the learned and judicious Tyrwhitt, " I am in- , snna, has led to some confusion of the speakers in all the
dined to suspect that Shakespeare followed some hitherto | copies, quarto and folio, which it has not always been found
unknown novelist, who had saved him the trouble of working easy to set rieht.

np the two stories into one." I " The Merchant of Venice" was performed before James I.,

Both stories are found separately in the Latin fr'fsto .flowM- ' on Shrove-Sunday, and again on Shrove-Tucsday, 1606:

w>rum, with considorable variations : that of the bond is ' hence wc have a right to infer that it gave great Siitisfaction

(ihap. xlviii. of MS. Harl. 2270, as referred to by Tyrwhitt ; ; at court. The fact is thus recorded in the c ligiiial iiecoun»

bkxxvi

mTRODiTcnoN ro the plays.

cf expenses, niude out )ty tlie Master of the Revelrt, and still
picserved in tiie Audit Officft : —

" l{y His Ma'" I'laiers. On Shrovsunday a play of the

Marclmnt of Venis."
" J!y hie Mil'" Players. On Shrovtu»diiy ft play canled

the Martchant of Venis againe, commanded by the

King8 Ma"'."
The name of Shaxbcrd, for Shakesjioare, a8 "the poet
tneso entries. Notwithstanding the popularity of this drama
before the closing of the theatres in 1642, it seems to have
been so much forgotten soon after the Restoration, that in
1664, Thomas Jordan made a ballad out of the story of it in
hi.s "Royal Arbor of Loyal Poesie," and thought himself at
liberty to pervert the original, by malting the Jew's daughter
the principal instrument of punishing her own father : at
the trial, she takes the office which Shakespeare assigns to
Partia.

AS YOU LIKE IT.

"*Afa You Like It" was firpt printed in tlic folio of 1623, where
*t occupies tweuty-threo pages, viz. from p. 185 to p. 207
inclusive, in the division of ■■' Comedies." It preserved its
place ill the three subsequent imprefsious of that volume
in 1632, 1664, and 1685.]

" As You Like It " ifl not only founded upon, but in Home
;)0irt9 very closely copied from, a novel by Thomas Lodge,
jnder thetitle of " Eosalynde : Euphues Golden Leg:acie,"
which was originally printed in 4to, 1590, a second time in
1592, and a third edition came out in 159S. We have no in-
telligence of any re-imnresriion of it between 1592 and 1598.
This third edition perliaps iippeared e:irly in 1598; and we
are disposed to thiuK, that the re-publiciition of no popular a
work directed Shakespeare's attention to it. If so, *' As You
Like It " may have been written in the summer of 1598, and
firt4t acted in the winter of the same, or in the spring of the
following year.i

The only entry in the register;* of the Stationers* Company
relating to *' As You liike It," is confirmatory of this suppo-
sition. It hns been already referred to in the " Introduction"
»o " Much Ado about Nothing" and it will be well to insert
It here, precisely in the manner in which it stands in the
original record : —

" 4 August.

" Ah you like yt, a book. Henry the fflft, a book. Every
man in his humor, a book. The Commedie of Much

Opposite this memorandum are added the words ''To be
staied." It will be remarked, that there is an important de-
» ficiency in the entry, as reirards the purpose to which we
wish to apply it: — the date of the year is not given ; but Ma-
lone conjectured, and in that conjecture I have expressed con-
currence, that the clerk who wrote tiie titles of the four plays,
with the date of " 4 August/' did not think it necessary there
to repeat the year 1600, as it was found in the memorandum
immediately preceding that we have above quoted. Sliake-
were both printed in 1600, and Ben Jonson's *' Every Man in
hia Humour" in the year following; though Gillbr'd, in his
edition of that poet's works (vol. i. p. 2), by a strange error,
states, that the tirst impression was in 1603. The " stay," as
regards '' Henry the Fifth," " Every Man in his Humour," and
for *' Henry the Fifth" vvns entered again tor publication on
the 14th August; and, as has been already shown, Wise and
thing" on the 23rd August. There is no known edition of
-'As You Like It" prior to its appearance in the folio of
'»J23, (where it is divided into Scenes, as well as Acts) and
«e may pos.sibly assume that the " stay" was not, for some
anexplained and uncertain reason, removed as to that comedy.

Malone relied upon a piece of internal evidence, which, if
examined, seems to bo of no value in settling the question
when '* As You Like It" was fir.'^t written. The following
words are pnt into the mouth of Rosalind :^" I weep for
nothing, like Diana in the fountain" (A. iv. sc. 1), which
Malone supposed to refer to an alabaster fisruro of Diana on
tho east of Cheapaide, which, according to Stowe's " Survey
of London," was set up in 1598, and was in decay in 1603.
This ti^ure of Diana did not "weep;" for Stowe expressly
Ufttes tnat; the water came " prilling from lier naked breast.*'
Therefore, this passage proves notiiing as far as respects the

1 If w« RiipPOB* that the third edition of Lodge's " Rofialynde" was ' one of tne earlier impresaions in 1590 or 1502. it would show tha *' Ai
«c8fiion»d oy tti? |)opuiari'y of Snaceapeare's comedy, founded upon ■ You Like It" was acted in 1593, and m ^rht have been written io 59?

date of " As You Like It." Shakespeare probably intended
to make no allusion to any particiihir fountain.

It is not to be forgotten, in deciding upon the probable dat«
of " As You Like It, "that Mercs makes no mention of it in
liis Palladia Tamia^ 1598 ; and as it was entered at Stationers*
Hall on the 4th August [1600], we may conclude that it wa«
written and acted in that interval. In A. iii. sc. 5, a line from
the first Sestiud of Marlowe's '* Hero and Leander " is quoted :
and as that poem was first printed in 1598, "As You Like It
may not have been written until after it appeared.

There is no doubt that Lodge, when composing his " RoBa-
lynde : Euphues Golden Legacie," which he did, as he in-
forms us, while on a voyage with Captain Clarke, " to the isl-
ands of Terceras and the Canaries," had eitlicr " The Coke'fl
Tale of Gamelyn" (falsely attributed to Chaucer, as Tyrwliiti
contends in his lutrod. to the Cant. Tales, I. clxxxiii. Edit
1880.) strongly in his recollection, or, which does not seera
very probable in such a situation, with a manuscript of it
actually before him. It was not printed until more than a
century afterwards. According to Farmer, Shakespeare
looked no farther than Lodere's novel, which he followed in
'* As You Like It" quite as closely ns he did Greene's '* Pan-
dosto" in the ** Winter's Tale." There are one or two coin-
cidences of expression between "As You Like It" and "Tlie
Coke's Tale of Gamelyn," but not perhaps more than might
be accidental, and the opinion of Farmer appears to be suffi-
ciently borne out. Lodge's " Rosalynde " has been recently
printe'd as part of "Shakespeare's Library," and it will be
easy, therefore, for the reader to trace the particular resem-
blances between it and " As You Like It."

In his Lectures in 1818, Coleridge eloquently and justly
praised the pastoral beauty and simplicity of " As You Like
It;" but he did not attempt to compare it with Lodge's " Ro-
salynde," where the descriptions of persons and of scenery
are comparatively forced ana artificial : — " Shakespeare," said
Coleridge, " never gives a description of rustic scenery merely
for its own sake, or to show how well he can paint natural
objects: he is never tedious or elaborate, but while he now
and then displays marvellous accuracy and minuteness of
knowledge, he usually only touches upon the larger featurea
and broader characteristics, leaving the fillings up to the ima-
gination. Thus in ' As You Like It' he describes an oak of
many centuries growth in a single line : —

' Under an oak whose antique root peeps ont.*
Other and inferior writers would have dwelt on this descrip-
tion, and worked it out with all the pettiness and imperti-
nence of detail. In Shakespeare the ' antique root ' furuishea
the whole picture."

These expressions are copied from notes made at the time;
and they partially, though imperfectly, supply an obvioup
deficiency of treneral criticism in vol. 11. p. 115, of Coleridge'ft
" Literary Remains."

Adam Spencer is a character in " The Coke's Tale of Game-
lyn," and in Lodge's " Rosalvnde:" and a great additional in-
terest attaches to it, because it is supposed, with some appear-
ance of truth, that the part was originally sustained by Shake
speare himself. Wc have this statement on the authority of
Oldys's MSS. : he is said to hhve derived it, intermediately of
course, from Gilbert Shakespeare, who survived the Reslora-
tion, and who had a faint recollection of having seen his bro-
ther William 'Mn one of Ids own comedies, wherein, being to
personate a decrepit old man, he wore a long buard, and ap-
peared so weak and drooninir. and unable to walk, that he
was forced to be supported, and carried by anotlier person to
a tiible, at which ho was seated among some company, who
were eating, and one of them sung a soner." This descriptioD
very exactly tallies with " As You Like It," A. ii. sc. 7.

Shakespeare found no prototypes in Lodge, nor in any
other work yet discovered, for the characters of Jaques,
Touchstone, and Audrey. On the admirable manner ir. wliich
he has made them part of the staple of his story, and on the
importance of these additions, it is needless to enlarge. It is
rather singular, that Shakespeare should have introduced twc
cliaracters of the name of Jaques into the same play; but in the
old impressions, Jaques de Bois, in the prefixes to hisspeechoB,
is merely called the " Second Brother."

TAMING OF THE SHREW.

[" The Taming of the Slirew" was first printed in the folio of
1623, where it occupies twenty-two patres, viz. from p. 20f
to page 229 inclusive, in the division of "Comedies." It
was reprinted in the three later folios.]

INTRODUCTION TO THE PLAYS.

Ixxxvu

„„der the title of " Tl'e.T^Mm.^ of a^ -e-^ T»^^ "'^^

at tl>e KoyuU Ex'elK.nge. 1594.^ 4to .^ .^

It was reprinted '" ^S?^' "^g^^erton. The impression of

r^r,fr^c:;i.t.^"^b/steev:nsf(s"i°a the eollec^ion of the

;:^^;frt;:r!?;^..s.the^....^^^^

^^rj.^& J'r;:^annL of .. Si..w.. When

Wi ilum Sh.kspeeve-s Con,edye., H-^°";„!' "";^,. ^"^.fd "o

Ui error. The greut probability is, t bat """'^^^f^j'^g

'"Thfr'e''cr,ttpri„tof "The Pleasant Cornedy of Patient
( Ji-ill " bv Delfker, Cbefle, and Hangbton from the edi ion
ofTe. 8 tends to throw licrht on this point. H''"''""^ *^'^mry
e. tab islies, that the three dramatists above named ™re «nt

Ulition, possibly, with some other drama ist, who wrote trie
;^,\onH'»^,ieh ari'admitted not to be '" '^hakespeare s nnin^e
trcdnced his "Taming of the Shrew" soon atter i a"em
Lriss 11" had been brought nnon the stage, a»d « » 'O--^ »f
onnnterpart to it ; and that Deker followed np the ■^"Ti' "
fhe summer of lf.02 bv his " Medicine for a eiirst \V ife, _ ha\-
Z berinei.ed by the success f Shakespeare s"Ta,„,ne of
the Shrew " at a rival theatre. At this time the old laming
of a Shrew" had been laid by a.s a public P^;f'>™kker took
Shakespeare havine very nearly adopted its W.'^- l^f';'^^ [^f^
a different one, in accordance with the expression he had used
two or three vcars before in " Patient GnssiU".
The sileiioi of Mercs in 1598 regarding any such play by

Shakespeare is also important : had it then been Y""™' ^'
?oiId?rreelvh»ve faUed to mention it; so that we ha «
^troiK' neirat ve evidence of its non-existence before^ tin.
amielra c; of Palladia T«mia. When Sir Jcdiii If '.S'-or.
hrii s " Met morphosis of Aiax," 159«, says, " K^"'' <>''l»;°»'^«
of 'Tamine a Shrew,' whicli hath made a n iint>er of us. so
i perfJc h"^ now evc^y one can rule a shr.w in "";-nn.ry
Tave he that hath her," he meant the 'I'l " f""" "« ,°*4
Shrew," reprinted in the same year. In ' 'f A''^ ,.;;i'^,,"°;,*
not oiilv the comedy in which Petiuchio ai d J^^" ';['"<=» *
chieflv en"a<»ed, but the Induction, wiich is "T'";'' ^ .^ '°
'be cfose^for Sly and the Tapster conclude the piece, as .ue,

menls," was the smirce of the many imm.t.ons which Imv e
h H^ \n'?du'ir»\rte1[r,?,\hat rnTtli'e'tt^or
f^^^r^^^o'll ?:ies bv Kichard Edwards dated

some miw unknow*,, iianslation of Nott. vin. tab. 2, ot the

'^::t^uTS'^, fVeelv tnmslated by G....yne
rbef ™ IS^ when it was acted at Grey's Inn under the titk'
of "The Si. -poses,'- seems to have afforded Shakespeare part
of his nlot it relates to the manner in which Lucentio and
Tra^io pa s off the Pedant as Vincentio, which is not found
iraino pass ™ "'« Shrew." In the list of persons pre-

notice has ,heen 'ake, t emu t ^^^^ ^„^^,^„,i,, ,ense
nwhFch i 'is emtioyei bv Gascoyne, and in reference to that
nan of the s?or?which had lieen derived from' his Irunslation.
Fo,l lit e Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew ■' w;as known

X Sld'^rof a'en^mwl'^iilT ien r;siding in Lincoln-
shire.

ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.

r" All's Well that Ends Well" was first printed in the tol.o

^ f ^rintsCrrs:^;Srppf:VFf ■ ""^

[be same space ;nd place in the three later folios ]

w^rc'^^^i'" ^;^:^J^ H w"ri?;Siyi eo

PajUdit Tamia ,viendee au opinion which he firsi

out very c early '™° ^''Xf^^T ^et „t a later date, ad^e*
of expression; and Protestor l>ecK.^ disposed to a^r.e

\\ el that ••'""■:""', - f draught of the play, we do not
explain, are re^^''^^ "/ 'J;«^ ehfeflv „ b" discovered in that [*r-

llZ^Av^^- There ean\e little doubt, howev..

Malon. wa, mistaken when h. ..id l^»,ak».ps.™ by B.^U^ .:^;^:^Tr^^S^^^ ^^:i^^^^

101 of Shakespeare's " Taming of tke fchre-ar, but ol the oia i a , . ^ l^^ ^^^ ^^^^^ ^^ ^^^ tragedy
•ns of a Shrew "

mTRODUCTIO^' TO THE PLAYS.

Ixxxviii

-All 8 «eii ;"'"/■,'"„ ,„o'„ contains ind cations of the
^^^ J?^:.:^;;:.;^.^^' Peci.ne„s of h. CO..

traduction to " i he lemptst, ""'"'^ '™ ,„,, Mr Hunter

ussisnini? that play to tU vear 1610, or 61 . ,/l'^: ,'^";^.'',l

.1, ,f "Tiip Ti>miiest ' even more than An s vi en

..rgnes that The Ij-'^'P;- '' , ^ ,i„„ificant name of " Love

':■[;".:;:; Sn'- and a" itSVnhont 1605 or 1606, when the

taurraud'^'eTTsotsr^he'cntry runs in these terms :-
"Betwin Newers Day and Twelfe Day, a piny of Love»
Labours Lost."
The name of the author, and of the company hv w'wm t e

'" nraSct on- .n poSly Shakespeare altered Us na.ne,

^' Tr IS ;ev-^fTh:i;:nS^r'£:^^x :^m

reSrt'krr'Vhrdifflrend'i;; the titles, a. we find them m

"^^'hri^!:?.n"n?^ tne q-st-ot..wnetner ShaUe-
SDCare understood Italian, of vvhicli, we tlnnk, 1'"'"/' ' '^t
'ca^Te entertained, we need n'>^ '^-VPl^J'^l'^lZtl l^!l

■; sVdi faTia l^una flsto a: dumanda per nKn-ito Beltrumo
• d! RossiJlim e ■ i q le contra sua voglia sposatala, a F.renze
B ne vf P^ isdc^.o; dove vaghejreiando una l^'"vane, m
r^r^o.^di lei Gialietta giacque con lui, e hebbene due ii.r.; -
^iTporc^^ e.li poi hav'utala eara per mog >e a 'C- 1 he
Tfnirlwh version bv Pa uter maybe read m bhaKespeare s
Lbr^-v-^rnd beL it will appear, that the poet «^is only
■ SL' tn Rocciceio for the mere outline of ins plot, as re-
I'Lrds I eena Bert an the Widow, and Diana All that
feon- to tl e characters of the Countess, the Clown, and
IVroS nd be comic business in wliich the last is engaged
ware >^'f ras we now know, the invention ot Shakespeare.
The mdv names Boccaccio (ami after bim Painter) gives are

1 The two passages ran as follows :—

. . '■ We must away ;

Our wacffon is prepar'd, and time revive.^ us ;

All's weU that'enls well; suU the fine s the crown. ^^ ^

" All 's well that ends well ft I. ^_

Though .ime seem so adverse, and mesns unfit.

« H„„..r Tinnts ■' All 's well that ends . ell " i» Italic and with

towardo the end of the drama, by the dupreity, und ever
fSiood he makes him display: Coleridge (I-''- ;<"■': "-if ''
was ottended by the fact, that in A. iii. sc. 5, »« ^ », Slmk»
si.eare'8 loveliest character," speaks that which is uiitrna
XerSie appearance of necessity ; but Bertram is comic ed
"v t he Khie !.f telling a deliberate untrn.h and of ^er^mUn,
ii", it in the face of the wliole court ot !• ran X. In lio^^^f"""
"he winding up of the story occurs at KousiUon, as m bhaku

to iin

'

nemainiei» aiu lhuo,- .^ : , u a-

ipose a wife upon her ro uctan "'?°""Ji' -K naa Well '
blance to the same incident in '■ All 's W ell that Knaa w eu

1

is only general.

TWELFTH-NIGHT: OR, WHAT YOU
WILL.

f" Twelfe Ni-ht, Or what yon Will," was first printed ill tlie
^ t^ro of 1628, where it occupies twenty-one pages; viz tron
n 055 to 275 inclusive, in the diviMon ot "Comedies,
l 27C having been left blank, and unpaged. It appears in
he same form in the three later tohos.]
We have no record of the pcrlbrmance of "Twelfth-Niglit"
at court cor is there anv nicntion of it in the books at Sta-
at couii, oor s ^, ■ u s 1623, when it was registered
l\"Blm d J ^^-ru^^ t" be included in the first

h lio of '' M William' Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories
1 Tr.,<,P,i;es " It appeared originallv in that volume, under
?,''f I^nlle tme, '''r'Sh-Niga or'What You Will," with

"^Vttmllot'S^^^nSwUh precision when it was flr^
n L uiMui.i ^.v. . I _! J) (, ce cbration ot

ThcTkd^rVV^a^rrt uirMUMirTcmple on Feb. 2 1602,
according o our modern computation of the year. The tact
S perinuance we have on tl'^-J-Hi' -'^y^T'- j^^ ^
who seems to h.ave been a barrister, and u 1 o^e Uiary, in m»
own baml-writinL', is preserved in the British Museum {Han
MRS. 5353). The nieniorandiim runs, literatim, as "Ho^;* -
- Febv 2, 1601121. At our feast we had a play called
Twelve-Night or What Yo-. Will, much like the comedy of
eiTorrorMcicehmi in Plautus, but most like and neereto
Ui Tn Xn called Inoa.mU. A irood ,,raot.se in it to make
tf steward believe his ladv widduwe was in love wit . him,
bvcounterfavtim. a letter, ai from bis lady, in gencrail tern.es
tdl-meCwl a "slice liked best in him, and prescribing his
le tires biscribing his apparaile, Ac. and then when he
faine to practise, nraking hbn beleeve they tooke him to be

""Tlii's remarkable entry wivs pointed o"t,in the "H-|sto,7 of

Fnclish Dramatic Poctrv and the Stage, vol. . p..".^;- »\o,

mi and tie Kev. Joseph Hunter, in his " Disquisition on

The Tempest," 8vo, 1839, has ascertained t liat it was made

bv a Pe son of the name if Mannim-lr.uii It puts an ciid to

tlm con ec ire of Malone, that ■' Twelf.h-Nigl.t " w.us wn ten

n 1607 m.d to the less probable specu ation ot Tvrwhitt, tha

"was not produced until 1614. Even if it shonld be objected

hat we lave no evidence to show that tl"*Cc.,n,d.v wxs eo 1-

no'od shortU prior to its representation at the Middle Tem-

?,°e 1, rbe Answered, that it is eapab e of proot that it was

Tit e, posterior to the publication of *'"= ''■""''''";"^:," ,^' "

sel ten's " Disconrs of Voyages into the Eas »"d.We«' '"^

dw's" In A ii. sc. 2. Maria says of Malvoho :-" He does

smU; his ace into more lines than arc in the new map, wi K

? e am^mentation of the Indies." When Malone prepared

his''Cl^oiologioal Or,ler"he had ' not^ been able to leara

U c diae of the map here alluded to," hut Lmschoten'a Dis-

onrs of Voyages 'f was published in fdio in English 11: :.W8.

W n liatvSnme is inserted "the new inap with the ang

mentation of the Indies." Meres takes no notice c.t Twelfth

way. According to my supposition, these f.^'^^l'^luZf,, "w^e"

?-;;:rS ^^^i^^£r7l ::f.-i^^^s::?'ier:"'

dat s tie drd cat'ii of his " second tome " " F-^'ny _,»>.. hov.«
i besides the Towie of Lo.don, the lu,, of November. l.'.7.

INTRODUCTION TO THE PLAYS.

Ixxxix

Night" in his list, published in the same yenr, and we may
oonelnde tln.t tliaCnmedy was not then in existence. The
words " new map," employed by Shakespeare, may be
Its appearance long bafore " T\velfth-Ni?ht " was produced;
out on the whole, we are inclined to fix the period of its com-
position at the end of 1600, or in the beginning of 1601 : it
might be acted at the Globe in the summer of the same year,
and from thence transferred to the Middle Temple about six
uiontlis afterwards, on account of its continued i>opul!irity.

Several originals of "Twelfth-Night," in English, Flench,
and Italian, have been pointed out, nearly all of them dis-
covered within the present century, and to these we shall now
a.lvert,

A voluminous and various author of the name of Barnabe
liich, who had been brought up a soldier, published a volume,
which he called •' Rich his Farewell to Military Profession,"
without date, but between the years 1578 and 1581: a re-
impression of it appeared in 1606, and it contains a novel
entitled " Apoloni'us and Silln," which has many points of
resemblance to Shakespeare's comedy. To tliis production
more particular reference is not necessary, as it forms part
of the publication called " Shakespeare's" Library." If our
great dramatist at all availed hiniself of its incident.s, he must
of course have used an earlier edition than tliat of 1606. One
minute circumstance in relation to it may deserve notice.
Manningham in his Diary calls Olivia a " widow," and in
widow, but in Shakespeare she never had been married. It
'•■< possible that in the form in which the comedy was per-
fcinned on Feb. 2, 1601-2, she wa.s a widow, and that the
"iuthor subsequently made the change ; but it is more likely,
Bs Olivia must have been in mourning for the loss of lier
brother, that Manningham mistook her condition, and con-
cluded hastily tliat she lamented the loss of her husband.

Rich furiii>hes us with the title of no work to which he was
nidcbted ; but we may conclude that, either immediately or
intermediately, he derived his chief materials from the Italian
tf BandcUo, or from the French of Belleforest. In Bandello
it forms the thirty-sixth novel of the Seccmda Parte, in the
I.ucca edit. 1554. 4to, where it bears the subsequent title; —
"Nicuola, innamorata di Lattantio, va 4 servirlo vestita da
puggio ; e dope moiti casi seco si inarita : e cio che ad un
6U0 fratello avvenne." In the collection by Belleforest,
printed at Paris in 1572, 12mo, it is lieaded .as follows: —
"Comme une fille Roinaine, se vestant en page, servist long
teinps un sien amy sans estre cogneue, et depuis I'eust a
mary, avec autres divers discours." Altliougn Belleforest
inserts no names in his title, he adopts tliose of Bandello, but
abridges or omits many of the speecnes and some portions of
Uie narnitive : what in Bandello occupies several pages is some-
times included by Belleforest in a single paragraph. We quote
tl»« subsequent passage, because it will more exactly show the
degree of connexion between " Twelfth-Night" and the old
French version : it is where Nicuola, the Viola of Shakespeare,
di.-*guised as a page, and under the name of Romule, lies an
interview with Oatelle, the Olivia of " Twelfth-Night," on
behalf of Lattance, who answers to the Duke.

" Mais Catelle, qui avoit plus I'oeil sur I'orateur et sur la
[ULive beaut6, que I'oreille aux paroles venant d'ailleurs, estoit
an une estrange peine, et volontiera se fut jettee a son col
pour le baiser tout a son aise: mais la honte la retint pour un
temps: a la fin n'en pouvant plus, et vaincue de ceste impa-
tience d'amour, et se trouvant favoris^e de la commodity, ne
Kjeut de tant se eominander, que I'embrassnnt fort estroite-
nient elle ne le baisast d'une douxaine de fois, et ce avec telle
'ftsoivit^ et gestes etfrontez, que Romule s'appareeut bien que
oette-cy avait i)lus chere son accointance que les ambassades
Je celuy qui la courtisoit. A ceste cause luy dit, Je vous
fcie, madanic, me faire taut de bien que me aonnant cong^,
j'nye de vous quelque gracieuse responce, nvec laquelle je
priL*se faire content et joyeux mon seigneur, lequel est en
boucy at tourment continuel pour ne s^avoir votre volenti
vers luy, et s'il a rien acquis en vos bonnes graces. Catelle,
hamant de plus en pjus le venin d'amour par les yeux, luy
Bembloit que Romiile devint de fois k autre plus bean."

Upon the novel by Bandello two Italian plays were com-
osed, which were printed, and have come down to our time.
The title of one of these is given by Manningham, where he
sj\V8 that Shakespeare's " Twelfth-Night" was *' most like
and neere to that in Italian called fnt/anni.''^ It was first
jcted in 1547, and the earliest edition of it, with which I am
acquainted, did not appear until 1582, when it bore the title
uf Gf Inganni Comtdia del Siimnr N. S. The other Italian
tlrftma, founded upon Bandello's novel, bears a somewhat
uiiailar title : — OV IngannaU Cojnmedia degf Accademici /n-

pOS(

The

tronati di Si^na, which ^^as several times printed; last, per-
haps, in the collection Ddk Cnmmtdi* degV Accademici Intro-
nati di Siena, 1611, 12mo. AVliether onr great dramatist saw
cither of these pieces before he wrote liis " Twelfili-Night "
may admit of doubt; but looking at the terms Manningham
employs, it might seem as if it were a matter understood, ut
the tirne " Twelfth-Night " was acted at the Temple on Feb.
2, 1602, that it was founded upon the Inganni. There is no
indication in the MS. Diary that the writer of it was versed
in Italian literature, and GV Inganni might at that day be a
known comedy of which it was believed Shakespeare had
availed himself. An analysis of it is given in a Binall tracL
called " Farther Particulars of Shakespeare and his Works,'*
8vo, 1689, but as only fifty copies of it were printed, it ma;
be necessary here to enter into some few details of its plot,
conduct, and characters. The " Argument," or explana'.ory
Prologue, which precedes the first scene, will show that the
author of GP Inganni did not adhere to Bandello by any
means closely, and that he adopted entirely different names
for his personages.

" Anselmo, a Genoese merchant who traded to the Levant,
having left his wife in Genoa great with child, had two chil-
dren by her, one a boy called Fortunato, and the other a
girl natned Gineura. After he had borne for four years the
desire of seeing his wife and family, he returned home to
them, and wishing to depart again, he took them with him ;
and when they were embarked on board the vessel, he dressed
them both in short clothes for greater eoiwenience, so that the
girl looked like a boy. And on the voyage to Soria he was
taken by Corsairs and carried into Natolia, where he re-
mained in slavery for fourteen years. His children had n
different fortune'; for the boy was several times sold, but
finally here in tliis city, which, on this occasion, shall be Na-
ples : and he now serves Dorotea, a courtesan, who lives there
at that little door. The mother and Gineura, after various
accidents, were bought by M. Mi-ssimo Caraccioli, who lives
where vou see this door;' but by the advice of the mother,
who has been dead six years, Gineura has changed her name
and caused herself to be called Ruberto ; and, as her mother
while living persu.adcd her, alw.ays gave lierself out to be a
boy, thinking in this way that she should be better able tc
preser\'^ her chastity. Fortunato find Ruberto, by the infor-
mation of their mother, know themselves to be brother and
sister. M. Massimo has a son, whom they call Gostanzo, and
a daughter named Portia. Gostanzo is in love with Dorotea,
the courtesan to whom Fortunato is servant. Portia, his
sister, is in love with Ruberto, notwithstanding she is a girl,
because she has always been thought a man. Ruberto, the
girl, not knowing how to satisfy the desires of Portia, who
constantly importunes her, has sometimes at night conveyed
her brother into the house in her place: he has got Portia with
child, and she is now every hour expecting to be brought to
bed. On the other hand, Ruberto, as a girl and in love with
her young master Gostanzo, has double suffering — one from
the passion which torments her, and the other from the fear
lest the pregnancy of Portia should be discovered. Massimo,
the father of Portia and Gostanzo, is aware of the condition
of h4s daughter, and has sent to Genoa to inquire into the
parentage of Ruberto. in order that if he find him ignoble,
and unworthy to be the husband of his daughter, whom he
believes to be with child by him, he may have him killed.
But, bv what I have heard, the father of the twins, who has
escaped from the hands of the Turks, ought this day to_ be
returned with the messenger, and I think that every thing
will be accommodated."

In this play, therefore, Portia, who is the Olivia of Shake-
speare, is not stated to be a widow, and our great dramatist
avoided the needless indelicacy of representing her to bo with
child. In GV Inaanni, Gineura (i. e. Viola.) as will have
been seen from the " Argument," is not pagetotlie man with
whom she is in love, but to Portia: while Gostan/.o, whose
affection Gineura is anxious to obtain, is brother to her mis-
tress. This of course makes an important ditference in tb«
relative situations of the parties, because Gineura, disguised
aa Ruberto, is not employed to carry letters and messages
between the characters who represent the Duke and Olivia.
Gostanzo being in love with a courtesan, named Dorotea, in
the first Act, Gineura endeavours to dissuade him from his
lawless passion, in a manner that distantly, and on'/ lis-
tantly, reminds us of Shakespeare. Ruberto {i. e. Ginetra)
tells 'Gostanzo to find some object worthy of his affection:-

i " Goatanzo. And where fihall I find her'

! Ruberto. I know one who is more Itst for love of you, lh£Ji yon Wf
for this carrion.
Gnsfnnzn. }s she fair?
I RttJierlo InditTerentJv

xc

DSfTRODUCTIOiSI TO THE PLAYS.

Gottanzo. Where s she ?

Ruberto. Not far from you. ,,,... u i,

Goltanza. And will she be content that I should lie with her.

Ruberlo. If God wills that you should do it.

(roatanzo. How shall 1 get to her?

RvbtTto. As you would come to me.

Oostatizo. How do you know that she loves me?

Rubtno. Because she often talks to me of her love

Gostanzc Do I know her?

Ruberto. As well as you know me

Gnslanzo. Is she young?

Ruberto. Of my afre.

(iostanzo. And loves me?

(iostanzo. Have I ever seen her ?

Ruberto. As often as you have seen me.

Goslanzo Why does she not discover herself to me ?

Ruberto. Because she sees you the slave of another woman "

The resemblance between Giiieura iind her brotlier Forta-
iato is 80 great, tliat Portia has niiatakcn tlie one for the
other, and in the end, like Sebastian and Olivia, tliey are
united: while Gostunzo, being cured of his passion fiir Doro-
tea, and grateful for the persevering and disinterested affec-
tion of Gineura, is married to her. Our great dramatist lius
given an iictnul, as well as an intellectual elevation to the whole
subject, by the manner in which he hits treated it; and lias
oonvertcil what may, in most respects, be considered a low
eoinedy into a fine romantic drama.

So much for 01' Inganni, a]id it now remains to speak of
GV InyannuU, a comedy to which, in relation to "Twelfth-
Night," attention was flrstdirected by the Kev. Joseph Hunter
in his " Disquisition on Shakespeare's Tempest," p. 78. GV
[n/iaiinnti fjlous B;mdello's novel with more exactness than
GV Ingtiimi, though both change the names of the parties;
and here we have the iniportant fcalure that the heroine,
called Lelia, (disguised as Fabio) is page to Flamminio, with
whom she is in love, but who is in love with a lady named
Isabella. Lelia, as in Shakespeare, is employed by Flammi-
nio to forward his suit with Isabella. What succeeds is p:irt
of the Dialogue between Lelia, in her male attire, and Flam-
minio : —

" Lelia. Do as I advise. Abandon Isabella, and love one who loves
you in return. You may not find her as beautiful ; but, t^l me, is
there nobody else whom you can love, and who loves you ?

Flammimo. There was a young lady named Lelia, whom, I was a
thousand times about to tell you, you are much like. She was thought
the fairest, the cleverest, and the most courteous damsel of this coun-
try. I will show you heroneof these days, for I formerly looked upon
ner with some regard. She was then rich and about the court, and I
continued in love with her for nearly a year, during which time she
showed rno much favour. Afterwards she went to Mirandola, and it
was my fate to fall in love with Isabella, who has been as cruel to
me as Lelia was kind.

Lelia. Then you deserve the treatment you have received. Since
you slifhtod her who loved you, you ought to be slighted in return
by others.

Flamminio. What do you say?

Lelia. If this poor girl were your first love, and still loves you more
than ever, why did you abandon her for Isabella? I know not who
could pardon that offence Ah' signer Flamminio, you did her
grievous wrong.

Flamminio. You are only a boy, Fabio, and know not the power
of love. I tell you that I cannot help loving Isabella: I adore her,
laor do I wieh to think of any other woman."

Elsewhere the resemblance between " Twelfth-Night " and
GV Ingunmiti, in point of situation is quite as strong, but
there the likeness ends, for in the dialogue we can trace no
connexion between the two. The author of the Italian com-
edy has obviously founded himself entirely uponBandello's
novel, of which there might be some translation in the time
of Shakespeare more nearly approaching the original, than
the version which Rich puhlislied before our great drannitist
fisit«d the metropolis. Whether any such literal translation
*e Italian story, and Le NitveUe di Banddlo were very well
known in England as early as about the middle of the six-
eenth century. If Shakespeare had followed Rich wc should
probably have discovered some verbal trace of his obligation,
as in the cases where he followed Painter's " Palace of Plea-
sure," or, still more strikingly, where ho availed himself of
ihe works of Gioene and Lodge. In GV Ingannati we find

t From thv Introduction to the same work, we find that "The
Winter's Talt " was also represented at court on Easter Tuesday,
1618.

3 The expenses of eleven other plays are included in the same ac-
eoant, viz, 'The Tempest," " King and no King," "The City Gal-
.ant," "The Almanack," "The Twins' Tragedy," "Cupid's Re-
»enge,'' "The Silver Age," "luoretia," "The Nobleman," " Hy

nothing but incident in common with " Twelfth-Night."
Tlie vast inferiority of the former to the latter in language and
sentiment may be seen in every page, in every lino. Th«
mistake of the brother for the si^ter, oy Isabella, is the same
in both, and it terminates in a somewhat similar manner, fot
the female attendant of the lady, meeting Fabricio (who is
dressed, like his sister Lelia, in white) in the street, conduela
him to her mistress, who receives him with open arms
Flamminio and Lelia are of course united at the end of tlu
comedy.

The likeness between OV InganTiAix i.nd " Twelfth-Night"
is certainly in some points of the story, stronger than that
between GV Inganni and Shakespeare's drama; but to ne'tber
can we say, with any degree of certainty, that our great .Ya-
was considering the best mode of adapting to the stage th«
incidents of Baiidello's novel. There is no liint, in any source
yet discovered, for the smallest portion of the comic business
of " Twelfth-Night." In both the Italian dramas it is of the
most homely and vulgar materials, by the intervention of em-
pirics, braggarts, pedants, and servants, who deal in the
C'larsest jokes, and are guilty of the grossest buffoonery.
Shakespeare shows his inhnite superiority in each depart-
ment: in the more serious portion of his drama he employed
the incidents furnished by ]iredeoessor8 as the mere sciifl'old-
iiig for the erection of his own beautiful edifice; and for th«
comic scenes, combining so admirably with, and assisting so
importantly in the progress of the main plot, he seems, as
usual, to have drawn merely upon his own interminable re-
sources.

It was an opinion, confidently stated by Coleridge in bib
lectures in 1818, that the passage in Act ii. so. 4, beginning
"Too old, by heaven : let still the woman take
An elder than herself." 5cc.
had a direct application to the circumstances of his own mar-
riage with Anno Hathaway, who was so much .senior to the
poet. Stime of Shakespeare's biographers liad previously
enforced this notion, and others have since followed it up;
but Coleridge took the opportunity of enlarging eloquently on.
the manner in which young poets have frequently connected
themselves with women of very ordinary personal and mental
attractions, the imagination supplying all deliciencies, clothing
the object of affection with grace and beauty, and frrnishing
her with every accomplishment.

THE WINTER'S TALE.

["The Winter's Tnle" was first printed in folio in 162S,
wliere it occupies twenty-seven piio-es, from p. 277 to 303,
and is the lik^t in tlie division of "Comedies. The back
of p. 803 is left blank and unpaged. The hiter folios adopt
the Miume arrangement.]

LiTTLK doubt can be entertained, that " The Winter's Tale "
was produced at the Globe, very soon after that theatre had
been opened for what miirht be calletl tlie summer season in
1611.* In the winter, as has been well a.-^certained, the knig'a
players performed at "the private house in Black-friars,"
and they usunlly removed to the Globe, which was open to
the sky, late in tlie spring.

Three pieces of evidence tend to the conclusion, that "The
Winter's Tale" was brought out early in 1611: the first of
these hius never until now been adduced, and it consists of
the followintf entry in the account of the Master of the Kevels,
Sir Georee Buc, from the 31st of October, 1611, to the same
day, 1612:—

" The 5th of November : A play called the winters
nightes Tayle."
No author's name is mentic-ned, but the piece was represented
at Whitehall, by "the king's player"^" as we find stated iu
the margin, and there c^n be no hesitation in deciding t tat
" The Winter's Nifrht's Tayle" was Shakespeare's " Wint- r'»
Tale." The fact of its performance has been established jy
Mr. Peter Cunningham, in his valuable work, entitled, " Ex-
trao^.s from the Accounts of the Revels at Court," 8vo, 1842.
printed for the Shakespeare Society*. "The Winter's Tale"
was probably selected on account of its novelty and popu-
larity 3.

never came from the preBS. " The Nobl'^man." by Cyril Tournetii^
was entered at Stationers' Hall for publiratitn on 15th FebruarVi
1611 " Lucretia " may have been a different play from Heywoodj
" Rape of Lucrece," which beaxR date inl6(H: if so, there is no ea-
ception, and all fhat came from the press at any perioiJ were printei'
subsequently to 1611-12, the earliest in 16K3, and the latest in !655
Hence a strong' inference may be dra-wn. that thoy were all drama*
men's Holiday " and "' 'fhe Maid's Trai^edy." At moRt. only one of | which had been recommended for court performance by their novelt)
hen had beei printed before they were thus acte ' and some of them and popularity.

I

INTRODUCTION TO TIIE PLATS.

xci

The second piece of evidence on tliis point has also recent- • great dramatist follows Greene's story very closelv

hromne to hght^ It is coutiuned in a MS. Diary, or Note- : be seen by Home of the notes in the course of tl,..-, .,.„

boek kep by l)r b.mon Forman, (MSS A,hm. 208.) in , by the recent republication of " Pando.sto •Mro.i he miow
wl.icl,, under date ot the loth May, 16U, ho states that he copy of 1688, in '• Shakespeare's Library." There is ho^

To%y

■ play, and

»avf "The Winters Tale "at the Globe Theatre : this was the
May preceding the representation of it ut Court on the 6th
November. He gives the following brief account of the plot,
.vhich ingeniously includes all the main incidents:—

" Observe there how Leontes, kingof Sicilia, was overcome
with jealousy of his wife with the kingof Bohemia, his friend
tliat came to see him; and how he contrived his death, and
would have had iiis cup-Bearer to have poisoned [himl, who
gBve the king of Bohemia warning thereol', and fled with liim
to Bohemia. Remember, also, how he sent to the oracle of
Apollo, and the answer of Apollo that she wa.s guiltless and
that the king was jealous. &c.; and how, except the child was
found again that was lost, the king should die without issue;
tor the child was carried into Bohemia, and there laid in a
forest, and brought up by a shepherd ; and the king of Bohe-
mia s son married that wench, and how thev fled into Sicilia
to Leontes; and the shepherd having showed the letter of the
nobleman whom Leontes sent, it was that child, and [by] the
jewels found about her, she was known to be Leontes' daugh-
ter, and was then sixteen years old. Eetnoniber, also, the
ro^ue that came in all tattered, like Coll I'ipci, and how he
feigned him sick, and to have been robbed of all he had ; and
how he cozened the poor man of all his money, and after
came to the sheeii-sheer with a pedlar's packe, and there
coiscned them again of all their money. And how he changed
apparel with the king of Bohemia's son, and then how" he
turned courtier, <S;e. Beware of trusting feigned beggars or
fawnnig fellows."

We have reason to think that " The Winter's Tale " was in
Its first run on the loth May, 1611, and that ihu Globe Thea-
tre liad not then been long opened for the season.
I The oi)iiiion that the play was then a novelty, is strongly
I confirmed by the third piece of evidence, which Malone dis-
covered late 111 lite, and which induced him to relinquish his
earlier opinion, tliat "The Winter's Tale" was written in
1604. He found a memorandum in the office-book of Sir
Henry Herbert, Master of the Revel.s, dated the 19th Au^-ust
1628, in whicli it was stated that " The Winter's Tale,"''was
an old play formerly allowed of by Sir George Buc." Sir
George Buc was Master of the Kevels from October, 1610
until May 1622. Sir George Buc must, therefore, liave
icensed "The Winter's Tale" between October, 1610, when
he was apiiointed to his office, and May, 1611, wlien Forman
saw It at the Globe.

It might have been composed by Shakespeare in the autumn
and winter of 1610-11, with a view to ita production on tlie
tlauk-sidc, as soon as the usual performances bv the King's
players commenced there. Sir Hcnr Herbert' informs us,
tliat when he gave permission to revive " The Winter's Tale ''
in August 1623, "the allowed book" (that to which Sir
George liuc had appended his signature) " was missing." It
had no duiibt been destroyed when the Globe Theatre was
consumed by fire on 29th June, 161S.

V\e have seen that "The Tempest" and "The AVinter's
lale were both acted at Whileliall, and included in Sir
ueorge Bue s account of the expenses of the Kevels from
October, lt,ll, to October, 1612'. How much older "The
lempest might be than " The Winter's Tale," we liave no
means of determining ; but there is a circumstance which
shows that the composition of " The Tempest " was anterior
t« t lat ot "The W inter's Tale:" and this brings us to speak
or tile novel upon which the latter is founded.
. II 1 tfj!'' "J* "'^ >■'''"■ ^^^^' Robert Greene printed a tract
oilled '• i andoste: The Triumph of Time," better known as
ihe History of Dora.stua and Fawnia," the title it bore in
•o;..e cj the later copies. As far as we now know, it was not
^printed until 1607, and a third impression appeared in 1609:
»„'|^J'k''Ji ? S',"",' ""■<>»?>■ many editions'; feut it seems not
!ln f ^ ," ''■'-.'kespeare was directed to it, as a proper sub-
ject tor dramatic representation, by the third impression
which came out the year before we suppose him to hi
monoed writing his " Winter's Tale'."^^ In many rest

ive com-
peets our

'Th«

»«» bo?'»Tf ?'' "'^' '■ T*" Tempest- and - The 'Winter's Tale "
re^W.h. .,1 A '!"")■ " ""' re"»<l, and that Ihey misht belong to
^.^^ Ir. ™f''''""'f ='""r"*'t'°"- seems to CIV, ... -i5 .

piobability to the opir" " "
'O'lowinff passage in th

ninb.Kiiif..r "11 ■"'■ ^""'1'"='^'"". »eem8 10 give great additional

E;°™.'!'il.'i."l^''P','"'',"■,""" Ben JonBon alluued to them in the

wisMt.d in hTj ,-,-'';^""'<""° his "Bartholomew Fair." Which
Kpulti tai^nr '"Tf ,l! ^'■^'^^^P^are's two plays were still high in
^i^".t°",- 'f "'?'■■= fce "e'er a Serra^l-rnonsur V the >air.

says ? nor a nest of Aniicks ? He is loth to make

who can help it, he

^BT ...nd^^ iTo/.Vr.^." The Italic type anS the capitals L ai

'■n . Works, Vo>. ,v. j,. J,0) could not be brousht to acknowledge

ever, one remarkable variation, which it is necessary to point
out. Greene says : —

" The guard "left her " (the Queen) " in this perplexitio,
and carried the child to the king, who, quite devoide of pity
commanded that without delay it should be put in the boat,
Jiaviiig neither sail nor rudder to guide it, and so to be ear-
ned into the midst of Ihe sea, and there left to the wind and
wave, as file destinies plea.se to appoint."

The child thus " left to the wind^and wave" is the Perdita
of Shakespeare, wlio describes the way in which the infant
wa-s exposed very dilferently, and probably for this reason:—
that in " The Tempest " he had previously (perhaps not lone
before) represented Prospero and Miranda turned adrift at
sea m the same manner as Greene had stated his heroine to
have been disposed of When, therefore, Shakespeare came
to write "The Winter's Tale," instead of following Greene,
as he had usually done in other minor circumstances, lie
varied from the original narrative, in order to avoid an objec-
tionable similarity of incident in his two dramas. It is true
tiiat in the conclusion Shakespeare has also made important
and most judicious changes in the story; since notliin.)' could
well be more revoking than for Pandosto (who nnsvvers to
Leontes) first to fall dotingly in love with his own daughter
and afterwards to commit suicide. The termination to whicli
our great dramatist brings the incidents is at once striking
natural, and beautiful, and is an equal triumph of judgment
and power.

It is, perha™, singular that Malone, who observed upon
the "involved parenthetical sentences" prevailing in "The
Winter's Tale," did not in that very peculiarity find a proof
that It must have been one of Shakespeare's later productions.
In the Stationers' Registers there is no earlier entry of it than
that of Nov. 8, 1623, when the publication of the first folio
was contemplated by Blount and Jaggard : it originally ap-
peared in that volume, wheie it is reguhulv divided into Acts
and Scenes: the " Wynter's Nighte's Pastime," noticed in
the registers under date of May 22, 1594, must have been a
diflerent work. If any proof of the kind v\ere wanted, wo
learn from two lines in " Dido, Queen of Cuithage," by Mar-
lowe and Nash, 1594, 4to, that "a winter's tale" was a then
current phrase: —

" Who would not nndergoe ail kinde of toyle
To be well stor'd with such a winler's tale?" Sign. D. 3 b.

In representing Bohemia to be a maritime country, Shake-
since 1588 by Greene's " Pandosto." With regar« to the pre-
vailing ignorance of geography, the subsequent passage from
John Taylor's "Travels to Prague in Bohemia," a journey per-
formed bv him in 1620, shows that the satiricalwriter did not
consider it strange that an alderman of London wa.s not aware

that a fleet of ships could not arrive at a port of Bohemia:

" 1 am no sooner cased of him, but Gregory Gandergoose,im
Alderinaii of Gotham, catches me by the gull, demanding if
Bohemia be a great town, and whether there be any meat in
it, and whether the last fleet of ships be arrived there." It
is to be observed, that Shakespeare reverses the scene of
" Pandosto," and represents as passing in Sicily, what Greene
verbally followed Greene in this play than he did even Lodiro
in " As You Like it;" but the general variations are greater
from " Pandosto " than from " Eosalynde." Shakespeare
does not adopt one of the appellations given by Greene • and
it may be noticed that, just anterior to the tiiiie of our 'poet
the name he assigns to the Queen of Leontes had been em-
ployed as that of a male character: it. "The rare Triumphs
of Love and Fortune," acted at court in 1681-2, and printed
in 1589, Hermione is the lover of the heroine.

_" The idea of this delightful drama " (says Coleridge in his
Lit. Rem. vol. ii. p. 260) is a genuine jealousy of disposition,
and it should be immediately followed by 'the perusal ai
'Othello,' which is the direct contrast of it in every particu-

that the words " Servant-monster," " Anticks," " Tales," and "Tem-
pests," applied to Shakespeare, but with our present infonnation the
fact seems hardly disputable.

' How long it continued popular, may be judged from the fact that
it was printed as a chap-book as recently as the year 1735, when il
was called " The Fortunate Lovers ; or the History of Dorasfjs, Frino«
of Sicily, and of Fawnia, only daughter and heir to the King of Bo-
hemia," l'2mo.

= In a note upon a passage in Act ill. so 2. a reason is assigned foi
thinking that Shakespeare did not employ the first edition of S ruene'i
novel, but in all probabiUl v thst of 1600.

XCll

INTRODUCTION TO THE PLAYS.

kr. For jealousy is a vice of tlie mind, a culpable tendency
of temper, liavinjj certain well kjiown ajid well definci effecui
•nd ooiieomitanta, all of which arc vixiblo in Loonies, and I
boldly say, not one of which marks itn presence in Othello : —
»ach 08, first, lui excitability by the nu.st inadequate 0an^e9,
ftud an et4rernesfi to snaleh at proofc; secondly, a trro^sness
of conception, and a disposition to defrrado the object of the
paHsion by sensual fancies and images; thirdly, a sense of
e)iame of his own feeihigs exhibited in a solitary moodiness
of humour, and yet from the violence of the passion forced to
■twr itself, and therefore oatching occasions to ease the mind
by ambigniiics, and equivocpies, by talkinf; to those who can-
not, and who are known not to bo able to undersiaiid what
is eaid to them ; in short, by soliloquy in the form of dialogue,
iMid hcnoc a confused, broken, and fnii'inentary manner ;
fourthly, a dread of vulgar ridicule, as distinct from a high
sense of honour, or a tnisLiken sense of duty : and lastly, and
niimediat*?ly consequent ou tnus, a spirit of selfish vimiictive-
ni»8."

In )iij< lectures in ISIS, Coleridge dwelt on tne '• not easily
joiJons" fnuncof Othello's mind, and on the art of the (rre.iit
noot in working mxin his goneroxm and mTsiispectmg nature :
lie contrwted the oharaolera of Othello and Lcontes in this
respect, the latter from predisposition requiring no such ma-
lignant instigator as lago.

LIFE

THE
AND DEATH OF

KING JOHN.

f*'Tlie Life hikI Deatli of Kinjr John" wua first printed in the
folio of l(i:^3, wliere it occupies twcntv-two piures ; viz, from

E. 1 to p. 22 iiicUisive, u new pagination besinning^ with the
Histories." It oocupie:;* the same pluce and the same
Hpnce ill the re-iinpressioiis of 1632, 1664, and 1685.]
"Kino John," the e^irliest of Shal^esiieare's '* Histories"
in the folio of 1623. (where tliey are urranered accordinij tothe
reigns of tlie dittVrent monarclis) first appeared in that vol-
ume/ and the Retristers of the Stationers' Cotnpnny have
Bearched in vain for any entry regarding it: it i^ not enume-
rated by Blount and Jaggard on the 8tli Nov. 1628, wlien
Ihev inserted a li^t of the jiieces, '* not formerly entered to
other men." about to he included in their folio : hence an in-
ference might be drawn that there had been some previous
entry of '* King John " " to otlier men," and, perhaps, even

It seems indisputable that Shakespeare's '* King John "was
founded upon an older play, tliree times printed anterior to
the publication of tlie folio of 1623: "The first and second
part of the troublesome Reign of John, King of England,"
came from Hie press in 1591, 1611, and 1622.' Malone, and
others who have adverted to this production, have obviously
not had the several impressions before them. The earliest
oopv, that of 1591, has no name on the title-nage: that of 1611
has"*' W. Sh." to indicate the author, and that of 1622, " W.
Shakespeare," the sur-name only at length.* Steevens once
thougiit that the ascription of it to Shakespeare by fraudulent
booksellers, wlio wished it to bo taken for his popular work,
was correct, but lie subsequently abandoned this untenable
opinion. Pope attributed it jointly to Shakespeare and Wil-
liam Rowley ; and Farmer " made no doubt that Rowley wrote
tho first King John." There is, however, reo-son to believe
that Rowley was not an author at so early a date : his first
extant printed work was a play, in writing wliieh he aided
John Day and George Wilkins, called '* The Travels of three
English Rroliiers," 1607. In 1591, he must have been very
young; but we are not therefore to conclude decisively that
a'xA mime is not, at any period and in any way, to he connect-
*d with a drnma on the incidents of the reign of King Joiin ;
lb • the tradition of Rope's time may have been founded upon

' Tl pD/T-irts to be diviiled into acts and scenes, bat very irregularly :
thus wttiT is called Artus Serundus fills no more than about half a
p%f;Q. a.Tii Arms Qiiartus is twice repeated. The later folios adopt
this ilefective arrangement, exceptinR that in that of 163'! Artus
Quintus i» made to precede Actus Qunrtun.

* On the '2flth Nov. I6I4. " a booke called the Historie of George
Lord Faulconbridge, ba.itard son of Richard Cordelion," wa.s entered
>n the Stationers' Registers, but this was evidently the prose romance
af which an edition jn 1610, 4to. is extant. Going back to IS-'jS. it
appears that a book, called " Cur de Lion," was entered on the Sta-
tioners* Register of that year.

* *' It was written, I believe (sayn Malone), by Robert Greene, or
Georgfe Pe<^le." but he produces nothing in support of his opinion
The mention of '' the Scythian Taniberlaine," in the I'rologue to the
edition of the old " King John," in 1591, might lead ub to suppose
that it was the production of Marlowe, who did not die until 1503;
but the ctyle of the two parts is evidently dilierent : rhyinine couplets
are much more atundant in the tirst than in the second, and there ts
reason to beUere, according to the frequent custom of that age, that

the fact! that, at some later date, he was inatrumenW in a re-
vival of the old "King Julin."

How long the old '* King John" had been in possession ol
the stage prior to 1591, when it was originally printed, we
have no precise information*, but Shakespeare found it there,
and took the course u.snai with dramatists of the lime*, by
applying to liis own purf)08e8 as niueli of it as he tliougl I
wonid bo advantageous. He converted the " two par^s " into
one drama, and in manv of its main feature.'* followed the
story, not as he knew it in history, but as it was fixed in po-
pular belief. In some particulars he much improved upon the
conduct of the incidents : tor instance, in tlie first act of the
old '' King John," Lady Falconbridgc is, needlessly aiid ob-
jectionably, made a spectator of the scene in whicli the bas-
tardy of her son PhiUp is discussed before King John and his
motncr. Another amendment of the original is the ahsenee
of Constance from the stage when the marriage between
I.ewift and Blanch is debated and determined. A third ma-
terial variation ought not to be passed over without remark.
Although Shakespeare, like the author or authors of the old
'* King John," emplo^-s the Bastard forcibly to raise money
from the monastenee in England, he avoids the scenes of ex-
tortion and ribaldry of the elder jJay, in which the monku
and nuns are turned into ridicule, and the indecency and
lioentionsnesH of thoir lives exposed. Supposing the old
** King John " to hir\'c been brought upon tlie stage not long
aft-er the defeat of t;he Spanish Armada in 1588, when tlie
hatred of the Roman Catliolios was at its lieight, suoh an ex-
hibition miwt have been extremely grntifying- to tlie taste of
vulgar audiences. Shakespeare might justly hold hi contempt
such a mode of securing applause; or, possibly, his own re-
ligions tenets {a point which is c<insideied at length, with
the addition of some new information, in the biography of
the poet) might induce him to toucli lightly upon suen mat-
ters. Certain it is, that the elder drama contains much coarse
abuse of the Roman Catholics, an«l violent invective against
the ambition of the pontiff, little of which is found in Sliake-
ppeare. It is, however, easy to discover reasons why he
would refuse to pander to popnlar prejudice, without Mip

S:^sing him to feel direct sympathy with the enemies of the
eformation.

Some of tho principal incidenl.s of the reign of John had
been converted into a drama, with the purpose of promoting
the Reformation, very early in the reign of Elizabeth, if not
in that of Edward VI. We refer to the play of " Kynga
Johan," by Bishop Bale, which, like the olcl '* King John,"
is in two parts, though we can trace no other particular re-
semblance. It was printed by the Camden Society, from the
author's original MS. (in the' library of the duke'of Devon-
shire) in 1838, and is a specimen of the mixture of allegory
and history in the same play, perhaps unexampled. As it
was, doubtless, unknown both to the author or authors of tlie
old *'King John," as well as to Shakespeare, it requires no
farther notice here, than to show at how early a date that por-
tion of our annals had been brought upon the stage.

Upon the question, when " King John " was written by
Shakespeare, we have no knowledge beyond the fact that
Francis Meres introduces it into his list in"l598. Malone spe
culat«d that it w;us composed in 1596, but he does not place
reliance upon the internal evidence he himself adduces, which
certainly is of a more than usually vague character. Chalmers,
ou the other hand, would assign the play to 1598, but tlie
chance seems to be, tiiat it was written a short time before it
was spoken of by Meres: we should be disposed to sissign it
to a date betweeu 1596 and 1598, when the old " King John,"
which was probably in'a course of representntion in 1591, had
gone a little out of recollection, and when Meres would have
had time to become acquainted with Shakespeare's dn*ma,
from ita popularity either at the Globe or Blackfriars' The-
atres.

mere tnan one dramatist was concerned in the composition of thj
play

♦ The edition of 1591 was printed for Sampson Clarke : Ihatof llMl
by Valentinfl Simmcs. for John Helme ; and that of 302J, by Aag.'
Mathews, for Thomas Pewe.

6 The edition of l.'iSl is preceded by a Prologue, omitted in tho twc
later impressions, which makes it quite clear that the old "King
John." was posterior to Marlowe's " Tamberlaine :" it begins.

" Yon that with fripndly grace of smoothed brow,
Have entertained the Scythian Tamberlaine," kc
In the Hist, of Engl. Dram. Poetry and the Stage, vol. iii. p 11'2.
reasons ore assigned (or believing that Marlowe's " Tamberlaine ■• wa»

' in Henstowe 8 MS. Diary, under the date of May. ir.tJS, we meet
with an entry of a plav by Robert Wilson. Henrv Chettle. Anthony
Munday, and Mich.ael Drayion. entitled '-The Funerals of Richard
Cordelion." It possibly had no connexion with the portion of h'.s1or>
to which Shakespeare • play and the old " King John "' lelate.

ENTRODUCTIO'N TO THE PLAYS.

XL in

KING RICHARD H.

I "The Tragedie of Kinsr Eichard the necond. As it hath
beene piiblikely acted by the right Honourable the Lorde
Cliamberlaine I'.is Seniaiits. London Printed by Valentine
Siinines for Androw Wise, and are to be sold at his shop
in Panles church yard at the signe of the Angel. 1597. '
4to. 37 leaves. .

" The Tragedie of Kin? Eichard the second. As it hath beene
poblikely acted by the Eight Honoarable the Lord Cham-
berlaine his seruauts. By William Shake-speare. London
I'rinted by Valentine Simmes for Andrew Wise, and are
to be sold "at his shop in Paules churchyard at the signe of
the Angel. 1598." 4to. 86 leaves.
"Tlin Tragedie of King Kiclmrd the Second: with new_(id-
ditions of the Parliament Sceane, and the deposing of King
Eichard. As it hiith been lately acted by the Kinges Ma-
iesties seruantes, at the Globe. By William Shake speare.
At London, Printed by W. W. for Mathew I,aw, and are
to be sold at his shop in Paule's churchyard, at the signe
oftheFoxe. 1608." 4to. 39 leaves.
"The Tragedie of King Eichard the Second: with new ad-
ditions of tUe Parliament Sceane, and tlie deposing of King
Richard. As it liath been lately acted by the Kinges Mn-
iosties eernants. at the Globe. By William Shuke-speare.
At London, Printed for Matliew Law, and are to be sold
at his shop in Paules Church-yard, at the signe of the Foxe.
1615." 4to. 39 leaves.
In the folio of 1623, " The life and death of King Eichard the
Second" occupies twenty-three pages, viz. from p. 23 to
p. 45, iiiClnsive. The three other folios reprint it in the
same form, and in all it is divided iuto Acts and Scenes.]
Above we have given the titles of four quarto editions of
" King Eichard II.," which preceded the publicaion of the
folio of 1623, ard which were all published during the life-
time of Shakespeare: they brar date respectively in 1597,
1598, 1608. and 1615. It will be observed that the title of
the edition of 1608 states that it contains " new additions
■)f the Parliament Scene, and the deposing of King Eichard."
The Duke of Devonshire is in possession of an uniga-e copy,
dated 1608, the title of which merely follows the wording of
the preceding impression of 1598, omitting any notice of
" new additions, '^ though containing the whole of them'.
The name of our great dramatist first appears in connection
with this historical play in 1598, as if Simmes the printer, and
Wise the stationer, when they printed and published their
edition of 1697, did not know, or were not authorized to state,
that Shakespeare was the writer of it. Precisely the same
was the case with "King Eichard III.," printed and pub-
lished by the same parties in the same year, and of which
also a second edition appeared in 1598, with the name of the
author.

We will first speak regarding the date of the original pro-
duction of " Eicliard II.," and then of the period when it is
likely that the " new additions" were inserted.

It wa.s entered on the Stationers' EegLster in 1597. in the
following manner; — ■

" 29 Aug. 1597.
Andrew Wise.] The Tragedye of Richard the Seoonde."
This memorandum was made anterior, but perhaps onl.v
shortly anterior, to the actual publication of " Kichard II.,"
and it forms the earliest notice of it.s existence. Malone sup-
poses that it was written in 1593, but he does not produce a
single fact or argument to establish his position ; nor perhaps
could any be adduced beyond the circumstance, that having
assigned the ''Comedy of Errors" to 1592, and " Love's La-
bour's Lost" to 1594, he had left an interval between those
years in which he could place not only " Richard II." but
"Eichard III." In fact, we can arrive at no nearer approx-
imation ; although Chalmers, in his " Supplemental Apology,"
contended that a note of time was to he found in the allusions
in the first and second Acts to the disturbance.s in Ireland.
It is quite certain that the rebellion in that country wa** re-
newed in 1594, and proclaimed in 1595 : but it is far from

1 There is (mother circurastance belonging to the title-page of the
Dtlke of Devcnehire's copy which deserves notice : it states that the
play was printed " as it hath been publikely acted by the Right Ho-
nourable the Lord Chamberlaine, his seruantes." I'he company to
which Shakespeare belonged -were not called the servants of the Lord
Chamberlain after James I. came to the throne, but " the King's
Majesty's servants," aa in the title-page of the other copy of 1G1I8.
This fact misht give rise to the supposition, that it had been intended
to neprint an edition of Richard U., including "the Parliament
scene." but not mentioning it, before the death of Elizabeth; but
liiat fur some reason it was postponed for about five years.

3 There might be many reasons why the exhibition of the deposing
of Richard If would be objectionable to Elizabeth, espeoiallr after

clear that any reference to it was intenaed by Shakespeare
Where the matter is so extremely d'^uhtful, we shall :iot at-
tempt to fix on any particular vear. If any argument, one
n-ay or the other, could be founcled upon the publication of
Daniel's " Civil Wars," in 1595, it would show that that poet
order, perhaps, to fall in more with tlje popular notions re-
garding the history of the time, as produced by the sucoe.s8
of the plav of our greai dramatist. Meres mentions " EichartI
the 2" ill 1598.

Eespecting the " new additions " of " the deposing of Kin J
Richard " we have some evidence, the existence of which waa
not known in the time of Malone, who conjectured that thin
scene had originally formed part of Shakespeare's play, ard
was "suppressed in the printed copy of 1597, from the fear
of offending Elizabeth," and not j.ubli.sned, with the rest,
until ISOS'.^Such may have been the case, but we now know
that there were two separate plays upon the events of th
reign of Eichard II., and the deposition seems tu have formed
a portion of both. On the 80th Aprl, 1611, Dr. Simon For-
man saw " Richard 2," as he expressly calls it, at the Globe
Theatre, for which Shakespeare was a writer, at which he had
been an actor, and in the receipts of which he was interested.
In his oritrinal Diary, (MS. Ashm. 208,) preserved in the
Bodleian Library, Forman inserts the following account of,
and observations upon, the plot of the " Eicliiird II.," he
having been present at the representation ; —

"Eemember therein how Jack Straw, by his overmuch
boldness, not being politic, nor suspecting any thing, was
suddenly, at Smithfield Bars, stabbed by Walworth, the
Mavor of London ; and so he and his whole army was over-
thrown. Therefore, in such case, or the like, never admit
any party without a bar between, for a man cannot be too
wise, nor keep himself too safe. Also, remember how the
Duke of Glouster, the Earl of Arundel, Oxfonl, and others,
crossing the King in his humour about the Duke of Erland
(Ireland) and Bushv, were glad to fly and raise a host of men ;
and being in his castle, how the Duke of Erland caine by

night to betray him, with 800 men ; but, ha»'ing privy warning
thereof, kept his gates fast, and would not suHVr the enemy
to enter, which went back again with a fly in his ear, and
after was slain by the Earl of Arundel in the battle. Eemem-
ber, also, when the Duke (i. e. of Gloucester) and A rnndel came
to London with their armv. King Eichard came forth to them,
and met them, and gave them fair words, and promised thei;i
pardon, and that all should be well, if they would discliarge
their armv ; upon whose promises and fair speeches they did
it : and after, the King bid them all to a banquet, and so be-
not his pardon under his hand and seal before, but his word.
Remember therein, also, how the Duke of Lanccvster privily
contrived all villainy to set them all together by the ears, and
to make the nobility to envy the King, and mislike him and
his government; bv which means he made his own son king,
which was Henry "Bolinsbroke. Eemember, also, how the
Duke of Lancaster a.sked a wi.se man whether himself should
ever be king ; and he told him no, but his son should be a
king: and when he had told him, he hanged him up for his
labour, because he should not bruit abroad, or speak thereof
to others. This was a policy in the Commonwealth's opinion,
but I say it was a villain's part, and a Judas' kiss, to hang
the man for telling him the truth. Beware by this example
of noblemen and their tair words, and say little to them, lest
they do the like to thee for thy good will. '

■The quotation was first published in " New Particulars re-
garding Shakespeare and his Works," 8vo, 1836, where it
wa.s sug''ested that this " Eichard II." might be the play
which Sir Gillv Merrick and others are known to nave pro-
cured to be acted the afternoon before the insurrection
headed bv the Earls of Essex and Southampton, m 1601:
(Bacon's Works by Mallet, iv. 320) but in a letter, published
in a note to the same tract, Mr. Amyot argued, that " the
deposing of King Eichard " probably formed no part ot the
play Fofman saw, and that it might actually be another, and

the insurrection of Lords Essex and Southampton. Thorpe's Custu-
maU Roffente, p. 89, contains an account of an interview etweeo
Lambarde (when he presented his pandect ot the records of the Tower)
and Elizabeth, shortlv subsequent to that event, in which she ob
served. " 1 am Richard the Second, know you not that? L>»ml:ardo
replied, " Such a wicked imagination was determined and attempted
by a most tlnkind gentl-man, the most adorned creature mat evei
will alsoe forgett his benefactors," The publication of tha odition
of 1608, without the mention on the title-page of ' the 1 arliamenl
.Scene, and the deposing of King Richard, ' might have been cob

XCIV

mTRODUCnON TO THE PLAYS.

■ lost play by Slinlicspeare, intended as ft " first purl " to his
extant draninon tlie later portion of tlie rcipn of tlmt monnrch.
It is also true tlmt Foirniin savs notlLinp: of the formal depo-
tition of Kioliard II. ; but he tells us that in the course of the
drama the Duke of Lanciister "made his own son King," luid
he could not do so witiiout Bomething like a deposition ex-
libitod or narmled. It is also to he observed, that if For-
man's account be at all correct, Shakespeare could never have
exhibited the characters of the King and of Gaunt so incon-
sistently ill two jiarts of the same jiiav. The Richard and
the Gaunt of Fonnan, with their treiK-hcry and cruelty, are
totally unlike the Richard and Gaunt of Shakesncare. For
these reasons we may, perhaps, arrive at the conclusion, that
it was a distinct drama, and not by Sliakespcare. We may
presume, also, that it was the very iiioce which Sir Gilly
Merrick procured to be represented, and for the performance
of which, accordins to a passage in the arraignment of Cuffe
and Merrick, the hilter paid forty shillings additional, because
it was an old play, and not likely to attract an audience.

The very d.:scr\ption of the plot given by Forman reads as
if it were an old play, with the usual quantity of blood and
treachery. IIoiv it came to bo popular enough, in 1611, to bo
performed at the Globe must be matter of mere sneculation :
perhaps the revival of it by the parly of the Earls of Essex
and Southampton had recijled public attention to it, and im-
provemenls might have been made which would render it a
favourite in 1611, though it had been neglected in 1601.

Out of tliese improvements, and out of this renewed popu-
larity, may, jiossibly, have grown the " new additions," which
were first printed" with the impression of Shakespeare's
" Richard II." in ICOS', and which solely relate to the deposing
of the KinL'. On the other hand, if these " new additions,"
as they were termed in 1608, were only a suppressed ])art of the
original play, there seems no sufficient ground for concluding
that it wius 'not Shakespearo's drama which was acted at the
instance of Sir Gilly Merrick in 1601. If it were written in
1593, as Malone imagined, or even in 1596, according to the
speculation of Chalmers, it might be called an old piny in 1601,
Considering the rapidity with which dramas were often writ-
ten and brought oltt at the period of which we are speaking.
If neither Slmkespeiire's play, nor that described by Forman,
were the pieces selected by Sir Gilly Merrick, there must
have been three distinct plays, in the possession of the com-

Siiny acting at the Globe, upon the events of the reign of
;ichard II.

For the incidents of this "most admirable of all Shake-
speare's purely historical plays," as Coleridge calls it, (Lit.
Rem. ii. 164,1 "our great poet appears to have gone no farther
than Holinshed, who was himself indebted to Hall and Fabian.
However, Shakespeare has nowhere felt himself bound to ad-
here to chronology when it better answered his purpose to
desert it. Thus, the Prince of Wales, afterwards Henry V.,
is spoken of in Act v. sc. 8, as frequenting taverns and stews,
when he was in fact only twelve years old. Marstou, in a
short address before his " Wonder of Women," 1606, aiming
a blow at Ben Jonson, puts the duty of a dramatic author
in this respect upon its true footing, when he says, " I have
not laboured to tie myself to relate anything as a historian,
but to enlarge everything a.s a poet ;" and what we have just
referred to in this play is exactly one of those anachronisms
which, in the words' of Schlegel, Shakesj'care committed
" purposely and most deliberately'." His design, of course,
w:us in this instance to link together " Richard II." and tlie
first part of " Henry IV."

Of the four quarto editions of "Richard II." the most valu-
able, for its readings and general accuracy beyond all dispute,
is the impression of 1597. The other three quartos were,
more or less, printed from it. and the folio of \&2A seems to
have taken the latest, that of 1615, as the f.)undation of its
text ; but, from a few words found only in the folio, it may
Beem that the player-editors referred also to some extrinsic
authority. It is quite certain, however, that the folio copied
obvious and indisputable blunders from the quarto of 1615.
There are no fewer than eight places where the folio omits
passages inserted in the quartos, in one instance to the de-
Btrnction of the continuitv of the sense, and in most to the
detriment of the play. Ilence not only the expediency, but
the absolute necessity of referring to the (juarto copies, from
which we have restored all the missing lines, and have dis-
tinguished them by placing them between brackets.

* It miy perhaps be inferred that there wa« an intention to publish
the " hifitory," with theee " new a*lditions," in 1603 ; at all events, in
that Tear the riclit in "Richard II." "Richard III." and " Henry IV "
part 1. wae transferred to Matthew Law, in whose name the plays
earn* out when the next editions of them appeared. The entry re-
sating tt vhem in the boolu of the Btationera' Company runs
thw -

FIRST PART OF KING HENRY IV.

["The History of Henrie the Fovrth ; With the battell a.
Shrewsburie, betweene the King and Lord Henry Per«y.
surnamed Henrie Hotspur of the North. With the humor-
ous conceits of Sir lolin Falstalffe. At London, priijted by
P. S. for Andrew Wise, dwelling in Paules Churchyard, a*
the signe of the Angell. 1598." 4to. 40 leaves.
"The History of Henry the Fovrth; With the battell a*
Shrewsburie, betweene the King and Lord Henry Percy,
surnamed Henry Hotspur of the North. With the humor-
ous eonceit.s of Sir John Falstalft'e. Newly corrected by
W. Shake-spcaro. At London, Printed by S. S. for Andrew
Wise, dwelling in Panics Churchyard, at the eigne of the
Angell. 1.599.'' 4to. 40 leaves.
" The History of Henrie the Fourth, With the battell at
Shrewsburie, betweene the King, and Lord Henry Percj,
surnamed Henry Hotspur of the North. With the humor-
ous coneeit-H of Sir lohn Falstalft'e. Newly corrected by
W. Shake-spearc. London Printed by Valentine Simmes,
for Mathew Law, and are to be solde at his shop in Panics
Churchvard, at the signe of the Fox. 1604." 4to. 40 leaves.
"The History of Henry the fourth. With Uie battell of
Shrewseburie, betweene the King, and Lord Henry Percy,
surnamed Henry Hotspur of the North. With the humor-
ous conceites of Sir lohn Falstalffe. Newly corrected by
W. Shake-speare. London, Printed for Mathew Law, and
are to be sold at his shop in Paules Churchyard, neere nntc
S. Angustines gate, at the signe of the Foxe. 1608." 4to.
40 leaves.
The 4to edition of 161 3 also consists of 40 leaves: and the only
differences between its title-page and that of 1608 are the
date, and the statement that it was " Printed by W. W."
In the folio of 1623, "The First Part of Henry the Fourth,
with the Life and Death of Henry Sirnamed Hot-spvrre,''
occupies twenty-six pages, viz. from p. 46 to p. 73 inclusive.
In the later folios it is reprinted in the same form.]
At the time when .Shakespeare selected the portion of his-
tory included in the following play, as a fit subject for drama-
tic representation, the stnee was in possession of an old plaVj
entitled, "The Famous Victories of Henry the Fitlh," or
which three early impressions, one printed in 1698, and two
others without date, have come down to us ; a copy of one
edition without date is in the Collection of the Duke of
Devonshire; and, judging from the type and other circum-
Btanees, we may conclude that it was anterior to the impression
of 1598, and that it made its appearance shortly after 1594, on
the 14th of May of which year it was entered on the Station-
ers' Registers. Richard Tarlton, who died in 1588, was an
actor in that piece, but how long before 1588 it had been pro-
duced, we have no means of ascertaining. It is, in fact,_in
prose, although many portions of it are printed to look like
verse, because, at the date when it first came from the press,
blank-verse had become popular on the stage, and the book-
seller probably was desirous of giving the old jilay a modern
appearance. Our most ancient public drania,s were composed
in rhyme : to rhyme seems to have suocceded prose ; and
prose, aliout the date when Shakespeare is believed to have
originally ootne to London, was displaced by blank-verse, in-
ter7nixed with couplets and stanzas. " The Famous Victoriei
of Henry the Fifth" seems to belong to the middle period ;
and as Stephen Gosson, in his " School of Abuse," 1679, leads
us to snyipose that at that time prose was not v"ry usual in
theatrical performances, it siay be conjectured that "The
Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth" was not written until
after 1580.

That ft play upon the events of the reign of Henry V. wag
upon the stage in l.'>92, we have the indisputable evidence of
Thomas N«54i, in his notorious work, " Pierce Penniless, hia
Supplication," which went through three editions in the sainii
year: we qnote from tho first, (Sign. H 2.) where he says,
" What a glorious thing it is to have Henry the Fifl;h repre-
sented on the Stage, leading the French King prisoner, and
forcing hrm and tlie Dolphin to sweare fealtie." We know
also that a drama, called "Harry the V.," was performed by
Henslowe's Company on the 28ih Novemlier, 1595, and it ap-
pears likely that it was a revival of " The Famous Victories,"
with some important additions, which gave it the attraetion
of a new play ; for the receipts (as we find by Henslowe's

"27 June 1603
" Matth. Lawc] in full Courte, iij Enterludes or playes. Th«
first of Rich.wd the 3d. The second of Richard the 2d
The third of Henry the 4, the first pte. all Kings."
* " Ich unternehme dajzuthun, dass Shakespeare's AnachronismeD
mehrenthpils petlissentlich und mit gro-ssem Bodacht angebrach;
Bind." — Ueber drainatische Kunst aui Litteratur, vi I. ii 43

m'IRODUCTION TO THE PLAYS.

xcv

i',

DUrr) were of such an ninount as was generally only pro-
duee'd by a first repre-ientntion. Out of this circumstance
may hive iirisen the puhlicalion of llie early undated edition
in the posse>'sion of the Duke of Devonsiiire. The reproduc-
tion of " Tiie Famous Victories'' by a rival company, and tlie
appearance of it from the press, possibly led Shakespeare to
o-msider in what way, and with what improvements, he could
avail himself of some of the snme incidents for the theatre to
which he bclonped. This event would at once make the sub-
lect popular, and hence, perhaps, the re-impression of " The
'amous Victories of Henry the Fifth" iu 1598'. The year
1596 mav possiblv have been the date when Shakespeare wrote
his " Henry IV." Part i.

It is to be observed, that the incidents which are summarily
dieniissed in one old play, are extended by our jrreat dramatist
over three — the two parts of " Henry IV." and " Henry V."
It is impossible to institute any parallel between "The Fa-
mous Victories" and Shakespeare's dramas ; for, besides that
the former has reached us evidently in an imperfect shape, the
immeiusurahle superiority of the hitter is such, as to render
any attempt to trace resemblance rather a matter of contrast
than comparison. Who might be the writer of "The Famous
Victories," it would be idle to speculate ; but-it is decidedly
inferior to most of the extant works of Marlowe, Greene,
Peele, Kyd, Lodiie, or any other of the more celebrated pre-
decessors of Shakespeare.

Sir John Oldcastle is one of the persons in "The Famous
Victories;" and no doubt can be entertained that the charac-
ter of Sir John Falstatf, in the first part of Shakesjieare's
"Henry IV.," was originally called Sir John Oldca.stle. If any
hesitation could formerly have been felt upon this point, it
must have been recently entirely removed by Mr. Halli\^e!^s
very curious and interesting tract, " On the character of Sir
Jolin Falstaff, as oriL'inally exiiibited by Shakespeare," 12mo.
1841. How the identity of Oldcastle and Falstaff could ever
have been questioned after the discovery of the following
passage in a play by Nathaniel Field, called, " AmendB tor
Ladies." 1618, itis difficult to comprehend : the lines seera to
ns decisive : —

"Did you never see
The play where the fat knight, hight Oldcastle,
Dill tell you truly what this honour was ?"
This can allude to nothing but to Fnlstaff's speech in Act v.
Bc. 2, of the ensuing play ; and it would also show (as Mr.
Halliwell points out) that Falstaff sometimes " retained the
name of Oldcastle after the author had altered it to that of
Fal.stati^." This fact is remarkable, recollecting that " Amends
for Ladies" could hardly have been written before 1611, that
prior to that date no fewer than four editions of " Henry IV."
Part i., had been printed, on the title-pages of which Falstaff
was prominently introduced, aiid that he was called by no
other name from the beirinning to the end of that drama.
The case is somewhat different with respect to Shakespeare's
" Henry tV." Part ii., which contains a singular confirmatory
piece of evidence that Falstaff was still called Oldcastle after
that continuation of the " history" had been written and per-
formed. In Acti. se. 2 of the drama. Old. is given as the pre-
fix to one of Falstaff 's speeches. The error is met with in no
other part of the play,and when the MS. for the quarto, 1600,
W(W corrected fur the press, this single passage escaped obser-
vation, and the ancient reading was preserved until it wa.s
expunged iu the folio of 1623. Malone and Steevena, in op-
position to Theobald, areue that Old. was not meant for Old-
castle, but was the commencement of the name of some actor :
none such belonged to Shakespeare's company, and the pro-
bability is all in favour of Theobald's supposition.

This change must have been made by Shakespeare anterior
to the spring of 1598, because we then meet with the subse-
qaent eiitry in the Stationers' Registers, relating to the earliest
•dition of ' Ilenrv IV." Part i.
" 25 Feb. 1597.
Andrew Wisse] A booke intitled the Historye of
Henry the iiii"'. with his battaile of Shrewsburye
against Henry Hottspurre of the Northe with the
conceiptcd Mirth of Sir John Falstaffe'."

1 The third edition of "The Famous Victones" was printed after
James I. came to the throne : it ha--* no date, bnt it states on the title-
paee that " it was acted by the Kind's Majesty's servants." This
assertion was probably untrue, the object of the itationer being to
induce buyers to believe that it was the same play as PhakeRpeare's
work, which was certainly jierformed by '• the King's Majesty's ser-
vants." From this impression Steevens reprinted it in the '■ Six Old
P:ays." 8vo. 1779.

* The same conclusion mav perhaps be drawn from the mention of
"fat Sir John Oldcastle." in " The Meeting of Gallants at an Ordi-
Baiie." IGIM. 4to, a traci recently reprinted, under the editorial care
'►f Mr. Halliwell, for the Percy Society

As the year did not then end until the 25th March, the 25th
February, 1597, was of course the 25th February, 1598; and
pursuant to the above entry, Andrew Wise published the
first edition of " The History of Henry IV." with the date of
1598 : we may infer, therefore, that it was ready, or nearly
ready, to be issued at the time the memorandum was made at
Stationers' Hall : on the title-page, " the hun.orous conceits
of Sir John Falstalffe" are made peculiarly obvious. It is
certain, then, that before the play was printed, the name of
Oldcastle had been altered to that of Falstaff. The reason for
the change is a.sserted to have been, that some descendarli
of "Sir John Oldca.stie, the good Lord Cobham," (as he id
Ciilled upon the title-page of a play which relates to his hit-
tory, printed in 1600*,) remonstrated against the ridicule
thrown upon the character of the p'rotestant martyr, by th«
introduction into Shakespeare's drama of a person bearing tlt#
same name. Such, unquestionably, may have been thecjise,
but it is possible also that Shakesj>eare, finding that his play,
and his Sir John Oldcastle were often confounded with " The
Famous Victories" and with Sir John Oldca.stie of that drama,
made the change with a view that they should be dis-
tinguished. That he did not quite succeed, is evident fn-in
the quotation we have made from Field's "Amends tor

Kespecting the manner in which Falstaff was attired on the
stiige in the time of Shakespeare, we meet with a curioim
passage in a Inanuscript, the handwriting of Inigo Jones, the
property of the Duke of Devonshire. 'The Surveyor of the
Works, describing the dress of a person who was to figure in
one of the court masques, early in the reign of James L, says,
that he is to be dressed " like a Sir John Falstaff, in a robe
of russet, quite low, with a great belly, like a swollen man,
Ions mou.stachios, the shoes short, and out of them great toes,
like naked feet: buskins, to show a great swollen leg." Wo
are, perhaps, only to understand from this description, that
the appearance of the character was to bear a general resem-
blance to tliat of Sir John Falstaff", as exhibited oii the stage
at the Globe or Blackfiiars' Theiitres.

Although we arc without any contemporaneons notices of
the performance of Shakespeare's "Henry IV." Part i., there
cannot be a doubt that it was extraordinarily popular. It
went through five distinct impressions in 4to, in 1.598, 1599,
1604, 1608, and 1618, before it was printed in the first folio.
There was also an edition in 1689, which deserves notice, be-
cause it was not a reprint of the ]>lay as it had appeared either
in the first or second folios, but of the 4to. of 1618, that text
being for some reason preferred. Meres introduces " Henry
the IVth" into his list iu 1598, and we need feel little doubt
that he alluded to Part i., because, on the preceding page,
(fo. 281, b) he makes a quotation from one of Falstaft''8
speeches, — " tliere is nothing hut roguery in villainous man,"
— though without acknowledging the source from which it
was taken. We may be toleraTily sure, however, that " Henry
IV." Part ii., had then been produced by Shakespeare, but it
is not distinguished by Meres, and he also makes no men-
tion of " Henry V.," the events of whose reign, to his mar-
riaire with Catherine of France, were included iu the old p!aj
of " The Famous Victories."

With rcffard to the te.xt of this play, it is unquestionably
found in its purest state in the earliest 4to. of 1598, and to
tliat we have mainly adhered, assigning reasons in our notes
when we have varie'd from it. The editors of the folio, 1628,
copied implicitlv tlie4t«. impression nearest to their own day,
that of 1613, adopting many of its defijcts, and, as far as we
can iudge, resorting to no MS. authority, nor to the previous
quartos of 1598, 1599, 1604. and 1608. Sever.il decided errors,
made in reprint of 1599, were repeated and multiplied in the
subsequent quarto impressions, and from thence found their
way into the folio. Kear the end of Act i. we meet with a
curious proof of what we have advanced : we there find a line,
thus distinctly printed in the 4to, 1598 : —

** I 'le steale to Glendower and Lo: Mortimer :"

that is, " I '11 steal to Glendower and Lnrd Mortimer," Lm
being a common abbreviation of " Lord ;" out the eomposi-

' There is another entrv. under date 27th June. Ifi03, by which
" Henrr the 4 the first pte." seems to have been iransferred by Wis«
to Law. for whom the edition of 1004 was in fact pnnted.

* Mr. Halliwell does not seera to have been aware, when speakinff
of •• The First part of the true and honorable History of the Life el
Sir John Oldcastle. the good Lord Cobham," a pla?)' attributed to
Shakespeare on the title-page of most of the copies printed in KKIO,
that two other copies of it have recently been discovered, wh.ch have
no author's name. Hence it might be inferred, that the original
title-page was cancelled at the instance of our grfat diamfiti«t, and
another substituted.

Xf\T

INTRODUCTION TO THE PLAYS.

tor of the 4to, 1B99, strangely misunderstanding it, printed it
Ha follows ; —

" lie 8teal« to Olendowor and loo Mortimer ;"
(m if Lo: of llic 4to, 1598, were to be tuken us tlie intorjcction,
o' then nsuiillv printed loe, and so the blunder was followed
n the subsequent quartos, including that oflOlS, from whence
t was transferred, literatim, to the folio, 1623. The error is
repealed in llie folio, 1682; but Norton, tlie printer of the 4to,
1839, wlio, as has been remarked, did not ailopt the text of
either of the folios, saw that there must be a hlunder in the
line, and althoniih he did not know exactly how to set it right,
e at least made sense of it, by giving it,

" 1 '11 steal to Glendower and lo Mortimer."
We onlv adduce this instance as one proof, out of many
which mi»ht be brought forward, to establish the superiority
of the te.\t of the 4lo. of 1593, to any of the subsequent re-
ii ipressiona.

SECOND PART OF EING HENRY IV.

" The Second part of Henrie the fourth, continuing to his
death, and ooronation of Henrie the tift. With the humours
of Sir lohii Falstaffe, and swaggering Pistoll. As it liath
been snndrie times publikely acted by the right honourable,
the Lord Chamherlainc his seruants. Written by " i lani
Shakespeare. London Printed by V. S. for Andrew Wise,
and William Asplev. 1600." 4to. 43 leaves. , .

Other copies of the same edition, in quarto, not containing

Sign. K 5 and E 6, have only 41 leaves.
In the folio, 1623. "The Second Part of Henry the Fourth,
containing his Death : and the Coronation ot Kine Henry
the Fift," occupies twenty-nine pages in the division ot
" Histories, " viz. from p. 74 to p. 102 inclusive, the last
two not bein? numbered. Pages 89 and 90, by an error of
the press, are numbered 91 and 92. In the reprint ot the
folio, 1632, this mist.ake is repeated. In the two later folios
the pagination continued from the beginning to the end ol
the volume.

We mav state with more certainty than usual, that " Henry
IV " Part ii. war. written before the 2.ith Feb. 1698. In the
prehminarv notice of " Henry IV. " Part i. it is mentioned.
That Act ii'.so. 2, of the " liislorv " before us contains a piece
of evidence that Falstaff was still called Oldcastle wlien it was
written ; viz. that the prefix of Old. is retained m the quarto,
1600, before a siieeeh which belongs to Falstaff, and which
is assic-ned to him in the folio of 1628. Now, we kiiow that
the name of OMciuHtle was changed to that of Falstaff anterior
to the entry of " Henrv IV. " Part i. in the books of the Sta-
tioners' Co'mpanv on the 25tli Feb. 1597-8. This circumstance
overturns Malone's theory, that " Henry IV. " Part ii. wius
not written until 1599. It requires no proof th.it it was pro-
duced after " Kichard II." because that play is quoted in it.

The memorandum in the Stationers' Registers, prior to the
publication of the following play, is inserted literatim in Vol.
li. p. 183 : it bears date on 28d Aug. 1600, and it was made
by Andrew Wise and William Aspley, %vho brought out
" The Si-conde Parte of the History ot Kinge Henry the iiii",
4to, in that year. „„ ... ,_„„

There was only one edition of " Henry I\ . " Part ii. m 1600,
but some copies vary importantly. The play was evidently
produced from tlie jiress in haste ; and besides other large
omissions, a whole scene, forming the commencement of Act
"i -was left out. Most of the copies are without these pages
but they are found in those of the Duke of Devonshire and
Malono. Tim stationer must have discovered the error alter
the publication, and sheet K was accordingly reprinted, in
order to supplv the defect.

Th5 f 'lio 1623 was taken from a complete copy of the edi-
tion of 1600 ; and, moreover, the actcjr-editors, probably from
a play-house mamiscript in their hands, furnished many other
linea'wanting in the quarto. On the other hand, the quarto,
Our text includes both, (properly distinguished in the notes)
■.n order that no syllable which came from the pen of Shake-
speare may be lost. Even if we suppose our great dramatist
to have himself rejected certain portions, preserved m the
quarto, the exclusion of them by a modern editor would be
niipardonable, as they form part of the history of the poet s
mind.

KING HENRY V.

Pistoll. As it hath Dene sundry times playd by the Eight
honorable the Lord Chamherlainc his seruants. London
Printed by Thomas Creedc. for Tho. MilliiiKton, and lohn
Bunby. And are to be sold at his house in Carter Lane,
next the Powle head. 1600. 4to. 27 leaves.
' The Chronicle History of Henry the htV, W ith his battel,
fought at Agin Court in France. Together wilh Aunlient
Pisfoll. As it hath bene sundry times plnyd by the Kitfht
honorable the Lord Chaniberlaine his seruants. Lomion
Printed by Thomas Creedc, for Thomas Pauier, and arc to
be sold at his shop in Cornhill, at tho signe of the Cat and
Parrets, neare the Exchange. 1602. " 4to. 26 leaves
"The Chronicle History of Henry the hll, with his battel!
fought at Agin Court in France. Together with ancient
Pistoll. As it hath bene sundry times playd by the Kiglil,
Honourable the Lord Chamherlainc his Seruants. Printed
forT P. 1608." 4to. 27 leaves.
" The Life of Henry the Fift. " in the folio of 1623, occiipie«
twenty-seven pages, viz. from p. 69 to p. 95 mclnsive The
pagination from " Henry IV. '' Part ii. to " Henry V. '' is
not continued, but a new series begins with " Henry \ .
on p. 69, and is regularly followed to the end of the " His-
tories. " The folio, 1632, adopts this error, but it is avoided
in the two later folio imjiresaions.

It is a circumstance deserving remark, that not one of the
title-pages of the quarto editions of " Henry V. " attributes
tho authorship of the play to Shakespeare. It wa-s printed
three several times during the life of the poet, hut in no in-
stance with his name. The fact, no doubt, is, that there never
was an authorized edition of " Henry V. " until it appeared
in the folio of 1623, and that the quarto impressions were
surreptitious, and wore published without the consent of the
author, or of the company to wliich he was attached. They
came out in 1600, 1602, and 1608, the one being merely a re-
print of the other; and, considering the iniperfectncss and
deficiency of the text in the quarto of 1600, it is perhaps
strange that no improvements were made in the subsequent
impressions. The drama must have enjoyed great popularity ;
it must have been played over and over again at the theatre,
and yet the public interest, as far as perusal is concerned,
would seem to have been satisfied with a brief, rude, and mu-
tilated representation of the performance. The quartos con
be looked upon in no other light than as fragments of the
original play, printed in haste for the satistaction of public
curiosity. , • , <■

The quar os bear strong external and internal evidence ot
or booksellers bv whom Shakespeare's genuine dramas were
issued ; and the second and third came from the hands ol
Thomas Pavicr, who was instrumental in giving to the wo"d
some pieces, with the composition of which Shakespeare bad
no concern, though ascribed to him on the title-page. The
internal evidence shows that the edition was made np, not
from anv authentic manuscript, nor even from any combina-
tion of the separate parts delivered out to the actors by the
copyist of the theatre, but from what could be taken down m
short-hand, or could be remembered, while the performnnoo
was taking place. It is true that the quarto impressions con-
tain not the slightest hint of the Chorusses, nor of whole
scenes, and long speeches, found in the folio of 1628: niid
the inference seems to he that "Henry V." was onginally
produced by Shakespeare in a comparatively incomiilete state,
and that large portions contained in the folio, and of which
no trace can bo pointed out in the quartos, were added at a
subsequent date, to give greater novelty and attraction to the
drama. Such, we know, was a very common course with all
our early stage-poets. A pliiv culled " Henry V. " was repre-
sented at Court on the 7th Jan. 1605, as we learn from 'The
Extracts from the Accounts of the Revels, " edited by Mr.
P. Cunningham, and printed by the Shakespeare Society
p. 204 ; and these important additions may have been inserted
for that occasion. The entry runs, literatim, as follows :—
" On the 7 of January was played the play ot Henry
tho fift." ^ , , . ,,

In the margin we are informed that it was acted by his Ma-
iesty's players, but the name of the author is not in this in-
stance given, although "Shaxberd" is placed opposite tne
title of "Measure for Measure," stated to have oeeii exhi-
bited on a preceding night. The fact that the actors belonged
to Shakespeare's company renders it most probable that his
play was performed on the occasion ; but it is to be recollected
also, that the old play of " The Famous Victories of Henry
the Fifth" purports on the title-page to have been " acted hj
the King's Majesty's servants, " even at so late a date as 161T,
when the last edition of it made its appearance. Noverthe

•The Cronicle History of Henry the flft, With his battell «.,o.... . ,•--.•;■;. '.' , ,,, ,, .>,„ <iti.„„

fought at Agin Court in France. Togither with Auntient leas, we may perhaps take it for granted, that tne uenry

INTKODUCTIOX TO THE PLAYS,

XCVll

tho fift, '* pliiyed at Whitehall by the kinff's servants, on 7th
Jan. 1605. was Shakespeare's Jiisiorieal drama: and it may
not be too much to presume, that most of tlie additions (Cho-
rUBses excepted) included in tlie tVtlio of 1623, were written in
consequence of the selection of " Keiiry V. " by the Master
of the Revels tor representation before James I.

Our opinion, then, is tliat Shakespeaie did not orighially
write his *' Henry V. " by any means as we find it in the folio
of 1623, and that it was first prnilnced without various scenes
and speechee subsequently written and introduced: we are
perfectly coiivinced that tlie three quarto editions of 1600,
1602, and 1608 do not at all contain the plav as it was acted
in the first instance; but were hastily made up from notes
taken at the theatre durine tho performance, subsequently
patched toeether. Now and then we meet with a few con-
secutive lines, similar to the authentic copy, but in general
the text ie miserably mauijled and disfigured. ^Ve niierht find
iifOvifs in ^^upport of our position in every part of the play,
out as in his "-Twenty quartos" Steevens has reprinted that
of 160S, it will be needless to select more than a single speci-
men. We give the text iis we find it, literatim, in the quarto,
1600, from the copy in the Library of the Duke of Devon-
shire : our sxtract is from Act i. sc. 2, the speech of the King,
just before the French Ambassadors are called in : —
" Call in the messenper sent from the Dolphin,

And by your &i(i, tha noble sinewes of our land

France being: ours, weele bring it to our awe,

Or break it all in pieces :

Eyther our Chronicles shal with full mouth speak

Freely of our acts,

Or else like toonplesse mutes

Not worshipt with a paper epitaph."
Such is the speech as it is abridged and corrupted in the
quarto, 1600: the correct text, as contained in the folio of
•1623, may be found in this edition.

It not unfrequently happened that the person who took
down the lines as the actors delivered them, for the purpose
of publishing tlie quarto, 1600, misheard what was said, and
used wrong words which in sound nearly resembled the right :
thus, earlier in the same scene, the Arclibishop of Canterbury
says, according to the folio, 1623,

*' They of those IMarchea, gracious sovereign.

Shall be a wall sufficient to defend

Our inland frcm the pilfering borderers."
In the quarto, 1600, the materials for which were probably
surreptitiously obtained at the theatre, the passage is thus
given : —

"The Marches, gracious soreraigne, shalbe sufficient

To guard your England from the pilfering borderers."

We might multiply instances of the same kind, hut we do
not think there can be any reasonable doubt upon the point.

The quartos, as we have stated, contain no bint of the
Chorusses, but a passage in that which precedes Act v. cer-
tainly relates to the expedition of the Karl of Essex to Ireland,
between the 15th April and the 28th Sept. 1599, and ur at
have been written during his absence : —

"As, by a lower but loving likelihood,
"Were now the general of our gracious empress
(As in good time he may) from Ireland coming,
Bringing rebellion broached on his sword,
How many would the peaceful city quit
To welcome him."
The above l*nes were, therefore, composed between the 15th
April and the 2Sth Sept. 1599, and most likely the Chorusses
formed pnrt of the niece as originally acted, although the
Bhort-hand writer did not think it a necessary portion of the
performance to be included in the earliest quarto, 1600, which
was to be brought on with great speed ; and perhaps the
length of these and other recitations might somewhat baffle
his skill. Upon this supposition, the question when Shake-
speare wrote his " Henry V. " is brought to a narrow point;
and confirmed as it is by the omission of all mention of the
play by Meres, tn his Palladia Tamm, 1598, we need fee! lit-
tle doubt that his first sketch came from the pen of Shake-
speare, for performance at the Globe theatre, early in the
Kumraer of 1599. The enlarged 'inima, as it stands in the
iblio of 1623, we are disposecf to believe was not put into the
complete shape in which it has there come down to us, until
shortly before the date when it was played at Court.

FIEST PART OF KING HENEY VI.

^ The first Part of Henry the Sixt " was printed originally in
the folic of 1623, where it occupies twenty-four pages ; viz.
from p. 96 to p. 119 inclusive, in the division of " His-
torie.<». " It was reprinted in the folios 1632, 1664, and 1685.

This historical drama is first found in tho folic of 1628: no
earlier edition of it in any shape, or in any degree of impet-
fectness, has been discovered. Of tlie second and third parts
of " Henry VI., " copies in qn:trto, under different titles,
lengthened in some speeches, and ahhrcviated in others, arc
extant ; but the first part of " Henry VI. " afipeaved originally
in the collected edition of '* Mr. William Sliakespeare'a Come-
dies, Histories, and Tragedies, " put forth under the care of
his fellow-actors, Heniinge and Condell.

This single fact is sufficient, in our mind, to establish
Shakesjieare's claim to the authorship of it, even were we to
take Malone's assertion for granted (whicli we are by no
means inclined to do) that the internal evidence is all opposed
to that claim. When Heminge and Condell published the
folio of 1623, many of Shakespeare's contemporaries, anthorpj
actors, and aiiditon*, were alive ; a!id the player-editors, if they
would have been guilty of the dishonesty, would hardly have
committed the folly ot inserting a play in their volume which
was not his production, and pernaps wcil known to have
been the work of some rival dramatist. If we imagine the fre-
quenters of theatres to have been comparatively iyrnorant upoa
such a point, living authora and living actors must have been
aware of the truth, and in the face ofthese Heminge and CondoU
would not have ventured to appropriate to Shakespeare whai
had really come from the pen of another. That tricks of the
kind were sometimes played by fraudulent booksellers, in
publishing single plays, is certa'inly true ; but Heniifigeimd
Condell were actors of repute, and men of character: they
were presenting to the world, in an important volume, scat-
tered performances, in order to " keep the memory of »<j
worthy a friend and fellow alive, as was our Shakespeare, "
and we cannot believe that they would have incUuled an>
drama to which he had no title. In all probability they liad
acted with Shakespeare in the first part of "Henry VJ. :"
to time with reference to the performance of it, and they must
almost necessarily have been acquainted with the real state
of the property in it.

Our opinion is therefore directly adverse to that of Malone,
who, having been " long struck with the many evident
Shakesjitareanisms in these plays, " afterwards came to the
conciu8ion that he had been entirely mistaken, and that none
of tiiese peculiarities were to be trnced in tlie first part of
"Henry Vl. : " "1 am, therefore (he added), decisively of
opinion, that this play was not written by Shakespeare." To
support this notion, he published a "Dissertation on the
Three Parts of King Henry VI.," in which he argued that
the first part was not only not the authorship of Sh;i1cespeftre,
but that it was not written by the same jiersons who liaci
composed the second and third parts of "Henry VI."

With reference to the question, how far and at what time
Shakespeare became connected with the plays, known as tha
three parts of *' Henry VI.," it is necessary to observe, that
it was very usual in the time of our great dramatist, lor one
poet to take up the production of another, and, by making
additions to and improvements in it, to appropriate it to his
own use, or to the use of the theatre to which he belonged.
This practice applied to the works of living as well as of dead
poets, and it has been conjectured that when Kobert Gieene,
m Ids " Groatsworth of Wit," 1592, spoke of Shakespeare, its
"the only Shake-scene in a country," and as "an upstart
crow beautified with our feathers," he alluded chiefly to the
manner in which Shakespeare had employed certain dramas,
by Greene and others, as the foundation of his three parts of
" Henry VI." These certain dramas were some undiscover«d
original of the first part of " Henry VI. ; " the first part of
" The Contention betwixt the Two Famous Honses of York
and Lancaster," 1600; and " The True Tragedy of Richard
Duke of York,'' 1595. It was by making additions, altera"
tiona, and improvements in these three pieces, that Shake-
speare's name became associated with them as their author,
and hence the player-editors felt themselves justified in in-
serting them among his other works in the folia of 1623.

There are two other theories respecting the alder plays we
have mentioned, neither of them, as it seems to us, supported
by sufficient testimony. One of them is, that the first part
of "Henry VI.," as it is contained in the folio of 1623, tho
first part of the " Contention," 1594, and the " True Tra-
gedy, " 1595, were in fact nroductions by Shakespeare him-
self, which he subsequently enlarged and corrected: the
other theory is, that the two latter were early editions of the
same dramas that we find in the folio, and that the imp«r-
fections or variations in the quarto impresSions are to be ac-
counted for by tho surreptitious manner in which the manu-
script, from which they were printed, was obtained by the
booksellers. In support of the first of these opinions, little

XCVlll

INTRODUCTION TO THE PLAYS.

(letter thim conjeotnre ciin be produced, contradioled by fhe
txprtesionu ol' Grueiiu in 1692, n» I'ar as those expressiniis
• pply to these pinys ; Hiid wiili rej^nrd to the second opinion,
ii\ some pliicoa the quiirto editions ol' the first part of the
•■ Contention" and tlie " True Triij;edy" are t'nller, by many
lines, than the copy in the fulio, 1823, wliicli would liardly
have been the case, had tlie diiilojrne been taken down in
short-hand, and correctcti t>y memory : in llie next place, the
Hl^eeolios have Buoh a decree ot' completeness and retrnlarity
as to render it very imjrobable tliat liiey were obtained by so
nneerlain and imperrett an expetlienL. We think it most
likely that tlie first part of " Henry VI." was founded upon a
previous play, although none such has been brouglit to light :
and that the materiak for the second and third parts of
" Henry VI." were mainly derived from the older dninas of
the first part of "The Contention betwixt the Two Famous
Houses of York and Lancaster," and "The True Tragedy of
Kichar<l Duke of York."

Altlionuli no euch drama has come down to us, we know,
on the authoritv of llenslowe's IHary, that there was a play
(Mlled " Harey'the VI." acted on 3d March, 1591-2, and so
popular as to have been repeated twelve times. This was,
perhaps, the piece which Shakespeare subsequently altered
and improved, and to which Nash alludes in his " Pierce
I'ennile.'.s," 1592 (sign. H. 2.), where he speaks of " brave
Talbot" having been made "to triumph again on the stage,"
after Iniviiig been two himdred years in nis tomb. Malone
(Shakespeare, by Boawell, vol. lii. p. 298.) concludes deci-
sivelv in the affirmative on both these points, forgettiitg,
Lowcver, that the " Ilarey the VI." acted by llenslowe's com-
pany, might possibly be a play got up and represented in con-
»equence of tlie success of the drama in the authorship of
.vhich Shakespeare was concerned.

If our great dramatist Ibundeil his first part of " Henry VI."
opon tlie play produced by lienslowe's company, of course, it
eould not have been written until after March, i.Stt2 ; but with
regard to the precise date of its composition we must remain
in uncertainty. Malonc's later notion wius, as we have already
observed, that Shakespeare's hand was not to be traced in
any part of it ; but Steovens called attention to several re-
markable coincidences of expression, and passages might be
pointed out sp much in tlie spirit and character of Shake-
speare, that we cannot conceive them toliavc come from any
otJier pen. Coleridge has instanced the opening of the play
as nnliko Shakespeare's metre (I>t. Remains, vol. ii. p. 1S4.) ;
he was unquestionably right ; but he did not advert to the
fact, of which there is the strongest presumptive evidence,
that more than one author was eng.aged on the work. ^ The
very diseord.ince of style forms part of the proof; and in his
lectures in 1815, Coleridge adduced many lines which ho bo-
libved must have been written by Shakespeare.

wished to have it believed, that the old jilay was tlie prodiio-
tion of our great dramatist.

Shakespeare's property, according to <iur present notions
was only in the addition's and improvements he introdnecH.
which are included in the folio of 1623. In Act iv. se. 1, .»
a lino necessarily taken from " the first part of the Conten-
tion," as the sense, without it, is incomplete ; but the old
plav has manv passages which Shakespeaie rejected, and the
murder of Duke Humphrey is somewhat ditl'crently manaired.
In general, however, Shakespeare adopted the whole ooiid'Ki
of the story, and did not think it necessary to correct tho '>b
vious historical errors of the original.

It is impossible to assign a date tc this play excepting bj
conjecture. Its sMccess, jierhaps, led to the entry at Station-
ers' Hall of the older piay in March, 1533, and to its appear
auce from the press in 1J594.

SECOND PART OF KING HENRY VI.

"The second Part of Henry the Sixt, with the death of the

Good Duke Hvmfrey," wiis first printed in the folio of 1628,

where it occupies twenty-seven pages; viz. from p. 120 to

p. 146 inclusive, in the division of" Histories." It fills the

same place ;n tho subsequent folio impressions.

The "history" is an alteration of a play printed in l.'i94,

under the follovving title: " The First part of tlie Contention

betwixt the two famous houses of YoiUe and Lancister, with

the death of the good Duke Humphrev: And the banishinciit

and death of tho Duke of Sutl'oike, aiid the Tragical! end of

the pn.ud Cardinal! of Winchester, with the notable Rebellion

of laekeCade: And the Duke of Yorkes first claime tiiito the

Crowne. London Piinted by Tliomius Creed, for Thomas

Millington, and are to be sold at his shop under Saint Peter's

C|--jrch in Cornwall. 1594." By whom it was written we

have no information ; but it was'eiitercd on the Stationers'

Keg-isters on the 12th March, l.V,)3. Millington published a

second edition of it in 1600 : on the 19tli April, 1602, it w.is

assigne<l by Millington to Tho. Pavier, and we hear of it

again, in the Stationers' Register, merely as " Yorke and

Ijuica.ster," on the Sth N'ovcmber, 1630.

Tho name of Shakespeare was not connected with "the
flret part of tho Contention," until about the year 1619, when
T. P. (Thomas Pavier) printed a new edition of the first, and
what he colled " the second, part" of the same play, with the
name of " William Shakspeare, Gent." upon the genaral title-
pftge. The object of Pavier was no doubt fraudulent : he

' Chettle acknovled^eB the imnonant share he had in the publica-
tion ol "The Groitaworth of Wit." in his "Kind-heart's Dream,''
fl-hK-h wna printe'* at the cIobc of 159*J, or in the beginning of 15!l3.
£«e thd excellen. re7)rint of thin very curious and intenstini; tract

THIRD PART OF KING HENRY VI

"The third Part of Henry the Sixt, with the death of the

Duke ofY'orke," was first printed in the folio of 162B, where

it occupies twenty-six p.ages, in the division of " Histories, '

viz. from p. 147 to p. 172, inclusive, pages 165 and 166 being

misprinted 167 and 168, so that these numbers are twice

inserted. The error is corrected in the folio, 1682. The

play is also contained in the folios of 1664 and 1685.

None of the commentators ever saw the first edition of the

drama upon which, we may presume, Shakespeare founded

his third part of " Henrv Vl'. :" it bears the following title :—

"The true Tragedie of feichard Dukeof Yorke, and the death

of the good King Henrie the Sixt, with tlie whole contention

betweene the two houses Lancaster and Y'orkc, as it wa» snn-

drie times acted by the Right Honourable the Earle of Pem-*

brooke his seruants. Printed at London by P. S. for Tlionins

Millington, and are to be sold at his slioppe under Saint

Peters Church in Cornwal. 1595." Bvo. This play, like " the

First Part ef the Contention," was reprinted for the same

bookseller in 1600, 4to. About the year 1619 a re-impr'«sion

of both plays was published by T. P. ; and the name of

Shakespeare, as has been already observed in our Introdui'-

tion to " Henry VI." part ii., first appears in oonncctiou with

these " histories" in tliat edition.

Believing that Sliakesfieare was not the writer of " The
First Part of the Contention," 1594, nor of '■ The True Tra-
gedy of Richard Duke of Y'ork, 1.^95, and that Malone estab-
lished his position, that Shakespeare only enlarged and altered
them, it becomes a question bv whom they were produced,
('hahiiers, who possessed the only known copy of " T'he True
Tragedy," 1.595, without scruple a.ssigned that piece ; :i Chris-
topher Marlowe. Although tnere is no ground whatever for
giving it to Marlowe, there is some reason for supposing tha'
it came from the pen of Robert Greene.

In the Introduction to " Henry VI." part i., we alladcd, as
far as was there necessary, to the langii.agc of Greene, when
speakine of Shnkespeare'in his "Groatsworth of Wit," 1592.
Thi> tract was not published until after the death of its author
ill Sept. 1592, when it appeared under the editorship of Henry
Chettle'; and what follows is the whole that relates to our
great dramatist : — " Y'cs, trust them not; for there is an up-
start crow beautified with our feathers, that with his tigtr^e
hearty wrapped in a player^s liid^^ supposes he is as well able
to bombast out a blank verse as the host of you ; and being
an absolute Johannes Factotum, is in his own conceit th«i
only Shakeseene in a countrey." (Dyee's Edit, of Greene's
Works, I. Ixxxi.) In this extract, although Greene talks of
"an upstart crow beautified with our feathers," he seems to
have referred principally to his own workp, and to the maniiei
I in which Sliakespeare had availed himself of them. Thi"*
opinion is somewhat confirmed by two lines in a tract called
" Greene's Funerals," by R. B., 1594, where the writer is
adverting to the obligations of other authors to Greene: —

*' Nav more, the men that eo eclipa'd his fame
Pvrloin'd hix plumes — can they deny the same?"

Hero R. K. nearly adopts Greene's words, " beautijifd wit
ovr ff-athi-n^^''^ and applies to him individually what Greene
perhaps t^ avoid the charge of egotism and vanity, had stated
more generally. It may be mentioned, also, as a confiriiiatorj
circumstance, that the words " tiger's heart, wrapp'd m a
player's hide," in our extract from the " Groatsworth of
Wit," are a repetition, with the omission of .an interjection and

made for the Percy Society, under the editorial cere ol Mr Rimbanlt
Shakespeare (not by name) for having been inatrumentB.! in ttte pub-
lication of Greene's attack upon him.

INTRODUCTICN TO THE PLAYS.

XCIX

ihe change of a wo-d, of a line in '* The True Tragedy," 1595,

"0 ! tiger's heart, wrapp'd in a ■woman's hide.''
Thas Greene, when charging Shakespeare with Jiaviug ap-
propriated Ilia plavs, parodies a line of his own, as if to show
the particular produotiona to wliich he alluded*.

Another fict tends to the same cqncluaion: it is a striking
coii:cidence between a passage in " The True Tragedy" and
M>me lines in one of Greene s acknowledged dramas, '* Al-
rhonsus. King of Arragon," printed, in 1599, hy Thomas
Creed, the same printer who, in 15*>4, had produced from his
press an edition of "■The First Part of the Contention." In
** Alphonsus" the hero kills Flaminius, his enemy, and thus

" Go, pack thee hence unto the Stygian lake,
And make report unto thy traitorous sire,
How well thou hast enjoy'd the diadem,
Which he by treason set upon thy head :
And if he nskthte who did send thee down.
Alphonsus say, who now must wear thy crown."

In "The True Tragedy," 1595, Richard, while stabbing
Henry VI. a second time, exclaims,

" If any spark of life remain in thee,
Down, down to hell; and say I sent thee thither."

Shakespeare, when altering *' Tiie True Tragedy" for his
own theatre, (fur, as originally composed, it had been played
by the Earl of Pembroke's servants, for whom Greene was in
the habit of writing) adopted the line,

*'0 tiger's heart, wrapp'd in a woman's hide,'*
without the change of a letter, and the couplet last quoted
with only a very slight variation ;

" If any spark of life be yet remaining^
Down, down to hell ; and say I sent thee thither.''

As in "Henry VI." part ii., Shakespeare availed himself
of "The First Part of the Contention,'' 1594, so in "Henry
VI." part iii., he applied to his own purposes much of "The
True Tragedy of Kichard Duke of York," 1595. He made,
however, considerable omissions, as well as large additions,
and in the last two Acts he sometimes varied materially from
the oondnet of the story as he found it in the older play. One
improvement may be noticed, as it shows the extreme simpli-
city of our st:xge iust before what we may consider ShaKc-
speare's time; ana it is to be ascertained by comparing two
scenes of his " Henry VI." part iii., (Act iv. sc. 2 and 3) with
a portion of " The True Tragedy." In the older play, War-
wick, Oxford, and Clarence, aided by a party of soldiers,
standins: on one part of the sta^e, concert a plan for surpris-
ing Edward IV. in his tent on another part of the stage.
Having rcj^nlved upon the enterprise, they merely cross the
boards of Edward's encampment, the audience being required
to suppose that the assailing party had travelled fVom their
own quarters in order to arrive at Edward's tent. Shake-
speare showed his superior judgment by ehang-ing the place,
and by interposing a dialogue between the Watchmen, who
guard the King's tent. Robert Greene, in his "Pinner of
Wakefield," (See *' Hist, of Enffl. Dram. Poetry and the
Stage," vol. iii. p. 368.) relied on the imag-ination o^his audi-
tors, exactly in the same way as the author of "The True
Tragedy."

It is tfl be observed of ** Henry VI." part iii., as was re-
marked in the Introduction to the second part of t!ie same
p'''y, that a line, necessary to the sense, was omitted in the
fnlio, 1623, and has been introduced into our text from "The
True Tragedy," 1595. It occurs in Act ii. sc. 6, and it was,
probably, accidentiiUy omitted by the copyist of the manu-
script from which Shakespeare's "liistory," as it appears in
Ih* folio, was printed. '

I

KTNG EICHAED IH.

'*The Tragedy nf King Richard the third. Containing, His
treacherous Plots against his brother Clarence : the pittie-
fnll murthef ofhis innocent nephewes : his tyrannicall vsur-

» Tri«re is a infling fact conn«'''ted with "Henrv VT." part i, a no-
ticti of which oiJ(];ht not to be oni iied, when consulering; the question
of the authorship of some yet uiiJiscovered original, upon which that
(tlay might be founded. In Act v. sc. 3, these two lines occur ; —
'* Sho 's beautiful, and therefore to be woo'd ;
She is a woman, therefore to be won."
The last of these lines is inserted in Greene's " Planetomachia,"
pnnted as ea/.y as 1585. In "The First Part of the Contention'' a

S irate is mentioned, who is introduced into another of Greene's pro-
uctions.

^ Bv the title-pajtes of the four earliest editions on the opposite leaf.
It will be Been, tha*. It was profeised by Andrew Wise, that the play
:n ion, had been " newly augmented," although it was in fact or.ly

pation : with the whole course ofhis detested life, ana
most dcserued death. As it hath beene lately Acted by the
Eight honourable the Lord Chamberlaine his seruunts. At
London, Printed by Valentine Sims, Ibr Andrew Wise,
dwelling in Paules Church-yard, at the bigne of the Aiigell,
1597." 410. 47 leaves.

"The Tragedie of King Eichard the third. Conteining
his treacherous Plots against his brother Clarence : the
pitiful murther of his innocent Nephewes: liis tyrannicall
vsurpation : with the whole course of liis detested life, an
most deserued death. As it hath beene lately Aoted by th
Kigl>t lionourable the Lord Chamberlaine his seruants. By
William Shake-speare. London Printed by Thomas Creede,
for Andrew Wise, dwelling in Paules Church-yard, at the
signe of the Angell. 1598.^' 4to. 47 leaves.

"The Tragedie of King Richard the third. Contoming hia
treacherous Plots against his brother Clarence : the pittifull
murther of his inndtent Nephewes : his tyrannical; Tsnrpa-
tion : with the whole course of his detested life, and most
deserued death. As it hath bene lately Acted by the Right
Honourable the Lord Chamberlaine his seruants. Newly
augmented. By William Shakesjteare, London Printed bj
Thomas Creese, for Andrew Wise, dwelling in Paolea
Church-yard, at the signe of the Angell. 1602." 4to. 4fl
leaves.

" The Tragedie of King Richard 'the third. Conteining hie
treacherous Plots against his brother Clarence : thepittifall
murther of his innocent Nephewes : his tyrannicall vsurpa-
' tion : with the whole course ofhis detested life, and most
deserued death. As it hath bin lately Acted by the Right
Honourable the Lord Cliamberlaine his seruants. Newly
augmented, by M'illiam Shake-speare. London, Printed
by Tliomas Creede, and are to be sold b_v Matthew Lawe,
dwelling in Paules Church-yard, at the signe of the Foxe,
near S. Austins gate, 1605." 4to. 46 leaves.

In the folio of 1623, " The Tragedy of Richard the Third :
with the Landing of the Earle of Richmond, and the Bat^
tell at Bosworth Field," occupies thirty-two piiges ; vii.
from p. 178 to p. 204 inclusive. There is no material varia-
tion in the later folios.

The popularity of Shakespeare's " Richard the Third" must
have been great, judging only from tlie various quarto editions
which preceded the publication of it in the folio of 1628. It
onginally came out in 1597, without the name of the author :
it was reprinted in 1598, with "by William Shake-speare"
on the title-page, and again in 1602^,011 three impressiontt
having been made for the same bookseller, Andrew Wise.
On the 27th June, 1603. it was assitrned to Mathew Lawp, ns
appears by an entry in the Stationers' Reiristcrs ; accordinply.
he published the fourth edition of it with the date of 1605 :
the fifth edition was printed for the same bookseller in 1613^.
This Pcems to have been the last time it came out in quarto,
anterior to its appearance in the first folio*; but after that
date, three other quarto impressions are known, viz. in 1624,
1629, and 1634, and it is remarkable that these were all mere
reprints of the earlier quartos, not one of them including any
of the passages which the player editors of the folio first in-
serted in their volume. This fact might show that the pub-
lishers of the later quartos did not know that there were any
material variations between the earlier quartos and the folio,
that they did not think them of importance, or that the pro-
jectors of the folio were considered to have some species of
one instance to more than fifty lines, are pointed out in onr
notes. It will also be found that more than one speech in
the folio is unintelligible without aid from the quartos; and
for some other characteristic omissions, particularly for one
in Act iv. sc. 2, it is not possible to account.

With respect to the additions in the folio of 1623, we have
no means of ascertaining whether they formed part of the
original play. Stevens was of opinion that the quarto, 1597,
contained a better text than the folio : eueh Vs not our
opinion; for though the quarto sets right ttveral doubtful
matters, it is not well printed, even for a production of that

a reprint of the previous impressions of 1.'j9" and I.'jQS, for the same
bookseller. It is possible that the augmentations observable in the
folio of lti'2-1 were made shortly before \GV'2. and that Wise wished it
to be thought, that his edition of that year contained them. The
quarto reprints, subsequent to that of 160"2, all purport to have oeen
"newly augmented."

3 Malone givee the date 1612, and in his copy at Oxford the la*;
figure is blurred. The title-page in no rcBpect differs from that of
1605. excepting that the play is said to have been "acted by th«
King's Majesty's £er\ants." The^ were not so called, until aftei
.May, i6t)3.

* An impression in 1622 is mentioned in some Hits, :nt the exiit
ence of a copy of that date is doubtful.

ENTEODUCTION TO THE PLAYS.

Jaj, mill benrs ini>rk» of havinff been brought out in haste,
\nd from an imperfect manuscript. Tlie copy of the *' his-
tory" in tlie folio of 1628 was in some places a reprint of the
quarto, 1602, as several obvious errors of the press are re-
peated, ri(/ht for " ti?lit," lielpi for " helms," cfec. For the ad-
ditions, u manuscript was no doubt employed ; atid the va-
riations in some scenes, particuhirly near the middle of tlie
play, are so numerous, and the corrections so frequent, that
It is probable a transcript belonging to the theatre was there
consulted. Our text is that of the folio, with due notice of
alt the chief variations.

The earliest entry in the Stationers' Re^sters relating to
Shakespeare's " Richard the Third," is in these terms : —

" 20 Oct. 1597

Audrcw Wise] Tlie Tragodie of Kinge Richard the Third,
with the death of the Duke of Clarence."
This memorandum, probably, immediately preceded the
publication of the ouarto, 1597. The*only other entry relat-
ing to " Richard tlie Third " we have already mentioned,
aud the exact words of it may be seen in a note to our Intro-
duction to *' Richard the Second."

It is certain that there was a historical drama upon some
f the events of the reign of Richard Til. anterior to that of
Shakespeare. T. Warton quoted Sir John Harington's
" Apnlogie for Poetry," prefixed to his translation of Ariosto
in 1.591, respecting a tragedy of " Richard the Third," acted
at St. John's, Cambridge, which would '* have moved Pha-
laris, the tyrant, and terrified all tyrannous-minded men ;"
and Stcevens adduced Heywood's " Apology for Actors',"
1612, to the .sairuB etFect, without apparently being aware that
Heywood was professedly only repeating the words of Har-
ington. Biith those authors, however, referred to a Latin
drama on the story of Richard III., written by Dr. Legge,
and acted at Cambridire before 1588. Steevcna followed up
his quotation from Heywood by the copy of an entry in the
Stationers' Registers, dated June 19, 1594, relating to an
English play on the same subject. When Stcevens wrote,
and for many years afterwards, it was not known that such a
drama had ever been printed ; but in 1821 Boswell reprinted
a large fragment of it (with many errors) from a copy want-
ing the commencement. A perfect copy of this very rare
play is in the collection of the Duke of Devonshire, and from
it we transcribe the following title-page : — •

" Tlia true Tragedie of Richard the third : Wherein is
showne the death of Edward the fonrth, with the smothering
of the two yoong Princes in the Tower : With a lamentable
ende of Shore's wife, an example for all wicked women.
And liistlv, the coniunction and ioyning of the two noble
Houses, Lancaster and Yorke. As it was playd by the
Quecnes Maiesties Players. London Printed by Thomas
Creede, and are to be sold by William Barley, at his shop in
Newgate Market, neare Christ Church doore. 1594."

This title-page so nearly corresponds with the entry in the
Stationers' Registers', as to leave no doubt that the latter re-
ferred to the former. The piece itself, as a literary composi
tion, deserves little remark, but as a drama it possesses se-
veral peculiar features. It is in some respects unlike any
relic of the kind, and wa-s evidently written several years
before it came from Creede's press. It opens with a singular
dialogue between Truth and Poetry ; —

" Poelri€ Tnith, -well met.

" Truth. ThanhM, Poetne ; what makes thou upon a stage ?

Therefore depart, and give Truth leave
To shew her pageant.

" Poet. Why, will Truth be a Player?

*' Truth. No ; but Tragedia like for to present
A Ttagedie irf England done but late.
That will revive the hearts of drooping mindea.

" Poet. Whereof?

" Truth. Miirry, thus." ^

Hence Tnitli proceeds with a sort of argument of the play;
bat before the Induction begins, the ghost of George, Duke
of Cliirence, had passed over the stage, delivering two lines
as In went, wliion we give precisely as in the original copy
noTf before us : —

" CreSM eruor sanguinis, satietur sanguine eresse,
Quod spero seitio. O seitio, scitio, vendicta!^^
The drama itself afterwards opens with a scene represent-

t Stevene calls it " The Actors' Vindication," aa indeed it was enti-

.led when it was republished (with alterations and insertions) by

Cartwright the Comedian, without date, but during the Civil Wars.

Bee the reprint of this tract by the Shakespeare Society, the teit being

teken from the first impression.

* It is as fo'lows, being rather unusually particular: —

Tho, Oreede] An Enterlude entitled the Tragedie of Richard

the Third, wherein ■■ showen the Death of Kdward the Fourthe.

ng the death of Edward IV., and the whole story is thenc«-
forward most inartificially and clumsily conducted, with «
total disregard of dates, facts, and places, by characters iro-
pcrfcctly drawn and ill sustained. Shore's wile plays a con-
spicuous part; and the tragedy does not finish with the
battle of Bosworth Field, but is carried on subsequently,
although the plot is clearly at an end. The conclu.sion is
quite as remarkable as the eommencemcnt. After the death
of Richard, Report (a personification like some of those in the
old Moralities) enters, and holds a dialogue with a Page, to
inform the audience of certain matters not exhibited; and
after a long scene between RichmontI, the Queen mother,
Princess Elizabeth, &c., two Messengers enter, and, mixing
with the personages of the play, detail tho succession of
events and of monarchs from the death of Richard until the
accession of Elizabeth. The Queen mother then comes for-
ward, and pronounces an elaborate panegyric upon Elizabeth,
ending with these lines: —

"For which, if ere her life be taen away,
God grant her soule may live m heaven for aye ;
For i? her Graces dayes be brought to end.
Your hope is gone, on whom did peace depend."

As in this sort of epilogue no allusion is made to tho
Spanish Armiida, though other public events of less promi-
nence are touched ujion, we may perhaps infer that the
drama was written before the year 1588.

The .style in wliich it is composed also deserves observation :
it is partly in prose, partly in heavy blank-verse, (such as
was penned before Marlowe had introduced bis improve
partly in ten-syllable rhyming couplets, and stanzas, and
partly in the long fourteen-syTlable metre, which seems to
nave been popular even before prose was employed upon our
stage. In every point of view it may be a.sserted, that few
more curious dramatic relics exist in our language. It is per-
haps the most ancient printed specimen of composition for a
public theatre, of which the subjeot woa derived from Eng-
lish history.

Boswell asserts that " The True Tragedy of Richard the
but we cannot trace any resemblances, but such as were pro-
bably purely accidental, and are merelv trivial. Two persons
could hardly take un tlie same period of our annals, as tho
ground-work of a arama, without some coincidences ; but
there is no point, either in the conduct of tho plot or in the
language in which it is clothed, where our ^reat dramatist
does not show his measureless superiority. The portion of
the story in which the two plays make the nearest approach
to each other, is just before the murder of the princes, where
Richard strangely takes a page into his confidence respecting
the fittest agent for the purpose.

It is not to be concluded, because the title-page of "Tlio
True Tragedy of Richard the Third " expresses that it was
acted " by the Queen's Majesty's Players," that it was the
association to which Shakespeare belonged, and which be-
came "the King's Players'' after James I. a.«cended the
throne. In 1583, the Queen selected a company from the
theatrical servants of several of her nobility ; (Hist, of Engl.
Dram. Poetry and the Stage, vol. i. 2.54;) and in 1.590 there
were two companies, culled " her Majesty's Players," one
under the management of Laneham, and the other of Lau-
rence Dutton'. By one of these companies " Tlie Trne Tra-
gedy of Riobard the Third" must have been performed.
Until the death of Elizabeth, the association to which Shake
speare was attached was usually called " the Lord Chamber-
lain's Servants."

In the " Memoirs of Edward Alleyn,'' p. 121, it is sho\vn
that Henslowe's company, subsequent to 1599, was either in
possession of a play npon the story of Richard HI., or that
some of the poets he employed were engaged upon suth a
drama. From the sketch of five scenes, there inserted, we
mav judge that it was a distinct performance from " The
True' Tragedy of Richard the Third." B> in entry in Hen-
slowe's Diary, dated 22d June, 1602, we learn that Ben Jon-
son received 10?. in earnest of n play calh'd " Richard Croolc-
back," and for certain additions he was to make to Kyd'a
Spanish Tragedy. Considering the success of Shakespeare's
" Richard the Third," and the active contention, nf certain
periods, between the company to which Shakespeare be-

with the Smothering* of the twoo Princes in the Tower, with
a lamentable End of Shores wife, and the conjunction of ihfl
twoo Houses of Lancaster .md York.
3 This new fact in the history of our early drama and theatres, w«
owe to Mr. Peter Cunningham, who e.stablishes it beyond contradic-
tion, in his interesting and important volume of ;■ Kxtracts from the
Accounts of the Revels at Court," printed for the Shakespeare Sr
ciety. tntrod. p xxxii

INTRODUCnON TO THE PLAYS.

ci

longed, and that uuder the management of Henslowe, it
niiiy be lonked upon as singular, thai tlie latter should have
been without u drama on tliat portion of Knglisli history
3utU after loyy; and it is certainly not less singular, that as
.ato as 1602 Ben Joiison should have been occupied in writ-
ing a new play upon the subject. Possibly, about that date
rih'akesp-jare's " Kioliard the Third" had been revived with
ihe addition?^; and hence the employment of Jonson on a
rival drama, and the publication of the third edition of Sliake-
tpeare''8 tragedy after an interval of four years.

Malore was of opinion tliat Shakespeare wrot« "Richard
Ui6 Third " in 1593j but did not adduce a narticle of evidence,
and none in fact exists. We should be disposed to place it
ioaiewhat nearer the time of publication.

I

KING HENRY VIII.

"The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight,"
was first printed in the folio of 1628, where it occupies
twenty-ciglit pages ; viz. from p. 205 to P- 282, inclusive.
It is the fast pliiy in the division of " Histories." It fills
the same place in the later impressions in the same form.

The principal question, in relation to Shakespeare's
*' Henry the Eighth," is, when it was written. Wc arc satis-
fied, both by the internal and external evidence, that it
catne from the poet's pen after James I. liad ascended the
throne.

Independently of the whole character of the drama, wliich
was little calculated to please Elizabeth, it seems to us that
Cranmer's prophecy, in Act v. sc. 4, is quite decisive. There
tlie poet first speaks of Elizabeth, and of the advantages de-
rived from her rule, and then proceeds in the clearest
manner to notice her successor : —

" Njr shall this peace sleep with her : but as when
The bird of wonder dies, the maiden phcenjx,
Her ashes new create another heir,
As preat in estimation as herself;
So shall filie leave her blessedness to one
("When heaven shall call her from this cloud of darkness)
Who from the sacred ashes of her honour
Shall star-like rise, as great in fame as she was,
And to stand fix'd."

Ingenuity cannot pervert these lines to any other meaning ;
but it has been said that they, and some others which follow
them, were a Hubsequent introduction; and, moreover, that
they were tlie work of Ben Jonson, on &ome revival of the
play in the reign of James I. There does not e.xJst the
elightost evidence to establish either proposition. Any per-
son, j-eading the whole of Cranmer's speecn at the christenmg,
can liardly fail to perceive such an entireness and sequence
of thoughts and words in it, as to make it very uulikely
that it was not dictated by the some intellect, and written
by the same pen.* Malone and otliers made up their minds
that " Henry the Eighth " was produced before the deat^i of
Elizabeth; and finding the passage we have quoted directly
in the teeth of this supposition, they charged it as a subse-
quent addition, fixed the authorsliip of it upon a diflerent
poet, and printed it within brackets.

As to externa! evidence, there is one fact whicli has never
liad snfticient importjince given to it. Wo allude to the fol-
lowing niemoranduui in the Registers of the Stationers'
Company :—

"19 Feb. 1604

" Nath. Butter] Yf he get ffood allowance for the En-

t«rlude of K. Henry 8th before he begyn to print it;

and then procure the wardens hands to yt for the

entrance of yt : he is to have the same for his copy."

Clnilmers asserted, without qualification, that tliia entry
referred to a contemporaneous play by Samuel Rowley, under
the title of "When you see me you know me," 1605; but
the " enterlttde " is exfiressly called in the entry " K. Henrv
8th," and we feel no hesitation in concludinsr tliat it referred
to Shakespeare's drama, which had probably been brou-rlit
out at the Globe Th iatre in the summer of lfl04. The me-
morandum, judging from its terms, seems to have been made,
not at the instance of Nathaniel Butter, the bookseller, but
of tlie company to which Shakespeare belonged, and in order
to prevent a surrep''tious publication of the play. The
"12 Feb. 1604," was, of course, according to our "present
reckoning the 12 Feb. 1605, and at that date Butter had not
begun to print "Henry the Eighth." No edition of it is

known before it appeared in the folio of 1623, and we may
infer that Butter failed in getting "good allowance" with
" the wardens' hands to it."

The Globe Theatre was destroyed on 29th June, 1618, the
thatch with which it was covered having been fired by tb«
discharge of some small pieces of ordnance. ^Ilist. cvf Engl.
Dram. Foetry and the Stage, vol. iii. p. 29S.) It has been
stated by Howes, in bis continuation of Stowe's Clironicle,
that the play then in a course of represejitation was " Henry
tlie Eighth;" but Sir Henry Wolton, who is very particular
in his description of the calamity, asserts that .the play was
called " All is True." There is little doubt that he is right,
because a ballad, printed on the occasion, has the burden of
"All is True'' at the end of every stanza. The qurstioa
then is, whether this wa.H Shakespeare's " Henry the Ei^i h''
under a diflferent title, or a different play? Sir Henry \\ otr-
ton informs us in terms that it was "a new play," and as he
was right in the title, we may have the more faith in his
statement respecting the novelty of the performance.

In the instance of "Henry the Eighth," as of many other
works by our great dramatist, there is ground for believing
that there existed a preceding play on the same story. Hen-
slowe's Diiiry aff"ords us some curious and important evi-
dence on this point, unknown to Malone. Accxjrding to this
authority two plays were written in the year 1601 for the
Earl of Nottingham's players, on the events of the life of
Cardinal Wolsey, including necessarily some of the chief in-
cidents of the reign of Henry VIII. These plays consisted
of a first and second part, the one called *'The Rising of
Cardinal Wolsey," and the other, "Cardinal Wolsey." We
collect that the last was produced first, and the success it met
with on the stage was perhaps the occasion of the second
drama, containing, in fact, the commencement of the story.
Of this course of proceeding Henslowe's Diary furnishes
several other examples.

The earliest entry relating to " Cardinal Wolsey," {llie
second play in the order of the incidents, though the earliest
in point ot proHuction) is dated 5th June, 1601. when Henry
Cliettlo was paid 20*. "for writing the book of Cardinal
Wolsey." On the 14th July he was paid 40s. more on the
same account, and in the whole, between 5th June and l7th
July, he was paid 5^., as large a sum as he usually obtained
for a new play.

We have no positive testimony of the success of " Cardi-
nal Wolsey," of which Chettle was the sole author ; but we
are led to infer it, because very soon afterwards we find no
fewer than four poets engaged upon the production of the
drama under the title of ''The Rising of Cardinal Wolsey,"
which, doubtless, related to his early life, luid to his gradual
advance in the favour of Henry VIll. These four poets were
Drayton, Chettle, Munday, and Wentworlh Smith; and so
many pens, we may conjecture, were employed, that the play
might be brought out with all dispatch, in order to follow up
the popularity of what may be looked upon as tiie second
part of the same " history." Another memorandum in Hen-
slowe's Diary tends to the same conclusion, for it appeitrs
that the play was licensed piece-meal by the Master of the
Revels, that it might be put into rehearsal as it proceeded,
and represented immediately after it was finished.

A farther point established by the same authority is, that
Henslowe expended an unusual amount in getting up the
drama. On the 10th Aug. 1601, he paid no less than 2ll. for
'* velvet, sattin, and tafieui" for the dresses, a sum equal now
to about 100^. Upon the costumes only, in the whole,
considerably more tlian 2002. were laid out^ reckoning the
viilue of money in 1601 at about five times its valt«e at
present.

We may conclude with tolerable certainty that Shakespear**
wrote " flenry the Eighth" in the winter of 1603-4, and
that it was first acted at the Globe soon after the commence-
ment of the season there, which seems to have begun t^^
wards the close of April, as soon as a tlieatre open to the
weather could be conveniently employed. The coronation
procession of Anne Bullen forms a prominent feature in the
drama; and as the coronation of James I. and Anne of Den-
f mark took place on the 24th July, 1603, we mav not unrea-
I sonably suppose that the audiences at the Globe were in-
; tended to be reminded of that event, and that the show, dc-
I tailed with such unusual minuteness in the folio of 1623, win;
' meant as a remote imitation of its splendour. The opinion,
I that Shakespeare's " Henry the Eighth " was undoubtedly
i written after the accession of James I., was expressed and
I printed by us nearly twenty years ago. The words "aged
' princess," (no part of the imputed addition by Ben Jonson)
I would never have been used oy Shakespeare during thfi Uf«
' of Elizabeth.

^IV

mTIlODUCTION TO THE PLAYS.

mflvle from the Fr3ncli of Amiot, Bishop of Anxerrc, and np-
pearfl to Imve been very popular: thonL'ii published at ii high
price (equal to nboiit 5/. of our present nK)nev\ it was
Beveral tiinea reprinted; and we nmy, perliups, presume that
our tjreut drammist made use of nii impresaion nearer his own
time, possibly that of loSft. In nmuy of the [irincipal
i^peeclios ho has followed this auiliciriiy witli verbal exact-
ness; and lie was indebted to it tor tlic wliolo conduct of Ids
plot. The action occupies le^s than four years, tbr it com-
meneea subsequent to tiie retirement of tlie people to Moms
Bacer in 262, at\er the foundation of Koine, and terminates
with the death of CorioUmus in A. U. C, 268.

"The Tragedy of Coriolanns" originally appeared in tlie
folio of 1623, wliere it is divided into acts but n<>t into scenes;
and it was registered at Stationern' Hall by Blount and Jag-
gard on the 8th of November of that year, as one of the
"copies" which had not been "entered to other men."
Hence we infer that there had been no previous edition of it
ir) quarto. Malone supposed that " Coriolauus " was written
in 1610; but wc are destitute of all evidence on the point,
beyond what may be derived from the style of cuuiposition :
this would certainly induce us to tix it somewliat hitc in the
oiireer of our great dramatist.

It is on the whole well printed for the time in the folio of
1623; but in Act ii. sc. 3, eitlier the transcriber of tlie ntanu-
script or the compositor must have omitted a line, which
I'ope supplied from conjecture (with the aid of North's
Plutarcli), and which has ever since been received into ilie
text, because it is absolufely necessary to tliK intelligibility
of the passage. For the sake of greater distinction, we have
printed the line within brackets, besides pointing out the
circumstance in a note.

TITUS ANDRONICLTS.

The most lamentable Romaine Tr£^edie of Titus Andronicus.
Ah it hatli sundry limes beene playde by the Right Honour-
able the Eiirle of Pembrooke, tne Earle of Darbie, the Earle
of Sussex, and the Lorde Chamberlaine theyr Seruants. At
London, Printed by I. E. for Kdward White, and are tobee
solde at his alioppe, at the little North doore of Puulcs, at
the ftigne of the Gun. 1600. 4to. 40 leaves.
The most lamentable Tragedie of Titua Andronicup. As it
hath sundry times beene plaide by the Kins"s Maiesties
Seruants. London, Printed for Eedward White, and iireto
bewolde at his shojipe, nere the little North dore of Pauls,
At the sit^neof the Gun. 1611. 4to. 40 leaves.
In the folio of 1623, " The Lamentable Tntgedy of Titus An-
dronicus" occupies twenty-two pages, in the division of
"Traerediea," viz. from p. 31 to p, 52 inclusive. The three
later folios, of course, insert it in tne same part of the volume.
We feel no hesitation in assigning " Titus Andronicus" to
8ha]^£:»peare. Whether he may lay claim to it as the author
of the entire tragedy, or only in a qualified sense, as having
a more difficult question.

We find it£rivon to him by his contemporary, Francis Meres,
in liiN Pallodi(t 'J'amiaj 1598, where lie mentions " Titus An-
dronicus" in immediate connection with "Richard II.,"
" Richard III.," " Henry IV.," " Kinar .lohn," and " Romeo
and Juliet." It was also inserted in tlie folio of 1623 by
Shakciipeiire's fellow-actors, Heminge and Coudeli, and they

f lace it between "Coriolanus" and "Romeo and Juliet."
lad it not been by our great dramatist, Meres, who was well
acquainted with the literature of his time, would not have
attributed it to him; and the player-editors, who had been
Shakespeare's " fellows and friends," and were men of char-
acter and experience, would not have included it in their vol-
ume. These two facts are, in our view, sufficient^.

It was, undoubtedly, one of his earliest, if not his very
earliest dramatic production. We are not to suppose that at
the time he first joined a theatrical company in London, when
he might not be more than twenty-two or twenty-three years
old, his style wiis as formed and as matured as it afterwards
t)«canie : all arc aware that there is a most marked distinction
i»etween his mode of composition early and late in life ; nsex-
rihiled, for instance, in" J jove's Labour's Lost," and in "The
Winter's Ta-e ;" and we apprehend that " Titus Anilronicus"
twlongs to a period even anterior to the former. Supposing
" Titus Andronicus" to have been written about 158S, we are

' W» consider Ravenscroft's testimony, in his alteration of "Titua
Vndronious," (acted about 1678, and printed nine years afterwardjs)
■if very little value : in his suppressed rpilotiuc he a-^serted it to be the
anquei-tionable work of Shakespeare, while in his preface to the
printed copy in I0a7, he mentions it as a stage-tradition, that Shake-

to recollect that our dramatic poets wore then only beginning
to throw otf the shackles of rhyme, and their versification par-
took of the weight and monntony which were the usual accom-
paniments of couplfts. "Titus Anironicus" is to be read
under this impression, and many p:t»»sagefl will then be found
in it which, we think, are remarkablt! indi(?ations of ^klll and
power in an unpractised dramatist: as a poetical production
It has not hitherto had justice done to it, on aeeount. partly,
of the revolting nature of the plot. Compared with the ver-
sifie;ition of Greene, Peele, or Loijire, the lines in " Titus An-
dronicus" will be found to run with ease and variety, and
iheyare scarcely inferior to the later and better productions
of Marlowe. Neither is internal evidence wiiolly wanting, foi
words and phrases employed by Shakespeare in his other
works may he pointed out ; and in Act iii. sc. 1, we meet a !o-
markable expression, which is also contained in " Venus aiid

With reference to the general complexity of the drama, and
the character of the plot, it must also be borne in mind that
it was produced at a time, when scenes of horror were especi-
ally welcome to public audiences, and when pieces were actu-
ally recommended to their admiration in consequence of the
blood and slaughter with which they aliounded. Shukes|)eare,
perhaps, took up the subject on this account, and he worked
It out hi such a way aH, prior to the introduction and forma-
tion of a purer taste, would best gratify those for whose
amui^ement it was intended.

The oldest known edition of "Titus Andronicus" bear*
date in 1600 : two copies of it are extant, the one in the collec-
tion of Lord Francis Kijerion, now before us, and the otlier
in the Signet Library at Edinburgh. This second copy wad
not discovered until very recently, and we feel convinced that
a Tnore ancient impression will some time or otlier again be
brought to light. That it once existed, we have the testimony
of Langbaiue, in bis " Account of EuLdish Dramatic Poets,"
8 vo. 1691, where he tells us that the play was "first printed
4to. Lond. 1594." Consistently with this assertion we tmd the
following entry in the Registers of the Stationers' Company : —

"6 Feb. 1693
John Dantftr] A booke entitled a noble Roman Historye of
Tytus Andronicus."

The Stationers' books contain several subsequent memo-
randa respecting "Titus Aiidronicus," bearintr date ]9li'
Anril, 1602, 14th Dec. 1624, and 8lh Nov. 1G30; but noiiw
which seems to have relation to the editions of 1600 an*
1611. No quarto impressions of a subsequent date are known,
and the tragedy next apfteared in the folio of 1623. The folic
of a short scene in the third Act, which otherwise, according
to the divisions theie adopted, would have consisted of only
one scene.

The wording of the title-page of the edition of 1600 is re-
markable, although it has hitherto been passed over without
due notice : it professes that the drama liad been played not
only by " the Lord Chamberlain's servunts," of wliom Shake-
speare was one, but by the theatrical servants of the Karl of
Pembroke, the Earl oi* Derby, and the Earl of Su-->sex. The
performance of Shakespeare's plays seems alnnst uniformly
to have heen confined to the comjiany to which he V)elonged ;
but we know from Henslowe's Diary that betw 'en 3rd June,
1594, and 15th Nov, 1596, the Lord Chamberla'n's servanti
were acting in apparent conjunction with thos^e of the Lord
Admiral' : one of the plays, enumerated by Henslowe a.s hav
ing been acted in this interval, is " Tiuis Andronlens," which
circumstance he records under date of 12th June, 1594. This
may have been the very play Shakespeare had written, and
which having been thus represented by several companies,
although the Eiirl of Nottingham's servants was not one of
them, the fact was stated on the title-page of the earliest ex-
tant impression. It is to be observed, however, tluit Ilenslowe
has an entry of the performance of " Titus Andronicus" oi»
tlie 23rd Jan. 1593-4, when it appears to liavc been a new
play. The "Titus Andronicus," tnerefore, acted on TJth June,
1594, may have been a repetition of a drama, which possibly
had been got up for Henslowe, in consequence of the success
of a tragedy upon the same story, the )>roperty of a rival
company. There can be little doubt that Shakespeare's "Ti-
tus Andronicus" v/ns written several years earlier.

It is very possible that Shakespeare's " Titus Andronicus"
was founded upon some anterior dramatic performance, but
on this point we have no evidence beyond what may bo col

Bpeare only gave " some master-touches to one pv two ot the principal
characters."

a Pee " The Memoirs of Edward AUevn," pnl lished by the i^hake-
speare Sof^iety, p. 'i'2. The theatre the l-ord Chamberlain's and the
Lord Admiral's players jointly occupied, was thai at Newington Butis

INTRODUCTION TO THE PLAYS.

cv

eilcd from tlie piece itself, in certain real or supposed dissimi-
larities of composition.

Wtien Dnnter entered tlie " noble Roman History of Titus
Audrouicus" iu 1S93, he coupled with it " the ballad thereof,"
which probably is the same printed in Percy's "Keliqiies,"
I'd. i. p. 241, )Ait. 1812. A play called " Andronicus" is men-
tit)ned by Be.i Jonson in the Induction to his '^ Bartholomew
Fair," (played first in 1614,) as apiece of twenty-five or thirty
years standing. Tliis may have been Shakespeare's trao:edy,
that acted by Henslowe's company, or a drama wliich liad
served as a foundation of both. Tlie oldest notice of " Titus
Andronicus" (e.Koeptinir that by Meres) is contained in a tract
called " Father Hubbard's Tales, or The Ant and the Ni^ht-
iiis;ale,"4to, 1604, imputed to Thomas Middleton, where (Sign.
E. 8) the author speaks of the " lamentable action of one arm,
like old Titus Andronicus." The loss of his liand by the
hero wend no doubt form an ineideut in every drama written
upon the subject.

EOMEO AND JULIET.

An excellent conceited Tragedie of Romeo and luliet. As it
hiith been often (with great applause) plaid publiqucly, by
the right Hononnihle tlie L. of Hunsdon hi.s Seruants. Lou-
don, Printed by lohn Banter. ISST. 4to. 89 leaves.
The most excellent and Uimontable Tragedie. of Romeo and
hiliet. Newly corrected, autrniented, and amended : As it
liath bene sundry times publiquely acted, by the right Hon-
ourable the Lord Clnunberlaine his Seruants. London
Printed by Thomas Creede, for Cuthbert Burby, and are to
be sold at his shop neare the Exchange. 1599. 4to. 46 leaves.
The most excellent and I^amentable Tragedie, of Romeo and
Juliet. As it hath beene sundrie times nubliquely Acted,
by the Kings Maiestles Seruants at the Globe. Newly oor-
rected, augmented and amended ; London Printed tor lohn
Smethwiok,^and are tube sold at his Shop in Saint Dnn-
Btanes Church-yard, in Fleetestreete vuder the Dyall. 1609.
4to. 46 leaves.
In the filioof 162? "The Tragedie of Romeo and luliet"
occupies twenty-tlve pagCE, viz. from p. ."iS to p. 79, inclu-
sive, in the division of " Tragedies.'' It fills the siune space
m the folios of 1632, 1664, and 168.5.

It is certain tliat ihere was an English play upon toe siory
of Romeo and .luliet before the year 1562 ; aiid the fact estab-
lishes that, even at that early date, our dramatists resorted to
Italian novels, or trunslations of them, for the subjects of their
productions. It is the most ancient piece of evidence of tlie
kind yet discovered, and it is given by Artlinr Brooke, who
tn that year published a narrative poem, called " The Tragicall
Historye of Romeus and Juliet." At the close of his address
" to the Reader" he observes :— " Though I saw the same argu-
ment lately set forth onstage with more commendation than I
Can look for (being there mucli better set forth, than I have, or
cjin do), yet the same matter, penned as it is, may serve the
like good effect." (Hist, of Englisli Dramatic Poetry and the
been received " with commendation," and that Brooke' him-
self, unquestionably a competent judge, admits its excellence.
We can scarcely suppose that no other drama would be
founded upon the same interesting incidents between l.i62
and the date when Shakespeare wrote his tragedy, a period
of, prob.ably, more than thirty years; bnt no hint 'of the kiod
is given in any record, and certainly no snch work, either man-
nscript or printed, baa come down to ns. Of the extreme pop-
ularity of the story we have abundant proof, and of a remote
date. It was included by William Paynter in the*' second
tome" of his " Palace of Pleasure," the dedication of which
he dates 4th Nov. 1667 : and in old writers we find frequent
mention of the hero and heroine. Tiiomas Dalapeend gives
the following brief " argument" in his " l'lea.<iant Fable ol
Hermaphroditus and Salmacis," 1565 : — " A noble mayden of
the eytye of Verona, in Italye, whyche loved Romeus, eldest
Aonne of the Lorde Montesche, and beinge pryvelye maryed
logyther, he at last poysoned hym selfe for love of 'her : she,
for sorowe of his deatiie. slewe her selfe in the same tonibe
with hys dagger." B. Rich, in his "Dialogue Iretwene Mer-
cury and a SoulHier," 1574, says that " thepittifull history of
Romeus and Julietta," was so well known as to be represented
on tajiestry. It is again alluded to in "The Gorgeous Gal-
lery of Gallant Inventions," 1578; and in "A Foore Knight
His Palace of Private Pleasure," 1579. Austin Saker's " Nar-
honus," 1580, contains the subsequent passage : — " Had Ro-
meus bewrayed his mariage at the first, and manifested the
hitent of his meaning, he had done very wisely, and gotten
licence for the lives of two faithful friends." A'f>er this date
the mention of tht story becomos evoL more frequent, and

sometimes more particular ; and our inference is, that it owed
part of its popularity, not merely to printed narratives In
prose or %'erse, nor to the play spoken of by Brooke in 1662,
but to subsequent dramatic representations, perhaps, more or
less founded upon that early drama.

How fur Shakespeare might be indebted to any sucli pro-
duction we have no meansof deciding ; but Malone, Steeveiis,
and others have gone upon the supposition, that Shakexpeare
was only under obligations either to Brooke's poem, or to
Paynfer's novel ; and least of all do tliey seem to have con-
templated the possibility, that he might have obtained assist
ance from some foreign source.

Arthur Brooke avowed that he derived his materials from
Bandello (Part ii. Nov. 9), la ffm-tvnata morU di (foe in/d^
cistimi Amanti, Ac. ; and Paynter very literally translated
Boisteau's HUtoire de dfux Amans, d-c, in the collection of
poem and Paynter's prose version have recently been reprint-
ed in a work called " Shakespeare's Library," where the an-
tiquity of the story is considered. Steeveiis was disposed to
think that our great dramatist had obtained more from Payn-
ter than from Brooke, while Malone supported, and we think,
established, a contrary opinion. He examined a number of
minute points of resemblance; but, surely, no doubt can be
entertained by those who only compare the following short

Sassage from a speech of FriarLaurence with tliree lines from
rooke'a " Romeus and Juliet."

" Art thou a man ? Thy form cries out thou art ;
Thy tears are womanish ; thy wild acts denote
The unreasonable fury of a beast.'* — (Act iii. sc. 3.)

This, as will be seen from what is subjoined, is almost ver-
bally fnmi Brooke's poem : —

" Art thou," quoth he, " a man ? thy shape saith so thou art ;
Thy crying and thy weeping' eyes denote a woman's heart • •
If thou a man or woman wert, or els a brutish beast."

(Sakesp. Lib. part vii. p. 43.)

Shakespeare's " Romeo and Juliet" originally came out, but
in an imperfect manner, in 1597, quarto. This edition is in
two different types, and was probably executed in haste Ijy
two different printers. It has generally been treated as an
aiithorized impression from an authentic manuscript. Such,
after the mo.-,t careful examination, is not our opinion. We
think that the manuscript used by the printer or priuters (no
'ot»okselier'8 or stationer's name is placed at the bottom of the
title-pagej was made up, partly from poitions of the play as
it was acted, but unauly obtained, and partly from notes taken
at the theatre during representation. Our principal ground
for this notion is, that there is such great inequality in differ-
ent scenes and speeches, and in some places precisely that
degree and kind of imperfcctness, which would belong to
manuscript prepared from defective short-hand noles. A«
Steeveiis printed the first and the third edition of "Romeo
and Juliet" in his "Twenty Quartos," a comparison, to te.'-l
the truth of our remark, may be readily made. We do not
of course go the length of contending that Shakespeare did
not alter and improve the play, subsequent to its earliest pro-
duction on the stage, but merely that the quarto, 1697, does
not contain the tragedy a;; it was originally represented. The
second edition was printed in 1599, and it professes to have
been " newly corrected, augmented, and amended ;" the third
dated edition appeared in 1609 ; but some copies without a
date are known, which most likely were posterior to 1609, but
anterior to the appearance of the folio in 1623. The quarto,
1687, is of no authority.

out ten years earlier ; and the repetition, in the folio of 1623,
of some decided errors of the press, shows that it was a re-
print of the quarto, 1609. It is remarkable, that although
every early quarto imi^ression contains a Prologue, it was not
transferred to the folio. The quarto, 1697, has lines not in
the quartcis, 1599, 1609, nor in the folio: and thefilio, reprint-
ing tlie quarto, 1609, besides ordinary errors, makes several
important omissions. Our text is tliat of the quarto, l.>9?,
compared, of course, with the quarto, 1609, and with the folio
of 1623, and in some p'laces importantly assisted by the quarto
of 1697. Of the value of this assistance, as regards particu-
lar words, we will only give a single instance, out of many,
from Act iii. ac. 1, where Benvolio, in reference to the confliol
between Mcrcutio and Tybalt, says of Romeo,

" His agilt arm beats down their fatal points."
The quartos, 1599 and 1609, and the folio of 1628, absurdly
read ''■ afied arm :" and the editor of the folio of 1632 substi-
tuted ^^ able arm:" the true word, for wliich no substitntfl
equally good could be found, is only in the quarto, 1.597.

It will be observed that on the title-page of the onarto,
1597, it is stated that "Borneo a'.i Juliet" was actul by the

CVl

ENTKODUCTION TO THE PLAYS.

players of Lord llun^don ; and hence Miilone Rrgned that it
niuat hrtve been first pert'nrnicd and printed between July,
159, and Anril, 1597. Tlie coinpjiny to which Shiikespeare van attachea called themselves " the servants of the Lord Chamberhiin." Henry Lord Hunwdon died Lord Chimiber- liiin on 22nd July, 15lt*6, and his sou George succeeded to the title, but not to the office, wiiich, in August, was conferred upon Lord Cobliam. Lord Cobham filled it until his deiith ui March subsequent to his appointment, very soon after wliich event George Lord Ilunsdon was niiide Lord Oluun- l»erhiin. It seems that the theatrical servants of Henry Lord Hunsdon, Lord Chamberlain, did not. on hi.s decease, truns- I'er their services to his successor in office. Lord Cobham. but Vf his successor in title, George Lord Hunsdon, an<l called rhemselves the servants of that nobleman in the interval be- U'een the death of his fatiier on 22nd July, 1596, aiul 17th April, 15i^, when ho himself became Lord Chamberlain. MiJone concludes that in this interval, while those players who had been the servants of the Lord Chamberlain called •homselvea the Bervants of Lord Hunsdon, "Romeo and Juliet " was first performed and printed ; and that, in conse- quence, the title-page of the first edition states, that it had Iweii played by "the L. of Hunsdon his servants." The answer that may be made to this argument is, that though the tragfdy was printed in 1597, as it had been acted by L'Td Hunsdon's servants, it does not follow that it might not have been played some years before by the same actors, when calling themselvce the Lord Chamberlain's servants. This is true ; and it is not to be disputed that there is an nllu- siun in one of the speeches of tlie Nurse (Act i. sc. 3) to an earthquake whlcli, she stales, had occurred eleven years before : — ^ But as I said. It is remarkable that in no edition of " Romeo and Jnl!*t.** printed anterior to the publication of the folio of 1623, do wfl find Shakespeare's name upon the title-page. Yet Mercs, iu his Palladis 7'amia, had distinctly assigned it to >iim in 1598: and although the name of the author might be j-urposcly left out in the inincrfccL copy of 1597, there would seem to be nc reason, especially after the announcement by Meres, for uot inserting it in the " corrected, augmented, and amended'* edition of 1599. But it is wanting even in tlie impression ot 16U9, although Shakespeare's popularity must then liave been at its height. "King Lear, in 1608, had been somewhat ostentatiously called " M. William Shake-speare, his, &c. Life and Death of King Lear;" and liis Sonnets, in 1609, were recommended to purchasers, as " Shake-speare's Sonnetf." in unUBually large characters on the title-page. On Lammas eve at night shall she be fourteen ; That shall she, maxry ; 1 remember it well. 'T is since the tiarthquake now eleven years ; And she was wean'd." It has been supposed that this passage refers to the earth- quake of 1580, and, consequentJy, that the play was written in 1591. However, those who read the whole speech of the Nurse cannot fail to remark such discrepancies in it as to render it impossible to arrive at any definite conclusion, even if we suppose that Shakespeare intended a reference to a par- ticular earthquake in England. First, the Nurse tells us, that Juliet was in a course of being weaned ; then, that she could Htinid alone ; and, thirdly, that she could run alone. U wonid have been rather extraordinary if she could not, for even aooording to the Nurse's own calculation the child wiis vt-ry •nearly three years old. No fair inference can, therefore, he JrawQ from the expression, " 'T is since the earthouake now eleven years," and wo coincide witli Malone that the tragedy was probably written towards the close of 1596^ Another trifling circumstance may lead to the belief that ** Romeo and Juliet " was not written, at all events, until after 1594. In Act ii. (not Act iii., as Malone state«^ there is an ftllusion, in the words of Mercutio— " a gentleman of the very first house — of the first and second cause,'''* — to a work on duelling, called " Vinoentio Saviolo his Practise." That hook was first j)rinted in 1594, and again in 1595, and the issue of the second impression might call Shakespeare's attention to it just betbre he began " Komeo and Juliet." We have already seen "Vinoentio Saviolo his Practise" more particu- larly referred to in "As You Like It." We place little reliance upon the allusion in "Romeo and Juliet," because " the first and second cause" are also mentioned in " Lnve's Labour's Lost," though tho'passage may, like some others, have been an insertion just prior to Christmas, 1598. Malone hastily concluded from a reference in Marston's ftstires, that Shakespeare's " Romeo and Juliet " was acted at 'he Curtain Theatre, in Shoreditch ; but we can' be by no .7iean3 sure that Marston, by the terms "Curtain planditiea," did not mean applauses at any theatre, for all had " curtains," r.nd we have r.o trace that any other of our great dramatist's playe was acted at the Curtain. The subject must hf.ve been & favourite with the public, and it is more than probable that rival companies had contemnoraneous plays upon the same Btory. (See the Memoirs of Edward Alleyn, p. 19.) To some Biece formed upon the Siune incidents, and represented at the urtain Thentre, Marston may have referred. * The Reiristers of the Stationers' Company throw little light u])on Uie question when "Romeo and Juiiet" was first written On 5 A05. ITiOr*, Kdward White entered "A newe ballad of Romeo and Juliett," which may possibly have been the tragedy, printed (without a Vookseller's name) in 1597, though called only a bnUnd. On 22 Jan. U>n6 -7, " R-iin«o and Juliet " (togetber with " Lovf's I*abour 's Ln^^t " TIMON OF ATHENS. " The Life of Tymon of Athens " first appeared in the folio of 1628, where it occupies, in the division of " Tnif/edies," twenty-one paKes, numbered from p. 80 to p. 9S inclusive ; but pp. 81 and 82, by an error, are repeated. Page 98 is followed bya leaf, headed, "The Actors' Names," and the list of characters tills the whole page : the back of it is left blank. The drama bears the same title in the later folios. Shasespearb is supposed not to have written '^Tinion oi Athens" until late in his theatrical career, and Malone bus fixed upon 1810 as the probable date when it came from his pen. We know of no extrinsic evidence to confirm or contra- dict this opinion. The tragedy was printed in 1623, in the foiio edited by Heminge and Condell ; and having been inserted in the Registers of the Stationers' Company as a {iljiy " not formerly entered to other men,'^ we may infer tlmt it had not previously come from the press. The vei-sifio»lioti is remarkably loose and irregular, but it is made to appear more so by the manner in which it was originally 'printed. The object, especially near the close, seems to have been to make the drama occupy as much space as could be conveniently filled : consequently, many of tlie lines are arbitrarily divided into two : the drama extends to p. 9S in the folio, in the divi- sion of " Tragedies ;" what would have been p. 99, if it h:i i been figured, contains a list of the cliaracters, and what wouM have been p. 100 is entirely blank : the next leaf, being tha first page ot " Julius CaBsar," is numbered 109. It is pos>ible that another printer began wiih " Julins Caesar," and that a miscalculation was made as to the spsice which would be occu- Sied by " Coriolanus," "Titus Andronicns," "Romeo and uliet," and " Timon of Athens." The interval between what would have been p. 100 of the folio of 1623, and p. 109, which immediately follows it, may at all events be in this way explained. There is an apparent want of finish about some portions of "Timon of Athens," wliile others are elaborately wrought. In his Lectures in 1815, Coleridge dwelt upon this discordance of style at considerable length, but we find no trace of it in the published fragments of his Lectures in 1818. Coleridge said, in 1815, that he saw the same vigorous hand at work throughout, and gave no countenance to the notion, that any parts of a previously existing play had been retained in "Timon of Athens," as it had come down to us. It was Shakespeare's throughout; ana, as originally written, he apprehended that it was one of the author's most compli-te performances; the players, however, he felt convinced, had done the poet much injustice ; and he especially instanced (as indeed ho did in 1818) the clumsy, " clap-trap " blow at tliu Puritans in Act iii. so. 3, as an interpolation oy the actor ol the part of TimonV servant. Coleridge accounted for the ruggedness and inequality of the versification upon the same principle, and he was persuaded that only a corrupt and im- perfect copy had come to the hands of tlie player- editors o* the folio of 1623. Why the manuscript of "Timon of Athen" '* should have been more mutilated, than that from which other dramas were printed for the first time in the same v'olum'^, was a question into which he did not enter. His admiratiuu of some parts of the tragedy was unbounded ; but he main- tained that it was, on the whole, a painful and disagreeable production, because it gave only a disadvantageous picture of human nature, very inconsistent with what, he nrmly be- lieved, was our great poet's real view of the characters of his and "The Taming of a Shrew") was entered to "Mr. Linffe," with consent ot ' Mr Burby " On 19 Nov. 1GU7, John Smythick entered "Hamlet," "The Taming of a Shrew," "Romeo and JuUei," and " Love's Labour's Lost,"ai having derived h;s pT-nperty in tbem fn»iB Linpre. i:tirrRODUCTioN to the plays. evil fellow creatures. He said that the whole piece was a bitter | dramatic satire, — a species of writinisr in which Sh:ikef*peare| had sbo« ^, as in all oiher kinds, that he could reach the very ; higliest point of excellence. Coleridge could not help sub- , pecting that the subject might have been taknu up under Homo temporary feeling of vexation and disappointment. How far this notion is well founded can of courRe be matter of mere speculation j but a whole play could hardly be com- po-cd under a transient tit of irritation, and to us it aeems more likely, that in this instance, as in others, Shakespeare adopted the story because he thought he could make it acceptable as a dramatic representation. We agree with Farmer in thinking that there probably existed some earlier popular play of which Timon was the hero. The novels in f^aynter's " Palace of Pleasure " were the common property of the poets of the dav \ and " the strange and beastly nature of Timon of Athens is inserted in the first volume of that ooliection, which came out before 1567. Paynter professes to have derived hif* brief materials from the life of MarcAntcny, in Plutarch ; but Sir Thomas North's translation having ninde iia appearance iu 1579, ail the circumstances may have been familiar to most readers. True it is, that Shakespeare does not appear to have followed these authorities at all closely, and there may have been some version of Lucian then current with which wo are now unacquainted. To these sources dramatists preceding S'-.nkespeare may have resorted; and we find Timon so otieT mentioned by writers of the period, that his habits and dlsp'flitiun, perhaps, had also been miule known through the meilium of tlie stage. Shakespeare him- pelf introduces Timou into "Love's Labour's Lost," which, in its original shape, nmst certainly have been one of our great dramatist's earlv plays. In Edward Guilpin's «)llection of Epigrams and Satires, published, under the title of **Skiii!etheia,*' iu 1598, we meet with the following line, (Epigr. 52.) which seems to refer to some scene iu which Timon had been represented : — *' Like hate-man Timon in his cell he sits :" And in the anonymous play of " Jack Drum's Entertainment," printed in 1601, one of the characters uses these expressions : — "But if all the brewers' jadps in the town can drag me from the fore of mvself, they shall do more than e'er the seven wise men of Greece could. Com.e, come ; now PU be as sociable aa Tiraon of Athens." We know also that there existed about that date a play upon the subject of Timon of Athena. The original manu- Boript of it is in the library of the Kev. Alex:ander Dyce, who has recently superintended an impression of it for the Shake- speare Snciety. He gives it as his opinion, that it wiia " intended for the amusement of an academic audience," and although the epilogue may be considered rather of a contrary complexion, the learned editor is probably ricrht: it is, how- ever, nearly certain that it was acted ; and although it will not bear a moment's comparison with Shakespeare's *' Timon of Athens," similar incidents and persons are contained in botli. Thus, Timon is in the commencement rich, bountiful, and devoured by flatterers : he becomes poor, and is at once deserted by all but his faithful steward ; — but before he aban- dons Athens in disgust, he invites his parasites to a last banquet, where he gives them stones painted to reseinblo artichokes, which he flings at them as he drives them out of his hall. Shakespeare represents Timon as regaling his guests with warm water ; but it is very remarkable, that at the end of Ills mock-banquet scene, after the hero has quitted tlie stage, leaving certain lords behind him, upon whom he hud thrown the warm -\*ater, ihe following dialogue occurs : — '*! Lord. Let's make no stay. 2 Loril. Lord Timon 's mad. 3 Lord. 1 feel 't upon my bones. 4 Lord. One day he gives us diamonds, next day stones.''^ Shakespeare's Timon had cast no " stones '' at his guests, and the above extract reads exdotly as if it had formed part of S')me play in which stones (as in tlie " Timon " edited by the Uev. A, Dyce) hid been employed instead of warm water. Unless stones had been thrown, there could, as Steevens observes, be no propriety in the mentiouof them oy the fourth Lord; and though Shakespeare may not have seen the aca- Jemic play to which wc have alluued, a fragment may bv accident have found its way into his *' Timon of Athens,*' which belontred to some other drama, where the banqnet- Bcene was difl'erently conducted. It is just possible that nnr great dramatist, at some subsequent date, altered his original raught. and by oversight lef^ in the rhyming couplet with which the third Act concludes. "We need not advert to other ^semblances between the academic play and '* Timon of Athens," becaus* by the liberality of the possessor of the man- uscript, it may bf :»ow said to have become public property. JULIUS C^SAR. ["The Tragedio of Julius Casar " was first printed in ths foliooflf>23, where it occnpieslwenty-two pages; viz. from n. 109 to p. 180 inclusive, m the division of *' Tragedies." The Acts, but not the Scenes, are distinguished ; and it appeared in the same manner in the three later folios.] No early quarto edition of *' Julius Caesar " is known, and there is reason to believe that it never appeared in that form. The manuscript originally used for the folio of 1623 mnev; have been extremely perfect, and free from corruptions, for there is, perhaps, no drama iu the volume more accurately printed. Malone and others have arrived at the conclusion that *' Julius CflBsar" could not have been wriften before 1607. We think there is good ground for believing that it was acted before 1603. We found this opinion upon some circumstances connected with the publication of Drayton's "Barons' Wars," and the resemblance between a stanza there found, and a passage in '* Julius Caesar," both of which it will be necessary to quote. In Act V. flc. 6, Antony gives the following character oi Brutus : — ** His life was pentle ; and the elements So mix'd in him, that Na'ure might stand up And say to all the world. This was a tnan.^'' In Drayton's " Barons' Wars," book iii. edit. 8vo., 1608, we meet with the subsequent stanza. The author is speaking of Mortimer: — " Such one he was, of him we boldly say. In whose rich soul all sovereign powers did suit, In whom in peace fA' elements all lay So miz^it, as none could sovereignty impute ; As all did govern, yet all did obey : His lively temper was so absolute. That 't seem'd, when heaven hia model first hegan. In him it shew'd perfection in a man." Italic type is hardly necessary to establish that one poet must have availed himself, not only of the thought, but of the very words of the other. The question is, was Shakespeare indebted to Drayton, or Drayton to Shakespeare ? We shell not enter into general probabilities, founded upon the original and exhaustless stores of the mind of our great dramatist, but advert to a few dates, which, we think, warrant the conclu- sion that Drayton, having heard "Julius Csesar " at tho theatre, or seen it in manuscript before 1603, applied to hia own purpose, perhaps unconsciously, what, in fact, belonged to another poet. Drayton's '* Barons' Wars " first appeared in 1596, quarto, under the title of " Mortimeriados.'' Malone had a copy without date, and he and Steevens imagined that the poem had origimiUy been printed in 1508. In the quarto of 1596, and in the undated edition, it is not divided into books, and is in seven-line stanzas: and what is there said of Moitimer bears no likeness whatever to Shakespeare's expressions in " Julius ''aesar." Drayton afterwards changed the title from *' Mortimeriados " to "The Barons' WHr^," and re-modelled the whole historical poem, altering the stanza from the English ballad form to the Italian ottava 'rima. This course he took hef>re 1608, when it came out in octavo, with the stanza first quoted, which contains so marked a similarity to the lilies from " Julius C«esar." AVe appre-hend that he did so because he had heard or seen Shakespeare's tragedy before 1603; and we think that strong presumptive proof that he was the borrower, and not Shakespeare, is derived from the fact, that in the subnequent impressions of "The Barons* Wars," in 1605, 1608. 1610, and 1613, the stanza remained precisely as in the edition of 1603; but that in 1619, after Shakespeare's death and before " Juliut* Caesar" tvas printed, Drayton made even a nearer approach to the words of his original, thus : — *' He wa? a man, then boldly dare to say, In whose rich soul the virtues well did suit; ill whom su mix^d the elements did lay, That none to one could sovereignty impute; As all did govern, so did tJll obey : He of a tfimper was so ahsolute, Aa that it seem'd, when Nature him began, She meant to show all that might be in man.'" Wfa have been thus particular, because the point is obvi- ously of importance, as rt^gards the date when " Julius Ctesar " was brought upon the stage. Malone seems to have tliought that " The Barons' Wars " continued under its original name and in its first shape until the edilion of 1608, and concluded that the resemblance to Shakespeare wiis first to be traced ir evil INTRODUCTION TO THE PLAYS. tliat impression. IIo nnd not consultetl the copies of 1603, or 1605 (wliioli were not in hi» possession), for if lie liail l(iol;cd at tiieni he must liiive seen tlnit Drayton Imd copied " Julius C«eaar"iia early b» 1603, and, consequently, unless Shal;c- speare imitated Drayton, that tliat tragedy must tiien liuve been in existence. , That Drayton had not remodelled liis " Mortimeriados " as late us 1602, we patlier from the circum- Btnnce, tiiat iie reprinted his poems iti that year without *' The Barons' Wars " in any form or under any title. Anotlier sligiitcircumstance^miiflit be adduced to show that "Julius Csesar" was even an oidv>r triiisredy than " Hamlet." In the latter (Act iii. sc. 2) it is sL'd that Julius Ceesar was * killed in the Capitol :" in Shakespeare's drama such is the representation, although contrary to tlie truth of history. This sesnis to have been the popular notion, and wc find il confirmed in Sir Edward Dyer's " Prayse of Nothing," ISS-i, quarto, a tract unknown to every hibiiograplier, where these words occur: " Thy stately Ca'pitol (proud Konie) had not beheld the bloody fall of pacified Coesar, if nothing had accom- panied him." Robert Greene, asrraduateof both Universities, makes the same statement, and Shakespeare may have fol- lowed Bome older play, whei-e the assassination scene wits laid in the Capitol : Chaucer had so spoken of it in his " Monk's Tale." It is not, liovvever, likely that Dr. Eedes, wlio wrote a Latin acjideinicul play on the story, acted at Oxford in 1582, Bliould have committed the error. Shakespeare appears to have derived nearly all his materials from Plutarch, as translated by Sir Thomas North, and first published in 1579'. At the same time, it is not unlikely that tiiere was a preceding play, and our reason for thinking so is assigned in a note in Act iii. sc i. It is a new fact, ascer- tained from an entry in Henslowe's Diary dated 22n<l May, 1602, that Antliony Mnnday, Michael Drayton, John Webste'r, Tlioina.s Middleton, and other poets, were engaged upon a tragedy entitled " Cffisar's Fall." The probability is, that these dramatists ttnited their exertions, in order without delay to bring out a traaredy on the same subject as tiiat of Shakespeare, which, perhaps, was then performing at the Globe Theatre with success. Malone states, that there is no proof that any contemporary writer " had presumed to new- model a story that had already employed the pen of Shake- speare." He forgot that Ben Jonson was engaged upon a ;' Richard Orookbaok " in 1602 ; and he omitted, when exam- ining Henslowe's Diary, to observe, that in the same year four distinguished dramatists, and "other poets," were employed upon " Caesar's Fall." From Vertue's manuscripts we learn tliat a play, called " Caesar's Tragedy," was acted at Court iu 161S, which might be the production of Lord Stirliiiir, ShaUespeare'e drama, that written by Munday, Drayton, Webster, Middleton, and others, or a play ]>riiited in 1607, under the title of " The Tragedy of Caesar and Pompey, or CsBsar's Revenge." Mr. Peter Cun- ningham, in his "Revels' Accounts," (Introd. p. xxv.) has shown that a dramatic piece, with the title of " The Tragedy of Cfflsar," was exhibited at Court on Jan. 81, 1686-7. MACBETH. ['* The Tnigedie of Macbeth " was first printed in the folio of 1628, where it occuj^ies twenty-one pa^ea ; viz, from p. 131 to p. 151 incluftive, in the division of " Trafredies." The Acts and Scenes are regularly marked there, as well as in the later folios.] Vhk only ascertained fact respecting the performance of '* Macboth," in the lifetime of ita author, is that it was repre- isented at the Globe Theatre on the 20th of April, 1610. Whether it wa*^ then a new play, it is impossible to decide; but we are inclined to think that it was not, and that Malone was rifrht in his conjectnro, that it was first acted about the year 1606. The subsequent account of the plot is derived from Dr. Simon Forman''s manuscript Diary, preserved in tlie Ashmolean Museum, from which it appears, that he saw " Macbeth" played at the Globe on the day we have stated : — " In Macbeth, at the Globe, 1 Gl 0, the 20th of April, Saturdp.y, there was to be observed, first, how Macbeth and Banquo, two noblemen of Scotland, ridinfj through a wood, there stood before them three women Fairies, or Nymphs, and saluted Macbeth, saying three times unto him, Hail, Macbeth, King of Coder, for thou shall be a King, but ehalt beget no Kings. &c. Then, said Banquo, What ! all to Macbeth, and nothing to me? Yes, said the Nymphs, Hail to lliee, Banquo : thon shalt beget Kings, yet be no King.' And so they departed, ana came to the Court of Scotland, to Duncan, King of Scots, and it was * Lord Stirling j)ublished a tragedy under the title of "Julius Cmsar." in 11)04: the respmblances aje by no meane numerous or obvious, and probably not more than may be accounted for by the tact, that lw3 wiiters were treating the 8am« lubject. The popularity in the days of Edward the Conf»Bor. And Dancsn bad thevi ootk kindly welcome, and made Macbeth forth wi^i Prince of Northumbar land ; and sent him home to his own Caslle, and appoin ed Macbett to provide for him, for he would sup with him tht< next i'^y at night, and did so. '• And Macbeth contrived to kill Duncan, and through the persuft sion of his wife did that night murder the iting in his own Cwtle. being his guest. And there were many pn-digiesseen that night and the day before. And when Macbeth had murdered the King, th« blood on hia hands could not be washed off by any means, nor frcm his wife's hands, which handled the bloody da{;gers in hiding them. by which means they became both much amazed and atfronted. "The murder being known. Dtincan's two sons fied, the one to England, the [other to] "Wales, to save themselves ; they, being fled, ^^ere supposed guilty of the murder of their father, which ww nothing so. '• Then was Macbeth crowned King, and then he for fear of Banquo, his old companion, that he should beget kings but be no king himwlf, he contriveu the death of Banquo, and caused him to be murdered ob tr.e way that he rode. The night, being at supper with his noble- men, whom he had bid to a feast, (to the which al.«o Banquo should have come.) he began to speak of noble Banquo, and to wish that lie were there. And as he thus did, standing up to drink a caxoute to him, the ghost of Banquo came, and sat down in his chair behind him. And he, turning about to sit down again, saw the ghoet ot Banquo, which fronted him. so that he fell in a great passion of feaj and fury, uttering many words about his murder, by which, whes they heard that Banquo was murdered, they suspected Macbeth. "Then Macduff fled to England to the King's son, and so they raised an army and came to Scotland, and at Dunston Anyse over- threw Macbeth. In the mean time, while I\lacdutf was in England, Macbeth slew Macduflf's wife and cliildren, andafter, in the battle Macduff slew Macbeth. '' Observe, also, how Macbeth's Queen did rise in the night in he- sleep, and walk, and talked and confessed all, and the Doctor noted her words." Onr principal reason for thinking that ** Macbeth " had been orifjinally represented at lea.st four years before 1610, i» the striking allusion, in Act iv. bc. 1, to tlie union of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland, in the hands of James I. That monarch ascended the throne in March, 1602-8, and the words, " Some I see. That two-fold balls and treble sceptres carry," would have had little point, if we suppose them to liavo been' delivered after the king who bore the balls and sceptres had been more than seven years on tlie thronA. James was pro- claimed kin? of Great Britain and lieland on tlie 24t,h cf October, 1604, and we may perhaps conclude that Shakespeare wrote " Miicbeth " in the year 1605, and tliat it was first acted at the Globe, when it was opened fur the summer season, iu the spring of 1606. Malone elaborately supports liis opinion, that ** Macbeth " was produced in 1606, by two allusions in the speech of the Porter, Act li. ac. 8, to the cheiipness of corn, ana to the doe- trino of equivocation, which had been supported by Robert Garnet, wlio was executed on the Sd of May, 1606. M'e are generally disposed to place little confidence in such paasno-es, not only because they are frequently (.tbscure in tlieir applica- tion, but because they may have been introduced at any subsequent period, either by the author or actor, with the purpose of exciting the applause of the iiudience, by reference to some circumstance then attracting public attention. W'e know that dramutists were in the constant habit of making additions and alterations, and that comic performers had the vice of delivering " more than was set down for them." Tiie siieech of tlie Porter, in which tlie two ^uppoaed temporary allusions are contained, is exnctly of the kind which tlie per- former of the part might be inelined to enlarge, nnd so strongly was Coleridge convinced tiiat it wns an interpoinlioH by the player, that he boldly ** nledgod himself to demonstmie it." (Lit. Rem. vol. ii. p. 285.) This notion was not new to him in 1818 ; for three years earlier he had publicly declined it in a lecture devoted to '* Macbeth," although lie admitted that there was something of Shakespeare in '* the primrose way to the everlasting bonfire." It may be doubted whether he would have made this concession, if lie had not recollected ** the primrose path of dalliance " in *' Hamlet." Shakespeare, doubtless, derived all the materials he required from Holinshed, without resorting to Boel hius, or to any othei authority. Steevens continued to maintain, thatShakespour* was indebted, in some degree, to Middlcton's *' Witch^' foi the preternatural portion of" Macbeth ;" but Malone, who at first entertftined the same view of the suhieet. ultimately abandoned it, and became convinced that *'Tne Witch " w»£ ft play written subsequently to the production of*' Maubeth." . of Shakespeare's tragedy about 1603 may have led to the printing o. n.at by Lord Sterling in 16U4, and on thi» account the date is cf con sequence. Malone appears to have known of no edition ol Lord Stirling's "Julius Citsar" until 1607 INTRODUCTION TO THE PLAYS. cix Those i» ho read the two will, perhnps, wonder how a doubt es^^uld have been entertained. " Tlie Witch," in all proba- bility, was not written until about 1613; and what must Shfpriae every body is, that a poet ot'Middleton'ft rank could *o aegrnde the awful laeine;.^ of Shakeapeare'8 invention ; for tlthough, as Lamb observer, ** the power of Middleton's witches is in some measure over the mind," (Specimens of KnsrI. Dram. Poets, p. 174,) they are of a degenerate race, as if, Shakespeare having* created Ihem, no other mind was satfioiently gifted even to continue their existence. Whether Shakespeare obtained his knowlcdcje regarding tliese agents, nnd of tiie locality he supposes them to have frtquented, from actual observation, is a point we have con- sidered in tlie Biography of the poet. The existing evidence on the question is there cnllected, and wo have shown, that ten years before t^ae date liitherto a^^igned to that circum- stance, a company called *' the Queen's Players " had visited Edinburgh. This fact is quite new in the history of the uitroduction of English theatrical performances into Scotland. That the Queen's comedians were north of the Tweed in 1599, on the invitation of James VI., we have distinct evidence: we know also that they were in Aberdeen in 1601, when the freedom of the city wan presented to Laurence Fletcher (the first name in the patent of 1608) ; but to establisii that they were in Edinburgh in 1539 gives much more latitude for speculation on the question, whether Shakespeare, in the interval of about fourteen years before James L ascended the throne of England, had at any time accompanied his fellow- actors to Scotland. At whatever date we suppose Shakespeare to have written *' Macbeth,'' we may perhaps infer, from a passage in Kemp's '* Nine Days' Wonder," 1600, that there existed a ballad upon tiie story, which may have been older than the tragedy : such is the opinion of the Rev. Mr. Dyce, in his notes to the reprint of this tract by the Camden Society, p. 34. The point, how- ever, is doubtful, and it is obvious that Kemp did not mean to be very intelligible : his other allusions to ballad-makers of his time are purposely obscure. *' Macbeth " was inserted by the player-editors in the folio of 1623 ; and, as in other similar cases, we may presume that it had not come from the press at an earlier date, because in the books of the Stationers' Company it is registered by Blount and Jaggard, on the 8th of November, 1623, as one of tlie nlavs " not formerly entered to other men." It has been handed down in an unusually complete state, for not only are the divisions of the acts pointed out, but the subdivisions of the scenes carefully and accurately noted. HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK. I The Tragicall Historic of Hamlet Prince of Denmarke By William Shake-apeare. As it hath beene diuerse times acted by his Highnesse seruant-s in the Cittie of London : as also in the two Vniuersities of Cambridge and Oxford, and else-where. At Loudon printed for N. L. and lolin Trundell. 1608. 4to. 33 leaves. The Tragicall Hi»torie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke. By William Siiakespearc. Newly imprinted and enlarged to almost T»s much againo as it was, accordin^to the true and perfect Coppie. At London, Printed by I.R. for N. L. and are to be sold at his shoppe vnder Saint Dunstons Church in Fleetstreet. 1604. 4to. 51 leaves. The title-page of the edition of 1605 does not differ in the most minute parLieular from that of 1604. Hie Tnigedy of Hamlet Prince of Denmarke. By William Shakespeare. Newly imprinted and enlarged to almost as much againe as it was, according to the true and perfect Coppy. At London, Printed for lohn Smethwicke and are to De sold at his shoppe in Saint Dunstons Church yeard in Fleetstreet. Vnder the Diall. 1611. 4to. 51 leaves. The Tragedy of Hamlet Prince of Denmarke. Newly Im- Brinted and inlarged, according to the true and perfect opy lastly Printed. By William Shakespeare. London. Printed by W. S. for lohu Smethwicke, uud are to be sold at his Shop in Saint Dunstana Church-yard in Fleetstreet : Vnder the Diall. 4to. 51 leaves. 1 r>r. Farmer had an imperfect copy of it. but it is preserved entire ationg Capell's books in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge, Ani was printed in KilH, by Richard Bradocke, for Thomas Pavier. *' There can be little doubt that it had originally come from the press considerably before the commencement of the seventeenth century, although tlTe multiplicity of readers of pr^Jactions of the kind, and the careles^eness with which Kuch bocks wer« regarded after perusal, has led to the destruction, as far as can now be ascertained, of every •arijfei copy." — Introduction to Part IV, of '■ Shake?j>eare's Library. ' This undated edition was probably printed in 1607, as it wot entered at Stationers' Hall on Nov. 19, in that year. Au impression, by R. Young:, in 4to, 1637, has also John Smeth- wicke at the bottom of tiie title-pa^e. In the folio of 162S, ''The Tnigedio of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke," occupies thirty-one pitges, in the division of •'Tragedies;" viz. from p. 152 to p. 280, inclusive, there beinjET a mistake of 100 pages between p. 166 and what ought to have been p. 157. J The story upon which, there is reason to believe, Shakespeai-o founded nis tragedy of *' Hatnlet," has recently been reprinted, from the only known perfect copy^, as part of a worK called *'• Shakespeare's Library;'" and there is, perhaps, nothinii more remarkable than the manner in which our threat drauifc tist wrought these barbarous, uncouth, and scanty materiala into the magnificent structure he left behind him. A com- parison of " The Historie of Hamblet," as it was translated at an early date from the French of Belleforest^, with " The Tragedy of Hamlet," is calculated to give us the most exalted notion of, and profound reverence for, the genius of Shake- speare : his vast superiority to Green and Lodge was obvioos in "The Winter's Tale," and "As You Like It;" but the novels of '* Pandoato " and " Rosalyncle," as narratives, were perhaps as far above "The Hi^^lofie of Hamblet," us "The W'intcr's Tale " and "As You Like It " were above the origi- nals from which their main incidents were derived. Nothing, in point of fact, can be much more worthless, in story ano Btyle, than the production to which it is supposed Shakespeare was indebted for the foundation of his " Hamlet." There is, however, some ground finr thinking, that ft lost play upon similar incidents preceded the work of Shake- speare : how far that lost play might be an improvement upon the old translated " Historic^' we have no means of decidmg, nor to -wAuii extent Shakespeare availed himself of such im- provement. A drama, of which Hamlet Was the hero, was certainly in being prior to the year 1587, (in all probability too early a date for Shakespeare to have been the writer of it) for we find it thus alluded to by Thomas Nash, in his pre- liminary epistle to the "Itenaphon" of Robert Greene, published m that year^ : — "Yet English Seneca, read by candle-light, yeelds many good sentences, as bhod is a beggar^ and so forth ; and if you entreat him fair in a frosty morning, he will afford you whole Hainkts^ I should say handfule, of tragical speeches." The writer is referring to play-poetB and their productions at that period, and he seems to' have gone out ot his way, in order to introduce the very name of the performance against wliich he was directing ridicule. Another I)iece of evidence, to the same effect, but of a more question- able kind, is to be found in Henslowe's Diary, under the date of June 9th, 1594, when a " Ilamlct " was represented at the theatre at Newington Butts : that it was then an old play is ascertained from the absence of the mark, which the old manager usually prefixed to first performances, and from the fact that his share of the receipts was only nine shillings. At that date, however, the company to which Shakespeare be- longed was in joint occupation of the same theatre, and it is certainly possible, though improbable, that the drama repre- sented on June 9th, 1594, was Shakespeare's " Hamlet." Wo feel confident, ho%vever, that the " Hamlet " which has come down to us in at least six quarto impressions, in the folio of 1623, and in the later impressions in that form, was not written until the winter of 1601, or the spring of 1602. Mitlone, Steevens, and the other commentators, were ac- quainted with no edition of the tragedy anterior to the quarto of 1604, which professes to be " enlarged to almost as much again as it was r' they, therefore, reasonably suspected that it had been printed be'ftire ; and within the last twenty v-Hira a single copy of an edition in 1608 has been discovered. I^hia, in fact, seems to have fcipen the abbreviated and imperfect edition, consisting of only about half as much as the impres- sion of 1604. It belongs to the Duke of Devonshire, ana, by the favour of his Grace, is now before us. From whose press it came we have no information, but it professed to be " printed for N. L. and luhn Trundell." The edition of the following year was printed by I. R. for N. L. only ; and why Trundell ceased to have any interest in the publication we know not. N. L. was Nicholas Ling; and I. R., the printer * Belleforest derived his itnowledge of the incidents from the History of Denmark, by Saxo Grammaticus. first printed in 1514. 3 We give the date of I5d7 on the excellent authority of the Rev A. Dyce, ((ireene's Works, vol, i. pp. xxxvii. and ciii.) We havp never been able to meet with any impression earlier than that of 1589. Sir Efjerton Brydges reprinted the tract Ijora the edition a 1616, (when its name had heen changed to ^* Greenes Arcadia ") ii " Archaica," vol. i. ex INTRODUCTION TO THE PLAYS. o** the edition of 1604, was, no donbt, James RobertH, who, twt' years before, hnfl made the following eutry in the Eeffisters of the Stntioners' Company : — '*26 July 1602. James Roberts] A booke, The Revenge of Hnmlettprinoe of Denmiirke, a8 yt was intelie acted by ihe Lord Chamberliiyn his sorvantes." '* The words. " as it was lately acted," are important upon 'Jie qnestion 9f date, and the entry farther proves, that the tnigtsdy had been performed by the company to whicli Shake- rtpeare helonored. In the t^prine of 1603 " the Lord Chamber- lain's servants" becitmc the King's players; and on tlie Mtle-page of the qnarto of 1608 it is assorted that it had been acted ** by his Highness' servants." On the title-puge of the quarto of 1604 we are not informed tliat the tragedy had been * acted by any company. Thus we see, tlmt in July, 1602. there was an intention to print and publisii a play called *'The Revenue of Hamlet, Prince of Dnimurk ;" imd this intention, we may fairly con- clude, arose out of the popularity of the piece, as it was th^n (iGted by '* the Lord Chamberlain's servimts," who, in May 'Mlowing, obtainefi the title of " the*King'H players." The nbject of Roberts in making the entry already quoted, was to secure it to him.sclf, being, no doubt, aware that other printers and booksellers would endeavor to anticipate him. It seems urobable, that he was unable to obtain such a copy of " Hamlet" a-^ he would put hia name to ; bnt some inferior liiid nameless printer, who was not so scrupulous, having Mirreptitiously secured a manuscript of the play, however imperfect, which would answer tlie purpose, and gratify public cariosity, the edition bearing date in l'*^!^ was pnhlisheri. Such, we have little doubt, was the origin of the impression of which only a single copy n as reached our day, and of which, Srobably, but a few were sold, as its worthlessness was soon iscovefed, and it was quickly entirely superseded by the enlarged impression of 1604. As an accurate reprint was made in 1825 of " The Traelcall Elistorie of Hamlet Prince of Denmarke," 1608, it will he unnecessary to go in detail into proofs to establish, as we could do without much difficulty, the following points : — 1. That great part of the play, lus it there stands, was taken down in short-hand. 2. That ■tt>Jiere mechanical skill failed the short-hand writer, he either filled up the blanks from memory, or employed an inferior writer to assist him. 3. That although some of the scenes were carelessly transposed, and others entirely omitted, in the edition of 1603, the drama, as it was acted while the short-hand writer was employed in taking it down, was, in all its main features, the same as the more perfect copy of the tragedy printed with the date of 1604, It is true, that in the edition of 1603, Polonius is called Corambis, and his servant, Montano, and we may not be able fo determine why these changes were made in the inirnedi- sitely subsequent impression ; but we may perhaps conjecture that thoy were names in the older play on tlie ?ame sttyrj-, or names which Shakespeare at first introduced, and subse- quently thought fit to reject. We know that Ben Jonson i;luitiged the whole dramatis personm of liis ** Every Man in las Humour." Rut although we entirely reject the quarto of 1608, as an authentic " Hamlet," it is of high value in enablinc- us to settle the text of various important passages. It proves, htfsides, that certain portions of the pUiv, as it appears in the folio of 1623, which do not form part of the quarto of 1604, w*-re originally acted, and were not, as has been hitherto inmgined, subsequent introductions. We have pointed odt ' these and other peculiarities so fully in our notes, that wo need not dwell upon them here; but we may mention, that in Act iii. sc. 4, the qnarto of 1603 explains a curious point of etagc-bnsiness, which puzzled nil the commentators. Just us the Ghost is departing from tlie Queen's closet, Hamlet xcla'ms, " Look, how it steals away ! My father, in his habit ag he lived !" Malone, Steevens, and Monck Mason argue the question 'whether in this scene, the Ghost, as in former scenes, ought to wear armour, or to be dressed in ** his own familiar habit ;" and they conclude, either that Shakespeare had ** forgotten nimself," or h:id meant " to vary the dress of the Ghost at Ibis his last appearance." The quarto of 1603, shows exactly how the poet's intention was carried into effect, for there we meet with the stafre-direction, "Enter the Ghost in his night- gown ;" and such was unquestionably the appearance of the performer of the part when the short-hand writer saw the tragedy, witl^ a view to the speedy publication of a fnudulent impresHion. "My father, in M^ habit as he lived." are the words he recorded from the mouth of the actor of Hamlet. The impression of 1604 being intended to supersede that of 1608, which gave a most mangled and imperfect notion o the drama in its true state, we may perhaps presume that tha quarto of 1604 was, at least, as authentic a copy of" Hamlet" as the editions of any of Shakespeare's plays that came from the press during ins lifetime. It contains various paseagee, some of them of great intportance to the conduct and character of the hero, not to be found in the folio of 1623; vihUe the folio includes other passages wh.'ch are left out in the qnarto of 1604 ; although, as before remarked, we liave the evidence of the quarto of 1603, that they were originally acted. Tin riifferent quarto impressions were printed from each other and even that of 1637, though it makes some verbal change*, contains no distinct indication that the printer had rcsortbd to til© folios. The three later folios, in this instance as in others, wert- printed from the immediately preceding edition in the same form ; but we are inclined to think, that if " Ilnndet," in the fulio of 1623, were not composed from some now unknown qnarto, it was derived from a manuscript obtained by Hem- inge and Condell from the theatre. The Acts and Scenes are, however, marked only in the first and second Acts, after which no divisions of the kind are noticed ; and where Act iii. commences is merely matter of modern conjecture. Some large portions of the play appear to have been omitted for the salve of shortening the performance ; and any editor who should content himself with reprinting the folio, without large additions from the quartos, would present but an imperfect notion of the drama as it came from the hand of the poet. Tiie text of "Hamlet" is, in fact, only to be obtained from a comparison of the editions in quarto and folio, but the mis- prints in the latter are quite as numerous and glaring as in the tbrmer. In various nistances we have been able to correct the one by the other, and it is in this respect chiefly that the quarto of 1603 is of intrinsic value. Coleridge, after vindicating himself from the accusation that he had derived his ideas of Hamlet from Schlegel, (and we heard him broach tliem some years before the Lectures, Vebej' Dramatische Kunst und LUieratnr, were published,) thus, in a few sentences, sums up the character of Hamlet : — " In Hamlet, Shakespeare seems to have wished to exemplify the moral necessity of a due balance between our attention to the objects of our senses, and our meditation on the work- ings of our mind, — an equilibrium between the real and the imaginary worlds. In Hamlet this balance is disturiied ; his thoughts and the images of his fancy are fur more vivid than his actual f»erceDtions ; and his very perceptions, in- stantly passing through tlie medium of his contemplations, acquire, as thoy pass, a form and a color not naturally tlieir own. Hence we ^ee a great, an almost enormous, intellectual activity, and a proportionate aversion to real action conse- quent upon it, with all its symptoms and accompanying qualities. This character Shakespeare places in circumstances under which it is obliged to act on the spur of tlie moment. Hamlet is brave, and careless of death; but he vacillates from sensibility, and procrastinates from thought, and loses the power of action in the energy of resolve." (Lit. Rem. vol. ii. p. 205.) It has generally been supposed that Joseph Taylor waa the original actor of Hamlet — and Wright, in his "Historia Histriohica," 1699, certainly speaks of him as Kaving per- formed the part. This, however, must have been after the death of Richard Burbage, which happened precisely eighty years before Wriirht published his tract. We know, from the manuscript Elegy upon Burbage, sold among Heber's books, that he was the earliest representative of Hamlet j and there the circumstance of his being "fat and scant ot breath," in the fencing scene, is noticed in the very words of Shakespeare. Taylor did not belong to the company for which Shakspeare wrote at the date when "Hamlet" was produced. KING LEAK. M. William Shak-sneare : Hia True Chionicle Hietorio of th life and death of King Lear and his three Daughters. With the vnfortunate life of Edtrjir, *onne and hiiire to the Karle of Gloster, and hit* sullen and assumed hntnour of Tom ot Bedlam. As it waa played before the Kings Maiestie a Wliitehall vpon S. Stephana night in Christmas Hollidaycs. By ids Maiesties sernants playing vsually at the Gloabe on the Bancke-sido. London, Printed for Nathaniel Butter and are to be sold at his shop in Paul's Church-yard, at the signe of the Pide Bull neere St. Austin's Gate. 1608. 4to 41 leaves. INTRODUCTION TO THE PLAYS. ixi M. I. Williiim Shnke-sneare, Hi» True Chronicle HiBtory nf tlie life niiii dentil or King Lear, and liis three Dnnphtero. With the viifortunate lite of Kdjar, soniic and lieire to the Kurle of Glocester, and his siillen and assumed humour of Tom of Bedlam. As it was plaid before tlie Kin^s Muicsty Kt White-Ilall, vppou S. Stephens night, in Cliristmas Hol- lidnies. Bv his Maiesties Seninnta, jjlayinj vsually at the Globe on the Banck-side. Printed for Nathaniel Butter. 1608. 4to. 44 leaves. The tille-pajre of a third impression in 1608 corresponds with that last above given, in the folio of 1623, " The Tra?edie of Kiu? Lear" occupies twenty seven p;iires, in the division of " Tragedies ;" viz. from p. 288 to p.'809, inclusive. The last paffc but one, by an error, is numbered 88, instead of 308. In the first, as well as in the f -lios of 1632, 1664, and 1685, the Acta and Scene's are re;^ularly marked.] The most remarkable circumstance connected with the early publication of " King Loar " is, that the same stationer pub- lished three quarto impressions of it in 1608, that stationer being » person who had not put forth any di the authentic (a,s tar as Ihey can deserve to be so considered) editions of Shakespeare's plays. After it had been thus thrice printed (for they were not merely re-issues with fresh title-pages) in tile same year, the traeedy was not again printed until it appeared in the folio of 1623. Why it was never republished ill quarto, in the interval, must be "matter of speculation, but such was not an unusual occurrence with the works of our groat dranuitist : his '• Midsummer Night's Dream," " Mer- cliHiit of Venice," and " Troilus and Cressida " w ere each twice printed, tlie two first in 1600, and the last in 1609, and Miey vvere not again seen in type until they were inserted in tlic folio of 1628: there w.is also no second qiiarto edition of '• Mach ftdi) about Nothing," nor of " Love's Labour 's Lost." The extreme popularity of "King Lear" seems proved by the mere fact that tlie public demand for it, in the first year of its publication, could not bo satisfied without three distinct impressions. It will be seen by the exact copies of tlie title-pages which we have inserted on the opposite leaf, thr.t allliough Nathaniel Butter was the publisher of the three quarto editions, he only put his address on the title-page of one of them. It is per- haps impossible now to ascertain on what account the dilfer- enee was made ; but it is to be observed that " Printed by J. Roberts," without any address, is found at the bottom of the title-pages of some of the copies of "The Merchant of Venice" and "Midsummer Night's Dream" in 1600. A more remarkable circumstance, in relation to the title-pages of " King Lear," is, that the name of William Sliakespeure is male so obvious at the top of them, the type being larger than that used for any other part of the work : moreover, we have it again at the head of the leaf on which the trntredy commences, " M. William Shake-speare, his History of King IjCar." This peculiarity has never attracted sufficient atten- limi, and it belongs not only to no other of Shakespeare's plavs, but to no other production of any kind of that period which wo recollect. It was clearly intended to enable nur- diasers to make sure that they were buying the drama which " M. William Shakespeare" had written upon the story of King Lear. The cause of it is, perhaps, to be found in the fact, that there was another contemporary dr.ama upon the same sub- ject, and with very nearly the same names to the principal characters, which was not by Shakespeare, but which the publisher proliably had endeavored to pass off as his work. An edition of this play was printed in 1605, under the follow- ing title :— " The True Chronicle History of King Leir and his three Daughters, GonoriU, Eagan, and Cordelia. As it hath e divers and sundry times lately acted." It was printed, Simon Stafford, for John Wright; and we agree with one in thinking that this impression was put forth in consequence of tlie popularity of Shakespeare's " King Lear," which was then in a course of successful performance at the Crlobe theatre. That this edition of " The True Chronicle History of King Leir" was a re-inipression we have little dr.ulit, because it was entered at Stationers' Hall for publica- tion as early as 14tli May, l.*)94: it was entered again on Bth May, 1605, anterior to the apiiearance of the impression with that date, the title-page of which we liave above quoted. We may presume that in 160.5 no bookseller was able to obtain from the King's Players a copy of Shakespeare's "King l.ear ;" for there is perhaps no point in our early stage-history more cleai, than tliat the different companies took every pre- caution in "irdcr to prevent the publication of plays belonging to thom. Jowever, in the autumn of 1607, Niitliaoiel Bntter had in some way possessed him oi a manuscript of " King Lear," and on the 26th November he procured fne followina unusually minute memorandum to he made in the Suitionerp Registers : — " 26 Nov. 1607. Na. Butter and Jo. Busby] Entered for t.ie!. Copi« under t' hands of Sir Geo. Bueke, Kt. and the War- dens, a booke called Mr. Willm Shakespeare, hie Historye of Kinge Lear, as yt was played before th« King's Majestic at Whitehall, upon St. Stephen's niglit at Christmas last, by his Maiesties .Servants playing usually at the Globe on the Bank-side." This entry c>tablishes that Slndiespeare's " King Lear " had been played at Court on the 26th December, 1606, and nol on the 26th December, 1607, as we might infer from tlie title pages of the three editions of 1608. The memorandum we have just inserted would lead us to believe that John Busby was the printer of "King Lear," although his name does not otherwise at all appear in eonneo tion with it. The differences between the quartos are seklou more than verbal, but they arc sometimes important : after a very patient comparison, we may state, that the quartos wiili- out the publisher's address are more accurate than that with his address ; and we presume that the latter was first issued. It would seem that tne folio of 1623 was composed from a manuscript, which had been much, and not very judiciotisly, abridged for the purposes of the theatre ; and although it contafns some additions, not in any of the quartos, there are, perhaps, few quartos of any of Shakespeare's plays more valuable for the quantity of matter they contain, of which there is no trace in the folio. We have said that we agree with Malone in opinion, tha' " King Lear" was brought out at the Globe Theatre in the spring of 1605, according to our present mode of computing the year. We may decide with cert.iinty that it was not written until after the appearance of Harsnet's " Discovery of Popish Impostors" in 1608, because from it, a.s Steevens established, are taken the names of various fiends mentioned by Edgar in the course of his scenes of pretended madness. As we find a " King Leir " entered on the Stationers' books in 1594, we can have no hesitation in arriving at the conclu- we have sujiposed) experiencing a run of popularity at tiie Globe, was considerably anterior in point of date. There is little doubt that Sliakespeare was acquainteVl with it, and probably adopted from it at least that part of the conduct of his story n-hich relates to the faithful Kent. There are otlier general, but few particular resemblances; for both the chief materials were evulently derived froni Holinshed, but Shake- speare varied from all authorities in his catastrophe: he seems to have thought, that to abandon the course of the ordinary and popular narrative, would heighten and improve the effect of his drama, and give a novelty to its termination. The story of Lear and liis daughters is briefly told by Spen- ser in B. ii. c. 10, of his " Fairie Queene," and thence it haa been thought that Shakespeare obtained the name of Cor- delia, till then usually called Cordelia. That portion of tlie plot which relates to the Earl of Gloster, he, may have pro- cured from Sir Pliilip Sidney's " Arcadia," first printed in 1.590, 4to. B. ii. e. 10, of that romance is thus lieaded : — . "The pitifuU state ami storie of the Paphnlgoninn nnkinde King, and his kind son." An early ballad on King Lear was also published (see Percy's Keliques, vol. ii. p. 249 ; edit. 1812), but no copy with a date has come down to us ; although it emjiloys the older names of some of the characters, it adopts that of Cordelia; and there are several circumstances, besides a more modern style of composition, whicli lead us to the belief that it was written posterior to the production of Shakft- speare's Tragedy. OTHELLO. [" The Tragoedy of Othello, The Moore of Venice. As it haca beeiio diuerse times acted at the Globe, and at the Black- Friers, by his Maie.sties Seruants. Written by William Shakespeare. London, Printed by N. O. for Thomas Walldev, and are to be sold at his shop, at the Eagle and Child, in Brittans Bursse. 1622." 4to. 48 leaves, irregu- larlv paged. " The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice." occnpiea thirty pages in the folio of 1623 ; viz. from p. 810 to p. 889 inclusive, in the division of " Tragedies :" it is there, as in the three later folios, divided into Acts and Scenes, and o-' I the last page is a list of the characters, headed, " The Namoe I of the Actors." CXll INTRODUCTION TO THE PLAYS. Bt the subsequent extract from " The Efterton Pnpors," I printed by the Camden Society, (p. 843) it nppeara thiit " Othello " was actca fbr the entertainment of Queen Eliza- Detli, at tlie residence of Lord Ellesmcre (then Sir Thont:iH Ejrerton, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal) at Haretield, in tlie liiiffinning of An!:ru8t, 1602 ; — '•|5 August 1602. Rewarda to the Vaulterx, player*, and Janncers. Of this x" to Burbidge's players for Othello, Ixiiii" xviiii" x*." The pan of the memorandum which relates to " Othello " m interlined, as if added afterwards; but thus we find de- cisively, thai this tragedy was in being in the summer of 1602 ; "and the probability is, that it was selected for perform- ance because it was a new )ilay, having been brought out at tlio Globe theatre in the spnng of that year.' The incidents, with some variation, are to be found in Cintliio's ireCiitommithi^ where the novel is the seventh of the third D(*cad, and it bears the following explanatory title in the Monte Regale erlition of l.'iGS : — " Un Cupitano Moro piglia per mogliera una cittadina Venetiana : un suo Alfieri racousa di adulterio al marito ; cerca che TAlfieri ucoida colui oh'egli credea I'adultero : il Capitano uccide la moglie, d accusato dallo Alfieri, non confessa il Moro, ma essendovi chiarl iuditii i bandito ; et lo sceler.ato Alfieri, credendo nuoeero ad altri, prooaccia a se lu morte miseramente." This novel was early translated into French, and in all probability into En'jrlish, hut no such version h:us descended to us. Onr great drama- tist may indeed have read the story in the original language ; and it is highly probable that he waa sufficiently acquainted with Italian for the purpose. Hence he took only the name of Desdemona. We have seen, by the qnotation from "The Egerton Papers," that the company by which " Othello " was per- formed at Harefield was called " Burbidge's players ;" and there can be no doubt that ho was the leading actor of the company, and thereby in the account gave his name to the association, though properly denominated the Lord Chamber- lain's Servants. Richard Burbage was the original actor of the part of Otlwllo, as we learn from an elegy upon his death, <*mong the late Mr. Heber's manuscripts. To the snnte fact we may quote the concluding stanza of a ballad, on the inci- dents of "Othello," written after the death of Burbage, which nas also come down to us in manuscript : — *' Dick Burbage, that most famous man, That actor without peer, With this same part his course began, And kept it many a year. Shakespeare was fortunate, I trow, That euch an actor had : If we had but his equal now. For one I should be glad." The writer spoke at random, when he asserted that Burbage oesran his career with Othello, for we have evidence to show that he was an .actor of high celebrity, many years before Shakespeare's " Othello " was written, and we have no proof that there was any older play upon the same subject. There are two quarto editions of "Othello," one bearing date in 1622, the year before the first folio of " Mr. William Bhakespeare's Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies " appeared, and tlie other printed in 1630. An exact copy of the titlo-puge of the quarto of 1 622, will be found in the usual place, and that published in 1680 differs only in the imprint, which is " by A. M. for Richard Hawkins," &c. We have had fre- quent occasion in our notes to refer to this impression, which has, indeed, been mentioned by the commentators, but nothing like sutficient attention has been paid to it. Malone suniuia- rily dismissed it as " an edition of no authority," bnt it is very clear that he had never sufficiently examined it. It was nnquestionably [iriiitfld from a manuscript different from that -i.^ed tor the quarto of 1622, or for the folio of 1628; and it oresents a number of \arious readings, some of which sineu- arly illustrate the original text of " Othello." Of this fact it may be fit here to supply some proof. In Act iii. sc. 8, a passage occurs in the folio of 1623, which is not eontained in the quarto of 1622, and which runs thus jnperfeotl^ il the folio : — must be wrong, the compositor of the folio having caught " keeps " from the later portion of the same line. In Pope's edition, " feels " waa substituted for icf^^ps, and the word baa Hince usually continued in the text, with Mitlone's .-.ote, "tlie correction was nnide by Mr. Pope." The truth is. that Pope was right in his conjecture as to the misprinted word, for in the quarto of 1630, which Malone could not have consulted, but which he nevertheless pronounced " of no authority," the passage stands thus ; — ' Like to the Pontick sea. Whose icy current, and compulsive coura« Ne'er_/etf^5 retiring ebb," Ac. If Malone had looked at the quarto of 1630, he would hav* seen that Pope had been anticipated in his proposed emen- dation about a hundred years ; and that in the mannscript fiotn which the quarto of 1630 was printed, the true word was " feels," ana not Iceeps^ as it was misprinted in the folio of 1623. We will take an instance, only six lines earlier in the same scene, to show the value of the quarto of 1680, in supporting the quarto of 1622, and in correcting the folio o( 1623. Othello exclaims, as wo find the words in the folio, "Arise, black vengeance, from the hollow hetlj''^ a lino which has been generally thus printed, adopting the text of the quarto of 1622 :— "Arise, black vengeance, from thy hollow cell ;" and these are exactly the words in the quarto of 1680, although it can be established that it was printed, not from the quarto of 1622, nor from the folio of 1628. but from a manuscript which in many places differed materially from both, and in some few supplied a text inferior to both. It is not necessarj' to pursue tins point farther, especially as our brief notes abundantly establish that the quarto of 1630, instead of being "of no authority," is of great value, witli reference to the true reading of some important passages. Walkley, the publisher of the quarto of 1622, thus entered that edition on the Stationers' Registers, shortly previous to its appearance ; — "6 Oct. 1621. Tho. Wulkley] Entered for his, to wit, under the handea of .Sir George Buck and of the Wardens: The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice." It is perhaps not too much to presume, that this impression, though dated 1622, had come out at the close of 1621; and that Tt preceded the folio of 1623 is very obvious, from the fact, that "Othello" was not included in their list by Blunt and Jaggard, the publishers of the folio of 1623, beamso they were aware that it had already been printed, and that it had been entered as the property of another bookseller. The quarto of 1622 was preceded by the following address: — " The Stationer to the Reader. "To set forth a book without an epistle were like to the old English proverb, ' A blue coat without a badge ;' and the author being dead, I thought good to take that piece of work upon me. To commend it I will not — for that which is good, I hope every man will commend without entreaty ; and I am the bolder," because the author's name is sufficient to vent his work. Thus leaving every one to the liberty of judgment, I have ventured to print this play, and leave it to the general censure. Yours, Thomas Walkley." The publishers of the folio of 1623, perhaps purcliased Walkley's ii;terest in "Othello." -" Like to the Pontick sea. Whose icy current and eompulsive conrse Ne'er keepe retiring ebb. but keeps due on To the Propontick and the Hellespont," &o. It will not be disputed that " Ne'er keeps retiring ebb " * It appears from Mr. P. Cunningham's "Extracts from the AocouBlaof the Revels at Court," (printed for the Shakespeare Society) p. *(t3, that a play, called "The Moor of Venis," no doubt. '' Othello." WW actrd at Whituhall on Nov. 1. 1604. The tragedy seems to have ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. ["The Tragedie of Anthonieand Cleopatra" occnpies twenty- nine pages in the folio of 1623 ; viz. from p. 840 to p. 86& inclusive, in the division of "Tragedies.'' Although at the beginning it has Adita Primus. Scana Prima, it is not divided into acts and scenes, nor is the defect cnred in any of the subsequent folio impressions of 1632, 1664, and 1685. They are all without any list of charnctera.'l Wk are without any record that "Antony and Cleopatra" was ever performed, ; and when in Act ». sc. 2, the lieroino anticipates that " some squeakioL' Cleopatra" will " boy hei greatness" on the stage, Shakespeare seems to hint that n»» young male performer would be able to sustain the part without exciting ridicule. However, the same remark will, been always so popular as to remain what is tewned " a stock piece ; and it was performed again before King Charles and his 1^'ieen a( Hampton Court on Deo. 8, 1636. Ibid. Introd. p. xxv iNl'KODUCTION TO THE PLATS. cxin more or less, apply to many of his other female characters ; and the wonder, of coarse, is, how so much delicacy, tender- ness, and beauty could be infused into parts which the poet knew must be represented by beardless and crack-voiced bovs. IChe period of the year at which " Antony and Cleopatra " was entered on the Stationers' Registers might lend to the inference, that, having been written late in 1607, it was !>rousht out at the Globe in the spring of 1608, and that Ed- ward Blunt (one of the publishers of the folio of 1628) thus put in his claim to the publication of the tragedy, if he could procure a manuscript of it. The memorandum bears date on the 20th May, 160S, and the piece is stated to be " a book" oaiied "Anthony and Cleopatra." Perhaps Blnnt was un- able to obtain a copy of it, and, as far as we now know, it was printed for the first time in the folio of 1623. It does not appear that there was any preceding drama on the Btory, with the exception of the " Cleopatra " of Samuel Daniel, originally published in 1594, to wliich Shakespeare was clearly under no obligation. Any slight resemblance between tlie two is to be accounted for by the fact, that both poets resorted to the same authority for their materials — Plu- tarch — whose " Lives " had been translated by Sir T. North m 1579. The minuteness with which Shakespeare adhered to history is more remarkable in this drama than in any other ; and sometimes the most trifling circumstances are artfully, but still most naturally, interwoven. Shakespeare's use of history in " Antony and Cleopatra " may be contrasted with Ben Jonson's subjection to it m " Sejanns." '■Of all Shakespeare's historical plays (says Coleridge) ' Antony and Cleopatra ' is by fer the most wonderful. There is not one in which he has followed history so minutely, and yet there are few in which he impresses the notion of angelic strength so much — perhaps none in which he impresses it more strongly. This is greatly owing to the manner in which the fiery force is sustained throughout, and to the numerous momentary flashes of nature, counteracting the histoiic ab- etraction." (Lit. Rem. vol. ii. p. 148.) CYMBELINE. ["The Tragodie of Cyinbeline" was first printed in the folio of 1623, where it stands last in the division of "Trage- dies," and occupies thirty-one pages ; viz. from p. 869 to p. 899, misprinted p. 993. There is another error in the pagination, as p. 879 is numbered p. are corrected in the three later folios.] These errors Tbk materials in Holinshed for the historical portion of " Cyin- beline " are so imperfect and scanty, that a belief may be entertained that Shakespeare resorted to some other more tertile source, which the most diligent inquiries h:ive yet failed to discover. The names of Cymbeline and of his sons, Guiderius and Arviragus, occur in the old Chroifiele, and there we hear of the tribute demanded by the Roman em- peror, but nothing is said of the stealing of the two young princes, nor of their residence with Bellarius among the mountains, and final restoration to their father. All that relates to Posthumus, Imogenj and lachimo is merely fabulous, and some of the chief incidents of this part of the plot are to be found in French, Italian, and English. We will speak of then separately. They had been employed for a dramatic purpose in France Bt an early date, in a Miracle-play, printed in 1SS9 by Messrs. Monnierqu^ and Michel, in their Thmire Francois ou Moyen- agt, from a mantisciipt in the Bibliotheque du Roi. In that piece, mixed up with many romantic circumstances, we find the wager on the chastity of the heroine, her flight in the disguise of a page, the proof of her innocence, and her final restoration to her husBand. There also we meet with two circumstances, introduced into Shakespeare's " Cymbeline," bnt not contained in any other version of the story with which we are acquainted": we allude to the boast of Beren- gier (the lachimo of the French Drama), that if he were allow- ed the ipportunity of speaking to the heroine but twice, he should De able to accomplish his design : lachimo (Act i. PC. 5) makes the same declaration. Again, in the French Miracle-play, Berengier takes exactly Shakespeare's mode of assailing the virtue of Imogen, by exciting her anger and iealonsy by pretending that her husband, in Rome, nad set her the example of infidelity. Incidents somewhat similar are nanated in the French romances of La Violette, and Flore tt Jehanne : in the latter, the villain, being secretly admitted by an old woman into the bed-room of the heroine, has the means of ascertaining a particular mark npon her person vhile she is bathi'ig. 8 The novel by Boccaccio has many corresponding features it is the ninth of Giornata 11.^ aud bears tiie following' title'. "Bernabo da Genova, da Ambrogiuolo iugannato, perde L 8U0, e comanda cho la moglie innocente sia uccisa. Ella scainpa, et iu habito di huomo serve il Soldano; ritrova Piu- gannatore, e Bernabo conduce in Aleseandria, dove I'ingan- natore panito, ripreso habito feminile col marito ricclii si tornano a Genova." This tale includes one circumstance only found there and in Shakespeare's play : we allude to the mole wliich lachimo saw on the breast of Imogen, The pttrtJes are all merchants in Boccaccio, excepting towards the ciobo of his novel, where the Soldan is inlroduced : the vil- uun, instead of being forgiven, is punished by being anointed with honey, and exposed in the sun to flies, wasps, and ino&- quitoes, which eat the flesh from his bones, A modification of this production seems to have found it» way into our language at the commencement of the seven teenth century. Steevens states that it was printed in 16GS, and again in 1620, in a tract called *' M^'estward for Smelts.'* If there be no error as to the date, the edition of 1603 haa been lost, for no copy of that year now seems to exist in any public or private collection. Mr. Halliwell, in his reprint of The First Sketch of " The Merry Wives of Windsor." (f.-w the Shakespeare Society) p. 185, has expressed his opiniou tliat Steevens must have oeen mistaken, and that "West- ward for Smelts" was not published until 1620: only one copy even of this impressio'n is knowni ; and if, in fact, it were not, as Steevens Supposes, a reprint, of course Shake- speare could not have resorted to it: however, he might, without much diflBculty, have grone to the original; or soma version may then have been in existence, of which he availed himself, but which has not come down to our day. The inci- dents in " Westward for Smelts" are completely anglicised, and the scene is laid in this country in the reigns of I^enry VL aud Edward IV. In the French and Italian versions, lachimo (or the person answering to him) is conveyed to ImogenS chamber in a chest, but jn '* Westward for Smelts," where the tale is in other respects vulgarised, he conceals himself under her bed. Some German critics, whose opinions are often entitled to the most respectful consideration, have supposed that ''Cym- beline " was written in 1614 or 1615, hot adverting to the circumstance that Shakespeare had then relinquished all con- nection with the stage, and had retired from the metropolis. Maione thought that 1609 was the year which could be most probably fi.xed upon ; and although we do not adopt his rea- soning upon the point, we are strongly inclined to believe that thiji drama was not, at all events, written at an earUer period. Forman, the astrologer^ was present when " Cymbe- line " was acted — most likely, in 1610 or 1611 — but he does not in his Diary insert the date when, nor the theatre where, he saw it. His brief account of the plot, iu his "Booke of Plaies and Notes thereof" (MS. Aahmol. No. 208), is in the following terms: — "Remember, also, the story of Cymbeline, king of England in Lucius' time : how Lucius came from Octavins Caesar for tribute, and being denied, after sent Lucius with a great army of soldiers, ■who landed at Milford Haven, anJ after were vanquished by Cymbe- line, and Lucius taken prisoner; and all by means of three outlaws, of the which two of them were the sons of Cymbeline, stolen from him when they were but two years old, by an old man whom Cym- beline banished; and he kept them as his own sons twenty years with him in a cave. And how one of them slew Cloten, that wa* the queen's son, going to Milford Haven to seek the love of Imogen the King's daughter, whom he had banished also for loving hi daughter. "And how the Italian that came from her love conveyed himself into a chest, and said it was a chest of plate, sent from her love and others to be presented to the king. Ana in the deepest of the night, she being asieep, he opened the chest and came forth of it, and view- ed her in her bed, and the mirks of her body, and took away her bracelet, and after accused her of adultery to her love. ifcc. And in the end, how he came with the Romans into England, and wai taken prisoner, and after revealed to Imogen, who had turned herself into man's apparel, and fled to meet her love at Milford Haven ; and chanced to fall on the cave in the woods where her two brothen were: and how by eating a sleeping dram they thought she had been dead, and laid her in the woods, and the body of Cloten by hftr. in her love's apparel that he left behind him, and how she was foand by Lucius," !co. We have certainly no right to condodo that ** Cymbeline " was a new piece when Forman witnessed the pertbrmance of it ; but various critics have concurred in the opinion (which we ourselves entertain) that in style and versification it re- sembles " The Winter's Tale,'^ and that the two dramas belong to about the same period of the poet's life. Formac » Among Capell's books, which he gave to Trinity CoUegft, Cam bridge, ana which are there preserved with cawiprrporticnat* to theu valuB CSV7 mTEODUCTION TO THE FLATS. eaw ■' The Winter's Tale " on nUi Muy, 1611, and, perhaps, he BBW "Cvmhelino" at the Globe in the spring oi the prc- cedinff year'. However, upon this point, we hiwe no evidence to emde us, heyond the more mention of the play and its inofdents in Forman's Dinry. That it was noted at court at an early date is more than iirohnble, but we are ivithout any record of such an event until Ut January, 168S (Vide Ihat. of Engl. Dram, poetry and the Stage, vol. ii. p. 57); under which date Sir Henrv Herbert, the Master of the Bevels, -egisterB that it was performed by the King's P avers, and •Jiat it was " well liked bv the King." The particular allusion in Act ii. sc. 4, to " proud Cleopatra " on the Cydnus, which "swell'd above his banks," might lead us to think tbat " Antony and Cleopatra " had preceded " Cymbeline. It is the last of tlie " Tragedies* " in the folio of 1623, and we have reason tty suppose that it had not been printed at any earlier date. The divisions of aot-s and scenes are throughout regularly marked. PEKKJLkS, PEmCE OF TYRE. [<• The late. And much admired Play, called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. With the true Relation of the whole Historic, adue'ntures, and fortunes of the said Prince: As also, Ihe no lesse strange, and worthy accidents, in the Birth and Life, of his Danghter Mariunii. As it hath been diners and aundry times acted by his Maiesties Scruiints, at the (jlobe on the Banck-side. By William Shakespeare. Imprinted at London for Henry Gosson, and are to be sold at the signe of the Suiuie in Pater-noster row, &o. 1609. 4to. 86 "The late. And mnch admired Play, called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. With the true Relation of the whole History, aduenturos, and fortunes of the saide Prince. Written by W. Shakc.'^peare. Printed for T. P. 1619." 4to. 84 leaves. " The late. And much admired Play, called Penoles, Prmce of Tyre. With the true Relation of the whole History, aduentures, and fortunes of the sayd Prince : ""''en by Will. Shakespeare : London, Printed by 1. ^ . for K. JJ- and are to be sould at his shop in Cheapside, at the signo ol the Bible. 1680." 4to. 84 leaves. In the folio of 1664, the following is the heading of the page on which the play begins : " The much admired Play, called, ]'ericles. Prince of Tyre. With the true Relation of the whole History, Adventures, and Fortunes of the said Prince. Written by W. Shakespeare, and published in Ins life time." It occupies tweuty-pages ; viz. from p. 1 to p. 20 inclusive, a new pagination of the volume commencing with " Pericles." It is there divided into Acts, but irregu- larly, and the Scenes are not marked.] The first question to be settled in relation to "Pericles," is its title to a place among the collected works of Shakespeare. There is so marked a^character about every thing that pro- ceeded from the pen of our grwt dramatist,— his mode ot thought, and his style of e.vpression, are so unlike those ot any of his contemporaries, that they can never be niistakcn. They are clearly visible in all the later portion of the play ; and BO indisputable docs this fact appear to us, that, we con- fidently assert, however strong may be the external evidence to the same point, the internal evidence is infinitely stronger : to those who h.ave studied his works it will seem incontro- vertible. As we do not rely merely upon particular expres- sions, nor upon separate passages, but upon the general complexion of whole scenes and acts, it is obvious, that we cannot here enter into proofs, which would require the re- inipijssion of many of the succeeding pages. . ■ ■ A- 1 opinion has long prevailed, and we have no doubt it is well founded, that two hands are to be traced in the composi- tion of " Pei-icles." The larger part of the first three Acts were in all probabilitv the work of an inferior dramatist: to these Shakespeare added comparatively little ; but he found it necessary, as the story advanced and as the interest in- creased, to insert more of his own composition. His hand begins to be distinctly seen in the third Act, and afterwards we feel persuaded that we conld extract nearly every line that wa-s not dictated by his great intellect. We apprehend that Shakespeare found a drama on the story in the possession of one of the companies performing in London, and that, m accordance with the ordinary practice of the time, he made additions to and improvenients in it, and procured it to be represented at the Globe theatre'. Who might te the author of the original piece, it would be in viiiii to conjectnre. Although we have no decisive proof that Shakespeare eve) worked in immediate concert with any of his contemporaries, it was the custom with nearly all the driinuitists of his day^, and it is not impossible that such was the case with " Pericles." The circumstance that it was a .ioint production, may riirtly account for the non-appearance of " Pericles " in the folio of 1628. Ben Jonson, when printing the volume of his W'orks, in 1616 excluded for this reason " The Case is Altered," and "Eastward Hoi" in the composition of which he had beep engaged with others; and when the player-editors of the folio of 1628 were collecting their materials, they perhaps omitted " Pericles" because some living author might have an interest in it. Of course we only advance this point as a mere specu- lation' and the fact that the publishers of the folio ot 1628 conid not purchase the right of the bookseller, who had then the property in " Pericles," may have been the real cause of its non-insertion. , ., ^ .u The Registers of the Stationers' Company show that on the 20th May, 1608, Edward Blount (one of the proprietors of the folio of 1628) entered "The booke of Pericles, Prynce of Tvre " with one of the undoubted works of Shakespeare, "Antony and Cleopatra." Nevertheless, " Pericles " was not published bv Blount, but by Gosson in the following year ; and we may infer, either that Blount sold his interest to Gosson, or that Gosson anticipated Blount in procuring a manuscript of the plav. Gosson may have subsequently parted with " Pericles " to Thomas Pavier, and hence the re-impression by the latter in 1619. .... Having thus spoken of the internal evidence of authorship, and of the possible reasoD why " Pericles " was not included in the folio of 1623, we will now advert briefly to the external evidence, that it was the work of our great dramatist. In the first place it was printed in 1609, with his name at lull length^ and rendered nnusuiilly obvious, on the title-page. The answer, of course, may be that this wsis a fraud, and that 1 By a list ot theatrical ajipaiel, formerly belonging to AUeyn, and i.icsenrei at Dulwich CoUepe, it appeajs Ibat he had proba,bIy acted in a. pUy called " Pericles." See ■■ Memoirs of Edward AUeyn, printed for the Shakespeare Society, p. 21. This might be the play which Shakespeare altered and improved. ^ It seems that '' Pericle.=! " was reprinted under the same circum- stances in 1611. I have neyer been able to meet with a copy of this edrion, and doubted to me, in asale catak „ for a. S." This fact would show, that Shakespeare iiiiict the reiterated assertion that he wa- the author of the play it had been previously committed in the cases of the first part of "Sir John Oldcastle," 1600, and of "The Yorkshire Trao-edy," 1608. It is undoubtedly true, that Shakespeare's name is upon those title-pages ; but we know, with regard to "Sir John Oldcastle," that the original title-page, stating it to have been "Written by William Shakespeare" was can- celled, no doubt at the instance of the author to whom it was falsely imputed ; and as to " The Yorkshire Tragedy," many persons have entertained the belief, in which we join, that Shakespeare had a share in its composition. We are not to forget tbiU, in the year preceding, Nathaniel Butter had made very prominent use of Shakespeare's name, for the sale of three impressions of " King Lear ;" and that in the very year when " Pericles" came out, Thorpe had printed a collection of scattered poems, recommending them to notice ip ^'"7 large capiUils, by stating emphatically that they were Shake- spe^are's Sonnets." . .. j ,i, , Conflrmatorv of what precedes, it may be mentioned, that previously to the insertion of " Pericles " in the folio ol 1664, It had been imputed to Shakespeare hj S. Shepherd, in his " Times displayed in Six Sestiads," 1646 ; and in lines by J. Tatham, prefixed to R. Brome's "Jovial Crew," 1652. Dryden gave it to Shakespeare in 1675, in the Prologue to 0. Davenant's "Circe." Thus, as far as stiige tradition is of value, it is uniformly in favoar of our position; and it le moreover to be observed, that until comparatively modern times it has never been contradicted. The incidents of " Pericles " are found in Lawrence rwme a translation from the GestJi Romanorum, first published in 1.578, under the title of "The Patterne of Painfull Adven- tures," in which the three chief characters are not named a« in Shakespeare, but are called ApoUonins, Lucina, and Tharsia'. This novel was several times reprinted, and an > The novel is contained in a work called " Shakespeare's Library," as well as Sower's poetical version of the same incidents, extracwd from his Con/e.wio Ammtis Hence the propriety of rnakinE Gowel the speaker of the various interiocutions in " Pericles." The onfin ot the story, as we find it in the Uesia Romanorum, is a matter ol dispute : Belleforest asserts that the version In his Hiiloms Zio- es was from a manuscript liri du Grec. Not long since, .Mr. lo Saiton narrative of the same incidents ; and :£fii'S--^-;te?ti'^^'£iri^JriS!^-^^ act would show, that Shakespeare did not then con- | century.-"' Shakespeare s Library, part v. p. ii. .ted assertion that he wa- the author of the play. 1 INTRODUCTION TO THE PLAYS. cxv edition of it came out in 1607, which perhaps was the year in which '* Pericles " was firnt renresented '' at the Globe on ;he Bank-side," as is stated on tue title-page of the earhest edition in 1609. The drama aeeros to have been extremely popular, but the usual difficulty beinff experienced by book- bellers in obtaining a copy of it, Natlianiel Butter probably employed some person to attend the performance at the theatre, and with the aid of notea there taken, and of Twiners version of the story, (which, as we remarked, had just before been reprinted) to compose a novel out of the incidents of the play under the following title : " The Painfull Adventures of Pericles Prince of Tyre. Being the true History of the Play of Pericles, as it was lately presented by the worthy and ancient Poet lohn Gower. At London. Printed by T. P. for Nat. Butter. 1603." It has also a wood-cut of Gower, no doubt, in the costume he wore at the Globe, This publication is valuable, not merely because it is the only known specimen of the kind of that date in our language, but because though in prose, (with the exception of a song) it gives some of the speeches more at length, than in the play as it has come down to us, and explains several obscure and disputed passages. For this latter purpose it will be seen that we have availed ourselves of it in our notes ; but it will not be out of place here to speak of the strong presumptive evidence it affords, that the drama has not reached us by any means in the shape in which it was originally represented. The sub.'iequent is given, in the novel of 160S, as tlie speech of Marina, when she is visited in the brothel by Lysimachus, the governor of Mitylene, whom, by her virtue, beauty, and eloquence, she diverts from the purpose for wliich he came. " If as you Bay, my lord, you are the governor, let not your authority, which should teach you to rule others, be the means to make you misgovern yourself. If the eminence of your place came unto you by descent, and the royalty of your blood, let not your life prove your birth bastard : if it were thrown upon you by opinion, make good that opinion was the cause to make you great. What reason is tnere in your justice, who hath power over all, to undo any ? If you take from me mine honour, you are like him that makes a gap into for- bidden ground, after whom many enter, and you are guilty of all theii evils My life is yet unspotted, my chastity unstained in thought : then, if your violence deface this building, the workman- ehip of heaven, made up for good, and not to be the exercise of sin's intemperance, you do kill your own honour, abuse your own justice, and impoverish me." Of this speech in the printed play we only meet with the following emphatic germ : — *' If you were born to honourj show it now : If put upon you. make the judgment good, That thought you worthy of it.** — (A. iv. sc. 6.) It will hardly be required of us to argue, that the powerful address, copied from the novel founded upon *' Pericles," Otjuld not be the mere enlargement of a short-hand writer, who had taken notes at the theatre, who from the very diffi- culty of the operation, and from the haste with which he must afterwards have compounded the history, would be muoh more likely to abridge than to expand. In some parts of the novel it is evident that the prose, there used, was made up from the blank-verse composition of the drama, as acted fit the Globe. In the latter we meet with no passaee similar M> what succeeds, but still the ease with which it may be » converted into blank-verse renders it almost '^rtain'that it was 60 originally. Pericles tellb Simonides, in the ro»ot that " Hi8 blood was yet untainted, but with the heat got by tke ^rrosg the king bad ofi'ered him, and that he boldly durst and did dofy n;a> self, his subjects, and the proudest danger that eithe? .fT&.n»f « treason could inflict upon him." To leave out only two or three expletives renders tts sen- tence perfect dramatic blank-verse: — " His blood was yet untainted, but with heat Got by the wrong the king had offer'd him ; And that he boldly durst and did defy him. His subjects, and the proudest dancer that Or tyranny or treason could inflict?' Many other passages to the same end mi^ht be prodnwd from the novel of which there is no trace in the play. We shall not, however, dwell farther upon the point, than to men- tion a peculiarly Shakespearean expression, which o:curs iu the novel, and is omitted in the drama. Lyohorida brings the new-born infant to Pericles, who in the pnnted rlav (Act iii. sc. 1) says to it, '* thou'rt the rudeliest welcome to this world That e'er was prince's child, Happy what follows ! Thou hast as chiding a nativity, As fire, air, water, earth, and heaven can make.'' In the novel founded upon the play, the speech is thus given, and we have printed the expression, which, we think, must have come from the pen of Shake ipeare, iu italic type: " Poor inch of nature.' {quoth he) thou art as rudely welcome to the world, as ever princess' babe was, and hast as chiding a nativity as fire, air, earth and water can aflTord thee." The existence of such a singular production was not known to any of the commentotors ; but several copies of it have been preserved, and one of them was sold in the library of the late Mr. Heber. It will have been remarked, that the novel printed in 1G03 states that "Pericles" had been " ^^^y presented," and on the title-page of the edition of the play in 1609 it is termed "the late and much-admired Play called Pericles:" it is, besides, spoken of as "a new play," in a poetical tract ealled "Pimlico or Run Red-cap," printed in 1609. Another piece, called "Shore," is mentioned in "Pimlico," under exactly similar circumstances: there was an older drama upon the story of Jane Shore, and this, like "Pericles," haa, in all probability, about the same date been revived at one of the theatres, with additions. "Pericles" was five times printed before it was inserted in the fulio of 1664, viz. in 1609, 1611, 1619, 1630, and 1685. The folio seems to have been copied from the last of these, with a multiplication of errors, but with some correelions. The first edition of 1609 was obviously brought out in haste, and there are many corruptif>ns in it; but n^iore pains were taken with it than Malone, Steevens, and others imagined' they never compared different copies of the same edition, or they would have seen that the impressions vary importantly, and that several mistakes, discovered as the play went through the press, were carefully set right : these will be found point- ed out in our notes. The commentators dwelt upon the blunders of the old copies, in order to warrant their own extraordinary innovations; but wherever we couid do so. with due regard to tho sense of the author we hr'^t ref-tored the f^xt to that of the earliest impression. THE TEMPEST. DRAMATIS PEESON^. .■U.0N3O; King of Naples Sebastian, his Brother. Prospero, the right Duke of Milan. A.NTONIO, his Brother, the usurping Duke of Milan. Ferdinand, Son to the King of Naples. GoNZAi.o, an honest old Counsellor. ^■""*''' I Lords. JRANCISCO, ) Caliban, a savage and deformed Slave. Trincdlo, a Jester. SCENE, a Ship at Sea;' Stephano, a drunken Butler. Master of a Ship, Boatswain, Mariners. Miranda, Daughter to Prospero. Ariel, an airy Spirit. Iris, Ceres, Juno, |- Spirits. Nymphs, Reapers, Other Spirits attending on Prospero. afterwards an uninhabited Island. ACT I. SCENE I.— On a Ship at Sea. A tejnpestuous noise of Thunder and Lightning heard." Kn'er a Ship-master and a Boatswain^ as on ship-board, shaking off wet.' Master. Boatswain ! Boats. Here, master : what cheer? Mast. Good. Speak to the mariners : fall to't yarely,* • ir we run ourselves aground : bestir, bestir. \^Exif. Enter Mariners. HiMts. Heigh, my hearts ! cheerly, cheerly, my hearts! yare. yare. Take in the topsail; tend to the m!>«ter's whistle. — Blow, till thou burst thy wind, if room enough ! Enter Alonzo, Sebastian, Antonio, Ferdinand, Gon- ZALO, and Others, from the Cabin.' Alon. Good boatswain, have a° care. Where's the master ? Play the men. Boats, i pray now, keep below. Ant. Where is the master, boatswain ? Boats. Do you not hear him ? You mar our labour. Keep your cabins: you do assist the storm. Gon. Niiy, good, be patient. Boats. When the sea is. Hence ! What care these roarers for the name of king? To cabin: silence! trouble us not. Gon. Good; yet remember whom thou hast aboard. Boats. None that I more love than myself. You re a counsellor : if you can command tliese elements silence, and work the peace of the present, we will .lot hand a rope more ; use your authority : if you c.umot, give thanks you have lived so long, and make yourself ready in your cabin for the mischance of the hour, if it so hap. Cheerly, good hearts ! — Out of our way, I nay. , [Exit. &jn. I have great comfort from this fellow : me- Ihinks, he hath no drowTiing mark upon hira ; his com- plej'on is perfect gallows. Stand tost, good fate, to his hanging: make the rope of his destiny oar cable, for our own doth little advantage. If he bo not boru to be hanged, our case is miserable. [Exeunt. Re-enter Boatswain. Boats. Down with the top-mast : yare ; lower, lower Bring her to try with main-course. [A cry within.] A plague upon this howling ! they are louder than th weather, or our office. — Re-enter Sebastian, Antonio, and Gonzalo. Yet again ! what do you here ? Shall we give o'er, and drown ? Have you a mind to sink ? Seb. A pox o' your throat, you bawling, blasphemouB, incharitable dog ! Boats. Work you, then. Ant. Hang, cur, hang ! you whoreson, insolent noise- maker, we are less afraid to be drowned than thou art. Gon. I'll warrant him for drowning ; though the ship were no stronger than a nutshell, and as leaky as an unstanched wench. Boats. Lay her a-hold, a-hold. Set her two courses : off to sea again ; lay her off. Enter Mariners, mt. Mar. All lost ! to prayers, to prayers ! all lost ! [Ex. Boats. What ! must our mouths be cold ? [them. Gon. The king and prince at prayers ! let us assirt For our case is as theirs. Seb. I am out of patience. Ant. We are merely' cheated of our lives by drunk ards. This wide-cliapp'd rascal, — would, thou might' st li drowning, The washing of ten tides ! Gon. He'll be hanged yet. Though every drop of water swear against it, And gape at wid'st to glut him. [A confused noise within.] Mercy on us ! — We split, we split — Farewell, my wife and children ! — Farewell, brother ! — We split, we split, we split ! — ' Former editions : the sea with ft ship. ■ heard : not in t e. t f. .'. * » : not m t e. ' Aosotutelf. ' ft« on ship-tMard, etc. : not in f. e. * yitnblp. * from the cabin ; ni^t 1 THE TEMPEST. ACT I. Ant Let's all sink with the king. [Exit. Si'b. Lot's take leave of him. [&i<. G(m. Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea !br an acre of barren ground ; long heath, brown furze, any thin§. The wills above be done ! but I would fain die a dry death. [Exit. SCENE IL— The Island: before the cell of Prospbro. Enter Prospero and Miranda. Mira. If by your art, my dearest father, you have Put the -n-ild waters in this roar, allay them. The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch, But that the sea, mounting to the welkin's heat,' Dashes the tire out. ! I have sufl'er'd With those that I saw suffer : a brave vessel. Who had no doubt some noble creatures' in her, Dash'd all to pieces. O ! the cry did kjiock Against my very heart. Poor souls, they perish'd. Had I been any god of power, I would Have sunk the sea within the earth, or e'er It should the good ship so have swallow'd, and The fraughting souls within her. Pro. Be collected: No more amazement. Tell your piteous heart, There's no harm done. Mira. 0, woe the day ! Pro. No liajm. [ have done nothing but in care of thee, (Of thee, my dear one ! thee, my daughter !) who Art ignorant of what thou art, nought knowing Of whence I am ; nor that I am more better Than Prospero, master of a full poor cell, And thy no greater father. Mira. More to know Did never meddle with my thoughts. Pro. 'Tis time 1 should inform thee farther. Lend thy hand, And pluck my magic garment from me. — So : [Lays doiim his robe.^ Lie there my art. — ^^Vipe thou thine eyes ; have comfort. The direful spectacle of the wreck, which touch'd The very virtue of compassion in thee, I have with such prevision' in mine art So safely order'd, that there is no soul — No, not so much perdition as an hair. Betid to any creature in the vessel Which thou heard'st cry, wluch thou saw'st sink. Sit down; For thou must now know farther. Mira. You have often Begun to tell me what I am; but stopp'd. And left me to a bootless inquisition. Concluding, " Stay, not yet." Pro. The hour's now come. The very minute bids thee ope thine ear ; Obey, and be attentive. Canst thou remember A time before we came unto this cell ? [Sits down.'' I do not think thou canst, for then thou wast not Out three years old. Mira. Certainly, sir, I can. Pre By what ? by any other house, or person ? Of any thing the image tell me, that Hath kept with thy remembrance. Mira. 'Tis far off; And rather like a dream, than an assurance That my remembrance warrants. Had I not Four or five women once, that tended me ? Pro. Thou hadst, and more, Miranda. But how is it, That this lives in thy mind ? 'What seest thou else In the dark backward and abysm of time '! If thou remeniber'st aught, ere thou cam'st here, How thou cam'st here, thou niay'st. Mira. But that I do not Pro. Twelve year since, Miranda, twelve year since Thy father was the duke of Milan, and A prince of power. Mira. Sir, are not you my father? Pro. Thy mother was a piece of virtue, and She said — tliou wast my daughter ; and thy father ■Was duke of Milan, thou' his only heir And princess, no worse issued. Mira. 0, the heavens ! What foul play had we, that we came from thence ? Or blessed was't, we did ? Pro. Both, both, my girl : By foul play, as thou say'st, were we heav'd thence ; But blessedly holp hither. Mira. O ! my heart bleeds To think o' the teen' that I have turn'd you to, Which is from my remembrance. Please you, farther Pro. My brother, and thy uncle, call'd Antonio, — I pray thee, mark me, — that a brother should Be so perfidious ! — he whom, next thyself. Of all the world I lov'd, and to him put The manage of my state ; as, at that time, "• Through all the signinries it was the first, (And Prospero the prime duke, being so reputed In dignity) and, for the liberal arts. Without a parallel : those being ail my study. The government I cast upon my brother. And to my state grew stranger, being transported And rapt in secret studies. Thy false imcle — Dost thou attend me? Mira. Sir, most heedfully. Pro. Being once perfected how to grant suite, How to deny them, whom t' advance, and whom To trash' for over-topping, new created The creatures that were mine, I say, or ehang'd tbeui, Or else new form'd them ; having both the key Of officer and office, set all hearts i' the state To what (luie pleas'd his ear ; that now he was The ivy, which had hid my princely trunk. And suck'd my verdure out ou't. Thou attend'st not Mira. good sir ! I do. Pro. I pray thee, mark me. I thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated To closeness, and the bettering of my mind With that, which but by being so retired O'er-priz'd all popular rate, in my false brother Awak'd an evil nature : and my trust, Like a good parent, did beget of him A falsehood, in its contrarj' as great As my trust was ; which had, indeed, no limit, A confidence sans bound. He being thus loaded,* Not only with what my revenue yielded. But what my power might else exact, — like one. Who having to untruth.'" by telling of it. Made such a sinner of his memory, To credit his o-wn lie, — he did believe He was indeed the duke ; out o' the substitution, And executing th' outward face of royalty, With all prerogative : — hence his ambition Growing — Dost thou hear ? Mira. Your tale, sir, would cure deafneiiB. Pro. To have no screen between this part he play'd And him he play'd it for, he needs will be * «heek : in f. e. > creature : in f. e. ^ mantle : in f. e. * provision : in f. e. * Not in f. e. »e terra, sitfnirying to l»eat back. S<)6 Othello, II., 1 « lorded : id f. e. >* unto truth : in f e •llnd:inf. e. '' Troublt. • A limit- SCE»fE n. THE TEMPEST. Absolute Milan. Me, poor man ! — my library- Was dukedom large enough : of temporal royalties He thinks me now incapable ; confederates (So dry he was for sway) with the king of Naples, To give him amiual tribute, do him homage, Subject his coronet to his crovni, and bend The dukedom, yet unbow'd, (alas, poor Milan !) To most ignoble stooping. 3Iira. the heavens ! Pro. Mark his condition, and th' event ; then tell me, If this might be a brother. Mira. I should sin To think but nobly of my grandmother : Good wombs have borne bad sons. Pro Now the condition. This king of Naples, being an enemy To me inveterate, hearkens my brother's suit ; Which was, that he in lieu o' the premises, — Of homage, and I know not how much tribute, — Should presently extirpate me and mine Out of the dukedom, and confer fair Milan, With all the honours, on my brother : whereon, A treacherous army levied, one midnight, Fated to the practise,' did Antonio open The gates of Milan ; and, i' the dead of darkness, The ministers for the purpose hurried thence Me, and thy crjnng self. Mira. Alack, for pity ! I, not rememh'ring how I cried out then, Will cry it o'er again : it is a hint, That wrings mine eyes to 't. Pro. Hear a little farther. And then I'll bring thee to the present business Which now 's upon 's ; without the which this story Were most impertinent. Mira. Wherefore did they not That hour destroy us ? Pro. Well demanded, wench : My tale provokes that question. Dear, they durst not, So dear the love my people bore me. nor set A mark so bloody on the business ; but With colours fairer painted their foul ends. In few, they hurried us aboard a bark. Bore us some leagues to sea, where they prepar'd A rotten carcass of a boat,' not rigg'd. Nor tackle, sail, nor mast ; the very rats Instinctively had' quit it : there they hoist us, To cry to the sea that roar'd to us ; to sigh To the winds, whose pity, sighing back again, Did us but loving wrong. Mira. Alack ! what trouble Was I then to you . Pro. O ! a cherubim Thou wast, that did preserve me. Thou iidst smile, Infused with a fortitude from heaven, When I have deck'd the sea with drops full salt, Under my burden groan'd ; which rais'd in me An undergoing stomach, to bear up Against what should ensue. Mira. How came we ashore? Pre. By Providence divine. Some food we had, and some fresh water, that A noble Neapolitan, Gonzalo, Out of his charity, (who being then appointed Master of this design) did give us ; with Rich garments, linens, stuffs, and necessaries, Which since have steaded much : so. of his gentleness. Knowing I lov'd my books, he furnish'd me, From my own library, with volumes that I prize above my diikedom. Mira. Would I might But ever see that man ! Pro. Now I arise . — [Puts on his robe again ' Sit still, and hear the last of our sea-sorrow. Here in this island we arriv'd ; and here Have I, thy schoolmaster, made thee more profit Than other princes' can. that have more time For vainer hours, and tutors not so careful. Mira. Heavens thank you for 't ! And now, I pray you, sir, For still 'tis heating in my mind, your reason For raising this sea-storm ? Pro. Know thus far forth. — I By accident most strange, bountiful fortune, Now my dear lady,, hath mine enemies Brought to this shore : and by my prescience I find my zenith doth depend upon A most auspicious star, whose influence If now I court not, hut omit, my fortunes Will ever after droop. Here cease more questions. Thou art inclined to sleep ; 'tis a good dulness. And give it way : — I know thou canst not choose. — [Miranda sleeps. Come away, servant, come ! I am ready now. Approach, my Ariel : come ! Enter Ariel. Ari. All hail, great master : grave sir, hail. I come To answer thy best pleasure ; be 't to fly. To sv\-im, to dive into the fire, to ride On the eurl'd clouds : to thy strong bidding task Ariel, and all his quality. Pro. Hast thou, spirit, Perform'd to point the tempest that I bade thee? Ari. To every article. I boarded the king's ship ; now on the beak, Now in the waist, the deck, in every cabin, I flam'd amazement; sometimes. I 'd divide. And burn in many places ; on tlie topmast, The yards and bo<\-sprit, would I flame distinctly. Then meet, and join. Jove's lightnings, the precursors O' the dreadful thunder-claps, more momentary And sight-outrunning were not : the fire, and cracki Of sulphurous roaring the most mighty Neptune Seem to besiege, and make his bold waves tremble, Yea, his dread trident shake. Pro. My brave spirit ! Who was so firm, so constant, that this coil Would not infect his reason ? Ari. Not a soul But felt a fever of the mad, and play'd Some tricks of desperation. All, but mariners, Plung'd in the foaming brine, and quit the vessel, Then all a-fire with me : the king's son, Ferdinand, With hair up-staring (then like reeds, not hair) Was the first man that leap'd ; cried, " Hell is emptj And all the devils are here." Pro. Why, that's my spirit! But was not this nigh shore ? Ari. Close by, my master. Pro. But are they, Ariel, safe ? An. Not a hair perish d ; On their sustaining garments not a blemish, But fresher than before : and, as thou bad'st me. In troops I have dispers'd them 'bout the isle. The king's son have I landed by himself, Whom I left cooling of the air with sighs In an odd angle of the isle, and sitting. His arms in this sad knot. 'purpote : in f. e. * butt : in f e ' have : in f. e * This direction is not in f. e • princesB ■ in f e. THE TEMPEST. ACT I. Pro. Of the king's ship The mariners, say, how thou hast dispos'd, And all the rest o' the fleet? An. Safely in harbour [s the king's ship : in the deep nook, where once Tliou call'dst me up at midnight to fetch dew From the still-vex'd Bcrmoothes, there she's hid : The mariners all under hatches stow'd ; Whom, with a charm joined to their suffer'd labour, i have left asleep : and for the rest o' the fleet Which I dispers'd, they all have met again. And all' upoh the Mediterranean float," Bound sadly home for Naples, Supposing that they saw the king's ship -WTeek'd, And his great person perish. Pro. Ariel^ thy charge Exactly is perform'd ; but there's more work. What is the time o' the day? Ari. Past the mid season. Pro. At least two glasses. The time 'twixt six and now Must by us both be spent most preciously. Ari. Is there more toil? Since thou dost give me pains. Let me remember thee what thou hast promis'd, Which is not yet perform'd me. Pro. How now ! moody ? What is 't thou canst demand ? Ari. My liberty. Pro. Before the time be out ? no more. Ari. I prithee Remember, I have done thee worthy service ; Told thee no lies, made thee no mistakings, serv'd Without or grudge, or grumblings. Thou didst promise To bate me a full year. Pro. Dost thou forget From what a torment I did free thee ? An. No. Pro. Thou dost ; and think'st it much, to tread the ooze Of the salt deep, To run upon the sharp wind of the north. To do me business in the veins o' th^ earth. When it is bak'd with frost. Ari. I do not, sir. Pro. Thou liest, malignant thing ! Hast thou forgot The foul witch Sycorax, who, with age and envy. Was grown into a hoop? hast thou forgot her? Aii No, sir. Pro. Thou hast. Where was she born? speak ; tell me. Ari. Sir, in Argier. Pro. ! was she so ? I must, Once in a month, recount what thou hast been. Which thou forget'st. This damn'd witch. Sycorax, For mischiefs manifold, and sorceries terrible To enter human hearing, from Argier, Thou knoVst, was banish'd : for one thing she did. They would not take her life. Is not this true ? Ari. Ay, sir. Pro. This blue-eyed hag was hither brought \\\\\\ child. And here was left by the sailors: thou, my slave As thou report'st thyself, wast then her servant : And, for thou wast a spirit too delicate To act her earthy and abhorr'd commands, * Refusing her grand bests, she did confine thee, 8y help of her more potent ministers, And in her most unmitigable rage, Into a cloven pine ; within which rift (mpnson'd, thou didst painfully remain A dozen years ; within which space she died. And left thee there, where thou didst vent thy groans As fast as mill-wheels strike. Then was this island (Save for a' son that she did litter here, A freckled whelp, hag-born) not honour'd with A human shape. Ari. Yes; Caliban, her son. Pro. Dull thing, I say so; he, that Caliban, Whom now I keep in service. Thou best know'et What torment I did find thee in : thy groans Did make wolves howl, and penetrate the breasts Of ever-angry bears. It was a torment To lay upon the damn'd, which Sycorax Could not again undo : It was mine art. When I arrived and heard thee, that made gape The pine, and let thee out, Ari. I thank thee, master. Pro. If thou more murmur'st, I will rend an oak, And peg thee in his knotty entrails, till Thou hast howl'd away twelve vrinters, Ari. Pardon, master : I will be correspondent to command. And do my spriting gently. Pro. Do so, and after two dayi I will discharge thee. Ari. That's my noble master ! What shall I do? say what? what shall I do ? Pro. Go, make thyself a like nymph' o' the sea : be subject To no sight but thine and mine ; invisible To every eyeball, else. -Go, take this shape. And hither come in't; go; hence, with diligence, [Exit Ariel. Awake, dear heart, awake ! thou hast slept well ; Awake ! Mira. The strangeness of your story put [ Wakinf^' Heaviness in me. Pro. Shake it off. Come on : We'll visit Caliban, my slave, who never Yields us kind answer. Mira. ''Tis a villain, sir, I do not love to look on, ' Pro. But, as 'tis. We cannot miss him : he does make our fire, Fetch in our wood, and serves in offices That profit us. — What ho ! slave ! Caliban ! Thou earth, thou ! speak, CaJ. [ Withiix] There's wood enough within. Pro. Come forth, I say ; there's other business for thee Come, thou tortoise ! when ? Re-enter Ariel, like a water-nymph. Fine apparition ! My quaint Ariel, Hark in thine ear, Ari. My lord, it shall be done. [Exil Pro. Thou poisonous slave, got by the devil himdel. Upon thy wicked dam, come forth ! Enter Caliban. Cal. As wicked dew, as e'er my mother brush'd With raven's feather from unwholesome fen, Drop on you both ! a soutli-west blow on ye, And blister you all o'er! Pro. For this, be sure, to-night thou shalt have cramps Side-stitehes that shall pen thy breath up ; urchins Shall, for that vast of night that they may work. All exercise on thee : thou shalt be pineh'd As thick as honey-combs,' each pinch more stinging Than bees that made 'em, Cal. I must eat my dinner. This island's mine, by Sycorax my mother. Which thou tak'st from me. When thou cam'st here first ' are : 'n f e « Bote : m f. e. ' the : in f. 8. • like a : in f. e. » Not in f e ' honev.nomb ■ >n f. o. BCENE U. THE TEMPEST. Thou strok'dst nie, and mad'st much of me ; would'st give me Water witli berries in 't ; and teach me how To name the bigger light, and how the less, Tliat burn by day and night : and then I lov'd the«, And show'd thee all the qualities o' th' isle, The fresh springs, brine pits, barren place, and fertile. Cursed be 1 that did so ! — All the charms Of Sycorax, toads, beetles, bats, light on you ; For I am all the subjects that yovi have, Which first was mine own king : and here you sty me, In this hard rock, whiles you do keep from me The rest o' th' island. Pro, Thou most lying slave, Whom stripes may move, not kindness, I have us'd thee. Filth as thou art. with human care: and lodg'd thee In mine own cell, till thou didst seek to violate The honour of my child. Cal. O ho ! O ho ! — would it had been done ! Thou didst prevent me ; I had peopled else This isle with Calibans. Pro. Abhorred slave. Which any print of goodness will not take, Being capable of all ill ! I pitied thee. Took pains to make thee speak, t.aught thee each hour One thing or other : when thou didst not. savage, Know thine ovni meaning, but would'st gabble like A thing most brutish, I endow'd thy purposes With words that made them known : but thy vile race. Though thou didst learn, had that in't which good natures Could not abide to be with : therefore wast thou Deservedly confin'd into this rock. Who hadst deserv'd more than a prison. Cal. You taught me language : and my profit on"t ts, I know how to curse. The red plague rid you, For learning me your language ! Pro. Hag-seed, hence ! Fetch us in fuel ; and be quick, thou'rt best. To answer other business. Shrug'st thou, malice ? If thou neglect'st. or dost unwillingly What I command, I'll rack thee with old cramps ; Fill all thy bones with aches : make thee roar, That beasts shall tremble at thy din. Cal. No, pray thee ! — I must obey; his art is of such power, [Aside. It would control my dam's god, Setebos, And make a vassal of him. Pro. So, slave : hence ! [£a;t( Caliban. Re-enter Ariel, invisible., playing and singiiig ; Ferdi- nand following.' Ariel's Song. Come iinto these yellow .latids, And then take hands : Court'.iied when you have, and kiss'd The wild leaves whitt, Foot it feathj here and there ;' Arid, sweet sprites, the burden bear Hark, hark ! Burden. Bow, wow. [Dispersedly. The watch dogs bark : Burden. Bow, wow. Hark, hark ! I hear The strain of strutting chanticlere Cry, cock-a-doodle-doo. [earth? — Fer. Where should this music be ? i' th' air, or th' ft sounds no more : — and sure, it waits upon Some god o th island. Sitting on a bank. Weeping again the king my father's wTeck, This music crept by me upon the waters. Allaying both their fury, and my passion, With its sweet air : thence I have follow'd it, Or it hath drawn me rather : — but 'tis gone.- No. it begins again. Ariel sings. Full fathom five thy father lies ; Of his bones are coral nuide ; Those are pearls that were his eyes : Nothing of him that doth fade. But doth suffer a sea-change Into something rich and strange. Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell : [Burden : ding-don^ Hark .' now I hear them, — ding-dong. bell. Fer Tlie ditty does remember my drownd father.— This is no mortal business, nor no sound That the earth owes^ — I liear it now above me. [Music above. Pro. The fringed curtains of thine eye advance And say, what thou seest yond'. Mira. What is 't? a spirit' Lord, how it looks about ! Believe me, sir, It carries a brave form : — but 'tis a spirit. Pro. No, wench : it eats, and sleeps, and hath such senses As we have; such. This gallant, which thou seest. Was in the wreck ; and but he's something stain'd With grief, that's beauty's canker, thou might'st call him A goodly person. He hath lost his fellows, And strays about to find 'em. Mira. I might call him A thing divine, for nothing natural I ever saw so noble. Pro. It goes on, I see, [Aside, As my soul prompts it: — Spirit, fine spirit ! I'll free thet Within two days for this. Fer. Most sure, the goddess [Seeing her' On whom these airs attend ! — Vouchsafe, my prayer May know if you remain upon this island, [Kneek And that you will some good instruction give, How I may bear me here : my prime request, Which I do last pronounce, is, you wonder ! If you be maid, or no ? Mira. No wonder, sir ; But. certainly a maid. Fer. My language ! heavens ! — Rises I am the best of them that speak this speech, Were I but where 'tis spoken. Pro. How ! the best ? What wert thou, if the king of Naples heard thee '' Fer. A single thing, as I am now, that wonders To liear thee speak of Naples. He does hear me, And that he does I weep ; myself am Naples ; Who with mine eyes, ne'er .since at ebb, beheld The king, my father, wreck'd. Mira. Alack, for mercy ! Fer. Yes, faith, and all his lords ; the duke of Milan, And his brave son, being twain. Pro. The duke of Milan, And his more braver daughter, could control thee, If now 'twere fit to do't. — [Aside.] At the first sight They have chang"d eyes : — ilelicate Ariel, I'll set thee free for this ! — [To him.] A word, good sir . I fear, you have done yourself some wrong: a word Mira. Why speaks my father so ungently? Thif If. ( t>f the • Not in f e \. lave "him." 'The old copiAs read: "Foot it fealti/ here atirt t/iere, anj sreee: tprilcs brar Ikt liuriUn." The iMF. snnotatoi fo io of 1632, anticipated later jriticfl in altering the paseage as it stands in the text. 'Owis * Not in f e "Not m f. f n f e Not in f. 6 THE TEMPEST. ACT n la the third man that e'er 1 saw ; tlie first Thai, e'er 1 sigh'd tor. Pity move my father To be inclin'd my way ! Fer. O ! if a virgin, And your afTection not gone fortli, I'll make you The queen of Naples. Pro. Soft, sir: one word more. — [Aside.] They are both in cither's powers : but this swift business I must uneasy make, lest too light winning Make the prize light. — [To him.\ One word more: I charge thee, That thou attend me. Thou dost here usurp The name thou ow'st not ; and hast put thyself Upon this island as a spy, to win it From me, the lord on 't. Fer. No, as I am a man. Mira. There's nothing ill can dwell in such a temple : If the ill spirit have so fair a house, Good things will strive to dwell with't. Pro. Follow me. — [To Ferd. Speak not you for him ; he's a traitor. — Come. I'll manacle thy neck and feet together; Sea- water shalt thou drink, thy food shall be The fresh-brook muscles, wither'd roots, and huslts Wherein the acorn cradled. Follow. Fer. No ; I will resist such entertaimnent, till Mine enemy has more power. [He draws., and is charmed from moving. Mira. 0, dear father ! Make not too rash a trial of him, for He's gentle, and not fearful. Pro. What! I say: My foot my tutor ? — Put thy sword up, traitor ; Whomak'st a show, but dar'st not strike, thy conscience Is so possess'd with guilt : Come from thy ward, For I can here disarm thee with this stick, And make thy weapon drop. Mira. Beseech you, father ! Pro. Hence ! hang not on my garments. Mira. Sir, have pity I'll be his surety. Pro. Silence ! one word more Shall maje me chide thee, if not hate thee. What ! An advocate for an impostor? hush ! Thou tliink'st there are no more such shapes as he. Having seen but him and Caliban : foolish wench ! To the most of men this is a Caliban, And they to him are angels. Mira. My affections Are tlien most humble : I have no ambition To see a goodlier man. Pro. Come on : obey : [To Ferd Thy nerves are in their infancy again, And have no vigour in them. Fer. So they are : My spirits, as in a dream, are all bound up. My father's loss, the weakness which I feel, The wreck of all my friends, nor this man's threats, To whom I am subflued, are but light to me. Might I but through my prison once a day Behold this maid : all corners else o' th' earth Let liberty make use of; space enough Have I in such a prison. Pro. It works. — Come on. — Thou hast done well, fine Ariel ! — Follow me. — [To Ferd. and Mm Hark, what thou else shalt do me. [To Ariel Mira. Be of comfort. My father's of a better nature, sir, Than he appears by speech : this is unwonted, Which now came from him. Pro. Thou shalt be aa free As mountain winds : but then, exactly do All points of my command. Ari. To the syllable. Pro. Come, follow. — Speak not for him. [Exeunt ACT II, SCENE I.— Another part of the Island. Enter Alonso, Sebastian. Antonio, Gonzalo, Adrian, Francisco «)«/ Others. Gorn. Beseech you, sir, be merry: ygu have cause (So have we all) of joy, for our escape Is much beyond our loss. Our hint of woe Is common : every day, some sailor's wife. The master' of some merchant, and the merchant, Have just our theme of woe ; but for the miracle, I mean our preservation, few in millions Can speak like us : then, wisely, good sir, weigh Our sorrow with our comfort. Aloni. Pr'ythee, peace Seh. He receives comfort like cold porridge. Ant. The visitor will not give him o'er so. Seb. Look; he's winding up the watch of his wit: l.y and by it will strike. Gm. Sir,— Seb. One: — tell. Gon. When every grief is entertain'd, that's ofTer'd, Comes to the entertainer — Seb. A dollar. Gon. Dolour comes to him, indeed : you have spoken truer than you purposed. Seb. You have taken it wiselier than I meant you should. Gon. Therefore, my lord. Ant. Fie, what a spendthrift is he of his tongue ' Almi. I pr'ythee, spare. Gon. Well, I have done. But yet — Seh. He will be talking. Ant. Which, or» he or Adrian, for a good wager, first begins to crow? Seh. The old cock. Ant. The cocUrel. Seh. Done. The wager? Arit. A laughter. Seh. A match. Adr. Though this island seem to be desert, — Seh. Ha, ha, ha ! Ant. So, you're paid. Adr. Uninhabitable, and almost inaccessible, — Seb. Yet— Adr. Yet— Ant. He could not miss it. Adr. It must needs be of subtle., tender, and delioatt temperance. Ant. Temperance was a delicate wench. masters : m f. e • jf them : m f. e. KniKht's edition reads, "of them.' . JEITE T. THE TEMPEST. Fran. Sir, he may live. I saw him beat the surges under him. And ride upon their backs : he trod the water, Whose enmity he flung aside, and breasted The surge most swoln that met him : his bold head 'Bove the contentious waves he kept, and oar'd Himself with his good arms in lusty stroke To the shore, that o'er his wave-worn basis boVd, As stooping to relieve him. I not doubt, He came alive to land. Alon. No, no ; he's gone. Seb. Sir, you may thank yourself for this great loss That would not bless our Europe with yoiir daugUt«t But rather lose her to an African ; Where she, at least, is banish'd from your eye, Who hath cause to wet the grief on 't. Alon. Pr'ythee, peace. Scb. You were kneel'd to, and importun'd otherwise By all of us ; and the fair soul herself Weigh'd between lothness and obedience, as' Which end o' the beam should' bow. We have losi your son, I fear, for ever : Milan and Naples have More widows in them, of this business' makmg, Than we bring men to comfort them : the fault 'b Your own. Alon. So is the dearest of the loss. Gon. My lord Sebastian The truth you speak doth lack some gentleness, A»d time to speak it in : you rub the sore. When vou should bring the plaster. Seb. ' Very well. Ant. And most chirurgeonly. Gon. It is foul weather in us all, good sir, When you are cloudy. Seb. . Foul weather? Ant. Very foul. Gon. Had I plantation of this isle, my lord, — Ant. He'd sow 't with neddle-seed. Seb. Or docks, or malloN»"s Gon. And were the king on't, what would I do? Seb. 'Scape being drunk, for want of wine. Gon. V the commonwealth I would by contraries Execute all things, for no kind of traffic Would I admit;' no name of magistrate; Letters should not be known ; riches, poverty, And use of service, none ; contract, succession, Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none; No use of metal, corn, or wine, or oil : No occupation, all men idle, all : And women, too, but innocent and pure. No sovereignty : — Scb. Yet he would be king on't. Ant. The latter end of this commonwealth forgets the beginning. Gon. All things in common nature should produoe, Without sweat or endeavour: treason, felony. Sword, pike, knife, g\in, or need of any engine, Would I not have ; but nature should bring forth, Of its own kind, all foisson,' all abundance, To feed my innocent people. Scb. No marrying 'mong his subjects? Ant. None, man ; all idle ; whores, and knaves. Gon. I would with such perfection govern, sir. To excel the golden age. I Seb. 'Save his majesty ! ' Juiey. > Slight shade of color. ' at ; in f e. « She'd : in f. e. • It is a nation, would I answer Plato, that hath no kinde of traffike, no knowledge of Letters, no intelligence of numbers, no name of magistrate, nor of politike superioritie ; no use of service, of riches, or of povertie ; no contracts, no successions, no dividences, no occupation Init idle ; no respect of kinred. tint common, no apparel hul nalurall, no manuring of lands, no use of wme. come, or mettle. The very that import lying, falshood, treason. Jissiminations oovet- QUsneR, envio. detraotion, and pa.-don, were never heard of amongst them — MontaiRne, Fiorio translation^ 1G03. • Plenty.

Seb. Ay, and a subtle, as he most learnedly delivered.
Adr. The air breathes upon us here most sweetly.
Seb As if it had lungs, and rotten ones.
Ant. Or as 'twere perfumed by a fen.
So/i,. Here is every thing advantageous to life.
.4nt. True ; save means to live.
SV6. Of that there's none, or little.
(JoH. How lush' and lusty ine grass looks ! how green !
Ant. The ground, indeed, is tawny.
Seb. With an eye^ of green in 't.
-int. He misses not much.

Seb. No ; he doth but mistake the truth totally.
Gem. But the rarity of it is, which is indeed almost
.^fond credit —
Seb. As many vouch'd rarities are.
Gon. That our garments, being, as they were,
drenched in the sea, hold, notwithstanding, their fresh-
ness, and glosses ; being rather new dyed, than stain'd
with salt water.

Ant. If but one of his pockets could speak, would it
noi say, he lies ?

Seb. Ay, or very falsely pocket up his report.

Gon. Methinks, our garments are now as fresh as

when we put them on first in Afric, at the marriage of

the king's fair daughter Clanbel to the king of Tunis.

Seb. 'Twas a sweet marriage, and we prosper well

in our return.

Adr. Tunis was never graced before with such a
paragon to their queen.

Gon. Not since widow Dido's time.
Ant. Widow? a pox o' that ! How came that widow
in? Widow Dido !

Seb. What if he had said, widower iEneas too? good
lord, how you take it I

Adr. Widow Dido, said you ! you make me study of
that: she was of Cartilage, not of Tunis.
Gon. This Tunis, sir, was Carthage.
Gon. I assure you, Carthage.
Ant. His word is more than the miraculous harp.
Seb. He hath rais'd the wall, and houses too.
Ant. What impossible matter will he make easy next ?
Seb. I think he will carry this island home in his
pocket, and give it his son for an apple.

Ant. And sowing the kernels of it in the sea, bring
forth more islands.
Gon. Ay?

Ant. Why, in good time.

Gon. Sir, we were talking, that our garments seem
now as fresli, as when we were at Tunis at the mar-
riage of your daughter, who is now queen.
Ant. And the rarest that e'er came there.
Seb. Bate, I beseech you, widow Dido.
Ant. O ! widow Dido ; ay, widow Dido.
Gon. Is not, sir, my doublet as fresh as the first day
1 wore it ? I mean, in a sort.

Ant. That sort was well fish'd for.
Go7i. When I wore it at your daughter's marriage?
Aloti. You cram tliese words into mine cars, against
he stomach of my sense. Would I had never
Married my daughter tliere ! for. coming thence,
My son is lost ; and. in my rate, she too.
Who is so far from Italy remov'd,
I ne'er again shall see her. thou, mine heir
Of Naples and of Milan ! what strange fish
Hath made his meal on thee ?

8

IHE TEMPEST.

ACT a.

Ant. Long live Gonzalo !

Gon. And, do you mark me, sir? —

Alon. Pr'ylhee, no more : thou dost talk nothing to
me.

Gon. I do well believe your highness ; and did it to
minister occasion to these gentlemen, wlio are of such
sensible and nimble lungs, that they always use to
laugh at nothing.

Ant. 'Twas you we laugh'd at.

Gon. Who, in this kind of merry fooling, am nothing
10 you : so you may continue, and laugh at nothing
■tin.

Ant. What a blow was there given !

Seb. An it had not fallen flat-long.

Gon. You are gentlemen of brave mettle : you would
lift the moon out of her sphere, if she would continue
in it five weeks without changing.

Enter Ariel above,^ invisible, playing solemn music.

Seb. We would so, and then go a bat-fowling.

Ant. Nay, good my lord, be not angry.

Gon. No, I warrant you ; I will not adventure my
discretion so weakly. Will you laugh me asleep, for
I am very heavy?

Ant. Go sleep, and hear us.

[All sleep but Alon. Seb. aiid Ant.

Alon. What ! all so soon asleep? I wish mine eyes
Would, with themselves, shut up my thoughts : I find,
They are inclined to do so.

Do not omit the heavy offer of it :
It seldom visits sorrow ; when it doth.
It is a comforter.

Ant. We two, my lord,

Alon. Thank you. Wondrous heavy. — [A.hOS. sleeps.'

Seb. What a strange drowsiness possesses them !

Ant. It is the quality of the climate.

Seb. Why

Doth it not, then, our eye-lids sink ? I find not
Myself disposed to sleep.

Ant. Nor I : my spirits are nimble.

They fell together all, as by consent ;
They dropp'd, as by a tliuuder-stroke. What might.
Worthy Sebastian ? — O ! what might ? — No more : —
And yet, methinks, I see it in thy face.
What thou should'st be. Th' occasion speaks thee, and
My strong imagination sees a crown

Seb. What ! art thou waking ?

Ant. Do you not hear me speak ?

Seb. I do ; and, surely.

It is a sleepy language, and thou speak'st
Out of thy sleep. What is it thou didst say?
This is a strange repose, to be asleep
With eyes wide open ; standing, speaking, moving.
And yet so fast asleep.

Ant Noble Sebastian,

Thou let'st thy fortune sleep — die rather ; wink'st
Whiles thou art walcing.

Seb. Thou dost snore distinctly :

There's meaning in thy snores.

Ant. I am more serious than my custom : you
Must be so too, if heed me ; which to do,
T'ebles thee o'er.

Seb. Well ; I am standing water.

Ant. I'll teach you how to flow.

Seb. Do so : to ebb

Hereditary sloth instructs me.

Ant. O !

If you but knew, how you the purpose cherish,
Whiles thus you mock it ! how, in stripping it,
You more invest it ! Ebbing men. indeed,
Most often do so near tlie bottom run
By Dieir own fear, or sloth.

Seb. Pr'ythee, say on.

The setting of thine eye, and cheek, proclaim
A matter Irora thee ; and a birth, indeed.
Which throes thee much to yield.

Ant. Thus, sir.

Although this lord of weak remembrance, this
(Who shall be of as little memory.
When he is earth'd) hath here almost persuaded
(For he's a spirit of persuasion, only
Professes to persuade) the king, his son 's alive,
'Tis as impossible that he's undrown'd,
As he that sleeps here, swims.

Seb. I liave no liope
That he 's undrown'd.

Ant. O ! out of that no hope,

Wliat great hope have you ! no hope, that way, is
Another way so high a hope, that even
Ambition cannot pierce a wink beyond,
But doubts discovery there. Will you grant, with ine
That Ferdinand is drown'd ?

Seb. He's gone.

Ant. Then, tell me.

Who's the next heir of Naples?

Seb. Claribel.

Ant. She that is queen of Tunis ; she that dwells
Ten leagues beyond man's life ; she that from Naples
Can have no note, unless the sun were post,
(The man i' the moon 's too slow) till new-bom chins
Be rough and razorable ; she, for' whom
We all were sea-swallow'd, though some cast again ;
And by that destiny to perform an act
Whereof what's past is prologue, what's* to come.
In yours and my discharge.

Seb. What siafT is this ! — How say you ?

'Tis true, my brother's daughter 's queen of Tunis ;
So is she heir of Naples ; 'twixt which regions
There is some space.

A7it. A space whose every cubit

Seems to cry out, " How shall that Claribel
Measure us back to Naples?" — Keep in Tunis,
And let Sebastian wake ! — Say, this were death
That now hath seized them ; why, they were no worse
Than now they are. There be. that can rule Naples
As well as he that sleeps ; lords that can prate
As amply, and unnecessarily,
As this Gonzalo : I myself could make
A chough of as deep chat. 0, that you bore
The mind that I do ! what a sleep were thiii

Seb. Methinks, I do.
Ant. And how does your content

Tender your own good fortune ?

Seb. I remember,

You did supplant your brother Prospero.

Ant. True :

And look how well my garments sit upon me ;
Much feater than before. My brother's servants
Were then my fellows, now tliey are my men.

Seb. But, for your conscience —

Ant. Ay, sir : where lies that ? if it were a kyt(«
'Twould put me to my slipper ; but I feel not
This deity in my bosom : twenty consciences.
That stand 'twixt me and Milan, candied be they,

' Not in f. e. > Exii Ariel : in f. e • ftom : in f. e • what : in f. e

t-CENTI n.

THE TEMPEST.

9

And melt, ere tliey molest ! Here lies your brother,
\o better than the earth he lies upon,
If he were that which now he's like, that's dead.
Whom I, with this obedient sleel, three inches of it,
Can lay to bed for ever ; whiles you, doing thus.
To the perpetual \\-iiik for aye might put
This ancient morsel, this Sir Prudence, who
Sliould not upbraid our course : for all the rest,
They'll take suggestion as a cat laps milk;
They'll tell the clock to any business that
We say befits the hour.

Seb. Thy case, dear friend,

Shall be my precedent : as thou got'st Milan,
I'll come by Naples. Draw thy sword : one stroke
Shall free thee from the tribute which thou pay'st,
Aud I, the king, shall love thee.

Ant. Draw together ;

And when I rear my hand, do you the like.
To fall it on Gonz.alo.

Seb. ! but one word. [They converse apart.

Music. Ariel descends invisible.'
Ari. My master tlirough his art foresees the danger
That you, his friend, are in ; and sends me forth
(For else his project dies) to keep them liinng.

[Sings in Gonzalo's ear.
While yaii. here do snoring lie,
Open-eyed conspiracy

His time doth take.
If of life you keep a care,
Shake off slumber, and beware :
Au'ake ! Aicake !
Ant. Then, let us both be .sudden.
Gon. Now, good angels, preserve the king !

[They wake.
Aton. 'Why. how now, ho ! awake ! Why are you
dravni?
Wherefore thus' ghastly looking ?

Gon. What's the matter ?

Seb. 'Whiles we stood here securing your repose.
Even now, we heard a hollow burst of bellowing.
Like bulls, or rather lions : did it not wake you?
It struck mine oar most terribly.

Alon. I heard nothing.

Ant. O ! 'twas a din to fright a monster's ear.
To make an earthquake : sure, it was the roar
Of a whole herd of lions.

Alon. Heard you this, Gonzalo?

Gon. Upon mine honour, sir, I heard a humming,
And that a strange one too, which did awake me.
I shak'd you. sir, and cry'd : as mine eyes open'd,
I saw their weapons drawn. — There was a noise,
That's verity :' 'tis best we stand upon our guard,
Or that we quit this place. Let's draw our weapons.
Alon. Lead off this ground, and let's make farther
search
For my poor son.

Gon. Heavens keep him from these beasts.
For he is, sure, i' the island.

Ari. Prospero, my lord, shall know what I have done :

So, king, go safely on to seek thy son. [E.rit.

SCENE II.— Another part of the Island.

Enter Caliban, with a burden of tsood.

A noise of thiitider heard.

Cal. All the infections that the sun sucks up

From bogs, fens, flats, on Prosper fall, and make him

By ineh-meal a disease ! His spirits hear me.

And yet I needs must curse ; but they'll not' pinch,
Fright me with urchin shows, pitch iiie i' the mire.
Nor lead me, like a fire-brand, in the dark
Out of my way, unless he bid "em ; but
For every trifle are they set upon me :
Sometime like apes, that moe and chatter at me.
And after, bite me : then like hedge-hogs, which
Lie tumbling in my bare-foot way, and mount
Their pricks at ray foot-fall : sometime am I
All wound with adders, who with cloven tongues
Do hiss me into madness. — Lo, now ! lo !

Enter Trinculo.
Here comes a spirit of his, and to torment me
For bringing wood in slowly: I'll fall flat;
Perchance, he will not mind me.

Triti. Here's neither bush nor shrub to bear ofl' any
weather at all. and another storm brewing; I hear il
sing i' the wind : yond' same black cloud, yond' hwse
one. looks like a foul bombard* that would shed his
liquor. If it should thunder, as it did before, I know
not where to hide my head : yond' same cloud cannot
choose but fall by pailfuls, — What have we here''
[Seeing Caliian.'] a man or a fish? Dead or alive?
A fish: he smells like a fish; a very ancient and fish-
like smell; a kind of, not of the newest, Poor-.lohn.
A strange fish ! Were I in England now, (as once I
was) and had but this fish painted, not a holiday
fool there but would give a piece of silver : there
would this monsler make a man : any strange beast
there makes a man. 'Wlien they will not give a doit
to relieve a lame beggar, they will lay out ten to see
a dead Indian. Legg'd like a man ! and his fins like
arms ! Warm, o' my troth ! I do now let loose my
opinion, hold it no longer ; this is no fish, but an
islander, that hath lately suff'ered by a thunder-boll
[Thunder.] Alas ! the storm is come again : my hesi
way is to creep under his gaberdine ; there is no other
shelter hereabout : misery acquaints a man with strange
bedfellows. I wll here shroud, till the drench' of the
storm be past.

Enter Stephano, singing ; a bottle in his hand.

Ste. I slutll no more to sea. to sea,

Here shall I die a-shore. —
This is a very scurvy tune to sing at a man's funeral.
Well, here's my comfort. [Drinks

The mtvster, the .vi'abber, the boatswain, and I,
The gtinner, and his mate,

Lov'd Mall. Meg, and Marian, and Margery,
But nont of us car'd for Kate ;
For she had a tongue with a tang,
Would cry to a sailor, Go, hang :

She lov'd not the savour of tar, nor of pitch,

Yet a tailor might scratch her where-e'er she did itch .
Then, to sea, boys, arul let her go hang.
This is a scurvy tune too ; but here's my comfort. [Drinks.

Cal. Do not torment me : !

Ste. What's the matter? Have we de^-ils here'
Do you put tricks upon us with savages, and men ol
Inde? Ha! I have not 'scap'd drowning, to be afeard
BOW of your four legs ; for it hath been said, as proper
a man as ever went on four legs cannot make him give
ground, and it shall be said so again, while Stephano
breathes at nostrils.

Cal. The spirit torments me : !

Ste. This is some monster of the isle, with four legs,
who hath got, as I take it, an ague. 'Where the deini
should he learn our language? I will give him some
relief, if it be but for that : if I can recover him, and keer

* Mtisie. Re-enter Ari^i^, invisibU: in t.G. 'this: in f. e 3 ColUer'B ed,, 1S44, reftds, " verily "—most of the other editions, "verity ''
llnthetext *nor:inl'.o ^ The name otalarge vessel to contain drir>b tip well asof a oiaoe •^fartitlary. •Notnfo dregs - id f e

10

THE TEMPEST.

Acrr in.

hira tame, and get to Naples with him, he's a present
for any emperor that ever trod on neat's-leather.

Cal. Do not torment me, pr'jthee: I'll bring my
wood home faster.

Ste. He's in his fit now, and docs not talk after the
wisest. He shall taste of my bottle : if he have never
drunk wine afore, it will go near to remove his fit. If
I ean recover him, and keep him tame, I will not take
too much for him : he shall pay for him that hath him,
und that soundly.

Cal. Thou dost me yet but little hurt; thou wilt
anon, I know it by thy trembling : now Prosper works
upon thee.

Ste. Come on your ways : open your mouth ; here is

hat which will give language to you, cat. Open your

mouth: this will shake your shaking, I can tell you.

and that soundly : you cannot tell who 's your friend :

opeu your ch-.ijis again. [Caliban drinks.^

Trin. I should linow that voice. It should be — but
he is drowned, and these are devils. 0, defend me ! —

Ste. Four legs, and two voices ! a most delicate
monster. His forward voice, now, is to speak well of
his friend ; his backward voice is to utter foul speeches,
and to detract. If all the wine in my bottle will re-
cover him, I will help his ague. Come, — Amen! I
will pour some in thy other mouth.

Trin. Stephano !

Ste. Doth thy other mouth call me ? Mercy !
rnercy ! This is a devil, and no monster : I will leave
him ; I have no long spoon.

Trin. Stephano ! — if thou beest Stephano, touch me,
and speak to me, for I am Trinculo : — be not afeard, —
thy good friend Trinculo.

Ste. If thou beest Trinculo, come forth. I'll pull
thee by the lesser legs : if any be Trinculo's legs, these
are they. Thou art very Trinculo, indeed ! How
cam'st thou to be the siege" of this moon-calf? Can he
vent Trinculos ?

Trin. I took him to be killed with a thunder-stroke.
— But art thou not drowned, Stephano ? I hope now,
thou art not drowned. Is the storm overblown? I
hid me under the dead moon-calf's gaberdine for fear
of the storm. And art thou living, Stephano ?
Stephano ! two Neapolitans 'scaped ?

Ste. Pr'ythee, do not turn me about : my stomach is
not constant.

Cal. These be fine things, an if they be not sprites.
That's a brave god, and bears celestial liquor :
I will kneel to him.

Ste. How didst thou 'scape ? How cam'st thou
hither? swear by this bottle, how thou cam'st hither.
I escaped upon a butt of sack, which the sailors heaved
over-board, by this bottle ! which I made of the bark
of a tree, with mine own hands, since I was cast
a-shore.

Cal. I'll swear, upon that bottle, to be thy true
abject, for the liquor is not earthly. [Kneels.'

Ste. Here : swear, then, how thou escap'dst.

Trin. Swam a-shore, man, like a duck. I can swim
like a duck, I'll be sworn.

Sle. Here, kiss the book. Though thou canst swim
like a duck, thou art made like a goose.

Trin. O Stephano ! hast any more of this?

Ste. The whole butt, man : my cellar is in a rock by
the sea-side, where my wine is hid. How now, moon-
calf ! how does thine ague ?

Cal. Hast thou not dropped from heaven ?

Ste. Out o' the moon, I do assure thee : I was the
man in the moon, when time was.

Cal. I have seen thee in her, and I do adore thee ; my
mistress showed me thee, and thy dog, and thy bush.

Ste. Come, swear to that ; kiss the book : I will fiu
nish it anon with new contents. Swear.

Trin. By this good light, this is a very shallow mon-
ster : — I afeard of him ? — a very weak monster. — The
man i' the moon ! — a most poor credulous monster. —
Well drawn, monster, in good sooth.

Cal. I'll show thee every fertile inch o' the island ;
and I will kiss thy foot. I pr'ythee, be my god.

Trin. By this light, a most perfidious and drunken
monster : when his god's asleep, he'll rob his bottle.

Cal. I'll kiss thy foot : I'll swear myself thy subject.

Ste. Come on, then ; down and swear.

[Caliban lies down.*

Trin. I shall laugh myself to death at this puppy-
headed monster. A most scurvy monster : I could find
in my heart to beat him, —

Ste. Come, kiss.

Trin. — But that the poor monster's in drink. An
abominable monster !

Cal. I'll show thee the best springs ; I'll pluck thee
berries ;
I'll fish for thee, and get thee wood enough.
A plague upon the t>Tant that I serve !
I'll bear him no more sticks, but follow thee,
Thou wondrous man.

Trin. A most ridiculous monster, to make a wonder
of a poor drunkard !

Cal. I pr'ythee, let me bring thee where crabs grow;
And I with my long nails will dig thee pig-nuts ;
Show thee a jay's nest, and instruct thee how
To snare the nimble marmozet : I'll bring thee
To clustering filberds, and sometimes I'll get thee
Young scamels from the rock : 'Wilt thou go ■with me ?

Ste. I pr'ythee now, lead the way, without any more
talking. — Trinculo, the king and all our company else
being dro^wned, we will inherit here. — Here ; bear my
bottle. — Fellow Trinculo, we'll fill him by and by again

Cal. Farewell, master ; farewell, farewell.

[Sings drunkenly

Trin. A howling monster ; a drunken monster.

Cal. No more dains Til make for fish;
Nor fetch in firing
At requiring,
Nor scrape trencher,^ nor wash dish j
'Ban 'Ban, Ca — Caliban,
Has a new master — Get a new man.
Freedom, hey-day ! hey-day, freedom ! freedom ! hey
day, freedom !

Ste. brave monster ! lead the way. [ExeiMl

ACT III,

SCENE I.— Before Prospero's Cell.
Enter Ferdinand, bearing a log.
Fer There be some sports are painful, and their
labour

Delight in them sets ofl^: some kinds of baseness
Are nobly undergone ; and most poor matters
Point to rich ends. This ray mean task
Would be as heavy to me, as odious ; but

1 Not fin f. e ' mat. ' Not m f. e • Not in f. e. • Irencherine : in f. e

SCRNE tl.

THE TEMPEST.

11

Tne mistress which I sene quickens what 's dead.

A ad makes my labours pleasures : O ! she is

Ten times more gentle than her father 's crabbed ;

And he 's composed of harshness. I must remove

Some thousands of these logs, and pile them up,

t'pou a sore injunction : my sweet mistress

Weeps when she sees me work ; and says, such baseness

Had never like executor. I forget :

But these sweet thoughts do even refresh my labours ;

Most busy, blest' when I do it.

Enter Miranda ; and Prospero behind.'

Mira. Alas ! now, pray you,

Work not so hard : I would, the lightning had
Burnt up those logs that you are enjoind to pile.
Pray, set it down, and rest you : when this hums,
"Twill weep for having wearied you. My father
Is hard at study; pra) now rest yourself:
He s safe for these three hours.

Fer. 0, most dear mistress !

The sun will set, before I shall discharge
What I must strive to do.

Mira. If you'll sit down,

111 bear your logs the while. Pray, give me that :
I'll carry it to the pile.

Fer. No, precious creature :

I liad rather crack my sinews, break my back,
Tlian you should such dishonour undergo.
While I sit lazy by.

Mija. It would become me

A.s well as it does you ; and I should do it
With much more ease, for my good will is to it,
And yours it is against.

Pro. Poor worm ! thou art Infected :

ThiS visitation shows it. [Aside.^

Mira. You look wearily.

Fer. No, noble mistress ; 't is fresh morning with me.
When you are by at night. I do beseech you,
Ohiefly that I might set it in my prayers.

Mira. Miranda. — my father !

I have broke your hest to say so. [To herself.*

Indeed, the top of admiration ; worth
What 's dearest to the world ! Full many a lady
r have ey'd with best regard ; and many a time
The harmony of their tongues hath into bondage
Brought my too diligent ear : for several virtues
Have I lik'd several women ; never any
With so full soul, but some defect in her
Did quarrel with the noblest grace she ow'd,
And put it to the foil : but you, O you !
So perfect, and so peerless, are created
Of every creature's best.

Mira. I do not k-now

One of my sex ; no woman's face remember,
Save, from my glass, mine own ; nor have I seen
More that I may call men, than you, good friend.
And my dear father. How features are abroad,
1 am skill-less of ; but, by my modesty,
'The jewel in my dower) I would not wish
Any companion in the world but you ;
\or can imagination form a shape.
Besides yourself, to like of. But I prattle
S-.mething too wildly, and my father's precepts
i therein do forget.

Fer. I am, in my condition,

A prince, Miranda ; I do think, a king ;
|I would, not so !) and would no more endure
This wooden slavery, than to suffer

The flesh-fly blow my mouth. Hear my bouI speak :

The very instant that I saw you, did

To make me slave to it ; and for your sake.

Am I this patient log-man.

Mira. Do you love me ?

Fer. O heaven ! earth ! bear witness to tnis Bound
And crown what I profess with kind event,
If I speak true : if hollowly, invert
What best is boded me to mischief ! I,
Beyond all limit of aught' else i' the world,
Do love, prize, honour you.

Mira. I am a fool,

To weep at what I am glad of.

Pro. Fair encounter

Of two most rare affections ! Heavens rain grace
On that which breeds between them ! [Aside.'

Fer. Wlierefore weep you ?

Mira. At mine unworthiness, that dare not offer
What I desire to give ; and much less take.
What I shall die to want. But this is trifling ;
And all the more H seeks to hide itself,
The bigger bulk it shows. Hence, bashful cunning,
And prompt me, plain and holy innocence !
I am your wife, if you will marry me ;
You may deny me ; but I'll be your servant.
Whether you will or no.

Fer. My mistress, dearest.

And I thus humble ever. [Kneels.'

Mira. My husband then ?

Fer. Ay, with a heart as willing [JJisss."

As bondage e'er of freedom : here 's my hand.

Mira. And mine, with my heart in 't : and now
farewell,
Till half an hour hence.

Fer. A thousand thousand ! [Exeunt Fer. and MiR.

Pro. So glad of this as they, I cannot be.
Who are surpris'd with all : hut my rejoicing
At nothing can be more. I'll to my book;
For yet, ere supper time, must I perform

SCENE II.— Another part of the Island.

Enter Stephano and Trinculo ; Caliban following

vAth a bottle

Ste. Tell not me ; — when the butt is out, we will
drink water ; not a drop before : therefore bear up, and
board 'em. Servant-monster, drinlc to me.

Trin. Seri'ant-monster ? the folly of this island !
They say, there 's but five upon this isle : we are three
of them ; if the other two be brained like us, the state
totters.

Ste. Drink, servant-monster, when 1 bid thee: thy
eyes are almost set in thy head.

Trin. Where should they be set else ? he were s
brave monster indeed, if they were set in his tail.

Ste. My man-monster hath drownied his tongue in
sack : for my part, the sea cannot drowni me : I swam,
ere I could recover the shore, five-and-thirty leagues,
off and on, by this light. Thou shalt be my lieutenant,
monster, or my standard.

Trin. Your lieutenant, if you list ; he 's no ftandard.

Ste. We'll not run, monsieur monster.

Trin. Nor go neither ; but you'll lie, like dogs, and
yet say nothing neither.

Ste. Moon-calf, speak once in thy life, if thou beesi
a good moon-calf.

Cal. How does thy honour ? Let me lick th" ahoo

< '.oast ; in t <

^ It a diatanct : in f. e. ' Not in f, e. * Not m f. e. • what elM : in f e. • t 8 ifo* in f. a.

i2

THE TEMPEST.

ACT ID.

I'll not serve him, he is not valiant.

Trin. Thou licst, most ignorant niorlster : I am in
ease to justle a constable. Why. thou debauched fish
thou, was there ever man a coward, that hatli drunk
so much sack as I to-day ? Wilt thou tell a monstrous
lie, being but half a fish, and half a monster ?

Cal. Lo, how he mocks me ! wilt thou let him, my
lord?

Trin. Lord, quoth he ! — that a monster should be
such a natural !

Cal. Lo, lo, again ! bite him to death, I pr'ythee.

you prove a mutineer, the next tree — The poor mon-
ster 's my subject, and he shall not sufier indignity.

Cal. I thank my noble lord. Wilt thou be pleas'd
to hearken once again to the suit I made to thee ?

Ste. Marry will I : kneel and repeat it : I will stand,
and 80 shall Trinculo. [Caliban kneels.^

Enter AriBl, invuible.

Cal. As I told thee before, I am subject to a tyrant ;
a sorcerer, that by his cunning hath cheated me of the
island.

Ari. Thou liest.

Cal. Thou liest, thou jesting monkey, thou :

( would, ray valiant master would destroy thee :
I do not lie.

Ste. Trinculo, if you trouble him any more in his
tale, by this hand, I \v\\\ supplant some of your teeth.

Trin. Why, I said nothing. [ceed.

Sle. Mum then, and no more. — [To Caliban.] Pro-

Cal. I say by sorcery he got this isle :
?rom me he got it : if thy greatness will,
Sevenge it on him — ^for, I know, thou dar'st ;
8ut this thing dare not.

Ste. That 's most cert,ain.

Cal. Thou shall be lord of it, and I'll serve thee.

Ste. How, now, shall this be compassed ? Canst
Ihou bring me to the party ?

Cal. Yea, yea, my lord : I'll yield him thee asleep.
VVhere thou may'st knock a nail into his head.

Ari. Thou liest; thou canst not.

Cal. What a pied' niimy 's this ! Thou scurvy patch !
I do beseech thy greatness, give him blows.
A.nd take his bottle from him : when tliat 's gone,
He shall drink nought but brine ; for I'll not show him
Where the quick freshes are.

Sle. Trinculo, ran into no farther danger : interrupt
the monster one word farther, and, by this liand, I'll
turn my mercy out of doors, and make a stock-fish of
thee.

Trin. Why, what did 1 ? I did nothing. I'll go
farther oflT.

Ste. Didst thon not say, he lied ?

Ari. Thou liest.

Ste. Do I so ? take thou that. [Strikes him.] As
yon like this, give me the lie another time.

Trin. I did not give the lie. Out o" your wits, and
ncaring too ? A pox o' your bottle ! this can sack, and
drinking do. A murrain on your monster, and the

Cal. Ha, ha, ha!

Ste. Now, forward with your tale. Pr"ythee stand
farther off.

Cal. Beat him enough : after a little time,
I'll beat him too.

Ste. Stand farther. Come, proceed.

Cal. Why, as I told thee, 'tis a custom with him
[' the afternoon to sleep : then thou may'st brain him,

Having first seiz'd his books : or with a log

Batter his skull, or paunch him with a stake.

Or cut liis wezand with thy knife. Remember,

First to possess his books ; for without them

He 's but a sot, as I am, nor hath not

One spirit to command : they all do hate him.

As rootedly as I. Burn but his books ;

He has brave utensils, (for so he calls them)

Which, when he has a house, he'll deck withal :

And that most deeply to consider is

The beauty of his daughter ; he himself

Calls her a nonpareil : I never saw a woman,

But only Sycorax my dam. and she;

But she as far surpasseth Sycorax,

As great'st does least.

Sle. Is it so brave a lass ?

Cal. Ay, lord ; she will become thy bed, I warrant
And bring thee forth brave brood.

Sle. Monster, I ■will kill this man : his daughter and
I ■nill he king and queen ; (save our graces !) and
Trinculo and thyself shall be viceroys. Dost thoo
like the plot, Trinculo ?

Trin. Excellent.

Sle. Give me thy hand : I am sorry I beat thee ; bnt,
while thou livest, keep a good tongue in thy head.

Cal. Within this half hour will he be asleep ;
Wilt thou destroy him then ?

Sle. Ay, on mine honour.

Ari, This will I tell my master.

Cal. Thou mak'st me merry : I am full of pleasure.
Let us be jocund : will you troll the catch
You taught me but while-ere?

Sts. At thy request, monster, I will do reason, any

reason. Come on, Trinculo, let us sing. [Singi

Flout 'em, and scout 'em; and scout 'em, and

flout 'em .-
Thought is free.

Cal. That 's not the tune.

[Ariel plays a tune on a Tabor and Pipe.

Ste. What is this same ?

Trin. This is the tune of our catch, played- by the
picture of No-body.

Ste. If thou beest a man, show thyself in thy like-
ness : if thou beest a devil, take 't as thou list.

Trin. O, forgive me my sins !

Ste. He that dies, pays all debts : I defy thee. —
Mercy upon us !

Cal. Art thou afeard ?

Sle. No. monster, not I.

Cal. Be not afeard: the isle is full of noises.
Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight, and hurt

not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears ; and sometimes' voices,
That, if I then had wak'd after long sleep.
Will make me sleep again : and then, in dreaming,
The clouds, methought, would open, and show riches
Ready to drop upon me, that when I wak'd
I cry'd to dream again.

Ste. This will prove a brave kingdom to me, where
I shall have my music for nothing.

Cal. When Prospero is destroyed.

Ste. That shall be by and by : I remember the st«r>'.

Trin. The sound is going away : let's follow it, and
after do our work.

Sle. Lead, monster ; we'll follow. — I would, I could
see this laborer : he lays it on.

Trin. Wilt come? I'll follow, Stephano. \Exeun:

' Not in f. e.
be *rufl attired

' Dressed in motley, — this expression and '
' noraetime ; in f e

patch" were epithetR odsn applied to foola Trinculo. aa " a jestert" vould

(JOHNE m.

THE TEMPEST.

13

SCENE III— Another part of the Island.

Rnfer Alonso, Sebastian, Antonio. Gonzalo,

Gim. By'r la'kin.' I can go no farther, sir ;
My old bones ake: here's a maze trod, indeed,
Through forth-rights, and meanderi ! by yotir patience,
I needs must rest »ie.

Alon. Old lord. I cannot blame thee.

Who am myself attach'd with weariness.
To the dulling of my spirits : sit down, and rent.
Even here I will p>|t off my hope, and keep it
No longer for my flatterer : he is drown'd.
Whom thus we stray to find ; and the sea mocks
Our frustrate search on land. Well, let him 50.

Ant. 1 am right glad that he 's so out of hope.

[Aside to Skbastian.
Do not. for one repulse, forego the purpose
That you resolv'd to effect.

Will we take thoroughly.

.int. Let it bo to-night ;

F"or, now they are opprcss'd with travel, they
Will not, nor cannot, use such vigilance.
As when they are fresh.

Seb. I say, to-night: no more.

( Snlemn and strange music ; and 1'rospero nhnn'e. invis-

ihle. Enter several strange Shapes, bringing in a

hanquet : they dance about it with gentle actions of

.■salutations ; ami, inviting the King, fyc. to eal. they

depart.]

Alon. What harmony is this? my good friends, hark !

Gon. Marvellous sweet music !

Alon. Give us kind keepers, heavens ! What were
these f

Seb. A living drollery. Now I will believe
That there are unicorns ; that in Arabia
There is one tree, the phcenix' throne ; one phoenix
At this hour reigning there.

Ant. I'll believe both :

And what does else want credit, come to me
And I'll be sworn 'tis true : travellers ne'er did lie,
Though fools at home condemn them.

Gon. If in Naples

I should report this now, would they believe me ?
If I should say, I saw such islanders,
(For, certes, these are people of the island)
Who, though they are of monstrous shape, yet, note,
Their manners are more gentle, kind, than of
Our human generation you shall find
Many, nay, almost any.

Pro. [Aside.] Honest lord,

Thou hast said well ; for some of you there present,
Are worse than devils.

.i!on. I cannot too much muse, fing

Jueh shapes, such gestures,' and such sounds,' express-
.\lthough they want the use of tongue) a kind
Of excellent dumb discourse.

Pro. [Aside.] Praise in departing,

Fran. They vanish'd strangely.

■SVi. No matter, since

They have left their viands behind, for we have sto-
machs. —
Will 't please you taste of what is here?

Alon. Not I.

Gon. Faith, sir, you need not fear. When we were
boys,

Who would believe that there were mountaineers
Dew-lapp'd like bulls, who,se throats had hanging a'

them
Wallets of flesh? or that there were such men.
Whose head.' stood in their breasts ? which now, we find,
Each putter-out of five for one* will bring .iii
Good warrant of.

Alon. I will stand to, and feed,

Although my last : no matter, since 1 feel
The best is past. — Brother, my lord the duke.
Stand to, and do as we.
Thunder and lightning. Enter Ariel, tike a harpy,

claps his wings upon the table, and, with a (fiiaitU

device, the banquet vanishes.

Ari. You are three men of sin, whom destiny
(That hatli to instrument tliis lower world,
And what is iu"t) the never-surfeited sea
Hath caused to belch up, and on this island
Where man doth not inhabit; you 'mongst men
And even with such like valour men hang and drown
Their proper selves. You fools ! I and my fellows
Arc ministers of fate : the elements,

[Alon., See., ^c., draw their Swords.'
Of whom your swords are temper'd, may as well
Wound the loud winds, or with bemoek'd-at stabs
Kill the still-closing waters, as diminish
One dowle' that s in my plume: my fellow-ministei
Are like invulnerable. If you could hurt.
And will not be uplifted. But, remember,
(For that's my business to you) that you three
From Milan did supplant good Prosporo ;
Expos'd unto the sea (which hath requit it)
Him, and his innocent child : for which foul deed
The powers, delaying not forgetting, have
Incens'd the seas and shorot-, yea, all tlie creatures.
Against your peace. Thee, of thy son, Alonso,
They have bereft ; and do pronounce by me.
Lingering perdition (worse than any death
Can be at once) shall step by step attend
You, and your ways ; whose wraths to guard you froni
(Which here, in this most desolate isle, else falls
And a clear life ensuing.
He vanishes in thniuler : then, to soft rmisic, enter the

Shapes again, anil dance with mocks and mowes, ami

carry out the table.

Pro. \ Above.'] Bravely the figure of this harpy hart
thou
Perform'd, my Ariel ; a grace it had, devouring.
Of my instruction hast thou nothing 'bated,
In what thou hadst to say : so, with good life
And observation strange, my meaner ministers
Their several kinds have done. My high charms work
And these, mine enemies, are all knit up
In their distractions : they now arc in my power ;
And in these fits I leave them, while I visit
Young Ferdinand, (whom they suppose is drown'd)
And his and my lov'd darling. [Exit Prospeho,

Gon. V the name of something holy, sir, why stand you
In this strange stare ?

Alon. O, it is monstrous ! monsiroun !

Methought, the billows spoke, and told me of it;
The winds did sing it to me ; and the thunder,
That deep and dreadful organ-pipe, pronounc'd
The name of Prosper : it did base my trespass.

* By our lady-Kin. ' (jesture : in f. e. ' sound ; in f. e, 'A custom of old travellers to put out & sum of money at interest, at the
-^wt^et of a journey, for which they received at the rate of five to one. if they return<>d. • f e. insert here this direction : Steitu
Al ^»N , Sjib., ^c . draw theit Steoras. • Omitted in f e ^ A f^at/ur or particle of down • Aside : in f. »

14

THE TEMPEST.

ACT IV.

Therefore my son i' the ooze is hedded ; and
''11 Be(ik him deeper than e'er plummet sounded,
.■Vnd with him there lie mudded. [Exit.

Scb. But one fiend at a time,

I'll fight their legions o'er

Ant. I'll be thy second. [Exeunt Seb. and Ant.

Gon. All three of them are desperate • their great guilt,

Like poison given to work a great time after.
Now 'gins to bite the spirits. — I do beseech you,
That are of suppler joints, follow them swiftly.
And hinder them from what this ecstasy
May now provoke them to.

Adr Follow. I pray you. >Exeuni

ACT IV

SCENE I.— Before Prospero's Cell.
Enter Prospero, Ferdinand, and Miranda.

Pro. If I have too austerely punish'd you,
¥ lur compensation makes amends ; for I
Have given you here a thread' of mine own life,
Or that for which I live : whom once again
I tender to thy hand. All thy vexations
Were but my trials of thy love, and thou
Hast strangely stood the test : here, afore Heaven,
I ratify this my rich gift ! O Ferdinand !
Do not smile at me that I boast her off.
For thou shalt find she will outstrip all praise.
And make it halt behind her.

Per. I do believe it,

Against an oracle.

Pro. Then, as my gift, and thine own acquisition
Worthily purchas'd, take my daughter: but
If thou dost break her virgin knot before
All sanctimonious ceremonies may.
With full and holy rite, be minister'd,
No sweet aspersion shall the heavens let fall
To make this contract grow ; but barren hate.
Sour-eyed disdain, and discord, shall bestrew
The union of your bed with weeds so loathly.
That you shall hate it both : therefore, take heed.
As Hymen's lamps shall light you.

Per. As I hope

For quiet days, fair issue, and long life,
With such love as 'tis now, the murkiest den.
The most opportune place, the strong'st suggestion
Our worscr genius can, shall never melt
Mine honour into lust, to take away
The edge of that day's celebration,
When I shall think, or Phoebus' steeds are founder'd,
Or night kept chain'd below.

Pro. Fairly spoke.

Sit then and talk with her; she is thine own. —
What, Ariel ! my industrious servant Ariel !
Enter Ariel.

Ari. What would my potent ma,ster? here I am.

Pro. Thou and thy meaner fellows your last service
Did worthily perform, and I must use you
In such another trick. Go, bring the rabble.
O'er whom I give thee power, here, to this place :
Incite them to quick motion ; for I must
Bestow upon the eyes of this young couple
Some vanity of mine art ; it is my promise,
And they expect it from me.

Ari. Presently ?

Pro. Ay, with a twink.

Ari. Before you can say, " Come," and " go,"
And breathe twice; and cry, "so so ;'
Each one, tripping on his toe,
Will be here with mop and mow.
Do you love me, master? no?

> third : in f. e ^Surplusage. 'pertly — guicklji, sicilfully. • CooMe g-raj.?, used Bometimos for covering farm-buildings. ' pion—
jt dig • twilled : in f. e. ' broom : in f. e ^ This direction is omitted in most modern editions ; " slowly" is added in tlie MS , 1632

Pro. Dearly, my delicate Ariel Do not approncb
Till thou dost hear me call.

Ari. Well I conceive. [Exit

Pro. Look, thou be true. Do not give dalliance
Too much the rein : the strongest oaths are straw
To the fire i' the blood. Be more abstemious,
Or else, good night, your vow.

Per. I warrant you, «ir_

The white-cold virgin snow upon my heart
Abates the ardour of my liver.

Pro. Well.—

Now come, my Ariel ! bring a corollary,'
Rather than want a spirit : appear, and pertly.' —
No tongue all eyes : be silent, [Soft nmsic.

A Masque. Enter Iris.

Iris. Ceres, most bounteous lady, thy rich leas
Of wheat, rye, barley, vetches, oats, ,Tnd peas:
Thy turfy mountains, where live nibbling sheep,
And flat meads thatch'd with stover,* them to keep :
Thy banks with pioned' and tilled" brims.
Which spongy April at thy best betrims.
To make cold nymphs chaste crowns ; and thy brown'

groves.
Whose shadow the dismissed bachelor loves.
Being lass-lorn ; thy pole-elipt vineyard ;
And thy sea-marge, steril, and rocky-hard.
Where thou thyself dost air; the queen o' the sky,
Whose watery arch and messenger am I,
Bids thee leave these, and with her sovereign grace.
Here on this grass-plot, in this very place,

[Juno descends slmrly'
To come and sport. Her peacocks fly amain :
Approach, rich Ceres, her to entertain.
Enter Ceres.

Cer. Hail, many-colour'd messenger, that ne'er
Dost disobey the wife of Jupiter ;
Who with thy saffron wings upon my flowers
Ditfusest honey-drops, refreshing showers;
And with each end of thy blue bow dost crown
My bosky acres, and my unshrubb'd down,
Rich scarf to my proud earth ; why hath thy qaeen
Summon'd me hither, to this short-graz'd green ?

Iris. A contract of true love to celebrate,
And some donation freely to estate
On the bless'd lovers.

Cer. Tell me, heavenly bow.

If Venus, or her son, as thou dost know,
Do now attend the queen? since they did plot
The means that dusky Dis my daughter got,
Her and her blind boy's seandal'd company
I have forsworn.

Iris. Of her society

Be not afraid : I met her deity
Cutting the clouds towards Paphos, and her son
Dove-dravra with her. Here thought they to have done
Some wanton charm upon this man and maid.

SCENE I.

THE TEMPEST.

15

Whose vows are. that no bed-right shall he paid

Till Hymen's torch be lighted ; but in vain :

Mars' hot minion is return'd again ;

Her waspish-headed son has broke his arrows,

Swears he will shoot no more, but play witli sparrows,

And be a boy right out.

Cer. Highest queen of state,

Great Juno comes ; I know her by her gait.
Enlcr Juno.

Jun. How does my bounteous sister ? Go with me,
To bless this twain, that they may prosperous be,
And honour'd in their issue.

SOKG.

Juno Nonoui , nches, marriage, blessing,
Long continuance, and increasing,
Hourly joys be still upon you !
Juno sings- her blessings on you}
Earth's increase, foison plenty,
Barns, and garners never empty ;
Vines, with dust' ring bunches groiving ;
Plants, with goodly burden bowing ;
Rain' come to you. at tlie farthest,
In the very end of liarvest !
Scarcity and want shall shun you ;
Ceres' blessing so is on you.
Per. This is a most majestic vision, and
Harmonious charmingly. May I be bold
To think these spirits ?

Pio. Spirits, which by mine art

I have from their confines call'd to enact
My present fancies.

Fer. Let me live here ever :

So rare a wonder'd father, and a wife,'
[Juno and Cereg whisper, and send Iris on employment.
Pro. Sweet now, silence !
Juno and Ceres whisper seriously ;
There's something else to do. Hush, and be mute.
Or else our spell is marr'd.

Iris. You nymphs, call'd Naiads, of the winding
brooks.
With your sedge* cro-mis, and ever harmless looks,
Leave your crisp channels, and on this green land
Answer vour summons : Juno does command.
Come, temperate nyinph.s, and help to celebrate
A contract of true love : be not too late.

Enter certain Nymphs.
You sun-burn'd sicklemen, of August weary,
Come hitlier from the furrow, and be merry.
Make holy-day : your rye-straw hats put on.
And these fresh nymphs encounter every one
In country footing.

Enter certain Reapers, properly habited: they join with
the Nymphs in a graceful dance ; towards the end where-
of Pros, starts suddenly, and speaks ; after which, to a
strange, hollow, and confused noise, they heavily vanish.
Pro. [Aside.] I had forgot that foul conspiracy
Of the beast Caliban, a,nd his confederates.
Against my life ; the minute of their plot
(s almost come. — [To the Spirits.] Well done. —
Avoid ; — no more.
Fer. This is strange : your father's in some passion
That works him strongly.

Mira. Never till this day,

Saw I him touch'd ■with anger so distemper'd.
Pro. You do look, my son, in a mov'd sort,
As if you were dismay'd : be cheerful, sir.
Our levels now are ended. These our actors,

As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air
Aiid,J ike the basele ss fabric of this visio n.
The cloud-capp'd t owers, the gor geoug_iialai

The joleiTiii~teiT ipIes, the gre at g lobe^itself^

Yeajalljwhieh iHnJieiTt,^ shaUjlissolvfe..

A ndTTIke t his insubstantial pageanH'aded,_

L eave not a~ra ck^T)ejjmd, ~We, are such Kbiff.

.Ai"dreams are inade j3ii,_and our little life

js rou nded with jtjleeE^^^^Sir,Tanrv"ex'^ :

Bear with my weak^less ; my old brain is troubled :

Be not disturb'd with my infirmity.

If you be pleas'd retire into my cell,

And tliere repose : a turn or two I'll walk.

To still my beating mind.

Fer. Mira. We wish your peace. \Eoceunl

Pro. Come with a thought! — I thank thee. — Ariel
come !

Enter Ariel.

Ari. Thy thoughts I cleave to. What 's thy pleasure '

Pro. Spirit,

We must prepare to meet wdth Caliban.

Ari. Ay, my commander : when I presented Ceros.
I thought to have told thee of it; but I fear'd
Lest I might anger thee.

Pro. Say again, where didst thou#leave these varlets ?

Ari. I told you, sir, they were red-hot with drinking
So full of valour, that they smote the air
For breathing in their faces ; beat the ground
For kissing of their feet, yet always bending
Towards their project. Then I beat my tabor.
At which, like unljack'd colts, they prick'd their ears,
Advanc'd their eye-lids, lifted up their noses.
As they smelt music : so I charin'd their ears,
That, calf-like, they my lowing follow'd, through
Tooth'd briers, sharp furzes, pricking gorse, and thoruj
Which enter'd their frail skins :' at last I left them
V the filthy mantled pool beyond your cell.
There dancing up to the chins, that the foul lake
O'erstiuik their feet.

Pro. This was well done, my bird,

Thy shape invisible retain thou still :
The trumpery in my house, go, bring it hither.
For stale" to catch these thieves.

Ari. I go, I go. [Exit

Pro. A devil; a born devil, on whose nature
Nurture never can stick ; on whom my pains,
Humanely taken, all, all lost, quite lost ;
And as with age his body uglier grows.
So his mind cankers. I will plague them all.

Re-enter Ariel, loaden with glistering apparel, i(c.
Even to roaring. — Come, hang them on this line.

Ariel hangs them on the line, and with Prospero
remains unseen.'

Enter Caliban, Stephano, aiul Trinculo, all wet.

Cal. Pray you, nead softly, that the blind mole ma
not
Hear a foot fall : we now are near his cell.

Ste. Monster, your fairy, which, you say, is a harm
less fairy, has done little better than played the jack'
with us.

Trin. Monster, I do smell all horse-pii>s, at which
my nose is in great indignation.

Ste. So is mine. Do you hear, monster? If I should
take a displeasure against you ; look you, —

Trin. Thou wert but a lost monster.

Cal. Good my lord, give me thy favour stiU.
Be patient, for the prize I'll bring thee to

* Ib f. e. the remainder of the song is given to Ceres. a Spring : m f. e ^ wise : in f. e * sedg'd : m (. e. * A vapor, (rom rut*
« fihini : in f. 6 "^ A dtcoy * f. e. have onlv the direction, Probpbro and ARtsL remain unietn. ' Jack o' lantern.

16

THE TEMPEST.

ACT y.

Sliall hood-wink this mischance: therefore, speak softly;
All 's hush'd as midnight yet.

Trin. Ay, but to lose our bottles in the pool, —

Ste. There is not only disgrace and dishonour in
that, monster, but an infinite loss.

Trin. That's more to me than my -wetting: yet this

Ste. I will fetch off my bottle, though I be o'er ears
tor my labour.

Cat. Pr'ythee, my king, be quiet. Seest thou here ?
This is the mouth o' the cell : no noise, and enter :
Do that good mischiet, which may make this island
Thine own for ever, and I, thy Caliban,
For aye thy foot-licker.

Ste. Give me thy hand. I do begin to liave bloody
thoughts.

Trin. king Stephano ! peer ! O worthy Ste-
phano ! look, what a wardrobe here is for thee !

[Seeing the apparel.'

Cat. Let it alone, thou fool : it is but trash.

Trin. 0, ho, monster ! we know what belongs to a
'Vilipery.'— O king Stephano !

Ste. Put off that gown, Trinculo: by this hand, I'll
have that gown.

Trin. Thy grace shall have it.

Cat. The dropsy dt-own this fool ! what do you mean,
To doat thus on such luggage ? Let 't alone.
And do the murder first : if he awake.
From toe to crown he'll fill our skins with pinches ;
Make us strange stuff.

Ste. Be you quiet, monster. — Mistress line, is not
this my jerkin y Now is the jerkin under the line:
now, jerkin, you are like to lose your hair, and prove
a bald jerkin.

Trin. Do, do : we steal by line and level, and 't like

Ste. 1 thank thee for tliat jest; here's a garment
for 't : wit sliall not go unrewarded, while I am king of
this country. '' Steal by line and level," is an excel-
lent pass of pate ; there 's another garment for 't.

I'rin. Monster, come ; put some lime upon your
fingers, and away with the rest.

Cat. I will have none on 't: we shall lose our time.
And all be turn'd to barnacles, or to apes

Ste. Monster, lay to your fingers : help to bear thii
away where my hogshead of wine is, or I'll turn you
out of my kingdom. Go to ; carry this.

Trin. And this.

Ste. Ay, and this.
[A noise of hunters heard. Enter divers Spirits, in

shape of hounds, and hunt them about ; Prospero

a)ui Ariel setting them on.]

Pro. Hey, Mountain, hey !

Ari. Silver ! there it goes. Silver !

Pro. Fury, Fury ! there, 'Tyrant, there ! hark, hark !
[Cal., Ste., and Trin. are driven out.
Go, charge my goblins that they grind their joints
With dry convulsions ; shorten up their sinews
With aged cramps, and more pinch-spotted make them,
Than pard, or cat o' mountain. [Cries and roaring '

Ari. Hark ! they roar.

Pro. Let them be hunted soundly. At this hour
Lie at my mercy all mine enemies :
Shortly shall all my labours end, and thou
Shalt have the air at freedom : for a little,
Follow, and do me service. [Extunt

ACT V.

SCENE I.— Before the Cell of Prospero.
Enter Prospero in his magic robes ; and Ariel.

Pro. Now does my project gather to a head :
My charms crack not, my spirits obey, and time
'Joes upright with his carriage. How's tlie day?

.iri. On the sixth hour ; at which time, my lord,
Voii said our work should cease.

Pro. I did say so.

When first I rais'd the tempest. Say, my spirit.
How fares the king and 's followers?

Ari. Confin'd together

In the same fashion as you gave in charge :
Just as you left them : all prisoners, sir.
In the ?tne*-grove which weather-fends your cell;
They cannot budge till your release. The king.
His brother, and yours, abide all three distracted,
And the remainder mourning over tliem,
Bnm-full of sorrow, and dismay; btit chiefly
Him that you term'd, sir, the good old lord, Gonzalo:
His tears run down his beard, like winter's drops
From eaves of reeds. Your charm so strongly works

them,
"I'hat if you now beheld them, your affections
Would become tender.

Pro. Dost thou think so, spirit?

.iri. Mine would, sir, were I human.

Pro. And mine shall.

Hast thou, which art but air, a touch, a feeling
or their afflictions, and shall not myselt.

One of their kind, that relish all as sharply,

Passion as they, be kindlier mov'd than thou art?

Tho' with their high wrongs I am struck to the quick.

Yet, with my nobler reason, 'gainst my fury

Do I take part. The rarer action is

In virtue, than in vengeance : they being penitent,

The sole drift of my purpose doth extend

Not a frown farther. Go; release them, Ariel.

My charms I '11 break, their senses I '11 restore.

And they shall be themselves.

Ari. I'll fetch them, sir [Exit

Pro. Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes, and
groves ;
And ye, that on the sands with printless foot
Do chase the ebbing Neptune, and do fly him,
When he comes back ; you demy-puppets, that
By moonshine do the green-sward' ringlets make,
Whereof the ewe not bites ; and you, whose pastime
Is to make midnight mushrooms ; that rejoice
To hear the solemn curfew ; by whose aid
(Weak masters though ye be) I have be-dimm'd
The noontide sun, call'd forth the mutinous winds,
And 'twixt the green sea and the azur'd vault
Set roaring war : to the dread rattling thunder
Have I given fire, and rifted Jove's stout oak
With his own bolt : the strong-bas'd promontory
Have I made shake ; and by the spiws pluck'd up
The pine and cedar : graves, at my conunand.
Have waked their sleepers ; oped, and let them forfti
By my so potent art. But this rough magio

1 Not in f e. 'An old clo^ nhop. ' Not in f e. • The old wor'' for lim-i > ^rpcn-sfmr ; in f. e

«CKNE 1.

THE TEMPEST.

1^

I here abjure : and. wlien I have requir'd
Si'ine heavenly music, (which even now I do)
To work mine end upon their senses, that
Tliis airy eharm is lor, I'll break my staff,
Bury it certain fatlioms in the earth,
And, deeper than did ever plummet sound,
I U drown my book. [Solemn viusic.

Re-enter Ariel: after him Ai.onso, vlth a frantic
gesture, attended by Goszalo; Sebastian and An-
tonio in like manner, attended by Adrian and
Francisco : Ihey all enter the eircle which Prospero
observing, speaks.
A solemn air, and the best comforter
To an unsettled fancy, cure thy brains,
Now useless, boil'd within thy Bkull ! There stand.
For you are spell-stopp'd. —
Noble' Gonzalo, honourable man.
Mine eyes, even sociable to the flow' of thine,
Fall fellowly drops. — Tlie charm dissolves apace;
And as the morning steals upon the night,
.Melting the darkness, so their rising senses
Begin to chase the ignorant fumes that mantle
rtieir clearer reason. — good Gonzalo !
.My true preserver, and a loyal servant^
To him thou follow'st, I will pay thy graces
Home, both in word and deed. — .Most cruelly
Didst thou, Alonso, use me and my daughter:
Thy brother was a furtherer in the act : —
Tliou'rtpinch'd lor 't now, Sebastian. — Pleshand blood,
Voii brother mine, that ent.crt.ain'd ambition,
Kxpell'd remorse and nature: who. with Sebastian.
(Whose inward pinches therefore are most strong)
Would here have kilTd your king: [ do forgive thee,
(fimatural though thou art. — Their understanding
Begins to swell, and the approaching tide
Will shortly fill the reasonable shores,
That now lie foul and muddy. Not one of them.
That yet looks on me, e'er' would know me. — Ariel.
F-ti'li me the hat and rapier in my cell ; [Exit Ariki..
1 will dis-case me, and myself present,
A.-i 1 was sometime Milan. — Quickly, spirit;
Thou shalt ere long be free.

.Ariel re-enters singing, and helps to attire Prospero.
Ari. Where the bee .•iucks, there .nick I ;
In a cou-slip\s belt I lie :
There I couch. When oirls do cry,
On the bat's back Idofiy.
After summer, merrily:
Merrily, merrily, sltall I live now.
Under the blo.'<som that hangs 07i the bough.
Pro. Why. that 's my dainty Ariel ! I shall miss thee :
But yet thou shalt have freedom :-^so, so, se. —
To the king's ship, invisible as thou art :
There shalt thou find the mariners asleep
Under the hatches: the master, and the boatswain.
Being awake, enforce them to this place,
And presently, I prSi.hee.

Ari. I drink the air before in>'. and return
fir e'er your pulse twice beat. [Exit Ariel.

^0)1. All torment, trouble, wonder, and amazement
Inhabit here : some heavenly power guide us
Out of this fearful country !

Pro. [Attired as Duke.^] Behold, sir king,
The wronged duke of Milan. Prospero.
For more assurance that a living prince
Doi-a now speak to thee, I einbraeo thy body ;
.\nd to thee, and thy company, I bid
\ hearty welcome.

' Holy :

if. e.

* shoir : in £ *. ' iir : m f. e. * or : in f. e.

Alon. Whe'r thou beest he, or no.

Or some enchanted devil* to abuse me.
As late I have been, 1 not know : thy pulse
Beats as of flesh and blood ; and, since I saw thee.
Th' affliction of my mind amends, with which,
I fear, a madness held me. This must crave
(An if this be at all) a most strange story.
Thy dukedom I resign ; and do entreat
Thou pardon me thy wrongs. — But how should Prospero
j Be living, and be here ?

Pro. First, noble friend,

Let me embrace thine age, whose honour cannot
Be mcasur'd, or co\ifin'd.

Gon. Whether this be,

Or be not, I '11 not swear.

Pro. You do yet taste

Some subtleties o' the isle, that will not let you
Believe things certain. — Welcome, my friends all. —
But you, my brace of lords, were I so minded,

[Aside to Seb. and Ant
I here could pluck his highness' frown upon you,
And justify you traitors : at this time
I will tell no tales.

Seb. [Aside.] The devil speaks in him.

Pro. No.-

For you, most wicked sir, whom to call brother
Would even infect my mouth. I do forgive
Thy rankest faults' ; all of them ; and require
My dukedom of thee, which, perforce, I know
Thou must restore.

Alon. If thou beest Prospero,

fiive us particulars of thy preservation :
How thou hast met us here, who three hours sine*
Were wreck'd upon this shore; where I have lost,
(How sharp the point of this remembrance is !)
My dear son Ferdinand.

Pro. I am woe for 't, sir.

Alon. Irreparable is the loss, and patience
Says it is past her cure.

Pro. I rather think,

You have not sought her help ; of whose soft grace,
For the like loss I have her sovereign aid,
And rest myself content.

Alon. You the like loss?

jPro. As great to me, as late ; and, supportable •
To make the dear loss, have I means much weaker
Than you may call to comfort you, for I
Have lost my daughter.

Alon. A daughter ?

heavens ! that they were living both in Naples,
The king and queen there ! that they were, I wish
Myself were mudded in that oozy bed
Wheremy son lies. When did you loseyourdaughter ?

Pro. In this last tempest. I perceive, these lords
At this encounter do so much admire,
That they devour their reason, and scarce think
Their eyes do offices of truth, their words
Are natural breath; but, howsoe'er yoxi have
Been justlcd from your senses, know for certain,
That I am Prospero, and that very duke
Which was thrust forth of Milan ; who most strangely
Upon this shore, where you were WTeck'd, was landed.
To be the lord on 't. No more yet of this ;
For 'tis a chronicle of day by day,
Not a relation for a breakfast, nor
Befitting this fir.st meeting. Welcome, sir ;
This cell 's my court : here have I few attendants,
And subjects none abroad : pray you, look in.
My dukedom since you have given me again,

' Not in f. e. • trifle : m f e. ' fault : m f. e.

J8

THE TEMPEST.

ACT T.

I will requite you with as good a thing ;
At least, bring forth a wonder, to content ye
Ar much as me my dukedom.

Prospero draws a airtain,' atid discovers Ferdinand
and Miranda playing iit chess.

Mira. Sweet lord, you play me false.

Fer. No, my dearest love,

I would not for the world.

Mira. Yes, for a score of kingdoms you should
wrangle.
And I would call it fair play.

Ahin. If this prove

A vision of the island, one dear son *
.Shall I twice lose.

Se4. A most high miracle I

Fer. Though the seas tlireaten they are merciful :
1 have curs'd them without cause. [Kneels to Ai-ON.

Alon. Now, all the blessings

.Arise, and say how thou cam'st here.

Mira. O, wonder !

How many goodly creatures are there here !
How beauteous mankind is ! O, brave new world,
Tliat has such people in't !

Pro. 'T is new to thee.

Alon. What is this maid, with whom thou wast at
play?
^'our eld'st acquaintance cannot be three hours :
Is she the goddess that hath sever'd us,
And brought us thus together ?

Fer. Sir, she is mortal ;

But, by immortal providence, she's mine;
I chose her, when I could not ask my father
Is daughter to this famous duke of Milan,
Of whom 80 often I have heard reno■v^^l.
But never saw before ; of whom I have
Received a second life, and second father
This lady makes him to me.

Alon. I am hers.

But ! how oddly will it sound, that I

Pro. There, sir, stop :

Let us not burden our remembrances
With. a heaviness that's gone.

Goa. I have inly wept,

Or should have spoke ere this. Look down, you gods.
And on this couple drop a blessed crown.
For it is you that have chalk'd forth the way.
Which brought us hither !

Alon. I say, Amen, Gonzalo.

Gon. Was Milan thrust from Milan, that his issue
Should become kings of Naples ? O ! rejoice
Beyond a common joy, and set it down
With gold on lasting pillars. In one voyage
Did Claribel her husband find at Tunis ;
And Ferdinand, her brother, found a wife,
Wliere he himself was lost; Prospero his dukedom.
In a poor isle; and all of us, ourselves.
When no man was his own.

Alon. Give me your hands : [To Fer. and MiR.
Let grief and sorrow still embrace his heart.
That doth not wish you joy !

Gon. Be it so : Amen.

Re-enter Ariel, with the Master and Boatswain
amazedly folloifing.

look, sir ! look, sir ! here are more of us,

1 prophesied, if a gallows were on land.

This fellow could not drown. — Now, blasphemy,

' The ettlraiue of the celt open*, and . in f. e. * without ■ in f. •-

That swearst grace o'erbcard. not an oalh on shore?
Hast thou no mouth by land ? What is the news?

Boats. The best news is. that we have safely foun^
Our king, and company : the next, our ship.
Which but three glasses since we gave out split,
Is tight, and yare, and bravely rigg'd, as when
We first put out to sea.

Ari. Sir, all this senHce [Asitie.

Have I done since I went.

Pro. My tricksy spirit ! [Asidi.

Alon. These are not natural events ; they strenglhen
From strange to stranger. — Say, how came you hilher'

Boats. If 1 did think, sir, I were well awake,
I 'd strive to tell you. We were dead of sleep.
And (hew we know not) all clapp'd under hatches.
AVhere, but even now, with strange and several noise*
Of roaring, shrieking, howling, jingling chains,
And more diversity of sounds, all horrible,
We were awak'd ; straightway, at liberty :
Where we, in all her trim, freshly beheld
Our royal, good, and gallant ship ; our master
Capering to eye her : on a trice, so please you,
Even in a dream, were we divided from them,
And were brought moping hither.

Ari. Was 't well done ? i

Pro. Bravely, my diligence ! Thou shall > Asitle
be free. )

Alo7i. This is as strange a maze as e'er men trod ;
And tlicre is in this business more than nature
Was ever conduct of : some oracle
Must rectify our knowledge.

Pro. Sir, my liege.

Do not infest your mind with beating on
The strangeness of this business : at pick'd leisure
MHiich shall be shortly, single I '11 resolve you
(Which to you shall seem probable) of every
These happen'd accidents ; till when, be cheerful.
And think of each thing well. — Come hither, spirit

[Asidt
Set Caliban and his companions free ;
Untie the spell. [£i. Ariel] How fares my gracious sir'
There are yet missing of your company
Some lew odd lads, that you remember not.
Re-enter Ariel, driving in Caliban, Stephano, awl
Trinculo, in their stolen apparel.

Ste. Every man shift lor all the rest, and letnomai
take care for himself, for all is bvit fortune. — Coragio '
bully-monster, coragio !

Trin. If these be true spies which I wear in m)
head, here "s a goodly sight.

Cal. O Setebos ! these be brave spirits, indeed
How fine my master is ! 1 am afraid
He will chastise me..

Seb. Ha, ha !

What things are these, my lord Antonio ?

Ant. Very like ; one of them

Is a plain fish, and, no doubt, marketable.

Pro. Mark but the badges of these men. my lords
Then say, if they he true. — This mis-shapen knave.
His mother was a witch ; and one so strong
That could control the moon, make flows and ebbs.
And deal in her command with all' her power.
These three have robb'd me : and this demi-devil
(For he's a bastard one) had plotted with them
To take my life : two of these fellows you
Must know, and own ; this thing of darkness 1
Acknowledge mine.

Cal. I shall be pinch'd to death

SCENE I.

THE TEMPEST.

19

Alon. Is not this Stephano, my drunken butler ?

Seh. He is drunk now ; where had he wine ?

Alon. And Tnnculo is r&eiins ripe : where should they
Find tliis grand liquor that hath gilded 'em ? —
How eamst thou in this pickle ?

Trin. I have been in such a pickle, since I saw you
last, that, I fear me, will never out of my bones : 1 shall
not fear fly-blowing.

Seb. Why, how now, Stephano !

Ste. O ! touch me not : I am not Stephano, but a
cramp.

Pro. You d be king of the isle, sirrah ?

Ste. I should have been a sore one then.

Alon. This is as strange a thing as e'er I look'd on.
[Pointing to Caliban.

Pro. He is as disproportion^ in his manners.
As in his shape. — Go, sirrah, to my cell ;
Take with you your companions : as you look
To have my pardon, trim it handsomely.

Cnl. Ay, that 1 will ; and I 'li be wise hereafter,
And seek for grace. What a thrice-double ass
Was I. to take this drunkard for a god,
And worship this dull fool ?

Pro. Go to ; away !

Alon. Hence, and bestow your luggage where you
found it.

Seb. Or stole it, rather. [Ex. Cal., Ste., anrf Thin

To my poor cell, where you shall take your rest
For this one night; which, part of it, I '11 waste
With such discourse, as, I not doubt, shall make it
Go quick away ; the story of my life.
And the particular accidents gone by.
Since I came to this isle : and in the morn,
I '11 bring you to \our ship, and so to Naples,
Where I have hope to see the nuptial
Of these our dear-beloved solemnized ;
And thence retire me to my Milan, where
Every third thought shall be my grave.

Alon. I long

To hear the story of your life, which must
Take the ear strangely.

Pro. I '11 deliver all ;

And promise you calm seas, auspicious gales.
And sail, so expeditious, that shall catch
YoiU' royal fleet far off". — My Ariel ; — chick, —
That is thy charge : then, to the elements ;
Be free, and fare thou well ! — Please you draw ne»i

EPILOGUE.
Spoken »t Prospero.

Now my charms are all o'erthrown.
And what strength I have 's mine own ;
Which is most faint : now, 't is true,
[ must be here confin'd by you.
Or sent to Naples. Let me not, .^
Since I have my dukedom got.
And pardon'd the deceiver, dwell
In this bare island, by your spell ;
But release me from my bands.
With the help of your good handB.

f 6 Extun^

Gentle breath of yours my sails

Must fill, or else my project fails.

Which was to plea.se. Now I want

Spirits to enforce, art to enchant ;

And my ending is dcspaii

Unless I be r
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