education. This, as well as a vaft fuperiority of genius, hath contributed to lift this aftonifhing man to the glory of being efteemed the most original thinker and Speaker, fince the times of Homer.” And hence indifputably the amazing variety of flyle and manner, unknown to all other writers: an argument of itself fufficient to emancipate Shakspeare from the fuppofition of a claffical training. Yet, to be honeft, one imitation is faftened on our poet : which hath been infifted upon likewife by Mr. Upton and Mr. Whalley. You remember it in the famous fpeech of Claudio in Meafure for Measure: Ay, but to die and go we know not where!" &c. Moft certainly the ideas of "a fpirit bathing in fiery floods," of refiding "in thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice," or of being "imprifoned in the viewless winds," are not original in our author; but I am not fure, that they came from the Platonick hell of Virgil.' The monks alfo had their hot and their cold hell: "The fyrfte is fyre that ever brenneth, and never gyveth lighte," fays an old homily:" "The feconde is paffyng colde, that yf a grete hylle of fyre were caften therin, it fholde torn to yce." One of their legends, well remembered in the time of Shakspeare, gives us a dialogue between a bishop and a foul tormented in a Aliæ panduntur inanes Sufpenfæ ad ventos: aliis fub gurgite vafto Infectum eluitur fcelus, aut exuritur igni." At the ende of the feftyuall, drawen oute of Legenda aurea, 4to. 1508. It was firft printed by Caxton, 1483. "in helpe of fuch clerkes who excufe theym for defaute of bokes, and alfo by fymplenes of connynge." piece of ice, which was brought to cure a grete brenning heate in his foot: take care you do not interpret this the gout, for I remember M. Menage quotes a canon upon us : 66 Siquis dixerit epifcopum FOD AGRA laborare, anathema fit." Another tells us of the foul of a monk faftened to a rock, which the winds were to blow about for a twelvemonth, and purge of its enormities. Indeed this doctrine was before now introduced into poetick fiction, as you may see in a poem "where the lover declareth his pains to exceed far the pains of hell," among the many mifcellaneous ones fubjoined to the works of Surrey. Nay, a very learned and inquifitive Brother-Antiquary, our Greek Profeffor, hath obferved to me on the authority of Blefkenius, that this was the ancient opinion of the inhabitants of Iceland; who were certainly very little read either in the poet or the philofopher. 8 After all, Shakfpeare's curiofity might lead him to tranflations. Gawin Douglas really changes the Platonick hell into the "punytion of faulis in purgatory:" and it is obfervable, that when the Ghost informs Hamlet of his doom there, Till the foul crimes done in his days of nature Are burnt and purg'd away. — the expreffion is very fimilar to the bishop's: "I will give you his verfion as concifely as I can; "It is a nedeful thyng to fuffer panis and torment 1 On all foules daye, p. 152. * Mr. afterwards Dr. Lort. 8 Islandia Defcript. Ludg. Bat. 1607. p. 46. fum in the wyndis, fum under the watter, and in the fire uthir fum: - thus the mony vices • Contrakkit in the corpis be done away And purgit.?? Sixte Booke of Eneados, fol. p. 191. It feems, however, "that Shakspeare himself in the Tempest hath tranflated fome expreffions of Virgil: witnefs the O dea certe." I prefume, we are here directed to the paffage, where Ferdinand fays of Miranda, after hearing the fongs of Ariel, Moft fure, the goddefs 66 On whom thefe airs attend." and fo very small Latin is fufficient for this formidable tranflation, that if it be thought any honour to our poet, I am loath to deprive him of it; but his honour is not built on fuch a fandy foundation. Let us turn to a real translator, and examine whether the idea might not be fully comprehended by an English reader; fuppofing it neceffarily borrowed from Virgil. Hexameters in our own language are almost forgotten; we will quote therefore this time from Stanyhurst : 86 O to thee, fayre virgin, what terme may rightly be fitted? Gabriel Harvey defired only to be " epitaph'd, the inventor of the English hexameter," and for a while every one would be halting on Roman feet; but the ridicule of our fellow-collegian Hall, in one of his Satires, and the reasoning of Daniel, in his Defence of Rhyme against Campion, prefently reduced us to our original Gothick, But to come nearer the purpose, what will you fay, if I can fhew you, that Shakspeare, when, in the favourite phrafe, he had a Latin poet in his eye, most affuredly made ufe of a tranflation? ་ Profpero, in the Tempest, begins the addrefs to his attendant fpirits, Ye elves of hills, of ftanding lakes, and groves." This speech, Dr. Warburton rightly observes to be borrowed from Medea in Ovid: and "it proves,' fays Mr. Holt," "beyond contradiction, that Shakpeare was perfectly acquainted with the fentiments of the ancients on the fubject of inchantments." The original lines are these : Auræque, & venti, montefque, amnefque, lacufque, Diique omnes nemorum, diique omnes noctis adefte." It happens, however, that the translation by Arthur Golding is by no means literal, and Shakspeare hath closely followed it: 2 Ye ayres and winds; ye elves of hills, of brookes, of woods alone, Offtanding lakes, and of the night approche ye everych one. I think it is unneceffary to pursue this any further; especially as more powerful arguments awaitus. In The Merchant of Venice, the Jew, as an apology for his cruelty to Antonio, rehearses many sympa 9 In fome remarks on the Tempest, publifhed under the quaint title of An Attempte to rescue that anciente English Poet and Playwrighte, Maifter Williaume Shakefpeare, from the many Errours, faulfely charged upon him by certaine new-fangled Wittes. Lond. 8vo. 1749. p. 81. 2 His work is dedicated to the Earl of Leicefter in a long epifle in verfe, from Berwick, April 20, 1567. thies and antipathies for which no reafon can be rendered: Some love not a gaping pig And others when the bagpipe fings i'th' nofe, This incident, Dr. Warburton fuppofes to be taken from a paffage in Scaliger's Exercitations against Cardan: "Narrabo tibi jocofam sympathiam Reguli Vafconis equitis: is dum viveret audito phormingis fono, urinam illico facere cogebatur." And," proceeds the Doctor, "to make this jocular ftory ftill more ridiculous, Shakspeare, I fuppofe, tranflated phorminx by bagpipes." Here we feem fairly caught; - for Scaliger's work was never, as the term goes, done into English. But luckily in an old tranflation from the French of Peter le Loier, entitled, A Treatife of Specters, or fraunge Sights, Vifions, and Apparitions appearing fenfibly unto Men, we have this identical ftory from Scaliger and what is ftill more, a marginal note gives us in all probability the very fact alluded to, as well as the word of Shakspeare: "Another gentleman of this quality liued of late in Deuon neere Excefter, who could not endure the playing on a bagpipe."3 We may just add, as some observation hath been made upon it, that affection in the fenfe of fympathy 3 M. Bayle hath delineated the fingular character of our fantastical author. His work was originally tranflated by one Zacharie Jones. My edit. is in 4to. 1605. with an anonymous Dedication to the King: the Devonshire ftory was therefore well known in the time of Shakfpeare.-The paffage from Scaliger is likewife to be met with in The Optick Glasse of Humors, written, I believe, by T. Wombwell; and in feveral other places. |