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For this he was profecuted by that gentleman, as he thought, fomewhat too feverely; and in order to revenge that ill ufage, he made a ballad upon him. And tho' this, probably the firft eflay of his Poetry, be loft, yet it is faid to have been fo very bitter, that it redoubled the Profecution against him to that degree, that he was oblig'd to leave his bufinels and family in Warwickshire, for fome time, and shelter himself in London.

It is at this time, and upon this accident, that he is faid to have made his firft acquaintance in the Play-houfe. He was receiv'd into the company then in being, at first in a very mean rank; but his admirable wit, and the natural turn of it to the ftage, foon distinguish'd him, if not as an extraordinary Actor, yet as an excellent Writer. His name is printed, as the custom was in those times, amongst thofe of the other Players, before fome old Plays, but without any particular account of what fort of parts he us'd to play; and tho' I have enquir'd, I could never meet with any further account of him this way, than that the top of his Performance was the ghoft in his own Hamlet. I fhould have been much more pleas'd, to have learn'd from fome certain authority, which was the firft Play he wrote a; it would be without doubt. a pleasure to any man, curious in things of this kind, to fee and know what was the firft effay of a fancy like Shakespear's. Perhaps we are not to look for his beginnings, like thofe of other authors, among their leaft perfect writings; art had fo little, and nature fo large a fhare in what he did, that, for ought I know, the performances of his youth, as they were the moft vigorous, and had the moft fire and ftrength of imagination in 'em, were the beft. I would not be thought by this to mean, that his fancy was so loose and extravagant, as to be independent on the rule and government of judgment; but that what he thought, was commonly fo great, fo juftly and rightly conceiv'd in it felf, that it wanted little or no correction, and was immediately approv'd by an impartial judgment at the first fight. But tho' the order of time in which the feveral pieces were written be generally uncertain, yet there are paffages in fome few of them which feem to fix their dates. So the Chorus at the end of the fourth Act of Henry V. by a compliment very handfomely turn'd to the Earl of Effex, fhews the Play to have been written when that Lord was General for the Queen in Ireland: And his Elogy upon Queen Elizabeth, and her fucceffor King James, in the latter end of his Henry VIII. is a proof of that Play's being written after the acceffion of the latter of those two Princes to the crown of England. What

(a) The highest date of any I can get find, is Romeo and Juliet in 1597, when the Author was 33 years old; and Richard the 2d, and 3d, in the next year, viz. the 34th of his age.

Whatever the particular times of his writing were, the people of his age, who began to grow wonderfully fond of diverfions of this kind, could not but be highly pleas'd to see a Genius arise amongst 'em of so pleasurable, fo rich a vein, and fo plentifully capable of furnishing their favourite entertainments. Befides the advantages of his wit, he was in himself a good-natur'd man, of great sweetness in his manners, and a moft agreeable companion; fo that it is no wonder if with fo many good qualities he made himself acquainted with the best converfations of thofe times. Queen Elizabeth had feveral of his Plays acted before her, and without doubt gave him many gracious marks of her favour: It is that maiden Princefs plainly, whom he intends by

A fair Veftal, Throned by the Weft.

Midfummer Night's Dream.

And that whole paffage is a compliment very properly brought in, and very handsomely apply'd to her. She was fo well pleas'd with that admirable character of Falstaff, in the two parts of Henry the fourth, that she commanded him to continue it for one Play more, and to fhew him in love. This is faid to be the occafion of his writing The Merry Wives of Wind for. How well fhe was obey'd, the Play it felf is an admirable proof. Upon this occafion it may not be improper to obferve, that this part of Falftaff is faid to have been written originally under the name of a Oldcastle; fome of that family being then remaining, the Queen was pleas'd to command him to alter it; upon which he made ufe of Falstaff: The present offence was indeed avoided; but I don't know whether the Author may not have been fomewhat to blame in his fecond choice, fince it is certain that Sir John Falstaff, who was a Knight of the garter, and a Lieutenant general, was a name of diftinguifh'd merit in the wars in France in Henry the fifth's and Henry the fixth's times. What grace foever the Queen confer'd upon him, it was not to her only he ow'd the fortune which the reputation of his wit made. He had the honour to meet with many great and uncommon marks of favour and friendship from the Earl of Southampton, famous in the hiftories of that time for his friendship to the unfortunate Earl of Effex. It was to that noble Lord that he dedicated his Poem of Venus and Adonis. There is one inftance fo fingular in the magnificence of this Patron of Shakespear's, that if I had not been affur'd that the story was handed down by Sir William D'Avenant, who was probably very well acquainted with his affairs, I fhould not have ventur'd to have inferted, that my Lord Southampton at one time gave him a thoufand

(a) See the Epilogue to Henry 4th.

thousand pounds, to enable him to go through with a purchase which he heard he had a mind to. A bounty very great, and very rare at any time, and almost equal to that profufe generofity the prefent age has fhewn to French Dancers and Italian Singers.

What particular habitude or friendships he contracted with private men, I have not been able to learn, more than that every one who had a true tafte of merit, and could diftinguish men, had generally a juft value and esteem for him. His exceeding candor and good-nature muft certainly have inclin'd all the gentler part of the world to love him, as the power of his wit oblig'd the men of the most delicate knowledge and polite learning to admire

him.

His acquaintance with Ben Johnson began with a remarkable piece of humanity and good-nature; Mr. Johnson, who was at that time altogether unknown to the world, had offer'd one of his Plays to the Players, in order to have it acted; and the perfons into whofe hands it was put, after having turn'd it carelefly and fupercilioufly over, were juft upon returning it to him with an illnatur'd anfwer, that it would be of no fervice to their Company; when Shakespear luckily caft his eye upon it, and found fomething fo well in it as to engage him first to read it through, and afterwards to recommend Mr. Johnson and his writings to the publick. Johnson was certainly a very good fcholar, and in that had the advantage of Shakespear; tho' at the fame time I believe it must be allow'd, that what Nature gave the latter, was more than a balance for what Books had given the former; and the judgment of a great man upon this occafion was, I think, very just and proper. In a converfation between Sir John Suckling, Sir William D'Avenant, Endymion Porter, Mr. Hales of Eaton, and Ben Johnson; Sir John Suckling, who was a profefs'd admirer of Shakefpear, had undertaken his defence against Ben Johnson with fome warmth; Mr. Hales, who had fat ftill for fome time, told 'em, That if Mr. Shakespear had not read the Ancients, he had likewife not ftolen any thing from 'em; and that if he would produce any one Topick finely treated by any of them, he would undertake to fbew fomething upon the fame fubject at least as well written by Shakespear.

The latter part of his life was spent, as all men of good fenfe will with theirs may be, in ease, retirement, and the conversation of his friends. He had the good fortune to gather an eftate equal to his occafion, and, in that, to his wifh; and is faid to have spent fome years before his death at his native Stratford. His pleafurable wit, and good-nature, engag'd him in the acquaintance, and entitled him to the friendship of the gentlemen of the neighbourhood. Amongst them, it is a story almoft ftill remember'd in that VOL. I. country,

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country, that he had a particular intimacy with Mr. Combe, an old gentleman noted thereabouts for his wealth and ufury: It happen'd that in a pleafant converfation amongst their common friends, Mr. Combe told Shakespear in a laughing manner, that he fancy'd he intended to write his Epitaph, if he happen'd to out-live him; and fince he could not know what might be faid of him when he was dead, he defir'd it might be done immediately: Upon which Shakespear gave him these four verfes.

Ten in the hundred lyes here ingrav'd,

'Tis a hundred to ten his foul is not fav'd:
If any man ask, Who lyes in this tomb?

Oh! ho! quoth the devil, 'tis my John-a-Combe.

But the sharpness of the Satire is faid to have ftung the man fo feverely, that he never forgave it.

He dy'd in the 53d year of his age, and was bury'd on the north fide of the chancel, in the great Church at Stratford, where a monument, as engrav'd in the plate, is plac'd in the wall. On his Grave-ftone underneath is,

Good friend, for Jesus' fake forbear
To dig the dust inclofed here.

Bleft be the man that spares these ftones,
And curft be he that moves my bones.

He had three daughters, of which two liv'd to be marry'd; Judith, the elder, to one Mr. Thomas Quiney, by whom fhe had three Sons, who all died without children; and Sufannah, who was his favourite, to Dr. John Hall, a phyfician of good reputation in that country. She left one child only, a daughter, who was marry'd firft to Thomas Nash, Efq; and afterwards to Sir John Bernard of Abbington, but dy'd likewife without iffue.

This is what I could learn of any note, either relating to himfelf or family: The character of the man is beft feen in his writings. But fince Ben Johnson has made a fort of an essay towards it in his Discoveries, I will give it in his words.

"I remember the Players have often mention'd it as an honour "to Shakespear, that in writing (whatsoever he penn’d) he never "blotted out a line. My anfwer hath been, Would he had blotted "a thousand! which they thought a malevolent speech. I had not "told pofterity this, but for their ignorance, who chose that circumftance to commend their friend by, wherein he most faulted: "and to juftifie mine own candour, for I lov'd the man, and do "honour his memory, on this fide idolatry, as much as any.) He

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was, indeed, honeft, and of an open and free nature, had an ex"cellent fancy, brave notions, and gentle expreffions; wherein "he flow'd with that facility, that fometimes it was neceffary he "fhould be ftopp'd: Sufflaminandus erat, as Augustus said of Ha"terius. His wit was in his own power, would the rule of it had "been fo too. Many times he fell into those things which could "not escape laughter; as when he said in the person of Cæsar, one "speaking to him,

"Cæfar thou doft me wrong.

"He reply'd:

"Cæfar did never wrong, but with just cause.

" and fuch like, which were ridiculous. But he redeem'd his ❝vices with his virtues: There was ever more in him to be prais'd "than to be pardon'd.

As for the paffage which he mentions out of Shakespear, there is fomewhat like it in Julius Cæfar, but without the abfurdity; nor did I ever meet with it in any edition that I have seen, as quoted by Mr. Johnfon. Befides his plays in this edition, there are two or three afcrib'd to him by Mr. Langbain, which I have never seen, and know nothing of. He writ likewife Venus and Adonis, and Tarquin and Lucrece, in ftanza's, which have been printed in a late collection of Poems. As to the character given of him by Ben Johnson, there is a good deal true in it: But I believe it may be as well exprefs'd by what Horace fays of the firft Romans, who wrote Tragedy upon the Greek models, (or indeed tranflated 'em) in his epiftle to Auguftus.

Natura fublimis & acer,

Nam fpirat Tragicum fatis & feliciter Audet,
Sed turpem putat in Chartis metuitque Lituram.

As I have not propos'd to my felf to enter into a large and compleat collection upon Shakespear's Works, fo I will only take the liberty, with all due fubmiffion to the judgments of others, to obferve fome of thofe things I have been pleas'd with in looking him

over.

His Plays are properly to be diftinguifh'd only into Comedies and Tragedies. Those which are call'd Hiftories, and even fome of his Comedies, are really Tragedies, with a run or mixture of Comedy amongft 'em. That way of Tragi-comedy was the common mil take of that age, and is indeed become fo agreeable to the English

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taste,

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