knight is not half fo witty in the Merry Wives of Wind for as in king Henry IV. The humour is fcarcely natural, and does not excite to laughter fo much as the other.

It appears by the epilogue to Henry IV. that the part of Falstaff was written originally under the name of Oldcastle. Some of that family being then remaining, the queen was pleafed to command him to alter it; upon which he made ufe of the name of Falstaff. The first offence was indeed avoided; but I am not fure whether the author might not be 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 diftinguished merit in the wars with France, in the time of Henry V. and Henry VI.

Shakespear, befides the queen's bounty, was patronifed by the earl of Southampton, famous in the hiftory of that time for his friendship to the earl of Effex. It was to that nobleman he dedicated his poem of Venus and Adonis; and it is reported, that his lordship gave our author a thousand pounds to enable him to go through with a purchase he heard he had a mind to make. A bounty, at that time, very confiderable, as money was then valued. There are few inftances of fuch liberality in our times.

There is no certain account when Shakefpear quitted the ftage for a private life. Some have thought that Spenfer's Thalia, in

the

the Tears of the Muses, where he laments the lofs of her Willy, in the comic scene, relates to our poet's abandoning the ftage: but it is well known that Spenfer himself died in the year 1598; and five years after this we find Shakespear's name among the actors in Ben Johnson's Sejanus, which first made its appearance in 1603: nor could he then have any thoughts of retiring, fince, that very year, a licence, by king James I. was granted to him, with Barbage, Philips, Hemmings, Condel, &c. to exercife the art of playing comedies, tragedies, &c. as well at their ufual houfe, called the Globe, on the other fide the water, as in any other part of the kingdom, during his majesty's pleasure. This licence is printed in Rymer's Foedera. Befides, it is certain Shakefpear did not write Macbeth till after the acceffion of king James I. which he did as a compliment to him, as he there embraces the doctrine of witches; of which his majesty was fo fond, that he wrote a book called Dæ monalogy, in defence of their existence; and likewife, at that time, began to touch for the evil; which Shakespear has taken notice of, and paid him a fine-turned compliment. So that w what Spenfer there fays, if it relates at all to Shakespear, muft hint at fome occafional recefs which he made for a time.

What particular friendships he contracted with private men, we cannot at this time know, more than that every one who had a true taste for merit, and could distinguish men, had generally a juft value and cfteem

for

for him. His exceeding candor and good nature muft certainly have inclined all the gentler part of the world to love him, as the power of his wit obliged the men of the moft refined knowledge and polite learning to admire

him.

His acquaintance with Ben Johnfon began with a remarkable piece of humanity and good nature. Mr. Johnson, who was, at that time, altogether unknown to the world, had offered one of his plays to the ftage, in order to have it acted; and the perfon into whofe hands it was put, after having turned it carelefly over, was just upon returning it to him with an illnatured answer, 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 firft to read it through, and afterwards to recommend Mr. Johnson, and his writings, to the public.

The latter part of our author's life was spent in ease and retirement; he had the good fortune to gather an eftate equal to his wants, and in that to his wifh, and is faid to have spent fome years before his death in his native Stratford. His pleafant wit and good nature engaged him the acquaintance, and entitled him to the friendship of the gentlemen of the neighbourhood. It is ftill remembered in that county, that he had a particular intimacy with one Mr. Combe, an old gentleman, noted thereabouts for his wealth and ufury. It happened

that,

that, in a pleasant converfation amongst their common friends, Mr. Combe merrily told Shakespear, that he fancied he intended to write his epitaph, if he happended to out-live him; and fince he could not know what might be faid of him when dead, he defired it might be done immediately; upon which Shakespear gave him thefe lines:

Ten in the hundred lies here engraved,
'Tis an hundred to ten he is not faved:
If any man aleth, who lies in this tomb?
Oh! oh! quoth the devil, 'tis my John-a-
Combe.

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

Shakefpear died in the fifty-third year of his age, and was buried on the north-fide of the chancel in the great church at Stratford, where a monument is placed on the wall. The following is the infcription on the graveftone.

Good friend, for Jefus' fake forbear,
To dig the duft inclofed here.
Bleft be the man that fpares thefe ftones,
And curs'd be he that moves my bones.

He had three daughters, of whom two lived to be married; Judith, the elder, to Mr.Thomas Quincy, by whom the had three fons, who all died

without

without children; and Sufannah, who was his favourite, to Dr. John Hall, a phyfician of good reputation in that county. She left one child, a daughter, who was married to Thomas Nah, Efq; and afterwards to Sir John Bernard, of Abingdon, but deceased. Likewife without iffue. His dramatic writings. were first published together in folio, in 1623, by fome of the actors of the different companies they had been acted in, and perhaps by other fervants of the theatre into whofe hands copies might have fallen, and fince republished by Mr. Rowe, Mr. Pope, Mr. Theobald, Sir Thomas Hanmer, and Mr. Warburton. Johnson, in his difcoveries, has made a fort of effay towards the character of Shakespear. I hall prefent it to the reader in his own words.

Ben

I remember the players have often mentioned it as an honour to Shakespear, that, in writing, he never blotted out a line. My answer hath been, would he had blotted out a thoufand! which they thought had been a malevolent fpeech. I had not told pofterity this, but for their ignorance, who chufe that circumftance to commend their friend by, wherein he most faulted; and to juftify my own character (for I loved the man, and do honour to his memory, on this fide idolatry, as much as any). He was indeed honest, and of an open free nature, had an excellent fancy, brave notions, and gentle expreflions, wherein he flowed with that facility, that fometimes it was neceffary he should be ftopped