in fome few of them which feem to fix their dates. So the Chorus at the end of the fourth act of Henry the Fifth, by a compliment very handfomely turned 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 the Eighth, is a proof of that play's being writ ten after the acceflion of the latter of thofe two princes to the crown of England. 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 pleafed to fee a genius arife from amongst them of fo pleafurable, fo rich a vein, and fo plentifully capable of furnishing their favourite entertainments. Befides the advantages of his wit, he was in himfelf a good-natured man,. of great fweetnefs in his manners, and a most agreeable companion; fo that it is no wonder, if, with fo many good qualities, he made himfelf 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 vital, throned by the west.

Midfummer Night's Dream.

And that whole paffage is a compliment very properly brought in, and very handfomely applied to her. She was fo well pleafed with that admirable character of Falstaff, in The Two Parts of Henry the Fourth, that the 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 Windfar. How well fhe was obeyed, the play itself 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 * Oldcastle; fome of that family being then remaining, the queen was pleased to command him to alter it; upon which he made ufe of Falftaff. The prefent offence was indeed avoided; but I do not know whether the author may not have been somewhat to blame in his fecond choice, fince it is certain that Sir John Falftaff, who was a knight of the garter, and a lieutenant

See the Epilogue to Henry the Fourth.

general,

general, was a name of diftinguished merit in the wars in France in Henry the Fifth's and Henry the Sixth's times. What grace foever the queen conferred upon him, it was not to her only he owed 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 Shakespeare's, that if I had not been affured that the story was handed down by Sir William D'Avenant, who' was probably very well acquainted with his affairs, I fhould not have ventured to have inferted, that my lord Southampton at one time gave him a thoufand 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 present age has thewn to French dancers and Italian fingers.

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 taste of merit, and could diftinguifh men, had generally a juft value and efteem for him. His exceeding candour and good-nature must certainly have inclined all the gentler part of the world to love him, as the power of his wit obliged the men of the most delicate knowledge and polite learning to admire him.

His acquaintance with Ben Jonfon began with a remarkable piece of humanity and good-nature; Mr. Jonson, who was at that time altogether unknown to the world, had offered one of his plays to the players, in order to have it acted; and the perfons into whofe hands it was put, after having turned it carelefly and fupercilioufly over, were juft upon returning it to him with an ill-natured anfwer, that it would be of no fervice to their company; when Shakespeare 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. Jonfon and his writings to the publick. Jonfon was certainly a very good fcholar, and in that had the advantage of Shakespeare; though at the fame time I believe it must be allowed, 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 juft and proper. In a converfation be

[M 2]

tween

tween Sir John Suckling, Sir William D'Avenant, Endymion Porter, Mr. Hales of Eton, and Ben Jonfon; Sir John Suckling, who was a profeffed admirer of Shakespeare, had undertaken his defence against Ben Jonfon with fome warmth; Mr. Hales, who had fat ftill for fome time, told them, That if Mr. Shakespeare had not read the ancients, he had likewife not fiolen any thing from them; and that if he would produce any one topick finely treated by any one of them, he would undertake to fhew fomething upon the fame fubject at least as well written by Shakespeare.

The latter part of his life was spent, as all men of good fense will with theirs may be, in eafe, retirement, and the converfation of his friends. He had the good fortune to ga ther 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 pleasureable wit and good nature engaged him in the acquaintance, and entitled him to the friendship of the gentlemen of the neighbourhood. Amongst them, it is a story almoft ftill remembered in that country, that he had a particular intimacy with Mr. Combe, an old gentleman noted thereabouts for his wealth and ufury: it happened, that in a pleasant conversation amongst their com mon friends, Mr. Combe told Shakespeare in a laughing manner, that he fancied he intended to write his epitaph, if he happened to out-live him; and fince he could not know what might be faid of him when he was dead, he defired it might be done immediately: upon which Shakespeare gave him these four verses.

Ten in the hundred lies here engrav'd,

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

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

*The Rev. Francis Peck, in his Memoirs of the Life and Pow etical Works of Mr. John Milton, 4to. 1740, p. 223. has introduced another epitaph imputed (on what authority is unknown) to Shakespeare. It is on Tom a Combe, alias Thin-beard, brother to this John, who is mentioned by Mr. Rowe.

Thin in beard, and thick in purse;
"Never man beloved worse;

"He went to the grave with many a curfe:
"The devil and he had both one nurfe."

STEEVENS,

But

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

He died in the 53d year of his age *, and was buried on the north fide of the chancel, in the great church at Stratford, where a monument, as engraved in the plate, is placed in the wall. On his grave-ftone underneath is,

Good friend, for Jefus fake forbear
To dig the duft inclofed here.

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

He had three daughters, of which two lived to be married; Judith, the elder, to one Mr. Thomas Quiney, by whom she had three fons, 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 married first to Thomas Nash, efq. and afterwards to Sir John Bernard of Abbington, but died likewise without iffue.

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

tr

"I remember the players have often mentioned it as an "honour to Shakespeare, that in writing (whatsoever he "penned) he never blotted out a line. My anfwer hath "been, Would he had blotted a thousand! which they thought malevolent fpeech. I had not told pofterity this, but "for their ignorance, who chose that circumftance to com"mend their friend by, wherein he most faulted: and to "juftify mine own candour, for I loved the man, and do "honour his memory, on this fide idolatry, as much as

2

any. He was, indeed, honeft, and of an open and free "nature, had an excellent fancy, brave notions, and gen"tle expreffions; wherein he flowed with that facility, that "fometimes it was neceffary he fhould be ftopped: Suffla“minandus erat, as Auguftus faid of Haterius. His wit was "in his own power, would the rule of it had been so too. "Many times he fell into those things which could not ef

He died on his birth-day, April 23, 1616, and had exactly compleated his fifty-fecond year. [M 3]

MALONE.

cape

cape laughter; as when he faid in the perfon of Cæfar, one fpeaking to him,

Cafar thou doft me wrong.

"He replied:

"Cæfar did never wrong, but with just caufe.

"And fuch like, which were ridiculous. But he redeemed "his vices with his virtues: there was ever more in him to "be praised than to be pardoned."

As for the paffage which he mentions out of Shakespeare, 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 feen, as quoted by Mr, Jonfon. Befides his plays in this edition, there are two or three afcribed 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 ftanzas, which have been printed in a late collection of poems. As to the character given of him by Ben Jonson, there is a good deal in it: but I believe it may be as well expreffed by what Horace fays of the firft Romans, who wrote tragedy upon the Greek models (or indeed tranflated them) in his epiftle to Auguftus.

Naturâ fublimis & acer,

Nam fpirat tragicum fatis & feliciter audet,
Sed turpem putat in chartis metuitque liturám.

As I have not propofed to myself to enter into a large and complete collection upon Shakespeare's works, fo I will only take the liberty, with all due fubmiffion to the judgment of others, to obferve fome of thofe things I have been pleafed with in looking him over.

His plays are properly to be diftinguifhed only into comedies and tragedies. Thofe which are called hiftories, and even fome of his comedies, are really tragedies, with a run or mixture of comedy amongst them. That way of tragicomedy was the common mistake of that age, and is indeed become fo agreeable to the English tafte, that though the feverer criticks among us cannot bear it, yet the generality of our audiences feem to be better pleafed with it than with an exact tragedy. The Merry Wives of Windfor, The Comedy of Errers, and The Taming of the Shrew, are all pure co

medy;