To the foregoing Accounts of SHAKESPEARE'S LIFE, I have only one Paffage to add, which Mr. Pope related, as communicated to him by Mr. Rowe. IN 'N the time of Elizabeth, coaches being yet uncommon, and hired coaches not at all in use, those who were too proud, too tender, or too idle to walk, went on horseback to any distant business or diverfion. Many came on horseback to the play*, and when Shakespeare fled to London from the terror of a criminal profecution, his first expedient was to wait at the door of the play-houfe, and hold the horses of thofe that had no fervants, that they might be ready again after the performance. In this office he became fo confpicuous for his care and readiness, that in a fhort time every man as he alighted called for Will. Shakefpeare, and scarcely any other waiter was trufted with a horfe while Will. 'Shakespeare could be had. This was the firft dawn of better fortune. Shakespeare, finding more horses put into his hand than he could hold, hired boys to wait under his infpection, who, when Will. Shakefpeare was fummoned, were immediately to prefent themfelves, I am Shakespeare's boy, Sir. In time Shakespeare found higher employment; but as long as the practice of riding to the play-house continued, the waiters that held the horfes retained the appellation of, Shakespeare's boys †. JOHNSON. Mr. "The *Plays were at this time performed in the afternoon. pollicie of plaies is very neceffary, howfoever some shallow-brained cenfurers (not the deepest fearchers into the fecrets of government) mightily oppugne them. For whereas the afternoone being the idleft time of the day wherein men that are their own masters (as gentlemen of the court, the innes of the court, and a number of captains and foldiers about London) do wholly bestow themfelves upon pleasure, and that pleasure they devide (how vertuoufly it fkills not) either in gaming, following of harlots, drinking, or feeing a play, is it not better (fince of four extreames all the world cannot keepe them but they will choofe one) that they should betake them to the leaft, which is plaies ?" Nafh's Pierce Pennileffe bis Supplication to the Devil, 1595. STEEVENS. + I cannot difmifs this anecdote without obferving that it seems to want every mark of probability. Though Shakespeare quitted Stratford Mr. Rowe has told us that he derived the principal anecdotes in his account of Shakespeare, from Betterton the player, whofe zeal had induced him to vifit Stratford for the fake of procuring all poffible intelligence concerning a poet to whofe works he might justly think Stratford on account of a juvenile irregularity, we have no reafon to fuppofe that he had forfeited the protection of his father who was engaged in a lucrative bufinefs, or the love of his wife who had already brought him two children, and was herself the daughter of a fubftantial yeoman. It is unlikely therefore, when he was beyond the reach of his profecutor, that he should conceal his plan of life, or place of refidence from thofe who if he found himself diftreffed, could not fail to afford him fuch supplies as would have fet him above the neceffity of holding borfes for fubfiftence. Mr. Malone has remarked in his Attempt to afcertain the Order in which the Plays of Shakespeare were written, that he might have found an eafy introduction to the ftage; for Thomas Green, a celebrated comedian of that period, was his townfman, and per haps his relation. The genius of our author prompted him to write poetry; his connection with a player might have given his productions a dramatick turn; or his own fagacity might have taught him that fame was not incompatible with profit, and that the theatre was an avenue to both. That it was once the custom to ride on horseback to the play, I am likewife yet to learn. The moft popular of the theatres were on the Bank-fide; and we are told by the fatirical pamphleteers of the time, that the ufual mode of conveyance to thefe places of amufement, was by water: but not a fingle writer fo much as hints at the cuftom of riding to them, or at the practice of having horfe, held during the hours of exhibition. Some allufion to this utage (if it had exifted) muft, I think, have been difcovered in the courfe of our researches after contemporary fafhions. Let it be remembered too, that we receive this tale on no higher authority than that of Cibber's Lives of the Poets, vol. I. p. 130. "Sir William Davenant told it to Mr. Betterton, who communicated it to Mr. Rowe," who (according to Dr. fohnfon) related it to Mr. Pope. Mr. Rowe (if this intelligence be authentic) feems to have concurred with me in opinion, as he forebore to introduce a circumstance fo incredible into his life of Shakespeare. As to the book which furnishes the anecdote, not the finalleft part of it was the compofition of Mr. Cibber, being entirely written by a Mr. Shiells, amanuenfis to Dr. Johnfon, when his Dictionary was preparing for the prefs. T. Cibber was in the King's Bench, and accepted of ten guineas from the book feilers for leave to prefix his name to the work; and it was purpotely fo prefixed as to leave the reader in doubt whether himself or his father was the perfon defigned. STEEVENS. himfelf himfelf under the strongest obligations. Notwithstanding this affertion, in the manufcript papers of the late Mr. Ol dys it is faid, that one Bowman (according to Chetwood, P. 144, an actor more than half an age on the London theatres") was unwilling to allow that his affociate and contemporary Betterton had ever undertaken fuch a journey. Be this matter as it will, the following particulars, which I fhalk give in the words of Oldys, are, for ought we know to the contrary, as well authenticated as any of the anecdotes delivered down to us by Rowe. Mr. Oldys had covered feveral quires of paper with laborious collections for a regular life of our author. From thefe I have made the following extracts, which (however trivial) contain the only circumstances that wear the least appearance of novelty or information; the fong excepted, which the reader will find in a note on the firft fcene of the Merry Wives of Windfor. "If tradition may be trufted, Shakespeare often baited at the Crown Inn of Tavern in Oxford, in his journey to and from London. The landlady was a woman of great beauty and fprightly wit; and her husband, Mr. John Davenant, (afterwards mayor of that city) a grave melancholy man, who as well as his wife ufed much to delight in Shakefpeare's pleafant company. Their fon young Will Davenant (afterwards Sir William) was then a little school-boy in the town, of about feven or eight years old, and fo fond alfo of Shakespeare, that whenever he heard of his arrival, he would fly from fchool to fee him. One day an old townfman obferving the boy running homeward almost out of breath, afked him whither he was pofting in that heat and hurry. He anfwered, to fee his god-father Shakespeare. There's a good boy, faid the other, but have a care that you don't take God's name in vain. This ftory Mr. Pope told me at the Earl of Oxford's table, upon occafion of fome difcourfe which arofe about Shakespeare's monument then newly erected in Westminster Abbey; and he quoted Mr. Betterton the player for his authority. I anfwered that I thought fuch a story might have enriched the variety of thofe choice fruits of obfervation he has prefented us in his preface to the edition he had published of our poet's works. He replied-" There might be in the garden of mankind fuch plants as would feem to pride themselves more in a regular production of their own native fruits, than in hav ing |
