And Plutarch, whom Shakespeare very diligently studied, expressly declares that he left the publick his gardens and walks, Téρav Toû IIoтaμoù, beyond the Tyber." This emendation likewise hath been adopted by the subsequent Editors; but hear again the old Translation, where Shakespeare's study lay: "He bequeathed unto every citizen of Rome seventy-five drachmas a man, and he left his gardens and arbours unto the people, which he had on this side of the river of Tyber." I could furnish you with many more instances, but these are as good as a thousand. Hence had our author his characteristick knowledge of Brutus and Anthony, upon which much argumentation for his learning hath been founded and hence literatim the Epitaph on Timon, which, it was once presumed, he had corrected from the blunders of the Latin version, by his own superior knowledge of the Original. I cannot, however, omit a passage of Mr. Pope. "The speeches copy'd from Plutarch in Coriolanus may, I think, be as well made an instance of the learning of Shakespeare, as those copy'd from Cicero in Catiline, of Ben. Jonson's." Let us inquire into this matter, and transcribe a speech for a specimen. Take the famous one of Volumnia : Should we be silent and not speak, our raiment Are we come hither; since thy sight, which should Our comfort in the Country. We must find Our wish, which side shou'd win. For either thou With manacles thorough our streets; or else (Trust to't, thou shalt not) on thy mother's womb, I will now give you the old Translation, which shall effectually confute Mr. Pope: for our Author hath done little more than throw the very words of North into blank verse. "If we helde our peace (my sonne) and determined not to speake, the state of our poore bodies, and present sight of our rayment, would easely bewray to thee what life we haue led at home, since thy exile and abode abroad. But thinke now with thy selfe, howe much more unfortunately then all the women liuinge we are come hether, considering that the sight which should be most. pleasaunt to all other to beholde, spitefull fortune hath made most fearfull to us: making my selfe to see my sonne, and my daughter here, her husband, besieging the walles of his natiue countrie. So as that which is the only comfort to all other in their adversitie and miserie, to pray unto the goddes, and to call to them for aide, is the onely thinge which plongeth us into most deepe perplexitie. For we cannot (alas) together pray, both for victorie, for our countrie, and for safety of thy life also: but a worlde of grievous curses, yea more than any mortall enemie can heappe uppon us, are forcibly wrapt up in our prayers. For the bitter soppe of most harde choyce is offered thy wife and children, to foregoe the one of the two either to lose the persone of thy selfe, or the nurse of their natiue contrie. For my selfe (my sonne) I am determined not to tarrie, till fortune in my life time doe make an ende of this warre. For if I cannot persuade thee, rather to doe good unto both parties, then to ouerthrowe and destroye the one, preferring loue and nature before the malice and calamitie of warres: thou shalt see, my sonne, and trust unto it, thou shalt no soner marche forward to assault thy countrie, but thy foote shall tread upon thy mother's wombe, that brought thee first into this world." The length of this quotation will be excused for it's curiosity; and it happily wants not the assistance of a Comment. But matters may not always be so easily managed: :—a plagiarism from Anacreon hath been detected: The Sun's a thief, and with his great attraction Robs the vast Sea. The Moon's an arrant thief, And her pale fire she snatches from the Sun. The Sea's a thief, whose liquid surge resolves The Moon into salt tears. The Earth's a thief, That feeds and breeds by a composture stol'n From gen'ral excrements: each thing's a thief. "This," says Dr. Dodd, "is a good deal in the manner of the celebrated drinking Ode, too well known to be inserted." Yet it may be alleged by those who imagine Shakespeare to have been generally able to think for himself, that the topicks are obvious, and their application is different.—But for argument's sake, let the Parody be granted; and "our Author," says some one, “may be puzzled to prove that there was a Latin translation of Anacreon at the time Shakespeare wrote his Timon of Athens." This challenge is peculiarly unhappy: for I do not at present recollect any other Classick (if indeed, with great deference to Mynheer De Pauw, Anacreon may be numbered amongst them) that was originally published with two Latin translations. But this is not all. Puttenham in his Arte of English Poesie, 1589, quotes some one of a one of a "reasonable good facilitie in translation, who finding certaine of Anacreon's Odes very well translated by Ronsard the French poet -comes our Minion, and translates the same out of French into English" and his strictures upon him evince the publication. Now this identical Ode is to be met with in Ronsard! and as his works are in few hands, I will take the liberty of transcribing it: La terre les eaux va boivant, Et le Soleil boit la marine. Le Soleil est beu de la Lune, Tout boit soit en haut ou en bas : Pourquoy donc ne boirons-nous pas ? I know not whether an observation or two relative to our Author's acquaintance with Homer be worth our investigation. The ingenious Mrs. Lenox observes on a passage of Troilus and Cressida, where Achilles is roused to battle by the death of Patroclus, that Shakespeare must here have had the Iliad in view, as "the old Story, which in many places he hath faithfully copied, is absolutely silent with respect to this circumstance. And Mr. Upton is positive that the sweet oblivious Antidote, inquired after by Macbeth, could be nothing but the Nepenthe described in the Odyssey, Νηπενθές τ' ἄχολόν τε, κακῶν ἐπίληθον ἁπάντων. I will not insist upon the Translations by Chapman; as the first Editions are without date, and it may be difficult to ascertain the exact time of their publication. But the former circumstance might have been learned from Alexander Barclay; and the latter more fully from Spenser than from Homer himself. "But Shakespeare," persists Mr. Upton, "hath some Greek Expressions." Indeed!" We have one in Coriolanus, It is held That valour is the chiefest Virtue, and and another in Macbeth, where Banquo addresses the Weird-Sisters, My noble Partner You greet with present grace, and great prediction Gr. Εχεια,—and πρὸς τὸν Ἔχοντα, to the Haver.” This was the common language of Shakespeare's time. "Lye in a water-bearer's house!" says Master Mathew of Bobadil, "a Gentleman of his Havings!" Thus likewise John Davies in his Pleasant Descant upon English Proverbs, printed with his Scourge of Folly, about 1612: Do well and have well!-neyther so still : For some are good Doers, whose Havings are ill; and Daniel the Historian uses it frequently. Having seems to be synonymous with Behaviour in Gawin Douglas and the elder Scotch writers. Haver, in the sense of Possessor, is every where met with: thol unfortunately the πρὸς τὸν Ἔχοντα of Sophocles, produced as an authority for it, is suspected by Kuster, as good a critick in these matters, to have absolutely a different meaning. But what shall we say to the learning of the Clown in Hamlet, "Ay, tell me that, and unyoke"? alluding to the BouλuTòs of the Greeks and Homer and his Scholiast are quoted accordingly! If it be not sufficient to say, with Dr. Warburton, that the phrase might be taken from Husbandry, without much depth of reading; we may produce it from a Dittie of the workmen of Dover, preserved in the additions to Holingshed, p. 1546. My bow is broke, I would unyoke, My foot is sore, I can worke no more. An expression of my Dame Quickly is next fastened upon, which you may look for in vain in the modern text; she calls some of the pretended Fairies in the Merry Wives of Windsor, Orphan Heirs of fixed Destiny; |