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 whole works he might jully think Stratford on account of a juvenile irregularity, we have no reason 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 fhould conceal his plan of life, or place of refidence from thofe who if he found himfelf diftreffed, could not fail to afford him fuch fupplies as would have fet him above the neceflity of holding borjes 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 flage; for Thomas Green, a celebrated comedian of that period, was his town mal, and perhaps 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 horfeback 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 custom of riding to them, or at the practice of having hories 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. Johnfon) 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 circumftance fo incredible into his life of Shakespeare. As to the book which furnishes the anecdote, not the fmalleft 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 bookfellers for leave to prefix his name to the work; and it was purpofely fo prefixed as to leave the reader in doubt whether himself or his father was the perfon defigned. STEEVENS. himfelf himfelf under the ftrongeft 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 fhall give in the words of Oidys, 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 circumftances 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 or 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 fchoo'-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 school to fee him. One day an old townfman obferving the boy running homeward almoft 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 difcourte which arofe about Shakefpeare'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 thefe 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 themfelves more in a regular production of their own native fruits, than in hav ing the repute of bearing a richer kind by grafting; and this was the reafon he omitted it." The fame ftory, without the names of the perfons, is printed among the jefts of John Taylor the Water poet, in his works, folio, 1630, page 184, N° 39: and, with fome variations, may be found in one of Hearne's pocket books. "One of Shakefpeare's younger brothers, who lived to a good old age, even fome years, as I compute, after the retoration of K. Charles II. would in his younger days come to London to vifit his brother Will, as he called him, and be a fpectator of him as an actor in fome of his own plays. This cuftom, as his brother's fame enlarged, and his dramatic entertainments grew the greateft fupport of our principal, if not of all our theatres, he continued it feems fo long after his brother's death, as even to the latter end of his own life. The curiofity at this time of the most noted actors to learn fomething from him of his brother, &c. they justly held him in the higheft veneration. And it may be well believed, as there was befides a kinsman and descendant of the family, who was then a celebrated actor among them, [Charles Harte. See Shakespeare's Will] this opportunity made them greedily inquifitive into every little circumftance, more efpecially in his dramatick character, which his brother could relate of him. But he, it seems, was fo ftricken in years, and poffibly his memory fo weakened with infirmities (which might make him the eafier pafs for a man of weak intellects) that he could give them but little light into their enquiries; and all that could be recollected from him of his brother Will, in that ftation was, the faint, general, and almost loft ideas he had of having once feen him act a part in one of his own comedies, wherein being to perfonate a decrepit old man, he wore a long beard, and appeared fo weak and drooping and unable to walk, that he was forced to be fupported and carried by another perfon to a table, at which he was feated among fome company, who were eating, and one of them fung a fong." See the character of Adam in As you like it. Act. II. Sc. ult. "Verfes by Ben Jonfon and Shakespeare, occafioned by the motto to the Globe Theatre. Totus mundus agit hij trionem. Jonson. Fonfon. If, but flage actors, all the world displays, Little, or much, of what we fee, we do; Poetical Characteristicks, 8vo. MS. vol. I. fome time in the Harleian Library; which volume was returned to its owner." "Old Mr. Bowman the player reported from Sir William Bifhop, that fome part of Sir John Falftaff's character was drawn from a townfman of Stratford, who either faithlessly broke a contract, or spitefully refused to part with some land, for a valuable confideration, adjoining to Shakespeare's, in or near that town." To thefe anecdotes I can only add the following. At the conclufion of the advertisement prefixed to Lintot's edition of Shakespeare's poems, it is faid, "That moft learned prince and great patron of learning, King James the First, was pleased with his own hand to write an amicable letter to Mr. Shakespeare; which letter, though now loft, remained long in the hands of Sir William Davenant, as a credible perfon now living can teftify. Mr. Oldys, in a MS. note to his copy of Fuller's Worthies, obferves, that "the ftory came from the duke of Buckingham, who had it from Sir William D'Avenant." It appears from Rofcius Anglicanus, (commonly called Downes the prompter's book) 1708, that Shakespeare took the pains to inftruct Jofeph Taylor in the character of Hamlet, and John Lowine in that of K. Henry VIII. STEEVENS. Extract from the Rev. Dr. Farmer's Essay on the Learning of Shakespeare. In 1751, was reprinted "A compendious or briefe examination of certayne ordinary complaints of diuers of our Countrymen in thefe our days: which although they are in fome parte unjust and friuolous, yet are they all by way of dialogue thoroughly debated and difcuffed by William Shakespeare, Gentleman." 8vo. This extraordinary piece was originally published in 4to, 1581, and dedicated by the author, "To the most vertu ous ous and learned Lady, his most deare and foveraigne Princeffe, Elizabeth; being inforced by her majefties late and fingular clemency in pardoning certayne his unduetifull mifdemeanour." And by the modern editors, to the late king; as "a treatife compofed by the moft extenfive and fertile genius, that ever any age or nation produced." Here we join iffue with the writers of that excellent, though very unequal work, the Biographia Britannica: if, fay they, this piece could be written by our poet, it would be abfolutely decifive in the difpute about his learning; for many quotations appear in it from the Greek and Latin claflicks. The concurring circumftances of the name, and the mifdemeanor, which is fuppofed to be the old flory of deer-flealing, feem fairly to challenge our poct for the author: but they helitate. His claim may appear to be confuted by the date 1581, when Shakespeare was only feventeen, and the long experience, which the writer talks of.-But I will not keep the reader in fufpenfe: the book was not written by Shakespeare. Strype, in his Annals, calls the author SOME learned man, and this gave me the firft fufpicion. I knew very well, that honeft John (to ufe the language of Sir Thomas Bodley) did not wafte his time with fuch baggage books as plays and poems; yet I muft fuppofe, that he had heard of the name of Shakespeare. After a while I met with the original edition. Here in the title-page, and at the end of the dedication, appear only the initials, W. S. gent. and prefently I was informed by Anthony Wood, that the book in question was written, not by William Shakespeare, but by William Stafford, gentleman: which at once accounted for the mifdemeanour in the dedication. For Stafford had been concerned at that time, and was indeed afterward, as Camden and the other annalifts inform us, with fome of the confpirators against Elizabeth; which he properly calls his unduetifull behaviour. I hope by this time, that any one open to conviction may be nearly fatisfied; and I will promife to give on this head little more trouble. very The juftly celebrated Mr. Warton hath favoured us, in *Fafti. 2d Edit. V. 1. 208.-It will be feen on turning to the former edition, that the latter part of the paragraph belongs to another Stafford.I have fince obferved, that Wood is not the first, who hath giver us the true author of the pamphlet. |