his Life of Dr. Bathurst, with fome hear fay particulars concerning Shakespeare from the papers of Aubrey, which had been in the hands of Wood; and I ought not to fupprefs them as the last seems to make against my doctrine. They came originally, I find, on confulting the MS. from one Mr. Beefton: and I am fure Mr. Warton, whom I have the honour to call my friend, and an affociate in the question, will be in no pain about their credit. "William Shakefpeare's father was a butcher, while he was a boy he exercised his father's trade, but when he killed a calf, he would do it in a high ftyle, and make a speech. This William being inclined naturally to poetry and acting, came to London, I guess, about eighteen, and was an actor in one of the playhouses, and did act exceedingly well. He began early to make effays in dramatique poetry.-The humour of the Conflable in the Midfummer Night's Dream he happen'd to take at Crendon in Bucks.-I think, I have been told, that he left near three hundred pounds to a fifler. He understood Latin pretty well, FOR he had been in his younger years a fchoolmaster in the country." I will be fhort in my animadverfions; and take them in their order. The account of the trade of the family is not only contrary to all other tradition, but, as it may feem, to the inftrument from the Herald's office, fo frequently reprinted.Shakespeare moft certainly went to London, and commenced actor through neceffity, not natural inclination.-Nor have we any reafon to fuppofe, that he did act, exceedingly well. Rowe tells us from the information of Betterton, who was inquifitive into this point, and had very early op portunities of enquiry from Sir W. Davenant, that he was no extraordinary actor; and that the top of his performance was the Ghoft in his own Hamlet. Yet this chef d' ceuvre did not pleafe: I will give you an original ftroke at it. Dr. Lodge, who was for ever peftering the town with pamphlets, published in the year 1596, Wits Miferie, and the Worlds *This place is not met with in Spelman's Villare, or in Adam's Index; nor in the firft and the last performance of this fort, Speed's Tables, and Whatley's Gazetteer: perhaps, however, it may be meant under the name of Crandon; but the inquiry is of no importance. It should, I think, be written Credendon; though better antiquaries than Aubrey have acquiefced in the vulgar corrup tion. Madne, Madneffe, difcovering the Devils incarnat of this Age, 4to. One of thefe devils is Hate-virtue, or Sorrow for another man's good fucceffe, who, fays the doctor, is "a foule lubber, and looks as pale as the vifard of the Ghoft, which cried fo miferably at the theatre, like an oifter-wife, Hamlet revenge." Thus you fee Mr. Holt's fuppofed proof, in the appendix to the late edition, that Hamlet was written after 1597, or perhaps 1602, will by no means hold good; whatever might be the cafe of the particular paffage on which it is founded. Nor does it appear, that Shakespeare did begin early to make effays in dramatique poetry: the Arraignment of Paris, 1584, which hath fo often been ascribed to him on the credit of Kirkman and Winstanley †, was written by George Peele; and Shakespeare is not met with, even as an affiftant, 'till at least seven years afterward ‡.-Nash in his epiftle to To this obfervation of Dr. Farmer it may be added, that the play of Hamlet was better known by this scene, than by any other. In Decker's Satiromaftix the following paffage occurs. Afinius. "Would I were hang'd if I can call you any names but cap. tain, and Tucca," Тисса. "No, fye; my name's Hamlet Revenge: thou hast been at Paris Garden, haft thou not?" Again, in Weftward Hoe, by Decker and Webster, 1607. Let these hufbands play mad Hamlet, and cry revenge!" Dr. Farmer's observation may be further confirmed by the following paffage in an anonymous play, called A Warning for faire Women, 1599. We alfo learn from it the ufual drefs of the stage ghofts of that time. 66 A filthie whining ghoft "Lapt in fome foule fheet, or a leather pilch, The leathern pilch, I fuppofe, was a theatrical substitute for armour. MALONE. These people, who were the Curls of the laft age, afcribe likewife to our author those miferable performances, Mucedorus, and the Merry Devil of Edmonton. Mr. Pope afferts "The troublefome Raigne of King John," in 2 parts, 1611, to have been written by Shakespeare and Rowley:-which edition is a mere copy of another in black letter, 1591. But I find his affertion is fomewhat to be doubted: for the old edition hath no name of author at all; and that of 1611, the initials only, W. Sh. in the title-page. the the gentlemen ftudents of both univerfities, prefixed to Greene's Arcadia, 4to. black letter, recommends his friend, Peele, "as the chiefe fupporter of pleafance now living, the Atlas of poetrie, and primus verborum artifex: whose first increase, the Arraignment of Paris, might plead to their opinions his pregnant dexteritie of wit and manifold varictie of inuention *." In the next place, unfortunately, there is neither fuch a character as a Constable in the Midfummer Night's Dream: nor was the three hundred pounds legacy to a fifter, but a daughter. And to close the whole, it is not poffible, according to Aubrey himself, that Shakespeare could have been fome years a fchoolmaster in the country: on which circumstance only the fuppofition of his learning is profeffedly founded. He was not furely very young, when he was employed to kill calves, and he commenced player about eighteen! - The Peele feems to have been taken into the patronage of the Earl of Northumberland about 1593, to whom he dedicates in that year, "The Honour of the Garter, a poem gratulatorie—the Firfiling confecrated to his noble name. "He was esteemed, fays Anthony Wood, a moft noted poet, 1579; but when or where he died, I cannot tell, for fo it is, and always hath been, that most POETS die poor, and confequently obfcurely, and a hard matter it is to trace them to their graves. Claruit 1599." Ath. Oxon. vol. I. p. 300. We had lately in a periodical pamphlet, called, The Theatrical Review, a very curious letter under the name of George Peele, to one Master Henrie Marle; relative to a difpute between Shakefpeare and Alleyn, which was compromifed by Ben Jonfon."I never longed for thy companye more than laft night; we were all verie merrie at the Globe, when Ned Alleyn did not fcruple to affyrme pleafauntly to thy friende Will, that he had ftolen hys fpecche about the excellencie of acting in Hamlet hys tragedye, from converfaytions manifold, whych had paffed between them, and opinions gyven by Alleyn touchyng that fubjecte. Shakespeare did not take this talk in good forte; but Jonfon did put an end to the ftryfe wyth wittelie faying, thys affaire needeth no contentione: you stole it from Ned no doubte: do not marvel: haue you not feene hym acte tymes out of number?" This is pretended to be printed from the original MS. dated 1600; which agrees well enough with Wood's Claruit: but unluckily, Peele was dead at least two years before. "As Anacreon died by the pot, fays Meres, fo George Peele by the pox." Wit's Treasury, 1598. p. z86. VOL. I. [0] truth truth is, that he left his father, for a wife, a year fooner and had at least two children born at Stratford before he retired from thence to London. It is therefore fufficiently clear, that poor Anthony had too much reafon for his character of Aubrey: we find it in his own account of his life, published by Hearne, which I would earnestly recommend to any hypochondriack: "A pretender to antiquities, roving, magotie-headed, and fometimes little better than crafed: and being exceedingly credulous, would ftuff his many letters fent to A. W. with folliries and mifinformations." p. 577- FARMER. The late Mr. Thomas Ofborne, book feller, (whofe exploits are celebrated by the author of the Dunciad) being ignorant in what form or language our Paradife Loft was written, employed one of his garreteers to render it from a French tranflation into English profe. Left, hereafter, the compofitions of Shakespeare fhould be brought back into their native tongue from the verfion of Monfieur le Comte. de Catuelan, le Tourneur, &c. it may be neceffary to obferve, that all the following particulars, extracted from the preface of thefe gentlemen, are as little founded in truth as their defcription of the Jubilee at Stratford, which they have been taught to represent as an affair of general approbation and national concern. They fay, that Shakespeare came to London without a plan, and finding himself at the door of a theatre, inftinctively ftopped there, and offered himfelf to be a holder of horfes:-that he was remarkable for his excellent performance of the Ghoft in Hamlet:-that he borrowed nothing from preceding writers:-that all on a fudden he left the ftage, and returned without eclat into his native county:that his monument at Stratford is of copper:-that the courtiers of James I. paid feveral compliments to him which are ftill preferved: - that he relieved a widow, who, together with her numerous family, was involved in a ruinous lawfuit:-that his editors have reftored many paffages in his plays, by the affiitance of the manufcripts he left behind him, &c. &c. Let me not however forget the juftice due to thefe ingenious Frenchmen, whofe fkill and fidelity in the execution of their very difficult undertaking, is only exceeded by such a difplay of candour as would ferve to cover the imperfections of much lefs elegant and judicious writers.. STEEVENS.. Baptifms, Marriages, and Burials of the Shakspeare family; tranfcribed from the Register-book of the Parish of Stratford upon Avon, Warwickfhire. + JONE, daughter of John Shakspere, was baptized Sept. Margaret, daughter of John Shakspere, was buried April 30, 1563. + WILLIAM, fon of John Shakspere, was baptized April 26, 1564. Gilbert, fon of John Shakfpere, was baptized Oct. 13, 1566. § Jone, daughter of John Shakfpere, was baptized April 15, 1569. Anne, daughter of Mr. John Shakspere, was baptized Sept. 28, 1571. Richard, fon of Mr. John Shakfpere, was baptized March II, 1573. Anne, daughter of Mr. John Shakfpere, was buried April 4, 1579. Edmund, fon of Mr. John Shakspere, was baptized May 3, 1580. Elizabeth, daughter of Anthony Shakspere, of Hampton, was baptized Feb. 10, 1583. Sufanna, daughter of WILLIAM SHAKSPERE, was baptized May 26, 1583. Samuel and Judith, fon and daughter of WILLIAM John Shakfpere and Margery Roberts were married Nov. 25, 1584. Margery, wife of John Shakspere, was buried Oct. 29, 1587. Urfula, daughter of John Shakfpere, was baptized March 11, 1588. Thomas Greene, alias Shakfpere, was buried March 6, 1589. Humphrey, fon of John Shakspere, was baptized May 24, 1590. * With this extract from the register of Stratford, I was favoured by the Hon. James Weft, efq. STEEVENS. +She married the ancestor of the Harts of Stratford. § This feems to be a grand-daughter of the first John. [02] Philip, |