The latter part of his life was spent, as all men of good fenfe will with theirs may be, in eafe, retirement, and the converfation of his friends. He "The matter of fact, if my memory fail me not, was this. Mr. Hales of Eton affirmed, that he would fhew all the poets of antiquity out-done by Shakspeare, in all the topicks and common-places made ufe of in poetry. The enemies of Shakspeare would by no means yield him fo much excellence; fo that it came to a refolution of a trial of skill upon that subject. The place agreed on for the difpute was Mr. Hales's chamber at Eton. A great many books were fent down by the enemies of this poet; and on the appointed day my lord Falkland, Sir John Suckling, and all the perfons of quality that had wit and learning, and interefted themselves in the quarrel, met there; and upon a thorough difquifition of the point, the judges chofen by agreement out of this learned and ingenious affembly, unanimoufly gave the preference to Shak fpeare, and the Greek and Roman poets were adjudged to vail at least their glory in that, to the English Hero." This elogium on our author is likewife recorded at an earlier period by Tate, probably from the fame authority, in the preface to the Loyal General, quarto, 1680: "Our learned Hales was wont to affert, that, fince the time of Orpheus, and the oldest poets, no common-place has been touched upon, where our author has not performed as well." Dryden himself alfo certainly alludes to this ftory, which he appears to have related both to Gildon and Rowe, in the following paffage of his Efay of Dramatick Poefy, 1667; and he as well as Gildon goes fomewhat further than Rowe in his panegyrick. After giving that fine character of our poet which Dr. Johnfon has quoted in his preface, he adds, "The confideration of this made Mr. Hales of Eton fay, that there was no fubject of which any poet ever writ, but he would produce it MUCH BETTER done by Shakspeare; and however others are now generally preferred before him, yet the age wherein he lived, which had contemporaries with him, Fletcher and Jonfon, never equalled them to him in their efteem: And in the laft king's court [that of Charles I.] when Ben's reputation was at higheft, Sir John Suckling, and with him the greater part of the courtiers fet our Shakspeare far above him.” Let ever-memorable Hales, if all his other merits be forgotten, be ever mentioned with honcur, for his good taste and admiration of. our poet. "He was," fays Lord Clarendon, "one of the leaft men in the kingdom; and one of the greateft fcholars in Europe." See a long character of him in Clarendon's Life, Vol. I. p. 52, MALONE. Jeran del NEW PLACE, To face p17. Vol1. A. Birrell fc. From a Drawing in the Margin of an Ancient SURVEY, made by Order of SIR GEORGE CAREW (afterwards BAKOŃ CAREW of Clopton, and EARL of TOTNESS) and found at Clopion near Stratford upon Avon, in 1786. had the good fortune to gather 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 pleafureable wit and good 4 3 He had the good fortune to gather an eftate equal to his occafion,] Gildon, without authority, I believe, fays, that our author left behind him an eftate of 300l. per ann. This was equal to at leaft 1000l. per ann. at this day; the relative value of money, the mode of living in that age, the luxury and taxes of the prefent time, and various other circumftances, being confidered. But I doubt whether all his property amounted to much more than 2001. per ann. which yet was a confiderable fortune in thofe times. He appears from his grand-daughter's will to have poffeffed in Bishopton, and Stratford Welcombe, four yard land and a half. A yard land is a denomination well known in Warwickshire, and contains from 30 to 60 acres. The average therefore being 45, four yard land and a half may be estimated at about two hundred acres. As fixteen years purchase was the common rate at which land was sold at that time, that is, one half less than at this day, we may fuppofe that thefe lands were let at feven fhillings per acre, and produced 7ol. per annum. If we rate the Nerv-Place with the appurtenances, and our poet's other houfes in Stratford, at 60l. a year, and his house. &c. in the Blackfriars, (for which he pay'd 1401.) at 20l. a year, we have a rent-roll of 150l. per annum. Of his perfonal property it is not now poffible to form any accurate estimate: but if we rate it at five hundred pounds, money then bearing an interest of ten per cent, Shakspeare's total income was 2col. per ann.* In The Merry Wives of Windfor, which was written foon after the year 1600, Three hundred pounds a year is described as an estate of fuch magnitude as to cover all the defects of its poffeffor: O, what a world of vile ill-favour'd faults MALONE. 4 to have spent fome years before his death at his native Stratford.] In 1614 the greater part of the town of Stratford was confumed by fire; but our Shakspeare's houfe, among fome others, efcaped the flames. This houfe was firft built by Sir Hugh Clopton, a younger brother of an ancient family in that neighbourhood. Sir Hugh was Sheriff of London in the reign of Kichard III. and To Shakspeare's income from his real and perfonal property must be added L. 200 per Ann. which he probably derived from the theatre, while he continu. ed on the stage. See Vol. II. p. 292. nature engaged him in the acquaintance, and entitled him to the friendfhip, of the gentlemen of the Lord-Mayor in the reign of King Henry VII. By his will he bequeathed to his elder brother's fon his manor of Clopton, &c. and his houfe, by the name of the Great House in Stratford. Good part of the eftate is yet [in 1733] in the poffeffion of Edward Clopton, efq. and Sir Hugh Clopton, Knt. lineally defcended from the elder brother of the firft Sir Hugh. The eftate had now been fold out of the Clopton family for above a century, at the time when Shakspeare became the purchaser: who having repaired and modelled it to his own mind, changed the name to New-Place, which the manfion-houfe fince erected upon the same spot, at this day retains. The house, and lands which attended it, continued in Shakspeare's defcendants to the time of the Reftoration; when they were re-purchased by the Clopton family, and the manfion now belongs to Sir Hugh Clopton, Knt. To the favour of this worthy gentleman I owe the knowledge of one particular in honour of our poet's once dwellinghoufe, of which I prefume Mr. Rowe never was apprized. When the Civil War raged in England, and King Charles the First's Queen was driven by the neceffity of her affairs to make a recefs in Warwickshire, she kept her court for three weeks in New-Place. We may reasonably fuppofe it then the beft private houfe in the town; and her Majefty preferred it to the College, which was in the poffeffion of the Combe family, who did not fo ftrongly favour the king's party. THEOBALD. From Mr. Theobald's words the reader may be led to fuppofe that Henrietta Maria was obliged to take refuge from the rebels in Stratford-upon-Avon: but that was not the cafe. She marched from Newark, June 16, 1643, and entered Stratford-upon-Avon triumphantly, about the 22d of the fame month, at the head of three thoufand foot and fifteen hundred horfe, with 150 waggons and a train of artillery. Here he was met by Prince Rupert, accompanied by a large body of troops. After fojourning about three weeks at our poet's houfe, which was then poffeffed by his granddaughter Mrs. Nath, and her husband, the Queen went (July 13) to the plain of Keinton under Edge-hill, to meet the king, and proceeded from thence with him to Oxford, where fays a contemporary hiftorian, "her coming (July 15) was rather to a triumph than a war." Of the college above-mentioned the following was the origin. John de Stratford, Bishop of Winchefter, in the fifth year of King Edward III. founded a Chantry confifting of five priefts, one of hom was Warden, in a certain chapel adjoining to the church of 7 |
