Untutor’d in the lore of Greece or Rome:
Yet let us take a passage at a venture from any of his performances, and a
thousand to one, it is stolen. Suppose it be his celebrated Compliment to
the _Ladies_, in one of his earliest pieces, _The Toy-shop_: “A good Wife
makes the cares of the World sit easy, and adds a sweetness to its
pleasures; she is a Man’s best Companion in Prosperity, and his only
Friend in Adversity; the carefullest preserver of his Health, and the
kindest Attendant in his Sickness; a faithful Adviser in Distress, a
Comforter in Affliction, and a prudent Manager in all his domestic
Affairs.”—_Plainly_, from a fragment of Euripides preserved by Stobæus.
Γυνὴ γὰρ ἐν κακοῖσι καὶ νόσοις πόσει
Ἥδιστόν ἐστι, δώματ᾽ ἤν οἰκῇ καλῶς,
Ὀργήν τε πραύνουσα, καὶ δυσθυμίας
Ψυχὴν μεθιστᾶσ᾽!—_Par._ 4to. 1623.
Malvolio in the _Twelfth-Night_ of Shakespeare hath some expressions very
similar to Alnaschar in the _Arabian Tales_: which perhaps may be
sufficient for _some_ Criticks to prove his acquaintance with Arabic!
It seems however, at last, that “_Taste_ should determine the matter.”
This, as Bardolph expresses it, is a _word of exceeding good command_: but
I am willing that the Standard itself be somewhat better ascertained
before it be opposed to demonstrative Evidence.—Upon the whole, I may
consider myself as the _Pioneer_ of the _Commentators_:
I have removed a deal of _learned Rubbish_, and pointed out to them
Shakespeare’s track in the ever-pleasing _Paths of Nature_. This was
necessarily a previous Inquiry; and I hope I may assume with some
confidence, what one of the first Criticks of the Age was pleased to
declare on reading the former Edition, that “The Question is _now_ for
ever decided.”
An Essay On The Learning Of Shakespeare: Addressed To Joseph Cradock, Esq.
“Shakespeare,” says a Brother of the _Craft_, “is a vast garden of
criticism”: and certainly no one can be favoured with more weeders
_gratis_.
But how often, my dear Sir, are weeds and flowers torn up
indiscriminately?—the ravaged spot is re-planted in a moment, and a
profusion of critical thorns thrown over it for security.
“A prudent man, therefore, would not venture his fingers amongst them.”
Be, however, in little pain for your friend, who regards himself
sufficiently to be cautious:—yet he asserts with confidence, that no
improvement can be expected, whilst the natural soil is mistaken for a
hot-bed, and the Natives of the banks of _Avon_ are scientifically choked
with the culture of exoticks.
Thus much for metaphor; it is contrary to the _Statute_ to fly out so
early: but who can tell, whether it may not be demonstrated by some
critick or other, that a deviation from rule is peculiarly happy in an
Essay on Shakespeare!
You have long known my opinion concerning the literary acquisitions of our
immortal Dramatist; and remember how I congratulated myself on my
coincidence with the last and best of his Editors. I told you, however,
that his _small Latin and less Greek_ would still be litigated, and you
see very assuredly that I was not mistaken. The trumpet hath been sounded
against “the darling project of representing Shakespeare as one of the
illiterate vulgar”; and indeed to so good purpose, that I would by all
means recommend the performer to the army of the _braying Faction_,
recorded by Cervantes. The testimony of his contemporaries is again
disputed; constant tradition is opposed by flimsy arguments; and nothing
is heard but confusion and nonsense. One could scarcely imagine this a
topick very likely to inflame the passions: it is asserted by Dryden, that
“those who accuse him to have wanted learning, give him the greatest
commendation”; yet an attack upon an article of faith hath been usually
received with more temper and complacence, than the unfortunate opinion
which I am about to defend.
But let us previously lament, with every lover of Shakespeare, that the
Question was not fully discussed by Mr. Johnson himself: what he sees
intuitively, others must arrive at by a series of proofs; and I have not
time to _teach_ with precision: be contented therefore with a few cursory
observations, as they may happen to arise from the Chaos of Papers you
have so often laughed at, “a stock sufficient to set up an _Editor in
form_.” I am convinced of the strength of my cause, and superior to any
little advantage from sophistical arrangements.
General positions without proofs will probably have no great weight on
either side, yet it may not seem fair to suppress them: take them
therefore as their authors occur to me, and we will afterward proceed to
particulars.
The testimony of Ben stands foremost; and some have held it sufficient to
decide the controversy: in the warmest Panegyrick that ever was written,
he apologizes for what _he_ supposed the only defect in his “beloved
friend,—
——Soul of the age!
Th’ applause! delight! the wonder of our stage!—
whose memory he honoured almost to idolatry”: and conscious of the worth
of ancient literature, like any other man on the same occasion, he rather
carries his acquirements _above_ than _below_ the truth. “Jealousy!” cries
Mr. Upton; “People will allow others any qualities, but those upon which
they highly value _themselves_.” Yes, where there _is_ a competition, and
the competitor formidable: but, I think, this Critick himself hath
scarcely set in opposition the learning of Shakespeare and Jonson. When a
superiority is universally granted, it by no means appears a man’s
literary interest to depress the reputation of his Antagonist.
In truth the received opinion of the pride and malignity of Jonson, at
least in the earlier part of life, is absolutely groundless: at this time
scarce a play or a poem appeared without Ben’s encomium, from the original
Shakespeare to the translator of Du Bartas.
But Jonson is by no means our only authority. Drayton, the countryman and
acquaintance of Shakespeare, determines his excellence to the _naturall
Braine_ only. Digges, a wit of the town before our Poet left the stage, is
very strong to the purpose,
——Nature only helpt him, for looke thorow
This whole book, thou shalt find he doth not borow
One phrase from Greekes, nor Latines imitate,
Nor once from vulgar languages translate.
Suckling opposes his _easier strain_ to the _sweat of learned Jonson_.
Denham assures us that all he had was from _old Mother-wit_. _His native
wood-notes wild_, every one remembers to be celebrated by Milton. Dryden
observes prettily enough, that “he wanted not the spectacles of books to
read Nature.” He came out of her hand, as some one else expresses it, like
Pallas out of Jove’s head, at full growth and mature.
The ever memorable Hales of Eton (who, notwithstanding his Epithet, is, I
fear, almost forgotten) had too great a knowledge both of Shakespeare and
the Ancients to allow much acquaintance between them: and urged very
justly on the part of Genius in opposition to Pedantry, That “if he had
not _read_ the Classicks, he had likewise not _stolen_ from them; and if
any Topick was produced from a Poet of antiquity, he would undertake to
shew somewhat on the same subject, at least as well written by
Shakespeare.”
Fuller, a diligent and equal searcher after truth and quibbles, declares
positively that “his learning was very little,—_Nature_ was all the _Art_
used upon him, as _he himself_, if alive, would confess.” And may we not
say he did confess it, when he apologized for his _untutored lines_ to his
noble patron the Earl of Southampton?—this list of witnesses might be
easily enlarged; but I flatter myself, I shall stand in no need of such
evidence.
One of the first and most vehement assertors of the learning of
Shakespeare was the Editor of his Poems, the well-known Mr. Gildon; and
his steps were most punctually taken by a subsequent labourer in the same
department, Dr. Sewel.
Mr. Pope supposed “little ground for the common opinion of his want of
learning”: once indeed he made a proper distinction between _learning_ and
_languages_, as I would be understood to do in my Title-page; but
unfortunately he forgot it in the course of his disquisition, and
endeavoured to persuade himself that Shakespeare’s acquaintance with the
Ancients might be actually proved by the same medium as Jonson’s.
Mr. Theobald is “very unwilling to allow him so poor a scholar as many
have laboured to represent him”; and yet is “cautious of declaring too
positively on the other side of the question.”
Dr. Warburton hath exposed the weakness of some arguments from _suspected_
imitations; and yet offers others, which, I doubt not, he could as easily
have refuted.
Mr. Upton wonders “with what kind of reasoning any one could be so far
imposed upon, as to imagine that Shakespeare had no learning”; and lashes
with much zeal and satisfaction “the pride and pertness of dunces, who,
under such a name, would gladly shelter their own idleness and ignorance.”
He, like the learned Knight, at every anomaly in grammar or metre,
Hath hard words ready to shew why,
And tell what _Rule_ he did it by.
How would the old Bard have been astonished to have found that he had very
skilfully given the _trochaic dimeter brachycatalectic_, COMMONLY called
the _ithyphallic_ measure, to the Witches in _Macbeth_! and that now and
then a halting Verse afforded a most beautiful instance of the _Pes
proceleusmaticus_!
“But,” continues Mr. Upton, “it was a learned age; Roger Ascham assures us
that Queen Elizabeth read more Greek every day, than some _Dignitaries_ of
the Church did Latin in a whole week.” This appears very probable; and a
pleasant proof it is of the general learning of the times, and of
Shakespeare in particular. I wonder he did not corroborate it with an
extract from her injunctions to her Clergy, that “such as were but _mean
Readers_ should peruse over before, once or twice, the Chapters and
Homilies, to the intent they might read to the better understanding of the
people.”
Dr. Grey declares that Shakespeare’s knowledge in the Greek and Latin
tongues cannot _reasonably_ be called in question. Dr. Dodd supposes it
_proved_, that he was not such a novice in learning and antiquity as _some
people_ would pretend. And to close the whole, for I suspect you to be
tired of quotation, Mr. Whalley, the ingenious Editor of Jonson, hath
written a piece expressly on this side the question: perhaps from a very
excusable partiality, he was willing to draw Shakespeare from the field of
Nature to classick ground, where alone, he knew, his Author could possibly
cope with him.
These criticks, and many others their coadjutors, have supposed themselves
able to trace Shakespeare in the writings of the Ancients; and have
sometimes persuaded us of their own learning, whatever became of their
Author’s. Plagiarisms have been discovered in every natural description
and every moral sentiment. Indeed by the kind assistance of the various
_Excerpta_, _Sententiæ_, and _Flores_, this business may be effected with
very little expense of time or sagacity; as Addison hath demonstrated in
his Comment on _Chevy-chase_, and Wagstaff on _Tom Thumb_; and I myself
will engage to give you quotations from the elder _English_ writers (for,
to own the truth, I was once idle enough to collect such) which shall
carry with them at least an equal degree of similarity. But there can be
no occasion of wasting any future time in this department: the world is
now in possession of the _Marks of Imitation_.
“Shakespeare, however, hath frequent allusions to the _facts_ and _fables_
of antiquity.” Granted:—and, as Mat. Prior says, to save the effusion of
more Christian ink, I will endeavour to shew how they came to his
acquaintance.
It is notorious that much of his _matter of fact_ knowledge is deduced
from Plutarch: but in what language he read him, hath yet been the
question. Mr. Upton is pretty confident of his skill in the Original, and
corrects accordingly the _Errors of his Copyists_ by the Greek standard.
Take a few instances, which will elucidate this matter sufficiently.
In the third act of _Anthony and Cleopatra_, Octavius represents to his
Courtiers the imperial pomp of those illustrious lovers, and the
arrangement of their dominion,
——Unto her
He gave the ’stablishment of Egypt, made her
Of lower Syria, Cyprus, _Lydia_,
Absolute Queen.
Read _Libya_, says the critick _authoritatively_, as is plain from
Plutarch, Πρώτην μὲν ἀπέφηνε Κλεοπάτραν βασίλισσαν Αἰγύπτου καὶ Κύπρου καὶ
ΛΙΒΥΗΣ, καὶ κοίλης Συρίας.
This is very true: Mr. Heath accedes to the correction, and Mr. Johnson
admits it into the Text: but turn to the translation, from the French of
Amyot, by Thomas North, in _Folio_, 1579; and you will at once see the
origin of the mistake.
“First of all he did establish Cleopatra Queene of Ægypt, of Cyprus, of
_Lydia_, and the lower Syria.”
Again in the Fourth Act,
——My messenger
He hath whipt with rods, dares me to personal combat,
Cæsar to Anthony. Let th’ old Ruffian know
I have many other ways to die; mean time
Laugh at his challenge.——
“What a reply is this?” cries Mr. Upton, “’tis acknowledging he should
fall under the unequal combat. But if we read,
——Let the old Ruffian know
_He_ hath many other ways to die; mean time
_I_ laugh at his challenge——
we have the poignancy and the very repartee of Cæsar in Plutarch.”
This correction was first made by Sir Thomas Hanmer, and Mr. Johnson hath
received it. Most indisputably it is the sense of Plutarch, and given so
in the modern translations: but Shakespeare was misled by the ambiguity of
the old one, “Antonius sent again to challenge Cæsar to fight him: Cæsar
answered, That _he_ had many other ways to die than so.”
In the Third Act of _Julius Cæsar_, Anthony in his well-known harangue to
the people, repeats a part of the Emperor’s will,
——To every Roman citizen he gives,
To every sev’ral man, seventy-five drachmas——
Moreover he hath left you all his walks,
His private arbours, and new-planted orchards,
On _this_ side Tyber.——
“Our Author certainly wrote,” says Mr. Theobald, “On _that_ side Tyber—
_Trans_ Tiberim—prope Cæsaris hortos.
And Plutarch, whom Shakespeare very diligently _studied_, expressly
declares that he left the publick his gardens and walks, πέραν τοῦ
Ποταμοῦ, _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
And state of bodies would bewray what life
We’ve led since thy Exile. Think with thyself,
How more unfortunate than all living women
Are we come hither; since thy sight, which should
Make our eyes flow with joy, hearts dance with comforts,
Constrains them weep, and shake with fear and sorrow;
Making the mother, wife, and child to see
The son, the husband, and the father tearing
His Country’s bowels out: and to poor we
Thy enmity’s most capital; thou barr’st us
Our prayers to the Gods, which is a comfort
That all but we enjoy. For how can we,
Alas! how can we, for our Country pray,
Whereto we’re bound, together with thy Victory,
Whereto we’re bound? Alack! or we must lose
The Country, our dear nurse; or else thy Person,
Our comfort in the Country. We must find
An eminent calamity, though we had
Our wish, which side shou’d win. For either thou
Must, as a foreign Recreant, be led
With manacles thorough our streets; or else
Triumphantly tread on thy Country’s ruin,
And bear the palm, for having bravely shed
Thy wife and children’s blood. For myself, son,
I purpose not to wait on Fortune, ’till
These wars determine: if I can’t persuade thee
Rather to shew a noble grace to both parts,
Than seek the end of one; thou shalt no sooner
March to assault thy Country, than to tread
(Trust to’t, thou shalt not) on thy mother’s womb,
That brought thee to this world.
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 its 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 “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,
L’arbre la boit par sa racine,
La mer salee boit le vent,
Et le Soleil boit la marine.
Le Soleil est beu de la Lune,
Tout boit soit en haut ou en bas:
Suivant ceste reigle commune,
Pourquoy donc ne boirons-nous pas?—Edit. Fol. p. 507.
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
Most dignifies the _Haver_;——
and another in _Macbeth_, where Banquo addresses the _Weïrd-Sisters_,
——My noble Partner
You greet with present grace, and great prediction
Of noble _Having_.——
Gr. Ἔχεια,—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: tho’
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 Βουλυτὸς 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;
“and how elegant is this!” quoth Mr. Upton, supposing the word to be used,
as a Grecian would have used it, “ὀρφανὸς ab ὀρφνὸς—acting in darkness and
obscurity.”
Mr. Heath assures us that the bare mention of such an interpretation is a
sufficient refutation of it: and his critical word will be rather taken in
Greek than in English: in the same hands therefore I will venture to leave
all our author’s knowledge of the _Old Comedy_, and his etymological
learning in the word, _Desdemona_.
Surely poor Mr. Upton was very little acquainted with _Fairies_,
notwithstanding his laborious study of Spenser. The last authentick
account of them is from our countryman William Lilly; and it by no means
agrees with the _learned_ interpretation: for the _angelical Creatures_
appeared in his _Hurst_ wood in a _most illustrious Glory_,—“and indeed,”
says the Sage, “it is not given to very many persons to endure their
_glorious aspects_.”
The only use of transcribing these things is to shew what absurdities men
for ever run into, when they lay down an Hypothesis, and afterward seek
for arguments in the support of it. What else could induce this man, by no
means a bad scholar, to doubt whether _Truepenny_ might not be derived
from Τρύπανον; and quote upon us with much parade an old Scholiast on
Aristophanes?—I will not stop to confute him: nor take any notice of two
or three more Expressions, in which he was pleased to suppose some learned
meaning or other; all which he might have found in every Writer of the
time, or still more easily in the vulgar Translation of the Bible, by
consulting the Concordance of Alexander Cruden.
But whence have we the Plot of _Timon_, except from the Greek of
Lucian?—The Editors and Criticks have been never at a greater loss than in
their inquiries of this sort; and the source of a Tale hath been often in
vain sought abroad, which might easily have been found at home: My good
friend, the very ingenious Editor of the _Reliques of ancient English
Poetry_, hath shewn our Author to have been sometimes contented with a
legendary _Ballad_.
The Story of the _Misanthrope_ is told in almost every Collection of the
time; and particularly in two books, with which Shakespeare was intimately
acquainted; the _Palace of Pleasure_, and the _English Plutarch_. Indeed
from a passage in an old Play, called _Jack Drum’s Entertainment_, I
conjecture that he had before made his appearance on the Stage.
Were this a proper place for such a disquisition, I could give you many
cases of this kind. We are sent for instance to Cinthio for the Plot of
_Measure for Measure_, and Shakespeare’s judgement hath been attacked for
some deviations from him in the conduct of it: when probably all he knew
of the matter was from Madam Isabella in the _Heptameron_ of Whetstone.
Ariosto is continually quoted for the Fable of _Much ado about Nothing_;
but I suspect our Poet to have been satisfied with the _Geneura_ of
Turberville. _As you like it_ was _certainly borrowed_, if we believe Dr.
Grey, and Mr. Upton, from the _Coke’s Tale of Gamelyn_; which by the way
was not _printed_ ’till a century afterward: when in truth the old Bard,
who was no hunter of MSS., contented himself solely with Lodge’s
_Rosalynd_ or Euphues’ _Golden Legacye_. 4to. 1590. The Story of _All’s
well that ends well_, or, as I suppose it to have been sometimes called,
_Love’s labour wonne_, is originally indeed the property of Boccace, but
it came immediately to Shakespeare from Painter’s _Giletta of Narbon_. Mr.
Langbaine could not conceive whence the Story of _Pericles_ could be
taken, “not meeting in History with any such _Prince of Tyre_”; yet his
legend may be found at large in old Gower, under the name of _Appolynus_.
_Pericles_ is one of the Plays omitted in the later Editions, as well as
the early Folios, and not improperly; tho’ it was published many years
before the death of Shakespeare, with his name in the Title-page. Aulus
Gellius informs us that some Plays are ascribed absolutely to Plautus,
which he only _re-touched_ and _polished_; and this is undoubtedly the
case with our Author likewise. The revival of this performance, which Ben
Jonson calls _stale_ and _mouldy_, was probably his earliest attempt in
the Drama. I know that another of these discarded pieces, the _Yorkshire
Tragedy_, had been frequently called so; but most certainly it was not
written by our Poet at all: nor indeed was it printed in his life-time.
The Fact on which it is built was perpetrated no sooner than 1604: much
too late for so mean a performance from the hand of Shakespeare.
Sometimes a very little matter detects a forgery. You may remember a Play
called the _Double Falshood_, which Mr. Theobald was desirous of palming
upon the world for a posthumous one of Shakespeare: and I see it is
classed as such in the last Edition of the Bodleian Catalogue. Mr. Pope
himself, after all the strictures of Scriblerus, in a Letter to Aaron
Hill, supposes it of that age; but a mistaken accent determines it to have
been written since the middle of the last century:
——This late example
Of base Henriquez, bleeding in me now,
From each good _Aspect_ takes away my trust.
And in another place,
You have an _Aspect_, Sir, of wondrous wisdom.
The word _Aspect_, you perceive, is here accented on the _first_ Syllable,
which, I am confident, in _any_ sense of it, was never the case in the
time of Shakespeare; though it may sometimes appear to be so, when we do
not observe a preceding _Elision_.
Some of the professed Imitators of our old Poets have not attended to this
and many other _Minutiæ_: I could point out to you several performances in
the respective Styles of Chaucer, Spenser, and Shakespeare, which the
_imitated_ Bard could not possibly have either read or construed.
This very accent hath troubled the Annotators on Milton. Dr. Bentley
observes it to be “a _tone_ different from the present use.” Mr.
Manwaring, in his _Treatise of Harmony and Numbers_, very solemnly informs
us that “this Verse is defective both in Accent and Quantity, B. 3. V.
266.
His words here ended, but his meek _Aspéct_
Silent yet spake.——
Here,” says he, “a syllable is _acuted_ and _long_, whereas it should be
_short_ and _graved_”!
And a still more extraordinary Gentleman, one Green, who published a
Specimen of a _new Version_ of the _Paradise Lost_, into BLANK verse, “by
which that amazing Work is brought somewhat nearer the Summit of
Perfection,” begins with correcting a blunder in the fourth book, V. 540:
——The setting Sun
Slowly descended, and with right _Aspéct_—
Levell’d his evening rays.——
_Not so_ in the _New Version_:
Meanwhile the setting Sun descending slow—
Level’d with _áspect_ right his ev’ning rays.
Enough of such Commentators.—The celebrated Dr. Dee had a _Spirit_, who
would sometimes condescend to correct him, when peccant in _Quantity_: and
it had been kind of him to have a little assisted the _Wights_
above-mentioned.—Milton affected the _Antique_; but it may seem more
extraordinary that the old Accent should be adopted in _Hudibras_.
After all, the _Double Falshood_ is superior to Theobald. One passage, and
one only in the whole Play, he pretended to have written:
——Strike up, my Masters;
But touch the Strings with a religious softness:
Teach sound to languish thro’ the Night’s dull Ear,
Till Melancholy start from her lazy Couch,
And Carelessness grow Convert to Attention.
These lines were particularly admired; and his vanity could not resist the
opportunity of claiming them: but his claim had been more easily allowed
to _any other_ part of the performance.
To whom then shall we ascribe it?—Somebody hath told us, who should seem
to be a _Nostrum-monger_ by his argument, that, let _Accents_ be how they
will, it is called _an original Play of William Shakespeare_ in the _Kings
Patent_, prefixed to Mr. Theobald’s Edition, 1728, and consequently there
_could_ be no fraud in the matter. Whilst, on the contrary, the _Irish_
Laureat, Mr. Victor, remarks (and were it true, it would be certainly
decisive) that the Plot is borrowed from a Novel of Cervantes, not
published ’till the year after Shakespeare’s death. But unluckily the same
Novel appears in a part of _Don Quixote_, which was printed in Spanish,
1605, and in English by Shelton, 1612.—The same reasoning, however, which
exculpated our Author from the _Yorkshire Tragedy_, may be applied on the
present occasion.
But you want _my_ opinion:—and from every mark of Style and Manner, I make
no doubt of ascribing it to Shirley. Mr. Langbaine informs us that he left
some Plays in MS.—These were written about the time of the _Restoration_,
when the _Accent_ in question was more generally altered.
Perhaps the mistake arose from an _abbreviation_ of the name. Mr. Dodsley
knew not that the Tragedy of _Andromana_ was Shirley’s, from the very same
cause. Thus a whole stream of Biographers tell us that Marston’s Plays
were printed at London, 1633, “by the care of _William Shakespeare_, the
famous Comedian.”—Here again I suppose, in some Transcript, the real
Publisher’s name, _William Sheares_, was _abbreviated_. No one hath
protracted the life of Shakespeare beyond 1616, except Mr. Hume; who is
pleased to add a year to it, in contradiction to all manner of evidence.
Shirley is spoken of with contempt in _Mac Flecknoe_; but his Imagination
is sometimes fine to an extraordinary degree. I recollect a passage in the
fourth book of the _Paradise Lost_, which hath been suspected of
_Imitation_, as a _prettiness_ below the Genius of Milton: I mean, where
_Uriel_ glides _backward and forward_ to Heaven on a _Sunbeam_. Dr. Newton
informs us that this might possibly be hinted by a Picture of Annibal
Caracci in the King of France’s Cabinet: but I am apt to believe that
Milton had been struck with a Portrait in Shirley. Fernando, in the Comedy
of the _Brothers_, 1652, describes Jacinta at _Vespers_:
Her eye did seem to labour with a tear,
Which suddenly took birth, but overweigh’d
With it’s own swelling, drop’d upon her bosome;
Which, by reflexion of her light, appear’d
As nature meant her sorrow for an ornament:
After, her looks grew chearfull, and I saw
A smile shoot gracefull upward from her eyes,
As if they had gain’d a victory o’er grief,
And with it many _beams_ twisted themselves,
Upon whose _golden threads_ the _Angels_ walk
_To and again from Heaven_.——
You must not think me infected with the spirit of Lauder, if I give you
another of Milton’s Imitations:
——The Swan _with arched neck_
Between her white wings mantling proudly, rows
Her state with oary feet.—B. 7. V. 438, &c.
“The ancient Poets,” says Mr. Richardson, “have not hit upon this beauty;
so lavish as they have been in their descriptions of the _Swan_. Homer
calls the Swan _long-necked_, δουλιχοδείρον; but how much more
_pittoresque_, if he had _arched_ this length of neck?”
For _this beauty_, however, Milton was beholden to Donne; whose name, I
believe, at present is better known than his writings:
——Like a Ship in her full trim,
A _Swan_, so white that you may unto him
Compare all whitenesse, but himselfe to none,
Glided along, and as he glided watch’d,
And with his _arched neck_ this poore fish catch’d.—_Progresse of
the Soul_, St. 24.
Those highly finished Landscapes, the _Seasons_, are indeed copied from
Nature: but Thomson sometimes recollected the hand of his Master:
——The stately-sailing Swan
Gives out his snowy plumage to the gale;
_And, arching proud his neck, with oary feet_
Bears forward fierce, and guards his osier Isle,
Protective of his young.——
But _to return_, as we say on other occasions—Perhaps the Advocates for
Shakespeare’s knowledge of the Latin language may be more successful. Mr.
Gildon takes the Van. “It is plain that He was acquainted with the Fables
of antiquity very well: that some of the Arrows of Cupid are pointed with
Lead, and others with Gold, he found in Ovid; and what he speaks of Dido,
in Virgil: nor do I know any translation of these Poets so ancient as
Shakespeare’s time.” The passages on which these sagacious remarks are
made occur in the _Midsummer Night’s Dream_; and exhibit, we see, a clear
proof of acquaintance with the Latin Classicks. But we are not answerable
for Mr. Gildon’s ignorance; he might have been told of Caxton and Douglas,
of Surrey and Stanyhurst, of Phaer and Twyne, of Fleming and Golding, of
Turberville and Churchyard! but these Fables were easily known without the
help of either the originals or the translations. The Fate of Dido had
been sung very early by Gower, Chaucer, and Lydgate; Marloe had even
already introduced her to the Stage: and Cupid’s arrows appear with their
characteristick differences in Surrey, in Sidney, in Spenser, and every
Sonnetteer of the time. Nay, their very names were exhibited long before
in the _Romaunt of the Rose_: a work you may venture to look into,
notwithstanding Master Prynne hath so positively assured us, on the word
of John Gerson, that the Author is most certainly damned, if he did not
care for a serious repentance.
Mr. Whalley argues in the same manner, and with the same success. He
thinks a passage in the _Tempest_,
—— High Queen of State,
Great Juno comes; I know her by her _Gait_,
a remarkable instance of Shakespeare’s knowledge of ancient Poetick story;
and that the hint was furnished by the _Divum incedo Regina_ of Virgil.
You know, honest John Taylor, the _Water-poet_, declares that _he never
learned his Accidence_, and that _Latin and French_ were to him
_Heathen-Greek_; yet, by the help of Mr. Whalley’s argument, I will prove
him a _learned_ Man, in spite of every thing he may say to the contrary:
for thus he makes a _Gallant_ address his _Lady_,
“Most inestimable Magazine of Beauty—in whom _the Port and Majesty of
Juno_, the Wisdom of Jove’s braine-bred Girle, and the Feature of
Cytherea, have their domestical habitation.”
In the _Merchant of Venice_, we have an oath “By _two-headed Janus_”; and
here, says Dr. Warburton, Shakespeare shews his knowledge in the Antique:
and so again does the _Water-poet_, who describes Fortune,
Like a _Janus_ with a _double-face_.
But Shakespeare hath somewhere a _Latin Motto_, quoth Dr. Sewel; and so
hath John Taylor, and a whole Poem upon it into the bargain.
You perceive, my dear Sir, how vague and indeterminate such arguments must
be: for in fact this _sweet Swan of Thames_, as Mr. Pope calls him, hath
more scraps of Latin, and allusions to antiquity, than are any where to be
met with in the writings of Shakespeare. I am sorry to trouble you with
trifles, yet what must be done, when grave men insist upon them?
It should seem to be the opinion of some modern criticks, that the
personages of classick land began only to be known in England in the time
of Shakespeare; or rather, that he particularly had the honour of
introducing them to the notice of his countrymen.
For instance,—_Rumour painted full of tongues_ gives us a Prologue to one
of the parts of _Henry the fourth_; and, says Dr. Dodd, Shakespeare had
doubtless a view to either Virgil or Ovid in their description of Fame.
But why so? Stephen Hawes, in his _Pastime of Pleasure_, had long before
exhibited her in the same manner,
A goodly Lady envyroned about
With _tongues_ of fyre;——
and so had Sir Thomas More in one of his _Pageants_,
_Fame_ I am called, mervayle you nothing
Though with _tonges_ I am compassed all rounde;
not to mention her elaborate Portrait by Chaucer, in the _Boke of Fame_;
and by John Higgins, one of the Assistants in the _Mirour for
Magistrates_, in his Legend of King Albanacte.
A very liberal Writer on the _Beauties of Poetry_, who hath been more
conversant in the ancient Literature of other Countries than his own,
“cannot but wonder that a Poet, whose classical Images are composed of the
finest parts, and breath the very spirit of ancient Mythology, should pass
for being illiterate:
See, what a grace was seated on his brow!
Hyperion’s curls: the front of Jove himself:
An eye like Mars to threaten and command:
A station like the herald Mercury,
New lighted on a heaven-kissing hill.—_Hamlet._”
_Illiterate_ is an ambiguous term: the question is, whether Poetick
History could be only known by an Adept in _Languages_. It is no
reflection on this ingenious Gentleman, when I say that I use on this
occasion the words of a _better_ Critick, who yet was not willing to carry
the _illiteracy_ of our Poet _too far_:—“They who are in such astonishment
at the _learning_ of Shakespeare, forget that the Pagan Imagery was
familiar to all the Poets of his time; and that abundance of this sort of
learning was to be picked up from almost every English book that he could
take into his hands.” For not to insist upon Stephen Bateman’s _Golden
booke of the leaden Goddes_, 1577, and several other laborious
compilations on the subject, all this and much more Mythology might as
perfectly have been learned from the _Testament of Creseide_, and the
_Fairy Queen_, as from a regular Pantheon, or Polymetis himself.
Mr. Upton, not contented with _Heathen_ learning, when he finds it in the
text, must necessarily superadd it, when it appears to be wanting; because
Shakespeare most certainly hath lost it by accident!
In _Much ado about Nothing_, Don Pedro says of the insensible Benedict,
“He hath twice or thrice cut Cupid’s bow-string, and the little _Hangman_
dare not shoot at him.”
This mythology is not recollected in the Ancients, and therefore the
critick hath no doubt but his Author wrote “_Henchman,—a Page, Pusio_: and
_this_ word seeming too hard for the Printer, he translated the little
Urchin into a _Hangman_, a character no way belonging to him.”
But this character was not borrowed from the Ancients;—it came from the
_Arcadia_ of Sir Philip Sidney:
Millions of yeares this old drivell Cupid lives;
While still more wretch, more wicked he doth prove:
Till now at length that Jove an office gives,
(At Juno’s suite who much did Argus love)
In this our world a _Hangman_ for to be
Of all those fooles that will have all they see.—B. 2. Ch. 14.
I know it may be objected on the authority of such Biographers as
Theophilus Cibber, and the Writer of the Life of Sir Philip, prefixed to
the modern Editions, that the _Arcadia_ was not published before 1613, and
consequently too late for this imitation: but I have a Copy in my own
possession, printed for W. Ponsonbie, 1590, 4to. which hath escaped the
notice of the industrious Ames, and the rest of our typographical
Antiquaries.
Thus likewise every word of antiquity is to be cut down to the classical
standard.
In a Note on the Prologue to _Troilus and Cressida_ (which, by the way, is
not met with in the _Quarto_), Mr. Theobald informs us that the very
_names_ of the gates of Troy have been barbarously demolished by the
Editors: and a deal of learned dust he makes in setting them right again;
much however to Mr. Heath’s satisfaction. Indeed the learning is modestly
withdrawn from the later Editions, and we are quietly instructed to read,
Dardan, and Thymbria, Ilia, Scæa, Troian,
And Antenorides.
But had he looked into the _Troy boke_ of Lydgate, instead of puzzling
himself with Dares Phrygius, he would have found the horrid demolition to
have been neither the work of Shakespeare nor his Editors.
Therto his cyte | compassed enuyrowne
Hadde gates VI to entre into the towne:
The firste of all | and strengest eke with all,
Largest also | and moste pryncypall,
Of myghty byldyng | alone pereless,
Was by the kynge called | Dardanydes;
And in storye | lyke as it is founde,
Tymbria | was named the seconde;
And the thyrde | called Helyas,
The fourthe gate | hyghte also Cetheas;
The fyfthe Trojana, | the syxth Anthonydes,
Stronge and myghty | both in werre and pes.—Lond. empr. by R.
Pynson, 1513. Fol. B. 2. Ch. 11.
Our excellent friend Mr. Hurd hath born a noble testimony on our side of
the question. “Shakespeare,” says this true Critick, “owed the felicity of
freedom from the bondage of classical superstition to the _want_ of what
is called the _advantage_ of a learned Education.—This, as well as a vast
superiority of Genius, hath contributed to lift this astonishing man to
the glory of being esteemed the most original _thinker_ and _speaker_,
since the times of Homer.” And hence indisputably the amazing Variety of
Style and Manner, unknown to all other Writers: an argument of _itself_
sufficient to emancipate Shakespeare from the supposition of a _Classical
training_. Yet, to be honest, _one_ Imitation is _fastened_ on our Poet:
which hath been insisted upon likewise by Mr. Upton and Mr. Whalley. You
remember it in the famous Speech of Claudio in _Measure for Measure_:
Ay, but to die and go we know not where! &c.
Most certainly the Ideas of a “Spirit bathing in fiery floods,” of
residing “in thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice,” or of being
“imprisoned in the viewless winds,” are not _original_ in our Author; but
I am not sure that they came from the _Platonick Hell_ of Virgil. The
Monks also had their hot and their cold Hell, “The fyrste is fyre that
ever brenneth, and never gyveth lighte,” says an old Homily:—“The seconde
is passyng colde, that yf a grete hylle of fyre were casten therin, it
sholde torne to yce.” One of their Legends, well remembered in the time of
Shakespeare, gives us a Dialogue between a Bishop and a Soul tormented in
a piece of ice, which was brought to cure _a grete brenning heate_ in his
foot: take care you do not interpret this the _Gout_, for I remember M.
Menage quotes a _Canon_ upon us,
Si quis dixerit Episcopum PODAGRA laborare, Anathema sit.
Another tells us of the Soul of a Monk fastened to a Rock, which the winds
were to blow about for a twelve-month, and purge of it’s Enormities.
Indeed this doctrine was before now introduced into poetick fiction, as
you may see in a Poem, “where the Lover declareth his pains to exceed far
the pains of Hell,” among the many miscellaneous ones subjoined to the
Works of Surrey. Nay, a very learned and inquisitive Brother-Antiquary,
our Greek Professor, hath observed to me on the authority of Blefkenius,
that this was the ancient opinion of the inhabitants of Iceland; who were
certainly very little read either in the _Poet_ or the _Philosopher_.
After all, Shakespeare’s curiosity might lead him to _Translations_. Gawin
Douglas really changes the _Platonick Hell_ into the “punytion of Saulis
in Purgatory”: and it is observable that when the Ghost informs Hamlet of
his Doom there,
Till the foul crimes done in his days of nature
Are _burnt and purg’d away_,——
the Expression is very similar to the Bishop’s: I will give you his
Version as concisely as I can; “It is a nedeful thyng to suffer panis and
torment—Sum in the wyndis, Sum under the watter, and in the fire uthir
Sum:—thus the mony Vices—
Contrakkit in the corpis be _done away_
_And purgit_.——_Sixte Booke of Eneados._ Fol. p. 191.
It seems, however, “that Shakespeare _himself_ in the _Tempest_ hath
translated some expressions of _Virgil_: witness the _O Dea certe_.” I
presume we are here directed to the passage where Ferdinand says of
Miranda, after hearing the Songs of Ariel,
——Most sure, the Goddess
On whom these airs attend;
and so _very small Latin_ is sufficient for this formidable translation,
that if it be thought any honour to our Poet, I am loth to deprive him of
it; but his honour is not built on such a sandy foundation. Let us turn to
a _real Translator_, and examine whether the Idea might not be fully
comprehended by an English reader; _supposing_ it necessarily borrowed
from Virgil. Hexameters in our own language are almost forgotten; we will
quote therefore this time from Stanyhurst:
O to thee, fayre Virgin, what terme may rightly be fitted?
Thy tongue, thy visage no mortal frayltie resembleth.
——_No doubt, a Godesse_!—Edit. 1583.
Gabriel Harvey desired only to be “_Epitaph’d_, the Inventor of the
_English Hexameter_,” and for a while every one would be _halting on Roman
feet_; but the ridicule of our Fellow-Collegian Hall, in one of his
_Satires_, and the reasoning of Daniel, in his _Defence of Rhyme_ against
Campion, presently reduced us to our original Gothic.
But to come nearer the purpose, what will you say if I can shew you that
Shakespeare, when, in the favourite phrase, he had a Latin Poet _in his
Eye_, most assuredly made use of a Translation?
Prospero in the _Tempest_ begins the Address to his attendant _Spirits_,
Ye Elves of Hills, of standing Lakes, and Groves.
This speech Dr. Warburton rightly observes to be borrowed from Medea in
Ovid: and “it proves,” says Mr. Holt, “beyond contradiction, that
Shakespeare was perfectly acquainted with the Sentiments of the Ancients
on the Subject of Inchantments.” The original lines are these,
Auræque, & venti, montesque, amnesque, lacusque,
Diique omnes nemorum, diique omnes noctis adeste.
It happens, however, that the translation by Arthur Golding is by no means
literal, and Shakespeare hath closely followed it;
Ye Ayres and Winds; _Ye Elves of Hills_, of Brookes, of Woods
alone,
_Of standing Lakes_, and of the Night, approche ye everych one.
I think it is unnecessary to pursue this any further; especially as more
powerful arguments await us.
In the _Merchant of Venice_, the Jew, as an apology for his cruelty to
Anthonio, rehearses many _Sympathies_ and _Antipathies_ for which _no
reason can be rendered_,
Some love not a gaping Pig——
And others when a _Bagpipe_ sings i’ th’ nose
Cannot contain their urine for _affection_.
This incident Dr. Warburton supposes to be taken from a passage in
Scaliger’s _Exercitations against Cardan_, “Narrabo tibi jocosam
Sympathiam Reguli Vasconis Equitis: Is dum viveret, audito _Phormingis_
sono, urinam illico facere cogebatur.” “And,” proceeds the Doctor, “to
make this jocular story still more ridiculous, Shakespeare, I suppose,
translated _Phorminx_ by _Bagpipes_.”
Here we seem fairly caught;—for Scaliger’s work was never, as the term
goes, _done into English_. But luckily in an old translation from the
French of Peter le Loier, entitled, _A treatise of Specters, or straunge
Sights, Visions and Apparitions appearing sensibly unto men_, we have this
identical Story from Scaliger: and what is still more, a marginal Note
gives us in all probability the very fact alluded to, as well as the word
of Shakespeare, “Another Gentleman of this quality liued of late in Deuon
neere Excester, who could not endure the playing on a _Bagpipe_.”
We may just add, as some observation hath been made upon it, that
_Affection_ in the sense of _Sympathy_ was formerly _technical_; and so
used by Lord Bacon, Sir Kenelm Digby, and many other Writers.
A single word in Queen Catherine’s Character of Wolsey, in _Henry the
eighth_, is brought by the Doctor as another argument for the learning of
Shakespeare:
——He was a man
Of an unbounded Stomach, ever ranking
Himself with Princes; one that by _Suggestion_
Ty’d all the kingdom. Simony was fair play.
His own opinion was his law, i’ th’ presence
He would say untruths, and be ever double
Both in his words and meaning. He was never,
But where he meant to ruin, pitiful.
His promises were, as he then was, mighty;
But his performance, as he now is, nothing.
Of his own body he was ill, and gave
The Clergy ill example.
“The word _Suggestion_,” says the Critick, “is here used with great
propriety, and _seeming_ knowledge of the Latin tongue”: and he proceeds
to settle the sense of it from _the late Roman writers and their
glossers_. But Shakespeare’s knowledge was from Holingshed, whom he
follows _verbatim_:
“This Cardinal was of a great stomach, for he compted himself equal with
princes, and by craftie _Suggestion_ got into his hands innumerable
treasure: he forced little on simonie, and was not pitifull, and stood
affectionate in his own opinion: in open presence he would lie and saie
untruth, and was double both in speech and meaning: he would promise much
and performe little: he was vicious of his bodie, and gaue the clergie
euil example.” Edit. 1587. p. 922.
Perhaps after this quotation you may not think that Sir Thomas Hanmer, who
reads _Tyth’d_ instead of _Ty’d all the kingdom_, deserves quite so much
of Dr. Warburton’s severity.—Indisputably the passage, like every other in
the Speech, is intended to express the meaning of the parallel one in the
Chronicle: it cannot therefore be credited that any man, when the
_Original_ was produced, should still chuse to defend a _cant_
acceptation; and inform us, perhaps, _seriously_, that in _gaming_
language, from I know not what practice, to _tye_ is to _equal_! A sense
of the word, as far as I have yet found, _unknown_ to our old Writers;
and, if _known_, would not surely have been used in _this_ place by our
Author.
But let us turn from conjecture to Shakespeare’s authorities. Hall, from
whom the above description is copied by Holingshed, is very explicit in
the demands of the Cardinal: who, having insolently told the Lord Mayor
and Aldermen, “For sothe I thinke that _halfe_ your substaunce were to
litle,” assures them by way of comfort at the end of his harangue, that
_upon an average_ the _tythe_ should be sufficient; “Sers, speake not to
breake that thyng that is concluded, for _some_ shal not paie the _tenth_
parte, and _some_ more.”—And again; “Thei saied, the Cardinall by
Visitacions, makyng of Abbottes, probates of testamentes, graunting of
faculties, licences, and other pollyngs in his Courtes legantines, had
made his _threasore egall with the kynges_.” Edit. 1548. p. 138. and 143.
Skelton, in his _Why come ye not to Court_, gives us, after his rambling
manner, a curious character of Wolsey:
——By and by
He will drynke us so dry
And sucke us so nye
That men shall scantly
Haue penny or halpennye
God saue hys noble grace
And graunt him a place
Endlesse to dwel
With the deuill of hel
For and he were there
We nead neuer feare
Of the feendes blacke
For I undertake
He wold so brag and crake
That he wold than make
The deuils to quake
To shudder and to shake
Lyke a fier drake
And with a cole rake
Bruse them on a brake
And binde them to a stake
And set hel on fyre
At his own desire
He is such a grym syre!—Edit. 1568.
Mr. Upton and some other Criticks have thought it very _scholar-like_ in
Hamlet to swear the Centinels on a _Sword_: but this is for ever met with.
For instance, in the _Passus primus_ of _Pierce Plowman_,
Dauid in his daies dubbed knightes,
And did hem _swere on her sword_ to serue truth euer.
And in _Hieronymo_, the common Butt of our Author, and the Wits of the
time, says Lorenzo to Pedringano,
Swear on this cross, that what thou sayst is true—
But if I prove thee perjured and unjust,
This very _sword_, whereon thou took’st thine oath,
Shall be the worker of thy Tragedy!
We have therefore no occasion to go with Mr. Garrick as far as the French
of Brantôme to illustrate this ceremony: a _Gentleman_ who will be always
allowed the _first Commentator_ on Shakespeare, when he does not carry us
beyond _himself_.
Mr. Upton, however, in the next place, produces a passage from _Henry the
sixth_, whence he argues it to be very plain that our Author had not only
_read_ Cicero’s _Offices_, but even more _critically_ than many of the
Editors:
——This Villain here,
Being Captain of a _Pinnace_, threatens more
Than Bargulus, the strong Illyrian Pirate.
So the _Wight_, he observes with great exultation, is named by Cicero in
the Editions of Shakespeare’s time, “Bargulus Illyrius latro”; tho’ the
modern Editors have chosen to call him Bardylis:—“and _thus_ I found it in
_two_ MSS.”—And _thus_ he might have found it in _two_ Translations,
before Shakespeare was born. Robert Whytinton, 1533, calls him, “Bargulus
a Pirate upon the see of Illiry”; and Nicholas Grimald, about twenty years
afterward, “Bargulus the Illyrian Robber.”
But it had been easy to have checked Mr. Upton’s exultation, by observing
that Bargulus does not appear in the _Quarto_.—Which also is the case with
some fragments of Latin verses, in the different _Parts_ of this
_doubtful_ performance.
It is scarcely worth mentioning that two or three more Latin passages,
which are met with in our Author, are immediately transcribed from the
Story or Chronicle before him. Thus in _Henry the fifth_, whose right to
the kingdom of France is copiously demonstrated by the Archbishop:
——There is no bar
To make against your Highness’ claim to France,
But this which they produce from Pharamond:
In terram Salicam mulieres ne succedant;
No Woman shall succeed in Salike land:
Which Salike land the French unjustly gloze
To be the realm of France, and Pharamond
The founder of this law and female bar.
Yet their own authors faithfully affirm
That the land Salike lies in Germany,
Between the floods of Sala and of Elve, &c.
Archbishop Chichelie, says Holingshed, “did much inueie against the
surmised and false fained law Salike, which the Frenchmen alledge euer
against the kings of England in barre of their just title to the crowne of
France. The very words of that supposed law are these, In terram Salicam
mulieres ne succedant, that is to saie, Into the Salike land let not women
succeed; which the French glossers expound to be the realm of France, and
that this law was made by King Pharamond: whereas yet their owne authors
affirme that the land Salike is in Germanie, between the rivers of Elbe
and Sala,” &c. p. 545.
It hath lately been repeated from Mr. Guthrie’s _Essay upon English
Tragedy_, that the _Portrait_ of Macbeth’s _Wife_ is copied from Buchanan,
“whose spirit, as well as words, is translated into the Play of
Shakespeare: and it had signified nothing to have pored only on Holingshed
for _Facts_.”—“Animus etiam, per se ferox, prope quotidianis conviciis
uxoris (quæ omnium consiliorum ei erat conscia) stimulabatur.”—This is the
whole that Buchanan says of the _Lady_; and truly I see no more _spirit_
in the Scotch than in the English Chronicler. “The wordes of the three
weird Sisters also greatly encouraged him [to the Murder of Duncan], but
specially his wife lay sore upon him to attempt the thing, as she that was
very ambitious, brenning in unquenchable desire to beare the name of a
Queene.” Edit. 1577. p. 244.
This part of Holingshed is an Abridgment of Johne Bellenden’s translation
of the _noble clerk_, Hector Boece, imprinted at Edinburgh, in Fol. 1541.
I will give the passage as it is found there. “His wyfe impacient of lang
tary (_as all wemen are_) specially quhare they ar desirus of ony purpos,
gaif hym gret artation to pursew the thrid weird, that sche micht be ane
quene, calland hym oft tymis febyl cowart and nocht desyrus of honouris,
sen he durst not assailze the thing with manheid and curage, quhilk is
offerit to hym be beniuolence of fortoun. Howbeit sindry otheris hes
assailzeit sic thinges afore with maist terribyl jeopardyis, quhen they
had not sic sickernes to succeid in the end of thair laubouris as he had.”
p. 173.
But we can _demonstrate_ that Shakespeare had not the Story from Buchanan.
According to _him_, the Weïrd-Sisters salute Macbeth, “Una Angusiæ Thamum,
altera Moraviæ, tertia _Regem_.”—Thane of Angus, and of Murray, &c., but
according to Holingshed, immediately from Bellenden, as it stands in
Shakespeare: “The first of them spake and sayde, All hayle Makbeth, Thane
of Glammis,—the second of them said, Hayle Makbeth, Thane of Cawder; but
the third sayde, All hayle Makbeth, that hereafter shall be _king of
Scotland_.” p. 243.
_1 Witch_. All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!
_2 Witch_. All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!
_3 Witch_. All hail, Macbeth! that shalt be King hereafter!
Here too our Poet found the equivocal Predictions, on which his Hero so
fatally depended. “He had learned of certain wysards, how that he ought to
take heede of Macduffe;—and surely hereupon had he put Macduffe to death,
but a certaine witch, whom he had in great trust, had tolde that he should
neuer be slain with _man borne of any woman_, nor vanquished till the Wood
of Bernane came to the Castell of Dunsinane.” p. 244. And the Scene
between Malcolm and Macduff in the fourth act is almost literally taken
from the Chronicle.
Macbeth was certainly one of Shakespeare’s latest Productions, and it
might possibly have been suggested to him by a little performance on the
same subject at Oxford, before King James, 1605. I will transcribe my
notice of it from Wake’s _Rex Platonicus_: “Fabulæ ansam dedit antiqua de
Regia prosapia historiola apud Scoto-Britannos celebrata, quæ narrat tres
olim Sibyllas occurrisse duobus Scotiæ proceribus, Macbetho & Banchoni, &
illum prædixisse Regem futurum, sed Regem nullum geniturum; hunc Regem non
futurum, sed Reges geniturum multos. Vaticinii veritatem rerum eventus
comprobavit. Banchonis enim e stirpe Potentissimus Jacobus oriundus.” p.
29.
A stronger argument hath been brought from the Plot of _Hamlet_. Dr. Grey
and Mr. Whalley assure us that for _this_ Shakespeare _must_ have read
_Saxo Grammaticus_ in Latin, for no translation hath been made into any
modern Language. But the truth is, he did not take it from _Saxo_ at all;
a Novel called the _Hystorie of Hamblet_ was his original: a fragment of
which, in _black Letter_, I have been favoured with by a very curious and
intelligent Gentleman, to whom the lovers of Shakespeare will some time or
other owe great obligations.
It hath indeed been said that, “IF _such an history exists_, it is almost
impossible that any poet unacquainted with the Latin language (supposing
his perceptive faculties to have been ever so acute) could have caught the
characteristical madness of Hamlet, described by _Saxo Grammaticus_, so
happily as it is delineated by Shakespeare.”
Very luckily, our Fragment gives us a part of Hamlet’s Speech to his
_Mother_, which sufficiently replies to this observation:—“It was not
without cause, and juste occasion, that my gestures, countenances, and
words seeme to proceed from a madman, and that I desire to haue all men
esteeme mee wholy depriued of sence and, reasonable understanding, bycause
I am well assured that he that hath made no conscience to kill his owne
brother (accustomed to murthers, and allured with desire of gouernement
without controll in his treasons) will not spare to saue himselfe with the
like crueltie, in the blood and flesh of the loyns of his brother, by him
massacred: and therefore it is better for me to fayne madnesse then to use
my right sences as nature hath bestowed them upon me. The bright shining
clearnes therof I am forced to hide vnder this shadow of dissimulation, as
the sun doth hir beams vnder some great cloud, when the wether in summer
time ouercasteth: the face of a mad man serueth to couer my gallant
countenance, and the gestures of a fool are fit for me, to the end that,
guiding my self wisely therin, I may preserue my life for the Danes and
the memory of my late deceased father, for that the desire of reuenging
his death is so ingrauen in my heart, that if I dye not shortly, I hope to
take such and so great vengeance, that these Countryes shall for euer
speake thereof. Neuerthelesse I must stay the time, meanes, and occasion,
lest by making ouer great hast I be now the cause of mine owne sodaine
ruine and ouerthrow, and by that meanes end, before I beginne to effect my
hearts desire: hee that hath to doe with a wicked, disloyall, cruell, and
discourteous man, must vse craft, and politike inuentions, such as a fine
witte can best imagine, not to discouer his interprise: for seeing that by
force I cannot effect my desire, reason alloweth me by dissimulation,
subtiltie, and secret practises to proceed therein.”
But to put the matter out of all question, my communicative Friend
above-mentioned, Mr. Capell (for why should I not give myself the credit
of his name?), hath been fortunate enough to procure from the Collection
of the Duke of Newcastle a _complete_ Copy of the _Hystorie of Hamblet_,
which proves to be a translation from the French of Belleforest; and he
tells me that “all the chief incidents of the Play, and all the capital
Characters, are there in _embryo_, after a rude and barbarous manner:
sentiments indeed there are none that Shakespeare could borrow; nor any
expression but _one_, which is, where Hamlet kills Polonius behind the
arras: in doing which he is made to cry out, as in the Play, ‘_a rat, a
rat!_’ ”—So much for _Saxo Grammaticus_!
It is scarcely conceivable how industriously the puritanical Zeal of the
last age exerted itself in destroying, amongst better things, the innocent
amusements of the former. Numberless _Tales_ and _Poems_ are alluded to in
old Books, which are now perhaps no where to be found. Mr. Capell informs
me (and he is in these matters the most able of all men to give
information) that our Author appears to have been beholden to some Novels
which he hath yet only seen in French or Italian: but he adds, “to say
they are not in some English dress, prosaic or metrical, and perhaps with
circumstances nearer to his stories, is what I will not take upon me to
do: nor indeed is it what I believe; but rather the contrary, and that
time and accident will bring some of them to light, if not all.”——
W. Painter, at the conclusion of the second _Tome_ of his _Palace of
Pleasure_, 1567, _advertises_ the Reader, “bicause sodaynly (contrary to
expectation) this Volume is risen to greater heape of leaues, I doe omit
for this present time _sundry Nouels_ of mery deuise, reseruing the same
to be joyned with the rest of an other part, wherein shall succeede the
remnant of Bandello, specially sutch (suffrable) as the learned French man
François de Belleforrest hath selected, and the choysest done in the
Italian. Some also out of Erizzo, Ser Giouanni Florentino, Parabosco,
Cynthio, Straparole, Sansouino, and the best liked out of the Queene of
Nauarre, and other Authors. Take these in good part, with those that haue
and shall come forth.”—But I am not able to find that a _third Tome_ was
ever published: and it is very probable that the Interest of his
Booksellers, and more especially the prevailing Mode of the time, might
lead him afterward to print his _sundry Novels_ separately. If this were
the case, it is no wonder that such _fugitive Pieces_ are recovered with
difficulty; when the _two Tomes_, which Tom. Rawlinson would have called
_justa Volumina_, are almost annihilated. Mr. Ames, who searched after
books of this sort with the utmost avidity, most certainly had not seen
them when he published his _Typographical Antiquities_; as appears from
his blunders about them: and possibly I myself might have remained in the
same predicament, had I not been favoured with a Copy by my generous
Friend, Mr. Lort.
Mr. Colman, in the Preface to his elegant Translation of Terence, hath
offered some arguments for the Learning of Shakespeare, which have been
retailed with much confidence, since the appearance of Mr. Johnson’s
Edition.
“Besides the resemblance of particular passages scattered up and down in
different plays, it is well known that the _Comedy of Errors_ is in great
measure founded on the _Menæchmi_ of Plautus; but I do not recollect ever
to have seen it observed that the disguise of the _Pedant_ in the _Taming
of the Shrew_, and his assuming the name and character of _Vincentio_,
seem to be evidently taken from the disguise of the _Sycophanta_ in the
_Trinummus_ of the said Author; and there is a quotation from the _Eunuch_
of Terence also, so familiarly introduced into the Dialogue of the _Taming
of the Shrew_, that I think it puts the question of Shakespeare’s having
read the Roman Comick Poets in the _original_ language out of all doubt,
Redime te captum, quam queas, minimo.”
With respect to _resemblances_, I shall not trouble you any further.—That
the _Comedy of Errors_ is founded on the _Menæchmi_, it is notorious: nor
is it less so, that a Translation of it by W. W., perhaps William Warner,
the Author of _Albion’s England_, was extant in the time of Shakespeare;
tho’ Mr. Upton, and some other advocates for his learning, have cautiously
dropt the mention of it. Besides this (if indeed it were different), in
the _Gesta Grayorum_, the Christmas Revels of the Gray’s-Inn Gentlemen,
1594, “a _Comedy of Errors_ like to Plautus his _Menechmus_ was played by
the Players.” And the same hath been suspected to be the Subject of the
_goodlie Comedie of Plautus_ acted at Greenwich before the King and Queen
in 1520; as we learn from Hall and Holingshed:—Riccoboni highly
compliments the English on opening their stage so well; but unfortunately
Cavendish, in his _Life of Wolsey_, calls it an _excellent Interlude in
Latine_. About the same time it was exhibited in German at Nuremburgh, by
the celebrated _Hanssach_, the _Shoemaker_.
“But a character in the _Taming of the Shrew_ is borrowed from the
_Trinummus_, and no translation of _that_ was extant.”
Mr. Colman indeed hath been better employ’d: but if he had met with an old
Comedy, called _Supposes_, translated from Ariosto by George Gascoigne, he
certainly would not have appealed to Plautus. Thence Shakespeare borrowed
this part of the Plot (as well as some of the phraseology), though
Theobald pronounces it his own invention: there likewise he found the
quaint name of _Petruchio_. My young Master and his Man exchange habits
and characters, and persuade a Scenæse, as he is called, to personate the
Father, exactly as in the _Taming of the Shrew_, by the pretended danger
of his coming from Sienna to Ferrara, contrary to the order of the
government.
Still, Shakespeare quotes a line from the _Eunuch_ of Terence: by memory
too, and, what is more, “purposely alters it, in order to bring the sense
within the compass of one line.”—This remark was previous to Mr.
Johnson’s; or indisputably it would not have been made at all.—“Our
Authour had this line from Lilly; which I mention that it may not be
brought as an argument of his learning.”
But how, cries an unprovoked Antagonist, can you take upon you to say that
he had it from Lilly, and not from Terence? I will answer for Mr. Johnson,
who is above answering for himself.—Because it is quoted as it appears in
the _Grammarian_, and not as it appears in the _Poet_.—And thus we have
done with the _purposed_ alteration. Udall likewise in his _Floures for
Latine speakyng, gathered oute of Terence_, 1560, reduces the passage to a
single line, and subjoins a Translation.
We have hitherto supposed Shakespeare the Author of the _Taming of the
Shrew_, but his property in it is extremely disputable. I will give you my
opinion, and the reasons on which it is founded. I suppose then the
present Play not _originally_ the work of Shakespeare, but restored by him
to the Stage, with the whole Induction of the Tinker, and some other
occasional improvements; especially in the Character of Petruchio. It is
very obvious that the _Induction_ and the _Play_ were either the works of
different hands, or written at a great interval of time: the former is in
our Author’s _best_ manner, and the greater part of the _latter_ in his
_worst_, or even below it. Dr. Warburton declares it to be _certainly_
spurious: and without doubt, _supposing_ it to have been written by
Shakespeare, it must have been one of his _earliest_ productions; yet it
is not mentioned in the List of his Works by Meres in 1598.
I have met with a facetious piece of Sir John Harrington, printed in 1596
(and possibly there may be an earlier Edition), called, _The Metamorphosis
of Ajax_, where I suspect an allusion to the old Play: “Read the _booke_
of _Taming a Shrew_, which hath made a number of us so perfect, that _now_
every one can rule a Shrew in our Countrey, save he that hath hir.”—I am
aware, a _modern_ Linguist may object that the word _Book_ does not at
present seem _dramatick_, but it was once almost _technically_ so: Gosson
in his _Schoole of Abuse, contayning a pleasaunt inuective against Poets,
Pipers, Players, Jesters, and such like Caterpillars of a Common-wealth_,
1579, mentions “twoo prose _Bookes_ plaied at the Belsauage”; and Hearne
tells us, in a Note at the end of _William of Worcester_, that he had seen
“a MS. in the nature of a _Play_ or _Interlude_, intitled, the _Booke_ of
Sir _Thomas Moore_.”
And in fact there is such an old _anonymous_ Play in Mr. Pope’s List: “A
pleasant conceited History, called, _The Taming of a Shrew_—sundry times
acted by the Earl of Pembroke his Servants.” Which seems to have been
republished by the Remains of that Company in 1607, when Shakespeare’s
copy appeared at the Black-Friars or the Globe.—Nor let this seem
derogatory from the character of our Poet. There is no reason to believe
that he wanted to claim the Play as his own; it was not even printed ’till
some years after his death: but he merely revived it on his Stage as a
_Manager_.—Ravenscroft assures us that this was really the case with
_Titus Andronicus_; which, it may be observed, hath not Shakespeare’s name
on the Title-page of the only Edition published in his life-time. Indeed,
from every internal mark, I have not the least doubt but this _horrible_
Piece was originally written by the Author of the _Lines_ thrown into the
mouth of the _Player_ in _Hamlet_, and of the Tragedy of _Locrine_: which
likewise, from some assistance perhaps given to his Friend, hath been
unjustly and ignorantly charged upon Shakespeare.
But the _sheet-anchor_ holds fast: Shakespeare himself hath left some
Translations from Ovid. The Epistles, says One, of Paris and Helen give a
sufficient proof of his acquaintance with _that_ poet; and it may be
concluded, says Another, that he was a competent judge of _other_ Authors
who wrote in the same language.
This hath been the universal cry, from Mr. Pope himself to the Criticks of
yesterday. Possibly, however, the Gentlemen will hesitate a moment, if we
tell them that Shakespeare was _not_ the Author of these Translations. Let
them turn to a forgotten book, by Thomas Heywood, called _Britaines Troy_,
printed by W. Jaggard in 1609, Fol. and they will find these identical
Epistles, “which being so pertinent to our Historie,” says Heywood, “_I_
thought necessarie to translate.”—How then came they ascribed to
Shakespeare? We will tell them that likewise. The same voluminous Writer
published an _Apology for Actors_, 4to. 1612, and in an Appendix directed
to his new Printer, Nic. Okes, he accuses his old One, Jaggard, of “taking
the two Epistles of _Paris to Helen_ and _Helen to Paris_, and printing
them in a less volume and under the name of _Another_:—but _he_ was much
offended with Master Jaggard, that, altogether unknowne to him, he had
presumed to make so bold with his Name.” In the same work of Heywood are
all the other Translations which have been printed in the modern Editions
of the Poems of Shakespeare.
You now hope for land: We have seen through little matters, but what must
be done with a whole book?—In 1751 was reprinted “A compendious or briefe
examination of certayne ordinary complaints of diuers of our Countrymen in
these our days: which although they are in some parte unjust and
friuolous, yet are they all by way of Dialogue throughly debated and
discussed by William Shakespeare, Gentleman.” 8vo.
This extraordinary piece was originally published in 4to. 1581, and
dedicated by the Author, “To the most vertuous and learned Lady, his most
deare and soveraigne Princesse, Elizabeth; being inforced by her Majesties
late and singular clemency in pardoning certayne his unduetifull
misdemeanour.” And by the modern Editors, to the late King; as “a Treatise
composed by the most extensive and fertile Genius that ever any age or
nation produced.”
Here we join issue with the Writers of that excellent tho’ very unequal
work, the _Biographia Britannica_: “If,” say they, “this piece could be
written by our Poet, it would be absolutely decisive in the dispute about
his learning; for many quotations appear in it from the Greek and Latin
Classicks.”
The concurring circumstances of the _Name_ and the _Misdemeanor_, which is
supposed to be the old Story of _Deer-stealing_, seem fairly to challenge
our Poet for the Author: but they hesitate.—His claim may appear to be
confuted by the date 1581, when Shakespeare was only _Seventeen_, and the
_long_ experience which the Writer talks of.—But I will not keep you in
suspense: the book was _not_ written by Shakespeare.
Strype, in his _Annals_, calls the Author SOME _learned Man_, and this
gave me the first suspicion. I knew very well that honest John (to use the
language of Sir Thomas Bodley) did not waste his time with such _baggage
books_ as _Plays_ and _Poems_; yet I must suppose 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 presently 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
_Misdemeanour_ in the Dedication. For Stafford had been concerned at that
time, and was indeed afterward, as Camden and the other Annalists inform
us, with some of the conspirators against Elizabeth; which he properly
calls his _unduetifull_ behaviour.
I hope by this time that any One open to conviction may be nearly
satisfied; and I will promise to give you on this head very little more
trouble.
The justly celebrated Mr. Warton hath favoured us, in his _Life of Dr.
Bathurst_, with some _hearsay_ particulars concerning Shakespeare from the
papers of Aubrey, which had been in the hands of Wood; and I ought not to
suppress them, as the _last_ seems to make against my doctrine. They came
originally, I find, on consulting the MS., from one Mr. Beeston: and I am
sure Mr. Warton, whom I have the honour to call my Friend, and an
Associate in the question, will be in no pain about their credit.
“William Shakespeare’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 stile, 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 Essays in dramatique Poetry.—The humour of the
Constable in the _Midsummer Night’s Dream_ he happened to take at Crendon
in Bucks.—I think I have been told that he left near three hundred pounds
to a _Sister_.—_He understood Latin pretty well, _FOR_ he had been in his
younger yeares a Schoolmaster in the Country._”