The account of the _Trade_ of the Family is not only contrary to all other
Tradition, but, as it may seem, to the instrument from the Herald’s
office, so frequently reprinted.—Shakespeare most certainly went to
London, and commenced Actor thro’ necessity, not natural inclination.—Nor
have we any reason to suppose that he did act _exceedingly well_. Rowe
tells us from the information of Betterton, who was inquisitive into this
point, and had very early opportunities of Inquiry from Sir W. Davenant,
that he was no _extraordinary Actor_; and that the top of his performance
was the Ghost in his own _Hamlet_. Yet this _Chef d’Oeuvre_ did not
please: I will give you an original stroke at it. Dr. Lodge, who was for
ever pestering the town with Pamphlets, published in the year 1596 _Wits
miserie, and the Worlds madnesse, discovering the Devils incarnat of this
Age._ 4to. One of these Devils is _Hate-virtue_, or _Sorrow for another
mans good successe_, who, says the Doctor, is “_a foule lubber_, and looks
as pale as the Visard of the Ghost, which cried so miserably at the
Theatre, like an Oister-wife, _Hamlet revenge_.” Thus you see Mr. Holt’s
supposed _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 case of the particular passage on which it is founded.
Nor does it appear that Shakespeare did begin _early_ to make _Essays in
Dramatique Poetry_: the _Arraignment of Paris_, 1584, which hath so 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 Assistant,
’till at least seven years afterward.—Nash, in his Epistle to the
Gentlemen Students of both Universities, prefixed to Greene’s _Arcadia_,
4to. _black Letter_, recommends his Friend, Peele, “as the chiefe
supporter of pleasance 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
varietie of inuention.”
In the next place, unfortunately, there is neither such a Character as a
Constable in the _Midsummer Night’s Dream_: nor was the _three hundred
pounds_ Legacy to a Sister, but a Daughter.
And to close the whole, it is not possible, according to Aubrey himself,
that Shakespeare could have been some _years a Schoolmaster in the
Country_: on which circumstance only the supposition of his learning is
professedly founded. He was not surely _very_ young, when he was employed
to _kill Calves_, and he commenced Player about _Eighteen_!—The truth is
that he left his Father, for a Wife, a year sooner; and had at least two
Children born at Stratford before he retired from thence to London. It is
therefore sufficiently clear that poor Anthony had too much reason for his
character of Aubrey: You will 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 sometimes little
better than crased: and being exceedingly credulous, would stuff his many
Letters sent to A.W. with _folliries_ and misinformations.” p. 577.
Thus much for the Learning of Shakespeare with respect to the ancient
languages: indulge me with an observation or two on his supposed knowledge
of the modern ones, and I will promise to release you.
“It is _evident_” we have been told, “that he was not unacquainted with
the Italian”: but let us inquire into the _Evidence_.
Certainly some Italian words and phrases appear in the Works of
Shakespeare; yet if we had nothing else to observe, their Orthography
might lead us to suspect them to be not of the Writer’s importation. But
we can go further, and prove this.
When Pistol “cheers up himself with ends of verse,” he is only a copy of
Hanniball Gonsaga, who ranted on yielding himself a Prisoner to an English
Captain in the Low Countries, as you may read in an old Collection of
Tales, called _Wits, Fits, and Fancies_,
Si Fortuna me tormenta,
Il speranza me contenta.
And Sir Richard Hawkins, in his Voyage to the South-Sea, 1593, throws out
the same jingling Distich on the loss of his Pinnace.
“Master Page, sit; good Master Page, sit; _Proface._ What you want in
meat, we’ll have in drink,” says Justice Shallow’s _Fac totum_, Davy, in
the 2d Part of _Henry the fourth_.
_Proface_, Sir Thomas Hanmer observes to be Italian, from _profaccia, much
good may it do you_. Mr. Johnson rather thinks it a mistake for
_perforce_. Sir Thomas however is right; yet it is no argument for his
Author’s Italian knowledge.
Old Heywood, the Epigrammatist, addressed his Readers long before,
Readers, reade this thus: for Preface, _Proface_,
Much good do it you, the poore repast here, &c.—_Woorkes._ Lond.
4to. 1562.
And Dekker in his Play, _If it be not good, the Diuel is in it_ (which is
certainly true, for it is full of Devils), makes Shackle-soule, in the
character of Friar Rush, tempt his Brethren with “choice of dishes,”
To which _proface_; with blythe lookes sit yee.
Nor hath it escaped the quibbling manner of the _Water-poet_, in the title
of a Poem prefixed to his _Praise of Hempseed_: “A Preamble, Preatrot,
Preagallop, Preapace, or Preface; and _Proface_, my Masters, if your
Stomacks serve.”
But the Editors are not contented without coining Italian. “_Rivo, says
the Drunkard_,” is an Expression of the _madcap_ Prince of Wales; which
Sir Thomas Hanmer corrects to _Ribi, Drink away_, or _again_, as it should
rather be translated. Dr. Warburton accedes to this; and Mr. Johnson hath
admitted it into his Text; but with an observation, that _Rivo_ might
possibly be the cant of English Taverns. And so indeed it was: it occurs
frequently in Marston. Take a quotation from his Comedy of _What you
will_, 1607:
Musicke, Tobacco, Sacke, and Sleepe,
The Tide of Sorrow backward keep:
If thou art sad at others fate,
_Rivo_ drink deep, give care the mate.
In _Love’s Labour Lost_, Boyet calls Don Armado,
——A Spaniard that keeps here in Court,
A Phantasme, a _Monarcho_.——
Here too Sir Thomas is willing to palm Italian upon us. We should read, it
seems, _Mammuccio_, a Mammet, or Puppet: Ital. _Mammuccia_. But the
allusion is to a fantastical _Character_ of the time.—“Popular applause,”
says Meres, “dooth nourish some, neither do they gape after any other
thing, but vaine praise and glorie,—as in our age Peter Shakerlye of
Paules, and MONARCHO that liued about the Court.” p. 178.