_not published by the author._ “Every writer on Shakespeare hath expressed
his astonishment that his author was not solicitous to secure his fame by
a correct edition of his performances. This matter is not understood. When
a poet was connected with a particular playhouse, he constantly sold his
works to the _Company_, and it was their interest to keep them from a
number of rivals. A favourite piece, as Heywood informs us, only got into
print when it was copied _by the ear_, ‘for a double sale would bring on a
suspicion of honestie.’ Shakespeare therefore himself published nothing in
the drama: when he left the stage, his copies remained with his
fellow-managers, Heminge and Condell; who at their own retirement, about
seven years after the death of their author, gave the world the edition
now known by the name of the _first Folio_, and call the previous
publications ‘stolne and surreptitious, maimed and deformed by the frauds
and stealths of injurious impostors.’ But _this_ was printed from the
playhouse copies; which in a series of years had been frequently altered,
thro’ convenience, caprice, or ignorance. We have a sufficient instance of
the liberties taken by the actors, in an old pamphlet by Nash, called
_Lenten Stuff, with the Prayse of the red Herring_, 4to, 1599, where he
assures us that in a play of his, called the _Isle of Dogs_, ‘_foure
acts_, without his consent, or the least guesse of his drift or scope,
were supplied by the players.’—This, however, was not his first quarrel
with them. In the Epistle prefixed to Greene’s _Arcadia_, which I have
quoted before, Tom hath a lash at some ‘vaine glorious tragedians,’ and
very plainly at Shakespeare in particular; which will serve for an answer
to an observation of Mr. Pope, that had almost been forgotten: ‘It was
thought a praise to Shakespeare that he scarce ever blotted a line. I
believe the common opinion of his want of learning proceeded from no
better ground. This, too, might be thought a praise by some.’ But hear
Nash, who was far from _praising_: ‘I leaue all these to the mercy of
their _mother-tongue_, that feed on nought but the crums that fall from
the _translator’s_ trencher,—that could scarcely _Latinize_ their neck
verse if they should haue neede; yet _English Seneca_, read by
candle-light, yeelds many good sentences—hee will affoord you whole
_Hamlets_, I should say, _handfuls_ of tragicall speeches.’ I cannot
determine exactly when this _Epistle_ was first published; but, I fancy,
it will carry the original _Hamlet_ somewhat further back than we have
hitherto done; and it may be observed that the oldest copy now extant is
said to be ‘enlarged to almost as much againe as it was.’ Gabriel Harvey
printed at the end of the year 1592 _Foure Letters and certaine Sonnetts,
especially touching Robert Greene_: in one of which his _Arcadia_ is
mentioned. Now Nash’s Epistle must have been previous to these, as Gabriel
is quoted in it with applause; and the _Foure Letters_ were the beginning
of a quarrel. Nash replied in _Strange Newes of the intercepting certaine
Letters, and a Convoy of Verses, as they were going_ privilie _to victual
the Low Countries_, 1593. Harvey rejoined the same year in _Pierce’s
Supererogation, or a new Praise of the old Asse_; and Nash again, in _Have
with you to Saffron Walden, or Gabriel Harvey’s Hunt is up; containing a
full Answer to the eldest Sonne of the Halter-maker_, 1596.—Dr. Lodge
calls Nash our _true English Aretine_: and John Taylor, in his
_Kicksey-Winsey, or a Lerry Come-twang_, even makes an oath ‘by sweet
satyricke Nash his urne.’—He died before 1606, as appears from an old
comedy called _The Return from Parnassus_” (Farmer). See Gregory Smith,
_Elizabethan Critical Essays_, especially i. 424-5.
211. _Hawkins._ Johnson’s Shakespeare, vol. viii., Appendix, note on iv.,
p. 454. The quotation from Johnson, and the references to Eliot and Du
Bartas, were added in the second edition.
_Est-il impossible._ _Henry V._, iv. 4. 17.
_French Alphabet of De la Mothe._ “Lond., 1592, 8vo.” (Farmer).
_Orthoepia of John Eliot._ “Lond., 1593, 4to. Eliot is almost the only
_witty_ grammarian that I have had the fortune to meet with. In his
Epistle prefatory to the _Gentle Doctors of Gaule_, he cries out for
persecution, very like Jack in that most poignant of all Satires, the
_Tale of a Tub_, ‘I pray you be readie quicklie to cauill at my booke, I
beseech you heartily calumniate my doings with speede, I request you
humbly controll my method as soone as you may, I earnestly entreat you
hisse at my inventions,’ ” etc. (Farmer).
_Sejanus._ See Jonson’s “To the Readers”: “Lastly, I would inform you that
this book, in all numbers, is not the same with that which was acted on
the public stage; wherein a second pen had good share: in place of which,
I have rather chosen to put weaker, and, no doubt, less pleasing, of mine
own, than to defraud so happy a genius of his right by my loathed
usurpation.” Jonson is supposed to refer here to Shakespeare.
_But what if ... Capell’s Prolusions_, added in the second edition.
_Pierce Penilesse_, ed. J. P. Collier (Shakespeare Society, 1842), p. 60.
212. _Tarlton_, Richard (d. 1588),—_Jests, drawn into three parts_, ed.
Halliwell (Shakespeare Society, 1844), pp. 24, 25: _Old English Jest
Books_, ed. W. C. Hazlitt (1864), pp. 218, 219.
_Capell._ Cf. pp. 197 and 198. He describes _Edward III._ on the title
page of his _Prolusions or Select Pieces of Antient Poetry_, 1760, as
“thought to be writ by Shakespeare.”
_Laneham_, Robert, who appears in Scott’s _Kenilworth_. The letter has
been reprinted by the Ballad Society (1871), and the New Shakspere Society
(1890). Referring to the spelling of the name, Farmer says in a note, “It
is indeed of no importance, but I suspect the former to be right, as I
find it corrupted afterward to _Lanam_ and _Lanum_.”
_Meres._ “This author by a pleasant mistake in some sensible _Conjectures
on Shakespeare_, lately printed at Oxford, is quoted by the name of
_Maister_. Perhaps the title-page was imperfect; it runs thus: ‘Palladis
Tamia. Wits Treasury. Being the second part of Wits Commonwealth, By
_Francis Meres Maister_ of Artes of both Universities.’ I am glad out of
gratitude to this man, who hath been of frequent service to me, that I am
enabled to perfect Wood’s account of him; from the assistance of our
_Master’s_ very accurate list of graduates (which it would do honour to
the university to print at the publick expense) and the kind information
of a friend from the register of his parish:—He was originally of
Pembroke-Hall, B.A. in 1587, and M.A. 1591. About 1602 he became rector of
Wing in Rutland; and died there, 1646, in the 81st year of his age”
(Farmer). See Ingleby’s _Shakspere Allusion-Books_ or Gregory Smith’s
_Elizabethan Critical Essays_. The reference at the beginning of Farmer’s
note is to Tyrwhitt’s _Observations and Conjectures upon some passages of
Shakespeare_, 1766.
_the Giant of Rabelais._ See _As You Like It_, iii. 2. 238, and _King
Lear_, iii. 6. 7, 8.
_John Taylor._ See note, p. 163. “I have quoted many pieces of John
Taylor, but it was impossible to give their original dates. He may be
traced as an author for more than half a century. His works were collected
in folio, 1630, but many were printed afterward,” etc. (Farmer). The
reference to Gargantua will be found on p. 160 of the Spenser Society
Reprint of the Folio. Taylor refers to Rabelais also in his _Dogge of
Warre_, _id._, p. 364.
213. _Richard the third._ “Some inquiry hath been made for the first
performers of the capital characters in Shakespeare. We learn that
Burbage, the _alter Roscius_ of Camden, was the original Richard, from a
passage in the poems of Bishop Corbet; who introduces his host at Bosworth
describing the battle:
“But when he would have said King Richard died,
And call’d _a horse_, _a horse_, he _Burbage_ cried.”
The play on this subject mentioned by Sir John Harrington in his _Apologie
for Poetrie_, 1591, and sometimes mistaken for Shakespeare’s, was a Latin
one, written by Dr. Legge, and acted at St. John’s in our University, some
years before 1588, the date of the copy in the Museum. This appears from a
better MS. in our library at Emmanuel, with the names of the original
performers.
It is evident from a passage in Camden’s _Annals_ that there was an old
play likewise on the subject of _Richard the Second_; but I know not in
what language. Sir Gelley Merrick, who was concerned in the hare-brained
business of the Earl of Essex, and was hanged for it with the ingenious
Cuffe in 1601, is accused, amongst other things, “quod _exoletam_
Tragœdiam de tragica abdicatione Regis Ricardi Secundi in publico theatro
coram conjuratis data pecunia agi curasset” (Farmer).