SHAKSPEARE, AFTER LEAVING SCHOOL, FOLLOWS HIS FATHER'S
TRADE—STATEMENT OF AUBREY—PROBABLY PRESENT IN HIS TWELFTH
YEAR, AT KENELWORTH, WHEN ELIZABETH VISITED THE EARL OF
LEICESTER—TRADITION OF AUBREY CONCERNING HIM—WHETHER THERE
IS REASON TO SUPPOSE THAT, AFTER LEAVING HIS FATHER, HE WAS
PLACED IN AN ATTORNEY'S OFFICE WHO WAS LIKEWISE SENESCHAL OR
STEWARD OF SOME MANOR—ANECDOTES OF SHAKSPEARE—ALLUSIONS
IN HIS WORKS TO BARTON, WILNECOTTE AND BARSTON, VILLAGES IN
WARWICKSHIRE—EARTHQUAKE IN 1580 ALLUDED TO—WHETHER, AFTER
LEAVING SCHOOL, HE ACQUIRED ANY KNOWLEDGE OF THE FRENCH AND
ITALIAN LANGUAGES.
That Shakspeare, when taken from the free-school of Stratford, became
an assistant to his father in the wool-trade, has been the general
opinion of his biographers from the period of Mr. Rowe, who first
published the tradition in 1709, to the present day. The anecdote was
probably collected by Mr. Betterton the player, who visited Stratford
in order to procure intelligence relative to his favourite poet, and
from whom Mr. Rowe professes to have derived the greater part of
his information.[34:A] A few incidental circumstances tend also to
strengthen the account that both father and son were engaged in this
employment, and, for a time, together: in the first place, we may
mention the discovery already noticed of the arms of the merchants
of the wool-staple on a window of the house in which the poet was
born[34:B]; secondly, the almost certain conclusion that the poverty
of John Shakspeare, which we know to have been considerable in 1579,
would naturally incline him to require the assistance of his son, in
the only way in which, at that time, he could be serviceable to him;
and thirdly, we may adduce the following passages from the works of our
Dramatist, which seem to imply a more than theoretic intimacy with his
father's business. In the Winter's Tale, the Clown exclaims,
"Let me see:—Every 'leven wether—tods; every tod
yields—pound and odd shilling: fifteen hundred shorn,—What
comes the wool to?" _Act IV. Scene 2._
Upon this passage Dr. Farmer remarks, "that to _tod_ is used as a
verb by dealers in wool; thus, they say, 'Twenty sheep ought to _tod_
fifty pounds of wool,' &c. The meaning, therefore, of the Clown's
words is, 'Every eleven wether _tods_; i. e. _will produce a tod_, or
twenty-eight pounds of wool; every _tod_ yields a pound and some odd
shillings; what then will the wool of fifteen hundred yield?'"
"The occupation of his father," subjoins Mr. Malone, "furnished our
poet with accurate knowledge on this subject; for two pounds and a half
of wool is, I am told, a very good produce from a sheep at the time of
shearing."
"_Every 'leven wether—tods_," adds Mr. Ritson, "has been rightly
expounded to mean that the wool of _eleven sheep_ would weigh a _tod_,
or 28lb. Each fleece would, therefore, be 2lb. 8oz. 11½dr., and the
whole produce of _fifteen hundred shorn 136 tod_, 1 clove, 2lb. 6oz.
2dr. which _at pound and odd shilling per tod_, would yield 143_l._
3_s._ 0_d._ Our author was too familiar with the subject to be
suspected of inaccuracy.
"Indeed it appears from Stafford's _Breefe Conceipte of English
Pollicye_, 1581, p. 16, that the price of a tod of wool was at that
period _twenty_ or _two_ and _twenty shillings_: so that the medium
price was exactly '_pound and odd shilling_.'"[35:A]
In Hamlet, the prince justly observes,
There's a divinity that _shapes our ends_,
_Rough-hew_ them how we will. _Act V. Scene 2._
Lines, of which the words in italics were considered by Dr. Farmer as
merely technical. "A woolman, butcher, and dealer in _skewers_," says
Mr. Stevens, "lately observed to him (Dr. F.), that his nephew, an idle
lad, could only _assist_ him in making them; '—he could _rough-hew_
them, but I was obliged to _shape their ends_.' To shape the ends of
_wool-skewers_, i. e. to _point_ them, requires a degree of skill;
any one can _rough-hew_ them. Whoever recollects the profession of
Shakspeare's father, will admit that his son might be no stranger to
such terms. I have frequently seen packages of wool pinned up with
_skewers_."[36:A]
We may, therefore, after duly considering all the evidence that can
now be obtained, pretty confidently acquiesce in the traditional
account that Shakspeare was, for a time, and that immediately on
his being taken from the free-school, the assistant of his father
in the wool-trade; but it will be necessary here to mention, that
Aubrey, on whose authority it has been related that John Shakspeare
was, at one period of his life, a butcher, adds, with regard to our
poet, that "when he was a boy, he exercised his father's trade;" and
that "when he killed a calfe, he would do it in a _high style_, and
make a speech."[36:B] That John Shakspeare, when under the pressure
of adversity, might combine the two employments, which are, in a
certain degree, connected with each other, we have already recorded as
probable; it is very possible, also, that the following similes may
have been suggested to the son, by what he had occasionally observed at
home:
And as the butcher takes away the calf,
And binds the wretch, and beats it when it strays,
Bearing it to the bloody slaughter-house;
Even so, remorseless, have they borne him hence.
And as the dam runs lowing up and down,
Looking the way her harmless young one went,
And can do nought but wail her darling's loss;
Even so, &c. &c. _Henry VI. Part II. Act III. Scene 1._
but that the father of our poet, the former bailiff of Stratford,
should employ his children, instead of servants, in the slaughter of
his cattle, is a position so revolting, so unnecessarily degrading
on the part of the father, and, at the same time, must have been so
discordant with the well-known humane and gentle cast of the poet's
disposition, that we cannot, for a moment, allow ourselves to conceive
that any credibility can be attached to such a report.
At what age he began to assist his father in the wool-trade, cannot now
be positively ascertained; but as he was early taken from school, for
this purpose, we shall probably not err far, if we suppose this change
to have taken place when he was _twelve_ years old; a computation which
includes a period of scholastic education sufficiently long to have
imbued him with just such a portion of classical lore, as an impartial
enquirer into his life and works would be willing to admit.
A short time previous to this, when our poet was in his twelfth
year, and in the summer of 1575, an event occurred which must have
made a great impression on his mind; the visit of Queen Elizabeth to
the magnificent Earl of Leicester, at Kenelworth Castle. That young
Shakspeare was a spectator of the festivities on this occasion, was
first suggested by Bishop Percy[37:A], who, in his Essay on the Origin
of the English Stage, speaking of the old Coventry play of Hock
Tuesday, which was performed before Her Majesty during her residence
at the castle, observes,—"Whatever this old play, or 'storial show,'
was at the time it was exhibited to Queen Elizabeth, it had probably
our young Shakspeare for a spectator, who was then in his twelfth year,
and doubtless attended with all the inhabitants of the surrounding
country at these 'Princely Pleasures of Kenelworth,'[37:B] _whence
Stratford is only a few miles distant_. And as the Queen was much
diverted with the Coventry play, 'whereat Her Majestie laught well,'
and rewarded the performers with two bucks, and five marks in money:
who, 'what rejoicing upon their ample reward, and what triumphing upon
the good acceptance, vaunted their play was never so dignified, nor
ever any players before so beatified:' but especially if our young
Bard afterwards gained admittance into the castle to see a play, which
the same evening, after supper, was there 'presented of a very good
theme, but so set forth by the actors' well-handling, that pleasure
and mirth made it seem very short,' though it lasted two good hours and
more, we may imagine what an impression was made on his infant mind.
Indeed the dramatic cast of many parts of that superb entertainment,
which continued nineteen days, and was the most splendid of the kind
ever attempted in this kingdom, must have had a very great effect on a
young imagination, whose dramatic powers were hereafter to astonish the
world."[38:A]
Of the gorgeous splendour, and elaborate pageantry which were displayed
during this princely fete at Kenelworth, some idea may be formed from
the following summary. The Earl met the Queen on Saturday the 9th of
July 1575, at Long Ichington, a town seven miles from Kenelworth, where
His Lordship had erected a tent, for the purpose of banqueting Her
Majesty, upon such a magnificent scale, "that justly for dignity," says
Laneham, "may be comparable with a beautiful palace; and for greatness
and quantity, with a proper town, or rather a citadel;" and to give
his readers an adequate conception of its vast magnitude, he adds that
"it had seven cart load of pins pertaining to it."[38:B] At the first
entrance of the Queen into His Lordship's castle a floating island was
discerned upon the pool, glittering with torches, on which sat the
Lady of the Lake, attended by two nymphs, who addressed Her Majesty in
verse, with an historical account of the antiquity and owners of the
castle; and the speech was closed with the sound of cornets, and other
instruments of loud music. Within the base-court was erected a stately
bridge, twenty feet wide, and seventy feet long, over which the Queen
was to pass; and on each side stood columns, with presents upon them
to Her Majesty from the gods. Silvanus offered a cage of wild-fowl,
and Pomona various sorts of fruits; Ceres gave corn, and Bacchus wine;
Neptune presented sea-fish; Mars the habiliments of war; and Phœbus all
kinds of musical instruments. During the rest of her stay, varieties of
sports and shows were daily exhibited. In the chase was a savage-man
clad in ivy accompanied by satyrs; there were bear-baitings and
fire-works, Italian tumblers, and a country brideale, running at the
Quintain, and Morrice-dancing. And, that no sort of diversion might be
omitted, hither came the Coventry-men and acted the old play already
mentioned, called Hock Tuesday, a kind of tilting match, representing,
in dumb show, the defeat of the Danes by the English, in the reign
of King Ethelred. There were besides on the pool, a Triton riding on
a Mermaid eighteen feet long, and Arion upon a Dolphin. To grace the
entertainment, the Queen here knighted Sir Thomas Cecil, eldest son
to the lord treasurer; Sir Henry Cobham, brother to the Lord Cobham;
Sir Francis Stanhope, and Sir Thomas Tresham. An estimate may be
formed of the expense from the quantity of ordinary beer, that was
drank upon this occasion, which amounted to three hundred and twenty
hogsheads.[39:A]
To the ardent and opening mind of our youthful Bard what exquisite
delight must this grand festival have imparted, the splendour of which,
as Bishop Hurd remarks, "claims a remembrance even in the annals of
our country."[39:B] A considerable portion of the very mythology which
he had just been studying at school, was here brought before his eyes,
of which the costume and language were under the direction of the
first poets of the age; and the dramatic cast of the whole pageantry,
whether classical or Gothic, was such, as probably to impress his
glowing imagination with that bias for theatrical amusements, which
afterwards proved the basis of his own glory, and of his country's
poetic fame.
Here, could he revisit the glimpses of the day, how justly might he
deplore, in his own inimitable language, the havoc of time, and the
mutability of human grandeur; of this princely castle, once the seat
of feudal hospitality, of revelry and song, and of which Laneham, in
his quaint style and orthography, has observed,—"Who that considerz
untoo the stately seat of _Kenelworth Castl_, the rare beauty of
bilding that His Honor hath avaunced; all of the hard quarry-stone:
every room so spacious, so well belighted, and so hy roofed within;
so seemly too sight by du proportion without; a day tyme, on every
side so glittering by glasse; a night, by continuall brightnesse of
candel, fyre, and torch-light, transparent thro the lyghtsome wyndow,
as it wear the _Egiptian Pharos_ relucent untoo all the _Alexandrian_
coast: or els (too talke merily with my mery freend) thus radiant, as
thoogh _Phœbus_ for hiz eaz woold rest him in the _Castl_, and not
every night so to travel doown untoo the _Antipodes_; heertoo so fully
furnisht of rich apparell and utensilez apted in all points to the
best;"[40:A] of this vast pile the very ruins are now so reduced, that
the grand gateway, and the banquetting hall, eighty-six feet in length,
and forty-five in width, are the only important remains.[40:B]
If Shakspeare were taken as early from school as we have supposed, and
his slender attainments in latinity strongly warrant the supposition,
it is more than probable, building on the traditional hint in Rowe, of
his aid being _wanted at home_[42:A], that he continued to assist his
father in the wool-trade for some years; that is, in all likelihood,
until his sixteenth or eighteenth year. Mr. Malone, however, not
adverting to this tradition, has, in a note to Rowe's Life, declared
his belief, "that, _on leaving school_, Shakspeare was placed in
the office of some country attorney, or the seneschal of some manor
court[43:A]:" a position which we think improbable only in _point
of time_; and, in justice to Mr. Malone, it must be added, that in
other places he has given a much wider latitude to the period of this
engagement.
The circumstances on which this conjecture has been founded, are
these:—that, in the first place, throughout the dramas of Shakspeare,
there is interspersed such a vast variety of legal phrases and
allusions, expressed with such _technical_ accuracy, as to force upon
the mind a conviction, that the person who had used them must have been
intimately acquainted with the profession of the law; and, secondly,
that at the close of Aubrey's manuscript anecdotes of Shakspeare,
which are said to have been collected, at an early period, from the
information of the neighbours of the poet, it is positively asserted,
that our bard "understood Latin pretty well, for he had been in his
younger years a schoolmaster in the country."[43:B]
On the first of these data, it has been observed by Mr. Malone, in
his "Attempt to ascertain the Order in which the Plays of Shakspeare
were written," that the poet's "knowledge of legal terms is not merely
such as might be acquired by the casual observation of even his
all-comprehending mind; it has the appearance of _technical_ skill; and
he is so fond of displaying it on all occasions, that I suspect he was
early initiated in at least the forms of law, and was employed, _while
he yet remained at Stratford_, in the office of some country-attorney,
who was at the same time a petty conveyancer, and perhaps also the
seneschal of some manor-court."[43:C] In confirmation of this opinion,
various instances are given of his legal phraseology, which we have
copied in the note below[43:D]; and here we must remark that the
expression, _while he yet remained at Stratford_, leaves the period of
his first application to the law, from the time at which he left school
to the era of his visiting London, unfixed; a portion of time which we
may fairly estimate as including the lapse of _ten_ years.
With regard to the affirmation of Aubrey, that Shakspeare had been in
his younger years a schoolmaster in the country, the same ingenious
critic very justly remarks, that "many traditional anecdotes, though
not perfectly accurate, contain an adumbration of the truth;" and then
adds, "I am strongly inclined to think that the assertion contains,
though not the truth, yet something like it: I mean that Shakspeare
had been employed for some time in his younger years as a _teacher_
in the country; though Dr. Farmer has incontestably proved, that he
could not have been a teacher of _Latin_. I have already suggested my
opinion, that before his coming to London he had acquired some share
of legal knowledge in the office of a petty country-conveyancer,
or in that of the steward of some manorial court. _If he began to
apply to this study at the age of eighteen_, two years afterwards
he might have been sufficiently conversant with conveyances to have
_taught others_ the form of such legal assurances as are usually
prepared by country-attorneys; and perhaps spent two or three years
in this employment before he removed from Stratford to London. Some
uncertain rumour of this kind might have continued to the middle
of the last century, and by the time it reached Mr. Aubrey, our
poet's original occupation was changed from a scrivener to that of a
schoolmaster."[46:A]
In this quotation it will be immediately perceived that the period of
our author's application to the study of the law, is now supposed to
have occurred _at the age of eighteen_, when he must have been long
removed from school, and that he is also conceived to have been a
_teacher_ of what he had acquired in the profession.
These conjectures of Mr. Malone, which, in their latter and modified
state, appear to me singularly happy, have met with a warm advocate in
Mr. Whiter: "The anecdotes," he remarks, "which have been delivered
down to us respecting our poet, appear to me neither improbable nor,
when duly examined, inconsistent with each other: even those which seem
least allied to probability, contain in my opinion the _adumbrata_,
if not _expressa signa veritatis_. Mr. Malone has admirably sifted
the accounts of _Aubrey_; and there is no truth, that is obtained by
a train of reasoning not reducible to demonstration, of which I am
more convinced than the conjecture of Mr. Malone, who supposes that
Shakspeare, before he quitted Stratford, was employed in such matters
of business as belonged to the office of a country-attorney, or the
steward of a manor-court. I have stated his conjecture in general
terms, that the _fact_, as it relates to our poet's _legal allusions_,
might be separated from any accidental circumstances of _historical
truth_. I am astonished, however, that Mr. Malone has confirmed his
conjecture by so few examples. I can supply him with a very large
accession."[46:B]
Mr. Chalmers, however, refuses his aid in the structure of this
conjectural fabric, and asserts that Shakspeare might have derived
all his technical knowledge of the law from a very few books. "From
Totell's Presidents, 1572; from Pulton's Statutes, 1578; and from the
Lawier's Logike, 1588."[47:A]
That these books were read by Shakspeare, there can, we think, be
little doubt; but this concession by no means militates against the
idea of his having been employed for a short period in some profitable
branch of the law. After weighing all the evidence which can _now_
be adduced, either for or against the hypothesis, we shall probably
make the nearest approximation to the truth in concluding, that the
object of our research, having assisted his father for some years in
the wool-trade, for which express purpose he had been early taken
from school, might deem it necessary, on the prospect of approaching
marriage, to acquire some additional means of supporting a domestic
establishment, and, accordingly, annexed to his former occupation, or
superseded it, by a knowledge of an useful branch of the law, which,
by being taught to others, might prove to himself a source of revenue.
Thus combining the record of Rowe with the tradition of Aubrey, and
with the evidence derived from our author's own works, an inference has
been drawn which, though not amounting to certainty, approaches the
confine of it with no small pretensions.
Of the events and circumstances which must have occurred to Shakspeare
in the interval between his leaving the free-school of Stratford,
and his marriage, scarcely any thing has transpired; the following
anecdote, however, which is still preserved at Stratford and the
neighbouring village of Bidford, may be ascribed with greater
propriety to this than to any subsequent period of his life. We
shall give it in the words of the author of the "Picturesque Views
on the Avon," who professes to have received it on the spot, as one
of the traditional treasures of the place. Speaking of Bidford,
which is still equally notorious for the excellence of its ale, and
the thirsty clay of its inhabitants, he adds, "there were antiently
two societies of village-yeomanry in this place, who frequently met
under the appellation of Bidford Topers. It was a custom with these
heroes to challenge any of their neighbours, famed for the love of
good ale, to a drunken combat: among others the people of Stratford
were called out to a trial of strength, and in the number of their
champions, as the traditional story runs, our Shakspeare, who forswore
all thin potations, and addicted himself to ale as lustily as Falstaff
to his sack, is said to have entered the lists. In confirmation of
this tradition we find an epigram written by Sir Asten Cockayn, and
published in his poems in 1658, p. 124: it runs thus—
TO MR. CLEMENT FISHER, OF WINCOT.
_SHAKSPEARE_, your _Wincot_ ale hath much renown'd,
That fox'd a beggar so (by chance was found
Sleeping) that there needed not many a word
To make him to believe he was a lord:
But you affirm (and in it seems most eager)
'Twill make a lord as drunk as any beggar.
Bid _Norton_ brew such ale as Shakspeare fancies
Did put Kit Sly into such lordly trances:
And let us meet there (for a fit of gladness)
And drink ourselves merry in sober sadness.
"When the Stratford lads went over to Bidford, they found the topers
were gone to Evesham fair; but were told, if they wished to try their
strength with the sippers, they were ready for the contest. This being
acceded to, our bard and his companions were staggered at the first
outset, when they thought it adviseable to sound a retreat, while the
means of retreat were practicable; and then had scarce marched half a
mile, before they were all forced to lay down more than their arms,
and encamp in a very disorderly and unmilitary form, under no better
covering than a large crab-tree; and there they rested till morning:
"This tree is yet standing by the side of the road. If, as it has
been observed by the late Mr. T. Warton, the meanest hovel to which
Shakspeare has an allusion interests curiosity, and acquires an
importance, surely the tree that has spread its shade over him, and
sheltered him from the dews of the night, has a claim to our attention.
"In the morning, when the company awakened our bard, the story says
they intreated him to return to Bidford, and renew the charge; but this
he declined, and looking round upon the adjoining villages, exclaimed,
'No! I have had enough; I have drank with
Piping Pebworth, Dancing Marston,
Haunted Hillbro', Hungry Grafton,
Dudging Exhall, Papist Wicksford,
Beggarly Broom, and Drunken Bidford.'
"Of the truth of this story I have very little doubt: it is certain
that the crab-tree is known all round the country by the name of
Shakspeare's crab; and that the villages to which the allusion is made,
all bear the epithets here given them: the people of Pebworth are still
famed for their skill on the pipe and tabor: Hillborough is now called
Haunted Hillborough; and Grafton is notorious for the poverty of its
soil."[50:A]
To the immediate neighbourhood indeed of Stratford, and to the adjacent
country, with which, at this early period of his life, our poet seems
to have been familiarised by frequent excursions either of pleasure
or business, are to be found some allusions in his dramatic works. In
the _Taming of the Shrew_, Christopher Sly, being treated with great
ceremony and state, on waking in the bed-chamber of the nobleman,
exclaims—"What, would you make me mad? Am not I Christopher Sly,
old Sly's son of _Burton-Heath_; by birth a pedlar, by education a
card-maker, by transmutation a bear-herd, and now by present profession
a tinker? Ask Marian Hacket, the fat ale-wife of _Wincot_, if she know
me not: if she say I am not fourteen pence on the score for sheer ale,
score me up for the lyingest knave in Christendom. What, I am not
bestraught!"[50:B]
There are two villages in Warwickshire called _Burton Dorset_ and
_Burton Hastings_; but that which was the residence of old Sly, is, in
all probability, _Burton on the Heath_, on the south side of the Avon,
opposite to Bidford, and about eighteen miles from Stratford. The first
scene of the play is described as _Before an Alehouse on a Heath_, and
it is remarkable that on Burton-heath there still remains a tenement,
which was formerly a public-house, under the name of Woncott or
Onecott: yet there is much reason to conclude, from the mode in which
Wincot is spoken of, both in this place, and in the following passage,
that Burton-heath and Wincot were considerably distant: in the Second
Part of King Henry IV. Davy says to Justice Shallow, "I beseech you,
Sir, to countenance William Visor _of Wincot_ against Clemont Perkes of
the hill[50:C]," a phraseology which seems to imply, not an insulated
house, but a village, an inference which is strongly supported by
the fact that _near_ Stratford there is actually a village with the
closely resembling name of _Wilnecotte_, which, in the pronunciation
and orthography of the common people, would almost necessarily become
_Wincot_. It should likewise be mentioned that Mr. Warton is of opinion
that this is the place to which Shakspeare alludes, and he adds, "the
house kept by our genial hostess still remains, but is at present a
mill."[51:A]
We are indebted also to the Second Part of King Henry IV. for another
local allusion of a similar kind: Silence, addressing Pistol, nicknames
him "goodman Puff of _Barson_[51:B]," a village which, under this
appellation, and that of _Barston_, is situated between Coventry
and Solyhall. It may indeed excite some surprise that we have not
more allusions of this nature to commemorate; that the scenery which
occurred to him early in life, and especially at this period, when
the imagery drawn from nature must have been impressed on his mind in
a manner peculiarly vivid and defined, when he was free from care,
unshackled by a family, and at liberty to roam where fancy led him, has
not been delineated in some portion of his works, with such accuracy as
immediately to designate its origin. For, if we consider the excursive
powers of his imagination, and the desultory and unsettled habits
which tradition has ascribed to him during his youthful residence at
Stratford, we may assert, without fear of contradiction, and as an
undoubted truth, that his rambles into the country, and for a poet's
purpose, were both frequent and extensive, and that not a stream, a
wood, or hamlet, within many miles of his native town, was unvisited by
him at various times and under various circumstances.
Yet, if we can seldom point out in his works any distinct reference to
the actual scenery of Stratford and its neighbourhood, we may observe,
that few of the remarkable events of his own time appear to have
escaped his notice; and among these may be found one which occurred at
this juvenile period of his life, and to which we have an allusion in
Romeo and Juliet; for though the personages of the drama exist and
act in a foreign clime, yet in this, and in many similar instances, he
hesitates not to describe the events of his native country as occurring
wherever he has chosen to lay the scene. Thus the nurse, describing to
Lady Capulet the age at which Juliet was weaned, says
"'Tis since the _earthquake_ now eleven years,"—
a line, which, as Mr. Tyrwhitt and Mr. Malone have observed[52:A],
manifestly alludes to a phenomenon of this kind that had been felt
throughout England in the year 1580, and of which Holinshed, the
favourite historian of our bard, has given the following striking
account:—"On the sixt of April (1580), being Wednesdaie in Easter
weeke, about six of the clocke toward evening, a sudden earthquake
happening in London, and almost generallie throughout all England,
caused such an amazednesse among the people as was wonderfull for the
time, and caused them to make their earnest praiers to Almighty God!
The great clocke bell in the palace at Westminster strake of it selfe
against the hammer with the shaking of the earth, as diverse other
clocks and bels in the steeples of the cities of London and els-where
did the like. The gentlemen of the Temple being then at supper, ran
from the tables, and out of their hall with their knives in their
hands. The people assembled at the plaie-houses in the fields, as at
the Whoreater (the Theater I would saie) were so amazed, that doubting
the ruine of the galleries, they made hast to be gone. A péece of the
Temple church fell downe, some stones fell from Saint Paule's church
in London: and at Christ's church neere to Newgate-market, in the
sermon while, a stone fell from the top of the same church, which
stone killed out of hand one Thomas Greie an apprentice, and another
stone fell on his fellow-servant named Mabell Eueret, and so brused
hir that she lived but four daies after. Diverse other at that time in
that place were sore hurt, with running out of the church one over an
other for feare. The tops of diverse chimnies in the citie fell downe,
the houses were so shaken: a part of the castell at Bishops Stratford
in Essex fell downe. This earthquake indured in or about London not
passing one minute of an houre, and was no more felt. But afterward in
Kent, and on the sea coast it was felt three times; and at Sandwich at
six of the clocke the land not onelie quaked, but the sea also fomed,
so that the ships tottered. At Dover also the same houre was the like,
so that a péece of the cliffe fell into the sea, with also a péece of
the castell wall there: a piece of Saltwood castell in Kent fell downe:
and in the church of Hide the bels were heard to sound. A peece of
Sutton church in Kent fell downe, the earthquake being there not onlie
felt, but also heard. And in all these places and others in east Kent,
the same earthquake was felt three times to move, to wit, at six, at
nine, and at eleven of the clocke."[53:A] In this passage, to which we
shall again have occasion to revert, the violence and universality of
the event described, are such as would almost necessarily form an era
for reference in the poet's mind; and the date, indeed, of the _prima
stamina_ of the play in which the line above-mentioned is found, may be
nearly ascertained by this allusion.
If, as some of his commentators have supposed, Shakspeare possessed any
grammatical knowledge of the French and Italian languages, it is highly
probable that the acquisition must have been obtained in the interval
which took place between his quitting the grammar-school of Stratford
and his marriage, a period, if our arrangement be admitted, of about
six years; and consequently, any consideration of the subject will
almost necessarily claim a place at the close of this chapter.
That the dramas of our great poet exhibit numerous instances in which
both these languages are introduced, and especially the former,
of which we have an entire scene in Henry V., will not be denied
by any reader of his works; nor will any person, acquainted with
the literature of his times, venture to affirm, that he might not
have acquired by his own industry, and through the medium of the
introductory books then in circulation, a sufficient knowledge of
French and Italian for all the purposes which he had in view. We cannot
therefore agree with Dr. Farmer, when he asserts, that Shakspeare's
acquaintance with these languages consisted only of _a familiar phrase
or two_ picked up _in the writers of the time, or the course of his
conversation_.[54:A]
The corrupted state of the French and Italian passages, as found in
the early editions of our poet's plays, can be no argument that he was
totally ignorant of these languages; as it would apply with nearly
equal force to prove that he was similarly situated with regard to
his vernacular tongue, which in almost every scene of these very
editions has undergone various and gross corruptions. Nor will greater
conviction result, when it is affirmed that this foreign phraseology
might be the interpolation of the players; for it remains to be
ascertained, that they possessed a larger portion of exotic literature
than Shakspeare himself.
The author of an essay on Shakspeare's learning in the _Censura
Literaria_, from which we have already quoted a passage in favour of
his having made some progress in latinity, is likewise of opinion that
his knowledge of the French was greater than Dr. Farmer is willing to
allow.
"I have been confirmed in this opinion," he observes, "by a casual
discovery of Shakspeare having imitated a whole French line and
description in a long French epic poem, written by Garnier, called the
_Henriade_, like Voltaire's, and on the same subject, first published
in 1594.
"In _As You Like It_, Shakspeare gives an affecting description of the
different manners of men in the different ages of life, which closes
with these lines:
"What ends this strange eventful history
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans every thing."
"Now—why have recourse for an insipid preposition to a language of
which he is said to have been totally ignorant? I always supposed
therefore that there must have been some peculiar circumstance well
known in those times, which must have induced him to give this motley
garb to his language:—but what that circumstance was I could not
discover until I accidentally in a foreign literary journal, met
with a review of a republication of that poem of Garnier at Paris,
in which were inserted, as a specimen of the poem, a description of
the appearance of the ghost of Admiral Coligny on the night after his
murder at the massacre of St. Bartholomew, and in the following lines:
"_Sans pieds, sans mains, sans nez, sans oreilles, sans yeux,
Meurtri de toutes parts; la barbe et les cheveux
Poudreux, ensanglantez, chose presque incredible!
Tant cette vision etoit triste et horrible!_"
"Here it immediately appeared to what author Shakspeare had gone for
the archetype of his own description of the last stage of old age,
which, by a parody on the above lines, he meant to represent like to
that mutilated ghost; and this seems to indicate that he had read that
poem in the original; for we even find the _meurtri de toutes parts_
imitated by _sans every thing_. A friend of mine formerly mentioned
this to Mr. Steevens, and he has briefly noticed this parody, if I
recollect rightly, in his joint edition along with Johnson[55:A], but
he did not copy the original lines of Garnier; nor so far as I know
any editor since; which however are too remarkable to be altogether
consigned to oblivion; and it is not very likely, that any Englishman
will ever read through that long dull poem; neither should I myself
have known of those lines, if they had not been quoted as a specimen.
Steevens's note is so very brief as to be quite obscure in regard to
what consequence he thought deducible from the imitation: he seems
to suggest as if there might have been some English translation of
the poem published, though now unknown; this is the constant refuge
for Shakspeare's knowledge of any thing written originally in another
language. But even if the fact were true, yet no translator would have
preserved the repetition of that word _sans_; for this he must have
gone to the French poem itself, therefore must at least have been
able to read that line in French, if not also the whole description
of the ghost; and if that, why not able also to read other French
books? It may indeed, be _supposed_, that some friend may have shown
him the above description, and explained to him the meaning of the
French lines, but this is only to make a second supposition in order to
support a former one made without sufficient foundation: we may just
as well make a single supposition at once, that he was himself able
to read and understand it, since he has evidently derived from it his
own description of the decrepitude of old age. Upon the whole, if his
copy of a single word from Holinshed, viz. 'on _this_ side Tiber,' is
a proof of his having read that historian, why also is not his copy of
the repetition of _sans_, and his parody of Coligny's ghost, an equally
good proof of his having read the poem of Garnier in the original
French language? To reason otherwise is to say, that when he gives us
bad French, this proves him not to understand it; and that when he
gives us good French, applied with propriety and even with ingenuity,
yet this again equally proves that he neither understood what he wrote,
nor was so much as able to read the French lines, which he has thus so
wittily imitated."[56:A]
Dr. Farmer has himself granted that Shakspeare _began_ to learn Latin:
why then not allow, from premises still more copious and convincing,
that he began likewise to learn French and Italian? That he wanted not
inclination for the attempt, the frequent use of these languages in his
works will sufficiently evince; that he had some leisure at the period
which we have appropriated to these acquisitions, namely, between the
years 1576 and 1582, few will be disposed to deny; and that he had
books which might enable him to make some progress in these studies,
the following list will ascertain:—
1. A Treatyse English and French right necessarye and profitable for
all young Children. 1560.
2. Principal Rules of the Italian Grammar, &c. Newly corrected and
imprinted by Wykes: 1560, reprinted 1567.
3. The Italian Grammar and Dictionary: By W. Thomas. 1561.
4. Lentulo's Italian Grammar, put into English: By Henry Grenthem. 1578.
5. Ploiche, Peter, Introduction to the French Tongue. 1578.
6. An Alvearie, or Quadruple Dictionarie, containing foure sundrie
tongues: namelie, English, Latine, Greeke, and French: By I. Baret.
1580.[57:A]
In short, with regard to the literature of Shakspeare, the nearest
approximation to the truth will be found to arise from taking a medium
course between the conclusions of Dr. Farmer, and of those who have
gone into a contrary extreme. That he had made some and that the
usual progress in the Latin language during the short period of his
school-education, it is, we think, in vain to deny; but that he ever
attained the power of reading a Roman classic with facility, cannot
with any probability be affirmed: it will be likewise, we are disposed
to believe, equally rational and correct, if we conclude, from the
evidence which his genius and his works afford, that his acquaintance
with the French and Italian languages was not merely confined to the
picking up _a familiar phrase or two_ from the conversation or writings
of others, but that he had actually commenced, and at an early period
too, the study of these languages, though, from his situation, and the
circumstances of his life, he had neither the means nor the opportunity
of cultivating them to any considerable extent.[58:A]
FOOTNOTES:
[34:A] "Mr. Betterton," observes Mr. Malone, "was born in 1635, and had
many opportunities of collecting information relative to Shakspeare,
but unfortunately the age in which he lived was not an age of
curiosity. Had either he or Dryden or Sir William d'Avenant taken the
trouble to visit our poet's youngest daughter, who lived till 1662, or
his grand-daughter, who did not die till 1670, many particulars might
have been preserved which are now irrecoverably lost. Shakspeare's
sister, Joan Hart, who was only five years younger than him, died
at Stratford in Nov. 1646, at the age of seventy-six; and from her
undoubtedly his two daughters, and his grand-daughter Lady Bernard, had
learned several circumstances of his early history antecedent to the
year 1600." Reed's Shakspeare, p. 119, 120.
[34:B] It has already been observed, in a note written some years after
the composition of the text, that this supposed corroboration is no
longer to be depended upon.
[35:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ix. p. 322, 323.
[36:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xviii. p. 346, 347.
[36:B] Aubrey MS.—Reed's Shakspeare, vol. iii. p. 213.
[37:A] Mr. Malone is also of opinion that Shakspeare was present at
this magnificent reception of Elizabeth. Vide "Inquiry," p. 150. note
82.
[37:B] So denominated from a tract, written by _George Gascoigne_ Esq.,
entitled "The Princely Pleasures of Kenelworth Castle." It is inserted
in Nichols's Progresses of Queen Elizabeth, vol. i.
[38:A] Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, vol. i. p. 143. 4th edition.
[38:B] Nichols's Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth,
vol. i. Laneham's Account of the Queen's Entertainment at Killingworth
Castle, 1575, p. 50. or 78. of the original pamphlet.
[39:A] Life of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, 1727. 8vo. p. 92.
[39:B] Hurd's Moral and Political Dialogues, vol. i. p. 148. Edit. of
1788.
[40:A] Laneham's Account, p. 65. of the Original.
[40:B] The following extract from Laneham's Letter, which immediately
follows the passage given in the text, and in which I have dropped the
author's singular orthography, will afford the reader a curious and
very entertaining description of the costly and magnificent gardens
of Kenelworth Castle, gardens in which it is probable the youthful
Shakpeare had more than once wandered with delight:—
"Unto this, His Honour's exquisite appointment of a beautiful garden,
an acre or more of quantity, that lieth on the north there: wherein
hard all along the castle-wall is reared a pleasant terrace of a ten
foot high, and a twelve broad: even under foot, and fresh of fine
grass; as is also the side thereof toward the garden, in which, by
sundry equal distances, with obelisks, spheres, and white bears, all of
stone, upon their curious bases, by goodly shew were set: to these two
fine arbours redolent by sweet trees and flowers, at each end one, the
garden plot under that, with fair allies green by grass, even voided
from the borders a both sides, and some (for change) with sand, not
light or too soft or soily by dust, but smooth and firm, pleasant to
walk on, as a sea-shore when the water is availd: then, much gracified
by due proportion of four even quarters: in the midst of each, upon a
base a two foot square, and high, seemly bordered of itself, a square
pilaster rising pyramidally of a fifteen foot high: simmetrically
pierced through from a foot beneath, until a two foot of the top:
whereupon for a capital, an orb of a ten inches thick: every of these
(with his base) from the ground to the top, of one whole piece; hewn
out of hard porphery, and with great art and heed (thinks me) thither
conveyed and there erected. Where, further also, by great cast and
cost, the sweetness of savour on all sides, made so repirant from the
redolent plants and fragrant herbs and flowers, in form, colour, and
quantity so deliriously variant; and fruit-trees bedecked with apples,
pears, and ripe cherries.
"And unto these, in the midst against the terrace, a square cage,
sumptuous and beautiful, joined hard to the north wall (that a that
side gards the garden as the garden the castle), of a rare form and
excellency, was raised: in height a twenty foot, thirty long, and a
fourteen broad. From the ground strong and close, reared breast high,
whereat a soil of a fair moulding was couched all about: from that
upward, four great windows a front, and two at each end, every one a
five foot wide, as many more even above them, divided on all parts by
a transome and architrave, so likewise ranging about the cage. Each
window arched in the top, and parted from other in even distance by
flat fair bolted columns, all in form and beauty like, that supported
a comely cornish couched all along upon the bole square; which with a
wire net, finely knit, of mashes six square, an inch wide (as it were
for a flat roof) and likewise the space of every window with great
cunning and comeliness, even and tight was all over-strained. Under the
cornish again, every part beautified with great diamonds, emeralds,
rubies, and sapphires; pointed, tabled, rok and round; garnished with
their gold, by skilful head and hand, and by toil and pencil so lively
expressed, as it mought be great marvel and pleasure to consider how
near excellency of art could approach unto perfection of nature.
"Holes were there also and caverns in orderly distance and fashion,
voided into the wall, as well for heat, for coolness, for roost a
nights and refuge in weather, as also for breeding when time is. More,
fair even and fresh holly-trees for pearching and proining, set within,
toward each end one.
"Hereto, their diversity of meats, their fine several vessels for their
water and sundry grains; and a man skilful and diligent to look to them
and tend them.
"But (shall I tell you) the silver sounded lute, without the sweet
touch of hand; the glorious golden cup, without the fresh fragrant
wine; or the rich ring with gem, without the fair featured finger;
is nothing indeed in his proper grace and use: even so His Honour
accounted of this mansion, till he had placed their tenants according.
Had it therefore replenished with lively birds, _English_, _French_,
_Spanish_, _Canarian_, and (I am deceived if I saw not some) _African_.
Whereby, whether it became more delightsome in change of tunes, and
harmony to the ear; or else in difference of colours, kinds, and
properties to the eye, I'll tell you if I can, when I have better
bethought me.
"In the centre (as it were) of this goodly garden, was there placed a
very fair fountain, cast into an eight-square, reared a four foot high;
from the midst whereof a column up set in shape of two Athlants joined
together a back half; the one looking east, tother west, with their
hands upholding a fair formed bowl of a three foot over; from whence
sundry fine pipes did lively distill continual streams into the receipt
of the fountain, maintained still two foot deep by the same fresh
falling water: wherein pleasantly playing to and fro, and round about,
carp, tench, bream, and for variety, perch, and eel, fish fair-liking
all, and large: In the top, the _ragged staff_; which with the bowl,
the pillar, and eight sides beneath, were all hewn out of rich and hard
white marble. A one side _Neptune_ with his tridental fuskin triumphing
in his throne, trailed into the deep by his marine horses. On another,
_Thetis_ in her chariot drawn by her dolphins. Then _Triton_ by his
fishes. Here _Proteus_ herding his sea-bulls. There _Doris_ and her
daughters solacing a sea and sands. The waves scourging with froth
and foam, intermingled in place, with whales, whirlpools, sturgeons,
tunnies, conchs, and wealks, all engraven by exquisite device and
skill, so as I may think this not much inferior unto _Phœbus_ gates,
which (Ovid says) and peradventure a pattern to this, that _Vulcan_
himself did cut: whereof such was the excellency of art, that the work
in value surmounted the stuff, and yet were the gates all of clean
massy silver.
"Here were things, ye see, mought inflame any mind to long after
looking: but whoso was found so hot in desire, with the wreast of a cok
was sure of a cooler: water spurting upward with such vehemency, as
they should by and by be moistened from top to toe; the he's to some
laughing, but the she's to more sport. This some time was occupied to
very good pastime.
"A garden then so appointed, as wherein aloft upon sweet shawdowed
walk of terrace, in heat of summer, to feel the pleasant whisking
wind above, or delectable coolness of the fountain spring beneath: to
taste of delicious strawberries, cherries and other fruits, even from
their stalks: to smell such fragrancy of sweet odours, breathing from
the plants, herbs, and flowers: to hear such natural melodious musick
and tunes of birds: to have in eye, for mirth, some time these under
springing streams; then, the woods, the waters (for both pool and
chase were hard at hand in sight,) the deer, the people (that out of
the east arbour in the base court also at hand in view,) the fruits
trees, the plants, the herbs, the flowers, the change in colours, the
birds flittering, the fountain streaming, the fish swimming, all in
such delectable variety, order, dignity; whereby, at one moment, in one
place, at hand, without travel, to have so full fruition of so many
God's blessings, by entire delight unto all senses (if all can take)
at once: for _etymon_ of the word worthy to be called _Paradise_: and
though not so goodly as _Paradise_ for want of the fair rivers, yet
better a great deal by the lack of so unhappy a tree." Pages 66-72.
[42:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. i. p. 59.
[43:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. i. p. 60. note 7.
[43:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. iii. p. 214.
[43:C] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ii. p. 276.
[43:D]
"'——— For what in me was _purchased_,
Falls upon thee in a much fairer sort.'
_K. Hen. IV. P. II._
"_Purchase_ is here used in its strict legal sense, in
contradistinction to an acquisition by _descent_.
'Unless the devil have him in _fee-simple, with fine and recovery_.'
_Merry Wives of Windsor._
'He is 'rested _on the case_.' _Comedy of Errors._
'——— with _bills_ on their necks, Be it known unto all men by
these presents,' &c. _As you like it._
'——— who writes himself armigero, in any _bill, warrant,
quittance, or obligation_.' _Merry Wives of Windsor._
'Go with me to a notary, seal me there
Your _single bond_.' _Merchant of Venice._
'Say, for non-payment that the debt should double.'
_Venus and Adonis._
"On a conditional bond's becoming forfeited for non-payment of money
borrowed, the whole penalty, which is usually the double of the
principal sum lent by the obligee, was formerly recoverable at law. To
this our poet here alludes.
'But the defendant doth that plea deny;
To 'cide his title, is impanell'd
A quest of thoughts.' _Sonnet 46._
"In _Much Ado about Nothing_, Dogberry charges the watch to keep their
_fellow's counsel and their own_. This Shakspeare transferred from the
oath of a grand juryman.
'And let my officers of such a nature
Make an _extent_ upon his house and lands.'
_As you like it._
'He was taken _with the manner_.'
_Love's Labour's lost._
'_Enfeof'd_ himself to popularity.'
_K. Hen. IV. P. I._
'He will seal the fee-simple of his salvation, and cut the
entail from all remainders, and a perpetual succession for it
perpetually.' _All's Well that ends Well._
'Why, let her _accept before excepted_.'
_Twelfth Night._
'——— which is four terms or two actions;—and he shall laugh
without _intervallums_.' _K. Hen. IV. P. II._
'——— keeps leets and _law-days_.' _K. Richard II._
'_Pray in aid_ for kindness.' _Anthony and Cleopatra._
"No writer but one who had been conversant with the technical language
of leases and other conveyances, would have used _determination_ as
synonymous to _end_. Shakspeare frequently uses the word in that
sense. See vol. xii. (Reed's Shakspeare,) p. 202. n. 2.; vol. xiii. p.
127. n. 4.; and (Mr. Malone's edit.) vol. x. p. 202. n. 8. 'From and
after the _determination_ of such a term,' is the regular language of
conveyancers.
'Humbly complaining to Your Highness.'
_K. Richard III._
'Humbly complaining to Your Lordship, your orator,' &c. are the first
words of every bill in chancery.
'A kiss in fee farm! In witness whereof these parties
interchangeably have set their hands and seals.'
_Troilus and Cressida._
'Art thou a _feodary_ for this act?' _Cymbeline._
"See the note on that passage, vol. xviii. p. 507, 508. n. 3. Reed's
edit.
'Are those _precepts_ served?' says Shallow to Davy, in _K.
Henry IV._
"_Precept_ in this sense is a word only known in the office of a
justice of peace.
'Tell me what state, what dignity, what honour,
Can'st thou _demise_ to any child of mine?'
_K. Richard III._
'——— hath _demised_, granted, and to farm let,' is the constant
language of leases. What _poet_ but Shakspeare has used the word
_demised_ in this sense?
"Perhaps it may be said, that our author in the same manner may be
proved to have been equally conversant with the terms of divinity or
physic. Whenever as large a number of instances of his ecclesiastical
or medicinal knowledge shall be produced, what has now been stated will
certainly not be entitled to any weight." Malone, Reed's Shakspeare,
vol. ii. p. 276. n. 9.
[46:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. iii. p. 222, 223.
[46:B] Whiter's Specimen of a Commentary, p. 95. note. As
Mr. Whiter has not chosen to append these additional examples, I have
thought it would be satisfactory to give the few which more immediately
occur to my memory.
"Immediately provided in that case."
_Midsummer Night's Dream._
"Royally attornied." _Winter's Tale._
"That doth _utter_ all men's ware-a."
_Winter's Tale._
"Thy title is _affeer'd_." (This is a law-term for confirmed.)
"Keep leets, and law-days, and in sessions sit."
_Othello._
"Why should calamity be full of words?
Windy _attorneys_ to their _client_ woes."
_Richard III._
"But when the heart's _attorney_ once is mute,
The _client_ breaks, as desperate in his suit."
_Venus and Adonis._
"So now I have confessed that he is thine,
And I myself am _mortgaged to thy Will_."
_Sonnet 134._
"He learn'd but, _surety-like_, to write for me,
_Under that bond that him as fast doth bind_.
The _statute_ of thy beauty, &c."
_Sonnet 134._
[47:A] Chalmers's Apology, p. 554. The "Lawiers Logike" was written by
Abraham Fraunce.
[50:A] Ireland's Picturesque Views, p. 229-233.
[50:B] Act i. sc. 2.
[50:C] Act v. sc. 1.
[51:A] Mr. Edwards and Mr. Steevens have conjectured that _Barton_
and _Woodmancot_, vulgarly pronounced _Woncot_, in Gloucestershire,
might be the places meant by Shakspeare; and Mr. Tollet remarks, that
_Woncot_, may be put for _Wolphmancote_, vulgarly _Ovencote_, in
Warwickshire. Vide Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ix. p. 30., and vol. xii. p.
240.
[51:B] Act v. sc. 3.
[52:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xx. p. 38. n. 2.
[53:A] Holinshed's Chronicles, vol. iv. p. 126. edit. of 1808.
[54:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ii. p. 85. Mr. Capel Lofft's opinion
of the Italian literature of Shakspeare is somewhat more extended
than my own. "My impression," says he, "is, that Shakspeare was not
unacquainted with the most popular authors in _Italian prose_: and that
his ear had listened to the enchanting tones of _Petrarca_ and some
others of their great poets." Preface to his Laura, p. cxcii.
[55:A] This notice does not appear in the Variorum edition of 1803.
[56:A] Censura Literaria, vol. ix. p. 287. et seq.
[57:A] Vide Chalmers's Apology, p. 549. and Bibliotheca Reediana, p. 9.
[58:A] Since these observations were written, a work has fallen into my
hands under the title of "A Tour in Quest of Genealogy, through several
parts of Wales, Somersetshire, and Wiltshire, in a Series of Letters
to a Friend in Dublin; interspersed with a description of Stourhead
and Stonehenge; together with various Anecdotes and curious Fragments
from a Manuscript Collection ascribed to Shakespeare. By a Barrister."
London, 1811.
These manuscripts ascribed to Shakspeare, which, from the language and
sentiment of almost every line, are manifestly a mere fiction, are
said to have been purchased at an auction at Carmarthen, consisting of
verses and letters that passed between Shakspeare and his mistress Anne
Hatheway, together with letters to and from him and others, a journal
of Shakspeare, an account of many of his plays, memoirs of his life by
himself, &c. I have mentioned the publication in this place, as it is
worthy of remark, that the fabricator of these MSS., whoever he is,
appears to have entertained an idea similar to my own, with regard
to the period when our poet attempted the acquisition of the modern
languages; for of the supposed memoirs said to be written by Shakspeare
himself, the following, among others, is given as a specimen:—
"Having an ernest desier to lerne forraine tonges, it was mie good happ
to have in mie fathere's howse an Italian, one Girolama Albergi, tho
he went bye the name of Francesco Manzini, a dier of woole; but he was
not what he wished to passe for; he had the breedinge of a gentilman,
and was a righte sounde scholer. It was he taught me the littel
Italian I know, and rubbed up my Latten; we redd Bandello's Novells
together, from the which I gatherid some delliceous flowres to stick
in mie dramattick poseys. He was nevew to Battisto Tibaldi, who made
a translacion of the Greek poete, Homar, into Italian; he showed me a
coppy of it given him by hys kinsman, Ercole Tibaldi." P. 202.
I must do the author of this literary forgery, however, the justice to
say, that in taste and genius he is immeasurably beyond his youthful
predecessor, and that some of the verses ascribed to _Anna_ Hatheway,
as he terms her, possess no inconsiderable beauties. It is most
extraordinary, however, that any individual should venture to bring
forward the following lines, which are exquisitely modern in their
structure, as the production of a cottage girl of the sixteenth century.
TO THE BELOVYD OF THE MUSES AND MEE.
SWEETE swanne of Avon, thou whoose art
Can mould at will the human hart,
Can drawe from all who reade or heare,
The unresisted smile and teare:
By thee a vyllege maiden found,
No care had I for measured sounde;
To dresse the fleese that Willie wrought
Was all I knewe, was all I sought.
At thie softe lure too quicke I flewe,
Enamored of thie songe I grew;
The distaffe soone was layd aside,
And all mie woork thie straynes supply'd.
Thou gavest at first th' inchanting quill,
And everie kiss convay'd thie skill;
Unfelt, ye maides, ye cannot tell
The wondrous force of suche a spell.
Nor marvell if thie breath transfuse
A charme repleate with everie muse;
They cluster rounde thie lippes, and thyne
Distill theire sweetes improv'd on myne.
ANNA HATHEWAY.