Henry the Sixth hath ever been doubted; and a paffage in the above-quoted piece of Nafh may give us reafon to believe, it was previous to our author. "Howe would it haue joyed braue Talbot (the terror of the French) to thinke that after he had lyen two hundred yeare in his toomb, he should triumph again on the ftage; and haue his bones new embalmed with the teares of ten thousand fpectators at leaft (at feuerall times) who in the tragedian that reprefents his perfon, imagine they behold him fresh bleeding."I have no doubt but Henry the Sixth had the fame author with Edward the Third, which hath been recovered to the world in Mr. Capell's Prolufions. It hath been obferved, that the Giant of Rabelais is fometimes alluded to by Shakspeare: and in his time no tranflation was extant.-But the story was in every one's hand. In a letter by one Laneham, or Langham, for the name is written differently, concerning the entertainment at Killingwoorth Caftle, printed 1575, we have a lift of the vulgar romances of the age: "King Arthurz book, Huon of Burdeaus, Friar Rous, Howleglafs, and GARGANTUA." Meres3 2 It is indeed of no importance, but I fufpect the former to be right, as I find it corrupted afterward to Lanam and Lanum. 3 This author by a pleafant miftake in fome fenfible Conje&ures on Shakspeare lately printed at Oxford, is quoted by the name of Maifler. Perhaps the title-page was imperfect; it runs thus: "Palladis Tamia. Wits Treafury. Being the fecond part of Wits Commonwealth, By Francis Meres Maifter of Artes of both Univerfities." I am glad out of gratitude to this man, who hath been of frequent fervice to me, that I am enabled to perfect Wood's account of him; from the affiftance of our Mafler's very accurate lift of graduates, (which it would do honour to the univerfity to print at the publick expenfe) and the kind information of a friend from the regifter of his parish:-He was originally of Pembroke-Hall, mentions him as equally hurtful to young minds with the Four Sons of Aymon, and the Seven Champions. And John Taylor hath him likewife in his catalogue of authors, prefixed to Sir Gregory Nonfence.* But to come to a conclufion, I will give you an irrefragable argument, that Shakspeare did not understand two very common words in the French and Latin languages. According to the articles of agreement between the conqueror Henry and the king of France, the latter was to style the former, (in the corrected French of the modern editions,) "Noftre tres cher filz Henry roy d'Angleterre ; and in Latin, Præclariffimus filius," &c. " What," fays Dr. Warburton, “is tres cher in French, præclariffimus in Latin! we fhould read præcariffimus."-This appears to be exceedingly true; but how came the blunder? it is a typographical one in Holinfhed, which Shakspeare copied; but muft indifputably have corrected, had he been acquainted with the languages." Our faid B. A. in 1587, and M. A. 1591. About 1602 he became rector of Wing in Rutland; and died there, 1646, in the 81ft year of his age. + I have quoted many pieces of John Taylor, but it was impoffible 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; I will mention one for the humour of the title: " Drinke and welcome, or the famous Hiftory of the most part of Drinkes in ufe in Greate Britaine and Ireland; with an efpecial Declaration of the Potency, Vertue, and Operation of our English Ale: with a defcription of all forts of Waters, from the Ocean Sea to the Tears of a Woman, 4to. 1633." In Wits Merriment, or Lufty Drollery, 1656, we have Epitaph on John Taylor, who was born in the city of Glocefter, and dyed in Phoenix Alley, in the 75 yeare of his age; you may find him, if the worms have not devoured him, in Covent Garden church-yard," p. 130.-He died about two years before. an 66 father, during his life, fhall name, call, and write us in French in this maner: Noftre tres chier filz, Henry roy d'Engleterre-and in Latine in this maner, Præclariffimus filius nofter." Edit. 1587, P. 574. To corroborate this inftance, let me obferve to you, though it be nothing further to the purpose, that another error of the fame kind hath been the fource of a mistake in an hiftorical paffage of our author; which hath ridiculously troubled the criticks. Richard the Third' harangues his army before the battle of Bofworth: "Remember whom ye are to cope withal, 66 "Our mother," Mr. Theobald perceives to be 5 Some inquiry hath been made for the first performers of the capital characters in Shakspeare. We learn, that Burbage, the alter Rofcius of Camden, was the original Richard, from a paffage in the poems of Bishop Corbet; who introduces his hoft at Bosworth describing the battle: "But when he would have faid 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 fometimes miftaken for Shakfpeare's, was a Latin one, and written by Dr. Legge; and acted at St. John's in our univerfity, fome 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 paffage in Camden's Annals, that there was an old play likewife on the subject of Richard the Second; but I know not in what language. Sir Gelley Merrick, who was concerned in the harebrained bufinefs of the Earl of Effex, and was hanged for it with the ingenious Cuffe, in 1601, is accufed amongst other things," quod exoletam Tragoediam de tragicà abdicatione Regis Ricardi Secundi in publico theatro coram conjuratis datâ pecuniâ agi curaffet." wrong, and Henry was fomewhere fecreted on the continent: he reads therefore, and all the editors after him, Long kept in Bretagne at his mother's coft." But give me leave to transcribe a few more lines from Holinfhed, and you will find at once, that Shakspeare had been there before me:" Ye fee further, how a companie of traitors, theeves, outlaws and runnagates be aiders and partakers of his feat and enterprife.-And to begin with the erle of Richmond captaine of this rebellion, he is a Welsh milkfop-brought up by my moother's meanes and mine, like a captive in a clofe cage in the court of Francis duke of Britaine." P. 756. Holinfhed copies this verbatim from his brother chronicler Hall, edit. 1548, fol. 54; but his printer hath given us by accident the word moother inftead of brother; as it is in the original, and ought to be in Shakspeare." I hope, my good friend, you have by this time acquitted our great poet of all piratical depredations on the ancients, and are ready to receive my conclufion. He remembered perhaps enough of his School-boy learning to put the Hig, bag, bog, into the 6 I cannot take my leave of Holinfhed without clearing up a difficulty, which hath puzzled his biographers. Nicholfon and other writers have fuppofed him a clergyman. Tanner goes further, and tells us, that he was educated at Cambridge, and actually took the degree of M. A. in 1544. Yet it appears by his will, printed by Hearne, that at the end of life he was only a fterward, or a fervant in fome capacity or other, to Thomas Burdett, Efq. of Bromcote, in Warwickshire.-Thefe things Dr. Campbell could not reconcile. The truth is, we have no claim to the education of the Chronicler: the M. A. in 1544, was not Raphael, but one Ottiwell Holing fhed, who was afterward named by the founder one of the first Fellows of Trinity College. mouth of Sir Hugh Evans; and might pick up in the writers of the time, or the courfe of his converfation, a familiar phrase or two of French or Italian but his ftudies were most demonstratively confined to nature and his own language. In the course of this difquifition, you have often fmiled at "all fuch reading, as was never read;" and poffibly I may have indulged it too far: but it is the reading neceffary for a comment on Shakfpeare. Those who apply folely to the ancients for this purpose, may with equal wifdom ftudy the TALMUD for an expofition of TRISTRAM SHANDY. Nothing but an intimate acquaintance with the writers of the time, who are frequently of no other value, can point out his allufions, and afcertain his phrafcology. The reformers of his text are for ever equally pofitive, and equally wrong. The cant of the age, a provincial expreffion, an obfcure proverb, an obsolete cuftom, a hint at a perfon or a fact no longer remembered, hath continually defeated the best of our gueffers: You must not fuppofe me to speak at random, when I affure you, that from fome forgotten book or other, I can demonftrate this to you in many hundred places; and I almoft with, that I had not been perfuaded into a different employment. Afcham in the Epiftle prefixed to his Toxophilas, 1571, obferves of them, that Manye Englifhe writers, ufinge ftraunge wordes, as Lattine, Frenche, and Italian, do make all thinges darke and harde. Ones," fays he, "I communed with a man which reafoned the Englifhe tongue to be enriched and encreased thereby, fayinge: Who will not prayfe that feaft, where a man fhall drincke at a dinner both wyne, ale, and beere? Truly (quoth I) they be al good, euery one taken by himfelfe alone, but if you put Malmefye, and facke, redde wyne and white, ale and beere, and al in one pot, you fhall make a drinke neither easye to be knowen, nor yet holfome for the bodye." |