Mar. 18. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



239 



LONDON, SATURDAY, MARCH 18, 1854. 



GOSSIPING HISTORY. 



" This is the Jeie 

 That Shakspeare drew." 



I do not know by whom or when the above 

 couplet was first imputed to Pope. The following 

 extracts will show how a story grows, and the 

 parasites which, under unwholesome cultivation, 

 adhere to it. The restoration of Shakspeare's 

 text, and the performance of Shylock as a serious 

 part, are told as usual. 



" In the dumb action of the trial scene he was amaz- 

 ingly descriptive, and through the whole displayed 

 such unequalled merit, as justly entitled him to that 

 very comprehensive, though concise, compliment paid 

 to him by Mr. Pope, who sat in the stage-box on the 

 third night of the reproduction, and who emphatically 

 exclaimed, — 



' This is the Jew 

 That Shakspeare drew.' 

 Life of Macklin, by J. T. Kirkman, vol. i. p. 264. : 

 London, 1799, 2 vols. 8vo. 



The book is ill-written, and no authorities are 

 cited. 



" A few days after, Macklin received an invitation 

 to dine with Lord Bolingbroke at Battersea. He at- 

 tended the rendezvous, and there found Pope and a 

 select party, who complimented him very much on the 

 part of Shylock, and questioned him about many little 

 particulars, relative to his getting up the play, &c. 

 Pope particularly asked him why he wore a red hat, 

 and he answered, because he had read that Jews in 

 Italy, particularly in Venice, wore hats of that colour. 



' And pray, Mr. Macklin,' said Pope, ' do players in 

 general take such pains?' 'I do not know, sir, that 

 they do ; but as I had staked my reputation on the 

 character, I was determined to spare no trouble in 

 getting at the best information.' Pope nodded, and 

 said, ' It was very laudable.'" — Memoirs of Macklin, 

 p. 94., Lond. 1804.^ 



The above work has not the author's name, and is 

 as defective in references as Mr. Kirkman's. It 

 is, however, not quite so trashy. Being published 

 five years later, the author must have seen the 

 preceding Life, and his not repeating the story 

 about the couplet is strong presumption that it 

 was not then believed. It appears again in the 

 Biographia Dramatica, vol. i. p. 469~, London, 

 1812: 



" Macklin's performance of this character (Shylock) 

 so forcibly struck a gentleman in the pit, that he as it 

 were involuntarily exclaimed, ' This is,' &c. It has 

 been said that this gentleman was Mr. Pope." 



I am not aware of its alteration during the next 



forty vears, but this was the state of the anecdote 

 in 1853 : 



" Macklin was a tragedian, and the personal friend 

 of Alexander Pope. He had a daughter, a beautiful 

 and accomplished girl, who was likewise on the stage. 

 On one occasion Macklin's daughter was about to take 

 a benefit at Drury Lane Theatre, and on the morning 

 of that evening, whilst the father and daughter were at 

 breakfast, a young nobleman entered the apartment, 

 and, with the most undisguised ruffianism, made over- 

 tures of a dishonourable character to Macklin for his 

 daughter. The exasperated father, seizing a knife 

 from the table, rushed at the fellow, who on the instant 

 fled, on which Macklin pursued him along the street 

 with the knife in his hand. The cause of the tra- 

 gedian's wild appearance in the street soon got vent 

 in the city. Evening came, and Old Drury seldom 

 saw so crowded a house. The play was the Merchant 

 of Venice, Macklin sustaining the part of Shylock, and 

 his interesting daughter that of Jessica. Their re- 

 ception was most enthusiastic ; but in that scene where 

 the Jew is informed of his daughter being carried off, 

 the whole audience seemed to be quite carried away 

 by Macklin's acting. The applause was immense, and 

 Pope, who was standing in the pit, exclaimed, — 



• That's the Jew that Shakspeare drew.' 



Macklin was much respected in London. He was a 

 native of Monaghan, and a Protestant. His father 

 was a Catholic, and died when he was a child ; and his 

 mother being a Protestant, he was educated as such." 

 — Dublin Weekly Telegraph, Feb. 9, ]853. 



One more version is given in the Irish Quarterly 

 Review, and quoted approvingly in The Leader, 

 Dec. 17, 1853. 



" The house was crowded from the opening of the- 

 doors, and the curtain rose amidst the most dreadful of 

 all awful silence, the stillness of a multitude. The 

 Jew enters in the third scene, and from that point, to 

 the famous scene with Tubal, all passed off with con- 

 siderable applause. Here, however, and in the trial 

 scene, the actor was triumphant, and in the applause of 

 a thousand voices the curtain dropped. The play was 

 repeated for nineteen successive nights with increased 

 success. On the third night of representation all eyes 

 were directed to the stage-box, where sat a little de- 

 formed man ; and whilst others watched his gestures, 

 as if to learn his opinion of the performers, he was 

 gazing intently upon Shylock, and as the actor panted, 

 in broken accents of rage, and sorrow, and avarice — 

 ' Go, Tubal, fee me an officer, bespeak him a fortnight 

 before ; I will have the heart of him, if he forfeit ; for 

 were he out of Venice, I can make what merchandise 

 I will : go, Tubal, and meet me at our synagogue ; 

 go, good Tubal; at our synagogue, Tubal.' — the 

 little man was seen to rise, and leaning from the box, 

 as Macklin passed it, he whispered, — 



4 This is the Jew, 

 That Shakspeare drew.' 



The speaker was Alexander Pope, and, in that age, 

 from his judgment in criticism there was no appeal." 



