SHAKSPEARE. 



his guide and goddefs, his writings excite admiration and 

 delight, the moie intenfely they are lludied. Prompted by 

 infpiration, and impreiled with profound knowledge, with 

 the keen and acute " poet's eye," he commanded every re- 

 gion of the terrellrial globe, penetrated the hidden thoughts 

 of man, gave to " airy nothing a local habitation and a 

 name," and alligned to every paiiion and fenUment " its true 

 form and feature." 



'Tis wonderful, 



That an inviiible inltinft (hould frame him 



To poetry unlearned ; honour untaught ; 



Civility not fcen in other ; knowledge 



That wildly grew in liini, yet yielded crops 



As though it had been fown : for he could find 



" Tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, 



" Sermons in Hones, and good in every thing." — 



Do not fmile at me that I boaft him off. 



For ye fhall find he will outllrip all praife, 



And make it halt behind him. Dovaston. 



Heaven has him now : let our idolatrous fancy therefore 

 fanftify his reliques. Defpairing to be his equals, let us 

 profit by his precepts ; feek to acquire his wiidom ; emu- 

 late his gtntlenefs, talents, and honours. Confcious of the 

 comparative frigidneis of our own faculties, let us warm our 

 hearts at his celeitial fire, and kindle our fouls at his unex- 

 tinguilhable flame ! If enthufialm be jullifiable on any fub- 

 jeft, the writer of the prefent article hopes to Hand excufed 

 ' in giving this latitude to his feelings and exprefllons. He has 

 to regret, with thoufands of others, that the fubjett of this 

 memoir is only known in his writings, and that his perfonal 

 hiftory is as obfcure as that of Homer or Archimedes. In- 

 deed, before we proceed farther, it is neceffary to premife, 

 that a Angular and unaccountable myilery is attached to 

 Shakfpcare's private life ; and, by fome llrange fatality, alnioft 

 every document concerning him has either been deilroyed, or 

 ftill remains in oblcurity. Tlie firfl publifhed memoir of him 

 wa; drawn up by Nicholas Rowe, in 1709, nearly 100 years 

 after the deceafe of the poet ; and the materials for this were 

 furnirtied by Betterton, a player. It fhoilld be remembered, 

 that the age in which he lived was not the age of minute in- 

 quiry. From Rowe's account, and from other evidence, it is 

 clear that our poet was not ambitious of pofthumous fame ; 

 that he difregardcd the cllimat'ion of after ages ; that he was 

 unconfcious of the high merit of his own writings ; and that, 

 though he was much in the public world, and died in com- 

 parative affluence, his private life and charafter were fcarcely 

 noticed by the biographer or critic. To the man of talte 

 and refined fenfibility, he has, however, bequeathed an ex- 

 haulllcfs treafnre in his dramatic produftions ; and as thefe 

 conftitute an cfTential part of the well-llored library, it is 

 equally eflential to record every fadt, and invelligate every 

 problematic (tatemcnt, relating to the incllimable author. 



That he was born at Stratford-upon-Avon, in Warwick- 

 (hirc, on the a^d of April 1564, is well afcertained ; and 

 that he- v>-as bapli/.cd on the 26th of the fame month, appears 

 by the ])arifh regilfer. He is there defcribed as the fon of 

 John Shakfpearc, who, according to Rowe, and moll fub- 

 feqiieiit biographers, was "a cnnfiderable dealer in wool," 

 and whofe " family were of good figure and falhiou." Op- 

 pofed to this Itatement is that of John Aubrey, who entered 

 himfelf as a Undent in the univerfity of Oxford, 1642, only 

 26 years after our poet's death, who derived his information 

 from "fome of the neighbours" of Shakfpesre, and who 

 appears to hav<; made a practice of writing down every fadl 

 and tradition that he heard relating to public charadlers. 



His account is entitled not only to recital, but to cautious 

 confideration. 



" Mr. William Shakcfpear was borne at Stratford-upon- 

 Avon, in the county of Warwick ; his father was a butcher ; 

 and I have been told heretofore hy fom: of the neighbours, that 

 when he was a boy he exercifed his father's trade, but when 

 he kill'da calfe, he would doe it in a high Ityle, and make 

 a fpeech. There was at that time another butcher's fon in 

 this towne that was held not at all inferior to him for a 

 naturall witt, his acquaintance and coetanean, but dyed 

 young. This Wm. being inclined naturally to poetry and 

 afting came to London, J guefle about 18, and was an aftor 

 at one of the play-houfes, and did act exceedingly well. 

 Now 13. Jonfon was nerer a good adlor, but an excellent 

 inftruftor. He began early to make efiayes at dramatique 

 poetry, which at that time was very lowe, and his playe« 

 tooke well. He was a handfome well-fliap'd man, very 

 good company, and of a very readie.and pleafant fmooth 



witt. The humour of the conftable in ji Midfummer 



Night's Dreame he happened to take at Grendon in Bucks, 

 which is the roade from London to Stratford, and there 

 was living that conftable about 1642, when I firft came to 

 Oxoii. Mr. Jos. Howe is of that parifh, and knew him." 

 (See Warton's Life of Sir Thomas Pope.) " Ben Jonfon 

 and he did gather humours of men dayly wherever they 

 came. One time, as he was at the tavern at Stratford-upon- 

 Avon, one Combes, an old rich ufurcr, was to be buryed ; 

 he makes there this extemporary epitaph : 



' Ten in the hundred the devill allowes 

 But Combes will have twelve, he fweares and vowes : 

 If any one alkes who lies in this tombe, 

 'Hoh!' quoth the devill, ' 'tis my John o'Combe.* 



" He was wont to goe to his native country once a ycare. 

 I thinke I have been told that he left 2 or 300 lib. per annum 

 there and there-about to a filler. I have heard fir Wm. 

 Davcnant and Mr. Thomas Shadwell (who is counted the 

 bell comoedian we have now) fay, that he had a mod pro- 

 digious witt, and did admire his#naturall parts beyond all 

 other dramaticall writers. He was wont to fay that he 

 never blotted out a line in his life : fayd Ben Jonfon ' I 

 wilh he had blotted out a thoufand.' His comedies will 

 remain witt as long as the Englilh tongue is underllood, for 

 that he handles mores hominum ; now our prefent writers re- 

 fleCk fo much upon particular perfons and coxcombeities, 

 that twenty yeares hence they will not be underllood. 



" Though, as Ben Jonfon faycs of him, that he had but 

 little Latino and lefl'e Greek, he underllood Latine pretty 

 well, for he had been in his younger yeares a fchoolmaller 

 in the country." The latter fa6t was communicated by 

 Mr. Bcefton. 



In another memorandum Aubrey dates, that 



" Mr. William Sliakefpeare was wont to goe into War- 

 wicklhire once a yeare and did comonly in his journey lye 

 at this houfe in Oxon" (1. e. the Crown tavern, kept by the 

 father of fir William Davenant,) "where he was exceed- 

 ingly rcfpefted. •»*»*» Now fir Wm. would fome- 

 times, when he was pleafant over a glafle of wine with his 

 mod intimate friends, — e.g. Sam. Biitlor (author of Hu- 

 dibras) &c. fay, that it Icemod to him that he writt with 

 the very fpirit that Shakefpeare, and feemed contented 

 enough to be thought his fon • * * * " — Thefe anecdotes 

 are now piiblilhed in " Letters written by eminent Perfons 

 in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries," three vols. 

 8vo. 181J!. 



This account is truly curious and intere!ling ; and in 



fpite 



