SHAKSPEARE. 



The number, variety, and verfatility of commentaries 

 that have been fucceffively publiflied on the text of Shak- 

 fpeare's plays almoft exceed credibility ; and a foreigner, or 

 ftranger to the fubjeft, would be more than aftonifhed, were 

 the whole brought in one mals before him. It is true, that 

 many of them are unimportant and ufelcfs, but it is equally 

 true, that feveral of his critical ar.notators have difplayed 

 much refearch, learning, and acutenefs ; and to fuch the 

 philologift and poetical antiquary are much indebted. 

 It was our intention to have given a concife account of 

 thefe; becaufc the whole conftitute the Shakfpearian library ; 

 and all may be regarded as fatellites to the vaft and refplendent 

 poetical planet. The chief editors of liis plays have been al- 

 ready noticed, as well as the refpeftive eras of their different 

 writings. Rowe was the firft to add any thing to the ori- 

 ginal text, by prefixing a memoir of the author. This 

 memoir has been reprinted with almoft every fiicceeding 

 edition, and without any alteration or comment, till Ma- 

 lo.ne accompanied it with notes to his edition of 1790. Mr. 

 Alexander Chalmers, in an edition of 1805, has prefixed a 

 " Sketch of the Life of Shakfpeare," in which he has 

 adopted moft of the Itatemeuts of Rowe, with the addi- 

 tional and correftive remarks of Malone and Steevens. 

 " The whole, however," he remarks, " is unfatisfaftory. 

 Shakfpeare in his private chjrafter, in his friendships, in 

 his amufements, in liis clofet, in his family, is no where 

 before us." 



The plays of Shakfpeare are divided into three dalles, 

 and called in the firit edition «' comedies, hiftories, and tra- 

 gedies." Each is of a dillinft charafter ; but in fome of 

 them there is a mixture of the three in one. " The Merry 

 Wives of Windfor," " The Comedy of Errors," and 

 " The Taming of the Shrew," are all comedies; the reft have 

 fomething of both kinds. It is not eafy to determine in 

 which way of writing he moft excelled. His Falft.ifr is 

 univerfally allowed to be a mafter-piece : the character is 

 always well f\iftained, thougli drawn out into three plays ; 

 and even the account of his death, given by his landlady, 

 Mrs. Quickly, in the firft aft of Henry V. is as natural and 

 diverting as any part of his life. " If there be any fault," 

 fays the critic, " in the draught he has made of this lewd 

 old fellow, it is, that thougti he has made him a thief, a 

 liar, and a coward, and, in fhort, every way vicious, yet 

 he has given him fo much wit, as to make him almoft too 

 agreeable ; and I do not know whether fome people have 

 not, in remembrance of the amufcment which he had for- 

 merly afforded them, been forry to fee his friend Hal ufe 

 him fo fcurvily when he comes to the crown, in the end 

 of the fecond part of Henry IV. Among other extrava- 

 gancies in the ' Merry Wives of Wmdfor,' he has made 

 him a deer-ftealer, that he might have the opportunity of 

 remembering his Warwickfliire profecutor under the name 

 of Jiiftice Shallow." The whole play is admirable, the 

 hnmours are various and well oppoied ; the main defign, 

 which is to cure Ford of hi, unreafonable jealoufy, is ex- 

 tremely well condufted. 



Another of the characters which has been fixed on as 

 ene of Shakfpeare's fine delineations, is that of Shylock, 

 the Jew, in " The Merchant of Venice," in whicii there 

 appears fuch a deadly fpirit of revenge, fuch a favage 

 fiercenefs, and fuch a bloody defignation of cruelty and 

 mifchief, as cannot agree either with the ftyle or charafter 

 of comedy, though ufually ranked as fuch. Taken alto- 

 gether, it is perhaps one of the moft finiftied of Shak- 

 fpeare's pieces ; the tale indeed is improbable in fome of its 

 parts ; but taking the fafts for granted, the ftory is beauti- 

 fully written. There is fomething in the friendfhip of An- 

 tonio and Badanio very great and generous. The whole 



fourth aft is extremely fine, but there are two paffages 

 that are univerfally known and applauded, the one is rn 

 praife of mercy, and the other is on the power of miific. 



The melancholy of Jaques in the comedy of " As yoti 

 like it," is as Angular and odd, as it is amufing, and if, ac- 

 cording to the maxim of Horace, 



" Difficile eft proprie communia dicere," 



it will be a hard taflc for any one to go beyond him in the 

 defcription of the feveral degrees and ages of a man's life. 

 See the article Age. 



His images are indeed every where fo lively, that the 

 thing he would reprefent ftands full before you, and you 

 pofTefs every part of it. Rowe mentions his image of 

 Patience, in the perfon of a young woman in love, as one 

 of the fineft and moft uncommon things ever written ; it it 

 as follows : 



She never told her love ; 



But let concealment, like a worm I'th' bud, 

 Feed on her damaft cheek : flie pin'd in thought, 

 And fat like Patilxce on a monument 

 Smiling at grief." 



The ftyle of his comedy is, in general, natural to tlie 

 charafters, and cafy in itfelf ; and the wit moft commonly 

 fprightly and pleafing, except in thofe places where he 

 runs into doggrel rhimes. But the greatnefs of this au- 

 thor's genius does ho where fo much appear, as where he 

 gives his imagination the entire loofe, and raifes his fancy to 

 A flight above mankind, and beyond the limits of the vifible 

 world. Such are his attempts in the Tempcft, Midfummer 

 Night's Dream, Macbeth, and Hamlet. Of thefe, the 

 Tempeft is thought by able critics to be the moft perfeft 

 in its kind of any thing that Shakfpeare has left behind 

 him. His magic hath fomething in it very folemn, and 

 very poetical : and that extravagant charafter of Caliban 

 is extremely well fuftained, and {hews a wonderful inven- 

 tion in the author, who could ftrike out fuch a particular 

 wild image, and it is certainly one of the fineft tliat was 

 ever exhibited to the human imagination. It has been faid 

 by able judges, that " Shakfpeare had not only found out 

 a new charafter in his Caliban, but had alfo devifed and 

 adapted a new manner of language for that charafter." 



It is tlie fame magic that raifes the fairies in the Mid- 

 fummer Night's Dream, the witches in Macbeth, and the 

 ghoft in Hamlet, with thoughts and language fo proper 

 to the parts they fuftain, and fo peculiar to the talent of 

 this writer. " If," fays the author whom we have fo often 

 quoted, " one undertook to examine the tfreateft part of his 

 tragedies by thofe rules which are eftablifhed by Ariilotle, 

 and taken from the model of the Grecian ftage, it would 

 be no difficult tafk to find a great many faults ; but as Shak- 

 fpeare lived under a kind of mere light of nature, and had 

 never been made acquainted with the regularity of tiiofe 

 written precepts, fo it would be hard to judge him by a 

 law of which lie was ignorant. We are to coufider him as ■ 

 a man, that lived in a ftate of almoll univerfal licence and 

 ignorance ; there was no ellabliflied judge, but every one 

 took the liberty to write according to the diftates of his 

 own fancy. When one confiders, that there is not one 

 play before him of a reputation good enough to entitle it 

 to an appearance on the prefent ftage, it cannot but be a 

 matter of great wonder, that he ftioiild have advanced 

 dramatic poetry as far as he did. 



" It is now a received article of literary faith in Eng- 

 land, that notvvithftanding the faults and defefts with 

 which Shakfpeare abounds, and which were chiefly thofe 

 of his age, 110 dramatift in any country has difplayed fuch 



intimate 



