for what books had given the former; and the judgment of a great man upon this occafion was, approbation by telling his auditors, By G-'tis good, and if you like't, you may; and by pouring out against thofe who preferred our poet to him, a torrent of illiberal abufe; which, as Mr. Walpole juftly obferves, fome of his contemporaries were willing to think wit, because they were afraid of it: for, notwithstanding all his arrogant boats, notwithstanding all the clamor of his partizans both in his own life-time and for fixty years after his death, the truth is, that his pieces, when first performed, were fo far from being applauded by the people, that they were fcarcely endured; and many of them were actually damned.

the fine plah and velvets of the age

« Did oft for fixpence damn thee from the flage, fays one of his eulogifts in Jonfonius Virbius, 4to. 1638. Jonfon himself owns that Sejanus was damned. It is a poem, " fays he, in his dedication to lord Aubigny, that, if I well remember, in your lordship's fight fuffered no lefs violence from our people here, than the fubject of it did from the rage of the people of Rome.", His friend E. B. (probably Edmund Bolton,) fpeaking of the fame performance, fays,

But when I view'd the people's beaftly rage,

"Bent to confound thy grave and learned toil,
"That coft thee fo much fweat and fo much oil,
My indignation I could hardly affuage

Again, in his dedication of Catiline to the earl of Pembroke, the author fays, Pofterity may pay your benefit the honor and thanks, when it fhall know that you dare in thefe jig-given times to countenance a legitimate poem. I must call it so, against all noife of opinion, from whofe crude and ayrie reports I appeal to that great and fingular facultie of judgment in your lordship. "

See alfo the Epilogue to Every man in his humor, by lord Buckhurft, quoted below in the Account of our old English Theatres, ad finem. To his teftimony and that of Mr. Drummond of Hawthornden, (there alfo mentioned,) may be added that of Leonard Digges in his Verfes on Shakspeare, and of Sir Robert Howard, who fays in the preface to his plays, folio, 1665, (not thirty years after Ben's death,) ‹‹ When I coulider how fevere the former age has been to fome of the best of Mr. Jonfon's neverto-be-equall'd comedies, I cannot but wonder, why any poet fhould fpeak of former times. The truth is, that however extravagant the elogiums were that a few fcholars gave him in

I think, very juft and proper. In a converfation between Sir John Suckling, Sir William D'Avenant, Endymion Porter, Mr. Hales of Eton, and Ben Jonfon, Sir John Suckling, who was a profeffed admirer of Shakspeare, had undertaken his defence against Ben Jonson with fome warmth; Mr. Hales, who had fat ftill for fome time, told them,' That if Mr. Shakspeare had not read the ancients, he had likewife not ftolen any thing from them; and that if he would produce any one topick finely treated by any one of them, he would undertake to fhew fomething upon the fame fubject at least as well written by Shakspeare."

their clofets, he was not only not admired in his own time by the generality, but not even understood. His friend Beaumont affures him in a copy ofverfes, that his fenfe is fo deep that he will not be understood for three ages to come.", MALONE.

66

9 Mr. Hales, who had fat ftill for fome time, told them,) In Mr. Rowe's first edition this paffage runs thus :

2

Mr. Hales, who had fat ftill for fome time, hearing Ben frequently reproach him with the want of learning and ignorance of the antients, told him at last, That if Mr. Shakspeare, &c. By the alteration, the fubfequent part of the fentence if he would produce, &c. is rendered ungrammatical. MALONE. he would undertake to fhew fomething upon the fame fubject at least as well written by Shakspeare.) I had long endeavoured in vain to find out on what authority this relation was founded; and have very lately difcovered that Mr. Rowe probably derived his information from Dryden: for in Gildon's Letters and Effays, published in 1694, fifteen years before this Life appeared, the fame ftory is told; and Dryden, to whom an Effay in vindication of Shakspeare is addreffed, is appealed to by the writer as his authority. As Gildon tells the story with fome flight variations from the account given by Mr. Rowe, and the book in which it is found is now extremely fearce, I fhall fubjoin the paffage in his own words:

But to give the world fome fatisfaction that Shakspeare has had as great veneration paid his excellence by men of unqueftioned parts, as this I now exprefs for him, I fhall give fome account of what I have heard from your mouth, fir, about the noble triumph he gained over all the ancients, by the judgement of the ableft criticks of that time.

The latter part of his life was spent, as all men

The matter of fact, if my memory fail me not, was this. Mr. Hales of Eton affirmed, that he would fhew all the poets of antiquity out-done by Shakspeare, in all the topicks and common-places made ufe of in poetry. The enemies of Shakspeare would by no means yield him fo much excellence; fo that it came to a refolution of a trial of skill upon that fubject. The place agreed on for the difpute was Mr. Hales's chamber at Eton. A great many books were fent down by the enemies of this poet; and on the appointed day my lord Falkland, Sir John Suckling, and all the perfons of quality that had wit and learning, and interefted themfelves in the quarrel, met there; and upon a thorough difquifition of the point, the judges chofen by agreement out of this learned and ingenious affembly, unanimoufly gave the preference to Shakspeare, and the Greek and Roman poets were adjudged to vail at leaft their glory in that, to the English Hero. "

This elogium on our author is likewife recorded at an earlier period by Tate, probably from the fame authority, in the preface to the Loyal General, quarto, 1680: Our learned Hales was wont to affert, that, fince the time of Orpheus, and the oldeft poets, no common-place has been touched upon, where our author has not performed as well.,,

Dryden himfelfalfo certainly alludes to this ftory, which he appears to have related both to Gildon and Rowe, in the following paffage of his Effay of Dramatick Poey, 1667; and he as well as Gildon goes fomewhat further than Rowe in his panegyrick. After giving that fine character of our poet which Dr. Johnfon has quoted in his preface, he adds, The confideration of this made Mr. Hales of Eton fay, that there was no Jubject of which any poet ever writ, but he would produce it MUCH BETTER done by Shakspeare; and however others are now generally preferred before him, yet the age wherein he lived, which had contemporaries with him, Fletcher and Jonfon, never equalled them to him in their efteem: And in the last king's court (that of Charles I.) when Ben's reputation was at higheft, Sir John Suckling, and with him the greater part of the cour tiers fet our Shakfpeare far above him.",

Let ever-memorable Hales, if all his other merits be forgotten, be ever mentioned with honor, for his good taste and admiration of our poet. He was, " fays Lord Clarendon, one of the leaft men in the kingdom; and one of the greate ft fcholars in Europe. See a long character of him in Clarendon's Life, Vol. I. p. 5. MALONE.

of good fenfe will with theirs may be, in ease, retirement, and the converfation of his friends., He had the good fortune to gather an eftate equal to his occafion,' and, in that, to his wifh; and is faid to have spent fome years before his death at his native Stratford. His pleafureable wit and good

He had the good fortune to gather an eftate equal to his occafion,) Gildon, without authority, I believe, fays, that our author left behind him an eftate of 300l. per ann. This was equal to at leaft 1000l. per ann. at this day; the relative value of money, the mode of living in that age, the luxury and taxes of the prefent time, and various other circumftances, being confidered. But I doubt whether all his property amounted to much more than 2001. per ann. which yet was a confiderable fortune in thofe times. He appears from his grand-daughter's will to have poffeffed in Bishopton, and Stratford Welcombe, four yard land and a half. A yard land is a denomination well known in Warwickshire, and contains from 30 to 60 acres. The average therefore being 45, four yard land and a half may be estimated at about two hundred acres. As fixteen years purchase was the common rate at which land was fold at that time, that is, one half lefs than at this day, we may fuppofe that thefe lands were let at feven fhillings per acre, and produced 70l. per annum. If we rate the New-Place with the appurtenances, and our poet's other houses in Stratford, at 60l. a year, and his houfe &c. in the Blackfriars, (for which he pay'd 140!.) at 201. a year, we have a rent-roll of 150l. per annum. Of his perfonal property it is not now poffible to form any accurate eflimate: but if we rate it at five hundred pounds, money then bearing an intereft of ten per cent, Shakspeare's total income was 2001. per ann.* In The Merry Wives of Windfor, which was written foon after the year 1600, Three hundred pounds a year is defcribed as an estate of fuch magnitude as to cover all the defects of its poffeffor: O, what a world of vile ill-favour'd faults "Look handfome in three hundred pounds a year."

4

MALONE.

to have spent fome years before his death at his native Stratford.) In 1614 the greater part of the town of Stratford was con

*To Shakspeare's income from his real and perfonal property muft be added L. 200 per Ann. which he probably derived from the theatre, while he continued on the stage. See Vol. III. p. 179.

VOL. I.

C

nature engaged him in the acquaintance, and entitled him to the friendship, of the gentlemen of the neighfumed by fire; but our Shakspeare's houfe, among fome others, efcaped the flames. This houfe was firft built by Sir Hugh Clopton, a younger brother of an ancient family in that neighbourhood. Sir Hugh was Sheriff of London in the reign of Richard III. and Lord-Mayor in the reign of King Henry VII. By his will he bequeathed to his elder brother's fon his manor of Clopton, &c. and his houfe, by the name of the Great House in Stratford. Good part of the eftate is yet (in 1733) in the poffeffion of Edward Clopton, efq. and Sir Hugh Clopton, Knt. lineally defcended from the elder brother of the firft Sir Hugh.

The eftate had now been fold cut of the Clopton family for above a century, at the time when Shakspeare became the purchafer: who having repaired and modelled it to his own mind, changed the name to New-Place, which the manfionhoufe fince erected upon the fame fpot, at this day retains. The houfe, and lands which attended it, continued in Shakspeare's defcendants to the time of the Refloration; when they were re-purchafed by the Clopton family, and the manfion now belongs to Sir Hugh Clopton, Knt. To the favor of this worthy gentleman I owe the knowledge of one particular in honor of our poet's once dwelling-houfe, of which I prefume Mr. Rowe never was apprized. When the Civil War raged in England, and King Charles the Firft's Queen was driven by the neceflity of her affairs to make a recefs in Warwickshire, fhe kept her court for three weeks in New-Place. We may reafonably fuppofe it then the beft private houfe in the town; and her Majefly preferred it to the College, which was in the poffeffion of the Combe family, who did not fo ftrongly favor the king's party. THEOBALD.

From Mr. Theobald's words the reader may be led to fuppofe that Henrietta Maria was obliged to take refuge from the rebels in Stratford-upon-Avon: but that was not the cafe. She marched from Newark, June 16, 1643. and entered Stratfordupon-Avon triumphantly, about the 22d of the fame month, at the head of three thousand foot and fifteen hundred horse, with 150 waggons and a train of artillery. Here he was met by Prince Rupert, accompanied by a large body of troops. After fojourning about three weeks at our poet's houfe, which was then poffelfed by bis grand-daughter Mrs. Nafh, and her hufband, the Queen went (July 13) to the plain of Keinton under Edge-hill, to meet the king, and proceeded from thence with.