SOME

ACCOUNT of the LIFE, &c.

OF

Mr. WILLIAM SHAKESPEAR.

I

Written by Mr. Rowe,

T feems to be a kind of refpe&t duete the memory of excellent men, efpecially of thofe whom their wit and learning have made famous, to deliver fome account of themfelves, as

well as their works, to Pofterity. For this reafon, how fond do we fee fome people of difcovering any little perfonal ftory of the great men of Antiquity, their families, the common accidents of their lives, and even their fhape, make and features, have been the subject of critical enquiries. How trifling foever this Curiofity may feem to be, it is certainly very natural; and we are hardly fatisfied with an account of any remarkable perfon, 'till we have heard him describ'd even to the very clothes he wears. As for what relates to men of letters, the knowledge of an Author may fometimes conduce to the better understanding

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his

his book: And tho' the Works of Mr Shakespear may seem to many not to want a comment, yet I fanfy foine little account of the man himself may. not be thought improper to go along with them.

He was the fon of Mr. John Shakespear, and was born at Stratford upon Avon, in Warwickshire, in April 1564. His family, as appears by the Regifter and publick Writings relating to that Town, were of good figure and fahion there, and are mention' as gentlemen. His father, who was a confiderable dealer in wool, had fo large a family, ten children in all, that tho' he was his eldest fon, he could give him no better education than his own employment. He had bred him, 'tis true, for fome time at a Free-fchool, where 'tis probable he acquir'd what Latin he was mafter of: But the narrownefs of his circumftances, and the want of his affiftance at home, forc'd his father to withdraw him from thence, and unhappily prevented his further proficiency in that language. It is without controverfy, that in his works we fcarce find any traces of any thing that looks like an imitation of the Ancients. The delicacy of his tafte, and the natural bent of his own great Genius (equal, if not fuperior to fome of the best of theirs) would certainly have led him to read and ftudy 'em with fo much pleasure, that fome of their fine images would naturally have infinuated themfelves into, and been mix'd with his own writings, fo that his not copying at leaft fomething from them, may be an argoment of his never having read 'em. Whether his ignorance of the Ancients were a difadvantage to him or no, may admit of a difpute: For tho' the knowledge of 'em might have inade him more correct, yet it is not improbable but that the regularity and deference for them, which would have attended that correctnefs, might have reftrain'd fome of that fire, impetuofity, and even beautiful

extra:

extravagance which we admire in Shakespear: And I believe we are better pleas'd with thofe thoughts, altogether new and uncommon, which his own imagination fupply'd him fo abundantly with, than if he had given us the moft beautiful paffages out of the Greek and Latin poets, and that in the most agreeable manner that it was poffible for a master of the English language to deliver 'em.

Upon his leaving fchool, he feems to have given intirely into that way of living which his father propos'd to him; and in order to fettle in the world after a family manner, he thought fit to marry while he was yet very young. His wife was the daughter of one Hathaway, faid to have been a fubflantial yeoman in the neighbourhood of Stratford. In this kind of fettlement he continued for fome time, 'till an extravagance that he was guilty of forc'd him both out of his country and that way of living which he had taken up; and tho' it feem'd at firft to be a blemish upon his good manners, and a misfortune to him, yet it afterwards happily prov'd the occafion of exerting one of the greateit Genius's that ever was known in dramatick Poetry. He had, by a misfortune common enough to young fellows, fallen into ill company; and amongit them, fome that made a frequent practice of Deerftealing, engag'd him with them more than once in robbing a Park that belong'd to Sir Thomas Lucy of Cherlecot, near Stratford. For this he was profecuted by that gentleman, as he thought, fomewhat too feverely; and in order to revenge that ill ufage, he made a ballad upon him. And tho' this, probably the firft effay of his Poetry, be loft, yet it is faid to have been fo very bitter, that it redoubled the profecution against him to that degree, that he was oblig'd to leave his bufinefs and family in Warwickshire, for fome time, and fhelter himfeff in London.

It is at this time, and upon this accident, that he is faid to have made his firft acquaintance in the Play-houfe. He was receiv'd into the Company then in being, at firft in a very mean rank; but his admirable wit, and the natural turn of it to the itage, foon diftinguifh'd him, if not as an extraor dinary Actor, yet as an excellent Writer. His name is printed, as the custom was in thofe times, amongst thofe of the other Players, before fome old Plays, but without any particular account of what fort of parts he us'd to play; and tho' I have inquir'd, I could never meet with any further account of him this way, than that the top of his performance was the ghoft in his own Hamlet. I fhould have been much more pleas'd, to have learn'd from fome certain authority, which was the first Play he wrote; * it would be without doubt a pleasure to any man, curious in things of this kind, to fee and know what was the first effay of a fancy like Shakespear's. Perhaps we are not to look for his beginnings, like thofe of other authors, among their leaft perfect writings; art had fo little, and nature fo large a fhare in what he did, that, for ought I know, the performances of his youth, as they were the most vigorous, and had the most fire and ftrength of imagination in 'em, were the beft. I would not be thought by this to mean, that his fancy was fo loose and extravagant, as to be independent on the rule and government of judgment; but that what he thought, was commonly fo great, fo justly and rightly conceiv'd in it self, that it wanted little or no correction, and was immedi

ately

*The highest date of any I can yet find, is Romeo and Juliet in 1597, when the Author was 33 years old; and Richard the ad, and 38, in the next year, viz, the 34th of bis age. A. P.