this is undoubtedly the case with our Author likewise. The revival of this performance, which Ben Jonson calls stale and mouldy, was probably his earliest attempt in the Drama. I know that another of these discarded pieces, the Yorkshire Tragedy, had been frequently called so; but most certainly it was not written by our Poet at all: nor indeed was it printed in his life-time. The Fact on which it is built was perpetrated no sooner than 1604: much too late for so mean a performance from the hand of Shakespeare. Sometimes a very little matter detects a forgery. You may remember a Play called the Double Falshood, which Mr. Theobald was desirous of palming upon the world for a posthumous one of Shakespeare: and I see it is classed as such in the last Edition of the Bodleian Catalogue. Mr. Pope himself, after all the strictures of Scriblerus, in a Letter to Aaron Hill, supposes it of that age; but a mistaken accent determines it to have been written since the middle of the last century: This late example Of base Henriquez, bleeding in me now, And in another place, You have an Aspect, Sir, of wondrous wisdom. The word Aspect, you perceive, is here accented on the first Syllable, which, I am confident, in any sense of it, was never the case in the time of Shakespeare; though it may sometimes appear to be so, when we do not observe a preceding Elision. Some of the professed Imitators of our old Poets have not attended to this and many other Minutia: I could point out to you several performances in the respective Styles of Chaucer, Spenser, and Shakespeare, which the imitated Bard could not possibly have either read or construed. This very accent hath troubled the Annotators on Milton. Dr. Bentley observes it to be "a tone different from the present use. Mr. Manwaring, in his Treatise of Harmony and Numbers, very solemnly informs us that "this Verse is defective both in Accent and Quantity, B. 3. V. 266. His words here ended, but his meek Aspéct Here," says he, "a syllable is acuted and long, whereas it should be short and graved"! And a still more extraordinary Gentleman, one Green, who published a Specimen of a new Version of the Paradise Lost, into BLANK verse, by which that amazing Work is brought somewhat nearer the Summit of Perfection," begins with correcting a blunder in the fourth book, V. 540: The setting Sun Slowly descended, and with right Aspect- Not so in the New Version : Meanwhile the setting Sun descending slow- Enough of such Commentators.-The celebrated Dr. Dee had a Spirit, who would sometimes condescend to correct him, when peccant in Quantity: and it had been kind of him to have a little assisted the Wights abovementioned. Milton affected the Antique; but it may seem more extraordinary that the old Accent should be adopted in Hudibras. After all, the Double Falshood is superior to Theobald. One passage, and one only in the whole Play, he pretended to have written: Strike up, my Masters; But touch the Strings with a religious softness : And Carelessness grow Convert to Attention. These lines were particularly admired; and his vanity could not resist the opportunity of claiming them: but his claim had been more easily allowed to any other part of the performance. To whom then shall we ascribe it ?-Somebody hath told us, who should seem to be a Nostrum-monger by his argument, that, let Accents be how they will, it is called an original Play of William Shakespeare in the King's Patent, prefixed to Mr. Theobald's Edition, 1728, and consequently there could be no fraud in the matter. Whilst, on the contrary, the Irish Laureat, Mr. Victor, remarks (and were it true, it would be certainly decisive) that the Plot is borrowed from a Novel of Cervantes, not published 'till the year after Shakespeare's death. But unluckily the same Novel appears in a part of Don Quixote, which was printed in Spanish, 1605, and in English by Shelton, 1612. The same reasoning, however, which exculpated our Author from the Yorkshire Tragedy, may be applied on the present occasion. But you want my opinion :-and from every mark of Style and Manner, I make no doubt of ascribing it to Shirley. Mr. Langbaine informs us that he left some Plays in MS. These were written about the time of the Restoration, when the Accent in question was more generally altered. Perhaps the mistake arose from an abbreviation of the name. Mr. Dodsley knew not that the Tragedy of Andromana was Shirley's, from the very same cause. Thus a whole stream of Biographers tell us that Marston's Plays were printed at London, 1633, "by the care of William Shakespeare, the famous Comedian."-Here again I suppose, in some Transcript, the real Publisher's name, William Sheares, was abbreviated. No one hath protracted the life of Shakespeare beyond 1616, except Mr. Hume; who is pleased to add a year to it, in contradiction to all manner of evidence. Shirley is spoken of with contempt in Mac Flecknoe; but his Imagination is sometimes fine to an extraordinary degree. I recollect a passage in the fourth book of the Paradise Lost, which hath been suspected of Imitation, as a prettiness below the Genius of Milton: I mean, where As nature meant her sorrow for an ornament: You must not think me infected with the spirit of Lauder, if I give you another of Milton's Imitations : The Swan with arched neck Between her white wings mantling proudly, rows "The ancient Poets," says Mr. Richardson, “have not hit upon this beauty; so lavish as they have been in their descriptions of the Swan. Homer calls the Swan long-necked, douxodeipov; but how much more pittoresque, if he had arched this length of neck?" For this beauty, however, Milton was beholden to Donne; whose name, I believe, at present is better known than his writings: Like a Ship in her full trim, A Swan, so white that you may unto him Compare all whitenesse, but himselfe to none, Glided along, and as he glided watch'd, And with his arched neck this poore fish catch'd. Progresse of the Soul, St. 24. Those highly finished Landscapes, the Seasons, are indeed copied from Nature: but Thomson sometimes recollected the hand of his Master : The stately-sailing Swan Gives out his snowy plumage to the gale; Bears forward fierce, and guards his osier Isle, But to return, as we say on other occasions-Perhaps the Advocates for Shakespeare's knowledge of the Latin language may be more successful. Mr. Gildon takes the Van. "It is plain that He was acquainted with the Fables of antiquity very well: that some of the Arrows of Cupid are pointed with Lead, and others with Gold, he found in Ovid; and what he speaks of Dido, in Virgil: nor do I know any translation of these Poets so ancient as Shakespeare's time." The passages on which these sagacious remarks are made occur in the Midsummer Night's Dream; and exhibit, we see, a clear proof of acquaintance with the Latin Classicks. But we are not answerable for Mr. Gildon's ignorance; he might have been told of Caxton and Douglas, of Surrey and Stanyhurst, of Phaer and Twyne, of Fleming and Golding, of Turberville and Churchyard! but these Fables were easily known without the help of either the originals or the translations. The Fate of Dido had been sung very early by Gower, Chaucer, and Lydgate; Marloe had even already introduced her to the Stage: and Cupid's arrows appear with their characteristick differences in Surrey, in Sidney, in Spenser, and every Sonnetteer of the time. Nay, their very names were exhibited long before in the Romaunt of the Rose a work you may venture to look into, notwithstanding Master Prynne hath so positively assured us, on the word of John Gerson, that the Author is most certainly damned, if he did not care for a serious repentance. Mr. Whalley argues in the same manner, and with the He thinks a passage in the Tempest, same success. High Queen of State, Great Juno comes; I know her by her Gait, |