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How much our Author employed himself in Poetry, after his Retirement from the Stage, does not so evidently appear: Very few pofthumous Sketches of his Pen have been recovered to afcertain that Point. We have been told, indeed, in Print, but not till very lately, that two large Chefts full of this Great Man's loofe Papers and Manuscripts, in the Hands of an ignorant Baker of Warwick, (who married one of the Defcendants from our Shakespeare) were carelefly scattered and thrown about, as Garret-Lumber, and Litter, tothe particular Knowledge of the late Sir William Bishop, till they were all confumed in the general Fire and Deftruction of that Town. I cannot help being a little apt to diftruft the Authority of this Tradition; because his Wife furvived him feven Years, and as his Favourite Daughter Susanna furvived her twenty-fix Years,'tis very improbable, they fhould fuffer fuch a Treasure to be removed, and tranflated into a remoter Branch of the Family, without a Scrutiny firft made into the Value of it. This, I fay, inclines me to diftrust the Authority of the Relation: but, notwithstanding fuch an apparent Improbability, if we really loft fuch a Treasure, by whatever Fatality or Caprice of Fortune they came into fuch ignorant and neglectful Hands, I agree with the Relater, the Misfortune is wholly irreparable.

To thefe Particulars, which regard his Perfon and private Life, fome few more are to be gleaned

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from Mr. RowE's Account of his Life and Writings: Let us now take a fhort View of him in his publick Capacity, as a Writer: and, from thence, the Tranfition will be eafy to the State in which his Writings have been handed down to us.

No Age perhaps, can produce an Author more various from himself, than Shakespeare has been univerfally acknowledged to be. The Diversity in Stile, and other Parts of Compofition, fo obvious in him, is as variously to be accounted for. His Education, we find, was at beft but begun: and he ftarted early into a Science from the Force of Genius, unequally affifted by acquired Improvements. His Fire, Spirit, and Exuberance of Imagination gave an Impetuofity to his Pen: His Ideas flow'd from him in a Stream rapid, but not turbulent; copious, but not ever over-bearing its Shores. The Eafe and Sweetnefs of his Temper might not a little contribute to his Facility in Writing: as his Employment, as a Player, gave him an Advantage and Habit of fancying himself the very Character he meant to delineate. He used the Helps of his Function in forming himself to create and exprefs that Sublime, which other Actors can only copy, and throw out, in Action and graceful Attitude. But Nullum fine Veniâ placuit Ingenium, fays Seneca. The Genius, that gives us the greatest Pleafure, fometimes ftands in need of our Indulgence. Whenever this happens with regard to Shakespeare I would willingly impute it to a Vice of his Times. VOL. I. We

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We fee Complaifance enough, in our Days, paid to a bad Tafle. So that his Clinches, falfe Wit, and defcending beneath himself, may have proceeded from a Deference paid to the then reigning Barbarifm.

I have not thought it out of my Province, whenever Occafion offered, to take notice of fome of our Poet's grand Touches of Nature: Some, that do not appear fuperficially fuch; but in which he seems the most deeply instructed; and to which, no doubt, he has fo much owed that happy Preservation of his Characters, for which he is justly celebrated. Great Genius's, like his, naturally unambitious, are fatisfied to conceal their Art in these Points. 'Tis the Foible of your worfer Poets to make a Parade and Oftentation of that little Science they have; and to throw it out in the most ambitious Colours. And whenever a Writer of this Clafs fhall attempt to copy these artful Concealments of our Author, and fhall either think them eafy, or practifed by a Writer for his Eafe, he will foon be convinced of his Mistake by the Difficulty of reaching the Imitation of them.

Speret idem, fudet multùm, fruftráque laboret,
Aufus idem :

Indeed, to point out, and exclaim upon, all the Beauties of Shakespeare, as they come fingly in Review, would be as infipid, as endlefs; as tedious, as unneceffary: But the Explanation of thofe Beau

ties, that are lefs obvious to common Readers, and whose Illuftration depends on the Rules of juft Criticism, and an exact knowledge of human Life, fhould defervedly have a Share in a general Critic. upon the Author. But, to pass over at once to another Subject;

It has been allowed on all hands, how far our Author was indebted to Nature; it is not fo wellagreed, how much he owed to Languages and acquired Learning. The Decifions on this Subject were certainly fet on Foot by the Hint from Ben Fobnfon, that he had small Latin and lefs Greek : And from this Tradition, as it were, Mr. Rowe has thought fit peremptorily to declare, that, "It is without Controverfy, he had no Know"ledge of the Writings of the ancient Poets, for "that in his Works we find no Traces of any thing "which looks like an Imitation of the Ancients. "For the Delicacy of his Tafte (continues He,) "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 them with fo much Pleasure, that "fome of their fine Images would naturally hate "infinuated themselves into, and been mixed with "his own Writings and fo his not copying, at "leaft, fomething from them, may be an Argu"ment of his never having read them." I fhall leave it to the Determination of my learned Readers, from the numerous Paffages, which I have

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occafionally quoted in my Notes, in which our Poet feems closely to have imitated the Claffics, whether Mr. Rowe's Affertion be fo abfolutely to be depended on. The Result of the Controversy muft · certainly, either way, terminate to our Author's Honour: how happily he could imitate them, if that Point be allowed; or how gloriously he could think like them, without owing any thing to Imitation.

Tho' I should be very unwilling to allow ShakeSpeare fo poor a Scholar, as many have laboured to reprefent him, yet I fhall be very cautious of declaring too pofitively on the other fide of the Question: that is, with regard to my Opinion of his Knowledge in the dead Languages. And therefore the Paffages, that I occafionally quote from the Claffics, fhall not be urged as Proofs that he knowingly imitated those originals; but brought to fhew how happily he has expreffed himself upon the fame Topicks. A very learned Critick of our own Nation has declared, that a Sameness of Thought and Sameness of Expreffion too, in two' Writers of a different Age, can hardly happen," without a violent Sufpicion of the latter copying from his Predeceffor. I fhall not therefore run any great Rifque of a Cenfure, tho' I fhould venture to hint, that the Refemblances in Thought and Expreffion, of our Author and an Ancient (which we' fhould allow to be Imitation in one, whofe Learning was not queftioned) may fometimes take its Rife from Strength of Memory, and thofe Impreffions

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