an Appendix directed to his new printer, Nic. Okes, he accufes his old one, Jaggard, of " taking the two Epiftles of Paris to Helen and Helen to Paris, and printing them in a lefs volume, and under the name of another:-but he was much offended with Mafter Jaggard, that altogether unknowne to him, he had prefumed to make fo bold with his name."s In the fame work of Heywood are all the other tranflations, which have been printed in the modern editions of the poems of Shakspeare.

You now hope for land: We have seen through little matters, but what must be done with a whole book?—In 1751, was reprinted, "A compendious or briefe Examination of certayne ordinary Complaints of diuers of our Countrymen in these our Days: which although they are in fome Parte unjuft and friuolous, yet are they all by way of Dialogue throughly debated and difcuffed by William Shakspeare, Gentleman." 8vo.

This extraordinary piece was originally pub lifhed in 4to. 1581, and dedicated by the author, "To the most vertuous and learned lady, his most deare and foveraigne princeffe, Elizabeth; being inforced by her Majefties late and fingular clemency in pardoning certayne his unduetifull misdemeanour." And by the modern editors, to the late King; as "a treatife composed by the most extenfive and fertile genius, that ever any age or nation produced."

• It may feem little matter of wonder, that the name of Shak fpeare should be borrowed for the benefit of the bookfeller; and by the way, as probably for a play as a poem: but modern criticks may be furprifed perhaps at the complaint of John Hall, that " certayne chapters of the Proverbes, tranflated by him into English metre, 1550, had before been untruely entituled to be the doyngs of Mayfter

Thomas Sternhold."

Here we join iffue with the writers of that excellent though very unequal work, the Biographia Britannica: "If," say they," this piece could be written by our poet, it would be abfolutely decifive in the difpute about his learning; for many

6 I must however correct a remark in the Life of Spenser, which is impotently levelled at the firft criticks of the age. It is obferved from the correfpondence of Spenfer and Gabriel Harvey, that the plan of The Fairy Queen, was laid, and part of it executed in 1580, three years before the Gierufalemme Liberata was printed: hence appears the impertinence of all the apologies for his choice of Ariofto's manner in preference of Taffo's!"

But the fact is not true with respect to Taffo. Manfo and Niceron inform us, that his poem was published, though imperfectly, in 1574; and I myself can affure the biographer, that I have met with at least fix other editions, preceding his date for its first publication. I fufpect, that Baillet is accountable for this mistake: who in the Jugemens des Scavans, Tom. III. p. 399, mentions no edition previous to the quarto, Venice, 1583.

It is a queftion of long standing, whether a part of The Fairy Queen hath been loft, or whether the work was left unfinished: which may effectually be answered by a fingle quotation. William Browne published fome Poems in fol. 1616, under the name of Britannia's Paftorals, "efteemed then," fays Wood, "to be written in a fublime ftrain, and for fubject amorous and very pleafing."-In one of which, Book II. Song 1, he thus speaks of Spenfer :

"He fung th' heroicke knights of faiery land
"In lines fo elegant, of fuch command,

"That had the Thracian plaid but halfe fo well,
"He had not left Eurydice in hell.

"But e're he ended his melodious fong,

"An hoft of angels flew the clouds among,

"And rapt this fwan from his attentive mates,

"To make him one of their affociates

"In heauens faire quire: where now he fings the praise "Of him that is the first and laft of daies."

It appears, that Browne was intimate with Drayton, Jonson, and Selden, by their poems prefixed to his book: he had therefore good opportunities of being acquainted with the fact abovementioned. Many of his poems remain in MS. We have in our library at Emmanuel a mafque of his, prefented at the Inner Temple, Jan. 13, 1614. The fubject is the ftory of Ulyffes and

quotations appear in it from the Greek and Latin clafficks."

The concurring circumftances of the name, and the misdemeanor, which is fuppofed to be the old ftory of deer-stealing, feem fairly to challenge our poet for the author: but they hesitate.-His claim may appear to be confuted by the date 1581, when Shakspeare was only feventeen, and the long experience, which the writer talks of.-But I will not keep you in fufpenfe: the book was not written by Shakspeare.

Strype, in his Annals, calls the author SOME learned man, and this gave me the firft fufpicion. I knew very well, that honeft John (to use the language of Sir Thomas Bodley) did not wafte his time with fuch baggage books as plays and poems; yet I must suppose, that he had heard of the name of Shakspeare. After a while I met with the original edition. Here in the title-page, and at the end of the dedication, appear only the initials, W. S. Gent. and presently I was informed by Anthony Wood, that the book in question was written, not by William Shakspeare, but by William Stafford, Gentleman: which at once accounted for the mifdemeanour in the dedication. For Stafford had been concerned at that time, and was indeed afterward, as Camden and the other annalifts inform us, with fome of the confpirators against Elizabeth; which he properly calls his unduetifull behaviour.

I hope by this time, that any one open to conviction may be nearly fatisfied; and I will promise to give you on this head very little more trouble..

7 Fafti, 2d edit. v. 1, 208.-It will be feen on turning to the former edition, that the latter part of the paragraph belongs to another Stafford.—I have since observed, that Wood is not the first, who hath given us the true author of the pamphlet.

The juftly celebrated Mr. Warton hath favoured us, in his Life of Dr. Bathurst, with fome hearsay particulars concerning Shakspeare from the papers of Aubrey, which had been in the hands of Wood; and I ought not to fupprefs them, as the last seems to make against my doctrine. They came originally, I find, on confulting the MS. from one Mr. Beefton and I am fure Mr. Warton, whom I have the honour to call my friend, and an affociate in the question, will be in no pain about their credit.

"William Shakspeare's father was a butcher,— while he was a boy he exercised his father's trade, but when he killed a calf, he would do it in a high style, and make a fpeech. This William being inclined naturally to poetry and acting, came to London, I guess, about eighteen, and was an actor in one of the playhouses, and did act exceedingly well. He began early to make effays in dramatique poetry. The humour of the Conftable in the Midfummer Night's Dream he happened to take at Crendon in Bucks.-I think, I have been told, that he left near three hundred pounds to a fifter.He understood Latin pretty well, FOR he had been in bis younger yeares a fchoolmaster in the country."

8

I will be fhort in my animadverfions; and take them in their order.

The account of the trade of the family is not only contrary to all other tradition, but, as it may feem, to the inftrument from the Herald's Office,

9 It was obferved in the former edition, that this place is not met with in Spelman's Villare, or in Adams's Index; nor, it might have been added, in the firft and the last performance of this fort, Speed's Tables, and Whatley's Gazetteer: perhaps, however, it may be meant under the name of Crandon; but the inquiry is of no importance. It fhould, I think, be written Credendon; though better antiquaries than Aubrey have acquiefced in the vulgar corruption.

fo frequently reprinted.-Shakspeare most certainly went to London, and commenced actor through neceffity, not natural inclination.-Nor have we any reafon to fuppofe, that he did act exceeding well. Rowe tells us, from the information of Betterton, who was inquifitive into this point, and had very early opportunities of inquiry from Sir W. D'Avenant, that he was no extraordinary actor; and that the top of his performance was the Ghost in his own Hamlet. Yet this chef d'oeuvre did not please: I will give you an original ftroke at it. Dr. Lodge, who was for ever pestering the town with pamphlets, published in the year 1596, Wits Miferie, and the Worlds Madnesse, difcovering the Devils incarnat of this Age, 4to. One of these devils is Hate-virtue, or Sorrow for another man's good fucceffe, who, fays the Doctor, is " a foule lubber, and looks as pale as the vifard of the Ghoft, which cried fo miferably at the theatre, like an oifter-wife, Hamlet revenge."9 Thus you fee Mr.

9 To this obfervation of Dr. Farmer it may be added, that the play of Hamlet was better known by this fcene, than by any other. In Decker's Satiremaftix, 1602, the following paffage occurs: Afinius,

"Would I were hang'd if I can call you any names but captain, and Tucca."

Тисса.

"No, fye; my name's Hamlet Revenge: thou hast been at Paris-Garden, haft thou not?"

Again, in Weftward Hoe, by Decker and Webster, 1607:

"Let thefe hufbands play mad Hamlet, and cry, revenge!"

STEEVENS. Dr. Farmer's observation may be further confirmed by the fol lowing paffage in an anonymous play, called A Warning for faire Women, 1599. We also learn from it the ufual drefs of the stage ghofts of that time:

A filthie whining ghoft,

Lapt in fome foule fheet, or a leather pilch,