was formerly technical; and fo ufed by Lord Bacon, Sir Kenelm Digby, and many other writers.

A fingle word in Queen Catherine's character of Wolfey, in Henry VIII. is brought by the Doctor as another argument for the learning of Shakspeare:

❝ Of an unbounded ftomach, ever ranking
Himself with princes; one that by fuggeftion
Ty'd all the kingdom. Simony was fair play.
His own opinion was his law: i'th' prefence
He would fay untruths, and be ever double
Both in his words and meaning. He was never,
But where he meant to ruin, pitiful.

His promifes were, as he then was, mighty;
But his performance, as he now is, nothing.
Of his own body he was ill, and gave
The clergy ill example."

"The word fuggeftion," fays the critick, "is here ufed with great propriety, and feeming knowledge of the Latin tongue:" and he proceeds to fettle the sense of it from the late Roman writers and their gloffers. But Shakspeare's knowledge was from Holinfhed, whom he follows verbatim :

This cardinal was of a great ftomach, for he compted himself equal with princes, and by craftie fuggeftion got into his hands innumerable treasure: he forced little on fimonie, and was not pitifull, and ftood affectionate in his own opinion; in open prefence he would lie and feie untruth, and was double both in fpeech and meaning: he would promise much and performe little: he was vicious of his bodie, and gaue the clergie euil example." Edit. 1587. p. 922.

Perhaps after this quotation, you may not think, that Sir Thomas Hanmer, who reads Tyth'd-in

ftead of Ty'd all the kingdom, deferves quite fo much of Dr. Warburton's feverity. Indifputably the paffage, like every other in the speech, is intended to exprefs the meaning of the parallel one in the chronicle: it cannot therefore be credited, thatany man, when the original was produced, fhould ftill choose to defend a cant acceptation; and inform us, perhaps, feriously, that in gaming language, from I know not what practice, to tye is to equal! A fenfe of the word, as far as I have yet found, unknown to our old writers; and, if known, would not surely have been used in this place by our author.

But let us turn from conjecture to Shakspeare's authorities. Hall, from whom the above defcription is copied by Holinfhed, is very explicit in the demands of the Cardinal: who having infolently told the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, "For fothe I thinke, that halfe your fubftaunce were to litle," affures them by way of comfort at the end of his harangue, that upon an average the tythe fhould be fufficient; "Sers, fpeake not to breake that thyng. that is concluded, for fome fhal not paie the tenth parte, and fome more." And again; "Thei faied, the Cardinall by vifitacions, makyng of abbottes, probates of teflamentes, graunting of faculties, licences, and other pollyngs in his courtes legantines, had made his threafore egall with the kinges." Edit. 1548. p. 138, and 143.

+

Skelton, in his Why come ye not to Court, gives us,

4 His poems are printed with the title of " Pithy, Pleafaunt, and Profitable Workes of Maifter Skelton Poet Laureate." But," fays Mr. Cibber, after feveral other writers, "how or by what intereft he was made Laureat, or whether it was

after his rambling manner, a curious character of Wolfey:

by a title he affumed to himself, cannot be determined." This is an error pretty generally received, and it may be worth our while to remove it.

A facetious author fays fomewhere, that a poet laureal, in the modern idea, is a gentleman, who hath an annual flipend for reminding us of the New Year, and the Birth-day: but formerly a Poet Laureat was a real univerfity graduate,

"Skelton wore the laurell wreath,

"And paft in fchoels ye knoe.'

66

fays Churchyarde in a poem prefixed to his works. And Mafter Caxton in his Preface to The Boke of Eneydos, 1490. hath a paffage, which well deferves to be quoted without abridgement: "I praye may fter John Skelton, late created poele laureate in the univerfite of Oxenforde, to overfee and correcte thys fayd booke, and taddreffe and expowne whereas fhall be founde faulte, to theym that fhall requyre it; for hym I knowe for fuffycyent to expowne and Englyfshe every dyfficulte that is therein; for he hath late tranflated the epyftles of Tulle, and the book of Dyodorus Syculus, and diverfe other workes, out of Latyn into Englyfhe, not in rude and old language, but in polyfhed and ornate termes, craftely, as he that hath redde Vyrgyle, Ouyde, Tullye, and all the other noble poets and oratours, to me unknowen: and alfo he hath redde the ix mufes, and understands their muficalle fcyences, and to whom of them eche fcyence is appropred: I fuppofe he hath dronken of Elycons well!"

I find, from Mr. Baker's MSS. that our laureat was admitted ad eundem at Cambridge: "An. Dom. 1493. & Hen. 7. nono Conceditur Johi Skelton Poete in partibus tranfmarinis atque Oxon, Laurea ornato, ut apud nos eâdem decoraretur." And afterward, "An. 150 4-5 Conceditur Johi Skelton, Poeta Laureat. quod poffit ftare eodem gradu hic, quo ftetit Oxoniis, & quod poffit uti habitu fibi conceffo à Principe."

See likewife Dr. Knight's Life of Colet, p. 122. And Recherches fur les Poëtes couronnés, par M. l'Abbé du Resnel, in the Mémoires de Littérature, Vol. X. Paris, 4to. 1736.

And fucke us fo nye
That men fhall fcantly.
Haue penny or halpennye
God faue hys noble grace
And graunt him a place
Endleffe to dwel

With the deuill of hel
For and he were there
We nead neurer feare
Of the feendes blacke
For I undertake

He wold fo brag and crake
That he wold than make
The deuils to quake

To fhudder and to fhake

Lyke a fier drake

And with a cole rake

Brufe them on a brake

And binde them to a ftake
And fet hel on fyre

At his owne defire

He is fuch a grym fyre!"

Edit. 1568.

Mr. Upton and fome other critickes have thought it very fcholar-like in Hamlet to fwear the Centinels on a fword: but this is for ever met with. For inftance, in the Paffus Primus of Pierce Plow

man:

❝ Dauid in his daies dubbed knightes,

“And did hem fwere on her fword to ferue truth euer."

And in Hieronymo, the common butt of our author, and the wits of the time, fays Lorenzo to Pedringano,

Swear on this crofs, that what thou fayft is true —
But if I prove thee perjured and unjust,

This very fword, where on thou took'ft thine oath,
Shall be the worker of thy tragedy!"

We have therefore no occafion to go with Mr.

Garrick as far as the French of Brantôme to illuftrate this ceremony: a gentleman, who will be always allowed the firft commentator on Shakspeare, when he does not carry us beyond himself.

Mr. Upton, however, in the next place, produces a paffage from Henry VI. whence he argues it to be very plain, that our author had not only read Cicero's Offices, but even more critically than many of the editors:

Being captain of a pinnace, threatens more
Than Bargulus, the ftrong Illyrian pirate."

So the wight, he obferves with great exultation, is
named by Cicero in the editions of Shakspeare's
time, Bargulus Illyrius latro;" though the mo-
dern editors have chofen to call him Bardylis :-
"and thus I found it in two MSS."--And thus he
might have found it in two tranflations, before
Shakspeare was born. Robert Whytinton, 1533.
calls him, "Bargulus a pirate upon the fee of
Illiry;" and Nicholas Grimald, about twenty years
afterward," Bargulus the Illyrian robber.""

But it had been eafy to have checked Mr. Upton's exultation, by obferving, that Bargulus does not appear in the quarto.-Which alfo is the cafe with fome fragments of Latin verses, in the different parts of this doubtful performance.

Mr. Johnson's edit. Vol. VIII. p. 171.

6 I have met with a writer who tells us, that a tranflation of the Offices was printed by Caxton, in the year 1481: but fuch a book never exifted. It is a mistake for Tullius of old Age, printed with The Boke of Frendshipe, by John Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester. I believe the former was tranflated by William Wyrceftre, alias Botoner.