quently by John Heywood; who hath made, what he pleases to call, epigrams upon it. Take two of them, fuch as they are: Backare, quoth Mortimer to his fow: "Went that fow backe at that biddyng trowe you?" Backare, quoth Mortimer to his sow : fe Howel takes this from Heywood, in his Old Sawes and Adages: and Philpot introduces it into the Proverbs collected by Camden. We have but few observations concerning Shakfpeare's knowledge of the Spanish tongue. Dr. Grey indeed is willing to fuppofe, that the plot of Romeo and Juliet may be borrowed from a COMEDY of Lopes de Vega. But the Spaniard, who was certainly acquainted with Bandello, hath not only changed the catastrophe, but the names of the cha racters. Neither Romeo nor Juliet; neither Montague nor Capulet, appears in this performance: and how came they to the knowledge of Shakfpeare?- Nothing is more certain, than that he chiefly followed the tranflation by Painter, from the French of Boifteau, and hence arife the deviations from Bandello's original Italian." It feems, 6 It is remarked, that "Paris, though in one place called earl, is most commonly filed the countie in this play. Shakfpeare feems to have preferred, for fome reafon or other, the Italian conte to our count: perhaps he took it from the old English novel, from which he is faid to have taken his plot."He certainly did fo: Paris is there firft ftiled a young earle, and afterward, counte, countee, and county; according to the unfettled orthography of the time. The word however is frequently met with in other writers ; particularly in Fairfax: however, from a paffage in Ames's Typographical Antiquities, that Painter was not the only tranflator of this popular story: and it is poffible therefore, that Shakspeare might have other affistance. In the Induction to The Taming of the Shrew, the Tinker attempts to talk Spanish: and confequently the author himself was acquainted with it. "Paucus pallabris, let the world flide, feffa." But this is a burlesque on Hieronymo; the piece of bombaft, that I have mentioned to you before: 66 What new device have they devised, trow? "Pocas pallabras," &c. Mr. Whalley tells us, the author of this piece hath the happiness to be at this time unknown, the remembrance of him having perifhed with himfelf;" Philips and others afcribe it to one William Smith: but I take this opportunity of informing him, that it was written by Thomas Kyd; if he will accept the authority of his contemporary, Heywood. More hath been faid concerning Shakspeare's "As when a captaine doth befiege fome hold, Godfrey of Bulloigne, Book VII. ft. 90. Fairfax," fays Mr. Hume, hath tranflated Taffo with an elegance and cafe, and at the fame time with an exactness, which for that age are furprifing. Each line in the original is faithfully rendered by a correfpondent line in the tranflation." The former part of this character is extremely true; but the latter not quite fo. In the book above quoted Taffo and Fairfax do not even agree in the number of stanzas, acquaintance with the French language. In the play of Henry V. we have a whole scene in it, and in other places it occurs familiarly in the dialogue. We may obferve in general, that the early edi tions have not half the quantity; and every fentence, or rather every word moft ridiculously blundered. These, for several reasons, could not poffibly be publifhed by the author; and it is 7 Every writer on Shakspeare hath expreffed his aftonifhment, that his author was not folicitous to fecure his fame by a correct edition of his performances. This matter is not understood. When a poet was connected with a particular playhouse, he conftantly fold his works to the Company, and it was their intereft to keep them from a number of rivals. A favourite piece, as Heywood informs us, only got into print, when it was copied by the ear, "for a double fale would bring on a fufpicion of honeftie." Shakspeare therefore himfelf published nothing in the drama: when he left the ftage, his copies remained with his fellow-managers, Heminge and Condell; who at their own retirement, about seven years after the death of their author, gave the world the edition now known by the name of the first folio; and call the previous publications "ftolne and furreptitious, maimed and deformed by the frauds and ftealths of injurious impoftors." But this was printed from the playhouse copies; which in a feries of years had been frequently altered, through convenience, caprice, or ignorance. We have a fufficient inftance of the liberties taken by the actors, in an old pamphlet by Nash, called Lenten Stuffe, with the Prayfe of the red Herring, 4to. 1599. where he affures us, that in a play of his, called The Isle of Dogs, "foure acts, without his confent, or the leaft gueffe of his drift or fcope, were fupplied by the players." This however was not his first quarrel with them. In the Epiftle prefixed to Greene's Arcadia, which I have quoted before, Tom. hath a lafh at fome "vaine glorious tragedians, and very plainly at Shakspeare in particular; which will ferve for an answer to an observation of Mr. Pope, that had almoft been forgotten: "It was thought a praife to Shak fpeare, that he fcarce ever blotted a line: I belieue the extremely probable, that the French ribaldry was at firft inferted by a different hand, as the many additions most certainly were after he had left the ftage. Indeed, every friend to his memory will not easily believe, that he was acquainted with the scene between Catharine and the old gentlewoman; or furely he would not have admitted fuch obfcenity and nonfenfe. Mr. Hawkins, in the Appendix to Mr. Johnson's common opinion of his want of learning proceeded from no better ground. This too might be thought a praise by fome." But hear Nafh, who was far from praifing: "I leaue all these to the mercy of their mother-tongue, that feed on nought but the crums that fall from the tranflator's trencher. That could fcarcely Latinize their neck verfe if they should haue neede, yet English Seneca read by candlelight yeelds many good fentences - hee will affoord you whole Hamlets, I fhould fay, handfuls of tragicall fpeeches." I cannot determine exactly when this Epistle was firft publifhed; but, I fancy, it will carry the original Hamlet fomewhat further back than we have hitherto done: and it may be obferved, that the oldeft copy now extant is faid to be " enlarged to almost as much againe as it was. Gabriel Harvey printed at the end of the year 1592. Foure Letters and certaine Sonnetts, efpecially touching Robert Greene: in one of which his Arcadia is mentioned. Now Naíh's Epiftle must have been previous to thefe, as Gabriel is quoted in it with applaufe; and the Foure Letters were the beginning of a quarrel. Nafh replied, in Strange newes of the intercepting certaine Letters, and a Convoy of Verfes, as they were going privilie to victual the Low Countries, 1593. Harvey rejoined the fame year in Pierce's Supererogation, or a new praife of the old Affe." And Nash again, in Have with you to Saffron Walden, or Gabriell Harvey's Hunt is up; containing a full answer to the eldest Sonne of the halter-maker, 1596. - He Dr. Lodge calls Nafh our true English Aretine: and John Taylor in his Kickfey Winfey, or a Lerry Come-twang, even makes an oath 66 by fweet fatyricke Nafh his urne. died before 1506. as appears from an old comedy, called The Return from Parnaffus. - edition, hath an ingenious obfervation to prove, that Shakspeare, fuppofing the French to be his, had very little knowledge of the language. "Eft-il impoffible d'efchapper la force de ton bras?" fays a Frenchman. Brass, cur? "replies Piftol. "Almost any one knows, that the French word bras is pronounced brau; and what refemblance of found does this bear to brafs?" Mr. Johnson makes a doubt, whether the pronunciation of the French language may not be changed, fince Shakspeare's time," if not," fays he," it may be fufpected that fome other man wrote the French scenes:" but this does not appear to be the cafe, at leaft in this termination, from the rules of the grammarians, or the practice of the poets. I am certain of the former from the French Alphabeth of De la Mothe, and the Orthoepia Gallica of John Eliot; and of the latter from the rhymes of Marot, Ronfard, and Du Bartas.- Connections of this kind were very common. speare himself afsisted Ben Jonfon in his Sejanus, as it was originally written; and Fletcher in his Two Noble Kinfmen. Shak But what if the French fcene were occafionally 8 Lond. 1592. 8vo. 9 Lond. 1593. 4to. Eliot is almoft the only witty grammarian that I have had the fortune to meet with. In his Epiftle prefatory to The Gentle Doctors of Gaule, he cries out for perfecution, very like Jack in that moft poignant of all fatires, the Tale of a Tub, "I pray you be readie quicklie to cauill at my booke, I befeech you heartily calumniate my doings with fpeede, I requeft you humbly controll my method ast foone as you may, I earnefily entreat you hiffe at my inventions, "? &c. |