Note return to page 1 1See Hist. of Engl. Dram. Poetry and the Stage, vol. ii. p. 131.

Note return to page 2 2We are indebted for a correct transcript of the original to the zeal and kindness of Dr. J. H. Todd, V.P., R.S.A.

Note return to page 3 3In another part of the manuscript it is called “The Play of the Conversion of Sir Jonathas, the Jew, by Miracle of the Blessed Sacrament;” but inferior Jews are converted, besides Sir Jonathas, who is the head of the tribe in the “famous city of Araclea.”

Note return to page 4 4This name may possibly throw some light on an obscure passage, in a letter dated about 1535, and quoted in “The History of Engl. Dram. Poetry, and the Stage,” I. 131, where a person of the name of Thomas Wylley informs Cromwell, Earl of Essex, that he had written a play in which a character called “Colle, clogger of Conscience,” was introduced, to the great offence of the Roman Catholic clergy.

Note return to page 5 5Bale died in Nov. 1563; but he is nevertheless thus spoken of, as still living, in B. Googe's “Eglogs, Epitaphes, and Sonnettes,” published, we have reason to believe, in the spring of that year: we have never seen this tribute quoted, and therefore subjoin it. “Good aged Bale, that with thy hoary heares Doste yet persyste to turne the paynefull booke; O happye, man! that hast obtaynde such yeares, And leav'st not yet on papers pale to looke; Gyve over now to beate thy weryed braine, And rest thy penne, that long hath labour'd soore: For aged men unfyt sure is suche paine, And thee beseems to labour now no more: But thou, I thynke, Don Platoes part will playe, With booke in hand to have thy dying daye.” Besides “Kynge Johan,” Bale was the author of four extant dramatic productions, which may be looked upon as miracle-plays, both in their form and characters: viz. 1. “The Three Laws of Nature, Moses and Christ;” 2. “God's Promises;” 3. “John the Baptist;” 4. “The Temptation of Christ.” He also wrote fourteen other dramas of various kinds, none of which have come down to us.

Note return to page 6 6In the library of Mr. Hudson Gurney, to whom we beg to express our obligations for the use of it.

Note return to page 7 7John Heywood, who flourished in the reign of Henry VIII., is not to be confounded, as some modern editors of Shakespeare have confounded him, with Thomas Heywood, who became a dramatist more than half a century afterwards, and who continued a writer for the stage until near the date of the closing of the theatres by the Puritans. John Heywood, in all probability, died before Thomas Heywood was born.

Note return to page 8 8One of the latest pieces without mixture of history or fable, and consisting wholly of abstract personages, is, “The Tide tarryeth no Man,” by George Wapul, printed in 1576, only a single copy of it has been preserved, and that is in the library of the Duke of Devonshire. The principal persons introduced into it have the following names:—Painted-profit, No-good-neighbourhood, Wastefulness, Christianity, Correction, Courage, Feigned-furtherance, Greediness, Wantonness, and Authority-in-despair.

Note return to page 9 9A very interesting epistle from Udall is to be found in Sir Henry Ellis's volume (edited for the Camden Society) “Original Letters of Eminent Literary Men.” That of Udall is the first in the series.

Note return to page 10 1This single copy is without title-page, so that the year when it was printed cannot be ascertained; but Thomas Hacket had a licence in 1566 for the publication of “a play entitled Rauf Ruyster Duster,” as it is called on the registers of the Stationers' company. We may presume that it was published in that year, or in the next.

Note return to page 11 2By “the older drama,” we mean moral plays, into which the Vice was introduced for the amusement of the spectators: no character so called, or with similar propensities, is to be traced in miracle-plays. He was, in fact, the buffoon of our drama in, what may be termed, its second stage; after audiences began to grow weary of plays founded upon Scripture-history, and when even moral plays, in order to be relished, required the insertion of a character of broad humour, and vicious inclinations, who was sometimes to be the companion, and at others the castigator, of the devil, who represented the principle of evil among mankind. The Vice of moral plays subsequently became the fool and jester of comedy, tragedy, and history, and forms another, and an important, link of connexion between them.

Note return to page 12 3In the Hist. of Engl. Dram. Poetry and the Stage, ii. 482, it is said that the earliest edition of “Gorboduc” has no date. This is a mistake, as is shown by the copy in the collection of Lord Francis Egerton, which has “anno 1565, Septemb. 22” at the bottom of the title-page. Mr. Hallam, in his admirable “Introduction to the Literature of Europe,” &c. (Second Edit. vol. ii. p. 167), expresses his dissent from the position, that the three first acts were by Norton, and the two last by Sackville. The old title-page states, that “three acts were written by Thomas Norton, and the two last by Thomas Sackville.” Unless the printer, William Griffith, were misinformed, this seems decisive. Norton's abilities have not had justice done to them.

Note return to page 13 4Richard Edwards, a very distinguished dramatic poet, who died in 1566, and who wrote the lost play of “Palamon and Arcite,” which was acted before the Queen in September of that year, did not follow the example of Sackville and Norton: his “Damon and Pithias” (the only piece by him that has survived) is in rhyme. See Dodsley's Old Plays, last edition, vol. i. p. 177. Thomas Twine, an actor in “Palamon and Arcite,” wrote an epitaph upon its author. “Gammer Gurton's Needle,” and “Gorboduc,” (the last printed from the second edition) are also inserted in vols. i. and ii. of Dodsley's Old Plays.

Note return to page 14 5“The Play of Fortune,” in the above list, is doubtless the piece which has reached us in a printed shape, as “The Rare Triumphs of Love and Fortune:” it was acted at court as early as 1573, and again in 1582; but it did not come from the press until 1589, and the only copy of it is in the library of Lord Francis Egerton. The purpose of the anonymous writer was to compose an entertainment which should possess the great requisite of variety, with as much show as could at that early date be accomplished; and we are to recollect that the court theatres possessed some unusual facilities for the purpose. The “Induction” is in blank-verse, but the body of the drama is in rhyme. “The History of the Collier,” also mentioned, was perhaps the comedy subsequently known and printed as “Grim, the Collier of Croydon;” and it has been reasonably supposed, (see vol. ii. p. 109) that “The History of Error” was an old play on the same subject as Shakespeare's “Comedy of Errors.”

Note return to page 15 6Until recently no edition of an earlier date than that of 1606 was known; but there is an impression of 1581 at Oxford, which is about to be reprinted by the Shakespeare Society. Malone had heard of a copy in 1583, but it is certainly a mistake.

Note return to page 16 7It was reprinted for the Bannatyne Club in 1835, by J. W. Mackenzie, Esq.

Note return to page 17 8As early as 1465 a company of players had performed at the wedding of a person of the name of Molines, who was nearly related to Sir John Howard, afterwards Duke of Norfolk. See “Manners and Household Expenses of England,” printed by Mr. Botfield, M. P., for the Roxburghe Club in 1841, p. 511.

Note return to page 18 9The anonymous MS. play of “Sir Thomas More,” written towards the close of the reign of Elizabeth, gives a very correct notion of the mode in which offers to perform were made by a company of players, and accepted by the owner of the mansion. Four players and a boy (for the female characters) tender their services to the Lord Chancellor, just as he is on the point of giving a grand supper to the Lord Mayor and Corporation of London: Sir Thomas More inquires what pieces they can perform, and the answer of the leader of the company supplies the names of seven which were then popular; viz., “The Cradle of Security,” “Hit Nail on the Head,” “Impatient Poverty,” “The Four Ps,” “Dives and Lazarus,” “Lusty Juventus,” and “The Marriage of Wit and Wisdom.” Sir Thomas More fixes upon the last, and it is accordingly represented, as a play within a play, before the banquet. “Sir Thomas More” was regularly licensed for public performance.

Note return to page 19 1Either from preference or policy, Richard III. appears to have been a great encourager of actors and musicians: besides his players, he patronised two distinct bodies of “minstrels,” and performers on instruments called “shalms.” These facts are derived from a manuscript of the household-book of John Lord Howard, afterwards Duke of Norfolk, preserved in the library of the Society of Antiquaries, and recently printed for the use of the members of the Roxburghe Club, as a sequel to Mr. Botfield's volume.

Note return to page 20 2At a considerably subsequent date some of these infant companies performed before general audiences; and to them were added the Children of the Revels, who had never been attached to any religious establishment, but were chiefly encouraged as a nursery for actors. The Queen of James I. had also a company of theatrical children under her patronage.

Note return to page 21 3For this information we are indebted to Sir N. H. Nicolas, who has the original document in his library. Similar facts might be established from other authorities, both of an earlier and somewhat later date.

Note return to page 22 4See Hist. of Engl. Dram. Poetry and the Stage, Vol. i. p. 107. The official account, made out by Richard Gibson, who had the preparation of the dresses, &c., is so curious and characteristic, that we quote it in the words, though not in the uncouth orthography, of the original document: the date is the 10th Nov. 1528, not long before the king saw reason to change the whole course of his policy as regarded the Reformation. “The king's pleasure was that at the said revels, by clerks in the Latin tongue, should be played in his presence a play, whereof ensueth the names. First an Orator in apparel of gold; a Poet in apparel of cloth of gold; Religion, Ecclesia, Veritas, like three Novices, in garments of silk, and veils of lawn and cypress; Heresy, False-interpretation, Corruptio-scriptoris, like ladies of Bohemia, appareled in garments of silk of divers colours; the heretic Luther, like a party friar, in russet damask and black taffeta; Luther's wife, like a frow of Spiers in Almain, in red silk; Peter, Paul, and James, in three habits of white sarsenet and three red mantles, and hairs of silver of damask and pelerines of scarlet, and a Cardinal in his apparel; two Sergeants in rich apparel; the Dauphin and his brother in coats of velvet embroidered with gold, and caps of satin bound with velvet; a Messenger in tinsel-satin; six men in gowns of green sarsenet; six women in gowns of crimson sarsenet; War in rich cloth of gold and feathers, and armed; three Almains in apparel all cut and slit of silk; Lady Peace, in lady's apparel, all white and rich; and Lady Quietness, and Dame Tranquility, richly beseen in ladies' apparel.” The drama represented by these personages appears to have been the composition of John Rightwise, then master of the children of St. Paul's.

Note return to page 23 5The original appointment of John Bernard is preserved in the library of Sir Thomas Phillippes, Bart., to whom we owe the additional information, that this Clerk of the Revels had a house assigned to him, strangely called, in the instrument, “Egypt, and Flesh-hall,” with a garden which had belonged to the dissolved monastery of the Charter-house: the words of the original are, omnia illa domum et edificia nuper vocata Egipte et Fleshall, et illam domum adjacentem nuper vocatam le garneter. The theatrical wardrobe of the court was at this period kept at St. John's Gate, Clerkenwell.

Note return to page 24 6In his “Edward VI. and Mary,” 1839, vol. i. p. 20.

Note return to page 25 7See Kempe's “Loseley Manuscripts,” 1835, p. 61. The warrant for the purpose was under the sign manual, and it was directed to Sir T. Cawarden, as Master of the Revels:—“We will and command you, upon the sight hereof, forthwith to make and deliver out of our Revels, unto the Gentlemen of our Chapel, for a play to be played before us at the feast of our Coronation, as in times past hath been accustomed to be done by the Gentlemen of the Chapel of our progenitors, all such necessary garments, and other things for the furniture thereof, as shall be thought meet,” &c. The play, although ordered for this occasion, viz. 1st Oct. 1553, was for some unexplained reason deferred until Christmas.

Note return to page 26 8There is a material between the warrant under the privy seal, and the patent under the great seal, granted upon this occasion: the former gives the players a right to perform “as well within the city of London and liberties of the same” as elsewhere; but the latter (dated three days afterwards, viz. 10 May, 1574) omits this paragraph; and we need entertain little doubt that it was excluded at the instance of the Corporation of London, always opposed to theatrical performances.

Note return to page 27 9In 1557 the Boar's Head, Aldgate, had been used for the performance of a drama called “The Sack full of News;” and Stephen Gosson in his “School of Abuse,” 1579, (reprinted by the Shakespeare Society) mentions the Belle Savage and the Bull as inns at which particular plays had been represented. R. Flecknae, in his “Short Discourse of the English Stage,” appended to his “Love's Kingdom,” 1664, says that “at this day is to be seen” that “the inn yards of the Cross-Keys, and Bull, in Grace and Bishopsgate Streets” had been used as theatres. There is reason to believe that the Boar's Head, Aldgate, had belonged to the father of Edward Alleyn.

Note return to page 28 10It has been supposed by some, that the Curtain theatre owed its name to the curtain employed to separate the actors from the audience. We have before us documents (which on account of their length we cannot insert) showing that such was probably not the fact, and that the ground on which the building stood was called the Curtain (perhaps as part of the fortifications of London) before any play-house was built there. For this information we have to offer our thanks to Mr. T. E. Tomlins of Islington.

Note return to page 29 1In John Northbrooke's “Treatise,” &c. against “vain plays or interludes,” licensed for the press in 1577, the work being then ready and in the printer's hands. It has been reprinted by the Shakespeare Society.

Note return to page 30 2See the “Memoirs of Edward Alleyn,” (published by the Shakespeare Society) p. 189. It seems that the Rose had been the sign of a house of public entertainment before it was converted into a theatre. Such was also the case with the Swan, and the Hope, in the same neighbourhood.

Note return to page 31 3By Mr. Peter Cunningham, in his “Extracts from the Accounts of the Revels,” printed for the Shakespeare Society, pp. 32 and 186. The editor's “Introduction” is full of new and valuable information.

Note return to page 32 4Tarlton died on 3 Sept. 1588, and we apprehend that it was not until after this date that Lanham became leader of one company of the Queen's Players. Mr. Halliwell discovered Tarlton's will in the Prerogative Office, bearing date on the day of his decease: he there calls himself one of the grooms of the Queen's chamber, and leaves all his “goods, cattels, chattels, plate, ready money, jewels, bonds obligatory, specialties, and debts,” to his son Philip Tarlton, a minor. He appoints his mother, Katherine Tarlton, his friend Robert Adams, and “his fellow William Johnson, one also of the grooms of her Majesty's chamber,” trustees for his son, and executors of his will, which was proved by Adams three days after the death of the testator. As Tarlton says nothing about his wife in his will, we may presume that he was a widower; and of his son, Philip Tarlton, we never hear afterwards.

Note return to page 33 5From 1587 to 1604, the most important period as regards Shakespeare, it does not appear that any official statements by the master of the revels have been preserved. In the same way there is an unfortunate interval between 1604 and 1611.

Note return to page 34 6One of the last pieces represented before Queen Elizabeth was a moral play, under the title of “The Contention between Liberality and Prodigality,” printed in 1602, and acted, as appears by the strongest internal evidence, in 1600.

Note return to page 35 7Tarlton, who died, as we have already stated, in Sept. 1588, obtained great celebrity by his performance of the two parts of Derrick and the Judge, in the old historical play of “The Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth.”

Note return to page 36 8See the original letter in Harleian, MSS. No. 286.

Note return to page 37 9The mannner in which about this time the players were bribed away from Oxford is curious, and one of the items in the accounts expressly applies to the Earl of Leicester's servants. We are obliged to the Rev. Dr. Bliss for the following extracts, relating to this period and a little afterwards:— 1587 Solut. Histrionibus Comitis Lecestriæ, ut cum suis ludis sine majore Academiæ molestià discedant xxs Solut. Histrionibus Honoratissimi Domini Howard xxs 1588 Solut. Histrionibus, ne ludos inhonestos exercerent infra Universitatem (no sum) 1590 Solut. per D. Eedes, vice-cancellarii locum tenentem, quibusdam Histrionibus, ut sine perturbatione et strepitu ab Academiâ discederant. xs

Note return to page 38 1Gascoyne's “Jocasta,” printed in 1577, and represented by the author and other members of the society at Gray's Inn in 1566 as a private show, was a translation from Euripides. It is, as far as has yet been ascertained, the second play in our language written in blank-verse, but it was not an original work. The same author's “Supposes,” taken from Ariosto, is in prose.

Note return to page 39 2“The Misfortunes of Arthur,” with four other dramas, has been reprinted in a supplementary volume to the last edition of Dodsley's Old Plays. It is not, therefore, necessary here to enter into an examination of its structure or versification. It is a work of extraordinary power.

Note return to page 40 3See the Shakespeare Society's reprint, p. 30. Gosson gives them the highest praise, asserting that they contained “never a word without wit, never a line without pith, never a letter placed in vain.”

Note return to page 41 4Sometimes plays written in prose were, at a subsequent date, when blank-verse had become the popular form of composition, published as if they had been composed in measured lines. The old historical play, “The Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth,” which preceded that of Shakespeare, is an instance directly in point: it was written in prose, but the old printer chopped it up into lines of unequal length, so as to make it appear to the eye something like blank-verse.

Note return to page 42 5Greene began writing in 1583, his “Mamillia” having been then printed: his “Mirror of Modesty” and “Monardo,” bear the date of 1584. His “Menaphon” (afterwards called “Greene's Arcadia”) first appeared in 1587, and it was reprinted in 1589. We have never seen the earliest edition of it, but it is mentioned by various bibliographers; and those who have thrown doubt upon the point, (stated in the History of English Dramatic Poetry and the Stage, vol. iii. p. 150) for the sake of founding an argument upon it, have not adverted to the conclusive fact, that “Menaphon” is mentioned as already in print in the introductory matter to another of Greene's pamphlets, dated in 1587—we mean “Euphues his Censure to Philautus.”

Note return to page 43 6If Marlowe were born, as has been supposed,about 1562, (Oldys places the event earlier) he was twenty-four when he wrote “Tamburlaine,” as we believe, in 1586, and only thirty-one when he was killed by a person of the name of Archer, in an affray arising out of an amorous intrigue, in 1593. In a manuscript note of the time, in a copy of his version of “Hero and Leander,” edit. 1629, in our possession, it is said, among other things, that “Marlowe's father was a shoemaker at Canterbury,” and that he had an acquaintance at Dover whom he infected with the extreme liberality of his opinions on matters of religion. At the back of the title-page of the same volume is inserted the following epitaph, subscribed with Marlowe's name, and no doubt of his composition, although never before noticed:— “In obitum honoratissimi viri Rogeri Manwood, Militis, Quæstorii Reginalis Capitalis Baronis. Noctivagi terror, ganeonis triste flagellum, Et Jovis Alcides, rigido vulturque latroni, Urnâ subtegitur: scelerum gaudete nepotes. Insons, luctifica sparsis cervice capillis, Plange, fori lumen, venerandæ gloria legis Occidit: heu! secum effœtas Acherontis ad oras Multa abiit virtus. Pro tot virtutibus uni, Livor, parce viro: non audacissimus esto Illius in cineres, cujus tot millia vultus Mortalium attonuit: sic cum te nuncia Ditis Vulneret exanguis, feliciter ossa quiescant, Famæque marmorei superet monumenta sepulchri.” It is added, that “Marlowe was a rare scholar, and died aged about thirty.” The above is the only extant specimen of his Latin composition, and we insert it exactly as it stands in manuscript.

Note return to page 44 7Our quotation is from a copy of the edition of 1590, 4to, in the library of Lord Francis Egerton, which we believe to be the earliest: on the title-page it is stated that it is “now first and newly published.” It was several times reprinted. No modern edition is to be trusted: they are full of the grossest errors, and never could have been collated.

Note return to page 45 8Another play, not published until 1657, under the title of “Lust's Dominion,” has also been constantly, but falsely, assigned to Marlowe: some of the historical events contained in it did not happen until five years after the death of that poet. This fact was distinctly pointed out nearly twenty years ago, in the last edition of Dodsley's Old Plays (vol. ii. p. 311); but nevertheless “Lust's Dominion” has since been spoken of and treated as Marlowe's undoubted production, and even included in editions of his works. It is in all probability the same drama as that which, in Henslowe's Diary, is called “The Spanish Moor's Tragedy,” which was written by Dekker, Haughton, and Day, in the beginning of the year 1600.

Note return to page 46 9In the History of English Dramatic Poetry and the Stage, vol. iii. p. 139, it is incautiously stated, that “the character of Shakespeare's Richard II. seems modelled in no slight degree upon that of Edward II.” We willingly adopt the qualification of Mr. Hallam upon this point, where he says (“Introduction to the Literature of Europe,” vol. ii. p. 171, edit. 1843), “I am reluctant to admit that Shakespeare modelled his characters by those of others; and it is natural to ask whether there were not an extraordinary likeness in the dispositions, as well as in the fortunes of the two kings?”

Note return to page 47 1In our biographical account of Shakespeare, under the date of 1592, we have necessarily entered more at large into this question.

Note return to page 48 2Mr. Hallam (“Introduction to the Literature of Europe,” vol ii. p. 171) supposes that the words of Greene, referring to Shakespeare, “There is an upstart crow beautified with our feathers,” are addressed to Marlowe, who may have had a principal share in the production of the two parts of the “Contention.” This conjecture is certainly more than plausible; but we may easily imagine Greene to have alluded to himself also, and that he had been Marlowe's partner in the composition of the two dramas, which Shakespeare remodelled, perhaps, not very long before the death of Greene.

Note return to page 49 3They have been accurately reprinted by the Shakespeare Society, under the care of Mr. Halliwell, from the earliest impressions in 1594 and 1595.

Note return to page 50 4This drama has also been reprinted by the Shakespeare Society, with perfect fidelity to the original edition of 1594, in the library of the Duke of Devonshire. The reprint was superintended by Mr. B. Field.

Note return to page 51 5In “The History of English Dramatic Poetry and the Stage,” vol. iii. p. 155, it is observed of “Orlando Furioso:”—“How far this play was printed according to the author's copy we have no means of deciding; but it has evidently come down to us in a very imperfect state.” Means of determining the point beyond dispute have since been discovered in a manuscript of the part of Orlando (as written out for Edward Alleyn by the copyist of the theatre) preserved at Dulwich College. Hence it is clear that much was omitted and corrupted in the two printed editions of 1594 and 1599. See the “Memoirs of Edward Alleyn,” p. 198.

Note return to page 52 6They were acted by the children of the chapel, or by the children of St. Paul's, and a few of them bear evidence on the title-pages that they were presented at a private theatre—none of them that they had been played upon public stages before popular audiences.

Note return to page 53 7He is supposed to have been born about the year 1553. He was probably son to Stephen Peele, who was a bookseller and a writer of ballads. Stephen Peele was the publisher of Bishop Bale's miracle-play of “God's Promises,” in 1577, and his name is subscribed, as author, to two ballads printed by the Percy Society in the earliest production from their press. The connexion between Stephen and George Peele has never struck any of the biographers of the latter. Stephen Peele was most likely the author of a pageant on the mayoralty of Sir W. Draper, in 1566–7, of which an account is given by Mr. Fairholt, in his work upon “Lord Mayors' Pageants,” printed for the Percy Society: he erroneously supposed it to have been the work of George Peele, who could not then have been more than fourteen years old, even if we carry back the date of his birth to 1553. George Peele was dead in 1598.

Note return to page 54 8It may be doubted whether Peele wrote any part of this production: it was printed anonymously in 1599, and all the evidence of authorship is the existence of a copy with the name of Peele, in an old hand, upon the title-page. If he wrote it at all, it was doubtless a very early composition, and it belongs precisely to the class of romantic plays ridiculed by Stephen Gosson about 1580.

Note return to page 55 9See Milton's Minor Poems, by T. Warton, p. 135, edit. 1791. Of this resemblance, Warton, who first pointed it out, remarks, “That Milton had an eye on this ancient drama, which might have been a favourite in his early youth, perhaps it may be affirmed with at least as much credibility, as that he conceived the Paradise Lost from seeing a mystery at Florence, written by Adreini, a Florentine, in 1617, entitled Adamo.” The fact may have been, that Peele and Milton resorted to the same original, now lost: “The Old Wives' Tale” reads exactly as if it were founded upon some popular story-book.

Note return to page 56 1In the Induction to his “Cynthia's Revels,” acted in 1600, where he is speaking of the revival of plays, and among others of “the old Jeronimo,” which, he adds, had “departed a dozen years since.”

Note return to page 57 2It can be shown to have been represented at Croydon, no doubt at Beddington, the residence of the Carews, under whose patronage Nash acknowledges himself to have been living. See the dedication to his “Terrors of the Night,” 4to, 1594. The date of the death of Nash, who probably took a part in the representation of his “Summer's Last Will and Testament,” has been disputed,—whether it was before or after 1601; but the production of a cenotaph upon him, from Fitz-geoffrey's Affaniæ, printed in 1601, must put an end to all doubt. See the Introduction to Nash's “Pierce Pennyless,” 1592, as reprinted for the Shakespeare Society.

Note return to page 58 3The only known copy of this comedy is without a title-page, but it was entered at Stationers' Hall for publication in 1584, and we may presume that it was printed about that date.

Note return to page 59 4He had some share in writing the first part of the “Life of Sir John Oldcastle,” which was printed as Shakespeare's work in 1600, although some copies of the play exist without his name on the title page.

Note return to page 60 5“History of Engl. Dram. Poetry and the Stage,” vol. iii. p. 366.

Note return to page 61 6See “The Alleyn Papers,” printed by the Shakespeare Society, p. 12.

Note return to page 62 7In his Prologue to the alteration of “Troilus and Cressida,” 1679, he puts these lines into the mouth of the Ghost of Shakespeare:— “Untaught, unpractis'd, in a barbarous age, I found not, but created first the stage.” In the dedication of the translation of Juvenal, thirteen years afterwards, Dryden repeats the same assertion in nearly the same words; “he created the stage among us.” Shakespeare did not create the stage, and least of all did he create it such as it existed in the time of Dryden: “it was, in truth, created by no one man, and in no one age; and whatever improvements Shakespeare introduced, when he began to write for the theatre our romantic drama was completely formed, and firmly established.”—Pref. to “The Hist. of Engl. Dram. Poetry and the Stage,” vol. i. p. xi.

Note return to page 63 1On the authority of a grant of arms from the Herald's College to John Shakespeare, which circumstance is considered hereafter.

Note return to page 64 2For this information we are indebted to Mr. Staunton, of Longbridge House, near Warwick, the owner of the original Registerium Fratrum et Sororum Gilde Sancte Anne de Knolle, a MS. upon vellum.

Note return to page 65 3For the circumstance of the drowning of the name-sake of our poet, we are obliged to the Rev. Joseph Hunter. Mr. Charles Dickens was good enough to be the medium of the information respecting the Shakespeares of Warwick, transmitted from Mr. Sandys, who derived it from the land-revenue records of the respective periods.

Note return to page 66 4Aubrey's words, in his MS. in the Ashmolean Museum, at Oxford, are these:—“William Shakespeare's father was a butcher, and I have been told heretofore by some of the neighbours, that when 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 speech.” This tradition certainly does not read like truth, and at what date Aubrey obtained his information has not been ascertained: Malone conjectured that Aubrey was in Stratford about 1680: he died about 1700, and, in all probability, obtained his knowledge from the same source as the writer of a letter, dated April 10, 1693, to Mr. Edward Southwell, printed in 1838. It appears from hence that the parish clerk of Stratford, who was “above eighty years old” in 1693, had told Mr. Edward Southwell's correspondent that William Shakespeare had been “bound apprentice to a butcher;” but he did not say that his father was a butcher, nor did he add any thing as absurd as Aubrey subjoins, respecting the killing of a calf “in a high style.”

Note return to page 67 5Rowe is supposed to have derived his materials from Betterton, the actor, who died in 1710, and who, it is said, went to Stratford to collect such particulars as could be obtained: the date of his visit is not known.

Note return to page 68 6In 1569, a person of the name of Antony Shakespeare lived at Snitterfield, and, as we learn from the Muster-book of the country of Warwick for that year in the State Paper office, he was appointed a “billman.”

Note return to page 69 7Richard Shakespeare, who, upon this supposition, was the grandfather of the poet, was living in 1560, when Agnes Arden, widow, granted a lease for forty years to Alexander Webbe (probably some member of her own family) of two houses and a cottage in Snitterfield, in the occupation of Richard Shakespeare and two others. Malone discovered that there was also a Henry Shakespeare resident at Snitterfield in 1586, and he apprehended (there is little doubt of the fact) that he was the brother of John Shakespeare. Henry Shakespeare was buried Dec. 29th, 1596. There was also a Thomas Shakespeare in the same village in 1582, and he may have been another brother of John Shakespeare, and all three sons to Richard Shakespeare.

Note return to page 70 8This is rendered the more probable by the fact that John Shakespeare christened one of his children (born in 1573) Richard. Malone found that another Richard Shakespeare was living at Rowington in 1574.

Note return to page 71 9They are thus described: “Totum illud messuagium meum, et tres quartronas terræ, cum pratis eisdem pertinentibus, cum suis pertinentiis, in Snytterfylde, quæ nunc sunt in tenura cujusdam Ricardi Henley, ac totum illud cottagium meum, cum gardino et pomario adjacentibus, cum suis pertinentiis, in Snytterfyld, quæ nunc sunt in tenura Hugonis Porter.” Adam Palmer, the other trustee, does not seem to have occupied any part of the property.

Note return to page 72 10The register of this event is in the following form, under the head “Baptismes, Anno. Dom. 1558.”— “Sept&ebar;ber 15. Jone Shakspere daughter to John Shakspere.” It seems likely that the child was named after her aunt, Joan, married to Edward Lambert of Barton on the Health. Edward Lambert was related to Edmund Lambert, afterwards mentioned. See also p. lxxii.

Note return to page 73 1Shakspeare, by Boswell, vol. ii. p. 25.

Note return to page 74 2The terms of Robert Arden's bequest to his daughter Mary are these:—“Also I geve and bequeth to my youngste daughter, Marye, all my lande in Willmecote, called Asbyes, and the crop upon the ground, sowne and tyllede as hit is: and vjli. xiijs. iiijd. of money, to be payde over ere my goodes be devydede.” Hence we are not to understand that he had no more land in Wilmecote than Asbyes, but that he gave his daughter Mary all his land in Wilmecote, which was known by the name of Asbyes.

Note return to page 75 3Shakspeare, by Boswell, vol. ii. p. 39.

Note return to page 76 4We copy the following descriptions from the original borough-record, only avoiding the abbreviations, which render it less intelligible:— Item, quod Georgius Turnor alienavit Johanni Shakespere, &c. unum tenementum, cum gardin et croft, cum pertinentibus, in Grenehyll strete, &c. Et quod Edwardus West alienavit predicto Johanni Shakespere unum tenementum, cum gardin adjacente, in Henley strete.

Note return to page 77 5The original memorandum runs thus:— “Francis Berbage, Master Baly that now ys, Adreane Quyny, Mr. Hall, Mr. Clopton, for the gutter alonge the chappell in Chappell Lane, John Shakspeyr, for not kepynge of their gutters cleane, they stand amerced.” The sum which they were so amerced, 4d., is placed above the names of each of the parties.

Note return to page 78 6The following are the terms used:— “Item, ther trysty and welbelovyd Humfrey Plymley, Roger Sadler, John Taylor, and John Shakspeyr, constabulles.”

Note return to page 79 1This fact appears from a lease, before noticed, granted on 21st May, 1560, by Mary Arden to Alexander Webbe, of two messuages, with a cottage, one of which is stated then to be in the occupation of Richard Shakespeare. We quote the terms of the original deed in the hands of the Shakespeare Society:— “Wytnesseth, that the said Agnes Arderne, for dyverse and sundry consyderations, hath demysed, graunted, &c. to the said Alexander Webbe, and to his assignes, all those her two messuages, with a cottage, with all and singular their appurtenances in Snytterfeild, and a yarde and a halfe of ayrable lande thereunto belonging, &c., being in the towne and fyldes of Snytterfeild afforsaid: all which now are in the occupation of Richarde Shakspere, John Henley, and John Hargreve.” Of course this property formed part of the jointure of Agnes Arden, mentioned in the will of her husband.

Note return to page 80 2John Shakespeare, the shoe-maker, seems not to have belonged to the corporation, at all events, till many years afterwards, so that the confusion to which we have referred does not extend itself to any of the records of that body. After John Shakespeare, the father of our poet, had been bailiff, he is always called Mr. or Magister John Shakespeare; while the shoemaker, who married Margery Roberts, and was the father of Philip, Ursula, and Humphrey, is invariably styled only John Shakespeare. There is no trace of any relationship between the two.

Note return to page 81 3The affeerors seem to have displayed unusual vigilance, and considerable severity: William Trout, Christopher Smythe, Maud Harbage, and John Jamson were all find 3s. 4d. “for selling ale, and having and keeping gaming, contrary to the order of the Court:” eleven other inhabitants were amerced in smaller sums on the same ground. Robert Perrot was compelled to pay 6s. 8d. “for making and selling unwholesome ale.”

Note return to page 82 4The registrations of her birth and death are both in Latin:— “1562. December 2. Margareta filia Johannis Shakspere.” “1563. April 30. Margareta filia Johannis Shakspere.”

Note return to page 83 5The inscription on his monument supports the opinion that he was born on the 23rd April: without the contractions it runs thus:— “Obiit Anno Domini 1616. Ætatis 53, die 23 Aprilis:” and this, in truth, is the only piece of evidence upon the point. Malone referred to the statement of the Rev. J. Greene, as an authority; but he was master of the free-school at Stratford nearly two centuries after the death of Shakespeare, and, in all probability, spoke only from the tenor of the inscription in the church.

Note return to page 84 6Shakspeare, by Boswell, vol. ii. p. 83.

Note return to page 85 7The register of the parish-church contains the subsequent entry:— “1566, October 13. Gilbertus filius Johannis Shakspere.”

Note return to page 86 8Although John Shakespeare was at this time bailiff, no Mr. or Magister is prefixed to his name in the register, a distinction which appears only to have been made after he had served that office. “1569, April 15. Jone the daughter of John Shakspere.”

Note return to page 87 1Malone gave both the confirmation and exemplification of arms, but with some variations, which are perhaps pardonable on account of the state of the originals in the Heralds' College: thus he printed “parent and late antecessors,” instead of “parents and late antecessors,” in the confirmation; and “whose parent and great grandfather, late antecessor,” instead of “whose parent, great grandfather, and late antecessor,” in the exemplification. We are bound here to express our acknowledgments to Sir Charles Young, the present Garter King at Arms, for the trouble he took in minutely collating Malone's copies with the documents themselves. Other errors he pointed out do not require particular notice, as they apply to parts of the instruments not necessary for our argument.

Note return to page 88 2Robert Ardern had two offices conferred upon him by Henry VII., in the 10th and 17th years of his reign; and he is spoken of in the grants as unus garcionum cameræ nostræ: the one office was that of keeper of the park at Aldercar, and the other that of bailiff of the lordship of Codnor, and keeper of the park there. He obtained a grant of lands in 23 Henry VII.; viz. the large manor of Yoxsall, in the county of Stafford, on condition of a payment of a rent to the king of 42l. per annum.

Note return to page 89 3The word “showeth” is thus employed in nearly every petition, and it is only there equivalent to stateth, or setteth forth. The assertion that such a great had been alleged was, probably, that of the heralds.

Note return to page 90 4The confirmation and the exemplification differ slightly as to the mode in which the arms are set out: in the former it is thus: “I have therefore assigned, graunted, and by these have confirmed, this shield or cote of arms, viz. gould, on a bend sable and a speare of the first, the point steeled, proper; and for his crest or cognizance a faulcon, his wings displayed, argent, standing on a wrethe of his coullors, supporting a speare gould steele as aforesaid, sett uppon a helmett with mantelles and tasselles as hath been accustomed.” In the exemplification the arms are stated as follows: “In a field of gould upon a bend sables a speare of the first, the poynt upward, hedded argent; and for his crest or cognisance a falcon with his wyngs displayed, standing on a wrethe of his coullors, supporting a speare armed hedded or steeled sylver, fyxed upon a helmet, with mantelles and tasselles.” In the confirmation, as well as in the exemplification, it is stated that the arms are “depicted in the margin;” and in the latter a reference is made to another escutcheon, in which the arms of Shakespeare are impaled with “the auncyent arms of Arden of Wellingcote, signifying thereby that it maye and shall be lawfull for the said John Shakespeare, gent, to beare and use the same shield of arms, single, or impaled as aforesaid, during his naturall lyffe.” The motto, as given at the head of the confirmation, is NON SANZ DROICT. For “Arden of Wellingcote” the heralds should have said Arden of Wilmecote.

Note return to page 91 5Malone (vol. ii. p. 90,) places reliance on the words of the close roll, (from which the information is derived) “with the appurtenances;” but surely “a good dwelling-house and orchard” would have been specified, and not included in such general terms: they are not mere “appurtenances.”

Note return to page 92 6The following are copies of the registration of the baptism and burial of Anne Shakespeare:— “1571 Sept&ebar;b' 28. Anna filia Magistri Shakspere.” “1579 April 4. Anne daughter of Mr. John Shakspere.”

Note return to page 93 P. lxxviii.&lblank; the registration of his fifth child, Richard] It would have been more correct to say, “his fifth living child.” Richard Shakespeare was the seventh child of John Shakespeare, but two had died before Richard was born.

Note return to page 94 7The baptismal register runs thus:— “1573 March 11. Richard sonne to Mr. John Shakspeer.”

Note return to page 95 8Malone speculated (Shakspeare, by Boswell, vol. ii. p. 106,) that Richard Hill, an alderman of Stratford, had stood godfather to this child, but he was not aware of the existence of any such person as Richard Shakespeare, of Snitterfield, who, there is good ground to believe, was father to John Shakespeare.

Note return to page 96 9“Malone's Shakspeare, by Boswell,” vol. ii. p. 93.

Note return to page 97 10The property is thus described in the indenture between John Shakespeare and his wife, and Robert Webbe. For and in consideration of the sum of 4l. in hand paid, they “give, graunte, bargayne, and sell unto the said Robert Webbe, his heires and assignes for ever, all that theire moitye, parte, and partes, be it more or lesse, of and in two messuages or tenementes, with thappurtennances, sett, lyinge and beynge in Snitterfield aforesaid, in the said county of Warwicke.” The deed terminates thus: “In witnesse whereof the parties above said to these present indentures interchangeablie have put theire handes and seales, the day and yeare fyrst above wrytten. “The marke + of John Shackspere. The marke M of Marye Shackspere. “Sealed and delivered in the presens of Nycholas Knoolles, Vicar of Anston, [Subnote: P. lxxxi.—In note 10, for “Vicar of Anston,” read Vicar of Auston, the letter u having been accidentally turned.] Wyllyam Maydes, and Anthony Osbaston, with other moe.” The seal affixed by John Shakespeare has his initials I. S. upon it, while that appended to the mark of his wife represents a rudely-engraved horse. The mark of Mary Shakespeare seems to have been intended for an uncouth imitation of the letter M. With reference to the word “moiety,” used throughout the indenture, it is to be remembered that at its date the term did not, as now, imply half, but any part, or share. Shakespeare repeatedly so uses it. See vol. iv. p. 283; vol. vii. p. 355; vol. viii. p. 497.

Note return to page 98 11The register contains the following:— “1580. May 3. Edmund sonne to Mr. John Shakspere.”

Note return to page 99 2“The narrowness of his father's circumstances, and the want of his assistance at home, forced his father to withdraw him from thence, and unhappily prevented his farther proficiency.”—Rowe's Life.

Note return to page 100 3Aubrey cites “Mr. Beeston” as his authority, and as persons of that name were connected with theatres before the death of Shakespeare, and long afterwards, we ought to treat the assertion with the more respect. Simon Forman, according to his Diary, was employed in this way in the free-school where he was educated, and was paid by the parents of the boys for his assistance. The same might be the case with Shakespeare.

Note return to page 101 4A passage from the epistle of Thomas Nash before Greene's “Menaphon,” has been held by some to apply to Shakespeare, to his “Hamlet,” and to his early occupation in an attorney's office. The best answer to this supposition is an attention to dates: “Menaphon” was not printed for the first time, as has been supposed, in 1589, but in 1587; (see p. xliii.) in all probability before Shakespeare had written any play, much less “Hamlet.” The “Hamlet” to which Nash alludes must have been the old drama, which was in existence long before Shakespeare took up the subject. (See vol. vii. p. 189.) The terms Nash employs are these; and it is to be observed, that by noverint he means an attorney or attorney's clerk, employed to draw up bonds, &c., commencing Noverint universi, &c. “It is a common practice now-a-dayes, amongst a sort of shifting companions, that run through every art and thrive by none, to leave the trade of noverint, whereto they were borne, and busie themselves with the indevours of art, that could scarcely Latinize their neck verse, if they should have neede: yet English Seneca, read by candle-light, yields many good sentences, as Bloud is a begger, and so forth; and if you intreate him faire in a frostie morning, he will affoord you whole Hamlets, I should say handfuls of tragical speeches.” Hence we may possibly infer that the author of the old “Hamlet,” preceding Shakespeare's tragedy, had been an attorney's clerk. In 1587, Shakespeare was only in his twenty-third year, and could hardly be said by that time to have “run through every art, and thriven by none.” Seneca had been translated, and published collectively, six years before Nash wrote. He may have intended to speak generally, and without more individual allusion than a modern poet, when, in the very same spirit, he wrote the couplet, “Some clerk foredoom'd his father's soul to cross, Who pens a stanza when he should ingross.”

Note return to page 102 5It is certain also that Shakespeare wrote with great facility, and that his compositions required little correction. This fact we have upon the indubitable assertion of Ben Jonson, who thus speaks in his “Discoveries,” written in old age, when, as he tells us, his memory began to fail, and printed with the date of 1641:— “I remember the players have often mentioned it as an honour to Shakespeare, that in his writing (whatsoever he penned) he never blotted out line. My answer hath been, Would he had blotted a thousand! which they thought a malevolent speech. I had not told posterity this, but for their ignorance, who chuse that circumstance to commend their friend by, wherein he most faulted; and to justify mine own candour, for I loved the man, and do honour his memory (on this side idolatry) as much as any. He was indeed honest, and of an open and free nature; had an excellent fancy, brave notions, and gentle expressions, wherein he flowed with that facility, that sometimes it was necessary he should be stopped. Sufflaminandas erat, as Augustus said of Haterius. His wit was in his own power; would the use of it had been so too!” Hence he proceeds to instance the passage in “Julius Cæsar,” upon which we have remarked in vol. vii. p. 45. Ben Jonson then adds in conclusion:— “But he redeemed his vices with his virtues: there was ever more in him to be praised, than to be pardoned.” Consistently with what Ben Jonson tells us above the players had “often mentioned,” we find the following in the address of Heminge and Condell, “To the great variety of Readers,” before the folio of 1623:—“His mind and hand went together, and what he thought he uttered with that easiness, that we have scarce received from him a blot in his papers.”

Note return to page 103 6The instrument, divested of useless formal contractions, runs thus: “Noverint universi per presentes, nos Fulconem Sandells de Stratford in comitatu Warwici, agricolam,et Johannem Richardson ibidem agricolam, teneri et firmiter obligari Ricardo Cosin, generoso, et Roberto Warmstry, notario publico, in quadraginta libris bonæ et legalis monetæ Angliæ solvendis eisdem Ricardo et Roberto, heredibus, executoribus, vel assignatis suis, ad quam quidem solutionem bene et fideliter faciendam obligamus nos, et utrumque nostrum, per se pro toto et in solido, heredes, executores, et administratores nostros firmiter per presentes, sigillis nostris sigillatos. Datum 28 die Novembris, anno Regni Dominæ nostræ Elizabethæ, Dei gratia Angliæ, Franciæ, et Hiberniæ Reginæ, Fidei Defensoris, &c. 25°. “The condition of this obligation ys suche, that if hereafter there shall not appere any lawfull lett or impediment, by reason of any precontract, consanguinitie, affinitie, or by any other lawfull meanes whatsoever, but that William Shagspere one thone partie, and Anne Hathwey, of Stratford in the Dioces of Worcester, maiden, may lawfully solemnize matrimony together, and in the same afterwards remaine and continew like man and wiffe, according unto the lawes in that behalf provided: and moreover, if there be not at this present time any action, sute, quarrel, or demaund, moved or depending before any judge, ecclesiastical or temporal, for and concerning any suche lawfull lett or impediment: and moreover, if the said William Shagspere do not proceed to solemnization of marriadg with the said Anne Hathwey without the consent of her frinds: and also if the said William do, upon his owne proper costs and expenses, defend and save harmles the Right Reverend Father in God, Lord John Bushop of Worcester, and his offycers, for licencing them the said William and Anne to be maried together with once asking of the bannes of matrimony betwene them, and for all other causes which may ensue by reason or occasion thereof, that then the said obligation to be voyd and of none effect, or els to stand and abide in fulle force and vertue.” The marks and seals of Sandells and Richardson.

Note return to page 104 7Malone conjectured that the marriage took place at Weston, or Billesley, but the old registers there having been lost or destroyed, it is impossible to ascertain the fact. A more recent search in the registers of some of the other churches in the neighbourhood of Stratford has not been attended with any success. Possibly, the ceremony was performed in the vicinity of Worcester, but the mere fact that the bond was there executed proves nothing. An examination of the registers at Worcester has been equally fruitless.

Note return to page 105 8Rowe tells us, (and we are without any other authority) that Hathaway was “said to have been a substantial yeoman,” and he was most likely in possession of a seal, such as John Shakespeare had used in 1579.

Note return to page 106 9The fact is registerd in this form:— “1583. May 26. Susanna daughter to William Shakspere.”

Note return to page 107 1We derive this opinion from our own notes of what fell from Coleridge upon the occasion in question. The lectures, upon which he was then engaged, were delivered in a room belonging to the Globe tavern, in Fleet-street. He repeated the same sentiment in public in 1818, and we have more than once heard it from him in private society.

Note return to page 108 2The Rev. Mr. Dyce, in his Life of Shakespeare, prefixed to the Aldine edition of his Poems, 12mo. 1832. p. xi. It comprises all the main points of the biography of our poet then known.

Note return to page 109 3When the Rev. Mr. Dyce observes that “it is unlikely that a woman devoid of personal charms should have won the youthful affections of so imaginative a being as Shakespeare,” he forgets that the mere fact that Shakespeare was an “imaginative being” would render “personal charms” in his wife less necessary to his happiness.

Note return to page 110 4In his MS. notes to Langbaine, in the British Museum, as quoted by Steevens. See “Malone's Shakspeare, by Boswell,” vol. xx. p. 306.

Note return to page 111 5We have noticed this matter more at length hereafter, with reference to the question, whether Shakespeare, in 1609, were not rated to the poor of Southwark in respect of his theatrical property, and not for any dwelling-house which he occupied.

Note return to page 112 6Richard Hathaway, alias Gardener, of Shottery, had a daughter named Johanna, baptized at Stratford church on 9th May, 1566; but there is no trace of the baptism of Anne Hathaway.

Note return to page 113 7From an extract of a letter from Abraham Sturley, dated 24 Jan., 1598, printed in “Malone's Shakspeare by Boswell,” vol. ii. p. 266, it appears that our great dramatist then contemplated the purchase of “some odd yard-land or other at Shottery.” This intention perhaps arose out of the connexion of his wife with the village.

Note return to page 114 1The registration is, of course, dated 2 Feb., 1584, as the year 1585 did not at that date begin until after 25th March: it runs thus:— “1584. Feb. 2. Hamnet & Judeth sonne & daughter to a Willi&abar; Shakspere.”

Note return to page 115 2There was an actor called Hamnet (the name is sometimes spelt Hamlet, see “Memoirs of Edward Alleyn,” p. 127) in one of the London companies at a subsequent date. It is not at all impossible that, like not a few players of that day, he came from Warwickshire.

Note return to page 116 3The terms used by the Rev. Mr. Davies are these:— “He [Shakespeare] was much given to all unluckiness in stealing venison and rabbits, particularly from Sir Lucy, who had him oft whipped and sometimes imprisoned, and at last made him fly his native country, to his great advancement. But his revenge was so great that he is his Justice Clodpate; and calls him a great man, and that, in allusion to his name, bore three louses rampant for his arms.” Fulman's MSS. vol. xv. Here we see that Davies calls Sir Thomas Lucy only “Sir Lucy,” as if he did not know his Christian name, and he was ignorant that such a character as Justice Clodpate is not to be found in any of Shakespeare's plays.

Note return to page 117 4We may, perhaps, consider the authority for the story obtained by Oldys prior in point of date to any other. According to him, a gentleman of the name of Jones, of Turbich in Worcestershire, died in 1703, at the age of ninety, and he remembered to have heard, from several old people of Stratford, the story of Shakespeare's robbing Sir Thomas Lucy's park; and they added that the ballad, of which Rowe makes mention, had been affixed on the parkgate, as an additional exasperation to the knight. Oldys preserved a stanza of this satirical effusion, which he had received from a person of the name of Wilkes, a relation of Mr. Jones: it runs thus: “A parliament member, a justice of peace, At home a poor scare-crowe, at London an asse; If lowsie is Lucy, as some volke miscalle it, Then Lucy is lowsie, whatever befall it:     He thinks himself great,     Yet an asse in his state We allow by his ears but with asses to mate.   If Lucy is lowsie, as some volke miscall it,   Sing lowsie Lucy, whatever befall it.” What is called a “complete copy of the verses,” contained in “Malone's Shakespeare, by Boswell,” vol. ii. p. 565, is evidently not genuine.

Note return to page 118 5Dr. John Rainolds, in his “Overthrow of Stage Playes,” 4to, 1599, p. 22. Some copies of the work (one of which is in the library of Lord Francis Egerton) bear date in 1600, and purport to have been printed at Middleburgh: they are, in fact, the same edition, and there is little doubt that they were printed in London, although no name is found at the bottom of any of the title-pages. His words on the point to which we are now referring, are these:—“Time of recreation is necessary, I grant; and think as necessary for scholars, that are scholars indeed, I mean good students, as it is for any: yet in my opinion it were not fit for them to play at stool-ball among wenches, nor at mum-chance or maw with idle loose companions, nor at trunks in guild-halls, nor to dance about may-poles, nor to rifle in ale-houses, nor to carouse in taverns, nor to steal deer, nor to rob orchards.” This work was published at the time when the building of a new theatre, called the Fortune, belonging to Henslowe and Alleyn, was exciting a great deal of general attention, and particular animosity on the part of the Puritans. To precisely the same import as the above quotation we might produce a passage from Forman's Diary, referred to by Malone, and cited by Mr. Halliwell, in a note to “The First Part of the Contention between the Houses, York and Lancaster,” printed for the Shakespeare Society, p. 106. One of the most curious illustrations of this point is derived from a MS. note by Philip, Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery, in a copy of Roper's Life of Sir Thomas More, edit. 1642, sold among the books of Horace Walpole. Speaking of Aurelian Townshend, who, he says, was a poor poet living in Barbican, near the Earl of Bridgewater's, he adds that he had “a fine fair daughter, mistress to the Palgrave first, and then afterwards to the noble Count of Dorset, a Privy Councillor, and a Knight of the Garter, and a deer-stealer,” &c. It was to William Earl of Pembroke, and Philip Earl of Montgomery, that the player-editors dedicated the folio Shakespeare of 1623; and one of Earl Philip's MS. notes, in the volume from which we have already quoted, contains the following mention of seven dramatic poets, including Shakespeare: — “The full and heightended style of Master Chapman; the laboured and understanding works of Mr. Jhonson; Mr. Beaumont, Mr. Fletcher, (brother to Nat Fletcher, Mrs. White's servant, sons to Bishop Fletcher of London, and great tobacconist, and married to my Lady Baker)—Mr. Shakespear, Mr. Deckar, Mr. Heywood.” Horace Walpole registers on the title-page of the volume that the notes were made by Philip, Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery.

Note return to page 119 P. xcvii.&lblank; Sir Thomas Lucy died in 1600] According to Camden, Sir Thomas Lucy died on 7th July, 1600.

Note return to page 120 6See “The Egerton Papers,” printed by the Camden Society, 4to, 1840. pp. 350. 355. The editor of that volume observes: “Many of these [presents] deserve notice, but especially one of the items, where it is stated that Sir Thomas Lucy (against whom Shakespeare is said to have written a ballad) sent a present of a ‘buck.’ Malone discredits the whole story of the deer-stealing, because Sir Thomas Lucy had no park at Charlcote: ‘I conceive (he says) it will very readily be granted that Sir Thomas Lucy could not lose that of which he was never possessed.’ We find, however, from what follows, that he was possessed of deer, for he sent a present of a buck to Lord Ellesmere, in 1602.” He gave “a buck,” because he had bred it himself, and because it was perhaps well known that he kept deer; and he would hardly have exposed himself to ridicule by buying a buck for a present, under the ostentatious pretence that it was of his own rearing. Malone thought that he had triumphantly overthrown the deer-stealing story, but his refutation amounts to little or nothing. Whether it is nevertheless true is quite a different question.

Note return to page 121 7We may conclude that the Earl of Worcester's players did not perform, but that 12d. was given them as some compensation, and to aid them on their road to another place.

Note return to page 122 8The widow of Walter Devereux, whom Leicester very soon afterwards married. It is to be observed, that as early as 1482 the Earl of Essex had a company of players travelling under the protection of his name, and that on the 9th January Lord Howard, through one of his stewards, gave them a reward. This Earl of Essex was, however, of a different family, viz. Henry Bourchier, who was created in 1461, and who died in 1483. See the Household Book of John Lord Howard, afterwards Duke of Norfolk, printed in 1844 for the Roxburghe Club, p. 149.

Note return to page 123 9In the account of the cost of the Revels for the year 1581–2, we are told that “sundrey feates of tumbling and activitie were shewed before her Majestie on newe yeares night by the Lord Straunge his servauntes.” See Mr. P. Cunningham's Extracts from the Revels accounts, p. 177.

Note return to page 124 1Malone, who gleaned these particulars from the accounts of the Chamberlains of Stratford, mis-stated this date 1510, (vol. ii. p. 151.) but we have ascertained it to be 1580, as indeed seems evident.

Note return to page 125 2This was most likely one of the companies which the Queen had directed to be formed, consisting of a selection of the best actors from the associations of several of the nobility, and not either of the distinct bodies of “interlude players” who had visited Stratford while John Shakespeare was bailiff.

Note return to page 126 3Malone attributes the following order, made by the corporation of Stratford many years after the date to which we are now adverting, to the growth of puritanism; but possibly it originated in other motives, and may even have been connected with the attraction of young men from their homes:— “17. Dec. 45 Eliz: 1602. At this Hall yt is ordered, that there shall be no plays or interludes played in the Chamber, the Guildhall, nor in any parte of the howse or courte, from hensforward, upon payne, that whoever of the Baylif, Aldermen, or Burgesses of the boroughe shall give leave or license thereunto, shall forfeyt for everie offence—xs.”

Note return to page 127 4Nicholas Tooley, was of Burmington, and he is said to be possessed of 20l., goods. We are indebted to Mr. Lemon for directing our attention to this document, which he only recently discovered in the public archives.

Note return to page 128 5It has been conjectured, but, we believe, upon no evidence beyond the following entry in the register of deaths at Stratford [Subnote: P. cii.—The statement contained in the first part of note 5, that the only evidence to show that Thomas Greene was related to Shakespeare is the entry in the Stratford register, was written without recollecting that in 1614, in a letter sent to Stratford, Thomas Greene, the solicitor, calls Shakespeare his cousin. The remark as to family connexion should, perhaps, have been confined to him.] , that Greene was in some way related to Shakespeare:— “1589. March 6. Thomas Green, alias Shakspere.” This was perhaps the father of Thomas Greene, the actor, who was a comedian of great reputation and popularity, and became so famous in a character called Bubble, that the play of the “City Gallant,” (acted by the Queen's Players) in which it occurs, with the constantly repeated phrase, Tu quoque, was named after him. In the account of the Revels of 1611–12, it is called first “the City Gallant,” and afterwards Tu quoque: it was printed in 1614, under the double title of “Greene's Tu Quoque, or the City Gallant,” preceded by an epistle from T. Heywood, by which it appears that Greene was then dead. A piece in verse, called “A Poet's Vision and a Prince's Glory,” 1603, was written by a Thomas Greene, but it may be doubted, whether this were the comedian. The Greenes were a very respectable family at Stratford, and one of them was a solicitor settled in London.

Note return to page 129 6Upon this point we differ from the Rev. Mr. Halpin in his ingenious and agreeable “Essay upon Oberon's Vision,” printed by the Shakespeare Society. Bishop Percy, in his “Reliques,” was the first to start the idea that Shakespeare had been present at the entertainment at Kenilworth, and the Rev. Mr. Halpin calls it “a pleasant conceit,” which had been countenanced by Malone and adopted by Dr. Drake: nevertheless, he afterwards seriously argues the matter, and arrives at the conclusion that Shakespeare was present in right of his gentry on both sides of the family. This appears to us even a more “pleasant conceit” than that of Percy, Malone, and Drake, who suppose Shakespeare to have gone to Kenilworth “under the wing” of Thomas Greene.

Note return to page 130 7Gascoyne's “Princely Pleasures,” &c. was printed in 1576, and Laneham's “Letter” from Kenilworth in the preceding year. Gascoyne was himself a performer in the shows, and, according to Laneham, represented “a Savage Man,” who made a speech to the Queen as she came from hunting. Robert Laneham, the affected but clever writer of the “Letter,” was most likely (as is suggested in the Bridgewater Catalogue, 4to, 1837, p. 162) related to John Laneham, the player, who was one of the Earl of Leicester's players, and is named in the royal licence of 1574. “Robert Laneham,” observes the compiler of that Catalogue, “seems to have been quite as much a comedian upon paper, as John Laneham was upon the stage.”

Note return to page 131 1William Tyler was the bailiff of the year. See Malone's Shakspeare by Boswell, vol. ii. p. 164.

Note return to page 132 2This use of the word “warned” occurs several times in Shakespeare: in “Antony and Cleopatra,” (Vol. vii. p. 79) Octavius tells Antony, “They mean to warn us at Philippi here:” and in “King John,” (Vol. iv. p. 24) after King Philip has said, “Some trumpet summon hither to the walls These men of Angiers,” a citizen exclaims from the battlements, “Who is it that hath warn'd us to the walls?” This illustration, from the proceedings of the corporation of Stratford, did not occur to us when noting the two passages.

Note return to page 133 3We do not imagine that one event, or the other, was influenced in any way by the execution of Edward Arden, a maternal relative of the family, at the close of 1583. According to Dugdale, it was more than suspected that he came to his end through the power of Leicester, who was exasperated against him, “for galling him by certain harsh expressions, touching his private accesses to the Countess of Essex,” while she was still the wife of Walter Devereux. It does not appear that there had been any intercourse between Edward Arden, then the head of his family, and Mary Shakespeare, the youngest daughter of the junior branch.

Note return to page 134 4Shakspeare by Boswell, vol. ii. p. 157.

Note return to page 135 5The excess to which the enmity between the corporation of London and the players was carried may be judged by the following quotation from “a Jig,” or humorous theatrical ballad, called “The Horse-load of Fools,” which, in the manuscript in which it has been handed down to us, is stated to have been written by Richard Tarlton, and in all probability was delivered by him before applauding audiences at the Theatre in Shoreditch. Tarlton introduces to the spectators a number of puppets, accompanying the exhibition by satirical stanzas upon each, and he thus speaks of one of them:— “This foole comes from the citizens;   Nay, prithee doe not frowne; I knowe him as well as you   By his liverie gowne:     Of a rare horne-mad familie. “He is a foole by prenticeship   And servitude, he sayes, And hates all kindes of wisedome,   But most of all in playes:     Of a verie obstinate familie. “You have him in his liverie gowne,   But presentlie he can Qualifie for a mule or a mare,   Or for an alderman;     With a golde chaine in his familie. “Being borne and bred for a foole,   Why should he be wise, It would make him not fitt to sitt   With his brethren of assize;     Of a verie long earde familie.” Possibly the lord mayor and aldermen complained of this very composition, and it may have been one of the causes which, soon afterwards, led to the silencing of the company: at all events it was not likely to conciliate the members of the corporation.

Note return to page 136 6All the known details of these transactions may be seen in “The Hist. of Engl. Dram. Poetry and the Stage,” vol. i. p. 271, &c.

Note return to page 137 7It is on a long slip of paper, very neatly written, but without any names appended. “These are to certifie your right Hoñble Lordships, that her Majesty's poore Playeres, James Burbadge, Richard Burbadge, John Laneham, Thomas Greene, Robert Wilson, John Taylor, Anth. Wadeson, Thomas Pope, George Peele, Augustine Phillipps, Nicholas Towley, William Shakespeare, William Kempe, William Johnson, Baptiste Goodale, and Robert Armyn, being all of them sharers in the blacke Fryers playehouse, have never given cause of displeasure, in that they have brought into their playes maters of state and Religion, unfitt to be handled by them, or to be presented before lewde spectators: neither hath anie complaynte in that kinde ever bene preferrde against them, or anie of them. Wherefore, they trust most humblie in your Lordships consideration of their former good behaviour, being at all tymes readie, and willing, to yeelde obedience to any command whatsoever your Lordships in your wisdome may thinke in such case meete, &c. “Nov. 1589.” Here we see that Shakespeare's name stands twelfth in the enumeration of the members of the company; but we do not rest much on the succession in which they are inserted, because among the four names which follow that of our great dramatist are certainly two performers, one of them of the highest reputation, and the other of long standing in the profession.

Note return to page 138 8In the dedication of his “Almond for a Parrot,” printed without date, but not later than 1589, (the year of which we are now speaking) Thomas Nash calls Kempe “Jestmonger and Vice-gerent general to the ghost of Dick Tarlton.” Heywood, in his “Apology for Actors,” 1612, (Shakespeare Society's reprint, p. 43) tells us that Kempe succeeded Tarlton “as well in the favour of her Majesty, as in the opinion and good thoughts of the general audience.”

Note return to page 139 9He was also one of the executors under Tarlton's will, and was also trustee for his son Philip. See p. xxxvii. What became of Johnson after 1589, we have no information.

Note return to page 140 1He was one of the actors, with Laneham, in the anonymous manuscript play of “Sir Thomas More,” (Harl. Coll., No. 7368) which, we may conjecture, was licensed for the stage before 1592.

Note return to page 141 2This fact is stated in a publication entitled “Tarlton's Jests,” of which the earliest extant impression is in 1611, but they were no doubt collected and published very soon after the death of Tarlton in 1588.

Note return to page 142 3When the Rev. Mr. Dyce published his edition of Peele's Works, he was not aware that there was any impression of that author's “Tale of Troy,” in 1604, as well as in 1589, containing such variations as show that it must have been corrected and augmented by Peele after its first appearance. The impression of 1604 is the most diminutive volume, perhaps, ever printed, not exceeding an inch and a half high by an inch wide, with the following title:—“The Tale of Troy. By G. Peele, M. of Artes in Oxford. Printed by A. H. 1604.” We will add only two passages out of many, to prove the nature of the changes and additions made by Peele after the original publication. In the edition of 1604 the poem thus opens: “In that world's wounded part, whose waves yet swell With everlasting showers of tears that fell, And bosom bleeds with great effuze of blood That long war shed, Troy, Neptune's city, stood, Gorgeously built, like to the house of Fame, Or court of Jove, as some describe the same,” &c. The four lines which commence the second page of Mr. Dyce's edition are thus extended in the copy of 1604: “His court presenting to our human eyes An earthly heaven, or shining Paradise, Where ladies troop'd in rich disguis'd attire, Glistring like stars of pure immortal fire. Thus happy, Priam, didst thou live of yore, That to thy fortune heavens could add no more.” Peele was dead in 1598, and it is likely that there were one or more intervening impressions of “The Tale of Troy,” between 1589 and 1604.

Note return to page 143 4“His name is printed, as the custom was in those times, amongst those of the other players, before some old plays, but without any particular account of what sort of parts he used to play; and though I have inquired, I never could meet with any further account of him this way, than that the top of his performance was the Ghost in his own ‘Hamlet.’”—Rowe's Life. Shakespeare's name stands first among the players of “Every Man in his Humour,” and fifth among those of “Sejanus.”

Note return to page 144 5From a MS. Epitaph upon Burbage, (who died in 1619,) sold among the books of the late Mr. Heber, we find that he was the original Hamlet, Romeo, Prince Henry, Henry V., Richard III., Macbeth, Brutus, Coriolanus, Shylock, Lear, Pericles, and Othello, in Shakespeare's Plays: in those of other dramatists he was Jeronimo, in Kyd's “Spanish Tragedy;” Antonio, in Marston's “Antonio and Mellida;” Frankford, in T. Heywood's “Woman killed with Kindness;” Philaster, in Beaumont and Fletcher's play of that name; Amintor, in their “Maid's Tragedy.”—See “The Alleyn Papers,” printed by the Shakespeare Society, p. xxx. On a subsequent page we have inserted the whole passage relating to his characters from the Epitaph on Burbage.

Note return to page 145 6Mr. Thomas Campbell, in his Life of Shakespeare, prefixed to the edition, in one volume, 1838, was, we believe, the first to remark upon the almost absolute necessity of having a good, if not a great actor, for the part of the Ghost in “Hamlet.”

Note return to page 146 7It seems, from an obscure ballad upon Marlowe's death, (handed down to us in MS., and quoted in “New Particulars regarding the Works of Shakespeare,” 8vo, 1836,) that he had broken his leg while acting at the Curtain Theatre, which was considered a judgment upon him for his irreligious and lawless life. “Both day and night would he blaspheme,   And day and night would sweare; As if his life was but a dreame,   Not ending in despare. “A poet was he of repute,   And wrote full many a playe; Now strutting in a silken sute,   Now begging by the way. “He had alsoe a player beene   Upon the Curtaine stage, But brake his leg in one lewd scene,   When in his early age. “He was a fellow to all those   That did God's lawes reject; Consorting with the Christian's foes,   And men of ill aspect,” &c. The ballad consists of twenty-four similar stanzas: of Marlowe's death the author thus writes: “His lust was lawlesse as his life,   And brought about his death, For in a deadly mortal strife,   Striving to stop the breath “Of one who was his rival foe,   With his owne dagger slaine, he groan'd and word spoke never moe,   Pierc't through the eye and braine.” Which pretty exactly accords with the tradition of the mode in which he came to his end, in a scuffle with a person of the name of Archer: the register of his death at St. Nicholas, Deptford, ascertains the name:—“1st June, 1593. Christopher Marlowe slain by Francis Archer.” He was just dead when Peele wrote his “Honour of the Garter,” in 1593, and there spoke of him as “unhappy in his end,” and as having been “the Muses' darling for his verse.”

Note return to page 147 8See pp. xxv. and xxxviii., where it is shown that there was an old drama, acted at Court in 1573 and 1582, called “The History of Error” in one case, and “The History of Ferrar” in the other. See also the Introduction to “The Comedy of Errors,” Vol. ii. p. 109.

Note return to page 148 9Upon this point we cannot agree with Mr. F. G. Tomlins, who has written a very sensible and clever work called “A brief view of the English Drama,” 12mo, 1840, where he argues that Shakespeare and probably began with original composition, and not with the adaptation and alteration of works he found in possession of the stage when he joined the Lord Chamberlain's players. We know that the earliest charge against him by a fellow dramatist was, that he had availed himself of the productions of others, and we have every reason to believe that some of the plays upon which he was first employed were not by any means entirely his own: we allude among others to the three parts of “Henry VI.” It seems to us much more likely that Shakespeare in the first instance confined himself to alterations and improvements of the plays of predecessors, than that he at once found himself capable of inventing and constructing a great original drama. However, it is but fair to quote the words of Mr. Tomlins. “We are thus driven to the conclusion that his writing must have procured him this distinction. What had he written? is the next question that presents itself. Probably original plays, for the adaptation of the plays of others could scarcely be entrusted to the inexperienced hands of a young genius, who had not manifested his knowledge of stage matters by any productions of his own. This kind of work would be jealously watched by the managers, and must ever have required great skill and experience. Shakespeare, mighty as he was, was human, and it is scarcely possible that a genius, so ripe, so rich, so overflowing as his should not have its enthusiasm kindled into an original production, and not by the mechanical botching of the inferior productions of others,” p. 31. Upon this passage we have only to remark that, according to our view, it would have required much more “skill and experience” to write a new play, than merely to make additions to the speeches or scenes of an old one.

Note return to page 149 1“His sugar'd sonnets” were handed about “among his private friends” many years before they were printed: Francis Meres mentions them in the words we have quoted in 1598.

Note return to page 150 2Malone was of opinion that “Venus and Adonis” was not written until after Shakespeare came to London, because in one stanza (Vol. viii. p. 384) it contains an allusion to the stage, “And all this dumb play had his acts made plain With tears, which, chorus-like, her eyes did drain.” Surely, such a passage might have been written by a person who had never seen a play in London, or even seen a play at all. The stage-knowledge it displays is merely that of a schoolboy.

Note return to page 151 3The work that comes nearest to it, in some respects, is Marlowe's “Hero and Leander;” but it was not printed until 1598, and although its author was killed in 1593, he may have seen Shakespeare's “Venus and Adonis” in manuscript: it is quite as probable, as that Shakespeare had seen “Hero and Leander” before it was printed. Marston's “Pygmalion's Image,” published five years after “Venus and Adonis,” is a gross exaggeration of its style; and Barkstead's “Myrrha the Mother of Adonis” is a poor and coarse imitation: the same poet's “Hiren, or the Fair Greek,” is of a similar character. Shirley's “Narcissus,” which must have been written many years afterwards, is a production of the same class as Marston's “Pygmalion,” but in better taste. The poem called “Salmasis and Hermaphroditus,” first printed in 1602, and assigned to Francis Beaumont in 1640, when it was republished by Blaicklock the bookseller, we do not believe to have been the authorship of Beaumont, and it is rather an imitation of “Hero and Leander” than of “Venus and Adonis.” At the date when it originally came out (1602) Beaumont was only sixteen, and the first edition has no name nor initials to the address “To Calliope,” to which Blaicklock in 1640, for his own book-selling purposes, thought fit to add the letters F. B. In the same way, and with the same object, he changed the initials to a commendatory poem from A. F. to I. F., in order to make it appear as if John Fletcher had applauded his friend's early verses. These are facts that hitherto have escaped observation, perhaps, on account of the extreme rarity of copies of the original impression of “Salmasis and Hermaphroditus,” preventing a comparison of it with Blaicklock's fraudulent reprint, which also contains various pieces to which, it is known, Beaumont had no pretensions. To afford the better means of comparison, and as we know of only one copy of the edition of 1602, we subjoin the title-page prefixed to it: “Salmasis and Hermaphroditus. Salmacida spolia sine sanguine et sudore. Imprinted at London for John Hodgets, &c. 1602.” 4to.

Note return to page 152 4It is almost to be wondered that the getters up of this piece of information did not support it by reference to Shakespeare's obvious knowledge of horses and horsemanship, displayed in so many parts of his works. The description of the horse in “Venus and Adonis” will at once occur to every body; and how much it was admired at the time is evident from the fact, that it was plagiarised so soon after it was published. (Introduction, Vol. viii. p. 370.) For his judgment of skill in riding, among other passages, see his account of Lamord's horsemanship in “Hamlet,” Vol. vii. p. 317: the propagators and supporters of the horse-holding anecdote ought to have added, that Shakespeare probably derived his minute and accurate acquaintance with the subject from his early observation of the skill of the English nobility and gentry, after they had remounted at the play-house door:— “But chiefly skill to ride seems a science Proper to gentle blood.” —Spenser's F. Q. b. ii. c. 4.

Note return to page 153 5We have already stated (p. c.) that although in 1586 only one unnamed company performed in Stratford, in the very next year (that in which we have supposed Shakespeare to have become a regular actor) five companies were entertained in the borough: one of these consisted of the players of the Earl of Leicester, to whom the Blackfriars theatre belonged; and it is very possible that Shakespeare at that date exhibited before his fellow-townsmen in his new professional capacity. Before this time his performances at Stratford may have been merely of an amateur description. It is, at all events, a striking circumstance, that in 1586 only one company performed, and that in 1587 such extraordinary encouragement was given to theatricals in Stratford.

Note return to page 154 1Malone (Shakspeare by Boswell, vol. ii. p. 168) says that Spenser's “Tears of the Muses” was published in 1590, but the volume in which it first appeared bears date in 1591. It was printed with some other pieces under the title of “Complaints. Containing sundrie small Poems of the Worlds Vanitie. Whereof the next Page maketh mention. By Ed. Sp. London. Imprinted for William Ponsonbie, &c. 1591.” It will be evident from what follows in our text, that a year is of considerable importance to the question.

Note return to page 155 2Perhaps it was printed off before his “Bartholemew Fair” was acted in 1614; or perhaps, the comedy being a new one, Ben Jonson did not think he had a right to publish it to the detriment of the company (the servants of the Princess Elizabeth) by whom it had been purchased, and produced.

Note return to page 156 3Such as “The Widow,” written soon after 1613, in which he was assisted by Fletcher and Middleton; “The Case is Altered,” printed in 1609, in which his coadjutors are not known; and “Eastward Ho!” published in 1607 [Subnote: P. cxxi.—In note 3, it is stated by an oversight, that “Eastward Ho!” was published in 1607: it was first printed in 1605: the error is not committed when the comedy is mentioned elsewhere.] , in which he was joined by Chapman and Marston: this last play exposed the authors to great danger of punishment.

Note return to page 157 4We are not to be understood as according in the ascription to Shakespeare of various plays imputed to him in the folio of 1664, and elsewhere. We believe that he was concerned in “The Yorkshire Tragedy,” and that he may have contributed some parts of “Arden of Feversham;” but in spite of the ingenious letter, published at Edinburgh in 1833, we do not think that he aided Fletcher in writing “The Two Noble Kinsmen,” and there is not a single passage in “The Birth of Merlin” which is worthy of his most careless moments. Of “The first part of Sir John Oldcastle” we have elsewhere spoken; and several other supposititious dramas in the folio of 1664, which certainly would have done little credit to Shakespeare, have also been ascertained to be the work of other dramatists.

Note return to page 158 5This date has always appeared to us too late, recollecting that Spenser wrote some blank-verse sonnets, prefixed to Vandernoodt's “Theatre for Worldlings,” printed in 1569. If he were born in 1553, in 1569 he was only in his sixteenth year, and the onnets to which we refer do not read like the productions of a very young man.

Note return to page 159 6Chalmers was a very diligent inquirer into such matters, and he could discover no entry of the kind. See his “Supplemental Apology,” p. 22. Subsequent investigations, instituted with reference to this question, have led to the same result. Oldys is responsible for the statement.

Note return to page 160 7And belonging to no other family at that time, as far as our researches have extended. It has been too hastily concluded that the Spenser whom Turberville addressed from Russia, in some epistles printed at the end of his “Tragical Tales,” 1587, was not the poet. Taking Wood's representation, that these letter were written as early as 1569, it is still very possible that the author of “The Faerie Queene” was the person to whom they were sent: he was a very young man, it is true, but perhaps not quite so young as has been imagined.

Note return to page 161 8Nobody has been able even to speculate where Spenser was at school;— possibly at Kingsbury. Drayton was also a Warwickshire man.

Note return to page 162 9Differences of opinion, founded upon dicordances of contemporaneous, or nearly contemporaneous, representations, have prevailed respecting the extreme poverty of Spenser at the time of his death. There is no doubt that he had a pension of 50l. a year (at leat 250l. of our present money) from the royal bounty, which probably he received to the last. At the same time we think there is much plausibility in the story that Lord Burghley stood in the way of some special pecuniary gift from Elizabeth. The Rev. H. J. Todd disbelieves it, and in his “Life of Spenser” calls it “a calumny,” on the foundation of the pension, without considering, perhaps, that the epigram, attributed to Spenser, may have been occasioned by the obstruction by the Lord Treasurer of some additional proof of the Queen's admiration for the author of “The Faerie Queene.” Fuller first published the anecdote in his “Worthies,” 1662; but sixty years earlier, and within a very short time after the death of Spenser, the story was current, for we find the lines in Manningham's Diary, (Harl. MS. 5353) under the date of May 4, 1602: they are thus introduced: “When her Majesty had given order that Spenser should have a reward for his poems, but Spenser could have nothing, he presented her with these verses: “It pleas'd your Grace upon a time To grant me reason for my rhyme; But from that time until this season, I heard of neither rhyme nor reason.” The wording differs slightly from Fuller's copy. We add the following epigram upon the death of Spenser, also on the authority of Manningham:— “In Spenserum. “Famous alive, and dead, here is the odds; Then god of poets, now poet of the gods.”

Note return to page 163 1They consisted of the company under the leadership of Lawrence Dutton, one of the two associations acting at this period under the Queen's name. Both were unconnected with the Lord Chamberlain's servants.

Note return to page 164 2See Mr. Halliwell's “Ludus Coventriæ (printed for the Shakespeare Society), p. 410. Rowley, in his “Search for Money,” speaks of this expedition by Kempe, who, it seems, had wagered a certain sum of money that he would go to Rome and back in a given number of days. In the introduction to the reprint of that rare tract by the Percy Society, it is shown that Kempe also danced a morris in France. These circumstances were unknown to the Rev. A. Dyce, when he superintended a republication of Kempe's “Nine Days' Wonder,” 1600, for the Camden Society.

Note return to page 165 3It is a new fact that Kempe at any time quitted the company playing at the Blackfriars and Globe theatres: it is however indisputable, and we have it on the authority of Henslowe's Diary, where payments are recorded to Kempe, and where entries are also made for the expenses of dresses supplied to him in 1602. These memoranda Malone overlooked, when the MS., belonging to Dulwich College, was in his hands; but they may be very important with reference to the dates of some of Shakespeare's plays, and the particular actors engaged in them: they also account for the non-appearance of Kempe's name in the royal licence granted in May, 1603, to the company to which he had belonged. Mr. Dyce attributes the omission of Kempe's name in that instrument to his death, because, in the register of St. Saviour's, Southwark, Chalmers found an entry, dated Nov. 2, 1603, of the burial of “William Kempe, a man.” There were doubtless many men of the common names of William Kempe; and the William Kempe, who had acted Dogberry, Peter, &c., was certainly alive in 1605, and had by that date rejoined the Lord Chamberlain's servants, then called “the King's players.” The following unnoticed memoranda relating to him are extracted from Henslowe's Diary: “Lent unto Wm Kempe, the 10 of Marche, 1602, in redy mony, twentye shillinges for his necesary uses, the some of xxs. “Lent unto Wm Kempe, the 22 of Auguste, 1602, to buye buckram to make a payer of gyentes hosse, the some of vs. “Pd unto the tyerman for mackynge of Wm Kempe's sewt, and the boyes, the 4 Septembr 1602, some of viijs. 8d.”

Note return to page 166 1We have some doubts of the authenticity of the “Groatsworth of Wit,” as a work by Greene. Chettle was a needy dramatist, and possibly wrote it in order to avail himself of the high popularity of Greene, then just dead. Falling into some discredit, in consequence of the publication of it, Chettle re-asserted that it was by Greene, but he admitted that the manuscript from which it was printed was in his own hand-writing: this circumstance he explained by stating that Greene's copy was so illegible that he was obliged to transcribe it: “it was ill written,” says Chettle, “as Greene's hand was none of the best;” and therefore he re-wrote it.

Note return to page 167 2See this point more fully illustrated in the Introduction to “Henry VI.” part iii. Vol. v. p. 225, &c.

Note return to page 168 3At this date Peele had relinquished his connection with the company occupying the Blackfriars theatre, to which, as will be remembered, he was attached in 1589. How far the rising genius of Shakespeare, and his increased utility and importance, had contributed to the withdrawal of Peele, and to his junction with the rival association acting under the name of the Lord Admiral, it is impossible to determine. We have previously adverted to this point.

Note return to page 169 4See p. xliv. note 6, for some information upon this point.

Note return to page 170 5There were not separate impressions of “Kind-heart's Dream” in 1592, but the only three copies known vary in some minute particulars: thus, with reference to these words one impression at Oxford reads, “his fatious grace in writing,” and the other correctly, as we have given it. “Kind-heart's Dream” has been re-printed, by the Percy Society, from the third copy in the King's Library at the British Museum.

Note return to page 171 6More than ten years afterwards, Chettle paid another tribute to Shakespeare, under the name of Melicert, in his “England's Mourning Garment:” the author is reproaching the leading poets of the day, Daniel, Warner, Chapman, Jonson, Drayton, Sackville, Dekker, &c., for not writing in honour of Queen Elizabeth, who was just dead: he thus addresses Shakespeare:— “Nor doth the silver-tongued Melicert,   Drop from his honied Muse one sable tear, To mourn her death that graced his desert,   And to his lays open'd her royal ear. Shepherd, remember our Elizabeth, And sing her Rape, done by that Tarquin death.” This passage is important, with reference to the royal encouragement given to Shakespeare, in consequence of the approbation of his plays at Court: Elizabeth had “graced his desert,” and “open'd her royal ear” to “his lays.” Chettle did not long survive the publication of “England's Mourning Garment” in 1603: he was dead in 1607, as he is spoken of in Dekker's “Knight's Conjuring,” of that year, (there is an impression also without date, and possibly a few months earlier) as a very corpulent ghost in the Elysian Fields. He had been originally a printer, then became a bookseller, and, finally, a pamphleteer and dramatist. He was, in various degrees, concerned in about forty plays.

Note return to page 172 7Malone, with a good deal of research and patience, goes over all the pseudo-names in “Colin Clout's come home again,” applying each to poets of the time; but how uncertain and unsatisfactory any attempt of the kind must necessarily be may be illustrated in a single instance. Malone refers the following lines to Arthur Golding:— “And there is old Palemon, free from spite,   Whose careful pipe may make the hearers rue; Yet he himself may rued be more right,   Who sung so long, until quite hoarse he grew.” The passage, in truth, applies to Thomas Churchyard, as he himself informs us in his “Pleasant Discourse of Court and Wars,” 1596: he complains of neglect, and tells us that the Court is “The platform where all poets thrive,   Save one whose voice is hoarse, they say; The stage, where time away we drive,   As children in a pageant play.” In the same way we might show that Malone was mistaken as to other poets he supposes alluded to by Spenser; but it would lead us too far out of our way. No body had disputed, that by Ætion, the author of “Colin Clout” meant Shakespeare.

Note return to page 173 P. cxxxvi.—In the same feeling Ben Jonson calls him “my gentle Shakespeare,” in the noble copy of verses prefixed to the folio of 1623] It ought here to have been also noticed, as indeed it is afterwards, that Ben Jonson repeats the same epithet in his lines upon the portrait on the title-page of the folio of 1623.

Note return to page 174 8In a passage we have already extracted (p. lxxxv.) from Ben Jonson's “Discoveries,” he mentions Shakespeare's “gentle expressions;” but he is there perhaps rather referring to his style of composition.

Note return to page 175 1We have to express our best thanks to Mr. Lemon for directing our attention to this manuscript, and for supplying us with an analysis of its contents.

Note return to page 176 2The first certificate has not been found in the State Paper Office, after the most diligent search.

Note return to page 177 3Hence we see that Shakespeare took two names in his “Henry V.” from persons who bore them in his native town. Awdrey was also a female appellation known in Stratford, as appears elsewhere in the same document.

Note return to page 178 4By an account of rents received by Thomas Rogers, Chamberlain of Stratford, in 1589, it appears that “John Shakespeare” occupied a house in Bridge-street, at an annual rent of twelve shillings, nine shillings of which had been paid. Perhaps (as Malone thought) this was John Shakespeare, the shoemaker; because the father of the poet, having been bailiff and head-alderman, was usually styled Mr. John Shakespeare, as we have before remarked. However, it is a coincidence to be noted, that the name of John Shakespeare immediately follows that of Henry Fylde or Field, whose goods Mr. John Shakespeare was subsequently employed to value: they were therefore in all probability neighbours.

Note return to page 179 5Shakspeare and his Times,” vol. i. p. 8. Dr. Drake seems to be of opinion that John Shakespeare may have refrained from attending the corporation halls previous to 1586, on account of his religious opinions.

Note return to page 180 6It has the following title:— “A true and perfect Inventory of the Goodes and Cattells, which were the Goodes and Cattells of Henry Feelde, late of Stretford-uppon-Avon in the County of Warwyke, tanner, now decessed, beynge in Stretford aforesayd, the 21st daye of Auguste, Anno Domini 1592. By Thomas Trussell, Gentleman, Mr. John Shaksper, Richard Sponer and others.” The items of the inventory consist of nothing but an enumeration of old bedsteads, painted cloths, andirons, &c. of no curiosity and of little value. It is to be observed that Thomas Trussel was an attorney of Stratford, and it seems likely that the valuation was made in relation to Field's will. The whole sum at which the goods were estimated was £14. 14s. 0d., and the total, with the names of the persons making the appraisement, is thus stated at the end of the account. “Some totall—£14. 14s. 0d. John Shaksper senior By me Richard Sponer Per me Thomas Trussel Script. present.” Of course, unless, as does not appear in this coeval copy, John Shakespeare made his mark, the document must have been subscribed by some person on his behalf.

Note return to page 181 7Nearly all the passages in his works, of a religious or doctrinal character, have been brought into one view by Sir Frederick B. Watson, K. C. H., in a very elegant volume, printed in 1843, for the benefit of the theatrical funds of our two great theatres. The object of the very zealous and amiable compiler was to counteract a notion, formerly prevailing, that William Shakespeare was a Roman Catholic, and he has done so very effectually, although we do not find among his extracts one which seems to us of great value upon this question: it forms part of the prophecy of Cranmer, at the christening of Queen Elizabeth in “Henry VIII.” act v. sc. 4. (Vol. v. p. 607.) It consists of but five expressive words, which we think clearly refer to the completion of the Reformation under our maiden queen. “In her days * * * * God shall be truly known.”

Note return to page 182 8By the following order, derived from the registers:— “That for avoyding of great concourse of people, which causeth increase of the infection, it were convenient that all Playes, Bear-baytings, Cockpitts, common Bowling-alleyes, and such like unnecessarie assemblies, should be suppressed during the time of infection, for that infected people, after their long keeping in, and before they be cleared of their disease and infection, being desirous of recreation, use to resort to such assemblies, where, through heate and thronge, they infect many sound personnes.” In consequence of the virulence and extent of the disorder, Michaelmas term, 1593, was kept at St. Alban's. It was about this period that Nash's “Summer's Last Will and Testament” was acted as a private entertainment at Croydon. See also p. liv. note 2.

Note return to page 183 9Malone knew nothing of any copy of 1594. The impression of 1602 was printed for W. Leake. We mention the fact here, because in the Introduction to “Venus and Adonis,” (Vol. viii. p. 369) it is erroneously stated, that no impression with the name of William Leake upon the title-page is known. Only a single copy of the edition of 1602 has come down to our day: it had been entered by W. Leake as early as 1596.

Note return to page 184 1The author of the present Life of Shakespeare is bound to make one exception, which has come peculiarly within his own knowledge, but of which he does not feel at liberty to say more.

Note return to page 185 2Neither are we to imagine that Shakespeare would have to contribute the whole sum of 1000l. as his contribution to the cost of the Globe: probably much less; but this was a consideration which, we may feel assured, never entered the mind of a man like Lord Southampton.

Note return to page 186 3After the Globe had been burned down in June, 1613, it was rebuilt very much by the contributions of the king and the nobility. Lord Southampton may have intended the 1000l., in part, as a contribution to this enterprise, through the hands of an individual whom he had good reason to distinguish from the rest of the company.

Note return to page 187 1We know that they did so afterwards, and there is every reason to believe that such was their practice from the beginning. Dr. Forman records, in his Diary in the Ashmolean Museum, that he saw “Macbeth” at the Globe, on the 20th April, 1610; “Richard II.” on the 30th April, 1611, and “The Winter's Tale” on the 15th May, in the same year. See the Introductions to those several plays.

Note return to page 188 2The same was precisely the case with Pope, the celebrated comedian, who died in Feb. 1604. His will, dated 22d July, 1603, contains the following clause: “Item, I give and bequeath to the said Mary Clark, alias Wood, and to the said Thomas Bromley, as well all my part, right, title, and interest, which I have, or ought to have, in and to all that playhouse, with the appurtenances, called the Curtain, situate and being in Holywell, in the parish of St. Leonard's in Shoreditch, in the county of Middlesex; as also my part, estate, and interest, which I have, or ought to have, in and to all that playhouse, with the appurtenances, called the Globe, in the parish of St. Saviour's, in the county of Surrey.”—Chalmers' Supplemental Apology, p. 165. Richard Burbage lived and died (in 1619) in Holywell-street, near the Curtain theatre, as if his presence were necessary for the superintendence of the concern, although he had been an actor at the Blackfriars for many years, and at the Globe ever since its erection.

Note return to page 189 3Inquiry into the Authenticity, &c. p. 87.

Note return to page 190 4See “The Loseley Manuscripts,” by A. J. Kempe, Esq., 8vo. 1835, p. 496 a very curious and interesting collection of original documents.

Note return to page 191 P. cliv.&lblank; who withdrew from the company in 1601] The precise date when William Kempe quitted the company of the Lord Chamberlain's servants is not known, but it must probably have been before, and not “in” 1601, as he was seen at Rome in the autumn of that year.

Note return to page 192 5“To the right honourable the Lords of her Majesties most honourable Privie Councell. “The humble petition of Thomas Pope, Richard Burbage, John Hemings, Augustine Phillips, William Shakespeare, William Kempe, William Slye, Nicholas Tooley, and others, servaunts to the Right Honorable the Lord Chamberlaine to her Majestie. “Sheweth most humbly, that your Petitioners are owners and players of the private house, or theatre, in the precinct and libertie of the Blackfriers, which hath beene for many yeares used and occupied for the playing of tragedies, commedies, histories, enterludes, and playes. That the same, by reason of its having beene so long built, hath fallen into great decay, and that besides the reparation thereof, it has beene found necessarie to make the same more convenient for the entertainment of auditories coming thereto. That to this end your Petitioners have all and eche of them put down sommes of money, according to their shares in the said theatre, and which they have justly and honestly gained by the exercise of their qualitie of stage-players; but that certaine persons (some of them of honour) inhabitants of the said precinct and libertie of the Blackfriers have, as your Petitioners are informed, besought your honourable Lordshipps not to permit the said private house any longer to remaine open, but hereafter to be shut up and closed, to the manifest and great injurie of your petitioners, who have no other meanes wherby to maintain their wives and families, but by the exercise of their qualitie as they have heretofore done. Furthermore, that in the summer season your Petitioners are able to playe at their new built house on the Bankside calde the Globe, but that in the winter they are compelled to come to the Blackfriers; and if your honorable Lordshipps give consent unto that which is prayde against your Petitioners, thay will not onely, while the winter endures, loose the meanes whereby they now support them selves and their families, but be unable to practise themselves in anie playes or enterludes, when calde upon to performe for the recreation and solace of her Matie and her honorable Court, as they have beene heretofore accustomed. The humble prayer of your Petitioners therefore is, that your honorable Lordshipps grant permission to finish the reparations and alterations they have begun; and as your Petitioners have hitherto been well ordered in their behaviour, and just in their dealings, that your honorable Lordshipps will not inhibit them from acting at their above namde private house in the precinct and libertie of the Blackfriers, and your Petitioners, as in dutie most bounden, will ever pray for the increasing honor and happinesse of your honorable Lordshipps.”

Note return to page 193 6The ultimate fate of this playhouse, and of others existing at the same time, will be found stated in a subsequent part of our memoir.

Note return to page 194 7“Inquiry into the Authenticity,” &c. p. 215. He seems to have reserved particulars for his “Life of Shakespeare,” which he did not live to complete, and which was imperfectly finished by Boswell.

Note return to page 195 8This may have been Augustine Phillippes, who belonged to the company of the Lord Chamberlain's servants, and whose name stands fourth in the royal license of May 1603. He died as nearly as possible two years afterwards, his will being dated on the 4th May, and proved on the 13th May 1605. Among other bequests to his friends and “fellows,” he gave “a thirty-shillings piece of gold” to William Shakespeare. He was a distinguished comic performer, and the earliest notice we have of him is prior to the death of Tarlton in 1588.

Note return to page 196 9It is just possible that by “Wilsone the pyper” the writer meant to point out “Jack Wilson,” the singer of “Sigh no more, ladies,” in “Much ado about Nothing,” (Vol. iii. p. 216.) who might be, and probably was, a player upon some wind instrument. See also the “Memoirs of Edward Alleyn,” (printed by the Shakespeare Society) p. 153, for a notice of “Mr. Wilson, the singer,” when he dined on one occasion with the founder of Dulwich College.

Note return to page 197 1Malone's Shakespeare by Boswell, iii. p. 182.

Note return to page 198 1The following is the form of the entry of the burial in the register of the church of Stratford:— “1596. August 11. Hamnet filius William Shakspere.”

Note return to page 199 2Annales, edit. 1615, p. 1279.

Note return to page 200 3Ibid. p. 1304.

Note return to page 201 4Malone's Shakspeare, by Boswell, vol. ii. p. 566.

Note return to page 202 5In the indorsement of the document it is stated, that the Townsmen's malt amounted to 449 quarters and two “strike” or bushels, besides 9 quarters of barley—their peas, beans, and vetches to 15 quarters, and their oats to 12 quarters. The malt, the property of Strangers, amounted to 248 quarters and 5 strike, together with 3 quarters of peas. Besides malt, the Townsmen, it is said, were in possession of 43 quarters and a half of “wheat and mill-corn,” and of 10 quarters and 6 strike of barley; but it seems to have been considerably more, even in Chapel-street Ward.

Note return to page 203 6Malone's Shakespeare, by Boswell, vol. ii. p. 25.

Note return to page 204 7For the materials of the following note, which sets right an important error relating to Ben Jonson's mother, we are indebted to Mr. Peter Cunningham. Malone and Gifford (Ben Jonson's Works, vol. i. p. 5) both came to the conclusion that the Mrs. Margaret Jonson, mentioned in the register of St. Martin's in the Fields as having been married, 17th November, 1575, to Mr. Thomas Fowler, was the mother of Ben Jonson, who then took a second husband. “There cannot be a reasonable doubt of it,” says Gifford; but the fact is nevertheless certainly otherwise. It appears that Ben Jonson's mother was living after the comedy of “Eastward Ho!” which gave offence to King James, (and which was printed in 1605,) was brought out.—(Laing's edit. of “Ben Jonson's Conversations,” p. 20.) It is incontestable that the Mrs. Margaret Fowler, who was married in 1575, was dead before 1595; for her husband, Mr. Thomas Fowler, was then buried, and in the inscription upon his tomb, in the old church of St. Martin's in the Fields, it was stated that he survived his three wives, Ellen, Margaret, and Elizabeth, who were buried in the same grave. The inscription (which may be seen in Strype's edit. of Stowe's Survey, 1720, b. vi. p. 69) informs us also, that Mr. Thomas Fowler was “born at Wicam, in the county of Lancaster,” and that he had been “Comptroller and Paymaster of the Works” to Queen Mary, and for the first ten years of Queen Elizabeth. The date of his death is not stated in the inscription, but by the register of the church it appears that he was buried on the 29th May, 1595. The Mrs. Margaret Fowler, who died before 1595, could not have been the mother of Ben Jonson, who was living about 1604; and if Ben Jonson's mother married a second time, we have yet to ascertain who was her second husband.

Note return to page 205 8The precise form in which the entry stands in Henslowe's account book is this:— “Maye 1597. 11. It. at the comodey of Vmers.”

Note return to page 206 9Ben Jonson's Works, 8vo. 1816, vol. i. p. 46.

Note return to page 207 1See “Memoirs of Edward Alleyn,” p. 51. The author of that work has since seen reason to correct himself on this and several other points.

Note return to page 208 1The circumstance was thus alluded to by Francis Meres in the next year: —“As Actæon was wooried of his owne hounds, so is Tom Nash of his Ile of Dogs. Dogges were the death of Euripides; but bee not disconsolate, gallant young Juvenall; Linus the sonne of Apollo died the same death. Yet, God forbid, that so brave a witte should so basely perish: thine are but paper dogges; neither is thy banishment, like Ovid's, eternally to converse with the barbarous Getes: therefore, comfort thyselfe, sweete Tom, with Cicero's glorious return to Rome, and with the counsel Aeneas gives to his sea-beaten soldiors, lib. i. Aeneid:— ‘Pluck up thine heart, and drive from thence both feare and care away; To thinke on this may pleasure be perhaps another day.’ “Durato, et temet rebus servato secundis.”— Palladis Tamia, 1598, fo. 286.

Note return to page 209 2The minute in the registers of the privy council (pointed out to us by Mr. Lemon) is this:— “A letter to Richard Topelyfe, Thomas Fowler, and Ric. Skevington, Esquires, Doctour Fletcher, and Mr. Wilbraham. “Upon information given us of a lewd plaie, that was plaied in one of the plaie howses on the Bancke side, containing very seditious and sclaunderous matters, wee caused some of the players to be apprehended and comytted to pryson, whereof one of them was not only an actor, but a maker of parte of the said plaie. For as much as yt ys thought meete that the rest of the players or actours in that matter shal be apprehended, to receave soche punyshment as there lewde and mutynous behavior doth deserve; these shall be, therefore, to require yow to examine those of the plaiers that are comytted, whose names are knowne to you, Mr. Topelyfe, what is become of the rest of theire fellowes that either had their partes in the devysinge of that sedytious matter, or that were actours or plaiers in the same, what copies they have given forth of the said playe, and to whome, and soch other pointes as you shall thinke meete to be demaunded of them; wherein you shall require of them to deale trulie, as they will looke to receave anie favour. Wee praie yow also to peruse soch papers as were fownde in Nash his lodgings, which Ferrys, a messenger of the Chamber, shall delyver unto yow, and to certyfie us the examynations you take. So &c. Greenwich, 15. Aug. 1597.” From the Council Register. Eliz. No. 13. p. 346.

Note return to page 210 3We find evidence in a satirist of the time, that about this date the Theatre was abandoned, though not “plucked down.” &lblank; “But see yonder One, like the unfrequented Theatre, Walkes in darke silence, and vast solitude.” Edw. Guilpin's “Skialetheia,” 8vo. 1598. Sign. D 6. The theatre, in all probability, was not used for plays afterwards.

Note return to page 211 4See Vol. ii. p. 132 of the “Sidney Papers,” where Rowland White tells Sir Robert Sidney, “My Lord Southampton and Lord Rutland come not to the court: the one doth but very seldom. They pass away the time in London merely in going to plays every day.” This letter is dated 11th October, 1599, and the Queen was then at Nonesuch.

Note return to page 212 5It is doubtful whether an edition of “Titus Andronicus” had not appeared as early as 1594 (see Vol. vi. p. 272); but no earlier copy than that of 1600, in the library of Lord Francis Egerton, is known. It is necessary to bear in mind, that the impression of “Romeo and Juliet” in 1597 was only a mangled and mutilated representation of the state in which the tragedy came from the hand of its author. (See Vol. vi. p. 368.)

Note return to page 213 6The following passages, in the same division of the work of Meres, contain mention of the name or works of Shakespeare. “As the soule of Euphorbus was thought to liue in Pythagoras, so the sweete wittie soule of Ouid liues in mellifluous and hony-tongued Shakespeare; witnes his Venus and Adonis, his Lucrece, his sugred sonnets among his priuate friends &c.” fol. 281. “As Epius Stolo said, the Muses would speake with Plautus tongue, if they would speak Latin; so I say the Muses would speak with Shakespeare's fine-filed phrase, if they would speak English.” fol. 282. “And as Horace saith of his, Exegi monument&ubar; ære perennius, Regaliq; situ pyramidum altius; Quod non imber edax; Non Aquilo impotens possit diruere, aut innumerabilis annorum series et fuga temporum; so say I severally of Sir Philip Sidneys, Spencers, Daniels, Draytons, Shakespeares, and Warners workes.” fol. 282. “As Pindarus, Anacreon, and Callimachus among the Greekes, and Horace and Catullus among the Latines, are the best lyrick poets; so in this faculty the best am&obar;g our poets are Spencer (who excelleth in all kinds) Daniel, Drayton, Shakespeare, Brett&obar;.” fol. 282. “As these tragicke poets flourished in Greece, Æschylus, Euripedes, Sophocles, Alexander Aetolus, Achæus Erithriæus, Astydamas Atheni&ebar;sis, Apollodorus Tarsensis, Nicomachus Phrygius, Thespis Atticus, and Timon Apolloniates; and these among the Latines, Accius, M. Attilius, Pomponius Secundus and Seneca; so these are our best for tragedie; the Lord Buckhurst, Doctor Leg of Cambridge, Dr. Edes of Oxford, Maister Edward Ferris, the Authour of the Mirrour for Magistrates, Marlow, Peele, Watson, Kid, Shakespeare, Drayton, Chapman, Decker, and Beniamin Iohnson.” fol. 283. “The best poets for comedy among the Greeks are these: Menander, Aristophanes, Eupolis Atheniensis Alexis, Terius, Nicostratus, Amipsias Atheniensis, Anaxadrides Rhodius, Aristonymus, Archippus Atheni&ebar;sis, and Callias Atheniensis; and among the Latines, Plautus, Terence, Næuius, Sext. Turpilius, Licinius Imbrex, and Virgilius Romanus; so the best for comedy amongst us bee Edward Earle of Oxforde, Doctor Gager of Oxforde, Maister Rowley, once a rare scholler of learned Pembrooke Hall in Cambridge, Maister Edwardes, one of her Maiesties Chappell, eloquent and wittie John Lilly, Lodge, Gascoyne, Greene, Shakespeare, Thomas Nash, Thomas Heywood, Anthony Mundye, our best plotter, Chapman, Porter, Wilson, Hathway, and Henry Chettle.” fol. 283. “As these are famous among the Greeks for elegie, Melanthus, Mymnerus Colophonius, Olympius Mysius, Parthenius Nicæus, Philetas Cous, Theogenes Megarensis, and Pigres Halicarnasœus; and these among the Latines, Mecænas, Ouid, Tibullus, Propertius, T. Valgius, Cassius Seuerus, and Clodius Sabinus; so these are the most passionate among us to bewaile and bemoane the perplexities of loue; Henrie Howard Earle of Surrey, sir Thomas Wyat the elder, sir Francis Brian, sir Philip Sidney, sir Walter Rawley, sir Edward Dyer, Spencer, Daniel, Drayton, Shakespeare, Whetstone, Gascoyne, Samuell Page sometime fellowe of Corpus Christi Colledge in Oxford, Churchyard, Bretton,” fol. 283.

Note return to page 214 7It was entered for publication on the Stationers' Registers in September, 1598. Meres must have written something in verse which has not reached our day, because in 1601 he was addressed by C. Fitzgeoffrey, in his Affaniæ, as a poet and theologian: he was certainly well acquainted with the writings of all the poets of his time, whatever might be their department. Fitzgeoffrey mentions Meres in company with Spenser, Daniel, Drayton, Ben Jonson, Sylvester, Chapman, Marston, &c.

Note return to page 215 8The same remark will apply to “Henry V.” first printed in 4to, 1600, and again in 1602, and a third time in 1608, without the name of Shakespeare. However, this “history” never appeared in any thing like an authentic shape, such as we may suppose it came from Shakespeare's pen, until it was included in the folio of 1623.

Note return to page 216 9It will be observed that we confine this opinion to the plays, because with respect to the poems, especially “Venus and Adonis” and “Lucrece,” we feel quite as strongly convinced that Shakespeare, being instrumental in their publication, and more anxious about their correctness, did see at least the first editions through the press.

Note return to page 217 1We cannot wonder at the errors in plays surreptitiously procured and hastily printed, which was the case with many impressions of that day. Upon this point Heywood is an unexceptionable witness, and he tells us of one of his dramas, &lblank; “that some by stenography drew The plot, put it in print, scarce one word true.” Other dramatists make the same complaint; and there can be no doubt that it was the practice so to defraud authors and actors, and to palm wretchedly disfigured pieces upon the public as genuine and authentic works. It was, we are satisfied, in this way that Shakespeare's “Romeo and Juliet,” “Henry V.,” and “Hamlet,” first got out into the world.

Note return to page 218 2When “The Passionate Pilgrim” was reprinted in 1612, with some additional pieces by Thomas Heywood, that dramatist pointed out the imposition, and procured the cancelling of the title-page in which the authorship of the whole was assigned to Shakespeare.

Note return to page 219 1Botte probably lived in it in 1564, when he contributed 4s. to the poor who were afflicted with the plague: this was the highest amount subscribed, the bailiff only giving 3s. 4d., and the head alderman 2s. 8d. See p. lxxi.

Note return to page 220 2That Shakespeare was considered a man who was in a condition to lend a considerable sum, in the autumn of 1598, we have upon the evidence of Richard Quyney, (father to Thomas Quyney, who subsequently married Shakespeare's youngest daughter Judith) who then applied to him for a loan of 30l., equal to about 150l. of our present money, and in terms which do not indicate any doubt that our poet would be able to make the advance. This application is contained in a letter which must have been sent by hand, as it unluckily contains no direction: it is the only letter yet discovered addressed to Shakespeare, and it was first printed by Boswell from Malone's papers, vol. ii. p. 585. “Loving Countryman, I am bolde of yow, as of a frende, craveing yowr helpe wth xxxlb, uppon Mr Bushell & my securytee, or Mr Myttens with me. Mr Rosswell is not come to London as yeate, & I have especiall cawse. Yow shall frende me muche in helpeing me out of all the debeits I owe in London, I thanck god, and muche quiet to my mynde wch wolde not be indebited. I am now towards the Cowrte, in hope yr answer for the dispatche of my Buysenes. Yow shall nether loose creddytt nor monney by me, the Lorde willinge; & nowe butt pswade your selfe soe as I hope & yow shall nott need to feare; but with all hartie thanckfullness I wyll holde my tyme & content yowr frend, & yf we Bargaine farther, yow shall be the paie mr your selfe. My tyme bidds me to hasten to an ende, & soe I co&mbar;itt thys [to] yowr care & hope of yowr helpe. I feare I shall nott be backe this night from the Cowrte. haste. the Lorde be wth yow & wth us all. amen. From the Bell in Carter Lane, the 25 october 1598. “Yowrs in all kyndenes, “Ryc. Quyney. “To my Loveing good frend & contryman Mr Wm Shackes&pab;e thees.” The deficiency as regards the direction of the letter, lamented by Malone, is not of so much importance, because we have proved that Shakespeare was resident in Southwark in 1596; and he probably was so in 1598, because the reasons which, we have supposed, induced him to take up his abode there would still be in operation, in as much force as ever.

Note return to page 221 3In the garden of this house it is believed that Shakespeare planted a mulberry tree, about the year 1609: such is the tradition, and we are disposed to think that it is founded in truth. In 1609, King James was anxious to introduce the mulberry (which had been imported about half a century earlier) into general cultivation, and the records in the State Paper Office show that in that year letters were written upon the subject to most of the justices of peace and deputy lieutenants in the kingdom: the plants were sold by the State at 6s. the hundred. On the 25th November, 1609, 935l. were paid out of the public purse for the planting of mulberry trees “near the palace of Westminster.” The mulberry tree, said to have been planted by Shakespeare, was in existence up to about the year 1755; and in the spring of 1742, Garrick, Macklin, and Delane the actor (not Dr. Delany, the friend of Swift, as Mr. Dyce, in his compendious Memoir, p. lix., states,) were entertained under it by Sir Hugh Clopton. New Place remained in possession of Shakespeare's successors until the Restoration; it was then repurchased by the Clopton family: about 1752 it was sold by the executor of Sir Hugh Clopton to a clergyman of the name of Gastrell, who, on some offence taken at the authorities of the borough of Stratford on the subject of rating the house, pulled it down, and cut down the mulberry tree. According to a letter in the Annual Register of 1760, the wood was bought by a silversmith, who “made many odd things of it for the curious.” In our time we have seen as many relics, said to have been formed from this one mulberry tree, as could hardly have been furnished by all the mulberry trees in the county of Warwick.

Note return to page 222 4We may be disposed to assign the following lines to about this period, or a little earlier: they relate to some theatrical wager in which Alleyn, of the Lord Admiral's players, was, for a part not named, to be matched against Kempe, of the Lord Chamberlain's servants. By the words “Will's new play,” there can be little doubt that some work by Shakespeare was intended; and we know from Heywood's “Hierarchie of the Blessed Angels,” 1635, that Shakespeare was constantly familiarly called “Will.” The document is preserved at Dulwich, and it was first printed in the “Memoirs of Edward Alleyn,” p. 13. “Sweete Nedde, nowe wynne an other wager For thine old frende, and fellow stager. Tarlton himselfe thou doest excell, And Bentley beate, and conquer Knell, And now shall Kempe orecome as well. The moneyes downe, the place the Hope; Phillippes shall hide his head and Pope. Feare not, the victorie is thine; Thou still as macheles Ned shall shyne. If Roscius Richard foames and fumes, The Globe shall have but emptie roomes, If thou doest act; and Willes newe playe Shall be rehearst some other daye. Consent, then, Nedde; do us this grace: Thou cannot faile in anie case; For in the triall, come what maye, All sides shall brave Ned Allin saye.” By “Roscius Richard” the writer of these lines, who was the backer of Alleyn against Kempe, could have meant nobody but Richard Burbage. It will be recollected, that not very long afterwards Kempe became a member of the association of which Alleyn was the leader, and quitted that to which Shakespeare and Burbage were attached. It is possible that this wager, and Kempe's success in it, led Alleyn and Henslowe to hold out inducements to him to join them in their undertaking at the Fortune. Upon this point, however, we have no other evidence, than the mere fact that Kempe went over to the enemy.

Note return to page 223 5After his return from Rome, where he was seen in the autumn of 1601.

Note return to page 224 6It was at the Fortune that Alleyn seems to have realised so much money in the few first years of the undertaking, that he was able in Nov. 1604 to purchase the manor of Kennington for £1065, and in the next year the manor of Lewisham and Dulwich for £5000. These two sums, in money of the present day, would be equal to at least £25,000; but it is to be observed that for Dulwich, Alleyn only paid £2000 down, while the remaining sum was left upon mortgage. In the commencement of the seventeenth century theatrical speculations generally seem to have been highly lucrative. See “The Alleyn Papers,” (printed by the Shakespeare Society,) p. xiv.

Note return to page 225 7See “Hist. Engl. Dram. Poetry and the Stage,” Vol. i. p. 316, where the particulars, which are here necessarily briefly and summarily dismissed, are given in detail.

Note return to page 226 8The clothing of Snug the joiner a “lion's fell” in this play, Act v. sc. 1, (Vol. ii. p. 460), seems to have suggested the humorous speech to King James at Linlithgow, on 30th June 1617, eight lines of which only are given in Nichols's “Progresses” of that monarch, Vol. iii. p. 326. The whole address, of twenty-two lines, exists in the State Paper office, where it was discovered by Mr. Lemon. It seems to have been the original MS. which was placed at the time in the hands of the king, and as it is a curiosity we subjoin it. “A moveing engine, representing a fountaine, and running wine, came to the gate of the towne, in the midst of which was a lyon, and in the lyon a man, who delivered this learned speech to his majestie. “Most royall sir, heere I doe you beseech, Who are a lyon, to hear a lyon's speech: A miracle; for since the dayes of Æsop, Till ours, noe lyon yet his voice did hois-up To such a Majestie. Then, King of Men, The king of beasts speaks to thee from his denn, A fountaine nowe. That lyon, which was ledd By Androdus through Roome, had not a head More rationall then this, bredd in this nation, Whoe in thy presence warbleth this oration. For though he heer inclosed bee in plaister, When he was free he was this townes school-master. This Well you see, is not that Arethusa, The Nymph of Sicile: Noe, men may carous a Health of the plump Lyæus, noblest grapes, From these faire conduits, and turne drunk like apes. This second spring I keep, as did that dragon Hesperian apples. And nowe, sir, a plague on This your poore towne, if to't you bee not welcome! But whoe can doubt of this, when, loe! a Well come Is nowe unto the gate? I would say more, But words now failing, dare not, least I roare.” The eight lines in Nichols's “Progresses of James I.” are from Drummond's Poems, and there can be little doubt that the whole speech was from his pen.

Note return to page 227 9It was a charge against Robert Greene, that, driven by the pressure of necessity, he had on one occasion raised money by making “a double sale” of his play called “Orlando Furioso,” 1594, first to the players and afterwards to the press. Such may have been the fact, but it was unquestionably an exception to the ordinary rule.

Note return to page 228 P. clxxxix.&lblank; the cancel was made at the instance of one of the four poets who were the real authors of the play] In Vol. viii. p. 266, an opinion is given that the cancel was perhaps made at the instance of Shakespeare: this is probably a mistake.

Note return to page 229 10See the Introduction to “Henry IV.” Part I. Vol. iv. p. 220.

Note return to page 230 1On the 8th September, as we find by the subsequent entry in the parish register: — “1601. Septembr. 8. Mr. Joha&nbar;es Shakspeare.”

Note return to page 231 2Supplemental Apology, &c. p. 467.

Note return to page 232 3Shakspeare and his Times, vol. ii. p. 262.

Note return to page 233 4MS. Harl. No. 5353.

Note return to page 234 5Hist. of Engl. Dram. Poetry and the Stage, vol. i. p. 331. The Christian name is wanting in the Harl. MS.

Note return to page 235 6See “Hist. Engl. Dram. Poetry and the Stage,” vol. i. p. 331. The writer of that work thus introduces the anecdote:—“If in the course of my inquiries, I have been unlucky enough (I may perhaps say) to find anything which represents our great dramatist in a less favourable light, as a human being with human infirmities, I may lament it, but I do not therefore feel myself at liberty to conceal and suppress the fact.” The anecdote is this. “Upon a tyme when Burbage played Rich. 3, there was a citizen grew so farre in liking with him, that before shee went from the play, shee appointed him to come that night unto her, by the name of Rich. the 3. Shakespeare, overhearing their conclusion, went before, was entertained, and at his game ere Burbage came. Then, message being brought, that Rich. the 3. was at the dore, Shakespeare caused returne to be made, that William the Conqueror was before Rich. the 3. Shakespeare's name Willm.” This story may be a piece of scandal, but there is no doubt that Burbage was the original Richard III. As to the custom of ladies inviting players home to supper, see Middleton's “Mad World, my Masters,” Act. v. sc. 2, in “Dodsley's Old Plays,” last edit. The players, in turn, sometimes invited the ladies, as we find by Field's “Amends for Ladies,” Act iii. sc. 4, in the supplementary volume to “Dodsley's Old Plays,” published in 1829.

Note return to page 236 7See the “Introduction” to “Othello,” Vol. vii. p. 493. Also “The Egerton Papers,” printed by the Camden Society, 1840, p. 343.

Note return to page 237 8On p. cxii. note 5, we have inserted the names of some of the principal characters, in plays of the time, sustained by Burbage, as they are given in the Epitaph upon his death, in 1619. Our readers may like to see the manner in which these characters are spoken of by the contemporaneous versifier. The production opens with this couplet:— “Some skilful limner help me, if not so, Some sad tragedian to express my woe;” which certainly does not promise much in the way of excellence; but the enumeration of parts is all that is valuable, and it is this:— “No more young Hamlet, though but scant of breath, Shall cry, Revenge! for his dear father's death: Poor Romeo never more shall tears beget For Juliet's love, and cruel Capulet: Harry shall not be seen as King or Prince, They died with thee, dear Dick,— Not to revive again. Jeronimo Shall cease to mourn his son Horatio. They cannot call thee from thy naked bed By horrid outcry; and Antonio's dead. Edward shall lack a representative; And Crookback, as befits, shall cease to live. Tyrant Macbeth, with unwash'd bloody hand, We vainly now may hope to understand. Brutus and Marcius henceforth must be dumb, For ne'er thy like upon our stage shall come, To charm the faculty of ears and eyes, Unless we could command the dead to rise. Vindex is gone, and what a loss was he! Frankford, Brachiano, and Malevole. Heart-broke Philaster, and Amintas too, Are lost for ever, with the red-hair'd Jew, Which sought the bankrupt Merchant's pound of flesh, By woman lawyer caught in his own mesh. * * * And his whole action he would change with ease From ancient Lear to youthful Pericles. But let me not forget one chiefest part Wherein, beyond the rest, he mov'd the heart; The grieved Moor, made jealous by a slave, Who sent his wife to fill a timeless grave, Then slew himself upon the bloody bed. All these, and many more, with him are dead,” &c. The MS. from which the above lines are copied seems, at least in one place, defective, but it might be cured by the addition of the words, “and not long since.” See also Vol. vii. p. 494, for a ballad on Burbage's Othello.

Note return to page 238 9A ballad was published on the death of Elizabeth, in the commencement of which Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and Thomas Greene,” author of “A Poet's Vision and a Prince's Glorie,” 4to, 1603, were called upon to contribute some verses in honour of the late Queen: “You poets all, brave Shakespeare, Johnson, Greene, Bestow your time to write for England's Queene, &c. Excepting for this notice of “brave Shakespeare,” the production is utterly contemptible, and must have been the work of some of the “goblins and underelves” of poetry, who acording to a poem in H.Chettle's “England's Mourning Garment,” had put forth upon the occasion “rude rhimes and metres reasonless.”

Note return to page 239 1Between September, 1589, and September, 1590, Queen Elizabeth had sent, as a present to the young King of Scotland on his marriage, a splendid mask, with all the necessary appurtenances, and we find it charged for in the accounts of the department of the revels for that period. See “Hist. of Engl. Dram. Poetry and the Stage,” vol. i. p. 270. It is most likely that the actors from London accompanied this gift.

Note return to page 240 2From MS. Harl. 4647, being copies of despatches from Mr. Ashby to different members of the Council in London. We are indebted to Mr. N. Hill for directing our attention to this curious notice.

Note return to page 241 3See Mr. P. Cunningham's “Extracts from the Revels' Accounts,” (printed for the Shakespeare Society,) p. xxxii.; and this vol., p. xxxvii.

Note return to page 242 4For There particulars of payments, and some other points connected with them, we are indebted to Mr. Laing, of Edinburgh, who has made extensive and valuable collections for a history of the Stage in Scotland.

Note return to page 243 5The accounts of the revels' department at this period are not so complete as usual, and in Mr. P. Cunningham's book we find no details of any kind between 1587 and 1604. The interval was a period of the greatest possible interest, as regards the performance of the productions of Shakespeare, and we earnestly hope that the missing accounts may yet be recovered.

Note return to page 244 1The paragraph is in these terms, and we quote them because they have not been noticed by any historian of our stage. “And for that we are informed, that there hath been heretofore great neglect in this kingdome of keeping the Sabbath day; for the better observing of the same and avoyding all impious prophanation, We do straightly charge and command that no Beare-bayting, Bul-bayting, Enterludes, common Playes, or other like disordered or unlawful exercises, or pastimes, be frequented, kept, or used at any time hereafter upon the Sabbath day. Given at our Court at Theobalds, the 7 day of May, in the first yeare of our Reigne.”

Note return to page 245 2This fact we have upon the authority of Henslowe's Diary. See the Hist. Engl. Dram. Poetry and the Stage, vol. i. p. 346.

Note return to page 246 3It runs verbatim et literatim thus:— By The King. “Right trusty and welbeloved Counsellor, we greete you well, and will and commaund you, that under our privie Seale in your custody for the time being, you cause our letters to be derected to the keeper of our greate seale of England, commaunding him under our said greate Seale, he cause our letters to be made patents in forme following. James, by the grace of God, King of England, Scotland, Fraunce, and Irland, defendor of the faith, &c. To all Justices, Maiors, Sheriffs, Constables, Headboroughes, and other our officers and loving subjects greeting. Know ye, that we of our speciall grace, certaine knowledge, and meere motion have licensed and authorized, and by these presentes doe license and authorize, these our servants, Lawrence Fletcher, William Shakespeare, Richard Burbage, Augustine Phillippes, John Hemmings, Henrie Condell, William Sly, Robert Armyn, Richard Cowlye, and the rest of their associats, freely to use & exercise the arte and faculty of playing Comedies, Tragedies, Histories, Enterludes, Moralls, Pastoralls, Stage plaies, and such other like, as that thei have already studied or hereafter shall use or studie, aswell for the recreation of our loving subjects, as for our solace and pleasure, when we shall thinke good to see them, during our pleasure. And the said Comedies, Tragedies, Histories, Enterludes, Moralls, Pastoralls, Stage plaies, and such like, to shew & exercise publiquely to their best commoditie, when the infection of the plague shall decrease, as well within theire now usuall howse called the Globe, within our county of Surrey, as also within anie towne halls, or mout halls, or other convenient places within the liberties & freedome of any other citie, universitie, towne, or borough whatsoever within our said realmes and dominions. Willing and commaunding you, and every of you, as you tender our pleasure, not only to permit and suffer them heerin, without any your letts, hinderances, or molestations, during our said pleasure, but also to be ayding or assisting to them, yf any wrong be to them offered. And to allowe them such former courtesies, as hathe bene given to men of their place and qualitie: and also what further favour you shall shew to these our servants for our sake, we shall take kindly at your hands. And these our letters shall be your sufficient warrant and discharge in this behalfe. Given under our Signet at our mannor of Greenewiche, the seaventeenth day of May in the first yere of our raigne of England, France, and Ireland, & of Scotland the six & thirtieth. Ex per Lake.” The patent under the great seal, made out in consequence of this warrant, bears date two days afterwards.

Note return to page 247 4Nothing seems to be known of the birth or origin of Laurence Fletcher, (who died in September, 1608,) but we may suspect that he was an elder brother of John Fletcher, the dramatist. Bishop Fletcher, the father, died on 15 June, 1596, having made his will in October, 1594, before he was translated from Worcester to London. This document seems never to have been examined, but it appears from it, as Mr. P. Cunningham informs us, that he had no fewer than nine children, although he only mentions his sons Nathaniel and John by name. He died poor, and among the Lansdowne MSS. is one, entitled “Reasons to move her Majesty to some commiseration towards the orphans of the late Bishop of London, Dr. Fletcher:” this is printed in Birch's “Memoirs.” He incurred the lasting displeasure of Queen Elizabeth by marrying, for his second wife, Lady Baker of Kent, a woman of more than questionable character, if we may believe general report, and a satirical poem of the time, handed down only in manuscript, which begins thus:— “The pride of prelacy, which now long since   Was banish'd with the Pope, is sayd of late To have arriv'd at Bristowe, and from thence   By Worcester into London brought his state.” It afterwards goes on thus:— “The Romaine Tarquin, in his folly blind,   Of faire chaste Lucrece did a Lais make; But owr proud Tarquin beares a braver mind,   And of a Lais doth a Lucrece make.” We cannot venture to quote the coarse epithets liberally bestowed upon Lady Baker, but the poem ends with these lines:— “But yet, if any will the reason find,   Why he that look'd as lofty as a steeple, Should be so base as for to come behind,   And take the leavings of the common people, 'Tis playne; for in processions, you know, The priest must after all the people goe.” We ought to have mentioned that the poem is headed “Bishop Fletcher and my Lady Baker.” The Bishop had buried his first wife, Elizabeth, at Chelsea Church in December, 1592. Nathaniel Fletcher, mentioned above as included with his brother John in his father's will, is spoken of on a preceding page (xcvi. note 5) as “servant” to Mrs. White; but who Mrs. White might be, or what was the precise nature of “Nat. Fletcher's” servitude, we have no information.

Note return to page 248 5However, an Act of Parliament was very soon passed (I Jac. I. c. 7,) to expose strolling actors, although protected by the authority of a peer, to the penalties of 39 Eliz. c. 4. It seems to have been found that the evil had increased to an excess which required this degree of correction; and Sir Edward Coke in his Charge to the Grand Jury at Norwich in 1607, (when it was printed) observes, “The abuse of stage-players, wherewith I find the country much troubled, may easily be reformed, they having no commission to play in any place without leave; and therefore by your willingness if they be not entertained, you may soon be rid of them.”

Note return to page 249 6Boswell appears to have had a manuscript copy of this epigram, but the general position in the last line was made to have a particular application by the change of “a” to the. See Shakespeare by Boswell, vol. ii. p. 481. There were other variations for the worse in Boswell's copy, but that which we have noticed completely altered the character of the production, and reduced it from a great general truth to a mere piece of personal flattery—“But knowledge makes the king most like his Maker.”

Note return to page 250 7Much has been said in all the Lives of our poet, from the time of Aubrey (who first gives the story) to our own, respecting a satirical epitaph upon a person of the name of John a Combe, supposed to have been made extempore by Shakespeare: Aubrey words it thus:— “Ten in the hundred the devil allows, But Combe will have twelve, he swears and he vows. If any one ask, Who lies in this tomb? Ho! quoth the devil, 'tis my John a Combe.” Rowe changes the terms a little, but the point is the same, and in Brathwaite's “Remains,” 1618, we have another version of the lines, where they are given as having been written by that author “upon one John Combe, of Stratford-upon-Avon, a notable usurer.” We are by no means satisfied that they were originally penned by Brathwaite, from being imputed to him in that volume, and by a passage in “Maroccus Extaticus,” a tract printed as early as 1595, it is very evident that the connexion between the Devil and John a Combe, or John of Comber (as he is there called) was much older:—“So hee had had his rent at the daie, the devill and John of Comber should not have fetcht Kate L. to Bridewell.” There is no ground for supposing that Shakespeare was ever on bad terms with any of the Combes, and in his will he expressly left his sword to Mr. Thomas Combe. In a MS. of that time, now before us, we find the following given as an epitaph upon Sir William Stone:— “Heer ten in the hundred lies dead and ingraved: But a hundred to ten his soul is not saved.” And the couplet is printed in no very different form in “The More the Merrier,” by H. P., 1608, as well as in Camden's “Remains.”

Note return to page 251 8A coeval copy of the court-roll is in the hands of the Shakespeare Society. Malone had seen it, and put his initials upon it. No doubt it was his intention to have used it in his unfinished Life of Shakespeare.

Note return to page 252 9See the “Memoirs of Edward Alleyn,” printed for the Shakespeare Society, p. 63.

Note return to page 253 1See the Introduction to “As you like it,” vol. iii. p. 5.

Note return to page 254 2From lines preceding it in the 4to, 1605, we know that it was brought out at the Globe, and Ben Jonson admits that it was ill received by the audience.

Note return to page 255 1We may here notice two productions by this great and various author, one of which is mentioned by Ant. Wood (Ath. Oxon. edit. Bliss. vol. ii. p. 575), and the other by Warton (Hist. Engl. Poetr. vol. iv. p. 276, edit. 8vo), on the authority merely of the stationers' registers; but none of our literary antiquaries seem to have been able to meet with them. They are both in existence. The first is a defence of his “Andromeda Liberata,” 1614, which he wrote in celebration of the marriage of the Earl of Somerset and the Countess of Essex, which Chapman tells us had been “most maliciously misinterpreted:” it is called “A free and offenceles Justification” of his poem, and it was printed in 1614. It is chiefly in prose, but at the end is a dialogue in rhyme, between Pheme and Theodines, the last being meant for Chapman: Wood only supposes that Chapman wrote it, but if he could have read it he would have entertained no doubt. It appears that Somerset himself had conceived that “Andromeda Liberata” was a covert attack upon him, and from this notion Chapman was anxious to relieve himself. The poetical dialogue is thus opened by Pheme, and sufficiently explains the object of the writer. “Ho, you! Theodines! you must not dreame Y'are thus dismist in peace: seas too extreame Your song hath stir'd up to be calm'd so soone: Nay, in your haven you shipwracke: y'are undone. Your Perseus is displeas'd, and sleighteth now Your work as idle, and as servile yow. The peoples god-voice hath exclaim'd away Your mistie clouds; and he sees, cleare as day, Y'ave made him scandal'd for anothers wrong, Wishing unpublisht your unpopular song.” The other production, of which our knowledge has also hitherto been derived from the stationers' registers, is called “Petrarch's Seven Penitentiall Psalms, paraphrastically translated,” with other poems of a miscellaneous kind at the end: it was printed in small 8vo, in 1612, dedicated to Sir Edward Phillips, Master of the Rolls, where Chapman speaks of his yet unfinished translation of Homer, which, he adds, the Prince of Wales had commanded him to complete. The editor of the present work has a copy of Chapman's “Memorable Masque” on the marriage of the Palsgrave and Princess Elizabeth, corrected by Chapman in his own hand; but the errors are few, and not very important. It shows the patient accuracy of the accomplished writer.

Note return to page 256 2We derive these very curious and novel particulars from M. Von Raumer's “History of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries,” translated by Lord Francis Egerton, vol. ii. p. 219. The terms are worth quoting. April 5, 1606. I caused certain players to be forbid from acting the History of the Duke of Biron: when, however, they saw that the whole court had left town, they persisted in acting it; nay, they brought upon the stage the Queen of France and Mademoiselle Verneuil. The former, having first accosted the latter with very hard words, gave her a box on the ear. At my suit three of them were arrested; but the principal person, the author, escaped. “One or two days before, they had brought forward their own King and all his favorites in a very strange fashion: they made him curse and swear because he had been robbed of a bird, and beat a gentleman because he had called off the hounds from the scent. They represent him as drunk at least once a-day, &c. “He has upon this made order, that no play shall be henceforth acted in London; for the repeal of which order they have already offered 100,000 livres. Perhaps the permission will be again granted, but upon condition that they represent no recent history, nor speak of the present time.”

Note return to page 257 3In a letter from a resident in Stratford of the name of Abraham Sturley. It was originally published by Boswell (vol. ii. p. 566) at length, but the only part which relates to Shakespeare runs thus: we have not thought it necessary to preserve the uncouth abbreviations of the original. “This is one special remembrance of your father's motion. It seemeth by him that our countriman, Mr. Shakespeare, is willing to disburse some money upon some od yardeland or other at Shottery, or near about us: he thinketh it a very fitt patterne to move him to deale in the matter of our tithes. By the instructions you can give him thereof, and by the frendes he can make therefore, we thinke it a faire marke for him to shoote at, and not unpossible to hitt. It obtained would advance him in deede, and would do us much good.” The terms of this letter prove that Shakespeare's townsmen were of opinion that he was desirous of advancing himself among the inhabitants of Stratford.

Note return to page 258 4It is about to be printed entire by the Shakespeare Society, to the council of which it has been handed over by the owner for the purpose.

Note return to page 259 5The only copy of this impression is in the library of his Grace the Duke of Devonshire, and we have employed it to a certain extent in settling and explaining the text of the tragedy. See the Introduction to “Hamlet,” Vol. vii. p. 191.

Note return to page 260 6That the story came through the Duke of Buckingham, from Davenant, seems to have been a conjectural addition by Oldys: the words in Lintot's advertisement are these:—“That most learned Prince, and great patron of learning, King James the First, was pleased with his own hand to write an amicable letter to Mr. Shakespeare; which letter, though now lost, remained long in the hands of Sir William Davenant, as a credible person now living can testify.” Dr. Farmer was the first to give currency to the notion, that the compliment to the Stuart family in “Macbeth” was the occasion of the letter.

Note return to page 261 7The terms are these:— “1607. Junii 5. John Hall gentlem&abar; & Susanna Shaxspere.”

Note return to page 262 8He was buried at St. Saviour's, Southwark, in the immediate vicinity of the Globe theatre; the registration being in the following form, specifying, rather unusually, the occupation of the deceased, “1607, Dec. 31. Edmund Shakespeare, a player.”

Note return to page 263 9The following is a copy of the register. “1608, Septemb. 9, Mayry Shaxspere, Wydowe.”

Note return to page 264 10The account (preserved at Dulwich College) does not state that the parties enumerated (consisting of 57 persons) were rated to the poor for dwelling-houses, but merely that they were rated and assessed to a weekly payment towards the relief of the poor, some for dwelling-houses, and others perhaps in respect to different kinds of property: it is thus entitled:— “A brief noat taken out of the poores booke, contayning the names of all thenhabitantes of this Liberty, which are rated and assessed to a weekely paiment towardes the relief of the poore. As it standes now encreased, this 6th day of Aprill, 1609. Delivered up to Phillip Henslowe, Esquior, churchwarden, by Francis Carter, one of the ovreseers of the same Liberty.” It commences with these names:— Phillip Henslowe, esquior, assessed at weekely vjd Ed. Alleyn, assessed at weekely vjd The Ladye Buckley, weekly iiijd The account is in three divisions; and in the first, besides the above, we find the names of Mr. Langworthe iijd Mr. Benfield iijd Mr. Griffin ijd Mr. Toppin ijd Mr. Louens [i. e. Lowin] ijd Francis Carter ijd Gilbert Catherens ijd and twenty-one others. The next division includes a list of nineteen names, and at the head of it we find, Mr. Shakespeare vjd Mr. Edw. Collins vjd John Burret vjd and all the rest pay a rate of either 2½d or 1½d, including the following actors: Mr. Toune ijd ob. Mr. Jubye jd ob. Richard Hunt jd ob. Simon Bird jd ob. The third division consists of seven persons who only paid one penny per week, and among them we perceive the name of no individual who, according to other evidence, appears to have been in any way concerned with theatres: Malone (see his “Inquiry,” p. 215,) had seen this document, but he mis-states that it belongs to the year 1608, and not 1609.

Note return to page 265 1John Northbrooke, in his Treatise against Plays, Players, &c., (Shakespeare Society's reprint, p. 126,) informs us that in 1577 people contributed weekly to the support of the poor “according to their ability, some a penny, some two-pence, another four-pence, and the best commonly giveth but six-pence.”

Note return to page 266 1These transaction most probably occurred before September, 1608, because Laurence Fletcher died in that month. However, it is not quite certain that the “Laz. Fletcher,” mentioned in the document, was Laurence Fletcher: we know of no person named Lazarus Fletcher, though he may have been the personal representative of Laurence Fletcher.

Note return to page 267 2It is thus headed— “For avoiding of the Playhouse in the Precinct of the Blacke Friers. £. s. d. Imp. Richard Burbidge oweth the Fee, and is also a sharer therein. His interest he rateth at the grosse summe of 1000l. for the Fee, and for his foure shares in the summe of 933l. 6s. 8d. 1933 6 8 Item. Laz. Fletcher oweth three shares, which he rateth at 700l., that is, at seven yeares purchase for each share, or 33l. 6s. 8d., one yeare with another 700 0 0 Item. W. Shakespeare asketh for the wardrobe and properties of the same playhouse 500l., and for his 4 shares, the same as his fellowes, Burbridge and Fletcher; viz. 933l. 6s. 8d. 1433 6 8 Item. Heminge and Condell eche 2 shares 933 6 8 Item. Joseph Taylor I share and an halfe 350 0 0 Item. Lowing also one share and an halfe 350 0 0 Item. Foure more playeres with one halfe share to eche of them 466 13 4 Summa totalis 6166 13 4 Moreover, the hired men of the Companie demaund some recompence for their great losse, and the Widowes and Orphanes of Players, who are paide by the Sharers at divers rates and proportions, so as in the whole it will cost the Lo. Mayor and the Citizens at least 7000l.”

Note return to page 268 3This new and valuable piece of information was pointed out to us by Mr. Lemon, who has been as indefatigable in his researches as liberal in the communication of the results of them.

Note return to page 269 4The passage above quoted renders Middleton's epigram on the death of Burbage (Works by Dyce, vol. v. p. 503) quite clear:— “Astronomers and star-gazers this year Write but of four eclipses; five appear. Death interposing Burbage, and their staying, Hath made a visible eclipse of playing.” It has been conjectured that “their staying” referred to a temporary supsension of plays in consequence of the death of Burbage; but the stay was the prohibition of acting until after the funeral of Queen Anne.

Note return to page 270 5Diary of the Rev. John Ward, &c. Arranged by Charles Severn, M.D. London, 8vo, 1839.

Note return to page 271 6Mr. Ward was appointed to the vicarage of Stratford-upon-Avon in 1662.

Note return to page 272 7The copy was made upon half a sheet of paper, and without address: it runs as follows:— “My verie honored Lord. The manie good offices I haue receiued at your Lordship's hands, which ought to make me backward in asking further favors, onely imbouldeneth me to require more in the same kinde. Your Lordship will be warned howe hereafter you graunt anie sute, seeing it draweth on more and greater demaunds. This which now presseth is to request your Lordship, in all you can, to be good to the poore players of the Black Fryers, who call them selves by authoritie the servaunts of his Majestie, and aske for the protection of their most gracious Maister and Sovereigne in this the tyme of their troble. They are threatened by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London, never friendly to their calling, with the distruction of their meanes of livelihood, by the pulling downe of their plaiehouse, which is a priuate theatre, and hath neuer giuen occasion of anger by anie disorders. These bearers are two of the chiefe of the companie; one of them by name Richard Burbidge, who humblie sueth for your Lordship's kinde helpe, for that he is a man famous as our English Roscius, one who fitteth the action to the word, and the word to the action most admirably. By the exercise of his qualitye, industry, and good behaviour, he hath be come possessed of the Blacke Fryers playhouse, which hath bene imployed for playes sithence it was builded by his Father, now nere 50 yeres agone. The other is a man no whitt lesse deserving favor, and my especiall friende, till of late an actor of good account in the companie, now a sharer in the same, and writer of some of our best English playes, which, as your Lordship knoweth, were most singularly liked of Quene Elizabeth, when the companie was called uppon to performe before her Maiestie at Court at Christmas and Shrovetide. His most gracious Maiestie King James alsoe, sence his coming to the crowne, hath extended his royal favour to the companie in divers waies and at sundrie tymes. This other hath to name William Shakespeare, and they are both of one countie, and indeede allmost of one towne: both are right famous in their qualityes, though it longeth not of your Lo. grauitie and wisedome to resort vnto the places where they are wont to delight the publique eare. Their trust and sute nowe is not to bee molested in their way of life, whereby they maintaine them selves and their wives and families, (being both maried and of good reputation) as well as the widows and orphanes of some of their dead fellows. “Your Lo most bounden at com. “H. S.” “Copia vera.” Lord Southampton was clearly mistaken when he stated that the Blackfriars theatre had been built nearly fifty years: in 1608 it had been built about thirty-three years.

Note return to page 273 1See Hist. Engl. Dram. Poetry and the Stage, vol. iii. p. 275, where such is conjectured to have been the arrangement.

Note return to page 274 2“The Christian Turned Turk,” 1612, and “The Poor Man's Comfort,” 1655. In “The Alleyn Papers,” (printed by the Shakespeare Society,) may be seen much correspondence between Daborne and Henslowe respecting plays he was then writing for the Fortune theatre. By a letter from him, dated 2nd August, 1614, it appears that Lord Willoughby had sent for him, and it is most likely that Daborne went to Ireland under this nobleman's patronage. It is certain that, having been regularly educated, he went into the Church, and had a living at or near Waterford, where, in 1618, he preached a sermon which is extant. While writing for Henslowe he was in great poverty, having sold most of the property he had with his wife. We have no information as to the precise time of his death, but his “Poor Man's Comfort” was certainly a posthumous production: he had sold it to one of the companies of the day before he took holy orders, and, like various other plays, after long remaining in manuscript, it was published. His lost plays, some of which he wrote in conjunction with other dramatists, appear from “The Alleyn Papers” to have been—1. Machiavel and the Devil; 2. The Arraignment of London; 3. The Bellman of London; 4. The Owl; 5. The She Saint; besides others the titles of which are not given.

Note return to page 275 3He was one of the masters of the Children of the Queen's Revels in 1603–4. See Hist. of Engl. Dram. Poetry and the Stage, vol. i. p. 352.

Note return to page 276 4It runs thus:— “Right trusty and welbeloved, &c., James, &c. To all Mayors, Sheriffs, Justices of the Peace, &c. Whereas the Queene, our dearest wife, hath for her pleasure and recreation appointed her servaunts Robert Daiborne, &c. to provide and bring upp a convenient nomber of children, who shall be called the Children of her Majesties Revells, knowe ye that we have appointed and authorized, and by these presents doe appoint and authorize the said Robert Daiborne, William Shakespeare, Nathaniel Field, and Edward Kirkham, from time to time to provide and bring upp a convenient nomber of children, and them to instruct and exercise in the quality of playing Tragedies, Comedies, &c., by the name of the Children of the Revells to the Queene, within the Blackfryers, in our Citie of London, or els where within our realme of England. Wherefore we will and command you, and everie of you, to permit her said servaunts to keepe a convenient nomber of children, by the name of the Children of the Revells to the Queene, and them to exercise in the qualitie of playing according to her royal pleasure. Provided alwaies, that no playes, &c. shall be by them presented, but such playes, &c. as have received the approbation and allowance of our Maister of the Revells for the tyme being. And these our lres. shall be your sufficient warrant in this behalfe. In witnesse whereof, &c., 4° die Janij. 1609. “Proud Povertie. Widow's Mite. Antonio. Kinsmen. Triumph of Truth Touchstone. Grisell. Engl. tragedie. False Friends. Hate and Love. Taming of S. K. Edw. 2. Mirror of Life. Stayed.”

Note return to page 277 5See Hist. Engl. Dram. Poetry and the Stage, vol. i. p. 212.

Note return to page 278 6One copy of the folio is known with the date of 1622 upon the title-page. The volume was entered at Stationers' Hall on the 8th Nov. 1623, as if it had not been published until late in that year, unless we suppose the entry made by Blount and Jaggard some time after publication, in order to secure their right to the plays first printed there, which they thought might be invaded.

Note return to page 279 7We ought perhaps to except a writ issued by the borough court in June 1610, at the suit of Shakespeare, for the recovery of a small sum. A similar occurrence had taken place in 1604, when our poet sought to recover 1l. 15s. 0d. from a person of the name of Rogers, for corn sold to him. These facts are ascertained from the existing records of Stratford.

Note return to page 280 8See the “Memoirs of Edward Alleyn,” p. 105, where a conjecture is hastily hazarded that it might be Shakespeare's interest in the Blackfriars theatre. Upon this question we agree with Mr. Knight in “Shakspere, a Biography,” prefixed to his pictorial edition of the Poet's works.

Note return to page 281 9It is in the following form, upon a small damp-injured piece of paper, and obviously a mere memorandum. “April 1612, “Money paid by me E. A. for the Blackfryers 160li More for the Blackfyers 126li More again for the Leasse 310li The writinges for the same and other small charges 3li 6s 8d If this paper had any relation at all to the theatre in the Blackfriars, it is very evident that Shakespeare could neither grant nor sell a lease; and it is quite clear that Burbage did not, because he remained in possession of the playhouse at the time of his death: his sons enjoyed it afterwards; and Alleyn continued to pay 40l. a quarter for the property he held until his deceased in 1626.

Note return to page 282 1We have already inserted an extract from an epitaph upon Burbage, in which the writer enumerates many of the characters he sustained. The following lines in Sloane MS. No. 1786, (pointed out to us by Mr. Bruce) are just worth preserving on account of the eminence of the man to whom they relate. “An Epitaph on Mr. Richard Burbage, the Player. “This life's a play, scean'd out by nature's art, Where every man has his alloted parte. This man hath now, as many men can tell, Ended his part, and he hath acted well. The play now ended, thinke his grave to bee The retiring house of his sad tragedie; Where to give his fame this be not afraid:— Here lies the best Tragedian ever play'd.” From hence we might infer, against other authorities, that what was called the “tiring room” in theatres, was so called because the actors retired to it, and not attired in it. It most likely answered both purposes, but we sometimes find it called “the attiring room” by authors of the time.

Note return to page 283 [2] It was sold by auction by Messrs. Evans, of Pall Mall, in 1841, for 162l. 15s. The autograph of our poet was appended to it, in the usual manner. In the next year the instrument was again brought to the hammer of the same parties, when it produced nearly the sum for which it had been sold in 1841. The autograph of Shakespeare, on the fly-leaf of Florio's translation of Montaigne's Essays, folio 1603, (which we feel satisfied is genuine) had been previously sold by auction for 100l., and it is now deposited in the British Museum. We have a copy of the same book, but it has only upon the title-page the comparatively worthless signature of the reigning monarch.

Note return to page 284 3By his will he left this house, occupied by a person of the name of John Robinson, to his daughter Susanna.

Note return to page 285 1The register of Stratford merely contains the following among the deaths in the parish:— “1612. Feb. 4. Rich. Shakspeare.”

Note return to page 286 [2] It appears by the register tha Mary Hart died in 1607. When Shakespeare made his will, a blank was left for the name of his nephew Thomas Hart, as if he had not recollected it; but perhaps it was merely the omission of the scrivener. The Harts lived in a house belonging to Shakespeare.

Note return to page 287 3It has been generally stated that Charles Hart, the celebrated actor after the Restoration, was the grand-nephew of Shakespeare, son to the eldest son of Shakespeare's sister Joan, but we are without positive evidence upon the point. In 1622 a person of the name of Hart kept a house of entertainment close to the Fortune theatre, and he may have been the son of Shakespeare's sister Joan, and the father of Charles Hart the actor, who died about 1679.

Note return to page 288 4John Taylor, the water-poet, was a spectator of the calamity, (perhaps in his own wherry) and thus celebrated it in an epigram, which he printed in 1614 in his “Nipping and Snipping of Abuses,” &c. 4to. “Upon the Burning of the Globe. “Aspiring Phaeton, with pride inspirde, Misguiding Phœbus carre, the world he firde; But Ovid did with fiction serve his turne, And I in action saw the Globe to burne.”

Note return to page 289 5See vol. v. p. 495, and “Hist. of Engl. Dram. Poetry and the Stage,” vol. i. p. 386, and vol. iii. p. 298.

Note return to page 290 6This fact, with several other new and curious particulars respecting the fate of the Blackfriars theatre, the Whitefriars (called the Salisbury Court) theatre, the Phœnix, the Fortune, and the Hope (which was also at times used for bear-baiting) is contained in some manuscript notes to a copy of Stowe's Annales, by Howes, folio, 1631, in the possession of Mr. Pickering: they appear to have been made just after the last event mentioned in them. The burning of the Globe is there erroneously fixed in 1612. When, too, it is said that the Hope was built in 1610, the meaning must be that it was then reconstructed, so as to be adapted to both purposes, stage-plays and bear-baiting. The memoranda are thus headed: “A note of such passages as have beene omitted, and as I have seene, since the printing of Stowe's Survey of London in 4to, 1618, and this Chronicle at large, 1631.” “Play Houses.—The Globe play house, on the Bank side in Southwarke, was burnt downe to the ground in the yeare 1612. And new built up againe in the yeare 1613, at the great charge of King James, and many noble men, and others. And now pulled downe to the ground by Sir Mathew Brand on Munday, the 15 of April, 1644, to make tenements in the rome of it. “The Black Friers play house, in Black Friers London, which had stood many yeares, was pulled down to the ground on Munday, the 6 day of August, 1655, and tenements built in the roome. “The play house in Salisbury Court, in Fleete streete, was pulled down by a company of souldiers, set on by the Sectaries of these sad times, on Saturday, the 24th day of March, 1649. “The Phenix, in Druery Lane, was pulled down also this day, being Saturday the 24th day of March, 1649, by the same souldiers. “The Fortune play house, between White Crosse streete and Golding Lane, was burned down to the ground in the year 1618. And built againe, with bricke worke on the outside, in the year 1622; and now pulld downe on the inside by these souldiers, this 1649. “The Hope, on the Banke side in Southwarke, commonly called the Beare Garden: a play house for stage playes on Mundays, Wednesdayes, Fridayes, and Saterdayes; and for the baiting of the beares on Tuesdays and Thursdayes —the stage being made to take up and downe when they please. It was built in the year 1610; and now pulled downe to make tenements by Thomas Walker, a peticoate maker in Cannon Streete, on Tuesday the 25 day of March, 1656. Seven of Mr. Godfries beares, by the command of Thomas Pride, then hie Sherefe of Surry, were shot to death on Saturday, the 9 day of February, 1655, by a company of souldiers.”

Note return to page 291 7We take these particulars from a copy of the document “printed by Thomas Purfoot,” who then had a patent for all proclamations, &c. It has the royal arms, and the initials I. R. at the top of it as usual. It is in the possession of the Shakespeare Society.

Note return to page 292 8The name of his friend William Combe is found among the “esquires” enumerated in the body of the instrument.

Note return to page 293 9This fact appears in a letter, written by Thomas Greene, on 17th November, 1614, in which he tells some person in Stratford that he had been to see “his cousin Shakespeare,” who had reached town the day before.

Note return to page 294 1Malone informs us, without mentioning his authority, that “in the fields of Old Stratford, where our poet's estate lay, a yard land contained only about twenty-seven acres,” but that it varied much in different places: he derives the term from the Saxon gyrd land, virgata terræ.—Shakspeare, by Boswell, vol. ii. p. 25. According to the same authority, a yard land in Wilmecote consisted of more than fifty acres.

Note return to page 295 2The memorandum of the contents of his letter (to which we have already referred on p. ccxliii) is in these terms, avoiding abbreviations:— “Jovis, 17 No. My cosen Shakespeare comyng yesterday, I went to see him, how he did. He told me that they assured him they ment to inclose no further than to Gospel bush, and so upp straight (leaving out part of the Dyngles to the field) to the gate in Clopton hedg, and take in Salisburys peece; and that they mean in Aprill to survey the land, and then to gyve satisfaction, and not before: and he and Mr. Hall say they think there will be nothyng done at all.” In what way, or in what degree, Shakespeare and Greene were related, so that the latter should call the former his “cousin,” must remain a matter of speculation; but it will be recollected that the parish register of Stratford shows that “Thomas Greene, alias Shakespeare,” was buried on 6th March, 1589–90. See p. cii. Whether Thomas Greene, the solicitor, was any relation to Thomas Greene, the actor, we have no means of ascertaining.

Note return to page 296 3And these not on the title-page, but at the end of the prefatory matter: the whole title runs thus:— “The Ghost of Richard the Third. Expressing himselfe in these three Parts. 1. His Character. 2. His Legend. 3. His Tragedie. Containing more of him than hath been heretofore shewed, either in Chronicles, Playes, or Poems. Laurea Desidiæ præbetur nulla. Printed by G. Eld: for L. Lisle: and are to be sold in Paules Church-yard, at the signe of the Tygers head. 1614.” 4to. It is about to be reprinted by the Shakespeare Society, and on every account it well merits the distinction.

Note return to page 297 4We may suspect, in the last line but one, that the word “wits” has been misprinted for acts. The stanza which follows the above refers to another play, founded on a distinct portion of the same history, and relating especially to Jane Shore:— “And what a peece of justice did I shew On mistresse Shore, when (with a fained hate To unchast life) I forced her to goe Barefoote on pennance, with dejected state. But now her fame by a vile play doth grow, Whose fate the women do commisserate, &c. The allusion may here be to Heywood's historical drama of “Edward IV.” (reprinted by the Shakespeare Society), in which Shore's wife is introduced; or it may be to a different drama upon the events of her life, which, it is known on various authorities, had been brought upon the stage. See vol. viii. p. 269.

Note return to page 298 5It appears from Henslowe's Diary, that in June, 1602, Ben Jonson was himself writing a historical play, called “Richard Crook-back,” for the Lord Admiral's players at the Fortune. We have no evidence that it was ever completed or represented. Ben Jonson's testimony in favour of the poem of C. B. is compressed into a few lines.

Note return to page 299 1The registration in the books of Stratford church is this:— “1615–16 February 10. The Queeny tow Judith Shakspere.” The fruits of this marriage were three sons; viz. Shakespeare, baptized 23rd November, 1616, and buried May 8th, 1617; Richard, baptized 9th February, 1617–18, and buried 26th February, 1638–9; and Thomas, baptized 23rd January, 1619–20, and buried 28th January, 1638–9. Judith Quiney, their mother, did not die until after the Restoration, and was buried 9th February, 1661–2. The Stratford registers contain no entry of the burial of Thomas Quiney, her husband, and it is very possible, therefore, that he died and was buried in London.

Note return to page 300 2The Rev. John Ward's Diary, to which we have before referred, contains the following undated paragraph:— “Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson, had a merie meeting, and, itt seems, drank too hard, for Shakespear died of a fevour there contracted.” What credit may be due to this statement, preceded as it is by the words “it seems,” implying a doubt on the subject in the writer's mind, we must leave the reader to determine. That Shakespeare was of sober, though of companionable habits, we are thoroughly convinced: he could not have written seven-and-thirty plays (not reckoning alterations and additions now lost) in five-and-twenty years had he been otherwise; and we are sure also, that if Drayton and Ben Jonson visited him at Stratford, he would give them a free and hearty welcome. We have no reason to think that Drayton was at all given to intoxication, although it is certain that Ben Jonson was a bountiful liver.

Note return to page 301 3For a copy of this curious and interesting work, we gladly express our obligations to Mr. William Fricker, of Hyde, near Manchester.

Note return to page 302 4He several times speaks of sicknesses in his own family, and of the manner in which he had removed them: a case of his own, in which he mentions his age, accords with the statement in his inscription, and ascertains that he was thirty-two when he married Susanna Shakespeare in 1607. “Mrs. Hall, of Stratford, my wife,” is more than once introduced in the course of the volume, as well as “Elizabeth Hall, my only daughter.” Mrs. Susanna Hall died in 1649, aged 66, and was buried at Stratford. Elizabeth Hall, her daughter by Dr. Hall, (baptized on the 21st Feb. 1607–8), and grand-daughter to our poet, was married on the 22d April, 1626, to Mr. Thomas Nash, (who died in 1647) and on 5th June, 1649, to Mr. John Bernard, of Abingdon, who was knighted after the Restoration. Lady Bernard died childless in 1670, and was buried, not at Stratford with her own family, but at Abingdon with that of her second husband. She was the last of the lineal descendants of William Shakespeare.

Note return to page 303 5The inscription, upon a brass plate, let into a stone, is in these terms:—We have to thank Mr. Bruce for the use of his copies of them, with which we have compared our own. “Heere lyeth interred the Body of Anne, Wife of William Shakespeare, who departed this life the 6th day of Augu. 1623. being of the age of 67 yeares. Ubera, tu mater, tu lac, vitamq; dedisti,   Væ mihi: pro tanto munere saxa dabo. Quam mallem amoveat lapidem bonus angel' ore'   Exeat ut Christi corpus imago tua. Sed nil vota valent, venias cito Christe resurget   Clausa licet tumulo mater, et astra petit.”

Note return to page 304 6The following is the inscription commemorating him. “Heere lyeth the Body of Iohn Hall, Gent: Hee marr: Susanna ye daughter and coheire of Will: Shakespeare, Gent. Hee deceased Nove. 25. Ao. 1635, aged 60. Hallius hic situs est, medica celeberrimus arte,   Expectans regni gaudia læta Dei. Dignus erat meritis, qui Nestora vinceret annis,   In terris omnes, sed rapit æqua dies. Ne tumulo quid desit, adest fidissima conjux,   Et vitæ comitem nunc quoq; mortis habet.”

Note return to page 305 7His inscription, in several places difficult to be deciphered, is this:— “Heere resteth ye Body of Thomas Nashe, Esq. He mar. Elizabeth the daug. and heire of John Halle, Gent. He died Aprill 4. A. 1647, Aged 53. Fata manent omnes hunc non virtute carentem,   Ut neque divitiis abstulit atra dies; Abstulit, at referet lux ultima: siste, viator,   Si peritura paras per male parta peris.”

Note return to page 306 8The inscription to her runs thus: “Heere lyeth ye body of Susanna, Wife to Iohn Hall, Gent: ye daughter of William Shakespeare, Gent. Shee deceased ye 11th of July, Ao. 1649. aged 66.” Dugdale has handed down the following verses upon her, which were originally engraved on the stone, but are not now to be found, half of it having been cut away to make room for an inscription to Richard Watts, who died in 1707. “Witty above her sexe, but that's not all; Wise to salvation was good Mistress Hall. Something of Shakespeare was in that, but this Wholy of him with whom she's now in blisse. Then, passenger, hast ne're a teare   To weepe with her that wept for all? That wept, yet set her selfe to cheere   Them up with comforts cordiall. Her love shall live, her mercy spread, When thou hast ne're a teare to shed.” The register informs us that she was buried on the 16th July, 1649.

Note return to page 307 9The following is copied from the register:— “1623. August 8. Mrs. Shakspeare.”

Note return to page 308 1Their registrations of burial are in these terms:— “1635. Nov. 26. Johannes Hall, medicus peritissimus.” “1647. Aprill 5. Thomas Nash, Gent.”

Note return to page 309 2The register contains as follows:— “1649. July 16. Mrs. Susanna Hall, widow.”

Note return to page 310 3We are indebted to Sir F. Madden, Keeper of the MSS. in the British Museum, for the use of a most exact collation of Shakespeare's will; in addition to which we have several times gone over every line and word of it. We have printed it as nearly as possible as it appears in the original.

Note return to page 311 4Another trifling circumstance leading to the conclusion that the will was prepared in January, though not executed until March, is that Shakespeare's sister is called Jone Hart, and not Jone Hart, widow. Her husband had died a few days before Shakespeare, and he was buried on 17 April, 1616, as “Will. Hart, hatter.” She was buried on 4 Nov. 1646. Both entries are contained in the parish registers of Stratford.

Note return to page 312 5This vindication of Shakespeare's memory from the supposed neglect of his wife we owe to Mr. Knight, in his “Pictorial Shakspere.” See the Postscript to “Twelfth Night.” When the explanation is once given, it seems so easy, that we wonder it was never before mentioned; but like many discoveries of different kinds, it is not less simple than important, and it is just that Mr. Knight should have full credit for it.

Note return to page 313 1It was originally, like many other monuments of the time, and some in Stratford church, coloured after the life, and so it continued until Malone, in his mistaken zeal for classical taste and severity, and forgetting the practice of the period at which the work was produced, had it painted one uniform stone-colour. He thus exposed himself to much not unmerited ridicule. It was afterwards found impossible to restore the original colours.

Note return to page 314 2Besides, we may suppose that Jonson would be careful how he applauded the likeness, when there must have been so many persons living, who could have contradicted him, had the praise not been deserved. Jonson does not speak of the painter, but of the “graver,” who we are inclined to think did full justice to the picture placed in his hands. Droeshout was a man of considerable eminence in his branch of art, and has left behind him undoubted proofs of his skill—some of them so much superior to the head of Shakespeare in the folio of 1623, as to lead to the conviction, that the picture from which he worked was a very coarse specimen of art.

Note return to page 315 3See the extract from a ballad on Marlowe, p. cxii. This circumstance, had he known it, would materially have aided the modern sceptick, who argued that Shakespeare and Marlowe were one and the same.

Note return to page 316 4Gifford (Ben Jonson's Works, vol. I. p. lxv.) fixes the date of the establishment of this club, at the Mermaid in Friday Street, about 1603, and he adds that “here for many years Ben Jonson repaired with Shakespeare, Beaumont, Fletcher, Selden, Cotton, Carew, Martin, Donne, and many others, whose names, even at this distant period, call up a mingled feeling of reverence and respect.” Of what passed at these many assemblies Beaumont thus speaks, addressing Ben Jonson:— &lblank;“What things have we seen Done at the Mermaid! heard words that have been So nimble, and so full of subtle flame, As if that every one from whom they came Had meant to put his whole wit in a jest.” The Mitre, in Fleet Street, seems to have been another tavern where the wits and poets of the day hilariously assembled.

Note return to page 317 5Worthies. Part iii. p. 126, folio edit.

Note return to page 318 6Fuller has another simile, on the same page, respecting Shakespeare and his acquirements, which is worth quoting. “He was an eminent instance of the truth of that rule, Poeta non fit, sed nascitur; one is not made, but born a poet. Indeed his learning was very little, so that as Cornish diamonds are not polished by any lapidary, but are pointed and smooth even as they are taken out of the earth, so nature itself was all the art which was used upon him.” Of course Fuller is here only referring to Shakespeare's classical acquirements: his “learning” of a different kind, perhaps, exceeded that of all the ancients put together.

Note return to page 319 7“Shakespeare was god-father to one of Ben Jonson's children, and after the christening, being in a deepe study, Jonson came to cheere him up, and askt him why he was so melancholy?—‘No, faith, Ben, (sayes he) not I; but I have been considering a great while what should be the fittest gift for me to bestow upon my god-child, and I have resolv'd at last.’—‘I pr'ythee what?’ says he. ‘I'faith, Ben, I'll e'en give him a douzen of Latten spoones, and thou shalt translate them.’” Of course the joke depends upon the pun between Latin, and the mixed metal called latten. The above is from a MS. of Sir R. L'Estrange, who quotes the authority of Dr. Donne. It is inserted in Mr. Thoms's amusing volume, printed for the Camden Society, under the title of “Anecdotes and Traditions,” p. 2. The next is from a MS. called “Poetical Characteristics,” formerly in the Harleian Collection:— “Verses by Ben Jonson and Shakespeare, occasioned by the motto to the Globe theatre—Totus mundus agit histrionem. “Jonson. If but stage-actors all the world displays, Where shall we find spectators of their plays? “Shakespeare. Little, or much of what we see, we do; We are both actors and spectators too.”

Note return to page 320 8The following reaches us in a more questionable shape: it is from a MS. of the time of Charles I., preserved in the Bodleian Library, which contains also poems by Herrick and others. “AN EPITAPH. “When God was pleas'd, the world unwilling yet, Elias James to nature paid his debt, And here reposeth. As he lived he died, The saying in him strongly verified, Such life, such death: then, the known truth to tell, He liv'd a godly life, and died as well. Wm. Shakespeare.”

Note return to page 321 9Coleridge's Table Talk, vol. ii. p. 301.—Mr. Hallam in his “Introduction to the Literature of Europe,” vol. iii. p. 89. edit. 1843, somewhat less literally translates the Greek epithet, &grm;&gru;&grr;&gri;&gro;&grn;&gro;&gru;&grst;, “thousand-souled.”

Note return to page 322 1Hallam's “Introduction to the Literature of Europe,” vol. ii. p. 175.

Note return to page 323 2Ibid. vol. iii. p. 89.

Note return to page 324 1The following is from an exact transcript of the original Will deposited in the Prerogative office, London, the only difference being that we have not thought it necessary to give the legal contractions of the scrivener: in all other respects, even to the misemployment of capital letters, and the omission of points, our copy is most faithful.

Note return to page 325 2The word “Martij” is interlined above “Januarij,” which is struck through with the pen. Malone (Shaksp. by Boswell, vol. i. p. 601.) states that the word struck through is Februarij, but this is a mistake.

Note return to page 326 3Before “Daughter” sonne and was originally written, but struck through with the pen.

Note return to page 327 4The words “in discharge of her marriage porcion” are interlined.

Note return to page 328 5The word “of” is interlined.

Note return to page 329 6The words “that shee” are interlined.

Note return to page 330 7The words “by my executours and overseers” are interlined.

Note return to page 331 8The words “the stock” are interlined.

Note return to page 332 9The words “to be” are interlined.

Note return to page 333 1After “Baron” the words “by my executours & overseers” are erased with the pen.

Note return to page 334 2The words “the house” are interlined.

Note return to page 335 3The first sheet ends with the word “bequeath,” and the testator's signature is in the margin opposite.

Note return to page 336 4After “deceas” follow these words, struck through with the pen, “to be sett out for her within one yeare after my deceas by my executours with thadvise and direccions of my overseers for her best profitt vntill her mariage and then the same with the increase thereof to be paied vnto:” the erasure ought also to have included the word “her,” which follows “vnto.”

Note return to page 337 5The words “the saied Elizabeth Hall” are interlined above her, which is struck through with the pen.

Note return to page 338 6This parenthesis is an interlineation.

Note return to page 339 7“Hamlett Sadler” is an interlineation above Mr. Richard Tyler thelder, which is erased.

Note return to page 340 8The words “to William Raynoldes gentleman xxvjs viijd to buy him A Ringe” are interlined.

Note return to page 341 9After “xxvjs viijd” in gold was originally written, but erased with the pen.

Note return to page 342 10The words “& to my Fellowes John Hemynges Richard Burbage & Henry Cundell xxvjs viijd to buy them Ringes” are interlined.

Note return to page 343 11The words “for better enabling of her to performe this my will & towardes the performans thereof” are interlined.

Note return to page 344 1The words “in Stratford aforesaid” are interlined.

Note return to page 345 2After “Fourth” the word sonne was first written, but erased with the pen.

Note return to page 346 3The second sheet ends with the word “heires,” and the signature of the testator is at the bottom of it.

Note return to page 347 4The words “Item I gyve vnto my wief my second best bed with the furniture” are interlined.

Note return to page 348 5The words “the saied” are interlined.

Note return to page 349 6The word “hand” is interlined above seale, which is erased with the pen.

Note return to page 350 1The following is an exact copy of the title-page of the folio of 1623. It is faced, on a fly-leaf, by the verses of Ben Jonson (see p. cclx.) on the head of Shakespeare, engraved by Droeshout, which occupies the centre:— “Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. Published according to the True Originall Copies. London Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed. Blount. 1623.” At the bottom of the last leaf of the volume is the following colophon: “Printed at the Charges of W. Jaggard, Ed. Blount, I. Smithweeke, and W. Aspley, 1623.” The title-page of the folio of 1632 has “The second Impression” after “true Originall Copies,” and the imprint at the bottom is as follows:—“London, Printed by Tho. Cotes, for Robert Allot, and are to be sold at the signe of the Blacke Beare in Pauls Church-yard. 1632.” The colophon on the last leaf is, “Printed at London by Thomas Cotes, for John Smethwick, William Aspley, Richard Hawkins, Richard Meighen, and Robert Allot, 1632.” In the third and fourth folios the head of Shakespeare is made a frontispiece, facing the title-page, with Ben Jonson's verses printed under it. After “The third Impression,” in the folio of 1664, these words are added, “And unto this Impression is added seven Playes, never before Printed in Folio, viz. Pericles Prince of Tyre. The London Prodigall. The History of Thomas Ld Cromwell. Sir John Oldcastle Lord Cobham. The Puritan Widow. A Yorkshire Tragedy. The Tragedy of Locrine.”

Note return to page 351 2We have given this Dedication, and the “Address to the variety of Readers,” which follows it, precisely as they stand in the original, to the observation of the most minute point. The Dedication was omitted in the folio of 1664, but inserted again in the folio of 1685.

Note return to page 352 1To the great variety of readers,] This address also precedes the folio of 1623. Malone and others have conjectured that it was written by Ben Jonson, and it is certainly much in his style.

Note return to page 353 1This heading precedes the list of the Actors in the folio of 1623, and in the three subsequent editions in the same form. We spell the names precisely as they stand in the first folio.

Note return to page 354 1Than when thy half-sword parleying Romans spake:] Leonard Digges prefixed a long copy of verses to the edition of Shakespeare's Poems in 1640, 8vo, in which he makes this passage, referring to “Julius Cæsar,” more distinct; he also there speaks of the audiences Shakespeare's plays at that time drew, in comparison with Ben Jonson's. This is the only part of his production worth adding in a note. “So have I seen, when Cæsar would appear, And on the stage at half-sword parley were Brutus and Cassius, O, how the audience Were ravish'd! with what wonder they went thence! When, some new day, they would not brook a line Of tedious, though well-labour'd, Catiline; Sejanus too, was irksome: they priz'd more ‘Honest’ Iago, or the jealous Moor. And though the Fox and subtil Alchymist, Long intermitted, could not quite be mist, Though these have sham'd all th' ancients, and might raise Their author's merit with a crown of bays, Yet these sometimes, even at a friend's desire, Acted, have scarce defray'd the sea-coal fire, And door-keepers: when, let but Falstaff come, Hal, Poins, the rest,—you scarce shall have a room, All is so pester'd: let but Beatrice And Benedick be seen, lo! in a trice The cock-pit, galleries, boxes, all are full, To hear Malvolio, that cross-garter'd gull. Brief, there is nothing in his wit-fraught book, Whose sound we would not hear, on whose worth look,” &c.

Note return to page 355 2Perhaps the initials of John Marston.

Note return to page 356 3Referring to lines by William Basse, then circulating in MS., and not printed (as far as is now known) until 1633, when they were falsely imputed to Dr. Donne in the edition of his poems in that year. All the MSS. of the lines, now extant, differ in minute particulars.

Note return to page 357 2In addition to those in the folio of 1623, also reprinted in 1632. The folios of 1664 and 1685 contain no others.

Note return to page 358 3An Epitaph on the admirable Dramatic Poet, W. Shakespeare.] These lines, like the preceding, have no name appended to them in the folio, 1632, but the authorship is ascertained by the publication of them as Milton's, in the edition of his Poems in 1645, 8vo. We give them as they stand there, because it is evident that they were then printed from a copy corrected by the author: the variations are interesting, and Malone pointed out only one, and that certainly the least important. Instead of “weak witness” in line 6, the folio 1632 has “dull witness:” instead of “live-long monument,” in line 8, the folio has “lasting monument:” instead of “heart,” in line 10, the folio has “part,” an evident misprint: and instead of “itself bereaving,” in line 13, the folio has “herself bereaving.” The last is the difference mentioned by Malone, who also places “John Milton” at the end, as if the name were found in the folio of 1632.

Note return to page 359 4On worthy Master Shakespeare, and his Poems.] These lines are subscribed I. M. S. in the folio 1632, “probably Jasper Mayne,” says Malone. Most probably not, because Mayne has left nothing behind him to lead us to suppose that he could have produced this surpassing tribute. I. M. S. may possibly be John Milton, Student, and no name may have been appended to the other copy of verses by him prefixed to the folio of 1632, in order that his initials should stand at the end of the present. We know of no other poet of the time capable of writing the ensuing lines. We feel morally certain that they are by Milton.

Note return to page 360 5&lblank; pleased in that ruth] Malone (Shakespeare by Boswell, ii. 480) made nonsense of this line by printing “ruth” truth, the word which closes the preceding line

Note return to page 361 “The Tempest” was first printed in the folio edition of “Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies,” bearing date in 1623, where it stands first, and occupies nineteen pages, viz. from p. 1 to p. 19 inclusive. It fills the same place in the folios of 1632, 1664, and 1685.

Note return to page 362 1The earliest date hitherto discovered for the performance of “The Tempest” was “the beginning of the year 1613,” which Malone established from Vertue's MSS.: it was then acted by “the King's company, before Prince Charles, the Princess Elizabeth, and the Prince Palatine,” but where is not stated.

Note return to page 363 2See note 2 to the Introduction to “The Winter's Tale,” Vol. iii. p. 423. The particular play to which we refer is intitled in the Revels' Account “Lucrecia,” which may have been either T. Heywood's “Rape of Lucrece,” first printed in 1608, or a different tragedy on the same incidents.

Note return to page 364 3See “The Alleyn Papers,” printed by the Shakespeare Society, p. 67, where Daborne, under date of Nov. 13th, 1613, speaks of “Jonson's play” as then about to be performed. Possibly it was deferred for a short time, as the title-page states that it was acted in 1614. It may have been written in 1612, for performance in 1613.

Note return to page 365 4Malone (Shaksp. by Boswell, vol. xv. p. 78.) quotes this important passage from Florio's translation of Montaigne with a singular degree of incorrectness: with many minor variations he substitutes partitions for “dividences,” and omits the words “no manuring of lands” altogether. This is a case in which verbal, and even literal, accuracy is important.

Note return to page 366 5In the Introduction to “The Winter's Tale,” vol. iii. p. 426, we have assigned a reason, founded upon a passage in R. Greene's “Pandosto,” for believing that “The Tempest” was anterior in composition to that play.

Note return to page 367 6Mr. Hunter contends that in “The Tempest” “love's labours” are “won;” but such is the case with every play in which the issue is successful passion, after difficulties and disappointments: in “The Tempest” they are fewer than in most other plays, since from first to last the love of Ferdinand and Miranda is prosperous. At all events “The Tempest” was played at Court under that title in 1611 and 1613. Mr. Hunter also endeavours to establish that Ben Jonson alluded to “The Tempest” in 1596, in the Prologue to “Every Man in his Humour;” but while we admit the acuteness, we cannot by any means allow the conclusiveness, of Mr. Hunter's reasoning.

Note return to page 368 1This list of characters in contained in the folio, 1623.

Note return to page 369 1What cheer?] So in John Drout's “Pityfull Historie of two loving Italians,” 8vo, 1570. “Then mate to mate eache other calde, And sayd, ho mate! what cheere?”

Note return to page 370 2&lblank; fall to 't yarely.] i. e. readily, nimbly. See also Vol. ii. p. 72; Vol. iii. p. 391; and Vol. viii. pp. 36. 71.

Note return to page 371 3&lblank; merely &lblank;] i. e. absolutely: a common mode of using the word of old. See also Vol. viii. p. 333.

Note return to page 372 4We split, we split!—Farewell my wife and children! Farewell, brother;—We split, we split, we split!] This conclusion of Gonzalo's speech is verse to the ear, as well as to the eye, in the folio, 1623, but modern editors have converted it into prose, and so have printed it. Johnson supposed it might be part of the “confused noise within.”

Note return to page 373 5Did never meddle with my thoughts.] i. e. mingle or mix with my thoughts. When “meddle” was to be used as a monosyllable it was sometimes spelt mell, as in Vol. iii. p. 289.

Note return to page 374 6Out three years old.] i. e. three years complete.

Note return to page 375 7&lblank; and his only heir And princess, no worse issued.] So all the folios, and although some editors substitute A for “And,” no change seems really necessary. The passage is quite intelligible as it stands.

Note return to page 376 8&lblank; teen &lblank;] i. e. grief, trouble. The word occurs also in Vol. v. p. 441; Vol. vi. p. 388; and Vol. viii. pp. 397. 551.

Note return to page 377 9To trash for overtopping,] The meaning of this passage is evident, but a dispute has arisen respecting the word “trash.” Warburton contended that it was used to express the cutting away of superfluities, as of trees that grew too fast, and were therefore “overtopping.” On the other hand, there is no doubt that it was a term of the chase, and Shakespeare employs it in Othello, A. ii. sc. 1. in this sense, where it is said that dogs are “trashed” for their “quick hunting.” Either will answer the purpose here; but Shakespeare having himself warranted the latter meaning of “trash,” we seem bound to adopt that in preference, and to take the sense to be that Antonio knew “whom to advance” and whom to beat back, check, or “trash for overtopping” or out-running the rest.

Note return to page 378 10Who having, unto truth, by telling of it,] The old copies have “into truth,” which, by a forced construction, may be right, though it is much more probable that into was misprinted for “unto,” which Warburton substituted. The pronoun “it,” agrees with “lie,” in the next line but one.

Note return to page 379 1(So dry he was for sway)] i. e. So thirsty for government.

Note return to page 380 2&lblank; with the king of Naples,] The is not in the folios: in the MS. from which the folio, 1623, was printed, it was probably written wi' the for the sake of the measure, and hence the error.

Note return to page 381 3&lblank; it is a hint, That wrings mine eyes to't.] i. e. It is a suggestion that forces tears from my eyes.

Note return to page 382 4Which now's upon's;] So it stands in all the old copies, for the sake of the metre. “The Tempest” is printed with much accuracy in this respect.

Note return to page 383 5A rotten carcass of a butt,] So every ancient edition; but since Rowe's time boat has usually been substituted for “butt.” As “butt” is perfectly intelligible, with reference to the sort of vessel, without tackle, sail, or mast, in which Prospero and Miranda were sent to sea, we retain it.

Note return to page 384 6Nor tackle, sail, nor mast;] See R. Greene's “Pandosto, the Triumph of Time,” in “Shakespeare's Library,” vol. i. p. 18, where he gives an account of the turning adrift of the heroine “in a boat having neither saile, nor rudder to guide it.”

Note return to page 385 7&lblank; have quit it:] Most modern editors have needlessly altered “have quit it” of the folios to “had quit it.”

Note return to page 386 8When I have deck'd the sea with drops full salt,] It is questionable whether we ought not to read degg'd for “deck'd,” as it stands in the folios. By Holloway's “General Dict. of Provincialisms” it appears that to deg, in the north of England, means to sprinkle; a sense better suited to the line than “deck'd” or adorn'd. “Deg” seems to be derived from the Icelandic word daeg, a shower.

Note return to page 387 9From the still-vex'd Bermoothes,] i. e. Bermudas, commonly known, in Shakespeare's time and afterwards, as “the Isle of Devils,” from the evil spirits by which it was supposed to be inhabited. See the “Introduction,” p. 6.

Note return to page 388 1&lblank; The Mediterranean flote,] i. e. wave. Flot, Fr.

Note return to page 389 2We cannot miss him:] i. e. We cannot do without him, we must not miss him; a provincialism (says Malone) of the midland counties. No similar use of it has been pointed out in other writers.

Note return to page 390 3Come, thou tortoise! when?] A very common form of expression in our old dramatists, indicative of impatience. See also Vol. iv. p. 117.

Note return to page 391 4&lblank; for that vast of night that they may work,] So in Hamlet, Vol. vii. p. 209, “In the dead vast and middle of the night.” The “vast of night” seems to mean the empty space of night.

Note return to page 392 5Abhorred slave,] In Dryden and Davenant's alteration of “The Tempest,” printed in 1670, this speech is assigned to Prospero, and no doubt rightly: in the first and later folios it is given to Miranda, to whom it is evident it could not belong.

Note return to page 393 6&lblank; and be quick, thou'rt best,] Abbreviated in the old copies for the sake of the metre. Malone printed, “thou wert best.”

Note return to page 394 7&lblank; my dam's god, Setebos,] Setebos, according to various authorities, both before and since the time of Shakespeare, was worshipped by the Patagonians; but Sycorax, as we learn from Ariel in a former part of this scene, was from Argier.

Note return to page 395 8The wild waves whist;] i. e. the wild waves silent.

Note return to page 396 9And, sweet sprites, the burden bear.] In the old copies this line runs, “And sweet sprites bear the burden, [Notes and Emendations to the 1632 Folio]11Q0014” which the rhyme shows to be wrong.

Note return to page 397 10Dispersedly.] This is the stage-direction of the folios, meaning that “the watch-dog's bark” is to be heard in several places at the same time: what is called “the burden,” “bowgh wowgh,” is mixed up with the song itself in the old editions.

Note return to page 398 1That the earth owes.] i. e. owns. See Vol. ii. pp. 45. 136. 297. 416, &c.

Note return to page 399 2If you be maid, or no!] This is the reading of the three earliest folios, and seems unquestionably right. Ferdinand has at first supposed Miranda a goddess, and now inquires if she be really a mortal; not a celestial being, but a maiden. “Maid” is used in its general sense. Miranda's answer is to be taken in the same sense as Ferdinand's question. In the fourth folio “maid” is altered to made.

Note return to page 400 3I fear you have done yourself some wrong:] Some wrong to your character by asserting that you are king of Naples.

Note return to page 401 4Our hint of woe] Gonzalo seems to call it “hint of woe,” in reference to its comparative triflingness and ordinary occurrence.

Note return to page 402 5The masters of some merchant,] Possibly, “masters,” (as Steevens thought) has here been misprinted for mistress; or the passage may refer to the owners of the ship, who may be called the “masters” of the merchant embarked on board it. It has been suggested by Malone, that “merchant” might be taken in the sense of merchantman.

Note return to page 403 6The visitor] Visitor is probably to be taken in the sense of a consoler of the distressed.

Note return to page 404 7Which of them, he or Adrian,] “Them” seems to have dropped out in the folio of 1623, and the deficiency was not supplied in the later folios. Shakespeare would hardly have written “Which of he or Adrian,” &c.

Note return to page 405 8So, you're paid.] i. e. you are paid by having obtained the laugh. There is surely no need of change, yet Steevens altered it to “you've paid.”

Note return to page 406 9Temperance was a delicate wench.] Adrian uses “temperance” for temperature, and Antonio jokes upon it by adverting to the fact that Temperance was also a woman's name. In puritanical times, as Steevens remarks, it was not unusual to christen female children by the names of any of the cardinal virtues.

Note return to page 407 10How lush and lusty the grass looks!] “Lush” is juicy. Johnson, following Sir T. Hanmer, derives “lush” from the Fr. lousche; but Todd denies that etymology, and quotes instances to show that it means juicy, succulent.

Note return to page 408 1With an eye of green in't.] An eye means a small shade of colour. As in Sandys's Travels, lib. i.: “&lblank; cloth of silver, tissued with an eye of green&lblank;.”

Note return to page 409 2Which end of the beam she'd bow.] “Weigh'd,” in the preceding line, means that she considered or deliberated to which end of the beam she would incline, whether toward lothness or obedience. In the old copies should is printed for “she'd,” or she would, an easy mistake by the compositor: it was, perhaps, as Malone suggests, written sh'ould in the original MS.

Note return to page 410 3Would I admit; no name of magistrate, &c.] Our author (says Malone) has here closely followed a passage in Montaigne's Essayes, translated by John Florio, fol. 1603: “It is a nation, would I answere Plato, that hath no kinde of traffike, no knowledge of letters, no intelligence of numbers, no name of magistrate, nor of politike superioritie; no use of service, of riches, or of poverty; no contracts, no successions, no dividences, no occupation, but idle; no respect of kinred, but common; no apparell, but naturall; no manuring of lands; no use of wine, corne, or mettle. The very words that import lying, falshood, treason, dissimulation, covetousnes, envie, detraction and pardon, were never heard amongst them.”— Book I. ch. xxx. p. 102. Capell was the first to advert to this resemblance, and Malone objects to him that he supposed Shakespeare to have referred to the French original: true it is, that there was an English translation, which Malone quotes, but with remarkable incorrectness, for, besides omitting some words, and substituting others, in six lines he makes more than twice as many variations. See the “Introduction,” p. 5, note 4.

Note return to page 411 4&lblank; all foizon,] i. e. plenty. See also Vol. ii. p. 21; Vol. vii. p. 165; and Vol. viii. pp. 51. 500.

Note return to page 412 5To excel the golden age.] So Montaigne, just before the passage already quoted in note 3: “Me seemeth that what in those [newly discovered] nations wee see by experience, doth not onlie exceede all the pictures wherewith licentious poesie hath prowdly embellished the golden age, and al hir quaint inventions to faine a happy condition of man, but also the conception and desire of philosphie.” Malone cited this passage with greater accuracy.

Note return to page 413 6Enter Ariel, invisible, playing solemn music.] “Invisible” is not in the ancient stage-direction, but in obedience to Prospero's direction the spirit was not to be seen. Steevens says that Ariel was not to be the performer of the “solemn music.” How does this appear? The stage-direction distinctly asserts the contrary.

Note return to page 414 7Trebles thee o'er.] i. e. Makes thee three times what thou now art.

Note return to page 415 8&lblank; she, from whom] The folios all erroneously read, “she that from whom,“ but the measure and the sense detect the misprint, which Rowe first pointed out.

Note return to page 416 9&lblank; invisible.] “With music and song” is the old stage-direction.

Note return to page 417 10That's verily:] Modern editors, all without necessity, and some without notice, change “verily” of all the old copies into verity.

Note return to page 418 1Sometime like apes, that moe&lblank;] So spelt in the folio, 1623, but the most usual orthography was mow: mop and mow usually occur in connection, as in Nash's “Pierce Penniless,” 1592 (not 1593, as Malone quotes it), “nobody at home but an ape, that sate in the porch and made mops and mows at him.”In a subsequent stage-direction (A. iii. sc. 3.) in this play, we have “mocks and mows,” and in A. iv. sc. 1, “mop and mow.”

Note return to page 419 2&lblank; like a foul bombard&lblank;] A bombard was the name of a large vessel for containing drink, as well as a piece of artillery. It is used in this sense in Vol. iv. p. 286; Vol. v. p. 605, &c.

Note return to page 420 3&lblank; the siege of this moon-calf?] “Siege” is also used in this sense of seat in Vol. ii. p. 74; and Vol. vii. p. 216.

Note return to page 421 4Young scamels &lblank;] It has been doubted whether by “scamels” (as the word is printed in all the original editions) Shakespeare intended a fish or a bird Kamm-muschell (as Mr. Thoms observes to me) in German, means a scallop, and hence he supposes “scamel” may possibly have been derived: Holt also states, though the assertion may require to be confirmed, that in some parts of England limpets are called scams. On the other hand, Theobald altered “scamels” to sea-mells, and that reading Malone followed, on the ground (which is by no means clear) that a sea-mell is a species of gull, which builds its nest in the rock. Under these difficulties we adhere to the old orthography.

Note return to page 422 5Farewell, master; farewell, farewell.] It may be doubted whether Caliban is to sing these words, and in the old copies they are not printed in italic type like his song, although we have the stage-direction, “Caliban sings drunkenly,” just above them. Neither is the line in the same measure as his song.

Note return to page 423 6Get a new man.] We must suppose that this was meant by Caliban for Prospero, and that he turned towards the enchanter's cell.

Note return to page 424 7Most busy, least when I do it.] The meaning of this passage seems to have been misunderstood by all the commentators. Ferdinand says that the thoughts of Miranda so refresh his labours, that when he is most busy he seems to feel his toil least. It is printed in the folio, 1623, “Most busy lest when I do it,” a trifling error of the press, corrected in the folio, 1632, although Theobald tells us that both the oldest editions read lest. Not catching the poet's meaning, he printed “Most busy-less when I do it,” and his supposed emendation has ever since been taken as the text: even Capell adopted it. I am happy to have Mr. Amyot's concurrence in this restoration.

Note return to page 425 8Why, thou debauched fish thou,] Here, as in Vol. iii. p. 243, “debauched” is printed debosh'd in the old copies. In Beaumont and Fletcher's “Four Plays in One” it is spelt deboist, an old mode of spelling, which the Rev. Mr. Dyce (vol. ii. p. 539.) thinks it right to preserve: if so, there seems to be no reason why we should not adhere to the old corrupt and barbarous orthography in every other instance. He admits that it means “debauched,” and there can be no dispute about the etymology of the word.

Note return to page 426 9What a pied ninny's this! Thou scurvy patch!] It is to be borne in mind that Trinculo, as a jester, would be dressed in motley, and hence Caliban's allusion to his particoloured appearance: “pied” was an epithet applied to fools not unfrequently, and “patch” a name by which they were often called.

Note return to page 427 1Flout 'em, and skout 'em;] The old copies all have “cout 'em” for “scout 'em,” the letter s having dropped out in the folio, 1623, which the others followed. It stands “skout 'em” in the repetition, which makes the error obvious. It was probably a well-known catch.

Note return to page 428 2By'r la'kin,] i. e. By our lady-kin.

Note return to page 429 3&lblank; and Prospero above,] “On the top” in the folios; meaning, perhaps, in some machine let down with ropes from the ceiling, or in the balcony at the back of the stage: this is the only deviation from the old stage-direction.

Note return to page 430 4I saw such islanders,] “Such islands” in the folio, 1623, but altered to “islanders” in later editions.

Note return to page 431 5Each putter-out of five for one,] The putters-out were travellers, who put out money at what may be termed interest, viz. to receive at the rate of five for one, if they returned. This practice is often mentioned by old writers.

Note return to page 432 6Hath caused to belch up, and on this island] The first, second, and third folios read, “Have caus'd to belch up you,” and the fourth folio alters “up you” to “you up.” It seems clear that you is too much for the sense, verse, and grammatical construction, and we have omitted it, because we think it crept into the old text by mere inadvertence.

Note return to page 433 7One dowle that's in my plume:] “Dowle” seems to mean nearly the same as down, or the light parts of which feathers are composed. In all the old copies “plume” is misprinted plumbe or plumb. There is little doubt that Shakespeare had Virgil's description, Æneid III. in his memory, and he might derive his knowledge of it, if necessary, from Phaer's translation, first printed in 1558, and not in 1573 as stated by Ritson.

Note return to page 434 8&lblank; a third of mine own life,] We adhere to the text of every old edition of this play, where Prospero tells Ferdinand that he has given him a third of his own life—a portion of his very existence—in bestowing Miranda upon him. This seems not only perfectly intelligible, but most natural, although modern editors (Capell excepted) substitute thread for “third,” and attempt to justify the change by quotations from other authors. It is, surely, much more expressive for Prospero to say that he has given away a third of his own life, than merely a thread of his own life. Hawkins misquotes “Mucedorus,” no doubt unintentionally, but apparently for the sake of vindicating the violence he proposed to do to the ancient text.

Note return to page 435 9Then, as my gift,] “Gift” is misprinted guest in the folios: no doubt the old spelling was guift, (as indeed it is spelt six lines above in the folio 1623,) and hence the error.

Note return to page 436 1No sweet aspersion&lblank;] “Aspersion,” as Stevens remarks, is here used in its primitive sense of sprinkling.

Note return to page 437 2&lblank; thatch'd with stover,] “Stover” is coarse grass, with which farm-buildings are sometimes covered. In the North of England “stover” is the general name for fodder for cattle during the winter. See Holloway's General Provincial Dictionary.

Note return to page 438 3The banks with pioned and twilled brims,] This is the old text, and we cannot discover any unintelligibility in it, taking “pioned” as dug, (a sense in which it is used by Spenser, and with the same etymology as pioneer) and “twilled” as ridged, or made up in ridges, a sense it yet bears with reference to some kinds of linen: these ridges are produced by intermingling the threads; and hence, perhaps, the origin of the word in the Fr. touiller: the “pioned and twilled brims” are therefore the brims which are dug and ridged. Steevens would understand “pioned” to have reference to the flower called a piony, and suggested the substitution of lilied for “twilled.”

Note return to page 439 4Thy pole-clipt vineyard;] Referring to the mode in which the vines clip or embrace the poles by which they are supported. For the word to “clip” see Vol. iii. p. 533; Vol. viii. pp. 52. 98. 391, &c.

Note return to page 440 5My bosky acres, &c.] “Bosky” is woody. The word occurs in the same sense in Milton's “Comus.”

Note return to page 441 6To this short-graz'd green?] Rowe printed it short-graz'd, and it stands short-gras'd in the folios, 1623 and 1632; but the two later folios have “short-grass'd,” which may be right, as “graze” and “grazing” are elsewhere so spelt in the first folio.

Note return to page 442 7Enter Juno.] She appears in the air during the first speech of Iris; and there the stage-direction, in the folio, 1623, is “Juno descends.” She was probably let down slowly by some machine, and did not reach the stage, until Iris and Ceres were concluding their speeches.

Note return to page 443 8Earth's increase,] Until the time of Theobald the whole song was given to Juno: the old stage-direction is “they sing,” and it is evident that here Ceres takes up the air. In the folio, 1632, the line stands— “Earth's increase, and foison plenty;” but the conjunction is not only quite needless, but gives the measure a jigging air, in all probability intended to be avoided by the poet.

Note return to page 444 9So rare a wonder'd father, and a wise, Makes this place Paradise.] This is the reading of every old copy, from which modern editors have varied, without notice, by printing wife for “wise,” and Make for “Makes.” It needs no proof that “So rare a wonder'd father, and a wise,” was the phraseology of Shakespeare's time. I owe the suggestion of this restoration to the Rev. Mr. Barry.

Note return to page 445 1&lblank; of the wandering brooks,] Possibly, winding is the true word: all the folios repeat the misprint of that of 1623, windring.

Note return to page 446 2Leave not a rack behind.] “Rack” is vapour, from reek, as Horne Tooke showed; and the light clouds on the face of heaven are the “rack” or vapour from the earth. The word “rack” was often used in this way.

Note return to page 447 3We must prepare to meet with Caliban.] “To meet with” was of old equivalent to to counteract, to oppose: we now say, “to be meet with.”

Note return to page 448 4For stale to catch these thieves.] Stale, in fowling, is used for bait or decoy. A more full explanation of the use of the word will be found in Vol. v. p. 295.

Note return to page 449 5&lblank; loaden with glistering apparel,] The old stage-direction. It may be observed, that in this play the stage-directions are more particular, and correct, than in, perhaps, any other.

Note return to page 450 6&lblank; played the Jack with us.] i. e. the Jack o' lantern, by leading them astray.

Note return to page 451 7&lblank; we know what belongs to a frippery:] A frippery (observes Steevens) was a shop where old clothes were sold. Fripperie, Fr. Birchin-lane was formerly the great mart for second-hand clothes.

Note return to page 452 8&lblank; Let's alone,] Printed in the old copies “Let's alone.” In the original MS. it probably stood “Let't alone;” an abbreviation for the sake of the verse. We have had “Let it alone” just before, but there four syllables were required by the measure, and not three syllables, as in the present instance. Steevens understands “Let's alone” to mean, “Let us do the murder without this fool's aid.”

Note return to page 453 9In the line-grove&lblank;] Usually printed “lime-grove; but the true name of the tree is “line” and not lime, and so it stands in all the old copies. This error is pointed out by the Rev. Mr. Hunter in his “Disquisition on the Tempest,” p. 57.

Note return to page 454 10Now useless, boil'd within thy skull!] The folios all have a misprint here, “boil within thy skull.” Farther on in the same speech, the folio, 1623, alone reads “entertain ambition,” for “entertained ambition.”

Note return to page 455 1There I couch.] So the folios, 1623 and 1632: the third folio first substituted crouch. In the original there is no point after “couch;” but it seems necessary, and was inserted by Malone.

Note return to page 456 2&lblank; playing at chess.] The old stage-direction is, “Here Prospero discovers Ferdinand and Miranda playing at chess.” Probably the traverse-curtain, towards the back of the stage, was drawn for the purpose.

Note return to page 457 3Is tight and yare,] i. e. ready. See p. 9, note 2, of this Volume.

Note return to page 458 4&lblank; in all her trim,] “In all our trim,” folio, 1623.

Note return to page 459 “The Two Gentlemen of Verona” was first printed in the folio of 1623, where it occupies nineteen pages, viz. from p. 20 to p. 38, inclusive, in the division of “Comedies.” It is there divided into Acts and Scenes. It also stands second in the later folios.

Note return to page 460 1This list of characters, with the heading, “The names of all the Actors,” is printed at the end of the play in folio, 1623.

Note return to page 461 1&lblank; nay, give me not the boots.] A proverbial expression, not unfrequently met with in our old dramatists, signifying, don't make a laughing-stock of me. It seems to have no connection whatever with the punishment of the boots in Scotland, to which the commentators refer.

Note return to page 462 2To Milan let me hear from thee by letters,] This is merely an inversion of “Let me hear from thee by letters to Milan.” The first folio reads “To Milan,” which the second folio needlessly changes to “At Milan,” &c.

Note return to page 463 3And I have play'd the sheep] A play upon the resemblance in sound between the words “ship” and “sheep.” In many parts of the country “sheep” is pronounced “ship.” This joke is employed again in “The Comedy of Errors,” Vol. ii. p. 150. In writings of the time “Sheep-street,” in Stratford-upon-Avon, is often spelt Ship-street.

Note return to page 464 4And I a sheep?] The indefinite article was added in the second folio.

Note return to page 465 5A laced mutton;] Many authorities prove that mutton and courtezan were synonymous terms in the time of Shakespeare and long afterwards; and hence (as Malone tells us) the place called Mutton-lane in Clerkenwell. The question is, what was meant by a “laced mutton,” for the participle and substantive are often found together. Laced probably meant dressed or adorned; and in Deloney's “Thomas of Reading,” chap. ii., we read this passage: “No meat pleased him so well as mutton, such as was laced in a red petticoat.” Speed's jest, such as it is, may have reconciled Proteus to the ill compliment to his mistress.

Note return to page 466 6&lblank; did she nod?] These words were supplied by Theobald, and seem to be necessary. They are not in the old copies; but it is clear from what Speed afterwards says that Proteus had asked the question. In Speed's answers the old spelling of the affirmative particle has been retained; otherwise the conceit of Proteus would be less intelligible.

Note return to page 467 7&lblank; that's noddy.] Noddy was a game at cards, and to call a person a Noddy was the same as to call him a fool. Noddy was the Knave or Fool in a pack of cards. The practice of calling the knave Nod, or Noddy, is not yet entirely discontinued.

Note return to page 468 8&lblank; in telling your mind.] The meaning (says Malone) is,—She being so hard to me who was the bearer of your mind, I fear she will prove no less so to you in the act of telling your mind.

Note return to page 469 9&lblank; you have testern'd me;] You have given me a testern, that is, sixpence. In the time of Henry VIII. a tester, testern, or teston, was of the value of a shilling: it was so called from having a teste, i. e. head, upon it. In the folio, 1623, “testern'd” is misprinted cestern'd.

Note return to page 470 10As of a knight&lblank;] In Malone's Shakespeare, by Boswell, it is misprinted “As our knight,” &c.

Note return to page 471 1&lblank; censure thus on &lblank;] Pass my opinion upon. See Vol. v. pp. 125. 397.

Note return to page 472 2Best sing it to the tune of “Light o' love.”] This tune is often mentioned; the earliest authority for it, perhaps, being the “Gorgeous Gallery of Gallant Inventions,” 4to. 1578. In Deloney's “Strange Histories,” 8vo. 1607, “the doleful lamentation of Lord Matrevers,” &c. is “to the tune of Light of love.” Percy Society's reprint, p. 42.

Note return to page 473 3&lblank; too harsh a descant:] Descant (says Malone) signified formerly what we now denominate variations. See also Vol. viii. p. 447.

Note return to page 474 4There wanteth but a mean&lblank;] The mean is what is now called the tenor.

Note return to page 475 5&lblank; I bid the base] The allusion of Lucetta is to the well-known game of prison base, or prisoner's base, at which, “to bid the base” seems to have meant, to invite to a contest. See the note on “To bid the wind a base,” in “Venus and Adonis,” Vol. viii. p. 382.

Note return to page 476 6And thus I search it&lblank;] To search a wound is to probe it, or to tent it.

Note return to page 477 7&lblank; a month's mind to them.] A month's mind is here equivalent to “a great mind” or strong inclination; “A month's mind” in its “ritual sense,” is a month's remembrance; and when Nash wrote his “Martin's Month's Mind,” 4to. 1589, he applied it in that way: it was a month's remembrance of Martin Mar-prelate. The “Month's Mind” was derived from times prior to the Reformation, when masses were said for a stated period in memory of the dead. Hence they were also called “Month's Memories,” and “Month's monuments.” For the sake of the measure we ought to read, “a moneth's mind to them,” and so the word was often printed.

Note return to page 478 8&lblank; what sad talk was that,] Sad was generally used of old for serious or grave. See Vol. ii. pp. 221. 499. Vol. iii. p. 384, &c.

Note return to page 479 1And, in good time,—now will we break with him.] Proteus, whose entrance is not marked in the old copies, comes in on the sudden, and very opportunely, “in good time,” so that Antonio cannot finish his sentence: he therefore stops short, merely adding to Panthino, that he will break the matter to Proteus. “To break with” affords another instance of the different use of prepositions now, and formerly.

Note return to page 480 2Like exhibition&lblank;] Like allowance or “maintenance,” the word used in the preceding line, which perhaps affords a sufficient explanation. We still every day speak of exhibitions to the Universities. See also Vol. vii. p. 519.

Note return to page 481 3Enter Valentine and Speed.] The folios introduce the name of Silvia here, as if she were on the stage from the opening of the scene; but she does not come on until some time afterwards. This mode of naming all the persons, who are engaged at any time in the same scene, at the beginning of it, was (as is elsewhere remarked) very usual in our old printed plays.

Note return to page 482 4Val. Not mine, my gloves are on. Speed. Why then this may be yours, for this is but one.] Hence we see that the word one was anciently pronounced on: indeed it was often so written and printed in our author's time, and the folio, 1623, would afford several instances of the kind.

Note return to page 483 5&lblank; takes diet;] i. e. under a regimen. See also Vol. iii. p. 310.

Note return to page 484 6O excellent motion! O exceeding puppet!] A motion in Shakespeare's time, meant a puppet-show, (see Vol. iii. p. 491) from the puppets being moved by the master, who interpreted to (or for) them, as Speed supposes Valentine will interpret for Silvia, the “exceeding puppet” on the occasion.

Note return to page 485 7Sir Valentine and servant,] Ladies were accustomed, in Shakespeare's time, to call their admirers their servants.

Note return to page 486 8&lblank; and yet, another yet.] So the passage is punctuated in the old copies, as if Speed had said, “And yet,” and then paused to see if Silvia would not add “another yet.” We only mention this trifle because some modern editors have not attended to it. Of course these speeches by Speed are supposed to be uttered aside.

Note return to page 487 9All this I speak in print,] i. e. with exactness: Speed adds, that he found it “in print,” perhaps, in some book or ballad of that time, which has not survived to ours. He has rhymed before, and in the same style, just after Silvia made her exit: those lines could hardly have been quoted.

Note return to page 488 1I am the dog, &c.] Launce is himself puzzled with the characters of his own mono-polylogue; and perhaps Shakespeare did not mean him to get out of his confusion. Sir T. Hanmer proposed to read, I am the dog, no, the dog is himself, and I am me, the dog is the dog, and I am myself. Although this reading makes the text “more reasonable,” (as Johnson remarks) the additions to it are unwarrantable.

Note return to page 489 2&lblank; like a wood woman:&lblank;] The old copies print it thus—“like a would-woman,” with a hyphen. The proper orthography seems to be “like a wood woman,” or frantic woman, wood being the old word for frantic or mad: the mother of Launce was wood with grief at parting from her son. It was, however, very unusual in the time of Shakespeare, or in any other time, to spell wood “would,” and the hyphen was needless. It reads as if the editors of the folio did not themselves understand what was meant by “like a would-woman.” The parenthesis is not in the old folios, and with the very slight alteration of she to shoe it would be unnecessary: “O, that shoe could speak now, like a wood woman!” Launce's wish being that the shoe, representing his mother, could speak like a frantic woman, such as his mother was at their parting.

Note return to page 490 3&lblank; and the tide.] The first tied refers to the dog, and the last to the river, as we see from what follows—“Why man, if the river were dry,” &c. The joke which has occupied Launce and Panthino is more evident in the old copy, where the tide of the river and the tied dog are spelt in the same way— tide.

Note return to page 491 4&lblank; how quote you my folly?] To “quote” is to note or observe. See Vol. iv. p. 74; Vol. vi. pp. 106. 393, &c. Valentine in his answer, perhaps, plays upon the word, which was pronounced coat.

Note return to page 492 5&lblank; I need not 'cite &lblank;] i. e. incite.

Note return to page 493 6&lblank; a worthy mistress.] The first folio puts the article a both before and after “worthy,” which is corrected in the second folio.

Note return to page 494 7Enter Thurio.] All the editors, from Theobald downwards, make “a Servant” enter here, and not Thurio, to whom the old copies assign the sentence, “Madam, my lord, your father, would speak with you.” They say also that the commencement of Silvia's answer is “addressed to two persons.” This is by no means clear: “I wait upon his pleasure: come, sir Thurio, go with me,” is spoken to Thurio with more propriety than to two distinct persons. It is much more likely that Thurio went out on the entrance of Proteus, and returned with the message of the Duke to his daughter. The economy of the old stage, with many characters and with few performers, did not allow the waste of an actor in the part of a mere message-carrier. The great probability, therefore, is that the old copies are right, and that Thurio is employed from the Duke.

Note return to page 495 8Is it mine eye, or Valentinus' praise,] This line presents a difficulty. The folio, 1623, reads, “It is mine, or Valentine's praise?” which the folio, 1632, alters thus:— “Is it mine then, or Valentinian's praise?” in order to cure the defect of the metre. Malone would have it “Is it her mien, or Valentinus' praise?” and Warburton lays it down that “the line was originally thus:”— “It is mine eye, or Valentino's praise;” which is clearly not interrogative, as the punctuation of the oldest copy shows it ought to be. Malone was too much taken with the plausibility of the emendation suggested to him, to consider that it gives no support to the next two lines:— “Her true perfection, or my false transgression, That makes me, reasonless, to reason thus?” He was right in adopting Valentinus, and wrong in rejecting eye, which was the cause of the “transgression” of Proteus. Valentinus for Valentine we have had already, Ac. i. sc. 3. Perhaps, after all, the old and true reading was “mine eyen,” which was corrupted and abbreviated by the old printer to mine.

Note return to page 496 9'Tis but her picture&lblank;] Johnson speaks of this line, as “evidently a slip of attention,” as if Proteus could have forgotten that he had just seen Silvia herself, and not her “picture.” He uses “picture” figuratively, meaning merely exterior as compared with inward “perfections.”

Note return to page 497 10And that hath dazzled&lblank;] Dazzled must be read as a trisyllable: in the second folio so is unnecessarily inserted after it, in order to complete the supposed deficiency in the measure.

Note return to page 498 1There is no reason&lblank;] Reason is here to be taken in the sense of doubt.

Note return to page 499 2&lblank; Milan.] Padua in the old editions—a decided error.

Note return to page 500 3&lblank; I care not though he burn himself in love, if thou wilt go with me to the ale-house:] This passage has been misunderstood from defective pointing: instead of a period after “love,” as in the old copies, we ought to place a comma, the meaning being that Launce does not care whether Valentine burn himself in love or not, if Speed will but go to the ale-house with him. This reading renders the word so, inserted in the second folio, and subsequently adopted by all the commentators, unnecessary.

Note return to page 501 4&lblank; pretended flight;] Pretended flight, in the language of the time, is intended flight. See Vol. v. p. 67, Vol. viii. p. 431.

Note return to page 502 5Scene VII.] Johnson suggested, with plausibility, that this ought to be the first scene of the third act, and not the last scene of the second act, as it is marked in the folio, 1623.

Note return to page 503 6And instances as infinite of love,] i. e. instances as infinite of love, as the “ocean of his tears,” mentioned in the preceding line. This is the reading of the folio of 1632, and it seems correct, although the older copy has the line, “And instances of infinite of love.” So to read it, we must take “infinite” for infinity. Malone read, “And instances of the infinite of love,” which is warranted by no old authority.

Note return to page 504 7&lblank; suggested,] i. e. tempted. See Vol. iv. p. 115; Vol. v. p. 507; Vol. viii. p. 416. On p. 124 we have had “suggesting” for tempting.

Note return to page 505 8And, where&lblank;] “Where” for whereas; often so used by our old writers.

Note return to page 506 9&lblank; in Milan here,] The old copies concur in reading, “There is a lady in Verona here, [Notes and Emendations to the 1632 Folio]11Q0046” which is clearly wrong, as the scene has been transferred to Milan. It is not impossible, as this mistake has been before committed, (A. ii. sc. 5.) that Shakespeare himself changed his first intention on the subject. This is the more likely, as Verona exactly fits the verse, while, if Milan be substituted, the line is short of one syllable: for this reason, Pope added, “sir.”

Note return to page 507 1What lets,] i. e. what hinders. See Vol. vi. p. 409; Vol. vii. p. 221, &c.

Note return to page 508 2Merops' son)] Johnson thus explains this passage: “Thou art Phaëton in thy rashness, but without his pretensions; thou art not the son of a divinity, but a terræ filius, a low-born wretch; Merops is thy true father, with whom Phaëton was falsely reproached.”

Note return to page 509 3Wilt thou reach stars, because they shine on thee?] Fawnia, in Green's novel of “Pandosto,” (on which our great dramatist founded his “Winter's Tale”) exclaims, in reference to her love for the Prince—“Stars are to be looked at with the eye, not reached at with the hand.” Vide “Shakespeare's Library,” vol. i. p. 38.

Note return to page 510 4So much of bad already hath possess'd them.] Malone would not correct who into whom, in the preceding page, “Whom wouldst thou strike?” because, he contended, this want of grammar was the “phraseology of the period;” but he altered hath into have in the line before us, because “news” was plural, though, even in our own day, it is constantly used as a singular noun. The practice was nearly the same in the time of Shakespeare.

Note return to page 511 5&lblank; but one knave.] i. e. not a double knave, says Johnson: perhaps Launce is thinking of the four knaves of a pack of cards.

Note return to page 512 6&lblank; she hath had gossips.] The meaning seems to be that she has had old women attending her at her lying in. Gossip generally means a sponsor at baptism, and Launce may intend to say, that the progeny of the girl had required gossips.

Note return to page 513 7&lblank; knit him a stock?] i. e. a stocking.

Note return to page 514 8&lblank; She is not to be kissed fasting,] The old copy reads,—“she is not to be fasting,” &c. The word, kissed, was added by Rowe, perhaps unnecessarily.

Note return to page 515 1&lblank; a sweet mouth.] A sweet mouth, formerly meant a sweet tooth, which is here reckoned among the lady's vices; but Launce turns it to account by understanding the words in their literal sense, and setting her “sweet mouth” against her “sour breath.”

Note return to page 516 2&lblank; praise her liquor.] i. e. by often taking occasion to taste it.

Note return to page 517 3&lblank; the cover of the salt hides the salt,] Malone observes, “The ancient English salt cellar was very different from the modern, being a large piece of plate generally much ornamented, with a cover, to keep the salt clean. There was but one salt cellar on the dinner table, which was placed near the top of the table; and those who sat below the salt were, for the most part, of an inferior condition to those who sat above it.”

Note return to page 518 4&lblank; she persevers so.] This was the old mode of accenting the word, as many instances might be produced to establish. Milton was one of the first to write, and to pronounce it, persevere.

Note return to page 519 5&lblank; lime,] i. e. birdlime. See Vol. viii. p. 418, for the verb.

Note return to page 520 6That may discover such integrity:] Malone “suspected” that a line following the above had been accidentally omitted; but any addition seems needless. Valentine alludes to the “integrity” of sir Thurio's passion—“such integrity,” as he may be supposed to have expressed in his sonnets.

Note return to page 521 7With some sweet consort:] Malone remarks, that he “once thought consort might have meant, in our author's time, a band or company of musicians.” There can be no doubt that it did, and the substitution of concert is a modern corruption of the text. In Ecclesiasticus, ch. xxxii. v. 5. we meet with the expression, “consort of music,” and many proofs might be added to show that “consort” meant both the players and the music they performed.

Note return to page 522 8Tune a deploring dump;] A “dump” was a melancholy poem or piece of music. See Vol. vi. p. 478, and Vol. viii. p. 447.

Note return to page 523 9To sort some gentlemen well skill'd in music.] To “sort,” is to choose out or select. See Vol. v. p. 335. When “sorted” they would form a “consort.”

Note return to page 524 1&lblank; I will pardon you.] i. e. I will pardon, or excuse, your attendance, as I wish you to set about it immediately.

Note return to page 525 2&lblank; a proper man.] i. e. a man of good shape and appearance.

Note return to page 526 3Or else I had been often miserable.] The first folio repeats the adverb often, both before and after the verb: the second folio corrected the error, but committed another by placing the adverb in the wrong situation.

Note return to page 527 4&lblank; Robin Hood's fat friar,] Friar Tuck, was the “fat friar” who attended Robin Hood and his merry men. He figures in both parts of Chettle and Munday's “Downfall and Death of Robert Earl of Huntington,” 4to. 1601. See the reprint of them, 8vo. 1828. The “fat friar” was a familiar acquaintance with audiences when “The Two Gentlemen of Verona” was produced, though certainly not from those plays.

Note return to page 528 5Thrust from the company of awful men:] The text may be right, and as Tyrwhitt remarked, Shakespeare uses the word “awful,” in a nearly similar sense in “Henry IV.” pt. ii. Vol. iv. p. 414; but still lawful would seem to read better, and it is very easy to suppose that the first letter of the word had dropped out. No instance of the use of “awful” in this manner has been pointed out, excepting in Shakespeare.

Note return to page 529 6An heir, and near allied unto the duke.] This line varies from the old copies in two respects, for it there stands thus: “And heir and neece allide unto the Duke.” Both the words in Italics are probably errors of the press: in the first, the letter d was carelessly inserted; and in the last, c was substituted for r. The old spelling of “near” was often neere. “Heir” was formerly both masculine and feminine.

Note return to page 530 7&lblank; sudden quips,] i. e. hasty reproaches, and scoffs.

Note return to page 531 8You would have them always play but one thing?] Malone, for some unexplained reason, inserted then after “would,” but it is not in the old copies. To balance the account, he omitted “sir” in the next line but one.

Note return to page 532 9&lblank; out of all nick.] Beyond all reckoning or count. Reckonings were kept by hosts upon nicked, or notched sticks.

Note return to page 533 1By my Halidom&lblank;] Minsheu thus explains this word: “Halidome or Holidome, an old word, used by old country women, by manner of swearing, by my halidome; of the Saxon word, haligdome, ex halig, i. e. sanctum, and dome, dominium aut judicium.” In a note upon T. Heywood's “Edward IV.” part ii. (printed for the Shakespeare Society,) Mr. Barron Field, on the authority of Mr. H. C. Robinson, suggests that dom, in “Halidom,” is “a mere suffix, corresponding with the German thum, in which language heiligthum is the ordinary word for sanctuary, or holy place, or thing.”

Note return to page 534 2&lblank; your ladyship's impose,] i.e. imposition, injunction, command.

Note return to page 535 3&lblank; remorseful,] i.e. compassionate; a sense which the word often bears.

Note return to page 536 4&lblank; still an end,] Monck Mason truly states that “still an end,” and “most an end,” are vulgar expressions, and mean commonly, generally.

Note return to page 537 5&lblank; to leave her token.] “Not leave her token,” folio, 1623. The error is corrected in the folio, 1632.

Note return to page 538 6&lblank; at pentecost,&lblank;] “Pageants” were represented at Whitsuntide.

Note return to page 539 7&lblank; by all men's judgments,] Modern editions read judgment in the singular, but there can be no reason for departing from the authentic copy of 1623.

Note return to page 540 8&lblank; weep a-good,] i. e. in good earnest. The expression is very common in old writers.

Note return to page 541 9Since she respects my mistress' love so much.] It has been objected by Sir T. Hanmer, that after Silvia has gone out, and Julia left alone, she still keeps up her character of servant to Proteus, and talks of her “master” and “mistress,” but nothing could surely be more natural; and in the very next line Shakespeare makes Julia excuse it:— “Alas, how love can trifle with itself!”

Note return to page 542 10My substance should be statue in thy stead.] In the time of Shakespeare there was frequently some confusion when writers spoke of statues or paintings; possibly, because it was not unusual to paint statues, in the same way that our poet's bust was originally painted at Stratford-upon-Avon; and, as the statue of Hermione in “The Winter's Tale,” must be supposed to be painted. Of this confusion of terms many instances might be quoted, although here the distinction seems meant to be preserved.

Note return to page 543 1Jul. But love will not be spurr'd to what it loaths.] This line is given in the old copies to Proteus; but, as Boswell suggested, it seems to belong to Julia, who stands by, and comments on what is said. A similar mistake is made, in all the folios, just afterwards, as regards Thurio.

Note return to page 544 2&lblank; than look on them.] This speech, assigned in the old editions to Thurio, certainly belongs to Julia.

Note return to page 545 3That they are out by lease.] Lord Hailes was of opinion that Thurio and Proteus meant different things by the word “possessions;” Thurio referring to his lands, and Proteus to his mental endowments. If so, the point of the answer of Proteus seems to be, that as Thurio's mental endowments were “out by lease,” he had none of them in his own keeping. This interpretation seems rather overstrained, and the meaning of Proteus may be only, that Thurio's possessions were let (as Steevens says) on disadvantageous terms.

Note return to page 546 4Which of you saw Eglamour of late?] The second folio reads, “Which of you, say, saw sir Eglamour of late?” an attempt to mend the line of the folio, 1623, which only makes bad worse. The correct reading perhaps was, “Which of you saw sir Eglamour of late?”

Note return to page 547 5&lblank; a peevish girl,] “Peevish” is equivalent to silly, or foolish. See also Vol. ii. p. 150; Vol. iv. p. 523; Vol. vi. p. 121, &c. Stephen Gosson, in his “School of Abuse,” 1579, reprinted for the Shakespeare Society, says, “We have infant poets and pipers, and such peevishe cattell among us in Englande.”

Note return to page 548 6&lblank; and record my woes.] To “record” is to sing. In the novel of “Apollonius of Tyre,” (on which Shakespeare founded “Pericles,”) it is said of Tharsia, when she comes to sing before her father, “Then began she to record in verses, and therewithal to sing so sweetly,” &c. “Shakespeare's Library,” vol. i. p. 233.

Note return to page 549 7&lblank; and still approv'd,] i. e. proved: a witness in Scotland is still called “an approver.” In Vol. iii. p. 458, and in other places, we have had “approbation” used for proof.

Note return to page 550 8Who should be trusted now, when one's right hand] This is the reading of the folio of 1632: the folio of 1623 omits “now.” Now seems the proper word, (for Valentine is speaking of the degeneracy of friendship at that time) and not own, as inserted by Sir T. Hanmer, without authority, and adopted by Malone, who allowed the passage to stand thus:— “Who should be trusted, when one's own right hand.”

Note return to page 551 9All that was mine in Silvia I give thee.] Pope thought it “very odd for Valentine to give up his mistress at once, without any reason alleged;” but it may in some degree account for that sudden relinquishment, if we suppose him not to have overheard all that passed between Silvia and Proteus, and to draw a conclusion against her from finding her in the forest with him. There are few stage-directions in the folio, but the word aside has been placed by modern editors after the speech of Valentine, ending, “Love, lend me patience to forbear awhile.” It is very easy to imagine him to withdraw, in order to get out of the view of Silvia and Proteus, and to return to the scene, when he hears the exclamations of Silvia on the violence offered by Proteus. If he had overheard all that was said by them, he would have re-entered before, and no such attempt could have been made by Proteus. To read withdraws instead of aside, and to mark the re-entrance of Valentine, is all that in this case is required.

Note return to page 552 1Behold her that gave aim to all thy oaths,] “To give aim” is technical in archery, and was equivalent to to direct. See also Vol. vi. p. 361.

Note return to page 553 2&lblank; if shame live, &c.] That is, if it be any shame to wear a disguise for the purposes of love.

Note return to page 554 3Verona shall not hold thee.] Valentine had only seen Thurio, till now, in Milan, and Milan ought, perhaps, to have been the word, and not Verona. However, we may imagine Valentine to be thinking of his native city; and, at all events, it is better to leave “Verona” as an oversight of the poet (duly pointed out) than to make so violent a change as Theobald adopted when he printed, “Milan shall not behold thee,” &c. which quite perverts the meaning of the passage.

Note return to page 555 4&lblank; that I have kept withal,] i. e. with whom I have been living—that I have remained with.

Note return to page 556 5&lblank; we will include all jars] Sir Thomas Hanmer arbitrarily substituted conclude for “include:” it may have been a misprint, but all the old copies agree in the text, and it is easy to reconcile “include” to sense.

Note return to page 557 “A Most pleasaunt and excellent conceited Comedie, of Syr Iohn Falstaffe, and the merrie Wiues of Windsor. Entermixed with sundrie variable and pleasing humors, of Syr Hugh the Welch Knight, Iustice Shallow, and his wise Cousin M. Slender. With the swaggering vaine of Auncient Pistoll, and Corporall Nym. By William Shakespeare. As it hath bene diuers times Acted by the right Honorable my lord Chamberlaines seruants. Both before her Maiestie, and else-where. London Printed by T. C. for Arthur Johnson, and are to be sold at his shop in Powles Church-yard, at the signe of the Flower de Leuse and the Crowne. 1602.” 4to. 27 leaves. “A Most pleasant and excellent conceited Comedy, of Sir Iohn Falstaffe, and the merry Wiues of Windsor. With the swaggering vaine of Ancient Pistoll, and Corporall Nym. Written by W. Shakespeare. Printed for Arthur Johnson, 1619.” 4to. 28 leaves. The 4to. of 1630, was “printed by T. H. for R. Meighen.” &c. In the folio, 1623, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor” occupies twenty-two pages, viz. from p. 39 to p. 60 inclusive, in the division of “Comedies.” It also stands third in the three later folios.

Note return to page 558 1See Mr. Peter Cunningham's “Extracts form the Accounts of the Revels at Court,” (printed for the Shakesp. Society) p. 203. We had no previous extrinsic knowledge of any early performance of “The Merry Wives of Windsor.”

Note return to page 559 1A list of characters was first printed by Rowe.

Note return to page 560 1&lblank; Enter Justice Shallow, &c.] In the folio, 1623, here, as was not unusual elsewhere, all the persons engaged at any time in the scene are named, as entering with the three characters that in fact commence it: “Enter Justice Shallow, Slender, Sir Hugh Evans, Master Page, Falstaff, Bardolf, Nym, Pistol, Anne Page, Mistress Ford, Mistress Page, Simple.”

Note return to page 561 9Sir Hugh,] “Sir” was of old almost indifferently applied to knights and churchmen. See Vol. iii. p. 393; Vol. v. pp. 119. 415. 472.

Note return to page 562 3The luce is the fresh fish; the salt fish is an old coat.] A “luce” was the old name for a pike; and it is to be observed, that Sir Thomas Lucy, whom Shakespeare is supposed to have intended to ridicule in this passage, bore three “luces” in his coat-of-arms. According to Leland's Collectanea (as quoted by Tollet) they were not “white luces,” excepting as “white” might be meant to indicate that they were fresh, (as fresh herrings were called “white,” and salt herrings red) for he tells us that the arms of Sir Geffrey de Lucy were trois luz d'or'; but in Ferne's “Blazon of Gentry,” 1586, it appears that they were “lucies hariant, argent.” When Shallow adds that “the salt fish is an old coat,” a joke seems intended upon the manner in which salt fish was, or was capable of being, kept.

Note return to page 563 4&lblank; master George Page,] In the folios it stands “Thomas Page:” the quarto editions have nothing like the passage.

Note return to page 564 5Did her grandsire leave her seven hundred pound?] There seems no adequate reason for depriving Slender of this and the next speech with his name prefixed: they are given to him in all the folios, and he may very naturally make the inquiry, and follow it up by observing that he knows her, &c. All modern editors vary from the authentic copies, some with insufficient reasons assigned, and some without any.

Note return to page 565 6&lblank; he was out-run on Cotsall.] i. e. on Cotswold downs, in Gloucestershire, celebrated for coursing.

Note return to page 566 7&lblank; you'll complain of me to the king? “To the Council” in the quartos; and hence we may infer that the passage was so far altered after James I. came to the throne.

Note return to page 567 8'Twere better for you, if it were known in counsel:] “Counsel” seems here equivalent to secresy, as in Heywood's “Edward IV.” part i. edit. Field, p. 45.—“Nay, that's counsel, and two may keep it, if one be away.” Steevens suggests that Falstaff means to play upon the words “Council” and “counsel,” and he is probably right: in the quartos of 1602 and 1619 this difference of spelling is observed, but in the folio, 1623, both words are printed councell, though in the first instance with a capital letter, and in the second without. Of course, if we do not understand Falstaff as Steevens interprets him, we must suppose him to speak ironically. Mr. Halliwell is the owner of a MS. of this play, which he states is in a hand-writing of the time of the Commonwealth, where the passage runs, “it were better not known in council,” which, of course, puts an end to the joke, if any were designed.

Note return to page 568 9Good worts? good cabbage.] Worts (says Steevens) was the ancient name of all the cabbage kind.

Note return to page 569 1They carried me to the tavern, and made me drunk, and afterwards picked my pocket.] These words are from the quarto, 1602, and are not found in any folio impression. Unless we suppose Falstaff to have obtained information of the charge elsewhere, (which however is very possible) when he asks “Pistol, did you pick master Slender's purse?” they are necessary to the sense.

Note return to page 570 2You Banbury cheese!] Bardolph terms him so on account of his thinness, for which “Banbury cheese” was proverbial. Pistol calls Slender Mephostophilus, or Mephostophilis, a character in Marlowe's play of “Faustus,” which was perhaps represented by a very slender actor: “Faustus” continued popular many years after it was brought out, about 1590.

Note return to page 571 3Ay, by these gloves,] In the quarto, 1602, Slender's asseveration is, “By this handkercher.” The 4to. 1619, is a mere reprint of it.

Note return to page 572 4&lblank; two Edward shovel-boards,] Shovel-board was a game, not yet discontinued, as it is not unfrequently played by the lower orders in the coal trade. The broad shillings of Edward VI. were well adapted to it, and hence they were sometimes, as here, called “shovel-boards” merely; in the quarto, 1602, it stands, “Two fair shovel-board shillings.”

Note return to page 573 5&lblank; this lattin bilbo:] “Bilbo” was used for the blade of a sword, or a sword, (in consequence of the manufacture of blades at Bilboa) and “lattin” is a mixed metal of copper and calamine: Steevens tells us that it is “a common word for tin in the North.” According to Holloway's “General Provincial Glossary,” 8vo., 1838, it is used in the same way in Somersetshire and Norfolk.

Note return to page 574 6&lblank; in thy labras here,] i. e. in thy lips: the quarto, 1602, has it “in thy gorge.”

Note return to page 575 7Scarlet and John?] Alluding to Robin Hood's well-known men, and to the red face of Bardolph.

Note return to page 576 8And being fap,] “Fap” is drunk, or fuddled. It may have been derived from the Latin, vappa, although Todd states that it was merely a cant word of the time. “To pass the carieres” was a phrase in horsemanship, but its application by Bardolph seems very doubtful.

Note return to page 577 9&lblank; book of songs and sonnets&lblank;] The reference may be to the “Songs and Sonnets” of Lord Surrey, Sir Thomas Wyatt, &c., printed under that title in 1557, but it would seem to be of rather too old a date for Slender's use, although it was often reprinted on account of its popularity: a more modern collection of love poems would have answered Slender's purpose better. T. Heywood, in his “Fair Maid of the Exchange,” 1607, uses Shakespeare's “Venus and Adonis” in the same way.

Note return to page 578 1&lblank; the book of riddles] This “book of riddles” was, perhaps, what is called in the edition of 1629, “The Booke of Merry Riddles,” of which a copy is preserved at Bridgewater-house. See Cat. 1837, p. 256. There must have been many earlier, as there were many later impressions of it, because it formed part of the library of Captain Cox, as enumerated by Laneham in his “Letter from Kenilworth,” 1575.

Note return to page 579 2&lblank; will grow more contempt:] “Content” in the folios; but probably an original misprint there, transferred to the later impressions in the same form.

Note return to page 580 3&lblank; save, the fault&lblank;] Printed fall in the folios; which may possibly be right, allowing for Sir Hugh's mispronunciation, though an easy misprint, especially if “fault” were spelt falt in the old MS.

Note return to page 581 4&lblank; have seen Sackerson loose,] The name of a very celebrated bear, often baited, and not unfrequently mentioned by writers of the time: he was the property of Henslowe and Alleyn, then owners of Paris-garden.

Note return to page 582 5By cock and pye,] A frequent exclamation: see it used in “Henry IV.” pt. ii. Vol. iv. p. 439.

Note return to page 583 6Cæsar, Keisar, and Pheazar.] We spell “Pheazar” as in the old copies, excepting the quartos 1602 and 1619, where it is printed Phesser. It may be, as Malone suggests, from the verb to pheeze (for which see Vol iii. p. 107; and Vol. vi. p. 59), or perhaps it is some proper name corrupted. We do not meet with it in other authors of the time.

Note return to page 584 7&lblank; let me see thee froth, and lime:] In the quartos it stands “lime,” in the folios liue, a very easy and probable misprint: we know from Shakespeare himself, that “lime” was fraudulently put into sack, as Steevens asserts, “to make it sparkle in the glass.”

Note return to page 585 8O base Gongarian wight! wilt thou the spigot wield?] This is the reading of the quartos 1602 and 1619, and there can be little doubt that it is right, if Steevens quotes a line from “an old bombast play” (of which he had omitted to note the title) correctly:— “O base Gongarian! wilt thou the distaff wield.” The folios however have Hungarian, which would answer the purpose as well, but for the quotation by Steevens. “Gongarian” may only be a corruption of Hungarian; but if it were known on the stage in the time of Shakespeare, on that account it would better become the mouth of Pistol.

Note return to page 586 9&lblank; His mind is not heroic, and there's the humour of it.] These words are from the quartos, and we have some doubts of the fitness of inserting them.

Note return to page 587 10Convey the wise it call.] “Convey” was a less objectionable term than steal, but meaning the same thing. See Vol. iv. p. 193. Vol. v. pp. 19. 292.

Note return to page 588 1He hath studied her will,] So the folios: the quartos read, well, but without the repetition, which seems to warrant “will” in the first instance.

Note return to page 589 2&lblank; with most judicious œiliads:] Spelt illiads in the folio, 1623. The word occurs again in “King Lear,” Vol. vii. p. 455, where it is spelt eliads in the folio, 1623.

Note return to page 590 3&lblank; I will be cheater to them both,] i. e. Escheater. See Vol. iv. p. 383.

Note return to page 591 4&lblank; the humour of this age,] The folio has honor and the: few misprints were more frequent than honor for “humor,” and vice versâ. Falstaff probably alludes to the fashion or “humor” of being attended by a skirted page. The quartos warrant “the humor of this age;” but, nevertheless, “honor” may be the right word, and the misprint that of the quartos.

Note return to page 592 5&lblank; for gourd, and fullam holds, And high and low] The cant names of various kinds of false dice, “gourds,” (or gords), “fullams,” “low” men, and “high” men, being mentioned by many writers of the time.

Note return to page 593 6I have operations,] “In my head,” add the quartos, but without any improvement of the sense.

Note return to page 594 7&lblank; this love to Page.] So the quartos, and so the fact, as afterwards appears. In the folio 1623, Ford seems to have been accidentally printed for Page. Possibly Shakespeare originally intended that Nym should “discuss the humour” of Falstaff's love to Ford, while Pistol took the same course with Page.

Note return to page 595 8And I to Ford] Here the folio 1623, consistently with its former error, inserts Page for Ford. The double error was not corrected in any of the later folios.

Note return to page 596 1&lblank; for the revolt of mine] “The revolt of mine” is my revolt, a very clear sense, without supposing, with Steevens, that mien was intended by “mine.” By “revolt of mien,” other commentators also understand revolt of countenance. Nym is referring to his revolt from Falstaff, which now he adds, “is my true humor.” No difficulty would probably ever have arisen, if Nym had said, “for this revolt of mine is dangerous.”

Note return to page 597 2&lblank; here will be an old abusing] In Vol. ii. p. 270, “old” is used in the same way as an augmentative: it was very common so to employ it.

Note return to page 598 3&lblank; he is something peevish that way:] Here, as in many other places, “peevish” means foolish, silly. See Vol. ii. pp. 150. 162; Vol. iii. p. 348, &c.

Note return to page 599 4&lblank; a Cain-coloured beard.] In the folios, it is spelt “Caine coloured,” with a capital, as if the allusion were to Cain; who being a murderer, was, like Judas, usually represented with a red, or sandy beard. On the other hand the quartos read “kane coloured,” which means merely that Slender's beard was of the colour of cane.

Note return to page 600 5&lblank; he is as tall a man,] i. e. as bold or courageous a man; one of innumerable instances to the same effect. See Vol. iii. pp. 330. 401. 436, &c.

Note return to page 601 6We shall all be shent.] i. e. reproved or scolded. The word occurs again in Vol. iii. p. 404; Vol. vi. p. 252; and Vol. vii. p. 281.

Note return to page 602 P. 194.—We shall all be shent] The more ancient and correct meaning of “shent” is ruined, destroyed, but it seems often used merely for rebuked.

Note return to page 603 7&lblank; un boitier verd;] We need hardly mention that the French in this scene is much corrupted in the old copies: thus, here for un boitier verd, we have un boyteene verd. From what is said in the quartos, it should seem to be a box of ointment of which Caius was in want.

Note return to page 604 8&lblank; What, the good year!] An exclamation of the time, not, by any means, necessarily, derived from the morbus Gallicus, or goujeers. See Vol. ii. p. 19; and Vol. vii. p. 477.

Note return to page 605 9Will I? i'faith, that we will;] So the folios: Mr. Halliwell's MS. (which we suspect to be a transcript from the folio 1632, with certain corrections and variations, this being one,) reads, “i'faith, that I will.” The quartos are silent. [Notes and Emendations to the 1632 Folio]11Q0068

Note return to page 606 10What! have I 'scaped love-letters&lblank;] In the first folio, the pronoun is omitted, but it is added in the second folio.

Note return to page 607 1&lblank; for the putting down of fat men.] The folios omit “fat,” but there seems no reason in Mrs. Page's determination, if she wish to put down the whole male sex because a fat man had offered her an affront. Theobald first inserted “fat,” and it is found in this place in the quartos, though not exactly in the same connexion. Mrs. Page's allusion to Falstaff's paunch just afterwards seems also to warrant the addition.

Note return to page 608 2&lblank; These knights will hack; and so, thou shouldst not alter the article of thy gentry.] The commentators all here understand an allusion to the unrestricted creation of knights by James I. in the beginning of his reign; and, in order so to explain the passage, they take “hack” in the sense of hackney. It seems to us, however, that there is no such reference, and that “hack” is to be received in its ordinary acceptation; “to hack and hew” is a very common expression, as applied to knights; and what Mrs. Page means to say is probably no more, than that “knights hack and hew, and therefore you ought not to alter the article of your gentry, by not doing like other knights.” A female knight, excepting in rare instances of heroines of romance, would not be qualified to “hack” her enemies.

Note return to page 609 3&lblank; to the tune of “Green Sleeves.”] This once very popular air is again mentioned in Act v. of this play: it has not been carried back earlier than 1580, when it was licensed to Richard Jones (vide “National Airs,” by W. Chappell, vol. ii. p. 38). Many ballads were subsequently written to the tune, known afterwards by the name of “Which nobody can deny.”

Note return to page 610 4&lblank; here's a fellow frights English out of his wits.] So the folio, from which there is no pretence to vary, although the quartos have “humour” for “English.” Just above Malone made a needless addition from the quartos.

Note return to page 611 5I never heard such a drawling-affecting rogue.] i. e. such a rogue who affects drawling. The modern mode of printing the passage, “such a drawling, affecting rogue,” destroys the point of it: we follow the folio, 1623.

Note return to page 612 6&lblank; such a Cataian,&lblank;] China was of old called Cataia, or Cathay, and “Cataian” may have been a cant term for a liar, thief, or cheat: here we find it put in opposition to “true man,” as in other places we have had thief and “true man,” opposed to each other. The word occurs again in “Twelfth Night,” Vol. iii. p. 355, where Sir Toby says that Olivia is “a Cataian,” but without any such meaning.

Note return to page 613 7Ford. None, I protest:] This speech is wrongly given to Shallow in the folios. Southern corrected the error in his folio, 1685.

Note return to page 614 8&lblank; my name is Brook;] Misprinted Broome in the folio, 1623, and the later folios, notwithstanding Falstaff's subsequent joke, “Such Brooks are welcome to me, that o'erflow such liquor.” Pope was the first to restore the name of “Brook” from the quartos.

Note return to page 615 9&lblank; Will you go An-heires?] We give this word as it stands in the folios, although probably corrupt, because it is impossible to set it right by conjecture, and the quartos afford us no aid. It may be some proper name known at the time, such as Anaides in Ben Jonson's “Cynthia's Revels;” but Steevens would read, “Will you go on, hearts?” Malone, “Will you go and hear us?” while Boaden, with more plausibility, suggested “Cavalieres.”

Note return to page 616 10&lblank; in his rapier.] In the quarto, 1602, here follow these words: “Shal. I tell you what, M. Page; I believe the doctor is no jester; he'll lay it on: for though we be justices and doctors and churchmen, yet we are the sons of women, master Page. “Page. True, master Shallow. “Shal. It will be found so, master Page. “Page. Master Shallow, you yourself have been a great fighter, though now a man of peace.” Part of this dialogue (says Malone, who however misquotes the passage as it stands in the quartos, 1602 and 1619) is found afterwards in the third scene of the present act.

Note return to page 617 1Which I with sword will open.&lblank;] Instead of this characteristic reply the quartos give merely, “I will retort the sum in equipage.”

Note return to page 618 2A short knife and a throng:] i. e. a crowd, in which you can use your “short knife” in cutting purses. Some editors have injuriously substituted thong for “throng.”

Note return to page 619 3&lblank; to your manor of Pickt-hatch,] The name of “Pickt-hatch” was probably derived from the fact that a number of the houses there had picked or pointed hatches, hatches with spikes at the top of them at the doors. Such was ordinarily the case with houses of ill fame in the time of Shakespeare. “Pickt-hatch” is often mentioned by contemporary writers.

Note return to page 620 4&lblank; your red-lattice phrases;] i. e. your public-house language: public houses were distinguished by red lattices. See also Vol. iv. p. 373.

Note return to page 621 5&lblank; Heaven bless them, and make them his servants!] We only mention that the quartos read, “God bless them,” &c., for the purpose of showing that the MS., from which the folio was printed, had been corrected by the Master of the Revels. The quarto, 1602, was published before the statute (3 Jac. I. cap. 21.) against the profane use of the name of the Creator on the stage, was passed, and the quarto, 1619, followed that impression.

Note return to page 622 6&lblank; a very frampold life &lblank;] “Frampold” is a very common word in authors of the time, but variously spelt: it usually means vexatious, or uneasy, and such is the sense required here. It is still used in Norfolk.

Note return to page 623 7&lblank; of all loves:] This expression is equivalent to by all means. See Vol. ii. p. 418.

Note return to page 624 8&lblank; have a nayword,] i. e. byeword, or watchword. It occurs again in a subsequent part of this comedy, Ac. v. sc. 2, and in Vol. iii. p. 358.

Note return to page 625 9This punk is one of Cupid's carriers:&lblank;] A pink was the name of a vessel, and it was also applied metaphorically: “punk” may be the same word corrupted: the phrase in the next line, “up with your fights,” is technical to the sea, and is not unfrequently met with: “fights” seem to have been something placed round the deck of a ship before action, in order to conceal and protect the crew. Coles, in his “Engl. Dict.” 1677, defines them, “coverts, any places where men may stand unseen, and use their arms in a ship.”

Note return to page 626 1&lblank; go to; via!] Via occurs in “Henry VI.” part iii. Vol. v. p. 256. It is there used as a word of encouragement: “Why, via! to London will we march amain.” Here it is employed more in the way of exultation and joy.

Note return to page 627 2&lblank; and flying what pursues.] This couplet is printed in Italic type, and marked with inverted commas in the folio, 1623: it is probably a quotation, although the writer of it has not been discovered. In works of the time passages well adapted for quotation were sometimes denoted by inverted commas.

Note return to page 628 3&lblank; I say you shall.] Malone inserted “Master Brook” before these words: he took the addition from the quartos, but it is not merely quite needless, but it may be said to lessen the emphasis of Falstaff's assurance.

Note return to page 629 4&lblank; thy stock, thy reverse, thy distance, thy montant.] These, and others that precede them, are anglicised terms of the fencing school. In “Much Ado about Nothing,” Vol. ii. p. 188, Beatrice asks respecting Benedick by the name of Signor Montanto.

Note return to page 630 5A word, monsieur Mock-water.] “Word” is from the quartos, 1602 and 1619: it is not in any of the folios, but is evidently necessary. The Host calls him “Mock-water,” probably, in ridicule of the manner in which Dr. Caius mocked the contents of urinals, by pretending thereby to understand diseases. Malone, at the instance of Farmer, printed it “Muck-water,” in contradiction to all the old editions quarto and folio.

Note return to page 631 6Marry, sir, the petty-ward,] Spelt “pittie-ward” in the old folios: the quartos are silent on the point, and we must suppose that Slender refers to some place not now known, but then known as the Petty. Possibly the little park was then known as the Petty. In Cambridge is a part of the town called Petty-cury, and in Westminster we have Petty France.

Note return to page 632 7To shallow rivers,] This is a quotation from a poem unquestionably by Marlowe, printed imperfectly in “The Passionate Pilgrim,” 1599, and there assigned to Shakespeare. The quotation, as it stands in the play and as it is given in “The Passionate Pilgrim,” may be compared by reference to Vol. viii. p. 576. A more complete version of the poem is contained in Percy's “Reliques,” vol. i. p. 237, edit. 1812.

Note return to page 633 8When as I sat in Pabylon,&lblank;] This line, as Malone observed, is an alteration of one in the old version of Psalm cxxxvii. “When we did sit in Babylon.” In the quartos a line is given from the ballad of “The goodly and constant Wyfe Susanna;” viz. “There dwelt a man in Babylon;” which is printed at length in Percy's “Reliques,” vol. i. p. 224, edit. 1812. Perhaps the actor was allowed some license as to what he would sing.

Note return to page 634 9&lblank; for missing your meetings and appointments.] These words are from the quartos, and by what follows it seems that they are necessary to the sense: Caius, thus charged, appeals to bystanders, if he had not come to the place appointed.

Note return to page 635 1Peace, I say! Gallia, and Guallia, French and Welch;] In the folios it stands “Gallia and Gaule;” but as the host puts “French” before “Welch,” it seems probable that the true reading is what we have given, “Gallia and Guallia.” Mr. Halliwell's MS. confirms this emendation, by having “Gallia and Wallia,” which was, in fact, Sir T. Hanmer's conjectural emendation.

Note return to page 636 2&lblank; Give me thy hand, terrestrial; so:&lblank;] These words are also wanting in the folios, but the antithesis seems required, and was doubtless written by the poet.

Note return to page 637 3&lblank; all my neighbours shall cry aim.] To “cry aim” is to encourage. See Vol. vi. p. 361, for the distinction between to cry aim and to give aim. “To give aim” has occurred in this Vol. p. 167.

Note return to page 638 4How now, my eyas-musket!] An “eyas” is a young hawk, (see Vol. vii. p. 247) and, as Warburton explained, a “musket” is a small hawk from the Italian muschetto, so that “eyas musket” means young little hawk. Augustine Saker, in his “Narbonus,” 1580, says, “You know the eyas hawke is soone reclaymed, but if he be not fedde, he will quickly away.”

Note return to page 639 5&lblank; Jack-a-lent,] A Jack a' lent was a puppet thrown at in Lent, like shrove-cocks, by way of amusement.

Note return to page 640 6Have I caught thee, my heavenly jewel?] The second song in Sidney's “Astrophel and Stella” begins thus:— “Have I caught my heavenly jewel Teaching sleep most fair to be?” These poems were first printed in 1591, under the editorship of Thomas Nash.

Note return to page 641 7&lblank; that becomes the ship-tire,] Alluding to a species of head-dress, probably like a ship with streamers, then in fashion. The quartos just above have bent for “beauty,” and, below, traitor for “tyrant,” of the folios.

Note return to page 642 8if fortune thy foe were not, nature thy friend:] So the old copies, which seem to require no change: we must understand being after “nature.”

Note return to page 643 9&lblank; and smell like Bucklersbury in simple-time;] “Simples” were herbs, which were sold at the many apothecaries' shops in Bucklersbury.

Note return to page 644 1I love thee:] After these words “and none but thee” have usually been added from the quartos; but, as we have before remarked, if they are to be included in the text, there is no reason for not inserting many other passages from the same editions.

Note return to page 645 2&lblank; how you drumble:] The use of the word “drumble,” as a verb, seems peculiar to Shakespeare: the meaning is evident. A “drumble,” in some parts of England, means a humble, or humming bee; and, in the north, “drumbled ale” is thick, disturbed ale. For an explanation of “cowl-staff,” see Mr. Way's edition of the Promptorium for the Camden Society, p. 97.

Note return to page 646 3&lblank; so, now uncape.] To “uncape” a fox seems, in the old language of the chase, to have meant to unearth a fox.

Note return to page 647 4come cut and long-tail,] A phrase expressive of dogs of every kind, which Slender applies to persons. Many instances of the use of it in the same way might be produced, if necessary.

Note return to page 648 5&lblank; if not, happy man be his dole!] A proverbial expression, meaning “let his lot, or share, be that of a happy man.” For other instances of its application, see Vol. iv. p. 254.

Note return to page 649 6&lblank; a blind bitch's puppies,] So every old copy, quarto and folio, meaning, of course, the blind puppies of a bitch: modern editors, in a sort of refinement of correctness, which does not allow for a colloquial mode of expression, have thought it necessary to alter the text to a “bitch's blind puppies.” Falstaff is not in a state of mind to study extreme accuracy in his phraseology.

Note return to page 650 7&lblank; and by her invention,] So the quarto, 1602; the folio has in for “by,” and the use of prepositions of old was sometimes peculiar: here the most ancient authority concurs with the more modern custom, although “in her invention” would not be wrong. Monck Mason would read direction for “distraction,” but surely without any improvement: Falstaff thought it “distraction,” and so it stands in every old copy.

Note return to page 651 8By the Lord, a buck-basket:] The folio omitted the exclamation in consequence of the statute: the quarto reading was, no doubt, what the poet originally wrote, as he was under no such restraint until after 1605. In the third scene of this Act we also inserted “By the Lord,” for the same reason.

Note return to page 652 9He is a good sprag memory.] “Sprag” still means lively or active in several parts of the country, and it is sometimes pronounced sprack.

Note return to page 653 1&lblank; in his old lunes again:] The quartos have vein, and the folio, 1623, lines, no doubt a misprint for “lunes,” which Theobald substituted. In “Troilus and Cressida,” Act ii. sc. 3, the folio, 1623, commits precisely the same error. In “The Winter's Tale,” Vol. iii. p. 460, we have lunes in a similar sense, and there it is properly printed in the folio, 1623.

Note return to page 654 2Mrs. Page. If you go out&lblank;] This speech, as well as the next, is assigned to Mrs. Ford in the folio, 1623: it is very clear that they cannot both belong to her, but the editor of the folio, 1632, in order to get over the difficulty, coupled them. Malone transferred the first to Mrs. Page.

Note return to page 655 3&lblank; the fat woman of Brentford,] The quarto, 1602, gives her a name very popular in the time of Shakespeare; viz. Gillian of Brentford. A humorous, but extremely coarse tract, called “Jyl of Braintford's Testament,” was written by R. Copland, and printed by W. Copland, and is often alluded to by subsequent writers, though we are not aware that it was ever re-published. See “Dodsley's Old Plays,” last edit., vol. ix. p. 16, where several notices of Gillian of Brentford are collected.

Note return to page 656 4we cannot misuse him enough.] “Him” is from the folio, 1632, and it is evidently necessary, though omitted by the folio, 1623.

Note return to page 657 5&lblank; full of knight again.] The folio, 1632, injuriously to the sense and humour of the speech, reads, “the”full of the knight again.” Capell also so printed it, but duly noting it as an interpolation.

Note return to page 658 6&lblank; Youth in a basket!] So the folio; but Malone introduced, from the quartos, “You, youth in a basket, come out here!” which forms part of a subsequent speech by Ford there, and is no portion of what he says when first he meets the loaded servants. The reading of the folio, 1623, is both natural and intelligible.

Note return to page 659 7&lblank; there's a knot, a ging,] The folio, 1623, has it gin, which is corrected to “ging” in the folio, 1632. It is the same as the more modern gang, and was in frequent use in the time of Shakespeare. Milton has “ging,” but afterwards gang was commonly substituted.

Note return to page 660 8&lblank; for his wife's leman.] i. e. lover: it was applied to women as well as to men—more frequently to the former. See Vol. iii. p. 353; and Mr. Way's edition of the “Promptorium,” p. 295.

Note return to page 661 9&lblank; let him not strike the old woman.] “Not” is from the folio, 1632; it is wanting in the folio, 1623.

Note return to page 662 10&lblank; you ronyon!] From the Fr. royne, scurf. See also Vol. vii. p. 103, where it is applied to a witch.

Note return to page 663 1Sir, the Germans desire&lblank;] In the folio, 1623, it is Germane desires, the letter s having been added to the wrong word. Just afterwards the error is continued by the printing of him for “them” in Bardolph's answer, “Ay, sir; I'll call him to you.” The second error was corrected in the folio, 1664, but the first was not corrected at all in the old editions.

Note return to page 664 2I rather will suspect the sun with cold,] The four folios, without exception, have gold for “cold,” which was Rowe's judicious substitution. The quartos do not contain the passage. Ford means to contrast the heat of the sun with the coldness and chastity of his wife.

Note return to page 665 3&lblank; and takes the cattle;] “Take” was often used synonymously with blast. See Vol. vii. pp. 202. 426.

Note return to page 666 4Disguis'd like Herne, with huge horns on his head.] This line is necessarily taken from the quartos, and either that, or some line of the same import, must have been accidentally omitted in the folio, 1623. The answer of Page, “in this shape,” shows that he knew Falstaff was to be disguised, the manner of it having been mentioned by one of the party. In the quartos “Herne” is called Horne.

Note return to page 667 5&lblank; Like urchins, ouphes,] “Ouphe” and elf would seem to have the same origin, the Tentonic alf, a fairy or goblin. It is variously spelt in our old writers, ofe, auf, and ophe, as well as ouphe. The modern orthography is oaf, and it generally means a dolt or blockhead.

Note return to page 668 6with some diffused song;] i. e. irregular, confused, or, perhaps, scattered song. See Vol. vii. p. 375.

Note return to page 669 P. 255.&lblank; with some diffused song] Perhaps diffused ought to be taken here, and elsewhere, merely in the sense of confused or unintelligible. Palsgrave, in his Eccl. de la Langue Franç. 1530, explains “diffuse” as “hard to be understood.” See Skelton's Works by the Rev. A. Dyce, vol. ii. p. 144, &c.

Note return to page 670 7And, fairy-like to-pinch the unclean knight;] Boswell showed that the use of “to” in composition with verbs was not discontinued even in the time of Milton: it was certainly an ancient practice, and many instances may be found in Chaucer, Gower, and Lydgate.

Note return to page 671 8Ay, sir, tike, who more bold?] Falstaff calls Simple “sir,” and then corrects himself, in order to give him a derogatory appellation. This is collected from the quarto, 1602, where it stands, “I tike, who more bold:” the folio, 1623, and the other folios read, “I sir: like who more bold,” which can hardly be reconciled to sense.

Note return to page 672 9&lblank; three Dr. Faustuses.] Popular audiences had become acquainted with Dr. Faustus, the German necromancer, both from the often-printed popular story-book of his life and acts, and from Marlowe's play, which, though not printed until 1604, had been constantly acted from about the year 1590. Henslowe mentions it repeatedly in 1594, and afterwards.

Note return to page 673 1&lblank; I forswore myself at primero.] A game of cards, often mentioned in old writers. See Vol. v. p. 586.

Note return to page 674 2&lblank; but long enough to say my prayers,] The words, “to say my prayers,” are in the quarto, 1602, and were re-printed in that of 1619. They were omitted in the folio, 1623, and the sense thus left incomplete, perhaps because the Master of the Revels objected to them. We have before seen the exclamation, “By the Lord,” omitted for the same reason. In the folio, 1623, in some of the plays these matters are attended to, and in others disregarded: the practice varies even in the same play, for we may readily believe that the injunctions of the Master of the Revels were not always obeyed.

Note return to page 675 3&lblank; wherein fat Falstaff] “Wherein” is from the quartos: the folio, 1623, reads only, “fat Falstaff,” and the folio, 1632, “fat Sir John Falstaff,” for the sake of supplying the deficiency of the metre. This is one of the few cases where we are disposed to make a change on this ground.

Note return to page 676 4&lblank; to denote her to the doctor,] The folio, 1623, reads “deuote her,” and in the other folios the u is changed to v. There can be no doubt that the n was accidentally turned, and that the true word is “denote.”

Note return to page 677 5&lblank; Remember, son Slender, my daughter.] “Daughter,” is from the folio, 1632, the word, perhaps, having accidentally dropped out in the folio, 1623. It is clearly necessary, as is shown by the context; “Ay, forsooth; I have spoke with her,” &c.

Note return to page 678 6&lblank; and cry “mum;” she cries “budget,”] This seems to have been an ordinary “nay-word.” In “Ulysses upon Ajax,” 1596, we have “Mum, budget; not a word.”

Note return to page 679 7&lblank; and the Welch devil, Hugh?] It stood Herne until the time of Theobald, but “Hugh” is certainly right. Sir Hugh had undertaken to perform a principal part in the conspiracy against Falstaff. The error, no doubt, arose from “Hugh” having been indicated in the old MS. by the initial letter, which the compositor erroneously applied to Herne.

Note return to page 680 8Divide me like a bribe-buck,] “A buck (says Theobald) sent for a bribe.” The old copies read, brib'd-buck; and to “bribe,” of old, meant to steal. See Mr. Way's “Promptorium,” p. 50: therefore “a brib'd-buck” may be a stolen buck.

Note return to page 681 9Fairies, black, grey, green, and white,] At the suggestion of the Rev. Mr. Harness, I have no difficulty in assigning this, and other speeches, to the Fairy Queen, or Anne Page, so disguised: they are quite out of character with Mrs. Quickly, to whom they have hitherto been given. The prefix in the old copies is Qu. and Qui., but it was an easy error of the press, and much more probably so, than that such a part should have been entrusted to Mrs. Quickly.

Note return to page 682 10Where's Bead?] Spelt Bede in the folios, and Pead in the quartos. Probably the name was chosen to indicate the smallness of the fairy. Malone printed the name Pede, without assigning any reason. There is no such name among those of the fairies in “The Mad Pranks and Merry Jests of Robin Goodfellow,” printed by the Percy Society, from the unique edition of 1628, at Bridgewater House, where they are thus enumerated: “Pinch and Patch, Gull and Grim * * * Sib and Tib, Lick and Lull.” p. 38.

Note return to page 683 11&lblank; I smell a man of middle earth.] The globe was of old frequently called “middle earth.”

Note return to page 684 1&lblank; thou wast o'er-look'd&lblank;] Steevens here incautiously informs us that “o'er-look'd is slighted;” but see Vol. ii. p. 519, where it is shown that it means enchanted or bewitched.

Note return to page 685 2&lblank; still pinch him to your time.] After this line Malone, and others before him, added the following, assigned to Evans in the quartos. “It is right indeed, he is full of lecheries and iniquity.” It is to be observed that in the quartos the Welch dialect of Sir Hugh is preserved, and perhaps, from what Falstaff says, it ought to have been so in the folios. The whole scene varies considerably in the quartos.

Note return to page 686 3Fie on sinful fantasy!] Robert Greene, in his “Groatsworth of Wit,” 1592, has a song beginning, “Fie, fie on blind fancy.”

Note return to page 687 4&lblank; Falstaff pulls off his buck's head, and rises.] Theobald states that he inserted this stage-direction from the quartos: he ought to have added that he corrected and varied it: in the quarto, 1602, it runs in these words—“Here they pinch him and sing about him, and the Doctor comes one way, and steals away a boy in red; and Slender another way, he takes a boy in green; and Fenton steals Mistress Anne, being in white. And a noise of hunting is made within, and all the fairies run away. Falstaff pulls off his buck's head, and rises up.”

Note return to page 688 5&lblank; a coxcomb of frize?] i. e. a fool's cap (says Steevens) made out of Welch materials: Wales was famous for frize. In the “Promptorium” frize is called pannus villatus.

Note return to page 689 6&lblank; to repay that money will be a biting affliction.] Here the quartos add what may be worth giving in a note.— “Mrs. Ford. Nay, husband, let that go to make amends: Forgive that sum, and so we'll all be friends. Ford. Well, here's my hand: all's forgiven at last. Fal. It hath cost me well: I have been well pinched and wash'd.”

Note return to page 690 7&lblank; in white,] The folios read, in green; and in the two subsequent speeches of Mrs. Page, instead of green we find white. The corrections, which are fully justified by what has preceded, were made by Pope.

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