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difficulty in our mind is, how the lines are to be explained | we feel assured that he had not composed any of his greatby reference to any other dramatist of the time, even sup- est works before 1591, he may have done much, besides posing, as we have supposed and believe, that our great what has come down to us, amply to warrant Spenser in poet was at this period only rising into notice as a writer for applauding him beyond all his theatrical contemporaries. the stage. We will first quote the lines, literatim as they His earliest printed plays, "Romeo and Juliet," "Richard stand in the edition of 1591, and afterwards say something | II.," and "Richard III.," bear date in 1597; but it is indisof the claims of others to the distinction they confer.

"And he the man, whom Nature selfe had made
To mock her selfe, and Truth to imitate,
With kindly counter under Mimick shade,
Our pleasant Willy, ah! is dead of late :
With whom all joy and jolly meriment
Is also deaded, and in dolour drent.
"In stead thereof scoffing Scurrilitie,

And scornfull Follie with contenipt is crept,
Rolling in rymes of shameless ribaudrie,

Without regard or due Decorum kept:
Each idle wit at will presumes to make,
And doth the Learned's taske upon him take.
"But that same gentle Spirit, from whose pen
Large streames of honnie and sweete Nectar flowe,
Scorning the boldnes of such base-borne men,

Which dare their follies forth so rashlie throwe,
Doth rather choose to sit in idle Cell,
Than so himselfe to mockerie to sell."

putable that he had at that time written considerably more, and part of what he had so written is contained in the folio of 1623, never having made its appearance in any earlier form. When Ben Jonson published the large volume of his "Works" in 1616', he excluded several comedies in which he had been aided by other poets, and re-wrote part of "Sejanus," because, as is supposed, Shakespeare, (who performed in it, and whom Jonson terms a "happy genius,") had assisted him in the composition of the tragedy as it was originally acted. The player-editors of the folio of Shakespeare's "Comedies, Tragedies, and Histories," in 1623, may have thought it right to pursue the same course, excepting in the case of the three parts of "Henry VI.:" the poet, or poets, who had contributed to these histories (perhaps Marlowe and Greene) had been then dead thirty years; but with respect to other pieces, persons still living, whether authors or booksellers, might have joint claims upon them, and hence their exclusion3. We only put this as a possible circumstance; but we are persuaded that Shakespeare, early in his theatrical life, must have written

The most striking of these lines, with reference to our much, in the way of revivals, alterations, or joint producpresent inquiry, is,

"Our pleasant Willy, ah! is dead of late;" and hence, if it stood alone, we might infer that Willy, whoever he might be, was actually dead; but the latter part of the third stanza we have quoted shows us in what sense the word " dead" is to be understood: Willy was dead" as far as regarded the admirable dramatic talents he had already displayed, which had enabled him, even before 1591, to outstrip all living rivalry, and to afford the most certain indications of the still greater things Spenser saw he would accomplish: he was "dead," because he

"Doth rather choose to sit in idle Cell, Than so himselfe to mockerie to sell."

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It is to be borne in mind that these stanzas, and six others, are put into the mouth of Thalia, whose lamentation on the degeneracy of the stage, especially in comedy, follows those of Calliope and Melpomene. Rowe, under the impression that the whole passage referred to Shakespeare, introduced it into his "Life," in his first edition of 1709, but silently withdrew it in his second edition of 1714: his reason, perhaps, was that he did not see how, before 1591, Shakespeare could have shown that he merited the character given of him and his productions—

"And he the man, whom Nature selfe had made To mock her selfe, and Truth to imitate." Spenser knew what the object of his eulogy was capable of doing, as well, perhaps, as what he had done; and we have established that more than a year before the publication of these lines, Shakespeare had risen to be a distinguished member of the Lord Chamberlain's company, and a sharer in the undertaking at the Blackfriars. Although

tions with other poets, which has been forever lost. We here, as before, conclude that none of his greatest original dramatic productions had come from his pen; but if in 1591 and "Love's Labour's Lost," they are so infinitely superior he had only brought out "The Two Gentlemen of Verona" to the best works of his predecessors, that the justice of the tribute paid by Spenser to his genius would at once be ad mitted. At all events, if before 1591 he had not accom plished, by any means, all that he was capable of, he had given the clearest indications of high genius, abundantly sufficient to justify the anticipation of Spenser, that he was

a man

"whom Nature's selfe had made

To mock her selfe, and Truth to imitate :"

a passage which in itself admirably comprises, and compresses nearly all the excellences of which dramatic poetry is susceptible--the mockery of nature, and the imitation of truth.

Another point not hitherto noticed, because not hitherto known, is, that there is some little ground for thinking, that Spenser, if not a Warwickshire man, was at one time resident in Warwickshire, and later in life he may have become acquainted with Shakespeare. His birth had been conjecturally placed in 15534, and on the authority of some lines in his "Prothalamion" it has been supposed that he was born in London: East Smithfield, near the Tower, has also been fixed upon as the part of the town where he first drew breath; but the parish registers in that neighbourhood have been searched in vain for a record of the events. An Edmund Spenser unquestionably dwelt at Kingsbury, in Warwickshire, in 1569, which was the year when the author of "The Faerie Queene" went to Cambridge, and

ser's "Tears of the Muses" was published in 1590, but the volume elsewhere. We believe that he was concerned in "The Yorkshire in which it first appeared bears date in 1591. It was printed with Tragedy," and that he may have contributed some parts of "Arden some other pieces under the title of "Complaints. Containing sun-of Feversham;" but in spite of the ingenious letter, published at drie small Poems of the Worlds Vanitie. Whereof the next Page | Edinburgh in 1833, we do not think that he aided Fletcher in writmaketh mention. By Ed. Sp. London. Imprinted for William ing "The Two Noble Kinsmen," and there is not a single passage Ponsonbie, &c. 1591." It will be evident from what follows in our in "The Birth of Merlin" which is worthy of his most careless motext, that a year is of considerable importance to the question. ments. Of "The first part of Sir John Oldcastle" we have else1 Perhaps it was printed off before his "Bartholemew Fair" was where spoken; and several other supposititious dramas in the folio acted in 1614; or perhaps, the comedy being a new one, Ben Jonson of 1664, which certainly would have done little credit to Shakedid not think he had a right to publish it to the detriment of the speare, have also been ascertained to be the work of other dramatists. company (the servants of the Princess Elizabeth) by whom it had 4 This date has always appeared to us too late, recollecting that been purchased, and produced. 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 sonnets to which we refer do not read like the productions of a very young man. 5 Chalmers was a very dilligent inquirer into such matters, and he could discover no entry of the kind. See his 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.

2 Such as "The Widow," written soon after 1613, in which he was assisted by Fetcher and Middleton; "The Case is Altered," printed in 1609, in which his coadjutors are not known; and "Eastward Ho!" published in 1607, in which he was joined by Chapman and Marston this last play exposed the authors to great danger of pun

ishment.

3 We are not to be understood as according in the ascription to Shakespeare of various plays imputed to him in the folio of 1664, and

the extreme to which he has gone in his "Tears of the Muses." If Malone had wished to point out a dramatist of that day to whom the words of Spenser could by no possibility fitly apply, he could not have made a better choice than when he fixed upon Lyly. However, he labours the contrary position with great pertinacity and considerable ingenuity, and it is extraordinary how a man of much reading, and of sound judgment upon many points of literary discussion, could impose upon himself and be led so far from the truth, by the desire to establish a novelty. At all events, he might have contented himself with an endeavour to prove the negative as regards Shakespeare, without going the strange length of attempting to make out the affirmative as regards Lyly.

was admitted a sizer at Pembroke College. The fact that Edmund Spenser (a rather unusual combination of names1) was an inhabitant of Kingsbury in 1569 is established by the muster-book of Warwickshire, preserved in the statepaper office, to which we have before had occasion to refer, but it does not give the ages of the parties. This Edmund Spenser may possibly have been the father of the poet, (whose Christian name is no where recorded) and if it were the one or the other, it seems to afford a link of connexion, however slight, between Spenser and Shakespeare, of which we have had no previous knowledge. Spenser was at least eleven years older than Shakespeare, but their early residence in the same part of the kingdom may have given rise to an intimacy afterwards: Spenser must have appreciated and admired the genius of Shakespeare, and the au- We do not for an instant admit the right of any of Shakethor of "The Tears of the Muses," at the age of thirty-speare's predecessors or contemporaries to the tribute of seven, may have paid a merited tribute to his young friend Spenser; but Malone might have made out a case for any of twenty-six.

of them with more plausibility than for Lyly. Greene was The Edmund Spenser of Kingsbury may have been en- a writer of fertile fancy, but choked and smothered by the tirely a different person, of a distinct family, and perhaps overlaying of scholastic learning: Kyd was a man of strong we are disposed to lay too much stress upon a mere coinci- natural parts, and a composer of vigorous lines: Lodge was a dence of names; but we may be forgiven for clinging to poet of genius, though not in the department of the drama: the conjecture that he may have been the author of "The Peele had an elegant mind, and was a smooth and agreeaFaerie Queene," and that the greatest romantic poet of this ble versifier; while Marlowe was gifted with a soaring and country was upon terms of friendship and cordiality with a daring spirit, though unchecked by a well-regulated taste: the greatest dramatist of the world. This circumstance, but all had more nature in their dramas than Lyly, who with which we were unacquainted when we wrote the In- generally chose classical or mythological subjects, and dealt troduction to "A Midsummer-Night's Dream," may appear with those subjects with a wearisome monotony of style, to give new point, and a more certain application, to the with thoughts quaint, conceited, and violent, and with an well-remembered lines of that drama (Act v. sc. i.) in which utter absence of force and distinctness in his characterizaShakespeare has been supposed to refer to the death of tion. Spenser, and which may have been a subsequent insertion, for the sake of repaying by one poet a debt of gratitude to

the other.

Without taking into consideration what may have been lost, if we are asked what we think it likely that Shakespeare had written in and before 1591, we should answer, that he had altered and added to three parts of "Henry VI.,” that he had written, or aided in writing, "Titus Andronicus," that he had revived and amended "The Comedy of Errors," and that he had composed "The Two Gentlemen of Verona," and "Love's Labour's Lost." Thus, looking only at his extant works, we see that the eulogy of Spenser was well warranted by the plays Shakespeare, at that early date, had produced.

If the evidence upon this point were even more scanty, we should be convinced that by "our pleasant Willy," Spenser meant William Shakespeare, by the fact that such a character as he gives could belong to no other dramatist of the time. Greene can have no pretensions to it, nor Lodge, nor Kyd, nor Peele; Marlowe had never touched comedy: but if these have no title to the praise that they had mocked nature and imitated truth, the claim put in by Malone for Lyly is little short of absurd. Lyly was, beyond dispute, the most artificial and affected writer of his day his dramas have nothing like nature or truth in them; and if it could be established that Spenser and Lyly were on the most intimate footing, even the exaggerate admiration of the fondest friendship could hardly have carried Spenser to 1 And 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 letters 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.

2 Nobody has been able even to speculate where Spenser was at school;-possibly at Kingsbury. Drayton was also a Warwickshire

man.

3 Differences of opinion, founded upon discordances 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 least 2501. 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

It is not necessary to enter farther into this part of the question, because, we think, it is now established that Spenser's lines might apply to Shakespeare as regards the date of their publication, and indisputably applied with most felicitous exactness to the works he has left behind him. With regard to the lines which state, that Willy

"Doth rather choose to sit in idle Cell, Than so himselfe to mockerie to sell," we have already shown that in 1589 there must have been some compulsory cessation of theatrical performances, which affected not only offending, but unoffending companies: hence the certificate, or more properly remonstrance, of the sixteen sharers in the Blackfriars. The choir-boys of St. Paul's were silenced for bringing "matters of state and religion" on their stage, when they introduced Martin Mar-prelate into one of their dramas: and the players of the Lord Admiral and Lord Strange were prohibited from acting, as far as we can learn, on a similar ground. The interdiction of performances by the children of Paul's was persevered in for about ten years; and although the public companies (after the completion of some inquiries by commissioners specially appointed) were allowed again to follow their vocation, there can be no doubt that there was a temporary suspension of all theatrical exhibitions in London. This suspension commenced a short time before Spenser wrote his "Tears of the Muses," in which he notices the silence of Shakespeare.

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 pleased 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.

We have no means of ascertaining how long the order, gone there without having left behind him any distinct inhibiting theatrical performances generally, was persevered record of the fact. At the date to which we are now adin; but the plague broke out in London in 1592, and in the verting he might certainly have had a convenient opportuautumn of the year, when the number of deaths was great-nity for doing so, in consequence of the temporary prohibiest, "the Queen's players," in their progress round the tion of dramatic performances in London.

country, whither they wandered when thus prevented from acting in the metropolis, performed at Chesterton, near Cambridge, to the great annoyance of the heads of the university.

It was at this juncture, probably, if indeed he ever were in that country, that Shakespeare visited Italy. Mr. C. Armitage Brown, in his very clever, and in many respects original work, "Shakespeare's Autobiographical Poems," has maintained the affirmative with great confidence, and has brought into one view all the internal evidence afforded by the productions of our great dramatist. External evidence there is none, since not even a tradition of such a journey has descended to us. We own that the internal evidence, in our estimation, is by no means as strong as it appeared to Mr. Brown, who has evinced great ingenuity and ability in the conduct of his case, and has made as much as possible of his proofs. He dwells, among other things, upon the fact, that there were no contemporaneous translations of the tales on which "The Merchant of Venice" and "Othello" are founded; but Shakespeare may have understood as much Italian as answered his purpose without having gone to Venice. For the same reason we lay no stress upon the recently-discovered fact, (not known when Mr. Brown wrote) that Shakespeare constructed his "Twelfth Night" with the aid of one or two Italian comedies; they may have found their way into England, and he may have read them in the original language. That Shakespeare was capable of translating Italian sufficiently for his own purposes, we are morally certain; but we think that if he had travelled to Venice, Verona, or Florence, we should have had more distinct and positive testimony of the fact in his works than can be adduced from them.

Other authors of the time have left such evidence behind them as cannot be disputed. Lyly tells us so distinctly in more than one of his pieces, and Rich informs us that he became acquainted with the novels he translated on the other side of the Alps: Daniel goes the length of letting us know where certain of his sonnets were composed: Lodge wrote some of his tracts abroad: Nash gives us the places where he met particular persons; and his friend Greene admits his obligations to Italy and Spain, whither he had travelled early in life in pursuit of letters. In truth, at that period and afterwards, there seems to have been a prevailing rage for foreign travel, and it extended itself to mere actors, as well as to poets; for we know that William Kempe was in Rome in 16012, during the interval between the time when, for some unexplained reason, he quitted the company of the Lord Chamberlain's players, and joined that of the Lord Admiral3. Although we do not believe that Shakespeare ever was in Italy, we admit that we are without evidence to prove a negative; and he may have

1 They 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 Chamber

lain's servants.

2 See 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.

3 It 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 license 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

CHAPTER VIII.

The

Death of Robert Greene in 1592, and publication of his "Groatsworth of Wit," by H. Chettle. Greene's address to Marlowe, Lodge, and Peele, and his envious mention of Shakespeare. Shakespeare's offence at Chettle, and the apology of the latter in his "Kind-heart's Dream." character of Shakespeare there given. Second allusion by Spenser to Shakespeare in "Colin Clout's come home again," 1594. The gentle Shakespeare." Change in the character of his composition between 1591 and 1594: his "Richard II." and "Richard III."

DURING the prevalence of the infectious malady of 1592, although not in consequence of it, died one of the most notorious and distinguished of the literary men of the time,Robert Greene. He expired on the 3d of September, 1592, and left behind him a work purporting to have been written during his last illness: it was published a few months afterwards by Henry Chettle, a fellow dramatist, under the title of "A Groatsworth of Wit, bought with a Million of Repentance," bearing the date of 1592, and preceded by an address from Greene "To those Gentlemen, his quondam acquaintance, who spend their wits in making Plays." Here we meet with the second notice of Shakespeare, not indeed by name, but with such a near approach to it, that nobody can entertain a moment's doubt that he was intended. It is necessary to quote the whole passage, and to observe, before we do so, that Greene is addressing himself particularly to Marlowe, Lodge, and Peele, and urging them to break off all connexion with players" :-" Base minded men all three of you, if by my misery ye be not warned; for unto none of you, like me, sought those burs to cleave; those puppets, I mean, that speak from our mouths, those anticks garnished in our colours. Is it not strange that I, to whom they all have been beholding; is it not like that you, to whom they have all been beholding, shall (were ye in that case that I am now) be both of them at once forsaken? Yes, trust them not; for there is an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tiger's heart wrapp'd in a player's hide, supposes he is as well able to bombast our blank-verse, as the best of you: and, being an absolute Johannes Fac-totum, is, in his own conceit, the only Shake-scene in a country. O! that I might entreat your rare wits to be employed in more profitable courses, and let these apes imitate your past excellence, and never more acquaint them with your admired inventions."

The chief and obvious purpose of this address is to in

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 servantes, 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 xx3. "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."

4. We 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 transcribo it: "it was ill-written," says Chettle, "as Greene's hand was none of the best ;" and therefore he re-wrote it.

duce Marlowe, Lodge, and Peele to cease to write for the stage; and, in the course of his exhortation, Greene bitterly inveighs against "an upstart crow," who had availed himself of the dramatic labours of others, who imagined himself able to write as good blank-verse as any of his contemporaries, who was a Johannes Fac-totum, and who, in his own opinion, was "the only SHAKE-SCENE in a country." All this is clearly levelled at Shakespeare, under the purposely-perverted name of Shake-scene, and the words, Tiger's heart wrapp'd in a player's hide," are a parody upon a line in a historical play, (most likely by Greene) "O, tiger's heart wrapp'd in a woman's hide," from which Shakespeare had taken his " Henry VI." part iii.1

made no apology, while to Shakespeare he offered all the amends in his power.

His apology to Shakespeare is contained in a tract called "Kind-heart's Dream," which was published without date, but as Greene expired on 3d September, 1592, and Chettle tells us in "Kind-heart's Dream," that Greene died "about three months" before, it is certain that " Kind-heart's Dream" came out prior to the end of 1592, as we now calculate the year, and about three months before it expired, according to the reckoning of that period. The whole passage relating to Marlowe and Shakespeare is highly interesting, and we therefore extract it entire.——

From hence it is evident that Shakespeare, near the end "About three months since died M. Robert Greene, leavof 1592, had established such a reputation, and was so im- ing many papers in sundry booksellers' hands: among others his Groatsworth of Wit, in which a letter, written to divers portant a rival of the dramatists, who, until he came for- play-makers, is offensively by one or two of them taken; and ward, had kept undisputed possession of the stage, as to ex- because on the dead they cannot be avenged, they wilfully cite the envy and enmity of Greene, even during his last and forge in their conceits a living author, and after tossing it to fatal illness. It also, we think, establishes another point not and fro, no remedy but it must light on me. How I have, all hitherto adverted to, viz. that our great poet possessed such the time of my conversing in printing, hindered the bitter invariety of talent, that, for the purposes of the company of veighing against scholars, it hath been very well known: and which he was a member, he could do anything that he how in that I dealt, I can sufficiently prove. With neither might be called upon to perform : he was the Johannes Fac- of them (Marlowe] I care not if I never be: the other, [Shakeof them, that take offence, was I acquainted; and with one totum of the association: he was an actor, and he was a speare] whom at that time I did not so much spare, as since I writer of original plays, an adapter and improver of those wish I had, for that as I have moderated the heat of living already in existence, (some of them by Greene, Marlowe, writers, and might have used my own discretion (especially Lodge, or Peele) and no doubt he contributed prologues or in such a case, the author being dead) that I did not I am as epilogues, and inserted scenes, speeches or passages on any sorry as if the original fault had been my fault; because mytemporary emergency. Having his ready assistance, the self have seen his demeanour no less civil, than he excellent Lord Chamberlain's servants required few other contribu- in the quality he professes: besides, divers of worship have tions from rival dramatists: Shakespeare was the Johan-reported his uprightness of dealing, which argues his honesty,

nes Fac-totum who could turn his hand to any thing connected with his profession, and who, in all probability, had thrown men like Greene, Lodge, and Peele, and even Mar- I lowe himself, into the shade. In our view, therefore, the quotation we have made from the "Groatsworth of Wit" proves more than has been usually collected from it.

It was natural and proper that Shakespeare should take offence at this gross and public attack: that he did there is no doubt, for we are told so by Chettle himself, the avowed editor of the "Groatsworth of Wit" he does not indeed mention Shakespeare, but he designates him so intelligibly that there is no room for dispute. Marlowe, also, and not without reason, complained of the manner in which Greene had spoken of him in the same work, but to him Chettle

1 See this point more fully illustrated in the Introduction to "Henry VI." part iii.

2 At 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.

3 There 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 Ox

ford 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.

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And sing her Rape, done by that Tarquin death."

and his facetious grace in writing, that approves his art. For the first, [Marlowe] whose learning I reverence, and at the perusing of Greene's book struck out what then in conscience thought he in some displeasure writ, or had it been true, yet to publish it was intolerable, him I would wish to use mé no worse than I deserve."

The accusation of Greene against Marlowe had reference to the freedom of his religious opinions, of which it is not necessary here to say more: the attack upon Shakespeare we have already inserted and observed upon. In Chettle's apology to the latter, one of the most noticeable points is the tribute he pays to our great dramatist's abilities as an actor, "his demeanour no less civil, than he excellent in the quality he professes :" the word "quality" was applied, at that date, peculiarly and technically to acting, and the quality" Shakespeare "professed" was that of an actor. "His facetious grace in writing" is separately adverted to, and admitted, while "his uprightness of dealing" is attested, not only by Chettle's own experience, but by the evidence of "divers of worship." Thus the amends made to Shakespeare for the envious assault of Greene shows most decisively the high opinion entertained of him, towards the close of 1592, as an actor, an author, and a man1.

We have already inserted Spenser's warm, but not less judicious and well-merited, judicious and well-merited, eulogium of Shakespeare in 1591, when in his "Tears of the Muses" he addresses him as Willy, and designates him

"that same gentle spirit, from whose pen Large streames of honnie and sweete nectar flowe."

If we were to trust printed dates, it would seem that in the same year the author of "The Faerie Queene" gave another proof of his admiration of our great dramatist: we allude to a passage in " Colin Clout's come home again," which was published with a dedication dated 27th December, 1591; but Malone proved, beyond all cavil, that for 1591 we ought to read 1594, the printer having made an ex

This passage is important, with reference to the Royal encourage-traordinary blunder. In that poem (after the author has ment given to Shakespeare, in consequence of the approbation of his spoken of many living and dead poets, some by their names, plays at Court: Elizabeth had "graced his desert," and "open'd her as Alabaster and Daniel, and others by fictitious and fanciroyal ear" to "his lays." Chettle did not long survive the publica- ful appellations") he inserts these lines:tion 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.

5 Malone, 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, though last not least, is Ætion;

A gentler shepherd may no where be found,
Whose Muse, full of high thought's invention,
Doth, like himself, heroically sound."

Malone takes unnecessary pains to establish that this passage applies to Shakespeare, although he pertinaciously denied that "our pleasant Willy" of "The Tears of the Muses" was intended for him. We have no doubt on either point; and it is singular, that it should never have struck Malone that the same epithet is given in both cases to the person addressed, and that epithet one which, at a subsequent date, almost constantly accompanied the name of Shakespeare. In "The Tears of the Muses" he is called a gentle spirit," and in "Colin Clout's come home again" we are told that,

"A gentler shepherd may no where be found."

CHAPTER IX.

The dramas written by Shakespeare up to 1594. New documents relating to his father, under the authority of Sir Thomas Lucy, Sir Fulk Greville, &c. Recusants in Stratford-upon-Avon. John Shakespeare employed to value the goods of H. Field. Publication of "Venus and Adonis" during the plague in 1593. Dedication of it, and of "Lucrece," 1594, to the Earl of Southampton. Bounty of the Earl to Shakespeare, and coincidence between the date of the gift and the building of the Globe theatre on the Bankside. Probability of the story that Lord Southampton presented Shakespeare with 1000%.

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HAVING arrived at the year 1594, we may take this opportunity of stating which of Shakespeare's extant works, in our opinion, had by that date been produced. We have alIn the same feeling Ben Jonson calls him "my gentle Shake-ready mentioned the three parts of " Henry VI.," “ Titus speare," in the noble copy of verses prefixed to the folio of Andronicus," "The Comedy of Errors," "The Two Gentle1623, so that ere long the term became peculiarly applied men of Verona," and " Love's Labour's Lost," as in being in to our great and amiable dramatist'. This coincidence of 1591; and in the interval between 1591 and 1594, we apexpression is another circumstance to establish that Spenser prehend, he had added to them "Richard II." and "Richard certainly had Shakespeare in his mind when he wrote his III." Of these, the four last were entirely the work of "Tears of the Muses" in 1591, and his " Colin Clout's come our great dramatist: in the others he more or less availed home again" in 1594. In the latter instance the whole de- himself of previous dramas, or possibly, of the assistance scription is nearly as appropriate as in the earlier, with the of contemporaries. addition of a line, which has a clear and obvious reference to the patronymic of our poet: his Muse, says Spenser,

"Doth, like himself, heroically sound."

We must now return to Stratford-upon-Avon, in order to advert to a very different subject.

A document has been recently discovered in the State the religious tenets, or worldly circumstances, of ShakePaper Office, which is highly interesting with respect to speare's father in 15922. Sir Thomas Lucy, Sir Fulk Greville, Sir Henry Goodere, Sir John Harrington, and four others, having been appointed commissioners to make in quiries "touching all such persons" as were "jesuits, seminary priests, fugitives, or recusantes," in the county of War wick, sent to the Privy Council what they call their "second certificate," on the 25th Sept. 15923. It is divided into different heads, according to the respective hundreds, parishes, &c., and each page is signed by them. One of these divisions applies to Stratford-upon-Avon, and the return of names there is thus introduced :-

These words alone may be taken to show, that between 1591 and 1594 Shakespeare had somewhat changed the character of his compositions: Spenser having applauded him, in his "Tears of the Muses," for unrivalled talents in comedy, (a department of the drama to which Shakespeare had, perhaps, at that date especially, though not exclusively, devoted himself) in his "Colin Clout" spoke of the "high thought's invention," which then filled Shakespeare's muse, and made her sound as "heroically" as his name. Of his genius, in a loftier strain of poetry than belonged to comedy, our great dramatist, by the year 1594, must have given some remarkable and undeniable proofs. In 1591 he had perhaps written his "Love's Labour 's Lost" and "Two Gentlemen of Verona;" but in 1594 he had, no doubt, produced one or more of his great historical plays, his "Richard II." and "Richard III.," both of which, as before remarked, together with "Romeo and Juliet," came from the press in 1597, though the last in a very mangled, imperfect, and unauthentic state. One circumstance may be mentioned, as leading to the belief that "Richard III." was brought The names which are appended to this introduction are the out in 1594, viz. that in that year an impression of "The True Tragedy of Richard the Third," (an older play than that of Shakespeare) was published, that it might be bought under the notion that it was the new drama by the most popular poet of the day, then in a course of representation. It is most probable that "Richard II." had been composed before "Richard III.," and to either or both of them the lines,

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"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 has disputed, that by Etion, the
author of "Colin Clout " meant Shakespeare.

"The names of all sutch Recusantes as have bene heartofore presented for not cominge monethlie to the church, according to her Majesties lawes, and yet are thought to forbeare the church for debt, and for feare of processe, or for some other worse faultes, or for age, sicknes, or impotencie of bodie."

following

"Mr. John Wheeler,

John Wheeler, his son,
Mr. John Shackspere,
Mr. Nicholas Barneshurste,
Thomas James, alias Gyles,

William Bainton,
Richard Harrington,
William Flullen,
George Bardolphe1:"

and opposite to them, separated by a bracket, we read these words :-

"It is sayd, that these last nine coome not to churche for feare of processe of debte."

Here we find the name of " Mr. John Shakespeare " either as a recusant, or as "forbearing the Church," on account of the fear of process for debt, or on account of “age, sickness, or impotency of body," mentioned in the introduction to the document. The question is, to which cause we are to attribute his absence; and with regard to process for debt,

1 In a passage we have already extracted from Ben Jonson's "Discoveries," he mentions Shakespeare's "gentle expressions;" but he is there perhaps rather referring to his style of composition.

2 We 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.

3 The first certificate has not been found in the State Paper Office, after the most diligent search.

4 Hence 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.

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