Chapter 5

58. _Procrustes._ Cf. _Spectator_, No. 58.

_Note 2._ In the edition of 1728, Pope added to this note “which last words are not in the first quarto edition.”

59. _led into the Buttery of the Steward._ “Mr. Pope probably recollected the following lines in _The Taming of the Shrew_, spoken by a Lord, who is giving directions to his servant concerning some players:

Go, Sirrah, take them to the _buttery_, And give them friendly welcome every one.

But he seems not to have observed that the players here introduced were _strollers_; and there is no reason to suppose that our author, Heminge, Burbage, Lowin, etc., who were licensed by King James, were treated in this manner” (Malone).

_London Prodigal._ After these seven plays Pope added in the edition of 1728 “and a thing call’d the _Double Falshood_” (see Introduction, p. xlv). It will be noted that he speaks incorrectly of “eight” plays. In the same edition he also inserted _The Comedy of Errors_ between _The Winter’s Tale_ and _Titus Andronicus_ (top of p. 60).

60. _tho’ they were then printed in his name._ His name was given on the title-page of _Pericles_, _Sir John Oldcastle_, the _Yorkshire Tragedy_, and the _London Prodigal_.

Lewis Theobald.

64. _above the Direction of their Tailors._ Cf. Pope, p. 51. The succeeding remarks on the individuality of Shakespeare’s characters also appear to have been suggested by Pope.

65. _wanted a Comment._ Contrast Rowe, p. 1.

66. _Judith_ was Shakespeare’s younger daughter (cf. Rowe, p. 21). It is now known that Shakespeare was married at the end of 1582. See Mr. Sidney Lee’s _Life of Shakespeare_, pp. 18-24.

68. _Spenser’s Thalia._ Cf. Rowe, pp. 6, 7. The original editions read “_Tears of his Muses_.”

69. _Rymers Fœdera_, vol. xvi., p. 505. _Fletcher_, _i.e._ Lawrence Fletcher.

_the Bermuda Islands._ Cf. Theobald’s note on “the still-vext Bermoothes,” vol. i., p. 13 (1733). Though Shakespeare is probably indebted to the account of Sir George Somers’s shipwreck on the Bermudas, Theobald is wrong, as Farmer pointed out, in saying that the Bermudas were not discovered till 1609. A description of the islands by Henry May, who was shipwrecked on them in 1593, is given in Hakluyt, 1600, iii., pp. 573-4.

70. _Mr. Pope, or his Graver._ So the quotation appears in the full-page illustration facing p. xxxi of Rowe’s Account in Pope’s edition; but the illustration was not included in all the copies, perhaps because of the error. The quotation appears correctly in the engraving in Rowe’s edition.

72. _New-place._ Queen Henrietta Maria’s visit was from 11th to 13th July, 1643. Theobald’s “three weeks” should read “three days.” See Halliwell-Phillips, _Outlines_, 1886, ii., p. 108.

_We have been told in print_, in _An Answer to Mr. Popes Preface to Shakespear.... By a Stroling Player_ [John Roberts], 1729, p. 45.

73. _Complaisance to a bad Taste._ Cf. Rowe, p. 6, Dennis p. 46, and Theobald’s dedication to _Shakespeare Restored_; yet Theobald himself had complied to the bad taste in several pantomimes.

_Nullum sine venia._ Seneca, _Epistles_, 114. 12.

74. _Speret idem._ Horace, _Ars Poetica_, 241.

_Indeed to point out_, etc. In the first edition of the Preface, Theobald had given “explanations of those beauties that are less obvious to common readers.” He has unadvisably retained the remark that such explanations “should deservedly have a share in a general critic upon the author.” The “explanations” were omitted probably because they were inspired by Warburton.

75. _And therefore the Passages ... from the Classics._ Cf. the following passage with Theobald’s letter to Warburton of 17th March, 1729-30 (see Nichols, _Illustrations_, ii., pp. 564, etc.). The letter throws strong light on Theobald’s indecision on the question of Shakespeare’s learning.

“The very learned critic of our nation” is Warburton himself. See his letter to Concanen of 2nd January, 1726 (Malone’s _Shakespeare_, 1821, xii., p. 158). Cf. Theobald’s Preface to _Richard II._, 1720, and Whalley’s _Enquiry_, 1748, p. 51.

76. _Effusion of Latin Words._ Theobald has omitted a striking passage in the original preface. It was shown that Shakespeare’s writings, in contrast with Milton’s, contain few or no Latin phrases, though they have many Latin words made English; and this fact was advanced as the truest criterion of his knowledge of Latin.

The passage is referred to by Hurd in his _Letter to Mr. Mason on the Marks of Imitation_ (1757, p. 74). Hurd thinks that the observation is too good to have come from Theobald. His opinion is confirmed by the entire omission of the passage in the second edition. Warburton himself claimed it as his own. Though the passage was condensed by Theobald, Warburton’s claim is still represented by the passage from _For I shall find_ (p. 76, l. 7) to _Royal Taste_ (l. 36).

77. _Shakespeare ... astonishing force and splendor._ Cf. Pope, p. 50.

_Had Homer_, etc. Cf. Pope, p. 56.

78. _Indulging his private sense._ See p. 61.

_Lipsius_,—_Satyra Menippæa_ (_Opera_, 1611, p. 640).

79. _Sive homo_, etc. Quintus Serenus, _De Medicina_, xlvi., “Hominis ac simiae morsui.”

80. _Nature of any Distemper ... corrupt Classic._ Cf. _Shakespeare Restored_, pp. iv, v.

81. Bentley’s edition of _Paradise Lost_ had appeared in 1732.

_the true Duty of an Editor._ A shy hit at Pope’s “dull duty of an editor,” Preface, p. 61.

82. _as I have formerly observ’d_, in the Introduction to _Shakespeare Restored_, pp. ii and iv. The paragraph is quoted almost verbatim.

83. _labour’d under flat Nonsense._ Here again Theobald incorporates a passage from the Introduction to _Shakespeare Restored_, p. vi.

_Corrections and conjectures._ Yet another passage appropriated from his earlier work. The French quotation, however, is new.

_Edition of our author’s Poems._ Theobald did not carry out his intention of editing the _Poems_. References to the proposed edition will be found in Warburton’s letters to him of 17th May and 14th October, 1734 (see Nichols, _Illustrations_, ii., pp. 634, 654).

The only attempt as yet towards a Shakespearian Glossary is to be found in the supplementary volumes of Rowe’s and Pope’s editions. It is far from “copious and complete.”

84. _The English are observ’d to produce more Humourists._ See Congreve’s letter to Dennis _Concerning Humour in Comedy_, 1695.

_Wit lying mostly in the Assemblage of Ideas_, etc. So Locke, _Essay concerning the Human Understanding_, Book II., Ch. xi., § 2. The passage had been popularised by Addison, _Spectator_, No. 62.

85. _Donne._ Cf. Dryden’s criticism of Donne.

86. _a celebrated Writer._ Addison, _Spectator_, No. 297.

_Bossu._ René le Bossu (1631-1680), author of the _Traité du poème épique_ (1675). An English translation by “W. J.” was printed in 1695, and again in 1719.

_Dacier._ See note, p. 18.

_Gildon_ showed himself to be of the same school as Rymer in his _Essay on the Art, Rise, and Progress of the Stage_ (1710) and his _Art of Poetry_ (1718); yet his earliest piece of criticism was a vigorous attack on Rymer. The title reads curiously in the light of his later pronouncements: _Some Reflections on Mr. Rymer’s Short View of Tragedy, and an Attempt at a Vindication of Shakespear_. It was printed in a volume of _Miscellaneous Letters and Essays_ (1694).

87. _Anachronisms._ The passage referred to occurs on pp. 134, 135 of _Shakespeare Restored_.

_this Restorer._ See the _Dunciad_ (1729), i. 106, note.

_it not being at all credible_, etc. See p. 56.

_Sir Francis Drake._ Pope had suggested in a note that the imperfect line in _1 Henry VI._, i. 1. 56, might have been completed with the words “Francis Drake.” He had not, however, incorporated the words in the text. “I can’t guess,” he says, “the occasion of the Hemystic, and imperfect sense, in this place; ’tis not impossible it might have been fill’d up with—Francis Drake—tho’ that were a terrible Anachronism (as bad as Hector’s quoting Aristotle in Troil. and Cress.); yet perhaps, at the time that brave Englishman was in his glory, to an English-hearted audience, and pronounced by some favourite Actor, the thing might be popular, though not judicious; and therefore by some Critick, in favour of the author, afterwards struck out. But this is a meer slight conjecture.” Theobald has a lengthy note on this in his edition. He does not allude to the suggestion which he had submitted to Warburton. See Introduction, p. xlvi.

88. _Odyssey._ This passage, to the end of the paragraph, appears in Theobald’s letter to Warburton of March 17, 1729-30 (Nichols, ii., p. 566). In the same letter he had expressed his doubts as to whether he should include this passage in his proposed pamphlet against Pope, as the notes to the _Odyssey_ were written by Broome. He had cast aside these scruples now. The preface does not bear out his profession to Warburton that he was indifferent to Pope’s treatment.

89. David Mallet had just brought out his poem _Of Verbal Criticism_ (1733) anonymously. It is simply a paraphrase and expansion of Pope’s statements. “As the design of the following poem is to rally the abuse of _Verbal Criticism_, the author could not, without manifest partiality, overlook the Editor of Milton and the Restorer of Shakespear” (introductory note).

Boswell attributed this “contemptuous mention of Mallet” to Warburton (Boswell’s Malone, 1821, i., p. 42, n). But it was not claimed by Warburton, and there is nothing, except perhaps the vigour of the passage, to support Boswell’s contention. In the same note Boswell points out that the comparison of Shakespeare and Jonson in Theobald’s Preface reappears in Warburton’s note on _Love’s Labour’s Lost_, Act i., Sc. 1.

_Hang him, Baboon_, etc. _2 Henry IV._, ii. 4. 261.

_Longinus_, _On the Sublime_, vi.

90. _Noble Writer_,—the Earl of Shaftesbury, in his _Characteristicks_: “The British Muses, in this Dinn of Arms, may well lie abject and obscure; especially being as yet in their mere Infant-State. They have hitherto scarce arriv’d to any thing of Shapeliness or Person. They lisp as in their Cradles: and their stammering Tongues, which nothing but their Youth and Rawness can excuse, have hitherto spoken in wretched Pun and Quibble” (1711, i., p. 217).

_Complaints of its Barbarity_, as in Dryden’s _Discourse concerning Satire, ad fin_ (ed. W. P. Ker, ii., pp. 110, 113).

Sir Thomas Hanmer.

92. The “other Gentlemen” who communicated their observations to Hanmer include Warburton (see Introduction), the “Rev. Mr. Smith of Harlestone in Norfolk” (see Zachary Grey, _Notes on Shakespeare_, Preface), and probably Thomas Cooke, the editor of Plautus (see _Correspondence of Hanmer_, ed. Bunbury, p. 229).

93. _much obliged to them._ Amid the quarrels of Pope, Theobald, and Warburton, it is pleasant to find an editor admitting some merit in his predecessors.

_what Shakespeare ought to have written._ Cf. the following passage in the _Remarks on the Tragedy of Hamlet_ attributed to Hanmer: “The former [Theobald] endeavours to give us an author as he is: the latter [Pope], by the correctness and excellency of his own genius, is often tempted to give us an author as he thinks he ought to be.” Theobald, it is said, is “generally thought to have understood our author best” (p. 4).

_Henry V._, iii. 4.

94. _Merchant of Venice_, iii. 5. 48.

Hanmer’s Glossary, given at the end of vol. vi., shows a distinct advance in every way on the earlier glossary in the supplementary volume to Rowe’s and to Pope’s edition. It is much fuller, though it runs only to a dozen pages, and more scholarly.

95. _fairest impressions_, etc. The edition is indeed a beautiful piece of printing. Each play is preceded by a full-page plate engraved by Gravelot from designs by Francis Hayman, or, as in vol. iv., by himself. (See _Correspondence of Hanmer_, pp. 83-4.)

95. _his Statue._ The statue in the Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey, erected by public subscription in 1741. See the _Gentleman’s Magazine_ for February, 1741, p. 105: “A fine Monument is erected in _Westminster Abbey_ to the Memory of _Shakespear_, by the Direction of the Earl of _Burlington_, Dr. _Mead_, Mr. _Pope_, and Mr. _Martin_. Mr. _Fleetwood_, Master of _Drury-Lane_ Theatre, and Mr. _Rich_, of that of _Covent-Garden_, gave each a Benefit, arising from one of his own Plays, towards it, and the Dean and Chapter made a present of the Ground. The Design, by Mr. _Kent_, was executed by Mr. _Scheemaker_.”

William Warburton.

96. _the excellent Discourse which follows_, _i.e._ Pope’s Preface, which was reprinted by Warburton along with Rowe’s Account of Shakespeare.

101. _Essays, Remarks, Observations_, etc. Warburton apparently refers to the following works:

_Some Remarks on the Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, written by Mr. William Shakespeare._ London, 1736. Perhaps by Sir Thomas Hanmer.

_An Essay towards fixing the true Standards of Wit, Humour, Raillery, Satire, and Ridicule. To which is added an Analysis of the Characters of an Humourist, Sir John Falstaff, Sir Roger de Coverley, and Don Quixote._ London, 1744. By Corbyn Morris, who signs the Dedication.

_Miscellaneous Observations on the Tragedy of Macbeth: with Remarks on Sir Thomas Hanmer’s Edition of Shakespeare. To which is affixed Proposals for a new Edition of Skakespear, with a Specimen._ London, 1745. By Samuel Johnson, though anonymous.

_Critical Observations on Shakespeare._ By John Upton, Prebendary of Rochester. London, 1746. Second edition, with a preface replying to Warburton, 1748.

_An Essay upon English Tragedy. With Remarks upon the Abbé de Blanc’s Observations on the English Stage._ By William Guthrie, Esq. [1747.]

The last of these may not have appeared, however, till after Warburton’s edition.

Johnson is said by Boswell to have ever entertained a grateful remembrance of this allusion to him “at a time when praise was of value.” But though the criticism is merited, is it too sinister a suggestion that it was prompted partly by the reference in Johnson’s pamphlet to “the learned Mr. Warburton”? When Johnson’s edition appeared in 1765, Warburton expressed a very different opinion (see Nichols, _Anecdotes_, v., p. 595).

101-105. _whole Compass of Criticism._ Cf. Theobald’s account of the “Science of Criticism,” pp. 81, etc., which Warburton appears to have suggested.

101. _Canons of literal Criticism._ This phrase suggested the title of the ablest and most damaging attack on Warburton’s edition,—_The Canons of Criticism, and Glossary, being a Supplement to Mr. Warburton’s Edition of Shakespear._ The author was Thomas Edwards (1699-1757), a “gentleman of Lincoln’s Inn,” who accordingly figures in the notes to the _Dunciad_, iv. 568. When the book first appeared in 1748 it was called _A Supplement_, etc.... _Being the Canons of Criticism_. It reached a seventh edition in 1765.

103. _Rymer_, _Short View of Tragedy_ (1693), pp. 95, 6.

105. _as Mr. Pope hath observed._ Preface, p. 47.

_Dacier_, _Bossu._ See notes, pp. 18 and 86.

_René Rapin_ (1621-1687). His fame as a critic rests on his _Réflexions sur la Poétique d’ Aristote et sur les Ouvrages des Poètes anciens et modernes_ (1674), which was Englished by Rymer immediately on its publication. His treatise _De Carmine Pastorali_, of which a translation is included in Creech’s _Idylliums of Theocritus_ (1684), was used by Pope for the preface to his _Pastorals_. An edition of _The Whole Critical Works of Monsieur Rapin ... newly translated into English by several Hands_, 2 vols., appeared in 1706; it is not, however, complete.

_John Oldmixon_ (1673-1742), who, like Dennis and Gildon, has a place in the _Dunciad_, was the author of _An Essay on Criticism, as it regards Design, Thought, and Expression in Prose and Verse_ (1728) and _The Arts of Logick and Rhetorick, illustrated by examples taken out of the best authors_ (1728). The latter is based on the _Manière de bien penser_ of Bouhours.

_A certain celebrated Paper_,—_The Spectator_.

_semper acerbum_, etc. Virgil, _Aeneid_, v. 49.

106. _Note_, “See his Letters to me.” These letters are not extant.

108. _Saint Chrysostom ... Aristophanes._ This had been a commonplace in the discussions at the end of the seventeenth century, in England and France, on the morality of the drama.

_Ludolf Kuster_ (1670-1716) appears also in the _Dunciad_, iv., l. 237. His edition of Suidas was published, through Bentley’s influence, by the University of Cambridge in 1705. He also edited Aristophanes (1710), and wrote _De vero usu Verborum Mediorum apud Graecos_. Cf. Farmer’s _Essay_, p. 176.

_who thrust himself into the employment._ Hanmer’s letters to the University of Oxford do not bear out Warburton’s statement.

109. Gilles Ménage (1613-1692). _Les Poésies de M. de Malherbe avec les Observations de M. Ménage_ appeared in 1666.

Selden’s “Illustrations” or notes appeared with the first part of _Polyolbion_ in 1612. This allusion was suggested by a passage in a letter from Pope of 27th November, 1742: “I have a particular reason to make you interest yourself in me and my writings. It will cause both them and me to make the better figure to posterity. A very mediocre poet, one Drayton, is yet taken some notice of, because Selden writ a few notes on one of his poems” (ed. Elwin and Courthope, ix., p. 225).

110. _Verborum proprietas_, etc. Quintilian, _Institut. Orat._, Prooem. 16.

Warburton alludes to the edition of Beaumont and Fletcher “by the late Mr. Theobald, Mr. Seward of Eyam in Derbyshire, and Mr. Sympson of Gainsborough,” which appeared in ten volumes in 1750. The long and interesting preface is by Seward. Warburton’s reference would not have been so favourable could he have known Seward’s opinion of his Shakespeare. See the letter printed in the _Correspondence of Hanmer_, ed. Bunbury, pp. 352, etc.

The edition of _Paradise Lost_ is that by Thomas Newton (1704-1782), afterwards Bishop of Bristol. It appeared in 1749, and a second volume containing the other poems was added in 1752. In the preface Newton gratefully acknowledges this recommendation, and alludes with pride to the assistance he had received from Warburton, who had proved himself to be “the best editor of Shakespeare.”

_Some dull northern Chronicles_, etc. Cf. the _Dunciad_, iii. 185-194.

111. _a certain satyric Poet._ The reference is to Zachary Grey’s edition of _Hudibras_ (1744). Yet Warburton had contributed to it. In the preface “the Rev. and learned Mr. William Warburton” is thanked for his “curious and critical observations.”

Grey’s “coadjutor” was “the reverend Mr. Smith of Harleston in Norfolk,” as Grey explains in the preface to the _Notes on Shakespeare_. In his preface to _Hudibras_, Grey had given Smith no prominence in his long list of helpers. Smith had also assisted Hanmer.

In 1754 Grey brought out his _Critical, Historical, and Explanatory Notes on Shakespeare_, and in 1755 retaliated on Warburton in his _Remarks upon a late edition of Shakespear ... to which is prefixed a defence of the late Sir Thomas Hanmer_. Grey appears to be the author also of _A word or two of advice to William Warburton, a dealer in many words_, 1746.

_our great Philosopher_, Sir Isaac Newton. His remark is recorded by William Whiston in the _Historical Memoirs of the Life of Dr. Samuel Clarke_ (1730), p. 143: “To observe such laymen as _Grotius_, and _Newton_, and _Lock_, laying out their noblest Talents in sacred Studies; while such Clergymen as Dr. _Bentley_ and Bishop _Hare_, to name no others at present, have been, in the Words of Sir _Isaac Newton_, fighting with one another _about a Playback_ [_Terence_]: This is a Reproach upon them, their holy Religion, and holy Function plainly intolerable.” Warburton’s defence of himself in the previous pages must have been inspired partly by the “fanatical turn” of this “wild writer.” Whiston would hardly excuse Clarke for editing Homer till he “perceived that the pains he had taken about Homer were when he was much younger, and the notes rather transcrib’d than made new”; and Warburton is careful to state that his Shakespearian studies were amongst his “younger amusements.” _Francis Hare_ (1671-1740), successively Dean of Worcester, Dean of St. Paul’s, Bishop of St. Asaph, and Bishop of Chichester. For his quarrel with Bentley, see Monk’s _Life of Bentley_, ii., pp. 217, etc. Hare is referred to favourably in the _Dunciad_ (iii. 204), and was a friend of Warburton.

_Words are the money_, etc. Hobbes, _Leviathan_, Part I., ch. iv.: “For words are wise men’s counters, they do but reckon by them; but they are the money of fools.”

Samuel Johnson.

113. _the poems of Homer._ Cf. Johnson’s remark recorded in the _Diary of the Right Hon. William Windham_, August, 1784 (ed. 1866, p. 17): “The source of everything in or out of nature that can serve the purpose of poetry to be found in Homer.”

114. _his century._ Cf. Horace, _Epistles_, ii. 1. 39, and Pope, _Epistle to Augustus_, 55, 56.

_Nothing can please many_, etc. This had been the theme of the 59th number of the _Idler_.

115. _Hierocles._ See the _Asteia_ attributed to Hierocles, No. 9 (_Hieroclis Commentarius in Aurea Carmina_, ed. Needham, 1709, p. 462).

116. _Pope._ Preface, p. 48.

117. _Dennis._ See pp. 26, etc. In replying to Voltaire, Johnson has in view, throughout the whole preface, the essay _Du Théâtre anglais, par Jerome Carré_, 1761 (_Oeuvres_, 1785, vol. 61). He apparently ignores the earlier _Discours sur la tragédie à Milord Bolingbroke_, 1730, and _Lettres Philosophiques_ (dix-huitième lettre, “Sur la tragédie”), 1734. Voltaire replied thus to Johnson in the passage “Du Théâtre anglais” in the _Dictionnaire philosophique_: “J’ai jeté les yeux sur une édition de Shakespeare, donnée par le sieur Samuel Johnson. J’y ai vu qu’on y traite de _petits esprits_ les étrangers qui sont étonnés que, dans les pièces de ce grand Shakespeare, ‘un senateur romain fasse le bouffon, et qu’un roi paraisse sur le théâtre en ivrogne.’ Je ne veux point soupçonner le sieur Johnson d’être un mauvais plaisant, et d’aimer trop le vin; mais je trouve un peu extraordinaire qu’il compte la bouffonnerie et l’ivrognerie parmi les beautés du théâtre tragique; la raison qu’il en donne n’est pas moins singulière. ‘Le poète, dit il, dédaigne ces distinctions accidentelles de conditions et de pays, comme un peintre qui, content d’avoir peint la figure, néglige la draperie.’ La comparaison serait plus juste s’il parlait d’un peintre qui, dans un sujet noble, introduirait des grotesques ridicules, peindrait dans la bataille d’Arbelles Alexandre-le-Grand monté sur un âne, et la femme de Darius buvant avec des goujats dans un cabaret,” etc. (1785, vol. 48, p. 205). On the question of Voltaire’s attitude to Shakespeare, see Monsieur Jusserand’s _Shakespeare en France_, 1898, and Mr. Lounsbury’s _Shakespeare and Voltaire_, 1902.

118. _comic and tragic scenes._ The ensuing passage gives stronger expression to what Johnson had said in the _Rambler_, No. 156.

_I do not recollect_, etc. Johnson forgets the _Cyclops_ of Euripides. Steevens compares the passage in the _Essay of Dramatic Poesy_, where Dryden says that “Aeschylus, Euripides, Sophocles, and Seneca never meddled with comedy.”

119. _instruct by pleasing._ Cf. Horace, _Ars poetica_, 343-4.

_alternations_ (line 15). The original reads _alterations_.

120. _tragedies to-day and comedies to-morrow._ As the _Aglaura_ of Suckling and the _Vestal Virgin_ of Sir Robert Howard, which have a double fifth act. Downes records that about 1662 _Romeo and Juliet_ “was made into a tragi-comedy by Mr. James Howard, he preserving Romeo and Juliet alive; so that when the tragedy was reviv’d again, ’twas play’d alternately, tragically one day and tragi-comical another” (_Roscius Anglicanus_, ed. 1789, p. 31: cf. Genest, _English Stage_, i., p. 42).

120-1. _Rhymer and Voltaire._ See _Du Théâtre anglais_, _passim_, and _Short View_, pp. 96, etc. The passage is aimed more directly at Voltaire than at Rymer. Like Rowe, Johnson misspells Rymer’s name.

122. _Shakespeare has likewise faults._ Cf. Johnson’s letter of 16th October, 1765, to Charles Burney, quoted by Boswell: “We must confess the faults of our favourite to gain credit to our praise of his excellences. He that claims, either in himself or for another, the honours of perfection, will surely injure the reputation which he designs to assist.”

124. _Pope._ Preface, p. 56.

_In tragedy_, etc. Cf. Pope (Spence’s _Anecdotes_, 1820, p. 173): “Shakespeare generally used to stiffen his style with high words and metaphors for the speeches of his kings and great men: he mistook it for a mark of greatness.”

125. _What he does best, he soon ceases to do._ This sentence first appears in the edition of 1778.

126. _the unities._ Johnson’s discussion of the three unities is perhaps the most brilliant passage in the whole preface. Cf. the _Rambler_, No. 156; Farquhar, _Discourse upon Comedy_ (1702); _Some Remarks on the Tragedy of Hamlet_ (1736); Upton, _Critical Observations_ (1746), 1. ix.; Fielding, _Tom Jones_, prefatory chapter of Book V.; Alexander Gerard, _Essay on Taste_ (1758); Daniel Webb, _Remarks on the Beauties of Poetry_ (1762); and Kames, _Elements of Criticism_ (1762). “Attic” Hurd had defended Gothic “unity of design” in his _Letters on Chivalry_ (1762).

127. _Corneille_ published his _Discours dramatiques_, the second of which dealt with the three unities, in 1660; but he had observed the unities since the publication of the _Sentiments de l’Académie sur le Cid_ (1638).

130. _Venice ... Cyprus._ See Voltaire, _Du Théâtre anglais_, vol. 61, p. 377 (ed. 1785), and cf. Rymer’s _Short View_.

131. _Non usque_, etc. Lucan, _Pharsalia_, iii. 138-140.

132. _Every man’s performances_, etc. Cf. Johnson, _Life of Dryden_: “To judge rightly of an author, we must transport ourselves to his time, and examine what were the wants of his contemporaries, and what were his means of supplying them.”

_Nations have their infancy_, etc. Cf. Johnson’s Dedication to Mrs. Lennox’s _Shakespear Illustrated_, 1753, pp. viii, ix. See note, p. 175.

133. _As you like it._ Theobald, Upton, and Zachary Grey were satisfied that _As you like it_ was founded on “the _Coke’s Tale of Gamelyn in Chaucer_.” But Johnson knows that the immediate source of the play is Thomas Lodge’s _Rosalynde, Euphues Golden Legacie_. The presence of the _Tale of Gamelyn_ in several MSS. of the _Canterbury Tales_ accounted for its erroneous ascription to Chaucer. It was still in MS. in Shakespeare’s days. Cf. Farmer’s _Essay_, p. 178.

_old Mr. Cibber_,—Colley Cibber (1671-1757), actor and poet-laureate.

_English ballads._ Johnson refers to the ballad of _King Leire and his Three Daughters_. But the ballad is of later date than the play. Cf. p. 178.

134. _Voltaire_, _Du Théâtre anglais_, vol. 61, p. 366 (ed. 1785). Cf. _Lettres philosophiques, Sur la Tragédie, ad fin._, and _Le Siècle de Louis XIV._, ch. xxxiv.

Similar comparisons of Shakespeare and Addison occur in William Guthrie’s _Essay upon English Tragedy_ (1747) and Edward Young’s _Conjectures on Original Composition_ (1759). The former may have been inspired by Johnson’s conversation. Cf. also Warburton’s comparison incorporated in Theobald’s preface of 1733.

135. _A correct and regular writer_, etc. Cf. the comparison of Dryden and Pope in Johnson’s life of the latter: “Dryden’s page is a natural field, rising into inequalities and diversified by the varied exuberance of abundant vegetation; Pope’s is a velvet lawn, shaven by the scythe and levelled by the roller.” The “garden-and-forest” comparison had already appeared, in a versified form, in the _Connoisseur_, No. 125 (17th June, 1756). Cf. also Mrs. Piozzi’s _Anecdotes of Johnson_, p. 59, “Corneille is to Shakespeare as a clipped hedge is to a forest.”

135. _small Latin and less Greek._ Ben Jonson’s poem _To the Memory of Mr. William Shakespeare_, l. 31. The first edition of the Preface read by mistake _no Greek_. Cf. Kenrick’s _Review_, 1765, p. 106, the _London Magazine_, October, 1765, p. 536, and Farmer’s _Essay_, p. 166, note.

136. _Go before, I’ll follow._ This remark was made by Zachary Grey in his _Notes on Shakespeare_, vol. ii., p. 53. He says that “Go you before and I will follow you,” _Richard III._, i. 1. 144, is “in imitation of _Terence_, ‘I prae, sequar.’ _Terentii Andr._, i., l. 144.”

_The Menaechmi of Plautus._ See note on p. 9, and cf. Farmer, p. 200.

137. _Pope._ Pp. 52, 53.

_Rowe._ P. 4.

138. _Chaucer._ Johnson has probably his eye on Pope’s statement, p. 53.

139. _Boyle._ See Birch’s _Life of Robert Boyle_, 1744, pp. 18, 19.

_Dewdrops from a lion’s mane._ _Troilus and Cressida_, iii. 3. 224.

140. _Dennis._ P. 25.

_Hieronymo._ See Farmer’s _Essay_, p. 210.

_there being no theatrical piece_, etc. “Dr. Johnson said of these writers generally that ‘they were sought after because they were scarce, and would not have been scarce had they been much esteemed.’ His decision is neither true history nor sound criticism. They were esteemed, and they deserved to be so” (Hazlitt, _Lectures on the Age of Elizabeth_, i.).

141. _the book of some modern critick._ Upton’s _Critical Observations on Shakespeare_, Book iii. (ed. 1748, pp. 294-365).

_present profit._ Cf. Pope, _Epistle to Augustus_, 69-73.

142. _declined into the vale of years._ _Othello_, iii. 3. 265.

143. _as Dr. Warburton supposes._ P. 96.

_Not because a poet was to be published by a poet_, as Warburton had said. P. 97.

_As of the other editor’s_, etc. In the first edition of the Preface, this sentence had read thus: “Of _Rowe_, as of all the editors, I have preserved the preface, and have likewise retained the authour’s life, though not written with much elegance or spirit.” This criticism is passed on Rowe’s Account as emended by Pope, but is more applicable to it in its original form.

144. The spurious plays were added to the third Folio (1663) when it was reissued in 1664.

_the dull duty of an editor._ P. 61. Cf. the condensed criticism of Pope’s edition in the _Life of Pope_.

146. Johnson’s appreciation of Hanmer was shared by Zachary Grey. “Sir Thomas Hanmer,” says Grey, “has certainly done more towards the emendation of the text than any one, and as a fine gentleman, good scholar, and (what was best of all) a good Christian, who has treated every editor with decency, I think his memory should have been exempt from ill treatment of every kind, after his death.” Johnson’s earliest criticism of Hanmer’s edition was unfavourable.

147. Warburton was incensed by this passage and the many criticisms throughout the edition, but Johnson’s prediction that “he’ll not come out, he’ll only growl in his den” proved correct. He was content to show his annoyance in private letters. See note, p. 101.

148. _Homer’s hero._ “Achilles” in the first edition.

149. _The Canons of Criticism._ See note, p. 101. Cf. Johnson’s criticism of Edwards as recorded by Boswell: “Nay (said Johnson) he has given him some sharp hits to be sure; but there is no proportion between the two men; they must not be named together. A fly, Sir, may sting a stately horse, and make him wince; but one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still” (ed. Birkbeck Hill, i. 263).

_The Revisal of Shakespear’s text_ was published anonymously by Benjamin Heath (1704-1766) in 1765. According to the preface it had been written about 1759 and was intended as “a kind of supplement to the _Canons of Criticism_.” The announcement of Johnson’s edition induced Heath to publish it: “Notwithstanding the very high opinion the author had ever, and very deservedly, entertained of the understanding, genius, and very extensive knowledge of this distinguished writer, he thought he saw sufficient reason to collect, from the specimen already given on _Macbeth_, that their critical sentiments on the text of Shakespear would very frequently, and very widely, differ.” In the first three editions of the Preface the title is given incorrectly as _The Review_, etc. See note, p. 171.

_girls with spits._ _Coriolanus_, iv. 4. 5 (iv. 3. 5 in Johnson’s own edition): “lest that thy wives with spits, and boys with stones, In puny battle slay me.”

_A falcon tow’ring._ _Macbeth_, ii. 4. 12. The first edition read, “An eagle tow’ring,” etc.

150. _small things make mean men proud._ _2 Henry VI._, iv. 1. 106.

154. _collectors of these rarities._ This passage is said to have been aimed specially at Garrick. At least Garrick took offence at it. On 22nd January, 1766, Joseph Warton writes to his brother that “Garrick is intirely off from Johnson, and cannot, he says, forgive him his insinuating that he withheld his old editions, which always were open to him” (Wooll’s _Biographical Memoirs of Joseph Warton_, 1806, p. 313). Cf. the _London Magazine_, October, 1765, p. 538.

155. _Huetius._ Pierre Daniel Huet (1630-1721), bishop of Avranches, author of _De Interpretation libri duo: quorum prior est de optimo genere interpretandi, alter de claris interpretibus_, 1661. The best known of his French works is the _Traité de l’origine de romans_. See _Huetiana_, 1722, and _Memoirs of Huet_, translated by John Aikin, 1810.

_four intervals in the play._ Cf. _Rambler_, No. 156.

157. _by railing at the stupidity_, etc. Johnson has Warburton in his mind here, though the description is applicable to others.

158. _Criticks, I saw_, etc. Pope, _Temple of Fame_, 37-40.

_the Bishop of Aleria._ Giovanni Antonio Andrea (Joannes Andreas), 1417-c. 1480, successively bishop of Accia and Aleria, librarian and secretary to Pope Sixtus IV., and editor of Herodotus, Livy, Lucan, Ovid, Quintilian, etc.

160. _Dryden_, in the _Essay of Dramatic Poesy_. In the _Life of Dryden_ Johnson refers to this passage as a “perpetual model of encomiastic criticism,” adding that the editors and admirers of Shakespeare, in all their emulation of reverence, cannot “boast of much more than of having diffused and paraphrased this epitome of excellence.”

_should want a commentary._ Contrast Rowe, Account, _ad init._ In the editions of 1773 and 1778 Johnson ended the preface with the following paragraph: “Of what has been performed in this revisal, an account is given in the following pages by Mr. Steevens, who might have spoken both of his own diligence and sagacity, in terms of greater self-approbation, without deviating from modesty or truth.”

Richard Farmer.

_Joseph Cradock_ (1742-1826) had been a student at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He left the University without a degree, but in 1765 was granted the honorary degree of M.A. by the Chancellor, the Duke of Newcastle. His _Literary and Miscellaneous Memoirs_ appeared in 1828.

162. “_Were it shewn_” _says some one._ See the review of Farmer’s _Essay_ in the _Critical Review_ of January, 1767 (vol. xxiii., p. 50).

163. _Peter Burman_ (1668-1741), Professor at Utrecht and at Leyden; editor of Horace, Ovid, Lucan, Quintilian, and other Latin classics.

“_Truly_,” _as Mr. Dogberry says._ _Much Ado_, iii. 5. 22.

_Burgersdicius_,—Franco Burgersdijck (1590-1629), Dutch logician, Professor at Leyden. His _Institutionum logicarum libri duo_ was for long a standard text-book. Cf. Goldsmith, _Life of Parnell, ad init._: “His progress through the college course of study was probably marked with but little splendour; his imagination might have been too warm to relish the cold logic of Burgersdicius.” See also the _Dunciad_, iv. 198.

_Locke._ This paragraph is a reply to an argument in the _Critical Review_ (xxiii., pp. 47, 48).

_Quotation from Lilly._ See p. 201.

_the Water-poet_, John Taylor (1580-1653); cf. Farmer’s note, p. 212.

The quotation is from _Taylor’s Motto_ (Spenser Society Reprint of Folio of 1630, p. 217):—

I was well entred (forty Winters since) As far as _possum_ in my _Accidence_; And reading but from _possum_ to _posset_, There I was mir’d, and could no further get.

In his _Thiefe_ he says “all my schollership is schullership” (_id._, p. 282).

164. _held horses at the door of the playhouse._ This anecdote was given in Theophilus Cibber’s _Lives of the Poets_, 1753, i., p. 130. Johnson appended it, in his edition, to Rowe’s _Account of Shakespeare_ (ed. 1765, p. clii), and it was printed in the same year in the _Gentleman’s Magazine_ (xxxv., p. 475). The story was told to Pope by Rowe, who got it from Betterton, who in turn had heard it from Davenant; but Rowe wisely doubted its authenticity and did not insert it in his _Account_ (see the Variorum edition of 1803, i., pp. 120-122).—Farmer makes fun of it here,—and uses it to vary the _Critical_ reviewer’s description—“as naked with respect to all literary merit as he was when he first went under the ferula” (_Crit. Rev._ xxiii., p. 50).

_Dodsley_, Robert (1703-1764), publisher and author, declared himself “Untutored by the love of Greece or Rome” in his blank verse poem _Agriculture_, 1753, canto ii., line 319. His _Toy-Shop, a Dramatick Satire,_ was acted and printed in 1735. The quotation is not verbally accurate; see the _New British Theatre_, 1787, xvii., p. 48.

_A word of exceeding good command._ _2 Henry IV._, iii. 2. 84.

165. _learned Rubbish._ Cf. Pope, _Essay on Criticism_, line 613.

_Paths of Nature._ Cf. Prior, _Charity_, line 25.

_one of the first criticks of the age._ Dr. Johnson: see Introduction, p. xxvii.

_a brother of the craft._ “Mr. Seward, in his Preface to _Beaumont and Fletcher_, 10 vols. 8vo., 1750” (Farmer). Cf. Theobald, Introduction to _Shakespeare Restored_: “Shakespeare’s works have always appear’d to me like what he makes his Hamlet compare the world to, an _unweeded Garden grown to Seed_.”

_contrary to the statute._ See Horace, _Ars Poetica_, 136, etc.

166. _Small Latin and less Greek._ “This passage of Ben. Jonson, so often quoted, is given us in the admirable preface to the late edition, with a various reading, ‘Small Latin and _no_ Greek’; which hath been held up to the publick as a modern sophistication: yet whether an error or not, it was adopted above a century ago by W. Towers, in a panegyrick on Cartwright. His eulogy, with more than fifty others, on this now forgotten poet, was prefixed to the edit. 1651” (Farmer). Johnson corrected the error in subsequent editions. See note, p. 135.

“_darling project_,” etc. Kenrick, _Review of Dr. Johnson’s New Edition of Shakespeare_, 1765, p. 106: “Your darling project ... of invidiously representing him as a _varlet_, one of the illiterate vulgar.”

166. _braying faction._ See _Don Quixote_, ii. 25 and 27. _those who accuse him_, etc. Dryden, _Essay of Dramatic Poesy_.

160. “Greatest commendation” should read “greater commendation.”

_editor in form._ See Warburton, p. 97.

_sufficient to decide the controversy._ See Johnson, p. 135.

167. _whose memory he honoured._ Farmer has added to the quotation from Jonson’s Poem “To the Memory of my Beloved Mr. William Shakespeare” a phrase from the passage “De Shakespeare Nostrati” in Jonson’s _Discoveries_: “I loved the man, and do honour his memory on this side idolatry as much as any.”

_“__Jealousy,__”__ cries Mr. Upton._ In his _Critical Observations_, 1748, p. 5.

_Drayton_, “In his Elegie on Poets and Poesie, p. 206. Fol., 1627” (Farmer).

_Digges_, Leonard (1588-1635). “From his Poem ‘upon Mister William Shakespeare,’ intended to have been prefixed, with the other of his composition, to the folio of 1623: and afterward printed in several miscellaneous collections: particularly the spurious edition of Shakespeare’s Poems, 1640. Some account of him may be met with in Wood’s _Athenae_” (Farmer).

_Suckling._ _Fragmenta Aurea_, 1646, p. 35:

The sweat of learned _Johnson’s_ brain And gentle _Shakespear’s_ easier strain.

_Denham_ “On Mr. Abraham Cowley,” _Poems_, 1671, p. 90:

Old Mother Wit and Nature gave _Shakespear_ and _Fletcher_ all they have.

_Milton._ _L’Allegro_, 134.

_Dryden._ _Essay of Dramatic Poesy_: see p. 160.

_some one else._ Edward Young, the author of _Night Thoughts_, in his _Conjectures on Original Composition_, 1759, p. 31.

168. _Hales of Eton._ See p. 8.

_Fuller_,—_Worthies of England_, 1662, “Warwickshire,” p. 126: “Indeed his Learning was very little, so that as _Cornish diamonds_ are not polished by any Lapidary, but are pointed and smoothed even as they are taken out of the Earth, so _nature_ it self was all the _art_ which was used upon him.” The concluding phrase of Farmer’s quotation is taken from an earlier portion of Fuller’s description: “William Shakespeare ... in whom three eminent Poets may seem in some sort to be compounded, 1. _Martial_ ... 2. _Ovid_ ... 3. _Plautus_, who was an exact comedian, yet never any scholar, as our _Shakespeare_ (if alive) would confess himself.”

_untutored lines._ Dedication of the _Rape of Lucrece_.

_Mr. Glldon._ “Hence perhaps the _ill-starr’d rage_ between this critick and his elder brother, John Dennis, so pathetically lamented in the _Dunciad_. Whilst the former was persuaded that ‘the man who doubts of the learning of Shakespeare hath none of his own,’ the latter, above regarding the attack in his _private_ capacity, declares with great patriotick vehemence that ‘he who allows Shakespeare had learning, and a familiar acquaintance with the Ancients, ought to be looked upon as a detractor from the glory of Great Britain.’ Dennis was expelled his college for attempting to stab a man in the dark: Pope would have been glad of this anecdote” (Farmer). Farmer supplied the details in a letter to Isaac Reed dated Jan. 28, 1794: see the _European Magazine_, June, 1794, pp. 412-3.

_Sewell_, in the preface to the seventh volume of Pope’s Shakespear, 1725.

_Pope._ See p. 52.

_Theobald._ See p. 75.

_Warburton_, in his notes to Shakespeare, _passim_.

169. _Upton_, in his _Critical Observations_, 1748, pp. 3 and 5.

“_Hath hard words_,” etc. _Hudibras_, 1. i. 85-6.

_trochaic dimeter_, etc. See Upton, _Critical Observations_, p. 366, etc.

“_it was a learned age_,” etc. _Id._, p. 5. Cf. Hurd’s _Marks of Imitation_, 1757, p. 24.

_Grey_, in his _Notes on Shakespeare_, 1754, vol. i., p. vii.

_Dodd_, William (1729-1777), the forger, editor of the _Beauties of Shakespeare_, 1752.

_Whalley._ Farmer is here unfair to Whalley. The _Enquiry into the Learning of Shakespeare_ shows plainly that Whalley preferred Shakespeare to Jonson. Further, his _Enquiry_ was earlier than his edition of Jonson. In it Whalley expresses the hope “that some Gentleman of Learning would oblige the Public with a correct Edition” (p. 23).

170. _Addison ... Chevy Chase._ See the _Spectator_, Nos. 70 and 74 (May, 1711).

_Wagstaffe_, William (1685-1725), ridiculed Addison’s papers on _Chevy Chase_ in _A Comment upon the History of Tom Thumb_, 1711.

_Marks of Imitation._ Hurd’s _Letter to Mr. Mason, on the Marks of Imitation_ was printed in 1757. It was added to his edition of Horace’s Epistles to the Pisos and Augustus.

_as Mat. Prior says_,—_Alma_, i. 241: “And save much Christian ink’s effusion.”

_Read Libya._ Upton, _Critical Observations_, p. 255.

171. _Heath._ “It is extraordinary that this Gentleman should attempt so voluminous a work as the _Revisal of Shakespeare’s Text_, when, he tells us in his Preface, ‘he was not so fortunate as to be furnished with either of the Folio editions, much less any of the ancient Quartos’: and even ‘Sir Thomas Hanmer’s performance was known to him only by Mr. Warburton’s representation’ ” (Farmer).

171. _Thomas North._ “I find the character of this work pretty early delineated:

“’Twas Greek at first, that Greek was Latin made, That Latin French, that French to English straid: Thus ’twixt one Plutarch there’s more difference, Than i’ th’ same Englishman return’d from France.” (Farmer).

“_What a reply is this?_” Upton, _Critical Observations_, p. 249.

“_Our author certainly wrote_,” etc. Theobald, ed. 1733, vi., p. 178.

172. _Epitaph on Timon._ “See Theobald’s Preface to _K. Richard 2d._ 8vo. 1720” (Farmer).

_I cannot however omit_, etc. The following passage, down to “from Homer himself” (foot of p. 175) was added in the second edition.

“_The speeches copy’d from Plutarch_,” etc. See Pope’s Preface, p. 53.

_Should we be silent._ _Coriolanus_, v. 3. 94, etc.

174. _The Sun’s a thief._ _Timon of Athens_, iv. 3. 439, etc.

_Dodd._ See the _Beauties of Shakespeare_, 1752, iii. 285, n. The remark was omitted in the edition of 1780.

_“__our Author,__”__ says some one._ This quotation is from the criticism of Farmer’s _Essay_ in the _Critical Review_ of January, 1767 (vol. xxiii., p. 50; cf. vol. xxi., p. 21).

_Mynheer De Pauw._ See _Anacreontis Odae et Fragmenta, Graece et Latine ... cum notis Joannis Cornelii de Pauw_, Utrecht, 1732.

_two Latin translations._ “By Henry Stephens and Elias Andreas, Paris, 1554, 4to, ten years before the birth of Shakespeare. The former version hath been ascribed without reason to John Dorat. Many other translators appeared before the end of the century: and particularly the Ode in question was made popular by Buchanan, whose pieces were soon to be met with in almost every modern language” (Farmer).

_Puttenham._ _Arte of English Poesie_, iii., ch. xxii. (Arber, p. 259; _Elizabethan Critical Essays_, ed. Gregory Smith, ii., p. 171). The “some one of a reasonable good facilitie in translation” is John Southern, whose _Musyque of the Beautie of his Mistresse Diana_, containing translations from Ronsard, appeared in 1584.

175. _Mrs. Lennox_, Charlotte Ramsay or Lennox (1720-1804), author of _Shakespear Illustrated: or the Novels and Histories on which the Plays of Shakespear are founded, collected and translated from the original Authors, with critical Remarks_, 3 vols., 1753, 54. She is better known by her _Female Quixote_, 1752.

_the old story._ “It was originally _drawn into Englishe_ by Caxton under the name of the _Recuyel of the Historyes of Troye_, etc.... Wynken de Worde printed an edit. Fol. 1503, and there have been several subsequent ones” (Farmer).

_sweet oblivious antidote._ Upton, p. 42, n.

Νηπενθές. _Odyssey_, iv. 221.

_Chapman’s_ seven books of the _Iliad_ appeared in 1598. The translation of the _Iliad_ was completed in 1611 and that of the _Odyssey_ in 1614.

_Barclay._ “Who list thistory of Patroclus to reade, etc. _Ship of Fooles_, 1570, p. 21” (Farmer).

_Spenser._ Farmer quotes in a note from the _Faerie Queene_, iv. iii. 43.

_Greek expressions._ Upton, p. 321.

176. “_Lye in a water-bearer’s house_,” _Every Man in his Humour_, Act i., Sc. 3.

176. _Daniel the Historian_, _i.e._ Samuel Daniel the poet (1562-1619), whose _Collection of the Historie of England_ appeared in 1612 and 1617. Cf. p. 190.

_Kuster._ See note on p. 108. “Aristophanis Comoediae undecim. Gr. and Lat. Amst. 1710. Fol., p. 596” (Farmer).

_unyoke_ (_Hamlet_, v. 1. 59). See Upton, pp. 321, 322.

_Orphan heirs_ (_Merry Wives_, v. 5. 43), _id._, p. 322. “Dr. Warburton corrects _orphan_ to _ouphen_; and not without plausibility, as the word _ouphes_ occurs both before and afterward. But I fancy, in acquiescence to the vulgar doctrine, the address in this line is to a part of the _Troop_, as Mortals by birth, but adopted by the Fairies: _Orphans_ with respect to their _real_ Parents, but now only dependant on _Destiny_ herself. A few lines from Spenser will sufficiently illustrate the passage” (Farmer). Farmer then quotes from the _Faerie Queene_, 111. iii. 26.

177. _Heath._ “_Revisal_, pp. 75, 323, and 561” (Farmer).

_Upton._ His edition of the _Faerie Queene_ appeared in 1758.

_William Lilly_ (1602-1681), astrologer. “_History of his Life and Times_, p. 102, preserved by his dupe, Mr. Ashmole” (Farmer). _Elias Ashmole_ (1617-1692), who bequeathed his museum and library to the University of Oxford.

_Truepenny._ Upton, p. 26.

178. _a legendary ballad._ The reference is to _King Lear_. But the ballad to _King Leire and his Three Daughters_ is of later date than the play. This error in Percy’s _Reliques_ was for long repeated by editors and critics.

_The Palace of Pleasure_, “beautified, adorned, and well furnished with pleasaunt Histories and excellent Nouelles, selected out of diuers good and commendable authors by William Painter, Clarke of the Ordinaunce and Armarie,” appeared in two volumes in 1566-67; reprinted by Haslewood in 1813 and by Mr. Joseph Jacobs in 1890.

_English Plutarch._ See above.

_Jacke Drum’s Entertainment: or, the Comedie of Pasquill and Katherine_, 4to, London, 1601; reprinted 1616 and 1618.

178. _We are sent to Cinthio_, in Mrs. Lennox’s _Shakespear Illustrated_, 1753, vol. i., pp. 21-37.

_Heptameron of Whetstone._ “Lond., 4to, 1582. She _reports_, in the fourth dayes exercise, the rare Historie of _Promos and Cassandra_. A marginal note informs us that Whetstone was the author of the _Commedie_ on that subject; which likewise might have fallen into the hands of Shakespeare” (Farmer).

_Genevra of Turberville._ “ ‘The tale is a pretie comicall matter, and hath bin written in English verse some few years past, learnedly and with good grace, by M. George Turberuil.’ Harrington’s _Ariosto_, Fol. 1591, p. 39” (Farmer).

_Coke’s Tale of Gamelyn._ Cf. Johnson’s Preface, p. 133.

_Love’s Labour Wonne._ “See Meres’s _Wits Treasury_, 1598, p. 282” (Farmer). Cf. the allusion to it in Tyrwhitt’s _Observations and Conjectures_, 1766, p. 16. _Love’s Labour Wonne_ has been identified also with the _Taming of the Shrew_, _Much Ado_, _Midsummer Night’s Dream_, the _Tempest_, and _Love’s Labour’s Lost_.

_Boccace._ “Our ancient poets are under greater obligation to Boccace than is generally imagined. Who would suspect that Chaucer hath borrowed from an Italian the facetious tale of the _Miller of Trumpington_?” etc. (Farmer).

_Painter’s Giletta of Narbon._ “In the first vol. of the _Palace of Pleasure_, 4to, 1566” (Farmer).

_Langbaine._ _Account of the English Dramatick Poets_, 1691, p. 462.

_Appolynus._ “_Confessio Amantis_, printed by T. Berthelet, Fol. 1532, p. 175, etc.” (Farmer). See G. C. Macaulay’s edition of Gower, Oxford, 1901, iii. 396 (Bk. VIII., ll. 375, etc.).

_Pericles._ On Farmer’s suggestion, Malone included _Pericles_ in his edition of Shakespeare, and it has appeared in all subsequent editions except Keightley’s. See _Cambridge Shakespeare_, vol. ix., p. ix.

_Aulus Gellius_, _Noct. Attic._ iii. 3. 6.

179. _Ben. Jonson._ “Ode on the _New Inn_,” stanza 3.

_The Yorkshire Tragedy._ “ ‘William Caluerley, of Caluerley in Yorkshire, Esquire, murdered two of his owne children in his owne house, then stabde his wife into the body with full intent to haue killed her, and then instantlie with like fury went from his house to haue slaine his yongest childe at nurse, but was preuented. Hee was prest to death in Yorke the 5 of August, 1604.’ _Edm. Howes’ Continuation of John Stowe’s Summarie_, 8vo, 1607, p. 574. The story appeared before in a 4to pamphlet, 1605. It is omitted in the Folio chronicle, 1631” (Farmer).

_the strictures of Scriblerus._ “These, however, he assures Mr. Hill, were the property of Dr. Arbuthnot” (Farmer). See Pope’s _Works_, ed. Elwin & Courthope, x., p. 53.

_This late example._ _Double Falshood_, ii. 4. 6-8.

_You have an aspect. Id._, iv. 1. 46.

_a preceding elision._ “Thus a line in Hamlet’s description of the Player should be printed as in the old Folios:

“Tears in his eyes, distraction in’s aspect,”

agreeably to the accent in a hundred other places” (Farmer).

_This very accent_, etc. This passage, down to the end of the quotation from Thomson (top of p. 183), was added in the second edition.

_Bentley._ Preface to his edition of _Paradise Lost_, 1732.

180. _Manwaring_, Edward. See his treatise _Of Harmony and Numbers in Latin and English Prose, and in English Poetry_ (1744), p. 49.

_Green._ May this “extraordinary gentleman” be George Smith Green, the Oxford watchmaker, author of a prose rendering of Milton’s _Paradise Lost_, 1745; or Edward Burnaby Greene, author of _Poetical Essays_, 1772, and of translations from the classics? There is no copy of the “Specimen of a new Version of the _Paradise Lost_ into blank verse” in the Library of the British Museum, nor in any public collection which the present editor has consulted.

_Dee_, John (1527-1608), astrologer.

_Strike up, my masters. Double Falshood_, Act i., Sc. 3.

181. _Victor_, Benjamin (died 1778), was made Poet Laureate of Ireland in 1755. He produced in 1761, in two volumes, the _History of the Theatres of London and Dublin, from the year 1730 to the present time._ A third volume brought the history of the theatre down to 1771. Farmer refers to vol. ii., p. 107: “_Double Falshood_, a Tragedy, by Mr. _Theobald_, said by him to be written by _Shakespear_, which no one credited; and on Enquiry, the following Contradiction appeared; the Story of the _Double Falshood_ is taken from the _Spanish_ of _Cervantes_, who printed it in the year after _Shakespear_ died. This Play was performed twelve Nights.”

_Langbaine informs us._ _English Dramatick Poets_, p. 475.

_Andromana._ “This play hath the letters J.S. in the title page, and was printed in the year 1660, but who was its author I have not been able to learn,” Dodsley, _Collection of Old Plays_, 1744, vol. xi. p. 172. In the second edition (ed. Isaac Reed, 1780) the concluding words are replaced by a reference to the prologue written in 1671, which says that “’Twas Shirley’s muse that labour’d for its birth.” But there appears to be no further evidence that the play was by Shirley.

_Hume._ See the account of Shakespeare in his _History_, reign of James I., _ad fin._, 1754: “He died in 1617, aged 53 years.” The date of his death, but not his age, was corrected in the edition of 1770.

_MacFlecknoe_, line 102.

182. _Newton informs us_, in the note on _Paradise Lost_, iv. 556 (ed. 1757, i., p. 202). See note on p. 110.

182. _Her eye did seem to labour._ _The Brothers_, Act i., Sc. 1. “Middleton, in an obscure play, called _A Game at Chesse_, hath some very pleasing lines on a similar occasion:

Upon those lips, the sweete fresh buds of youth, The holy dew of prayer lies like pearle, Dropt from the opening eye-lids of the morne Upon the bashfull Rose” (Farmer).

_Lander_, William (died 1771), author of _An Essay on Milton’s use and imitation of the Moderns in his Paradise Lost_, 1750.

_Richardson_, Jonathan (1665-1745), portrait painter, joint author with his son of _Explanatory Notes and Remarks on Milton’s Paradise Lost_, 1734. The quotation is taken from p. 338.

183. _The stately sailing Swan._ Thomson, _Spring_, 778-782.

_Gildon._ See Pope’s Shakespeare, vol. vii., p. 358.

_Master Prynne._ “Had our zealous Puritan been acquainted with the real crime of De Mehun, he would not have joined in the clamour against him. Poor Jehan, it seems, had raised the expectations of a monastery in France, by the legacy of a great chest, and the weighty contents of it; but it proved to be filled with nothing better than _vetches_. The friars, enraged at the ridicule and disappointment, would not suffer him to have Christian burial. See the Hon. Mr. Barrington’s very learned and curious _Observations on the Statutes_, 4to, 1766, p. 24. From the _Annales d’Acquytayne, Paris_, 1537.—Our author had his full share in distressing the spirit of this restless man. ‘Some Play-books are grown from _Quarto_ into _Folio_; which yet bear so good a price and sale, that I cannot but with griefe relate it.—_Shackspeer’s Plaies_ are printed in the best Crowne-paper, far better than most _Bibles_!’ ” (Farmer).

_Whalley._ _Enquiry_, pp. 54-5; _Tempest_, iv. 1. 101; _Aeneid_, i. 46. Farmer added the following note in the second edition: “Others would give up this passage for the _Vera incessu patuit Dea_; but I am not able to see any improvement in the matter: even supposing the poet had been speaking of Juno, and no previous translation were extant.” See the _Critical Review_, xxiii., p. 52.

184. _John Taylor._ See notes, pp. 163 and 212.

“_Most inestimable Magazine_,” etc. From _A Whore_, Spenser Society Reprint of Folio of 1630, p. 272.

_By two-headed Janus._ _Merchant of Venice_, i. 1. 50.

_Like a Janus with a double-face_—_Taylor’s Motto_, Spenser Soc. Reprint, p. 206.

_Sewel._ Apparently a mistake for “Gildon,” whose _Essay on the Stage_ is preceded immediately, in the edition of 1725, by Sewell’s preface. “His motto to _Venus and Adonis_ is another proof,” says Gildon, p. iv.

_Taylor ... a whole Poem_,—_Taylor’s Motto_, “Et habeo, et careo, et curo,” Spenser Soc. Reprint, pp. 204, etc.

_sweet Swan of Thames._ Pope, _Dunciad_, iii. 20:

Taylor, their better Charon, lends an oar (Once Swan of Thames, tho’ now he sings no more).

_Dodd._ _Beauties of Shakespeare_, iii., p. 18 (ed. 1780).

185. _Pastime of Pleasure._ “Cap. i., 4to, 1555” (Farmer).

_Pageants._ “Amongst ‘the things which Mayster More wrote in his youth for his pastime’ prefixed to his _Workes_, 1557, Fol.” (Farmer).

_a very liberal Writer._ See Daniel Webb’s _Remarks on the Beauties of Poetry_, 1762, pp. 120, 121.

This passage, to “classical standard” (foot of p. 186), was added in the second edition.

_See, what a grace._ _Hamlet_, iii. 4. 55.

_the words of a better Critick._ Hurd, _Marks of Imitation_, 1757, p. 24.

186. _Testament of Creseide._ “Printed amongst the works of Chaucer, but really written by _Robert Henderson_, or _Henryson_, according to other authorities” (Farmer). It was never _ascribed_ to Chaucer, not even in Thynne’s edition.

_Fairy Queen._ “It is observable that _Hyperion_ is used by Spenser with the same error in quantity” (Farmer).

_Upton._ _Critical Observations_, pp. 230, 231. _Much Ado_, iii. 2. 11.

_Theophilus Cibber_ (1703-1758), the actor, put his name on the title page of the _Lives of the Poets_ (five vols., 1753), which was mainly the work of Robert Shiels (died 1753); see Johnson’s _Life of Hammond, ad init._, and Boswell, ed. Birkbeck Hill, iii. 29-31. For the reference to the _Arcadia_, see “Cibber’s” _Lives_, i. 83.

_Ames_, Joseph (1689-1759), author of _Typographical Antiquities_, 1749.

187. _Lydgate._ Farmer has a long note here on the versification of Lydgate and Chaucer. “Let me here,” he says, “make an observation for the benefit of the next editor of Chaucer. Mr. Urry, probably misled by his predecessor Speght, was determined, Procrustes-like, to force every line in the _Canterbury Tales_ to the same standard; but a precise number of syllables was not the object of our old poets,” etc.

_Hurd._ This quotation, which Farmer added in the second edition, is from Hurd’s Notes to Horace’s _Epistolae ad Pisones et Augustum_, 1757, vol. i., p. 214. Cf. also his _Discourse on Poetical Imitation_, pp. 125 and 132, and the _Marks of Imitation_, p. 74. The passage in which the “one imitation is fastened on our Poet” occurs in the _Marks of Imitation_, pp. 19, 20. Cf. note on p. 170.

188. _Upton._ _Critical Observations_, p. 217.

_Whalley._ _Enquiry_, pp. 55, 56.

_Measure for Measure_, iii. 1. 118.

_Platonick Hell of Virgil._ Farmer quotes in a note _Aeneid_, vi. 740-742.

188. _an old Homily._ “At the ende of the _Festyuall_, drawen oute of _Legenda aurea_, 4to, 1508. It was first printed by Caxton, 1483, ‘in helpe of such Clerkes who excuse theym for defaute of bokes, and also by symplenes of connynge’ ” (Farmer).

_brenning heate._ “On all soules daye, p. 152” (Farmer).

_Menage._ Cf. p. 109.

_our Greek Professor._ Michael Lort (1725-1790), Regius Professor in Cambridge University from 1759 to 1771.

_Blefkenius_,—Dithmar Blefken, who visited Iceland in 1563 and wrote the first account of the island. “_Islandiae Descript._ Lugd. Bat. 1607, p. 46” (Farmer).

_After all, Shakespeare’s curiosity_, etc.... _original Gothic_ (top of p. 190), added in second edition.

_Douglas._ Farmer has used the 1710 Folio of Gavin Douglas’s _Aeneid_.

189. _Till the foul crimes._ _Hamlet_, i. 5. 12.

“_Shakespeare himself in the Tempest._” Quoted from the _Critical Review_, xxiii., p. 50; cf. also xix., p. 165.

_Most sure, the Goddess._ _Tempest_, i. 2. 421.

_Epitaphed, the inventor of the English hexameter._ Gabriel Harvey’s _Four Letters_ (Third Letter). See _Elizabethan Critical Essays_, ed. Gregory Smith, ii. 230.

_halting on Roman feet._ Pope, _Epistle to Augustus_, 98: “And Sidney’s verse halts ill on Roman feet.”

_Hall._ Satire i. 6.

190. Daniel’s _Defence of Rhyme_, in answer to Campion’s _Observations on the Art of English Poesie_, appeared in 1602.

_in his eye._ Cf. Theobald, Preface to _Richard II._, p. 5, and Whalley, _Enquiry_, p. 54.

_Ye elves of hills._ _Tempest_, v. 1. 33.

_Holt._ “In some remarks on the _Tempest_, published under the quaint title of _An Attempte to rescue that aunciente English Poet and Play-wrighte, Maister Williaume Shakespeare, from the many Errours faulsely charged upon him by certaine new-fangled Wittes_. Lond. 8vo, 1749, p. 81” (Farmer). On the title page Holt signs himself “a gentleman formerly of Gray’s Inn.” He issued proposals in 1750 for an edition of Shakespeare. Cf. p. 206.

_Auraeque_, etc. Ovid, _Met._ vii. 197-8.

_Golding._ “His work is dedicated to the Earl of Leicester in a long epistle in verse, from Berwicke, April 20, 1567” (Farmer). The translation of the first four books had appeared in 1565.

_Some love not a gaping Pig._ _Merchant of Venice_, iv. 1. 47.

191. _Peter le Loier._ “M. Bayle hath delineated the singular character of our _fantastical_ author. His work was originally translated by one Zacharie Jones. My edit. is in 4to, 1605, with an anonymous Dedication to the King: the Devonshire story was therefore well known in the time of Shakespeare.—The passage from Scaliger is likewise to be met with in _The Optick Glasse of Humors_, written, I believe, by T. Wombwell; and in several other places” (Farmer). Reed quotes a manuscript note by Farmer on the statement that it was written by Wombwell: “So I imagined from a note of Mr. Baker’s, but I have since seen a copy in the library of Canterbury Cathedral, printed 1607, and ascribed to T. Walkington of St. John’s, Cambridge.”

_He was a man_, etc. _Henry VIII._, iv. 2. 33.

192. _Holingshed._ Farmer’s quotations from Holinshed are not _literatim_.

_Indisputably the passage_, etc. (to the end of the quotation from Skelton),—added in the second edition.

Hall’s _Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Famelies of Lancastre and Yorke_ (1548) was freely used by Holinshed, but there is a passage in _Henry VIII._ which shows that the dramatist knew Hall’s chronicle at first hand.

193. _Skelton._ “His Poems are printed with the title of _Pithy, Pleasaunt, and Profitable Workes of Maister Skelton, Poete Laureate_,” etc. Farmer then explains with his usual learning Skelton’s title of “poet laureate.”

_Upton._ _Critical Observations_, p. 47, n.

_Pierce Plowman._ This reference was added in the second edition. On the other hand, the following reference, which was given in the first edition after the quotation from _Hieronymo_, was omitted: “And in Dekker’s _Satiro-Mastix, or the Untrussing of the humourous Poet_, Sir Rees ap Vaughan swears in the same manner.”

_Hieronymo_, ii. 2. 87, 91-93 (_Works of Thomas Kyd_, ed. Boas, p. 24).

_Garrick._ “Mr. Johnson’s edit., vol. viii., p. 171” (Farmer). The following three pages, from “_a Gentleman_” (foot of p. 193) to the end of the Latin quotation at the top of p. 197, were added in the second edition.

194. _Upton._ _Critical Observations_, p. 300.

_This villain here._ _2 Henry VI._, iv. 1. 106.

Grimald’s “Three Bookes of Duties, tourned out of Latin into English” appeared in 1555. “I have met with a writer who tells us that a translation of the _Offices_ was printed by Caxton in the year 1481: but such a book never existed. It is a mistake for _Tullius of Old Age_, printed with the _Boke of Frendshipe_, by John Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester. I believe the former was translated by William Wyrcestre, _alias_ Botoner” (Farmer).

_There is no bar._ _Henry V._, i. 2. 35.

195. _It hath lately been repeated_, etc. In the _Critical Review_, xxiii., p. 50; cf. p. xxi, p. 21.

_Guthrie_, William (1708-1770), whose reports to the _Gentleman’s Magazine_ were revised by Johnson. He wrote histories of _England_ (4 vols., 1744, etc.), the _World_ (12 vols., 1764, etc.), and _Scotland_ (10 vols., 1767). His _Essay upon English Tragedy_ had appeared in 1747. See note, p. 101.

196. _All hail, Macbeth._ 1. iii. 48-50.

_Macbeth._ The probable date of _Macbeth_ is 1606.

_Wake_, Sir Isaac (1580-1632). The _Rex Platonicus_, celebrating the visit of James I. to Oxford in 1605, appeared in 1607.

197. _Grey._ _Notes on Shakespeare_, p. vii.; cf. vol. ii., p. 289, etc.

_Whalley._ _Enquiry_, p. v.

_a very curious and intelligent gentleman._ Capell: see below.

_It hath indeed been said_, etc. In the _Critical Review_, xxiii., p. 50. Accordingly the following passage (to “Mr. Lort,” foot of p. 199) was added in the second edition.

_Saxo Grammaticus._ “ ‘Falsitatis enim (Hamlethus) alienus haberi cupidus, ita astutiam veriloquio permiscebat, ut nec dictis veracitas deesset, nec acuminis modus verorum judicio proderetur.’ This is quoted, as it had been before, in Mr. Guthrie’s _Essay on Tragedy_, with a _small_ variation from the _Original_. See edit. fol. 1644, p. 50” (Farmer). The quotation was given in the _Critical Review_, xxiii., p. 50.

198. _The Hystorie of Hamblet._ It is now known that Shakespeare’s “original” was the early play of _Hamlet_, which was probably written by Thomas Kyd, towards the end of 1587. See _Works of Kyd_, ed. Boas, Introduction, iv.

Though Farmer disproves Shakespeare’s use of _Saxo Grammaticus_, he errs in the importance he gives to the _Hystorie of Hamblet_. No English “translation from the French of Belleforest” appears to have been issued before 1608.

_Duke of Newcastle_, Thomas Pelham-Holles (1693-1768), first Lord of the Treasury, 1754, Lord Privy Seal, 1765-66, Chancellor of Cambridge University from 1748.

199. _Painter._ See above, p. 178.

_Tom Rawlinson_ (1681-1725), satirised as “Tom Folio” by Addison in the _Tatler_, No. 158.

_Colman_, George, the elder (1732-1794), brought out the _Comedies of Terence translated into familiar blank verse_ in 1765. He replied to Farmer’s _Essay_, the merit of which he admitted, in the appendix to a later edition. Farmer’s answer is given in the letter which Steevens printed as an appendix to his edition of Johnson’s Shakespeare, 1773, viii., App. ii., note on _Love’s Labour’s Lost_, iv. 2. In a long footnote in the _Essay_, Farmer replies also to an argument advanced by Bonnell Thornton (1724-1768), Colman’s associate in the _Connoisseur_, in his translation of the _Trinummus_, 1767.

200. _Redime te captum._ _Eunuchus_, i. 1. 29; _Taming of the Shrew_, i. 1. 167.

_translation of the Menaechmi._ “It was published in 4to, 1595. The printer of Langbaine, p. 524, hath accidentally given the date 1515, which hath been copied implicitly by Gildon, Theobald, Cooke, and several others. Warner is now almost forgotten, yet the old criticks esteemed him one of ‘our chiefe heroical _makers_.’ Meres informs us that he had ‘heard him termed of the best wits of both our Universities, our _English Homer_’ ” (Farmer). See note on p. 9.

_Riccoboni_, Luigi (1674-1753). See his _Réflexions historiques sur les differens théatres de l’Europe_, 1738, English translation, 1741, p. 163: “If really that good comedy Plautus was the first that appeared, we must yield to the English the merit of having opened their stage with a good prophane piece, whilst the other nations in Europe began theirs with the most wretched farces.”

_Hanssach_, Hans Sachs (1494-1576).

201. _Gascoigne._ “His works were first collected under the singular title of ‘A hundreth sundrie Flowres bounde up in one small Poesie. Gathered partly (by translation) in the fyne outlandish Gardins of _Euripides_, _Ouid_, _Petrarke_, _Ariosto_, and others: and partly by inuention, out of our owne fruitefull Orchardes in Englande: yelding sundrie sweete sauours of tragical, comical, and morall discourses, bothe pleasaunt and profitable to the well smellyng noses of learned Readers.’ _Black letter_, 4to, no date” (Farmer).

“_Our authour had this line from Lilly._” Johnson, edition of 1765, vol. iii., p. 20.

_an unprovoked antagonist._ “W. Kenrick’s Review of Dr. Johnson’s edit. of Shakespeare, 1765, 8vo, p. 105” (Farmer).

_We have hitherto supposed._ The next three paragraphs were added in the second edition.

202. _Gosson._ See Arber’s reprint, p. 40.

_Hearne_, Thomas (1678-1735) edited William of Worcester’s _Annales Rerum Anglicarum_ in 1728. “I know indeed there is extant a very old poem, in _black letter_, to which it might have been supposed Sir John Harrington alluded, had he not spoken of the discovery as a _new_ one, and recommended it as worthy the notice of his countrymen: I am persuaded the method in the old bard will not be thought _either_. At the end of the sixth volume of Leland’s _Itinerary_, we are _favoured_ by Mr. Hearne with a Macaronic poem on a battle at Oxford between the scholars and the townsmen: on a line of which, ‘Invadunt aulas _bycheson cum forth_ geminantes,’ our commentator very wisely and gravely remarks: ‘_Bycheson_, id est, _son_ of a _byche_, ut e codice Rawlinsoniano edidi. Eo nempe modo quo et olim _whorson_ dixerunt pro _son of a whore_. Exempla habemus cum alibi tum in libello quodam lepido & antiquo (inter codices Seldenianos in Bibl. Bodl.) qui inscribitur: _The Wife lapped in Morel’s Skin: or the Taming of a Shrew_’ ” (Farmer). Farmer then gives Hearne’s quotation of two verses from it, pp. 36 and 42.

202. _Pope’s list._ At the end of vol. vi. of his edition.

_Ravenscroft_, Edward, in his _Titus Andronicus, or the Rape of Lavinia_, 1687, “To the Reader”; see Ingleby’s _Centurie of Prayse_, p. 404.

203. _The Epistles, says one, of Paris and Helen._ Sewell, Preface to Pope’s Shakespeare, vol. vii., 1725, p. 10.

_It may be concluded, says another._ Whalley, _Enquiry_, p. 79.

_Jaggard._ “It may seem little matter of wonder that the name of Shakespeare should be borrowed for the benefit of the bookseller; and by the way, as probably for a _play_ as a _poem_: but modern criticks may be surprised perhaps at the complaint of John Hall, that ‘certayne chapters of the _Proverbes_, translated by him into English metre, 1550, had before been untruely _entituled_ to be the doyngs of Mayster Thomas Sternhold’ ” (Farmer).

204. _Biographica Britannica_, 1763, vol. vi. Farmer has a note at this passage correcting a remark in the life of Spenser and showing by a quotation from Browne’s _Britannia’s Pastorals_, that the _Faerie Queene_ was left unfinished,—not that part of it had been lost.

205. _Anthony Wood._ “_Fasti_, 2d. Edit., v. 1. 208.—It will be seen on turning to the former edition, that the latter part of the paragraph belongs to another _Stafford_. I have since observed that Wood is not the first who hath given us the true author of the pamphlet” (Fanner). _Fasti_, ed. Bliss, i. 378. But Stafford’s authorship of this pamphlet has now been disproved: see the _English Historical Review_, vi. 284-305.

_Warton_, Thomas. _Life of Ralph Bathurst_, 2 vols., 1761.

_Aubrey._ See _Brief Lives_, ed. Andrew Clark, 1898, vol. ii., pp. 225-227. For _Beeston_, see vol. i., pp. 96-7.

_Crendon._ “It was observed in the former edition that this place is not met with in Spelman’s _Villare_, or in Adams’s _Index_; nor, it might have been added, in the _first_ and the _last_ performance of this sort, Speed’s _Tables_ and Whatley’s _Gazetteer_: perhaps, however, it may be meant under the name of _Crandon_; but the inquiry is of no importance. It should, I think, be written _Credendon_; tho’ better antiquaries than Aubrey have acquiesced in the vulgar corruption” (Farmer). But _Crendon_ is only a misprint for _Grendon_.

206. _Rowe tells us._ See p. 4.

_Hamlet revenge._ Steevens and Malone “confirm” Farmer’s observation by references to Dekker’s _Satiromastix_, 1602, and an anonymous play called _A Warning for Faire Women_, 1599. Farmer is again out in his chronology.

_Holt._ See above, p. 190. Johnson’s edition of Shakespeare, vol. viii., Appendix, note on viii. 194.

_Kirkman_, Francis, bookseller, published his _Exact Catalogue of all the English Stage Plays_ in 1671.

_Winstanley_, William (1628-1698), compiler of _Lives of the most famous English Poets_, 1687. “These people, who were the Curls of the last age, ascribe likewise to our author those miserable performances _Mucidorous_ and the _Merry Devil of Edmonton_” (Farmer).

_seven years afterward._ “Mr. Pope asserts ‘The troublesome Raigne of _King John_,’ in two parts, 1611, to have been written by Shakespeare and Rowley: which edition is a mere copy of another in black letter, 1591. But I find his assertion is somewhat to be doubted: for the old edition hath no name of _author_ at all; and that of 1611, the initials only, _W. Sh._, in the title-page” (Farmer).

_Nash._ This reference was added in the second edition. See Arber’s reprint of Greene’s _Menaphon_, p. 17, or Gregory Smith, _Elizabethan Critical Essays_, i. 307, etc.

“Peele seems to have been taken into the patronage of the Earl of Northumberland about 1593, to whom he dedicates in that year, ‘_The Honour of the Garter_, a poem gratulatorie—the _firstling_ consecrated to his noble name.’—‘He was esteemed,’ says Anthony Wood, ‘a most noted poet, 1579; but when or where he died, I cannot tell, for _so it is_, and always _always hath been_, that most Poets die _poor_, and consequently obscurely, and a hard matter it is to trace them to their graves. _Claruit_, 1599.’ _Ath. Oxon._, vol. i., p. 300.—We had lately in a periodical pamphlet, called _The Theatrical Review_, a very _curious_ letter, under the name of George Peele, to one Master Henrie Marle, relative to a dispute between Shakespeare and Alleyn, which was compromised by Ben. Jonson.—‘I never longed for thy companye more than last night; we were all verie merrie at the Globe, when Ned Alleyn did not scruple to affyrme pleasauntly to thy friende Will, that he had stolen hys speeche about the excellencie of acting in _Hamlet_ hys tragedye, from conversaytions manifold, whych had passed between them, and opinions gyven by Alleyn touchyng that subjecte. Shakespeare did not take this talk in good sorte; but Jonson did put an end to the stryfe wyth wittielie saying, thys affaire needeth no contentione; you stole it from Ned no doubte: do not marvel: haue you not seene hym acte tymes out of number?’—This is pretended to be printed from the original MS. dated 1600; which agrees well enough with Wood’s _Claruit_: but unluckily Peele was dead at least two years before. ‘As Anacreon died by the _pot_,’ says Meres, ‘so George Peele by the _pox_,’ _Wit’s Treasury_, 1598, p. 286” (Farmer).

_Constable in Midsummer Night’s Dream._ Apparently a mistake for _Much Ado_.

207. _two children._ Susannah, Judith, and Hamnet were all born at Stratford. Judith and Hamnet were twins. Cf. p. 21 and note.

“_cheers up himself with ends of verse._” Butler, _Hudibras_, i. 3. 1011.

_Wits, Fits, and Fancies._ “By one Anthony Copley, 4to, black letter; it seems to have had many editions: perhaps the last was in 1614.—The first piece of this sort that I have met with was printed by T. Berthelet, tho’ not mentioned by Ames, called ‘Tales, and quicke answeres very mery and pleasant to rede.’ 4to, no date.” (Farmer).

208. _Master Page, sit._ _2 Henry IV._, v. 3. 30.

_Heywood._ In the “To the Reader” prefixed to his _Sixt Hundred of Epigrammes_ (Spenser Society reprint, 1867, p. 198).

_Dekker._ Vol. iii., p. 281 (ed. 1873).

_Water-poet._ See the Spenser Society reprint of the folio of 1630, p. 545.

_Rivo, says the Drunkard._ _1 Henry IV._, ii. 4. 124.

209. _What you will._ Act ii., Sc. 1 (vol. i., p. 224, ed. 1856).

_Love’s Labour Lost_, iv. 1. 100. This paragraph was added in the second edition.

_Taming of the Shrew_, ii. 1. 73.

_Heath._ _Revisal of Shakespear’s Text_, p. 159. This quotation was added in the second edition.

_Heywood._ _Epigrammes upon prouerbes_, 194 (Spenser Soc. reprint, p. 158).

210. _Howell_, James (1594-1666), Historiographer, author of the _Epistolae Ho-Elianae._ _Proverbs or old sayed Saws and Adages in English or the Saxon Tongue_ formed an appendix to his _Lexicon Tetraglotton_ (1659-60). The allusion to Howell was added in the second edition.

_Philpot_, John (1589-1645). See Camden’s _Remains concerning Britain_, 1674, “Much amended, with many rare Antiquities never before Imprinted, by the industry and care of John Philipot, Somerset Herald, and W. D. Gent”: 1870 reprint, p. 319.

_Grey._ _Notes on Shakespeare_, ii., p. 249.

_Romeo._ “It is remarked that ‘Paris, tho’ in one place called _Earl_, is most commonly stiled the _Countie_ in this play. Shakespeare seems to have preferred, for some reason or other, the Italian _Conte_ to our _Count_:—perhaps he took it from the old English novel, from which he is said to have taken his plot.’—He certainly did so: Paris is there first stiled _a young Earle_, and afterward _Counte_, _Countee_, and _County_, according to the unsettled orthography of the time. The word, however, is frequently met with in other writers, particularly in Fairfax,” etc. (Farmer).

_Painter_, vol. ii. 1567, 25th novel. Arthur Broke’s verse rendering, founded on Boaistuau’s (or Boisteau’s) French version of Bandello, appeared in 1562; and it was to Broke, rather than to Painter, that Shakespeare was indebted. See P. A. Daniel’s _Originals and Analogues_,