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 1601', 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 Admiral'. 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 gone there without having left behind him any distinct record of the fact. At the date to which we are now ad 1 See Mr. Halliwell's "Ludus Coventria" (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. 2 It is a new fact that Kempe at any time quitted the company playing at the Blackfriars and Globe theatres it is however indis putable, 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 register of St. Saviour's, Southwark, Chalmers found an entry, dated Nov. 2, 1603, of the burial of "William Kempe, a man.' There were doubtless many men of the common names of William Kempe; and the William Kempe, who had acted Dogberry, Peter, &c., was certainly alive in 1605, and had by that date rejoined the Lord Chamberlain's servants, then called "the King's players." The following unnoticed memoranda relating to him are extracted from Henslowe's Diary: "Lent unto Wm Kempe, the 10 of Marche, 1602, in redy mony, twentye shillinges for his necesary uses, the some of xxs. "Lent unto Wm Kempe, the 22 of Auguste, 1602, to buye buckram to make a payer of gyentes hosse, the some of vs. "Pd unto the tyerman for mackynge of W Kempe's sewt, and the boyes, the 4 Septembr 1602, some of viijs. 8a ̧” verting he might certainly have had a convenient opportu nity for doing so, in consequence of the temporary prohibition of dramatic performances in London. CHAPTER VIII. 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 Dreain." The 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." 66 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, 1 We have some doubts of the authenticity of the "Groats worth of Wit," as a work by Greene. Chettle was a needy dramatist, and possibly wrote it in order to avail himself of the high popularity of Greene, then just dead. Falling into some discredit, in consequence of the publication of it, Chettle re-asserted that it was by Greene, but he admitted that the manuscript from which it was printed was in his own hand-writing: this circumstance he explained by stating that Greene's copy was so illegible that he was obliged to transcribe it: "it was ill-written," says Chettle, "as Greene's hand was none of the best ;" and therefore he re-wrote it. 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 inven tions." The chief and obvious purpose of this address is to induce 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 66 66 66 From hence it is evident that Shakespeare, near the end of 1592, had established such a reputation, and was so important a rival of the dramatists, who, until he came forward, had kept undisputed possession of the stage, as to excite the envy and enmity of Greene, even during his last and fatal illness. It also, we think, establishes another point not hitherto adverted to, viz. that our great poet possessed such variety of talent, that, for the purposes of the company of which he was a member, he could do anything that he might be called upon to perform : he was the Johannes Factotum of the association: he was an actor, and he was a writer of original plays, an adapter and improver of those already in existence, (some of them by Greene, Marlowe, Lodge, or Peele) and no doubt he contributed prologues or epilogues, and inserted scenes, speeches or passages on any temporary emergency. Having his ready assistance, the Lord Chamberlain's servants required few other contribu tions from rival dramatists': Shakespeare was the Johan 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 com nes Fac-totum who could turn his hand to any thing con nected with his profession, and who, in all probability, had thrown men like Greene, Lodge, and Peele, and even Marlowe 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. 66 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 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. "About three months since died M. Robert Greene, leav ing many papers in sundry booksellers' hands: among others his Groatsworth of Wit, in which a letter, written to divers play-makers, is offensively by one or two of them taken; and because on the dead they cannot be avenged, they wilfully forge in their conceits a living author, and after tossing it to and fro, no remedy but it must light on me. How I have, all the time of my conversing in printing, hindered the bitter inveighing against scholars, it hath been very well known; and how in that I dealt, I can sufficiently prove. With neither of them, that take offence, was I acquainted; and with one of them [Marlowe] I care not if I never be: the other, [Shakespeare] whom at that time I did not so much spare, as since I wish I had, for that as I have moderated the heat of living writers, and might have used my own discretion (especially in such a case, the author being dead) that I did not I am as sorry as if the original fault had been my fault; because myself have seen his demeanour no less civil, than he excellent pany 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. in the quality he professes: besides, divers of worship have reported his uprightness of dealing, which argues his honesty, 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 I thought he in some displeasure writ, or had it been true, yet to publish it was intolerable, him I would wish to use me 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 man2. 1 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 Oxford reads, "his fatious grace in writing," and the other, correctly, as we have given it. "Kind-heart's Dream" has been re-printed, by the Percy Society, from the third copy in the King's Library at the British Museum. 2 More than ten years afterwards, Chettle paid another tribute to Shakespeare, under the name of Melicert, in his "England's Mourning Garment:" the author is reproaching the leading poets of the day, Daniel, Warner, Chapman, Jonson, Drayton, Sackville, Dekker, &c., for not writing in honour of Queen Elizabeth, who was just dead he thus addresses Shakespeare:- "Nor doth the silver-tongued Melicert Drop from his honied Muse one sable tear, Shepherd, remember our Elizabeth, And sing her Rape, done by that Tarquin death." This passage is important, with reference to the Royal encouragement given to Shakespeare, in consequence of the approbation of his plays at Court: Elizabeth had "graced his desert," and "open'd her royal ear" to "his lays." Chettle did not long survive the publication of "England's Mourning Garment" in 1603: he was dead in 1607, as he is spoken of in Dekker's "Knight's Conjuring," of that year, (there is an impression also without date, and possibly a few months earlier) as a very corpulent ghost in the Elysian Fields. He |