that held the horfes retained the appellation of, Shakspeare's boys. JOHNSON.

Mr.

7 I cannot difmifs this anecdote without obferving that it feems to want every mark of probability. Though Shakspeare quitted Stratford on acCount of a juvenile irregularity, we have no reason to fuppofe that he had forfeited the protection of his father who was engaged in a lucrative bufinefs, or the love of his wife who had already brought him two children, and was herfelf the daughter of a substantial yeoman. It is unlikely therefore, when he was beyond the reach of his profecutor, that he should conceal his plan of life, or place of refidence, from those who, if he found himself diftreffed, could not fail to afford him fuch fupplies as would have fet him above the neceffity of bolding borfes for fubfiftence. Mr. Malone has remarked in his Attempt to certain the Order in which the Plays of Shakspeare were written, that he might have found an easy introduction to the ftage; for Thomas Green, a celebrated comedian of that period, was his townfman, and perhaps his lation. The genius of our author prompted him to write poetry; his connection with a player might have given his productions a dramatick turn; or his own fagacity might have taught him that fame was not incompatible with. profit, and that the theatre was an avenue to both. That it was once the general cuftom to ride on horse-back to the play, I am likewife yet to learn. The most popular of the theatres were on the Bank fide; and we are told by the fatirical pamphleteers of the time, that the ufual mode of conveyances to thefe places of amufement, was by water: but not a Angle writer fo much as hints at the cuftom of riding to them, or at the practice of having horfes held during the hours of exhibition. Some allufion to this ufage (if it had existed) mut, I think, bave been discovered in the courfe of our refearches after contemporary fashions. Let it be remembered too, that we receive this tale on no higher authority than that of Cibber's Lives of the Poet's, Vol. I. p. 130. "Sir William Davenant told it to Mr. Betterton, who communicated it to Mr. Rowe," who (according to Dr. Johnfon) related it to Mr. Pope. Mr. Rowe (if this intelligence be authentick) feems to have concurred with me in opinion, as he forebore to introduce a circumftance fo incredible into his life of Shakspeare. As to the book which furnishes the anecdote, not the fmalleft part of it was the compofition of Mr. Cibber, being entively written by a Mr. Shie.ls, amanuenfis to Dr. Johnson, when his Dictionary was preparing for the prefs. T. Cibber was in the King's Bench, and accepted of ten guineas from the book feller for leave to prefix his name. to the work; and it was purpofely fo prefixed as to leave the reader in doubt whether himfe it or his father was the perfon defigned.

The foregoing anecdote relative to Cibber's Lives, &c. I received from Dr. Johnson. See, however, The Monthly Review for December 1781, p. 409. STEEVENS.

Mr. Steevens in one particular is certainly mistaken. To the theatre in Blackfriars I have no doubt that many gentlemen rode in the time of Queen Elizabeth and King James I. From the Strand, Holborn, Bishops

Mr. Rowe has told us that he derived the principal anecdotes in his account of Shakspeare, from Betterton the player, whofe zeal had induced him to visit Stratford for the fake of procuring all poffible intelligence concerning a poet to whofe works he might juftly think himself under the ftrongest obligations. Notwithstanding this affertion, in the manuscript papers of the late Mr. Oldys it is faid, that one Boman (according to Chetwood, p. 143, "an actor more than half an age on the London theatres") was unwilling to allow that his affociate and contemporary Betterton had ever undertaken fuch a journey. Be this matter as it will, the following particulars, which I fhall give in the words of Oldys, are, for aught we know to the contrary, as well authenticated as any of the anecdotes delivered down to us by Rowe. Mr. Oldys had covered feveral quires of paper with laborious collections for a regular life of our author. From thefe I have made the following extracts, which (however trivial) contain the only circumftances that wear the least appearance of novelty or information.

"If tradition may be trufted, Shak fpeare often baited at the Crown Inn or Tavern in Oxford, in his journey to and from London. The landlady was a woman of great beauty and fprightly wit; and her hufband, Mr. John Davenant, (afterwards mayor of that city,) a grave melancholy man ; who, as well as his wife, ufed much to delight in Shakspeare's pleasant company. Their fon young Will Davenant (afterwards Sir William) was then a little fchool-boy in the town, of about seven or eight years old, and fo fond alfo of Shakspeare, that whenever he heard of his arrival, he would fly from school to fee him. One day an old townfman obferving the boy running homeward almoft out of breath, afked him whither he was pofting in that heat and

hurry.

gate-ftreet, &c. where many of the nobility lived, they could indeed go no other way than on foot, or on horseback, or in coaches; and coaches till after the death of Elizabeth were extremely rare. Many of the gentry therefore certainly went to that playhouse un horfeback. See the proofs, in the Effay above referred to.

This however will not establish the tradition relative to our author's first employment at the playhouse, which ftands on a very flender foundation.

2

MALONI.

hurry. He answered, to fee his god-father Shakspear There's a good boy, faid the other, but have a care that you don't take God's name in vain. This ftory Mr. Pope told me at the Earl of Oxford's table, upon occafion of fome difcourfe which arose about Shakspeare's monument then newly erected in Weftminster Abbey; and he quoted Mr. Betterton the player for his authority. I anfwered, that I thought fuch a ftory might have enriched the variety of thofe choice fruits of obfervation he has prefented us in his preface to the edition he had published of our poet's works. He replied-" There might be in the garden of mankind fuch plants as would feem to pride themfelves more in a regular production of their own native fruits, than in having the repute of bearing a richer kind by grafting; and this was the reafon he omitted it."

The fame ftory, without the names of the perfons, is printed among the jefts of John Taylor the Water poet, in his works, folio, 1630, p. 184, N° 39: and, with fome variations, may be found in one of Hearne's pocket books.

"One of Shakspeare's younger brothers, who lived to a good old age, even fome years, as I compute, after the reftoration of King Charles II. would in his younger days come to London to vifit his brother Will, as he called him, and be a fpectator of him as an actor in fome of his own plays. This cuftom, as his brother's fame enlarged, and his dramatick entertainments grew the greateft fupport of our principal, if not of all our theatres, he continued it seems fo long after his brother's death, as even to the latter end of his own life. The curiofity at this time of the most noted actors [exciting them] to learn fomething from him of his brother, &c. they juftly held him in the higheft veneration. And it may be well believed, as there was befides a kinfman and defcendant of the family, who was then a celebrated actor among them, [Charles Hart 8] this opportunity made them greedily inquifitive into every little circumftance, more especially in his dramatick character, which his brother could relate of him. But he, it seems,

was

8 Born, I believe, about 1630, died in or about 1682. If he was a grandfon of Shakspeare's fifter, he was probably the fon of Michael Hart, her youngest fon, of whofe marriage or death there is no account in the parish Register of Stratford, and therefore I fufpe&t he ettled in London. MALONE.

7

was fo ftricken in years, and poffibly his memory fo weakened with infirmities, (which might make him the cafier pafs for a man of weak intellects,) that he could give them but little light into their enquiries; and all that could be recollected from him of his brother Will in that ftation was, the faint, general, and almoft loft ideas he had of having once feen him act a part in one of his own comedies, wherein being to perfonate a decrepit old man, he wore a long beard, and appeared fo weak and drooping and unable to walk, that he was forced to be fupported and carried by another person to a table, at which he was feated among fome company, who were eating, and one of them fung a fong." character of Adam, in As you Like it, Act II. fc. ult.

See the

"Verfes by Ben Jonfon and Shakspeare, occafioned by the motto to the Globe Theatre-Totus mundus agit hiftrionem.

Jonfon.

If, but stage actors, all the world difplays,
Where shall we find fpectators of their plays?

Shakspeare.

Little, or much, of what we fee, we do; • We are all both a&iors and spectators too.'

Poetical Characteristicks, 8vo. MS. Vol. I. fome time in the Harleian Library; which volume was returned to its owner."

"Old Mr. Boman the player reported from Sir William Bishop, that fome part of Sir John Falstaff's character was drawn from a townfman of Stratford, who either faithlessly broke a contract, or fpitefully refufed to part with fome land for a valuable confideration, adjoining to Shakspeare's, in or near that town."

To these anecdotes I can only add the following.

At the conclufion of the advertisement prefixed to Lintot's edition of Shakspeare's Poems, it is faid That most learned prince and great patron of learning, King James the Firft, was pleafed with his own hand to write an amicable letter to Mr. Shakspeare; which letter, though now loft, remained long in the hands of Sir William D'Avenant, as a credible perfon now living can teftify."

Mr.

Mr. Oldys in a MS. note to his copy of Fuller's Worthies» obferves, that the story came from the Duke of Buckingham, who had it from Sir William D'Avenant."

It appears from Rofcius Anglicanus, (commonly called Downes the prompter's book,) 1708, that Shakspeare took the pains to inftruct Jofeph Taylor in the character of Hamlet, and John Lowine in that of King Henry VIII. STEEVENS.

The late Mr. Thomas Ofborne, bookfeller, (whofe exploits are celebrated by the author of the Dunciad) being ignorant in what form or language our Paradife Loft was written, employed one of his garretteers to render it from a French tranflation into English profe. Left, hereafter, the compofitions of Shakspeare fhould be brought back into their native tongue from the verfion of Monfieur le Comte de Catuelan, le Tourneur, &c. it may be neceffary to obferve, that all the following particulars, extracted from the preface of thefe gentlemen, are as little founded in truth as their defcription of the ridiculous Jubilee at Stratford, which they have been taught to reprefent as an affair of general approbation and national concern.

They fay, that Shakspeare came to London without a plan, and finding himfelf at the door of a theatre, inftinctively ftopped there, and offered himself to be a holder of horfes-that he was remarkable for his excellent performance of the Ghoft in Hamlet :-that he borrowed nothing from preceding writers :-that all on a fudden he left the ftage, and returned without eclat into his native country :that his monument at Stratford is of copper :-that the courtiers of James I. paid feveral compliments to him which are ftill preferved: that he relieved a widow, who, together with her numerous family, was involved in a ruinous lawfuit:-that his editors have reftored many paffages in his plays, by the affiftance of the manufcripts he left behind him, &c. &c.

Let me not however forget the juftice due to thefe ingenious Frenchmen, whose skill and fidelity in the execution of their very difficult undertaking, is only exceeded by fuch a difplay of candour as would ferve to cover the imper. fections of much less elegant and judicious writers.

STEEVENS,