leaft, that we are speaking of, was fo, and is intitl'd-The Hiftorie of Hamblet; it is in quarto, and black letter: there can be no doubt made, by perfons who are acquainted with these things, that the tranflation is not much younger than the French original; though the only edition of it that is yet come to my knowledge, is no earlier than 1608: that Shakspeare took his play from it, there can likewise be very little doubt. 1 Henry IV. In the eleven plays that follow,- Macbeth, King John, Richard II. Henry IV. two parts, Henry V. Henry VI. three parts, Richard III. and Henry VIII. the hiftorians of that time, Hall, Holinfhed, Stow, and others, (and, in particular, Holinfhed,) are pretty closely follow'd; and that not only for their matter but even fometimes in their expreffions: the harangue of the Archbishop of Canterbury in Henry V. that of Queen Catharine in Henry VIII. at her trial, and the king's reply to it, are taken from thofe chroniclers, and put into verfe: other leffer matters are borrow'd from them; and fo largely scatter'd up and down in these plays, that whoever would rightly judge of the poet, must acquaint himself with thofe authors, and his character will not fuffer in the enquiry. Richard III. was preceded by other plays written upon the fame fubject; concerning which, fee the conclufion of a note in this Introduction, at p. 284. And as to Henry V.-it may not be improper to obferve in this place, that there is extant another old play, call'd-The famous Victories of Henry the Fifth, printed in 1617, quarto; perhaps by fome tricking bookfeller, who meant to impose it upon the world for Shakspeare's, who dy'd the year before. This play-which opens with that prince's wildnefs and robberies before he came to the crown, and fo comprehends fomething of the ftory of both parts of Henry IV. as well as of Henry V.-is a very medley of nonfenfe and ribaldry; and, it is my firm belief, was prior to Shakspeare's Henries; and the identical " displeasing play" mention'd in the epilogue to 2 Henry IV.; for that such a play fhould be written after his, or receiv'd upon any ftage, has no face of probability. There is a character in it call'd-Sir John Oldcastle; who holds there the place of Sir John Falftaff, but his very antipodes in every other particular, for it is all dullness: and it is to this character that Shakspeare alludes, in those much-difputed paffages; one in his Henry IV. p. 184, and the other in the epilogue to his fecond part; where the words "for Oldcastle dy'd a martyr" hint at this miferable performance, and it's fate, which was damnation. - King Lear. Lear's diftrefsful ftory has been often told in poems, ballads, and chronicles: but to none of thefe are we indebted for Shakspeare's Lear; but to a filly old play which made it's first appearance in 1605, the title of which is as follows:-"The True Chronicle Hi- ftory of King LEIR, and his three daughters, Gonorill, Ragan, and Cordella, As it hath been divers and fundry times lately acted. | LONDON, | Printed by Simon Stafford for John Wright, and are to bee fold at his fhop at Chriftes Church dore, next Newgate- market. 1605. (4° I. 4.)-As it is a great curiofity, and very scarce, the title is here inferted at large: and for the fame reafon, and alfo to fhew the ufe that Shakspeare made of it, fome extracts fhall now be added. The author of this Leir has kept him clofe to the chronicles; for he ends his play with the reinstating King Leir in his throne, by the aid of Cordella and her husband, But take the entire fable in his own words. Towards the end of the play, at fignature H. 3. you find Leir in France: upon whofe coaft he and his friend Perillus are landed in fo neceffitous a condition, that, having nothing to pay their paffage, the mariners take their cloaks, leaving them their jerkins in exchange : thus attir'd, they go up further into the country; and there, when they are at the point to perifh by famine, infomuch that Perillus offers Leir his arm. to feed upon, they light upon Gallia and his queen, whom the author has brought down thitherward, in progrefs, difguis'd. Their difcourfe is overheard by Cordella, who immediately knows them; but, at her husband's perfuafion, forbears to discover herself a while, relieves them with food, and then afks their ftory; which Leir gives her in these words: "Leir. Then know this firft, I am a Brittayne borne, "And had three daughters by one loving wife: And though I fay it, of beauty they were fped; "For her perfections hardly matcht could be: "And thought to try which of them lov'd me best, 64 Might do her anfwere I efteem'd moft vild, "She bade me pack, and harbour fomewhere else. "Who gave me pleafing and moft courteous words; "As never any daughter did before: "She prayd me in a morning out betime, "To go to a thicket two miles from the court, Poynting that there fhe would come talke with me: "There he had fet a fhaghayrd murdring wretch, To maffacre my honeft friend and me. 66 "And now I am conftraind to feeke reliefe Cor. No doubt the will, I dare be fworne fhe will.' Thereupon enfues her discovery; and, with it, a circumftance of fome beauty, which Shakspeare has borrow'd, -(v. Lear, p. 517,) their kneeling to each other, and mutually contending which fhould ask forgiveness. The next page prefents us Gallia, and Mumford who commands under him, marching to embarque their forces, to re-inftate Leir; and the next, a fea-port in Britain, and officers fetting a watch, who are to fire a beacon to give notice if any fhips approach, in which there is fome low humour that is paffible enough. Gallia and his forces arrive, and take the town by furprize: immediately upon which, they are encounter'd by the forces of the two elder fifters, and their husbands: a battle enfues; Leir conquers; he and his friends enter victorious, and the play clofes thus: "Thanks (worthy Mumford) to thee laft of all, "Come, fonne and daughter who did me advance, Repofe with me awhile, and then for Fraunce." [Exeunt. Who the au Such is the Leir, now before us. thor of it fhould be, I cannot furmife; for neither in manner nor ftyle has it the leaft refemblance to any of the other tragedies of that time: most of them rife now and then, and are poetical; but this creeps in one dull tenour, from beginning to end, after the fpecimen here inferted: it fhould seem he was a Latinift, by the tranflation follow |