Chapter XVIII: Letter III: Sir, Feb. 8 (12)

_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_,