used to assert that she was the sole surviving representative of the family of the Harts.

New Place, the abode of the poet's later years, had been originally built by Sir Hugh Clopton, in the reign of Henry the Seventh. On Shakespeare's death it came to Mrs. Hall, and on her decease, to her only child, Elizabeth Nash, afterwards Lady Barnard. In this mansion, while it was in the possession of Mr. and Mrs. Nash, Queen Henrietta Maria held her court for about three weeks in 1643. It had reverted to the possession of the Clopton family in 1742, when Garrick, Macklin, and Dr. Delany, were hospitably entertained under Shakespeare's mulberry-tree, by Sir Hugh Clopton. The constant tradition of Stratford declared that this celebrated tree was planted in the garden by the poet's hand;-probably in 1609, as during that year an immense number of young mulberry-trees was imported from France, and sent into different counties of England, by order of King James, with a view to the encouragement of the silk manufacture. Sir Hugh Clopton modernized the house by internal and external alterations. His son-in-law, Henry Talbot, Esq., sold New Place to the Rev. Francis Gastrell, vicar of Frodsham, in Cheshire. This wealthy and unamiable clergyman, conceiving a dislike to the mulberry-tree, because it subjected him to the importunities of travellers, whose veneration for Shakespeare induced them to visit it,

caused it to be cut down and cleft into pieces for fire-wood, in 1756; the greater part of it, however, was bought by a watchmaker of Stratford, who converted every fragment into small boxes, goblets, toothpick cases, tobacco-stoppers, &c., for which he found eager purchasers. Having quarrelled with the magistrates about parochial assessments, Mr. Gastrell razed the mansion to the ground in 1759, and quitted Stratford amidst the rage and execrations of the inhabitants.

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Aubrey has informed us that Shakespeare “was a handsome, well shaped man.' The bust at Stratford; the engraving by Droeshout on the titlepage of the first folio of his plays; the Chandos picture (very probably painted by Burbage, the tragedian, who is known to have handled the pencil,) in the possession of the Duke of Buckingham; the head by Cornelius Jansen, (perhaps executed for Lord Southampton,) belonging to the Duke of Somerset ; and the print by Marshall prefixed to the edition of his poems in 1640; are considered the most authentic likenesses of the bard.

His contemporaries, when speaking of Shakespeare, celebrate his integrity, candour, sweetness of temper, and ready wit. We have seen that

89

Chettle, as early as 1592, noticed "his uprightness of dealing, which argues his honesty ;" and

that Jonson, after his death, pronounced him to have been “indeed honest, and of an open and free nature:" the latter too, in the Verses to his Memory terms him "My gentle Shakespeare." Fuller's allusion to his convivial sprightliness has been already quoted. "He was," says Aubrey, "verie good companie, and of a very ready, and pleasant, and smooth witt."91 What Rowe had heard concerning his moral character and disposition accords with these testimonies.92

After the volumes which they have called forth,

90 p. lv.

91 MSS. Mus. Ashmol. Oxon.

92 Two "scandalous stories" have been related of the poet. "If tradition may be trusted, Shakespeare 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 sprightly wit; and her husband, Mr. John Davenant, (afterwards mayor of that city,) a grave, melancholy man; who, as well as his wife, used much to delight in Shakespeare's pleasant company. Their son, young Will Davenant (afterwards Sir William) was then a little school-boy in the town, of about seven or eight years old, and so fond also of Shakespeare, that whenever he heard of his arrival, he would fly from school to see him. One day an old townsman, observing the boy running homeward almost out of breath, asked him whither he was posting in that heat and hurry. He answered, to see his god-father Shakespeare. There's a good boy, said the other, but have a care that you don't take God's name in vain. This story Mr. Pope told me at the Earl of Oxford's table. . . . . . and he quoted Mr. Betterton the player for his authority." Oldys's MSS-See also the account of Davenant from Aubrey's MSS. in Malone's Hist. Acc. of English Stage, p. 278. (Shak. by Boswell, ii.)

it will not be expected that I should attempt any minute criticism on the plays of Shakespeare. Never has his excellence, as a writer for the stage, been so thoroughly understood, or so universally acknowledged, as during the nineteenth century. Now even foreign readers justly appreciate those wonderful dramas, which exhibit with perfect truth whatever is most terrible, most piteous, most romantic, or most laughable, in the scenes of many-coloured life, each nice variety of human character, each delicate shade of human feeling; -which present to us pictures, strong as realities, from the realms of spirits, and from fairy-land;which in deep reflection and in useful maxims yield nothing to the pages of the philosophers ;— and which glow with all the poetic beauty that an exhaustless fancy could shower upon them. Nor let it be forgotten, that in all probability, our

Rich. 3, there was a citizen grewe so farre in liking with him, that before shee went from the play shee appointed him to come that night unto hir, by the name of Rich. the 3. Shakespeare, overhearing their conclusion, went before, was entertained, and at his game ere Burbidge came. Then, message being brought that Rich. the 3 was at the dore, Shakespeare caused returne to be made, that William the Conqueror was before Rich. the 3.-Shakespeare's name Willm." From a MS. Diary, the writer of which heard this story from Tooley the player. Collier's Hist. of English Dram. Poet. i. 331.

The former anecdote probably had its origin in Sir William D'Avenant's vanity, who was willing to be thought the son of Shakespeare, even at the expense of his mother's reputa tion: the latter reads very like a mere invention.

author composed those dramas without an eye to the admiration of posterity, and that, after they had served his immediate purposes, he let them drop from him with indifference, as the tree gives its blossoms to the wind. Of all the poets, born in various climes, in earlier or in later days, how many have possessed such creative minds, as entitle them to occupy with Shakespeare that highest station in "Fame's proud temple," to which his plays have raised him? Perhaps, three only; the ancient bard, who told the tale of Troy, the Florentine, who saw the vision of the infernal world, and he, whose "great argument" was the loss of Eden.

In various publications are to be found essays on the old English theatre, the writers of which seem desirous of impressing their readers with an idea that his dramatic contemporaries were but little inferior to the mighty poet himself. For my own part, I must be allowed to say, that a careful perusal of every existing drama of the reigns of Elizabeth and James, has thoroughly convinced me of the immeasurable superiority of Shakespeare to all the playwrights of his time. I am not, I trust, insensible to the invention and power displayed by Fletcher, Jonson, Ford, Webster, Massinger, Dekker, Tourneur, Heywood, Chapman, Middleton, and the rest of that illustrious brotherhood; but I feel that over the worst of Shakespeare's dramas, his genius has diffused a