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ACCOUNT of the LIFE, &c.

O F

Mr. WILLIAM SHAKESPEAR.

Written by Mr. ROW E.

OT feems to be a kind of refpe&t due to the memory of excellent men, especially of those whom their wit and learning have made famous, to deliver fome account of themselves, as well as their works, to Pofterity. For this reafon, how fond do we fee fome people of difcovering any little perfonal story of the great men of Antiquity! their families, the common accidents of their lives, and even their fhape, make, and features have been the fubject of critical enquiries. How trifling foever this Curiosity may feem to be, it is certainly very natural; and we are hardly fatisfy'd with an account of any remarkable perfon, till we have heard him defcrib'd even to the cloaths he wears. . very As for what relates to men of letters, the knowledge of an Author may fometimes conduce to the better understanding his book: And

tho'

tho' the Works of Mr. Shakespear may seem to many not to want a comment, yet I fancy fome little account of the man himself may not be thought improper to go along with them.

He was the fon of Mr. John Shakespear, and was born at Stratford upon Avon, in Warwickshire, in April 1564. His family, as appears by the Register and publick Writings relating to that Town, were of good figure and fashion there, and are mention'd as gentlemen. His father, who was a confiderable dealer in wool, had fo large a family, ten children in all, that tho' he was his eldeft fon, he could give him no better education than his own employment. He had bred him, 'tis true, for fome time at a Free-school, where 'tis probable he acquired what Latin he was mafter of: But the narrowness of his circumstances, and the want of his affiftance at home, forc'd his father to withdraw him from thence, and unhappily prevented his further proficiency in that language. It is without controverfy, that in his works we scarce find any traces of any thing that looks like an imitation of the Ancients. The delicacy of his tafte, and the natural bent of his own great Genius, (equal, if not fuperior to fome of the best of theirs) would certainly have led him to read and study 'em with fo much pleasure, that fome of their fine images would naturally have infinuated themselves into, and been mix'd with his own writings; fo that his not copying at least fomething from them, may be an argument of his never having read 'em. Whether his ignorance of the Ancients were a difadvantage to him or no, may admit of a difpute: For tho' the knowledge of 'em might have made him more correct, yet it is not improbable but that the regularity and deference for them, which would have attended that correctnefs, might have restrain'd fome of that fire, impetuofity, and even beautiful extravagance which we admire in Shakespear:

And

And I believe we are better pleas'd with those thoughts, altogether new and uncommon, which his own ima gination fupply'd him fo abundantly with, than if he had given us the most beautiful paffages out of the Greek and Latin poets, and that in the most agreeable manner that it was poffible for a mafter of the English language to deliver 'em.

Upon his leaving school, he feems to have given entirely into that way of living which his father propos'd to him; and in order to fettle in the world after a family manner, he thought fit to marry while he was. yet very young. His wife was the Daughter of one Hathaway, faid to have been a substantial yeoman in the neighbourhood of Stratford. In this kind of fettlement he continu'd for some time, 'till an extravagance that he was guilty of forc'd him both out of his country and that way of living which he had taken up; and tho' it seem'd at first to be a blemish upon his good manners, and a misfortune to him, yet it afterwards happily prov'd the occafion of exerting one of the greatest Genius's that ever was known in dramatick Poetry. He had, by a misfortune common enough to young fellows, fallen into ill company; and amongst them, fome that made a frequent practice of Deerftealing, engag'd him with them more than once in robbing a Park that belong'd to Sir Thomas Lucy of Cherlecot, near Stratford. For this he was profecuted by that gentleman, as he thought, fomewhat too feverely; and in order to revenge that ill ufage, he made a ballad upon him. And tho' this, probably the first effay of his Poetry, be loft, yet it is faid to have been fo very bitter, that it redoubled the Profecution against him to that degree, that he was oblig'd to leave his business and family in Warwickshire, for fome time, and shelter himself in London.

It is at this time, and upon this accident, that he is faid to have made his firft acquaintance in the Playhouse.

houfe. He was receiv'd into the company then in being, at first in a very mean rank; but his admirable wit, and the natural turn of it to the ftage, foon diftinguish'd him, if not as an extraordinary Actor, yet as an excellent Writer. His name is printed, as the custom was in those times, amongst thofe of the other Players, before fome old Plays, but without any particular account of what fort of parts he us'd to play; and tho' I have enquir'd, I could never meet with any further account of him this way, than that the top of his Performance was the ghoft in his own Hamlet. I fhould have been much more pleas'd, to have learn'd from fome certain authority, which was the first Play he wrote (a); it would be without doubt a pleasure to any man, curious in things of this kind, to fee and know what was the first effay of a fancy like Shakespear's.. Perhaps we are not to look for his beginnings, like those of other authors, among their leaft perfect writings; art had fo little, and nature fo large a fhare in what he did, that, for ought I know, the performances of his youth, as they were the most vigorous, and had the most fire and ftrength of imagination in 'em, were the best. I would not be thought by this to mean, that his fancy was fo loofe and extravagant, as to be independent on the rule and government of judgment; but that what he thought, was commonly fo great, fo juftly and rightly conceiv'd in it felf, that it wanted little or no correction, and was immediately approv'd by an impartial judgment at the first fight. But tho' the order of time in which the several pieces were written be generally uncertain, yet there are paffages in fome few of them which feem to fix their dates. So the Chorus at the

(a) The highest date of any I can yet find, is Romeo and Juliet in 1597, when the Author was 33 years old; and Richard the 2d, and 3d, in the next year, viz. the 34th of his age.

end

end of the fourth Act of Henry V. by a compliment very handsomely turn'd to the Earl of Effex, fhews the Play to have been written when that Lord was General for the Queen in Ireland: And his Elogy upon Queen Elizabeth, and her fucceffor King James, in the latter end of his Henry VIII. is a proof of that Play's being written after the acceffion of the latter of those two Princes to the crown of England. Whatever the particular times of his writing were, the people of his age, who began to grow wonderfully fond of diverfions of this kind, could not but be highly pleas'd to fee a Genius arife amongst 'em of fo pleafurable, fo rich a vein, and fo plentifully capable of furnishing their favourite entertainments. Befides the advantages of his wit, he was in himself a good-natur'd man, of great sweetness in his manners, and a most agreeable companion; fo that it is no wonder if with fo many good qualities he made himself acquainted with the best converfations of those times. Queen Elizabeth had feveral of his Plays acted before her, and without doubt gave him many gracious marks of her favour: It is that maiden Princefs plainly, whom he intends by

-A fair Vestal, Throned by the Weft.

Midfummer-Night's Dream.

And that whole paffage is a compliment very properly brought in, and very handfomely apply'd to her. She was fo well pleas'd with that admirable character of Falstaff, in the two parts of Henry the fourth, that she commanded him to continue it for one Play more, and to fhew him in love. This is faid to be the occafion of his writing The Merry Wives of Windsor. How well she was obey'd, the Play itfelf is an admirable proof. Upon this occafion it may not be improper to obferve, that this part of Falstaff is faid to VOL. I.

C

have

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