ppetouenani) THE ADAIR BOOM STORE BOUGHT.SOLD AND EXCHANGED ; N0.43 E.VAN BUREN 5T.CMICAC-O.ILLJ SHAKS PE ARE SHAKSPEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES; TOGETHER WITH THE PLOTS OF HIS PLAYS, THEATRES AND ACTORS. " When he speaks, The air, a charter'd libertine, is still, And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ear* To steal his sweet and honeyed sentences." King Henry V. Br WILLIAM TEGG, F.R.H.S., AUTHOR OF Poets and Telegrams," "Meetings and Greetings, " The Knot Tied," &.c. LONDON : WILLIAM TEGG 4 CO., PANCEAS LANE, CHEAPSIDE. 1871). PREFACE. ALTHOUGH this little book is principally intended for the use of youthful students of Shakspeare, it is, we think, by no means necessary to warn off maturer admirers of the genius of our mighty poet, to whom it may not have occurred that their appreciation and enjoyment of his works might be materially enhanced by an acquaintance with the general character of the other dramatic authors of his day, and the measure of their ability, or to gather from contemporary chronicles the manner of the production of Shakspeare's Plays, their chronological order, and the derivation of their plots. Thus carrying the mind of the reader, step by step, by a concise account of Shakspeare and his times, to a fairly complete knowledge of the work he accomplished, we have included the Original Preface and Dedication to the Players' Edition of fl 62 Ida brief account of the ,3 2040627 IV PREFACE. Elizabethan Stage and the actors thereon, and other minor matters connected with the poet's life, his will, epitaphs, &c. It has been justly said of Shakspeare, " His excellences compelled even his contemporaries to seat him on that throne, although there were giants in those days contending for the same honour." WILLIAM TEGG, F.R.H.S. PANCRAS LANE, 1879. TO JOHN HILL, ESQ., THIS VOLUME, THE THOUGHT AND STUDY OF MANY YEARS, IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR. CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE I. Sketch of the Life of Shakspeare 1 II. The Chronological Order of the Plays of Shakspeare and the Early Editions of his Works 6 III. The Plots of Shakspeare's Plays : Tempest 17 Two Gentlemen of Verona 19 Merry Wives of Windsor 21 Twelfth Night 22 Measure for Measure ... ... ... ... 23 Much Ado About Nothing 24 Midsummer Night's Dream ... ... ... 26 Love's Labour Lost ... 28 Merchant of Venice ... ... .. 30 As You Like It 32 All's Well That Ends Well 35 Taming of the Shrew 37 Winter's Tale 38 Comedy of Errors ... ... ... ... ... 40 Vlll CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE Macbeth 41 King John 44 King Kichard II 45 King Henry IV. (Parts 1 and 2) 46 King Henry V 46 King Henry VI. (Parts 1, 2, and 3) 48 King Eichard III 49 King Henry VIII 52 Troilus and Cressida ... 54 Timon of Athens ... ... ... ... ... 55 Coriolanus ... ... ... ... 56 Julius Csesar ... ... ... 56 Antony and Cleopatra ... ... ... ... 57 Cynibeline 59 Pericles 60 King Lear 61 Borneo and Juliet 62 Hamlet 64 Othello 66 IV. Shakspeare's Dramatic Contemporaries ... ... 68 V. The Theatres of Shakspeare's Time ... ... Ill VI. The Interior of the Theatres. The Stage and its Accessories : Costume, Scenic Decorations, and Music 121 VII. Actors and Dramatic Companies of the Elizabethan Era 132 VIII. Prologues and Epilogues 155 IX. Clowns and Fools of Shakspeare 164 CONTEXTS. IX CHAPTER PAGE X. The Audience, the Actors, and the Critics 177 XL The Poet's Will, his Tomb and Epitaph. Ben Jonson's Commendatory Ode ... ... ... 1S5 XII. Modern Shaksperian Actors, Miscellanea, and Conclusion 200 Index 229 ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Portrait of Shakspeare To face Title. The Birth-place of Shakspeare ... 1 The Plots of the Plays 15 IJen Jonson 88 A Play at Blackfriars 111 The Fortune Theatre 115 The Bed Bull Theatre (Interior) 117 The Clowns and Fools of Shakspeare Plate 1 ,173 2 175 Stratford Church 185 Monument at Stratford-upon-Avon ... ... 192 SHAKSPEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES- i. *. SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF SHAKSPEARE. " Such a man Might be a copy to these younger times ; Which, followed well, would demonstrate them now But goers backward." Bill's Well That Ends Well. WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE, the glory of the British Drama, was baptized at the parish church of Holy Trinity, Stratford-on-Avon, on the 25th of April, 1564, as the page in the register shows ; and universal consent has been given to the assumption that his birthday, as well as the day of his death, was the 23rd of that month. The fact of that day being appointed by the Church as the festival of St. George, 2 SHAKSFEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. the patron saint of England, has probably popularized the date of the poet's debut on the world's stage. His father was a dealer in wool ; and at the time of his birth the town of Stratford had suffered terribly from a visitation of the plague ; the population of the town being re- duced thereby from 1,428 to 1,190 souls. It is on record that John Shakspeare, the poet's father, was fined about this time for permitting a " dong-hylle " to exist in front of his door, to the detriment of the public health. Shakspeare's mother was Mary, daughter of Robert Arden, of Wilmecot, Esquire, of War- wickshire, and brought with her a handsome marriage portion. John Shakspeare became chief magistrate of the town when his son William was five years old, and was the first local dignitary who extended his patronage to the " poor players " who strolled about the country, and seldom received such encouragement from civic magnates. The two companies thus honoured with a " bespeak " from the mayor of the little War- wickshire town were the Queen's Players (1569), and afterwards the corps dramatique of the Earl SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF SHAKSPEARE. 8 of Worcester. The amount of their remu- neration is not on record, but no doubt it would offer a curious contrast to the salaries of histrionic stars of the present day. Through injudicious speculations on the part of Mr. Shakspeare, ex-mayor and alder- man, reverses of fortune befell the family, even to the extent of the resignation of his civic distinction by the unlucky wool-dealer; and although our poet in due course attended the grammar school of his native town, it appears, mi no less an authority than that of William Shakspeare's friend and admirer Ben Jonson, that he there acquired " smalle Lattine and lesse Greeke," and as to the rest of his educa- tion chroniclers are dumb. There are some ugly stories about the poet's adolescence which may or may not be true. He is said to have fled to London to avoid the consequences of illicitly " conveying" certain drrr from the manor of Sir Thomas Lucy, and there is a lampoon of a decidedly objectionable kind extant which is attributed to the hand which afterwards merited more than any other the hackneyed eulogy, Nihil tetigit quod non t' the plays of Shakspeare cannot be better prefaced than by quoting Dr. Johnson's appre- iative remarks on the subject which appear in the introduction to his edition. He says: Our author's plots are generally borrowed from novels ; and it is reasonable to suppose that he chose the most popular, such as were read by many and related by more ; for his audience could not have followed him through the intricacies of the drama, had they not held the thread of the story in their hands. His English histories he took from English Chronicles 16 SHAKSPEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES and English ballads ; and as the ancient writers were made known to his countrymen by versions, they supplied him with new subjects ; he dilated some of Plutarch's lives into plays, when they had been translated by North. His plots, whether historical or fabulous, are always crowded with incidents, by which the attention of a rude people was more easity caught than by senti- ment or argumentation ; and such is the power of the marvellous, even over those who despise it, that every man finds his mind more strongly seized by the tragedies of Shakspeare than of any other writer ; others please us by particular speeches, but he always makes us anxious for the event, and has perhaps excelled all but Homer in securing the first purpose of a writer, by exciting restless and unquenchable curiosity, and com- pelling him that reads his work to read it through. The shews and bustles with which his plays abound have the same original. As knowledge advances, pleasure passes from the eye to the ear, but returns as it declines from the ear to the eye. Those to whom our author's labours were exhibited had more skill in pomps or pro- cessions than in poetical language, and perhaps wanted some visible and discriminated events as comments on the dialogue. He knew how he should most please ; and whether his practice is more agreeable to nature, or whether his example has prejudiced the nation, we still find that on our stage something must be done as well as said, and inactive declamation is very coldly heard, how- ever musical or elegant, passionate or sublime. ***** o But the greater part of his excellence was the pro- duct of his own genius. He found the English stage in a state of the utmost rudeness ; no essays either in THI: PLOTS OF SHAKSPEARE'S PLAYS. 17 tragedy or comedy had appeared, from which it could be discovered to what degree of delight either one or other might be carried. Neither character nor dialogue were yet understood. Shakspeare may be truly said to have introduced them both amongst us, and in some of his happier scenes to have carried them both to their utmost height. TEMPEST. It is more than probable that the actual story of this admirable drama was a distinct creation of the poet's genius. No contem- porary legends or works of fiction contain a Prospero or a Miranda, although the character of Caliban may have been suggested by the strange tales of travellers ; such as Silvester Jourdan, Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers, Captain Newport, and others, who agree in ;i femes : " Great Hercules is presented by tbis imp ^"liuae club killM Cerberus, tbat three-beaded canut ; And when he was a babe, a cbild, a shrimp, Thus did he strangle serpents in his manus," Ac. 30 SHAKSPEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. MERCHANT OF VENICE. Parallel episodes with the three which are the main features of this deservedly favourite play are to be found in the works of several writers, and the poet has no doubt laid them under contribution. The story of the bond comes from the East through a Florentine novelist, and the atrocious liberty given to a creditor to mangle the living body of a debtor, under the Roman Decemvirate code of the Twelve Tables, was probably known to our author as well as the existence of the pound- of-flesh story, which he might have seen trans- lated from the Harleian MSS. written in the reign of Henry VI. Bassanws love for Portia is the main motive of the story. To further his matrimonial plans he obtains the necessary funds through his friend Antonio, a Venetian merchant, who becomes bond for the amount to Shylock, and undertakes to let the Jew cut a pound of flesh, "nearest his heart" if the obligation be not duly discharged. Portias future husband is chosen by his selection of a particular one out of three caskets of gold, silver, and lead ; and Bassanio THE PLOTS OF SHAKSPEARE's PLAYS. 31 chooses the one which confers on him the right to claim the rich heiress's hand; all her other suitors proving unsuccessful. Meanwhile, Antonio s commercial prospects have been shattered by maritime disasters, and the bride- groom learns too late that the Jew is about to enforce his sanguinary forfeit. However, he hastens to Venice, accompanied by Gratiano, who is betrothed to Niriisa, Portias maid. Thither the two ladies follow them ; Portia dis- guised as a Doctor of Laws, named Balthasar, who, recommended by a learned lawyer known to the Duke of Venice, undertakes the defence of the unfortunate merchant. Nerissa is also disguised as a lawyer's clerk, and assists at the trial, which ends in the discomfiture ofShylock ; it being discovered that by an ancient statute, "no drop of blood" must be included in the inhuman bond he is endeavouring to enforce, and, besides this, that any attempt by an alien on the life of a Venetian citizen is punishable with the division of his property between the imperilled person and the State, and the offender's life is forfeit at the option of the Duke. This change in the complexion of the affair is hailed with delight by all concerned, except 62, SHAKSPEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. the unhappy Jew, whose life is pardoned on condition of his embracing Christianity, and the two pseudo-lawyers receive as a reward the rings of their respective lords as their sole recompense. Little remains now except for the party to return to Belmont, Portias residence, which has been left in charge of Lorenzo, a young Venetian, who has eloped with Jessica, Shy- lock's daughter, and whose love adventures form a sub-plot which does not materially assist the action of the piece. Shakspeare has weeded the licentious scenes which disfigured the early versions of the love-story in which the choice of the caskets originally appears, and has put some of his choicest work into the dialogues and soliloquies with which this fine play abounds. The comic element is very subdued in this play; except the sayings of the clownish Launcelot Gobbo and his doting old father, there is but little besides the badinage of Gratiano to break the serious progress of its incidents. AS YOU LIKE IT. This, Shakspeare's most beautiful pastoral THE PLOTS OF SHAKSPEARfi's PLATS. 33 play, is in effect the same story as Lodge's " Rosalynd ; or, Euphue's Golden Legacy," to which he has added the character of Jacques, to whose part are assigned some very fine passages, and the character of Montanus he has deve- loped into the prince of Shaksperian jesters, Touchstone. We quote a resume of Lodge's story, as given in Mr. Harvey's Edition. Sir John of Bordeaux at his death left to his eldest son, Saladyne, fourteen ploughlands, with all his manors, houses, and plate ; to his second son, Fernandyne, twelve plojighlands ; but to the youngest, Rosader, he gave his horse, his armour, and his lance, with sixteen ploughlands, for he thought Rosader would transcend his brothers hi honour, as he did in comeliness. Saladyne was discon- tented with the will ; his brothers were under age, and he resolved to appropriate their property to himself. i'i i nandyne he determined to keep at his studies, while he used his wealth ; Rosader was uneducated, and Sala- dyne made him his footboy. But the proud-spirited youth spumed the degradation; and "Why," he asked, "has my brother felled my woods and spoilt my manors ? " Saladyne ordered him to be chastised ; Rosader seized a rake, and drove him out of the garden, but would not harm him, when he solicited reconciliation. Torismond at this time filled the throne of France, from which he had driven his brother, Gerismond, into exile, in the forest of Arden. Torismond proclaimed a tournament and a wrestling-match, and Saladyne bribed a Norman wrestler 34 SHAKSPEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. to kill Rosader, whom he induced to enter the lists. Alinda, Torismond's daughter, and Rosalynd, Gerismond's daughter, were present, with all the beauties of France. Two young men had been killed by the Norman when Eosader stepped forwards ; but, noticing the company more than the combatant, he fixed his eyes on Rosalynd. The struggle was long and fierce, but victory at length decided for Rosader. Rosalynd took a jewel from her neck and sent it by a page to Rosader. He returns to Saladyne's house, but is refused admittance : he enters by force, and finds in the hall a trusty English servant, Adam Spencer, by whose mediation the brothers are again reconciled. Torismond, vexed at Rosalynd's popularity, banishes her from court. Alinda remonstrates, and the same sentence is passed on both. The cousins resolve to travel, and Rosalynd, the tallest, dresses herself as a page. They change their names to Ganymede and Aliena, and arrive at the forest of Arden, where they buy a cottage of the shepherd Corydon ; they also meet with another rustic, Montanus, who amuses them with his idle courtship of a country coquette named Phoebe. Meanwhile, Saladyne's hatred of Rosader breaks out anew. The persecuted youth flies to the forest of Arden, accompanied by Adam. They lose their way, and are in danger of perishing from hunger. Rosader scours the forest in quest of game, and encounters Gerismond and his exiled followers. Rosader is kindly received, and relates his misfortunes. Torismond, in the meantime, banishes Saladyne, on pretence of avenging Rosader, but in reality to obtain his property. Saladyne wanders in the forest, and is just falling a prey to a hungry lioness, when his injured brother saves his life, which effects a reconcilement. Saladyne shortly afterwards rescues THE PLOTS OF SHAKSPEARE's PLAYS. 35 AUnda from the violence of ruffians, and conceives a passion for her, which is returned. Rosader had not forgotten the fair one whose smiles stimulated, and whose gift rewarded his bravery. In the wilds of Ardeu he sighs forth her name, and inscribes verses in her praise on the trees. The cousins meet him, and, favoured by their disguise, talk with him on the subject of his pas- sion. In due time, Ganymede, the page, is found to be Roaalynd ; she is restored to her father, and united to Rosader. The dethroned King overthrows the usurper, and recovers his crown. ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL. Except by the introduction of a vainglorious fqjlower of the hero who is named Parolles, whose conceit and poltroonery enliven the play in its progress, Shakspeare has closely followed a tale of Boccaccio's, which appears in a new dress in Painter's "Palace of Plea- sure." This play was originally called "Love's Labour Wonne," and in many respects is faithful to the original language even of its prototype. We will give an abstract of the plot of the tale by Boccaccio's successor in the manipulation of its incidents, and the reader can judge of its resemblance to Shak- ire's work. Isnardo, Count of Rossiglioni, retains a famous phy- sician, Girardo of Narbona, whose daughter is in love D 2 36 SHAKSPEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. with the Count's son, Bertram. Isnardo dies, his son becomes the King's ward, and is sent to Paris. The physician dying, Giletta makes a journey in pursuit of Bertram. The King languishes under a malady thought incurable ; Giletta, furnished with a specific of her father's, promises to effect a cure in eight days : the penalty of failure is death, but if successful, she stipu- lates for permission to choose a husband, with reserva- tion only of the royal blood. The King is cured, Giletta fixes on Bertram, and, unable to disobey the King, he consents to the marriage; but, disgusted with the meanness of her family, he joins the Florentine army, and in reply to her submissive messages he coldly says, " Let her do what she list, for I do purpose to dwell with her when she shall have this ring on her finger and a son in her arms begotten by me." Giletta provides herself with money and travels to Florence : here she finds that Bertram is in love with the daughter of a poor but reputable lady, to whose house she repairs, and, explaining her situation, proposes that the young woman should agree to the Count's wishes on his giving her a ring he wore. Preparations are made for the introduction of Bertram at the dead of night, and Giletta, instead of the young lady, receives Bertram to her arms : the ring is obtained, and Giletta has the satisfaction, in due time, of giving birth to two sons, both bearing a strong likeness to their father. Bertram, informed of his wife's absence, determines to return home. The Count gives a great entertainment, and Giletta, with his ring on her finger, and twin sons begotten by him in her arms, prostrates herself before him and supplicates to be acknowledged as his wife. The Count kisses her, and vows henceforth to love and honour her. THE PLOTS OF SHAKSPEARE's PLAYS. 37 TAMING OF THE SHREW. This play has an induction which exhibits the old story of a drunken tinker, who, to furnish mirth in a nobleman's establishment, is conveyed thither, provided with costly dresses and luxurious entertainment, per- suaded he has a lady for a wife, and, in the course of the evening, witnesses a play, which is the story of Katharine and Petruchio. He again indulges to such an extent in wine that he is re-dressed in his rags and conveyed back, in a drunken stupor, to the spot "Before an Alehouse on a Heath" where his insensible form was found in the first instance. The story of the old play is simply that of three daughters, the eldest of whom possessing so untameable a temper that she fails to attract a husband. By the assistance of the sisters' lovers a suitor is found, who adopts extraordinary measures from the very beginning of his courtship, and eventually the shrew is brought to reason. There is little originality about our poet's treatment of either story. The episode of the drunken tinker is repeated in almost the same form by numerous writers, and is found 38 SHAKSPEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. in the " Arabian Nights " under the title of " The Sleeper Awakened." Grimstone, in his " Histories," relates a similar freak, the hero being a mechanic found in the streets of Brussels by the Duke Philip. A play called " The Taming of A Shrew " appears on the records of the Stationers' Company, anno 1594, similar both in induc- tion and plot to Shakspeare's comedy. No doubt he had access to this work ; for, as Dr. Johnson says, " the quarrel in the choice of dresses is precisely the same ; many of the ideas are preserved without alteration ; the faults found with the cap, the gown, the com- passed cape, the trunk sleeves, and the balder- dash about taking up the gown, have been copied, as well as the scene in which PetrucMo makes Katharine call the sun the moon. The joke of addressing an elderly gentleman as a ' young budding virgin, fair, and fresh, and sweet,' belongs also to the old drama ; but in this instance it is remarkable that while the leading idea is adopted, the mode of express- ing it is quite different." WINTER'S TALE. The story of this drama concerns the un- THE PLOTS OF SHAKSPEARE's PLAYS. 39 founded jealousy Leontes, King of Sicily, has conceived of his wife Hermione, whom he accuses as being unfaithful withjP0&wnff, King of Bohemia, and imprisons. A daughter PfrditOj is born in prison, whom Leontes causes to be exposed in a desert place near the sea. The oracle of Apollo declares the innocence of Leontes queen just as the death of their son MinniUius is reported. Hermione swoons and is reported to the King as dead. He mourns for their loss, and a restoration is not effected until Perdita, who was left to perish, but was saved by a shepherd, has grown into a beau- tiful girl, and is beloved by Florizel, son of Pol Irenes. Hermione is presented to Leontes in the guise of a statue of stone. Again Shakspeare has availed himself of the vastly inferior work of Robert Greene a writer of some note of his day called "Dorastusand Fawnia," a novel. The episode of the statue and the character of the merry rascal Autolycus, however, find no place in Greene's story. The tone of this play is more sombre than perhaps any of Shakspeare's not avowedly tragic dramas. It is peculiar that the scene of the shipwreck should be, in both novel and 40 SHAKSPEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. drama, laid on the coast of Bohemia. Whether the blunders and curious anachronisms con- stantly to be found in the works of the Elizabethan dramatists arose from carelessness or want of knowledge we cannot tell ; the un- lettered audiences of the day were not likely to find fault with the authors on that account. Robert Greene, however, was a Cambridge B.A., and Shakspeare's slender education may have been the cause of his acceptance of the geo- graphical absurdity of assigning a sea border to an inland province from a man of learning. COMEDY OF ERRORS. Shakspeare is not supposed to have derived the idea of this diverting comedy from the " Menaechmi " of Plautus, because there is no record of a translation thereof having been published until 1596, before which year the " Comedy of Errors " was written. The idea of the farcical plot, however, occurs in the classical work, and our poet must have obtained it from some other source, that is, if our chronology be approximately correct. The resemblance, however, is not so close as sometimes is the case between Shakspeare's play and his supposititious model. Antipholus THE PLOTS OF SHAKSPEARE*S PLATS. 41 of Ephesus, Antipholus of Syracuse, and their servants, the brothers Dromio, are the chief actors in the series of humorous incidents of the play, which arise from the exact personal resemblance which exists between masters and men respectively ; and the complications and scrapes which they all four experience in con- sequence. Shakspeare has treated the story with great skill and judgment. Dr. Johnson thinks that had Shakspeare been able to have copied more of Plautus, he would have done so, and, the "MenaBchmi" being in English, he took that one only, the others being inaccessible. MACBETH. Holinshed's " Chronicle " has furnished our author with the materials for this splendid tragedy, merely however in the form of a bald narrative ; and the merit of constructing a tragic drama of unequalled force belongs to him. The tragedy, albeit full of unrelieved gloom and thrilling scenes of horror from beginning to end, possesses an intense and fascinating interest to spectator and reader alike, and its sombre action is never relieved by a single character possessing humour or levity. Modern historians attribute a very different 42 SHAKSPEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. character to the doings of Macbeth and his wife Cruach, King and Queen of Scotland, Avho are credited with benevolent acts to the Church in those warlike times. Sir Walter Scott, how- ever, seems to accept the old chronicler's version in his " Tales of a Grandfather." Macbeth, in the play, is a victorious officer in Duncans army who has recently become Thane of Glamis and is returning from a campaign. In company with his friend Banquo he encounters three witches on a wild heath near Fores, who arrest their progress and prophesy the future advancement of Macbeth to further honour, and ultimately to the Crown of Scotland. This advancement is announced in weird and mysterious language, and the future Thane of Cawdor and King of Scotland is told that in his coming dignity he shall be safe until " Birnam Wood shall come to Dunsinane" Castle, and that he shall not be defeated by any man born of a woman. He dwells on these forecasts of the super- natural beings, and speedily Banquo is mur- dered and removed from his path, and thence he proceeds, being now Thane of Cawdor, instigated by his wife, whose ambition is of a stronger and more unscrupulous kind than THE PLOTS OF SHAKSPEARE's PLAYS. 43 that of her husband, to murder the venerable King Duncan, who is the guest of the guilty pair ; and he then obtains the coveted crown. Macbeth has also been told by the witches that the succession to the crown shall pass from his family, and he causes Macduff' s wife and children to be murdered after that chieftain's flight. Retribution soon overtakes him. An army, under Malcolm, the late King's son, attacks the King in his castle of Dunsinane, the troops carry branches of trees, culled in Birnam Wood, to, conceal their numbers ; and finally, on the battlements of his own fortress, he encounters Macduff, whose unnatural birth fulfils the condition necessary, according to the weird sisters' prophecy, for his defeat of the usurper. Previously, in a pathetic scene, Lady Macbeth is introduced, now utterly demented, and dwelling on the ghastly scene of the old King's murder; and she dies just before Macbeth is slain by Macduff after a stout resistance. We have only given the bare outline of the story. Shakspeare has bestowed his best pains in the choice and dignified diction employed by the characters of the tragedy; and the weird fancy which appears in the scenes 44 SHAKSPEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. devoted to the supernatural episodes and incan- tations could emanate only from the bound- less resources of Shakspeare's teeming mind. KING JOHN. This "historical play," although historical fidelity to detail is the last thing aimed at either by our bard or the anonymous author of " The Troublesome Raigne of John, King of England, with the Discovery of King Richard Cordelion's base Sonne (vulgarly called the Bastard Fauconbridge) ; also the Death of King John at Swinstead Abbey," contains the career of that king in its later episodes, the proposal to Hubert de Burgh to murder the young prince Arthur, Johns nephew, the sor- rows of Constance, and the King's love for her. John himself is occasionally represented by Shakspeare, however, as not wholly base, although his general character is mean as well as fiercely vindictive; and the character of Richard Faulconbridge is finely drawn and treated with more careful delineation in Shak- speare's work than in that of his predecessor. It is difficult to believe that our poet did not know that Richard Coeur de Lion was killed by Bertrand de Gourdon at the siege of THE PLOTS OF SHAKSPEARfi's PLAYS. 45 Chalus ; in this play, however, his death is attributed to a Duke of Austria. KING RICHARD II. We quote the following remarks concerning this play from Dr. Johnson's edition of the poet's works. Holinshed furnished the facts of this drama, and, with a few trifling excep- tions, Shakspeare has implicitly followed him. The short period embraced in the action of the drama is deficient in incidents ; and the author made one attempt to remedy the defect by representing Isabel, Richard's Queen, who was only twelve years old when he was deposed, with the speech and actions of maturity. Shakspeare's genius has been lavishly poured out on the character of Richard. He could not, however, pass over his bad qualities, but they are lightly touched. Holinshed says, that under his misfortunes he "was almost consumed with sorrow and half dead with fear ; " which slight picture Shakspeare has expanded into a vivid picture of intellectual cowardice. Yet "Richard II.," though an admirable poem, is a heavy play. It is defi- cient in variety and contrast ; the dialogue is not always interesting ; and while dramas of 46 SHAKSPEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. far inferior merit keep possession of the stage, this tragedy, from its inherent defect, a want of power in its action, is seldom represented. KING HENRY IV. (P.- RTS I. AND II.) AND KING HENRY V. Each of these dramas may be said to be complete in itself for acting purposes ; the divi- sion of the substantially-continuous narrative into three parts was necessary. The first divi- sion is epitomized from Holinshed, describing the declining years of Henry IV. with infinite delicacy and tenderness. An old play, called " The Famous Victories of King Henry the Fifth ; containing the honourable Battell of Agincourt," has been also used, but Shakspeare derived nothing from it in his description of the civil feuds which disturbed the latter part of the reign of Henry IV., neither does it ap- pear to have afforded him much useful matter for the incidents he has introduced relating to the French wars of Henry V. Hotspur's chivalrous nature is not done justice to elsewhere than in Shakspeare's own composition, and the metrical eulogium of Scroop is an elaborate and beautiful develop- ment from the historian's statement. THE PLOTS OF SHAKSPEARE's PLAYS. 47 The wild doings of Prince Hal and his as- sociates have been immortalized by our author, and the characters of Sir John Falstaff, Poins, Bardolph, and Peto, are substituted for similar reprobates in the old play, wherein the striking of Chief Justice Gascoigne takes place on the stage, which Shakspeare judiciously omits in representation, and merely introduces the inci- dent as a narrative. We cannot better conclude our notice of this group of plays than by quoting some re- marks from the work we have before made selections from. Speaking of Henrys loose companions, the writer says : Shakspeare has not been very careful of their morals, but he has given them qualities which palliate, though they cannot justify his choice. Falstaff is a wonderful example of the writer's comic powers ; the character stands absolutely alone unimitated and inimitable. The dismissal of the fat knight is conformable to the chro- nicle, but his commitment to the Fleet is without any authority, and the bard certainly does unnecessary vio- lence to our feelings by killing our ancient favourite through the severity of his former companion. Stowe gives a much more pleasing account of the King's con- duct : *' After his coronation King Henry called unto him all those young lords and gentlemen who were the fol- lowers of his young acts, to every one of whom he gave rich gifts, and then commanded that as many as would 48 SHAKSPEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. change their manners, as he intended to do, should abide with him in his court ; and to all that would persevere in their former light conversation, he gave express com- mandment, upon pain of their heads, never after that day to come in his presence." Shallow and Silence had no prototypes in the old play ; something faintly resembling the magnanimous Pistol may probably be found there, but the character, if copied, is vastly improved, and the amiable but ridiculous Fluellen is an entirely original character. On the whole, it appears that Shakspeare's obligations to the anonymous author of the " Famous Victories " are extremely trifling, and what he has taken from Stowe and Holinshed should rather increase our admiration of his genius than diminish his claims to our applause. KING HENRY VI. (PARTS I., II., AND III.). As regards these historical dramas, we again quote from the same source as previously : These three plays have been ascribed to Shakspeare on the authority of his first editors, an allusion to them by himself, and the seeming connection between the end of the third part and the commencement of " Richard III." The first part of a drama, which still exists, was printed in 1594, under the title of " The Contention of the Two Famous Houses of York and Lancaster ;" the continua- tion appeared in 1595, as " The True Tragedy of Richard, Duke of York, and the Good King Henry the Sixth ; with the Whole Contention between the Houses of York and Lancaster." These plays were originally published without any author's name, but in 1669 they were partly assigned to Shakspeare ; and there can be no doubt that THE PLOTS OF SHAKSPEARE's PLAYS. 49 he was largely indebted to them for the two last parts of " Henry VI.," as the events represented, the arrange- ment of the action, and the characters are generally the same ; and not only single lines, but whole speeches, are found in Shakspeare, merely distinguishable from some of the old tragedies by trifling verbal differences. Little need be said with regard to the First Part of " Henry VI." Neither the sentiments, allusions, diction, nor measure bear the smallest resemblance to our dramatist's undisputed com positions ; a few passages are interspersed which he might have written, for it is not unlikely that a play, suitable by way of introduction to others, was not wholly neglected by him. Indeed, the manner in which La Pucelle, the heroic Maid of Arc, is treated in this drama, is sufficient proof that Shakspeare had little or iw baud in it. ***** He polished, invigorated, and corrected what he found rude, uncouth, or feeble ; and the part of Gloucester, which came to him a fine but imperfect sketch, he has left one of the most terrible pictures of determined am- bition which our stage can boast. KING RICHARD III. The plot of this wonderful play is almost com- pletely epitomized in the title prefixed to the quarto, in which it originally appeared in 1597 ; it ran thus : " The Tragedy of King Richard the Third. Containing his treacherous plots against his brother Clarence ; the pitiful murder of his innocent nephews ; his tyran- 50 SHAK8PEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. nical usurpation ; with the whole course of his detested life, and most deserved death." No mention is made therein of the love of Gloucester for the Lady Anne, widow of Edward Prince of Wales, son to King Henry VI., although the courtship and marriage of the "crook-backed tyrant" with that injured lady form important episodes in the drama, and furnish one of its most effective scenes. Although this is one of the most popular of Shakspeare's tragedies, and receives the atten- tion of all modern actors of note, Dr. Johnson says, " This is one of the most celebrated of our author's performances, yet I know not whether it has not happened to him as to others, to be praised most when praise is not most deserved. That this play has scenes noble in themselves, and very well contrived to strike in the exhibition, cannot be denied. But some parts are trifling, others shocking, and some improbable." The historical authorities used by Shakspeare in this tragedy are Sir Thomas More's " History of Richard III." and its continuation by Holinshed. For dramatic purposes, however, Shakspeare has exaggerated the faults of the Duke of Gloucester s character. The Lady Anne THK PLOTS OF SHAKSPEARE's PLATS. 51 was only betrothed and not actually married to the Prince of Wales. There is little ground to believe that Richard killed his wife, or that he was instrumental in the murder of his brother the Duke of Clarence ; and with respect to his proposed union with his niece Elizabeth, the marriage seems not to have been distasteful to that princess, since she wrote with her own hand to the Duke of Norfolk begging him to recommend the alliance to Richard. The terrible scene in the tent the night before Bosworth is suggested by and faithfully reproduced from Sir Thomas More's words : " He never had quiet in his mind, he never thought himself sure. He took ill rest a'nights, lay long waking and musing, sore wearied with are and watch, rather slumbered than slept, troubled with fearful dreams, would suddenly sometimes start up, leap out of his bed, and run about the chamber." The tragedy has seldom been presented in its original form. An adaptation by Colley ('il)ber, actor, author, and artist, who died in 1 7-") 7, has held possession of the stage ever since it was acted at Drury Lane Theatre in 1700, arid a revised edition of the play thus altered was published by John Philip E -2 52 8HAK8PEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. Kemble, and performed at Covent Garden in 1801. KING HENRY VIII. No previous dramatic work was used by our author in the composition of this fine play, in which it differs from the other historical plays by Shakspeare. Fox's " Acts and Monuments of Christian Martyrs," and Cavendishe's "Life of Wolsey," in Holinshed's " Chronicles," no doubt furnished the material. Schlegel says of this play, " If others of his works both in elevation of fancy and in energy of pathos and character tower far above this, we have here on the other hand occasion to admire his nice powers of discrimination, and his perfect knowledge of courts and of the world." He has unmasked the tyrannical king, and to the intelligent observer exhibited him such as he was actually : haughty and obsti- nate, voluptuous and unfeeling, extravagant in conferring favours, and revengeful under the pretext of justice ; and yet the picture is so dexterously handled that a daughter might take it for favourable. The legitimacy of Elizabeth's birth depended on the validity of Henrys first marriage, and Shakspeare has THE PLOTS OF SHAKSPEARE's PLAYS. 53 placed the proceedings respecting his separation from Catliarine of Arragon in a very doubtful light. We see clearly that Henrys scruples of conscience are no other than the beauty of Anne Boleyn. Catharine is properly the heroine of the piece ; she excites the warmest sympathy by her virtues, her defenceless misery, her mild but firm opposition, and her dignified resig- nation. After her the fall of Cardinal Wolsey constitutes the principal part of the business. Henrys whole reign was not adapted for dramatic poetry. It would have merely been a repetition of the same scenes the repudiation or the execution of his wives, and the disgrace of his most eminent ministers, which was usually followed by death. Of all that dis- tinguished Henrys life Shakspeare has given us sufficient specimens. But as, properly speaking, there is no division in the history where he breaks off, we must excuse him if he gives a flattering compliment of the great Elizabeth for a fortunate catastrophe. The piece ends with the general joy at the birth of that princess, and with prophecies of the hap- piness which she was afterwards to enjoy or to diffuse. It was only by such a turn that the hazardous freedom of thought in the rest of the 54 SHAKSPEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. composition could have passed with impunity; Shakspeare was certainly not himself deceived respecting this theatrical delusion. The true conclusion is the death of Catharine, which under a feeling of this kind, he has placed earlier than was conformable to history. TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. Mainly founded on Chaucer's " Booke of Troilus and Cresseide," this play was com- piled by Shakspeare from various sources. Chapman's translation of Homer, Lydgate's "Troy Book," and Caxton's "History of the Destruction of Troy," were undoubtedly used. Only in Chaucer does the character of Pan- darus appear, and the story of Troilus and Cressida has no place in the writings of the ancients. Dr. Johnson says : This play is more correctly written than most of Shakspeare's compositions, but it is not one of those in which either the extent of his views or elevation of his fancy is fully displayed. As the story abounded with materials, he has exerted little invention ; but he has diversified his characters with great variety, and pre- served them with great exactness. His vicious charac- ters sometimes disgust, but cannot corrupt, for both Cressida and Pandaws are detested and contemned. The comic characters seem to have been the favourites of THE PLOTS OF SHAKSPEARfi's PLAYS. 55 the writer; they are of the superficial kind, and exhibit more of manners than nature ; but they are copiously filled and powerfully impressed. TIMON OF ATHENS. The story of this play is very simple, and has received simple treatment at the hands of our author. Timon is a noble Athenian, sur- rounded by luxury, troops of friends and flatterers, and hospitable to an extravagant degree. He becomes embarrassed, and his quondam associates desert him in his hour of jieed. He flies to the woods, and finds gold enough to make him a wealthy man again, but he gives himself up to misanthropical melancholy, and dies, leaving a bitterly- written epitaph which indicates his hatred of his kind. The play ends with the vic- torious entrance into Athens of the banished Alcibiades, a former friend of Timon. The " Dialogues " of Lucian contain a similar narrative to this, and Shakspeare may have met with it there, if a translation existed, in Painter's " Palace of Pleasure," or in Plutarch's "Life of Antoninus." This play has received much praise for its satirical power and the vigorous moral it inculcates; it has never been very popular 56 SHAKSPEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. as an acting drama, and the various adapta- tions by Shad well, Love, Cumberland, and Hall have achieved no lasting success. CORIOLANUS. Again Plutarch's " Lives," through Sir Thomas North's translation, have furnished our poet with materials for an important work, which is a magnificent picture of the public life of ancient Rome, and in which the character of the son of the dignified matron Volumnia stands absolutely alone as a study of a patrician warrior of sublime severity of character and unerring integrity. The play is full of incident, and the action never flags until the last act, when, perhaps, the contrast to the preceding ones makes it appear some- what tame. Virgilia is a delightfully-drawn character, full of purity and grace ; and variety is given by the introduction of the vulgar plebeians, Brutus and Siciwus, and Coriolanus jovial old friend Menenius Agrippa. Dr. Johnson considers this drama one of the most amusing of our author's performances. JULIUS (LESAR. Several plays on the subject of the death of THE PLOTS OF SHAKSPEARfi's PLATS. 57 Caesar appeared before Shakspeare's. Gosson speaks of one as early as 1579 ; in 1582 a Latin play by Dr. John Eedes was acted at Oxford on the same subject ; and Chap- man and Alexander Earl of Stirling also dramatized the story at about the same time as our poet's version of the tragic story appeared. The story of the conspiracy of Biiitus and Cassius against the life of Julius Ccesar, and its consummation in his murder, is too well known to need repetition here. -The sublime language which our author has put into the mouths of the characters of this drama, especially in the famous quarrel and reconciliation between the two arch-conspira- tors, and Antony s speech over the body of Ccesar, which are unequalled in merit, entitle this drama to rank second to none in the list of the gems of English literature. ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. The violent passion which the voluptuous Egyptian Queen conceives for Marcus An- tonius the Triumvir furnishes the theme of this admirable play, which Coleridge is in- clined to consider equal in merit to " Mac- beth," "Hamlet," " Lear," and "Othello." 58 SHAKSPEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. The story comes from Plutarch, and two plays on the same subject by Daniel and Lady Pembroke that of the latter being a translation from the French antedated our author's work, although he derived no assistance from them ; he has evidently fol- lowed Plutarch's narrative to the very letter. Schlegel says of the tragedy : " Antony and Cleopatra " may, in some measure, be considered a continuation of " Julius Caesar : " the two principal characters of Antony and Augustus are equally sustained in both pieces. " Antony and Cleopatra " is a play of great extent : the progress is less simple than in " Julius Caesar." The fulness and variety of political and warlike events to which the union of the three divisions of the Roman world under one master neces- sarily gave rise, were perhaps too great to admit of being clearly exhibited in one dramatic picture. In Antony we observe a mixture of great qualities, weak- nesses, and vices violent ambition and ebullitions of magnanimity; we see him now sinking into luxurious enjoyment, and then, nobly ashamed of his own aberra- tions, manning himself to resolutions not unworthy of himself, which are always shipwrecked against the seductions of an artful woman. It is Hercules in the chains of Omphale, drawn from the fabulous heroic ages into history, and invested with the Roman costume. The seductive arts of Cleopatra are in no respect veiled over ; she is an ambiguous being, made up of royal pride, female vanity, luxury, inconstancy, and true attachment. Although the mutual passion of herself TIIK PLOTS OF SHAKSPEAUE'S PLAYS. 59 and Antony is without moral dignity, it still excites our sympathy as an insurmountable fascination : they seem formed for each other, and Cleopatra is as remarkable for her seductive charms as Antony for the splendour of his deeds. As they die for each other, we forgive them for having lived for each other. CYMBELINE. Founded on a story of Boccaccio, this elegant play tells of the adventures and sufferings of a young and beautiful wife, Imogen, in conse- quence of an injudicious wager made by her absent lord Leonatus, with an Italian gentle- man named lachiino that her virtue was unassailable in his absence. She is believed by Leonatus to have been unfaithful, and has serious difficulty in proving her innocence, for lachimo, concealed in a chest in Imogens chamber, is able to nptice various matters there, which when the villain describes to her husband he at once believes in her guilt. She follows Leonatus in male attire, and is able at last to confound her base accuser, and is restored to her husband. The character of Imogen is all Shakspeare's own, the heroine of Boccaccio's story having no special character except that of injured innocence. Dr. Johnson grants that the play contains "many just sentiments, 60 SHAKSPEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. some natural dialogue, and some pleasing scenes," but his general verdict as to its merits is severely adverse. This, however, has elicited from Drake the following remarks : " Of the enormous injustice of this (Dr. Johnson's) sentence, nearly every page of ' Cymbeline ' will, to a reader of any taste or discrimination, bring the most decisive evidence. That it possesses many of the too common inattentions of Shakspeare, that it exhibits a frequent vio- lation of costume, and a singular confusion of nomenclature, cannot be denied ; but these are trifles light as air when contrasted with its merits, which are of the very essence of dra- matic worth, rich and full in all that breathes of vigour, animation, and intellect, in all that elevates the fancy and improves the heart, in all that fills the eyes with tears, or agitates the soul with hope and fear." PERICLES. Shakspeare probably re vised this wild drama, and in the progress of his work added from his own stores. More than this can scarcely be allowed, for as a whole it is decidedly unworthy of his great name. The story occurs in the "Gesta Romanorum," in the portion of Gower's THE PLOTS OF SHAKSPEARfi's PLAYS. 61 " Confessio Amantis " which treats of King Appolin of Tyre, and in the English transla- tion of the Historia Apollonii, "The Pattern e of painefulle Adventures containing the most excellent, pleasant, and variable Historic of the strange accidents that befell unto Prince Apollonius, the Lady Luciana his wife, and Pharsia his daughter. Wherein the uncer- tainty of the world and the fickle state of man's life are lively described. Gathered into English by Laurence Twine, gentleman." Af KING LEAR. "The true Chronicle History of King Leir and his Three Daughters, Gonorill, Ragan, and Cordella"is the chief source whence Shakspeare derived the plot of this matchless work. Hol- inshed has the following : " When Leir, therefore, was come to great years, and began to wax unwieldy through age, he thought to understand the affection of his daughters towards him and prefer her whom he best loved to the succession over the kingdom." o The wickedness and duplicity of Goneril and Regan, the sad fate of the affectionate and faith- ful Cordelia, with the aged monarch's madness and death, are the incidents of the story ; and 62 SHAKSPEARE AXD HIS CONTEMPORARIES. for dramatic power of a magnificent order, no play in even the Shakspearian repertoire can be said to surpass it. Coleridge says that " of all Shakspeare's plays ' Macbeth ' is the most rapid, 'Hamlet' the slowest in movement, 'Lear' com- bines length with rapidity, like the hurricane and the whirlpool, absorbing while it advances. It begins as a stormy day in summer, with brightness ; but that brightness is lurid and an- ticipates the tempest." In Sir Philip Sidney's " Paphlagonian unkind King," a story may be found whence the episode of Glo'ster and his sons may have been derived. KOMEO AND JULIET. This story has appeared in various languages from very distant periods, and first appeared in a wordy poem by Arthur Brooke in an English dress. It was called " The Tragical Hystory of Romeus and Juliet ; containing a rare example of true Constancie ; with the subtill Counsels and Practises of an old Frier, and their ill event." William Painter also has it in his " Palace of Pleasure," translated from the French. All the stories agree in the main particulars as Shakspeare has them in his delightful play. There are the two noble THE PLOTS OF SIIAKSPEARE's PLAYS. 63 Veronese families, Capulet and Montague. Young Romeo falls in love with the fair daughter of the rival house, the Capulets; the passion is mutual, and they are secretly married. Romeo, with two friends attached to the Montague interest, meets Juliet's cousin Tybalt, with others of the Capulets, and an encounter ensues. Mercutio, R-mieos friend, falls, and is soon avenged, as Romeo attacks Tybalt and kills him. Romeo is banished, and directly he is gone old ( 'amulet arranges a match for Juliet with a "Count Paris ; she, to avoid this, takes a potion which aids her in seeming dead. Romeo, find- ing her cold and apparently lifeless, laid out for burial in the family tomb of the Capulets, takes poison ; and, though Juliet awakes from the effects of her draught soon afterwards, it is too late, and the lovers are both found dead by the old Friar Laurence who had married them, The fine character of Mercutio is entirely a Shaksperian creation, and is unequalled for exquisite humour and brilliant gaiety of con- ception. Of the Nurse, a quaintly humorous conception, Dr. Johnson says it is " one of the ch;i i-;i CUTS in which the author delighted ; he has with great subtilty of distinction 64 SHAKSPEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. drawn her at once loquacious and secret, ob- sequious and insolent, trusty and dishonest." HAMLET. The crude and ineffective " Story of Am- leth,"or u Hamblett,"ashe is elsewhere called, which came originally from Saxo Grammati- cus' "History of Denmark," and then, through Belleforest's French version, reached an Eng- lish translation printed in black letter, may have furnished Shakspeare with the skeleton of the grandest achievement, as many think, of his mighty genius. A play on the same sub- ject was acted in 1589, but all trace of it is lost, and there is no means of ascertaining whether our author ever saw it. Retaining the principal facts of the old Danish legend, Shakspeare has purified and beautified it. Hamlet in the ancient story is a semi-barbarian ; Shakspeare has given us a grand intellectual creation whose grief at his father's murder prompts him to a revenge, somewhat slow in execution, but unerringly certain, and his fantastic simulation of in- sanity, which in some hands would be painful and repulsive, is, in our author's hands, managed with a delicacy and tact beyond all THE PLOTS OF SHAKSPEARE's PLATS. 65 praise. The appearances of the Ghost of the murdered king are entirely of Shakspeare's conception, and so is the beautiful character of Ophelia, for whom it is evident Hamlet has a true regard which, in the prosecution of his scheme of revenge by " putting an antic dis- position on," he conceals. In the black-letter "Hystorie of Hamblett" her place is occupied by a gentlewoman who is wholly devoid of femi- nine delicacy and, a creature of the usurping King, aids in a plot against the prince's life. The scene where Hamlet kills Pulonius behind the arras, thinking his murderous uncle is listening there, does occur in the old story ; but the delineation of Ophelias weak-minded, gar- rulous old father is Shakspeare's own, and the catastrophe of the play is quite different, except that Hamlet kills the King. The sombre action of the tragedy is relieved by the admirable satire on the bombastic manners of the actors of Shakspeare's day which occurs in his advice to the players; and the fantastic ingenuity which the hero displays in his conversations with the minor characters of the play is full of the rich humour, mingled with pathos, which no hand but Shakspeare's could have sketched. 66 SHAKSPEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. Volumes of criticisms have been written by British and foreign authors on the character of "Hamlet," but few of them hostile; and the play remains a monument to the poet's genius, amply sufficient to perpetuate his fame had he never written any other. OTHELLO. To illustrate this wonderful play, we give an abstract of the story slightly altered from the seventh novel of the third decade of Cinthio's u Hecatommithi." The military power of Venice was once under the direction of a Moor, who marries the beautiful daughter of a Vene- tian gentleman (Brabantio) and is entrusted with the government of Cyprus, whither he repairs with his bride (Desdemona). While there they become very intimate with an officer of the army and his wife (lago and Emilia). The former conceives a guilty pas- sion for his general's w r ife, which is not re- turned, and in revenge he accuses her of an undue familiarity with a young officer (Cassio), whom he considers to be favoured by the lady; and circumstances occur which render his abominable task comparatively easy. The younger officer, in a drunken fracas, wounds a comrade, and is deprived of his position by THE PLOTS OF SHAKSPEARE's PLATS. 67 the general ; the lady intercedes for him with her husband; and this proceeding being subtly exaggerated to the Moor, and the fact that a valued handkerchief is found in possession of Cassias mistress (Bianca), arouse his jealousy, which, roused to a pitch of frenzy by lagos wily suggestions, ends in the innocent lady's murder by her husband, and his death by his own hand when he discovers his lamentable mistake. We quote, in conclusion, the following appo- site remarks on this marvellous drama : Othello, from a rude uncultivated savage, remarkable for nothing but his personal bravery, rises into all the grandeur of intellectual superiority, and convinces us that the tincture of the skin cannot debase the mind, or shut out the spirit of love. Desdemona, the gentle, affectionate, uncomplaining Desdemona ! In what words can we do justice to the exquisitely delicate pencilling of thy character? We all feel its wonderful excellence, but a hand as felicitous as that which drew the magic portraiture is necessary to praise it aright. The villany of lago makes the spectator shudder : we have heard of persons who felt a personal dislike to Cooke,* from asso- ciating him with the forcible picture which he gave of this character, and even when supported by an actor of ordinary talent, it is scarcely possible to be quite cool dur- ing the perpetration of those enormities which the arcb- traitor himself completes with calmness and even levity. George Frederic Cooke, an eminent Shaksperian actor, bora in 1756, died 1812. Habits of intemperance often drew on him the public anger, and it even shortened his days. v '2 CHAPTER IV. SHAKSPEABE'S DRAMATIC CONTEMPORARIES. " Men's evil manners live in brass ; their virtues We write in water." King Henry VIII. OF the forty -three playwriters of Shakspeare's day, of whom we shall give short notices in this chapter, scarcely half are known, even by name, to the majority of modern readers. It must be confessed that the merit of many of them is of a decidedly modest order, and scarcely any of their works are pro- duced on the stage of our time. Such, indeed, is the obscurity into which many of the Elizabeth an dramatists have fallen, that more modern playwrights have not scru- pled to avail themselves of their plots without acknowledgment or fear of detection. Shakspeare himself, as we have seen, was indebted to his contemporaries for the ground- work of some of his plays, but between his BHAKSPEARE'S DRAMATIC CONTEMPORARIES. 69 work, complete as it always is, and the meagre string of incidents that it is based upon, there is little j more resemblance than a finished picture, harmonious in colour and perfect in composition and drawing, bears to the artist's palette which carries the pigments used in its production. It is said that Shakspeare assisted Fletcher in "The Two Noble Kinsmen," and that work has even been included in the list of the poet's plays. Massinger, Rowley, Ford, Dekker, and others are also believed to have had his co- operation in their literary labours. ALEXANDER, William, Earl of Stirling. This author was born in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and during the minority of James VI. of Scotland. He gave early indications of a rising genius, and much improved the fine parts nature had endowed him with by a very polite and extensive education. Although King James had but few regal qualities, he was certainly an encourager of learned men ; and accordingly he soon took William Alex- ander into his favour, and accepted the poems our author presented to him with the most condescending marks of esteem. In the year 70 SHAKSPEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. 1614 he created him a knight, and gave him the place of Master of the Requests. Charles I. also bestowed on him great marks of the royal favour, making him Secretary of State for Scotland and extraordinary Lord of Sessions, in the place of the Earl of Haddington, and a peer by the title of Viscount Stirling, soon after which he raised him to the dignity of an earl, by letters patent, dated June 14th, 1623. He died February 12th, 1640. His poems and tragedies have considerable merit, and were praised by contemporary poets, and also by Addison. The tragedies are, " Darius," "Croesus," "Julius Ca3sar," and the "Alexan- draan Tragedy." BEAUMONT, Francis, a dramatic writer, and one of the most eminent in an age fertile in such characters, was descended from a very ancient family of that name seated at Grace Dieu, in Leicestershire. He was born in the year 1585, and received his education at St. Alban's Hall, Oxford. He afterwards was entered as a student of the Inner Temple, and, in company with his friend Fletcher, was author of about fifty plays. These collabora- teurs were admirable delineations of human SIIAKSPEARE'S DRAMATIC CONTEMPORARIES. 71 nature, and their first joint play, the "Woman Hater," appeared in 1607. Their friendship was so close that they lived together, and seemed as if animated by one mind. Beau- mont's masque of the Inner Temple was acted and published in 1612, and he also wrote some poems which entitle him to honourable rank among British bards. He died in 1615, and was interred at the entrance of St. Benedict's Chapel, in Westminster Abbey, by the side of Chaucer and Spenser. BROWNE, William, a poet who was born in 1590, was a native of Tavistock, and was educated at Oxford. In 1624 he became tutor to Robert Dormer, afterwards Earl of Carnar- von, who fell at the battle of Newbury, 29th September, 1643, and he subsequently resided in the family of the Earl of Pembroke, who had a great respect for him ; and here, accord- ing to Wood, he made his fortune so well that he purchased an estate. He also adds, that Browne had a " great mind in a little body." With regard to the time of his death, Wood does not speak with any certainty ; all he says is, that " in his searches he finds that one William Browne, of Ottery St. Mary, in 72 SITAKSPEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. Devonshire, died in the year 1645, but that he cannot tell whether he was the same with the poet." His "Britannia's Pastorals," which were published in his twenty-third year, and his "Shepherd's Life," evince consider- able merit. Discursiveness and an occasional quaintness are the faults of his works, but they are redeemed by a lively fancy, much power of description, and flowing numbers. CART WRIGHT, William, a divine and a poet, Wood tells us in his " Oxon," was born in 1611, near Tewkesbury, in Gloucestershire, and educated at Westminster and Christ Church, Oxford. As a preacher he was highly popular, and as a man of talents and a poet, he won the lavish praise of many of his eminent contemporaries. Posterity, however, while not denying him considerable merit, has not ratified the lofty panegyrics awarded him by his friends. Dr. Fell, Bishop of Oxford, said of him, " Cartwright was the utmost man could come to" Ben Jonson gave him the title of his son. He valued him so highly that he said, "My son Cartwright writes all like a man." He died at Oxford in 1643, and Charles I., who was then at that city, wore mourning SHAKSPEARE'S DRAMATIC CONTEMPORARIES. 73 on the day of his funeral. He is the author of poems arid four dramas " The Royal Slave," "The Siege," "The Lady Errant," and " The Ordinary." CHAPMAN, George, one of our earliest poetical translators, was born in Kent, in 1557, was educated at Trinity College, Oxford, and was intimate with Shakspeare, Ben Jonson, Mars- ton, Spenser, and others of his celebrated con- temporaries a fact due to the truly amiable character he bore in private life. Yet such was Jonson's natural enviousness of disposition and haughtiness of temper, that, as Chap- man rose in reputation, we are told Jonson's jealousy induced him to suppress the growing fame of his friend, he himself being left with- out a rival on the demise of Shakspeare. Chapman produced, in all, twenty-two plays, his masterpieces being his "Bussy d'Amboise," a tragedy ; his u Widows' Tears," and his " Masque of the Inns of Court." His drama- tic works savour considerably of antiquity, but in reading them we find frequent occasion to commend and admire. Of his classical labours, the first seven books of his version of the " Iliad " appeared in 1596, the remainder 74 SHAKSPEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. being completed four or five years later ; the translation of the " Odyssey " was published in 1614. He also translated the " Battle of the Frogs and Mice," and the works of Hesiod and Musseus. He died in 1634, and was buried in the south side of the church of St. Giles-in- the-Fields. Inigo Jones, his firm friend and admirer, designed a monument to his memory, and erected it at his own cost. CHETTLE, Henry. A dramatist of whom ab- solutely no record remains ; indeed, the period to which these brief memoirs relate abounds in instances of writers who are only known to have existed by the survival of their works. He was the author of " Hot Anger soon Cold," 1598; "All is not Gold that Glisters," 1601, and in all, according to Baker's " Bio- graphia Dramatica," over twenty-four plays, which are distinguished by an originality of tone often lacking in works of loftier preten- sion. DANIEL, Samuel, poet and historian, was born near Taunton, 1562, and was educated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford. After leaving the University he was patronized by the Earl of SHAKSPEARE'S DRAMATIC CONTEMPORARIES. 75 Pembroke, subsequently became tutor to Lady Anne Clifford, was appointed Poet Laureate on the death of Spenser, and at a later period one of the grooms of the chamber to the Queen of James I. Towards the latter part of his life he quitted London, and, according to Dr. Fuller, retired to a farm near Devizes, AVilts, where he died in October, 1619. Daniel is far above mediocrity as a poet, and has con- siderable repute as an historian. In Spenser's " Colin Clout's Come Home Again " he is highly praised, and Coleridge calls him " the admirable Daniel," commending his poetry and manliness of style and language. He wrote " Cleopatra," a tragedy, " Tethy's Festi- val ; or, the Queen's Wake," " Hymen's Tri- umph," " Philotas," and the " Vision of the Twelve Goddesses." DAVENANT, Sir William. The son of an innkeeper at Oxford, where he was born. In his youthful days he enjoyed the acquaint- ance of Shakspeare, who was a great favourite of his mother's, a lively and attractive woman, and invariably sojourned at the " Crown," in his journeys between Stratford and London. He received his education at 76 SHAKSPEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. Lincoln College, and, after having been in the service of the Duchess of Richmond and Lord Brooke, began to write for the stage, and was employed in getting up masques to entertain the Court. He was appointed Poet Laureate and Governor of the Drury Lane Company of Actors. He fought for Charles during the civil wars preceding the Commonwealth, was knighted, and made Lieutenant-General. Retiring afterwards into France, he became a Roman Catholic. Being taken by a Parliament vessel, he was thrown into prison, and was in peril of his life, had he not been saved by the intercession of John Milton, an act of kindness he did not omit to return later on. At the Restoration Sir Wil- liam Davenant obtained a patent for a theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and here he introduced for the first time appropriate scenery and de- corations for the due illustration of the dramas he produced. He died in 1668, and on his tomb in Westminster Abbey is inscribed, with questionable taste, in imitation of Ben Jon- son's laconic epitaph, the words " rare Sir William Davenant ! " His heroic poem of " Gondibert," which he did not live to com- plete, contains much genuine poetry, but is SHAKSPEARE'S DRAMATIC CONTEMPORARIES. 77 deficient in sustained interest ; it suffers, too, from the ill-chosen form of stanza adopted. Talent is displayed in all his other poetical and dramatic works. DAVENPORT, Robert. The author of " A New Trick to Cheat the Devil," a comic work full of humorous episodes; "King John" and " Matilda," tragedies of considerable power ; and " Henry I." and " Henry II.," in which last play or plays he is reported to have "had the advantage of Shakspeare's co-opera- tion. DAY, John. This author, by the date of his works, must have flourished in the reigns of James I. and Charles I. He wrote the follow- ing pieces : " The Bristol Tragedy," 1602 ; "The Isle of Gulls," 1606; "The Travels of Three English Brothers," 1607 (the author was assisted in this by William Rowley and George Wilkins) ; " Humour Out of Breath," 1608; "Law Tricks," 1608; "Come See a Wonder," 1623; " Parliament of Bees Masque," 1641 ; " Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green," 1659. He also joined with Dekker in a play not printed, called " Guy of Warwicke," 1619 ; and 78 SHAKSPEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. withMarlowin the "Maidens' Holiday," 1654. The precise times of his birth and death are unknown, and all records are silent concern- ing his personal history, except in so far as his education was concerned, which he received at Caius College, Cambridge. DEKKER, Thomas. A dramatist of the reigns of Elizabeth and James I., of whom nothing is known but that he was a prolific writer, and that he and Ben Jonsori were enemies. Jonson satirized him in his " Poet- aster," but Dekker fully avenged himself by introducing his antagonist into the comedy of " Satiro-mastix ; or, The Untrussing," in which under the title of Young Horace, he has made Ben the hero of his piece. Dekker was not in truth an object of contempt. He sometimes wrote in conjunction with Middleton and Webster, but is sole author of about twenty plays, among which are : " Old Fortunatus," u The Honest Whore," " Westward Hoe," " If it be not Gold the Divel is in it." He also wrote the " Gull's Horje Book," and other tracts. He was also author of the pageants of 1603 and 1612. The dates of his birth and death are not recorded, but he could riot have died SHAKSPE ARE'S DRAMATIC CONTEMPORARIES. 79 young, as his first play appeared in 1602, and the latest date we find affixed to any other is 1636, with the exception of "The Sun's Dar- ling," in which he assisted Ford, and it was not published, according to Langbaine, until after Dekker's death. DRAYTON, Michael, a poet born at Harzal, in Warwickshire, in 1563, was educated at Oxford, and patronized by Sir Henry Goodeve, Sir Walter Aston, the Countess of Bedford, ~and the Earl of Dorset. To the first of these personages he was indebted for a great part of his education, and in the family of the last he lived for a considerable period. Drayton is the author of the " Sheppard's Garland," " Baron's Wars," "England's Heroical Epistles," u Poly- olbion," "' Nymphidia," and many other poems, the last-named being the most fanciful and elegant. Headley justly remarks of him, that " he wanted neither fire nor imagination, and possessed great command of his abilities." He is said to have written the " Merry Devil of Edmonton,'' but this is doubtful, and were the fact established it would contribute little to his fame. The following dramatic pieces, none of which are however extant, are attri- 80 6HAKSPEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. buted to his pen. " Gorman Prince of Corn- wall," " Earl Godwin and His Three Sons," Part 2, "The First Civil Wars in France," " Sir William Longsword," "Wars of Henry I. and the Prince of Wales," "Worse Afeared than Hurt," " The Two Harpies," and " Mother Red Cap." Michael Dray ton died in 1631, and lies in Westminster Abbey, where so many of his poetical fellow-countrymen rest. FIELD, Nathaniel. This author lived in the reigns of James I. and Charles I., and on the authority of Roberts the player, in his answer to Pope, would appear to be the same Field whose name appears on the prefatory sheet of the first folio of Shakspeare, in conjunction with Burbage, Hemynge, and Condell. He seems to have been an actor of some note, appearing in Ben Jonson's " Cynthia's Revels." His best plays are, according to Chapman, "A Woman's a Weathercock," 1612, and " Amends for Ladies," 1618. Massinger condescended to accept Field's assistance in the " Fatal Dowry," on which two authors have depended for their groundwork in producing the tra- gedies of the " Fair Penitent " (Rowe), and the SIIAKSPEARE'S DRAMATIC CONTEMPORARIES. 81 " Insolvent ; or, Filial Piety " (Aaron Hill), the latter left unfinished. Nathaniel Field died in 1641. FLETCHER, John, a dramatist, the son of Bishop Fletcher, was born in Northampton- shire, 1596, received his education at St. Bene't's College, Cambridge, and, dying of the plague in 1625, was buried in St. Saviour's church, Southwark. Fletcher was the coad- jutor of Beaumont, as we have said, in the production of those admirable dramas which bear their joint name, and which have obtained for their authors rank among the best of our ancient theatrical writers. Fletcher is said to have been eminent for fancy, Beaumont for judgment ; and that the former possessed the quality attributed to him, is evinced by his beautiful dramatic pastoral the " Faithful Shepherdess," which no doubt was suggested by Spenser's " Sheppard's Calender." This is, we believe, Fletcher's only piece of which he was sole composer. His fortunate connection with a genius of equal calibre with his own is due to his natural vivacity of wit and amiable qualities ; his untimely death is much to be deplored, but his early devotion to the Muses 82 SHAKSPEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES soon raised him to one of the highest places in the temple of poetical fame. FLETCHER, Phineas, a poet, was educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge, to which latter seminary he went in 1600. In 1621 he obtained the living of Hilgay in Norfolk, and he is believed to have died there in 1650. He is the author of the "Purple Island," which is an allegorical description of man in twelve cantos of Spenserian metre. He also wrote " Piscatory Eclogues," " Poetical Miscella- nies," and a drama entitled "Sicelides." Not- withstanding his conceits and other faults which, however, are due to the age in which he wrote his works, as Headley rightly ob- serves, give him a claim to a very high rank among our old English classics. FORDE, John, one of our early dramatists, was born in 1586 atllsington, Devon; became a member of the Middle Temple in 1602, and died in 1639. He joined with Dekker in writing "The Witch of Edmonton," "Sun's Darling," &c., and was sole author of twelve plays, of which the principal are "The Lover's Melancholy," "Love Sacrifice," ''Perkin War- SHAKSPEARE'S DRAMATIC CONTEMPORARIES. 83 beck," "The Broken Heart," and "The Ladies' Trial." "Forde" (says Charles Lamb) "was of the first order of poets. He sought for sub- limity not by parcels in metaphors or visible images, but directly when she has her full residence in the heart of man, in the actions and sufferings of the greatest minds." Accord- ing to a prevailing custom of his day, his name is never affixed to his printed plays, but they may be known by an anagram generally to be found on the title-page, viz., FIDE HONOR. GAGER, William, LL.D. Anthony a Wood says of this learned author: "He was an excellent poet, especially in the Latin lan- guage, and reported the best comedian of his time, whether it was Edward, Earl of Oxford, William Rowley, the once ornament for wit and ingenuity, of Pembroke Hall, in Cam- bridge; Richard Edwards, John Lylie, Thomas Lodge, George Gascoigne, William Shak- speare, Thomas Nash, or John Heywood." A combination of names indeed so oddly jumbled together, as must convince us that a Wood must have been a better biographer than a judge of dramatic writings. From the same source we gather that Gager wrote several G 2 84 SHAKSPEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. plays, all in Latin, the names of three of which were, "Meleger," "Rivals," and "Ulysses." In 1608 he maintained a thesis at Oxford that it was lawful for husbands to beat their wives, which ungallant theory was answered by one Mr. Heale, of Exeter College, an avowed champion of the fair sex. GASCOIGNE, George. A poet of Queen Eliza- beth's time, son of Sir George Gascoigne, and born at Walthamstow, Essex. After studying at Cambridge and Gray's Inn he served in the Dutch army with such signal valour as to warrant his assumption of the motto Tarn Marti quani Mercuric. On his return to Eng- land he became a courtier, and wrote masques for Her Majesty's entertainment. In one of these he assumed the part of a savage, and there is a woodcut extant representing him in the whimsical garb he appeared in. Besides his dramas, original and translated, he was author of a satire, " The Steel Glass," some other poems, and tracts in prose. Four of his dramatic works are thus entitled. u The Sup- poser," translated from Ariosto; " locasta," translated from Euripides, with the assistance of Francis Kinwellinarshe ; "The Glass of SHAKSPEARE'S DRAMATIC CONTEMPORARIES. 85 Government," and u The Princely Pleasure of Kenil worth Castle." He was, as Mr. Headley says, " a writer whose mind, though it ex- hibits few marks of strength, is not destitute of delicacy; he is smooth, sentimental, and harmonious. Lord Gray of Wilton was his patron, from whom he acknowledges to have received particular favours." George Gas- coigne died in 1577. ^ GREENE, Robert, a wit and poet of Eliza- beth's time, was born, 15(>1, at Norwich, and was educated at St. John's College, Cam- bridge, where he took his B.A. degree, 1578. He afterwards removed to Clare Hall, and in 1583 became M.A. It is said he was also in- corporated at Oxford. He was a man of great humour and drollery, and by no means defi- cient in point of wit ; and had he not prosti- tuted that happy but dangerous talent to the base purposes of vice and obscenity, he might have taken a high position among the learned of his day. His works sold well among the loose, and afforded him a considerable income, till at length, after a career of riot and de- bauchery, we find him in a state of penury, his fortune wasted, his faculties and constitu- 86 SHAKSPEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. tion destroyed. Wood, in his "Fasti," tells us he died in 1592. He wrote "The History of Friar Bacon and Friar Bongay," "The His- tory of Orlando Furioso, one of the Twelve Peeres of France," " A Looking Glass for London and England," &c. He also wrote "A Groat's worth of Wit bought with a Million of Repentance." HEYWOOD, John, was born at North Mimms, in Hertfordshire, and was educated at Oxford, after which he became, through Sir Thomas More, a great favourite with Henry VIII.; he also continued about the courts of Edward VI. and Queen Mary, at whose death, being a Roman Catholic, he went abroad, and died at Mechlin, in Brabant, 1565. His companion- able qualities and musical skill rendered his society much in request. Among his works are six plays, several hundred epigrams, and "The Spider and the Fly," a parable. He perhaps can scarcely be called one of Shak- speare's contemporaries, but he is mentioned here as the first regular dramatist our stage can boast. " He drew," as Warton says, " the Bible from the stage, and introduced repre- sentations of familiar life and manners." His SHAKSPEARE'S DRAMATIC CONTEMPORARIES. 87 dramatic works are " A Play between Johan the Husband, Tyb the Wife, and Sir Johan the Priest," " A Merry Play between the Par- doner and the Frere," "The Curate and Ney- bour Pratte," "The Play called the Four P.'s," and "A Newe and a Very Merry Interlude of a Palmer, a Pardoner, a Potycary, and a Pedlar," "A Play of Love," "A Play of the Wether," "A Play of Gentilness and Nobilitie." HEYWOOD, Thomas, an actor and writer, lived in the reigns of Elizabeth, James I., and Charles I. ; neither the date of his birth nor death is recorded. He appears to have been a native of Lincolnshire, from a copy of verses addressed to his friend James Yorke, in his " Book on Heraldry," and prefixed to that work. His fertility was astonishing ; for he tells us that he had " either an entire hand, or at least a main finger" in two hundred and twenty plays, of which only twenty-four are extant. W f riting so much, it is wonderful he wrote so well. " He is," says Charles Lamb, " a sort of prose Shakspeare ; his scenes are to the full as natural and affecting." Heywood did not confine himself to the drama, he wrote 88 SHAKSPEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. various works, among which arc the "Hierarchy of Angels," " A Life of Queen Elizabeth," "A General History of Women," and " An Apo- logy for Actors." He also wrote "The City Pageants of 1631-2-3, 1637-8-9;" and he was one of the writers of " Annalia Dubrensia, upon the Yeerely Celebrations of Mr. Robert Dover's Olimpick Games upon Cotswold Hills," 1636. No less than thirty-two writers are mentioned on the title-page as concerned in this publication, among whom are Michael Drayton and Ben Jonson. JONSON, Ben, the celebrated poet and dramatist, the posthumous son of a clergyman, was born in 1574, in Westminster. His mother, having re-entered the marriage state with a bricklayer, took young Ben from West- minster School to follow his stepfather's trade. He emancipated himself by entering the army as a private soldier ; and, during a campaign in Holland, was applauded by his officers for his courage. On his return he studied at St. John's College, Cambridge, but the scantiness of his means soon compelled him to quit the University. Removing to London, he em- braced the two-fold profession of author and lien an Hall, Oxford. Gifford conjectures that lie became a Roman Catholic early in life, and that this 94 SHAKSPEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. gave offence to the noble family with whom his father-in-law had been so intimately con- nected. It would appear that during the early portion of his career he was chiefly in association with other writers. To a later period belong his greater works, such as the "Duke of Milan," "The City Madam," and the celebrated "New Way to Pay Old Debts," which latter is occasionally represented in the present day, the character of Sir Giles Over- reach having been one of the most noteworthy impersonations of the elder Kean. Of thirty- two plays by our author, fourteen are unfor- tunately missing. His published works have the advantage of having been edited by the late William Gifford. Massinger had cer- tainly equal invention, equal ingenuity, in the conduct of his plots, and an equal know- ledge of character and nature with Beaumont and Fletcher ; and if it should be objected that he has less of the vis comica, it will surely be allowed that this deficiency is amply made amends for by that purity and decorum which he has preserved, and a rejection of that looseness and obscenity which runs through most of their comedies. Philip Massinger died in 1639, and lies in the same 8HAK8PE ARE'S DRAMATIC CONTEMPORARIES. 95 grave as his friend John Fletcher, in the church of St. Saviour, South wark. MIDDLETON, Thomas, was a very volumi- nous writer, and lived as late as the time of Charles I. Nevertheless, particulars about him are very scanty; for, notwithstanding that he has certainly shewn considerable genius in works which are unquestionably all his own, and which are very numerous, he appears to have owed what reputation he enjoyed during his lifetime to a connection with Ben Jonson, Massinger, Fletcher, and Rowley. His best plays appeared at an early date in his career, notably " A Mad World, my Masters," acted by the children of Paul's in 1608, which is a very meritorious work, of which modern writers have taken advantage o by freely adapting it for their own purposes Dr. Johnson in his " Country Lasses," and Mrs. Behn in her " City Heiress," to wit. Most of Middleton's plays belong to the period of the reign of Charles I. He was appointed chronologer to the City of London in 1626, and is supposed to have died after the publication of the last pageant. NASH, Thomas. The vicissitudes of this 96 SHAKSPEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. gifted author's life were due to his irregu- larities of life and restless spirit. He wrote three plays : " Dido, Queen of Carthage," "Summer's Last Will and Testament," and the "Isle of Dogs;" and died in 1601. His principal forte was satire, and he appears, in his work " Piers Pennilesse," to be at fierce enmity with all mankind. Towards the close of his chequered life he appears to have regretted his past follies, and in a pamphlet intituled "Christ's Tears over Jerusalem," says : A hundred unfortunate farewells to fantastical! satirisme. In those vaines, heretofore, I misspent my spirit, and prodigally conspired against good hours. Nothing is there now so much in my vowes as to be at peace with all men, and make submissive amends where I have most displeased. To a little more wit have my increasing yeeres recalled mee than I had before : those that have been perverted by any of my workes, let them reade this, and it shall thrice more benefit them. The autumne I imitate, in shedding my leaves with the trees, and so doth the peacocke shead his taile. PEELE, George, M.A., a dramatic writer and poet of the reign of Elizabeth, was a native of Devonshire; born, 1532; died, 1597. He took the degree of M.A. at Oxford, 1579, after SHAKSPEARE'S DRAMATIC CONTEMPORARIES. 97 which he removed to London, formed an acquaintance with Shakspeare, Ben Jonson, and other dramatists, and wrote for the stage. He became the City poet, and was entrusted with the ordering of the pageants of 1585, 1590, and 1591. Stevens, with great proba- bility, supposes that the character of George Reboard, in the " Puritan," was designed as a representative of George Peele. See a note in that comedy, p. 587, as published by Malone, 8vo. He wrote the "Arraignment of Paris," 11 Edward I.," " The Old Wives' Tales," "Loves of King David and Fair Bethsabe," "The Turkish Mahomet and Hiren^"^ a> The Faire Greek." There is a scarce book still extant, entitled, "The Merry Conceited Jests of George Peele," &c. PRESTON, Thomas, LL.D., a dramatic writer who flourished in the earlier part of Queen Elizabeth's reign, was first Master of Arts and Fellow of King's College, Cambridge, and after- ward created a Doctor of Civil Laws and Master of Trinity Hall, in the same university. In the year 1564, when the Queen was enter- tained at Cambridge, this gentleman acted so admirably in the tragedy of " Dido," that her 08 SIIAKSPEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. Majesty, as a testimonial of her approbation, settled a pension of 20 per annum on him. He wrote a tragedy, called "The Life of Cam- byses, King of Persia," which did not escape the ridicule of Shakspeare, who, in Henry IV., part 1, act ii., makes Falstaff talk of speaking in " King Cambyses' vein." Preston died in 1598. QQARLES, Francis. The exact date of his birth is unknown, but according to the parish register of Romford, Essex, which contains sundry entries relating to the ancient family to which he belonged, and was an ornament to, he was baptized 8th May, 1592. We are told that Quarles's education was in keeping with his birth, and in due course he was sent to Christ's College, Cambridge. On the com- pletion of his university career, he removed to London, and entered his name as a student of Lincoln's Inn. His devotion to his legal studies, however, did not prevent his pro- ducing a play, " The Virgin Widow," which was written and privately acted about 1620; after which his religious convictions induced him to abandon secular literary composition, and with the sole exception of his "Argalus SIIAKSPEARE'S DRAMATIC CONTEMPORARIES. 99 and Parthenia," published in 1621, we find no subsequent works of his other than of a re- ligious character paraphrases of the Scrip- tures, pious meditations, and sacred epigrams. He is best known by the "Emblems Divine and Moral," an illustrated work, given to the world in 1635. This work, like most of his productions, was not wholly original, the id soon after, in the house of Cuthbert Burbadge, in Holywell Lane, to whose wife Elizabeth the testator left a legacy of ten pounds, "as a remembrance of his love in respect of her motherly care of him." Tooley 154 SHAKSPEAKE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. was a most benevolent man; while he bustled in the world he did many kind acts, and when he could no longer perform, he gave consider- able legacies to the poor of St. Leonard's, Shoreditch, and St. Giles's, Cripplegate. UNDERWOOD, John. Acted as Othello; he belonged to the Chapel children and after- wards joined the King's company ; played in the "Alchyinist," by Ben Jonson, and died in 1624. WILSON, John. In the first folio it is stated " Jack Wilson " sang as Balthasar in " Much Ado about Nothing," Act II. sc. 3. John Wilson, it is stated in Dr. Rimbault's "Essay," was a musician of some eminence ; was born in 1585, and died in 1624. CHAPTER VIII. PROLOGUES AND EPILOGUES. " Admit me chorus to this history." Prologue, Henry 7. NEITHER as an introduction to the theme, or the characters of a modern play, nor as an apology, do authors of our time think it neces- sary to propitiate or instruct their audiences by the appearance of a speaker of either prologue or epilogue. The practice is of great antiquity ; the "Amphitryon" of Plautus has for instance a prologue spoken by Mercury. In Shakspeare's time prologues and epilogues were not indispensable portions of a play, but they were very frequent ; it is, moreover, pro- bable that some of his dramas, now destitute of such appendages, were originally furnished with them, but, in the lapse of time they have become separated and lost. As we have said, before the action of a piece 156 SIIAKSPEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. began, the musicians "sounded" three times ; and after the third flourish the prologus ap- peared. This personage was not one of the characters of the play itself, therein differing from the speaker of the epilogue, but was Rumour (painted full of tongues), a Chorus, or, in several cases, a nameless speaker habited in a black velvet cloak. This attire was asso- ciated with the prologuist for many years, but the practice had begun to decline even so early as 1602 ; for in the prologue to Beaumont and Fletcher's " Woman Hater," occurs this passage, " Gentlemen, inductions are out of date, and a prologue in verse is as stale as a black velvet cloake and a bay garland." As late, however, as the latter part of the last century, we find George Colman in receipt of the following lines, written to him by the un- fortunate Robert Lloyd : " 'Till, decent sables on his back (Tour prologuisers all wear black), The prologue comes, and, if it's mine, It's very good and very fine." A difference exists between the prologue- speaker of Shakspeare's and our times, and that of the classic drama which we may here notice. In each case he was not, as we have PROLOGUES AXD EPILOGUES. 157 said, an actor in the play itself; but, in the ancient Greek and Roman tragedies and comedies the play began with his entrance, whereas in the time of Shakspeare, his contem- poraries, and those who came afterwards, the curtain is not raised until his lines are de- livered. Shakspeare's prologues are couched in highly poetic, but modest and plain language. That to " Romeo and Juliet " is in reality a terse epitome of the plot, and may be taken as an average specimen of the prologues of the day. Later on, the art of prologue-writing, which may be said to be almost a lost one now, passed in its decadence into a doggerel piece of familiar and coarse badinage, neither re- markable for good rhythm nor good taste. In Shakspeare's time the original intention of the prologue was religiously adhered to by his fellow-dramatists, arid we cannot resist quoting a characteristic specimen rf Ben Jorison's prologues which he prefixes to his comedy, " Epicame : or the Silent Woman," dedicated to Sir Francis Stuart, 1609. " Truth says, of old the art of making plays Was to content the people ; and their praise Was to the poet money, wine, and bays ; 158 SHAKSPEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. " But in tliis age, a set of writers are, That, only, for particular writers care And will taste nothing that is popular. " With such we mingle neither brains nor breasts Our wishes, like to those make public feasts, Are not to please the cook's taste but the guests'. " Yet if those cunning palates hither come, They shall find guests entreaty and good room ; And though all relish not, sure there will be some " That when they leave their seats shall make them say, Who wrote that piece, could so have wrote a play, But that he knew this was the better way. " For to present all custard or all tart, And have no other meats to bear a part, Or to want bread, and salt, were but coarse art. " The poet prays you then, with better thought To sit ; and when his cates are aD in brought, Though there be none f ar-f et, there will dear bought. " Be fit for ladies ; some for lords, knights, squires ; Some for your waiting- wench and city- wires : Some for your men and daughters of Whitefriars. " Nor is it only while you keep your seat Here that this feast shall last ; but you shall eat A week at ord'naries, on his broken meat : " If his muse be true Who commends her to you." We have only space to quote one other pro- logue, and it is only because the occasion of it* PROLOGUES AND EPILOGUES. 159 production was the first appearance of an actress on the English boards who played the onerous part of Desdemona in our poet's " Othello," that we give it space here. It was written by Thomas Jordan, who flourished in the reign of Charles I., and lived to see the restoration of royalty and the drama. " A prologue to introduce the first woman that came to act on the Stage, in the Tragedy called ' The Moor of Venice.' " " I come, unknown to any of the rest, To tell you news ; I saw the lady drest : The woman plays to-day : mistake me not, No man in gown or page in petticoat : A woman to my knowledge : yet I can't If I should die make affidavit on't. Do you not twitter, gentlemen ? I know You will be censuring ; do it fairly though. ' Tie possible a virtuous woman may Abhor all sorts of looseness and yet play : Play on the stage where all eyes are upon her Shall we count that a crime France counts an honour ? In other kingdoms husbands safely trust 'em ; The difference lies only in the custom. And let it be our custom, I advise : I'm sure this custom's better than th' excise, And may procure us custom : hearts of flint Will melt Vi passion when a woman's in't. " But, gentlemen, you that as judges sit In the star-chamber of the house, the pit, Eave modest thoughts of her ; pray, do not run To give her visits when the play is done 160 SHAKSPEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES With ' D me, your most humble servant, lady ' She knows these things as well as you do maybe ; Not a bit, there, dear gallants, she doth know Her own deserts and your temptations too. But to the point :-~In this reforming age We have intents to civilize the stage ; Our women are defective and so siz'd, You'd think they were some of the guard disguised, For, to speak truth, men act, that are between Forty and fifty, wenches of fifteen ; With bone so large and nerve BO incompliant, When you call Desdemona, enter Giant. We shall purge everything that is unclean, Lascivious, scurrilous, impious, or obscene ; And when we've put all things in a fair way, Barebones himself may come to ,see a play." An epilogue followed the tragedy, written in a similar apologetic strain, which it is un- necessary to quote. The serious business of a play over, the epilogue comes, spoken by one of the charac- ters lately involved in the incidents of the story ; reflecting on his or her part therein ; and sometimes to the speeches uttered during its action. The Spectator ridicules the practice, comparing it to a " merry jig upon the organ, after a good sermon, to wipe away any im- pressions that might have been made by it, and send the people away just as they came." Milton, however, in a stage-direction in PROLOGUES AND EPILOGUES. 161 " Comus," makes a Spirit " epiloguize " at the end of a dance, and although a mournful character is seldom infused into an epilogue, it has occasionally a serious tone, and prayer, or the semblance of it, was nearly always the conclusion of a play, either in public or private houses, in Shakspeare's time. The epilogue, spoken by a Dancer, to the Second Part of " King Henry IV., concludes thus " My tongue is weary; when my legs are too, I will bid you good night ; and so kneel down before you ; but indeed, to pray for the queen." Sir John Harington closes his "Metamorphosis of Ajax," 1596, with the following remarks " But I will neither end with sermon nor j)rayer, but some wags liken me to my L. players, who, when they have ended a baudie comedy, as though that were a preparation to devotion, kneell down solemnly and pray for their good lord and maister." There being neither any special interest nor literary excellence to distinguish the epilogues appended to dramas of the Elizabethan era, we shall refrain from quoting more than two. The first is by Thomas Hey wood, 1617, and though it is affixed to his tragedy "A Woman Killed with Kindness," might, with equal 162 SIIAKSPEAKE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. appositeness, be used as a termination to almost any dramatic entertainment. " An honest crew disposed to be merry, Came to a tavern by, and called for wine ; The drawer brought it, smiling like a cherry, And told them it was pleasant, neat, and fine. ' Taste it,' quoth one, he did : ' O fie,' quoth he, ' This wine was good, now't runs too near the lee.' "Another sipped, to give the wine his due, And said unto the rest, it drunk too flat ; The third said, ' it was old :' the fourth, ' too new ;' ' Nay,' quoth the fifth, ' the sharpness likes me not.' Thus gentlemen, you see, how in one hour, The wine was new, old, flat, sharp, sweet, and sour. " Unto this wine we do allude our play, Which some will judge too trivial, some too grave ; You, as our guests, we entertain this day, And bid you welcome to the best we have Excuse us, then, good wine may be disgraced When every sundry mouth hath several taste." We shall conclude this chapter with one more epilogue ; it is appended to " Al Fooles : A Comedy : presented at the Black Fryers ; and lately before his Majestie. Written by George Chapman, 1604," and is a quaint example of the familiarity which existed then, as now, between players and their audiences, even when royalty was present, and the aim of the actor was to extort a laugh. PROLOGUES AND EPILOGUES. 163 " Since all our labours are as you can like, We all submit to you ; nor dare presume To think there's any real worth in them. Sometimes feasts please the cooks and not the guests ; Sometimes the guests and curious cooks contemn them. " Our dishes we entirely dedicate To our kind guests : but since ye differ so, Some to like only mirth without taxations, Some to count such works trifles, and such like, We can but bring you meat, and set you stools And to our best cheer say, you all are ( ) Welcome." M 2 CHAPTER IX. THE CLOWNS AND FOOLS OP SHAKSPEAKE. " Touchstone. Holloa ; you clown ! Rosalind. Peace, fool, he's not thy kinsman." As You Like It. THE ancient dramatists were often, perhaps improperly, in the habit of using the expres- sions " clown " and " fool " synonymously ; and, as the eminent antiquary and Shak- spearian student, Francis Douce to whose exhaustive work on the subject we shall be largely indebted in this chapter says, u Their confused introduction might render this doubtful to one who had not considered the matter." The " clown " primarily a rustic, or shrewd domestic, might, by pos- session of a ready, if coarse wit, and a due modicum of vulgar impudence, amuse occa- sionally by his artless remarks and repartees ; and thus trench on the province of the u fool," THE CLOWNS AND FOOLS OF SHAK8PEAKE. 165 who was either specially retained to entertain those who found him in food and clothing, as a professional jester and buffoon, or was a creature of weak intellect whose antics were considered laughable. Shakspeare extracts fun from any low character that appears in his scenes ; he seems to be aware that his clowns were rather more highly coloured than if he hud copied '* nature unadorned " in their de- lineation, and he consequently admonishes the players in u Hamlet " thus, " Let those that play your clowns, speak no more than is set down for them : for there be of them, that will make themselves laugh, to set on some quantity of barren spectators to laugh too ; Chough, in the meantime, some necessary question of the play be then to be considered: that's villainous ; and shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it " (Act iii. sc. 2). No doubt the practice, now called " g a oi n oi" but in our bard's time alluded to as " extemporal wit," of adding to the author's words in comic parts, was indulged in by low comedians, and in the case of William Keinpe, was even commended as a merit. To this folly, allusions are made in a clever satire, entitled, "Pasquil's Mad-cappe, 166 SHAKSPEARE AXD HIS CONTEMPORARIES. throwne at the Corruptions of these Times," 1626 :- " Tell country players, that old paltry jests Pronounced in a painted motley coate, Filled all the world so full of cuckoo's nests, That nightingales can scarcely sing a note. Oh ! bid them turn their minds to better meanings ; Fields are ill sowne that give no better gleanings." Sir Philip Sidney reprobates the custom of introducing fools on the stage ; and declares that the plays of his time were neither right tragedies nor right comedies, for the authors mingled kings and clowns, u not," says he, " because the matter so carried it, but thrust in the cloune by head and shoulders to play a part in majestical matters, with neither dicencie nor discretion ; so as neither the admira- tion and commiseration, nor the right sport- fulnesse, is by their mongrel tragie-comedie obtained." Rankin, a Puritan, contemporary with Shakspeare, wrote a most bitter attack on plays and players, whom he calls monsters; "and whie monsters?" says he: "because under colour of humanitie they present nothing but prodigious vanitie : these are wels without water, dead branches n't for fuell, cockle amongst corne, unwholesome weedes amongst THE CLOWNS AND FOOLS OF SHAKSPEARE. 167 sweete hearbes, and, finallie, feends that are crept into the worlde by stealthe, and hold possession by subtill invasion." In another place he says " some transformed themselves to roges, other to ruffians, some other to clownes, a fourth to fooles; the roges were ready, the ruffians were rude, theyr clownes cladde as well with country condition as with ruffe russet ; theyr fooles as fond as might be." To give a clear view of the subject, some- thing of the different sorts of fools may be thus classed : I. The general domestic fool, termed often, but improperly, a clown ; described by Puttenham as u a buffoune or counterfet foole." II. The clown, who was generally a mere country booby or a witty rustic. III. The female fool; generally an idiot. IV. The City or Corporation fool, an assistant in public entertainments. V. The tavern fool, retained to amuse the customers. VI. The fool of the ancient mysteries and moralities, otherwise the vice. VII. The fool in the old dumb shews, often alluded to by Shakspeare. 168 SHAKSPEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. VIII. The fool in the Whitsun ales and morris dance. IX. The mountebank's fool, or merry Andrew. There may be others in our ancient dramas, of an irregular kind, not reducible to any of these classes ; but what have been given will enable our readers to determine what category such characters should be placed in when they meet them in the plays of our bard or his con- temporaries. The practice of retaining fools is clearly traceable to the earliest periods of history ; they were to be found in establishments belonging to persons of every grade in society; the Pope had his fool, and the most disreputable haunts of vice and debauchery, even the abodes of beggars and thieves, commanded their mirthful services. Even during the period of our Saxon history, the custom appears to have existed, and we know that it did in the reign of William the Conqueror. Maitre Waice, an historian of the period circa the conquest, gives an account of the preservation of the Duke of Normandy's life by his fool Goles ; and, in Domesday Book, mention is made of Berdia joculator regis ; and though this term sometimes denoted a minstrel, evidence might THE CLOWNS AND FOOLS OF 8HAKSPEAKE. 169 be adduced to prove, that, in this instance, it signified a buffoon. The accounts of the household expenses of our kings contain many payments and rewards to fools, foreign and domestic. Dr. Fuller, speaking of the court jester, remarks, in his usual quaint way, that it is an office which none but he that hath wit can perform, and none but he that wants it will perform. The names of many of these buf- foons are preserved; they continued an appur- tenance of the English Court to a late period. Mucklejohn, the fool of Charles I., the suc- cessor of Archie Armstrong, was perhaps the last regular personage of that kind. The .downfall of Royalty and the Puritanical manners that came in vogue, banished this privileged satirist, and, at the Restoration, it was deemed of no moment to restore the office, for the stories told of Killigrew, as jester to Charles II., are without authority. The dis- continuance of the court fool influenced the manners of private life, and from one of Shadwell's plays, we find that it was then un- fashionable for the great to retain domestic fools. Yet Dean Swift wrote an epitaph on Dicky Pearce, the Earl of Suffolk's fool, 170 SHAKSPEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. buried in Berkeley Churchyard, 18th June, 1728. Lord Chancellor Talbot kept a Welsh jester named Rees Pengelding ; he was a shrewd fellow, and rented a farm from his master. The steward, who had been a tailor, and bore him a grudge, put in execution for his rent, saying surlily, " I'll fit you, Sirrah!" "Then," replied Rees, "It will be the first time in your life that you ever fitted any one." The kind of entertainment fools afforded in Shakspeare's time may be gathered from a passage in a curious tract by Lodge, entitled " Wit's Miserie," 1599. " Immoderate and disordinate joy became incorporate inthe bodie of a jeaster ; this fellow in person is comely, in apparel courtly, but in behaviour a very ape and no man, his studie is to coin bitter jeasts or to show antique motions, or to sing baudie sonnets and ballads ; give him a little wine in his head, he is con- tinually Hearing and making mouths : he laughs intemperately at every little occasion and dances about the house, leaps over tables, outskips men's heads, trips up his companion's heeles, burns sack with a candle, and hath all the feates of a lor 1 of misrule in the countrie : feed him in his humour, you shall have his THE CLOWNS AND FOOLS OF SHAKSPEARE. 171 heart; in mere kindness he will hug you in his armes, kisse you on the cheeke, and, rapping out an horrible oath, crie, ' God's soule, Turn, I love you, you know my poore heart, come to my chamber for a pipe of tobacco, there lives not a man in this world that I more honour.' In these ceremonies you shall know his courting, and it is a speciall mark of him at table, he sits and makes faces: keep not this fellow company, for in jingling with him your wardrobes shall be wasted, your credits crackt, your crownes consumed, and time (the most precious riches of the world) utterly lost." Occasionally these mercenary humourists failed to please : Cardinal Perron being in company with the Duke of Mantua, the latter observed of his fool that he was " a meagre, poor-spirited buffoon." The Cardinal replied that, nevertheless, he had wit. " Why so ? " demanded the Duke. " Because," replied Perron, " he lives by a trade which he does not understand." The license allowed them was very great, but did not always afford them protection, as witness Archbishop Laud's disgraceful severity to Archie Armstrong. The Duke d'Espernon 172 8HAKSPEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. conducted himself with more discretion. Maret, the fool of Louis XIII., frequently mocked the Duke's Gascon accent, which Richelieu desired him to get rid of, at the same time counterfeiting his speech, and begging him not to take the advice in ill part. "Why should I ?" replied the Duke, " when I bear as much from the King's fool, who mocks me in your presence! " Fools were no doubt treated in an arbitrary manner, according to the caprice of their patrons, for we read of Olivia saying to her jester, " Sirrah, you shall be whipped," and in "King Lear " much ten- derness of treatment is evinced. With regard to the fool's business on the stage, it was nearly the same as in reality, with this difference, that the wit was more highly seasoned ; but the difficulty of learning how the theatrical fools and clowns of Shakspeare were habited was insuperable. In some cases the dramas themselves assist by references which leave little doubt; but this is not common. Artists formerly did not devote much of their time to theatrical subjects ; the discovery of a single painting of this kind would be more valuable than a folio of con- jectural dissertation. Our illustrations re- THE CLOWNS AND FOOLS OF SHAKSPEARE. 173 present the garb of domestic fools of Shak- speare's day of two sorts : in the first the coat was motley or particoloured, and attached to the body by a girdle, with bells at the skirts and elbows, though not invariably. The hose and breeches close, and frequently each leg of a different colour. The hood like a monk's cowl covered the head, falling down over the breast and shoulders. It was sometimes adorned with asses' ears, or terminated in the neck and head of a cock, a fashion as old as the fourteenth century. It often had the comb or crest only of the animal. The fool carried in his hand a sceptre or bauble, orna- mented with a fool's head, a doll, or a puppet, or sometimes with an inflated bladder at- tached, with which the fool belaboured those he chose to make sport with, or who had offended him. The bauble originally used in u King Lear" was preserved as lately as Gar- rick's time, and it is a pity its form is now unknown. A wooden dagger was occasionally carried by the jester, probably a remnant of the sword of lath with which the Vice in the old Moralities used to belabour the devil. In Elizabeth's time, the Archbishop of 174 SHAKSPEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. Canterbury's fool wore a cock's comb and a dagger. In Chapman's " Widows Tears," an upstart governor is called " a wooden dagger gilded o'er," and, in the "Noble Gentleman," a person likened to a fool is descried to keep up the character by wearing a " great wooden dagger." In Shakspeare's time the dress worn by idiots, or " natural " fools, was along petticoat, adopted probably for cleanliness sake ; it also became the garb of the allowed fool, but for what reason is not obvious. Various colours and rich materials were often used, but the distinctive tint for the ornaments and fringes was yellow. There is one instance of a "yellow leather doublet," arid Bancroft has an epigram, 1639, " to a giglot with her quere sicknesse," wherein are these lines : " Thy sicknesse mocks thy pride, that's seldom seene But in foole's yellow, and the lover's greene." During the Commonwealth, according to an old MS., yellow was the "foole's colour." In mimicry of a monk's crown, the head was sometimes shaven, and in one instance the hair is made to represent a pope's tiara. Feathers, squirrels' or foxes' tails were also THE CLOWN* AND FOOLS OK 8HAKSPEAKK. 175 worn, the latter in ridicule of a feminine fashion ; and a purse or wallet at the girdle was always part of the jester's costume. Tar- leton, the celebrated Shakspearian clown, is known to have worn one ; Rabelais represents Triboulet as wearing a " budget of tortoise- shell." According to Hans Holbein's portrait of Will Somers, at Hampton Court Palace, that celebrated jester did not wear a distinguishing habit on all occasions. In one part of an account of the period, the materials used in his costume are thus described " For making a dubblette lyned with canvas and cotton for William Som'ar oure foole. Item, for making of a coote and a cappe of grene clothe fringed with red crule and lined with fryse for oure saide foole." But the account goes on thus : 44 Item for making of a coote of greene clothe with a hoode to the same fringed with white crule lyned with fryse and bokerham for oure foole aforesaide." From these we infer that he sometimes wore the distinctive habit of a fool. In families where the fool acted as a menial servant, he might have kept his official garb for occasions of ceremony. It is strange that the domestic fool should so seldom appear in 176 SHAKSPEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. the old dramas, because it not merely excited mirth among a rude audience, but gave the author an opportunity of showing his ingenuity in extemporary wit. It is undeniable that Shakspeare's fools were pre-eminent above all others. Shadwell declares they had more humour than any of the wits and critics of his age. Beaumont and Fletcher seldom intro- duced them. Ben Jonson and Massinger never. In Charles II.'s reign some efforts were made to restore the almost obsolete character of the fool. In the tragedy of " Thorney Abbey, or the London Maid," the prologue is spoken by a fool, who uses these words, " The poet's a fool who made the tragedy, to tell a story of a king and a court and leave a fool out on't, when in Pace's, and Sommer's, and Patche's, and Archer's times, my venerable predecessors, a fool was alwaies the principal verb." It is stated in Goffe's "Careless Shepherdess," 1659, that "the motley coat was banished with trunk hose." CHAPTER X. THE AUDIENCE, THE ACTOES, AND THE CRITICS. " We do pray for mercy ; And that ssime prayer doth teach us all To render the deeds of mercy." Merchant of Venice. A CERTAIN amount of colloquial familiarity between players and audience subsists to the present day. Our modern "clown," a per- sonage as different from his prototype of the Elizabethan period as it is possible to con- ceive, takes his audience into an almost affectionate confidence ; but such scenes are confined to the so-called pantomimes of Christmas-tide, and the custom, certainly " more honoured in the breach than the observance," is falling into desuetude, as the astounding popularity of u Hot Codlings " as an inevitable song for the clown most certainly wanes. 178 SHAKSPEAKE AXD HIS CONTEMPORARIES. An encounter of wit and humorous sallies between a comic actor of the present day and his audience would in all probability provoke the interference of municipal authority ; yet in our poet's time such encounters were not unusual. We will not quote many instances of the extent encouragement of " extemporal wit " obtained during Shakspeare's period ; one or two will suffice. Lupton, in the " Eleventh Book of Notable Things," tells us : " When stage plays were in use, there was in every place one that was called the Foole ; as the proverb saies : ' Like a foole in a play.' At the Red Bull playhouse it did chance that the Clown or the Fool being in the attireing house, was suddenly called upon the stage, for it was empty. He, suddenly going, forgot his foole's cap. One of the players bade his boy take it, and put it on his head as he was speaking. ' No such matter ' (saies the boy) ; ' there's no manners nor wit in that, nor wis- dom neither : and my master needs no cap, for he is known to be a fool without it as well as with it.' " Again, Wilson and " Dick " Tarleton were celebrated for the production of interpolated jokes in doggrel rhyme. The latter's liberties with the text of his author THE ACDIKXCE, THE ACTORS, AXD THE CRITICS. 179 on one occasion were the cause of an apple being thrown from the gallery, which struck him on the cheek. Tarleton picked up the missile, and knowing the person who threw it was possessed of a termagant spouse, re- marked : " Gentlemen, this fellow with his face of mapple, Instca 1 of a pippin hath thrown me an apple ; But as for an apple he bath cast a crab, So, instead of an honest woman, God hath sent him a drab." Whereat, the chronicler says, the people laughed heartily, "for the fellow had a quean to his wife." One more story, which, as it - appertains to the performance of a piece which founded one of our illustrious author's dramas, we may fitly introduce verbatim. At the Bull at Bishopsgate was a play of " Henry V." [the performance which preceded Shakspeare's], wherein the Judge was to take a box on the eare ; and because he was absent that should take the blow, Tarleton him- self e, ever forward to please, tooke upou him to play the same Judge, besides his own part of the clowne ; and Knel, then playing Henry the Fifth, hit Tarleton a sound box indeed, which made the people laugh the more, because it was he : but anon, the Judge goes in, and immediately Tarleton in his clowue's cloathes comes out, and asks the actors, " What news?" " 0," saith one, ' hadst thou been here, thou shouldest have seen Prince K 2 180 SHAKSPEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. Henry hit the Judge a terrible box on the eare." " What, man !" said Tarleton ; " strike a judge !" " It is true, i' faith," said the other. " No other like," said Tarleton ; " and it could not be but terrible to the Judge when the report so terrifies me, that methinkes the blowe remaines still on my cheeke, that it burnes againe." The people laught at this mightily, and to this day I have heard it commended for rare ; but no marvell, for he had many of these. But I would see our clownes in these days do the like. No, I warrant ye ; and yet they thiuke well of themselves too. The decorous behaviour of modern audi- ences was unknown in those remote days, card-playing, the imbibition of ale, and smok- ing tobacco being freely indulged in ; and certain tumultuous scenes occasionally arose by reason of the proletarian element exhibit- ing its envy or dislike of the privileged ones who sat on the stage itself. Here the fastidious critic was usually to be met with, the wit ambitious of distinction, and the gallant, studious of the display of his apparel or his person. Either seated, or else reclining on the rushes on the floor, they regaled themselves with the pipes and tobacco which their attendant pages furnished. The felicity of their situations excited envy, or their affectation and imperti- nence disgust, among the less polished part of the audience, who frequently vented their spleen in hissiug, hooting, aud throwing dirt at the intruders on the stage : it was the cue of these gallants to display their THE AUDIENCE, THE ACTORS, AND THE CRITICS. 181 high breeding by an entire disregard of the proceedings of the ill-mannered rabble. Nor were the players exempt from a certain amount of physical criticism from the " gods" of the period, of which Gay ton gives us a graphic description in his " Notes on Don Quixote," 1654 :- Men come not to study at a playhouse, but love such expressions and passages which with ease insinuate themselves into their capacities. " Lingua," that learned comedy of the contention betwixt the five senses for the superiority, is not to be prostituted to the common stage, but is only proper for an academy ; to them bring " Jack Drum's Entertainment," Greene's " Tu Quoque," -"The Devil of Edmonton," aud the like; or if it be on holy dayes, when saylers, watermen, shoemakers, butchers, and apprentices are at leisure, then it is good policy to amaze those violent spirits with some tearing tragedy, full of fights and skirmishes, as the " Guelphs and Guiblines," " Greeks and Trojans," or the " Three London Apprentices," which commonly ends in three acts, the spectators frequently mounting the stage, and making a more bloody catastrophe amongst themselves than the players did. I have known upon one of these festivals, but especially at Shrovetide, where the players have been appointed, notwithstanding their bills to the contrary, to act what the major part of the company had a mind to ; sometimes " Tamerline," sometimes " Jugurth," sometimes " The Jew of Malta," and some- times parts of all these ; and, at last, none of the three taking, they were forced to undress aud put off their 182 SIIAKSPEARE AXD HIS CONTEMPORARIES. tragick habits, and conclude the day with the " Merrie Milkmaides." And unlesse this were done, and the popular humour satisfied, (as sometimes it so fortun'd that the players were refractory,) the benches, the tiles, the laths, the stones, oranges, apples, nuts, flew about most liberally ; aiid there were mechanicks of all pro- fessions, who fell every one to his own trade, and dissolved a house in an instant and made a ruine of a stately fabrrck. It was not then the most mimical nor fighting man, Fowler nor Andrew Cane, could pacifie : prologues nor epilogues would prevail ; the devill and the fool were quite out of favour. Nothing but noise and tumult fils the house, untill a cogg take 'em, and then instantly to the Bank's side, where the poor bears must conclude the riot, and fight twenty dogs at a time, besides the butchers, which sometimes fell into the service ; this performed, and the horse and jack-an-apes for a jigge, they had sport enough that day for nothing. The authors' benefits, from which they derived their remuneration, took place either on the first or second day of the representa- tion of their plays. The third day, as set apart for this purpose, is not heard of until 1612, when it was an established usage not, however, without exceptions. It was not until after 1720 that the profit of three re- presentations belonged to the author; and in the case of Otway, he frequently had to mort- gage his one day's benefit to meet pressing necessity. THE AUDIENCE, THE ACTORS, ANT) THE CRITICS. 183 Marston, in his preface to the "Malcontent," 1604, seems to regret the arrangement be- tween dramatic authors and publishers which then existed, whereby the right of perform- ance was restricted to the proprietor of a theatre, albeit the printed version was, so to speak, public property. One thing only affects me; to think, that scenes invented merely to be spoken, should be inforcively published to be read ; and that the least hurt I can receive, is to do myself the wrong. But since others otherwise would do me more, the least inconvenience is to be accepted : I have therefore myself set forth this comedie. About twenty nobles (6 13s. 4d.) seems to have been the usual price of the copyright of a play in Shakspeare's time. The printed play was sold for sixpence ; and the usual present of a patron for a dedication was forty shillings. Dramatic poets had free admission to the theatres. Every play was licensed by the Master of the Revels before it could be performed ; his fee was, in the time of Eliza- beth, only a noble, but at a subsequent period it was two pounds. It was usual to carry table-books to the theatre, to note down the passages which 184 8HAKSPEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. were made matter of censure or applause ; this may account for some mutilated copies of Shakspeare's plays which are yet extant. The expression " damning," as applied to the condemnation or disapproval of the first representation of a new play by its audience, is as old as Shakspeare's time, and although it has an ugly sound to modern ears, has no real savour of profanity about it. We are, as a nation, a very punctilious people in many respects, and our modern stage is purged from the very " outspoken " language of the era of " Good Queen Bess." Neverthe- less, modern critics, having done their duty conscientiously, " without fear or favour," might be pardoned if wholesome condemna- tion were occasionally extended to works which are possibly neither better nor worse than Ben Jonson's " Sejanus," and two other failures of his, which were by his audiences incontinently " damned." Stratford Church CHAPTER XI. THE POET'S WILL, HIS TOMB, AND EPITAPHS ; BEN JONSON'S COMMENDATORY ODE. " When I am dead, let me be us'd with honour." Henry VIII. IT has been long a firm convic- tion with many, that Shakspeare's marriage was not productive of much social happiness, and, in support of that theory, his will is triumphantly pointed to. He certainly there makes no pro- vision for his wife's maintenance, and leaves her only the apparently absurdly trifling bequest of his second best bed ; all his care being to found a large inheritance for his favourite daughter Susanna. Neither are any of the Hathaway 186 SHAKSPEARE AXD HIS CONTEMPORARIES. fa nily mentioned in the will, "not even," as Halliwell says, " by the small remembrances with which the poet has honoured so many not related or connected with him ; yet we cannot, on this negative evidence, conclude he was not on good terms with his wife's relatives." The only intercourse that we hear of between Anne Shakspeare (nee Hathaway) and her Shottery kinsfolk, is contained in the will of Thomas Whittington, of Shottery, shepherd to Richard Hathaway in 1581, who died in 1601. Item, I give and bequeath unto the poor people of Stratford XL.s., that is iu the hand of Anne Shakspeare, (Shaxpere) wife unto Mr. William Shakspeare, and is due debt unto me, being paid to mine executor by the said William Sha speare or his assigns according to the true meaning of this my will. Halliwell thinks this " a judicious bequest, not implying any want of friendship for the Shakspeares, but most likely considering the owners of New Place were too wealthy to require such an addition to their substance." Many wills of the period might be cited to show that the bequest of a bed and furniture was by no means considered of slight impor- THE POETS WILL, HIS TOMB, ETC. 187 tancc ; indeed it was quite a recognized method of expressing affectionate friendship. That his wife was amply provided for by dower, is, we believe, beyond a doubt, and it is more than probable that the substantial sums of money his shares in the Globe arid Blackfriars must have realized, enabled him to provide for his family during his lifetime. We here give the poet's will in exfanso, merely modernizing the orthography. SHAKSPEARE'S WILL. Vicesimo quinto die Martii, Anno Regni Domini nostri Jacobi mine Regis Anglise, &c., decimo quarto, et Scotiae quadragesima nono. Anno Domini 1616. In the name of God, Amen. I, William Shakspeare, of Stratford-upon-Avon, in the county of Warwick, gent., in perfect health and memory (God be praised !) do make and ordain this my last Will and Testament in manner and furm following ; that is to say : First, I commend my soul into the hands of God my Creator, hoping, and assuredly believing, through the only merits of Jesus Christ my Saviour, to be made par- taker of life everlasting ; and my body to the earth whereof it is made. Mv/i, I give and bequeath unto my daughter Judith one hundred and fifty pounds of lawful English money, to be paid unto her in manner and form following ; that is to say, one hundred pounds in discharge of her 188 SHAKSPEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. marriage portion within one year of my decease, with consideration after the rate of two shillings in the pound for so long time as the same shall be unpaid unto her after my decease ; and the fifty pounds residue thereof, upon her surrendering of, or giving of such sufficient security as the overseers of this my will shall like of, to surrender or grant, all her estate and right that shall descend or come unto her after my decease, or that she now hath, of, in, or to, one copyhold tenement, with the appurtenances, lying and being in Stratford-upon-Avon aforesaid, in the said county of Warwick, being parcel or holden of the Manor of Rowington, unto my daughter Susanna Hall, and her heirs for ever. Item, I give and bequeath unto my said daughter Judith one hundred and fifty pounds more, if she, or any issue of her body be living at the end of three years next ensuing the date of this my will, during which time my executors to pay her consideration from my decease according to the rate aforesaid : and if she die within the said term without issue of her body then my will is, and I do give and bequeath one hundred pounds thereof to my niece Elizabeth Hall, and the fifty pounds to be set forth by my executors during the life of my sister Joan Hart, and the use and profit thereof coming, shall be paid to my said sister Joan, and after her decease the said fifty pounds shall remain amongst the children of my said sister, equally to be divided amongst them ; but if my said daughter Judith be living at the end of the said three years, or any issue of her body, my will is, and so I devise and bequeath the said hundred and fifty pounds to be set out by my executors and overseers for the best benefit of her and her , and the stock not to be paid to her so long as she shall be married and covert THE POET'S WILL, HIS TOMB, ETC. 189 baron ; but that she shall have the consideration paid unto her during her life, and after her decease the said stock and consideration to be paid to her children, if she have any, and if not, to her executors and assigns, she living the said term after my decease ; provided that if such husband as she shall at the end of the three years be married unto, or at any [time] after, do sufficiently assure unto her, and the issue of her body, lands answerable to the portion by this my will given unto her, and to be adjudged so by my executors and overseers, then my will is, that the said hundred and fifty pounds shall be paid to such husband as shall make such assurance to his own use. Item, I give and bequeath unto my said sister Joan twenty pounds, and all my wearing apparel, to be paid and delivered within one year after my decease; and I do will and devise unto her the house, with the appurtenances, in Stratford, wherein she dwelleth, for her natural life, under the yearly rent of twelve- pence. Item, I give and bequeath unto her three sons, William Hart, Hart, and Michael Hart, five pounds apiece, to be paid within one year after my decease. Item, I give and bequeath unto the said Elizabeth Hall all my plate (except my broad silver and gilt bowl) that I now have at the date of this my will. Item, I give and bequeath unto the poor of Stratford ten pounds ; to Mr. Thomas Coombe my sword ; to Thomas Russel, Esquire, five pounds; and to Francis Collins of the borough of Warwick, in the county of Warwick, gent., thirteen pounds six shillings and eight-pence, to be paid within one year after my decease. 190 SHAKSPEARE AKD HIS CONTEMPORARIES. Item, I give and bequeath to Hamlet (Ilamnet) Sadler, twenty-six shillings and eightpence, to buy him a ring ; to William Reynolds, Gent., twenty-six shillings eight - pence to buy him a ring ; to my god-son William Walker, twenty shillings in gold ; to Anthony Nash, Gent., twenty six shillings eightpence ; and to Mr. John Nash, twenty six shillings eight pence ; and to my fellows John Hemynge, Richard Burbage, and to Henry Cundell, twenty six shillings eightpence apiece, to buy them rings. Item, I give, will, bequeath, and devise, unto my daughter Susanna Hall, for better enabling of her to perform this my will, and towards the performance thereof all that capital, messuage, or tenement, with the appurtenances in Stratford aforesaid called the New Place, wherein I now dwell and two messuages or tenements with the appurtenances, situate, lying, and being in Henley Street within the borough of Stratford aforesaid ; and all my barns, stables, orchards, gardens, lands, tenements, and hereditaments what- soever, situate, lying, and being, or to be had, received, perceived, or taken, within the towns, hamlets, villages, fields, and grounds of Stratford-upon- Avon, Old Stratford, Bishopton, and Welcombe, or in any of them, in the said county of Warwick ; and also all that messuage or tenement with the appurtenances, wherein one John Robinson dwelleth, situate, lying', and being, in the Blackfriars in London, near tlie Wardrobe ; and all other my lands, tenements, and hereditaments whatsoever ; to have and to hold all and singular the said premises, with their appurtenances, unto the said Susanna Hall, for and during the term of her natural life ; and after her decease to the first son of her body THK rOKT's WILT., HIS TOMB, ETC. 191 lawfully issuing; and to the heirs males of the body of the said first son lawfully issuing ; and for default of such issue to the second son of her body lawfully issuing, and to the heirs males of the body of the said second son lawfully issuing ; and for default of such heirs, to the third son of the body of the said Susanna lawfully issuing, and to the heirs males of the body of the said third son lawfully issuing ; and for default of such issue, the same so to be and remain to the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh sons of her body, lawfully issuing one after another, and to the heirs males of the said fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh sons lawfully issuing, in such manner as it is before limited to be and remain to the first, second and third sons of her body, and to their heirs males ; and for default of such issue, the said premises to be and remain to my said niece Hall, and heirs males of her body lawfully issuing ; and for default of such issue, to my daughter Judith, and the heirs males of her body lawfully issuing ; and for default of such issue, to the right heirs of me the said William Shakspeare for ever. Item, I give unto my wife my second best bed, with the furniture. Item, I give and bequeath to my said daughter Judith my broad silver gilt bowl. All the rest of my goods, chattels, leases, plate, jewels, and household stuff what- soever, after rny debts and legacies paid, and my funeral expenses discharged, I give, devise, and bequeath to my son-in-law, John Hall, Gent., and my daughter Susanna his wife, whom I ordain and make executors of this my last Will and Testament. And I do entreat and appoint the said Thomas Russel, Esquire, and Francis Collins, Gent., to be overseers thereof. And do revoke all former 192 SHAKSFEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. wills, and publish this to be my last Will and Testament. In witness whereof I have hereunto put my hand, the day and year first above written. By me, Witness to the publishing hereof, PRA. COLLTNS, JULIUS SHAW, JOHN ROBINSON, HAMNET SADLER. ROBERT WHATTCOAT. Probatum fuit testamentum suprascripturn apud London, coram Magistro William Byrde, Legum Doctore, &c. vicesimo secundo die mensis Junii, Anno Domini 1616; juramento Johannis Hall unius ex. cui. &c. de bene, &c. jurat, reservata potestate, &c. Susannae Hall, alt. ex. &c. earn cum venerit, &c. petitur, &c. Within seven years of Shakspeare's death a monument was erected to the poet's memory in the chancel of the church of the Holy Trinity, Stratford-upon-Avon. It is partly of Monument at Stratford-upon-Avon, THE POET'S WILL, HIS TOMB, ETC. 193 marble and partly of stone, and consists of a half-length bust of the poet, with a cushion before him, placed under a canopy between two Corinthian columns supporting an en- tablature. Beneath the bust are the lines : " Judicio Pylium, genio Socratem, arte Maronem Terra tegit, populus moeret, Olympus habet. " Stay, passenger, why dost thou go so fast ? Read, if thou canst, whom envious death hath plac'd Within this monument ; Shakspeare with whom Quick nature dy'd ; whose name doth deck the tomb Far more than cost, since all that that he hath writ Leaves living art but page to serve his wit. " Obiit Ano. Dni. 1616 aetatis 53 die 23 Ap." The bard's remains repose under a flat stone, where they were placed two days after his death, on the north side of the chancel, which bears the following lines, which it is commonly believed Shakspeare wrote : " Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear To dig the dust enclosed here ! Bless'd be the man that spares these stones And curst be he that moves my bones." There is nothing to warrant this supposition except that the word " my " occurs in the last line. They were most likely added by some friend to prevent the bones being removed to the charnel-house adjacent, which, said 194 SIIAKSl'EAUE AND HIS COXTEMI'OKAKIES. Ireland, contained "the greatest assemblage of human bones I ever saw." This ghastly edifice has been removed. The bust was originally painted to repre- sent the poet in his habit as he lived, with a black cloak falling over a scarlet doublet, and the scant hair, eyes, and complexion coloured like life. However, Malone who is very properly stigmatized as an " indefati- gable mountebank" had it painted white, although it had been allowed to present its pristine appearance for one hundred and sixty years, and had been renewed as lately as 1748. This gave rise to the following lines : " Strangers to whom this monument is shown, Invoke the poet's curse upon Malone, Whose meddling zeal his barbarous taste displays, And daubs his tombstone as he mars his plays." On another occasion a foolish youth broke the pen in the poet's hand, so that a common quill had to be substituted. Even the curse has not altogether protected the poet's last resting-place from intrusion : the sexton, in preparing a grave for Dr. Davenport, a deceased rector, broke a large hole through, so that the poet's remains were visible, and a gentleman told Dr. Drake, the eminent com- THE POET'S WILL, HIS TOMB, ETC. I'Jii mentator, " he could easily have brought away the skull," but was deterred by the curse invoked on any one who disturbed his remains. Surely this is almost the only case on record of a curse being of actual good service in the cause of decency. Westminster Abbey also contains a monu- ment to our poet, erected in 1740, at the public cost, ample funds having been raised l>v a special performance of "Julius Caesar,'' April 28th, 1838. The trustees were the Earl of Burlington, Dr. Richard Mead, Mr. Alexander Pope, and Mr. Charles Fleetwood. On this monument there is a full length figure of the poet by Scheemakers, in the costume of his day, pointing to a scroll in- scribed with the following lines, altered from the "Tempest:" " The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all which it inherit shall dissolve, And, like the baseless fabric of a vision, Leave not a wreck behind." The altered lines we have distinguished by italics. The text of Shakspeare runs thus: ' And, like this unsubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack behind." o 2 196 SHAKSPEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. Above the head of the figure is a plate of polished granitic marble, with raised letters of brass : " Gulielmo Slidkspeare, Anno post mortem CXXIV. Amor publiciis posuit." Many commendatory verses have been written on our poet's life and works by authors of various merit ; we shall, however, content ourselves and we hope our readers by quoting Ben Jonson's ode, which, though somewhat lengthy, is highly appreciative and characteristic. It appeared in the first folio of 1623 :- " To the Memory of my Beloved, the Author, Mr. William Shakspeare, and what he hath left us. " To draw no envy, Shakspeare on thy name, Am I thus ample to thy book and fame ; While I confess thy writings to be such, As neither man nor muse can praise too much ; "Pis true and all men's suffrage ; but these ways Were not the paths I meant unto thy praise : For seeliest ignorance on these may light Which, when it sounds at best, but echoes right ; Or blind affection which doth ne'er advance The truth, but gropes and urgeth all by chance ; Or crafty malice might pretend this praise, And think to ruin where it seemed to raise : But thou art proof against them ; and indeed, THE POET'S WILL, HIS TOMB, ETC. l'J7 Above the ill-fortune of them or the need : I, therefore, will begin : Soul of the age Th' applause ! delight, the wonder of our stage ! My Shakspeare, rise ! I will not lodge thee by Chaucer, or Spenser ; or bid Beaumont lie A little further to make thee room : Thou art a monument without a tomb ; And art alive still, while thy book doth live, And we have wits to read, and praise to give. That I not mix thee so, my brain excuses ; I mean, with great but disproportioned Muses : For, if I thought my judgment were of years, I should commit thee surely with thy peers ; And tell how far thou didst our Lyly outshine, Or sporting Kyd or Marlowe's mighty line. And though thou hadst small Latin and less Greek, From thence to honour thee I would not seek For names ; but call forth thund'ring ,*Eschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles to us, Pacuvius, Accius, him of Cordova dead, To life again, to hear thy buskin tread And shake a stage ; or, when thy socks were on, Leave thee alone ; for the comparison Of all that insolent Greece, or haughty Borne, Sent forth, or since did from their ashes come. Triumph, my Britain ! Thou hast one to show, To whom all scenes of Europe homage owe. He was not of an age but for all time ! And all the Muses still were in their prime, When like Apollo he came forth to warm Our ears, or like a Mercury to charm, Nature herself was proud of his designs, And joy'd to wear the dressing of his lines ; Which were so richly spun and woven so fit, As, since, she will vouchsafe no other wit ; The merry Greek, tart Aristophanes, 198 SHAKSPEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. Neat Terence, witty Plautus, now not please ; But antiquated and deserted IS*, >L\.a^si.>n iind fire were necessary. Perhaps his Richard III. was his most marvellous creation, although he is believed by some to have pre- ferred the character of Othelb, in which his success was not quite so remarkable. The weird and exaggerated character of Sir (jil< '* Overreach in Massinger's unpleasant play has never had another exponent like him, and his Skylock was a masterly performance. He was borne exhausted off the stage of Covent Garden, March 25th, 1833, while playing < n'u llo, with his son Charles iislayo. He died at the age of forty-three, at Richmond, on the 15th May, in the same year. The younger Kean, although he had advan- 212 SHAKSPEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. tages which young actors do not often possess in the matter of education,, had so many physical disadvantages that it is wonderful he attained the rank in his profession that he actually reached. Without any of the gifts of a dignified presence, a handsome person or a pleasing countenance, and with one of the most unsympathetic and unmusical voices that surely any tragedian ever possessed, he managed by sheer force of will, untiring in- dustry, and great natural intelligence to force himself into parts wholly unfitted for him as it appeared. However, he had many admirers of his Hamlet, Macbeth, and Othello; and that there was great merit in the performances, espe- cially of the first, we can gladly testify. In Prospero, Shylock, King John, and Richard III. he acquitted himself very meritoriously ; and how effective as a " character" actor he was albeit out of the Shaksperian groove his terrible Louis XI. in Casimir Delavigne's play was sufficient to testify. Charles Kean's name will always be dear to playgoers, from the loving care he extended to the production of our poet's works, sparing no expense or trouble, and filling in every archaeological MODERN SHAKSPERIAN ACTORS, ETC. 21^ detail with microscopic exactness. In all his Shaksperian revivals he was assisted by his amiable and accomplished wife (Miss Ellen Tree), herself an actress of great talent, whose Rosalind and Viola are still remembered by the maturer race of playgoers. Charles Kean died in January, 1868, leaving an only daughter. Samuel Phelps was in some sense the younger Kean's rival for some years, and was and is a sterling actor of the Macready school. Sound elocution and assiduous ad- herence to the author's meaning distinguish this actor's style ; and besides the whole range of Shakspeare's tragic characters, he has fre- quently and successfully assumed comic parts such as Falstaff, Bottom, and, to travel away from Shakspeare for a moment, we may say that he is the Sir Pertinax Macsycophant of the present day. Mr. Phelps has passed the age of threescore and ten, having been born in Devonport in 1806. Shaksperian actors, who have been more or less content with the parts of clowns, jesters, and such like characters, have received their due meed of appreciation, and there is at present a very decided lack of talent of that description on the British stage. The 214 SHAKSPEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. names of James Quin, whose range of Shak- sperian characters included a masterly exposi- tion of Falstaff, which has never been sur- passed even by the corpulent Stephen Kemble or the eccentric Robert William Elliston ; Richard Suett, William Dowton, and Joseph Munden, occur to us as the principal tradi- tional heroes of our poet's comedy in a not very remote era ; and they have had worthy successors in the persons of John Baldwin Buckstone, the late John Pritt Harley and Henry Compton, the latter having been pos- sibly the most perfect Touclistone the stage has ever seen, his extraordinary dry humour and mobile face exactly suiting that and other comic creations of Shakspeare. Within the last twenty or thirty years the merits of the actors who have appeared in Shakspeare's plays have met with such widely different critical notice from the Press and the play-going public that it would be quite beside our design to re-open the subject in these pages. We have had some of our bard's minor characters represented quite recently in probably a more efficient manner than they ever were in the days of David Garrick, John Philip Kemble, or Edmund Kean. Mercutio, MODERN SHAKSPERIAN ACTORS, ETC. 215 a most exigent character, has been thoroughly realized for us by Walter Lacy and the late George Vining; John Ryder and Samuel Emery as the King in " Hamlet," to which the former has added lago, Faulconbridge, Macduff, Caliban, and many other characters, k-uve nothing to desire. The Gfiost in " Ham- let" has been most excellently rendered by Walter Lacy, Henry Marston also an efficient lago of the old school and Thomas Mead. The Nurse in " Romeo and Juliet," by Mrs. Chippendale (Miss Snowdon) ; Polonius, by Addison ; the Gravedigger in " Hamlet," by Widdicombe; and Audrey, by Mrs. Keeley, are all noteworthy performances. Helen Faucit (Mrs. Theodore Martin) has probably never been surpassed in the higher walks of the Shaksperiari drama ; her early retirement from the stage has been much regretted ; and Lady Macbeth remains her character for the present, in which she has only been approached by Miss Glyn and Mrs. Charles Kraii. Of Shakspeare's tragic heroes, we may here record, as we quit the subject, the names of Walter Montgomery whose early death is much to be deplored Gustavus V. Brooke, 216 SHAKSPEARE AXD HIS CONTEMPORARIES. drowned in the London and the negro, Ira Aldridge, as notable Othellos of our time; Charles Fechter, as an intelligent and quite unconventional Hamlet, and whose Othello had many merits, although it met with but scant approbation ; Barry Sullivan of this gentle- man, it may justly be said that he is the prin- cipal expounder of Shaksperian character at the present time ; Charles C res wick, James Anderson, Charles Dillon, and, most recently of all, Henry Irving, who has suddenly deve- loped from a player of eccentric parts in domestic comedy of the day into the only Hamlet, Richard III., Othello, and Macbeth, which receive steady and continued support from an appreciative section of the play -going public. Opinions on his merits, however, differ ; and as contemporary criticism is no part of our province, we here conclude our notice of him and the subject. In September, 1 769, a Shakspeare jubilee was celebrated at Stratford-upon-Avon, under the auspices of David Garrick, in which he re- ceived the co-operation of many of the most eminent men of the day. For three days the little town was en fete, an ode written by the talented actor was set to music by the cele- MODERN SHAK3PERIAV ACTORS, ETC. 217 brated Dr. Arne, the recitative being delivered by Garrick himself. Transparencies were exhibited, and concerts, allegorical representa- tions, and pyrotechnic displays were provided for the very numerous assemblage of -brilliant company that were present. Persons of high rank and the wits and beauties of the day assisted con amore in the celebration, and in spite of the adverse weather that prevailed a successful result was arrived at. Some of the ignorant residuum of the towns- people, it is said, entertained a preposterous notion that Garrick was a magician, viewing the whole proceeding with superstitious ap- prehension. However, the bulk of the inhabi- tants of Shakspeare's native town gave it their earnest support, and the reverence felt for any- thing belonging to him or connected with his career had been evinced more than once by the inhabitants of Stratford. An unfortunately unappreciative clergyman some time before had come into possession of Shakspeare's whilom residence, and had been guilty of the vandalism of cutting down the poet's favourite mulberry tree: he was com- pelled to leave the town amid the curses of the populace, who vowed no one bearing 218 SIIAKSPEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. his name should ever reside in the town again. The mulberry tree was purchased by a tradesman, and various relics were fashioned in the shape of snuff-boxes, tea-caddies, &c., and were eagerly bought. The Corporation of Stratford presented Mr. Garrick with the freedom of their town, enclosed appropriately in a casket made of the sacred wood, request- ing a bust of the poet in return, for the adornment of their town hall; and these amenities between the municipal magnates and the great actor, then at the summit of his fame, gave rise to the idea of the jubilee of 1769.* In 1865 a grand Tercentenary Festival was organized by a committee of noblemen and gentlemen, and most of the literary, artistic, and histrionic talent of the day assisted in carrying it out. As before, there were pageants, oratorios, concerts, dramatic representations, * Many years afterwards a celebrated upholsterer was being shown the collection of various treasures of art belonging to the elder Mathews, and when called upon to admire the cassolette, which the grea: comedian had purchased at immense cost from Garrick's representative, roundly pronounced the relic to be of walnut wood, thereby rendering its proprietor " livid with rage." MODK UN > II. \KSPERI AX ACTOKS, KTC. 219 the legend, carved in Old English of the time, on the antique oaken frame. Report says it was brought into France by Sir Kenelm Digby (afterwards Earl of Bristol) in the time of Charles I. Price asked is 1,000 francs (41) ; and as this oil painting is known to be the portrait of Shakspeare, less will not be taken. Let me know your opinion. You know I must double my capital if I purchase. The same person has likewise a portrait of Elizabeth, and some other curiosi- ties appertaining to English history. And in a subsequent paragraph was added If you think the Shakspeare portrait be worth buying, I shall take Caen on my way back to Paris. It is necessary to remark that the gentleman thus addressed, having been for some years stationary at Paris, was wholly ignorant as to any frauds having been practised in London on the subject of Shaksperian portraiture. 224 SHAKSPEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. In reply, therefore, to the above, he renewed his statements respecting the value of an un- doubted representation of the bard, adding that could he be satisfied respecting its origi- nality, he should feel happy in purchasing such an invaluable relic. As soon as a reply could be forwarded, the same arrived at Paris, commencing with these words : I am obliged to you for your letter, offering me eighty pounds sterling for the Shakspeare portrait. It is un- questionably an original painting of the time, from the description given me. The open frame is the one part of the exterior of an immense pair of bellows, formerly belonging to Queen Elizabeth. The legend : " WHOME HAVE WE HERE, STUCKB ONNE THE BELLOWES ? ! ! THATTE PRINCE OF GOODE FELLOWES WILLIE SHAKSPERE. OH ! CURSTE TJNTOWARDE LUCKE, TO BE THUS MEANLIE STUCKE " POINS. " NATE, RATHER GLORIOUS LOTTE To HYMME ASSYGN'D, WHO LYKE TH' ALMIGHTIE RYDES THE WYNGES OTH' WYNDE. "PYSTOLLE." All persons conversant with Droeshout's head of Shakspeare must recollect the un- MODERN" SHAKM'I .I.'IAN ACTORS, ETC. 225 usually lofty and capacious bald forehead that print portrays : now, in this bellows perform- ance it was obvious there had been much re- painting on that part of the picture, and in consequence, when presented to the gentleman who had stated himself desirous of possessing it, he remarked that, prior to purchasing, he should wish to have the forehead cleared of such repaint. That stipulation, however, not being complied with, it was understood be- tween the parties that if, upon cleaning, any imposition became apparent, the purchase was to be null and void. The gentleman who had possessed himself of the portrait, in order to ascertain its origi- nality, placed the same in the hands of M. Kibet, residing on the Quai de la Ferraile, Paris, who was esteemed one of the best cleaners and repairers of old pictures fifty years ago. To the care of that artist the Bellows portrait was consigned. When, two days after, speeding on the wings of anxious expectancy to ascertain the result of M. Ribet's operations, conceive the shock experienced by the proprietor on being told by the artist that, instead of Shakspeare, his portrait was not even that of a male, but the representation of Q 226 SHAKSPEARE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. an old ivoman ! In short, on applying the fatal cotton, dipped in the solution necessary to clean off the repaint and dirt, away had vanished the broad, high, procreative front of Avon's bard, the brown moustaches and ex- panded ruff having given place, like magic, to a cap decorated with blue ribbon and a lip unadorned by hirsute ornament, while a ker- chief became apparent modestly overspreading the matronly bosom. We have no space to devote to the further history of this atrocious swindle, and must content ourselves by saying that it was fol- lowed up by others, in which Ben Jonson's name was appended to some spurious verses, and the Bellows picture itself was furbished up, attributed to a Flemish painter named Porbus, and passed into the possession of M." Talma, the great French tragedian, who showed it to Charles Lamb, and that gentle- man is said to have fallen down on his knees and kissed it with idolatrous veneration. It afterwards passed to London ; and we have only devoted so much time to a notice of these frauds to convince our fellow-admirers of Shakspeare that in a research after veritable portraitures of the illustrious author, the pos- MODERN SHAKSPERIAN ACTORS, ETC. 227 session of as many eyes as Argus will scarcely prevent them from imposition. And now our task is ended. We would gladly have lingered in many parts of this little book, and dwelt on the thousand and one anecdotes and episodes of the bard's life and his companions, literary, dramatic, and sociaL There is no lack of material, as any of our readers will be able to discover for themselves if they will take the trouble to ransack the copious stores of Shaksperian literature so easily to be attained nowadays. We have done little more than try to create an appetite for such lore, although we have " turned over many books together." Valde etplaudtoeJ FINIS. Q - INDEX. PA8B Addison ... ... ... ... ... 215 Advertising Plays ... ... ... ... 130 Aguecheek, Sir Andrew ... ... ... ... 23 Aldridge, Ira ... ... ... ... ... 216 Alexander, William, Earl of Stirling ... ... 69 Alleyne, Edward ... ... ... ... 115 All's Well That Ends Well ... ... ... 35 Amazons, Queen of the ... ... ... ... 26 Anderson, James ... ... ... ... 216 Angelo... ... ... ... ... ... 23 Anne Boleyn ... ... ... ... ... 53 Anne, Lady ... ... ... ... ... 50 Anne, Queen ... ... ... ... ... 202 Antipholus ... ... ... ... ... 41 Antoninus, Life of ... ... ... ... 55 Antonio ... ... ... ... ... 31 Antony... ... ... ... ... ... 58 Appolin ... ... ... ... ... 61 Appolonius ... ... ... ... ... 61 Arabian Nights ... ... ... ... ... 38 Ariel ... 18 Arne, Dr. ... ... ... ... ... 217 Armin, Robert ... ... ... ... ... 138 Arragon, Catharine of ... ... ... ... 53 Arragon, Prince of ... ... ... ... 25 230 UTOEX. PAGE As You Like It ... ... ... ... ... 32,150 Ashbury ... ... ... ... ... 201 Augustus ... ... ... ... ... 58 Austria, Duke of ... ... ... ... 45 Autograph of Shakspeare ... ... ... 192 Autolycus ... ... ... ... ... 39 Ayrer, Jacob ... ... ... ... ... 19 Bandello ... ... ... ... ... 22, 25 Banquo... ... ... ... ... ... 42 Bardolph ... ... ... ... ... 47 Barkham, Sir William ... ... ... ... 202 Barry, Mrsv ... ... ... ... ... 209 Barry, Spranger... ... ... ... ... 204 Bassanio ... ... ... ... ... 30 Beatrice ... ... ... ... ... 25 Beaumont, Francis ... ... ... ... 70 Belch, Sir Toby... ... ... ... ... 23 Bellows portrait... ... ... ... 224,225,226 Benedick ... ... ... ... ... 25 Benefits ... ... ... ... ... 182 Benfield, Bobert... ... ... ... ... 138 Bermuda or Bermooth.es, Isle of ... ... ... 17 Betterton, Thomas ... ... ... 115, 152, 201 Bianca... ... ... ... ... ... 67 Biblical personages ... ... ... ... 29 BirnamWood ... ... ... ... ... 42 Biron ... ... ... ... ... ... 28 Blackfriars Theatre ... ... ... ... 112, 133 Boccaccio ... ... ... ... ... 35, 59 Bohemia, Coast of ... ... ... ... 40 Bohemia, King of ... ... ... ... 39 Booth, Barton ... ... ... ... ... 201, 211 Bottom... ... ... ... ... ... 27 Burbadge, Richard ... ... ... 139, 147, 153 Brabantio ... ... ... ... ... 66 Brooke, Arthur ... ... ... ... ... 62 Brooke, Gustavus, V. ... ... ... ... 215 INDEX 231 PAGE Browne, William ... ... ... ... 71 Brutus... ... ... ... ... 56,57,201 Bryan, George ... ... ... ... ... 139 Buckstone, John Baldwin ... ... ... 214 Busby, Dr. ... ... ... ... ... 201 Caliban... ... ... ... ... ... 18, 215 Capulet... ... ... ... ... ... 63 Cardinal Wolsey... ... ... ... ... 52,53 Cartwright, William ... ... ... ... 72 Cassio ... ... ... ... ... ... 66 Cassius... ... ... ... ... ... 57 Catharine of Arragon ... ... ... ... 53 Cavendishe ... ... ... ... ... 52 Cawdor... ... ... ... ... ... 42 Caxton... ... ... ... ... ... 54 Cerberus ... ... ... ... ... 2!> Chandos portrait ... ... ... 14,153,221,222 Chalus... ... ... ... ... ... 45 Chapel, Children of the ... ... ... ... 133,146 Chapman, George ... ... ...54,57,78,162,174 Charlesl. ... ... ... ... 72,140,169,201 Chaucer ... ... ... ... ... 54 Chettle, Henry ... ... ... ... ... 74 Chippendale, Mrs. ... ... ... ... 215 Chronologer to City of London ... ... ... 95 Chronological Order of Shakspeare' s Plays ... 6 Cibber, Colley ... ... ... ... ... 202 Cinthio... ... ... ... ... ... 66 Clarence, Duke of ... ... ... ... 49 Cleopatra ... ... ... ... ... 57, 53 Clothing and Costumes ... ... ... ... 135,173 Clowns 164,167,177,178,213 Cockpit Theatre... ... ... ... ... 114,133 Coeur de Lion ... ... ... ... ... 44 Coleridge, Samuel Taylor... ... ... ... 4, 57, 62 Colley Cibber ... ... ... ... ... 51,202 Comedy of Errors ... ... ... ... 40 232 INDEX. PAGE Commendatory Odes ... ... ... ... 196,199 Companies, List of ... ... ... ... 134 Compton, Henry... ... ... ... ... 214 Condell, Henry ... ... ... ... ... 13, 140 Conveyance to the Play ... ... ... ... 130 Cooke, Alexander ... ... ... ... 140 Cooke, Geo. Frederick ... ... ... ... 203 Copyright in Plays ... ... ... ... 183 Cordelia Cordelia ... ... ... ... 61 Coriolanus ... ... ... ... ... 56 Costard ... ... ... ... ... 29 Covent Garden Theatre ... ... ... ... 52,207 Cowley, Richard ... ... ... ... 141 Cowlye, Maisterre Eychard ... ... ... 221 Cressida Cresseide ... ... ... ... 54 Creswick, Charles ... ... ... ... 216 Critics ... ... ... ... ... ... 180 Cross, Samuel ... ... ... ... ... 141 Crown Inn, Oxford ... ... ... ... 75 Cumberland ... ... ... ... ... 56 Curtain road ... ... ... ... ... 120 Curtain Theatre... ... ... ... 119, 133, 140 Cymbeline ... ... ... ... ... 59 Cyprus... ... ... ... ... ... 66 Daniel, Samuel ... ... ... ... ... 74 Davenant, Sir William ... ... ... 75, 115, 152 Davenport, Robert ... ... ... ... 77 Day, John ... ... ... ... ... 77 Dedication to Players' Edition ... ... ... 10 Dekker, Thomas ... ... ... ... 78 Delavigne, Casimir ... ... ... ... 212 Denmark, History of ... ... ... ... 64 Desdemona ... ... ... ... 66, 137, 159, 209 Dialogues of Lucian ... ... ... ... 55 Diana ... ... ... ... ... ... 20 Die Schone Sidea ... ... ... ... 19 Digby, Sir Kenelm ... ... ... ... 223 INDEX. 233 PACK Dillon, Charles ... 216 Divells, Isle of ... ... ... ... ... 17 Dodsley ... ... ... ... ... Ill Dogberry ... ... ... ... ... 25, 145 Dogget, Thomas ... ... ... ... 'Ml Don Adriano de Armado . . . ... ... ... 29 Don John ... ... ... ... ... 25 Dorastus and Tawnia ... ... ... ... 39 Douce, Francis ... ... ... ... ... 164 Dowton, William ... ... ... ... 214 Drake, Dr. ... ... ... ... ... 23, 60 Drayton, Michael ... ... ... ... 79 Droeshout, Martin ... ... ... 220,221,224 Drol's ... ... ... ... ... ... 117 Dromio... ... ... ... ... ... 41 Drury Lane Theatre ... ... ... ... 51 Dryden, John ... ... ... ... ... 89 Duel, Ben Jonson's ... ... ... ... 89,143 Dull ... ... ... ... ... ... 29 Dulwich College... ... ... ... ... 115, 153 Dumain ... ... ... ... ... 28 Duncan ... ... ... ... ... 43 Dunsinane ... ... ... ... ... 42 Ecclestone, William ... ... ... ... 141 Edward, Prince of Wales ... ... ... 50 Eedes, Dr. John ... ... ... ... 57 Egeus ... ... ... ... ... ... 26 Egyptian Queen... ... ... ... ... 57 Elizabeth, Queen ... ... 5, 20, 21, 53, 69, 131, 223 Elliston, Robert William ... ... ... 214 Emery, Samuel ... ... ... ... ... 215 Epilogues ... ... ... ... ... 160 Falstaff ... ... ... ... 21,47,145,214 Famous Victories, Henry V. ... ... ... 46, 48 Farquhar, George ... ... ... ... 202. Faulconbridge ... ... ... ... ... 44,215 2,34: INDEX. PAGE Fechter, Charles... ... ... ... ... 216 Felix and Philomena ... ... ... ... 20 Felton Portrait ... ... ... ... ... 139, 221 Ferdinand, King ... ... ... ... 28 Ferdinand, Prince ... ... ... ... 18 Field, Nathaniel ... ... ... ... 80, 142 Fire of London ... ... ... .... 103 First Actress ... ... ... ... ... 137 Fleet Prison ... ... ... ... ... 47 Fletcher, John ... ... ... ... ... 81 Fletcher, Lawrence ... ... ... ... 142 Fletcher, Phineas ... ... ... ... 82 Florentine Novelist ... ... ... ... 30 Florizel ... ... ... ... ... 39 FlueUen ... ... ... ... ... 48 Fools ... 164, 166 Footlights ... ... ... .. ... 125 Ford, Mrs. ... ... ... ... ... 22 Forde, John ... ... ... ... ... 82 Forrest, Edwin ... ... ... ... ... 210 Fortune Theatre . ... ... ... ... 115 Foxe's Martyrs ... ... ... - ... ... 52 Gabriel Spencer... ... ... ... ... 142, 89 Gager, William, LL.D. ... ... ... ... 83 Gainsborough, Thomas ... ... ... ... 207 Garrick, David 125, 202, 203, 205, 207, 209, 211, 216, 217, 218 Gascoigne, George ... ... ... ... 84 Gascoigne, Justice ... ... ... ... 47 Gates, Sir Thomas ... ... ... ... 17 Geraldi, Cinthio... ... ... ... ... 24 Gesta, Romanorum ... ... ... ... 60 Ghost ... ... ... ... ... 65, 150, 215 Giffard ... ... ... ... ... 202 Gilburne, Samuel ... ... ... ... 143 Globe Theatre 27,112,117,133 Gloucester ... ... ... ... ... 49, 50 Glvn, Miss ... ... ... .-.. 215 IXPF.X. 235 PAOB Gobbo... ... ... ... ... ... 32 Gonril Goneril Gonorill ... ... ... 61 Goodall, Thomas ... ... ... ... 143 Goodman's Fields Playhouse ... ... ... 203 Goughe, Robert... ... ... ... ... 143 Gourdon, Bertrand de ... ... ... ... 44 Gower... ... ... ... ... ... 60 Gratiano ... ... ... ... ... 31 Greene, Robert ... ... ... 39, 85 Grimstone ... ... ... ... ... 38 Hal, Prince ... ... ... ... ... 47 Hall ... ... ... ... 56 Hallam ... ... ... ... ... 206 Halliwell ... ... ... ... ... 186 Hamlet ... 64, 150, 201, 210 Harleian MSS. ... ... ... ... ... 30 Harley, John Pritt ... ... ... ... 214 Harvey ... ... ... ... ... 33 Hathaway, Ann... ... ... ... ... 4, 186 Hathaway, Richard ... ... ... ... 186 Hecatommithi ... ... ... ... ... 66 Helena ... ... ... ... ... 26 Hemynge, John... ... ... ... 13,143,145 Henderson, John ... ... ... ... 204,205 Henry IV. ... 46,161 Henry V. ... ... ... ... ... 46 Henry VI 48 Henry VIII. ... 52 Hennia ... ... ... ... ... 26 Hercules ... ... ... ... ... 29 Hermione ... ... ... ... ... 39 Hero ... ... ... ... ... 25 Hey wood, John... ... ... ... ... 86 Heywood, Thomas ... ... ... ... 87 Hippolyta ... ... ... ... ... 26 Hirelings ... ... ... ... ... 137 Holinshed 41, 46, 48, 50, 52, 61 236 INDEX. PAGE Holofernes ... ... ... ... ... 29 Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon -A von ... 192 Homer ... ... ... ... ... 54 Hotspur ... ... ... ... ... 46 Howse ... ... ... ... ... Ill Hubert de Burgh ... ... ... ... 44 Hume, David ... ... ... ... ... 24 lachimo ... ... ... ... ... 59 lago ... ... ... ... ... 66, 67, 208, 215 Imogen ... ... ... ... ... 59 Inn Yards ... ... ... ... ... 121 Interior of Theatres ... ... ... ... 122 Ireland, Samuel ... ... ... ... 221 Ireland, William Henry ... ... ... ... 220 Irving, Henry ... ... ... ... ... 216 Isabel, Queen ... ... ... ... ... 45 Isabella ... ... ... ... ... 23, 209 James I. ... ... ... ... ... 5 James VI. ... ... ... ... ... 69 Jaques ... ... ... ... ... 33 Jessica ... ... ... ... ... 32 John, Sir, of Bordeaux ... ... ... ... 33 Jones, Inigo ... ... ... ... ... 74, 123 Johnson, Samuel, 15, 19, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29, 35, 41, 45, 54, 56, 59, 63, 202 Jonson, Ben ... 72, 73, 78, 88, 93, 118, 122, 143, 157, 1C6, 206 Jourdan Silvester ... ... ... ... 17 Jubilee... ... ... ... ... ... 216 Julia ... ... ... ... ... ... 20 Juliet ... ... ... ... ... ... 209 Julietta ... ... ... ... ... 23 Julius Caesar ... ... ... ... ... 56, 195 Katharine ... ... ... ... ... 37 Kean, Charles ... ... ... ... 211,212,213 Kean, Mrs. Charles ... ... ... 213, 215 INDEX. 237 MM Kean, Edmund .. ... ... ... 92,210,211,214 Keeley, Mrs. ... ... ... ... ... 215 Kemble, Charles ... ... ... ... 208 Kemble, Prances Ann ... ... ... 208 Kemble, John Philip ... ... 51, 206, 207, 208, 213, 214 Kempe, William ... ... ... ... 144 Kensal Green ... ... ... ... ... 211 King Henry IV. & V. ... ... ... ... 46,161 King Henry VI.... ... ... ... ... is King Henry VIII. ... ... ... ... 52 King John ... ... ... ... ... 44 King Lear ... ... ... ... .. 61 King Richard II. ... ... ... ... 45 King Richard III. ... ... ... ... 49 King's Company ... ... ... ... 117,133 Kirke, Colonel ... 24 Knipe, Dr. ... ... ... ... 201 Kynaston ... ... ... i ... 115 Lacy, Walter ... ... ... ... ... 215 Lamb, Charles ... ... ... ...83,87,226 Launce ... ... 20 Launcelot, Gobbo ... ... ... 82 Lawrence, Sir Thomas ... ... ... 207 Lear ... ... ... ... 61, 172, 201 Leonatus ... ... 59 Leontes ... ... 39 Lillie (Lylie), John ... ... 90 Lipsius ... ... 24 Longaville ... ... 28 Lorenzo ... ... 32 Louis XI ... 212 Love ... 56 Love's Labour Lost ... 28,148 Love's Labour Wonne ... 35 Lover's Complaint ... 14 Lowin, John ... 145 Lucian... ... 55 238 INDEX. PAGE Luciana, Lady ... ...- ... ... ... 61 Lucy, Sir Thomas ... ... ... ... 3 Lydgate ... ... ... ... ... 54 Lysander ... ... ... ... ... 26 Macbeth ... ... ... ... ... 41,201 Macbeth, Lady ... ... ... ... ... 209,215 Macduff ... ... ... ... ... 43, 215 Mac LaUghlin, Charles ... ... ... ... 206 Macklin, Charles ... ... ... 205,206,209 Macready, Wm. Charles ... ... ... 210,211,213 Malcolm ... ... ... ... ... 43 Malone ... ... .. ... ... 19 i, 221 Malvolio ... ... ... ... ... 23 Mariana ... ... ... ... ... 24 Mark Antony ... ... ... ... ... 57,58 Marlowe, Christopher ... ... ... ... 91 Marston, Henry... ... ... ... ... 215 Marston, John ... ... ... ... ... 92 Martin, Mrs. Theodore ... ... ... ... 215 Massinger, Philip ... ... ... ... 93,211 Mathews, Charles (the elder) ... ... ... 218 Mead, Thomas ... ... ... ... ... 215 Measure for Measure ... ... ... ... 23 Mensechini ... ... ... ... 22, 40, 41 Merchant of Venice ... ... ... ... 30 Mercutio ... ... ... ... ... 63, 214 Merry Wives of Windsor ... ... ... 21 Middleton, Thomas ... ... ... 85 Midsummer Night's Dream ... ... ... 26, 152 Milan, Duke of ... ... ... ... 20 Milton, John 13, 76, 199 Modern Shaksperian Actors ... ... ... 200 Montague ... ... ... ... ... 63 Monte mayor, George of ... ... ... ... 20 Mont gomei-y, Earl of ... ... ... ... 10 Montgomery, Walter ... ... ... 215 Monuments to Shakspeare ... ... ... 192 INDKX. 239 PAOK Moth ... ... ... ... ... ... :!'.! Much Ado About Nothing ... ... ... 24 Munden, Joseph ... ... ... ... 214 Mulberry Tree ... ... ... ... ... 217 Music ... ... ... ... ... ... 128 Nash, Thomas ... ... ... ... ... 95, 145 Nerissi... ... ... ... ... ... 32 New Way to Pay Old Debts ... ... ... 94,211 Newport, Captain ... ... ... ... 17 Norfolk, Duke of ... ... ... ... 51 Noriuan Wrestler ... ... ... ... 34 Nurse ... ... ... ... ... ... 63, 215 Olivia ... ... ... ... ... ... 2-2, 172 O'Neill, Miss ... ... ... ... ... 210 Orsino... ... ... ... ... ... 22 Ophelia ... ... ... ... ... 65 O. P. Eiots ... ... ... ... ... 207 Ostler, William ... ... ... ... ... 146 Othello... ... ... ...66, 154, 201, 203, 204, 211 Page, Mrs. ... ... ... ... ... 22 Painter ... ... ... ... 35, 55, 62 Palace of Pleasure ... ... ... 35, 55, 62 Pallant, Richard ... ... ... ... 147 Palsgrave' 8 Servants ... ... ... ... 133 Pa.uda.rus ... ... ... ... ... 54 Paphlagonian ... ... ... ... ... 62 Paris, Count ... ... ... ... ... 63 ParoUes ... ... ... ... ... 35 Patterne of Pai nf ulle Adventures ... ... ... 61 Paul's, Children of 95,133 Peele, George ... ... ... ... ... 96 Pembroke, Earl of ... ... ... ... 10 Perdita ... ... ... ... ... 39 Pericles ... ... ... ... ... 8,60 Peto 47 240 INDEX. PAGE Petruchio ... ... ... ... ... 37 Pharsia ... ... ... ... ... 61 Phelps, Samuel ... ... ... ... ... 213 Philip, Duke ... ... ... ... ... 38 Phillips, Augustine ... ... ... ... 147 Phoenix Theatre ... ... ... ... 114 Plautus ... ... ... ... ... 22, 41 Players' Edition... ... ... ... ... 10 Players of the Revels ... ... ... ... 133 Plutarch ... ... ... ... ...16, 55, 56 Poetical Parish Clerk ... ... ... ... 109 Poins ... ... ... ... ... ... 47 Polixenes ... ... ... ... ... 39 Polonius ... ... ... ... ... 65 Pope, Thomas ... ... ... ... ... 148 Porbus ... ... ... ... ... 226 Portia ... ... ... ... ... ... 30, 209 Portraits ... ... ... ... ... 220 Prayers on the Stage ... ... ... ... 137,161 Preston, Thomas, LL.D. ... ... ... ... 97 Prices of Admission ... ... ... ... 130 Prince's Servants ... ... ... ... 133 Pritchard, Mrs. ... ... ... ... ... 209 Private Box ... ... ... ... ... 123 Prologues ... ... ... ... ... 156 Promos and Cassandra ... ... ... ... 24 Prospero ... ... ... 81 Proteus ... ... ... 20 Pucelle ... ... ... 49 Puck Pyramus and Thisbe Quarles, Francis ... ... ... ... 99 Quin, James Eandolph, Thomas ... ... ICO Rape of Lucrece ... ... 14 Red Bull Theatre ... 117, 125, 133, 137, 178 INDEX. 241 PAGE Regan Ragan ... ... ... ... ... 61 Revels, Master of ... ... ... ... 131 Ribet, M. ... ... ... ... ... 225 Rice, John ... ... ... ... ... 148 Richard Coeur de Lion ... ... ... ... 44 Richard II. ... ... ... ... ... 45 Richard III. ... ... ... ... 49, 139, 208, 211 Robinson, Richard ... ... ... ... 149 Rochester, John, Earl of ... ... ... 202 Roman Code ... ... ... ... "... 30 Romeo and Juliet ... ... ... 62, 139, 157, 204 Rosalynd ... ... ... ... ... 33 Rossil ... ... ... ... ... ... 149 Rowley, William ... ... ... ... 101 Ryder, John ... ... ... ... ... 215 Sackville, Thomas, Earl of Dorset ... ... 101 St. Giles, Cripplegate ... ... ... ... 154 St. Giles'-in-the-Pields 74, 103 St. Martin's-in-the-Fields ... ... ... 146 St. Paul's Cathedral ... ... ... ... 104 St. Paul's, Covent Garden ... ... ... 107 St. Paul's Singing School ... ... ... Ill St. Saviour's, Southwark... ... ... ... 81, 95 St. Vedast, Foster Lane ... ... ... ... 100 Santlow, Miss Hestor ... ... ... ... 202 Scenery ... ... ... ... ... 125 Scheemakers ... ... ... ... ... 195 Schlegel ... 23, 58 Scotland, King and Queen of ... ... ... 42 Scott, Sir Walter ... ... ... ... 42,91 Scroop... ... ... ... ... ... 46 Sebastian ... ... ... ... ... 22 Shadwell ... ... ... ... ... "6 Shakspeare, Edmond ... ... ... ... 150 Shakspeare, John ... ... ... ... 2 Shakspeare Jubilee ... ... ... ... 216 Shakspeore's Mother ... ... ... ... 2 242 INDEX. PAGE Shakspeare's Plays, Order of ... ... ... 6 Shakspeare' a Tomb ... ... ... ... 193 Shakspeare's Will ... ... ... ... 187 Shallow ... ... ... ... ... 4S Shancke ... ... ... ... ... 151 Shares in Theatres ... ... ... ... 136 Shirley, James ... ... ... ... ... 103 Shottery ... ... .. v ... ... 4 Shrove-tide ... ... ... ... ... 181 Shylock ... ... ... ... 30, 205, 203, 211 Sicily, King of ... ... ... ... ... 39 Siddons, Mrs. ... ... ... ... 206,207,209 Sidney, Sir Philip ... ... ... ... 62, 104 Sinklo ... ... ... ... ... ... 151 Silence... ... ... ... ... ... 48 Sly, William ... ... ... ... ... 151 Soniers, Sir George ... ... ... ... 17 Sorners, Will ... ... ... ... ... 175 Sonnets ... ... ... ... ... 14 Southampton, Earl of ... ... ... ... . 5 Speed ... ... ... ... ... ... 20 Spenser, Edmund ... ... ... ... 75, 105 Stationers' Company ... ... ... ... 38 Steevens, George ... ... ... ... 222 Stratford-upon-Ayon ... ... ... ... 2, 216 Stratford-upon-Avon, Corporation of ... ... 218 Stratford-upon-Avon Church ... ... ... 192, 220 Stuart, Sir Francis ... ... ... ... 157 Suckling, Sir John ... ... ... ... 106 Suett, Eichard ... ... ... ... ... 214 Sullivan, Barry ... ... ... ... ... 216 Sunday Performances ... ... ... ... 131 Talma ... ... ... ... ... ... 226 Taming of the Shrew ... ... ... ... 37 Tarleton, Eichard ... ... ... ... 145,179 Tawyer ... ... ... ... ... 151 Taylor, John ... ... ... ... ... 107 243 PAGB Tempest ... ... ... ... ... 17, 195 Tercentenary Festival ... ... ... 218 Theseus ... ... ... ... 26 Thisbe... ... ... ... 27 Time of Performances ... ... ... ... 131 Timon of Athens ... ... ... ... 55 Tinker... ... ... ... ... 37 Titania ... ... ... L'7 Titus Andronicus ... ... ... ... 8 Tooley, Nicholas ... ... ... ... 153 Touchstone ... ... ... ... 33, 214 Tragedy ... ... ... ... 1:^ Trap-doors ... ... ... 124 Tree, Miss Helen ... ... ... ... 213 Trinculo ... ... ... 19 Troilus and Cressida ... ... ... ... 54 True Tragedy of Richard, &c. ... ... ... 48 Twelfth Night ... ... ... ... ... ^ Twelve Tables, Code of ... ... ... ... 30 Twine, Laurence ... ... ... ... 61 Two Gentlemen of Verona ... ... ... 19 Two Noble Kinsmen ... ... ... ... 69 Underwood, John ... ... ... ... 154 Valentine ... ... ... ... ... 20 Venice, Duke of... ... ... ... ... 31 Venus and Adonis ... ... ... ... 14 Verges... ... ... ... 25, 141 Veronese Families ... ... ... ... 63 Vienna, Duke of ... ... ... ... 23 Vincentio ... ... ... ... ... 2:{ Vining, George ... ... ... ... ... 215 Viola ... ^J Wales, Prince of ... ... ... ... 50,204 Warner, William ... ... ... ... 108 Water Poet ... ... ... 107, 118 244 INDEX. PAGE Webster, John ... ... ... ... ... 109 Westminster Abbey 71, 76, 80, 89, 102, 106, 195, 201, 203 Westminster, Children of ... ... ... 133 Whetstone, George ... ... ... ... 24, 110 Whitefriars Theatre ... ... ... ... 114 Whitelocke, Sir BuMrode ... ... ... 129 Whittington, Thomas ... ... ... ... 1S(3 Widdicombe ... ... ... ... ... 215 Wilks 202 Will of Shakspeare ... ... ... ... 187 Wilson, John ... ... ... ... ... 154 Winter's Tale ... ... ... ... ... 38 Wolsey, Cardinal ... ... ... ... 52, 53 Woman Killed with Kindness ... ... ... 161 Wood, Anthony a ... ... ... ... 72,83 Worcester, Earl of, Company of Players ... ... 2,134 Wotton, Sir Henry ... ... ... ... 118 Wrestler, Norman ... ... ... ... 34 Young, Charles Mayne ... ... ... ... 210 Zutphen, Battle of ... ... ... ... 104 McCorqaodale & Co., Printers, " The Armoury," South wai-k. * ocrir*i*i LJBRARY FA SOUTHc*" ' ti I iii|i i 000103650 8