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ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE

O F

WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE. *

THIS amazing Genius, no less the glory of his own

country than of human nature, was the fon of Mr. John Shakspeare, and was born at Stratford upon Avon, in Warwickshire, on the 23d of April, 1564. His family, as appears by the regifter and public writings relating to that town, were of good figure and fashion there, and are mentioned as gentlemen. His father, who was a confiderable dealer in wool, had fo large a family (ten children in all) that, though he was his eldeft fon, he could give him no better education than his own employment. He had bred him, it is true, for fome time at a free school, where it is probable he acquired what little learning he was mafter of. But the narrowness of his circumftances, and the want of his affiftance at home, forced his father to withdraw him from thence, and prevented his farther proficiency in languages. It has been proved to a demonftration by the learned Dr. Farmer, that, whatever imitations of the ancients we find in our Author's works, he was indebted for them to such tranflations as were then extant, and easy of accefs: and it is more than probable that his want of acquaintance with the originals might rather be of service to him than the contrary: for though the knowledge of them might have made him

ExtraЯed chiefly from that of Mr. Rowe.

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more correct, yet it is not improbable but that the regularity and deference for them, which would have attended that correctness, might have reftrained fome of that fire, impetuofity, and even beautiful extravagance, which we admire in Shakspeare: and I believe we are better pleased with those thoughts, altogether new and uncommon, which his own imagination fupplied him so abundantly with, than if he had given us the most beautiful paffages out of the Greek and Latin poets, and that in the moft agreeable manner that it was poffible for a mafter of the English language to deliver them.

Upon his leaving fchool, he feems to have given entirely into that way of living which his father propofed to him; and, in order to fettle in the world after a family manner, he thought fit to marry while he was yet very young. His wife was the daughter of one Hathaway, faid to have been a substantial yeoman in the neighbourhood of Stratford. In this kind of fettlement he continued for fome time; till an extravagance that he was guilty of, forced him both out of his country, and that way of living which he had taken up: and though it seemed at first to be a blemish upon his good manners, and a misfortune to him, yet it afterwards happily proved the occafion of exerting one of the greatest geniuses that ever was known in dramatic poetry. He had, by a misfortune common enough to young fellows, fallen into ill company; and, amongst them, fome that made a frequent practice of deer-ftealing, engaged him with them more than once in robbing a park that belonged to Sir Thomas Lucy, of Cherlecot, near Stratford. For this he was profecuted by that gentleman, as he thought, fomewhat too feverely; and, in order to revenge that ill ufage, he made a ballad upon him. This, probably the firft effay of his poetry, if it be the fame preferved by Mr. Steevens in the last edition of this Author, viz. that of 1778, is truly contemptible: it however redoubled the profecution against him to that degree, that he was obliged to leave his bu

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finefs and family in Warwickshire, for fome time, and fhelter himself in London.

Tradition has informed us that it was upon this accident he made his firft acquaintance in the playhouse; and Mr. Malone, with great probability, conjectures that his introduction there arofe from his relationship to Greene, a celebrated performer at that period. In what capacity he was originally received, I have no pofitive information; and I pay no attention to the idle ftory of his being employed as the holder of horses. The writer laft mentioned fuppofes he began to write about the year 1591; and the arrangement of his plays by that gentleman remaining undifputed, the prefumption of its accuracy is fufficiently established. The rank which he held in the theatre, as a performer, appears not to have been elevated; and from the best accounts we learn, that, as an actor, he never foared above, if he even reached, mediocrity. The Ghoft in Hamlet, Old Knowel in Every Man in his Humour, and Adam in As you like It, are the parts which, with the greatest appearance of certainty, may be afcribed to him; and, in general, the characters of old men feem to have been his caft. To this choice a natural infirmity may have contributed; as we find, in his Sonnets, fome hints that he was lame, and confequently not properly qualified for the reprefentative of youth and agility. But, though his fuccefs as a player was but inconfiderable, it was fufficiently made up to him as an author. He had the honour to meet with many great and uncommon marks of favour and friendship from the Earl of Southampton, famous in the hiftories of that time for his friendship to the unfortunate Earl of Effex. It was to that noble Lord that he dedicated his Poem of Venus and Adonis. There is one inftance fo fingular in the magnificence of this patron of Shakspeare, that, if I had not been affured that the story was handed down by Sir William D'Avenant, who was probably very well acquainted with his affairs, I fhould not have ventured

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to have inferted, that my Lord Southampton at one time gave him a thoufand pounds, to enable him to go through with a purchafe which he heard he had a mind to a bounty very great and very rare at any time, and almoft equal to that profufe generofity the prefent age has fhewn to French dancers and Italian fingers.

What particular habitudes or friendships he contracted with private men, I have not been able to learn; more than that every one who had a true taste of merit, and could diftinguifh men, had generally a juft value and efteem for him. His exceeding candour and goodnature must certainly have inclined all the gentler part of the world to love him, as the power of his wit obliged the men of the most delicate knowledge and polite learning to admire him.

His acquaintance with Ben Jonson began with a remarkable piece of humanity and good-nature. Mr. Janfon, who was at that time altogether unknown to the world, had offered one of his plays to the players, in order to have it acted; and the perfons into whofe hands it was put, after having turned it carelessly and fuperciliously over, were juft upon returning it to him, with an ill-natured answer, that it would be of no fervice to their company; when Shakspeare luckily cast his eye upon it, and found fomething fo well in it as to engage him first to read it through, and afterwards to recommend Mr. Jonfon and his writings to the public. Fonfon was certainly a very good fcholar, and in that had fome advantage over Shakspeare; though at the fame time I believe it must be allowed, that what Nature gave the latter was more than a balance for what books had given the former: and the judgment of a great man upon this occafion was, I think, very just and proper. In a converfation between Sir John Suckling, Sir William D'Avenant, Endymion Porter, Mr. Hales of Eton, and Ben Jonfon; Sir John Suckling, who was a profefled admirer of Shakspeare, had undertaken his defence against Ben Jonfon, with fome warmth. Mr. Hales,

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who had fat ftill for fome time, told them, " that if Mr. Shakspeare had not read the ancients, he had likewife not stolen any thing from them; and that, if he would produce any one topic finely treated by any of them, he would undertake to fhew fomething upon the fame subject at least as well written by Shakspeare."

The latter part of his life was spent, as all men of good fenfe will with theirs may be, in eafe, retirement, and the converfation of his friends. He had the good fortune to gather an eftate equal to his occafion; and, in that, to his wifh: and is faid to have spent some years before his death at his native Stratford. His pleasurable wit and good-nature engaged him in the acquaintance, and entitled him to the friendship, of the gentlemen of the neighbourhood.

He died on his birth-day, the 23d of April, 1616, in the 53d year of his age; and was buried on the north fide of the chancel in the great church at Stratford, where a monument is placed in the wall, reprefenting him under an arch in a fitting pofture, a cushion fpread before him, with a pen in his right hand, and his left refted on a scroll of paper. Beneath is the following inscription:

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Judicio Pylium, genio Socratem, arte Maronem,
Terra tegit, populus mæret, Olympus habet.
Stay, paffenger, why doft thou go fo faft?

Read, if thou canft, whom envious Death hath plac'd
Within this monument; Shakspeare, with whom

Quick Nature died, whofe name doth deck the tomb

• Far more than cost; fince all that he hath writ

• Leaves living Art but page to serve his wit.'

On his grave-ftone underneath is
Good friends, for Jefus fake, forbear
To dig the dust inclosed here.

• Bleft be the man that spares these ftones,
And curs'd be he that moves my bones.'

He

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