in Drury Lane, some particulars concerning Spen-: ser. I mention these circumstances only to show that Aubrey was a curious and diligent inquirer, at a time when such inquiries were likely to be attended with success. Dr. Farmer, in his admirable Essay on the Learning of Shakespeare, by which, as Dr. Johnson justly observed, "the question is for ever decided," has given an extract from Mr. Aubrey's account of our poet, and the part which he has quoted has been printed in a former page: but as the manuscript memoir is more copious, and the account given by Aubrey of our poet's verses on John o'Combe, (which has never been published,) is materially different from that transmitted by Mr. Rowe, I shall give an exact transcript of the whole article relative to Shakspeare, from the original. persons were dead: and accordingly it was proved on the trial that the said Benjamin Jonson died, Nov. 20, 1635. The poetlaureat died, August 16, 1637. The younger Jonson was a dra-s matick_author, having in conjunction with Brome, produced a play called A Fault in Friendship, which was acted at the Curtain by the Prince's company in October, 1623; and in 1672 a collection of his poems was published. To this volume are prefixed verses addressed" to all the ancient family of the Lucyes," in which the writer describes himself as "a little stream from that clear spring : a circumstance which adds support to Dr. Bathurst's account of his father's birth-place. It should seem that he was not on good terms with his father. "He was not very happy in his children, (says Fuller in his account of Ben Jonson,) and most happy in those which died first, though none lived to survive him." 9 Vol. II. p. 68. Dr. Farmer supposed that Aubrey's anecdotes of Shakspeare came originally from Mr. Beeston, but this is a mistake. Mr. Beeston is quoted by Aubrey only for some particulars relative to Spenser. MS. Aubrey, MUS. ASHMOL. Oxon. Lives, MR. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. "William Shakespeare's father was a butcher, and I have been told heretofore by some of the neighbours, that when he was a boy, he exercised his father's trade; but when he killed a calfe, he would do it in a high style, and make a speech. This William, being inclined naturally to poetry and acting, came to London, I guesse about 18, and was an actor at one of the playhouses, and did act exceedingly well. Now Ben Jonson was never a good actor, but an excellent instructor. He began early to make essays in dramatique poetry, which at that time was very lowe, and his plays took well. He was a handsome well shaped man; verie good companie, and of a very ready, and pleasant, and smooth witt. The humour of the constable in A Midsommer-night Dreame he happened to take at Crendon in Bucks, (I think it was Midsommernight that he happened to be there ;) which is the road from London to Stratford; and there was living that constable about 1642, when I came first to Oxon. Mr. Jos. Howe is of the parish, and knew him. Ben Jonson and he did gather humours of men wherever they came. One time as he was at the taverne at Stratford, Mr. Combes, an old usurer, was to buryed; he makes then this extemporary epitaph upon him: Ten in the hundred the Devill allowes, • But Combes will have twelve, be sweares and he vowes: 'If any one aske who lies in this tomb, Hoh! quoth the Devill, 'tis my John o'Comb.' "He was wont to go to his native country once a yeare. I think I have been told that he left near 300l. to a sister. He understood Latin pretty well; for he had been in his younger yeares a schoolmaster in the country. Let us now proceed to examine the several parts of this account. 9 The first assertion, that our poet's father was a butcher, has been thought unworthy of credit, because "not only contrary to all other tradition, but, as it may seem, to the instrument in the herald's-office," which may be found in a former page. But for my own part, I think, this assertion, (which it should be observed is positively affirmed on the information of his neighbours, procured probably at an early period,) and the received account of his having been a wool-stapler, by no means inconsistent. Dr. Farmer has illustrated a passage in Hamlet, from information derived from a person who was at once a wool-man and butcher and, I believe, few occupations can be named, which are more naturally connected with each other. Mr. Rowe first mentioned the tradition that our poet's father was a dealer in wool, and his account is corroborated by a circumstance which I have just now learned. In one of the windows of a building in Stratford which belonged to the Shakspeare family, are the arms of the merchants of the staple ;-Nebule, on a chief gules, a lion passant, or; and the same arms, I am told, may be observed in the church at Stratford, in the fret-work over the arch which covers the tomb of John de Clopton, who was a merchant of the staple, and father of Sir Hugh Clopton, Lord Mayor of London, by whom the bridge over the Avon was built. But it should seem from the records of 9 Vol. I. p. 146, Stratford, that John Shakspeare, about the year 1579, at which time our poet was fifteen years old, was by no means in affluent circumstances;1 and why may we not suppose that at that period he endeavoured to support his numerous family by adding the trade of a butcher to that of his principal business; though at a subsequent period he was enabled, perhaps by his son's bounty, to discontinue the less respectable of these occupations? I do not, however, think it at all probable, that a person who had been once bailiff of Stratford, should have suffered any of his children to have been employed in the servile office of killing calves. Mr. Aubrey proceeds to tell us, that William Shakspeare came to London and began his theatrical career, according to his conjecture, when he was about eighteen years old;-but as his merit as an actor is the principal object of our present disquisition, I shall postpone my observations on this paragraph, till the remaining part of these anecdotes has been considered. We are next told, that he began early to make essays in dramatique poetry, which at that time was very lowe, and his playes took well." On these points, I imagine, there cannot be much variety of opinion. Mr. Aubrey was undoubtedly mistaken in his conjecture, (for he gives it only as conjecture,) that our poet came to London at eighteen; for as he had three children born at Stratford in 1583 and 1584, it is very improbable that he should have left his native town before the latter year. I think it most probable that he did not come to London before the year 1586, when See Vol. I. p. 58, n. 5. he was twenty-two years old. When he produced his first play, has not been ascertained; but if Spenser alludes to him in his Tears of the Muscs, Shakspeare must have exhibited some piece in or before 1590, at which time he was twenty-six years old; and though many have written for the publick before they had attained that time of life, any theatrical performance produced at that age, would, I think, sufficiently justify Mr. Aubrey in saying that he began early to make essays in dramatick poetry. In a word, we have no proof that he did not woo the dramatick Muse even so early as in the year 1587 or 1588; in the first of which years he was but twenty-three: and therefore till such proof shall be produced, Mr. Aubrey's assertion, founded apparently on the information of those who lived very near the time, is entitled to some weight. "He was a handsome well-shaped man, verie good company, and of a very ready, and pleasant, and smooth witt." I suppose none of my readers will find any difficulty in giving full credit to this part of the account. Mr. Aubrey, I believe, is the only writer who has particularly mentioned the beauty of our poet's person; and there being no contradictory testimony on the subject, he may here be safely relied on. All his contemporaries who have spoken of him, concur in celebrating the gentleness of his manners, and the readiness of his wit. "As he was a happy imitator of nature, (say his fellow comedians,) so was he a most gentle expresser of it. His mind and hand went together; and what he thought he uttered with that easiness, that we have scarce received from him a blot in his papers. "My gentle Shakspeare," is the compellation used |