rate, it appears to have been a popular ftory; of courfe fufficient for Shakspear's purpose and for mine.This opinion, I confefs, cannot be fupported, if we allow those dates to be accurate, which are prefixed to Shakspeare's dramas by Mr Malone in Johnfon and Steevens's edition. He fuppofes that "All's well that ends well," was reprefented in 1598. As Effex was not dead at that time; and as it cannot be imagined, even had he been fo, that any thing allufive to fuch an inftance of the queen's partiality for him, would have been brought forward on the ftage during her lifetime, we must either rank this play among Shakspeare's latter productions, or my conjecture must be given up as deftitute of any foundation. Mr Malone fuppofes likewife, that "the Winter's Tale" came out in *1594; and if fo, it could not have been intended, according to Mr Walpole's opinion, as a fequel to Hen. 8. for that drama appears not to have been written till 1601. I am, however, unwilling to give up either Mr Walpole's conjecture or my own; and it is obfervable that Mr Malone, who has fatisfactorily afcertained the dates of Shakspeare's other plays, expreffes fome diffidence in regard to "the Winter's Tale" and "All's well that ends well." He obferves that, "if they did come out in 1594 and 1598, they came out under different titles from thofe they now bear. Though fuppofed to have been early productions, they were not published, it must be acknowledged, in Shakspeare's life-time, but for the dates of them we rely only on conjecture." Again, "the Winter's Tale" was not entered at Stationers' Hall, [neither does it appear that the other comedy was] nor printed till 1623; but probably is the play mentioned by Meres under the title of "Love's Labour won." Thefe conjectures carry no conviction with them; and the probability feems to reft on the other fide of the question, namely, that we ought to number thofe plays among the latter productions of Shak fpeare; particularly if the perfonal allufions are admitted. I mentioned that feveral real characters and incidents are alluded to in our poet's comedies. Some have been pointed out, but, doubtless, in refpect to the greater part, no clue remains to guide our fteps and direct us to the original. I am fully convinced, that mafter Slender fat for his picture to our unrivalled portraitpainter, as well as his coufin Shallow. "His little wee face," "his little yellow cain coloured beard," his having fought with a warrener, been intoxicated and robbed by his knavish companions, and other exploits, equally memorable, feem to mark a real character, and to record real facts: circumftances, probably, that excited no little mirth at the time of reprefentation. But we are not to wonder at thofe allufions being now totally loft and forgotten, if we reflect with what rapidity the perfonal fatire of Foote, which fo often in our own days "fat the play-houfe in a roar," is pofting on towards the oblivious gulf.-The greater part of fcene first in "the Merry Wives of Windfor,” may have been copied from the life, and have paffed in Sir Thomas Lucy's judicial hall. Even the breaking open the lodge and kiffing the keeper's daughter, which Falstaff (a character, it is faid, partly drawn for an inhabitant of Stratford) humoroufly difavows, may have been charges there seriously urged against Shakfpeare and his riotous affociates. As our bard is univerfally allowed Y 2 to *Since writing the above, I perceive in Mr Malone's edition of 1793, that he retracts this idea, and fuppofes it to have been of much later date. My fubsequent quotation is from Johnson and Steevens's 3d ed. p. 286. to be a copyift of nature, it induces defcription from actual obfervation, on a fimilar event. us to place an almost unlimited confidence in him. We cannot but fuppofe in his hiftoric dramas, even where we are unable to trace him, that he dwells on real, not imaginary tranfactions, and has preferved many genuine anecdotes, not of weight fufficient to have gained admittance into the page of hiftory, or taken from authors, whose writings fcarcely furvived their own existence. The following remarkable incicident, attending Cardinal Beaufort's death, is fo forcibly characteristic, that we cannot eafily fufpect it to be invention, though no hiftory mentions the circumftance: ❝ Lord Cardinal, if thou think'st on hea"ven's blifs, "Hold up thy hand, make fignal of thy "bope. He dies, and makes no fign!" Hen. 6th, ad part, A 3. S. 3. The defcription of his anguish and defpair occurs in Hall's chronicle, but the additional circumftances thrown in by Shakspeare, wonderfully increase the horror of the fcene. The address to the Cardinal may be illuftrated by a little devotional book, intitled, "The Key of Paradife opening the gate to eternal falvation," republifhed at St Homer's in 1675, but when first printed I know not, in which is the following meditation: "Imagine thyfelf lying in a deathbed, with a hallowed candle in thy hand, a cruciix on thy breaft, and thy ghoftly father calling on thee, that if thou canst not fpeak, yet at leaft to hold up thy hand in token of thy hope, and affiance in the mercies of Chrift." The death of Glofter, in the fame drama, (A. 3. S. 3.) tho', according to hiftory, its manner was uncertain, is marked with fo many minute and appropriate circumftances, that Shakspeare most probably heard it thus particularly defcribed, or took his The interview between Henry the V. and Williams the foldier, (Henry the V. A&t 4. Scene 4.) the night preceding the battle of Agincourt, with their interchange of gloves, and the trick in confequence played on Fluellin, appears to have been founded on fome traditionary ftory. Our hearts, at leaft, will not allow it to be a fiction, but feel delighted at fuch an unexpected, tho' by no means unnatural, recurrence of Hal's original humour, There are many other little incidents, like the foregoing, which we ought not to confider as invention, because we cannot trace them to their fource. Had the ftory of Simpcox of St Alban's, and the combat be, tween the armourer and his apprentice Peter (Henry VI. 2d part,) been no where recorded but in Shakspeare, they would probably have been confidered merely as ludicrous fictions, introduced to put the upper gallery in good humour. Each of those incidents, however, is noticed in different chronicles of the times. The numerous circumftances relative to the death of Lord Haftings, form a kind of episode in the tragedy of Richard III. and they are adopted from hiftory:-even the compliment which the fubtile tyrant pays to the Bishop of Ely's ftrawberries, and the unimportant errand on which he fends the courtly prelate. Catesby obferves" the king is angry, fee he gnaws his lip :" and Margaret, in her imprecations on him, exclaims, « No fleep close up that deadly eye of "thine, "Unless it be while fome tormenting ❝ dream "Affrights thee with a hell of ugly de"vils." Richard III. A. 1. S. 3. We are not to confider either of thefe expreffions us cafual, but ftrictly appropriate and hiftorically true. Dif ferens ferent authors relate, that "his fleep part of the fame fpeech. An atten was (generally) filled with perturbations," and particularly that night previous to the engagement in which he perished. When Falstaff ridicules the flender form of Prince Henry, and fays that he would give a thoufand pounds if he was able to run as fast as he could, &c. we must not fuppofe that those words are thrown out accidentally. Hiftorians agree in defcribing him as tall, thin, and active. Like Achilles, he was no lefs confpicuous for fwiftnef than for perfonal courage. The former is reprefented by Pindar as Κτεινοντ' ελαφούς ανευ και -409, δολίων σ' ερκεων ποσσι γαρ κρατεσκεν Nem. Od. 3. and we might be almoft tempted to “I saw young Harry with his beaver on, "armed, Rife from the ground like feathered And vaulted with fuch ease into his As if an angel dropt down from the "clouds "To turn and wind a fiery Pegafus, And,witch the world with noble horse"manship. Hen. IV. 1ft part. A. 4. S. 1. A variety of beautiful and happy allufions occur likewife in the former tion to fuch minutia, though not hif- "Saddle white Surrey for the field to- And hiftorians fay, that when he entered the town of Leicester," he was mounted on a great white courfer." May we not reafonably fup. pofe, that this was the identical Surrey? The gallant earl, whofe name he bore, was warmly attached to Richard, and had, probably, as a proof of his regard, beftowed on him this acceptable prefent. The impetuous Hotfpur impatiently enquires after his" crop-ear Roan," and exclaims, in equeftrian tranfport, "that rean fhall be my throne." His fondness for his horfe (of which he appears to be no lefs proud than Diomede, a congenial character, was of the steeds of Tros,) is one of his marking features, and humouroufly ridiculed by his rival in fame, prince Henry. (Hen. IV. 1st part, A. 2. S. 8.) When Vernon, therefore, expatiates with more candour than difcretion, in praife of his "noble horsemanfhip," it peculiarly irritates the mind of Hotspur. His reply, particularly the conclufion, is truly characteristic, "Come, let me take my horse, "Who is to bear me, like a thunderbolt, "Against the bofom of the prince of "Wales. Harry to Harry fhall, and borse to horfe, Meet, and ne'er part till one drop "down a corfe!" Hen. IV. 1ft part, A. 4. S. 2. Hatfpur feels himself touched in a tender point. His rival is celebrated for a qualification in which he thought thought himself pre-eminent; and his mind reverts with vexation to the unpleafing idea. The beauty of this natural fally of paffion escaped the earlier editors of Shakfpeare; and it has been printed "not horse to horfe," in every edition but the firft, till Sir Thomas Hanmer reftored the original reading. Such a little trait distinguishes a mafter's hand more than pages of laboured decla mation. The mutual antipathy between Hotspur and "the fword and buckler prince of Wales," is finely conceived and admirably executed. They are *planets in fiery oppofition, contending for fuperiority in the firmament of glory. We cannot find a fpeech but what feems dictated by nature itself. Their little ebullitions of paffion, their mutual jealoufy, which one strives to conceal, by treating his rival with ridicule, and the other by holding him in affected contempt, familiarize them to us. We fee, we know them, are privy to the diffipated relaxations of the one, and the turbulent thoughts that agitate the mind of the other. This obfervation may be extended to almost every leading character: we contemplate men like ourselves, endued with the fame propenfities as thofe that actuate them in real life, and are con- fequently interested in their fortunes. But our feelings are not excited by the pompous characters in declamatory tragedy: they are beings of another fpecies, and we have no concern with them. If the wonder-working pen of Shakspeare induces us to pay more credit to his representation of our hiftoric characters, than hiftorical feverity may fometimes allow, it is a delufion too pleafing to be lightly refigned. We fee, or feem to fee, realities; and the causes, which I have juft explained, operate also in his fictitious dramas. Though he cannot there build on real facts, yet appropriate and ftrong-marked defcriptions of perfons and places, familiar converfation and characteristic anecdotes, commonly give an appearance of truth and confiftency to the moft wild and extravagant fictions. ON THE MYTHOLOGY AND WORSHIP OF THE SERPENT. (From the fame.) THE THE worship of the fun and folar fire, is fo natural in an age of ignorance, that it may easily be fuppofed to have exifted in various and diftant countries, which had no communication with each other. The ma jeftic fplendour of that luminary, and the benefits it imparted to mankind, could not but excite fentiments of awe and veneration. We need not therefore have recourfe to a propagation of opinions from any one part of the world, either by colonization or conqueft, to account for a species of adoration, which, while the Creator was unknown, every human bo fom would be prone to pay to the moft glorious and useful of created beings. We need not, as fome have done, imagine there was ever any former connection between Afia and America, because nearly fimilar rites were appropriated to the fun in Perfia and Peru. But, tho' the folar worship might naturally arife in all parts of the world, what reason shall we give for the deification of the ferpent? for his *Two ftars keep not their motion in one sphere: being Hen. 4th, rft part, A. 5. S. §. being attached to that worship? and for his being in fuch a variety of places confidered either as a malign, or benignant power? This feems to have been an arbitrary, not a natural fuperftition; to have primarily taken place in fome particular region, and thence to have been circulated to nations widely diftant. Without attempting to answer the preceding questions, I fhall, merely as an entertaining fubject, give a fhort sketch of the ferpent worship, the origin of which is loft in the remoteft antiquity. The worship of the ferpent, or of the fun and ferpent, is perhaps among the firft, if not the first recorded, mode of idolatry. As joined with the fun, or under his name of Cneph, in Egypt, he fignified the good, as Typhon did the evil principle. The Phoenicians gave him a name correfpondent with Agathodæmon. The Egyptians, according to Eufebius, reprefented the univerfe by a sky-coloured and fiery circle, in the middle of which was the ferpent with the head of a hawk, reaching from one fide to the other, as if con necting the whole. The figure fo drawn, being like the Greek e. E peis the Egyptian, tranflated into Greek by Arius, calls him, of every ferpent the most divine, who opening his eyes, fills all things with light in his primogenial refidence, and if he clofes them, total darkness enfues. This tract, as well as Eufe bius's Ethothia, with the theological work of Pherecydes on the ferpent deity and his worshippers, whom he calls Ophion, and Ophionidæ, are loft, doubtless, with much curious information on the subject, The high idea entertained of the fame deity by the Perfians, Eufebi us fhews by a quotation from Zoreafter Magus on their religious rites: the fame likewife, he fays, is delivered by Oftanes. "The god has the head of a hawk, he is the first of beings, immortal, eternal, unbegotten, indivifible, indefinable, the giver of every good, immutable, of the holy most holy, of the wife most wife, the fource of equity and juftice, felftaught, natural, perfect, intelligent, and the fole inventor of the facred powers of nature." Oppofite to Cneph, was Typhon, the former, as I have faid, being the principle of good, the latter of evil, the deftructive ferpent, the author of darkness, of forms, of tempefts, and confufion, as the former was of light, of beauty, and order *. As an emblem of the good principle, the ferpent feems to have been erected by Mofes in the wilderness 3 to have been placed round the an tient figures of the Magi in the fculptures of Perfia, and on the heads of the priests in Egypt. As the good. principle, he feems, in the Indian mythology, to have fupported the world on the back of the tortoife. To have furrounded the feven worlds that they might not again be destroyed; and to have attended, and held his head over the infant god Crishna, to protect him in the rainy feafon. In the fame light he was made ufe of by the Genii, being coiled round a huge mountain, with which they churned the ocean to procure the water of inmortality, an idea, Titanically fublime. The oldeft reference we have to the ferpent as the principle of evil, is his tempting Adam and Eve in Paradife, for which his future punifhment was decreed. As the evil principle he was fought with and conquered * Typhon is at this moment the Afiatic term for hurricane, and likewife, if I niftake not, for the water-spout; the latter of which, from its spiral, and progresfive motion, terrible appearance, and fometimes violent effects, was perhaps the origin of the mythological ferpent, or dragon of the waters, which arofe from the depth of the ocean, to combat with the fun, by whose power it was vanquished. |