a moft beautiful inftance of the pes proceleufmati cus! "But," continues Mr. Upton, "it was a learned age; Roger Afcham affures us, that Queen Elizabeth read more Greek every day, than fome dignitaries of the church did Latin in a whole week." This appears very probable; and a pleasant proof it is of the general learning of the times, and of Shakspeare in particular. I wonder, he did not corroborate it with an extract from her injunctions to her clergy, that "fuch as were but mean readers fhould perufe over before, once or twice, the chapters and homilies, to the intent they might read to the better understanding of the people. Dr. Grey declares, that Shakspeare's knowledge in the Greek and Latin tongues cannot reasonably be called in queftion. Dr. Dodd fuppofes it proved, that he was not fuch a novice in learning and antiquity as fome people would pretend. And to clofe the whole, for I fufpect you to be tired of quotation, Mr. Whalley, the ingenious editor of Jonfon, hath written a piece exprefsly on this fide the queftion: perhaps from a very excufable partiality, he was willing to draw Shakspeare from the field of nature to claffick ground, where alone, he knew, his author could poffibly cope with him. These criticks, and many others their coadjutors, have fuppofed themselves able to trace Shakspeare in the writings of the ancients; and have fometimes perfuaded us of their own learning, whatever became of their author's. Plagiarisms have been discovered in every natural defcription and every moral fentiment. Indeed by the kind affiftance of the various Excerpta, Sententiæ, and Flores, this business may be effected with very little expence of time or fagacity; as Addifon hath demonftrated in his comment on Chevy-chafe, and Wagstaff on Tom Thumb; and I myfelf will engage to give you quotations from the elder English writers (for to own the truth, I was once idle enough to collect fuch,) which fhall carry with them at leaft an equal degree of fimilarity. But there can be no occafion of wafting any future time in this department: the world is now in poffeffion of the Marks of Imita tion. 66 Shakspeare, however, hath frequent allufions to the facts and fables of antiquity." Granted:and as Mat. Prior fays, to fave the effufion of more Chriftian ink, I will endeavour to fhow, how they came to his acquaintance. It is notorious, that much of his matter of fact knowledge is deduced from Plutarch: but in what language he read him, hath yet been the question. Mr. Upton is pretty confident of his fkill in the original, and corrects accordingly the errors of his copyifts by the Greek standard. Take a few inftances, which will elucidate this matter fufficiently. In the third Act of Antony and Cleopatra, Octavius reprefents to his courtiers the imperial pomp of those illustrious lovers, and the arrangement of their dominion, "He gave the 'stablishment of Egypt, made her Read Libya, fays the critick authoratively, as is plain from Plutarch, This is very true: Mr. Heath 7 accedes to the 7 It is extraordinary, that this gentleman fhould attempt fo voluminous a work, as the Revifal of Shakspeare's Text, when, correction, and Mr. Johnfon admits it into the text: but turn to the translation, from the French of Amyot, by Thomas North, in folio, 1579,8 and you will at once fee the origin of the mistake. "First of all he did eftablish Cleopatra queene of Egypt, of Cyprus, of Lydia, and the lower Syria.' Again, in the fourth Act: cr -My meffenger "He hath whipt with rods, dares me to perfonal combat, "Cæfar to Antony. Let th' old ruffian know "I have many other ways to die; mean time Laugh at his challenge. "What a reply is this?" cries Mr. Upton, " 'tis acknowledging he fhould fall under the unequal combat. But if we read, Let the old ruffian know 'He hath many other ways to die; mean time I laugh at his challenge."' we have the poignancy and the very repartee of Cæfar in Plutarch." This correction was firft made by Sir Thomas Hanmer, and Mr. Johnson hath received it. Most indisputably it is the sense of Plutarch, and given he tells us in his Preface, "he was not fo fortunate as to be furnished with either of the folio editions, much lefs any of the ancient quartos:" and even Sir Thomas Hanmer's performance was known to him only by Mr. Warburton's representation. 'I find the character of this work pretty early delineated: "'Twas Greek at first, that Greek was Latin made, "That Latin, French; that French to English straid: "Thus 'twixt one Plutarch there's more difference, "Than i'th' fame Englishman return'd from France." VOL. II. C fo in the modern tranflation: but Shakspeare was misled by the ambiguity of the old one: "Antonius fent again to challenge Cæfar to fight him: Cæfar answered, That he had many other ways to die, than fo." In the third Act of Julius Cæfar, Antony, in his well-known harangue to the people, repeats a part of the emperor's will: 66 To every Roman citizen he gives, "To every fev'ral man, seventy-five drachmas.- "His private arbours, and new-planted orchards, "Our author certainly wrote," fays Mr. Theobald, "On that fide Tiber • Trans Tiberim-prope Cæfaris hortos.' And Plutarch, whom Shakspeare very diligently ftudied, exprefsly declares, that he left the publick his gardens and walks, πέραν το Ποταμέ, beyond the Tyber." This emendation likewife hath been adopted by the subsequent editors; but hear again the old translation, where Shakspeare's study lay: "He bequeathed unto every citizen of Rome feventy-five drachmas a man, and he left his gardens and arbours unto the people, which he had on this fide of the river of Tyber." I could furnish you with many more inftances, but these are as good as a thoufand. Hence had our author his characteristick knowledge of Brutus and Antony, upon which much argumentation for his learning hath been founded: and hence literatim the epitaph on Timon, which it was once prefumed, he had corrected from the blunders of the Latin verfion, by his own fuperior knowledge of the original.9 I cannot, however, omit a paffage from Mr. Pope : "The Speeches copied from Plutarch in Coriolanus may, I think, be as well made an inftance of the learning of Shakspeare, as thofe copy'd from Cicero in Catiline, of Ben Jonfon's." Let us inquire into this matter, and transcribe a speech for a specimen. Take the famous one of Volumnia : "Should we be filent and not speak, our raiment "Are we come hither; fince thy fight, which should "Conftrains them weep, and shake with fear and forrow; "The fon, the husband, and the father tearing poor we For either thou Our with, which fide fhou'd win. Thy wife and children's blood. For myself, fon, "I purpose not to wait on fortune, till "These wars determine: if I can't perfuade thee • See Theobald's Preface to King Richard II. 8vo. 1720. |