brachycatalectic, commonly called the ithyphallic meafure to the witches in Macbeth! and that now and then a halting verfe afforded a most beautiful inftance of the pes proceleufmaticus! 66 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 Shakefpeare 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, should 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 Shakespeare's knowledge in the Greek and Latin tongues cannot reasonably be called in queftion. Dr. Dodd fuppofes it proved, that he was not such a novice in learning and antiquity as fome perple would pretend. And to close the whole, for I fufpect you to be tired of quotation, Mr. Whalley, the ingenious editor of Jonfon, hath written a piece expressly on this fubject: perhaps from a very excufable partiality, he was willing to draw Shakespeare from the field of nature to claffick ground, where alone he knew his author was able to cope with him. ་ Thefe criticks, and many others their coadjutors, have fuppofed themselves able to trace Shakespeare in the writings of the ancients; and have fometimes perfuaded us of their own learning, whatever became of their author's. Plagiarisms have been difcovered in every natural defcription and every moral fentiment. Indeed by the kind affiftance of the various excerpta, fententia, and flores, this business may be effected with very little expence of time or fagacity; as Addifon hath demonftrated in his comment on Chevy-chace, 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 least an -equal degree of fimilarity. But there will be no occafion to waste any more of our time in this department, whilft the world is in poffeffion of the marks of imitation. : "Shakespeare however hath frequent allufions to the facts and fables of antiquity :". this is certainly true, and as Mat. Prior fays, to fave the effufion of more Chriftian ink, I will endeavour to fhew how they came to his acquaintance.' Without pretending to defend the taste of Gildon and his coadjutor, the judgment of Pope, the learning of Theobald, the modefty of Warburton, the diffidence of Upton, or the Kterary qualifications of the three other reverend gentlemen VOL. XXIII. January, 1757. Ε above abovementioned, we think it would be no difficult matter to prove, from the criterions laid down by our author, that no writer of poetry in the English language understands Latin or Greek. Even the fine allufions drawn from Pindar and the lyric poets may be culled from tranflations; and the critic's hand may ftrip the bard as naked with respect to all literary merit, as he was when he firft went under the ferula. Mr. Farmer's obfervations upon Shakespeare's using the old tranflations of Plutarch, and other ancient authors, feem to be very juft, though we think they amount to no more than that Shakespeare was not fuch a proficient in Greek and Latin, as to truft to his knowledge of the originals, when he had the convenier cy of tranflations. We likewife admit the merit of the difcoveries this ingenious writer has made from those old tranflations and other publications in, or before, the time of Shakefpeare; and had he proved that the poet borrowed all his allufions, and tranflations of the claffics, from works then published, he might have established his fyftem of the bard's total ignorance of ancient learning; but we apprehend our author will have great difficulty to bring Shakespeare to the bar of criticism for every petty larceny of this kind he may be fufpected of having committed. Mr. Farmer may be puzzled to prove that there was a Latin tranflation of Anacreon at the time Shakespeare wrote his Timon of Athens *. In his Tempeft he even tranflates the expreffions of Virgil; witness the O dea certe. We think it almoft impoffible that any poet unacquainted with the Latin language (fuppofing his perceptive faculties to have been ever fo acute) could have caught the characteristical madness of Hamlet, described by Saxo Grammaticus, fo happily as it is delineated by Shakespeare †. The fame obfervation may be applied to his Macbeth's wife, which he draws from Buchanan. Shakespeare might have pored for years upon the Hiftory of Hamblet, mentioned by our author, (if fuch a hiftory exifts) and upon old Hollingfhed for facts, before he could have tranflated into his plays the very fpirit as well as words, of thofe elegant authors. We shall not, however, difpute this point with fuch an induftrious antiquary as Mr. Farmer, who very poffibly may produce fuch publications as may convict the poetical culprit of grofs pilfering, even in the inftances we have mentioned. *See vol. XXI. p. 21. Falfitatis enim (Hamlethus) alienus haberi cupidus, ita aftutiam veriloquio permifcebat, ut nec dictis veracitas deeffet, nec acuminis modus verorum judicio proderetur. We wish not to be thought ftrenuous advocates of Shakefpeare's critical knowledge of the dead languages to fuch a degree as Mr. Upton (whom this writer very juftly corrects) fuppofes. We do not even pretend to affert, that Shakespeare had a claffical education; but we know what a rapid progress a great genius paffionate for knowledge, and fenfible of its own defects, may make in a fhort time. Sometimes (fays Mr. Farmer) a very little matter detects a forgery. You may remember a play called the Double Falfhood, which Mr. Theobald was defirous of palming upon the world for a pofthumous one of Shakespeare and I fee it is reckoned as fuch in the laft edition of the Bodleian catalogue. Mr. Pope himfelf, in a letter to Aaron Hill, fuppofes it of that age; but a mistaken accent determines it to be modern, "This late example Of base Henriquez, bleeding in me now, And in another place, "You have an afpe&t, Sir, of wond'rous wifdom." The word afpe, you perceive, is here accented on the firft fyl lable, which, I am confident, was never the cafe in the time of Shakespeare; though it may fometimes appear to be fo, by not obferving the elifion of a preceding one. 'Some of the profeffed imitators of our old poets have not attended to this and many other minutie: I could point out to you feveral performances in the refpective styles of Chaucer, Spenfer, and Shakespeare, which the imitated bard could not poffibly have either read or conftrued. 'But to return, as we fay on other occafions. Perhaps the advocates for Shakespeare's knowledge of the Latin language may be more fuccefsful. Mr. Gildon takes the van. "It is plain, that he was acquainted with the fables of antiquity very well that fome of the arrows of Cupid are pointed with lead, and others with gold, he found in Ovid; and what he fpeaks of Dido, in Virgil: nor do I know any translation of thefe poets fo ancient as Shakespeare's time." The paffages on which these fagacious remarks are made, occur in the Midfummer Night's Dream; and exhibit, we fee, a clear proof of acquaintance with the Latin clafficks. But we are not answerable for Mr. Gildon's ignorance; he might have been told of Caxton and Douglas, of Surrey and Stanyhurft, of Phaer and Twyne, of Fleming and Golding! but thefe fables were eafily known without the help of either the originals or the tranflations. The fate of Dido had been fang very early by Chaucer, Gower, E 2 Gower, and Lydgate; and Cupid's arrows appear with their characteristick differences in Surrey, in Sidney, in Spenfer, and every fonetteer of the time. Nay, their very names were exhibited long before in the Romaunt of the Rofe: a work, you may venture to look into, notwithstanding Mr. Prynne hath fo pofitively affured us, on the word of John Gerfon, that the author is moft certainly damned, if he did not care of a ferious repentance. • Mr. Whalley argues in the fame manner, and with the fame fuccefs. He thinks a paffage in the Tempest, "Great Juno comes; I know her by her gait ;" a remarkable inftance of Shakespeare's knowledge of the ancient poetic ftory; and that the hint was furnished by the divûm inceao regina of Virgil.' As to the word afpect, we believe that, in the days of Shakespeare, and even at prefent, in fome parts of the united kingdom, it was accented fometimes upon the first, and sometimes upon the fecond fyllable; and on the latter generally when applied to fuperior beings, fuch as the royal ajpét, the affect of the heavens. Let an intelligent reader pronounce the lines mentioned by Mr. Farmer with affect accented on the fecond fyllable, and meafure their effect by the known irregularity of Shakespeare's verification. We are far from endea vouring to vindicate Mr. Whalley in his allufion to the divûm incedo regina; but we think that Shakespeare's knowledge of Latin may be afcertained from this paffage, by the Vero inceffu patuit Dea of Virgil. The ancients entertained an opinion that divine beings ufcd a peculiar gait. A word (fays Mr. Farmer) in Q. Catherine's character of Wolfey, in Henry VIII. is brought by the Doctor as another argument for the learning of Shakespeare. "He was a man Of an unbounded ftomach, ever ranking His promifes were, as he then was, mighty; The clergy ill example." The word fuggeflion, fays the critic, is here ufed with great 'propriety, and seeming knowledge of the Latin tongue. And 8 he proceeds to fettle the fenfe of it from the late Roman writers and their gloffers: but Shakespeare's knowledge was from Holingfhed; he follows him verbatim, "This cardinal was of a great ftomach, for he compted himself equal with princes, and by craftie suggestion got into his hands innumerable treasure: he forced little on fimonie, and was not pitifull, and stood affectionate in his own opinion: in open prefence he would lie and feie untruth, and was, double both in fpeech and meaning: he would promife much and performe little he was vicious of his bodie, and gaue the clergie euil example." And it is one of the articles of his impeachment in Dr. Fiddes' collections, "That the faid lord cardinal got a bull for the fuppreffing certain houfes of religion, by his untrue fuggeftion to the pope." Perhaps after thefe quotations, you may not think, that Sir Thomas Hanmer's conjecture, who reads tyth'd instead of ty'd in the above paffage, deferves quite so much of Dr. Warburton's feverity.' The preceeding commentary of our author, as well as of Dr. Warburton, upon the word fuggeftion, is a very cheap manner of displaying critical knowledge; for we do not believe that the moft illiterate reader of Shakespeare in the kingdom, ever was at a lofs for the author's application of it in this paffage, or either questioned or admired its propriety. The whole difficulty lies in the word tye, which we have already explained *. We fhall conclude our review of this performance with acknowledging our obligations to the ingenious author, who has brought to light many curious circumstances relating to Shakespeare, of which we believe the public were ignorant before this publication. IX. A General Hiftory of the World, from the Creation to the prefent Time. By William Guthrie, Efq; John Gray, Efq; and Others eminent in this Branch of Literature. Vol. XII. 8vo. Pr. 55. Newbery. WE E think it entirely unneceffary to repeat the obfervations we have already made upon this work, the laft volume of which is here prefented to the public. It continues the hiftory of France from the reign of Lewis V. and ends with the death of the dauphin in 1766. We fhall extract the authors narrative of the domeftic affairs of France fince the conclufion of the peace, as a fpecimen of their manner, especially * See vol, XXI. p. 20. |