Eighteenth Century Essays on Shakespeare Part 16

--It is held That valour is the chiefest Virtue, and Most dignifies the _Haver_;--

and another in _Macbeth_, where Banquo addresses the _Werd-Sisters_,

--My n.o.ble Partner You greet with present grace, and great prediction Of n.o.ble _Having_.--

Gr. ??e?a,-and p??? t?? ????ta, to the _Haver_.

This was the common language of Shakespeare's time. "Lye in a water-bearer's house!" says Master Mathew of Bobadil, "a Gentleman of his _Havings_!"

Thus likewise John Davies in his _Pleasant Descant upon English Proverbs_, printed with his _Scourge of Folly_, about 1612:

_Do well and have well!_-neyther so still: For some are good _Doers_, whose _Havings_ are ill;

and Daniel the Historian uses it frequently. _Having_ seems to be synonymous with _Behaviour_ in Gawin Douglas and the elder Scotch writers.

_Haver_, in the sense of _Possessor_, is every where met with: tho'

unfortunately the p??? t?? ????ta of Sophocles, produced as an authority for it, is suspected by Kuster, as good a critick in these matters, to have absolutely a different meaning.

But what shall we say to the learning of the Clown in _Hamlet_, "Ay, tell me that, and _unyoke_"? alluding to the ?????t?? of the Greeks: and Homer and his Scholiast are quoted accordingly!

If it be not sufficient to say, with Dr. Warburton, that the phrase might be taken from Husbandry, without much depth of reading; we may produce it from a _Dittie_ of the workmen of Dover, preserved in the additions to Holingshed, p. 1546.

My bow is broke, I would _unyoke_, My foot is sore, I can worke no more.

An expression of my Dame Quickly is next fastened upon, which you may look for in vain in the modern text; she calls some of the pretended Fairies in the _Merry Wives of Windsor_,

--_Orphan_ Heirs of fixed Destiny;

"and how elegant is this!" quoth Mr. Upton, supposing the word to be used, as a Grecian would have used it, "??fa??? ab ??f???-acting in darkness and obscurity."

Mr. Heath a.s.sures us that the bare mention of such an interpretation is a sufficient refutation of it: and his critical word will be rather taken in Greek than in English: in the same hands therefore I will venture to leave all our author's knowledge of the _Old Comedy_, and his etymological learning in the word, _Desdemona_.

Surely poor Mr. Upton was very little acquainted with _Fairies_, notwithstanding his laborious study of Spenser. The last authentick account of them is from our countryman William Lilly; and it by no means agrees with the _learned_ interpretation: for the _angelical Creatures_ appeared in his _Hurst_ wood in a _most ill.u.s.trious Glory_,-"and indeed,"

says the Sage, "it is not given to very many persons to endure their _glorious aspects_."

The only use of transcribing these things is to shew what absurdities men for ever run into, when they lay down an Hypothesis, and afterward seek for arguments in the support of it. What else could induce this man, by no means a bad scholar, to doubt whether _Truepenny_ might not be derived from ???pa???; and quote upon us with much parade an old Scholiast on Aristophanes?-I will not stop to confute him: nor take any notice of two or three more Expressions, in which he was pleased to suppose some learned meaning or other; all which he might have found in every Writer of the time, or still more easily in the vulgar Translation of the Bible, by consulting the Concordance of Alexander Cruden.

But whence have we the Plot of _Timon_, except from the Greek of Lucian?-The Editors and Criticks have been never at a greater loss than in their inquiries of this sort; and the source of a Tale hath been often in vain sought abroad, which might easily have been found at home: My good friend, the very ingenious Editor of the _Reliques of ancient English Poetry_, hath shewn our Author to have been sometimes contented with a legendary _Ballad_.

The Story of the _Misanthrope_ is told in almost every Collection of the time; and particularly in two books, with which Shakespeare was intimately acquainted; the _Palace of Pleasure_, and the _English Plutarch_. Indeed from a pa.s.sage in an old Play, called _Jack Drum's Entertainment_, I conjecture that he had before made his appearance on the Stage.

Were this a proper place for such a disquisition, I could give you many cases of this kind. We are sent for instance to Cinthio for the Plot of _Measure for Measure_, and Shakespeare's judgement hath been attacked for some deviations from him in the conduct of it: when probably all he knew of the matter was from Madam Isabella in the _Heptameron_ of Whetstone.

Ariosto is continually quoted for the Fable of _Much ado about Nothing_; but I suspect our Poet to have been satisfied with the _Geneura_ of Turberville. _As you like it_ was _certainly borrowed_, if we believe Dr.

Grey, and Mr. Upton, from the _c.o.ke's Tale of Gamelyn_; which by the way was not _printed_ 'till a century afterward: when in truth the old Bard, who was no hunter of MSS., contented himself solely with Lodge's _Rosalynd_ or Euphues' _Golden Legacye_. 4to. 1590. The Story of _All's well that ends well_, or, as I suppose it to have been sometimes called, _Love's labour wonne_, is originally indeed the property of Boccace, but it came immediately to Shakespeare from Painter's _Giletta of Narbon_. Mr.

Langbaine could not conceive whence the Story of _Pericles_ could be taken, "not meeting in History with any such _Prince of Tyre_"; yet his legend may be found at large in old Gower, under the name of _Appolynus_.

_Pericles_ is one of the Plays omitted in the later Editions, as well as the early Folios, and not improperly; tho' it was published many years before the death of Shakespeare, with his name in the t.i.tle-page. Aulus Gellius informs us that some Plays are ascribed absolutely to Plautus, which he only _re-touched_ and _polished_; and this is undoubtedly the case with our Author likewise. The revival of this performance, which Ben Jonson calls _stale_ and _mouldy_, was probably his earliest attempt in the Drama. I know that another of these discarded pieces, the _Yorks.h.i.+re Tragedy_, had been frequently called so; but most certainly it was not written by our Poet at all: nor indeed was it printed in his life-time.

The Fact on which it is built was perpetrated no sooner than 1604: much too late for so mean a performance from the hand of Shakespeare.

Sometimes a very little matter detects a forgery. You may remember a Play called the _Double Falshood_, which Mr. Theobald was desirous of palming upon the world for a posthumous one of Shakespeare: and I see it is cla.s.sed as such in the last Edition of the Bodleian Catalogue. Mr. Pope himself, after all the strictures of Scriblerus, in a Letter to Aaron Hill, supposes it of that age; but a mistaken accent determines it to have been written since the middle of the last century:

--This late example Of base Henriquez, bleeding in me now, From each good _Aspect_ takes away my trust.

And in another place,

You have an _Aspect_, Sir, of wondrous wisdom.

The word _Aspect_, you perceive, is here accented on the _first_ Syllable, which, I am confident, in _any_ sense of it, was never the case in the time of Shakespeare; though it may sometimes appear to be so, when we do not observe a preceding _Elision_.

Some of the professed Imitators of our old Poets have not attended to this and many other _Minutiae_: I could point out to you several performances in the respective Styles of Chaucer, Spenser, and Shakespeare, which the _imitated_ Bard could not possibly have either read or construed.

This very accent hath troubled the Annotators on Milton. Dr. Bentley observes it to be "a _tone_ different from the present use." Mr.

Manwaring, in his _Treatise of Harmony and Numbers_, very solemnly informs us that "this Verse is defective both in Accent and Quant.i.ty, B. 3. V.

266.

His words here ended, but his meek _Aspect_ Silent yet spake.--

Here," says he, "a syllable is _acuted_ and _long_, whereas it should be _short_ and _graved_"!

And a still more extraordinary Gentleman, one Green, who published a Specimen of a _new Version_ of the _Paradise Lost_, into BLANK verse, "by which that amazing Work is brought somewhat nearer the Summit of Perfection," begins with correcting a blunder in the fourth book, V. 540:

--The setting Sun Slowly descended, and with right _Aspect_- Levell'd his evening rays.--

_Not so_ in the _New Version_:

Meanwhile the setting Sun descending slow- Level'd with _aspect_ right his ev'ning rays.

Enough of such Commentators.-The celebrated Dr. Dee had a _Spirit_, who would sometimes condescend to correct him, when peccant in _Quant.i.ty_: and it had been kind of him to have a little a.s.sisted the _Wights_ above-mentioned.-Milton affected the _Antique_; but it may seem more extraordinary that the old Accent should be adopted in _Hudibras_.