Eighteenth Century Essays on Shakespeare Part 18

Millions of yeares this old drivell Cupid lives; While still more wretch, more wicked he doth prove: Till now at length that Jove an office gives, (At Juno's suite who much did Argus love) In this our world a _Hangman_ for to be Of all those fooles that will have all they see.-B. 2. Ch. 14.

I know it may be objected on the authority of such Biographers as Theophilus Cibber, and the Writer of the Life of Sir Philip, prefixed to the modern Editions, that the _Arcadia_ was not published before 1613, and consequently too late for this imitation: but I have a Copy in my own possession, printed for W. Ponsonbie, 1590, 4to. which hath escaped the notice of the industrious Ames, and the rest of our typographical Antiquaries.

Thus likewise every word of antiquity is to be cut down to the cla.s.sical standard.

In a Note on the Prologue to _Troilus and Cressida_ (which, by the way, is not met with in the _Quarto_), Mr. Theobald informs us that the very _names_ of the gates of Troy have been barbarously demolished by the Editors: and a deal of learned dust he makes in setting them right again; much however to Mr. Heath's satisfaction. Indeed the learning is modestly withdrawn from the later Editions, and we are quietly instructed to read,

Dardan, and Thymbria, Ilia, Scaea, Troian, And Antenorides.

But had he looked into the _Troy boke_ of Lydgate, instead of puzzling himself with Dares Phrygius, he would have found the horrid demolition to have been neither the work of Shakespeare nor his Editors.

Therto his cyte compa.s.sed enuyrowne Hadde gates VI to entre into the towne: The firste of all and strengest eke with all, Largest also and moste pryncypall, Of myghty byldyng alone pereless, Was by the kynge called Dardanydes; And in storye lyke as it is founde, Tymbria was named the seconde; And the thyrde called Helyas, The fourthe gate hyghte also Cetheas; The fyfthe Trojana, the syxth Anthonydes, Stronge and myghty both in werre and pes.-Lond. empr. by R.

Pynson, 1513. Fol. B. 2. Ch. 11.

Our excellent friend Mr. Hurd hath born a n.o.ble testimony on our side of the question. "Shakespeare," says this true Critick, "owed the felicity of freedom from the bondage of cla.s.sical superst.i.tion to the _want_ of what is called the _advantage_ of a learned Education.-This, as well as a vast superiority of Genius, hath contributed to lift this astonis.h.i.+ng man to the glory of being esteemed the most original _thinker_ and _speaker_, since the times of Homer." And hence indisputably the amazing Variety of Style and Manner, unknown to all other Writers: an argument of _itself_ sufficient to emanc.i.p.ate Shakespeare from the supposition of a _Cla.s.sical training_. Yet, to be honest, _one_ Imitation is _fastened_ on our Poet: which hath been insisted upon likewise by Mr. Upton and Mr. Whalley. You remember it in the famous Speech of Claudio in _Measure for Measure_:

Ay, but to die and go we know not where! &c.

Most certainly the Ideas of a "Spirit bathing in fiery floods," of residing "in thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice," or of being "imprisoned in the viewless winds," are not _original_ in our Author; but I am not sure that they came from the _Platonick h.e.l.l_ of Virgil. The Monks also had their hot and their cold h.e.l.l, "The fyrste is fyre that ever brenneth, and never gyveth lighte," says an old Homily:-"The seconde is pa.s.syng colde, that yf a grete hylle of fyre were casten therin, it sholde torne to yce." One of their Legends, well remembered in the time of Shakespeare, gives us a Dialogue between a Bishop and a Soul tormented in a piece of ice, which was brought to cure _a grete brenning heate_ in his foot: take care you do not interpret this the _Gout_, for I remember M.

Menage quotes a _Canon_ upon us,

Si quis dixerit Episcopum PODAGRA laborare, Anathema sit.

Another tells us of the Soul of a Monk fastened to a Rock, which the winds were to blow about for a twelve-month, and purge of it's Enormities.

Indeed this doctrine was before now introduced into poetick fiction, as you may see in a Poem, "where the Lover declareth his pains to exceed far the pains of h.e.l.l," among the many miscellaneous ones subjoined to the Works of Surrey. Nay, a very learned and inquisitive Brother-Antiquary, our Greek Professor, hath observed to me on the authority of Blefkenius, that this was the ancient opinion of the inhabitants of Iceland; who were certainly very little read either in the _Poet_ or the _Philosopher_.

After all, Shakespeare's curiosity might lead him to _Translations_. Gawin Douglas really changes the _Platonick h.e.l.l_ into the "punytion of Saulis in Purgatory": and it is observable that when the Ghost informs Hamlet of his Doom there,

Till the foul crimes done in his days of nature Are _burnt and purg'd away_,--

the Expression is very similar to the Bishop's: I will give you his Version as concisely as I can; "It is a nedeful thyng to suffer panis and torment-Sum in the wyndis, Sum under the watter, and in the fire uthir Sum:-thus the mony Vices-

Contrakkit in the corpis be _done away_ _And purgit_.--_Sixte Booke of Eneados._ Fol. p. 191.

It seems, however, "that Shakespeare _himself_ in the _Tempest_ hath translated some expressions of _Virgil_: witness the _O Dea certe_." I presume we are here directed to the pa.s.sage where Ferdinand says of Miranda, after hearing the Songs of Ariel,

--Most sure, the G.o.ddess On whom these airs attend;

and so _very small Latin_ is sufficient for this formidable translation, that if it be thought any honour to our Poet, I am loth to deprive him of it; but his honour is not built on such a sandy foundation. Let us turn to a _real Translator_, and examine whether the Idea might not be fully comprehended by an English reader; _supposing_ it necessarily borrowed from Virgil. Hexameters in our own language are almost forgotten; we will quote therefore this time from Stanyhurst:

O to thee, fayre Virgin, what terme may rightly be fitted?

Thy tongue, thy visage no mortal frayltie resembleth.

--_No doubt, a G.o.desse_!-Edit. 1583.

Gabriel Harvey desired only to be "_Epitaph'd_, the Inventor of the _English Hexameter_," and for a while every one would be _halting on Roman feet_; but the ridicule of our Fellow-Collegian Hall, in one of his _Satires_, and the reasoning of Daniel, in his _Defence of Rhyme_ against Campion, presently reduced us to our original Gothic.

But to come nearer the purpose, what will you say if I can shew you that Shakespeare, when, in the favourite phrase, he had a Latin Poet _in his Eye_, most a.s.suredly made use of a Translation?

Prospero in the _Tempest_ begins the Address to his attendant _Spirits_,

Ye Elves of Hills, of standing Lakes, and Groves.

This speech Dr. Warburton rightly observes to be borrowed from Medea in Ovid: and "it proves," says Mr. Holt, "beyond contradiction, that Shakespeare was perfectly acquainted with the Sentiments of the Ancients on the Subject of Inchantments." The original lines are these,

Auraeque, & venti, montesque, amnesque, lacusque, Diique omnes nemorum, diique omnes noctis adeste.

It happens, however, that the translation by Arthur Golding is by no means literal, and Shakespeare hath closely followed it;

Ye Ayres and Winds; _Ye Elves of Hills_, of Brookes, of Woods alone, _Of standing Lakes_, and of the Night, approche ye everych one.

I think it is unnecessary to pursue this any further; especially as more powerful arguments await us.

In the _Merchant of Venice_, the Jew, as an apology for his cruelty to Anthonio, rehea.r.s.es many _Sympathies_ and _Antipathies_ for which _no reason can be rendered_,

Some love not a gaping Pig-- And others when a _Bagpipe_ sings i' th' nose Cannot contain their urine for _affection_.

This incident Dr. Warburton supposes to be taken from a pa.s.sage in Scaliger's _Exercitations against Cardan_, "Narrabo tibi jocosam Sympathiam Reguli Vasconis Equitis: Is dum viveret, audito _Phormingis_ sono, urinam illico facere cogebatur." "And," proceeds the Doctor, "to make this jocular story still more ridiculous, Shakespeare, I suppose, translated _Phorminx_ by _Bagpipes_."

Here we seem fairly caught;-for Scaliger's work was never, as the term goes, _done into English_. But luckily in an old translation from the French of Peter le Loier, ent.i.tled, _A treatise of Specters, or straunge Sights, Visions and Apparitions appearing sensibly unto men_, we have this identical Story from Scaliger: and what is still more, a marginal Note gives us in all probability the very fact alluded to, as well as the word of Shakespeare, "Another Gentleman of this quality liued of late in Deuon neere Excester, who could not endure the playing on a _Bagpipe_."

We may just add, as some observation hath been made upon it, that _Affection_ in the sense of _Sympathy_ was formerly _technical_; and so used by Lord Bacon, Sir Kenelm Digby, and many other Writers.

A single word in Queen Catherine's Character of Wolsey, in _Henry the eighth_, is brought by the Doctor as another argument for the learning of Shakespeare: