: The one, fo much tenderness and moving piety in the other, as must touch any one who is capable either of fear or pity. In his Henry VIII. that prince is drawn with that greatnefs of mind, and all those good qualities. which are attributed to him in any account of his reign if his faults are not fhewn in an equal degree, and the fhades in this picture do not bear a juft proportion to the lights, it is not that the artist wanted either colours or skill in the difpofition of them but the truth, i believe, might be, that he forbore doing it out of regard to Queen Elifabeth; fince it could have been no very great refpect to the memory of his mistrefs, to have expofed fome certain parts of her father's life upon the ftage. He has dealt much more freely with the minifter of that great King; and certainly nothing was ever more justly written, than the character of Cardinal Wolfey. He has thewn him infolent in his profperity; and yet, by a wonderful addrefs, he makes his fall and ruin the fubject of general compaffion. The whole man, with his vices and virtues, is finely and exactly defcribed in the fecond scene of the fourth act. diftreffes likewife of Queen Catharine in this play are very movingly touched; and though the art of the poet has fcreened King Henry from any grofs imputation of injuftice, yet one is inclin'd to with the Queen had met with a fortune more worthy of her birth and virtue. Nor are the manners proper to the perfons represented, less justly observed in those characters taken from the Roman history. And of this, the fiercenefs and impatience of Coriolanus, his courage and difdain of the common people, the virtue and philofophical temper of Brutus, and the irregular greatnefs of mind in V. ntony, are beautiful proofs For the two laft especially, you find them exactly as they are described by Plutarch, from whom certainly Shakespear copied them He has indeed followed his original pretty close, and taken in feveral little incidents that might have been ipared in a play. But, as I hinted before, his defign feems most commonly rather to defcribe those great men in the fe veral fortunes and accidents of their lives, than to take any single great action, and form his work fimply upon that. However, there are fome of his pieces where the VOL. I. f fable fable is founded upon one action only. Such are more efpecially, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and Othello. The defign in Romeo and Juliet is plainly the punishment of their two families, for the unreafonable feuds and animofities that had been fo long kept up between them, and occafioned the effufion of fo much blood. In the management of this story, he has fhewn fomething wonderfully tender and paffionate in the love-part, and very pitiful in the distress. Hamlet is founded on much the fame tale with the Electra of Sophocles. In each of them a young prince is engaged to revenge the death of his father; their mothers are equally guilty, are both con- . cerned in the murder of their husbands, and are afterwards married to the murderers. There is in the first part of the Greek tragedy fomething very moving in the grief of Electra: but, as Mr. Dacier has observed, there is fomething very unnatural and shocking in the manners he has given that princefs and Oreftes in the latter part. Oreftes imbrues his hands in the blood of his own mother; and that barbarous action is performed, though not immediately upon the ftage, yet fo near, that the audience hear Clytemneftra crying out to Egyfthus for help, and to her fon for mercy; while Electra her daughter, and a princess, (both of them characters that ought to have appeared with more decency), ftands upon the stage, and encourages her brother in the parricide. What horror does this not raife! Clytemnestra was a wicked woman, and had deserved to die; nay, in the truth of the story, she was killed by her own fon: but to represent an action of this kind on the stage, is certainly an offence against those rules of manners proper to the perfons that ought to be observed there. On the contrary, let us only look a little on the conduct of Shakespear. Hamlet is reprefented with the fame piety towards his father, and resolution to revenge his death, as Oreftes; he has the fame abhorrence for his mother's guilt, which, to provoke him the more, is heightened by inceft: but it is with wonderful art, and juftness of judgment, that the poet restrains him from doing violence to his mother. To prevent any thing of that kind, he makes his father's ghost forbid that part of his vengeance. But But howsoever thou purfu'ft this act, Vol. 8. p. 106. This is to diftinguish rightly between horror and terror. The latter is a proper paffion of tragedy; but the former ought always to be carefully avoided. And certainly no dramatic writer ever fucceeded better in raifing terror in the minds of an audience than Shakespear has done. The whole tragedy of Macbeth, but more especially the scene where the King is murdered, in the second act, as well as this play, is a noble proof of that manly spirit with which he writ; and both fhew how powerful he was in giving the strongest motions to our fouls that they are capable of. I cannot leave Hamlet, without taking notice of the advantage with which we have feen this masterpiece of Shakespear diftinguish itself upon the ftage, by Mr. Betterton's fine performance of that part: A man, who though he had no other good qualities, as he has a great many, muft have made his way into the esteem of all men of letters by this only excellency. No man is better acquainted with Shakespear's manner of expreffion; and indeed he has studied him fo well, and is fo much a master of him, that whatever part of his he performs, he does it as if it had been written on purpose for him, and that the author had exactly conceived it as he plays it. I must own a particular obligation to him, for the moft confiderable part of the paffages relating to this life, which I have here tranfmitted to the public; veneration for the memory of Shakespear having engaged him to make a journey into Warwickshire, on purpose to gather up what remains he could of a name for which he had fo great a veneration. his The following inftrument was tranfmitted to the edi tors of Shakespears works by John Anftis, Efq; Gartar King at Arms. It is marked, G. 13. p. 34. There is alfo a manufcript in the heralds office, marked W 2. p. 276; where notice is taken of this coat, and that the perfon to whom it was granted, had borne magistracy at Stratford upon Avon. T O all and fingular noble and gentlemen of all eltates and degrees, bearing arms, to whom thefe pre ents thall come: William Dethick, Garter Principal King of Arms of England, and William Camden, alias Clarencieulx, King of Arms for the south, eat. and weft parts of this realm, fend greetings. Know ye, that in all nations and kingdoms the record and remembrance of the valiant facts and virtuous difpofitions of worthy men, have been made known and divulged by certain thields of arms and tokens of chivalry; the grant or testimony whereof appertaineth unto us, by virtue of our offices from the Queen's Moft Excellent Majesty, and her Highness's most noble and victorious progenitors: Wherefore being folicited, and by credible report informed, that John Shakespere, now of Stratford upon Avon, in the county of Warwick, Gentleman, whofe great grandfather, for his faithful and approved fervice to the late most prudent prince, King Henry VII. of famous memory, was advanced, and rewarded with lands and tenements, given to him, in thofe parts of Warwickshire, where they have continued by fome defcents in good reputation and credit; and for that the faid John Shakefpere having married the daughter, and one of the heirs of Robert Arden of Wellingcote in the faid county, and alfo produced this his ancient coat of arms, heretofore affigned to him whilft he was her Majefty's officer and bailiff of that town: in confideration of the premiffes, and for the encouragement of his pofterity, unto whom fuch blazon of arms and atchievements of inheritance from their faid mother, by the ancient cuftom and laws of arms, may lawfully defcend; we the faid Garter and Clarencieulx have affigned, granted, and confirmed, and by these presents exemplified unto the faid John Shakefpere, and to his pofterity, that fhield and coat of arms, viz. In a field of gold upon a bend fables a fpear of the first, the point upward, beaded argent; and for his creft or cognifance, A falcon, Or, with his wings displayed, standing on a wreath of his colours, fupporting a spear armed headed, or freeled filver, fixed upon an helmet with mantles and taffels; as more plainly may appear depicted in this margent: and we have likewife impaled the fame with ancient arms of the faid Arden of Wellingcote; fignifying thereby, that it may and fhall be lawful for the faid John Shakespere, Gent. to bear and use the fame fhield of arms, fingle or impaled, as aforefaid, during his natural life; and that it fhall be lawful for his children, iffue, and pofterity, lawfully begotten, to bear, use, and quarter, and fhew forth the fame, with their due differences, in all lawful warlike feats and civil ufe or exercises, according to the laws of arms, and custom that to gentlemen belongeth, without let or interruption of any perfon or perfons for ufe or bearing the fame. In witness and teftimony whereof, we have fubfcribed our names, and fastened the feals of our offi ces. Given at the office of arms, London, the day of in the forty-fecond year of the reign of our Moft Gracious Sovereign Lady, Elifabeth, by the grace of God, Queen of England, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c. 1599. To |