No: no: quoth he; no: judgement here: It grieved all the companie For neither friend nor foe could helpe The bloudie Jew now ready is With whetted blade in hand,* To spoyle the bloud of innocent, By forfeit of his bond. And as he was about to strike In him the deadly blow: Stay (quoth the judge) thy crueltie; I charge thee to do so. Sith needs thou wilt thy forfeit have, For if thou doe, like murderer Thou here shalt hanged be: Likewise of flesh see that thou cut No more than longes to thee: For if thou take either more or lesse Gernutus now waxt franticke mad, And wotes not what to say; Quoth he at last, Ten thousand crownes I will that he shall pay ; And so I graunt to set him free. The judge doth answere make; You shall not have a penny given; Your forfeyture now take. At the last he doth demaund 40 Deviseth what they can. From whome the Lord deliver me, And every Christian too, And send to them like sentence eke That meaneth so to do. 75 * **Since the first edition of this book was printed, the Editor hath had reason to believe that both Shakspeare and the Author of this ballad are indebted for their story of the Jew (however they came by it) to an Italian Novel, which was first printed at Milan in the year 1554, in a book entitled, Il pecorone, nel quale si contengono Cinquanta Novelle antiche, &c., republished at Florence about the year 1748, or 9.-The Author was Ser. Giovanni Fiorentino, who wrote in 1378; thirty years after the time in which the scene 45 of Boccace's Decameron is laid. (Vid. Manni Istoria del Decameron di Giov. Boccac. 4to. Fior. 1744. That Shakspeare had his plot from the Novel itself, is evident from his having some incidents from it, which are not found in the 50 ballad and I think it will also be found that he borrowed from the ballad some hints that were not suggested by the novel. (See above, pt. 2, ver. 25, &c., where, instead of that spirited description of the whetted blade, &c., the Prose Narrative coldly says, "The Jew had 55 prepared a razor," &c. See also some other passages in the same piece.) This however is spoken with diffidence, as I have at present before me only the abridgment of the novel which Mr. Johnson has given us at the end *The passage in Shakspeare bears so strong a resemblance to this, as to render it probable that the one suggested the other. See act iv. sc. 2. "Bass. Why dost thou whet thy knife so earnestly? &c." V. 61, griped, Ashmol. copy. of his commentary on Shakspeare's play.) from which the Merchant of Venice, written The translation of the Italian story at large by Shakspeare, is taken, translated from the is not easy to be met with, having I believe never been published, though it was printed some years ago with this title, "The Novel, Italian. To which is added, a translation of a novel from the Decamerone of Boccacio, London, Printed for M. Cooper, 1755, 8vo." XII. The Passionate Shepherd to his Love. THIS beautiful sonnet is quoted in the Merry Wives of Windsor, act iii. sc. 1, and hath been usually ascribed (together with the reply) to Shakspeare himself by the modern editors of his smaller poems. A copy of this madrigal, containing only four stanzas (the 4th and 6th being wanting), accompanied with the first stanza of the answer, being printed in "The Passionate Pilgrime, and Sonnets to sundry Notes of Musicke, by Mr. William Shakspeare, Lond. printed for W. Jaggard, 1599." Thus was this sonnet, &c., published as Shakspeare's in his lifetime. And yet there is good reason to believe that (not Shakspeare, but) Christopher Marlow wrote the song, and Sir Walter Raleigh the "Nymph's Reply:" for so we are positively assured by Isaac Walton, a writer of some credit, who has inserted them both in his Compleat Angler,* under the character of "that smooth song, which was made by Kit Marlow, now at least fifty years ago; and ... an Answer to it, which was made by Sir Walter Raleigh in his younger days. Old fashioned poetry, but choicely good."It also passed for Marlow's in the opinion of his contemporaries; for in the old poetical miscellany, entitled, "England's Helicon," it is printed with the name of Chr. Marlow subjoined to it; and the reply is signed Ignoto, which is known to have been a signature of Sir Walter Raleigh.' With the same signature Ignoto, in that collection, is an imitation of Marlow's beginning thus: "Come live with me, and be my dear, *First printed in the year 1653, but probably written some time before. Upon the whole I am inclined to attribute them to Marlow, and Raleigh; notwithstanding the authority of Shakspeare's Book of Sonnets. For it is well known that as he took no care of his own compositions, so was he utterly regardless what spurious things were fathered upon him. Sir John Oldcastle, the London Prodigal, and the Yorkshire Tragedy, were printed with his name at full length in the title-pages, while he was living, which yet were afterwards rejected by his first editors Heminge and Condell, who were his intimate friends (as he mentions both in his will), and therefore no doubt had good authority for setting them aside.* The following sonnet appears to have been (as it deserved) a great favourite with our earlier poets: for, besides the imitation above mentioned, another is to be found among Donne's Poems, entitled, "The Bait," beginning thus: "Come live with me, and be my love, And we will some new pleasures prove As for Chr. Marlow, who was in high repute for his dramatic writings, he lost his life by a stab received in a brothel, before the year 1593. See A. Wood, i. 138. COME live with me, and be my love, *Since the above was written, Mr. Malone, with his usual discernment, hath rejected the stanzas in question from the other sonnets, &c., of Shakspeare, in his correct edition of the Passionate Pilgrim, &c. See his Shaksp. vol. 1. p. 340. There will we sit upon the rocks, And see the shepherds feed their flocks, There will I make thee beds of roses 5 10 15 20 The shepherd swains shall dance and sing THE NYMPH'S REPLY. Ir that the World and Love were young, XIII. Titus Andronicus's Complaint. THE reader has here an ancient ballad on | afterwards the more flagrant: neither is there the same subject as the play of "Titus Andronicus," and it is probable that the one was borrowed from the other: but which of them was the original, it is not easy to decide. And yet, if the argument offered above in page 125, for the priority of the ballad of the Jew of Venice may be admitted, somewhat of the same kind may be urged here; for this ballad differs from the play in several particulars, which a simple ballad-writer would be less likely to alter than an inventive tragedian. Thus, in the ballad, is no mention of the contest for the empire between the two brothers, the composing of which makes the ungrateful treatment of Titus any notice taken of his sacrificing one of Tamora's sons, which the tragic poet has assigned as the original cause of all her cruelties. In the play, Titus loses twentyone of his sons in war, and kills another for assisting Bassianus to carry off Lavinia; the reader will find it different in the ballad. In the latter she is betrothed to the emperor's son: in the play to his brother. In the tragedy, only two of his sons fall into the pit, and the third, being banished, returns to Rome with a victorious army, to avenge the wrongs of his house: in the ballad, all three are entrapped and suffer death. In the scene, the emperor kills Titus, and is in return stabbed by Titus's surviving son. Here Titus kills Against the Goths full ten yeares weary warre the emperor, and afterwards himself. We spent, receiving many a bloudy scarre. Let the reader weigh these circumstances, and some others, wherein he will find them unlike, and then pronounce for himself. After all, there is reason to conclude that this play was rather improved by Shakspeare, with a few fine touches of his pen, than originally written by him; for, not to mention that the style is less figurative than his others generally are, this tragedy is mentioned with discredit in the Induction to Ben Jonson's "Bartholomew Fair, in 1614," as one that had then been exhibited "five-and-twenty or thirty years:" which, if we take the lowest number, throws it back to the year 1589, at which time Shakspeare was but 25; an earlier date than can be found for any other of his pieces and if it does not clear him entirely of it, shows at least it was a first attempt.† The following is given from a copy in "The Golden Garland," entitled as above; compared with three others, two of them in black letter in the Pepys collection, entitled "The Lamentable and Tragical History of Titus Andronicus," &c. "to the Tune of Fortune," printed for E. Wright. Unluckily, none of these have any dates. My deare Lavinia was betrothed than For when Romes foes their warlike forces To Cesars sonne, a young and noble man: bent, Against them stille my sonnes and I were sent; 10 * Mr. Malone thinks 1591 to be the æra when our author commenced a writer for the stage. See in his Shaksp. the ingenious "Attempt to ascertain the order in which the plays of Shakspeare were written." Since the above was written, Shakspeare's memory has been fully vindicated from the charge of writing the above play by the best critics. See what has been urged by Steevens and Malone in their excellent editions of Shakspeare, &c. Who, in a hunting by the emperours wife, He being slaine, was cast in cruel wise, 41 |