by Mr. Johnson himself: what he fees intuitively, others must arrive at by a series of proofs; and I have not time to teach with precifion: be contented therefore with a few cursory obfervations, as they may happen to arise from the chaos of papers, you have fo often laughed at, "a ftock fufficient to fet up an editor in form." I am convinced of the ftrength of my caufe, and fuperior to any little advantage from fophiftical arrangements. General pofitions without proofs will probably have no great weight on either fide, yet it may not feem fair to fupprefs them: take them therefore as their authors occur to me, and we will afterward proceed to particulars. The teftimony of Ben. ftands foremoft; and fome have held it fufficient to decide the controverfy in the warmeft panegyrick, that ever was written, he apologizes for what he fuppofed the only defect in his "beloved friend,— Soul of the age! Th' applaufe! delight! the wonder of our ftage!-' whose memory he honoured almost to idolatry :” and confcious of the worth of ancient literature, like any other man on the fame occafion, he rather carries his acquirements above, than below the truth. "Jealoufy!" cries Mr. Upton; " people will allow others any qualities, but thofe upon which they highly value themfelves." Yes, where there is a competition, and the competitor formidable: but, I think, this critick himself hath fcarcely fet in oppofition the learning of Shakspeare and Jonfon. When a fuperiority is univerfally granted, it by no means appears a man's literary intereft to deprefs the reputation of his antagonist. 4" Though thou hadst Small Latin," &c. In truth the received opinion of the pride and malignity of Jonfon, at least in the earlier part of life, is abfolutely groundless: at this time fcarce a play or a poem appeared without Ben's encomium, from the original Shakspeare to the tranflator of Du Bartas. But Jonfon is by no means our only authority. Drayton the countryman and acquaintance of Shakspeare, determines his excellence to the naturall braine only. Digges, a wit of the town before our poet left the flage, is very strong to the purpose, Nature only helpt him, for looke thorow "This whole book, thou shalt find he doth not borow, Suckling oppofed his eafier frain to the fweat of the learned Jonfon. Denham affures us, that all he had was from old mother-wit. His native woodnotes wild, every one remembers to be celebrated by Milton. Dryden obferves prettily enough, that "he wanted not the fpectacles of books to read nature." He came out of her hand, as fome one elfe expreffes it, like Pallas out of Jove's head, at full growth and mature. The ever memorable Hales of Eton, (who, notwithstanding his epithet, is, I fear, almost forgotten,) had too great a knowledge both of Shakspeare and the ancients to allow much acquaintance between them: and urged very juftly on the part of genius s In his Elegie on Pocts and Poefie, p. 206. Folio, 1627. From his Poem upon Mafter William Shakspeare, intended to have been, prefixed, with the other of his compofition, to the folio of 1623 and afterward printed in feveral miscellaneous collections particularly the fpurious edition of Shakspeare's Poems, 1640. Some account of him may be met with in Wood's Athena. in oppofition to pedantry, that "if he had not read the clafficks, he had likewife not stolen from them; and if any topick was produced from a poet of antiquity he would undertake to fhow fomewhat on the fame fubject, at least as well written by Shakspeare." Fuller a diligent and equal fearcher after truth and quibbles, declares pofitively, that "his learning was very little,-nature was all the art used upon him, as he himself, if alive, would confefs." And may we not fay, he did confefs it, when he apologized for his untutored lines to his noble patron the Earl of Southampton?-this lift of witneffes might be easily enlarged; but I flatter myself, I fhall ftand in no need of fuch evidence. One of the first and most vehement affertors of the learning of Shakspeare, was the editor of his poems, the well-known Mr. Gildon; and his fteps were most punctually taken by a fubfequent labourer in the fame department, Dr. Sewell. Mr. Pope fuppofed "little ground for the common opinion of his want of learning:" once indeed he made a proper distinction between learning and languages, as I would be understood to do in my title-page; but unfortunately he forgot it in the courfe of his difquifition, and endeavoured to perfuade himself that Shakspeare's acquaintance ? Hence perhaps the ill-ftarr'd rage between this critick and his elder brother, John Dennis, fo pathetically lamented in the Dunciad. Whilft the former was perfuaded, that "the man who doubts of the learning of Shakspeare, hath none of his own:" the latter, above regarding the attack in his private capacity, declares with great patriotick vehemence, that he who allows Shakspeare had learning, and a familiar acquaintance with the ancients, ought to be looked upon as a detractor from the glory of Great Britain." Dennis was expelled his college for attempting to ftab a man in the dark: Pope would have been glad of this anecdote. with the ancients might be actually proved by the fame medium as Jonfon's. Mr. Theobald is "very unwilling to allow him. fo poor a scholar, as many have laboured to reprefent him;" and yet is " cautious of declaring too pofitively on the other fide of the queftion." Dr. Warburton hath expofed the weakness of fome arguments from fufpected imitations; and yet offers others, which, I doubt not, he could as easily have refuted. Mr. Upton wonders" with what kind of reasoning any one could be fo far impofed upon, as to imagine that Shakspeare had no learning;" and lafhes with much zeal and fatisfaction "the pride and pertnefs of dunces, who, under fuch a name would gladly fhelter their own idlenefs and ignorance." He, like the learned knight, at every anomaly in grammar or metre, "Hath hard words ready to fhow why, "And tell what rule he did it by." How would the old bard have been aftonished to have found, that he had very fkilfully given the trochaic dimeter brachycatalectic, COMMONLY called the ithyphallic measure to the Witches in Macbeth! and that now and then a halting verfe afforded a most beautiful inftance of the pes proceleufmaticus! 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 Shakspeare 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 fhould 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 Shakspeare's knowledge in the Greek and Latin tongues cannot reafonably be called in queftion. Dr. Dodd fuppofes it proved, that he was not fuch a novice in learning and antiquity as fome people would pretend. And to clofe the whole, for I fufpect you to be tired of quotation, Mr. Whalley, the ingenious editor of Jonfon, hath written a piece exprefsly on this fide the question: perhaps from a very excufable partiality, he was willing to draw Shakspeare from the field of nature to claffick ground, where alone, he knew, his author could poffibly cope with him. Thefe criticks, and many others their coadjutors, have fuppofed themselves able to trace Shakspeare in the writings of the ancients; and have fometimes perfuaded us of their own learning, whatever became of their author's. Plagiarisms have been discovered in every natural defcription and every moral fentiment. Indeed by the kind affiftance of the various Excerpta, Sententiæ, and Flores, this bufinefs may be effected with very little expence of time or fagacity; as Addifon hath demonftrated in his comment on Chevy-chafe, and Wagstaff on Tom Thumb; and I myself 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 leaft an equal degree of fimilarity. But there can be no occafion of wafting any future time in this department: the world is now in poffeffion of the Marks of Imita tion. Shakspeare however hath frequent allufions to the facts and fables of antiquity." Granted:-and as Mat. Prior fays, to fave the effufion of more |