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Of the descendants of Shakspeare there is not De remaining. Hamnet, his only son, died in childhood. His eldest daughter, Mrs. Hall, survived her father upwards of thirty years; and if the inscription of her tomb present us with a fair estimate of her talents and her virtues, she was the worthy child of Shakspeare." She left one daughter only, who is mentioned in our poet's will, as his niece Elizabeth.' This lady was twice married; to Thomas Nashe, Esq. and afterwards to Sir John Barnard, of Abington, near Northampton, but had no issue by either husband. Judith, the other daughter of our poet, was the mother of several children; of which the eldest, with an honest pride in that maiden name, which her father's genius had rendered illustrious, was christened Shakspeare; but none of her offspring arrived at years of maturity.

It must strike every one as extraordinary, that the writings of a poet so distinguished should have been handed down to us in so corrupt and imperfect a state; and that so little should be known with any degree of certainty respecting the author of them. Shakspeare himself appears to have been entirely careless of literary fame. In his early works he was sufficiently cautious in superintending their progress through the press; and the Venus and Adonis, the Rape of Lucrece, and the Titus Andronicus, were presented to the public with as much typographical accuracy as any volumes of the time. He was at first not indifferent to celebrity as an author; but it was a mere youthful vanity, and having attained the object of his ambition, and perceived its worthlessness, he afterwards only considered his genius and his improved skill in composition as the means of acquiring independence for his family, and securing an early retirement from the anxieties of public life. He wrote only for the theatre; his

Here lyeth the body of Susanna, wife to John
Hall, Gent. ye daughter of William Shakspeare, Gent.
She deceased the 11th of July, Ao. 1649, aged 66.'

Witty above her sexe, but that's not all,
Wise to salvation was good Mistriss Hall.
Something of Shakspeare was in that, but this
Wholly of him with whom she's now in blisse.
Then, passenger, hast ne're a teare,

To weepe with her that wept with all :
That wept, yet set herselfe to chere

Them up with comforts cordiall.
Her love shall live, her mercy spread,
When thou hast ne'er a teare to shed.'

The foregoing English verses, which are preserved by Dugdale, are not now remaining, half of the tombstone having been cut away, and another half stone joined to it, with the following inscription en it:-"Here lyeth the body of Richard Watts, of Rybon-Clifford, in the parish of Old Stratford, Gent. who departed this life the 23d of May, Anno Dom. 1767, and in the 46th year of his age." This Mr. Warts, as I am informed by the Rev. Mr. Davenpirt, was owner of, and lived at, the estate of RyhonCafford, which was once the property of Dr. Hall.

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purpose was answered, if his pieces were successful on the stage; and he was perfectly careless of the manner in which his most splendid productions were disfigured in surreptitious and defective editions, and his most exquisite passages rendered ridiculous by the blunders of ignorant transcribers. The plays that were printed in his life-time, with the exception of Titus Andronicus, had all issued from the press under circumstances the most injurious to the reputation of their author, without his revision or superintendence, and perhaps without his consent or knowledge; and when, eight years after his death, his friends Heminge and Condell undertook the collection and publication of his works, it is scarcely possible that the MSS. from which the edition was printed should have been the genuine MSS. of Shakspeare. Those had most probably perished in the fire that destroyed the Globe Theatre in 1613; and the first folio was made up from the playhouse copies, and deformed by all the omissions and the additions which had been adopted to suit the imperfections or the caprice of the several performers.—If Shakspeare still appears to us the first of poets, it is in spite of every possible disadvantage, to which his own sublime contempt of applause had exposed his fame, from the ignorance, the negligence, the avarice, or the officiousness, of his early editors.+

To these causes it is to be ascribed that the writings of Shakspeare have come down to us in a state more imperfect than those of any other author of his time, and requiring every exertion of critical skill to illustrate and amend them. That so little should be known with certainty of the history of his life, was the natural consequence of the events which immediately followed his dissolution. It is true, that the age in which he flourished was little curious about the lives of literary men: but our ignorance

'Mrs. Hall was buried on the 16th July, 1649, as appears from the register of Stratford.'-MALONE.

+ It may be perceived that many passages must have been corrupted beyond the reach of restoration, by comparing the following lines from Lear, which the ingenuity of the commentators has fortunately been able to set right, with the original text:

I am ashamed

That thou hast power to shake my manhood thus:
That these hot tears, which break from me perforce,
Should make thee worth them.-Blasts and fogs

upon thee!

The untented woundings of a father's curse
Pierce every sense about thee!-Old fond eyes,
Beweep this cause again, I'll pluck you out,
And cast you, with the waters that you lose,
To temper clay.'

The first edition reads the first line correctly, and
continues,' that these hot tears, that break from me
perforce, should make the worst blasts and fogs
when the untender woundings of a father's curse,
peruse every sense about the old fond eyes, beweep
this cause again,' &c.

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE.

metropolitan theatres, composed of men who masked, ashamed to shew their faces at reprecame to hear their vices flattered; and of women

must not wholly be attributed to the want of curiosity in the immediate successors of the poet. The public mind soon became violently agitated in the conflict of opposite opinions. Every indi-sentations which they were sufficiently abandoned vidual was called upon to take his stand as the partisan of a religious or political faction. Each was too intimately occupied with his personal interest to find leisure for so peaceful a pursuit as tracing the biography of a poet. If this was the case during the time of civil commotion, under the puritanical dynasty of Cromwell the stage was totally destroyed; and the life of a dramatic author, however eminent his merits, would not only have been considered as a subject undeserving of inquiry, but only worthy of contempt and abomination. The genius of Shakspeare was dear to Milton and Dryden; to a few lofty minds and gifted spirits; but it was dead to the multitude of his countrymen, who, in their foolish bigotry, would have considered their very houses as polluted, if they had contained a copy of his works.* After the Restoration, these severe restrictions were relaxed, and, as is universally the case, the counteraction was correspondent to the action. The nation suddenly exchanged the rigid austerity of Puritanism for the extreme of profligacy and licentiousness. When the drama was revived, it existed no longer to inculcate such lessons of morality as were enforced by the contrition of Macbeth, the purity of Isabel, or the suffering constancy of Imogen; but to teach modesty to blush at its own innocence, to corrupt the heart by pictures of debauchery, and to exalt a gay selfishness and daring sensuality above all that is noble in principle and honourable in action. At this period Shakspeare was forgotten. He wrote not for such profligate times. His sentiments would have been met by no correspondent feelings in the breasts of such audiences as were then collected within the walls of the

• Even in the reign of Elizabeth, the enmity against the stage was carried to a great extent; play-books were burnt privately by the bishops, and publicly by the Puritans.

rake, whom Shakspeare had rendered contemptto delight in. The jesting, lying, bold intriguing ible in Lucio, and hateful in Iachimo, was the very character that the dramatists of Charles's favourites, and representing in false colours as a time were painting after the model of the court deserving object of approbation. French taste and French morals had banished our author from the stage, and his name had faded from the of King Lear, mentions the original in his dedimemory of the people. Tate, in his altered play ler, in quoting some lines of Macbeth, cites them cation as an obscure piece: the author of the Tatfrom the disfigured alteration of D'Avenant. The works of Shakspeare were only read by those whom the desire of literary plunder induced to pry into the volumes of antiquated authors, with the hopes of discovering some neglected jewels that might be clandestinely transplanted to enrich their own poverty of invention; and so little were the productions of the most gifted poet that ever ventured to embark on the varying waters of the imagination known to the generality of his countrymen, that Otway stole the character of the Nurse and all the love scenes of Romeo and Juliet, and published them as his the obligation, or any apprehension of detection. own, without the slightest acknowledgment of A better taste returned: but when, nearly a century after the death of Shakspeare, Rowe undertook to superintend an edition of his Plays, and to collect the Memoirs of his Life; the race had passed away from whom any certain recollecgathered; and nothing better was to be obtained tions of our great national poet might have been than the slight notes of Aubrey, the scattered escaped from D'Avenant; and the vague reports hints of Oldys, the loose intimations which had which Betterton had gleaned in his pilgrimage to Stratford.

APPENDIX.

No. 1.

SHAKSPEARE'S WILL,

FROM THE ORIGINAL

IN THE OFFICE OF THE PREROGATIVE COURT OF CANTERBURY.

Vicesimo quinto die Martii, Anno Regni Domini | upon-Avon aforesaid, in the said county of Warnostri Jacobi nunc Regis Angliæ, &c. decimo quarto, et Scotia quadragesimo nono. Anno Domini 1616.

Is the name of God, Amen. I William Shakspeare, of Stratford-upon-Avon, in the county of Warwick, gent. in perfect health and memory (God be praised!) do make and ordain this my last will and testament in manner and form following; that is to say:

First, I commend my soul into the hands of God my Creator, hoping, and assuredly believing through the only merits of Jesus Christ my Saviour, to be made partaker of life everlasting; and my body to the earth whereof it is made.

Item, I give and bequeath unto my daughter Judith, one hundred and fifty pounds of lawful English money, to be paid unto her in manner and form following: that is to say, one hundred pounds in discharge of her marriage portion within one year after my decease, with consideration after the rate of two shillings in the pound for so long time as the same shall be unpaid unto her after my decease; and the fifty pounds residue thereof, upon her surrendering of, or giving of such sufficient security as the overseers of this my will shall like of, to surrender or grant, all her estate and right that shall descend or come unto her after my decease, or that she now hath, of, in, or to, one copyhold tenement, with the appurtenances, lying and being in Stratford

Our poet's will appears to have been drawn up is February, though not executed till the following Bonth; for February was first written, and afterWards struck out, and March written over it. KALONE.

This was found to be unnecessary, as it was certained that the copyhold descended to the

wick, being parcel or holden of the manor of Rowington, unto my daughter Susanna Hall, and her heirs for ever.†

Item, I give and bequeath unto my said daughter Judith one hundred and fifty pounds more, if she, or any issue of her body, be living at the end of three years next ensuing the day of the date of this my will, during which time my executors to pay her consideration from my decease according to the rate aforesaid: and if she die within the said term without issue of her body, then my will is, and I do give and bequeath one hundred pounds thereof to my niece+ Elizabeth Hall, and the fifty pounds to be set forth by my executors during the life of my sister Joan Hart, and the use and profit thereof coming, shall be paid to my said sister Joan, and after her decease the said fifty pounds shall remain amongst the children of my said sister, equally to be divided amongst them; but if my said daughter Judith be living at the end of the said three years, or any issue of her body, then my will is, and so I devise and bequeath the said hundred and fifty pounds to be set out by my executors and overseers for the best benefit of her and her issue, and the stock not to be paid unto her so long as she shall be married and covert baron; but my will is, that she shall have the consideration yearly paid unto her during her life, and after her decease the said stock and consideration to be

eldest daughter by the custom of the manor.-MALONE, edit. 1821.

to my niece-] Elizabeth Hall was our poet's grand-daughter. So, in Othello, Act I. sc. 1. Iago says to Brabantio: 'You'll have your nephews neigh to you;' meaning his grand-children.-MALONE.

cease.

paid to her children, if she have any, and if not, | rough of Warwick, in the county of Warwick, to her executors or assigns, she living the said gent. thirteen pounds six shillings and eightterm after my decease: provided that if such pence, to be paid within one year after my dehusband as she shall at the end of the said three years be married unto, or at any [time] after, do sufficiently assure unto her, and the issue of her body, lands answerable to the portion by this my will given unto her, and to be adjudged so by my executors and overseers, then my will is, that the said hundred and fifty pounds shall be paid to such husband as shall make such assurance, to his own use.

Item, I give and bequeath unto my said sister Joan twenty pounds, and all my wearing apparel to be paid and delivered within one year after my decease; and I do will and devise unto her the house, with the appurtenances, in Stratford, wherein she dwelleth, for her natural life, under the yearly rent of twelve-pence.

Item, I give and bequeath unto her three sons, William Hart, Hart, and Michael Hart, five pounds a piece, to be paid within one year after my decease.

Item, I give and bequeath unto the said Elizabeth Hall all my plate (except my broad silver and gilt bowlt), that I now have at the date of this my will.

Item, I give and bequeath unto the poor of Stratford aforesaid ten pounds; to Mr. Thomas Combe, my sword; to Thomas Russel, esq. five pounds; and to Francis Collins§ of the bo

Hart,] It is singular that neither Shakspeare nor any of his family should have recollected the Christian name of his nephew, who was born at Stratford but eleven years before the making of his will. His Christian name was Thomas; and he was baptized in that town, July 24, 1605.-MALONE.

+except my broad silver and gilt bowl.] This bowl, as we afterwards find, our poet bequeathed to his daughter Judith.

Mr. Thomas Combe,] This gentleman was baptized at Stratford, Feb. 9, 1588-9, so that he was twenty-seven years old at the time of Shakspeare's death. He died at Stratford in July 1657, aged 68; and his elder brother William died at the same place, Jan. 30, 1666-7, aged 80. Mr. Thomas Combe by his will, made June 20, 1656, directed his executors to convert all his personal property into money, and to lay it out in the purchase of lands, to be settled on William Combe the eldest son of John Combe of Allchurch in the county of Worcester, gent. and his heirs male; remainder to his two brothers successively. Where, therefore, our poet's sword has wandered, I have not been able to discover. I have taken the trouble to ascertain the ages of Shakspeare's friends and relations, and the time of their deaths, because we are thus enabled to judge how far the traditions concerning him which were communicated to Mr. Rowe in the beginning of this century, are worthy of credit.-MALONE.

$ to Francis Collins-] This gentleman was, I believe, baptized at Warwick. He died the year after our poet, and was buried at Stratford, Sep. 27, 1617, on which day he died.-MALONE, edit. 1821. |- -to Hamnet Sadler,] This gentleman was godfather to Shakspeare's only son, who was called after him. Mr. Sadler, I believe, was born about

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Item, I give and bequeath to Hamlet [Hamnet] Sadler|| twenty-six shillings eight-pence, to buy him a ring; to William Reynolds, gent. twentysix shilling eight-pence, to buy him a ring; to my godson, William Walker,¶ twenty shillings in gold; to Anthony Nash,* gent. twenty-six shillings eight-pence; and to Mr. John Nash,†† twenty-six shillings eight-pence; and to my fellows, John Hemynge, Richard Burbage, and Henry Cundell, twenty-six shillings eightpence a piece, to buy them rings.

Item, I give, will, bequeath, and devise, unto my daughter, Susannah Hall, for better enabling of her to perform this my will, and towards the performance thereof, all that capital messuage or tenement, with the appurtenances, in Stratford aforesaid, called The New Place, wherein I now dwell, and two messuages or tenements, with the appurtenances, situate, lying, and being in Henley-street, within the borough of Stratford aforesaid; and all my barns, stables, orchards, gardens, lands, tenements, and hereditaments, whatsoever, situate, lying, and being, or to be had, received, perceived, or taken, within the towns, hamlets, villages, fields, and grounds, of Stratford-upon-Avon, Old Stratford, Bishopton, and Welcombe,§§ or in any of them, in the said

the year 1550, and died at Stratford-upon-Avon, in October 1624. His wife, Judith Sadler, who was godmother to Shakspeare's youngest daughter, was buried there, March 23, 1613-14. Our poet probably was godfather to their son William, who was baptized at Stratford, Feb. 5, 1597-8.-MALONE.

¶ to my godson, William Walker,] William, the son of Henry Walker, was baptized at Stratford, Oct. 16, 1608. I mention this circumstance, because it ascertains that our author was at his native town in the autumn of that year. Mr. William Walker was buried at Stratford, March 1, 1679-80.-MALONE.

** to Anthony Nash,] He was father of Mr. Thomas Nash, who married our poet's grand-daughter, Elizabeth Hall. He lived, I believe, at Welcombe, where his estate lay; and was buried at Stratford, Nov. 18, 1622.-MALONE.

to Mr. John Nash,] This gentleman died at Stratford, and was buried there, Nov. 10, 1623.MALONE.

to my fellows John Hemynge, Richard Burbage, and Henry Cundell,] These our poet's fellows did not very long survive him. Burbage died in March, 1619; Cundell in December 1627; and Heminge in October, 1613.- MALONE.

ترک

Old Stratford, Bishopton, and Welcombe,] The lands of Old Stratford, Bishopton, and Welcombe, here devised, were, in Shakspeare's time, a continuation of one large field, all in the parish of Stratford. Bishopton is two miles from Stratford, and Welcombe one. For Bishopton, Mr. Theobald

erroneously printed Bushaxton, and the error has been continued in all the subsequent editions. The word in Shakspeare's original will is spelt Bushopton, the vulgar pronunciation of Bishopton.

I searched the Indexes in the Rolls Chapel from

county of Warwick; and also all that messuage or tenement, with the appurtenances, wherein one John Robinson dwelleth, situate, lying, and being, in the Blackfriars in London near the Wardrobe:* and all other my lands, tenements, and hereditaments, whatsoever: to have and to hold all and singular the said premises, with their appurtenances, unto the said Susanna Hall, for and during the term of her natural life; and after her decease to the first son of her body lawfully issuing, and to the heirs-males of the body of the said first son lawfully issuing; and for default of such issue, to the second son of her body lawfully issuing, and to the heirs-males of the body of the said second son lawfully issuing; and for default of such heirs, to the third son of the body of the said Susanna lawfully issuing, and to the beirs-males of the body of the said third son lawfully issuing; and for default of such issue, the same so to be and remain to the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh sons of her body lawfully issuing one after another, and to the heirs-males of the bodies of the said fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh sons lawfully issuing, in such manner as it is before limited to be and remain to the first, second, and third sons of her body, and to their heirs-males; and for default of such issue, the said premises to be and remain to my said niece Hall, and the heirsmales of her body lawfully issuing; and for default of such issue, to my daughter Judith, and the heirs-males of her body lawfully issuing; and for default of such issue, to the right heirs of me the said William Shakspeare for ever.

the year 1589 to 1616, with the hope of finding an enrolment of the purchase-deed of the estate here devised by our poet, and of ascertaining its extent and value; but it was not enrolled during that period, Ber could I find any inquisition taken after his death, by which its value might have been ascertained. I suppose it was conveyed by the former owner to Shakspeare, not by bargain and sale, but by a deed of feofment, which it was not necessary to enroll.— MALONE.

*—that messuage or tenement-in the Blackfriars in London near the Wardrobe;] This was the house which was mortgaged to Henry Walker.

By the Wardrobe is meant the King's Great Wardrobe, a royal house, near Puddle-wharf, purchased by King Edward the Third from Sir John Beauchamp, who built it. King Richard III. was

Item, I give unto my wife my second best bed, with the furniture.†

Item, I give and bequeath to my said daughter Judith, my broad silver gilt bowl. All the rest of my goods, chattels, leases, plate, jewels, and household stuff whatsoever, after my debts and legacies paid, and my funeral expenses discharged, I give, devise, and bequeath to my sonin-law, John Hall, gent. and my daughter, Susanna, his wife, whom I ordain and make executors of this my last will and testament. And I do entreat and appoint the said Thomas Russell, esq. and Francis Collins, gent. to be overseers hereof. And do revoke all former wills, and publish this to be my last will and testament. In witness whereof I have hereunto put my hand, the day and year first above written.

By me WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE.
Witness to the publishing hereof,
Fra. Collyns,
Julius Shaw,
John Robinson,
Hamnet Sadler,
Robert Whatcott.

Probatum fuit testamentum suprascriptum apud London, coram Magistro William Byrde, Legum Doctore, &c. vicesimo secundo die mensis Junii, Anno Domini, 1616; juramento Johannis Hall unius ex. cui, &c. de bene, &c. jurat. reservata potestate, &c. Susanne Hall, alt. ex. &c. eam cum venerit, &c. petitur, &c.

lodged in this house, in the second year of his reign. See Stowe's Survey, p. 693, edit. 1618. After the tire of London this office was kept in the Savoy: but it is now abolished.-MALONE.

my second best bed, with the furniture.] Thus Shakspeare's original will.

It appears, in the original will of Shakspeare (now in the Prerogative-office, Doctors' Commons), that he had forgot his wife; the legacy to her being expressed by an interlineation, as well as those to Heminge, Burbage, and Condell.

The will is written on three sheets of paper, the last two of which are undoubtedly subscribed with Shakspeare's own hand. The first indeed has his name in the margin, but it differs somewhat in spelling as well as manner, from the two signatures that follow.-MALONE and STEEVENS.

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