fion, and, in that, to his wifh; and is faid to have spent fome years before his death at his native Stratford. His pleasurable wit, and good-nature, engag'd him in the acquaintance, and entitled him to the friendship of the gentlemen of the neighbourhood. Amongst them, it is a story almost still remember'd in that country, that he had a particular intimacy with Mr. Combe, an old gentleman noted thereabouts for his wealth and ufury: It happen'd that in a pleafant conversation amongst their common friends, Mr. Combe told Shakespear in a laughing manner, that he fancy'd he intended to write his Epitaph, if he happen'd to out-live him; and fince he could not know what might be faid of him when he was dead, he defir'd it might be done immediately: Upon which Shakespear gave him thefe four verses.

Ten in the hundred lies here ingrav'd,

'Tis a hundred to ten his foul is not fav'd:
If any man ask, Who lyes in this tomb?
Ob! bo! quoth the devil, 'tis my John-a-Combe.

But the sharpness of the Satire is faid to have stung the man fo feverely, that he never forgave it.

He dy'd in the 53d year of his age, and was bury'd on the north fide of the chancel, in the great Church at Stratford, where a monument, as engrav'd in the plate, is plac'd in the wall. On his Grave-ftone underneath is,

Good friend, for Jesus' fake forbear
To dig the dust inclosed here.

Bleft be the man that spares thefe ftones,
And curft be be that moves my bones.

He had three daughters, of which two liv'd to be marry'd; Judith, the elder, to one Mr. Thomas Quiney, by whom she had three Sons, who all died without children; and Sufannah, who was his favourite,

to

to Dr. John Hall, a phyfician of good reputation in that country. She left one child only, a daughter, who was marry'd first to Thomas Nafh, Efq; and afterwards to Sir John Bernard of Abbington, but dy'd likewife without iffue.

This is what I could learn of any note, either relating to himself or family: The character of the man is best seen in his writings. But fince Ben Jobnfon has made a fort of an effay towards it in his Discoveries, I will give it in his words.

"I remember the Players have often mention'd it "as an honour to Shakespear, that in writing (what"foever he penn❜d) he never blotted out a line. My "answer hath been, Would be bad blotted a thousand! "which they thought a malevolent speech. I had "not told pofterity this, but for their ignorance, who "chofe that circumftance to commend their friend "by, wherein he most faulted: and to juftifie mine "own candour, for I lov'd the man, and do honour "his memory, on this fide idolatry, as much as any. "He was, indeed, honeft, and of an open and free "nature, had an excellent fancy, brave notions, and gentle expreffions; wherein he flow'd with that fa"cility, that fometimes it was neceffary he should be ftopp'd: Sufflaminandus erat, as Auguftus faid of "Haterius. His wit was in his own power, would "the rule of it had been fo too. Many times he fell "into those things which could not efcape laughter; "as when he said in the perfon of Cæfar, one speaking " to him,

"Cæfar thou doft me wrong.

"He reply'd:

"Cæfar did never wrong, but with just cause.

" and fuch like, which were ridiculous. But he re"deem'd his vices with his virtues: There was ever more in him to be prais'd than to be pardon'd.

As for the paffage which he mentions out of ShakeSpear, there is fomewhat like it in Julius Cæfar, but without the abfurdity; nor did I ever meet with it in any edition that I have feen, as quoted by Mr. Johnfon. Befides his plays in this edition, there are two or three afcrib'd to him by Mr. Langbain, which I have never seen, and know nothing of. He writ likewife Venus and Adonis, and Tarquin and Lucrece, in ftanza's, which have been printed in a late collection of Poems. As to the character given of him by Ben Johnson, there is a good deal true in it: But I believe it may be as well exprefs'd by what Horace fays of the first Romans, who wrote Tragedy upon the Greek models, (or indeed tranflated 'em) in his epiftle to Auguftus. Naturâ fublimis & acer,

Nam fpirat Tragicum fatis & feliciter Audet, Sed turpem putat in Chartis metuitque Lituram. As I have not propos'd to myself to enter into a large and compleat collection upon Shakespear's Works, fo I will only take the liberty, with all due fubmiffion to the judgment of others, to observe some of those things I have been pleas'd with in looking him over.

His Plays are properly to be diftinguish'd only into Comedies and Tragedies. Thofe which are call'd Histories, and even fome of his Comedies are really Tragedies, with a run or mixture of Comedy amongst 'em. That way of Tragi-comedy was the common miftake of that age, and is indeed become fo agreeable to the English tafte, that tho' the feverer Critics among us cannot bear it, yet the generality of our audiences feem to be better pleas'd with it than with an exact Tragedy. The Merry Wives of Windfor, the Comedy of Errors, and the Taming of the Shrew, are all pure Comedy; the reft, however they are call'd, have fomething of both kinds. 'Tis not very eafy

to

to determine which way of writing he was most excellent in. There is certainly a great deal of entertainment in his comical humours; and tho' they did not then strike at all ranks of people, as the Satire of the prefent age has taken the liberty to do, yet there is a pleafing and a well-diftinguish'd variety in thofe characters which he thought fit to meddle with. Falstaff is allow'd by every body to be a mafter-piece; the Character is always well-fuftain'd, tho' drawn out into the length of three Plays; and even the account of his death, given by his old landlady Mrs. Quickly, in the first act of Henry V. tho it be extremely natural, is yet as diverting as any part of his life. If there be any fault in the draught he has made of this lewd old fellow, it is, that tho' he has made him a thief, lying, cowardly, vain-glorious, and in fhort every way vicious, yet he has given him fo much wit as to make him almost too agreeable; and I don't know whether fome people have not, in remembrance of the diverfion he had formerly afforded 'em, been forry to fee his friend Hal use him fo fcurvily, when he comes to the crown in the end of the fecond part of Henry the fourth. Amongst other extravagancies, in the Merry Wives of Windfor, he has made him a Deer-stealer, that he might at the fame time remember his Warwickshire profecutor, under the name of Juftice Shallow; he has given him very near the fame coat of arms which Dugdale, in his antiquities of that county, describes for a family there, and makes the Welsh parfon defcant very pleasantly upon 'em. That whole play is admirable; the humours are various and well oppos'd; the main defign, which is to cure Ford of his unreasonable jealoufy, is extremely well conducted. In TwelfthNight there is fomething fingularly ridiculous and pleafant in the fantastical steward Malvolio. The parafite and the vain-glorious in Parolles, in All's well that Ends well, is as good as any thing of that kind in Plautus

or Terence. Petruchio, in The Taming of the Shrew, is an uncommon piece of humour. The converfation of Benedick and Beatrice, in Much ado about Nothing, and of Rofalind in As you like it, have much wit and fprightliness all along. His clowns, without which character there was hardly any play writ in that time, are all very entertaining: And, I believe, Therfites in Troilus and Creffida, and Apemantus in Timon, will be allow'd to be mafter-pieces of ill-nature, and fatyrical fnarling. To thefe I might add, that incomparable character of Shylock the Jew, in the Merchant of Venice; but tho' we have feen that play receiv'd and acted as a comedy, and the part of the few perform'd by an excellent Comedian, yet I cannot but think it was defigned tragically by the Author. There appears in it a deadly fpirit of revenge, fuch a favage fierceness and fellnefs, and fuch a bloody defignation of cruelty and mischief, as cannot agree either with the ftyle or characters of Comedy. The play itself, take it altogether, feems to me to be one of the most finish'd of any of Shakespear's. The tale indeed, in that part relating to the caskets, and the extravagant and unusual kind of bond given by Antonio, is too much remov'd from the rules of probability: But taking the fact for granted, we must allow it to be very beautifully written. There is fomething in the friendfhip of Antonio to Baffanio very great, generous and tender. The whole fourth act (fuppofing, as I faid, the fact to be probable) is extremely fine. But there are two paffages that deserve a particular notice. The firft is, what Portia fays in praife of mercy, and the other on the power of mufick. The melancholy of Jaques, in As you like it, is as fingular and odd as it is diverting. And if, what Horace fays,

Difficile eft proprie communia dicere,