How much our Author employ'd himself in Poetry, after his Retirement from the Stage, does not fo evidently appear: Very few pofthumous Sketches of his Pen have been recover'd to ascertain that Point. We have been told, indeed, in Print, but not till very lately, That two large Chefts full of this Great Man's loofe Papers and Manuscripts, in the Hands of an ignorant Baker of Warwick, (who married one of the Defcendants from our Shakespeare) were carelefly scatter'd and thrown about, as Garret-Lumber, and Litter, to the particular Knowledge of the late Sir William Bishop, till they were all confumed in the general Fire and Deftruction of that Town. I cannot help being a little apt to diftruft the Authority of this Tradition; because his Wife furviv'd him feven Years, and as his Favourite Daughter Susanna furviv'd her twenty fix Years, 'tis very improbable, they fhould fuffer fuch a Treasure to be remov❜d, and tranflated into a remoter Branch of the Family, without a Scrutiny firft made into the Value of it. This, I say, inclines me to diftruft the Authority of the Relation: but, notwithstanding such an apparent Improbability, if we really loft fuch a Treasure, by whatever Fatality or Caprice of Fortune they came into fuch ignorant and neglectful Hands, I agree with the Relater, the Milfortune is wholly irreparable. To thefe Particulars, which regard his Perfon and private Life, fome few more are to be glean'd from from Mr. Rowe's Account of his Life and Writings: Let us now take a fhort View of him in his publick Capacity, as a Writer: and, from thence, the Transition will be easy to the State in which his Writings have been handed down to us. No Age, perhaps, can produce an Author more various from himself, than Shakespeare has been univerfally acknowledg'd to be. The Diversity in Stile, and other Parts of Compofition, so obvious in him, is as varioufly to be accounted for. His Education, we find, was at beft but begun: and he ftarted early into a Science from the Force of Genius, unequally affifted by acquir'd Improvements. His Fire, Spirit, and Exuberance of Imagination gave an Impetuofity to his Pen: His Ideas flow'd from him in a Stream rapid, but not turbulent; copious, but not ever over-bearing its Shores. The Eafe and Sweetness of his Temper might not a little contribute to his Facility in Writing: as his Employment, as a Player, gave him an Advantage and Habit of fancying himself the very Character he meant to delineate. He used the Helps of his Function in forming himself to create and exprefs that Sublime, which other Actors can only copy, and throw out, in Action and graceful Attitude But Nullum fine Veniâ placuit Ingenium, fays Seneca. The Genius, that gives us the greatest Pleafure, fometimes ftands in Need of our Indulgence. Whenever this happens with regard to Shakespeare I would willingly impute it to a Vice of his Times., We We fee Complaifance enough, in our Days, paid to a bad Tafte. So that his Clinches, falfe Wit, and defcending beneath himself, may have proceeded from a Deference paid to the then reigning Barbarifm. I have not thought it out of my Province, whenever Occafion offer'd, to take notice of fome of our Poet's grand Touches of Nature: Some, that do not appear fuperficially fuch; but in which he seems the most deeply inftructed; and to which, no doubt, he has fo much ow'd that happy Preservation of his Characters, for which he is juftly celebrated. Great Genius's, like his, naturally unambitious, are fatisfy'd to conceal their Art in these Points. 'Tis the Foible of your worfer Poets to make a Parade and Oftentation of that little Science they have; and to throw it out in the most ambitious Colours. And whenever a Writer of this Clafs fhall attempt to copy thefe artful Concealments of our Author, and shall either think them easy, or pratifed by a Writer for his Eafe, he will foon be convinced of his Miftake by the Difficulty of reach ing the Imitation of them. Speret idem, fudet multùm, fruftráq; laboret, Indeed, to point out, and exclaim upon, all the Beauties of Shakespeare, as they come fingly in Review, would be as infipid, as endless; as tedious, as unneceffary; But the Explanation of those Beau ties, that are lefs obvious to common Readers, and whose Illustration depends on the Rules of just Criticism, and an exact Knowledge of human Life, fhould defervedly have a Share in a general Critic upon the Author. But, to pass over at once to another Subject: It has been allow'd on all hands, how far our Author was indebted to Nature; it is not fo well agreed, how much he ow'd to Languages and acquir'd Learning. The Decifions on this Subject were certainly fet on Foot by the Hint from Ben Jonson, that he had fmall Latin and less Greek: And from this Tradition, as it were, Mr. Rowe has thought fit peremptorily to declare, that, "It is without Controversy, he had no Know"ledge of the Writings of the ancient Poets, for "that in his Works we find no Traces of any thing "which looks like an Imitation of the Ancients. "For the Delicacy of his Tafte (continues He,) "and the natural Bent of his own great Genius "(equal, if not fuperior, to fome of the Best of "theirs;) would certainly have led him to read "and ftudy them with fo much Pleasure, that "fome of their fine Images would naturally have "infinuated themselves into, and been mix'd with, "his own Writings: and fo his not copying, at "leaft, fomething from them, may be an Argu"ment of his never having read them." I fhall leave it to the Determination of my Learned Readers, from the numerous Paffages, which I have occafionally quoted in my Notes, in which our Poet feems closely to have imitated the Claffics, whether Mr. Rowe's Affertion be so abfolutely to be depended on. The Refult of the Controversy must certainly, either way, terminate to our Author's Honour: how happily he could i mitate them, if that Point be allow'd; or how gloriously he could think like them, without owing any thing to Imitation. Tho' I should be very unwilling to allow Shakefpeare fo poor a Scholar, as Many have labour'd to represent him, yet I fhall be very cautious of declaring too pofitively on the other fide of the Queftion: that is, with regard to my Opinion of his Knowledge in the dead Languages. And therefore the Paffages, that I occafionally quote from the Claffics, fhall not be urged as Proofs that he knowingly imitated those Originals; but brought to fhew how happily he has exprefs'd himself upon the fame Topicks. A very learned Critick of our own Nation has declar'd, that a Sameness of Thought and Sameness of Expreffion too, in Two Writers of a different Age, can hardly happen, without a vioent Sufpicion of the Latter copying from his Predeceffor. I fhall not therefore run any great Rifque of a Cenfure, tho' I fhould venture to hint, that the Refemblance, in Thought and Expreffion, of our Author and an Ancient (which we should allow to be Imitation in One, whofe Learning was not queftion'd) may fometimes take its Rife from Strength of Memory, and those Impreffions which he |