are almost forgotten; we will quote therefore this time from Stanyhurst:

"O to thee, fayre virgin, what terme may rightly be fitted? Thy tongue, thy vifage no mortal frayltie refembleth. "No doubt, a godeffe!" Edit. 1583.

Gabriel Harvey defired only to be "epitaph'd, the inventor of the English bexameter," and for a while every one would be halting on Roman feet; but the ridicule of our fellow-collegian Hall, in one of his Satires, and the reasoning of Daniel, in his Defence of Rhyme against Campion, presently reduced us to our original Gothick.

But to come nearer the purpose, what will you fay, if I can fhew you, that Shakspeare, when, in the favourite phrafe, he had a Latin poet in his eye, moft affuredly made ufe of a tranflation?

Profpero, in the Tempeft, begins the addrefs to his attendant Spirits,

"Ye elves of hills, of ftanding lakes, and groves."

This fpeech, Dr. Warburton rightly obferves to be borrowed from Medea in Ovid: and "it proves,' fays Mr. Holt," "beyond contradiction, that Shakfpeare was perfectly acquainted with the fentiments of the ancients on the fubject of inchantments." The original lines are thefe:

"Auræque, & venti, montefque, amnefque, lacufque, Diique omnes nemorum, diique omnes noctis adefte." It happens, however, that the translation by Arthur

9 In fome remarks on the Tempeft, published under the quaint title of An Attempte to rescue that aunciente English Poet and Playwrighte, Maifter Williaume Shakespeare, from the many Errours, fauljely charged upon him by certaine new-fangled Wittes. Lond. 8vo. 1749, p. 81.

2

Golding is by no means literal, and Shakspeare hath closely followed it:

"Ye ayres and winds; ye elves of hills, of brookes, of woods alone,

"Of ftanding lakes, and of the night approche ye everych

one.

I think it is unneceffary to pursue this any further; especially as more powerful arguments await

us.

In The Merchant of Venice, the Jew, as an apology for his cruelty to Antonio, rehearses many Sympathies and antipathies for which no reafon can be rendered:

"Some love not a gaping pig

"And others when the bagpipe fings i'th' nofe,
"Cannot contain their urine for affection."

This incident, Dr. Warburton fuppofes to be taken from a paffage in Scaliger's Exercitations againft Cardan: "Narrabo tibi jocofam fympathiam Reguli Vafconis equitis: is dum viveret audito phormingis fono, urinam illico facere cogebatur."— "And," proceeds the Doctor," to make this jocular story still more ridiculous, Shakspeare, I fuppofe, tranflated phorminx by bagpipes."

Here we feem fairly caught ;-for Scaliger's work was never, as the term goes, done into English. But luckily in an old tranflation from the French of Peter le Loier, entitled, A Treatife of Specters, or ftraunge Sights, Vifions, and Apparitions appearing fenfibly unto Men, we have this identical ftory from Scaliger: and what is ftill more, a marginal note gives us in all probability the very fact alluded to, as well as the word of Shakspeare: "Another gen

2 His work is dedicated to the Earl of Leicester in a long epistle in verfe, from Berwick, April 20, 1567.

tleman of this quality liued of late in Deuon neere Excefter, who could not endure the playing on a bagpipe."

3

We may juft add, as fome observation hath been made upon it, that affection in the fenfe of Sympathy was formerly technical; and so used by Lord Bacon, Sir Kenelm Digby, and many other writers.

A fingle word in Queen Catherine's character of Wolfey, in Henry VIII. is brought by the Doctor as another argument for the learning of Shakspeare:

He was a man

"Of an unbounded ftomach, ever ranking
"Himself with princes; one that by fuggeftion
"Ty'd all the kingdom. Simony was fair play.
"His own opinion was his law: i'th' prefence
"He would fay untruths, and be ever double
"Both in his words and meaning. He was never,
"But where he meant to ruin, pitiful.
"His promises were, as he then was, mighty;
"But his performance, as he now is, nothing.
"Of his own body he was ill, and gave
"The clergy ill example."

"The word fuggeftion," fays the critick," is here ufed with great propriety, and feeming knowledge of the Latin tongue:" and he proceeds to fettle the sense of it from the late Roman writers and their gloffers. But Shakspeare's knowledge was from Holinfhed, whom he follows verbatim:

"This cardinal was of a great ftomach, for he compted himself equal with princes, and by craftie fuggeftion got into his hands innumerable treasure:

3 M. Bayle hath delineated the fingular character of our fantaftical author. His work was originally tranflated by one Zacharie Jones. My edit. is in 4to. 1605, with an anonymous Dedication to the King: the Devonshire ftory was therefore well known in the time of Shakspeare.The paffage from Scaliger is likewife to be met with in The Optick Glaffe of Humors, written, I believe, by T. Wombwell; and in feveral other places.

he forced little on fimonie, and was not pitifull, and ftood affectionate in his own opinion: in open prefence he would lie and feie untruth, and was double both in fpeech and meaning: he would promife much and performe little: he was vicious of his bodie, and gaue the clergie cuil example." Edit. 1587, p. 922.

Perhaps after this quotation, you may not think, that Sir Thomas Hanmer, who reads Tyth'd-inftead of Ty'd all the kingdom, deferves quite fo. much of Dr. Warburton's feverity.Indifputably the paffage, like every other in the fpeech, is intended to exprefs the meaning of the parallel one in the chronicle: it cannot therefore be credited, that any man, when the original was produced, fhould ftill choofe to defend a cant acceptation; and inform us, perhaps, Seriously, that in gaming language, from I know not what practice, to tye is to equal! A fenfe of the word, as far as I have yet found, unknown to our old writers; and, if known, would not furely have been used in this place by our author.

But let us turn from conjecture to Shakspeare's authorities. Hall, from whom the above defcription is copied by Holinfhed, is very explicit in the demands of the Cardinal: who having infolently told the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, "For fothe I thinke, that halfe your fubftaunce were to litle," affures them by way of comfort at the end of his harangue, that upon an average the tythe fhould be. fufficient; "Sers, fpeake not to breake that thyng that is concluded, for fome fhal not paie the tenth parte, and fome more."-And again; "Thei faied, the Cardinall by vifitacions, makyng of abbottes, probates of teftamentes, graunting of faculties, licences, and other pollyngs in his courtes legantines,

had made his threafore egall with the kinges." Edit. 1548, p. 138, and 143.

Skelton, in his Why come ye not to Court, gives us, after his rambling manner, a curious character of Wolfey:

4 His poems are printed with the title of " Pithy, Pleasaunt, and Profitable Workes of Maister Skelton Poet Laureate.”—“ But,” fays Mr. Cibber, after feveral other writers, "how or by what intereft he was made Laureat, or whether it was by a title he affumed to himself, cannot be determined." This is an error pretty generally received, and it may be worth our while to remove it.

A facetious author fays fomewhere, that a poet laureat, in the modern idea, is a gentleman, who hath an annual ftipend for reminding us of the New Year, and the Birth-day: but formerly a Poet Laureat was a real univerfity graduate,

"Skelton wore the laurell wreath,

"And past in schoels ye knoe.”

fays Churchyarde in a poem prefixed to his works. And Mafter Caxton in his Preface to The Boke of Eneydos, 1490, hath a paffage, which well deferves to be quoted without abridgement: "I praye mayfter John Skelton, late created poete laureate in the univerfite of Oxenforde, to oversee and correcte thys fayd booke, and taddresse and expowne whereas fhall be founde faulte, to theym that shall requyre it; for hym I knowe for fuffycyent to expowne and Englyfshe every dyfficulte that is therein; for he hath late tranflated the epyftles of Tulle, and the book of Dyodorus Syculus, and diverfe other workes, out of Latyn into Englyfhe, not in rude and old language, but in polyfhed and ornate termes, craftely, as he that hath redde Vyrgyle, Ouyde, Tullye, and all the other noble poets and oratours, to me unknowen: and alfo he hath redde the ix mufes, and understands their muficalle fcyences, and to whom of them eche scyence is appropred: I suppose he hath dronken of Elycans well!"

I find, from Mr. Baker's MSS. that our laureat was admitted ad eundem at Cambridge: " An. Dom. 1493. & Hen. 7. nono. Conceditur Jobi Skelton Poete in partibus tranfmarinis atque Oxon. Laureâ ornato, ut apud nos eâdem decoraretur." And afterward, "An. 150 Conceditur Jobi Skelton, Poetæ Laureat. quod poffit ftare eodem gradu hic, quo ftetit Oxoniis, & quod poffit uti habitu fibi conceffo à Principe.'

See likewife Dr. Knight's Life of Colet, p. 122. And Recherches fur les Portes couronnez, par M. l'Abbé du Refnel, in the Memoires de Litterature, Vol. X. Paris, 4to. 1736.