The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) - Theophilus Cibber
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What particular friendships he contracted with private men, we cannot
at this time know, more than that every one who had a true taste for
merit, and could distinguish men, had generally a just value and
esteem for him. His exceeding candour and good nature must certainly
have inclined all the gentler part of the world to love him, as the
power of his wit obliged the men of the most refined knowledge and
polite learning to admire him. His acquaintance with Ben Johnson began
with a remarkable piece of humanity and good nature: Mr. Johnson, who
was at that time altogether unknown to the world, had offered one of
his plays to the stage, in order to have it acted, and the person into
whose hands it was put, after having turned it carelessly over, was
just upon returning it to him with an ill-natured answer, that it
would be of no service to their company, when Shakespeare luckily cast
his eye upon it, and found something so well in it, as to engage him
first to read it through, and afterwards to recommend Mr. Johnson and
his writings to the public.
The latter part of our author's life was spent in ease and retirement,
he had the good fortune to gather an estate, equal to his wants, and
in that to his wish, and is said to have spent some years before
his death in his native Stratford. His pleasant wit and good nature
engaged him in the acquaintance, and entitled him to the friendship,
of the gentlemen of the neighbourhood. It is still remembered in that
county, that he had a particular intimacy with one Mr. Combe, an old
gentleman, noted thereabouts for his wealth and usury. It happened
that in a pleasant conversation amongst their common friends, Mr.
Combe merrily told Shakespear, that he fancied he intended to write
his epitaph, if he happened to out-live him; and since he could not
know what might be said of him when dead, he desired it might be done
immediately; upon which Shakespear gave him these lines.
Ten in the hundred lyes here engraved,
'Tis a hundred to ten his soul is not saved:
If any man asketh who lies in this tomb?
Oh! oh! quoth the Devil, 'tis my John-a-Combe.
But the sharpness of the satire is said to have stung the man so
severely, that he never forgave it.
Shakespear died in the fifty-third year of his age, and was buried on
the North side of the chancel in the great church at Stratford, where
a monument is placed on the wall. The following is the inscription on
his grave-stone.
Good friend, for Jesus sake forbear,
To dig the dust inclosed here.
Blest be the man that spares these stones,
And curs'd be he that moves my bones.
He had three daughters, of whom two lived to be married; Judith the
elder to Mr. Thomas Quincy, by whom she had three sons, who all died
without children, and Susannah, who was his favourite, to Dr. John
Hall, a physician of good reputation in that county. She left one
child, a daughter, who was married to Thomas Nash, Esq; and afterwards
to Sir John Bernard, of Abington, but deceased likewise without issue.
His dramatic writings were first published together in folio 1623 by
some of the actors of the different companies they had been acted in,
and perhaps by other servants of the theatre into whose hands copies
might have fallen, and since republished by Mr. Rowe, Mr. Pope, Mr.
Theobald, Sir Thomas Hanmer, and Mr. Warburton.
Ben Johnson in his discoveries has made a sort of essay towards the
character of Shakespear. I shall present it the reader in his own
words,
'I remember the players have often mentioned it as an honour to
Shakespear, that in writing he never blotted out a line. My answer
hath been, would he had blotted out a thousand! which they thought
a malevolent speech. I had not told posterity this, but for their
ignorance, who chuse that circumstance to commend their friend by,
wherein he most faulted; and to justify my own character (for I lov'd
the man, and do honour to his memory, on this side idolatry, as much
as any). He was indeed honest, and of an open free nature, had an
excellent fancy, brave notions, and gentle expressions, wherein he
flowed with that facility, that sometimes it was necessary he should
be stopp'd. His wit was in his own power: would the rule of it had
been so. Many times he fell into those things which could not escape
laughter, as when he said in the person of Caesar, one speaking to
him, "Caesar thou dost me wrong."
He replied, "Caesar did never wrong, but with just cause;"
'And such like, which were ridiculous; but he redeemed his vices with
his virtues; there was ever more in them to be praised, than to be
pardoned.' Ben in his conversation with Mr. Drumond of Hawthornden,
said, that Shakespear wanted art, and sometimes sense. The truth is,
Ben was himself a better critic than poet, and though he was ready at
discovering the faults of Shakespear, yet he was not master of such a
genius, as to rise to his excellencies; and great as Johnson was, he
appears not a little tinctured with envy. Notwithstanding the defects
of Shakespear, he is justly elevated above all other dramatic writers.
If ever any author deserved the name of original (says Pope) it was
he: [1] 'His poetry was inspiration indeed; he is not so much an
imitator, as instrument of nature; and it is not so just to say of
him that he speaks from her, as that she speaks through him. His
characters are so much nature herself, that it is a sort of injury to
call them by so distant a name as copies of her. The power over our
passions was likewise never possessed in so eminent a degree, or
displayed in so many different instances, nor was he more a matter of
the great, than of the ridiculous in human nature, nor only excelled
in the passions, since he was full as admirable in the coolness of
reflection and reasoning: His sentiments are not only in general the
most pertinent and judicious upon every subject, but by a talent very
peculiar, something between penetration and felicity, he hits upon
that particular point, on which the bent of each argument, or the
force of each motive depends.'
Our author's plays are to be distinguished only into Comedies and
Tragedies. Those which are called Histories, and even some of his
Comedies, are really Tragedies, with a mixture of Comedy amongst them.
That way of Tragi-comedy was the common mistake of that age, and is
indeed become so agreeable to the English taste, that though the
severer critics among us cannot bear it, yet the generality of our
audiences seem better pleased with it than an exact Tragedy. There is
certainly a great deal of entertainment in his comic humours, and a
pleasing and well distinguished variety in those characters he thought
fit to exhibit with. His images are indeed every where so lively, that
the thing he would represent stands full before you, and you possess
every part of it; of which this instance is astonishing: it is an
image of patience. Speaking of a maid in love, he says,
------She never told her love,
But let concealment, like a worm i'th'bud,
Feed on her damask cheek: She pin'd in thought,
And sat like patience on a monument.
Smiling at grief.
But what is characteristically the talent of Shakespear, and which
perhaps is the most excellent part of the drama, is the manners of his
persons, in acting and in speaking what is proper for them, and fit
to be shewn by the Poet, in making an apparent difference between his
characters, and marking every one in the strongest manner.
Poets who have not a little succeeded in writing for the stage, have
yet fallen short of their great original in the general power of the
drama; none ever found so ready a road to the heart; his tender scenes
are inexpressibly moving, and such as are meant to raise terror, are
no less alarming; but then Shakespeare does not much shine when he is
considered by particular passages; he sometimes debases the noblest
images in nature by expressions which are too vulgar for poetry. The
ingenious author of the Rambler has observed, that in the invocation
of Macbeth, before he proceeds to the murder of Duncan, when he thus
expresses himself,
---------Come thick night
And veil thee, in the dunnest smoke of hell,
Nor heaven peep thro' the blanket of the dark,
To cry hold, hold.
That the words dunnest and blanket, which are so common in vulgar
mouths, destroy in some manner the grandeur of the image, and were two
words of a higher signification, and removed above common use, put
in their place, I may challenge poetry itself to furnish an image
so noble. Poets of an inferior class, when considered by particular
passages, are excellent, but then their ideas are not so great, their
drama is not so striking, and it is plain enough that they possess not
souls so elevated as Shakespeare's. What can be more beautiful than
the flowing enchantments of Rowe; the delicate and tender touches of
Otway and Southern, or the melting enthusiasm of Lee and Dryden,
but yet none of their pieces have affected the human heart like
Shakespeare's.
But I cannot conclude the character of Shakespeare, without taking
notice, that besides the suffrage of almost all wits since his time in
his favour, he is particularly happy in that of Dryden, who had read
and studied him clearly, sometimes borrowed from him, and well knew
where his strength lay. In his Prologue to the Tempest altered, he has
the following lines;
Shakespear, who taught by none, did first impart,
To Fletcher wit, to lab'ring Johnson, art.
He, monarch-like gave there his subjects law,
And is that nature which they paint and draw;
Fletcher reached that, which on his heights did grow,
While Johnson crept, and gathered all below:
This did his love, and this his mirth digest,
One imitates him most, the other best.
If they have since outwrit all other men,
'Tis from the drops which fell from Shakespear's pen.
The storm[2] which vanished on the neighb'ring shore
Was taught by Shakespear's Tempest first to roar.
That innocence and beauty which did smile
In Fletcher, grew in this Inchanted Isle.
But Shakespear's magic could not copied be,
Within that circle none durst walk but he.
The plays of this great author, which are forty-three in number, are
as follows,
1. The Tempest, a Comedy acted in the Black Fryars with applause.
2. The Two Gentlemen of Verona, a Comedy writ at the command of Queen
Elizabeth.
3. The first and second part of King Henry IV the character of
Falstaff in these plays is justly esteemed a master-piece; in the
second part is the coronation of King Henry V. These are founded upon
English Chronicles.
4. The Merry Wives of Windsor, a Comedy, written at the command of
Queen Elizabeth.
5. Measure for Measure, a Comedy; the plot of this play is taken from
Cynthio Ciralni.
6. The Comedy of Errors, founded upon Plautus's Maenechmi.
7. Much Ado About Nothing, a Comedy; for the plot see Ariosto's
Orlando Furioso.
8. Love's Labour Lost, a Comedy.
9. Midsummer's Night's Dream, a Comedy.
10. The Merchant of Venice, a Tragi-Comedy.
11. As you Like it, a Comedy.
12. The Taming of a Shrew, a Comedy.
13. All's Well that Ends Well.
14. The Twelfth-Night, or What you Will, a Comedy. In this play
there is something singularly ridiculous in the fantastical steward
Malvolio; part of the plot taken from Plautus's Maenechmi.
15. The Winter's Tale, a Tragi-Comedy; for the plot of this play
consult Dorastus and Faunia.
16. The Life and Death of King John, an historical play.
17. The Life and Death of King Richard II. a Tragedy.
18. The Life of King Henry V. an historical play.
19. The First Part of King Henry VI. an historical play.
20. The Second Part of King Henry VI. with the death of the good Duke
Humphrey.
21. The Third Part of King Henry VI. with the death of the Duke of
York. These plays contain the whole reign of this monarch.
22. The Life and Death of Richard III. with the landing of the Earl of
Richmond, and the battle of Bosworth field. In this part Mr. Garrick
was first distinguished.
23. The famous history of the Life of King Henry VIII.
24. Troilus and Cressida, a Tragedy; the plot from Chaucer.
25. Coriolanus, a Tragedy; the story from the Roman History.
26. Titus Andronicus, a Tragedy.
27. Romeo and Juliet, a Tragedy; the plot from Bandello's Novels. This
is perhaps one of the most affecting plays of Shakespear: it was not
long since acted fourteen nights together at both houses, at the same
time, and it was a few years before revived and acted twelve nights
with applause at the little theatre in the Hay market.
28. Timon of Athens, a Tragedy; the plot from Lucian's Dialogues.
29. Julius Caesar, a Tragedy.
30. The Tragedy of Macbeth; the plot from Buchanan, and other Scotch
writers.
31. Hamlet Prince of Denmark, a Tragedy.
32. King Lear, a Tragedy; for the plot see Leland, Monmouth.
33. Othello the Moor of Venice, a Tragedy; the plot from Cynthio's
Novels.
34. Anthony and Cleopatra; the story from Plutarch.
35. Cymbeline, a Tragedy; the plot from Boccace's Novels.
36. Pericles Prince of Tyre, an historical play.
37. The London Prodigal, a Comedy.
38. The Life and Death of Thomas Lord Cromwell, the favourite of King
Henry VIII.
39. The History of Sir John Oldcastle, the good Lord Cobham, a
Tragedy. See Fox's Book of Martyrs.
40. The Puritan, or the Widow of Watling-street, a Comedy.
41. A Yorkshire Tragedy; this is rather an Interlude than a Tragedy,
being very short, and not divided into Acts.
42. The Tragedy of Locrine, the eldest son of King Brutus. See the
story in Milton's History of England.
Our age, which demonstrates its taste in nothing so truly and justly
as in the admiration it pays to the works of Shakespear, has had the
honour of raising a monument for him in Westminster Abbey; to effect
which, the Tragedy of Julius Caesar was acted at the Theatre Royal in
Drury Lane, April 28, 1738, and the profits arising from it deposited
in the hands of the earl of Burlington, Mr. Pope, Dr. Mead, and
others, in order to be laid out upon the said monument. A new Prologue
and Epilogue were spoken on that occasion; the Prologue was written by
Benjamin Martyn esquire; the Epilogue by the hon. James Noel esquire,
and spoke by Mrs. Porter. On Shakespear's monument there is a noble
epitaph, taken from his own Tempest, and is excellently appropriated
to him; with this let us close his life, only with this observation,
that his works will never be forgot, 'till that epitaph is
fulfilled.--When
The cloud capt towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself
And all which it inherit shall dissolve,
And like the baseless fabric of a vision
Leave not a wreck behind.
[Footnote 1: Preface to Shakespear]
[Footnote 2: Alluding to the sea voyage of Fletcher.]
* * * * *
JOSHUA SYLVESTER,
The translator of the famous Du Bartas's Weeks and Works; was
cotemporary with George Chapman, and flourished in the end of
Elizabeth and King James's reign; he was called by the poets in his
time, the silver-tongu'd Sylvester, but it is doubtful whether he
received any academical education. In his early years he is reported
to have been a merchant adventurer.[1] Queen Elizabeth is said to have
had a respect for him, her successor still a greater, and Prince Henry
greater than his father; the prince so valued our bard, that he made
him his first Poet-Pensioner. He was not more celebrated for his
poetry, than his extraordinary private virtues, his sobriety and
sincere attachment to the duties of religion. He was also remarkable
for his fortitude and resolution in combating adversity: we are
further told that he was perfectly acquainted with the French,
Italian, Latin, Dutch and Spanish languages. And it is related of him,
that by endeavouring to correct the vices of the times with too much
asperity, he exposed himself to the resentment of those in power, who
signified their displeasure, to the mortification and trouble of the
author. Our poet gained more reputation by the translation of Du
Bartas, than by any of his own compositions. Besides his Weeks and
Works, he translated several other productions of that author, namely,
Eden[2], the Deceit, the Furies, the Handicrafts, the Ark, Babylon,
the Colonies, the Columns, the Fathers, Jonas, Urania, Triumph of
Faith, Miracle of Peace, the Vocation, the Daw; the Captains, the
Trophies, the Magnificence, &c. also a Paradox of Odes de la Nove,
Baron of Teligni with the Quadrians of Pibeac; all which translations
were generally well received; but for his own works, which were bound
up with them, they received not, says Winstanley, so general an
approbation, as may be seen by these verses:
We know thou dost well,
As a translator
But where things require
A genius and fire,
Not kindled before by others pains,
As often thou hast wanted brains.
In the year 1618 this author died at Middleburgh in Zealand, aged 55
years, and had the following epitaph made on him by his great admirer
John Vicars beforementioned, but we do not find that it was put upon
his tomb-stone.
Here lies (death's too rich prize) the corpse interr'd
Of Joshua Sylvester Du Bartas Pier;
A man of arts best parts, to God, man, dear;
In foremost rank of poets best preferr'd.
[Footnote 1: Athenae Oxon. p. 594.]
[Footnote 2: Winstanley, Lives of the Poets, p. 109.]
* * * * *
SAMUEL DANIEL
Was the son of a music master, and born near Taunton in Somersetshire,
in the year 1562. In 1579 he was admitted a commoner in Magdalen Hall
in Oxford, where he remained about three years, and by the assistance
of an excellent tutor, made a very great proficiency in academical
learning; but his genius inclining him more to studies of a gayer and
softer kind, he quitted the University, and applied himself to history
and poetry. His own merit, added to the recommendation of his brother
in law, (John Florio, so well known for his Italian Dictionary)
procured him the patronage of Queen Anne, the consort of King James I.
who was pleased to confer on him the honour of being one of the Grooms
of the Privy-Chamber, which enabled him to rent a house near London,
where privately he composed many of his dramatic pieces. He was tutor
to Lady Ann Clifford, and on the death of the great Spenser, he was
appointed Poet Laureat to Queen Elizabeth. Towards the end of his life
he retired to a farm which he had at Beckington near Philips Norton
in Somersetshire, where after some time spent in the service of the
Muses, and in religious contemplation, he died in the year 1619. He
left no issue by his wife Justina, to whom he was married several
years. Wood says, that in the wall over his grave there is this
inscription;
Here lies expecting the second coming of our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the dead body
of Samuel Daniel esquire, that excellent poet
and historian, who was tutor to Lady Ann
Clifford in her youth, she that was daughter
and heir to George Clifford earl of Cumberland;
who in gratitude to him erected this monument
to his memory a long time after, when she was
Countess Dowager of Pembroke, Dorset and
Montgomery. He died in October, Anno 1619.
Mr. Daniel's poetical works, consisting of dramatic and other pieces,
are as follow;
1. The Complaint of Rosamond.
2. A Letter from Octavia to Marcus Antonius, 8vo. 1611.
These two pieces resemble each other, both in subject and stile, being
written in the Ovidian manner, with great tenderness and variety of
passion. The measure is Stanzas of seven lines. Let the following
specimen shew the harmony and delicacy of his numbers, where he makes
Rosamond speak of beauty in as expressive a manner as description can
reach.
Ah! beauty Syren, fair inchanting good,
Sweet silent rhetoric of persuading eyes;
Dumb eloquence whose power doth move the blood,
More than the words or wisdom of the wife;
Still harmony whose diapason lies, Within a brow; the key
which passions move,
To ravish sense, and play a world in love.
3. Hymen's Triumph, a Pastoral Tragi-Comedy presented at the Queen's
Court in the Strand, at her Majesty's entertainment of the King, at
the nuptials of lord Roxborough, London, 1623, 4to. It is introduced
by a pretty contrived Prologue by way of dialogue, in which Hymen
is opposed by avarice, envy and jealousy; in this piece our author
sometimes touches the passions with a very delicate hand.
4. The Queen's Arcadia, a Pastoral Tragi-Comedy, presented before her
Majesty by the university of Oxford, London 1623, 4to.
5. The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses, presented in a Masque the 8th
of January at Hampton-Court, by the Queen's most excellent Majesty and
her Ladies. London 1604, 8vo. and 1623, 4to. It is dedicated to the
Lady Lucy, countess of Bedford. His design under the shapes, and in
the persons of the Twelve Goddesses, was to shadow out the blessings
which the nation enjoyed, under the peaceful reign of King James I. By
Juno was represented Power; by Pallas Wisdom and Defence; by Venus,
Love and Amity; by Vesta, Religion; by Diana, Chastity; by Proserpine,
Riches; by Macaria, Felicity; by Concordia, the Union of Hearts;
by Astraea, Justice; by Flora, the Beauties of the Earth; by Ceres,
Plenty; and by Tathys, Naval Power.
6. The Tragedy of Philotas, 1611, 8vo. it is dedicated to the Prince,
afterwards King Charles I.
This play met with some opposition, because it was reported that the
character of Philotas was drawn for the unfortunate earl of Essex,
which obliged the author to vindicate himself from this charge, in an
apology printed at the end of the play; both this play, and that of
Cleopatra, are written after the manner of the ancients, with a chorus
between each act.
7. The History of the Civil Wars between the Houses of York and
Lancaster, a Poem in eight books, London, 1604, in 8vo. and 1623, 4to.
with his picture before it.
8. A Funeral Poem on the Death of the Earl of Devonshire, London,
1603, 4to.
9. A Panegyric Congratulatory, delivered to the King at
Burleigh-Harrington in Rutlandshire, 1604 and 1623, 4to.
10. Epistles to various great Personages in Verse, London, 1601 and
1623, 4to.
11. The Passion of a Distressed Man, who being on a tempest on the
sea, and having in his boat two women (of whom he loved the one who
disdained him, and scorned the other who loved him) was, by command of
Neptune, to cast out one of them to appease the rage of the tempest,
but which was referred to his own choice. If the reader is curious to
know the determination of this man's choice, it is summed up in the
concluding line of the poem.
She must be cast away, that would not save.
12. Musophilus, a Defence of Learning; written dialogue-wise,
addressed to Sir Fulk Greville.
13. Various Sonnets to Delia, 57 in number.
14. An Ode. 15. A Pastoral. 16. A Description of Beauty. 17. To the
Angel Spirit of Sir Philip Sidney. 18. A Defence of Rhime. All these
pieces are published together in two volumes, 12 mo. under the title
of the poetical pieces of Mr. Samuel Daniel.
But however well qualified our author's genius was for poetry, yet
Langbain is of opinion that his history is the crown of all his works.
It was printed about the year 1613, and dedicated to Queen Anne. It
reaches from the state of Britain under the Romans, to the beginning
of the reign of Richard II. His history has received encomiums from
various hands, as well as his poetry: It was continued by John Trusul,
with like brevity and candour, but not with equal elegance, 'till the
reign of Richard III. A.D. 1484. Mr. Daniel lived respected by men of
worth and fashion, he passed through life without tasting many of the
vicissitudes of fortune; he seems to have been a second rate genius,
and a tolerable versifier; his poetry in some places is tender, but
want of fire is his characteristical fault. He was unhappy in the
choice of his subject of a civil war for a poem, which obliged him
to descend to minute descriptions, and nothing merely narrative
can properly be touched in poetry, which demands flights of the
imagination and bold images.
* * * * *
Sir JOHN HARRINGTON,
Born at Kelston near the city of Bath, was the son of John Harrington
esquire, who was imprisoned in the Tower in the reign of Queen Mary,
for holding a correspondence with the Lady Elizabeth; with whom he was
in great favour after her accession to the crown, and received many
testimonies of her bounty and gratitude. Sir John, our author, had the
honour to be her god-son, and both in respect to his father's merit,
and his own, he was so happy to possess her esteem to the last[1].
He had the rudiments of his education at Eaton; thence removing to
Cambridge, he there commenced master of arts, and before he arrived at
his 30th year, he favoured the world with a translation of the Orlando
Furioso of Ariosto, by which he acquired some reputation. After this
work, he composed four books of epigrams, which in those times were
received with great applause; several of these mention another
humorous piece of his called Misacmos Metatmorphosis, which for a
while exposed him to her Majesty's resentment, yet he was afterwards
received into favour. This (says Mrs. Cooper) is not added to the rest
of his works, and therefore she supposes was only meant for a Court
amusement, not the entertainment of the public, or the increase of
his fame. In the reign of King James I. he was created Knight of the
Bath[2], and presented a manuscript to Prince Henry, called a Brief
View of the State of the Church of England, as it stood in Queen
Elizabeth and King James's reign in the year 1608. This piece was
levelled chiefly against the married bishops, and was intended only
for the private use of his Highness, but was some years afterwards
published by one of Sir John's grandsons, and occasioned much
displeasure from the clergy, who did not fail to recollect that his
conduct was of a piece with his doctrines, as he, together with Robert
earl of Leicester, supported Sir Walter Raleigh in his suit to Queen
Elizabeth for the manor of Banwell, belonging to the bishopric of Bath
and Wells, on the presumption that the right reverend incumbent had
incurred a Premunire, by marrying a second wife.