Some Account of the Life of Mr. William Shakespear (1709) | Page 6

to him or no, may admit of a Dispute: For tho' the
knowledge of 'em might have made him more Correct, yet it is not
improbable but that the Regularity and Deference for them, which
would have attended that Correctness, might have restrain'd some of
that Fire, Impetuosity, and even beautiful Extravagance which we
admire in _Shakespear_: And I believe we are better pleas'd with those
Thoughts, altogether New and Uncommon, which his own Imagination
supply'd him so abundantly with, than if he had given us the most
beautiful Passages out of the Greek and Latin Poets, and that in the
most agreeable manner that it was possible for a Master of the English
Language to deliver 'em. Some Latin without question he did know,
and one may see up and down in his Plays how far his Reading that
way went: In _Love's Labour lost_, the Pedant comes out with a Verse
of _Mantuan_; and in Titus Andronicus, one of the Gothick Princes,
upon reading
_Integer vitæ scelerisque purus Non eget Mauri jaculis nec arcu--_
says, _'Tis a Verse in_ Horace, but he remembers it out of his Grammar:
Which, I suppose, was the Author's Case. Whatever Latin he had, 'tis
certain he understood French, as may be observ'd from many Words
and Sentences scatter'd up and down his Plays in that Language; and
especially from one Scene in Henry the Fifth written wholly in it. Upon
his leaving School, he seems to have given intirely into that way of
Living which his Father propos'd to him; and in order to settle in the
World after a Family manner, he thought fit to marry while he was yet
very Young. His Wife was the Daughter of one Hathaway, said to have
been a substantial Yeoman in the Neighbourhood of Stratford. In this
kind of Settlement he continu'd for some time, 'till an Extravagance that
he was guilty of, forc'd him both out of his Country and that way of
Living which he had taken up; and tho' it seem'd at first to be a Blemish
upon his good Manners, and a Misfortune to him, yet it afterwards
happily prov'd the occasion of exerting one of the greatest _Genius's_
that ever was known in Dramatick Poetry. He had, by a Misfortune
common enough to young Fellows, fallen into ill Company; and
amongst them, some that made a frequent practice of Deer-stealing,
engag'd him with them more than once in robbing a Park that belong'd

to Sir Thomas Lucy of Cherlecot, near Stratford. For this he was
prosecuted by that Gentleman, as he thought somewhat too severely;
and in order to revenge that ill Usage, he made a Ballad upon him. And
tho' this, probably the first Essay of his Poetry, be lost, yet it is said to
have been so very bitter, that it redoubled the Prosecution against him
to that degree, that he was oblig'd to leave his Business and Family in
Warwickshire, for some time, and shelter himself in London.
It is at this Time, and upon this Accident, that he is said to have made
his first Acquaintance in the Play-house. He was receiv'd into the
Company then in being, at first in a very mean Rank; But his admirable
Wit, and the natural Turn of it to the Stage, soon distinguish'd him, if
not as an extraordinary Actor, yet as an excellent Writer. His Name is
Printed, as the Custom was in those Times, amongst those of the other
Players, before some old Plays, but without any particular Account of
what sort of Parts he us'd to play; and tho' I have inquir'd, I could never
meet with any further Account of him this way, than that the top of his
Performance was the Ghost in his own Hamlet. I should have been
much more pleas'd, to have learn'd from some certain Authority, which
was the first Play he wrote; it would be without doubt a pleasure to any
Man, curious in Things of this Kind, to see and know what was the first
Essay of a Fancy like _Shakespear's_. Perhaps we are not to look for
his Beginnings, like those of other Authors, among their least perfect
Writings; Art had so little, and Nature so large a Share in what he did,
that, for ought I know, the Performances of his Youth, as they were the
most vigorous, and had the most fire and strength of Imagination in 'em,
were the best. I would not be thought by this to mean, that his Fancy
was so loose and extravagant, as to be Independent on the Rule and
Government of Judgment; but that what he thought, was commonly so
Great, so justly and rightly Conceiv'd in it self, that it wanted little or
no Correction, and was