To the other evils of our civil war must be added the interruption of polite learning, and the suppression of many dramatick and poetical names, which were plunged in obscurity by tumults and revolutions, and have straints on booksellers were laid. Among these are the following, "That no plaies be printed, excepte they bee allowed by such as have auctoritye." The records of the Stationers, however, contain the entries of some which have never yet been met with by the most successful collectors; nor are their titles to be found in any registers of the stage, whether ancient or modern. It should seem, from the same volumes, that it was customary for the Stationers to seize the whole impression of any work that had given offence, and burn it publickly at their hall, in obedience to the edicts of the archbishop of Canterbury, and the bishop of London, who sometimes enjoyed these lite rary executions at their respective palaces. Among other works condemned to the flames by these discerning prelates, were the complete satires of bishop Hall. Mr. Theobald, at the conclusion of the preface to his first edition of Shakspere, asserts, that, exclusive of the dramas of Ben Jonson, and Beaumont and Fletcher, he had read "above 800 of old English plays." He omitted this assertion, however, on the republication of the same work, and, I hope, he did so, through a consciousness of its utter falsehood; for, if we except the plays of the authors already mentioned, it would be difficult to discover half the number, that were written early enough to serve the purpose for which he pretends to have perused this imaginary stock of ancient literature, I might have never since attracted curiosity. The utter neglect of ancient English literature continued so long, that many books may be supposed to be lost; and that curiosity, which has been now for some years increasing among us, wants materials for its operations. Books and pamphlets, printed originally in small numbers, being thus neglected, were soon destroyed; and though the capital authors were preserved, they were preserved to languish without regard. How little Shakspere himself was once read, may be understood from Tate*, who, in his dedication to the altered play I might add, that the private collection of Mr. Theobald, which, including the plays of Jonson, Fletcher, and Shakspere, did not amount to many more than an hundred, remained entire, in the hands of the late Mr. Tonson, till the time of his death. It does not appear, that any other collection but the Harleian, was at that time formed; nor does Mr. Theobald's edition contain any intrinsick evidences of so comprehensive an examination of our eldest dramatick writers, as he assumes to himself the merit of having made. * In the year 1707, Mr. N. Tate published a tragedy called Injured Love, or the Cruel Husband, and in the titlepage of it calls himself, "Author of the tragedy called King Lear." In a book called The Actor, or a Treatise on the Art of Playing, 12mo. published in 1750, and imputed to Dr. Hill, is the following pretended extract from Romeo and Juliet, with the author's remark on it; "The play of King Lear, speaks of the original, as of an obscure piece, recommended to his notice by a friend; and the author of the Tatler, having occasion to quote a few lines out of Macbeth, was content to receive them from "The saints that heard our vows, and know our love, "Seeing thy faith and thy unspotted truth, "Will sure take care, and let no wrongs annoy thee. "As I, perhaps, shall wander through the desert, "The reader will pardon us on this and some other occasions, that where we quote passages from plays, we give them as the author gives them, not as the butcherly hand of a blockhead prompter may have lopped them, or as the unequal genius of some bungling critick may have attempted to mend them. Whoever remembers the merit of the player's speaking the things we celebrate them for, we are pretty confident, will wish he spoke them absolutely as we give them, that is, as the author gives them." Perhaps it is unnecessary to inform the reader, that not one of the lines above quoted is to be found in the Romeo and Juliet of Shakspere. They are copied from the Caius Marius of Otway. How little Shakspere himself was once read, &c.] Though from D'Avenant's alteration of that celebrated drama, in which almost every original beauty is either awkwardly disguised, or arbitrarily omitted. So little were the defects or peculiarities of the old writers known, Though no author appears to have been more admired in his lifetime than Shakspere, at no very distant period after his death his compositions seem to have been neglected. Jonson had long endeavoured to depreciate him, but he and his partisans were unsuccessful in their efforts; yet about the year 1640, whether from some capricious vicissi tude in the publick taste, or from a general inattention to the drama, we find Shirley complaining that no company came to our author's performances. "You see "What audience we have; what company "To Shakspere comes? whose mirth did once beguile "Dull hours, and buskin'd make even sorrow smile; "So lovely were the wounds, that men would say, They could endure the bleeding a whole day; "He has but few friends lately." Prologue to The Sisters. After the Restoration, on the revival of the theatres, the plays of Beaumont and Fletcher were esteemed so much superior to those of our author, that we are told by Dryden, two of their pieces were acted, through the year, for one of Shakspere's." If his testimony needed any corroboration, the following lines in a Satire published in 1680, would afford it: "At known, even at the beginning of our century, that though the custom of alliteration had prevailed to that degree in the time of Shakspere, that it became contemptible and ridiculous, yet it is made one of Waller's praises, by a writer of his life, that he first introduced this practice into English versification. It will be expected, that some notice should be taken of the last editor of Shakspere, and that his merits should be estimated with those of his predecessors. Little, however, can be said of a work, tó the composition of which, both a large proportion of "At every shop while Shakspere's lofty style "Neglected lies, to mice and worms a spoil, "Gilt on the back, just smoking from the press, "The apprentice shews you D'Urfey's Hudibras, "Crown's Mask, bound up with Settle's choicest labours, "And promises some new essay of Babor's." See also the prologue to Shirley's Love Tricks, 1667. “In our old plays the humour, love, and passion, "Like doublet, hose, and cloke, are out of fashion; "That which the world call'd wit in Shakspere's age, "Is laugh'd at as improper for our stage." From the instances mentioned by Mr. Steevens, he appears to have been equally neglected in the time of Queen Anne. During these last fifty years, ample compensation has been made to him for the bad taste and inattention of the periods above mentioned. MALONE. |