1

merely founded on their own want of acquaintance with the peculiarities of ancient spelling and language; for even modern poetry has sometimes been in danger from the chances of their fuperintendance. He whose business it is to offer this unusual apology, very well remembers to have been fitting with Dr. Johnson, when an agent from a neighbouring press brought in the proof sheet of a republication, requesting to know whether a particular word in it was not corrupted.

66

So far from it, Sir, (replied the Doctor, with some harsiness,) that the word you suspect and would displace, is confpicuously beautiful where it stands, and is the only one that could have done the duty expected from it by Mr. Pope."

As for cancels, it is in the power of every careless binder to defeat their purpose; for they are so seldom lodged with uniformity in their proper places, that they as often ferve to render copies imperfect, as to screen an author from the charge of ignorance or inattention. The leaf appropriated to one volume, is sometimes shuffled into the corresponding page of another; and sometimes the faulty leaf is withdrawn, and no other substituted in its room. These circumstances might be exemplified; but the subject is scarcely of consequence enough to be more than generally stated to the reader, whose indulgence is again folicited on account of blemishes which in the course of an undertaking like this are unavoidable, and could not, at its conclufion, have been remedied but by the hazard of more extensive mifchief; - an indulgence, indeed, that will more readily be granted, and especially for the fake of the compofitors, when it is understood, that, on an average, every page of the present work, including spaces, quadrats, points and letters, is (to speak technically) composed of 2680 diftinct pieces of metal. *

As was formerly therefore observed, he who waited till the river should run dry, did not act with less reason than the editors would do, who should fufpend a voluminous and complicated publication, in the vain hope of rendering it abfolutely free from literary and typographical errors.

Number of letters, &c. in a page of Shakspeare, 1793.

The average number in each line The average number in each line

(including letters, points, spaces, &c.) is 47; the number of lines

A

(including letters, points, spaces, &c.) is 67; the number of lines in a page 47

67

47

469

268

3149 in a page.

From this calculation it is clear, that a common page, admitting it to confift of 1-3d text, and 2-3ds notes, contains about 2680 distinct pieces of metal; which multiplied by 16, the number of pages in a sheet, will amount to 42,880-the misplacing of any one of which would inevitably cause a blunder. PLYMSELL.

SOME

ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE, &c.

OF

WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE.

WRITTEN BY MR. ROWE.

IT Tfeems to be a kind of respect due to the memory of excellent men, especially of those whom their wit and learning have made famous, to deliver some account of themselves, as well as their works, to pofterity. For this reason, how fond do we fee fome people of discovering any little personal story of the great men of antiquity! their families, the common accidents of their lives, and even their shape, make, and features, have been the subject of critical inquiries. How trifling foever this curiofity may seem to be, it is certainly very natural; and we are hardly satisfied with an account of any remarkable person, till we have heard him defcribed even to the very cloaths he wears. As for what relates to men ofletters, the knowledge of an author may fometimes conduce to the better understanding his book; and though the works of Mr. Shakspeare may feem to many not to want a comment, yet I fancy fome little account of the man himself may not be thought improper to go along with them.

He was the fon of Mr. John Shakspeare, and was born at Stratford-upon-Avon, in Warwickshire, in April 1564. His family, as appears by the register and publick writings relating to that town, were of good figure and fashion there, and are mentioned as VOL. I.

B

gentlemen. His father, who was a confiderable dealer in wool, had fo large a family, ten children

2 His father, who was a confiderable dealer in wool,) It appears that he had been officer and bailiff of Stratford-upon-Avon; and that he enjoyed some hereditary lands and tenements, the reward of his grandfather's faithful and approved services to King Henry VII. See the Extract from the Herald's Office. THEOBALD.

The chief magiftrate of the Body Corporate of Stratford, now diftinguished by the title of Mayor, was in the early charters called the High Bailiff. This office Mr. John Shakspeare filled in 1569, as appears from the following extracts from the books of the corporation, with which I have been favoured by the Rev. Mr. Davenport, Vicar of Stratford-upon-Avon.

،، Jan. 10, in the 6th year of the reign of our fovereign lady Queen Elizabeth, John Shakspeare paffed his Chamberlain's

accounts.

،، At the Hall holden the eleventh day of September, in the eleventh year of the reign of our fovereign lady Elizabeth, 1569, were present Mr. John Shakspeare, High Bailiff.,, (Then follow the names of the Aldermen and Burgesses.

،، At the Hall holden Nov. 19th, in the 21st year of the reign of our fovereign lady Queen Elizabeth, it is ordained, that every Alderman shall be taxed to pay weekly 4d. faving John Shakspeare and Robert Bruce, who shall not be taxed to pay any thing; and every burgess to pay 2d.,,

،، At the Hall holden on the 6th day of September, in the 28th year of our fovereign lady Queen Elizabeth.

،، At this hall William Smith and Richard Courte are chofen to be Aldermen in the places of John Wheler, and John Shakspeare, for that Mr. Wheler doth defire to be put out of the company, and Mr. Shakspere doth not come to the halls, when they be warned, nor hath not done of long time.,,

From these extracts it may be collected, (as is observed by the gentleman above-mentioned, to whose obliging attention to my inquiries I am indebted for many particulars relative to our poet's family,) that Mr. John Shakspeare in the former part of his life was in good circumstances, such persons being generally chofen into the corporation; and from his being excused (in 1579) to pay 4d. weekly, and at a subsequent period (1586) put out of the corporation, that he was then reduced in his circumstances.

It appears from a note to W. Dethick's Grant of Arms to him in 1596, now in the College of Arms, Vincent, Vol. 157, in all, that though he was his eldest son, he could give him no better education than his own employment. He had bred him, it is true, for fome time at a free-school, where, it is probable, he acquired what Latin he was master of: but the narrowness of his circumstances, and the want of his assistance at home, forced his father to withdraw him from thence, and unhappily prevented his further proficiency in that language. It is without controverfy, that in his works we scarce find any traces of any thing that looks like an imitation of the ancients. The delicacy of his taste, 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 study them with fo much pleasure, that some of their fine images would naturally have infinuated themselves into, and been mixed with his own writings; so that his not copying at least something from them, may be an argument of his never having read them. Whether his ignorance of the ancients were a disadvantage to him or no, may admit of a dispute: for though the knowledge of them might have made him more correct, yet it is notimprobable but that the regularity and deference p. 24, that he was a justice of the peace, and poffeffed of lands and tenements to the amount of 5ool.

Our poet's mother was the daughter and heir of Robert Arden, of Wellingcote, in the county of Warwick, who, in the Mf. above referred to, is called ،، a gentleman of worship.,, The family of Arden is a very ancient one; Robert Arden of Eromwich, efq, being in the lift of the gentry of this county, return. ed by the commiffioners in the twelfth year of King Henry VI. A. D. 1433. Edward Arden was Sherif of the county in 1568. The woodland part of this county was anciently called Ardern; afterwards foftened to Arden. Hence the name.