us, that for this, Shakspeare muft have read Saxo Grammaticus in Latin, for no tranflation hath been made into any modern language. But the truth is, he did not take it from Saxo at all; a novel called The Hyftorie of Hamblet, was his original: a fragment of which, in black letter, I have been favoured with by a very curious and intelligent gentleman, to whom the lovers of Shakspeare will fome time or other owe great obligations. It hath indeed been faid, that " IF fuch an history exifts, it is almoft impoffible that any poet unacquainted with the Latin language (fuppofing his perceptive faculties to have been ever fo acute,) could have caught the characteristical madness of Hamlet, defcribed by Saxo Grammaticus,+ so happily as it is delineated by Shakspeare. Very luckily, our fragment gives us a part of Hamlet's fpeech to his mother, which fufficiently replies to this observation:-" It was not without cause, and jufte occafion, that my geftures, countenances and words feeme to proceed from a mad'man, and that I defire to haue all men efteeme mee wholy depriued of fence and reasonable understanding, bycause I am well affured, that he that hath made no confcience to kill his owne brother, (accustomed to murthers, and allured with defire of gouernement without controll in his treasons,) will not spare to faue himselfe with the like crueltie, in the blood, and flesh of the loyns of his brother, by him maffacred: and therefore it is better for me to fayne madneffe then to use my right fences as "Falfitatis enim (Hamlethus) alienus haberi cupidus, ita aftutiam veriloquio permifcebat, ut nec dictis veracitas deeffet, nec acuminis modus verorum judicio proderetur." This is quoted, as it had been before, in Mr. Guthrie's Effay on Tragedy, with a Small variation from the Original. See edit. fol. 1644, p. 50. nature hath beftowed them upon me. The bright fhining clearnes therof I am forced to hide vnder this fhadow of diffimulation, as the fun doth hir beams vnder fome great cloud, when the wether in summer time ouercafteth: the face of a mad man, ferueth to couer my gallant countenance, and the gestures of a fool are fit for me, to the end that guiding my felf wifely therin I may preferue my life for the Danes and the memory of my late deceased father, for that the defire of reuenging his death is fo ingrauen in my heart, that if I dye not shortly, I hope to take fuch and fo great vengeance, that these countryes fhall for euer fpeake thereof. Neuertheless I muft ftay the time, meanes, and occafion, left by making ouer great haft, I be now the cause of mine own fodaine ruine and ouerthrow, and by that meanes, end, before I beginne to effect my hearts defire: hee that hath to doe with a wicked, difloyall, cruell, and difcourteous man, muft vfe craft, and politike inuentions, fuch as fine witte can beft imagine, not to difcouer his interprife for feeing that by force I cannot affect my defire, reason alloweth me by diffimulation, fubtiltie, and fecret practises to proceed therein." But to put the matter out of all queftion, my communicative friend, above-mentioned, Mr. Capell, (for why fhould I not give myfelf the credit of his name?) hath been fortunate enough to procure from the collection of the Duke of Newcattle, a complete copy of the Hyftorie of Hamblet, which proves to be a tranflation from the French of Belleforeft; and he tells me, that "all the chief incidents of the play, and all the capital characters are there in embryo, after a rude and barbarous manner fentiments indeed there are none, that Shakspeare could borrow; nor any expreffion but one, which is, where Hamlet kills Polonius behind the arras in doing which he is made to cry out as in the play, "a rat, a rat!"-So much for Saxo Grammaticus! It is fcarcely conceivable, how industriously the puritanical zeal of the laft age exerted itself in deftroying, amongft better things, the innocent amusements of the former. Numberlefs Tales and Poems are alluded to in old books, which are now perhaps no where to be found. Mr. Capell informs me, (and he is in these matters, the most able of all men to give information,) that our author appears to have been beholden to fome novels, which he hath yet only seen in French or Italian: but he adds, "to fay they are not in fome English dress, profaic or metrical, and perhaps with circumftances nearer to his ftories, is what I will not take upon me to do: nor indeed is what I believe; but rather the contrary, and that time and accident will bring fome of them to light, if not all." W. Painter, at the conclufion of the second Tome of his Palace of Pleasure, 1567, advertises the reader, "bicaufe fodaynly (contrary to expectation) this volume is rifen to a greater heape of leaues, I doe omit for this prefent time fundry nouels of mery deuife, referuing the fame to be joyned with the reft of an other part, wherein fhall fucceede the remnant of Bandello, fpecially futch (fuffrable) as the learned French man François de Belleforest hath selected, and the choysest done in the Italian. Some also out of Erizzo, Ser Giouanni Florentino, Parabofco, Cynthio, Straparole, Sanfouino, and the best liked out of the Queene of Nauarre, and other authors. Take these in good part, with those that haue and fhall come forth."-But I am not able to find that a third Tome was ever published: and it is very probable, that the intereft of his bookfellers, and more especially the prevailing mode of the time, might lead him afterward to print his fundry novels feparately. If this were the cafe, it is no wonder, that fuch fugitive pieces are recovered with difficulty; when the two Tomes, which Tom. Rawlinfon would have called jufta volumina, are almoft annihilated. Mr. Ames, who fearched after books of this fort with the utmost avidity, moft certainly had not seen them, when he published his Typographical Antiquities; as appears from his blunders about them and poffibly I myself might have remained in the fame predicament, had I not been favoured with a copy by my generous friend, Mr. Lort. Mr. Colman, in the Preface to his elegant tranflation of Terence, hath offered fome arguments for the learning of Shakspeare, which have been retailed with much confidence, fince the appearance of Mr. Johnfon's edition. "Besides the resemblance of particular paffages scattered up and down in different plays, it is well known, that the Comedy of Errors is in great measure founded on the Menæchmi of Plautus; but I do not recollect ever to have feen it obferved, that the disguise of the Pedant in The Taming of the Shrew, and his affuming the name and character of Vincentio, feem to be evidently taken from the difguife of the Sycophanta in the Trinummus of the faid author; 5 and there is a quotation from the 5 This obfervation of Mr. Colman is quoted by his very ingenious colleague, Mr. Thornton, in his tranflation of this play: who further remarks, in another part of it, that a paffage in Romeo and Juliet, where Shakspeare fpeaks of the contradiction in the nature of love, is very much in the manner of his author: "Amor-mores hominum moros & morofos efficit. Eunuch of Terence also, so familiarly introduced "Quom inopia'ft, cupias, quando ejus copia'ft, tum non velis," &c. Which he translates with ease and elegance, Love makes a man a fool, "Hard to be pleas'd.-What you'd perfuade him to, "He'll none on't.— A& III. fc. iii. Let us now turn to the paffage in Shakspeare: "Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, fick health! Shakspeare, I am fure, in the opinion of Mr. Thornton, did not want a Plautus to teach him the workings of nature; nor are his parallelifms produced with any fuch implication: but, I fuppofe, a peculiarity appears here in the manner of expreflion, which however was extremely the humour of the age. Every fonnetteer characterifes love by contrarieties. Watson begins one of his canzonets, "Love is a fowre delight, a fugred griefe, "A living death, an euer-dying life," &c. Turberville makes Reason harangue against it in the fame man ner: "A fierie froft, a flame that frozen is with ise! "A heavie burden light to beare! a vertue fraught with vice!" &c. Immediately from The Romaunt of the Rose: "Loue it is an hatefull pees "A free acquitaunce without reles→→→ "An heavie burthen light to beare "A wicked wawe awaie to weare: "And health full of maladie "And charitie full of envie "A laughter that is weping aie "Reft that trauaileth night and daie," &c. This kind of antithefs was very much the taste of the Provençal and Italian poets; perhaps it might be hinted by the Ode of Sappho, preferved by Longinus: Petrarch is full of it: |