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Stratford, February 2, 1584-5, we may presume that he had not left the country at that time.

He could not have wanted an easy introduction to the theatre; for Thomas Greene *, a celebrated comedian was his townsman, perhaps his relation, and Michael

* "There was not (says Heywood in his preface to Greene's Tu quoque, a comedy) an actor of his nature in his time, of better ability in the performance of what he undertook, more applauded by the audience, of greater grace at the court, or of more general love in the city." The birth-place of Thomas Greene is ascertained by the following lines, which he speaks in one of the old comedies, in the character of a clown:

" I pratled poesie in my nurse's arms,
"And, born were late our swan of Avon sung;
"In Avon's streams we both of us have lav'd,
"And both came out together."

Chetwood quotes this passage, in his British Theatre, from the comedy of the Two Maids of Moreclack; but no such passage is there to be found. He deserves but little credit, having certainly forged many of his dates; however, he probably met these lines in some ancient play, though he forgot the name of the piece from which he transcribed them. Greene was a writer as well as an actor. There are some verses of his prefixed to a collection of Drayton's poems, published in the year 1613. He was, perhaps, a kinsman of Shakspere's. In the register of the parish of Stratford, Thomas Greene, alias Shakspere, is said to have been buried March 6, 1589. He might have been the actor's father.

Drayton Drayton was likewise born in Warwickshire; the latter was nearly of his own age; and both were in some degree of reputation soon after the year 1590. If I were to indulge a conjecture, I should name the middle of the year 1591, as the æra when our author commenced a writer for the stage; at which time he was somewhat more than twenty-seven years old. The reasons that induce me to fix on that period are these. In Webbe's Discourse of English Poetry, published in 1586, we meet with the names of most of the celebrated poets of that time; particularly those of George Whetstone * and Antony Munday †, who

were

* The author of Promos and Cassandra, a play which furnished Shakspere with the fable of Measure for Measure.

+ This poet is mentioned by Meres, in his Wit's Treasury, as an eminent comick writer, and the best plotter of his time. He seems to have been introduced under the name of Don Antonio Balladino, in a comedy that has been attributed to Ben Jonson, called The Case is Altered; and from the following passages in that piece appears to have been city-poet; whose business it was to compose an annual panegyrick on the Lord-Mayor, and to write verses for the pageants: an office which has been discontinued since the death of Elkanah Settle in 1722:

Onion.

"Shall I request your name? Ant. My name is Antonio Balladino. Oni. Balladino! You are not pageant-poet to the city of Milan, Sir, are you?

Ant.

were dramatick writers; but we find no trace of our author, or of any of his works. Three years afterwards, Puttenham printed his Art of English Poesy; and in that work also we look in vain for the name of Shakspere *. Sir John Harrington in his Apologie for Poetry,

Ant. I supply the place, Sir, when a worse cannot be had, Sir. Did you see the last pageant I set forth?"

Afterwards Antonio, speaking of the plays he had writtten, says,

"Let me have good ground-no matter for the pen; the plot shall carry it.

Oni. Indeed that's right; you are in print, already, for

THE BEST PLOTTER.

Ant. Ay; I might as well have been put in for a dumb shew too."

It is evident, that this poet is here intended to be ridiculed by Ben Jonson; but he might, notwithstanding, have been deservedly eminent. That malignity, which endeavoured to tear a wreath from the brow of Shakspere, would certainly not spare inferior writers.

*The thirty-first chapter of the first book of Puttenham's Art of English Poesy is thus entitled: "Who in any age have bene the most commended writers in our English Poesie, and the author's censure given upon them."

After having enumerated several authors who were then celebrated for various kinds of composition, he gives this succinct account of those who had written for the stage: "Of the latter sort I thinke thus; that for tragedie, the Lord Buckhurst Poetry, prefixed to the Translation of Ariosto (which was entered in the Stationers' books, February 26, 1590-1, in which year, it was printed), takes occasion to speak of the theatre, and mentions some of the celebrated dramas of that time; but says not a word of Shakspere,

of any of his plays. If even Love's Labour Lost had then appeared, which was probably his first dramatick composition, is it imaginable, that Harrington should have mentioned the Cambridge Pedantius, and The Play of the Cards (which last, he tells us was a London comedy), and have passed by, unnoticed, the new prodigy of the dramatick world.

That Shakspere had commenced a writer for the stag,and had even excited the jealousy of his contemporaries, before September 1592, is now decisively prove by a passage * extracted by Mr. Tyrwhitt from Robert

Buckhurst and Maister Edward Ferrys, for such doings as I have sene of theirs, do deserve the hyest price; the Earl of Oxford and Maister Edwardes of her Majestie's Chappell, for comedie and enterlude."

* See Vol. VI. p. ult. where the passage is given at large. The paragraph which immediately follows that quoted by Mr. Tyrwhitt, though obscure, is worth tran scribing, as it seems to allude to Shakspere's country education, and to intimate, that he had not removed to London long before the year 1592.--After having mentioned a person who had newly appeared in the double capacity of actor and author, "one who is in his owne conceit the only

Shak

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