often makes a merit of being useless to others: idlenefs is a real vice in every affociation.

Juftice is the true bafis of all the focial virtues: it is juftice which holds the balance between the feveral members of society, and keeps it in an equilibrium, which remedies thofe evils that might arife from the inequality that nature has eftablished among men, and even makes it contribute to the general good; which fecures to individuals their rights, their property, their perfons, their liberty, and protects them from the attacks of force, and the faares of treachery; which obliges them to be faithful to their engage. ments, and banishes fraud and falfehood from among men in a word, it is juftice which, by means of equitable law, and wife diftribution of rewards and punifhments, excites to virtue, restrains from vice, and leads thofe to reafon and reflection, who might be tempted to purchafe a momentary good, by doing a lafting injury to their fellow-creatures. A curious Spanish Anecdote. From a Tour in Spain, in the Year 1755. AUGHTINESS is a vice which pre

Hvails in Spain among the lowest peo

ple, and even among the beggars. A

BRITISH and IRISH BIOGRAPHY.

S

Life of William Shakespeare. HAKESPEARE (William) the celebrated dramatic poet, was the fon of Mr. John Shakespeare, and was born at Stratford upon Avon, in the county of Warwick, in April, 1564. His father, who was a confiderable dealer in wool, had fo large a family, ten children in all, that though our poet was his eldest fon, he could not afford to give him a liberal education, but was obliged to bring him up to his own employment. He had, indeed, fent him for fome time to a freeSchool, where he probably acquired what Latin he was mafter of. But the narrowDels of his circumftances, and the want of his affiftance at home, forced his father to withdraw him from thence, and there by prevented his receiving any farther advantage from fcholaftic inlruction. Upon his leaving the fchool, he feems to have devoted himself entirely to that way of life, which his father proposed to him; and, in order to fule in the world, he married while he was yet very young, being little more than feventeen years of age. His wife was the daughter of one Hateway, faid to have been a fubftantial yeoman in the neighbourhood of Stratford. In this kind of fettlement he continued for fome time, till an extravagance which he was guilty of obliged him to quit that part of the country, and to relinquish the way of life into which he had enter ed. He had fallen into ill company; and, among them, fome that made a frequent practice of deer ftealing, engaged him wth them more than once in robbing a park that belonged to Sir Thomas Lucy, of Charlecot, near Stratford. For this he was profecuted by that gentleman, as thought, fomewhat too feverely; and, order to revenge that rigour, he wrote a ballad again him. And though this (which was probably his first poctical efty) is now loft, yet it is faid to have been & extremely poignant and fevere, that t heightened the profecution against him to fuch a degree, that he was obliged to leave his bufinefs and family in Warwickhire, and fhelter himself in London. Thus an incident, which at firft feemed A misfortune to him, and a reflection upon his character, was the meats of bring g into his proper fphere, the greatest dramatic writer which this country has produced,

As Shakespeare, during his refidence is the country, fometimes kept licentious company, we may probably fuppofe that bs application to bulinefs was not very great, and that he was forewbat deficient Hib. Mag. Feb. 1782.

in the article of œconomy. On his arrival at London, he was reduced to fuch extreme indigence, as compelled him to have recourfe to offices of a very mean kind for a fubfiftence. Thus we are told, that as, in the time of Elizabeth, when coaches were not much in ufe, many perfons went on horfeback to the play, one of Shakespeare's expedients to fupport himself, was to wait at the door of the play-house, and hold the horses of thofe that had no fervants, that they might be ready again after the performance. In this office he became, it is faid, fo confpicuous for his care and diligence, that in a fhort time every man, as he alighted, called for Will. Shakespeare, and fcarcely any other waiter was trufted with a horse, while Will. Shakespeare could be had. This was the firft dawn of better fortune. Shakespeare, finding more horfes put into his hands than be could hold, hired boys to wait under his infpection, who were known by the name of Shakespeare's boys. His wit, and agreeable converfation, foon recommended him to fome of the players; by whofe means he was introduced into the play-house, where he was at firft admitted in a very low ftation; but his admirable wit, and the natural turn of it to the ftage, foon diftinguished him, if not as an extraordinary actor, yet as an excellent writer. His name is printed, as the cuffom was in thofe times, among thofe of the other players, before fome old plays, but with out any mention of the characters he used to perform: and Mr. Nowe telis us, that he could never meet with any further account of him this way, than that the top of his performance was the Ghoft in his own Hamlet.

Shakespeare having, by practice and obfervation, foon acquainted himfelf with the mechanical economy of the theatre, his native genius supplied the reft. But the whole view of his first attempts in dramatic poetry being to procure a fubfiftence, he directed his endeavours folely to hit the tafte and humour that then prevailed among the lower fort of people, of whom the audience was generally compofed; and therefore his images of life were drawn from thofe of that rank, In this manner did Shakespeare set out, without the advantage of education, the advice or affittance of the learned, the patronage of the better fort, or any acquaintance among them. But when his performances had merited the protection of his fovereign, and the encouragement of the court had fucceeded to that of the town, the works of his riper years were manifeftly raised above the level of

his

his former productions. He was highly efteemed by queen Elizabeth, who had feveral of his plays acted before her, and gave him many marks of her favour. Her majefty was fo well pleafed with the admirable character of Falftaff, in the two parts of Henry IV. that the commanded Shakespeare to continue it for one play more, and to show him in love. And accordingly it is faid, that to this command we owe The Merry Wives of Windfor. Shakespeare alfo received many uncommon marks of favour from the earl of Southampton, the friend of the unfortunate earl of Effex. This generous nobleman is faid to have given our poct at one time a thousand pounds, to enable him to go through with a purchafe, which he heard he had a mind to: a bounty very great, and very rare at any time; and almoft equal, fays Mr. Rowe, to that profufe generofity which the prefent age has fhewn to French dancers and Italian fingers.

But the fharpnefs of this fatire is faid to have ftung the old gentleman fo feverely, that he never forgave it.

Shakespeare died on the 23d of April, 1616, in the fifty-third year of his age, and was interred on the north-fide of the chancel, in the great church of Stratford, where a handfome monument was erected for him, inferibed with the following Latin diftich:

66

Judicio Pylium, genio Socratem, arte
Maronem,

habet."

And on the grave-flone, in the pavement, underneath, are thele lines: "Good friend, for Jefus' fake, forbear "To dig the duft inclosed here. "Bleft be the man that spares thefe ftones "And curit be he that moves my bones."

Our poet's acquaintance with Ben Johnfon began with an act of good-nature and humanity. Johnfon,, who was at that time altogether unknown to the world, had offered one of his dramatic picces to the players, in order to have it performed. But the perfon into whofe hands it was put, after having turned it carele ff-"Terra tegit, populus moret, Olympus ly over, was just about returning it to him with an ill-natured anfwer, that it would be of no fervice to the company; when Shakespeare happening to caft his eye upon the piece, was fo well pleased with it, that he brought it on the stage, and afterwards recommended Johnfon and his writings to the public. In 1603 a licence was granted under the privy feal In the year 1740, another very noble by king James J. to Shakespeare, Fletcher, monument was erected to his memory, at Philips, Hemmings, Condel, Burbage, the public expence, in Weftmintter-Aband others, authorizing them to act plays bey; an ample contribution being made not only at their ufual houfe, the Globe, for this purpofe, upon exhibiting his traon the Bank-fide, Southwark, but in any other part of the kingdom, during his gedy of Julius Cæfar, at the theatre roymajefty's pleasure. There is no certain al in Drury-lane, on the 28th of April, account when Shakespeare quitted the 1738. The trustees for the public on this tage. But it appears that the latter part Mead, Mr. Pope, and Charles Fleetwood, occafion, were the earl of Burlington, Dr. of his life was spent in ease, retirement, and the converfation of his friends. He Efe; the monument was defigned by Kent, had the good fortune to acquire a decent and executed by Scheemakers, and is excompetency; and spent fome years be- tremely elegant. Shakespeare is reprefentfore his death at his native town of ed, in the drefs of his time, in white marStratford. His uncommon wit, and ex- ble, at full length, leaning a little on his treme good-nature, procured him the right arm, which is fupported by a pedefacquaintance, and entitled him to the tal; at the bottom of which hangs a feroll, friendship, of all the gentlemen in the infcribed with the following lines from the neighbourhood; and amongst them, ac Tempeft. cording to a ftory long remembered in that part of the country, he had a particular intimacy with Mr. Combe, an old gentleman noted thereabouts for his

"The cloud-capt towers, the gorgeous palaces,

"The folemn temples, the great globe itfcif,

"Yea,

"Yea, all which it inherit, fhall diffolve, "And like the bafclefs fabric of a vifion, "Leave not a wreck behind."

And above his head behind there is fixed a plate of curious marble, on which is the following infeription, in raised letters of brafs richly gift.

66

compofition which prevailed in that age, from the fituation he was in as a player, from the manner in which his plays were published, and from other caufes. will conclude (Lays he) by faying of Shakefpeare, that with all his faults, and with all the irregularities of his drama, one may "Gulielmo Shakespeare, anno poft look upon his works, in comparison of mortem cxxiv. amor publicus pofuit." thofe that are moft finished and regular, The highest commendations have been as upon an antient majeftic piece of Gobeftowed on this inimitable bard by the thic architecture, compared with a neat ableft pens. "If ever any author (fays modern building. The latter is more ele. Mr. Pope) deferved the name of an origi- gant and glaring, but the former is more nal, it was Shakespeare. Homer himself ftrong and more folemn. It must be aldrew not his art fo immediately from the lowed, that in one of these there are mafountains of nature; it proceeded through terials enough to make many of the other. Egyptian ftrainers and channels, and came It has much the greater variety, and much to him not without fome tincture of the the nobler apartments; though we are oflearning, or fome caft of the models, of ten conducted to them by dark, odd, and those before him. The poetry of Shakef- uncouth paffages. Nor does the whole peare was infpiration indeed; he is not fo fail to ftrike us with greater reverence, much an imitator, as an inftrument, of na. though many of the parts are childifli,. ture; and it is not fo juft to say that he ill placed, and unequal to its grandeur. fpeaks from her, as that he speaks through Shakespeare (fays Dr. Johnfon) is, him. His characters are fo much nature itself, that 'tis a fort of injury to call them by fo diftant a name as copies of her. Thofe of other poets have a conftant refemblance, which fhews that they received them from one another, and were but multipliers of the fame image: each picture, like a mock rainbow, is but the reflection of a reflection. But every fingle character in Shakespeare is as much an individual, as thofe in life itself; it is as impoffible to find any two alike; and fuch as from their relation or affinity in any ref pect appear mot to be twins, will upon comparifon be found remarkably diftinét. His fentiments are not only in general the moft pertinent and judicious upon every fubject; but, by a talent very peculiar, fomething between penetration and felicity, he hits upon that particular point on which the bent of each argument turns, or the force of each motive depends. This is perfectly amazing, from a man of no education or experience in thofe great and public fcenes of life, which are ufually the fubject of his thoughts; fo that he items to have known the world by intuitiun, to have looked through human na ture at one glance, and to be the only author that gives ground for a very new opinion, that the philofopher, and even the man of the world, may be born, as well as the poet."

Mr. Pope however was not fo ftruck with Shakespeare's excellencies, as to be infenfible to his defects; but obferves, that as he has certainly written better, fo be has perhaps written worke, than any other. He endeavours to account for thefe defects from the falfe tafte in dramatic

above all writers, at least above all modern' writers, the poet of nature; the poet that holds up to his readers a faithful mirror of manners and of life. His characters are not modified by the cufioms of par-, ticular places, unpractifed by the rest of the world: by the peculiarities of studies or profeffions, which can operate but upon fmall numbers; or by the accidents of tranfient fashions, or temporary opinious. They are the genuine progeny of common humanity, fuch as the world will always fupply, and obfervation will always find. His perfons act and speak by the influence of thofe general paffions and principles by which all minds are agitated, and the whole fy item of life is continued in motion. In the writings of other poets a character is too often an individual; in thofe of Shakespeare it is commonly a fpecies.. It is from this wide extenfion of defig that fo much inftruction is derived. It is this which fills the plays of Shakespeare with practical axioms and domeftic wif dom. It was faid of Euripides, that every verfe was a precept; and it may be faid of shakespeare, that from his works may be collected a fyftem of civil and economical prudence.

"It will not easily be imagined how much Shakespeare excels in accommodating his fentiments to real life, but by comparing him with other authors. It was obferved of the ancient fchools of decla mation, that the more diligently they were frequented, the more was the ftudent difqualified for the world, because he found nothing there which he should ever meet in any other place. The fame remark may be applied to every stage but that of I 2 Shakespeare,