THE reader has here an ancient ballad on the same subject as the play of Titus Andronicus," and it is probable that the one was borrowed from the other but which of them was the original, it is not easy to decide. And yet, if the argument offered above in page 227, for the priority of the ballad of the Jew of Venice may be admitted, somewhat of the same kind may be urged here; for this ballad differs from the play in several particulars, which a simple ballad-writer would be less likely to alter than an inventive tragedian. Thus, in the ballad, is no mention of the contest for the empire between the two brothers, the composing of which makes the ungrateful treatment of Titus afterwards the more flagrant neither is there any notice taken of his sacrificing one of Tamora's sons, which the tragic poet has assigned as the original cause of all her cruelties. In the play, Titus loses twenty-one of his sons in war, and kills another for assisting Bassianus to carry off Lavinia: the reader will find it different in the ballad. In the latter she is betrothed to the emperor's son: in the play to his brother. In the tragedy, only two of his sons fall into the pit, and the third, being banished, returns to Rome with a victorious army, to avenge the wrongs of his house in the ballad, all three are entrapped and suffer death. In the scene, the emperor kills Titus, and is, in return, stabbed by Titus's surviving son. Here Titus kills the emperor, and

afterwards himself.

Let the reader weigh these circumstances, and some others, wherein he will find them unlike, and then pronounce for himself.-After all, there is reason to conclude that this play was rather improved by Shakspeare, with a few fine touches of his pen, than originally written by him; for, not to mention that the style is less figurative than his others generally are, this tragedy is mentioned with discredit in the Induction to Ben Johnson's "Bartholomew Fair, in 1614," as one that had then been exhibited "five-and-twenty or thirty years:" which, if we take the lowest number, throws it back to the year 1589, at which time Shakspeare was but 25; an earlier date than can be found for any other of his pieces and if it does not clear him entirely of it, shows at least it was a first attemptt.

Mr. Malone thinks 1591 to be the æra when our author commenced a writer for the stage. See in his Shak sp. the ingenious "Attempt to ascertain the order in which the plays of Shakespeare were written."

+ Since the above was written, Shakespeare's memory has been fully vindicated from the charge of writing the above play by the best critics. See what has been urged by Steevens and Malone in their excellent editions of Shakespeare, &c.

The following is given from a copy in "The Golden Garland," entitled as above; compared with three others, two of them in black letter in the Pepys collection, entitled "The Lamentable and Tragical History of Titus Andronicus, &c." "To the Tune of Fortune," printed for E. Wright. Unluckily, none of these have any dates.

You noble minds, and famous martiall wights,
That in defence of native country fights,
Give eare to me, that ten yeeres fought for Rome,
Yet reapt disgrace at my returning home.

26

The Moore I caus'd to strike it off with speede, 85
Whereat I grieved not to see it bleed,

But for my sonnes would willingly impart,
And for their ransome send my bleeding heart.

But as my life did linger thus in paine,
They sent to me my bootlesse hand againe,
And therewithal the heades of my three sonnes,
Which filld my dying heart with fresher moanes.

Then past reliefe, I upp and downe did goe,
And with my tears writ in the dust my woe:
I shot my arrowes towards heaven hie
And for revenge to hell did often crye.

The empresse then, thinking that I was mad,
Like Furies she and both her sonnes were clad,
(She nam❜d Revenge, and Rape and Murder they)
To undermine and heare what I would say.

I fed their foolish veines a certaine space,
Untill my friendes did find a secret place,
Where both her sonnes unto a post were bound,
And just revenge in cruell sort was found.

I cut their throates, my daughter held the pan
Betwixt her stumpes, wherein the bloud it ran :
And then I ground their bones to powder small,
And made a paste for pyes streight therewithall.

Then with their fleshe I made two mighty pyes,
And at a banquet served in stately wise:
Before the empresse set this loathsome meat;
So of her sonnes own flesh she well did eat.

90

95

100

105

110

When as I sawe she could not write nor speake, With grief mine aged heart began to breake; We spred an heape of sand upon the ground, Whereby those bloudy tyrants out we found.

For with a staffe, without the helpe of hand, She writt these wordes upon the plat of sand: The lustfull sonnes of the proud emperèsse Are doers of this hateful wickednesse."

I tore the milk-white hairs from off mine head, I curst the houre, wherein I first was bred,

The first stanza of this little sonnet, which an eminent critic justly admires for its extreme sweetness, is found in Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure," act iv. sc. 1. Both the stanzas are preserved in Beaumont and Fletcher's " Bloody Brother," act v. sc. 2. Sewel and Gildon have printed it among Shakespeare's smaller poems; but they have done the same by twenty other pieces that were never writ by him, their book being a wretched heap of inaccuracies and mistakes. It is not found in JagDr. Warburton in his Shakesp.

If the ballad was written before the play, I should sup pose this to be only a metaphorical expression, taken from that in the Psalms, "They shoot out their arrows, even bitter words." Ps. 64. 3.

+ i. e. encouraged them in their foolish humours, or fancies.

Mr. Malone in his improved edition of Shakespeare's SONNETS, &c. hath substituted this instead of Marlow's Ma drigal, printed above; for which he hath assigned reasons, which the reader may see in his vol. x. p. 340.

TAKE, oh take those lips away,

That so sweetlye were forsworne; And those eyes, the breake of day, Lights, that do misleade the morne : But my kisses bring againe, Seales of love, but seal'd in vaine.

Hide, oh hide those hills of snowe,
Which thy frozen bosom beares,
On whose tops the pinkes that growe
Are of those that April wears;
But first set my poor heart free,
Bound in those icy chains by thee.

XV.

The reader has here an ancient ballad on the subject of King Lear, which (as a sensible female critic has well observed*) bears so exact an analogy to the argument of Shakespeare's play, that his having copied it could not be doubted, if it were certain that it was written before the tragedy. Here is found the hint of Lear's madness, which the old chronicles + do not mention, as also the extravagant cruelty exercised on him by his daughters. In the death of Lear they likewise very exactly coincide.The misfortune is, that there is nothing to assist us in ascertaining the date of the ballad but what little evidence arises from within; this the reader must weigh, and judge for himself."

It may be proper to observe, that Shakspeare was not the first of our Dramatic Poets who fitted the story of Leir to the stage. His first 4to edition is dated 1608; but three years before that had been printed a play entitled "The true Chronicle History of Leir and his three daughters Gonorill, Ragan, and Cordella, as it hath been divers and sundry times lately acted, 1605, 4to."-This is a very poor and dull performance, but happily excited Shakespeare to undertake the subject, which he has given with very different incidents. It is remarkable, that neither the circumstances of Leir's madness, nor his retinue of a select number of knights, nor the affecting deaths of Cordelia and Leir, are found in that first dramatic piece; in all which Shakespeare concurs with this ballad.

But to form a true judgment of Shakespeare's merit, the curious reader should cast his eye over that previous sketch, which he will find printed at the end of the twenty plays of Shakespeare, republished from the quarto impressions by George Steevens, Esq. with such elegance and exactness as led us to expect that fine edition of all the works of our great Dramatic Poet, which he hath since published.

The following ballad is given from an ancient copy in the "Golden Garland," bl. let. entitled, "A lamentable Song of the Death of King Lear and his Three Daughters. To the tune of When flying Fame."

So on a time it pleas'd the king
A question thus to move,
Which of his daughters to his grace
Could shew the dearest love:
For to my age you bring content,
Quoth he, then let me hear,
Which of you three in plighted troth
The kindest will appear.

To whom the eldest thus began;
Dear father, mind, quoth she,
Before your face, to do you good,
My blood shall render'd be :
And for your sake my bleeding heart
Shall here be cut in twain,
Ere that I see your reverend age
The smallest grief sustain.

And so will I, the second said;
Dear father, for your sake,
The worst of all extremities
I'll gently undertake :

And serve your highness night and day
With diligence and love;
That sweet content and quietness
Discomforts may remove.

In doing so, you glad my soul,
The aged king reply'd;
But what sayst thou, my youngest girl,
How is thy love ally'd?

My love (quoth young Cordelia then)
Which t your grace I owe,
Shall be the duty of a child,

And that is all I'll show.

And wilt thou shew no more, quoth he,
Than doth thy duty bind?

I well perceive thy love is small,
When as no more I find.
Henceforth I banish thee my court,
Thou art no child of mine ;

Nor any part of this my realm
By favour shall be thine.

Thy elder sisters loves are more
Than well I can demand,

To whom I equally bestow
My kingdome and my land,
My pompal state and all my goods,
That lovingly I may

With those thy sisters be maintain'd
Until my dying day.

-is found in the little collection of Shakespeare's Sonnets, entitled the "Passionate Pilgrime," the greatest part of which seems to relate to the amours of Venus and Adonis, being little effusions of fancy, probably written while he was composing his larger Poem on that subject. The following seems intended for the mouth of Venus, weighing the comparative merits of youthful Adonis and aged Vulcan. In the " Garland of Good Will" it is reprinted, with the addition of four more such stanzas, but evidently written by a meaner pen.

CRABBED Age and Youth
Cannot live together;
Youth is full of pleasance,

Age is full of care:

Youth like summer morn,

5

Age like winter weather,

The following ballad is upon the same subject, as the Induction to Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew : whether it may be thought to have suggested the hint to the Dramatic poet, or is not rather of later date, the reader must determine.

The story is told of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy; and is thus related by an old English writer: "The said duke, at the marriage of Eleonora, sister to the king of Portugall, at Bruges in Flanders, which was solemnised in the deepe of winter; when as by reason of unseasonable weather he could neither hawke nor hunt, and was now tired with cards, dice, &c. and such other domestick sports, or to see ladies dance; with some of his courtiers, he would in the evening walke disguised all about the towne. It so fortuned, as he was walking late one night, he found a countrey fellow dead drunke, snorting on a bulke; he caused his followers to bring him to his palace, and there stripping him of his old clothes, and attyring him after the court fashion, when he wakened he and they were all ready to attend upon his excellency, and persuade him that he was some great duke. The poor fellow admiring how he came there, was served in state all day long after supper he saw them dance, heard musicke, and all the rest of those court-like pleasures: but late at night, when he was well tipled, and again fast asleepe, they put on his old robes, and so conveyed him to the place where they first found him. Now the fellow had not made them so good sport the day before, as he did now, when he returned to himself: all the jest was to see how he looked upon it. In conclusion, after some little admiration, the poore man told his friends he had seen a vision; constantly believed it; would not otherwise be persuaded, and so the

• Mentioned above, song xi. b. ii.

:

By Ludov. Vives in Epis. aud by Pont. Heuter. Rerum Burgund. 1. 4.