, prove Denham, Milton, &c. on his native genius nothing; and Ben Jonfon's celebrated charge of Shakespeare's Small Latin, and lefs Greek +, feems abfolutely to decide that he had fome knowledge of both; and if we may judge by our own time, a man, who has any Greek, is feldom without a very competent share of Latin; and yet fuch a man is very likely to study Plutarch in English, and to read tranflations of Ovid. * Mr. Farmer clofes these general teftimonies of Shakespeare's having been only indebted to nature, by saying, "He came out of her hand, as "Some one else expresses it, like Pallas out of Jove's head, at full growth "and mature." It is whimfical enough, that this fome one elfe, whose expreffion is here quoted to countenance the general notion of Shakespeare's want of literature, should be no other than myself. Mr. Farmer does not chufe to mention where he met with this expreffion of fome one elfe; and Some one elfe does not chufe to mention where he dropt it. + In defence of the various reading of this paffage, given in the preface to the last edition of Shakespeare, "fmall Latin, and no Greek," Mr. Farmer tells us, that "it was adopted above a century ago by W. Towers, "in a panegyrick on Cartwright." Surely, Towers having faid that Cartwright had no Greek, is no proof that Ben Jonson said so of Shakefpeare, POSTSCRIPT. POSTSCRIPT. TH HIS Appendix to the fecond Edition of the tranflation of Terence would not have had a place in this collection, if it had not repeatedly appeared among the numerous Prolegomena to the late Variorum Editions of Shakespeare, accompanied with Annotations which feem to require fome notice. Mr. Steevens in a Preface fubjoined to that of Dr. Johnson having firft declared that "the difpute about the learning of Shakespeare is now finally fettled," the reader is, at the clofe of the copy of this Appendix, referred to Dr. Farmer's reply in a Note on Love's Labour's Loft, Act II. Sc. ii. P. 435 Edit. of 1/78. The Note in queftion, according to the cuftom of the Editors, is rather long; but I truft I fhall do no injuftice to Dr. Farmer's argument, by felecting only his part of it. "Dr. Warburton is certainly right in his fuppo"fition that Florio is meant by the character of « Holofernes. Florio had given the first affront. "The plaies, fays he, that they plaie in Eng"land, are neither right comedies, nor right tragedies; "but reprefentations of hiftories without any de"corum."-The fcraps of Latin and Italian are "transcribed from his works, particularly the pro verb about Venice, which has been corrupted fo "much. The affectation of the letter, which argues "facilitie, is likewise a copy of his manner. We "meet with much of it in the fonnets to his "In Italie your lordship well hath feene "Their manners, monuments, magnificence, "Their language learnt, in found, in ftile, in fenfe, "We fee then the character of the Schoolmafter "might be written with less learning than Mr. "Colman conjectured: nor is the use of the "word thrafonical, any argument that the author had "read 2 read Terence. It was introduced to our language "long before Shakespeare's time. Stanyhurst writes, "in a tranflation of one of Sir Thomas More's "epigrams, "Lynckt was in wedlocke a lofty thrafonical hufsnuffe." "It can scarcely be neceffary to animadvert ec any further upon what Mr. Colman has ad"vanced in the Appendix to his Terence. If this gentleman at his leifure from modern plays, will "condefcend to open a few old ones, he will foon be fatisfied that Shakespeare was obliged to learn "and repeat in the courfe of his profeffion fuch "Latin Fragments, as are met with in his works. "The formidable one, ira furor brevis eft, which "is quoted from Timon, may be found, not in plays "only, but in every tritical effay from that of king James to that of dean Swift inclufive. I will "only add that if Mr. Colman had previously "looked at the panegyrick on Cartwright, he could "not fo ftrangely have mifreprefented my argument "from it but thus it must ever be with the most ingenious men, when they talk without book. Let 66 me however take this opportunity of acknowledging the very genteel language which he has "been pleased to ufe on this occafion." .. "Mr. Warton informs us in his Life of Sir "Thomas Pope, that there was an old play of Ho"lophernes, acted before the princess Elizabeth in "the Year 1556." FARMER. In the Edition of Shakespeare, published in 1785, this Appendix again appears with the fame reference to Dr. Farmer's reply, and the addition of the following Annotation on the laft note in the Appendix. "It will appear ftill more whimsical that this fome one elfe, whofe expreffion is here quoted, may have his claim to it fuperfeded by that of the late Dr. Young, who in his Conjectures on Original Compofition, (p. 100, vol. V. Edit. 1773) has the following fentence. "An adult genius comes out of Na"ture's hands, as Pallas out of Jove's head, at full "growth and mature. Shakespeare's genius was of "this kind." Where fome one else the first may have intermediately dropped the contefted expreffion, I cannot ascertain: but fome one else the fecond trancribed it from the author already mentioned." ANON. I flatter |