Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/349

 ' S. I. APRIL 30, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

341

LONDON, SATVEDAF, APE1L SO, 1898.

CONTENTS. -No. 18. NOTES : Shakspeare and Ben Jonson, 341 The Bulgarian janguage, 342 John Johnston, 343 George Eliot ' Rhyme," 344 Portuguese Boat Voyage Bea- horse ' Halgh," 345 Punch Gainsborough's Lost ' Duchess ' William Baffin Charles III. of Spain Surnames, 346.

QUERIES : " Dawkum " Patches Value of Money Horns on Helmets Portrait of Lady Wentworth, 347 Le Compere Mathieu ' Nicholson Source of Anecdote- Hongkong and Kiao-Chou Ripley "Fool's plough" Portrait of Ben Jonson Rev. Lockhart Gordon Judge Family Raoul Hesdin Talbot Mausoleum, 348 Wind- ward and Leeward Islands Sheepskins Sidesman Jeanne de France" Another story," 349.

REPLIES .Christ's Half Dole, 349 "By Jingo" "Broach- ing the admiral "Rev. John Logan Pseudo-Shakspeare Relic" Cuyp " Bicycles in Thunderstorms, 350" Dain" Superstitions Cope and Mitre Kilometre, 351 Some Smiths Solomon's Gift to Hiram, 352 Pope and Thom- sonArms of Berkshire Towns Hogarth, 353 Nicholson Family " To Sue" ' The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington,' 354_Verbs ending in "-ish" Great Events from Little Causes, 355 16th Light Dragoons Houses without Stair- cases, 356" Keg-meg "Lord Thurlow The Wenhaston Doom Leverian Museum, 357 Philip, Duke of Wharton " Dargason," 358.

NOTES ON BOOKS. Wyndham's ' Poems of Shakespeare' Furness's ' New Variorum Edition of Shakespeare,' Vol. XI.' Folk-Lore.'

SHAKSPEARE AND BEN JONSON.

No attempt has been made, so far as I am aware, to elucidate the obscure and feeble tribute which John Davies of Hereford paid "To our English Terence, Mr. Will Shake- speare," in ' The Scourge of Folly,' published either in 1610 or 1611. Epigram 159 on pp. 76-7 is as follows : Some say (good Will) which I, in sport, do sing, Had'st thou not plaid some Kingly parts in sport, I Thou hadst bin a companion for a King; \ And, beene a King among the meaner sort. Some others raile ; but, raile as they thinke fit, Thou hast no rayling, but, a raigning Wit :

And honesty thou sow'st, ivhich they do reape;

So, to increase, their Stocke which they do Tceepe. The natural interpretation of the second and third lines is that Shakespeare once acted a royal part which gave offence at Court. Of Shakespeare's career as an actor we know so little that any conjecture respecting it must be received with caution; but it is worth pointing out that Ben Jonson's ' Sejanus,' in which Shakespeare is known to have acted, would fit in with Davies's vague and clumsy hint. I think it probable that in that piece Shakespeare played Tiberius. All plays of Ben Jonson which are printed in the 1616 folio of his 'Works' have lists of the chief hctors who appeared in the original per-

formances. These lists are drawn up in two columns at the end of each play, with the date of representation and the name of the company above. A distinct pre- cedence is assigned to the actors whose names head each column. In 'Every Man in his Humour,' acted by the Chamberlain's company, we find (1) Shakespeare, (2) Burbadge ; in ' Every Man out of nis Humour,' acted by the same company, (1) Burbadge, (2) Hemings. From this time Burbadge precedes in all plays acted by his company, the King's men ; in ' Sejanus ' the order is (1) Burbadge, (2) Shakespeare, and in ' Volpone,' ' The Alchemist,' and ' Catiline,' (1) Burbadge, (2) Hemings. The Burbadges owned the Globe Theatre, at which these plays were acted ; and it seems clear that Eichard Bur- badge took the leading parts in all Jonson's plays acted here from 'Every Man out of his Humour ' to ' Catiline.' In ' Sejanus ' if this assumption is correct he played the title- part. Tiberius is, then, the only part remain- ing which we could assign to Shakespeare.

It is known that the play gave offence. Jonson and Chapman (who collaborated with him in the acting version, though Chapman's part was withdrawn before the stage of publication and new work of Jonson's sub- stituted for it) were in prison for this play in 1605. Henry Howard, Earl of North- ampton, had Jonson summoned before the Council, and accused him of Popery and treason (see 'Conversations with William Drummond,' 13). The letter which Jonson wrote from prison to the Earl of Salisbury, pleading for Chapman and himself, is among the Cecil Papers at Hatfield. The writers escaped eventually through the good offices of the Earl of Suffolk. But a play taxed with treason, and causing the summary imprison- ment of its authors, would involve the actors also in difficulty ; and it is not unreasonable to conjecture that the player of the tyrant's part would be a marked man. Shakespeare did not act in any later play of Jonson.

As a further contribution to the vexed question of their relations, I suggest the possibility of a reference in 'As You Like It' entered on the Stationers' Registers in 1600, and probably acted in 1599 to Jonson's 'Every Man out of his Humour,' acted in 1599. Jaques's speeches in Act II. so. vii. 1-87 repeat, in a changed setting, the language of Jonson's Asper. Detached from their con- text, these words might pass for a quotation from Asper :

Give me leave

To speak my mind, and I will through and through Cleanse the foul body of the infected world, If they will patiently receive my medicine,