Page:The Plays of William Shakspeare (1778).djvu/344

[ 328 ]  “ they’re now all at ret, “ And Gaper there and all:—Lit!—fat aleepe; “ He cryes it hither.—I mut dieae you traight, Sir: “ For the maide-ervants, and the girles o’ th’ houe, “ I pic’d them lately with a drowie poSS undefinedet, “ They will not hear in hate.” And Francica, like lady Macbeth, is watching late at night to encourage the perpetration of a murder. The expreSS undefinedion which Shakepeare has put into the mouth of Macbeth, when he is ufficiently recollected to perceive that the dagger and the blood on it, were the creations of his own fancy, “ There’s no uch thing”is likewie appropriated to Francica, when he undeceives her brother, whoe imagination had been equally abued. From the intances already produced, perhaps the reader would allow, that if Middleton’s piece preceded Shakepeare’s, the originality of the magic introduced by the latter, might be fairly quetioned; for our author (who as actor, and manager, had acces to unpublihed dramatic performances) has o often condecended to receive hints from his contemporaries, that our upicion of his having been a copyit in the preent intance, might not be without foundation. Nay, perhaps, a time may arrive, in which it will become evident from books and manucripts yet undicovered and unexamined, that Shakepeare never attempted a play on any argument, till the effect of the ame tory, or at leat the ruling incidents in it, had been already tried on the tage, and familiarized to his audience. Let it be remembered, in upport of this conjecture, that dramatic pieces on the following ubjects,—viz. King John, ''King Richard II. and III. King Henry IV. and V. King Henry VIII. King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, Meaure for Meaure, the Merchant of Venice, the Taming of a Shrew, and the Comedy of Errors,—had appeared before thoe of Shakepeare'', and that he has taken omewhat from all of them that we have hitherto een. I mut oberve at the ame time, that Middleton, in his other dramas, is found to have borrowed little from the entiments, and nothing from the fables of his predeceSS undefinedors. He is known to have written in concert with Jonon, Fletcher, Mainger, and Rowley; but appears to have been unacquainted, or at leat unconnected, with Shakepeare. It is true that the date of cannot be acertained. The author, however, in his dedication (to the truelie worthie and generouly affected Thomas Holmes Equire) oberves, that he recovered this ignorant-ill-fated labour of his (from the play-houe, I uppoe) not without much difficultie. Witches (continues he) are, ipso ton’s piece preceded that of Shakpeare; the latter, it hould eem, thinking it unneceSS undefinedary to et down veres which were