Fine Counterfesaunce,* and unhurtfull Sport,
Delight and Laughter deckt in seemly sort.

All these, and all that els the Comick Stage
With seasoned wit and goodly pleasance graced;
By which man's life in his likest imáge

Was limned forth, are wholly now defaced;

And these sweete wits which wont the like to frame,
Are now despizd, and made a laughing game.

And he the man, whom Nature selfe had made
To mock her selfe, and Truth to imitate,
With kindly counter,† under Mimick shade,
Our pleasant Willy, ah is dead of late:
With whom all ioy and iolly meriment
Is also deaded, and in dolour drent.‡

In stead thereof scoffing Scurrilitie,
And scornfull Follie with Contempt is crept,
Rolling in rymes of shameles ribaudrie §
Without regard, or due Decorum kept,
Each idle wit at will presumes to make,
And doth the Learneds taske upon him take.

But that same gentle Spirit, from whose pen
Large streames of honnie and sweete Nectar flowe,
Scorning the boldnes of such base-borne men,
Which dare their follies forth so rashlie throwe;
Doth rather choose to sit in idle Cell,

Than so himselfe to mockerie to sell."

These notices would be sufficient to satisfy ordinary inquirers that by the year 1593 William Shakespeare had, by some means or other, attained a certain degree of celebrity, and that many of his earlier dramas then enjoyed high popularity. The most incredulous cannot deny that the "Venus and Adonis," the first acknowledged work of this great poet's that has come down to us, made its appearance in this eventful year. It was

*I. e. counterfeiting.—AIKIN.

I. e. trial of skill.-AIKIN.

I. e. drenched, drowned.-AIKIN.

§ I. e. ribaldry.—AIKIN.

F

published in quarto, on the 18th of April, and a few weeks before Christopher Marlowe, by some regarded as the founder of the English drama, lost his life in a duel. A terrible plague had broken out in London during the preceding autumn, and all the theatres were closed by authority. Shakespeare, availing himself of an interval of repose and leisure, prepared his poem for the press. It appeared with the following dedication :-

"To the Right Honorable Henrie Wriothesly, Earle of Southampton, and Baron of Titchfield.

"RIGHT HONOURABLE,—I know not how I shall offend, in dedicating my unpolisht lines to your Lordship, nor how the world will censure me for choosing so strong a proppe to support so weake a burthen; onely if your Honour seeme but pleased, I account my selfe highlie praysed, and vow to take advantage of all idle houres, till I have honoured you with some graver labour. But if the first heyre of my invention prove deformed, I shall be sory it had so noble a godfather: and never after eare * so barren a land, for feare it yeeld me still so bad a harvest. I leave it to your honourable survey, and your Honor to your heart's content, which I wish may alwayes answere your owne wish, and the world's hopefull expectation. Your Honor's in all dutie"WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.'

The use of the expression "first heyre of my invention" has induced certain critics to argue that Shakespeare had not, up to this date, written anything for the stage. Such a conclusion is altogether untenable. In the first place, the "Venus and Adonis" might have been the first-fruits of his youthful fancy, and yet have been composed some time before it was given to the

* I. e. to plough.

world. Few authors are fortunate enough to get their earlier poems printed so quickly as they might desire. In the second place, Shakespeare may have regarded this as his first offering at the shrine of the Muses, although he had, previous to its publication, written some dramas. We know, moreover, that the earlier editions of his plays were not sent forth under his sanction; and the "Venus and Adonis was consequently the first work in the publication of which he took an interest and was concerned. The early copies of the dramas were, as we learn from the folio of 1623, "diverse stolne, and surreptitious copies, maimed and deformed by the frauds and stealthes of injurious impostors that exposed them." Thus, in every respect, the "Venus and Adonis was entitled to be regarded as the first heir of the poet's invention; and we can readily imagine that Shakespeare, finding his occupation gone, or at any rate temporarily interrupted, on account of the plague, brought his early poem forth from its concealment, revised it, and gave it to the world as the freshest offering of his fervent genius-the first-fruits of his youthful labours, his first work.

This is the view of the question taken, though not on precisely the same grounds, by two of the most intelligent of the Shakesperian critics of this age,—J. Payne Collier and Charles Knight. Their opinion may be considered as conclusive. Mr. Collier remarks (Life of Shakespeare, p. cxiv.) :—

"With regard to productions unconnected with the stage, there are several pieces among his scattered poems, and some of his sonnets, that indisputably belong to an early part of his life. A young man, so gifted, would not, and could not, wait until he was five or six and twenty before he made considerable and most successful attempts at poetical composition; and we feel morally certain that Venus and Adonis' was in being anterior to Shakespeare's quitting Stratford. It bears all the

marks of youthful vigour, of strong passion, of luxuriant imagination, together with a force and originality of expression which betoken the first efforts of a great mind, not always well regulated in its taste: it seems to have been written in the open air of a fine country like Warwickshire, with all the freshness of the recent impression of natural objects; and we will go so far as to say, that we do not think even Shakespeare himself could have produced it, in the form it bears, after he had reached the age of forty. It was quite new in its class, being founded upon no model, either ancient or modern: nothing like it had been attempted before, and nothing comparable to it was produced afterwards. Thus, in 1593, he might call it, in the dedication to Lord Southampton, the first heir of his invention' in a double sense, not merely because it was the first printed, but because it was the first written of his productions."

6

Charles Knight comes to nearly the same conclusion, which he establishes in the most satisfactory manner. He says,

"But at a period when the exercise of the poetical power in connection with the stage was scarcely held amongst the learned and the polite in itself to be poetry, Shakspere vindicated his reputation by the publication of the 'Venus and Adonis.' It was, he says, 'the first heir of my invention.' There may be a doubt whether Shakspere meant to say literally that this was the first poetical work that he had produced; or whether he held, in deference to some critical opinions, that his dramatic productions could not be classed amongst the heirs of invention.' We think that he meant to use the words literally; and that he used them at a period when he might assume, without vanity, that he had taken his rank amongst the poets of his time. He dedicates to the Earl of Southampton something that had not before been

given to the world. He calls his verses 'unpolished lines;' he vows to take advantage of all idle hours, till he had honoured the young patron of the Muses with 6 some graver labour.' But invention was received then, as it was afterwards, as the highest quality of the poet. Dryden says,—' A poet is a maker, as the word signifies ; and he who cannot make, that is invent, hath his name for nothing.'* We consider, therefore, that my invention' is not the language of one unknown to fame. He was exhibiting the powers which he possessed upon a different instrument than that to which the world was accustomed ; but the world knew that the power existed. We employ the word genius always with reference to the inventive or creative faculty. Substitute the word genius for invention, and the expression used by Shakspere sounds like arrogance. But the substitution may indicate that the actual expression could not have been used by one who came forward for the first time to claim the honours of the poet. It has been argued from this expression, that Shakspere had produced nothing original before the 'Venus and Adonis'-that up to the period of its publication, in 1593, he was only a repairer of the works of other

*This critic might have gone to an earlier source, even in our own literature, for this idea. George Puttenham, in his "Arte of English Poesie," a quaint work, published in 1589, and one of the earliest critical treatises in our language, says :-"A Poet is as much to say as a maker. And our English name well conformes with the Greeke word for of Touɛiv, to make, they call a maker Poeta. Such as (by way of resemblance and reverently) we may say of God who without any travell to his divine imagination, made all the world of nought, nor also by any paterne or mould as the Platonicks with their Idees do phantastically suppose. Even so the very Poet makes and contrives out of his owne braine, both the verse and matter of his poeme, and not by any foreine copie or example, as doth the translator, who therefore may well be sayd a versifier, but not a Poet."--(Book i. chap. i.) The treatise is worthy of perusal, as a curious specimen of the literature of the Elizabethan period.