| E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898. |
| | | Shakespeare, | | |
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usually called “Gentle Will.” | 1 |
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His wife was Anne Hathaway, of Shottery, about eight years older than himself. | 2 |
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He had one son, named Hamnet, who died in his twelfth year, and two daughters. | 3 |
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Ben Jonson said of him—“And though thou hadst small Latin and less Greek …” | 4 |
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Milton calls him “Sweetest Shakespeare, fancy’s child,” and says he will go to the well-trod stage to hear him “warble his native wood-notes wild.” (L’Allegro, 133.) | 5 |
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Akenside says he is “Alike the master of our smiles and tears.” (Ode i.) | 6 |
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Dryden says of him—“He was a man who of all modern and perhaps ancient poets, had the largest and most comprehensive soul.” | 7 |
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Young says—“He wrote the play the Almighty made.” (Epistle to Lord Lansdowne.) | 8 |
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Mallett says—“Great above rule … Nature was his own.” (Verbal Criticism.) | 9 |
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Collins says he “joined Tuscan fancy to Athenian force.” (Epistle to Sir Thomas Hanmer.) | 10 |
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Pope says— | 11 |
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| “Shakespeare (whom you and every play-house bill |
| Style “the divine,” “the matchless,” what you will) |
| For gain, not glory, winged his roving flight, |
| And grew immortal in his own despite.” | |
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Imitations of Horace, Ep. i. |
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The dedication of Shakespeare’s Sonnets has provoked much controversy. It is as follows:— | 12 |
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| TO THE ONLIE BEGETTER OF |
| THESE INSUING SONNETS |
| MR. W. H. ALL HAPPINESSE |
| AND THAT ETERNITIE |
| PROMISED |
| BY |
| OUR EVER-LIVING POET |
| WISHETH | |
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—that is, Mr. William Herbert [after-wards Lord Pembroke] wisheth to [the Earl of Southampton] the only begetter or instigator of these sonnets, that happiness and eternal life which [Shakespeare] the ever living poet speaks of. The rider is— | 13 |
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| THE WELL-WISHING |
| ADVENTURER IN |
| SETTING |
| FORTH. | |
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T. T.
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That is, Thomas Thorpe is the adventurer who speculates in their publication. (See Athenæum, Jan. 25, 1862.) | 14 |
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Shakespeare. There are six accredited signatures of this poet, five of which are attached to business documents, and one is entered in a book called Floria, a translation of Montaigne, published in
1603. A passage in act ii. s. 2 of The Tempest is traced directly to this translation, proving that the Florio was possessed by Shakespeare before he wrote that play. | 15 |
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The Shakespeare of divines. Jeremy Taylor (1613–1667). | 16 |
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The Shakespeare of eloquence. So Barnave happily characterised the Comte de Mirabeau (1749–1791). | 17 |
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The Spanish Shakespeare. Calderon (1601–1687). | 18 |
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