thing upon the fame fubject at least as well written by Shakspeare.3

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he would undertake to show something upon the fame Subject at least as well written by Shakespeare.) I had long endeavoured in vain to find out on what authority this relation was founded; and have very lately discovered that Mr. Rowe probably derived his information from Dryden: for in Gildon's Letters and Effsays, published in 1694, fifteen years before this Life appeared, the same story is told; and Dryden, to whom an Essay in vindication of Shakspeare is addressed, is appealed to by the writer as his authority. As Gildon tells the story with some flight variations from the account given by Mr. Rowe, and the book in which it is found is now extremely scarce, I shall fubjoin the passage in his own words :

"But to give the world fome fatisfaction that Shakspeare has had as great veneration paid his excellence by men of unqueftioned parts, as this I now express for him, I shall give some account of what I have heard from your mouth, fir, about the noble triumph he gained over all the ancients, by the judgment of the ableft criticks of that time.

"The matter of fact, if my memory fail me not, was this. Mr. Hales of Eton affirmed, that he would show all the poets of antiquity out-done by Shakspeare, in all the topicks and commonplaces made use of in poetry. The enemies of Shakspeare would by no means yield him fo much excellence; so that it came to a resolution of a trial of skill upon that subject. The place agreed on for the difpute was Mr. Hales's chamber at Eton. A great many books were sent down by the enemies of this poet; and on the appointed day my Lord Falkland, Sir John Suckling, and all the perfons of quality that had wit and learning, and interested themselves in the quarrel, met there; and upon a thorough disquifition of the point, the judges chosen by agreement out of this learned and ingenious affembly, unanimoufly gave the preference to Shakspeare, and the Greek and Roman poets were adjudged to vail at least their glory in that, to the English Hero."

This elogium on our author is likewife recorded at an earlier period by Tate, probably from the fame authority, in the preface to The Loyal General, quarto, 1680: "Our learned Hales was wont to affert, that, fince the time of Orpheus, and the oldeft poets, no common-place has been touched upon, where our author has not performed as well."

Dryden himself also certainly alludes to this story, which he appears to have related both to Gildon and Rowe, in the follow

To face p.73.Vol.1.

A. Birrell fc.

From a Drawing in the Margin of an Ancient SURVEY, made by Order of SIR GEORGE CAREW papierwards BARON CAREW of (lopton, and EARL of TOTNESS) and found at Clopron war Stratford upon Avon, in 1786.

The latter part of his life was spent, as all men of good sense will with theirs may be, in ease, retirement, and the conversation of his friends. He had the good fortune to gather an estate equal to his occafion, and, in that, to his with; and is faid

ing passage of his Essay of Dramatick Poesy, 1667; and he as well as Gildon goes fomewhat further than Rowe in his panegyrick. After giving that fine character of our poet which Dr. Johnfon has quoted in his preface, he adds, "The confideration of this made Mr. Hales of Eton say, that there was no subject of which any poet ever writ, but he would produce it MUCH BETTER done by Shakespeare; and however others are now generally preferred before him, yet the age wherein he lived, which had contemporaries with him, Fletcher and Jonson, never equalled them to him in their esteem: And in the last king's court [that of Charles I.] when Ben's reputation was at highest, Sir John Suckling, and with him the greater part of the courtiers, set our Shakspeare far above him."

Let ever-memorable Hales, if all his other merits be forgotten, be ever mentioned with honour, for his good taste and admiration of our poet. "He was," says Lord Clarendon, one of the least men in the kingdom; and one of the greatest scholars in Europe." See a long character of him in Clarendon's Life, Vol. I. p. 52. MALONE.

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to have spent fome years before his death at his native Stratford.5 His pleasureable wit and good

houses in Stratford, at 601. a year, and his house, &c. in the Blackfriars, (for which he paid 1401.) at 201. a year, we have a rent-roll of 150l. per annum. Of his personal property it is not now poffible to form any accurate eftimate: but if we rate it at five hundred pounds, money then bearing an interest of ten per cent. Shakspeare's total income was 2001. per ann.* In The Merry Wives of Windsor, which was written foon after the year 1600, three hundred pounds a year is described as an eftate of fuch magnitude as to cover all the defects of its pof feffor:

"O, what a world of vile ill-favour'd faults

" Look handsome in three hundred pounds a year."

MALONE.

s-to have spent some years before his death at his native Stratford.] In 1614 the greater part of the town of Stratford was confumed by fire; but our Shakspeare's house, among fome others, escaped the flames. This house was first built by Sir Hugh Clopton, a younger brother of an ancient family in that neighbourhood. Sir Hugh was Sheriff of London in the reign of Richard III. and Lord Mayor in the reign of King Henry VII. By his will he bequeathed to his elder brother's fon his manor of Clopton, &c. and his house, by the name of the Great House in Stratford. Good part of the estate is yet [in 1733] in the poffession of Edward Clopton, Esq. and Sir Hugh Clopton, Knt. lineally descended from the elder brother of the first Sir Hugh.

The eftate had now been fold out of the Clopton family for above a century, at the time when Shakspeare became the purchaser: who having repaired and modelled it to his own mind, changed the name to New-Place, which the manfion-house, fince erected upon the same spot, at this day retains. The house, and lands which attended it, continued in Shakspeare's defcendants to the time of the Restoration; when they were re-purchased by the Clopton family, and the manfion now belongs to Sir Hugh Clopton, Knt. To the favour of this worthy gentleman I owe the knowledge of one particular in honour of our poet's once dwelling-house, of which I presume Mr. Rowe never was apprized. When the Civil War raged in England, and King

* To Shakspeare's income from his real and personal property must be added 2001. per ann. which he probably derived from the theatre, while he continued on the ftage..

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