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he forced little on fimonie, and was not pitifull, and stood affectionate in his own opinion: in open prefence he would lie and feie untruth, and was double both in speech and meaning: he would promise much and performe little he was vicious of his bodie, and gaue the clergie euil example." Edit. 1587, p. 922.

Perhaps after this quotation, you may not think, that Sir Thomas Hanmer, who reads Tyth'd-inftead of Ty'd all the kingdom, deserves quite fo much of Dr. Warburton's severity. Indisputably the passage, like every other in the speech, is intended to express the meaning of the parallel one in the chronicle: it cannot therefore be credited, that any man, when the original was produced, should still choose to defend a cant acceptation; and inform us, perhaps, feriously, that in gaming language, from I know not what practice, to tye is to equal! A sense of the word, as far as I have yet found, unknown to our old writers; and, if known, would not furely have been used in this place by our author.

But let us turn from conjecture to Shakspeare's authorities. Hall, from whom the above defcription is copied by Holinshed, is very explicit in the demands of the Cardinal: who having infolently told the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, "For fothe I thinke, that halfe your substaunce were to litle," affures them by way of comfort at the end of his harangue, that upon an average the tythe should be sufficient; "Sers, speake not to breake that thyng that is concluded, for fome shal not paie the tenth parte, and fome more." -And again; "Thei faied, the Cardinall by vifitacions, makyng of abbottes, probates of teftamentes, graunting of faculties, licences, and other pollyngs in his courtes legantines,

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had made his threafore egall with the kinges." Edit. 1548, p. 138, and 143.

Skelton, in his Why come ye not to Court, gives us, after his rambling manner, a curious character of Wolfey:

4 His poems are printed with the title of " Pithy, Pleasaunt, and Profitable Workes of Maister Skelton Poet Laureate." -" But," fays Mr. Cibber, after several other writers, " how or by what interest he was made Laureat, or whether it was by a title he affumed to himself, cannot be determined." This is an error pretty generally received, and it may be worth our while to remove it.

A facetious author fays fomewhere, that a poet laureat, in the modern idea, is a gentleman, who hath an annual stipend for reminding us of the New Year, and the Birth-day: but formerly a Poet Laureat was a real university graduate,

"Skelton wore the laurell wreath,

" And past in Schoels ye knoe."

fays Churchyarde in a poem prefixed to his works. And Master Caxton in his Preface to The Boke of Eneydos, 1490, hath a passage, which well deferves to be quoted without abridgement: "I praye mayfter John Skelton, late created poete laureate in the univerfite of Oxenforde, to oversee and correcte thys sayd booke, and taddresse and expowne whereas thall be founde faulte, to theym that shall requvre it; for hym I knowe for fuffycyent to expowne and Engly sshe every dyfficulte that is therein; for he hath late tranflated the cpyftles of Tulle, and the book of Dyodorus Syculus, and diverse other workes, out of Latyn into Englyshe, not in rude and old language, but in polyshed and ornate termes, craftely, as he that hath redde Vyrgyle, Ouyde, Tullye, and all the other noble poets and oratours, to me unknowen: and alfo he hath redde the ix muses, and understands their musicalle scyences, and to whom of them eche scyence is appropred: I suppose he hath dronken of Elycons well!"

I find, from Mr. Baker's MSS. that our laureat was admitted ad eundem at Cambridge: "An. Dom. 1493. & Hen. 7. nono. Conceditur Johi Skelton Poete in partibus transmarinis atque Oxon. Laureâ ornato, ut apud nos eâdem decoraretur." And afterward, "An. 150 Conceditur Johi Skelton, Poetæ Laureat. quod poffit ftare eodem gradu hic, quo ftetit Oxoniis, & quod poffit uti habitu fibi conceflo à Principe.

See likewife Dr. Knight's Life of Colet, p. 122. And Recherches fur les Poctes couronnez, par M. l'Abbé du Resnel, in the Memoires de Litterature, Vol. X. Paris, 4to. 1736.

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Lyke a fier drake

"And with a cole rake

"Brufe them on a brake

"And binde them to a ftake

" And fet hel on fyre
"At his owne defire

" He is such a grym syre!" Edit. 1568.

Mr. Upton and some other criticks have thought it very fcholar-like in Hamlet to swear the Centinels on a fword: but this is for ever met with. For instance, in the Paffus Primus of Pierce Plow

man:

"Dauid in his daies dubbed knightes,

" And did hem swere on her fword to ferue truth euer."

And in Hieronymo, the common butt of our author, and the wits of the time, says Lorenzo to Pedringano,

"Swear on this cross, that what thou fayft is true-
"But if I prove thee perjured and unjuft,
"This very sword, whereon thou took'ft thine oath,
"Shall be the worker of thy tragedy !"

We have therefore no occafion to go with Mr. Garrick as far as the French of Brantôme to illuftrate this ceremony: a gentleman, who will be always allowed the first commentator on Shakspeare, when he does not carry us beyond himself.

Mr. Upton, however, in the next place, produces a passage from Henry VI. whence he argues it to be very plain, that our author had not only read Cicero's Offices, but even more critically than many of the editors:

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This villain here,

Being captain of a pinnace, threatens more " Than Bargulus, the strong Illyrian pirate."

So the wight, he observes with great exultation, is named by Cicero in the editions of Shakspeare's time, "Bargulus Illyrius latro;" though the modern editors have chosen to call him Bardylis :"and thus I found it in two MSS." And thus he might have found it in two translations, before Shakspeare was born. Robert Whytinton, 1533, calls him, "Bargulus a pirate upon the fee of Illiry;" and Nicholas Grimald, about twenty years afterward, "Bargulus the Illyrian robber."6

But it had been easy to have checked Mr. Upton's exultation, by observing, that Bargulus does not appear in the quarto. - Which also is the cafe with fome fragments of Latin verfes, in the different parts of this doubtful performance.

It is scarcely worth mentioning, that two or three more Latin passages, which are met with in our

5 Mr. Johnson's edit. Vol. VIII. p. 171.

6 I have met with a writer who tells us, that a tranflation of the Offices was printed by Caxton, in the year 1481: but fuch a book never existed. It is a mistake for Tullius of old Age, printed with The Boke of Frendshipe, by John Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester. I believe the former was tranflated by William Wyrcestre, alias Botoner.

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author, are immediately transcribed from the story or chronicle before him. Thus, in Henry V. whose right to the kingdom of France is copioufly demonftrated by the Archbishop:

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"To make against your highness' claim to France,
"But this which they produce from Pharamond:
" In terram Salicam mulieres nè succedant;
"No woman shall fucceed in Salike land :

"Which Salike land the French unjustly gloze
"To be the realm of France, and Pharamond
"The founder of this law and female bar.
"Yet their own authors faithfully affirm,
"That the land Salike lies in Germany,
"Between the floods of Sala and of Elve," &c.

Archbishop Chichelie, says Holinshed, "did much inueie against the furmised and false fained law Salike, which the Frenchmen alledge euer againft the kings of England in barre of their just title to the crowne of France. The very words of that fuppofed law are these, In terram Salicam mulieres nè succedant, that is to faie, Into the Salike land let not women fucceed; which the French gloffers expound to be the realm of France, and that this law was made by King Pharamond: whereas yet their owne authors affirme, that the land Salike is in Germanie, betweene the rivers of Elbe and Sala," &c. p. 545.

It hath lately been repeated from Mr. Guthrie's Effay upon English Tragedy, that the portrait of Macbeth's wife is copied from Buchanan, "whose fpirit, as well as words, is translated into the play of Shakspeare: and it had fignified nothing to have pored only on Holinshed for facts." -" Animus etiam, per se ferox, prope quotidianis conviciis uxoris (quæ omnium confiliorum ei erat confcia) stimulabatur."-This is the whole, that Buchanan says of the lady; and truly I fee no more spirit in

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