[1] Sir Walter Raleigh, b. 1552; executed 1618.

[2] Unless we except The Ocean to Cynthia, piquant fragments of which exist, extending to some five hundred lines; the poem, by the estimate of Mr. Gosse, may have reached in its entirety a length of ten thousand lines. See AthenÆum for January 2, 1886; also, Raleigh (pp. 44-48) by Edmund Gosse. London, 1886.

[3] William Harrison, b. 1534; d. 1593. It is interesting to know that much has come to light respecting the personal history of William Harrison, through the investigations of that indefatigable American genealogist, the late Colonel J. L. Chester.

[4] Speeches of Gratulation on King’s Entertainment.

[5] Rawdon Brown.

[6] Judith Shakespeare, by William Black. The story of the royal letter appears to rest mainly on the evidence of William Oldys (not a strong authority), who says it originated with Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, who had it from Sir William D’Avenant. Dr. Drake, however, as well as Farmer, fully accredit the anecdote.

[7] The Globe was the summer theatre, the Blackfriars the winter theatre—the same company playing much at both. The hour for opening in Elizabeth’s time was usually one o’clock. Dekker (Horne Booke, 1609) names three as the hour; and doubtless there were occasions when—in the private theatres—plays began after nightfall. Fletcher and Shakespeare were at the head of what was called the Lord Chamberlain’s Company. By license of James I. (1603) this virtually became the King’s Company.

[8] Gosson was an Oxford man; b. 1555: d. 1624.

[9] Among the more important names were those of Bishop Andrewes (of Winchester, friend of Herbert, and Dr. Donne)—famous for his oriental knowledges: Bedwell (of Tottingham), a distinguished Arabic scholar: Sir Henry Savile, a very learned layman, and warden of Merton College: Rainolds, representing the Puritan wing of the Church, and President of Corpus Christi, Oxford; and Chaderton, Master of Emmanuel, and representing the same wing of the Church from Cambridge.

[10] John Donne, son of a London merchant, b. 1573, and d. 1631. There is a charming life of him by Izaak Walton. The Grosart edition of his writings is fullest and best.

[11] From his poem of Nosce Teipsum, published in 1599. John Davies b. in Wiltshire about 1570, and d. 1626.

[12] Dr. Shedd (Addenda to Lange’s Matthew) says—“Probably it was the prevailing custom of the Christians in the East, from the beginning to pray the Lord’s Prayer, with the Doxology.” It certainly appears in earliest Syriac version (Peschito, so called, of second century). It does not appear in the Wyclif of 1380. It will be found, however, in the Tyndale of 1534—which I am led to believe is its first appearance in an accredited English translation.

[13] The allusion is to the Harts, whose ancestress was Shakespeare’s sister Joan. A monumental record in Trinity Church, Stratford, reads thus: “In memory of Thomas Hart, who was the fifth descendant in a direct line from Joan, eldest daughter of John Shakespeare. He died May 23, 1793.”

A son of the above Thomas Hart “followed the business of a butcher at Stratford, where he was living in 1794.” Still another Thomas Hart (eighth in descent from Joan) is said to be now living in Australia—the only male representive of that branch of the family.

[14] Susanna, the eldest, baptized 1583; Hamnet and Judith (twins), baptized 1585. In 1596 Hamnet died; in 1607 Susanna married Dr. Hall; and in 1616 (year of Shakespeare’s death) Judith married Quiney, vintner.

[15] His father died in 1601, and his mother in 1608.

[16] The dedication of Venus and Adonis (and subsequently of Tarquin and Lucrece) to the Earl of Southampton is undoubted; nor are intimate friendly relations doubted; but the further supposition—long accredited—that the major part of the Sonnets were addressed to the same Earl—is now generally abandoned—entirely so by the new Shakespearean scholars. William Herbert (Earl of Pembroke)—to whom is dedicated the 1623 folio—is counted by many the “begetter” of these, and the rival of the poet in loves of the “dark-eyed” frail one, whose identity has so provoked inquiry.

A late theory favors a Miss Fitton, of whom a descendant, the Rev. Fred. Fitton, has latterly made himself advocate. See AthenÆum for February 20, 1886.

[17] A very good exhibit of best opinions on such points may be found briefly summarized in Stopford Brooke’s little Primer of English Literature; see also Mr. Fleay’s recent Chronical History of Shakespeare; and fuller discussion (though somewhat antiquated) in Dr. Drake’s interesting discussion of Shakespeare and his Times. I name this book, not as wholly authoritative, or comparable with the mass of newer criticism which has been developed under the auspices of the different Shakespeare societies, but as massing together a great budget of information from cotemporaneous authors and full of entertaining reading. In America, the Shakespearean labors of Hudson, Grant White, and Dr. Rolfe are to be noted; and also—with larger emphasis—the beginnings of the monumental work of Mr. Furniss.

[18] Seven editions of this poem were published between 1593 and 1602.

[19] The Nation (N. Y.), of March 7, 1884, has this:

“In an indenture between the R^t Hon. Sir Rich^d Saltonstall, Knt., Lord Mayor of London, and 2 others, Commissioners of her Majesty (fortieth yr of Queen Elizabeth), and the parties deputed to collect the first of these subsidies granted by Parliament the yr preceding—(bearing date Oct. 1598), for the rate of S^t Helen’s Parish, Bishopsgate ward—the name of Wm. Shakespeare is found as liable, with others, to that rate.”

This, if it be indeed our William who is named, would serve to show residence in “S^t Helen’s Parish”—in which is the venerable Crosby Hall.

[20] See Halliwell-Phillips (vol. i., p. 130; 7th ed.).

[21] Edmond Shakespeare was buried in St. Saviour’s in 1607.

[22] I append table from French’s Shakespeareana Genealogica:

W^m Shakespeare, b. Apr. 23, 1564; m. Anne Hathaway, b. 1556, dau. of Rich^d and Joan Hathaway, of Shottery. " +----------------------+----------+-------------------+ " " " Susanna, b. May, Hamnet, twin with Judith, bapt. Feb. 1583, d. July 2, Judith, bapt. Feb. 2, 2, 1585, d. 1661; 1649; m. Jno. Hall, 1585, d. s. p. 1596. m. Thos Quiney. physician, b. 1575. " " " " +--------------------+--------------+----+ " " " " " Shakespeare Quiney, Rich^d. Quiney, Thos. Quiney. Elizabeth Hall, b. 1616. b. 1618. b. 1619. b. 1608; d. s. p. 1669.

Elizabeth Hall was twice married: 1st to Thomas Nash—2d to Jno. Bernard (knighted by Charles II.), and had no issue by either marriage.

Of the Quiney children, above named, the 1st (Shakespeare), d. in infancy; the 2d (Richard Quiney), d. without issue, in 1638; the 3d (Thomas Quiney), died the same year, 1638—also without issue.

[23] The extreme limits of his life and career would probably lie between 1575 and 1635; Strahan’s Biographical Dictionary of the last century makes no mention of him; nor does the Biographie Universelle of as early date.

[24] Works of John Webster; with some account of the Author, and Notes, by Rev. A. Dyce (original edition, 1830).

[25] Ford, b. about 1586, and d. 1640. Works edited by Gifford; revised, with Dyce’s notes, 1869.

[26] John Marston, b. 1565 (?); d. about 1634; believed to have been a Shropshire man, and one while of Brasenose College, Oxford.

[27] Philip Massinger, b. 1584; d. 1640. His works were edited by Gifford, and on this edition is based the later one of Col. Cunningham (1870).

[28] “The Duke of Milan.”

[29] John Fletcher, b. 1579; d. 1625. Francis Beaumont, son of Sir Francis Beaumont, b. (probably) 1585; d. 1616.

[30] Aubrey, who died in 1697, and who is often cited, was an antiquary—not always to be relied upon—an Oxford man, friend of Thomas Hobbes, was heir to sundry country estates, which, through defective titles, involved him in suits, that brought him to grief. He was a diligent collector of “whim-whams”—very credulous; supplied Anthony À Wood (1632-1695) with much of his questionable material; and kept up friendly relations with a great many cultivated and literary people.

[31] From the “Nice Valour or the Passionate Madman.” By Seward this comedy is ascribed to Beaumont.

[32] John Taylor, b. 1580; d. 1654. Various papers and poems (so called) of his are printed in vol. ii. of Hindley’s Old Book Collector’s Miscellany, London, 1872. The Spenser Society has also printed an edition of his works, in 5 vols., 1870-78.

[33] London was not over-large at this day; its population counted about 175,000.

[34] James Howell, b. 1594; d. 1666. He was son of a minister in Carmarthenshire, and took his degree at Oxford in 1613.

[35] Of an ancient county family in Mid-Kent: b. 1568; d. 1639.

[36] In his will he suggested this epitaph to be put over his grave: “Hic jacet hujus sententiÆ primus auctor, Disputandi Pruritus EcclesiÆ Scabies.”

[37] Izaak Walton, b. 1593; d. 1683.

[38] Statements about George Herbert, in the matter of the Melville controversy, are specially to be doubted. Of Ben Jonson he says: “He lived with a woman that governed him, near Westminster Abbey, and neither he nor she took much care for next week, and would be sure not to want wine; of which he usually took too much before he went to bed, if not oftener and sooner”—all which shows a pretty accessibility to gossip.

[39] Overbury, b. 1581; d. 1613 (poisoned in London Tower). Rimbault’s Life, 1856; also Strahan’s Biographical Dictionary, 1784.

[40] George Herbert, b. 1593; d. 1633. The edition of his poems referred to is that of Bell & Daldy, London, 1861. Walton’s Life of him is delightful; but one who desires the whole story should not fail of reading Dr. Grosart’s essay, prefatory to the works of George Herbert, in the Fuller Worthies’ Library, London, 1874.

[41] Robert Herrick b. (or at least baptized) 1591; d. 1674. The fullest edition of his works is that edited by Dr. Grosart, and published by Chatto & Windus, London, 1876.

[42] Dr. Grosart objects that most portraits are too gross: I am content if comparison be made only with the engraving authorized by Dr. Grosart, and authenticated by his careful investigation and a warm admiration for his subject.

[43] Herrick is not an example of this; but Herbert is; so is Overbury with his “Wife;” so is Vaughan; so is Browne.

[44]

[45] John Selden, b. 1584; d. 1654. His Table-Talk, by which he is best known, was published in 1689. Coleridge said, “It contains more weighty bullion sense than I have ever found in the same number of pages of any uninspired writer.”

[46] John Milton: written 1629.

[47] Specially instanced in his final desertion of Strafford.

[48] “The Rehearsal.” Complete edition of his works published in 1775. George Villiers, b. 1627; d. 1688.

[49] Jeremy Taylor, b. 1613; d. 1667. First collected edition of his works issued in 1822 (Bishop Heber); reissued, with revision (C. P. Eden), 1852-61.

[50] John Evelyn, b. 1620; d. 1706. His best known books are his Diary, and Sylva—a treatise on arboriculture.

[51] I have not been careful to give the ipsissima verba of Taylor’s version of this old Oriental legend, which has been often cited, but never more happily transplanted into the British gardens of doctrine than by Jeremy Taylor.

[52] John Suckling, b. 1609; d. 1642. An edition of his poems, edited by W. C. Hazlitt, was published in 1874.

[53] William Prynne, b. 1600; d. 1669. He was a Somersetshire man, severely Calvinistic, and before he was thirty had written about the Unloveliness of Love Locks.

[54] Robert Burton, b. 1576; d. 1639, was too remarkable a man to get his only mention in a note; but we cannot always govern our spaces. His best-known work, The Anatomy of Melancholy, is an excellent book to steal from—whether quotations or crusty notions of the author’s own.

[55] Abraham Cowley, b. 1618; d. 1667. Edmund Waller, b. 1605; d. 1687.

[56] I give a taste of these young verses, first published in the Poetical Blossoms of 1633; also sampled approvingly by the mature Cowley in his essay On Myself:

[57] John Milton, b. 1608; d. 1674. Editions of his works are numberless; but Dr. Masson is the fullest and best accredited contributor to Miltonian literature.

[58] John and Edward Phillips both with him; the latter only as pupil.

[59] More probably, perhaps, sulking for lack of her old gayeties of life in the range of Royal Oxford. Aubrey’s accounts would favor this interpretation.

[60] Poems of Mr. John Milton, both English and Latin, composed at several Times. London, 1645.

[61] In that day Whitehall Street was separated from Charing Cross by the famous gate of Holbein’s; and in the other direction it was crossed, near Old Palace Yard, by the King’s-Street Gate—thus forming a vast court.

[62] Salmasius, a Leyden professor, had been commissioned by Royalists to write a defence of Charles I., and vindicate his memory. Milton was commissioned to reply; and the result was—a Latin battle in Billingsgate.

Milton calls his antagonist “a grammatical louse, whose only treasure of merit and hope of fame consisted in a glossary.”

[63] His blindness dating from the year 1652.

[64] This marriage took place on February 24, 1662-63, the age of the bride being twenty-five, and Milton in his fifty-fifth year.

[65] Vondel, b. 1587 (at Cologne); d. 1679. He was the author of many dramatic pieces, among which were “Jephtha,” “Marie Stuart,” “Lucifer” (Luisevaar). Vondel also wrote “Adam in Exile,” and “Samson, or Divine Vengeance.” This latter, according to a writer in The AthenÆum of November 7, 1885, has suspicious points of resemblance with “Samson Agonistes.”

Other allied topics of interest are discussed in same journal’s notice of George Edmundson’s book on the Milton and Vondel question (TrÜbner & Co., London, 1885).

Vondel survived the production of his “Lucifer” by a quarter of a century, and died five years after Milton.

[66] Avitus was Bishop of Vienne (succeeding his father and grandfather) about 490. His poem, “De Initio Mundi,” was in Latin hexameters. See interesting account of same in The Atlantic Monthly for January, 1890.

[67] The cottage is a half-timber, gable fronted building, and has Milton’s name inscribed over the door. The village is reached by a branch of the L. & N. W. R. R. American visitors will also look with interest at the burial place of William Penn, who lies in a “place of graves” behind the Friends’ Meeting House—a mile and a half only from Chalfont Church.

[68] The terms were £5 down; another £5 after sale of 1,300 copies, and two equal sums on further sale of two other editions of same number. The family actually compounded for £18, before the third edition was entirely sold.

[69] Carew, b. about 1589; d. 1639; full of lyrical arts and of brazen sensuality. Lovelace, b. 1618; d. 1658; a careless master of song, whom wealth and royal favor did not save from a death of want and despair.

[70] George Villiers, b. 1627; d. 1688.

[71] Earl of Rochester (John Wilmot), b. 1647; d. 1680.

[72] Sir Peter Lely, b. (in Westphalia) 1617; d. 1680.

[73] Richard Baxter, b. 1615; d. 1691. His Saints’ Rest published in 1653 (Lowndes).

[74] Andrew Marvell, b. 1620; d. 1678. Early edition of Life and Works by Cooke, 1726. (Later reprints.) Dr. Grosart also a laborer in this field.

[75] Aubrey.

[76] Samuel Butler, b. 1612; d. 1680. Editions of Hudibras (his chief book) are many and multiform; that of Bohn perhaps as good as any. His posthumous works, not much known, were published in 1715. No scholarly editing of his works or life has been done.

[77] Paradise Lost appeared 1667; first part of Hudibras, 1663; third part not till 1678.

[78] Some of the couplets in the two ran so nearly together as almost to collide. Thus, Butler says:

While Trumbull’s couplet runs thus:

[79] This was Sir Samuel Luke of Cople-Wood-End, a Parliamentary leader and a man of probity and distinction, supposed to have been the particular subject of Butler’s lampoon. His own letter-book, however (Egerton Magazine, cited by John Brown in his recent Life of Bunyan, p. 45) shows him to have been much more a man of the world than was Butler’s caricature of a “Colonel.”

[80] Samuel Pepys—whom those well up in cockney ways of speech persist in calling “Mr. Peps”—was born 1633; died 1703. His Diary, running from 1660 to 1669, did not see the light until 1825. Since that date numerous editions have been published; that of Bright, the best. See also Wheatley, Samuel Pepys and the World he lived in.

[81] Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, b. 1609; d. 1674. He was a man of large literary qualities, and his History is chiefly prized for its portraits.

[82] John Evelyn, b. 1620; d. 1706.

[83] B. 1628; d. 1688. Editions of the Pilgrim’s Progress are innumerable. Southey and Macaulay have dealt with his biography, and in later times Mr. Froude (“English Men of Letters”) and John Brown (8vo, London, 1885).

[84] Mr. Froude (“English Men of Letters”) entertains an opposite opinion—as do Offor (1862) and Copner (1883). Mr. Brown, however, who is conscientious to a fault, and seems to have been indefatigable in his research, confirms the general opinion entertained by most accredited biographers. See John Bunyan; his Life, Times, and Work, by John Brown, chap. iii., p. 45.

[85] Reference is again made to Life, Etc., by John Brown, Minister of the Church at Bunyan Meeting, Bedford. The old popular belief was strong that Bunyan’s entire prisonship was served in the jail of the bridge. Well-authenticated accounts, however, of the number of his fellow-prisoners forbid acceptance of this belief.

Froude alludes to the question without settling it; Mr. Brown ingeniously sets forth a theory that explains the traditions, and seems to meet all the facts of the case.

[86] There was a quasi charge of plagiarism against Bunyan at one time current, and particulars respecting it came to the light some sixty years ago in a correspondence of Robert Southey (who edited the Major edition of Pilgrim’s Progress) with George Offor, Esq., which appears in the Reminiscences of Joseph Cottle of Bristol. The allegation was, that Bunyan had taken hints for his allegory from an old Dutch book, Duyfkens ande Willemynkyns Pilgrimagee (with five cuts by Bolswert), published at Antwerp in the year 1627. Dr. Southey dismissed the allegation with disdain, after examination of the Dutch Pilgrimage; nor do recent editors appear to have counted the charge worthy of refutation.

[87] Thomas Fuller, b. 1608; d. 1661. The Worthies of England is his best-known book—a reservoir of anecdote and witty comments upon “men and manners.”

[88] Thomas Browne, b. 1605; d. 1682. Full collection of his works (with Johnson’s Life), Bohn, 1851. A very charming edition of the Religio Medici—so good in print—so full in notes—so convenient to the hand—is that of the “Golden Treasury Series,” Macmillan. Nor can I forbear reference to that keen, sympathetic essay on this writer which appears in Walter Pater’s Appreciations, Macmillan, 1889.

[89] William Temple, b. 1628; d. 1699. His works, mainly political writings, were published in two volumes folio, 1720; a later edition, 1731, including the Letters of Temple (edited, and as title-page says—published by Jonathan Swift), was dedicated to his Majesty William III.

[90] This old country home, very charming with its antique air, its mossy terraces, its giant cedars, is still held by a Sir Henry Dryden.

[91] Otway, b. 1631; d. 1685, son of a Sussex clergyman, was author of many poor plays, and of two—“The Orphan” and “Venice Preserved”—sure to live. With much native refinement and extraordinary pathetic power, he went to the bad; was crazed by hopeless love for an actress (Mrs. Barry) in his own plays; plunged thereafter into wildest dissipation, and died destitute and neglected.

[92] Shall I except his re-telling of the tale of Cymon and “Iphigene the Fair?”

[93] John Locke, b. 1632; d. 1704. The best edition of Locke’s works is said to be that by Bishop Law, four volumes, 4to, 1777. For Life, Fox Bourne (1876) is latest authority.

[94] This was a weak scion of the house, “born a shapeless lump, like anarchy,” as Dryden savagely says; but—by this very match—he became the father of the brilliant author of the Characteristics (1711).

[95] February 6, 1685.

[96] Matthew Prior, b. 1664; d. 1721.

[97] William Congreve, b. 1670; d. 1729. See edition of his dramatic works, with pleasant introduction by Leigh Hunt (1840).

[98] Daniel Defoe, b. 1661; d. 1731. Little is known of his very early life. Of Robinson Crusoe there have been editions innumerable. Of his complete works no full edition has ever been published—probably never will be.

[99] Richard Steele, b. 1672; d. 1729. He was born in Dublin, and died on his wife’s estate at Llanngunnor, near Caermarthen, in Wales.

[100] The Christian Hero appeared in 1701; and it was in the same year that Steele’s first play of “The Funeral” was acted at Drury Lane. “The Lying Lover” appeared in 1703, and “The Tender Husband” in 1705.

[101] I take the careful reckoning of Mr. Dobson in his Life of Steele, 1886.

[102] It is, however, seriously to be doubted if Addison ever saw the “Atticus” satire.

[103] “Je tire vers ma fin.” Smollett (Book I., chap. vi.); not a strong authority in most matters, but—from his profession of medicine—an apt one to ferret out actual details in respect to royal illness.

[104] Sir John Vanbrugh, b. (about) 1666; d. 1726. His comedies were better thought of than his buildings, both in his own day and in ours.

[105] Sir Christopher Wren, b. 1631; d. 1723. The cathedral was begun in 1675, and virtually finished in 1710, though there may have been many “last touches” for the aged architect.

[106] John Gay, b. 1685; d. 1732.

[107]

The allusion is doubtless to the year 1684, famous for its exceeding cold.

[108] Jonathan Swift, b. 1667; d. 1745. Most noticeable biographies are those by Scott, Craik, and Stephen; the latter not minute, but having judicial repose, and quite delightful. Scott’s edition of his works (originally published in 1814) is still the fullest and best.

[109] Sir William Temple did not finally abandon his home at Sheen—where he had beautiful gardens—until the year 1689. A stretch of Richmond Park, with its deer-fed turf, now covers all traces of Temple’s old home; the name however is kept most pleasantly alive by the pretty Sheen cottage (Professor Owen’s home), with its carp-pond in front, and its charming, sequestered bit of wild garden in the rear.

[110] “Varina” was a Miss Waring, sister of a college mate. Years after, when Swift came by better church appointments, Varina wrote to him a letter calculated to fan the flame of a constant lover; but she received such reply—at once disdainful and acquiescent—as was met only with contemptuous silence.

[111] Both of these satires written between 1696-1698, but not published till six years later.

[112] Button’s was another favorite Coffee-house in Russell Street—on the opposite side from Will’s—and nearer Covent Garden. I must express my frequent obligations, in respect of London Topography, to the interesting Literary Landmarks of Mr. Laurence Hutton.

[113] Acquaintance with Miss Vanhomrigh probably first made in winter of 1708, but no family intimacy till year 1710. See AthenÆum, January 16, 1886, in notice of Lane-Poole’s Letters and Journals of Swift.

[114] Henry Morley, in the recent editing of his Carrisbrooke Swift, lays stress upon the sufficient warning which Miss Vanhomrigh should have found in this poem. It appears to me that he sees too much in Swift’s favor and too little in Vanessa’s.

[115] Miss Vanhomrigh died in May, 1723; and the final renewal of Bishop Berkeley’s deed of gift (of the Whitehall farm, Newport) to Yale College, is dated August 17, 1733.

[116] Thomas Sheridan, D.D., father of “Dictionary” Sheridan, and grandfather of Richard Brinsley. He was a great friend of Swift, and Gulliver’s Travels was prepared for the press at his cottage in Cavan (Quilca).

[117] The Drapier Letters were published in 1724. When the successive parts of Gulliver were written it is impossible to determine. A portion was certainly in existence as early as 1722. The whole was not published until 1726-27.