Page:The Plays of William Shakspeare (1778).djvu/327

[ 311 ]

4. If the queen had been dead when our author wrote this play, he would have been acquainted with the particular circumſtances attending her death, the ſituation of the kingdom at that time, and of foreign ſtates, &c. and as archbiſhop Cranmer is ſuppoſed to have had the gift of prophecy, Shakſpeare, probably, would have made him mention ſome of thoſe circumſtances. Whereas the prediction as it ſtands at preſent, is quite general, and ſuch as might, without any hazard of error, have been pronounced in the life-time of her majeſty; for the principal fads that it foretells, are, that ſhe ſhould die aged, and a virgin. Of the former, ſuppoſing this piece to have been written in 1601, the author was ſufficiently ſecure; for ſhe was then near ſeventy years old. The latter may perhaps be thought too delicate a ſubject, to have been mentioned while ſhe was yet living. But, we may preſume, it was far from being an ungrateful topick; for very early after her acceſſion to the throne, ſhe appears to have been proud of her maiden character; declaring that ſhe was wedded to her people, and that ſhe deſired no other inſcription on her tomb, than—Here lyeth Elizabeth, who reigned and died a virgin^[1]. Beſides, if Shakeſpeare knew, as probably moſt people at that time did, that ſhe became very ſolicitous about the reputation of virginity, when her title to it was at leaſt equivocal, this would be an additional inducement to him to compliment her on that head.

5. Granting that the latter part of the panegyrick on Elizabeth implies that ſhe was dead when it was compoſed, it would not prove that this play was written in the time of king James; for theſe latter lines in praiſe of the queen, as well as the whole of the compliment to the king, might have been added after his acceſſion to the throne, in order to bring the ſpeaker back to the object immediately before him, the infant Elizabeth. And this Mr. Theobald conjectured to have been the caſe. I do not, however, ſee any neceſſity for this ſuppoſition; as there is nothing, in my apprehen-

And yet no day without a deed to crown it.
Wou’d I had known no more! but ſhe muſt die,
She muſt, the ſaints muſt have her; yet a virgin, &c.”
The lines between crotchets, are thoſe, ſuppoſed to have been inſerted by the author after the acceſion of king James.

1. Camden 27. Melvil 49.

[U4]