In a conversation, etc. The authority for this conversation is Dryden, who had recorded it as early as 1668 in his Essay of Dramatic Poesy, at the conclusion of the magnificent eulogy of Shakespeare. He had also spoken of it to Charles Gildon, who, in his Reflections on Mr. Rymer's Short View of Tragedy (1694), had given it with greater fulness of detail. Each of the three accounts contains certain particulars lacking in the other two, but they have unmistakably a common source. Dryden probably told the story to Rowe, as he had already told it to Gildon. The chief difficulty is the source, not of Rowe's information, but of Dryden's. As Jonson was present at the discussion, it must have taken place by 1637. It is such a discussion as prompted Suckling's Session of the Poets (1637), wherein Hales and Falkland figure. It cannot [pg 306] be dated “before 1633” (as in Ingleby's Centurie of Prayse, pp. 198-9). The Lord Falkland mentioned in Gildon's account is undoubtedly the second lord, who succeeded in 1633, and died in 1643. Dryden may have got his information from Davenant.
[8]. Pope condensed the passage thus: “Mr. Hales, who had sat still for some time, told 'em, That if Shakespear had not read the Ancients, he had likewise not stollen anything from 'em; and that if he would produce,” etc.
[9]. Johnson did indeed take a large liberty. The concluding portion of this paragraph from these words is omitted by Pope.
The Menaechmi was translated by “W. W.,” probably William Warner. It was licensed in June, 1594, and published in 1595, but, as the preface states, it had been circulated in manuscript before it was printed. The Comedy of Errors, which was acted by 1594, may have been founded on the Historie of Error, which was given at Hampton Court in 1576-7, and probably also at Windsor in 1582-3. See Farmer's Essay, p. [200],
This passage dealing with Rymer is omitted by Pope. He retains of this paragraph only the first two lines ( ... “Shakespear's Works”) and the last three (“so I will only take,” etc.).
Thomas Rymer, the editor of the Fœdera, published his Short View of Tragedy in 1693. The criticism of Othello and Julius Caesar contained therein he had promised as early as 1678 in his Tragedies of the Last Age. His “sample of Tragedy,” Edgar or the British Monarch, appeared in 1678.
[11]. Falstaff's Billet-Doux ... expressions of love in their way, omitted by Pope.
[12]. The Merchant of Venice was turned into a comedy, with the title the Jew of Venice, by George Granville, Pope's “Granville the polite,” afterwards Lord Lansdowne. It was acted at Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1701. The part of the Jew was performed by Dogget. Betterton played Bassanio. See Genest's English Stage, ii. 243, etc.
is a little too much (line 13). Pope reads is too much.
Difficile est, etc. Horace, Ars poetica, 128.