[181]. Victor, Benjamin (died 1778), was made Poet Laureate of Ireland in 1755. He produced in 1761, in two volumes, the History of the Theatres of London and Dublin, from the year 1730 to the present time. A third volume brought the history of the theatre down to 1771. Farmer refers to vol. ii., p. 107: “Double Falshood, a Tragedy, by Mr. Theobald, said by him to be written by Shakespear, which no one credited; and on Enquiry, the following Contradiction appeared; the Story of the Double Falshood is taken from the Spanish of Cervantes, who printed it in the year after Shakespear died. This Play was performed twelve Nights.”
Langbaine informs us. English Dramatick Poets, p. 475.
Andromana. “This play hath the letters J.S. in the title page, and was printed in the year 1660, but who was its author I have not been able to learn,” Dodsley, Collection of Old Plays, 1744, vol. xi. p. 172. In the second edition (ed. Isaac Reed, 1780) the concluding words are replaced by a reference to the prologue written in 1671, which says that “'Twas Shirley's muse that labour'd for its birth.” But there appears to be no further evidence that the play was by Shirley.
Hume. See the account of Shakespeare in his History, reign of James I., ad fin., 1754: “He died in 1617, aged 53 years.” The date of his death, but not his age, was corrected in the edition of 1770.
MacFlecknoe, line 102.
[182]. Newton informs us, in the note on Paradise Lost, iv. 556 (ed. 1757, i., p. 202). See note on p. [110].
[182]. Her eye did seem to labour. The Brothers, Act i., Sc. 1. “Middleton, in an obscure play, called A Game at Chesse, hath some very pleasing lines on a similar occasion:
Upon those lips, the sweete fresh buds of youth,
The holy dew of prayer lies like pearle,
Dropt from the opening eye-lids of the morne