[327b] These letters have been interpreted as standing for the inscription ‘In Memoriam Scriptoris’ as well as for the name of the writer. In the latter connection, they have been variously and inconclusively read as Jasper Mayne (Student), a young Oxford writer; as John Marston (Student or Satirist); and as John Milton (Senior or Student).
[328] Charles Gildon in 1694, in ‘Some Reflections on Mr. Rymer’s Short View of Tragedy’ which he addressed to Dryden, gives the classical version of this incident. ‘To give the world,’ Gildon informs Dryden, ‘some satisfaction that Shakespear has had as great a Veneration paid his Excellence by men of unquestion’d parts as this I now express of him, I shall give some account of what I have heard from your Mouth, Sir, about the noble Triumph he gain’d over all the Ancients by the Judgment of the ablest Critics of that time. The Matter of Fact (if my Memory fail me not) was this. Mr. Hales of Eaton affirm’d that he wou’d shew all the Poets of Antiquity outdone by Shakespear, in all the Topics, and common places made use of in Poetry. The Enemies of Shakespear wou’d by no means yield him so much Excellence: so that it came to a Resolution of a trial of skill upon that Subject; the place agreed on for the Dispute was Mr. Hales’s Chamber at Eaton; a great many Books were sent down by the Enemies of this Poet, and on the appointed day my Lord Falkland, Sir John Suckling, and all the Persons of Quality that had Wit and Learning, and interested themselves in the Quarrel, met there, and upon a thorough Disquisition of the point, the Judges chose by agreement out of this Learned and Ingenious Assembly unanimously gave the Preference to Shakespear. And the Greek and Roman Poets were adjudg’d to Vail at least their Glory in that of the English Hero.’
[329a] Milton, Iconoclastes, 1690, pp. 9-10.
[329b] Cf. Evelyn’s Diary, November 26, 1661: ‘I saw Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, played, but now the old plays began to disgust the refined age, since His Majesty’s being so long abroad.’
[330a] Conquest of Granada, 1672.
[330b] Essay on Dramatic Poesie, 1668. Some interesting, if more qualified, criticism by Dryden also appears in his preface to an adaptation of ‘Troilus and Cressida’ in 1679. In the prologue to his and D’Avenant’s adaptation of ‘The Tempest’ in 1676, he wrote:
But Shakespeare’s magic could not copied be;
Within that circle none durst walk but he.
[332a] Cf. Shakspere’s Century of Praise, 1591-1693, New Shakspere Soc., ed. Ingleby and Toulmin Smith, 1879; and Fresh Allusions, ed. Furnivall, 1886.
[332b] Cf. W. Sidney Walker, Critical Examination of the Text of Shakespeare, 1859.
[333] See Notes and Lectures on Shakespeare and other Poets by S. T. Coleridge, now first collected by T. Ashe, 1883. Coleridge hotly resented the remark, which he attributed to Wordsworth, that a German critic first taught us to think correctly concerning Shakespeare. (Coleridge to Mudford, 1818; cf. Dykes Campbell’s memoir of Coleridge, p. cv.) But there is much to be said for Wordsworth’s general view (see p. 344, note 1).