"T. Otway."
That poor Otway was a lover of the "juice of the grape," is too well known; and it seems from his biography in Cibber's Lives of the Poets, that he was for some time a soldier, and served in Flanders. The half-bacchanalian, half-military character of this song, seems to identify it with the poet. The popular story, that Otway died for want at an ale-house on Tower Hill, is, it is to be hoped, not strictly true. Dennis, the critic (as he is called), tells us that—
"Otway had an intimate friend (one Blackstone), who was shot; the murderer fled towards Dover, and Otway pursued him. In his return he drank water when violently heated, and so got a fever, which was the death of him."
This story is creditable to the warmth of Otway's friendship, and I should be glad to meet with any additional authority to give it confirmation.
EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.
SHAKSPEARE'S "WE THREE."
In Shakspeare's Twelfth Night, a passage occurs upon which some observations may be bestowed in the way of illustration, because, as it is usually printed, no signification seems attributed to it, whereas in reality it is a scrap of satire very appropriate to the character in whose mouth it is placed. In Act II. Sc. 2., the clown, entering to the two drunken knights, Sir Toby Belch and Sir Andrew Ague-cheek, exclaims,—
"How now, my hearts? Did you never see the picture
of we three?"
Of the innumerable editions of Shakspeare, I have examined only twelve, my own and my neighbours', all which, without exception, present the last two words of the quotation as above, without the slightest difference from the remainder of the sentence; and, when annotations are given, without any explanatory remark save in three instances, which will hereafter be noticed. From this circumstance and this coincidence it may be inferred, that the editors generally did not imagine the words in question to contain any special meaning, but possibly understood them as merely an illiterate blunder for "us three." Any such idea, however, would be a misapprehension. For although the clown is introduced as an allowed fool, and so entitled, it is evident he was designed to represent a person not totally devoid of at least some smattering of learning, as well as to be, what one of his brethren is styled, "a shrewd knave;" as such, being manifestly quite capable of duly appreciating his two knightly patrons. Which knowledge on the part of the clown increases the probability that such an "all licensed" personage should, under the disguise of a jest, insinuate the contempt he really felt, and which the others so richly deserve; for this, it will speedily appear, is the sense now contended for of the passage above cited. Secondly, if the words are to stand as already read, "Did you never see the picture of we three?" intimating no allusion to any idea, hinted at but not expressed, they are simply an inquiry respecting a painting of the knights and the clown, to the existence of which there is not another reference throughout the entire play, neither does the story require or suggest that the notion of any such painting should ever have entered the author's mind.
In Theobald's Shakspeare, the sentence we are considering is unnoticed, but, as previously stated, that is not the case in three of the twelve editions consulted. In one, a single volume with glossary, &c., by Nicholas Rowe, to the words "we three," a foot note is appended, supplying, as the conclusion of the phrase, "loggerheads be." The same note is similarly given in another copy in nine volumes. The third instance is an edition in two volumes, with explanatory notes at the end, among which we find this respecting Twelfth Night:—"Did you never see the picture of we three? an allusion to an old print frequently pasted on alehouse walls, representing two, but under which the spectator reads, We three are asses;" the name of Malone being added as the authority for this interpretation.[1] Without denying that Malone may have possessed sufficient grounds for his statement, it may be permitted to deliver an opinion, and to subjoin the following remarks as a reason for thinking that Rowe's explanation is the better of the two.