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Article SHAKSPERE, HIS FRIENDS AND ACQUAINTANCES. ← Page 6 of 7 →
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Shakspere, His Friends And Acquaintances.
But Shakspere was not the man to allow his clowns to speak "more than is set down for them ; " and possibly men like Wilson might chafe at the rein . Of John Taylor , Charles Kni ght thinks that he was " probably an old actor , and might be the father of the famous Joseph Taylor , of whom tradition says Shakspere taught him to play Hamlet . " Anthony Wadeson was also a dramatic Avriter , as well as a player , and had left the Blackfriars in 1596 , and was writing in 1 G 01 for Henslowe ' s theatre , for which he
wrote , amongst other pieces , The Honourable Life of the Humorous Earl of Gloster , with his Conquest of Portugal . "Here , " says Heywood , "I must needs remember Tarleton , in his time gracious with the Queen , his sovereign , and in the people ' s general applause ; Avhoni succeeded Will . Eempe , as well in the favour of her Majesty as in the opinion and good thoughts of the general audience . " He published an account of his morris-dance from London to Norwich—evidently being a merry blade—and Avas the original Dogberry and Bottom of Shakspere . Oddly enough , on my first pilgrimage to Stratford , I found the old sexton
bore the name of Konipe . Robert Armin Avas a comic actor , a pupil of Tarleton ' s , translated a novel from the Italian , and Avrote ballads and other temporary pot-boilers . His Nest of Ninnies , which ike Shakespeare Society reprinted some years ago , has neither much good nor evil in it . " Armin ' s stories , . however , " as Knight remarks , " are told ivith an absence of offensive ribaldry which was scarcely to be expected from his peculiar talent . He desires to
make his readers laugh , but he does not seek to do so by intruding the grossness by Avhich his subject was necessarily smrounded . " George Peele—the great Avriter of flunkey speeches in pieces for the Court ancl City—Avas capable of producing true poetry , though lacking sadly in the real dramatic faculty ; and between him and Shakspere there is certainly " a gulf fixed . " Yet many passages of his are well worth re-producing in the present dayfor their eloquence
, , elegance , ancl fancy . But Queen Elizabeth , with all her masculine strength , must have been Aveaker than most Avoinen " Avho do the meanest chares , " to witness Yenus , Pallas , ancl Juno ( as in Peele ' s Arraignment of Paris , performed before her , by the children of her chapel , in 1584 ) , cheerfelly resign their pretensions to Diana ' s golden ball , in favour of her Majesty ' s superior beauty , wisdom , and princely state !
Kit Marlowe also an actor ( called by Greene " the famous gracer of tragedians" ) , Avho came to prepare the Avay before the greater Shakspere , Avith Avhat Ben Jonson truly calls his " mighty line ; " and , as Meres has it , " gorgeously invested with rare ornaments and splendid habiliments the English tongue ; " ancl helped to clear the stage , as lie himself expresses it , —
" . From jugging veins of rhyming mother Avits , And such coucoits as clownage keeps in pay ;" Marlowe , Avhom Shakspere lovingly alludes to , after his tragic death , as " dead Shepherd , " Avhen he quotes his " saw of might ; " and whom Peele declared was " Fit to write passions for the souls below , "
is a _ brave pioneer , who , Avith all his faults , has hitherto had but scant justice done to him ; writers like Barry Cornwall having erroneously censured him for what he never wrote . Will the brethren of the great guild of literature ever learn to form a phalanx for mutual support and defence , rather than needlessly tearing each other ' s reputation to pieces ? $ , Of the sorrowful life of Robert Greene—many of whose lyrics are much better
than the average of those palmed upon us in the magazines of our own day , and whose romances were the delight of high and low—my space will not allow me to say more than that I , for one , can in some measure pardon his abuse of Shakspere for his sufferings , and feel convinced that all was not bad in his heart when , at the end of his sadly wasted life , he wrote from his deathbed , at the poor shoemaker ' s , to his deserted
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Shakspere, His Friends And Acquaintances.
But Shakspere was not the man to allow his clowns to speak "more than is set down for them ; " and possibly men like Wilson might chafe at the rein . Of John Taylor , Charles Kni ght thinks that he was " probably an old actor , and might be the father of the famous Joseph Taylor , of whom tradition says Shakspere taught him to play Hamlet . " Anthony Wadeson was also a dramatic Avriter , as well as a player , and had left the Blackfriars in 1596 , and was writing in 1 G 01 for Henslowe ' s theatre , for which he
wrote , amongst other pieces , The Honourable Life of the Humorous Earl of Gloster , with his Conquest of Portugal . "Here , " says Heywood , "I must needs remember Tarleton , in his time gracious with the Queen , his sovereign , and in the people ' s general applause ; Avhoni succeeded Will . Eempe , as well in the favour of her Majesty as in the opinion and good thoughts of the general audience . " He published an account of his morris-dance from London to Norwich—evidently being a merry blade—and Avas the original Dogberry and Bottom of Shakspere . Oddly enough , on my first pilgrimage to Stratford , I found the old sexton
bore the name of Konipe . Robert Armin Avas a comic actor , a pupil of Tarleton ' s , translated a novel from the Italian , and Avrote ballads and other temporary pot-boilers . His Nest of Ninnies , which ike Shakespeare Society reprinted some years ago , has neither much good nor evil in it . " Armin ' s stories , . however , " as Knight remarks , " are told ivith an absence of offensive ribaldry which was scarcely to be expected from his peculiar talent . He desires to
make his readers laugh , but he does not seek to do so by intruding the grossness by Avhich his subject was necessarily smrounded . " George Peele—the great Avriter of flunkey speeches in pieces for the Court ancl City—Avas capable of producing true poetry , though lacking sadly in the real dramatic faculty ; and between him and Shakspere there is certainly " a gulf fixed . " Yet many passages of his are well worth re-producing in the present dayfor their eloquence
, , elegance , ancl fancy . But Queen Elizabeth , with all her masculine strength , must have been Aveaker than most Avoinen " Avho do the meanest chares , " to witness Yenus , Pallas , ancl Juno ( as in Peele ' s Arraignment of Paris , performed before her , by the children of her chapel , in 1584 ) , cheerfelly resign their pretensions to Diana ' s golden ball , in favour of her Majesty ' s superior beauty , wisdom , and princely state !
Kit Marlowe also an actor ( called by Greene " the famous gracer of tragedians" ) , Avho came to prepare the Avay before the greater Shakspere , Avith Avhat Ben Jonson truly calls his " mighty line ; " and , as Meres has it , " gorgeously invested with rare ornaments and splendid habiliments the English tongue ; " ancl helped to clear the stage , as lie himself expresses it , —
" . From jugging veins of rhyming mother Avits , And such coucoits as clownage keeps in pay ;" Marlowe , Avhom Shakspere lovingly alludes to , after his tragic death , as " dead Shepherd , " Avhen he quotes his " saw of might ; " and whom Peele declared was " Fit to write passions for the souls below , "
is a _ brave pioneer , who , Avith all his faults , has hitherto had but scant justice done to him ; writers like Barry Cornwall having erroneously censured him for what he never wrote . Will the brethren of the great guild of literature ever learn to form a phalanx for mutual support and defence , rather than needlessly tearing each other ' s reputation to pieces ? $ , Of the sorrowful life of Robert Greene—many of whose lyrics are much better
than the average of those palmed upon us in the magazines of our own day , and whose romances were the delight of high and low—my space will not allow me to say more than that I , for one , can in some measure pardon his abuse of Shakspere for his sufferings , and feel convinced that all was not bad in his heart when , at the end of his sadly wasted life , he wrote from his deathbed , at the poor shoemaker ' s , to his deserted