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  • The Freemasons' Magazine
  • May 1, 1798
  • Page 30
  • A BRIEF ENQUIRY INTO THE LEARNING OF SHAKSPEARE.
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The Freemasons' Magazine, May 1, 1798: Page 30

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    Article A BRIEF ENQUIRY INTO THE LEARNING OF SHAKSPEARE. ← Page 2 of 4 →
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A Brief Enquiry Into The Learning Of Shakspeare.

ciebat ; he rather affected to contemn learning , than remained in ignorance of it . N Of his contempt for learning he gives us the following proof under his own hand . LOVE ' S LABOUR LOST , ACT I . SCENE I . ' Study is like the heaven ' s glorious sun , That will not be deep-search'd with sawcy looks ;

Small have continual plodders ever won , Swve base authority from others books . Those earthly godfathers of heaven ' s lights , That give a name to every fixed star ; Have no more profit of the shining nights , Than those who wilk ai . d wot not what they ai e . ' He wasneverthelessupon the wholea good scholar ; but in his

, , , learning , as well as every thing else , he was negligently great , and admirable without accuracy . He had little , if any knowledge , of the Greek and Roman prosody , wdiich sufficiently appears in many instances . Throughout the whole play of Cymbeline , it is evident , from the structure of his versification , that he mistook Posthumus , for Posthiirnus . In Hamlet he calls Hyperion , Hypeiion ; and in another

p lay he makes Andronicus , Audroincus . But . it may be , he disdained these little niceties , or thought , perhaps , if he made the words more musical , it would justify his inaccuracy . Havino- premised these few observations , we shall present our readers with several passages which Shakspeare has borrowed from the antients . We could have greatly increased the number ; but what is here produced will sufficiently answer the end proposed .

RICHARD II . ACT III . SCENE II . ' Dear earth , I do salute thee with my hand , Tho' rebels wound thee with their horses hoofs -. As a long parted mother , with her child , Plays fondly ivilh her tears , and smiles in tueeping , So iveeping , smiting , gieet I thee . ' Tin ' s is a manifest ( and perhaps the only ) imitation of that most

beautiful passage in the Vith book of the Iliad , verse 4 84 . 'ils HTM aXo-Xpio < pi > . ys EV X ?" '^> , ' , - Xia . iV toi 1 5 " « f * IW x'linoei UE £ v . o \ ti ' ji , Aax ( vciv TsXourct . au . Mr . Pope , in his version of this place , has fallen greatly short of his , orig inal .

HICHAT . D II . ACT III . SCENE VII . „ . ' Their fortunes both are tueigh'd . In your lord ' s scale is nothing but himself , And some few vanities , that make him light ; Bur , in the balance of great Bolingbroke , Besides himself , are all the English peers , And with that odds he iveighsYSmg Richard do-iv / i . ' '

The hint of these lines was taken from the Vlllth book of the Iliad , ver . 69 . It is observable , however , that there is much more propriety in Shakspeare than in Homer , with regard to this allusion , for the latter makes the fate of the Greeks preponderating , a sign of their being discomfited .

“The Freemasons' Magazine: 1798-05-01, Page 30” Masonic Periodicals Online, Library and Museum of Freemasonry, 9 June 2025, django:8000/periodicals/fmm/issues/fmm_01051798/page/30/.
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Title Category Page
Untitled Article 1
LONDON: Article 1
TO CORRESPONDENTS, &c. Article 2
MEMOIR OF THE COUNTESS OF DERBY, Article 3
DESCRIPTION OF THE SOURCE OF THE RHINE, Article 4
WISDOM AND FOLLY. Article 7
HAWKESWORTH'S NOTES on ROBERTSON'S HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. Article 10
LETTER II. Article 12
PROCEEDINGS OF A GREAT COUNCIL OF JEWS, Article 14
COLVILLE. Article 17
THE LIFE OF XIMENES, ARCHBISHOP OF TOLEDO. Article 23
A BRIEF ENQUIRY INTO THE LEARNING OF SHAKSPEARE. Article 29
SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE. Article 33
THE FREEMASONS' REPOSITORY. Article 38
MASONIC INTELLIGENCE. Article 41
PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. Article 45
POETRY. Article 47
REPORT OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT. Article 49
IRISH PARLIAMENT. Article 55
HOUSE OF COMMONS. Article 56
MONTHLY CHRONICLE. Article 57
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Page 30

Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.

A Brief Enquiry Into The Learning Of Shakspeare.

ciebat ; he rather affected to contemn learning , than remained in ignorance of it . N Of his contempt for learning he gives us the following proof under his own hand . LOVE ' S LABOUR LOST , ACT I . SCENE I . ' Study is like the heaven ' s glorious sun , That will not be deep-search'd with sawcy looks ;

Small have continual plodders ever won , Swve base authority from others books . Those earthly godfathers of heaven ' s lights , That give a name to every fixed star ; Have no more profit of the shining nights , Than those who wilk ai . d wot not what they ai e . ' He wasneverthelessupon the wholea good scholar ; but in his

, , , learning , as well as every thing else , he was negligently great , and admirable without accuracy . He had little , if any knowledge , of the Greek and Roman prosody , wdiich sufficiently appears in many instances . Throughout the whole play of Cymbeline , it is evident , from the structure of his versification , that he mistook Posthumus , for Posthiirnus . In Hamlet he calls Hyperion , Hypeiion ; and in another

p lay he makes Andronicus , Audroincus . But . it may be , he disdained these little niceties , or thought , perhaps , if he made the words more musical , it would justify his inaccuracy . Havino- premised these few observations , we shall present our readers with several passages which Shakspeare has borrowed from the antients . We could have greatly increased the number ; but what is here produced will sufficiently answer the end proposed .

RICHARD II . ACT III . SCENE II . ' Dear earth , I do salute thee with my hand , Tho' rebels wound thee with their horses hoofs -. As a long parted mother , with her child , Plays fondly ivilh her tears , and smiles in tueeping , So iveeping , smiting , gieet I thee . ' Tin ' s is a manifest ( and perhaps the only ) imitation of that most

beautiful passage in the Vith book of the Iliad , verse 4 84 . 'ils HTM aXo-Xpio < pi > . ys EV X ?" '^> , ' , - Xia . iV toi 1 5 " « f * IW x'linoei UE £ v . o \ ti ' ji , Aax ( vciv TsXourct . au . Mr . Pope , in his version of this place , has fallen greatly short of his , orig inal .

HICHAT . D II . ACT III . SCENE VII . „ . ' Their fortunes both are tueigh'd . In your lord ' s scale is nothing but himself , And some few vanities , that make him light ; Bur , in the balance of great Bolingbroke , Besides himself , are all the English peers , And with that odds he iveighsYSmg Richard do-iv / i . ' '

The hint of these lines was taken from the Vlllth book of the Iliad , ver . 69 . It is observable , however , that there is much more propriety in Shakspeare than in Homer , with regard to this allusion , for the latter makes the fate of the Greeks preponderating , a sign of their being discomfited .

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