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Article SHAKSPERE, HIS FRIENDS AND ACQUAINTANCES. ← Page 4 of 7 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Shakspere, His Friends And Acquaintances.
infancy , of the poet ' s patron ; so that he could Avell afford to do the very generous act Avith Avhich he is credited , of having kindly presented him Avith the then very large sum of a thousand pounds . He Avas only twenty years old when our bard dedicated to him , in much simpler language than was then the fashion , his poem of Venus and Adonis , aftenvards followed by that of his lAicrece . He was pre-eminently a patron of letters ; and we find Nashe and Gervase Markham also dedicating Avorks to him . Rowe , who
relates his noble generosity to the great dramatist , says : "There is one instance so singular in the magnificence of this patron of Shakspere ' s , that if I had not been assured that the story was handed doivn by Sir William Davenant , AVIIO Avas probabl y A'ery Avell acquainted Avith his affairs , I should not have ventured to have inserted ; that my Lord Southampton at one time gave him a thousand pounds , to enable him to go through Avith a purchase which he heard he had a mind to . " But , as the elder Hood sings , —
"Ahs lor the rarity Of Christian charity Under the sun , " men are so eaten up with Avorldly selfishness that they are incapable , for the most part , of crediting the possibility of a nobleman rolling in riches doing so generous an act as to freely give , Avhat to him ivould never be missed , to the greatest genius which the
Avorld ever produced . That a later , and , though much humbler , still highly-gifted dramatist , poor Tom Otway , should have literally died of hunger in the wealthiest metropolis , does not tax their credulity in the least ; and they will probably readily believe my statement , that I have recently searched the churchyard of St . Clement ' s Danes in vain to find the graves of Otway ancl Nat Lee . We can easily credit the starving of a hundred good poets , but that a rich patron should give a thousand pounds —even to a Shakspere—alas ! is too much for us to believe 1 Such is poor human nature ! Verily , as WordsAVorfch sings , —
" The Avorld is too much with us !" And greatly do Ave need the constant iteration of our fine Masonic teaching , that " Charity has the approbation of heaven and of earth , ancl , like its sister , Mcrcj ' , blesses him that gives as Avell as him that receives . " As the ritual is CA'idently much more modern than The Merchant of Venice , I guess this passage has misled those Avho unhesitatingly assert that Shakspere was a brother Mason , —an assertion which I should rejoice to see proA'en ,
but Avhich I cannot find a particle of evidence to support . And Truth , above all things , ' is an essential Masonic virtue . Tho same remark will apply to the assertion , which I sometimes see made , that the divine Milton was also a brother of the Craft . Masonic students have " ample room and verge enough " to make known to us the many good and great men , in all departments , -who can be proved to have ready been " brothers of the mystic tie , "—a labour of love in Avhicblam anxious to do what little comes " within the compass of my cable tow . " But to claim every writer who has ever inculcated
Masonic A-irtues as a brother of the Craft , from that simple circumstance alone , is as ridiculous as the attempt , made by a very learned divine , to jirove tho Oddfellows to have originated in ancient Rome ; of the Foresters to claim a descent from the old keepers of the king ' s deer ; of the Druids to claim descent from the ancient priesthood of Great Britain ; of the Shepherds to claim Daiid , the royal Psalmist , and the ancient shepherd kings , as belonging to their brotherhood ; and of the Free Gardeners to reckon their origin from the time " when Adam delved ancl Eve span . "
As Queen Elizabeth and King James the First were both delighted patrons of the great dramatist , it Avould be interesting to knoAV , if one could only como at the facts , Avhat they really did for him , and IIOAV far they had the true greatness to break through those social barriers that stood between them . That true poet , Edmund Spenser , in his Thalia , evidently alludes to Shakspere ( though only then twenty-seven years of age ) as " our pleasant Willy , " from Avhich it is not too much to surmise that the two greatest bards of that , and indeed of any other , era in our history , were familiar friends ; Shakspere also having his kindly allusion to the author of the Faery Queen . Onr national
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Shakspere, His Friends And Acquaintances.
infancy , of the poet ' s patron ; so that he could Avell afford to do the very generous act Avith Avhich he is credited , of having kindly presented him Avith the then very large sum of a thousand pounds . He Avas only twenty years old when our bard dedicated to him , in much simpler language than was then the fashion , his poem of Venus and Adonis , aftenvards followed by that of his lAicrece . He was pre-eminently a patron of letters ; and we find Nashe and Gervase Markham also dedicating Avorks to him . Rowe , who
relates his noble generosity to the great dramatist , says : "There is one instance so singular in the magnificence of this patron of Shakspere ' s , that if I had not been assured that the story was handed doivn by Sir William Davenant , AVIIO Avas probabl y A'ery Avell acquainted Avith his affairs , I should not have ventured to have inserted ; that my Lord Southampton at one time gave him a thousand pounds , to enable him to go through Avith a purchase which he heard he had a mind to . " But , as the elder Hood sings , —
"Ahs lor the rarity Of Christian charity Under the sun , " men are so eaten up with Avorldly selfishness that they are incapable , for the most part , of crediting the possibility of a nobleman rolling in riches doing so generous an act as to freely give , Avhat to him ivould never be missed , to the greatest genius which the
Avorld ever produced . That a later , and , though much humbler , still highly-gifted dramatist , poor Tom Otway , should have literally died of hunger in the wealthiest metropolis , does not tax their credulity in the least ; and they will probably readily believe my statement , that I have recently searched the churchyard of St . Clement ' s Danes in vain to find the graves of Otway ancl Nat Lee . We can easily credit the starving of a hundred good poets , but that a rich patron should give a thousand pounds —even to a Shakspere—alas ! is too much for us to believe 1 Such is poor human nature ! Verily , as WordsAVorfch sings , —
" The Avorld is too much with us !" And greatly do Ave need the constant iteration of our fine Masonic teaching , that " Charity has the approbation of heaven and of earth , ancl , like its sister , Mcrcj ' , blesses him that gives as Avell as him that receives . " As the ritual is CA'idently much more modern than The Merchant of Venice , I guess this passage has misled those Avho unhesitatingly assert that Shakspere was a brother Mason , —an assertion which I should rejoice to see proA'en ,
but Avhich I cannot find a particle of evidence to support . And Truth , above all things , ' is an essential Masonic virtue . Tho same remark will apply to the assertion , which I sometimes see made , that the divine Milton was also a brother of the Craft . Masonic students have " ample room and verge enough " to make known to us the many good and great men , in all departments , -who can be proved to have ready been " brothers of the mystic tie , "—a labour of love in Avhicblam anxious to do what little comes " within the compass of my cable tow . " But to claim every writer who has ever inculcated
Masonic A-irtues as a brother of the Craft , from that simple circumstance alone , is as ridiculous as the attempt , made by a very learned divine , to jirove tho Oddfellows to have originated in ancient Rome ; of the Foresters to claim a descent from the old keepers of the king ' s deer ; of the Druids to claim descent from the ancient priesthood of Great Britain ; of the Shepherds to claim Daiid , the royal Psalmist , and the ancient shepherd kings , as belonging to their brotherhood ; and of the Free Gardeners to reckon their origin from the time " when Adam delved ancl Eve span . "
As Queen Elizabeth and King James the First were both delighted patrons of the great dramatist , it Avould be interesting to knoAV , if one could only como at the facts , Avhat they really did for him , and IIOAV far they had the true greatness to break through those social barriers that stood between them . That true poet , Edmund Spenser , in his Thalia , evidently alludes to Shakspere ( though only then twenty-seven years of age ) as " our pleasant Willy , " from Avhich it is not too much to surmise that the two greatest bards of that , and indeed of any other , era in our history , were familiar friends ; Shakspere also having his kindly allusion to the author of the Faery Queen . Onr national