me that made a frequent practice of Deer-stealing,
engag'd him with them more than once in robbing a Park that belong'd to
Sir _Thomas Lucy_ of _Cherlecot_ near _Stratford_. For this he was
prosecuted by that gentleman, as he thought, somewhat too severely; and in
order to revenge that ill usage, he made a ballad upon him. And tho' this,
probably the first essay of his Poetry, be lost, yet it is said to have
been so very bitter, that it redoubled the prosecution against him to that
degree, that he was oblig'd to leave his business and family in
_Warwickshire_, for some time, and shelter himself in _London_.

It is at this time, and upon this accident, that he is said to have made
his first acquaintance in the Play-house. He was receiv'd into the Company
then in being, at first in a very mean rank; but his admirable wit, and
the natural turn of it to the stage, soon distinguish'd him, if not as an
extraordinary Actor, yet as an excellent Writer. His name is printed, as
the custom was in those times, amongst those of the other Players, before
some old Plays, but without any particular account of what sort of parts
he us'd to play; and tho' I have inquir'd, I could never meet with any
further account of him this way, than that the top of his Performance was
the Ghost in his own _Hamlet_. I should have been much more pleas'd to
have learn'd from some certain authority, which was the first Play he
wrote; it would be without doubt a pleasure to any man, curious in things
of this kind, to see and know what was the first essay of a fancy like
_Shakespear_'s. Perhaps we are not to look for his beginnings, like those
of other authors, among their least perfect writings; art had so little,
and nature so large a share in what he did, that, for ought I know, the
performances of his youth, as they were the most vigorous, and had the
most fire and strength of imagination in 'em, were the best. I would not
be thought by this to mean, that his fancy was so loose and extravagant,
as to be independent on the rule and government of judgment; but that what
he thought, was commonly so great, so justly and rightly conceiv'd in it
self, that it wanted little or no correction, and was immediately approv'd
by an impartial judgment at the first sight. Mr. _Dryden_ seems to think
that _Pericles_ is one of his first Plays; but there is no judgment to be
form'd on that, since there is good reason to believe that the greatest
part of that Play was not