8; and, five Years after this, we
find _Shakespeare_'s Name among the Actors in _Ben Jonson_'s _Sejanus_,
which first made its Appearance in the Year 1603. Nor, surely, could he
then have any Thoughts of retiring, since, that very Year, a Licence under
the Privy-Seal was granted by K. _James_ I. to him and _Fletcher_,
_Burbage_, _Phillippes_, _Hemings_, _Condel_, &c. authorizing them to
exercise the Art of playing Comedies, Tragedies, &c. as well at their
usual House call'd the _Globe_ on the other Side of the Water, as in any
other Parts of the Kingdom, during his Majesty's Pleasure (A Copy of which
Licence is preserv'd in _Rymer's Foedera_). Again, 'tis certain that
_Shakespeare_ did not exhibit his _Macbeth_ till after the Union was
brought about, and till after King _James_ I. had begun to touch for the
_Evil_: for 'tis plain, he has inserted Compliments, on both those
Accounts, upon his Royal Master in that Tragedy. Nor, indeed, could the
Number of the Dramatic Pieces he produced admit of his retiring near so
early as that Period. So that what _Spenser_ there says, if it relate at
all to _Shakespeare_, must hint at some occasional Recess he made for a
time upon a Disgust taken: or the _Willy_, there mention'd, must relate to
some other favourite Poet. I believe, we may safely determine that he had
not quitted in the Year 1610. For in his _Tempest_, our Author makes
mention of the _Bermuda_ Islands, which were unknown to the _English_,
till, in 1609, Sir _John Summers_ made a Voyage to _North-America_, and
discover'd them: and afterwards invited some of his Countrymen to settle a
Plantation there. That he became the private Gentleman, at least three
Years before his Decease, is pretty obvious from another Circumstance: I
mean, from that remarkable and well-known Story, which Mr. _Rowe_ has
given us of our Author's Intimacy with Mr. _John Combe_, an old Gentleman
noted thereabouts for his Wealth and Usury: and upon whom _Shakespeare_
made the following facetious Epitaph:

Ten in the hundred lies here ingrav'd,
'Tis a hundred to ten his Soul is not sav'd;
If any Man ask who lies in this Tomb,
Oh! oh! quoth the Devil, 'tis my _John-a-Combe_.

This sarcastical Piece of Wit was, at the Gentleman's own Request, thrown
out extemporally in his Company. And this Mr. _John Combe_ I take to be
the same, who, by _Dugdale_ in his Antiquities of _Warwickshire_, is said
to have dy'd in the Year 1614, and for w