without merit, yet it falls short of his other plays in which Falstaff
is introduced, and that Knight is not half so witty in the Merry Wives
of Windsor as in Henry IV. The humour is scarcely natural, and does
not excite to laughter so much as the other. It appears by the
epilogue to Henry IV. that the part of Falstaff was written originally
under the name of Oldcastle. Some of that family being then remaining,
the Queen was pleased to command him to alter it, upon which he made
use of the name of Falstaff. The first offence was indeed avoided, but
I am not sure whether the author might not be somewhat to blame in his
second choice, since it is certain, that Sir John Falstaff who was
a knight of the garter, and a lieutenant-general, was a name of
distinguished merit in the wars with France, in Henry V. and Henry
VIth's time.

Shakespear, besides the Queen's bounty, was patronized by the Earl of
Southampton, famous in the history of that time for his friendship to
the unfortunate Earl of Essex. It was to that nobleman he dedicated
his poem of Venus and Adonis, and it is reported, that his lordship
gave our author a thousand pounds to enable him to go through with a
purchase he heard he had a mind to make. A bounty at that time very
considerable, as money then was valued: there are few instances of
such liberality in our times.

There is no certain account when Shakespear quitted the stage for a
private life. Some have thought that Spenser's Thalia in the Tears of
the Muses, where she laments the loss of her Willy in the comic scene,
relates to our poet's abandoning the stage. But it is well known that
Spenser himself died in the year 1598, and five years after this we
find Shakespear's name amongst the actors in Ben Johnson's Sejanus,
which first made its appearance in the year 1603, nor could he then
have any thoughts of retiring, since that very year, a license by King
James the first was granted to him, with Burbage, Philipps, Hemmings,
Condel, &c. to exercise the art of playing comedies, tragedies, &c.
as well at their usual house called the Globe on the other side the
water, as in any other parts of the kingdom, during his Majesty's
pleasure. This license is printed in Rymer's Faedera; besides it is
certain, Shakespear did not write Macbeth till after the accession of
James I. which he did as a compliment to him, as he there embraces the
doctrine of witches, of which his Majesty was so fond that he wrote a
book ca