trifles, that Shakspere shows his wonderful art, there being a concealed meaning attached to them; as if the nephew of Sir Philip Sydney had said, "You stand in my uncle's shoes, you are now the great poet of the day;" as Wm. Herbert himself was "endowed to admiration with a poetical genie," he thus stood to Shakspere in the same relative position that Pompey did to Antony. Again, to Menas' proposal to murder "these three world-sharers" now in his galley, Pompey replies :

Thou must know,

'Tis not my profit that does lead mine honour;
Mine honour, it.

How comes it, that Shakspere did not use the very
words of Pompey according to North's Plutarch, which
are grander, more appropriate, and fall so naturally
into verse- 66
as for myself, I was never taught to
break my faith, nor to be counted a traitor." Why
does he change these words into modern phraseology
about honour, because Shakspere's opinion, derived
from personal observation and acquaintance, coincided
with what Clarendon says of the Earl of Pembroke
(vide Boaden on the Sonnets, I like to give my au-
thority), "after whose death he had likewise such
offices of his as he most affected, of honour and com-
mand; none of profit, which he cared not for;" there-
fore, to speak with Boaden-like positiveness-" there
can be no doubt about it-the fact is upon record"-
Pompey is William Herbert-"the quotation" from
Clarendon proves it. It is also evident, that W. H.
knew something about the love affair,—

Pom. Then so much have I heard :

And I have heard, Apollodorus carried―

Eno. No more of that:-He did so.

Pom.

What, I pray you?

Eno. A certain queen to Cæsar in a mattress.
Pom. I know thee now: how far'st thou, soldier ?

What does this mean, but the recognition of the Earls, Pembroke and Southampton, under these assumed names.

In act ii. sc. 6, is the following discourse between Menas and Enobarbus

:

Eno. You have done well by water.

Men. And you by land.

Eno. I will praise any man that will praise me;

Though it cannot be denied what I have done by land.

Men. Nor what I have done by water.

Eno. Yes, something you can deny for your own safety:
You have been a great thief by sea.

Men. And you by land.

Eno. There I deny my land service.

How trifling and unmeaning is such a conversation between these two great officers; but when we know, that Menas, the pirate, is Thomas Thorpe, the piratical publisher, and Enobarbus, Lord Southampton, there comes a change over the scene; then is Southampton's repentant expression, "there I deny my land service," highly amusing and rich in the extreme.

Marlowe was a learned man, but had no wit or humour in him; a worthless character, drunken and irreligious; vide his Life and Writings, by Rev. A. Dyce. Chapman was a man religious and temperate qualities Marlowe appears not to have possessed."

"Then weeneth he his base drink-drowned spright
Rapt to the three-fold loft of heaven hight."

"A poet was he of repute,

And wrote full many a playe,
Now strutting in a silken sute,
Then begging by the way."

"It was not the production of Marlowe, to whom, we have good reason to believe, Nature had denied even a moderate talent for the humorous."

Julius Cæsar, act iv. scene 1:—

Ant. But, Lepidus, go you to Cæsar's house;

Fetch the will hither, &c.

Ant. This is a slight unmeritable man, &c.

[Exit Lepidus.

Oct.

You may do your will;

Ant.

So is my horse, Octavius ; &c.,

But he's a tried and valiant soldier.

A barren-spirited fellow; one that feeds

On objects, arts, and imitations,

Which, out of use, and stal'd by other men,
Begin his fashion.

How accurate is this description: a slight unmeritable man; barren-spirited, no wit or humour in him; feeds on objects and arts—a learned man; and imitations stal'd by other men, a direct reference to Sonnets 55, 56, and 57; this line, "feeds on objects, arts, and imitations," has much distressed and sorely puzzled the critical mind; but Marlowe is the pass-word; Octavius, however, says, "he is a tried and valiant soldier;" to be sure, he has done some service-written Tamburlaine and Faustus.

In Antony and Cleopatra, act ii. scene 7, Antony "hoaxes Lepidus with the most admirable fooling," at Pompey's feast.

Lep. What manner o' thing is your crocodile ?

Ant.

It is shaped, sir, like itself, &c. &c.

Lep. 'Tis a strange serpent.

Ant.

'Tis so.

And the tears of it are wet.

Cas. Will this description satisfy him?

Ant.

With the health that Pompey gives him; else he is a very epicure.

Pom. This health to Lepidus.

Ant.

Bear him ashore.-I'll pledge it for him, Pompey.

Eno. There's a strong fellow, Menas.

Men. Why?

[Pointing to the Attendant who carries off Lepidus.

Eno. A bears the third part of the world, man: seest not?

Is not this "hoaxing" identical with the Sonnets 58 and 63. "Oh, how I faint," &c. &c.; "by spirits taught to write above a mortal pitch," by the Devil, Belzebub, and Mephistophiles. Yet these sonnets are taken in a serious light by the commentators, who do not perceive, that Shakspere is quizzing "the better spirit," nor do they see the delicate irony, with which he touches up the young Earl himself.

As Marlowe got his livelihood by writing plays, what was more natural, the theatres being closed on account of the plague, than that such a character should act the sycophant and panegyrize the rich and generous Southampton-the liberal patron of the Muses, and at the same time also, "his especial friend".

Pom.

Lepidus flatters both,
Of both is flatter'd; but he neither loves,
Nor either cares for him.

Act iii. sc. 2. Agrippa and Enobarbus.

Agr.
"Tis a noble Lepidus.
Eno. A very fine one: O, how he loves Cæsar!

Agr. Nay, but how dearly he adores Mark Antony !
Eno. Cæsar? Why, he's the Jupiter of men.
Agr. What's Antony? The god of Jupiter.
Eno. Spake you of Cæsar? How? the non-pareil!
Agr. O Antony! O thou Arabian bird!

Eno. Would you praise Cæsar, say,-Cæsar;

-go no further.

Agr. Indeed, he plied them both with excellent praises.
Eno. But he loves Cæsar best :-yet he loves Antony:

Ho! hearts, tongues, figures, scribes, bards, poets, cannot
Think, speak, cast, write, sing, number, ho, his love
To Antony. But as for Cæsar

Kneel down, kneel down, and wonder.

Agr.
Both he loves.
Eno. They are his shards, and he their beetle.

Can any Shaksperian critic explain or make a meaning out of the above beautiful piece of nonsense? What is meant by Agrippa saying, Antony is the god of Jupiter; when he knows that Cæsar's demon is the more powerful of the two; but light dawns upon us, on considering, that Marlowe, in his bombastic style, may have lauded Southampton as Jupiter, to whom Shakspere was a god; and Cæsar is "Cæsargo no further," is a direct reference to Sonnet 61.

Who is it that says most? which can say more,

Than this rich praise,- that you alone are you?
&c. &c.

Thus, this conversation, the imitations, and the hoaxing at Pompey's feast, all refer to the same epistle in the Sonnets, and to the same persons in the same relative position.

On the departure of Antony and Octavia, says,

Lep. Let all the number of the stars give light

To thy fair way!