hath an ingenious
observation to prove that Shakespeare, supposing the French to be his, had
very little knowledge of the language.

"Est-il impossible d'eschapper la force de ton _Bras_?" says a
Frenchman.--"_Brass_, cur?" replies Pistol.

"Almost any one knows that the French word _Bras_ is pronounced _Brau_;
and what resemblance of sound does this bear to _Brass_?"

Mr. Johnson makes a doubt whether the pronunciation of the French language
may not be changed since Shakespeare's time; "if not," says he, "it may be
suspected that some other man wrote the French scenes": but this does not
appear to be the case, at least in this termination, from the rules of the
Grammarians, or the practice of the Poets. I am certain of the former from
the _French Alphabet_ of De la Mothe, and the _Orthoepia Gallica_ of John
Eliot; and of the latter from the Rhymes of Marot, Ronsard, and Du
Bartas.--Connections of this kind were very common. Shakespeare himself
assisted Ben. Jonson in his _Sejanus_, as it was originally written; and
Fletcher in his _Two noble Kinsmen_.

But what if the French scene were occasionally introduced into every Play
on this Subject? and perhaps there were more than one before our
Poet's.--In _Pierce __ Penilesse his Supplication to the Diuell_, 4to. 1592
(which, it seems, from the Epistle to the Printer, was not the first
Edition), the Author, Nash, exclaims, "What a glorious thing it is to have
_Henry the fifth_ represented on the Stage leading the French King
prisoner, and forcing both him and the Dolphin to sweare fealty!"--And it
appears from the Jests of the famous Comedian, Tarlton, 4to. 1611, that he
had been particularly celebrated in the Part of the Clown in _Henry the
fifth_; but no such Character exists in the Play of Shakespeare.--_Henry
the sixth_ hath ever been doubted; and a passage in the above-quoted piece
of Nash may give us reason to believe it was previous to our Author. "How
would it have joyed braue Talbot (the terror of the French) to thinke that
after he had lyen two hundred yeare in his Toomb, he should triumph again
on the Stage; and haue his bones new embalmed with the teares of ten
thousand spectators at least (at severall times) who, in the Tragedian
that represents his person, imagine they behold him fresh bleeding."--I
have no doubt but _Henry the sixth_ had the same Author with _Edward the
third_, which hath been recovered to the world in Mr. Capell's
_Prolusions_.

It hat