"Who was _Jack Wilson_, the Singer of Shakspeare's Stage? An Attempt to
prove the Identity of this {440} Person with John Wilson, Doctor of
Musick, in the University of Oxford, A.D. 1644."

It would be out of place here to dwell upon this publication, suffice it to
say, that all the information I have since collected, tends to confirm the
hypothesis advanced. One extract from this _brochure_ will show the
connexion that existed between Shakspeare and Wilson:

"Wilson was the composer of four other Shakspearian lyrics, a fact
unknown to Mr. Collier, when he wrote the article in the _Shakspeare
Papers_: 'Where the bee sucks,' 'Full fathom five,' 'Lawn as white as
driven snow,' and 'From the fair Lavinian shore.' They are all printed
in the author's _Cheerfull Ayres or Ballads_, Oxford, 1660. We have now
evidence from this work, that Wilson was the _original_ composer of the
music to _one_ of Shakspeare's plays. He says in his preface, 'some of
these ayres were _originally_ composed by those whose names are affixed
to them, but are here placed as being _new set_ by the author of the
rest. The two songs, 'Where the bee sucks,' and 'Full fathom five,'
have appended to them the name of 'R. Johnson,' who, upon this
evidence, we may undoubtedly conclude was the _original_ composer of
the music in the play of the _Tempest_. The song 'Lawn as white as
driven snow,' from the _Winter's Tale_, has the name of 'John Wilson'
attached to it, from which it is equally certain that he was its
_original_ composer. In my own mind, the circumstances connected with
the Shakspearian lyrics in this book are almost conclusive as to the
identity of John Wilson the _composer_ with John Wilson the _singer_.
Unless the composer had been intimately acquainted with the theatre of
Shakspeare's day, it is not likely that he would have remembered, so
long after, the name of one of its composers. Nor is it likely, being
so well acquainted with the _original_ composers of the Shakspearian
drama, and so anxious as he appears to have been to do justice to their
memory, that he would have omitted informing us, who was the _original_
composer of the song in the _Winter's Tale_, had it been any other than
himself. The _Winter's Tale_ was not produced before 1610 or 1611, at
which period Wilson was sixteen or seventeen years old, an age quite