This extraordinary piece was originally published in 4to. 1581, and dedicated by the Author, “To the most vertuous and learned Lady, his most deare and soveraigne Princesse, Elizabeth; being inforced by her Majesties late and singular clemency in pardoning certayne his unduetifull misdemeanour.” And by the modern Editors, to the late King; as “a Treatise composed by the most extensive and fertile Genius that ever any age or nation produced.” Here we join issue with the Writers of that excellent tho’ very unequal work, the _Biographia Britannica_: “If,” say they, “this piece could be written by our Poet, it would be absolutely decisive in the dispute about his learning; for many quotations appear in it from the Greek and Latin Classicks.” The concurring circumstances of the _Name_ and the _Misdemeanor_, which is supposed to be the old Story of _Deer-stealing_, seem fairly to challenge our Poet for the Author: but they hesitate.—His claim may appear to be confuted by the date 1581, when Shakespeare was only _Seventeen_, and the _long_ experience which the Writer talks of.—But I will not keep you in suspense: the book was _not_ written by Shakespeare. Strype, in his _Annals_, calls the Author SOME _learned Man_, and this gave me the first suspicion. I knew very well that honest John (to use the language of Sir Thomas Bodley) did not waste his time with such _baggage books_ as _Plays_ and _Poems_; yet I must suppose that he had heard of the name of Shakespeare. After a while I met with the original Edition. Here in the Title-page, and at the end of the Dedication, appear only the Initials, W. S. Gent., and presently I was informed by Anthony Wood, that the book in question was written, not by William Shakespeare, but by William Stafford, Gentleman: which at once accounted for the _Misdemeanour_ in the Dedication. For Stafford had been concerned at that time, and was indeed afterward, as Camden and the other Annalists inform us, with some of the conspirators against Elizabeth; which he properly calls his _unduetifull_ behaviour. I hope by this time that any One open to conviction may be nearly satisfied; and I will promise to give you on this head very little more trouble. The justly celebrated Mr. Warton hath favoured us, in his _Life of Dr. Bathurst_, with some _hearsay_ particulars concerning Shakespeare from the papers of Aubrey, which had been in the hands of Wood; and I ought not to suppress them, as the _last_ seems to make against my doctrine. They came originally, I find, on consulting the MS., from one Mr. Beeston: and I am sure Mr. Warton, whom I have the honour to call my Friend, and an Associate in the question, will be in no pain about their credit.