actually converted into a drama nearly a quarter of a century Steevens quotes a passage from "a True Narration of the before the death of Elizabeth. Whetstone's "Promos and Entertainment" of the King on his way from Edinburgh to Cassandra," a play in two parts, was printed in 1578, though, London, printed in 1603, where it is said, "he was faine to as far as we know, never acted, and he subsequently intro-publish an inhibition against the inordinate and dayly accesse duced a translation of the novel (which he admitted to be its of people comming." Taken with the context, the lines origin), in his "Heptameron of Civil Discourses." 4to. 15821. above quoted read like an insertion. No plays, however, excepting "Promos and Cassandra," and "Measure for Measure," founded on the same incidents, have reached our day, and Whetstone's is the only existing ancient version of the Italian novél. We may, therefore, arrive pretty safely at the conclusion, that "Measure for Measure was written either at the close of 1608, or in the beginning of 1604. "Measure for Measure was first printed in the folio of 1623; and exactly fifty years afterwards was published Sir William Davenant's "Law against Lovers," founded upon it, and "Much ado about Nothing." With some ingenuity in the combination of the plots, he contrived to avail himself largely, and for his purpose judiciously, of the materials Shakespeare furnished. The Title of Cinthio's novel, the fifth of the eighth Decad of his Hecatommithi, gives a sufficient account of the progress of the story as he relates it, and will show its connexion with Shakespeare's play :-"Juriste e mandato da Massimiano, Imperadore, in Ispruchi, ove fà prendere un giovane, violatore di una vergine, e condannalo à morte: la sorella cerca di liberarlo: Juriste da speranza alla donna di pigliarla per mog- Of "Measure for Measure," Coleridge observes in his lie, e di darle libero il fratello: ella con lui si giace, è la notte "Literary Remains," ii. 122: "This play, which is Shakee istessa Juriste fà tagliar al giovane la testa, è la manda alla speare's throughout, is to me the most painful, say rather, sorella. Ella ne fà querela all' Imperadore, il quale fà sposare the only painful part of his genuine works. The comic and ad Juriste la donna: poscia lo fà dare ad essere ucciso. La don- tragic parts equally border on the one-the one being na lo libera, e con lui si vive amorevolissimamente."-Whet- disgusting, the other horrible; and the pardon and marriage stone adopts these incidents pretty exactly in his "Promos of Angelo not merely baffles the strong indignant claim of and Cassandra;" but Shakespeare varies from them chiefly justice (for cruelty, with lust and damnable baseness, cannot by the introduction of Mariana, and by the final union be- be forgiven, because we cannot conceive them as being motween the Duke and Isabella. Whetstone lays his scene at rally repented of), but it is likewise degrading to the charac Julio in Hungary, whither Corvinus, the King, makes a pro-ter of woman. In the course of Lectures on Shakespeare gress to ascertain the truth of certain charges against Promos: delivered in the year 1818, Coleridge pointed especially to the Shakespeare lays his scene in Vienna, and represents the artifice of Isabella, and her seeming consent to the suit of Duke as retiring from public view, and placing his power in Angelo, as the circumstances which tended to lower the the hands of two deputies. Shakespeare was not indebted to character of the female sex. He then called "Measure for Whetstone for a single thought, nor for a casual expression, Measure" only the "least agreeable "least agreeable" of Shakespeare's excepting as far as similarity of situation may be said to have dramas. necessarily occasioned corresponding states of feeling, and employment of language. In Whetstone's "Heptameron," the name of the lady who narrates the story of "Promos and Cassandra," is Isabella, and hence possibly Shakespeare might have adopted it. As to the date when "Measure for Measure" was written, we have no positive information, but we now know that it was acted at Court on St. Stephen's night, (26 Dec.) 1604. This fact is stated in Edmund Tylney's account of the expenses of the revels from the end of Oct. 1604, till the same date in 1605, preserved in the Audit Office: the original memorandum of the master of the revels runs literatim, as follows: By his Matis Plaiers. On St. Stivens night in the Hall, a Play caled Mesur for Mesur." war In the column of the account headed "The Poets which mard the Plaies," we find the name of "Shaxberd" entered, which was the mode in which the ignorant scribe, who prepared the account, spelt the name of our great dramatist. Malone conjectured from certain allusions (such as to "the " with Spain, "the sweat," meaning the plague, &c.), that "Measure for Measure" was written in 1608; and if we suppose it to have been selected for performance at Court on 26tli Dec. 1604, on account of its popularity at the theatre after its production, his supposition will receive some confirmation. However, such could not have been the case with "the Comedy of Errors," and "Love's Labours Lost," which were written before 1598, and which were also performed at Christmas and Twelfth-tide, 1604-5. Tyrwhitt was at one time of opinion, from the passage in A. II. sc. 4. "As these black masks Proclaim an enshield beauty ten times louder that this drama "was written to be acted at Court, as Shake- before "Measure for Measure" was acted at Whitehall:- The general, subject to a well-wish'd King, 1 Whetstone's "Heptameron" is not paged, but "the rare Historie of Promos and Cassandra," commences on Sign. N. ij b. THE COMEDY OF ERRORS. "The Comedie of Errors" was first printed in the folio of 1623, where it occupies sixteen pages, viz. from p. 85 to p. 100 inclusive, in the division of "Comedies." It was re-printed in the three subsequent impressions of the same volume. We have distinct evidence of the existence of an old play called "The Historie of Error," which was acted at Hampton Court on new-year's night, 1576-7. The same play, in all probability, was repeated at Windsor on twelfth night, 1582–3, though, in the accounts of the Master of the Revels, it is called "The Historie of Ferrar." Boswell (Mal. Shakesp. III. 406.) not very happily conjectured, that this "Historie of Ferrar" was some piece by George Ferrars, as if it had been named after its author, who had been dead some years: the fact, no doubt, is, that the clerk who prepared the account merely wrote the title by his ear. Thus we see that, shortly before Shakespeare is supposed to have come to London, a play was in course of performance upon which his own Comedy of Errors" miglit be founded. "The Historie of Error" was, probably, an early adaptation of the Menachmi of Plautus, of which a free translation was published in 1595, under the following title: E "A pleasant and fine Conceited Comedie, taken out of the most excellent wittie Poet Plautus: Chosen purposely from out the rest, as least harmefull, and yet most delightfull. Written in English by W. W.-London, Printed by Tho. Creede, and are to be sold by William Barley, at his shop in Gratious streete. 1595." 4to. The title-page, therefore, does not (as we might be led to suppose from Steevens's reprint in the "Six Old Plays ") mention the Menæchmi by name, but we learn it from the commencement of the piece itself. the slightest obligation" to the translation of the Menachmi, Ritson was of opinion, "that Shakespeare was not under by W. W., supposed, by Ant. Wood (Ath. Oxon. by Bliss, 1.766.), to be W. Warner; and most likely Ritson was right, not from want of resemblance, but because "The Comedy of Errors" was, in all probability, anterior in point of date, and because Shakespeare may have availed himself of the old drama which, as has been noticed, was performed at court in 1576-7, and in 1582-3. That court-drama, we may infer, had its origin in Plautus; and it was, perhaps, the popularity of Shakespeare's "Comedy of Errors" which induced Creede to print Warner's version of the Menæchmi in 1595. There are various points of likeness between Warner's Menæchmi and Shakespeare's "Comedy of Errors;" but those points we may suppose to have been derived intermediately through the court-drama, and not directly from Plautus1. Sır W. 1 In Act I. and Act II. of "The Comedy of Errors," in the folio of 1623, Antipholus of Syracuse is twice called Erotes and Errotis, which Blackstone entertained the belief, from the "long hobbling in two persons, yet these are mere individual accidents, casus verses" in the "Comedy of Errors," that it was "among ludentis nature, and the verum will not excuse the inverisi Shakespeare's more early proauctions:" this is plausible, but mile. But farce dares add the two Dromios, and is justified we imagine, from their general dissimilarity to the style of our in so doing by the laws of its end and constitution." great dramatist, that these "long hobbling verses" formed a portion of the old court-drama, of which Shakespeare made às much use as answered his purpose: they are quite in the MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. style of plays anterior to the time of Shakespeare, and it is["Much adoe about Nothing. As it hath been sundrie times easy to distinguish such portions of the comedy as he must have written. The earliest notice we have of "The Comedy of Errors," is by Meres, in his Palladis Tamia, 1598, where he gives it to Shakespeare under the name of "Errors." How much before that time it had been written and produced on the stage, we can only speculate. Malone refers to a part of the dialogue in Act III. sc. 2, where Dromio of Syracuse is conversing with his master about the "kitchen wench" who insisted upon making love to him, and who was so fat and round-"spherical like a globe "that Dromio "could find out countries in her:" "Ant. S. Where France? Dro. S. In her forehead; arm'd and reverted, making war against her heir." It is supposed that an equivoque was intended on the word "heir" (which is printed in the folio of 1623 "heire," at that period an unusual way of spelling "hair"), and that Shakespeare alluded to the civil war in France, which began in the middle of 1589, and did not terminate until the close of 1593 This notion seems well-founded, for otherwise there would be no joke in the reply; and it accords pretty exactly with the time when we may believe "The Comedy of Errors" to have been written. But here we have a range of four years and a half, and we can arrive at no nearer approximation to a precise date. As a mere conjecture it may be stated that Shakespeare would not have inserted the allusion to the hostility between France aud her "heir," after the war had been so long carried on, that interest in, or attention to it in this country would have been relaxed. Another question by Antipholus,.and the answer of Dromio, immediately preceding what is above quoted, is remarkable on a different account: Ant. S. Where Scotland? "Dro. S. I found it by the barrenness; hard, in the palm of the hand." It publikely acted by the right honourable, the Lord Chamberlaine his seruants. Written by William Shakespeare. London Printed by V. S. for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley. 1600." 4to. 36 leaves. is also printed in the division of "Comedies" in the folio 1623, where it occupies twenty-one pages, viz., from p. 101, to p. 121, inclusive. It was reprinted in the other folios.] WE have no information respecting "Much Ado about Nothing" anterior to the appearance of the 4to. edition in 1600, excepting that it was entered for publication on the books of the Stationers' Company, on the 23d of August in that year, in the following manner: "23 Aug. 1600. And. Wise Wm. Aspley] Two books, the one called Muche adoe about Nothinge, and the other The Second Parte of the History of King Henry the iiiith, with the Humors of Sir John Fallstaff: wrytten by Mr. Shakespeare." There is another memorandum in the same register, bearing date on the "4th August," without the year, which runs in these terms:-" As you like yt, a book. Henry the ffift, a book. Every man in his humor, a book. The Comedie of Much Adoe about Nothinge, a book." Opposite the titles last entry, there is little doubt, belongs to the year 1600, for of these plays are added the words, "to be staied." This such is the date immediately preceding it; and, as Malone observes, the clerk seeing 1600 just above his pen, when he inserted the notice for staying the publication of "Much Ado about Nothing" and the two other plays, did not think it necessary to repeat the figures. The caveat of the 4th August against the publication had most likely been withdrawn by the 23rd of the same month. The object of the stay probably to prevent the publication of "Henry V.," "Every Man in his Humour," and "Much Ado about Nothing," by any other booksellers than Wise and Aspley. was The 4to. of "Much Ado about Nothing," which came out in 1600, (and we know of no other impression in that form) "From this passage," (says Malone) "we may learn that is a well-printed work for the time, and the type is unusually this comedy was not revived after the accession of the Scot-good. It contains no hint from which we can at all distinctly tish monarch to the English throne; otherwise it would pro-infer the date of its composition2, but Malone supposed that bably have been struck out by the Master of the Revels." it was written early in the year in which it came from the However, we are now certain (a curious fact hitherto un- press. Considering, however, that the comedy would have known), that "The Comedy of Errors" was represented at to be got up, acted, and become popular, before it was pubWhitehall on the 28th December, 1604. In the account of lished, or entered for publication, the time of its composition the Master of the Revels of the expenses of his department, by Shakespeare may reasonably be carried back as far as the from the end of October 1604, to Shrove Tuesday, 1605, pre- autumn of 1599. That it was popular, we can hardly doubt; served in the Audit Office, we read the subsequent entry :- and the extracts from the Stationers' Registers seem to show "By his Matis Plaiers. On Inosents Night, the plaie of that apprehensions were felt, lest rival booksellers should Errors," the name of Shaxberd, or Shakespeare, being in- procure it to be printed. serted in the margin as "the Poet which mayd the Plaie." "The Comedy of Errors" was, therefore, not only "revived," but represented at court very soon after James I. came to the crown: we may be confident, however, that the question and auswer respecting Scotland were not repeated on the occasion, though retained in the MS. used by the actor-editors for the folio of 1623. In his Lectures on Shakespeare in 1818, Coleridge passed over "The Comedy of Errors" without any particular or separate observation; but in his "Literary Remains" we find it twice mentioned (vol. ii. 90 and 114), in much the same terms. "Shakespeare," he observes, has in this piece presented us with a legitimate farce, in exactest consonance with the philosophical principles and character of farce, as distinguished from comedy and entertainments. A proper farce is mainly distinguished from comedy by the license allowed, and even required, in the fable, in order to produce strange and laughable situations. The story need not be probable; it is enough that it is possible. A comedy would scarcely allow even the two Antipholuses; because, although there have been instances of almost undistinguishable likeness It is not included by Meres in the list he furnishes in his Palladis Tamia, 1598; and "England's Parnassus," 1600, contains no quotation from it. If any conclusion could be drawn from this fact, it might be, that it was written subsequent to the appearance of one work, and prior to the publication of the other.. Respecting an early performance of it at Court, Steevens supplies us with the subsequent information: "Much Ado about Nothing' (as I understand from one of Mr. Vertue's MSS.) formerly passed under the title of 'Benedick and Beatrix.' Heminge, the player, received on the 20th May, 1613, the sum of £40, and £20 more as his Majesty's gratuity, for exhibiting six plays at Hampton Court, among which was this comedy." The change of title, if indeed it were made, could only have been temporary. The divisions of Acts (Scenes are not marked) were first made in the folio of 1628. The adaptation of "Much Ado about Nothing," coupled with the chief incidents of another of Shakespeare's dramas, (see the "Introduction" to "Measure for Measure,") by Sir William Davenant, was first printed in the edition of his works in 1673. The serious portion of the plot of "Much Ado about is conjectured to be a corruption of erraticus. Antipholus of Ephesus, 2 Chalmers (Suppl. Apol. 381.) conjectures that when Beatrice says, in the same way, is once called Sereptus (misprinted, perhaps, for "Yes, you had musty vietuals, and he hath holp to eat it," Shakesurreptus); but in the last three acts they are distinguished as An-speare meant a sarcasm upon the manner in which the army under tipholus of Syracusia," and "Antipholus of Ephesus." The epithets the Earl of Essex had been supplied with bad provisions during the of erraticus and surreptus were not obtained by Shakespeare from Irish campaign. Most readers will consider this an overstrained specWarner, but possibly from the old court drama. ulation, although, in point of date, it accords pretty accurately with the time when "Much Ado about Nothing" may have been 1 The list supplied by Meres is of twelve plays; and, if anything is to be gathered from the circumstance, he places "Errors" second, written. "Gentlemen of Verona" coming before it. | p. 144, inclusive. It was reprinted in 1631, 4to, "by W. S., for John Smethwicke;" and the title-page states that it was published "as it was acted by his Majesties Seruants at the Blacke-Friers and the Globe." It is merely a copy from the folio, 1623, with the addition of some errors of the press.] Nothing," which relates to Hero, Claudio, and "John the Bastard," is extremely similar to the story of Ariodante and Geneura, in Ariosto's "Orlando Furioso," B. v. It was separately versified in English by Peter Beverley, in imitation of Arthur Brooke's Romeus and Juliet," 1562, and of Bernard Garter's "Two English Lovers," 1563; and it was printed by Thomas East, without date, two or three years THERE is a general concurrence of opinion that "Love's after those poems had appeared. It was licensed for the press Labour's Lost" was one of Shakespeare's earliest productions in 1565; and Warton informs us (Hist. Engl. Poetry, iv. 810, for the stage. In his course of Lectures delivered in 1818, edit. 1824) that it was reprinted in 1600, the year in which Coleridge was so convinced upon this point, that he said, "Much Ado about Nothing" came from the press. This" the internal evidence was indisputable" and in his "Litefact is important, because either Shakespeare's attention rary Remains," II. 102, we find him using these expressions: might be directed to the story by the circumstance, or (which "The characters in this play are either impersonated out seems more probable) Beverley's poem might then be repub- of Shakespeare's own multiformity, by imaginative self-posilished, in consequence of its connexion in point of story with tion, or out of such as a country town and a school-boy's obShakespeare's comedy. servation might supply1." The only objection to this theory Sir John Harington's translation of the whole "Orlando is, that at the time Love's Labour's Lost" was composed, Furioso" was originally published in 1591, but there is no the author seems to have been acquainted in some degree special indication in "Much Ado about Nothing" that Shake- with the nature of the Italian comic performances; but this speare availed himself of it. In a note at the end of the canto acquaintance he might have acquired comparatively early in occupied by Ariodante and Geneura, Sir John Harington life. The character of Armado is that of a Spanish braggart, added this sentence:-"Howsoever it was, surely the tale is very much such a personage as was common on the Italian a pretty comical matter, and hath been written in English stage, and figures in Gl' Ingannati, (which, as the Rev. Joverse some few years past (learnedly and with good grace), seph Hunter was the first to point out, Shakespeare saw before though in verse of another kind by M. George Turbervil." he wrote his "Twelfth Night,") under the name of Giglio: If this note be correct, and Harington did not confound Tuber- in the same comedy we have M. Piero Pedante, a not unusual ville with Beverley, the translation by the former has been character in pieces of that description. Holofernes is repeatlost. Spenser's version of the same incidents, for they are edly called "the Pedant" in the old copies of "Love's Laevidently borrowed from Ariosto, in B. II. c. 4, of his bour's Lost," while Armado is more frequently introduced "Faerie Queene," was printed in 1590; but Shakespeare is not as "the Braggart" than by his name. Steevens, after stating to be traced to this source. In Ariosto and in Spenser the that he had not been able to discover any novel from which rival of Ariodante has himself the interview with the female this comedy had been derived, adds that "the story has most attendant on Geneura; while in Shakespeare "John the Bas- of the features of an ancient romance" but it is not at all tard" employs a creature of his own for the purpose. Shake- impossible that Shakespeare found some corresponding incispeare's plot may, therefore; have had an entirely different dents in an Italian play. However, after a long search, I origin, possibly some translation, not now extant, of Bandello's have not met with any such production, although, if used by twenty-second novel, in vol. i. of the Lucca edition, 4to. 1554, Shakespeare, it most likely caine into this country in a printed which is entitled, "Como il S. Timbreo di Cardona, essendo form. col Re Piero d'Aragona in Messina, s'innamora di Fenicia LioThe question whether Shakespeare visited Italy, and at nata; e i varii fortunevoli accidenti, che avvennero prima che what period of his life, cannot properly be considered here; per moglie la prendesse." It is rendered the more likely that but it is a very important point in relation both to his bioShakespeare employed a lost version of this novel by the cir-graphy and works. It was certainly a very general custom cumstance, that in Italian the incident in which she, who may for our poets to travel thither towards the close of the reign be called the false Hero, is concerned, is conducted much in of Elizabeth, and various instances of the kind are on record. the same way as in Shakespeare. Moreover, Bandello lays Robert Greene tells us in his "Repentance," 1592, that he his scene in Messina; the father of the lady is named Lionato; had been in Italy and Spain: Thomas Nash, about the same and Don Pedro, or Piero, of Arragon, is the friend of the date, mentions what he had seen in France and Italy; and lover who is duped by his rival. Daniel has several early sonnets on his "going to Italy," and on his residence there. Some of our most celebrated actors of that time also made journeys across the Alps; and Mr. Halliwell, in the notes to his "Coventry Mysteries," printed for the Shakespeare Society, has shown that Kemp, the comedian, who, as we have seen, performed Dogberry in "Much Ado about Nothing," was in Rome in 1601. Nobody has observed upon the important fact, in connexion with "Much Ado about Nothing," that a "History of Ariodante and Geneuora" was played before Queen Elizabeth, by "Mulcaster's children," in 1582-3. How far Shakespeare might be indebted to this production we cannot at all determine; but it is certain that the serious incidents he employed in his comedy had at an early date formed the subject of a dramatic representation1. In the ensuing text the 4to, 1600, has been followed, with due notice of any variations in the folio of 1623. The first impression contains several passages not inserted in the reprint (for such it undoubtedly was) under the care of Heminge and Condell, and the text of the 4to is to be preferred in nearly all instances of variation. LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST. ["A pleasant Conceited Comedie called, Loues labors lost. As It is vain to attempt to fix with any degree of precision the date when "Love's Labour's Lost" came from the author's pen. It is very certain that Biron and Rosaline are early sketches of two characters to which Shakespeare subsequently gave greater force and effect-Benedick and Beatrice; but this only shows, what cannot be doubted, that "Love's Labour 's Lost" was anterior in composition to "Much Ado about Nothing." "Love's Labour's Lost" was first printed, as far as we now know, in 1598, 4to, and then it professed on the title-page to have been "newly corrected and augmented:" we are likewise there told that it was presented before Queen Elizabeth" this last Christmas." It was not uncommon for dramatists to revise and add to their plays when they were selected for exhibition at court, and such may have been the case with "Love's Labour's Lost." "The last Christmas " probably meant Christmas, 1598; for the year at this period did not end until 25th March. It seems likely that the comedy had been written six or even eight years before, that it was revived in 1598, with certain corrections and augmentaconversant in the history of the middle ages, with their Courts of Love, and all that lighter drapery of chivalry, which engaged even mighty kings, with a sort of serio-comic interest, and may well be supposed to have occupied more completely the smaller princes, at a time when the noble's or prince's court contained the only theatre of the domain or principality." 3 It was asserted by Warburton, that in the character of Holofernes Shakespeare intended to ridicule Florio, and that our great poet here condescended to personal satire. The only apparent offence by Florio was a passage in his "Second Fruits," 1591, where he complained of the want of decorum in English dramatic representations. The provocation was evidently insufficient, and we may safely dismiss the whole conjecture as unfounded. tions for performance before the Queen; and this circumstance may have led to its publication immediately afterwards. The evidence derived from passages and allusions in the piece, to which Malone refers in his "Chronological Order," is clearly of little value, and he does not himself place much confidence in it. "Love Labour Lost" is mentioned by Meres in 1598, and in the same year came out a poem by Robert] T[ofte] entitled "Alba," in the commencement of one of the stanzas of which this comedy is introduced by name: "Love's Labour Lost I once did see, a play Ycleped so." There is no memorandum regarding the impression by Roberts, which perhaps was unauthorized, although Heminge and Condell followed his text when they included "Midsummer-Night's Dream" in the folio of 1623. In some instances the folio adopts the evident misprints of Roberts, while such improvements as it makes are not obtained from Fisher's more accurate copy: both the errors and emendations, if not merely trifling, are pointed out in our notes. The chief difference between the two quartos and the folio is, that in the latter the Acts, but not the Scenes, are distinguished. We know from the Palladis Tamia of Meres, that "Midsummer Night's Dream" was in existence at least two years. before it came from the press. On the question when it was This does not read as if the writer intended to say that he had written, two pieces of internal evidence have been especially scen it recently. There is a coincidence in Act III. sc. 1, noticed. Mr. Halliwell, in his "Introduction to a Midsumwhich requires notice: Costard there jokes upon the difference mer-Night's Dream" has produced a passage from the Diary between "remuneration" and "guerdon ;" and Steevens con- of Dr. Simon Forman, which in some points tallies with the tended that Shakespeare was "certainly indebted for his vein description of the state of the weather, and the condition of of jocularity" in this instance to a tract by I[ervase] Mark- the country given by the Fairy Queen. The memorandum ham], called, "A Health to the Gentlemanly Profession of in Forman's Diary relates to the year 1594, and Stowe's ChroServing Men," which Dr. Farmer informed him was pub-nicle may be quoted to the same effect. lished in 1578. The fact, however, is, that this tract did not The other supposed temporary allusion occurs in Act v. appear until 1598, the year in which" Love's Labour's Lost" sc. 1. and is contained in the lines,came from the press. It was, possibly, a current jest, and it will be found quoted correctly from the original, and not as Steevens inserted it, in a note upon the passage. way It is capable of proof that the play, as it stands in the folio of 1623, was reprinted from the 4to. of 1598, as it adopts various errors of the press, which could not have found their into the folio, had it been taken from a distinct manuscript. There are, however, variations, which might show that the player-editors of the folio resorted occasionally to some authority besides the 4to. These differences are pointed out in the notes. The 4to. has no divisions into Acts and Scenes; and the folio only distinguishes the Acts, but with considerable inequality: thus the third Act only occupies about a page and a half, while the fifth Act (misprinted Actus Quartus) fills nine pages. Nevertheless, it would have been taking too great a liberty to alter the arrangement in this respect, although, as the reader will perceive, it might be improved without much difficulty. There is no entry of "Love's Labour's Lost" at Stationers' Hall, until 22d Jan. 1606-7, when it was transferred by Burby (the publisher of it in 1598) to Ling, who perhaps contemplated a new edition. If it were printed in 1606 or 1607, no such impression has come down to us. Its next appearance was in the folio, 1623; but another 4to, of no authority, was published in 1631, the year before the date of the second folio. MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. ["A Midsommer nights dreame. As it hath beene sundry times publickely acted, by the Right honourable, the Lord Chamberlaine his seruants. Written by William Shakespeare. Imprinted at London, for Thomas Fisher, and are to be soulde at his shoppe, at the Signe of the White Hart, in Fleetestreete, 1600." 32 leaves. "The thrice three Muses mourning for the death which some have imagined to refer to the death of Spenser. "Our pleasant Willy, ah, is dead of late. And one of Shakespeare's lines is, "Of learning, late deceas'd in beggary." Yet it is quite clear, from a subsequent stanza in "The Tears of the Muses," that Spenser did not refer to the natural death of " Willy," whoever he were, but merely that he "rather chose to sit in idle cell," than write in such unfavourable times. In the same manner, Shakespeare might not mean that Spenser (if the allusion_indeed be to him) was actually deceased," but merely, as Spenser expresses it in his "Colin Clout," that he was "dead in dole." The allusion to Queen Elizabeth as the "fair vestal, throned by the west," in A. ii. sc. 1, affords no note of time. It seems highly probable that "A Midsummer-Night's Dream" was not written before the autumn of 1594, and if the speech of Titania in A. ii. sc. 1, were intended to describe the real state of the kingdom, from the extraordinary wetness of the season, we may infer that the drama came from the pen of Shakespeare at the close of 1594, or in the beginning of "A Midsommer night's dreame. As it hath beene sundry "8 Oct. 1600. Tho. Fysher] A booke called a Mydsomer 1 Svo. 1841, p. 6. The following are the terms Forman employs; and they are subjoined, that the reader may compare them with the passage in "Midsummer-Night's Dream," A. ii. sc. 1. "Ther was moch sicknes but lyttle death, moch fruit, and many plombs of all sorts this yeare and small nuts, but fewe walnuts. This monethes of June and July were very wet and wonderful cold like winter, that the 10 dae of Julii many did syt by the fyer, yt was so cold; and soe was yt in Maye and June; and scarce too fair dais together all that tyme, but yt rayned every day more or lesse. Yf yt did not raine, then was yt cold and cloudye. Mani murders were done this quarter. There were many great fludes this sommer, and about Michelmas, thorowe the abundaunce of raine that fell 'sodeinly, the brige of "The Knight's Tale" of Chaucer, and the same poet's "Tysbe of Babylone," together with Arthur Golding's translation of the story of Pyramus and Thisbe from Ovid, are the only sources yet pointed out of the plots introduced and employed by Shakespeare. Oberon, Titania, and Robin Goodfellow, or Puck, are mentioned, as belonging to the fairy mythology, by many authors of the time. The Percy Society not long since reprinted a tract called "Robin Good-fellow, his Mad Pranks and Merry Jests," from an edition in 1628 but there is little doubt that it originally came out at least forty years earlier2: together with a ballad inserted in the Introduction to that reprint, it shows how Shakespeare availed himself of existing popular superstitions. In "Percy's Reliques" (III. 254, edit. 1812,) is a ballad entitled "The Ware was broken downe, and at Stratford Bowe, the water was never seen so byg as yt was: and in the lattere end of October, the waters burst downe the bridge at Cambridge. In Barkshire were many gret waters, wherewith was moch harm done sodenly." MS. Ashm. 384, fol. 105. 2 A wood-cut is on the title-page, intended to represent Robin Goodfellow he is like a Satyr, with hoofs and horns, and a broom over his shoulder. over his shoulder. Sir Hugh Evans, in "The Merry Wives of Windsor," was no doubt thus dressed, when he represented Puck, or Robin Goodfellow. A copy of the wood-cut may be seen in "The Bridgewater Library Catalogue," 4to, 1837, p. 258. Merry Pranks of Robin Good-fellow," attributed to Ben Jon- "When as my fellow elfes and I Do happen to be seen or found No words do say, But mum continue as they go, Put groat in shoe, And wind out laughing, ho, ho, ho!" The incidents connected with the life of Robin Good-fellow were, no doubt, worked up by different dramatists in different ways; and in "Henslowe's Diary" are inserted two entries of money paid to Henry Chettle for a play he was writing in Sept. 1602, under the title of "Robin Good-fellow." There is every reason to believe that, "Midsummer-Night's was popular in 1622, the year before it was reprinted in the first folio, it is thus mentioned by Taylor, the water-poet, in his "Sir Gregory Nonsense:""I say, as it is applausfully written, and commended to posterity, in the Midsummer-Night's Dream:-if we offend, it is with our good will: we came with no intent but to offend, and show our simple skill."-(See A. v. sc. 1.) Dream }} It appears by a MS. preserved in the Library at Lambeth Palace, that "Midsummer-Night's Dream was represented at the house of John Williams, Bishop of Lincoln, on 27th Sept. 1631. Hist. of Eng. Dram. Poetry and the Stage, ii. 26. THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. ["The excellent History of the Merchant of Venice. With the extreme cruelty of Shylocke the Iew towards the saide Merchant, in cutting a iust pound of his flesh. And the obtaining of Portia, by the choyse of three caskets. Written by W. Shakespeare. Printed by J. Roberts, 1600." 4to, 40 leaves. "The most excellent Historie of the Merchant of Venice. With the extreame crueltie of Shylocke the lewe towards the sayd Merchant, in cutting a iust pound of his flesh and the obtayning of Portia by the choyse of three chests. As it hath beene diuers times acted by the Lord Chamberlaine his Seruants. Written by William Shakespeare. At London, Printed by I. R., for Thomas Heyes, and are to be sold in Paules Church-yard, at the signe of the Greene Dragon, 1600." 4to, 38 leaves. and that of the caskets is chap. xcix, of the same collection. It is also printed in the folio, 1623, where it occupies 22 pages, Both stories are found separately in the Latin Gesta Romanorum, with considerable variations: that of the bond is chap. xlviii. of MS. Harl. 2270, as referred to by Tyrwhitt; ed Meres has "The Merchant of Venice "in his list, which. was published in 1598, and we have no means of knowing Venetian Comedy" of Henslowe, it was in a course of perhow long prior to that date it was written. If it were "The formance in August, 1594. The earliest entry regarding "The Merchant of Venice" in the Stationers' Register is curious, from its particularity: "22 July, 1598, James Robertes.] A booke of the Marchaunt of Venyce, or otherwise called the Jewe of Venyse. Provided that yt bee not prynted by the said James Robertes, or anye other whatsoever, without lycence first had from the right honourable the Lord Chamberlen." Shakespeare was one of the players of the Lord Chamberlain, and the object seems to have been to prevent the publication of the play without the consent of the company, to be signified through the nobleman under whose patronage they acted. This caution was given two years before "The Merchant of Venice" actually came from the press: we find it published in 1600, both by J. Roberts and by Thomas Heyes, in favour of the last of whom we meet with another entry in the Stationers' books, without any proviso, dated,— "28 Oct., 1600, Tho. Haies.] The booke of the Merchant of Venyce." By this time the "licence" of the Lord Chamberlain for printing the play had probably been obtained. At the bottom of the title-page of Roberts's edition of 1600, no place is stated where it was to be purchased: it is merely, "Printed by J. Roberts, 1600;" while the imprint to the edition of Heyes informs us that it was "printed by I. R.," and that it was "to be sold in Pauls Church-yard," &c. I. R., the printer of the edition of Heyes, was, most likely, J. Roberts; but it is entirely a distinct impression to that which appeared in the same year with the name of Roberts. The edition of Roberts is, on the whole, to be preferred to that of Heyes; but the editors of the folio of 1623 indisputably employed that of Heyes, adopting various misprints, but inserting also several improvements of the text. These are pointed out in our notes in the course of the play. The similarity between the names of Salanio, Salarino, and Salerio, in the Dramatis Personce, has led to some confusion of the speakers in all the copies, quarto and folio, which it has not always been found easy to set right. "The Merchant of Venice" was performed before James I., on Shrove-Sunday, and again on Shrove-Tuesday, 1605: hence we have a right to infer that it gave great satisfaction at court. The fact is thus recorded in the original account |