Julius Cæsar was tall, fair, well formed, and had rather a full face, and black eyes (Suetonius). He was bald, and he wore a laurel crown to conceal his baldness: the Roman senate gave permission that he should do this. He wore a purple tunic, with sleeves that were gathered at the wrists, and the tunic was loosely girdled. He also wore a red sash, to signify his decent from the Albanian kings. Octavius was five feet nine inches in height, of a fair complexion, a little inclining to brown, and he had an aquiline nose, small ears, He and yellow hair, inclining to curl. His eyes were clear and fine. wore the usual toga, and, in winter, four tunics beneath it, as well as a shirt and a flannel stomacher and wrappings. His shoes were made with unusually thick soles, so as to increase his height; and he For information as to Roman commonly wore a broad-brimmed hat. costume the student is referred to the Appendix to Edwin Booth's Prompt-Book of "Brutus," in this series, and to Planché, and to Thomas Hope's Costumes of the Ancients. The PERSONS REPRESENTED, 35 in number, as designated in the Library Editions of Shakespeare, are set down in the following order, and with the following nomenclature and descriptions: Edwin Booth's stage version of the tragedy omits Cicero, Publius, Marullus, Artemidorus, the poet Cinna and Another Poet, Lucilius, Messala, Young Cato, Volumnius, Claudius, and Dardanius. The name of Servius is a stage-manager's coinage, given to the servant of Antony who brings Antony's message to the Conspirators, after the murder of Cæsar. NEW YORK, January, 1899. WILLIAM WINTER. - "THE Merchant of Venice" is mentioned by Meres [1598], and it was first published in 1600. The sources to which it is thought that Shakespeare resorted for the main incidents of its plot are: a collection of tales called "Il Pecorone," written by Ser Giovanni, a notary of Florence, about 1378, and first published in 1558, at Milan; and the popular collection of stories called the "Gesta Romanorum." The ballad of Gernutus, which embodies the incident of the bond, and which may be found in Percy's "Reliques," and in several modern collections of old poetry,—was also, probably, extant in Shakespeare's day, and known to him. It is conjectured, too, that an earlier play, mentioned by Stephen Gosson [1579] as "shewn at the Bull," and as "representing the greedyness of worldly choosers, and the bloody minds of usurers," may have dealt with some of the old materials which served Shakespeare for his comedy. The savage, relentless Jew is one of the most ancient persons of fiction. "The story of the caskets," says Dowden, "is first found in the mediæval Greek romance of Barlaam and Josaphat, by Joannes Damascenus (about 800); in another form it is told by the English poet Gower, and the Italian novelist Boccaccio." These matters are solely or chiefly interesting as tending to direct study upon the wonderful genius with which Shakespeare transfigured all that he touched. His originality is not that of the maker of themes and bald facts, but that of |