And there did sing, or seem to sing, the choice
Birds of a foreign note and various voice;
Here hangs a mossy rock; there plays a fair
But chiding fountain, purled; not the air,
Nor clouds, nor thunder, but were living drawn,—
Not out of common tiffany or lawn,

But fine materials, which the Muses know,
And only know the countries where they grow.
Now, when they could no longer him enjoy
In mortal garments pent," Death may destroy,"
They say,
"his body; but his verse shall live,

And more than nature takes our hands shall give:
In a less volume, but more strongly bound,

Shakespeare shall breathe and speak; with laurel crown'd
Which never fades; fed with ambrosian meat,

In a well-lined vesture, rich and neat."

So with this robe they clothe him, bid him wear it;
For time shall never stain nor envy tear it.

The friendly admirer of his endowments,

I. M. S.6

6 Malone conjectured that the author of this poem might have been Jasper Mayne; Boaden assigned it to Chapman; Mr. Collier has no doubt that it is by Milton; and Mr. Hunter and Mr. Singer agree in attributing it to the Rev. Richard James, fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, a learned antiquary, who was occasionally seized with fits of rhyming. But my opinion is, that its real author remains to be discovered. That Mayne could not have produced it, is proved by its vast superiority to his acknowledged writings. It is much more flowing, much less forced and quaint than any thing we have of Chapman; and why should Chapman conceal his name? Its style at once determines that it is not by Milton. As to James,—if this beautiful poem be his, it must have been written under a most unusual afflatus; for his Iter Lancastrense, and his various verses given in the Introduction to it (Chetham Society ed., 1845), are comparatively very poor.

ACCOUNT OF THE PLAYS OF SHAKESPEARE.

(The order being that of the Folio of 1623 and of the present Edition.)

THE TEMPEST.

First printed in the folio of 1623.-The speech of Gonzalo, act ii. sc. 1, "I' the commonwealth I would by contraries," &c., manifestly copied from a passage in Florio's translation of Montaigne's Essayes, 1603, b. i. ch. xxx. p. 102, is decisive that The Tempest was written after the appearance of that translation, unless we adopt the hypothesis that Shakespeare had seen it in manuscript.-The earliest notice of The Tempest is found in the Accounts of the Revels at Court, which show that it was performed before King James, Nov. 1st, 1611 (see the memoir of Shakespeare, p. lxxxvi.); and though the said notice does not determine that it was then a recent production (the plays acted at Whitehall not being always new ones), there is good reason to believe that it had not been long upon the public stage, for it is certainly composed throughout in Shakespeare's latest style, and may perhaps be considered as the most elaborately finished of his dramas. (According to a learned and ingenious critic, The Tempest, having originally had a double title, is the piece which Meres, in his Palladis Tamia, &c., 1598, mentions, among other works by our author, under the name of Love Labours Wonne (see the memoir of Shakespeare, p. lxiii.): he also thinks that the scene of The Tempest lies in the island of Lampedusa,—an idea which first occurred to the late Mr. Thomas Rodd the bookseller: vide Hunter's Disquisition on the scene, origin, date, &c. &c. of Shakespeare's Tempest, 1839.) — Malone wrote a whole pamphlet (reprinted in his Shakespeare by Boswell, vol. xv.) to prove "that the leading circumstance of this play, from which its title is derived, was suggested to Shakespeare by a recent disaster, which doubtless engaged much of the conversation of his contemporaries,-the dreadful hurricane that dispersed the fleet of Sir George Somers and Sir Thomas Gates, in July 1609, on their passage with a large supply of provisions and men for the infant colony in Virginia; by which the Admiral ship, as it was called, having those commanders on board, was separated from the rest of the fleet, and wrecked on the island of Bermuda:" and he endeavours to show that Shakespeare was more particularly indebted to two tracts which that disaster called forth,-A Discovery of the Bermudas, &c., by Sil. Jourdan, 1610, and A true Declaration of the estate of the

Colonie in Virginia, &c. Published by advise and direction of the Counsel of Virginia, 1610; but the fact is, our author's obligations to them, if any, are very slight.-The tale on which The Tempest is founded,-for on some tale it was assuredly founded,—has hitherto eluded the grasp of the commentators. "I was informed by the late Mr. Collins of Chichester [the poet] that Shakespeare's Tempest, for which no origin is yet assigned, was formed on a romance called Aurelio and Isabella, printed in Italian, Spanish, French, and English, in 1588. But though this information has not proved true on examination, an useful conclusion may be drawn from it, that Shakespeare's story is somewhere to be found in an Italian novel, at least that the story preceded Shakespeare. Mr. Collins had searched this subject with no less fidelity than judgment and industry; but his memory failing in his last calamitous indisposition, he probably gave me the name of one novel for another." T. WARTON. "I have been told by a friend that he had some years ago actually perused an Italian novel which answered to Mr. Collins's description; but as it cannot be now recovered, I shall not venture to say any thing more upon that point." BOSWELL. Certain resemblances between incidents in The Tempest and those in an early German play Die Schöne Sidea by Jacob Ayrer, a notary of Nuremberg, may perhaps be accounted for by supposing that, as far as the incidents in question are concerned, both dramas had a common source.

THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA.

First printed in the folio of 1623.—It is mentioned by Meres in his Palladis Tamia, &c. 1598 (see the memoir of Shakespeare, p. Ixiii.); and there can be no doubt that it was written at a considerably earlier period-it is evidently one of the first of Shakespeare's original productions, that is, of pieces that were not rifacimenti of older dramas.— "Some of the incidents in this play may be supposed to have been taken from The Arcadia [by Sir P. Sidney, entered in the Stationers' Registers 1588, and printed 1591], book i. chap. vi., where Pyrocles consents to head the Helots." STEEVENS. "Mrs. Lennox observes, and I think not improbably, that the story of Proteus and Julia might be taken from a similar one in the Diana of George of Montemayor. This pastoral romance,' says she,' was translated from the Spanish in Shakespeare's time.' I have seen no earlier translation than that of Bartholomew Yong, who dates his Dedication in November 1598. . . . Indeed, Montemayor was translated two or three years before by one Thomas Wilson; but this work, I am persuaded, was never published entirely; perhaps some parts of it were, or the tale might have been translated by others. However, Mr. Steevens says, very truly, that this kind of love-adventure is frequent in the old novelists." FARMER. It appears from Yong's

Preface that his version, though not printed till 1598, had "lyen by him finished Horaces ten and sixe yeeres more." After all, however, the story of Felix and Felismena (the portion of the Diana, b. ii., which closely resembles the story of Proteus and Julia) may have become known to Shakespeare from a play entitled The history of Felix and Philiomena shewed and enacted before her highnes by her Ma" servaunts on the sondaie next after neweyeares daie, at night at Grenewiche, &c., 1584: see Malone's Shakespeare, by Boswell, vol. iii. 408. ("The Story of the Shepherdess Felismena," from Yong's translation of the Diana, is reprinted in Collier's Shakespeare's Library, vol. ii.)

THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR.

Was entered in the Stationers' Registers thus:

"18 Jan. 1601[-2]. John Bushby] An excellent and pleasant conceited commedie of Sir John Faulstof and the Merry wyves of Windesor. "Arth. Johnson] By assignment from Jno. Busbye a B[ook], An excellent and pleasant conceited comedie of Sir John Faulstafe and the mery wyves of Windsor;" and accordingly it was published by Johnson in 1602, 4to. That edition, however, is comparatively little more than an outline of the play, which was first printed in its present full and perfect state in the folio of 1623. Hence a question arises whether the quarto of 1602 was merely piratical and composed chiefly from notes taken down in short-hand at the theatre, or whether it is to be considered as the author's first sketch of The Merry Wives of Windsor, which he afterwards enlarged and improved. My own belief is, that the quarto of 1602 gives, --but with many imperfections and inaccuracies,—the play as originally performed "both before her Maiestie and elsewhere;" and that the folio of 1623 exhibits it as subsequently altered and amplified by Shakespeare (who, let us remember, unquestionably submitted the first draft of his Romeo and Juliet to a similar process).—Malone supposes that this comedy was written in 1601; Mr. Collier that it was "brought out in the commencement of the summer season of 1600" (Introd. to the Merry Wives of Windsor); and I am strongly inclined to think that it was produced somewhat earlier." It should be read," says Johnson, "between King Henry IV. and King Henry V.," no, says Malone, "it ought rather to be read between The First and The Second Part of King Henry IV. :” in good truth, "it should be read between" none of them,- being, as a story, complete in all its parts.-For the " sources of the plot" of The Merry Wives of Windsor, we are referred to the following tales; and it is possible that the English ones at least (which, with the exception of the tale in Westward for Smelts, &c., are taken from the Italian) may have afforded some hints to Shakespeare :-two tales in Le Piacevoli Notti of Straparola,—Notte ii. Favola 4, and Notte iv. Favola 4; a tale in

Il Pecorone of Ser Giovanni Fiorentino,-Giornata i. Novella 2; a tale, "Two friends went to study at Bologna in Italy," &c., in The Fortunate, the Deceived, and the Unfortunate Lovers, 1632, of which, according to Steevens, there are several editions; "The Tale of the two lovers of Pisa, and why they were whipt in Purgatory with nettles," in Tarlton's Newes out of Purgatorie, n.d., but entered in the Stationers' Registers 1590; and "The Fishwife's Tale of Brainford," in Westward for Smelts, &c., of which no earlier edition than that of 1620 is at present known. (All these may be read in an Appendix to The First Sketch of Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor, edited by Mr. Halliwell for the Shakespeare Society, 1842.)

MEASURE FOR MEASURE.

First printed in the folio of 1623.-We know from the Accounts of the Revels at Court, that this play was performed at Whitehall on December 26th, 1604 (see the memoir of Shakespeare, p. lxxxv.): and, as Malone, following Tyrwhitt, observes, " from two passages in it, which seem intended as a courtly apology for the stately and ungracious demeanour of King James I. on his entry into England, it appears probable that it was written not long after his accession to the throne [in 1603];

'I'll privily away. I love the people,

But do not like to stage me to their eyes,' &c.

Act i. sc. 1.

'and even so

The general, subject to a well-wish'd king,

Quit their own part, and in obsequious fondness
Crowd to his presence, where their untaught love
Must needs appear offence.'

Act ii. sc. 4."

Life of Shakespeare, p. 383. With respect to a later passage in Act ii.

sc. 4,

"As these black masks

Proclaim an enshield beauty ten times louder

Than beauty could, display'd,"

it most certainly does not, as Tyrwhitt once thought, "afford ground for supposing that the play was written to be acted at court;" a notion which that acute critic afterwards repudiated, acknowledging that he had mistaken the meaning of "THESE black masks." (See vol. i. p. 339, note ("), of the present edition.) According to Mr. Collier, this play "was written either at the close of 1603, or in the beginning of 1604." Introd. to Measure for Measure.-Shakespeare derived the plot from a drama in Two Parts, The right excellent and famous Historye of Promos and Cassandra, &c., 1578, by George Whetstone, who has prefixed to it the following "Argument:" "In the cyttie of Julio (sometimes vnder the