MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. P. 650, note (a). The emendation of "physician" for P. 653, note (e). An antithesis was possibly intended P. 665, note (a). Add: The meaning being-I see what VOL. II. ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL. P. 18. "Where hope is coldest, and despair most fits." P. 40, note (a). I believe now the old text is correct; KING HENRY THE FIFTH. P. 87, note (a). "Nook-shotten isle," means, in fact, Ibid. note (f). So in the "Taming of the Shrew," "Tranio, I burn, I pine, I perish, Tranio, Again in "The Malcontent," Act V. Sc. 4:- Wert thou defenc'd, through blood and wounds P. 92. Prefix "Cho," to the first line. P. 108. Prefix "Cho," to the first line. PERICLES. P. 183. "Her face the book of praiess," Read: "Her P. 187. "His seal'd commision," Read: "His seal'd P. 192. "If it be a day fits you, scratch out of the P. 213, note (a). So in "Measure for Measure," Act TWELFTH NIGHT; OR, WHAT YOU WILL. P. 249. "Ass, I doubt not." This feeble pun upon "And for bidding me, come up asse into a higher roome." Pt. I. Act II. Sc. 5, meant to take breath while drinking. HENRY THE SIXTH. PART I. P. 288, note (c). Add: which he took from Theobald. P. 289, note (a). Add: which we owe, not to Mr. Col- he P. 320, note (a). Lither indisputably signified lazy, slug- P. 325, note (a). But yet see "Richard the Third," "O princely Buckingham, I'll kiss thy hand, P. 362, note (a). So in "Julius Cæsar," Act I. Sc. 2:- P. 575. "Abate the edge of traitors." Mr. Collier, upon "That honour which shall bate his scythe's keen edge." MEASURE FOR MEASURE. P. 612, note (a). The following extract from Markham's P. 637. "Hark how the villain would close now." To "It would become me better than to close "-gentle, hear me." P. 241, note (a). Add: Sometimes this state was called handling: thus in the "London Prodigal; "-"Ay, but he is now in hucster's handling for (i.e. for fear of) running away." P. 250. In the line "Would I were dead, but that," &c. Dele the first comma. Note (a). In addition to the examples given in this note, the following from Florio's "World of Words" deserves to be quoted. “Poss'io morire, an oath much used, as we say, I would I were dead, I pray God I dye, may I dye." P. 272. TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. "but, when the planets In evil mixture, to disorder wander," &c. Was Shakespear in this place thinking of a passage in Hooker's book "Concerning Laws, &c."? "If celestial spheres should forget their wonted motions, and by irregular volubility turn themselves any way as it might happen; if the prince of the light of heaven, which now as a giant doth run his unwearied course should, as it were, through a languishing faintness begin to stand and to rest himself; if the moon should wander from her beaten way, the times and seasons of the year blend themselves by disorders and confused mixtures, the winds breathe out their last gasp," &c. &c. HAMLET. P. 335. For, "pray thee stay with us," Read: "I pray thee stay with us. P. 341, note (a). Add: So in Spenser's Faerie Queene, b. i. c. iii. s. 30: "A dram of sweete is worth a pound of sowre." P. 358, note (b). Another example of the phrase occurs in a letter from Thomas Wilkes to the Earl of Leicester, under the date 1586 (Egerton MS. 1694, British Mu seum):-"I am arrived here in such a time and sea of troubles;" and it is employed by Spenser in the Faerie Queene, b. vi. c. ix. s. 31 : "With storms of fortune and tempestuous fate, P. 416, note (a). If the old text required further confirmation it would be supplied by the following couplet from Daniel's "Vanity of Fame:" "Is this the walke of all your wide renowne, This little point, this scarce discerned ile?" P. 418, note (b). Compare likewise (which put this interpretation beyond doubt) the following lines of Sir Philip Sydney, quoted by Harington in his "Ariosto (Orlando Furioso) : "Not toying kynd, nor causlesly unkynd, P. 436, note (b). So also in the Faerie Queene, b. i. c. i., ii., s. 20. "the thirsty land Dronke up his life." THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA. THIS play, indisputably one of the earliest complete productions of Shakespeare's mind, was first printed in the folio of 1623, where, owing to the arbitrary manner in which the dramas are disposed, it is preceded by The Tempest, assuredly one of the poet's latest creations. Some of the incidents in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Steevens conjectures, were taken from Sidney's Arcadia (Book I. Chapter vi.), where Pyrocles consents to lead the Helots; but the amount of Shakespeare's obligations to this source does not appear to be considerable. For a portion of the plot he was unquestionably indebted to the episode of Felismena, in the Diana of George of Montemayor, a work very popular in Spain towards the end of the seventeenth century, and which exhibits several incidents, and even some expressions, in common with that part of the present play, which treats of the loves of Proteus and Julia. Of this work there were two translations, one by Bartholomew Yong, the other by Thomas Wilson.* There is a strong probability, however, that Shakespeare derived his knowledge of Felismena's story from another source, namely: "The History of Felix and Philiomena," which was played before the Queen at Greenwich in 1584.† Be this as it may, the story of Proteus and Julia so closely corresponds with that of Felix and Felismena, that no one who has read the two can doubt his familiarity with that portion of the Spanish romance. Mr. Malone, in his "Attempt to ascertain the Order in which The Plays of Shakespeare were Written," originally assigned The Two Gentlemen of Verona to the year 1595; but he subsequently fixed the date of its production as 1591; a change which he has thus explained: "The following lines in Act I. Scene 3, had formerly induced me to ascribe this play to the year 1595: ، He wonder'd that your lordship Put forth their sons to seek preferment out: "Shakespeare, as has been often observed, gives to almost every country the manners of his own; and though the speaker is here a Veronese, the poet, when he wrote the last two lines, * The translation by Yong was not published until 1598; but from his "Preface to divers learned gentlemen," we learn that it was written many years before. "It hath lyen by me finished," he remarks, "Horace's ten, and six yeeres more." He further observes:-"Well might I have excused these paines, if onely Edward Paston, Esquier, who heere and there for his own pleasure, as I understood, hath aptly turned out of Spanish into English some leaves that liked him best, had also made an absolute and complete translation of all the parts of Diana; the which, for his travell in that countrey, and great knowledge in that language, accompanied with other learned and good parts in him, had of all others that ever I heard translate these Bookes, prooved the rarest and worthiest to be embraced." Thomas Wilson's version, Dr. Farmer informs us, was published two or three years before that of Yong. "But," he adds, "this work, I am persuaded, was never published entirely." ↑ See Cunningham's "Revels at Court," р. 189. |