Hastati, the Principes, and the Triarii. The Velites were the youngest men. They wore tunics and partial armor, wolf-skin caps, and sandals. They were armed with light swords and javelins and they carried circular bucklers, three feet in diameter, made of ox-hide. The Hastati were somewhat older men. They wore complete armor made of brass, comprising breastplate (pectorale), cuirass, helmet, and (though this is disputed) greaves on the legs, and they carried shields, the shield being made of two planks fastened together with glue and covered with linen under calf-skin: it was two and one half feet broad and four feet long, convex in surface, and furnished with a boss of iron in the centre. The helmet bore three upright feathers, red or black, affixed at the top; and this augmented the terrific aspect of the soldiers. The Hastati carried swords and javelins. The sword had a very strong blade, double-edged and pointed. All the soldiers wore sandals of leather. The Principes were soldiers of full manly age and vigor, and the Triarii were veterans. Both these divisions were armed like the Hastati, except that the Triarii carried pikes instead of javelins. The Standard-bearers (signiferi) wore the scalp and mane of a lion, on the head and hanging over the shoulders: otherwise they were dressed like other soldiers.

A favorite color with the Romans, for their raiment,

was purple, and of this there were various shadesviolet, red, and very dark red: Gibbon says "as deep as bull's blood." Any mixture of red and blue was called purple. The Romans derived their fashions of dress from the Etruscans and their arms from the Etruscans and the Greeks. The sandal worn by the Roman soldiers (caliga) had nails at the bottom. The cuirass was sometimes made of leather, sometimes of brass. The Roman soldiers introduced in "Cymbeline" should be the Principes and Triarii, dressed and armed in all their splendor.

THE VISION OF POSTHUMUS.

Many Shakespeare editors and commentators doubt whether the Vision of Posthumus, when in prison, Act V., sc. 4, was written by Shakespeare. Some assert positively that it was not. Dyce says: "That the vision . . . (whencesoever it was derived or by whomsoever it was introduced) is not from Shakespeare's pen may be considered certain." The bad style of the Vision and its detrimental effect on the dramatic construction justify this opinion, because, although the colloquy contains a few effective lines, it is weak in conception and poor in language. Positive proof that it is spurious, however, has not been furnished. Fleay remarks that "of

course, the stage directions for the dumb show are genuine," meaning, written by Shakespeare. It was Fleay's opinion that Posthumus beheld a vision, according to the plan of Shakespeare, and that the text of the speeches, as they appear in the First Folio, was not written by him; that the persons of the Vision did not speak. Knight is sure the composition came from the pen of Shakespeare. Schlegel thinks the fact that Posthumus, on waking, finds “a tablet on his breast, with a prophecy on which the denouement of the piece depends," is positive proof that Shakespeare wrote the Vision. That, however, is mere nonsense: the "denouement" is not affected by the prophecy, except to be retarded, and does not in any way "depend" on it: and, supposing the Vision to have been introduced by another hand (which might readily have happened, in the theatre, at a time when Masques were very popular), the same hand might have written the brief passage near the end. The Vision is superfluous to the action, it only delays the conclusion, and, therefore, it should be omitted from the stage version. The stage custom has long been to reject it. Whether Shakespeare wrote it or not, his reputation would have benefited had the whole of it been blotted from existence.

II.

LOVE'S LABOR'S LOST.

"The woman's cause is man's; they rise or sink
Together, dwarfed or god-like, bond or free:
For she that out of Lethe scales with man
The shining steps of Nature, shares with man
His nights, his days, moves with him to one goal
For woman is not undeveloped man,

But diverse: could we make her as the man,
Sweet love were slain: his dearest bond is this,
Not like to like, but like in difference.
Yet in the long years liker must they grow,
Till at the last she set herself to man,
Like perfect music unto noble words."

-TENNYSON.

DATE OF THE COMPOSITION.

THE Comedy of "Love's Labor's Lost" is believed by several authoritative Shakespeare scholars,-Charles Gildon, Richard Grant White, F. J. Furnivall, F. G. Fleay, Sidney Lee, and Edward Dowden, -to be the first of Shakespeare's original plays. It certainly is the first play that appeared in print bearing his name on its title-page. The date of its composition has not been ascertained. The title-page of the first quarto (1598) specifies it to have been

"newly corrected and augmented by W. Shakespere"; that of the second quarto (1631) designates it "A wittie and pleasant comedie written by William Shakespeare." The consensus of critical opinion is that Shakespeare wrote it in or about 1588, and amended and expanded it, for publication, nearly ten years later. "The story of it has most of the features of an ancient romance" (Steevens). "Steevens might have more correctly said that the story has most of the features which would be derived from an acquaintance with the ancient romances" (Knight). "No source of the plot has been discovered" (Dowden). There never was a Ferdinand, King of Navarre. Ferdinand, in the play, is indicated as the son of King Charles the Third of Navarre (1361-1425). The reference to a debt of 200,000 crowns, money owed by the King of France,-King Charles the Seventh (1403-1461),— to the King of Navarre, seems to indicate the time of the story as the early part of the fifteenth century, about 1427-'30. Historical mention of such a debt occurs in the "Chronicles" of Enguerrand de Monstrelet (1390-1453). This remote historic basis of the plot,-if so it can be considered,-was first suggested by Joseph Hunter. The concomitants of the play, meaning the spirit, the atmosphere, the characters, and the manners depicted,-appear to locate