and in this play, as it now appears, Mr. Page discountenances the addresses of Fenton to his daughter, because "he keeps company with the wild prince, and with Poins." The Fishwife's Tale of Brainford in WESTWARD FOR SMELTS, a book which Shakspeare seems to have read, (having borrowed from it a part of the fable of Cymbeline,) probably led him to lay the scene of Falstaff's love-adventures at Windsor. It begins thus: "In Windsor not long agoe dwelt a sumpterman, who had to wife a very faire but wanton creature, over whom, not without cause, he was something jealous; yet had he never any proof of her inconstancy." MALONE. The adventures of Falstaff in this play seem to have been taken from the story of The Lovers of Pisa, in an old piece, called Tarleton's Newes out of Purgatorie. Mr. Warton observes, in a note to the last Orford edition, that the play was probably not written as we now have it, before 1607, at the earliest. I agree with my very ingenious friend in this supposition, but yet the argument here produced for it may not be conclusive. Slender observes to master Page, that his greyhound was out-run at Cotsale [Cotswold-Hills in Gloucestershire;] and Mr. Warton thinks, that the games established there by captain Dover in the beginning of K. James's reign, are alluded to. But, perhaps, though the captain be celebrated in the Annalia Dubrensia as the founder of them, he might be the reviver only, or some way contribute to make them more famous; for in The Second Part of Henry IV. 1600, Justice Shallow reckons among the Swingebucklers, "Will Squeele, a Cotsole man." In the first edition of the imperfect play, Sir Hugh Evans is called on the title-page, the Welsh Knight; and yet there are some persons who still affect to believe, that all our author's plays were originally published by himself. FARMER. Queen Elizabeth was so well pleased with the admirable character of Falstaff in The Two Parts of Henry IV. that, as Mr. Rowe informs us, she commanded Shakspeare to continue it for one play more, and show him in love. To this command we owe The Merry Wives of Windsor; which, Mr Gildon says, [Remarks on Shakspeare's Plays, 8vo. 1710,] he was very well assured our author finished in a fortnight. He quotes no authority. The circumstance was first mentioned by Mr. Dennis. "This comedy," says he, in his Epistle Dedicatory to The Comical Gallant (an alteration of the present play,) 1702, "was written at her [Queen Elizabeth's] command, and by her direction, and she was so eager to see it acted, that she commanded it to be finished in fourteen days; and was afterwards, as tradition tells us, very well pleased at the representation." The information, it is probable, came originally from Dryden, who, from bis intimacy with Sir William Davenant, had an opportunity of learning many particulars concerning our author. At what period Shakspeare new-modelled The Merry Wives of Windsor is unknown. I believe it was enlarged in 1603. MALONE. It is not generally known, that the first edition of The Merry Wives of Windsor, in its present state, is in the valuable folio printed 1623, from whence the quarto of the same play, dated 1630, was evidently copied. The two carlier quartos, 1602, and 1619, only exhibit this comedy as it was originally written, and are so far curious as they contain Shakspeare's first conceptions in forming a drama, which is the most complete specimen of his comic powers. T. WARTON. = Of this play there is a tradition preserved by Mr. Rowe, that it was written at the command of queen Elizabeth, who was so delighted with the character of Falstaff, that she wished it to be diffused through more plays; but suspecting that it might pall by continued uniformity, directed the poet to diversify his manner, by showing him in love. No task is harder than that of writing to the ideas of another. Shakspeare knew what the queen, if the story be true, seems not to have known - that by any real passion of tenderness, the selfish craft, the careless jollity, and the lazy luxury of Falstaff must have suffered so much abatement, that little of his former cast would have remained. Falstaff could not love, but by ceasing to be Falstaff. He could only counterfeit love, and his professions could be prompted, not by the hope of pleasure, but of money. Thus the poet approached as near as he could to the work enjoined him; yet, having, perhaps, in the former plays, completed his own idea, seems not to have been able to give Falstaff all his former power of entertainment. This comedy is remarkable for the variety and number of the personages, who exhibit more characters appropriated and discriminated, than perhaps can be found in any other play. Whether Shakspeare was the first that produced upon the English stage the effect of language distorted and depraved by provincial or foreign pronunciation, I cannot certainly decide.) This mode of forming ridiculous characters can confer praise only on him who originally discovered it, for it requires not much of either wit or judgment: its success must be derived almost wholly from the player, but its power in a skilful mouth, even he that despises it, is unable to resist. The conduct of this drama is deficient; the action begins and ends often, before the conclusion, and the different parts might change places without inconvenience; but its general power, that power by which all works of genius shall finally be tried, is such, that perhaps it never yet had reader or spectator who did not think it too soon at the end. JOHNSON. IV. TWELFTH NIGHT: OR, WHAT YOU WILL. THERE is great reason to believe, that the serious part of this Comedy is founded on some old translation of the seventh history in the fourth volume of Belleforest's Histoires Tragiques. Belleforest took the story, as usual, from Bandello. The comic scenes appear to have been entirely the production of Shakspeare. It is not impossible, however, that the circumstances of the Duke sending his Page to plead his cause with the Lady, and of the Lady's falling in love with the Page, &c. might be borrowed from the Fifth Eglog of Barnaby Googe, published with his other original poems, in 1563. "A worthy Knyght dyd love her longe, To se his Ladyes face. 1) In The Three Ladies of London, 1584, is the character of an Italian merchant, very strongly marked by foreign pronunciation. Dr. Dedypal, in the comedy which bears his name, is, like Caius, a French physician. This piece appeared at least a year before The Merry Wives of Windsor. The hero of it speaks such another jargon as the antagonist of sir Hugh, and like him is cheated of his mistress. In several other pieces, more ancient than the earliest of Shakspeare's, provincial characters are introduced. Steevens. 1 Thus also concludes the first scene of the third act of the play before us: "And so adieu, good madam; never more I offer no apology for the length of the foregoing extract, the book from which it is taken being so uncommon, that only one copy, except that in my own possession, has hitherto occurred. Even Dr. Farmer, the late Rev. T. Warton, Mr. Reed, and Mr. Malone, were unacquainted with this Collection of Googe's Poetry. August 6, 1607, a Comedy called What you will, (which is the second title of this play,) was entered at Stationers' Hall by Tho. Thorpe. I believe, however, it was Marston's play with that name. Ben Jonson, who takes every opportunity to find fault with Shakspeare, seems to ridicule the conduct of Twelfth-Night in his Every Man out of his Humour, at the end of Act III. sc. vi. where he makes Mitis say, "That the argument of his comedy might have been of some other nature, as of a duke to be in love with a countess, and that countess to be in love with the duke's son, and the son in love with the lady's waiting maid: some such cross wooing, with a clown to their serv ing man, better than be thus near and familiarly allied to the time." STEEVENS, I suppose this comedy to have been written in 1607. Ben Jonson unquestionably could not have ridiculed this play in Every Man out of his Humour, which was written many years before it. MALONE. = This play is in the graver part elegant and easy, and in some of the lighter scenes exquisitely humorous. Ague-cheek is drawn with great propriety, but his character is, in a great measure, that of natural fatuity, and is therefore not the proper prey of a satirist. The soliloquy of Malvolio is truly comic; he is betrayed to ridicule merely by his pride. The marriage of Olivia, and the succeeding perplexity, though well enough contrived to divert on the stage, wants credibility, and fails to produce the proper instruction required in the drama, as it exhibits no just picture of life. JonNSON. V. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. The story is taken from Cinthio's Novels, Decad. 8. Novel 5. POPE. = We are sent to Cinthio for the plot of Measure for Measure, and Shakspeare's judgment hath been attacked for some deviations from him in the conduct of it, when probably all he knew of the matter was from Madam Isabella, in The Heptameron of Whetstone, Lond. 4to. 1582. — She reports, in the fourth dayes Exercise, the rare Historie of Promos and Cassandra. ginal note informs us, that Whetstone was the author of A mar the Comedie on that subject; which likewise had probably fallen into the hands of Shakspeare. FARMER. = There is perhaps not one of Shakspeare's plays more darkened than this by the peculiarities of its author, and the unskilfulness of its editors, by distortions of phrase, or negligence of transcription. JOHNSON. Dr. Johnson's remark is so just respecting the corruptions of this play, that I shall not attempt much reformation in its metre, which is too often rough, redundant, and irregular. Additions and omissions (however trifling) cannot be made without constant notice of them; and such notices, in the present nstance, would so frequently occur, as to become equally tiresome to the commentator and the reader. Shakspeare took the fable of this play from the Promos and Cassandra of George Whetstone, published in 1578. A hint, like a seed, is more or less prolific, according to the qualities of the soil on which it is thrown. This story, which in the hands of Whetstone, produced little more than barren insipidity, under the culture of Shakspeare became fertile of entertainment. The curious reader will find that the old play of Promos and Cassandra, exhibits au - almost complete embryo of Measure for Measure; yet the hints on which it is formed are so slight, that it is nearly as impossible to detect them, as it is to point out in the acorn the future ramifications of the oak. Measure for Measure was, I believe, written in 1603. MALONE. = Of this play, the light or comic part is very natural and pleasing, but the grave scenes, if a few passages be excepted, have more labour than elegance. The plot is rather intricate than artful. The time of the action is indefinite; some time, we know not how much, must have elapsed between the recess of the Duke and the imprisonment of Claudio; for he must have learned the story of Mariana in his disguise, or he delegated his power to a man already known to be corrupted. The unities of action and place are sufficiently preserved. JOHNSON. VI. MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. Tus story is taken from Ariosto, Orl. Fur. B. V. Pork. It is true, as Mr. Pope has observed, that somewhat resembling the story of this play is to be found in the fifth Book of the Orlando Furioso. In Spenser's Fairy Queen, B. II. c. iv. as remote an original may be traced. Bandello, seems to have furnished Shakspeare with his A novel, however, of Belleforest, copied from another of fable, as it approaches nearer in all its particulars to the play before us, than any other performance known to be extant. I have seen so many versions from this once popular collection, that I entertain no doubt but that a great majority of the tales it comprehends have made story which I have just mentioned, viz. the 18th history their appearance in an English dress. Of that particular in the third volume, no translation has hitherto been met with. This play was entered at Stationers' Hall, Aug. 23, 1600. STERVENS. Ariosto is continually quoted for the fable of Much Ado About Nothing; but I suspect our poet to have been satisfied with the Geneura of Turberville. "The tale (says Harrington) is a pretie comical matter, and hath bin written in English verse some few years past, learnedly and with good grace, by M. George Turbervil," Ariosto, fol. 1591, p. 39. FARMER. I suppose this comedy to have been written in 1600, in which year it was printed. MALONE. This play may be justly said to contain two of the most sprightly characters that Shakspeare ever drew. The wit, the humourist, the gentleman, and the soldier, are combined in Benedick. It is to be lamented, indeed, that the first and most splendid of these distinctions, is disgraced by unnecessary profaneness; for the goodness of his heart is hardly sufficient to atone for the licence of his tongue. The too sarcastic levity, which flashes out in the conversation of Beatrice, may be excused on account of the steadiness and friendship so apparent in her behaviour, when she urges her lover to risk his life by a challenge to Claudio. In the conduct of the fable, however, there is an imperfection similar to that which Dr. Johnson has pointed out in The the second contrivance is less ingenious than the first: or, to speak more plainly, the same incident is become stale by repetition. I wish some other method had been found to entrap Beatrice, than that very one which before had been successfully practised on Benedick. STEEVENS. — Merry Wives of Windsor: Shakspeare has taken no hints from it. Titania is also ||ject, were both entered on the Stationers' booke, May, the name of the Queen of the Fairies in Decker's Whore 1594. STEEVENS. The story was taken from an old of Babylon, 1607. STEEVENS. The Midsummer-Night's Dream I suppose to have been written in 1594. MALONE. Wild and fantastical as this play is, all the parts in their various modes are well written, and give the kind of pleasure which the author designed. Fairies in his time were much in fashion; common tradition had made them familiar, and Spenser's poem had made them great. JOHNSON. Johnson's concluding observation on this play, is not conceived with his usual judgment. There is no analogy or resemblance whatever between the Fairies of Spenser and those of Shakspeare. The Fairies of Spenser, as appears from his description of them in the second book of the Fairy Queen, canto x., were a race of mortals created by Prometheus, of the human size, shape, and affections, and subject to death. But those of Shakspeare, and of common tradition, as Johnson calls them, were a diminutive race of sportful beings, endowed with immortality and supernatural power, totally different from those of Spenser. M. MASON. — VIII. LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST. I HAVE not hitherto discovered any novel on which this comedy appears to have been founded; and yet the story of it has most of the features of an ancient romance. STEEVENS. I suspect that there is an error in the title of this play, which I believe should be "Love's Labours Lost." M. MASON. Love's Labour's Lost, I conjecture to have been written in 1594. MALONE. In this play, which all the editors have concurred to censure, and some have rejected as unworthy of our poet, it must be confessed that there are many passages mean, childish, and vulgar; and some which ought not to have been exhibited, as we are told they were, to a maiden queen. But there are scattered through the whole many sparks of genius; nor is there any play that has more evident marks of the hand of Shakspeare. JOHNSON. IX. MERCHANT OF VENICE. usurers. choice. -- translation of The Gesta Romanorum, first printed by Wynkyn de Worde. The book was very popular, and Shakspeare has closely copied some of the language: an additional argument, if we wanted it, of his track of reading. Three vessels are exhibited to a lady for her The first was made of pure gold, well beset with precious stones without, and within full of dead men's bones; and thereupon was engraven this posic: Whoso chuseth me, shall find that he deserveth. The second vessel was made of fine silver, filled with earth and worms: the superscription was thus: Whoso chuseth me, shall find that his nature desireth. The third vessel was made of lead, full within of precious stones, and thereupon was insculpt this posie: Whoso chuseth me, shall find that God hath disposed for him. The lady, after a comment upon each, chuses the leaden vessel. In a MS. of Lidgate, belonging to my very learned friend, Dr. Askew, I find a Tale of Two Merchants of Egipt and of Baldad ex Gestis Romanorum. Leland, therefore, could not be the original author, as Bishop Tanner suspected. He lived a century after Lidgate. FARMER. = The two principal incidents of this play are to be found separately in a collection of odd stories, which were very popular, at least five hundred years ago, under the title of Gesta Romanorum. The first, Of the Bond, is in ch. xlviii. of the copy which I chuse to refer to, as the completest of any which I have yet seen. MS. Harl. n. 2270. A knight there borrows money of a merchant; upon condition of forfeiting all his flesh for non-payment. When the penalty is exacted before the judge, the knight's mistress, disguised, in forma viri & vestimentis pretiosis induta, comes into court, and, by permission of the judge, endeavours to mollify the merchant. She first offers him his money, and then the double of it, &c. to all which his answer is "Conventionem meam volo habere. Puella, cum hoc audisset, ait coram omnibus, Domine mi judex, da rectum judicium super his, quæ vobis dixero. Vos scitis quod miles nunquam se obligabat ad aliud per literam nisi quod mercator habeat potestatem carnes ab ossibus scindere, sine sanguinis effusione, de quo nihil erat prolocutum. Statim mittat manum in eum; si vero sanguinem effuderit, Rex contra eum actionem habet. Mercator, cum hoc audisset, ait; date mihi pecuniam & omnem actionem ei remitto. Ait puella, Amen, dico tibi, nullum denarium habebis pone ergo manum in eum, ita ut sanguinem nou effundas. Mercator vero videns se confusum abscessit; & sic vita militis salvata est, & nullum dena. rium dedit." The other incident, of the casket, is in ch. xcix. of the same collection. A king of Apulia sends his daughter to be married to the son of an emperor of Rome. After some adventures, (which are nothing to the present purpose,) she is brought before the emperor, who says to her, "Puella, propter amorem filii mei multa adversa sustinuisti. Tamen si digna fueris ut uxor ejus sis cito probabo. Et fecit fieri tria vasa. PRIMUM fuit de auro purissimo & lapidibus pretiosis interius ex omni parte, & plenum ossibus mortuorum: & exterius erat subscriptio; Qui me elegerit, in me inveniet quod meruit. SECUNDUM vas erat de argento puro & gemmis pretiosis, plenum terra; & exterius erat subscriptio: Qui me elegerit, in me inveniet quod natura appetit. TERTIUM vas de plumbo plenum lapidibus pretiosis interius & gemmis nobilissimis ; & exterius erat subscriptio talis: Qui me elegerit, in me inveniet quod Deus disposuit. Ista tria ostendit puellæ, & dixit: si unum ex istis elegeris, in quo commodum & proficuum est, filium meum habebis. Si vero elegeris quod nec tibi nec aliis est commodum, ipsum non habebis.” The young lady, after mature consideration of the vessels and their inscriptions, chuses the leaden, which being opened, and found to be full of gold and precious stones, the emperor says: "Bona puella, bene elegisti ideo IN Steevens's and Malone's editions of Shakspeare, the reader will find a distinct epitome of the novels from which the story of this play is supposed to be taken. It should, however, be remembered, that if our poet was at all indebted to the Italian novelists, it must have been through the medium of some old translation, which has hitherto escaped the researches of his most industrious editors. It appears from a passage in Stephen Gosson's School of Abuse, &c. 1579, that a play, comprehending the distinct plots of Shakspeare's Merchant of Venice, had been exhibited long before he commenced a writer, viz. "The Jews shown at the Bull, representing the greediness of worldly choosers, and the bloody minds of "These plays," says Gosson, (for he mentions others with it,) "are goode and sweete plays," &c. It is therefore not improbable that Shakspeare new-wrote his piece, on the model already mentioned, and that the elder performance, being inferior, was permitted to drop silently into oblivion. This play of Shakspeare had been exhibited before the year 1598, as appears from Meres's Wits Treasury, where it is mentioned with eleven more of our author's pieces. It was entered on the books of the Stationers' Company, July 22. in the same year. It could not have been printed earlier, because it was not yet licensed. The old song of Gernutus the Jew of Venice, is published by Dr. Percy in the first volume of his Reliques of ancient English Poetry: and the ballad intituled, The murtherous Lafe and terrible Death of the rich Jewe of Malta; and the tragedy on the same sub -- filium meum habebis." From this abstract of these two stories, I think it appears sufficiently plain that they are the remote originals of the two incidents in this play. That of the caskets, Shakspeare might take from the English Gesta Romanorum, as Dr. Farmer has observed; and that of the bond might come to him from the Pecorone; but upon the whole I am rather inclined to suspect, that he has followed some hitherto unknown novelist, who had saved him the trouble of working up the two stories into one. TYRWHITT. = This comedy, I believe, was written in the beginning of the year 1594. Meres's book was not published till the end of that year. LONE.= Of THE MERCHANT OF VENICE the style is even and easy, with few peculiarities of diction, or anomalies of construction. The comic part raises laughter, and the serious fixes expectation. The probability of either one or the other story cannot be maintained. The union of two actions in one event is in this drama eminently happy. Dryden was much pleased with his own address in connecting the two plots of his Spanish Friar, which yet, I believe, the critic will find excelled by this play. JOHN MA bon, in the First Vol. of the Palace of Pleasure, 4to. 1566, p. 88. FARMER. — Shakspeare is indebted to the novel only for a few leading circumstances in the graver part of the piece. The comic business appears to be entirely of his own formation. STEEVENS. = This comedy, I imagine, was written in 1606. MALONE. This play has many delightful scenes, though not sufficiently probable, and some happy characters, though not new, nor produced by any deep knowledge of human nature. Parolles is a boaster and a coward, such as has always been the sport of the stage, but perhaps never raised more laughter or contempt than in the hands of Shakspeare. I cannot reconcile my heart to Bertram; a man noble without generosity, and young without truth; who marries Helen as a coward, and leaves her as a profligate: when she is dead by his unkindness, sneaks home to a second marriage, is accused by a woman whom he has wronged, defends himself by falsehood, and is dismissed to happiThe story of Bertram and Diana had been told before of Mariana and Angelo, and, to confess the truth, scarcely merited to be heard a second time. JOHNSON.= ness. X. AS YOU LIKE IT. Was certainly borrowed, if we believe Dr. Grey and Mr. Upton, from the Coke's Tale of Gamelyn: which by the way was not printed till a century afterward: when in truth the old bard, who was no hunter of MSS., contented himself solely with Lodge's Rosalynd, or Euphue's Golden Legacye, 4to. 1590. FARMER. = Shakspeare has followed Lodge's novel more exactly than is his general custom when he is indebted to such worthless originals: and has sketched some of his principal characters, and borrowed a few expressions from it. His imitations, &c. however, are in general too insignificant to merit transcription. It should be observed, that the characters of Jaques, the Clown, and Audrey, are entirely of the poet's own formation. Although I have never met with any edition of this comedy before the year 1623, it is evident that such a publication was at least designed. At the beginning of the second volume of the entries at Stationers' Hall, are placed two leaves of irregular prohibitions, notes, &c. Among these are the following: Aug. 4. "The Comedy of Much Ado, a book... The dates scattered over these plays are from 1596 to 1615. STEEVENS. This comedy, I believe, was written in 1599. MALONE. Of this play the fable is wild and pleasing. I know not how the ladies will approve the facility with which both Rosalind and Celia give away their hearts. To Celia much may be forgiven for the heroism of her friendship. The character of Jaques is natural and well preserved. The comic dialogue is very sprightly, with less mixture of low buffoonery than in some other plays; and the graver part is elegant and harmonious. By hastening to the end of this work, Shakspeare suppressed the dialogue between the usurper and the hermit, and lost an opportunity of exhibiting a moral lesson in which he might have found matter worthy of his highest powers. JOHNSON.= XI. ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL. THE story of All's well that ends well, or, as I suppose it to have been sometimes called, Love's Labour Wonne, is originally indeed the property of Boccace, but it came immediately to Shakspeare from Painter's Giletta of Nar It is very obvious that XII. TAMING OF THE SHREW. We have hitherto supposed Shakspeare the author of The Taming of the Shrew, but his property in it is extremely disputable. I will give my opinion, and the reasons on which it is founded. I suppose then the present play not originally the work of Shakspeare, but restored by him to the stage, with the whole Induction of the Tinker; and some other occasional improvements; especially in the character of Petruchio. the Induction and the Play were either the works of different hands, or written at a great interval of time. The former is in our author's best manner, and a great part of the latter in his worst, or even below it. Dr. Warburton declares it to be certainly spurious; and without doubt, supposing it to have been written by Shakspeare, it must have been one of his earliest productions. Yet it is not mentioned in the list of his works by Meres in 1598.- - I have met with a facetious piece of Sir John Harrington, printed in 1596, (and possibly there may be an earlier edition,) called The Metamorphosis of Ajax, where I suspect an allusion to the old play: "Read the Booke of Taming a Shrew, which hath made a number of us so perfect, that now every one can rule a shrew in our countrey, save he that hath hir." - - I am aware a modern linguist may object that the word book does not at present seem dramatic, but it was once technically so: Gosson, in his Schoole of Abuse, containing a pleasant Invective against Poets, Pipers, Players, Jesters, and such like Caterpillars of a Commonwealth, 1579, mentions "twoo prose bookes played at the Bell-Sauage;" and Hearne tells us, in a note at the end of William of Worcester, that he had seen a MS. in the nature of a Play or Interlude, intitled The Booke of Sir Thomas More. And in fact there is such an old anonymous play in Mr. Pope's list: "A pleasant conceited history, called, The Taming of a Shrew. sundry times acted by the Earl of Pembroke his servants." Which seems to have been republished by the remains of that company in 1607, when Shakspeare's copy appeared at the Black-Friars or the Globe. Nor let this seem derogatory from the character of our poet. There is no reason to believe that he wanted to claim the play as his own; for it was not even printed till some years after his death; but he merely revived it on his stage as a manager. In support of what I have said relative to this play, let me only observe further at present, that the author of Hamlet speaks of Gonzago, and his wife Baptista; but the author of The Taming of the Shrew knew Baptista to be the name of I XIII. WINTER'S TALE. THIS play, throughout, is written in the very spirit of Our sweetest Shakspeare, fancy's child, This was necessary to observe in mere justice to the play; the King of Sicilia, whom Shakspeare names Leontes, is called Old Shepherd Perdita ..... Egistus. Pandosto. Garinter. Dorastus. Franion. Porrus. Bellaria. Faunia. Mopsa. a man. Mr. Capell indeed made me doubt, by declaring the authenticity of it to be confirmed by the testimony of Sir Aston Cockayn. I knew Sir Aston was much acquainted with the writers immediately subsequent to Shakspeare; and I was not inclined to dispute his authority: but how was I surprised, when I found that Cockayn ascribes nothing more to Shakspeare, than the InductionWincot-Ale and the Beggar! I hope this was only a slip of Mr. Capell's memory. FARMER. In spite of the great deference which is due from every commentator to Dr. Farmer's judgment, I own I cannot concur with him ou the present occasion. I know not to whom I could impute this comedy, if Shakspeare was not its author. think his hand is visible in almost every scene, though perhaps not so evidently as in those which pass between Katharine and Petruchio. — I once thought that the name of this play might have been taken from an old story, entitled, The Wyf lapped in Morell's Skin, or The Taming | nia, written by Robert Greene. JOHNSON. — In this novel, of a Shrew; but I have since discovered among the entries in the books of the Stationers' Company the following: "Peter Shorte] May 2, 1594, a pleasaunt conceited historie, called, The Taming of a Shrowe." It is likewise entered to Nich. Ling, Jan. 22, 1606; and to John Smythwicke, Nov. 19, 1607. It was no uncommon practice among the authors of the age of Shakspeare, to avail themselves of the titles of ancient performances. Thus, as Mr. Warton has observed, Spenser sent out his Pastorals under the title of The Shepherd's Kalendar, a work which had been printed by Wynken de Worde, and reprinted about twenty years before these poems of Spenser appeared, viz. 1559. Dr. Percy, in the first volume of his Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, is of opinion, that The Frolicksome Duke, or the Tinker's good Fortunc,|| an ancient ballad in the Pepys' Collection, might have suggested to Shakspeare the Induction for this comedy. The following story, however, which might have been the parent of all the rest, is related by Burton in his Anatomy of Melancholy, edit. 1632, p. 649: "A Tartar Prince, saith Marcus Polus, Lib. II. cap. 28, called Senex de Montibus, the better to establish his government amongst his subjects, and to keepe them in awe, found a convenient place in a pleasant valley environed with hills, in which || he made a delitious parke full of odorifferous flowers and fruits, and a palace full of all worldly contents that could possibly be devised, musicke, pictures, variety of meats, &c. and chose out a certaine young man whom with a soporiferous potion he so benummed, that he perceived nothing and so, fast asleepe as he was, caused him to be conveied into this faire garden. Where, after he had lived a while in all such pleasures as sensuall man could desire, he cast him into a sleepe againe, and brought him forth, that when he waked he might tell others he had been in Paradise." Marco Paolo, quoted by Burton, was a traveller of the 13th century. Beaumont and Fletcher wrote what may be called a sequel to this comedy, viz. The Woman's Prize, or the Tamer Tam'd; in which Petruchio is subdued by a second wife. STEEVENS. Our author's Taming of the Shrew was written, I imagine, in 1596. MALONE. Of this play the two plots are so well united, that they can hardly be called two without injury to the art with which they are interwoven. The attention is entertained with all the variety of a double plot, yet is not distracted by unconnected incidents. The part between Katharine and Petruchio is eminently spritely and diverting. At the marriage of Bianca the arrival of the real father, perhaps, produces more perplexity than pleasure. The whole play is very popular and diverting. JOHNSON. Steevens and Malone have mentioned several authors by whom stories like that of Sly in the Induction, have been told, but it is rather singular they should make no mention of the "Sleeper Awakened," in the Arabian Nights' Entertainments, vol. iii. CHALMERS. The parts of Antigonus, Paulina, and Autolycus, are of it may |