That after soon I dearly did lament:

For, when the cause of that outrageous deed

Demanded I made plain and evident,

Her faulty handmaid, which that bale did breed,

Confess'd how Philemon her wrought to change her weed."

The European story, which Ariosto and Spenser have thus adopted, has formed also the groundwork of one of Bandello's Italian novels. And here the wronged lady has neither her honour vindicated in battle, as in Ariosto; nor is slain by her furious lover, as in Spenser ; but she is rejected, believed to be dead, and finally married in disguise, as in Much Ado about Nothing." Mr. Skottowe has given a brief analysis of this novel, which we copy:

'Fenicia, the daughter of Lionato, a gentleman of Messina, is betrothed to Timbreo de Cardona. Girondo, a disappointed lover of the young lady, resolves, if possible, to prevent the marriage. He insinuates to Timbreo that his mistress is disloyal, and offers to show him a stranger scaling her chamber-window. Timbreo accepts the invitation, and witnesses the hired servant of Girondo, in the dress of a gentleman, ascending a ladder and entering the house of Lionato. Stung with rage and jealousy, Timbreo the next morning accuses his innocent mistress to her father, and rejects the alliance. Fenicia sinks into a swoon; a dangerous illness succeeds; and to stifle all reports injurious to her fame, Lionato proclaims that she is dead. Her funeral rites are performed in Messina, while in truth she lies concealed in the obscurity of a country residence.

"The thought of having occasioned the death of an innocent and lovely female strikes Girondo with horror; in the agony of remorse he confesses his villainy to Timbreo, and they both throw themselves on the mercy, and ask forgiveness, of the insulted family of Fenicia. On Timbreo is imposed only the penance of espousing a lady whose face he should not see previous to his marriage: instead of a new bride, whom he expected, he is presented at the nuptial altar with his injured and beloved Fenicia."

Ariosto made this story a tale of chivalry; Spenser a lesson of high and solemn morality; Bandello an interesting love-romance. It was for Shakspere to surround the main incident with those accessories which he could nowhere borrow, and to make of it such a comedy as no other man has made a comedy not of manners or of sentiment, but of life viewed under its profoundest aspects, whether of the grave or the ludicrous.

COSTUME.

WE have already stated it to be our opinion that, in affixing by the costume a particular period to any of Shakspere's plays which are not historical, care should be had to select one as near as possible to the time at which it was written. The comedy of Much Ado about Nothing' commences with the return of certain Italian and

Spanish noblemen to Sicily after the wars. Now the last war in which the Italians under Spanish dominion were concerned previous to the production of this comedy was terminated by the peace of Cambray, called "La Paix des Dames," in consequence of its being signed (August 3rd, 1529) by Margaret of Austria in the name of the Emperor Charles V., and the Duchess d'Angoulême in that of her son Francis I. This peace secured to Charles the crown of Naples and Sicily; and, after vanquishing the Saracens at Tunis, he made triumphal entries into Palermo and Messina in the autumn of 1535. Of the costume of this period we have given a detailed description and several pictorial illustrations in The Two Gentlemen of Verona,' to which we must refer the reader.

Enter LEONATO, HERO, BEATRICE, and others, with a

Messenger.

Leon. I learn in this letter, that Don Pedro of Arragon comes this night to Messina.

a In the stage-direction of the early copies we have "Enter Leonato, governor of Messina, Innogen, his wife," &c. But the matron takes no part in the action or dialogue. She appears again in the stage-direction of the first scene of Act II.

Mess. He is very near by this; he was not three leagues off when I left him.

Leon. How many gentlemen have you lost in this action? Mess. But few of any sort, and none of name.

Leon. A victory is twice itself when the achiever brings home full numbers. I find here, that Don Pedro hath bestowed much honour on a young Florentine, called Claudio.

Mess. Much deserved on his part, and equally remembered by Don Pedro: He hath borne himself beyond the promise of his age; doing, in the figure of a lamb, the feats of a lion: he hath, indeed, better bettered expectation than you must expect of me to tell you how.

Leon. He hath an uncle here in Messina will be very much glad of it.

Mess. I have already delivered him letters, and there appears much joy in him; even so much that joy could not show itself modest enough without a badge of bitterness.

Leon. Did he break out into tears?

Mess. In great measure.b

Leon. A kind overflow of kindness: There are no faces truer than those that are so washed. How much better is it to weep at joy, than to joy at weeping!

Beat. I pray you, is signior Montanto returned from the wars, or no?

Mess. I know none of that name, lady; there was none such in the army of any sort."

Leon. What is he that you ask for, niece?

Hero. My cousin means signior Benedick of Padua.

Any sort. The obvious meaning here is, of any condition. There can be no doubt of this, for the Messenger adds, "and none of name." Yet Steevens tells us, "sort is rank, distinction." He inclines, however, to M. Mason's explanation, that "sort means of any kind whatsoever." The word occurs again, and is used by the same speaker: "there was none such in the army of any sort." Here the commentators adopt Warburton's explanation: "there was none such of any quality above the common." But why this difference? The Messenger knew "none of that name"-none in any rank.

In great measure—abundantly.

• Montanto. Beatrice thus nicknames Benedick, after a term of the fencingschool.

d See Note a above.

Mess. O, he 's returned, and as pleasant as ever he was. Beat. He set up his bills' here in Messina, and challenged Cupid at the flight and my uncle's fool, reading the challenge, subscribed for Cupid, and challenged him at the birdbolt. I pray you, how many hath he killed and eaten in these wars? But how many hath he killed? for, indeed, I promised to eat all of his killing.

Leon. Faith, niece, you tax signior Benedick too much; but he 'll be meet with you," I doubt it not.

Mess. He hath done good service, lady, in these wars.

Beat. You had musty victual, and he hath holp to eat it he's a very valiant trencherman, he hath an excellent stomach.

Mess. And a good soldier too, lady.

Beat. And a good soldier to a lady :—But what is he to a lord?

b

Mess. A lord to a lord, a man to a man; stuffed with all honourable virtues.

Beat. It is so, indeed: he is no less than a stuffed man: but for the stuffing,-Well, we are all mortal.

Leon. You must not, sir, mistake my niece: there is a kind of merry war betwixt signior Benedick and her they never meet but there 's a skirmish of wit between them.

Beat. Alas! he gets nothing by that. In our last conflict, four of his five wits went halting off, and now is the whole man governed with one: so that if he have wit enough to keep himself warm, let him bear it for a difference between

He'll be meet with you—he 'll be even with you. So in The Tempest :"We must prepare to meet with Caliban."

b Stuffed-stored, furnished.

• Five wits. Shakspere here uses the term wits in the sense of intellectual powers. In his 141st Sonnet he distinguishes between the five wits and the five senses :—

"But my five wits, nor my five senses, can

Dissuade one foolish heart from serving thee."

By the early writers the five wits was used synonymously with the five senses; as in Chaucer (The Persones Tale"), "Certes delites ben after the appetites of the five wittis; as, sight, hering, smelling, savouring, and touching." Johnson says, "The wits seem to have been reckoned five, by analogy to the five senses, or the five inlets of ideas."

d Bear it for a difference-for a distinction-as in heraldry.