Mr. Oldys in a MS. note to his copy of Fuller's Worthies obferves, that "the story came from the Duke of Buckingham, who had it from Sir William D'Avenant."

It appears from Rofcius Anglicanus, (commonly called Downes the prompter's book,) 1708, that Shakspeare took the pains to inftruct Jofeph Taylor in the character of Hamlet, and John Lowine in that of King Henry VIII. STEEVENS.

The late Mr. Thomas Ofborne, bookfeller, (whofe exploits are celebrated by the author of the Dunciad) being ignorant in what form or language our Paradife Loft was written, employed one of his garretteers to render it from a French tranflation into English profe. Left, hereafter, the compofitions of Shakspeare fhould be brought back into their native tongue from the verfion of Monfieur le Comte de Catuelan, le Tourneur, &c. it may be necessary to obferve, that all the following particulars, extracted from the preface of thefe gentlemen, are as little founded in truth as their defcription of the ridiculous Jubilee at Stratford, which they have been taught to reprefent as an affair of general approbation and national concern.

They fay, that Shakspeare came to London without a plan, and finding himfelf at the door of a theatre, inftinctively flopped there, and offered himfelf to be a holder of horfes:-that he was remarkable for his excellent performance of the Ghost in Hamlet :-that he borrowed nothing from preceding writers :-that all on a fudden he left the ftage, and returned without eclat into his native country :that his monument at Stratford is of copper :-that the courtiers of James I. paid feveral compliments to him which are ftill preferved: that he relieved a widow, who, together with her numerous family, was involved in a ruinous lawfuit:-that his editors have restored many paffages in his plays, by the affistance of the manufcripts he left behind him, &c. &c.

Let me not however forget the juftice due to thefe ingenious Frenchmen, whofe skill and fidelity in the execution of their very difficult undertaking, is only exceeded by fuch a difplay of candour as would ferve to cover the imper. fections of much lefs elegant and judicious writers.

STEEVENS,

TEMPEST.

VOL. I.

The Tempest and The Midfummer Night's Dream are the nobleft efforts of that fublime and amazing imagination peculiar to Shakspeare, which foars above the bounds of nature without forfaking fense; or, more properly, carries nature along with him beyond her established limits. Fletcher feems particularly to have admired these two plays, and hath wrote two in imitation of them, The Sea Voyage and The faithful Shepherdess. But when he prefumes to break a lance with Shakspeare, and write in emulation of him, as he does in The Falfe One, which is the rival of Antony and Cleopatra, he is not fo fuccefsful. After him, Sir John Suckling and Milton catched the brighteft fire of their imagination from these two plays; which shines fantastically indeed in The Goblins, but much more nobly and ferenely in The Mafk at Ludlow Caftle.

WARBURTON.

No one has hitherto been lucky enough to difcover the romance on which Shakspeare may be supposed to have founded this play, the beauties of which could not fecure it from the criticism of Ben Jonfon, whofe malignity appears to have been more than equal to his wit. In the induction to Bartholomew Fair, he fays: "If there be never a fervant "monster in the fair, who can help it, he fays, nor a neft of antiques? "He is loth to make nature afraid in his plays, like those that beget "Tales, Tempefts, and fuch like drolleries." STEEVENS.

I was informed by the late Mr. Collins of Chichester, that Shakspeare's Tempeft, for which no origin is yet affigned, was formed on a romance called Aurelio and Ifabella, printed in Italian, Spanish, French, and English, in 1588. But though this information has not proved true on examination, an useful conclufion may be drawn from it, that Shakspeare's ftory is fomewhere to be found in an Italian novel, at least that the story preceded Shakspeare. Mr. Collins had fearched this fubject with no lefs fidelity than judgement and industry; but his memory failing in his laft calamitous indifpofition, he probably gave me the name of one novel for another. I remember he added a circumstance, which may lead to a difcovery, that the principal character of the romance, anfwering to Shakspeare's Profpero, was a chemical necromancer, who had bound a fpirit like Ariel to obey his call, and perform his fervices. It was a common pretence of dealers in the occult fciences to have a demon at command. At least Aurelio, or Orelio, was probably one of the names of this romance, the production and multiplicity of gold being the grand object of alchemy. Taken at large, the magical part of the Tempeft is founded on that fort of philofophy which was practifed by John Dee and his affociates, and has been called the Roficrucian. The name Ariel came from the Talmudiftick mysteries with which the learned Jews had infected this Science. T. WARTON.

Mr. Theobald tells us, that The Tempest must have been written after 1609, because the Bermuda iflands, which are mentioned in it, were unknown to the English until that year; but this is a mistake. He might have seen in Hackluyt, 1600, folio, a description of Bermuda, by Henry May, who was shipwrecked there in 1593.

It

It was, however, one of our author's last works. In 1598 he played a part in the original Every Man in bis Humour. Two of the characters are Profpero and Stephano. Here Ben Jonfon taught him the pronunciation of the latter word, which is always right in The Tempeft.

"Is not this Stepbăno, my drunken butler ?"

And always wrong in his earlier play, The Merchant of Venice, which had been on the stage at least two or three years before its publication in 1600. "My friend Stephano, fignify, I pray you," &c.

So little did Mr. Capell know of his author, when he idly fuppofed his fchool literature might perhaps have been loft by the dissipation of youth, or the bufy scene of public life! FARMER.

This play must have been written before 1614, when Jonfon fneers at it in his Bartbolomew Fair. In the latter plays of Shakspeare, he has lefs of pun and quibble than in his early ones. In The Merchant of Venice, he exprefsly declares again't them. This perhaps might be one cri. terion to discover the dates of his plays. BLACKSTONE.

See Mr. Malone's attempt to afcertain the order of Shakspeare's plays. STEEVENS.

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

Alonfo, king of Naples.

Sebaftian, his brother.

Profpero, the rightful duke of Milan.

Antonio, his brother, the ufurping duke of Milan.
Ferdinand, fon to the king of Naples.

Gonzalo, an honeft old counsellor of Naples.

Adrian,

Francifco,

}

lords.

Caliban, a favage and deformed flave.
Trinculo, a jefter.

Stephano, a drunken butler.

Mafter of a fhip, Boatswain, and Mariners,

Miranda, daughter to Profpero.

Ariel, an airy fpirit.

Iris,

Spirits.

Other Spirits attending on Profpero.

SCENE, the fea, with a ship; afterwards an uninhabited island.