this raunfome. But in fine, wonne with the importunitye of hir brother (pleading for life:) upon thefe conditions the agreed to Promos. Firft that he should pardon her brother, and after marry her. Promos as fearles in promiffe, as careleffe in performance, with follemne vowe, fygned her conditions but worfe than any Infydel, his will fatisfyed, he performed neither the one nor the other for to keepe his authoritye, unfpotted with favour, and to prevent Caffandraes clamors, he commaunded the Gayler fecretly, to prefent Cafsandra with her brother's head. The Gayler, with the outcryes of Andrugio, (abhorryng Promos lewdnes,) by the providence of God, provided thus for his fafety. He prefented Caffandra with a felons head newlie executed, who, (being mangled, knew it not from her brothers, by the Gayler, who was fet at libertie) was fo agreeved at this trecherye, that at the pointe to kyl her felfe, fhe fpared that ftroke, to be avenged of Promos. And devyfing a way, the concluded, to make her fortunes knowne unto the kinge. She (executing this refolution) was fo highly favoured of the King, that forthwith he hafted to do juftice on Promos: whofe judgement was, to marrye Caffandra, to repaire her crafed Honour: which donne, for his hainous offence he should lofe his head. This maryage folempnifed, Caffandra tyed in the greatest bondes of affection to her husband, became an earneft futer for his life the Kinge (tendringe the generall benefit of the cōmon weale, before her special cafe, although he favoured her much) would not graunt her fute. Andrugio (difguifed amonge the company) forrowing the griefe of his fifter, bewrayde his fafety, and craved pardon. The Kinge, to renowne the vertues of Caffandra, pardoned both

him, and Promos. The circumftances of this rare Hiftorye, in action livelye foloweth." The play itself opens thus:

"Actus I. Scena 1.

Promos, Mayor, Shirife, Sworde bearer: One with a bunche of keyes Phallax, Promos man.

"You Dfficers which now in Julio ftaye,

"Knowe you our leadge, the Kinge of Hungarie:
"Sent me Promos, to ioyne with you in tway:

That fill we may to Justice have an eye.

"And now to show, my rule & power at laröge,
Attentivelie, his Letters Pattents heare :

"Phallax reade out my Soveraines chardge,

"Phal. As you commande, I wyll: give heedful eare.

"Phallax readeth the Kinges Letters Patents, which must be fayre written in parchment, with fome great counterfeat zeale.

Pro. Loe, here you fee what is our Soveraignes wyl, "Loe, heare his with, that right, not might, beare lwaye : “Loe, heare his care, to weed from good the yll, "To scourge the wights, good Lawes that dilobay."

And thus it proceeds; without one word in it, that Shakspeare could make ufe of, or can be read with patience by any man living: and yet, befides the characters appearing in the argument, his Bawd Clown, Lucio, Juliet, and the Provost, nay, and even his Barnardine, are created out of hints which this play gave him; and the lines too that are quoted, bad as they are, suggested to him the manner in which his own play opens.

Merchant of Venice.

The Jew of Venice was a ftory exceedingly well known in Shakspeare's time; celebrated in ballads; and taken (perhaps) originally from an Italian book

intitl'd-Il Pecorone: the author of which calls Himself, Ser Giovanni Fiorentino; and writ his book, as he tells you in fome humorous verses at the beginning of it, in 1378, three years after the death of Boccace; it is divided into giornata's, and the ftory we are speaking of is in the first novel of the giornata quarta; edit. 1565, octavo, in Vinegia. This novel Shakspeare certainly read; either in the original, or (which I rather think) in fome translation that is not now to be met with, and form'd his play upon it. It was tranflated anew, and made publick in 1755, in a small octavo pamphlet, printed for M. Cooper: and, at the end of it, a novel of Boccace; (the firft of day the tenth) which, as the tranflator rightly judges, might poffibly produce the scene of the caskets, fubftituted by the poet in place of one in the other novel, that was not proper for the stage.

Merry Wives of Windfor.

"Queen Elizabeth," fays a writer of Shakspeare's life," was fo well pleas'd with that admirable character of Falstaff, in the two parts of Henry the Fourth, that the commanded him to continue it for one play more, and to fhew him in love. This is faid to be the occafion of his writing The Merry Wives of Windfor." As there is no proof brought for the truth of this story, we may conclude that it is either fome playhouse tradition, or had its rife from Sir William D'Avenant, whofe authority the writer quotes for another fingular anecdote, relating to lord Southampton. Be this as it may; Shakspeare, in the conduct of Falftaff's love-adventures, made ufe of fome incidents in a book that has been mention'd before, call'd-Il Pecorone; they are in VOL. I.

Cc

the second novel of that book. It is highly probable, that this novel likewife is in an old English drefs fomewhere or other; and from thence tranfplanted into a foolish book, call'd-The fortunate, the deceiv'd, and the unfortunate Lovers; printed in 1685, octavo, for William Whittwood; where the reader may fee it, at p. 1. Let me add too, that there is a like ftory in the-" Piacevoli Notti, di Straparola, libro primo; at Notte quarta, Favola quarta; edit. 1567, octavo, in Vinegia.

Midfummer-Night's Dream.

The hiftory of our old poets is fo little known, and the first editions of their works become fo very scarce, that it is hard pronouncing any thing certain about them: but, if that pretty fantastical poem of Drayton's, call'd-Nymphidia, or The Court of Fairy, be early enough in time, (as, I believe, it is; for I have feen an edition of that author's paftorals, printed in 1593, quarto,) it is not improbable, that Shakspeare took from thence the hint of his fairies: a line of that poem, "Thorough bufh, thorough briar," occurs alfo in his play. The reft of the play is, doubtless, invention the names only of Thefeus, Hippolita, and Thefeus' former loves, Antiopa and others, being hiftorical; and taken from the tranflated Plutarch, in the article-Thefeus.

Much Ado about Nothing.

"Timbree de Cardone deviēt amoureux à Mefine de Fenicie Leonati, & des divers & efträges accidens qui advindrēt avat qu'il l' efpoufaft."-is the title of another novel in the Hiftoires Tragiques of Belle

.

foreft; Tom. 3. Hift. 18: it is taken from one of Bandello's, which you may fee in his firft tome, at p. 150, of the London edition in quarto, a copy from that of Lucca in 1554. This French novel comes the neareft to the fable of Much Ado about Nothing, of any thing that has yet been discovered, and is (perhaps) the foundation of it. There is a ftory fomething like it in the fifth book of Orlando Furiofo: (v. Sir John Harrington's tranflation of it, edit. 1591, folio) and another in Spencer's Fairy Queen.

Othello:

Cinthio, the beft of the Italian writers next to Boccace, has a novel thus intitl'd:-" Un Capitano Moro piglia per mogliera una cittadina venetiana, un fuo Alfieri l'accufa de adulterio al [read, il, with a colon after-adulterio] Marito, cerca, che l'Alfieri uccida colui, ch'egli credea l'Adultero, il Capitano uccide la Moglie, è accufato dallo Alfieri, non confeffa il Moro, ma effendovi chiari inditii, è bandito, Et lo fcelerato Alfieri, credendo nuocere ad altri, procaccia à sè la morte miferamente." Hecatommithi, Dec. 3, Nov. 7; edit. 1565, two tomes, octavo. If there was no translation of this novel, French or English; nor any thing built upon it, either in profe or verse, near enough in time for Shakspeare to take his Othello from them; we muft, I think, conclude-that he had it from the Italian; for the ftory (at leaft, in all it's main circumstances) is apparently the fame.

Romeo and Juliet.

This very affecting story is likewise a true one; it made a great noife at the time it happen'd, and