Of this play there is a tradition preferved by Mr. Rowe, that it was written at the command of queen Elizabeth, who was fo delighted with the character of Falstaff, that the wifhed it to be diffufed through more plays; but fufpecting that it might pall by continued uniformity, directed the poet to diverfify his manner, by fhewing him in love. No tafk is harder than that of writing to the ideas of another. Shakefpeare knew what the queen, if the story be true, feems not to have known, that by any real paffion of tenderness, the felfish craft, the carelefs jollity, and the lazy luxury of Falstaff must have suffered fo much abatement, that little of his former caft would have remained. Falstaff could not love, but by ceafing to be Falstaff. He could only counterfeit love, and his profeffions 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, feems 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 perfonages, who exhibit more characters appropriated and difcriminated, than perhaps can be found in any other play.

Whether Shakespeare was the first that produced upon the English stage the effect of language distorted and depraved by provin cial or foreign pronunciation, I cannot certainly decide. This mode of forming ridiculous characters can confer praise only on him, who originally difcovered it, for it requires not much of either wit or judgment: its fuccefs must be derived almost wholly from the player, but its power in a skilful mouth, even he that defpifes it, is unable to refift.

The conduct of this drama is deficient; the action begins and ends often before the conclufion, and the different parts might change places without inconvenience; but its general power, that power by which all works of genius fhall finally be tried, is fuch, that perhaps it never yet had reader or spectator, who did not think it too foon at an end. JOHNSON.

In the Three Ladies of London, 1584, is the character of an Italian merchant, very strongly marked by foreign pronunciation. Dr. Dodypoll, in the comedy which bears his name, is, like Caius, a French phylician. This piece appeared at least a year before the Merry Wives of Windfor. The hero of it speaks fuch another jargon as the antagonist of Sir Hugh, and like him is cheated of his mistress. In feveral other pieces, more ancient than the earliest of Shakespeare's, provincial characters are introduced. STEEVENS,

END OF VOLUME THE FIRST.