sode of Gloster and his sons on the story of the blind King of Paphlagonia in Sidney's Arcadia, b. ii. ch. 10 of ed. 1590. (The old play of King Leir has been twice reprinted by Steevens,—in vol. iv. of Twenty of the Plays of Shakespeare, &c. 1766, and among Six Old Plays on which Shakespeare founded, &c.,1779; and Higgins's legend, in verse, of “Queene Cordila," from The Mirror for Magistrates, and "The pitifull state and storie of the Paphlagonian unkinde King," &c. from Sidney's Arcadia, are included in Collier's Shakespeare's Library, vol. ii.)

OTHELLO.

"I have evidence to produce which very clearly shows that this play was written before 1600; for in a Ms. entitled 'The Newe Metamorphosis, or a Feaste of Fancie, or Poeticall Legendes, written by J. M. Gent. 1600,' occurs the following passage, evidently imitated from Shakespeare's well-known lines [Othello, act iii. sc. 3] beginning 'Who steals my purse, steals trash,’——

'The highwayman that robs one of his purse

Is not soe bad; nay, these are ten tymes worse!
For these doe rob men of their pretious name,

And in exchange give obloquie and shame.'

It should be remarked that some additions were made by the author of this Ms. several years after the date he assigns to its composition; but there is no reason to suppose that the part in which the above passage occurs was written after the year 1600." Halliwell's Life of Shakespeare, p. 190, ed. 8vo.-According to the Ellesmere papers (see the memoir of Shakespeare, p. lxix.), Othello was acted before Queen Elizabeth at Harefield Place, about the beginning of August 1602; and we have proof (see id. p. lxxxv.) that it was played at court Nov. 1st, 1604.-The story of Othello is to be found in Cinthio's Hecatommithi, Parte Prima, Deca Terza, Novella 7, Un capitano Moro piglia per mogliera una cittadina Venetiana: un suo alfieri l'accusa di adulterio al marito; cerca che l' alfieri uccida colui ch' egli credea l'adultero: il capitano uccide la moglie, è accusato dall' alfieri, non confessa il Moro, ma essendovi chiari inditii è bandito; e lo scelerato alfieri, credendo nuocere ad altri, procaccia a se la morte miseramente." The novel, however, not only differs considerably from the play in incident, but Cinthio's characters have no names with the exception of Desdemona. "I have not hitherto met with any translation of this novel of so early a date as the age of Shakespeare; but undoubtedly many of those little pamphlets have perished between his time and ours." STEEVENS. "I have seen a French translation of Cinthio by Gabriel Chappuys, Par. 1584. This is not a faithful one; and I suspect through this medium the work came into English." FARMER. (An

English version of Cinthio's novel by W. Parr is in Collier's Shakespeare's Library, vol. ii.)

ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.

On May 20th, 1608, "A booke called Anthony and Cleopatra" was entered in the Stationers' Registers by Edward Blount; and the entry, no doubt, refers to our author's play, which, we may presume, had been produced only a short time before that date. It did not, however, make its appearance in print till the publication of the folio of 1623.-In Antony and Cleopatra Shakespeare has adhered with remarkable closeness to the Life of Antonius in North's Plutarch (translated from the French of Amiot). He owes nothing, either to Daniel's Cleopatra, 1594, or to the Countess of Pembroke's Tragedie of Antonie (a translation from the French of Garnier), 1595.

CYMBELINE.

First printed in the folio of 1623.—Malone is probably not far from the truth when he conjectures that Cymbeline was written in 1609; and he certainly is right when he observes, "the versification of this play bears, I think, a much greater resemblance to that of The Winter's Tale and The Tempest than to any of our author's earlier plays." Life of Shakespeare, p. 453.-Some incidents in this drama have been traced to two old French metrical romances and an early French miracle-play;— of which romances and play, we may venture to assert, our poet never even heard. "The general scheme of Cymbeline," says Malone, “is, in my opinion, formed on Boccace's novel (Day 2. Nov. 9):"-" Bernabò da Genova, da Ambruogiuolo ingannato, perde il suo, e comanda che la moglie innocente sia uccisa. Ella scampa, e in abito d' uomo serve il Soldano: ritrova lo ingannatore; e Bernabò conduce in Alessandria, dove lo ingannatore punito, ripreso abito femminile, col marito ricchi si tornano a Genova:" and in Shakespeare's time there may have been other translations of that novel (though they have not come down to us) besides the very rude version, or rather, imitation of it printed in 1518. A much later imitation of Boccaccio's novel (with the scene laid in England during the reigns of Henry the Sixth and Edward the Fourth) is the second Tale in a tract entitled Westward for Smelts, or the Waterman's Fare of Mad Merry Western Wenches, &c.: which both Steevens and Malone state was first published in 1603; but no edition earlier than that of 1620 is at present known; and in 1620 Shakespeare had been four years dead. On the passage, act ii. sc. 2,

"On her left breast

A mole cinque-spotted," &c.,

Malone remarks; "Our author certainly took this circumstance from some translation of Boccaccio's novel; for it does not occur in the imitation printed in Westward for Smelts." Mr. Collier observes (Introd. to this play); "The materials in Holinshed for the historical portion of 'Cymbeline' are so imperfect and scanty, that a belief may be entertained that Shakespeare resorted to some other more fertile source, which the most diligent inquiries have yet failed to discover. The names of Cymbeline and of his sons, Guiderius and Arviragus, occur in the old Chronicle, and there we hear of the tribute demanded by the Roman emperor, but nothing is said of the stealing of the two young princes, nor of their residence with Belarius among the mountains, and final restoration to their father." (A particular account of the abovementioned French romances and play,-an English abridgement of Boccaccio's novel by Skottowe-and the tale from Westward for Smelts, &c.,-may be seen in Collier's Shakespeare's Library, vol. ii.)

PERICLES.

Though this play, under the title of "The booke of Pericles, Prynce of Tyre," was entered by Blount in the Stationers' Registers, May 20th, 1608, it was not first published by him, but by Gosson in 1609, 4to.The text of Pericles is miserably corrupted and mangled throughout : the later impressions differ from the first edition only in being more incorrect. That it was first brought on the stage either in 1607 or 1608 we have evidence in the title-page of a very curious prose-tract written by George Wilkins from notes taken down during the acting of the play, and entitled The Painfull Aduentures of Pericles Prince of Tyre. Being the true History of the Play of Pericles, as it was lately presented by the worthy and ancient poet John Gower, 1608 (a tract reprinted in 1857 by Professor Tycho Mommsen from a copy in the public library of Zurich). The greater part of this play is undoubtedly by some very inferior dramatist: but here and there, more particularly towards the close, the hand of Shakespeare is plainly seen. Whether it had ever been acted before it received those vivifying touches from our poet, we cannot determine,-perhaps it was the "Pericles" in which Alleyn wore the "spangled hoes" mentioned in an inventory of his theatrical apparel (vide Collier's Memoirs of Alleyn, p. 21): we at least may be sure that it was originally composed at a period long antecedent to its appearance at the Globe in 1607 or 1608.-Pericles is mainly founded on The Patterne of painefull Aduentures: containing the most excellent, pleasant and variable Historie of the strange accidents that befell vnto Prince Apollonius, the Lady Lucina his wife, and Tharsia his daughter. Wherein the vncertaintie of this world and the fickle state of mans life are lively de

scribed. Gathered into English by Lawrence Twine Gentleman,—first printed in 1576: the old play-wright had also an eye to that portion of Gower's Confessio Amantis, book eighth, which treats of King Appolin of Tyre. (Both Twine's novel and Gower's poetical version of the same incidents are included in Collier's Shakespeare's Library, vol. i.-On the story of King Apollonius of Tyre see Douce's Illustr. of Shakespeare, ii. 135, and Mommsen's Preface to the reprint above mentioned.)

Add: Mr. Grant White (Prefatory Letter to his Shakespeare's Scholar, &c. p. xxxii.) cites from the description of A Very Woman among Overbury's Characters; "Her lightnesse gets her to swim at top of the table, where her wrie little finger bewraies carving; her neighbors at the latter end know they are welcome, and for that purpose she quencheth her thirst:" on which he observes, “Carving, then, was a sign of intelligence, made with the little finger as the glass was raised to the mouth." Such perhaps is the meaning of the word in Overbury: but in the following passage of A Prophecie of Cadwal lader, last King of the Britaines, by William Herbert, 1604 (quoted by Mr. Hunter, New Illust. of Shakespeare, i. 216), “carving" assuredly does not mean "a sign of intelligence made with the little finger as the glass was raised to the mouth;"

"Then did this Queen [i. e. Fortune] her wandering coach ascend,
Whose wheels were more inconstant than the wind;

A mighty troop this empress did attend ;

There might you Caius Marius carving find,

And martial Sylla courting Venus kind:

Times alter, and in times we changed be;
Chance only constant is in levity."

P. 245. Note (63).

"See note (5) on Love's Labour's lost."

Read: "See note (6) on," &c.