P. 153. Salt Cleopatra, soften thy wan'd lip!] So in Marston's "Antonio and Mellidia," Pt. I. A. iii.

Or did it from his teeth.] i. e. as Gabriel Harvey expresses it in his "Pierce's Supererrogation," 1593, p. 206, "but from the teeth outward." On reconsideration, we are by no means satisfied that "he but look'd" was not the poet's language.

P. 194. Your mariners are MULITERS, reapers, &c.] Perhaps this word "muliters" ought to have been so spelt in Vol. iii. p. 694, for it so stands in the folio 1623. However, the old practice, as may be supposed, was by no means uniform, and in Fortescue's "Forest of Histories," 1571, fo. 102, we find it printed muletour: "Ventidius also, the sonne of a most simple and abjecte personage, was sometymes by profession a muletour."

P. 219.-And let the queen know our gests.] When this note was written we were not aware that Theobald had proposed "gests." From him, we conclude, that Mr. Singer derives it, and if he had fairly so stated, our mistake could not have been made. Hanmer took "gests" from Theobald.

P. 222.-Was never yet 'FORE sleep.] Here for of the old copies is amended to 'fore; and so it ought to have been in Webster's White Devil (edit. Dyce i. 32), where Brachiano says:

"Do not, like young hawks, fetch a course about:

The game flies fair, and for you."

Here for ought to be "'fore," i. e. before: there is no need, Brachiano says, to take a circuitous course, when the game flies fair, and directly before you. The Rev. Mr. Dyce, having committed this error, could hardly be expected in his "Shakespeare" (vi. p. 236) to adopt "fore" in "Antony and Cleopatra," A. iv. sc. 9: accordingly he declares it, without one word of proof," a very improper alteration, to my thinking." Mr. Singer did not think with him, and it is probable that Mr. Dyce will hereafter be the sole possessor of the opinion he has expressed: nobody is likely to dispute his exclusive right to it. It will not unfrequently be found that some reason, arising out of a previous error of his own, has had great influence on Mr. Dyce's mind, especially where he is very positive.

P. 239.—and never palates more the DUG,] When this note was written we were not aware that Warburton had proposed "dug" for dung.

P. 300.-Must be half-workers?] See also the invective against women by Zuccone in Marston's "Fawn," A. iv.-" O heaven! that God made for a man no other means of preservation, and maintaining the world peopled, but by women!" So also Turberville in his poem at the end of his "Tragical Tales," edit. 1584, "Why did not kinde foresee,

And Nature so devise

That man of man, without the help
Of woman, mought arise ?"

P. 300.-Like a full-acorn'd boar, a foaming one,] In Webster's " Cure for a Cuckold," A. iv. sc. 1 (edit. Dyce ii. 330), there is a passage which gives support to the alteration of Jarmen on to "foaming one," where Compass, the sailor, is putting a case in his own favour, as regards the possession of the fruit of his wife's adultery: your boar comes foaming into my ground, jumbles with my sow." This is exactly what was in the mind of Posthumus, a full-acorned boar, foaming at the mouth, and mounting. Mr. Dyce must have forgotten this.

46

P. 314. Of princely FOLLOWERS,] Exactly the same misprint has been allowed to remain in Webster's “Appius and Virginia,” A. i. sc. 3 (edit. Dyce, ii. 153), where Claudius ought to say,

66

The misprint for "follower" is fellow. Princely fellows" is mere tautology— "princely princes.”

P. 506.-By this, poor WAT,] So John Heywood in his tedious, but clever 'Spider and Fly,” 1556, Sign. L iij :—

"Never was there yet any larke, or Wat,

Before hawke or dog flatter darde or squat,
Then by this answere al thy matter is."

Again, on Sign. Q ij b:—

"And thant shall with a tabor take a Wat,

As sone as make me shrinke from thee in that."

P. 509.-Look, how a bright star shooteth from the sky,] So Richard Barnfield in his "Legend of Cassandra," at the end of his “Cynthia,” 1595 :—

"Looke how a brightsome planet in the sky," &c.

P. 565.-Oh! let it not be HILD] When the Rev. Mr. Dyce cites instances from Warner's " Albion's England," ed. 1596, of the use of "hild" for held, he does not seem to have been aware that, in that work, "hild" is the rule, and held the exception. We could add twenty others to the proofs he has quoted, but that it would be a mere waste of time and type.

P. 582.-The Romans PLAUSIBLY did give consent]

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Plausibly" is perhaps

a misprint for plausively : in “ Mucedorus," 1609, Sign. F 2 b, we meet with the word plausive:

"Drums speake, bels ring,

Give plausive welcomes to our brother king.” Shakespeare himself uses "plausive" in "All's well that ends Well,” A. i. sc. 2, and A. iv. sc. 1., and in "Hamlet," A. i. sc. 4.

P. 618.-BEATed and chopp'd] We have an instance of the use of “beated for beaten in Marston's “What You Will,” 1607, Sign. H 2 b, where the real Albano says, "I am sworne out of myself, beated out of myself, baffled, jeer'd at.” P. 656.-with thee partake] The word "partaker" in the sense of coadjutor, or confederate, is used by Whetstone in his “English Myrror,” 1586, p. 36, where he mentions the slaughter of the Goths at the instance of Stilicon, and says that the Goths "revenged this outrage with the death of Sawle, and the most of his partakers."

P. 700.-Carl,] The reference for the use of "Carl" ought to be vi. 349, instead of v. 349.

THE TEMPEST.

VOL. I.

B

"The Tempest" was first printed in the folio edition of “Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies," bearing date in 1623, where it stands first, and occupies nineteen pages, viz. from P. 1 to P. 19 inclusive. It fills the same place in

the folios of 1632, 1664, and 1685.

INTRODUCTION.

A MATERIAL fact, in reference to the date of the first production of "The Tempest," has been only recently ascertained: we allude to the notice of the performance of it, before King James, on Nov. 1st, 1611', which is contained in the "Extracts from the Accounts of the Revels at Court," edited by Mr. P. Cunningham for the Shakespeare Society, p. 211: the memorandum is in the following form:

"Hallomas nyght was presented att Whithall before the Kinges Majestie a play called the Tempest."

In the margin is inserted the additional circumstance, that the performance was "by the King's Players;" and there can be no reasonable doubt that it was Shakespeare's drama, which had been written for that company. When it had been so written, is still a point of difficulty; but the great probability, we think, is that it was selected by the Master of the Revels, for representation at Court in 1611, on account of its novelty and popularity on the public stage. Eleven other dramas, as appears by the same document, were exhibited between Oct. 31, 1611, and the same day in the next year; and it is remarkable that ten of these (as far as we · possess any information respecting them) were comparatively new plays, and with regard to the eleventh, it was not more than three years old. We may, perhaps, be warranted in inferring, therefore, that "The Tempest" was also not then an old play.

It seems to us, likewise, that the internal evidence, derived from style and language, clearly indicates that it was a late production, and that it belongs to about the same period of our great dramatist's literary history as his "Winter's Tale," which was also chosen for a Court-play, and represented at Whitehall only

1 The earliest date hitherto discovered for the performance of "The Tempest was "the beginning of the year 1613," which Malone established from Vertue's MSS. it was then acted by "the King's company, before Prince Charles, the Princess Elizabeth, and the Prince Palatine," but where is not stated.

* See note 2 to the Introduction to "The Winter's Tale," Vol. iii. p. 3. The particular play to which we refer is entitled in the Revels' Account "Lucrecia," which may have been either T. Heywood's "Rape of Lucrece," first printed in 1608, or a different tragedy on the same incidents.