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ry from a novel, which he sometimes followed, and sometimes forsook, sometimes remembered, and sometimes forgot.

That this play is rightly attributed to Shak speare, I have little doubt. If it be taken from him, to whom shall it be given? This question may be asked of all the disputed plays except Titus Andronicus; and it will be found more cre dible, that Shakspeare might sometimes sink below his highest flights, than that any other should rise up to his lowest. JOHNSON.

Johnson's general remarks on this play are just, except that part in which he arraigns the conduct of the poet, for making Proteus say, that he had only seen the picture of Silvia, when it appears that he had had a personal interview with her. This, however, is not a blunder of Shakspeare's, but a mistake of Johnson's, who considers the passage alluded to in a more literal sense than the author intended it. Sir Proteus, it is true, had' seen Silvia for a few moments; but though he could form from thence some idea of her person, he was still unacquainted with her temper, manners, and the qualities of her mind. He therefore considers himself as having seen her picture only. The thought is just and elegantly expressed. So, in The Scornful Lady, the elder Loveless says to her:

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,,I was mad once when I loved pictures; ,,For what are shape and colours else, but pictures." M. MASON.

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NOTES TO

THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR.

***A few of the incidents in this comedy might

have been taken from some old translation of Il

Pecorone by Giovanni Fiorentino. I have lately met with the same story in a very contemptible performance, intitled, The fortunate, the deceived, and the unfortunate Lovers. Of this book, as I am told, there are several impressions; but that in which I read it, was published in 1632, quarto. A somewhat similar story occurs in Piacevoli Notti di Straparola, Nott. 4a. Fav. 4a.

This comedy was first entered at Stationers' Hall, Jan. 18, 1601, by John Busby. STEEVENS. This play should be read between K. Henry IV. and K. Henry V. JoпNSON.

A passage in the first sketch of The Merry Vives of Windsor shews, I think, that it ought rather to be read between the First and the Second Part of King Henry IV. in the latter of which young Henry becomes King. In the last act, Ealistaff says:

,,Herne the hunter, quoth you? am I a ghost?
,,'Sblood, the fairies hath made a ghost of me.
,,What, hunting at this time of night!
,,I'le lay my life the mad Prince of Wales
Is stealing his father's deare."

and in this play, as it now appears, Mr. Page dis countenances the addresses of Fenton to his daugh ter, because he keeps company with the wild Prince, and with Poins."

The Fishwife's Tale of Brainford in WESTWARD FOR SMELTS, a book which Shakspeare ap pears to have read, (having borrowed from it part of the fable of Cymbeline,) probably led him to lay the scene of Falstaff's love-adventures at Windsor. It begins thus:,,In Windsor not long agoe dwelt a sumpterman, who had to wife a very faire but wanton creature, over whom, not without cause, he was something jealous; yet had he never any proof of her inconstancy."

The reader who is curious in such matters, may find a reference to the story of The Lovers of Pisa, mentioned by Dr. Farmer in the following note, at the end of this play. MALONE.

The adventures of Falstaff in this play seem to have been taken from the story of The Lovers of Pisa, in an old piece, called,,Tarleton's Newes out of Purgatorie.“ Mr. Capell pretended to much knowledge of this sort; and I am sorry that it proved only to be pretension.

Mr. Warton observes, in a note to the last Oxford edition, that the play was probably not written, as we now have it, before 1607, at the 'earliest. I agree with my very ingenious friend in this supposition, but yet the argument here produced for it may not be conclusive. Slender observes to master Page, that his greyhound was out-run on Cotsale [Cotswould-Hills in Glouces tershire]; and Mr. Warton thinks, that the ga mes, established there by Captain Dover in the beginning of K. James's reign, are alluded to. — But perhaps, though the Captain be celebrated in

the Annalia Dubrensia as the founder of them, he might be the reviver only, or some way contribute to make them more famous; for in The second part of Henry IV. 1600, Justice Shallow reckons among the Swinge-bucklers, „Will Squeele, a Cotsole man."

In the first edition of the imperfect play, Sir Hugh Evans is called on the title page, the Welch Knight; and yet there are some persons who still affect to believe, that all our author's plays were originally published by himself. FARMER.

Dr. Farmer's opinion is well supported by,,An eclogue on the noble assemblies revived on Cotswold Hills, by Mr. Robert Dover." See Randolph's Poems, printed at Oxford, 4to. 1638, p. 114. The hills of Cotswold, in Gloucestershire, are mentioned in K. Richard II. Act. II. sc. iii. and by Drayton, in his Polyolbion, song 14. STEEVENS.

Queen Elizabeth was so well pleased with the admirable character of Falstaff in The Two Parts of Henry IV. that, as Mr. Rowe informs us, she commanded Shakspeare to continue it for one play more, and to shew him in love. To this command we owe The Merry Wives of Windsor ; which, Mr. Gildon says, [Remarks on Shakspeare's plays, gvo. 1710,] he was very well assured our author finished in a fortnight. But this, must be meant only of the first imperfect sketch of this comedy. An old quarto edition which I have seen, printed in 1602, says, in the title page. As it hath been divers times acted before her majesty, and elsewhere. This, which we have here, was altered and improved by the author almost in every speech. POPE. THEOBALD. Mr. Gildon has likewise told us,,,that our author's house at Stratford bordered Onl the

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Church-yard, and that he wrote the scene of the Ghost in Hamlet there," But neither for this, or the assertion that the play before us, was writ ten in a fortnight, does he quote any authority. The latter circumstance was first mentioned by Mr. Dennis. This comedy," says he, in his Epistle Dedicatory to The Comical Gallant, (an alteration of the present play,), 1702,,,was written at her [Queen Elizabeth's] command, and by her direction, and she was so eager to see it acted, that she commanded it to be finished in fourteen days; and was afterwards, as tradition tells us, very well pleased at the representation." The information, it is probable, came originally from Dryden, who from his intimacy with Sir William Davenant had an opportunity of learning many particulars concerning our author,

At what period Shakspeare new-modelled The Merry Wives of Windsor is unknown. I believe it was cularged in 1603.See some conjectures on the subject in the Attempt to ascertain the order of his plays. MALONE.

It is not generally known, that the first edi tion of The Merry Wives of Windsor, in its present state, is in the valuable folio, printed 1623, whence the quarto of the same play, dated 1630, was evidently copied. The two earlier quar tos, 1602, and 1619, only exhibit this comedy as it was originally written, and are so far curious, as they contain Shakspeare's first conceptions in forming a drama, which is the most complete specimen of his comick powers. T. WARTON.

P. 178, 1. 5. Sir Hugh,] This is the first, of sundry instances in our poet, where a parson is called Sir. Upon which it may be observed, that anciently it was the common designation both of

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