by permission of the judge, endeavours to mollify the merchant. She first offers him his money, and then the double of it, &c., to all of which his answer is-Conventionem meam volo habere." Upon which the arguments and entreaties of the lady-advocate, and the stern refusal of the merchant, are in terms of similar import with those of Portia and Shylock in Shakspeare's drama. The other incident relates to the caskets before mentioned; which the critic likewise gives in the Latin original. And he sums up the whole in the following words: "From this abstract of these two stories, I think it appears sufficiently plain that they are the remote originals of the two incidents in this play. That of the caskets, Shakspeare might take from the English Gesta Romanorum, as Dr. Farmer has observed; and that of the bond might come to him from the Pecorone; but upon the whole I am rather inclined to suspect, that he has followed some hitherto unknown novelist, who had saved him the trouble of working up the two stories into one."-This play, says Steevens, had been exhibited before the year 1598, as appears from Mere's Wits' Treasury, where it is mentioned with eleven more of our author's pieces. It was entered on the books of the Stationers' Company, July 22, in the same year. It could not have been printed earlier, because it was not yet licensed. The old song of Gernutus, the Jew of Venice, 15 published by Percy, in the first volume of the Reliques of Ancient English Poetry: and the ballad entitled, The murtherous Life and terrible Death of the rich Jew of Malta; and the tragedy on the same subject, were both entered on the Stationers' books, May, 1594. MORAL. In none of the dramatic writings of Shakspeare is the diabolical spirit of revenge, or the holy nature of mercy, so forcibly depicted as in the characters of Shylock and Portia. But wo are at the same time taught, that the fiercest and basest passions are engendered and nurtured in the breasts of a persecuted and degraded class, and that we must expect a direful retaliation, whenever the persecuted attain the power of avenging themselves. It is upon this principle that Shylock exclaims, " Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian? If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?' And, on the other hand, we are tanght, that a too rigorous exaction of what we may legally claim, is sometimes an act of the highest injustice, and may ultimately prove our ruin. Thus, when the Jew claimed the pound of flesh as his right, and haughtily refused the offer of six thousand ducats in lieu thereof, in these words,-"If every ducat in six thousand ducats Were in six parts, and every part a ducat, I would not draw them,-I would have my bond" he little thought he should be rendering himself amenable to another law of Venice, which made it a capital offence to seek, by direct or indirect means, the life of any one of its citi zens. As You Like It. In this play the author has followed the novel of Rosalynd, or Euphue's Golden Legacy, more closely than is his general custom when he is indebted to such worthless originals; and has sketched some of his principal characters, and borrowed a few expressions from it. His imitations, &c., however, are in general too insignificant to merit transcription, and it should be remembered that the fine character of Jaques, as well as those of the Clown and Audrey, are entirely of the Poet's own creation. This comedy is believed to have been written in 1599; "for although I have never met (says Steevens) with any edition of it before the year 1623, it is evident that such a publication was at least designed." "Of this play (says Johnson) the fable is wild and pleasing. I know not how the ladies will approve the facility with which both Rosalind and Celia give away their hearts. To Celia much may be forgiven for the heroism of her friendship. The character of Jaques is natural, and well preserved. The comic dialogue is very sprightly, with less mixture of low buffoonery than in some other plays; and the graver part is elegant and harmonious. By hastening to the end of his work, Shakspeare suppressed the dialogue between the usurper and the hermit, and lost an opportunity of exhibiting a moral lesson, in which he might have found matter worthy of his highest powers." All's Well that Ends Well. IT is said that the story of this play was originally borrowed from the Decameron of Boccacio, but that it is supposed to have come more directly to our dramatic bard from Painter's Giletta of Narbonne, in the first volume of the Palace of Pleasure, 4to. 1566, p. 88. It is, however, quite clear, that "he is indebted to the novel only for a few of the leading circumstances in the graver parts of the piece; the comic business being entirely of his own formation.' "This play," says Johnson, "has many delightful scenes, though not sufficiently probable, and some happy characters, though not new, nor produced by any deep knowledge of human nature. Parolles is a boaster and a coward, such as has always been the sport of the stage, but perhaps never raised more laughter or contempt than in the hands of Shakspeare." In reference to the moral conduct of the principal character, the Doctor thus writes: "I cannot reconcile my heart to Bertram; a man noble without generosity, and young without truth; who marries Helen as a coward, and leaves her as a profligate; when she is dead by his unkindness, sneaks home to a second marriage, is accused by a woman whom he has wronged, defends himself by falsehood, and is dismissed to happiness." In truth, with all allowable respect for the great dramatist we must say, that neither the plot nor the moral to be drawn from it are worthy of his fame. Taming of the Shrew. DR. PERCY, in the first volume of his Reliques of Ancient Poetry, is of opinion, that The Frolicksome Duke, or the Tinker's Good Fortune, an ancient ballad in the Pepys' collection, might have suggested to Shakspeare the Induction for this comedy. The following story, however, which might have been the parent of all the rest, is related by Burton in his Anatomy of Melancholy" A Tartar prince (saith Marcus Polus, lib. 2. cap. 28), called Senex de Montibus, the better to establish his government amongst his subjects, and to keep them in awe, found a convenient place in a pleasant valley environed with hills, in which he made a delicious park full of odoriferous flowers and fruits, and a palace full of all worldly contents that could possibly be devised,-music, pictures, variety of meats, &c., and chose out a certain young man, whom with a soporiferous potion he so benumbed, that he perceived nothing: and so, fast asleep as he was, caused him to be conveyed into this fair garden. | Where, after he had lived awhile in all such pleasures as sensual man could desire, he cast him into a sleep again, and brought him forth, that when he waked he might tell others he had been in Paradise." Much useless labour appears to have been bestowed, in endeavouring to trace the story on which this comedy is founded, to other authors-nay, Shakspeare's right to the property of the play itself has been disputed by several of his critics. But Steevens very judiciously observes, "I know not to whom I could impute this comedy, if Shakspeare was not the author of it. I think his hand is visible in almost every scene, though perhaps not so evidently as in those which pass between Katharina and Petruchio. The title of it was probably taken from an old story, entitled, The Wyf lapped in Morell's Skin; or, The Taming of the Shrew." Winter's Tale. BEN JONSON has ridiculed this play in his "Induction to Bartholomew Fair, 1614:" and the improprieties have also been pointed out by Sir Philip Sydney, in his "Defence of Poesy, 1595." Walpole thought this might be ranked, amongst Shakspeare's historical plays, as a Second Part of Henry the Eighth, written out of compliment to Queen Elizabeth, as an indirect apology for her mother, Anne Boleyn, and that Leontes was a true portrait of that monarch: but Johnson says, "the story was taken from the Pleasant History of Dorastus and Fawnia,' written by Robert Green." Malone imagined this comedy to have been written, A.D. 1604. THE PLOT. The scene opens in the palace of Leontes, King of Sicilia; from whence Polixenes, King of Bohemia, the early companion and friend of Leontes, is about to depart. At the instance of Leontes, Hermione, the Queen of Sicilia, persuades Polixenes to prolong his stay, and his acquiescence excites the jealousy of Leontes; who, in the height of his resentment, engages Camillo, one of his pages, to poison his friend. Camillo betrays the designs of Leontes,-undertakes to conduct Polixenes from Sicilia, and actually accompanies him in his hasty retreat from the kingdom of the jealous Leontes. Their flight being discovered, the enraged Leontes accuses his queen of adultery, and commands her to be conducted to prison, where she is delivered of a princess. Paulina, a lady of the court, undertakes to present the infant to the enraged monarch, in order to soften his resentment; he, however, refuses to hearken, and commands Antigonus, one of his lords, and the husband of Paulina, to seize the young princess and bear it from his presence to some desert place, and leave it to perish. At this time, Dion and Cleomenes, two lords of his court, whom he had despatched to Delphos, to consult the oracle whether the queen was innocent or guilty, return with the answer; and Leontes, having summoned the queen before a court of justice, charges her with the crime of adultery, which she, with becoming dignity, denies. Dion and Cleomenes, being called in, are sworn to the validity of the sacred packet they deliver;-the seal is broken, and the queen is pronounced, by the oracle, to be both innocent and chaste. At this instant, a gentleman of the court rushes into his presence, and announces to the king the death of Mamillius, the young prince, his son, who died for grief at the passion, and threatens the shepherd for allowing her the intercourse. The shepherd, in order to appease the monarch, discovers the manner in which he found Perdita, and the vouchers left by Antigonus. In the interim, Florizel, accompanied by Perdita and Camillo, flies to Sicilia, and entreats the protection of Leontes. Polixenes follows to demand his son, but is appeased on discovering that Perdita is the daughter of his friend; and the whole concludes with the joyful discovery that Hermione, who had been mourned as deceased for sixteen years, is still living. the imprisonment of the queen, his mother. | the conduct of his son, forbids him to entertain Hermione swoons on hearing the intelligence, and Leontes, overcome by his feelings, declares his belief in the innocence of his queen, and his sorrow for having doubted the honour of his friend Polixenes. In the interim, Antigonus bears the infant princess away, lands in Bohemia, and, agreeably to the command of Leontes, leaves it in a desert place, where it is found by an old shepherd, whose son witnesses the destruction of Antigonus, and the vessel in which he arrives; he being torn in pieces by a bear, and the vessel wrecked on the coast. A sum of money is left by Antigonus, with some evidence of its real birth, and directions that it should be named Perdita; which the old shepherd complies with, and rears the princess as his own daughter. The young prince, Florizel, son of the King of Bohemia, becomes enamoured with Perdita, whom he supposes to be the shepherd's daughter. The frequency of his visits raises the suspicions of the king, who, being confirmed by witnessing MORAL. Shakspeare has, in this play, finely depicted the evils that accrue by the hasty entertainment of that deadly enemy to social and friendly intercourse, jealousy; nor has he been less careful to show the utility of a patient forbearance in the conduct of Polixenes and Hermione. Comedy of Errors. SIR WILLIAM BLACKSTONE, from the "long hobbling verses" it contains, pronounced this to be one of Shakspeare's early productions; but Malone, Ritson, and Steevens, doubted whether they were Shakespeare's. The first observes. "The superior elegance and harmony of his language is no less distinguishable in his earliest than in his latest productions. This comedy, though boasting the embellishments of our author's genius, was not originally his, but proceeded from some inferior playwright." The last adds, "On a careful revision of the foregoing scenes, I do not hesitate to pronounce them the composition of two very unequal writers." Malone believes this play to have been written A.D. 1593; which is two years before the above translation appeared. THE PLOT. The scene opens in the palace of Solinus, Duke of Ephesus; to whom Egeon, a merchant of Syracuse, who is, by a law then first enacted at Ephesus, as a reprisal for cruelties committed on the persons of merchants of Ephesus, who have touched at Syracuse, by its duke, given up to the gaoler for execution, unless he can raise a thousand marks as the price of his ransom. Egeon relates, at the request of the duke, the following narrative of his former adversity:-His affairs compelled him to visit Epidamnum, whither he was followed by his wife, Emilia; who was, soon after her arrival, delivered of twin sons, so much alike in person, that they could only be distinguished by name. At the same time and place, a poor woman was delivered of twins under the like similitude, whom he purchased, to be brought up as attendants on his own sons. He afterwards embarked with his family for Syracuse; but, soon after the vessel had left Epidamnum, a storm arose; the ship was for | saken by the crew, and, as the only chance of saving their lives, Emilia lashed herself with the two younger boys to one end of a mast, and himself, with the two remaining children, were bound to the other. They were borne towards Corinth; but, ere they could be reached by two vessels that approached to their succour, their frail support was driven on a rock, and shattered.-Emilia, with her children, were supposed to be saved by fishermen of Corinth; whilst Egeon, with his, were conveyed to other shores. Eighteen years passed away; when, his son importuning him, he permitted him, with his servant, to go in search of their lost brothers, whose names, Antipholus and Dromio, they assumed. They arrived at Ephesus, unknown to Egeon, in search of their friends; and, in order to avoid the penalty of the new law under which Egeon was condemned, they assumed the garb of Ephesians.-Here Emilia had long resided as an abbess, unknown to her family, as had also the two lost children,Antipholus as a merchant, and Dromio as his servant. Many ludicrous mistakes occur, from the similitude of the brothers and their servants, in names and person; and the whole concludes with a meeting of Emilia and Egeon, and their children and their friends; an eclaircissement takes place, the duke generously pardons Egeon without the ransom, and all are joyfully re-united. Macbeth. power to charm and bewitch every audience from that to this time." Malone believed it to have been written A.D. 1606. THE PLOT. "THIS play (says Dr. Johnson) is deservedly a village in Lancashire where they exceeded celebrated for the propriety of its fictions, and the number of houses. Jesuits and sectaries solemnity, grandeur, and variety of its actions; took advantage of this universal error to asbut it has no nice discriminations of character: sist their parties by the pretended cure of the events are too great to admit of the influ- persons afflicted with spirits; but they were ence of particular dispositions, and the course detected and exposed by the clergy of the esof the action necessarily determines the con- tablished church. On this popular superstition duct of the agents. The passions are directed Shakspeare might easily be allowed to found to their true end: Lady Macbeth is merely a play, "especially as he followed such hisdetested; and, though the courage of Macbeth tories as were then thought true; nor can it be preserves some esteem, yet every reader re- doubted that scenes of enchantment, however joices at his fall. To make a true estimate of they may now be ridiculed (concludes Dr. the abilities and merits of a writer, it is always Johnson), were both by himself and his audinecessary to examine the genius of his age, ence thought awful and affecting." Here (says and the opinions of his contemporaries. A Steevens) Dr. Johnson seems to apprehend that poet who should now make the whole action of "the fame of Shakspeare's magic may be enhis drama depend on enchantment, and pro- dangered by modern ridicule. I shall not duce the chief events by the assistance of hesitate, however, to predict its security till supernatural agents, would be censured as our national taste is wholly corrupted, and we transgressing the bounds of probability, and no longer deserve the first of all dramatic be banished from the theatre to the nursery. enjoyments; for such, in my opinion at least, Shakspeare was in no danger of such cen- is the tragedy of Macbeth." Dr. Warburton sures, since he only turned the system that observes, speaking of the witch scene, “as exwas universally admitted to his advantage.travagant as all this is, the play has had the The reality of witchcraft or enchantment, which, though not strictly the same, are confounded in this play, has in all ages and countries been credited by the common people, and in most by the learned themselves." This kind of credulity, though existing long before, seems to have been at its height during the Holy War, when the Christians attributed their defeats to the diabolical opposition of evil spirits, and their successes to the aid of military saints. The learned Dr. Warburton seems to have believed (Supplement to the Introduction to Don Quixote) the first accounts were brought into Europe by those who returned from the eastern wars; but, according to Olympiodorus, in Photius's Extracts, and St. Chrysostome's book, De Sacerdotio, enchantments, not exceeded by any romance of the middle ages, existed long before. In the reign of King James (during which Shakspeare wrote this tragedy), many circumstances occurred to confirm the belief of goblins and witchcraft. The king, before his arrival in England, had examined a woman accused of it, and given a formal account of the practices of evil spirits, compacts of witches, manner of detecting them, and the justice of punishing them, in his Dæmonologie, written in the Scottish dialect, and published in Edinburgh. This book was printed in London; and those who desired preferment at court flattered it; and, thus countenanced, witchcraft soon gained belief. It caught the Parliament; and, in the first year of James, a law was enacted by which "any person who invoked the aid of, or employed or fed, &c. any wicked spirit, &c., or used the bones of dead persons in witchcraft, sorcery, charm, &c., by which persons should be destroyed, or any part of the body lamed, &c., such person, being convicted, should suffer death." This law was repealed in our own time. Thus, in the time of Shakspeare, was the doctrine of witchcraft at once established by law and fashion; and not only was it unpolite, but criminal, to doubt it. Witches were now daily discovered. Bishop Hall mentions The scene opens in Scotland, with witches on a heath preparing to meet Macbeth, who is returning victorious, having quelled a rebellion headed by one Macdonwald, and also routed an army which the King of Norway, taking advantage of the revolt, had sent against the Scots. On learning his success and bravery, the king creates Macbeth thane of Cawdor, a title forfeited by a rebel lord. The witches intercept Macbeth and Banquo, and hail the first as Thane of Cawdor and Glamis, and tell him he shall be king hereafter; adding, to Banquo, that he himself should beget kings, though himself be none. Being soon after met by some nobles from the king, they greet Macbeth as Thane of Cawdor, which, agreeing with the first prophecy of the witches, rouses ambitious hopes in his mind for the fulfilment of the third. The king receives him with favour, and proposes a visit to Macbeth's castle at Inverness. Malcolm is by the king created Prince of Cumberland, the title borne by the successor to the throne; on which, resolving to murder his sovereign, Macbeth hastens forward to warn his wife of the king's approach, and to acquaint her with the prediction of the witches. She, at once roused to the highest pitch of ambition, subdues the scruples of her lord, and urges him to kill the king whilst sleeping. He consents, and executes his bloody purpose; which the better to conceal, Lady Macbeth enters the bloody chamber, smears the faces of the two attendants sleeping in the king's bed-chamber with blood, and places two daggers on their pillows; who, being discovered in that plight by Macduff in the morning, Macbeth murders them also, to prevent discovery, pretending to have done it in the heat of passion, moved by his love for the murdered king. Malcolm and Donalbain the sons of Duncan, not deeming themselves safe in Scotland, the first seeks an asylum in England, and the other in Ireland: which gives rise to a suspicion that they participated in the bloody deed with the murdered chamberberlains. But Banquo, remembering the prediction of the witches, suspects Macbeth as the murderer, and is himself soon after waylaid and killed; but his son Fleance, who was in company with him, escapes. At a feast, to which he had invited Banquo, Macbeth, who had now assumed the sovereignty, is surprised to behold the spirit of Banquo, whom he had caused to be murdered, seated in the royal chair; and the guests are suddenly dismissed. Macduff, suspicious of the tyrant's views, flies to England for help; whilst Macbeth, tortured with doubt, seeks the weird sisters, to learn the worst. With incantations they raise several apparitions before him: the first (an armed head) bids him beware of Macduff; the second (a bloody child) tells him, that none of woman born shall harm Macbeth; the third (a child crowned, with a tree in its hand) tells him he shall not be vanquished till Birnam Wood shall come to Dunsinane; the fourth is an apparition of eight kings, followed by the ghost of Banquo, pointing to the badges of royalty. Learning Macduff's flight, the cruel Macbeth murders his wife, his children, and his servants in revenge; which reaching his ears, Macduff redoubles his exertions; and, receiving a succour of ten thousand men, under the command of Siward, he hastens to punish the tyrant, and relieve his country. On reaching Scotland, Macduff is joined by many of his countrymen; and, the better to conceal their numbers, on approaching Dunsinane, he commands each scidier to cut a bough from Birnam Wood; which, seeing approaching from the walls of his castle, shakes the confidence of Macbeth. He, however, rallies, on remenbering that none of woman born should subdue him. His castle is taken; and, after having slain young Siward, who accompanied his veteran father, Macbeth encounters Macduff, whom he treats lightly; but, learning that he was untimely ripped from his mother's womb, he then refuses to fight him; till at length, frantic with despair, he attacks and is slain by him, who beheads the monster. Lady Macbeth kills herself in the interim; and the whole concludes by Macduff and the army declaring Malcolm king. MORAL. In this play Shakspeare has finely depicted the length to which unprincipled ambition will carry mankind, when once their imaginations are possessed with it. We behold Macbeth, cherished and rewarded by his sovereign, and beloved by his compeers and his country, suddenly become the murderer of the two first, and the scourge of the last. He succeeds, it is true; but his fall is more rapid than his exultation. King John. "THE tragedy of King John (says Dr. John- | son), though not written with the utmost power of Shakspeare, is varied with a pleasing interchange of incidents and characters." According to Pope," The Troublesome Reign of King John' was written, in two parts, by W. Shakspeare and W. Rowley, and printed A.D. 1611. But the present play is entirely and infinitely superior to it." With the former part of this opinion, Johnson, Farmer, and Malone, disagree. "The edition named by Pope (observes Malone), was the second of an old play written by Robert Green, or George Peel; and the letters W.SH. were put in the title-page to induce the public to believe it was Shakspeare's." "It embraces (writes Theobald) a period of seventeen years; beginning with the thirty-fourth year of his age, and ending with the demise of King John." Malone imagined it to have been written A.D. 1596, THE PLOT. The scene opens in the palace of King John; where Chatillon, ambassador from Philip of France, demands, in his master's name, that John should abdicate his throne in favour of Arthur, Duke of Bretagne, his nephew, or, in default of compliance, to declare war upon him. John desires Chatillon to bear back his defiance; and, accompanied by Faulconbridge, the bastard son of Richard the First, and the Queen Mother, he invades France with a powerful army, and reaches the coast as soon as the ambassador, who has been detained by adverse winds. The King of France and his ally, the Archduke of Austria, draw up their forces before the walls of Angiers. John arrives, and the contending monarchs demand a parley with the townsmen, who refuse to open their gates to either, till they try the strength of their arms. The two armies meet, and a bloody battle ensues; but, neither gaining much advantage, the town still holds out; when the Bastard proposes that they should lay aside their animosity till they have subdued the town.-They agree; but one of the citizens advises a marriage between the Dauphin and Blanch, niece of King John. The monarchs consent, and they are united. At this juncture, Pandulph, the pope's legate, arrives, and demands that John should make Stephen Langton, an Italian, Archbishop of Canterbury, which he refuses; and Pandulph, by threats of curse and excommunication, prevails on Philip to break his league with John, and again make war upon him. The armies again meet; the archduke is slain; Prince Arthur is taken prisoner, and conveyed over to England. The King's chamberlain, Hubert, undertakes to put out the eyes of the young prince; but is overcome by his entreaties to spare him. In the mean time, Elinor, the queen, who was left in France by John, with a powerful army to protect her, dies; and the wily Pandulph persuades the Dauphin to land in England with a powerful army. The Lords |