country, fhew it to your friends, and neighbours, as my gift to you; and you have my permiffion to boat, that it is a reward of your virtues.

Of The MERCHANT of VENICE the file is even and easy, with few peculiarities of diction, or anomalies of construction. The comick part raifes laughter, and the ferious fixes expectation. The probability of either one or the other story cannot be maintained. The union of two actions in one event is in this drama eminently happy. Dryden was much pleased with his own addrefs in connecting, the two plots of his Spanish Friar, which yet, I believe, the critick will find excelled by this play.

JOHNSON.

P. 111. The Merchant of Venice.] The antient ballad, on which the greater part of this play is probably founded, has been mentioned in Obfervations on the Fairy Queen, 1 129. Shakefpeare's track of reading may be traced in the common books and popular ftories of the times, from which he manifeftly derived moft of his plots. Hiftorical fongs, then very fashionable, often fuggefted and recommended a fubject. Many of his incidental allu hions alfo relate to pieces of this kind; which are now grown valuable on this account only, and would otherwife have been defervedly forgotten. A ballad is ftill remaining on the fubject of Romeo and Juliet, which by the date appears to be much older than Shakespeare's time. It is remarkable, that all the particulars in which that play differs from the ftory in Bandello, are found in this ballad. But it may be faid, that he has copied this ftory as it stands in Paynter's Pallace of Pleafure, 1567, where there is the fame variation of circumftances. This, however, fhews us that Shakespeare did not firft alter the original story for the worse, and is at least a prefumptive proof that he never faw the Italian.

Shakespeare alludes to the tale of King Cophetua and the Beggar, more than once. This was a ballad; the oldeft copy of which, that I have feen, is in A Crown Garland of golden Rofes gathered out of England's royall Garden, 1612. The collector of this mifcellany was Richard Johnfon, who compiled, from various romances, THE SEVEN CHAMPIONS. This ftory of Cophetua was in high vogue, as appears from our author's man. ner of introduciug it in Love's Labour loft, act iv. fc. 1. As likewife from John Marfton's Satires, called the Scourge of Villanie, printed 1598, viz.

"Go buy fome ballad of the fairy king,
"And of the BEGGAR WENCH fome rogie thing."

Sign, B. ii.

The

The firft ftanza of the ballad begins thus,

"I read that once in Africa

"A prince that there did raine, "Who had to name Cophetua,

"As poets they do faine, &c."

The prince, or king, falls in love with a female beggar, whom he fees accidentally from the windows of his palace, and afterwards marries her. [Sign. D. 4.] The fong, cited at length by the learned Dr. Gray, on this fubject, is evidently fpurious, and much more modern than Shakespeare's time. The name Cophetua is not once mentioned in it.

Notes on Shakespeare, vol. ii. p. 267. However, I fufpe&t, there is fome more genuine copy than that of 1612, which I before mentioned. But this point may be, per haps, adjusted by an ingenious enquirer into our old English lite rature, who is now publishing a curious collection of antient ballads, which will illuftrate many paffages in Shakespeare.

I doubt not but he received the hint of writing King Lear from a ballad on that fubject. But in moft of his hiftorical plays, he copies Hall, Holinfhed, and Stowe, the reigning historians of that age. And although thefe Chronicles were then univerfally known and read, he did not fcruple to transcribe their materials with the moft circumftantial minutenefs. For this he could not efcape an oblique ftroke of fatire from his envious friend, Ben. Jonfon, in the comedy called, The Devil's an Afs, act ii. fc. 4.

"Fitz-dot. Thomas of Woodstock, I'm fure, was duke: and "he was made away at Calice, as duke Humfrey was at Bury. "And Richard the Third, you know what end he came to.

"Meer-er. By my faith, you're cunning in the Chronicle. "Fitz-dot. No, I confefs, I ha't from the play-books, and "think they're more authentick."

In Antony Wood's collection of ballads, in the Afhmolean Mufeum, I find one with the following title: "The lamentable and tragical Hiftorie of Titus Andronicus, with the fall of his five and twenty fons in the wars with the Goths; with the murder of his daughter Lavinia, by the empreffes two fons, through the means of a bloody Moor, taken by the sword of Titus in the war: his revenge upon their cruel and inhumane acte."

"You noble mindes and famous martiall wights." The ufe which Shakespeare might make of this piece, is ob

The two principal incidents of this play are to be found feparately in a collection of odd ftories, which were very popular, at leaft five hundred years ago, under the title of Gefta Romanorum. The first, Of the bond, is in ch. xlviii. of the copy, which I chufe

to

to refer to, as the completeft of any which I have yet feen. MS. Harl. n. 2270. A knight there borrows money of a merchant, upon condition of forfeiting all bis flesh for non-payment. Then the penalty is exacted before the judge; the knight's mistress, difguiled, in forma viri & veftimentis pretiofis induta, comes into court, and, by permiffion of the judge, endeavours to mollify the merchant. She first offers him his money, and then the double of it, &c. to all which his answer is-Conventionem meam volo habere. -Puella cum hoc audiffet ait coram omnibus Domine mi judex, da rectum judicium fuper his quæ vobis dixero.-Vos fcitis quod miles nunquam fe obligabat ad aliud per literam nifi quod mercator habeat poteftatem carnes ab offibus fcindere, fine fanguinis effufiane, de quo nihil erat prolocutum. Statim mittat manum fi vero fanguinem effuderit, Rex contra eum actionem habet. Mercator, cum hoc audiffet, ait; datę mihi pecuniam & omnem actionem ei remitto. Ait puella, Amen dico tibi, nullum denarium habebis-pone ergo manum in eam, ita ut fanguinem non effundas. Mercator vero videns fe confufum abfceffit; & fic vita militis falvata eft, & nullum denarium dedit.—

in

eum;

The other incident, of the cafkets, is in ch. xcix. of the fame collection. A king of Apulia fends his daughter to be married to the fon of an emperor of Rome. After fome adventures, (which are nothing to the prefent purpose) fhe is brought before the emperor; who fays to her, "Puella, propter amorem filii mei multa adverfa fuftinuifti. Tamen fi digna fueris ut uxor ejus fis cito probabo. Et fecit fieri tria vafa. PRIMUM fuit de auro puriffimo & lapidibus pretiofis interius ex omni parte, & plenum offibus mortuorum ; & exterius erat fubfcriptio: Qui me eligerit in me inveniet, quad meruit. SECUNDUM vas erat de argento puro, & gemmis pretiofis plenum terra ; & exterius erat fubfcriptio: qui me elegerit, in me inveniet quod natura appetit. TERTIUM vas de plumbo plenum lapidibus pretiofis interius & gemmis nobiliffimis ; & exterius erat fubfcriptio talis: Qui me elegerit, in me inveniet quod deus difpofuit. Ifta tria oftendit puellæ, & dixit, fi unum ex iftis elegeris in quo commodum & proficuum eft filium meum habebis. Si vero elegeris quod nec tibi nec aliis eft commodum, ipfum pon habebis." The young lady, after mature confideration of the veffels and their infcriptions, chufes the leaden, which being opened, and found to be full of gold and precious ftones, the emperor fays: "Bona puella bene elegifti ideo filium meum habebis."

From this abftra&t of these two stories, I think it appears fufficiently plain that they are the REMOTE originals of the two incidents in this play. I can hardly fuppofe that they were the originals which Shakespeare immediately copied, for this reafon principally, because I doubt whether they have ever appeared in print. They certainly are not to be found in an edition of the Gefta Romanorum, which I have myself, printed as late as 1521; VOL. III.

nor

nor in fome much older editions, which I have occafionally examined. There is a book of one Richard Robinfon, mentioned by Tanner, Biblioth. Brit. Hib. p. 476. which might poffibly afford fome light to this fubject. The title, as given by the author himfelf, is, A Record of ancient Hyftoryes, in Latin, Gefta Romanorum (autore, ut fupponitur, Johanne Leylando, Antiquario) tranflated by me, perufed, corrected, and better'd. London, This book is there faid, to have had fix editions between 1577 and 1601; but I have never been able to meet with a copy of it. The fuppofition that Leland was the author of Gefta Romanorum is certainly groundless; but it is not impoffible, that a copy of that book (differing from the printed copy, and, perhaps, containing the two ftories which I have here abridged from the Harleian MS.) might have been found among Leland's manufcripts, and tranflated by Mr. R. Robinson as an original.

MDLXXVII. 12mo.

T.T.

AS

AS YOU LIKE IT.

A

COMEDY.