Yet, notwithstanding the colourable advertisement of the player 'putters forth' of 1623, it is however demonstrable,' say Messrs. Clark and Wright (Merchant of Venice; Clarendon Press Series, 3rd Edition, 1869), that in nearly every case where a previous quarto existed the text was printed from it, and it is almost certain that where there was no previous edition the text of the folio was taken, not immediately from the author's MS., but from a more or less faulty transcript.' The general features of the First Folio are given on pp. 64-5. The thirty-six plays which it contained were arranged in three groups, as follows. Those printed in italics had previously appeared in QUARTO form:

Besides these, and not included in the Folio of 1623, was the play of Pericles, published in quarto in 1611. A second folio was issued in 1632, a third in 1664, a fourth in 1685. After Rowe's first 'edited' issue of 1709, came Pope's, 1725; Theobald's, 1733; Hanmer's, 1744; Warburton's, 1747; Johnson's, 1765; and Malone's, 1790. For the numerous subsequent editions, the reader must consult a Bibliographical Dictionary.

Shakespeare seldom originated a plot; but, like Chaucer before him, and Molière after him, took his outline or framework where he found it, developing and filling it up from the inexhaustible resources of his vivid and complete imagination. From an Italian novelist, such as Bandello (whether direct from the original or through a translation it matters little), he borrows the plot of a

*Not in the list of plays prefixed to the Folio, but nevertheless included in the volume.

comedy; from a chronicler, such as Holinshed, the facts of an historical play; and in his hands they become a Twelfth Night, or a Macbeth. As an illustration (though by no means a novel one) of the great dramatist's transforming power may be cited the description of Cleopatra in her barge on the Cydnus. In North's Plutarch, Shakespeare's source for the incidents, the passage runs thus:—

'Therefore when she was sent unto by diverse letters, both from Antonius himselfe, and also from his friends, she made so light of it, and mocked Antonius so much, that she disdained to set forward otherwise, but to take her barge in the river of Cydnus; the poope whereof was of gold, the sailes of purple, and the oares of silver, which kept stroke in rowing after the sound of the musicke of flutes, howboyes, cithernes, vials, and such other instruments as they played upon in the barge. And now for the person of her selfe, she was layed under a pavilion of cloth of gold of tissue, apparelled and attired like the goddesse Venus, commonly drawne in picture and hard by her, on either hand of her, pretie faire boys apparelled as Painters do set foorth god Cupid, with little fans in their hands, with the which they fanned wind upon her. Her Ladies and Gentlewomen also, the fairest of them were apparelled like the Nimphes Nereides (which are the Myrmaides of the waters), & like the Graces, some stearing the helme, others tending the tackle and ropes of the barge, out of the which there came a wonderfull passing sweet savour of perfumes, that perfumed the wharfes side, pestered with innumerable multitudes of people. Some of them followed the barge all along the river side; others also ranne out of the city to see her coming in.' (North, quoted in Staunton.)

In Antony and Cleopatra (Act ii., Sc. 2) these details take the following form. The speakers are Agrippa and Enobarbus.

Eno. When she first met Mark Antony, she pursed up his heart, upon the river of Cydnus.

Agr. There she appeared indeed; or my reporter devised well for her.
Eno. I will tell you.

The barge she sat in, like a burnish'd throne,

Burnt on the water: the poop was beaten gold;

Purple the sails, and so perfumed that

The winds were love-sick with them; the oars were silver,

Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made

The water which they beat to follow faster,

As amorous of their strokes. For her own person,
It beggar'd all description: she did lie
In her pavilion (cloth-of-gold of tissue),
O'er-picturing that Venus where we see

The fancy outwork Nature: on each side her
Stood pretty dimpled boys, like smiling Cupids,
With divers-colour'd fans, whose wind did seem
To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool,
And what they undid, did.

Agr.
O, rare for Antony!
Eno. Her gentlewomen, like the Nereides,
So many mermaids, tended her i' the eyes,
And made their bends adornings: at the helm
A seeming mermaid steers; the silken tackle
Swell with the touches of those flower-soft hands,
That yarely frame the office. From the barge

In the following list (compiled from Dyce and Staunton) the sources of most of Shakespeare's dramatic works, so far as they have been traced or conjectured, are indicated, and the probable or approximate dates of production are also given. The numbering corresponds with that of the list printed on p. 249 :—

I. TEMPEST, Comedy (between 1603 and 1611).- Derived from an existing play or from some popular chronicle or romance.' (Staunton.)

II. Two GENTLEMEN OF VERONA, Comedy (between 1585 and 1591). Some incidents are in Sidney's Arcadia, i. 6. The story of Proteus and Julia resembles that of Felix and Felismena, in the Diana of George de Montemayor (1520—62), translated by Bartholomew Yong, 1598.

III. MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, Comedy (1596—1601).—Various sources are given for the incidents.

IV. MEASURE FOR MEASURE, Comedy (1603).—Taken from George Whetstone's Historye of Promos and Cassandra, &c., 1578, borrowed in its turn from Giraldi Cinthio's Hecatommithi, Part ii., D. viii., N. v.

V. COMEDY OF ERRORS, Comedy (1589-1593).-The main incident is in Plautus' Menæchmi; but Shakespeare's play was possibly based on an English version entitled the Historie of Error, acted in 1576-77, by the children of Powles.'

VI. MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, Comedy (not written before 1598). The 'serious incidents' are taken, probably through some English version, from the twenty-second novel of Matteo Bandello (1480-1562).

VII. LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, Comedy (1587-1591).—Derived either from an Italian play or a French novel.

VIII. MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Comedy (1593-1598). — Theseus and Hippolyta come from North's Plutarch, 1579, Life of Theseus; Pyramus and Thisbe from Golding's Ovid, 1567.

IX. MERCHANT OF VENICE, Comedy (1594).—The fables of the bond and caskets are in the Gesta Romanorum, chaps. xlviii. and xcix.; the former is also in the Pecorone of Giovanni Fiorentino (circa 1378). But Shakespeare probably worked from an older

play. This, both on the stage and in the study, is one of the most popular of Shakespeare's Comedies. It has been edited for the Clarendon Press Series, by Messrs. Clark and Wright.

X. AS YOU LIKE IT, Comedy (1599).-Founded on Lodge's novel of Rosalynde, Euphues Golden Legacie, &c., 1590 (see p. 69, s. 43), which was derived from Chaucer's Coke's Tale of Gamelyn (see p. 244). XI. TAMING OF THE SHREW, Comedy (date of composition doubtful).—Based upon an earlier anonymous play, printed in 1594, entitled A Pleasant Conceited Historie, called the Taming of a Shrew. XII. ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL, Comedy (date of composition doubtful).—If it be the Love's Labour's Won, specified by Meres (see p. 64, s. 40), it should be placed before 1598.* The leading circumstances are in the Decameron, D. iii., N. ix; and in Paynter's Palace of Pleasure, 1566, Vol. i., Novel 38.

XIII. TWELFTH NIGHT; OR, WHAT YOU WILL, Comedy (between 1598 and 1602).-The 'serious incidents' are in Bandello, Part ii., Novel 36, translated by Barnabie Riche, 1581; and in the drama of Gl' Ingannati, 1537.

XIV. WINTER'S TALE, Comedy (composed before 1611).-Founded on Robert Greene's Pandosto; the Triumph of Time, or The History of Dorastus and Fawnia, 1588.

XV. KING JOHN, Hist. Drama (composed before 1598).—Probably worked up from an old piece called The Troublesome Raigne of John, King of England, 1591.

XVI. LIFE AND DEATH OF KING RICHARD THE SECOND, Hist. Drama (between 1593 and 1596).-Incidents taken from Holinshed. It has been edited for the Clarendon Press Series, by Messrs. Clark and Wright,

XVII. FIRST PART OF KING HENRY THE FOURTH, Hist. Drama (written before 1598).

XVIII. SECOND PART OF KING HENRY THE FOURTH, Hist. Drama (written before 1598).-Period occupied, from Hotspur's death, 1403, to accession of Henry IV., 1412-13.

XIX. KING HENRY THE FIFTH, Hist. Drama (perhaps, from the reference to Essex's expedition of 1599, written in that year).—Period occupied, from 1413 to Henry's marriage with Katharine of France,

1420.

*As Plautus' and Seneca are accounted the best for comedy and tragedy among the Latins, so Shakespeare among ye English is the most excellent in both kinds for the stage; for comedy witness his Getleme of Verona, his Errors, his Love Labor's Lost, his Love Labour's Wonne, his Midsummer's Night Dreame, and his Merchant of Venice; for tragedy, his Richard the II., Richard the III., Henry the IV., King John, Titus Andronicus, and his Romeo and Juliet.' Palladis Tamia, 1598.

XX. FIRST PART OF KING HENRY THE SIXTH, Hist. Drama. XXI. SECOND PART OF KING HENRY THE SIXTH, Hist. Drama. XXII. THIRD PART OF KING HENRY THE SIXTH, Hist. Drama. (The dates of this and the two preceding plays are doubtful.)

XXIII. KING RICHARD THE THIRD, Hist. Drama (composed before 1597).—Shakespeare's only authorities appear to have been the old chroniclers' (Staunton). The play ends with the death of King Richard at Bosworth, 1485.

XXIV. KING HENRY THE EIGHTH, Hist. Drama (date of production uncertain).— Frequently in Henry VIII. we have all but the very words of Holinshed' (Dyce).

XXV. TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, Tragedy (written before 1609).— Based upon Chaucer's Troylus and Criseyde (see p. 35, s. 17), Lydgate's Troy Book (see p. 41, s. 19), and Caxton's Recuyell of the Historyes of Troy.

XXVI. CORIOLANUS, Tragedy (perhaps written subsequently to 1605). Based on Life of Caius Martius Coriolanus, in North's Plutarch, 1579.

XXVII. TITUS ANDRONICUS, Tragedy (written before 1598).— The story is in Paynter's Palace of Pleasure, and there were plays on the subject.

XXVIII. ROMEO AND JULIET, Tragedy (written beween 1591 and 1597).-Based chiefly on Arthur Brooke's poem of the Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet, 1562, and Paynter's Palace of Pleasure, Vol. ii., Nov. 25. It was a popular Italian story.

XXIX. TIMON OF ATHENS, Tragedy (written circa 1610).—The story is in Paynter's Palace of Pleasure, Vol. i., Nov. 28, and in North's Plutarch. But Shakespeare probably re-cast some old dramatic form of it.

XXX. JULIUS CÆSAR, Tragedy (probably written before 1603).— Incidents in North's Plutarch, but there were other plays.

XXXI. MACBETH, Tragedy (probably written between 1604 and 1610). Based on Holinshed. It has been edited for the Clarendon Press Series, by Messrs. Clark and Wright.

XXXII. HAMLET, Tragedy (written before 1602).—The story of Hamlet is in the Historia Danica of Saxo Grammaticus (1150-1220), and Belleforest's collection of Novels, 1564. This last was translated under the title of the Hystorie of Hamblet. But there was probably an earlier play. Hamlet has been edited for the Clarendon Press Series, by Messrs. Clark and Wright.

XXXIII. KING LEAR, Tragedy (probably written after 1603).— The story may have been taken from the Myrroure for Magistrates