Montauban to be the name of a separate romance. He might as well have made La Damoiselle Plaisir-de-ma-vie and La Veuve re posée, the names of separate romances. All three are merely characters in the romance of Tirante le Blanc.-And so much for Dr. W.'s account of the origin and nature of romances of chivalry. Tyrwhitt. No future editor of Shakspeare will, I believe, readily consent to omit the dissertation here examined, though it certainly has no more relation to the play before us, than to any other of our author's dramas. Mr. Tyrwhitt's judicious observations upon it have given it a value which it certainly had not before; and I think, I may venture to foretell, that Dr. Warburton's futile performance, like the pismire which Martial tells us was accidentally incrusted with amber, will be ever preserved, for the sake of the admirable comment in which it is now enshrined. 66 quæ fuerat vitâ contempta manente, "Funeribus facta est nunc pretiosa suis." Malone. Aqui esta Don Quirieleyson, &c. Here, i. e. in the romance of Tirante el Blanco, is Don Quirieleyson, &c. MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. The story is taken from Ariosto, Orl. Fur. B. V. Pope. It is true, as Mr. Pope has observed, that somewhat resembling the story of this play is to he found in the fifth book of the Orlando Furioso. In Spenser's Faery Queen, B. II, c. iv, as remote an original may be traced. A novel, however, of Belleforest, copied from another of Bandello, seems to have furnished Shakspeare with his fable, as it approaches nearer in all its particulars to the play before us, than any other performance known to be extant. I have seen so many versions from this once popular collection, that I entertain no doubt but that a great majority of the tales it comprehends, have made their appearance in an English dress. Of that particular story which I have just mentioned, viz. the 18th history in the third volume, no translation has hitherto been met with. This play was entered at Stationers' Hall, Aug. 23, 1600. Steevens. Ariosto is continually quoted for the fable of Much ado about Nothing; but I suspect our poet to have been satisfied with the Geneura of Turberville. "The tale (says Harington) is a pretie comical matter, and hath bin written in English verse some few years past, learnedly and with good grace, by M. George Turbervil." Ariosto, fol. 1591, p. 39. Farmer. I suppose this comedy to have been written in 1600, in which year it was printed. See an Attempt to ascertain the Order of Shakspeare's Plays, Vol. I. Malone. |