* MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR.] A few of the incidents in this comedy might have been taken from an old tranflation 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 fomewhat similar story occurs in Piacevoli Notti di Straparola, Nott. 43. 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. JOHNSON. A paffage in the first sketch of The Merry Wives of Windfor 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, Falstaff fays: "Herne the hunter, quoth you? am I a ghost? and in this play, as it now appears, Mr. Page discountenances the addresses of Fenton to his daughter, 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 appears to have read, (having borrowed from it a part of the fable of Cymbeline,) probably led him to lay the scene of Falstaff's love adventures at Windfor. It begins thus : "In Windsor not long agoe dwelt a fumpterman, 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 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 feem 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 fort; and I am forry that it proved to be only pretenfion.' 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 fuppofition, but yet the argument here produced for it may not be conclufive. Slender observes to master Page; that his greyhound was out-run on Cotfale [Cotswold-Hills in Gloucestershire]; and Mr. Warton thinks, that the games, 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 fome 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 Cotfole 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 Affemblies 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. fc. iii. and by Drayton, in his Polyolbion, fong 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, the commanded Shakspeare to contiune it for one play more, and to shew hini in love. To this command we owe The Merry Wives of Windfor; which, Mr. Gildon says, [Remarks on Shakspeare's Plays, 8vo. 1710,] he was very well affured 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, fays, 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 on the Church-yard, and that he wrote the scene of the Ghost in Hamlet there." But neither for this, or the affertion that the play before us was written 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 fee it acted, that the 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 enlarged in 1603. See some conjectures on the subject in the Attempt to ascertain the Order of his Plays, Vol. II. MALONE. It is not generally known, that the first edition of The Merry Wives of Windsor, in its present state, is in the valuable folio, printed 1623, from whence the quarto of the same play, dated 1630, was evidently copied. The two earlier quartos, 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. William Page, a boy, fon to Mr. Page. Sir Hugh Evans, a Welch parfon. Dr. Caius, a French physician. Host of the Garter Inn. Mrs. Ford. Mrs. Page. Mrs. Anne Page, her daughter, in love with Fenton. Mrs. Quickly, fervant to Dr. Caius. Servants to Page, Ford, &c. SCENE, Windfor; and the parts adjacent. |