PUBLISHED BY E. HARDING, NO. 98% PALL-MALL; 1798. RK. A Few of the incidents in this comedy might have been taken from fome old tranflation of Il Pecorone by Giovanni Fiorentino. I have lately met with the fame ftory in a very contemptible performance, intitled. The fortunate, the deceived, and the unfortu nate Lovers. Of this book, as I am told, there are several impreffions; but that in which I read it, was published in 1632, quarto. A fomewhat fimilar story occurs in Piacevoli Notti di Straparola, Nott. 4. Fav. 4. This comedy was firft entered at Stationers' Hall, Jan. 18, 1601, by John Bufby. STEVENS. A paffage in the firft fketch of The Merry Wives of Windfor fhews, I think, that it ought 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 laft act, Falstaff says: "Herne the hunter, quoth you? am I a ghoft? "'Sblood, the fairies hath made a ghoft of me. "I'le lay my life the mad prince of Wales "Is ftealing his father's deare." and in this play, as it now appears, Mr. Page discountenances the addreffes of Fenton to his daughter, because " he keeps company with the wild prince, and with Poins." The Fiwife's Tale of Brainford in WESTWARD FOR SMELTS, a book which Shakspeare appears to have read, (having borrowed from it part of the fable of Cymbeline,) probably led him to lay the fcene of Falftaff's love-adventures at Windfor. It begins thus: "In Windfor not long agoe dwelt a fumpterman, who had to wife a very faire but wanton creature, over whom, not without caufe, he was something jealous; yet had he never any proof of her inconftancy. MALONE. The adventures of Falstaff in this play feem to have been taken from the ftory of The Lovers of Pifa, in an old piece called "Tarleton's Newes out of Purgatarie.' M Warton obferves, in a note to the laft Oxford edition, that the play was probably not written, as we now have it, before 1607, at the earheft...agree with my very ingenious friend in this fuppofition, but yel the argument here produced for it may not be conclufive. Slender obferves to mafter Page, that his greyhound was outrun in Lofile: Corfold-Hills in Gloucefter fbire]; and Mr. Warten thinks, that the games eftablished 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 Dubrenfia as the founder of them, he might be the reviver only, or fome way contribute to make them more famous; for in The fecond Part of Henry IV. 1600, Juftice Shallow reckons among the Swinge-bucklers Will Squeele, a Cotjole man." In In the first edition of the imperfect play, fir Hugh Evans is called on the title page, the Welsh Knight; and yet there are fome perfous who ftill affect to believe, that all our author's plays were originally published by himself. FARMER. Dr. Farmer's opinion is well fupported 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 Cotfold, in Gloucefterfire, are mentioned in K. Richard II. A& II. fc. iii. and by Drayton, in his Polyolbion, fong 14. STEEVENS, Queen Elizabeth was fo well pleased with the admirable character of Falstaff in The Two Parts of Henry IV. that, as Mr. Rowe informs us, fhe commanded Shakspeare to continue it for one play more, and to fhew him in love. To this command we owe The Merry Wives of Windfor; which. Mr. Gildon says, [Remarks on Shakfpeare'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 feen, printed in 1602, fays, in the title-page,-As it bath been divers times acted before her majefly, and elsewhere. This, which we have here, was altered and improved by the author almoft in every fpeech. POPE. THEOBALD. Mr. Gildon has likewife told us, "that our author's house at Stratford bordered on the Church-yard, and that he wrote the fcene of the Ghoft 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 circumftance was first mentioned by Mr. Dennis. "This comedy," fays he, in his Epistle Dedicatory to The Comical Gallant, (an alteration of the prefent play,) 1702, was written at her [Queen Elizabeth's] command, and by her direction, and fhe was fo eager to fee it acted, that fhe commanded it to be finished in fourteen days; and was afterwards, as tradition tells us, very well pleafed at the reprefentation." The information, it is probable, came originally from Dryden,. who from his intimacy with Sir William Davenant, had an opportunity of learn ing many particulars concerning our author. At what period Shakspeare new-modelled The Merry Wives of Windfor is unknown. I believe it was enlarged in 1603. See fome conjectures on the fubject, in the Attempt to assertuin the order of bis plays. MALONE. It is not generally known, that the fir edition of The Merry Wives of Windfor, in its prefent ftate, is in the valuable folio, printed 1623, from whence the quarto of the fame play, dated 1630, was evidently copied. The two earlier quartos, 1602, and 1619, only exhibit this comedy as it was originally written, and are fo far curious, as they contain Shakspeare's first conceptions in forming a drama, which is the most complete fpecimen of his comick powers. T. WARTON. 1 WILLIAM PAGE, a boy, fon to MR. PAGE. DR. CAIUS, a French physician. Hoft of the Garter Inn. BARDOLPH, PISTOL, NYM, followers of FALSTAFF. ROBIN, page to FALSTAFF. SIMPLE, fervant to SLENDER. • RUGBY, fervant to DR. CAIUS. MRS. FORD. MRS PAGE MRS: ANNE PAGE, her daughter, in love with FENTON. Servants to PAGE, FORD, &c. SCENE. WINDSOR; and the parts adjacent. |