will thus be able to form an opinion of his own, if he disagrees with mine.

But, though I have gladly availed myself of information wherever it was to be found, I have been unable to make any use of Mr. Donnelly's 'Great Cryptogram.' I do not pretend there is no cryptogram in Shakespeare's Plays; but I am sure Mr. Donnelly errs in thinking he has discovered one.

In dealing with the subject I have chosen as my starting-point, Dr. Johnson's celebrated "Preface." I have selected it in preference to more modern criticisms, chiefly because, on it our common opinion was originally founded, but partly also because, in spite of some judicial errors and much want of scholarship, it displays a calm impartiality, which does not always characterize modern critics.

The following are the editions of the principal works consulted, and in many of the quotations from which I have ventured to modernize the old forms of spelling:

เ

I. Poetical Works of Samuel Daniel.'

1718.

1759.

II. Mallet's' Life of Bacon,' Mallet's Works.

III. 'Romeo and Juliet,' by De Vega (English). 1770.

IV. Nicholls' 'Six Plays.' 1779.

V. The Plays of William Shakspeare.' London, 1803.

N.B. To this edition is prefixed 'Rowe's Memoir

of Shakspeare,' and 'Dr. Johnson's Preface to the Plays,' 1765.

VI. Bacon's Works. 1819.

VII. Collier's 'History of English Dramatic Poetry,'

1831.

VIII. Dyce's 'Robert Greene.'

1831.

IX. Riddle's 'Illustrations of Aristotle from the Dramatic Works of Shakespeare.'

1832.

X. Wharton's History of English Poetry.' 1840. XI. Collier's 'Shakespeare's Library.' 1848.

XII. Dyce's 'Marlowe.'

XIII. 'The Philosophy of Shakespeare's Plays Unfolded,'

1850.

XV. Spedding's Life of Bacon.' 1861.

XVI. Hepworth Dixon's 'Personal History of Lord

XVII. 'The Authorship of Shakespeare,' by N. Holmes.

1866.

XVIII. Gifford's 'Ben Jonson.' 1870.

XIX. 'Chapman's Plays.' 1874.

XX. Shakespeare Society's Publications, viz :

Allusion Books, 1874—

Series II., 1874

Daniel's Romeo and Juliet.' Parallel: text

of first and second quartos.

XXI. 'Shakespeare's Poems.' 1878.

XXII. Halliwell Phillips's 'Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare.' 1886.

T. W. W.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER

I. State of English Literature when Shakespeare

appeared Classical Learning-Euphuism

-Tone of Thought-New Philosophy-

Poor Scholars

II. State of the Drama-'Gorboduc'-Drama-

tists of the Period

III. Shakespeare's Works-The Plays—Their Cha-

racteristics.

IV. Originalia Latina-Plautus-Terence-Livy

V. Originalia Græca-Eschylus-Sophocles-

Homer-Plutarch-Aristotle.

VI. Spanish Originals-I. The Moorish Drama,

and Othello.'-II. Drama of the Expul-

sion, and 'Merchant of Venice.'-III.

Drama of Lopez de Vega, and 'Romeo and

Juliet' and 'Much Ado about Nothing'.

Originals 'Midsummer Night's

Dream'-'Twelfth Night'

VII. Italian

-

PAGE

1

23

30

41

61

84

99

VIII. English Originals-Henry IV.,' 'Henry VI.,'

'Henry VIII.;' 'Richard III.;' 'King

John;' 'King Lear'

102

. 106

IX. The Original of Shakespeare's Dramatic Form

and Language