Syne thai herd, that Makbeth aye In fantown Fretis had gret Fay, And trowth had in swylk Fantasy, Be that he trowyd stedfastly, Nevyre dyscumfyt for to be, Qwhill wyth his Eyne he suld se The Wode browcht of Brynnane To the hill of Dwnsynane. Of that Wode thare ilka man This Makbeth for til begyle. Of this quhen he had sene that sycht, He wes rycht wa, aud tuk the flycht: And owre the Mownth thai chast hym than Tyl the Wode of Lunfanan. This Makduff wes thare mast felle, Makbeth turnyd hym agayne, And sayd, Lurdane, thow prykys in wayne, For thow may noucht be he, I trowe, That to dede sall sla me nowe. borne ; Bot of my Modyre Wame wes schorne. Now sall thi Tresowne here tak end; For to thi Fadyre I sall the send." Til Kynkardyn, quhare the Kyng yng. Of that slawchter ar thire wers Rex Macabeda decem Scotie sep- In cujus regno fertile tempus erat : Hunc in Lunfanan truncavit morte crudeli Duncani natus, nomine Malcolimus." 1 This appears to be historic truth. But Boyse thought it did not make so good a story as that Macbeth should be slain by Macduff, whom he therefore works up to a proper temper of revenge, by previously sending Macbeth to murder his wife and children. All this has a very fine effect in romance, or upon the stage.-MACPHERSON. XVII. AS YOU LIKE IT. "Rosalynde, Euphues Golden Legacie, found after his death in his cell at Silexedra. Bequeathed to Philautus sonnes nursed up with their father in England." London, 1598, 4to. This is the title of the semichivalrous pastoral whence Shakespeare's play above-named was taken. According to Eschenberg and Dunlop, the book was first printed in 1590.1 The author's name was Thomas Lodge, and he was an imitator of John Lily, who, by his romances of "Euphues," "Euphues and his England," "Euphues and his Ephæbus," &c., and his nine court comedies, had given the taste of his time the impress of pedantic quibbling, and provided the ladies of Queen Elizabeth's court, for twenty years, with choice similes from the Grecian Mythology, and fabulous stories of the powers of stones and herbs. This stilo culto, as it is named by Tieck, founded chiefly by Lily, ornamented, and dealing to extravagance in antithesis, a knowledge of which is indispensable to the understanding of Shakespeare and his contemporaries, is found in its harshest form in this little romance of Thomas Lodge; who gave himself out for an imitator of Lily, inasmuch as he feigned, in the introduction, that this Euphues, John Lily's hero, left behind him this romance as a legacy to the sons of his friend Philautus. Robert Greene also, in his tale of "Dorastus and Faunia,” which we have given as the source of the "Winter's Tale," was, according to Dunlop, an imitator of Lily, though his tale shows more taste. Tieck understands the title of the play "As You Like It," 1 No perfect copy of this edition appears to be known. Mr. Collier, in his Shakespeare's Library, has used the impression of 1592.-ED. as an answer to a gasconade of Ben Jonson's, in his play of "Cynthia's Revels," where he makes the epilogue say, in allusion to Shakespeare's poem "I'll only speak what I have heard him say, By 'tis good, and if you like 't you may." But it is not easy to see wherein the wit of such an answer of Shakespeare consists, for the antithesis between "If You Like It" and "As You Like It" wants point. It seems probable to us that Shakespeare borrowed the title of this piece from the short address of Thomas Lodge to his readers with which the piece begins; for here he says "if you like it, so; and yes I will be yours in duty, if you be mine in favour." Probably Tieck never saw Lodge's romance, which is somewhat scarce, else he would at least have mentioned these words. The proffer which Adam Spencer makes to Rosader, to redeem his life with his own blood, does not occur in Shakespeare's play; but it does in the old play of "King Lear," (Tieck's "Old English Theatre," ii., 317) where Perillus makes it to Lear. Here it is clearly more in place than in "Rosalind.” If, as Tieck suspects, Shakespeare was the author of the older King Lear," and if this piece was represented before 1590, which is very probable, we might believe that Thomas Lodge had borrowed also on his part from Shakespeare, for this incident is not found in the source which Lodge followed. 66 Dr. Grey (notes on Shakespeare, i., 156 et seq.) and Upton have considered as the source of Shakespeare a metrical story written by a contemporary of Chaucer, "The Coke's tale of Gamelyn," which by some has been erroneously ascribed to this father of English poetry, as he is styled by Dunlop. It is, however, merely the original of Lodge's tale, though Shakespeare also may have known it. The chivalrous element in Lodge's pastoral romance is derived from this poem, which is probably a translation from the French. Here Sir John Boundis1 has three sons, John, Otis, and Gamelyn. After his death, Gamelyn is deprived of his inheritance by his eldest brother, and in every way oppressed. Among other things, he persuades him to try his strength with a very strong wrestler; in which contest, against all expectation, Gamelyn gains the victory. Here occurs the old peasant, who bears so heroically the death of his three sons. The rest coincides, as far as the flight of Rosader and Adam Spencer, who is here called Adam le Dispenser, with Lodge. In the wood they meet with a troop of banditti, with their leader at their head. By these Gamelyn is taken up, and as their leader is shortly afterwards restored to his honours and possessions, he is chosen king in his stead. The rest differs entirely. Gamelyn finds at last an opportunity to avenge himself on his brother. It is a thoroughly popular trait when Gamelyn out of envy is persuaded by his brother to the wrestling-match in which he conquers. So Reigin tempts Sigurd to the battle with the dragon Fafnir, whereby Sigurd gains the hoard (der Hort, a famous treasure), the knowledge of the speech of birds, and also, according to the German fable, the gift of invulnerability. Envy must always serve as the means for lending renown and lustre to the greatness of heroes. In that part of Lodge's story which he has added of his own invention, there is found nothing which belongs to popular fiction, unless we class therewith the terror of the lion at the sleeping Saladin; a trait borrowed from fabulous natural history, in which Lodge was deeply read. 1 In Lodge, only Sir John, but in Shakespeare, Rowland de Bois. This speaks in favour of the poet's knowledge of the old poem. ber. 2 In Lodge, only two, but Shakespeare has restored the original num XVIII., XIX. LOCRIN; LORD CROMWELL. The conclusion of our collection contains the sources of two pieces, the attribution of which to Shakespeare is doubtful. The investigation of the genuineness of these plays, lately maintained again by Tieck, does not belong to this place. The first has been translated in the "Old English Theatre,” by Tieck, and Eschenburg has given an abstract of the second. As for the source of "Locrine," we do not in this instance agree with Görres, who, in the introduction to Lohengrin (p. xlvi.), ascribes to the Chronicle of Geoffrey of Monmouth (written between 1128-1138) certainly more credibility and historic fictional value than it really has, especially in its earlier part. The descent of the Britons from the Trojans, which Görres defends, seems to us merely an arbitrary invention of Monmouth's, not resting even upon a tradition. For the rest, his Chronicle really contains many genuine fictions and popular tales, which, however, Geoffrey first interwove in the mythic early history of Britain, chiefly invented by himself. The insertion of the novel of Bandello may probably be considered as a departure from the plan of our work, whence the historical plays of Shakespeare must necessarily be excluded. But this piece can be only improperly classed among the historical. We will here present the reader with some notices of the non-historical pieces of our author, of which the sources are not found in our collection. The " Tempest" is hardly founded upon a novella, but, as |