the opinion of old time, when the story sets forth wisdom as an acuteness of the senses; as, indeed, our German word for mental acuteness has its origin in this physical conception. Thus the seven wise masters, to convince themselves whether their pupil, Diocletianus, had learned any thing in his seven years' instruction, lay an ivy leaf under each foot of his bed; and when he wakes, he looks with astonishment at the coverlet, and cries-" Either the roof of the chamber has sunk during the night, or the earth has risen." Of this kind are the proofs of wisdom which Hamlet gives to the King of England, finding fault with his food for a circumstance which, on examination, is found to be the truth. In the story of the two connoisseurs in wine, to this day a popular jest, one maintains that the wine tastes of iron; the other, of leather: on examination, a key is found at the bottom of the vessel, tied to a leathern thong. When Amleth finally suspects the purity of the King's descent, and notes also servile manners in the queen (manners betraying a menial 1 This story is very amusingly told in the early English metrical version of the Seven Wise Masters: "The child yede to bedde anight, Hise maistres askede what him was. Other the firmament is i-sonke, Other wexen is the grounde The thickness of four leves rounde; Certes, thanne yisterdai." " I quote from Weber's edition, Met. Rom., iii., 10, 11. Mr. Wright has edited an early version for the Percy Society, accompanied with an interesting introduction on the sources of the tales.-ED. Ꭰ origin) popular story again offers many analogies. For example, in the German Popular Stories, (Grimm, ii., 127) the supposititious princesses are discovered by their menial discourse (cf. iii., 220). In an old Walloon story, (Alt: Wälder, i., 69) the shape of an amputated finger betrays the coarse labour of the waiting-maid, who has been substituted for a King's daughter; and in the Volsunga Saga, ch. 21, when Queen Hiordys, Sigurd's mother, has changed clothes with her waiting-maid, King Alf asks them the question, "How do you women know when day is breaking, and night passing away, when there is no star in the sky?" The serving-maid answered, "In my youth, I was wont to drink mead in the early morning, and since I ran away from my home, we wake early for that cause, and that is my token." The King smiles, and says, "That is an evil custom for a King's daughter." When the same question was addressed to Hiordys, she replied " My father gave me a little gold ring, with the property of growing cold on my finger in the early morning; and that is my token at night." Alf knows now how matters stand, and marries Hiordys. In the Cento Novelle antichi, ed. Manni, a sage recognises that a horse has been suckled with asses' milk; that a jewel has a worm in it; and that the King is the son of a baker: an examination of the first two points shows the justice of the conjecture; and at last the mother of the King confesses the truth of the last assertion. Though the further course of the story shows that the sage discovered all this more by observation and reasoning than by corporeal perception, still there remains a striking resemblance to Amleth's proofs of wisdom. The story, also, of the King and his son, in the Arabian Nights, (xv., 28, 3rd night of the Vizier) coincides with this in all its features. In the second part of the story of Amleth, the action is reversed, and Amleth himself becomes the object of vengeance. We confine ourselves here to the part which may serve for a comparison with Shake speare. The writer has kept as closely as possible to the original,' not even omitting the repetitions in the speech of Hamlet, by which, perhaps, Saxo meant to express the youth's irrepressible desire of vengeance, and that long stifled rage which, when once allowed to break out, can no longer govern itself. It may not be uninteresting to remark how the ancient naïre tale looks under the treatment of a writer of the middle ages, who prided himself no little on his acquired classical cultivation and learning. It is known that Göthe had formed the purpose of treating the story of Amleth freely from SaxoGrammaticus; and certainly the tale is capable and deserving of a treatment differing from that which it could receive from Shakespeare, whose higher purposes justified him in taking that part only which he could make subservient to them. 1 M. Simrock here refers to the collection of Echtermeyer, who has translated the story of Saxo-Grammaticus into German. Quellen des Shakspeare, 1831, i., 67.—Ed. 2 Mr. Collier, (Hist. Dram. Poet., iii., 210) notices some slight similarities between Kyd's "Spanish Tragedy" and Shakespeare's tragedy of Hamlet; but I do not know how far this circumstance may have led to the random conjecture that Kyd was the author of the "old Hamlet," always supposing there was such a play; for Mr. Knight thinks it likely Shakespeare was the only writer who dramatised the tale. In Kyd's play, says Mr. Collier, "the old father is always meditating the punishment of the guilty, and always postponing the execution of his project; so that, in this respect, his character in some degree resembles that of Hamlet the insertion of a play within a play gives the whole tragedy a still greater appearance of similarity to that of Shakespeare." Perhaps a discovery will some day be made which may tend to elucidate this subject.-ED. III MEASURE FOR MEASURE. Giraldi Cinthio's Hecatommithi ovvero cento novelle, &c., appeared first in 1565 at Monteregale, in Sicily, 2 parts, 8vo., and in a more complete form in 1566, at Venice, in one volume, 4to. In this edition, as well as in that which appeared at Venice in 1593, in two quarto volumes, the Shakesperian tale is the fifth of the eighth decade which treats of Ingratitude. Giraldi himself has brought the substance of it upon the stage, under the name Epitia; and the sources of all his dramatic works, consisting of six tragedies, may be found in his Hecatommithi. It is uncertain whether Shakespeare had seen the story of Cinthio; but we have no grounds for denying it, unless we recur to the opinion that he was ignorant of the Italian language. It is, however, certain that, if he was not acquainted with Italian, the substance of the tale was accessible to him through the twofold labours of Whetstone. This author published, in 1582, a collection of stories under the title of Heptameron, in which he included a translation of this story of Cinthio; but he had also treated the same matter dramatically four years earlier. This piece, noticed in the "Six old plays on which Shakespeare founded," The first edition is very 'And again at Venice, 2 parts, 4to., 1584. rare; there is a copy in the Bodleian Library. the play of Promos and Cassandra, founded by Whetstone on Cinthio's novel, and Mr. Collier has judiciously included the prose tale from the Heptameron, 1582, in his Shakespeare's Library, vol. ii. Both these sources being thus so readily accessible, I have not thought it requisite to add much annotation to this chapter.-ED. Published by J. Nichols, at the suggestion of Steevens, in 1779. The play of "Promos and Cassandra" should be consulted by the reader, as &c., bears the title, "The right excellent and famous Historye of Promos and Cassandra, divided into commical discourses. In the fyrste parte is showne the unsufferable abuse of a lewde Magistrate, the vertuous behaviours of a chaste ladye, the uncontrowled leawdenes of a favoured curtisan, and the undeserved estimation of a pernicious parasyte. In the second parte is discoursed the perfect magnanimitye of a noble Kinge, in checking vice and favouringe vertue, wherein is showne the ruyne and overthrowe of dishonest practises, and the advauncement of upright dealing.” Slight as the value of this piece may be, we find in it the deviation from Cinthio's novel which Shakespeare adoptedthat Vieo, whom Whetstone makes Andrugio, and Shakespeare Claudio, is not in reality put to death, though the governor has given his order for it. In other respects, however, Whetstone does not differ essentially from Cinthio; so that the many excellent alterations which are met with in Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure" are solely due to the poet's invention. Amongst these we include the deciding circumstance that the Duke of Vienna (in the story, the Emperor Maximilian) is always present, disguised as a monk, and leads the whole action, undiscovered, to a happy termination. The introduction of the betrothed of Angelo, who keeps the promise given by Isabella in her place, and thenceforward plays the part of Epitia in the tale, while Isabella preserves her chastity, and is married to the Duke, is another in all probability the immediate source of Shakespeare's play. It is dedicated to Fleetwood, the Recorder of London, in an address which deserves a careful perusal. Speaking of plays, he says "The Englishman, in this quality, is most vain, indiscreet, and out of order: he first grounds his work on impossibilities, then in three hours runs he through the world, marries, gets children, makes children men, men to conquer kingdoms, murder monsters, and bringeth gods from heaven, and fetcheth devils from hell." He proceeds to say that all decorum is sacrificed to effect, and observes it was usual to bring clowns on the stage as com panions for kings.-ED. |