Shakespeare's library

Part I.— Vol. L Love's Labour's Lost

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.

THE COMEDY OF ERRORS.

ROMEO AND JULIET. KING RICHARD II.

HENRY IV. HENRY V.

TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA.

MERCHANT OF VEWICE. TWELFTH NIGHT.

VOL. I.

PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND COMPANY EDINBURGH AND LONDON gtyaftespeare's iifrrarp

A COLLECTION OF THE

PLAYS ROMANCES NOVELS POEMS AND HISTORIES

EMPLOYED BY

SHAKESPEARE

IN THE COMPOSITION OF HIS WORKS

SECOND EDITION

CAREFULLY REVISED AND GREATLY ENLARGED

VOLUME THE FIRST

LONDON

H

[MR COLLIER'S PREFACE TO THE EDITION OF 1844]

The following work supplies an important deficiency in our literature as regards Shakespeare : it brings into one view all that has been recovered of the 4 sources he employed, in various degrees, in the comrt position of such of his dramas as are not derived from ? Grecian, Roman, or English History, or were not ^ formed upon some earlier play. The romances, novels, f * and poems to which he resorted are scattered over ^ many volumes, some of them of the rarest occurrence, ^ existing only in our public libraries : these are in- * eluded in the ensuing pages. We have ventured to call the work " Shakespeare's Library," since our great dramatist, in all probability, must have possessed the books to which he was indebted, and some of which he applied so directly and minutely to his own purposes. Until now the ordinary reader of Shakespeare's plays has enjoyed very imperfect means of judging how far, and in what respects, our most original poet was obliged to others, and what he owed only to the exhaustless resources of his own mind. He' employed the materials supplied by some of his predecessors and contemporaries merely as a great vol. 1. ^ vi MR collier's preface.

painter uses what is called a lay-figure : he borrowed the position, but invested it himself with drapery, colour, character, and sentiment. He exceeded all art, by communicating to it life and action.

It is remarkable, after all that has been written and accumulated regarding Shakespeare during the last century and a half, that it should have been left to us, and to our time, to perform this undertaking, so necessary to the formation of a just estimate of his productions. An unsatisfactory attempt of the kind was made about a century ago, and the commentators have here and there furnished extracts from most of the pieces we have reprinted ; but those extracts afford no adequate opportunity of judging of the works as a whole.

The Editor has had time to do little more than to afford a general superintendence, and to prepare the introductory notices : the intelligent publisher, who has devoted so much time and study to Shakespearian literature, has often saved him the trouble of searching for materials in public and private depositories, and of collating the reprints with the originals. For this part of the task, therefore, Mr Rodd is responsible ; and in the performance of it he gladly, and thankfully, acknowledges the ready assistance he has received from the Rev. Dr Bandinel, of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, and from the Rev. Mr Smith, of Trinity College Library, Cambridge.

J. P. C

Kensington, July 14, 1843.

Preface

In his preface attached to the six foundation-plays, which he published in 1779 at tne suggestion of George Steevens, in two octavo volumes, Nichols puts the matter both neatly and happily where, in explaining the object in view, he states : —

" Their claim to be preserved is built on their having suggested such plans as his [Shakespeare's] superior genius and judgment enabled him to improve. A basket placed by accident over a weed, and covered with a tile, is recorded by Vitruvius as the origin of the Corinthian capital."

The facilitation of access, in a convenient form, to the materials and foundation-stories, which Shakespeare employed, in a greater or less degree, in the composition of his plays, cannot fail to be of utility and value, and the idea of such a literary undertaking occurred to Mr Collier thirty years ago, and was embodied by him in the publication so well known as " Shakespeare's Library."

" Shakespeare's Library " was, unfortunately, imperfect in its range, and not accurate in its texts. As regards its incompleteness, it may be suggested that,

VU1 PREFACE.

in Mr Collier's view, some of the matter which constitutes part of the present series was within reach of scholars in other shapes ; and so far as the texts are concerned, it is due to Mr Collier to say that he left the correction of the proofs to his publisher, who discharged the trust unmercifully ill. The collation of the old copies has proved a laborious, Jbut a productive, operation.

But, once for all, it is proper to guard the reader against the idea that " Shakespeare's Library " at all supersedes such publications as the Illustrations of Douce, and the New Illustrations of Hunter. It is a companion to those two admirable works, and should be consulted and read with them; for, in fact, it would be simply impracticable, if it were not also beside the object, to assemble together in the following sheets all the detached scraps and passages from books which shed an incidental light on places in the plays — that is, of course, the province of the Editors. I am only afraid that, by having admitted into the collection a few such items, either unknown or widely scattered, I have laid myself open to a charge of inconsistency and of want of a definite plan. But those who have worked, as I have, at these matters, know how hard it is to draw the line.

It is doubtful if I have not gone beyond my commission a little in admitting " The Northern Lord," a ballad containing the story of the bond, and the ballad of " Lear and his Three Daughters ;" but these weak productions, though in all likelihood never beheld by Shakespeare, and even (almost to a certainty)

PREFACE. IX

later than his day, originated in the popularity and celebrity of his contributions to the theatre, and so have for us an interest of a reflected kind.

To this division of the subject and inquiry belong, of course, the drolls of " Bottom the Weaver " and "The Bouncing Knight," formed out of particular scenes in the plays, as well as the altered versions of the plays in their entirety, which were introduced on the boards after the Restoration, and that singular example of a novel built upon a dramatic composition, " The Adventures of Pericles, Prince of Tyre," 1608, by the younger Wilkins, which has the special interest of preserving portions of the drama which were allowed to drop out of the old printed copy.

It has been thought that the ballad-poem of the " Cruel Uncle," of which the oldest edition extant (or known) is dated 1670, should be treated as a traditional popular transmission of the historical tragedy which has blackened the name of Richard III. It is the same story as the " Babes in the Wood." How long before 1670 it existed in print, we seem to have no present evidence. My friend Mr Furnivall urged me very strongly to include the shorter extracts from Holinshed, illustrating the Histories, but I have arrived at the conclusion that those prose parallels should rather find a place in an edition of the poet, where they would enjoy the advantage of immediate juxtaposition.

Another group of productions there is, which are apt to secure a certain share of our attention by reason of being analogues, or of being derivatives from a

X PREFACE.

common source, rather than as originals, to which the bard of Stratford was immediately under obligations. This remark applies perhaps especially to those Italian stories which we have printed hereinafter in connection with the " Merry Wives of Windsor," but of which no English renderings have so far come to light.

When Shakespeare first commenced his professional career as a playwright — probably as an improver and polisher of other men's labours — pitifully slender was the stock of material capable of being turned by him to practical account, and such as it was, it was raw. The poet saw himself surrounded by abundance of books, but could discern very little literature. In fact, until Shakespeare's sun rose above the horizon, no writer of first-rate original powers had appeared in England, save Spenser, since the death of the author of the " Canterbury Tales," though Scotland, in the long interval, had produced Dunbar, to whom, perhaps, we should add Lyndsay.

Great, however, as was the dearth of the real imaginative and poetical faculty, there neither had been, nor was, any lack of men of fair ability, whose literary efforts might supply hints, outlines, and sub-strata, not to mention here and there cleverly-managed incidents and well- conceived passages ; and of all these Shakespeare knew how to avail himself in the fullest measure, sifting the ore from the dross with the hand and eye of a true master. The process of transformation differed (with the circumstances) both in character and in degree. In one case, as in the early revision of the Henry VI. series, the great literary artist satisfied him-

PREFACE. XI

self with a few touches and a little patchwork ; while, in dealing with the stories of Hamlet and Lear, he took the widely different course of pulling the old fabrics to pieces, and rebuilding them up in a manner consonant with his own theories of human nature and dramatic art.

Shakespeare also found it possible to create out of such crude stuff as Greene's " Pandosto " and Lodge's " Rosalind " such masterpieces of structure and fancyas the " Winter's Tale " and "As You Like It." Much the same is to be said of his metamorphosis of "Romeo and Juliet/' where his only ostensible resource lay between Painter's dull tale and Broke's duller poem. Mr Collier has adduced testimony in favour of the supposition that the dramatist made considerable use of Broke ; for the rest, in the absence of better information, we are bound to conclude that he went to the novel almost exclusively.

Those interesting and eminently useful men, the early Italian novelists and story-tellers, produced an immense stock of workable and improvable matter, derived from middle-age apologues, actual adventures, and other sources, which (filtered for the most part through French strainers) found its way to English readers and students of and before Shakespeare's day; nor, in estimating that poet's ways and means, should it be forgotten that there was, ready to an author's hand, a certain proportion of what (from long naturalisation) might be fairly treated as native folk, fairy, and romantic lore, both in an oral and a printed shape, as it had come down, transmitted from age to age.

Xll PREFACE.

Mr Furnivall remarks to me, I think justly, in regard to such plays as " Love's Labour's Lost/' where the scantiness of materials is at first sight rather striking, that there being no plot or dramatic development, but the drama named (for instance) being a conversation-piece, consisting almost exclusively of dialogue and character, we are not to look for any distinct or specific model or precursor, but should regard such compositions as the product of the writer's personal experiences, gleaned from gossip and " many-tongued " report.

It has already been pointed out that in another of the Shakespeare series — the " Midsummer Night's Dream," for which we equally want any original, the Fairies constitute the prominent feature, and occupy the foreground; and although Plutarch's "Life of Theseus" has been reprinted as one of the Shakespeare Lives from North's book, it cannot be concealed that the dramatist made very little use of it, and indeed, for the general notion of the Greek hero and his spouse, is just as likely to have been indebted to the account of Theseus and Hippolita in the " Knight's Tale " of Chaucer, which likewise enters into our series, as the prototype of " The Two Noble Kinsmen." 1

As to the order in which the matter is here arranged, it has to be said, that it is, in the main, the order settled in Mr Furnivall's pamphlet. I have not entered into this question myself; and I agree with

1 "Fairy Tales, &c, illustrating Shakespeare/' 1875, Preface.

PREFACE, X1I1

the opinion lately expressed by Mr Halliwell, that it is one which continues, and will continue to be, surrounded by uncertainty, until some absolute evidence as to the chronological succession of the plays shall be discovered.

In preserving the original spelling, I have not so much followed my own convictions, as deferred to what I understand to be the wishes and convenience of those for whose use these volumes are intended, and who seem to regard a faithful representation of the old copies with greater favour, in a work of reference like the present, than a critical text with modernised orthography.

The re-edition now in the hands of the public of " Shakespeare's Library," as we must continue to call it, for the sake of identification, probably embraces ' within its limits all that will ever reach us in the shape of Shakespeare's sources of information — his debt, not a very heavy one, to other pens and other minds ; and the volumes will place us in a better position to form an estimate of the extent to which " our ever-living poet " evolved from his miraculous brain works which are a glory to England and English-speakingmen everywhere, exceeding a millionfold in worth the " Golden Legacy " of the dull and pedantic Euphues.

My best thanks are due, in the first place, to Mr Collier and Mr Halliwell, who, with their habitual liberality, accorded me leave to make whatever use I pleased of their Prefaces and Notes ; secondly, to Mr Furnivall and Mr Simpson, who supplied

XIV PREFACE,

me with a variety of useful suggestions in further amplification of a plan already amplified somewhat beyond my original design, and, again, to Mr Henry Huth, who confided to me, for the purposes of collation, several precious and all but unique books.

But I must not omit to record the obligations of an equally important character under which I have lain to Mr B. J. Jeffrey, of the Department of MSS. British Museum, whose scrupulous accuracy and superior intelligence render his services as a copyist or collater of exceptional value. Mr Jeffrey verified for me a large proportion of the texts introduced here, and the volumes owe to him the correction of innumerable errors in the former edition.

W. C. H.

Kensington, April 1875.

SYNTHETICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Love's Labour's Lost:

The Story of Charles, King of Navarre^ from Monstrelet.

Midsummer Night's Dream:

The Life of Theseus, from North's Plutarch.

Comedy of Errors:

i. Menoechmi, translated from Plautus, by W. W., 1595.

{Part II) 2. The Story of the Two Brothers of Avignon, [from

Goulart's Admirable and Memorable Histories ■,

Romeo and Juliet :

1. Romeus and Juliet, a poem by Arthur Broke, 1562.

2. Rhomeo andjulietta, from Painter's Palace of Plea-

Richard III. :

1. The True Tragedy of Richard III, 1594. (Part II)

XVI CONTENTS.

King John :

The Troublesome Reign of John, King of England, 1 591. {Part II.)

First Part of Henry IV. : Second Part of Henry IV.

Henry V. :

1. The Famous Victories of Henry V., 1598. (Part II.)

2, Agincourt, the English Bowmarfs Glory, a ballad.

Second Part of Henry VI. :

The First Part of the Contention between the Houses of York and Lancaster, 1 594. (Part II)

Third Part of Henrv VI. :

The True Tragedy of Richard, Duke of York, 1595, (Do.)

Two Gentlemen of Verona :

The Story of the Shepherdess Felismena, from the Diana of Montemayor, 1598.

Merchant of Venice:

1. The Adventures of Giannetto, from the Pecorone of

Ser Giovanni Fiorentino.

2. Of a Jew who would for his Debt have a Pound of

the Flesh of a Christian, from the Orator of Alex. Silvayn, Englished by L. P., 4 to , 1596.

3. The Story of the Choice of Three Caskets, from the

English Gesta Ro?nanorum (edit. Madden, pp.

238-43).

4. The Northern Lord, a ballad.

5. Gernutus, the Jew of Venice^ a ballad.

Twelfth Night :

History of Apollonius and Silla, by Barnaby Rich, 1581.

CONTENTS. XV11

As You Like It :

Merry Wives of Windsor :

1. The Story of Filenio Sisterna of Bologna, from Stra-

fiarola*

2. The Story of Bucciolo and Pietro Paulo, from the

Pecorone.

3. The Story of Lucius and Camzllus.

4. The Story of Nerino of Portugal.

5. The Tale of the Two Lovers of Pisa.

6. The Fishwife 's Tale of Brentford.

7. The First Sketch of the Play, 1602. (Part II)

Much Ado about Nothing :

1. The Story of Ariodanto and Genevra, from Haring-

ton's Ariosto, canto v.

2. The Story of S. Timbreo di Cardona, from Bandello,

parte prima, Nov, 22.

All's Well that Ends Well :

Giletta of Narbona, from Painter's Palace of Pleasure, 1566.

Measure for Measure ;

1. History of Promos and Cassandra, 1578, by George

Whetstone. (Part II)

2. The same, in prose, from Whetstone's Heptameron^

1582,

3. Similar stories from Goulart's Admirable and Me-

morable Histories, 1607 ; and from Giraldi Cinthio, Nov. 5, decad. 8.

Troilus and Cressida :

[It seems eminently probable that Shakespeare's play was indebted in some degree to an earlier one on