Part I
. Act V. 2.
186. _Tasso by Fairfax._ Edward Fairfax’s translation of _Jerusalem Delivered_ was published in 1600.
_Ariosto by Harrington._ Sir John Harington’s translation of _Orlando Furioso_ was published in 1591.
_Homer and Hesiod by Chapman._ A part of George Chapman’s translation of Homer’s _Iliad and Odyssey_ appeared in 1598 and the rest at various dates to 1615; _Hesiod_ in 1618.
_Virgil long before._ Possibly Gawin Douglas’s version of the _Æneid_ (1512–53) is in mind.
_Ovid soon after._ (?) Arthur Golding’s _Ovid_ (1565–75).
_North’s translation of Plutarch._ In 1579, by Sir Thomas North.
_Catiline and Sejanus._ Acted in 1611 and 1603 respectively.
_The satirist Aretine._ Pietro Aretino (1492–1557), the ‘Scourge of Princes.’ _Machiavel._ _The Arte of Warre_ and _The Florentine Historie_ appeared in English in 1560 and 1594 respectively.
_Castiglione._ Count Baldasare Castiglione’s _Il Cortegiano_, a Manual for Courtiers, was translated in 1561 by Sir Thomas Hoby.
_Ronsard._ Pierre de Ronsard (1524–85), ‘Prince of Poets.’
_Du Bartas._ Guillaume de Saluste Seigneur du Bartas (1544–1590), soldier, statesman and precursor of Milton as a writer on the theme of creation. His ‘Diuine Weekes and Workes’ were Englished in 1592 and later by ‘yt famous Philomusus,’ Joshua Sylvester (1563–1618). See Dr. Grosart’s edition of his works.
187. _Fortunate fields and groves, etc._ _Paradise Lost_, III. 568–70.
_Prospero’s Enchanted Island._ Modern editors give Eden’s _History of Travayle_, 1577, as the probable source of Setebos, etc.
_Right well I wote._ _The Faerie Queene_, Stanzas I.–III.
188. _Lear ... old ballad._ Or rather from Geoffrey of Monmouth’s _Historia Britonum_, c. 1130. The ballad of _King Leir_ (Percy’s _Reliques_) is probably of later date than Shakespeare.
_Othello ... Italian novel._ The Heccatommithi of Giraldi Cinthio. The work may have been known in England through a French translation.
_Those bodiless creations._ _Hamlet_, III. 4.
_Your face, my Thane._ _Macbeth_, I. 5.
_Tyrrel and Forrest._ In _King Richard III._
189. _Thick and slab._ _Macbeth_, IV. 1.
_Snatched a_ [wild and] _fearful joy_. Gray’s _Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College_.
_The great pestilence of Florence._ In 1348. The plague forms but the artificial framework of the tales; to escape it certain Florentines retire to a country house and, in its garden, they tell the tales that form the book.
_The course of true love never did run even_ [smooth.] _A Midsummer Night’s Dream_, I. 1.
_The age of chivalry._ ‘The age of chivalry is gone ... and the glory of Europe is extinguished for ever.’ Burke’s _Reflections on the French Revolution_. Select Works, ed. Payne, II. 89.
_The gentle Surrey._ Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (_c._ 1517–1547) whose Songs and Sonnets are in Tottel’s _Miscellany_ (1557).
_Sir John Suckling_, 1609–42. Besides writing _A ballad upon a wedding_ Sir John was the best player at bowls in the country and he ‘invented’ cribbage.
_Who prized black eyes._ _The Session of the Poets_, Ver. 20.
_Like strength reposing._ ‘’Tis might half slumbering on it own right arm.’
Keats’ _Sleep and Poetry_, 237.
190. _They heard the tumult._ Cowper’s _The Task_, IV. 99–100.
‘I behold The tumult and am still.’
_Fletcher’s Noble Kinsmen._ _The Two Noble Kinsmen_, 1634. Although Fletcher was certainly one of the two authors of the play, it is not known who was the other. Scenes have been attributed, with some probability, to Shakespeare.
_The Return from Parnassus._ 1606. See _post_, p. 280.
_It snowed of meat and drink._ _Canterbury Tales_, Prologue, 345.
_As Mr. Lamb observes._ Cf. _Specimens of English Dramatic Poets_, Lamb’s note attached to Marston’s _What you will_.
191. _In act and complement_ [compliment] _extern_. _Othello_, I. 1.
_Description of a madhouse._ In _The Honest Whore_,