ftrange opinion obtained credit for half a century. He might with just as much propriety have supposed that our author wrote the old King Henry IV. and V. and The Hiftory of King Leir and bis three daughters, as that he wrote two plays on the fubject of Taming a Shrew, and two others on the ftory of King John.-The error prevailed for fuch a length of time, from the difficulty of meeting with the piece, which is fo extremely scarce, that I have never seen or heard of any copy exifting but one in the collection of Mr. Steevens, and another in my own: and one of our author's editors [Mr. Capell] fearched for it for thirty years in vain. Mr. Pope's copy is fuppofed to be irrecoverably loft.

I fufpect that the anonymous Taming of a Shrew was written about the year 1590, either by George Peele or Robert Greene. MALONE.

The following are the obfervations of Dr. Hurd on the Induction to this comedy. They are taken from his Notes on the Epifle to Auguftus: "The Induction, as Shakspeare calls it, to The Taming of the Shrew, deferves, for the excellence of its moral defign and beauty of execution, throughout, to be fet in a just light.

"This Prologue fets before us the picture of a poor drunken beggar, advanced, for a fhort feafon, into the proud rank of nobility. And the humour of the fcene is taken to confift in the furprize and aukward deportment of Sly, in this his ftrange and unwonted fituation. But the poet had a further defign, and more worthy his genius, than this farcical pleafantry. He would expofe, under cover of this mimic fiction, the truly ridiculous figure of men of rank and quality, when they employ their great advantages of place and fortune, to no better purposes, than the foft and felfish gratification of their own intemperate paffions: Of thofe, who take the mighty privilege of defcent and wealth to live in the freer indulgence of thofe pleasures, which the beggar as fully enjoys, and with infinitely more propriety and confiftency of character, than their lordships.

"To give a poignancy to his fatire, the poet makes a man of quality himself, juft returned from the chace, with all his mind intent upon his pleafures, contrive this metamorphofis of the beggar, in the way of fport and derifion only; not confidering, how feverely the jeft was going to turn upon himself. His first reflections, on feeing this brutal drunkard, are excellent :

• O! monftrous beaft! how like a fwine he lies! Grim death! how foul and loathfome is thy image!' "The offence is taken at human nature, degraded into beftiality; and at a state of ftupid infenfibility, the image of death. Nothing can be jufter, than this reprefentation. For thefe lordly fenfualifts have a very nice and faftidious abhorrence of fuch ignoble bru

tality. And what alarms their fears with the profpect of death, cannot choose but prefent a foul and loathfome image. It is, alfo, faid in perfect confiftency with the true Epicurean character, as given by thefe, who understood it beft, and which is, here, fuftained by this noble difciple. For, though thefe great mafters of wifdom made pleasure the fupreme good, yet, they were among the firft, as we are told, to cry out against the Afotos; meaning fuch grofs fenfualifts, " qui in menfam vomunt & qui de conviviis auferuntur, crudique poftridie fe rurfus ingurgitant." But as for the "mundos, elegantes, optumis cocis, piftoribus, pifcatu, aucupio, venatione, his omnibus exquifitis, vitantes cruditatem," these they complimented with the name of beatos and fapientes. [Cic. de Fin. lib. ii. 8.1

"And then, though their philofophy promifed an exemption from the terrors of death, yet the boafted exemption confifted only in a trick of keeping it out of the memory by continual diffipation; fo that when accident forced it upon them, they could not help, on all occafions, expreffing the moft dreadful apprehenfions, of it.

"However, this tranfient gloom is foon fucceeded by gayer profpects. My lord bethinks himself to raise a little diverfion out

of this adventure:

Sirs, I will practise on this drunken man :'

And, fo, propofes to have him conveyed to bed, and bleffed with all thofe regalements of coftly luxury, in which a selfish opulence is wont to find its fupreme happinefs.

"The project is carried into execution. And now the jeft begins. S, awakening from his drunken nap, calls out as ufual for a cup of ale. On which the lord, very characteristically, and (taking the poet's defign, as here explained) with infinite fatyr, replies:

O! that a mighty man of fuch defcent, Of fuch poffeffions, and fo high esteem, Should be infufed with fo foul a fpirit!" "And again, afterwards:

Oh! noble Lord, bethink thee of thy birth,

Call home thy ancient thoughts from banishment;
And banish hence thefe lowly abject themes.'

For, what is the recollection of this high defcent and large poffef fions to do for him? And, for the introduction of what better thoughts and nobler purposes, are thefe lowly abject themes to be discarded? Why the whole inventory of Patrician pleasures is

To apprehend it thoroughly, it may not be amifs to recollect what the fenfible Bruyere obferves on a like occafion. "Un Grand aime la Champagne, abhorre la Brie; il s'enyvre de meillieure vin, que l'homme de peuple: feule difference, que la crapule laiffe entre les conditions les plus difproportionées, entre le Seigneur, & l'Estoffer. [Tom. ii. p. 12.]

called over; and he hath his choice of whichfoever of them fuits beft with his lordship's improved palate. A long train of fervants ready at his beck: mufick, fuch as twenty caged nightingales do fing: couches, fofter and fweeter than the luftful bed of Semiramis: burning odours, and diftilled waters: floors beftrewed with carpets : the diverfions of barwks, bounds, and horfes: in fhort, all the objects of exquifite indulgence are prefented to him.

"But among thefe, one fpecies of refined enjoyment, which requires a tafte, above the coarfe breeding of abject commonalty, is chiefly infifted on. We had a hint, of what we were to expect, before:

Carry him gently to my fairest chamber,

And hang it round with all my wanton pictures.' Sc. ii. And what lord, in the luxury of his wishes, could feign to himself

a more delicious collection, than is here delineated?

2 Man. Doft thou love pictures? We will fetch thee ftraight

Adonis painted by a running brook;

And Cytherea all in fedges hid;

• Which seem to move and wanton with her breath,

⚫ Even as the waving fedges play with wind.

• Lord. We'll fhew thee Io, as the was a maid;

And how she was beguiled and furprized,

• As lively painted, as the deed was done.

3 Man. Or Daphne, roaming through a thorny wood;

Scratching her legs, that one fhall fwear, fhe bleeds: So workmanly the blood and tears are drawn.' Thefe pictures, it will be owned, are, all of them, well chofen.* But the fervants were not fo deep in the fecret, as their mafter. They dwell entirely on circumftantials. While his lordship, who had, probably, been trained in the chaft fchool of Titian, is for coming to the point more directly. There is a fine ridicule implied in this.

"After these incentives of picture, the charms of beauty itself are prefented, as the crowning privilege of his high station: • Thou haft a lady far more beautiful

⚫ Than any woman in this waning age.'

Sir Epicure Mammon, indeed, would have thought this an infipid collec tion; for he would have bis rooms,

"Fill'd with fuch pictures, as Tiberius took

"From Elephantis, and dull Aretine

"But coldly imitated." Alchemift, A& II. fc. ii.

But then Sir Epicure was one of the Afoti, before mentioned. In general, the fatiric intention of the poet in this collection of pictures may be further gathered from a fimilar ftroke in Randolph's Mufe's Looking-Glafs, where, to characterise the voluptuous, he makes him fay:

I would delight my fight

"With pictures of Diana and her nymphs
"Naked and bathing."

VOL. VI.

Oo

Here indeed the poet plainly forgets himself. The ftate, if not the enjoyment, of nobility, furely demanded a mistress, instead of a wife. All that can be faid in excufe of this indecorum, is, that he perhaps conceived, a fimple beggar, all unufed to the refinements of high life, would be too much fhocked, at fetting out, with a propofal, fo remote from all his former practices. Be it, as it will, beauty even in a wife, had fuch an effect on this mock Lord, that, quite melted and overcome by it, he yields himself at laft to the inchanting deception:

I fee, I hear, I fpeak;

I fmell fweet favours, and I feel foft things:

Upon my life, I am a Lord indeed.

The fatyr is fo ftrongly marked in this laft line, that one can no longer doubt of the writer's intention. If any should, let me further remind him that the poet, in this fiction, but makes his Lord play the fame game, in jeft, as the Sicilian tyrant acted, long ago, very feriously. The two cafes are fo fimilar, that fome readers may, perhaps, fufpect the poet of having taken the whole conceit from Tully. His defcription of this inftructive scenery is given in the following words:

"Vifne (inquit Dionyfius) & Damocle, quoniam te hæc vita delectat, ipfe eandem deguftare & fortunam experiri meam? Cum fe ille cupere dixiffet, conlocari juffit hominem in aurea lecto, ftrato pulcherrimo, textili ftragulo magnificis operibus piño: abacofque complures ornavit argento auroque caelato: hinc ad menfam eximia farma pueros delectos juffit confiftere, eofque nutum illius Intuentes diligenter miniftrare: aderant unguenta, coronae: incende bantur odores: menfæ conquifitiffimis epulis extruebantur." [Tufc. Difp. Lib. V. 21.]

It follows, that Damocles fell into the fweet delufion of Chriftephero Sly.

Fortunatus fibi Damocles videbatur."

"The event in these two dramas, was, indeed, different. For the philofopher took care to make the flatterer fenfible of his mistake; while the poet did not think fit to difabuse the beggar. But this was according to the defign of each. For, the former would show the mifery of regal luxury; the latter its vanity. The tyrant, therefore, is painted wretched. And his Lordship only a beggar in difguife.

"To conclude with our poet. The ftrong ridicule and decorum of this Induction make it appear, how impoffible it was for Shakfpeare, in his idleft hours, perhaps, when he was only revifing the trafh of others, not to leave fome ftrokes of the master behind him. But the morality of its purpofe fhould chiefly recommend For the whole was written with the best defign of expofing that monstrous Epicurean pofition, that the true enjoyment of life confifts in a delirium of fenfual pleasure. And this, in a way the

it to us.

most likely to work upon the great, by fhowing their pride, that it was fit only to constitute the fummum bonum of one

No better than a poor and loathfome beggar.' Sc. iii. "Nor let the poet be thought to have dealt too freely with his betters, in giving this reprefentation of nobility. He had the highest authority for what he did. For the great mafter of life himself gave no other of Divinity.

66

Ipfe pater veri Doctus Epicurus in arte
Juffit & hanc vitam dixit habere Deos."

Petron. c. 132. STEEVENS.

The circumftance on which the Induction to the anonymous play, as well as that to the prefent comedy, is founded, is related (as Langbaine has obferved) by Heuterus, Rerum, Burgund. Lib IV. The earliest English original of this ftory in profe that I have met with, is the following, which is found in Goulart's ADMIRABLE AND MEMORABLE HISTORIES, tranflated by E. Grimstone, quarto, 1607; but this tale (which Goulart tranflated from Heuterus) had undoubtedly appeared in English, in fome other shape, before 1594:

PHILIP called the good Duke of Bourgundy, in the memory of our ancestors, being at Bruxelles with his Court, and walking one night after fupper through the streets, accompanied with fome of his favorits, he found lying upon the ftones a certaine artifan that was very dronke, and that flept foundly. It pleafed the prince in this artifan to make trial of the vanity of our life, whereof he had before difcourfed with his familiar friends. He therefore caufed this fleeper to be taken up, and carried into his palace: he commands him to be layed in one of the richet beds; a riche night-cap to be given him; his foule fhirt to be taken off, and to have another put on him of fine Holland. When as this dronkard had digefted his wine, and began to awake, behold there comes about his bed Pages and Groomes of the Dukes chamber, who drawe the curteines, and make many courtefies, and, being bareheaded, aske him if it please him to rife, and what apparell it would please him to put on that day.They bring him rich apparell. This new Monfieur amazed at fuch courtefie, and doubting whether he dreampt or waked, fuffered himfelfe to be dreft, and led out of the chamber. There came noblemen which faluted him with all honour, and conduct him to the Maffe, where with great ceremonie they gave him the booke of the Gofpell, and the Pixe to kiffe, as they did ufually to the Duke. From the Maffe, they bring him backe unto the pallace; he wafhes his hands, and fittes downe at the table well furnished. After dinner, the great Chamberlaine commandes cardes to be brought, with a greate fumme of money. This Duke in imagination playes with the chiefe of the court. Then they carry him to walke in the gardein, and to hunt the