I. i. 32. Gp. The Taming of A Shrew :

'Welcome to Athens, my beloved friend,

To Plato's school and Aristotle's walks.'

I. i. 42. If Biondello, thou wert'; the Collier MS. reads now were'; Dyce adopts this emendation.

I. i. 64. To comb your noddle with a three-legg'd stool'; an old expression occurring in Skelton's Merrie Tales. "Hys wife would divers times in

the weeke kimbe his head with a iii. footed stoole."

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I. i. 239. I, sir! ne'er a whit.' Rowe proposed 'Ay, sir, ne'er,' &c. ; Dyce, Ay, sir.-Ne'er.' It is difficult to determine whether I' is the personal pronoun, or stands, as is often the case, for ' Ay.'

I. i. 252-3. 'The presenters,' i.e. Sly and his attendants in the balcony above.

I. ii. 28. what he 'leges in Latin'; the Folios and Quarto leges,' an authorised form for alleges': Grumio, strange to say, though an Italian, mistakes Italian for Latin.

I. ii. 151-2. paper'

'them'; changed by Pope to 'papers': Mr Daniel considers 'paper' to be the note of the books,' and ' them' the books. II. i. 75-84. arranged as verse in the Folios and Quarto, first printed as prose by Pope.

II. i. 202. no such jade as you'; probably an error forno jade for such as you,' as conjectured by Hudson: many other less obvious emendations have been proposed, e.g. ' no such load as you, sir' (Singer), &c.

II. i. 207-9. buzzard' in this passage is a crux: its three senses are, I think, punned on by the speakers :-(i.) a simpleton (1. 207); (ii.) a mean hawk (ll. 208, 209); in the latter case Petruchio interprets it as (iii.) 'a buzzing insect,' hence you wasp' (1. 210.) Katharine's reply seems to mean :- that, in calling her a turtle, he has mistaken a hawk for a dove'; underlying this retort there may be a suggestion of the proverbial blind buzzard.'

II. i. 296.

morn'; cp. Troilus, I. iii. 229:

'Modest as morning when she coldly eyes
The youthful Phœbus.'

The Collier MS. has moone.'

II. i. 325. 'We will have rings and things,' probably a fragment of an old ballad. Collier quotes some lines bearing a very strong resemblance to these "from the recitation of an old lady". —a vague authority.

II. i. 377- 'Marseilles' road,' Folio 1 and Quarto, Marcellus'; the other Folios Marsellis'; the word is obviously trisyllabic; the apostrophe is not needed, cp. ' Venice gold,' ' Pisa walls' in the previous speech.

III. i. 4. Theobald proposed she is a shrew, but, wrangling pedant, this is';

evidently some words are lost, but it is useless to attempt the restoration of the line, as there is no evidence.

III. ii. 16. 'make friends, invite, and proclaim the banns'; so Folio 1 and Quarto; Folios 2 and 3 insert 'yes' before 'and.' The more noteworthy suggestions are:-" Make friends invite, yes" (Singer); "make friends invite guests" (Dyce); "make feasts, invite friends" (Dyce, ed. 2).

IV. i. 135. Where is the life that late I led'; a line of an old song, quoted also by Pistol; cp. 2 Henry IV., V. iii. 147. Similarly 'It was the friar of orders grey,' &c., is a bit of an old ballad, now lost.

IV. i. 203. to kill a wife with kindness,' a proverbial expression. Heywood's play, A Woman Killed with Kindness, was first produced in 1602.

IV. ii. 45. 'longeth'; the Folios and Quartos, correctly, ' longeth,' without apostrophe; to long' in the sense of to belong' is common in older English writings. Similarly 'pointed' in old eds., III. ii. 1.

IV. ii. 61. An ancient angel'; so the Folios and Quartos; Theobald suggested' engle' (a gull); other proposals have been ayeul, gentle, morsel, antick, &c., but no change is necessary. Cotgrave renders Angelot à la grosse escaille by "an old angell; and by metaphor, a fellow of the old, sound, honest and worthie stamp." IV. iii. 60. 6 ruffling treasure'; Pope changed ruffling' to rustling'; perhaps we should read 'russling' (for rustling'), Cp. Lear, II. iv. 304, where the Quarto reading is russel,' while the Folios have ruffle.' Mrs Quickly's rushling in silk and gold' (Merry Wives, II. ii. 68) seems to be an important piece of evidence in favour of rustling.' IV. iii. 90. Here's snip and nip and cut.' A reference to fashionable slashed sleeves. See illustration.

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IV. iv. 62. Cambio,' probably an error for Biondello,' as suggested by the Cambridge editors, and more satisfactory from a metrical point of view. Again, "the supposed Cambio was not acting as Baptista's servant, and moreover, had he been sent on such an errand, he would have flown on the wings of love' to perform it. We must suppose that Biondello apparently makes his exit, but Woolley, 1572, pre- really waits till the stage is clear for an interview served at Matlock with his disguised master."

Church.

་

V. i. 29. his father has come from Padua,' so the Folios and Quartos; various changes have been proposed, e.g. to Padua,' 'from Pisa,' &c., but the Pedant means that he has been staying at Padua.

ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL

Preface.

The First Editions. All's Well that Ends Well appeared for the first time in the First Folio. It is certain that no earlier edition existed; the play was mentioned in the Stationers' Register under Nov. 8th, 1623, among the plays not previously entered. The text of the first edition is corrupt in many places, and gives the impression of having been carelessly printed from an imperfectly revised copy. There is no record of the performance of All's Well that Ends Well during Shakespeare's lifetime; the earliest theatrical notices belong to the middle of the eighteenth century.

The Date of Composition. The remarkable incongruity of style characteristic of All's Well that Ends Well-the striking contrast of mature and early work-can only be accounted for by regarding the play as a recast of an earlier version of the comedy. Rhyming lines, the sonnet-like letters, the lyrical dialogues and speeches, remind the reader of such a play as Love's Labour's Lost. The following passages have not inaptly been described as boulders from the old strata embedded in the later deposits':-Act I. i. 226-239; I. iii. 133-141; II. i. 132-213; II. iii. 73-105, 127-146; III. iv. 4-17; IV. iii. 237-245; V. iii. 60-72, 322-337.

It seems very probable, almost certain, that the play is a revision of 'Love's Labours Wonne,' mentioned by Meres in his Palladis Tamia (1598). 'Love's Labours Wonne' has been variously identified by scholars with Much Ado about Nothing, The Taming of the Shrew, The Tempest. A strong case can, however, be made for the present play, and there is perhaps an allusion to the old title in Helena's words (V. iii. 311-312):—

'This is done;

Will you be mine, now you are doubly won?'

The play was probably originally a companion play to Love's Labour's Lost, and was written about the years 1590-92. It may well have

belonged to the group of early comedies. The story, divested of its tragic intensity, may perhaps link it to The Two Gentlemen of Verona; the original Helena may have been a twin-sister to the Helena' of A Midsummer Night's Dream; the diction and metre throughout may have resembled the passages to which attention has already been called.

There is no very definite evidence for the date of the revision of the play. The links which connect it with Hamlet are unmistakeable; the Countess's advice to Bertram anticipates Polonius's advice to Laertes; Helena's strength of will and clearness of purpose make her a sort of counterpart to Hamlet, as she herself says:

'Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie,

Which we ascribe to heaven; the fated sky
Gives us free scope, only doth backward pull
Our slow designs when we ourselves are dull,'
(I. i. 236-9).

Furthermore, the name Corambus' (IV. iii. 185) recalls the 'Corambis' of the First Quarto of Hamlet; similarly the name Escalus' is the name of the Governor in Measure for Measure. In the latter play, indeed, we have almost the same situation as in All's Well,—the honest intrigue of a betrothed to win an irresponsive lover. Finally, the undoing of the braggart Parolles recalls Falstaff's exposure in Henry IV., and Malvolio's humiliation in Twelfth Night. All things considered, the play, as we have it, may safely be dated, about 1602.'

The Source of the Plot. The story of Helena and Bertram was derived by Shakespeare from the Decameron through the medium of Paynter's translation in the Palace of Pleasure (1566). The Novels of the Third Day of the Decameron tell of those lovers who have overcome insuperable obstacles; they are, in fact, stories of 'Love's Labours Won,' and if Shakespeare had turned to the Italian, the original title Love's Labour's Won' may have been suggested by the words connecting the Novels of the Second and Third Days. The Ninth Novel of the Third Day narrates how 'Giletta, a physician's daughter of Narbon, healed the French King of a Fistula, for reward whereof she demanded Beltramo, Count of Rossiglione, to husband. The Count being married against his will, for despite fled to Florence and loved another. Giletta, his wife, by policy found means to be with her husband in place of his lover, and was begotten with child of two sons; which known to her husband, he received her again, and afterwards he lived in great honour and felicity.'

The following are among the most noteworthy of Shakespeare's variations from his original :—(i.) the whole interest of the story is centred

in the heroine-according to Coleridge, Shakespeare's 'loveliest creation'; to this character-study, all else in the play is subordinated; the poor Helena of All's Well, unlike the wealthy Giletta of the Novel, derives 6 no dignity or interest from place or circumstance,' and rests for all our sympathy and respect solely upon the truth and intensity of her affections; (ii.) the moral character of Bertram, the Beltramo of the novel, is darkened; his personal beauty and valour is emphasized; while (iii.) Shakespeare has embodied his evil genius in the character of the vile Parolles, of whom there is no hint in the original story; (iv.) similarly, generous old Lafeu, the Countess, like one of Titian's old ladies, reminding us still amid their wrinkles of that soul of beauty and sensibility which must have animated them when young'-the Steward, and the Clown, are entirely his own creations.

Duration of Action. The time of the play is eleven days, distributed over three months, arranged as follows by Mr Daniel (Trans, of New Shakespeare Soc., 1877-79):—

Day 1, Act I. i. Interval. Bertram's journey to Court. Day 2, Act I. ii. and iii. Interval. Helena's journey. Day 3, Act II. i. and ii. Interval. Cure of the King's malady. Day 4, Act II. iii., iv. and v. Interval. Helena's return to Rousillon. Bertram's journey to Florence. Day 5, Act III. i. and ii. Day 6, Act III. iii. and iv. Interval-some two months. Day 8, Act III. vi. and vii.; Act IV. i., ii. and iii. Interval. Bertram's return to Rousillon. Helena's return to Day 10, Act IV. v.; Act V. i. Day 11, Act V. ii. and iii.

Act III. v.
Act IV. iv.
Marseilles.

Day 7, Day 9,