what remedy. v. iii. 132. unapt. v. iii. 134. mine own attorney. peevish. v. iii. 186. v. iii. 166. v. iv. 25. good my girl. drab. v. iv. 32. natural graces . art. v. iii. lenity. v. iv. 125. 192. v. iv. 65. Gallian. v. iv. 139. which is more. V. v. 16. v. iv. working of my thoughts. revolve and ruminate. event. V. v. 105. v. v. 86. V. V. IOI. A selection like the above might be easily varied or enlarged, and is bound to be unequal in conviction. I think, however, it will give the proper impression to any one familiar with "the tongue that Shakespeare spake." Having indicated sufficiently Shakespeare's work in the play, and Shakespeare's work on Greene's work or in company with Greene, or in the dressing of the latter for the stage-Greene having perhaps thrown up the task on account of the uncongenial limitations of historical facts-I propose to make a still further examination of the language in the play. Perhaps-nay, most probably-we have here Shakespeare's earliest dramatic effort excepting only his share in The First Part of the Contention. Whose writings, others than dramatists, display their influence upon his earliest utterances? There are only a few to mention here-but they are important since these few remained his favourites. Golding, in Ovid's Metamorphoses; Puttenham in The Arte of English Poesie; and Spenser's earliest work call for notice. Needless to say, the Chroniclers precede these in consideration so far as bulk and needful sources go, but they stand on a different and obvious footing, and will be referred to later. In my Introduction to Love's Labour's Lost, I have shown Puttenham's presence there. There is less here. In I. vi. 24-27 the passage seems to be almost an insertion. The metaphor is boldly seized upon. Puttenham's passage is (Arber reprint, pp. 31, 32): “In what price the noble poemes of Homer were holden with Alexander the Great, in so much as every night they were layd under his pillow, and by day were carried in the rich iewell cofer of Darius lately before vanquished by him in battaile." Plutarch and Pliny mention the coffer, but the wording in the text is Puttenham's. At p. 112 Puttenham gives some verse of his own: her Maiestie environs her people round, Retaining them by oth and liegeance. Her people like to heards of deere. This simile is that at IV. ii. 45, 46. There is more of Puttenham in the late parts. A more interesting and important writer is Golding. Spenser and Peele, Marlowe and Shakespeare were all familiar with, and made use of, his Ovid. In The Return from Parnassus, "Will Kemp" says: "Few of the University pen plays well they smell too much of that writer Ovid, and that writer Metamorphosis, and talk too much of Proserpina and Jupiter." A good many illustrations from "Master Arthur Golding" will be found in my notes, but many are merely earlier authority for newish or unfamiliar words. I will only refer to "more glorious star Than Julius Cæsar," I. i. 55, 56; "public weal," I. i. 177; "overpeer," I. iv. II; "sun with one eye," I. iv. 84; "high-minded,” I. v. 12; “lavish tongue," II. v. 47; “saucy," III. i. 45; "entertalk," III. i. 63; "sucking babe," III. i. 197; “do execution on," III. ii. 35; "take scorn," IV. iv. 35; "Unavoided," IV. v. 8; "lither," IV. vii. 21; "admonish me of," v. iii, 3-4; "talks at random," v. iii. 85; "collop of my flesh," V. iv. 18. Shakespeare's early love for Golding is, I think, proved. It is very prominent in some later plays (as Midsummer Night's Dream). Spenser's Shepheards Calender was published in 1579-1580. As early as 1580 Spenser was known to be at work at his Faerie Queene, of which the first three books appeared in print in 1590. But they were known to many in manuscript for years before. Marlowe, for example, uses the stanza about the almond on the top of Selinis in 1586-7, in Tamburlaine. And Spenser himself tells us that his Mother Hubberd's Tale had been "long sithens composed," although not printed until 1591, and further that he was "moved to set it forth by others which liked the same." It will be interesting to see if Shakespeare fixed much of this matter on his memory. The notes to be referred to are selected as follows: Аст I. 1. i. 11-13. Compare with Faerie Queene, 1. xi. 14-18: “His blazing eyes, like two bright shining shieldes, Did burne with wrath and sparkled living fyre. As two broad Beacons . . warning give that So flamed his eyne with rage and rancorous yre. enemies conspyre.. Then with his waving wings displayed wyde." 1. i. 64. burst his lead and rise from death. Compare with Shepheards Calender. June: "Nowe dead he is and lyeth wrapt in lead." And idem. October: "all the worthies liggen wrapt in leade." 1. i. 104. laments . . . bedew King Henry's hearse. Compare Faerie Queene, 1. xii. 16: "they did lament . . . And all the while salt teares bedeawd the hearers cheaks." 1. i. 124. Here, there, and everywhere enrag'd he flew. Compare Faerie Queene, III. i. 66: "Wherewith enrag'd she fiercely at them flew. . . . Here, there, and everywhere, about her swayd Her wrathful steele." 1. ii. 16. in fretting spend his gall. Compare Faerie Queene, 1. ii. 6: "did his stout heart eat And wast his inward gall with deepe despight." And ibid. III. x. 18: “he chawd the cud of inward griefe And did consume his gall with anguish sore." 1. ii. 35. lean raw-boned rascals. Compare Faerie Queene, 1. viii. 41 : "His rawbone armes." And "His raw-bone cheekes," ibid. 1. ix. 35. The word seems to be due to Spenser. 1. ii. 148. and be immortalized. Compare Faerie Queene, II. viii. 13: "Whose living handes immortalizd his name." 1. iii. 14. dunghill grooms. Compare Faerie Queene, III. x. 15: “his liefest pelfe. Queene, 11. xii. 87. 52: The dearest to his dounghill minde.” And see Faerie I. iii. 22. Faint-hearted Woodville. Compare Faerie Queene, 1. ix. 66 I. iii. 63. One that still motions war and never peace. Compare scarecrow that affrights our children. See note at 11. i. 79. ACT II. nut from Spencer but from II. i. 79. The cry of Talbot serves me for a sword. . Compare Spenser, Shepheards Calender, June, Glosse: "the Frenchmen used to say of t that valiant captain, the very scourge of Fraunce, the Lorde Thalbot great armies were defaicted and put to flyght at the onely hearing of hys name. In somuch that the French women to affray theyr chyl ... dren would tell them that the Talbot commeth." ... II. ii. 2. night . . . whose pitchy mantle. Compare Faerie Queene, 1. V. 20: "Where griesly Night . . . in a foule blacke pitchy mantle clad.” II. ii. 18. our bloody massacre. Compare Faerie Queene, III. xi. 29: "the huge massacres which he wrought." II. iii. 15-17. scourge of France last extract from Shepheards Calender. mothers still their babes. See II. IV. 92. stand'st not thou attainted (disgraced). Compare Faerie Queene, I. vii. 34: "Phoebus golden face it did attaint." II. IV. 127. to death and deadly night. Compare Faerie Queene, II. "withhold this deadly howre." iii. 34: ACT III. III. 11. 64. I speak not to that railing Hecătě. Compare Faerie Queene, I. i. 43: "And threatned unto him the dreaded name Of Hecătě: whereat he gan to quake." (Also in Golding.) III. 11. 127. some expert officers. Faerie Queene, 1. 1x. 4: "In warlike feates th' expertest man alive." III. iii. 18. sugar'd words. Compare Faerie Queene, III. vi. 25: "Sugred words and gentle blandishment." But this is far older. III. iii. 29. sound of drum. Compare Faerie Queene, 1. ix. 41: "at sound of morning droome." III. iii. 34. lag behind. Compare Faerie Queene, 1. i. 6: Behind her farre away a Dwarfe did lag." III. iv. 33. The envious barking of your saucy tongue. Shepheards Calender, lines to his Book: "And if that envy bark at thee, As sure it will, for succoure flee, Under the shadow of his wing." ACT IV. IV. 1. 189. This shouldering of each other in the court. Compare Faerie Queene, 11. vii. 47 (describing the Court of Ambition): "some thought to raise themselves to high degree By riches and unrighteous reward: Some by close shouldring: some by flatterie.” IV. i. 185. rancorous spite. Faerie Queene, II. vii. 22: "rancorous Despight." IV. ii. 15. owl of death. Compare Faerie Queene, 1. v. 40: "The messenger of death, the ghastly owle." Golding calls the bird "the deathfull owle." IV. vii. 88. proud commanding spirit, and 1. ii. 138 “proud insulting ship" (see note). Compare Faerie Queene, 1. viii. 12: "proud presumptuous gate" (gait). And 1. ix. 12: "proud avenging boy" (Cupid). And 1. xii. 14: “proud luxurious pompe,” etc. IV. vii. 60. the great Alcides. Compare Faerie Queene, 1. vii. 17: great Alcides." Act v. shows few Spenserian parallels. But there is a certain number of phrases and idioms exhibited particularly in these plays apart from the rest of Shakespeare's work, which are best considered and illustrated with Spenser's help. I think I have shown that his writings had an influence on the writing of this play that cannot be ignored. prove that further. WELL I WOT. I propose to I take the expression "Well I Wot" to start with. It occurs in this play (IV. vi. 32) and three times in Part III. Elsewhere Shakespeare uses it in Richard II., Midsummer Night's Dream, and three times in Titus Andronicus. This expression has naturally been cited as evidence of Greene's work, since he was very fond of the tag. But it is only in his plays, I think, that is to say in his late work, and nowhere in his earlier prose. "Well I wot" is an old phrase, probably northern. It occurs many times in The Towneley Mysteries (circa 1460). In the first hundred pages (Surtees Soc. 1836) it is on pp. 4, 31, 62, 74, 82. At p. 62 "Full well I wot" (of Greene and Titus) is the form. In Grafton's Chronicle I find it in Richard II.'s deposition speech, and since Shakespeare has it in that play (v. vi. 18), that reference would suffice to put Greene out of court. But it is also in Peele's writings, four times in A Farewell to the General (1589), in Polyhymnia, and twice in Jack Straw; and Peele as well as Shakespeare (and |