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and she was so eager to see it acted, that she commanded it to be finished in fourteen days; and was afterwards, as tradition tells us, very well pleased at the representation." The plain statement of Dennis, "this comedy was written at her command," was amplified by Rowe into the circumstantial relation that Elizabeth was so well pleased with the character of Falstaff in Henry IV. "that she commanded him to continue it for one play more, and to show him in love. Hence all the attempts, which have only resulted in confusion worse confounaea, to connect The Merry Wives of Windsor with Henry IV. We have stated this question fully, and, we hope, impartially, in the Introductory Notice to The Merry Wives of Windsor. Let us give one corroboration of the belief there expressed, that the comedy was written in 1593, or very near to that time; tne circumstance itself being somewhat of a proof that Shakspere was at Windsor precisely at that period, and ready to obey the Queen's command that a comedy suggested by herself should "be finished in fourteen days."

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Ben Jonson and he [Shakspere] did gather humours of men daily wherever they came." So writes honest Aubrey. "The humour of the constable,” which Shakspere, according to the same authority, "happened to take at Grendon in Bucks, which is on the road from London to Stratford," may find a paralle. in mine host of the Garter of The Merry Wives of Windsor. We have little doubt that the character was a portrait of a man well known to the courtiers, and whose good-natured bustling importance was drawn out by the poet as he passed many a cheerful evening of the winter of 1593 around his sea-coal fire. We have shown that in all likelihood the "perplexity" of the host when he lost his horses was a real event. Let us quote the cause of this perplexity from the original sketch of The Merry Wives, as published in 1602. The unfortunate host, who when he is told "Here be three gentlemen come from the Duke, the stranger, sir, would have your horse," exclaims with wondrous glee "They shall have my horses, Bardolph, they must come off, I'll sauce them," is now "cozened." Sir Hugh, who has a spite against mine host, thus tells him the ill news: 'Where is mine Host of the Garter? Now, my Host, I would desire you, look you now, to have a care of your entertainments, for there is three sorts of cosen garmombles is cosen all the Host of Maidenhead and Readings." Dr. Caius has previously told him "Dere be a Garman Duke come to de Court has cosened all de host of Branford and Reading." We have pointed out that in 1592 a German Duke did visit Windsor; and that he had a kind of passport from Lord Howard addressed to all justices of peace, mayors, and bailiffs, expressing that it was her Majesty's pleasure "to see him furnished with post-horses in his travel to the sea-side, and there to seek up such shipping, he paying nothing for the same." We asked, was there any dispute about the ultimate payment for the Duke's horses for which he was to pay nothing? We have no doubt whatever that the author of The Merry Wives of Windsor literally rendered the tale of mine host's perplexity for the amusement of the Court. For who was the German Duke who visited Windsor in the autumn of 1592? "His Serene Highness the Right Honourable Prince and Lord Frederick Duke of Würtemburg and Teck, Count of Mümpelgart." The pass

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port of Lord Howard describes him as Count Mombeliard. And who are those who have rid away with the horses? "Three sorts of cosen garmombles." One device of the poets of that day for masking a real name under a fictitious was to invert the order of the syllables; thus, in the Shepherd's Calendar' Algrind stands for Archbishop Grindal, and Morel for Elmor, Bishop of London. In Lodge's Fig for Momus,' we also find Donroy for Matthew Roydon, and Ringde for Dering. Precisely according to this method Garmomble is MomblegarMumpelgart.* We think this is decisive as to the allusion; and that the allusion is decisive as to the date of the play. What would be a good joke when the Court was at Windsor in 1593, with the visit of the Duke fresh in the memory of the courtiers, would lose its point at a later period. Let us fix then the performance of The Merry Wives of Windsor at that period when Elizabeth remained five months in her castle, repressing her usual desire to progress from We are indebted for this suggestion to a correspondent to whom we offer our best thanks.

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county to county, or to move from palace to palace. She has completed her noble terrace, with its almost unrivalled prospect of beauty and fertility. Her gallery too is finished, whose large bay window looks out upon the same magnificent landscape. The comedy, which probably arose out of some local incident, abundantly provocative of courtly gossip and merriment, has hastily been produced. The hand of the master is yet visible in it. Its allusions, contrary to the wont of the author, are all local, and therefore agreeable to his audience. As his characters hover about Frogmore, with its farm-house where Anne Page is a-feasting; as Falstaff meets his most perilous adventure in Datchet Mead; as Mistress Anne and her fairies crouch in the castle ditch,-the poet shows that he has made himself familiar with the scenes where the Queen delighted to dwell. The characters, too, are of the very time of the representation of the play, perhaps more than one of them copied from actual persons. In the original sketch Shakspere hardly makes an attempt to transfer the scene to an earlier period. The persons of the drama are all of them drawn from the rich storehouse of the humours of the middle classes of his own day. We may readily believe the tradition which tells us that the Queen was "very well pleased at the representation." The compliment to her in association with Windsor, in the last scene, where the drollery is surrounded with the most appropriate poetry, sufficiently indicates the place at which the comedy was performed, and the audience to whom it was presented :—

"About, about;

Search Windsor Castle, elves, within and out:

Strew good luck, ouphes, on every sacred room,
That it may stand till the perpetual doom,

In state as wholesome as in state 't is fit;
Worthy the owner, and the owner it."

This is one of the few passages which in the amended edition remain unaltered from the original text.

LIFE.

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NOTE ON SHAKSPERE'S OCCUPATIONS IN 1593.

It may be assumed with tolerable certainty that for nearly a year Shakspere was unemployed in his profession. We have endeavoured to show in this chapter how he filled up some part of his leisure. But with reference to his poetical labours it is scarcely necessary to infer that all his time was spent in "lonely musing." A notion has been propounded that he personally visited Italy. In the Local Illustrations to the Taming of the Shrew, and the Merchant of Venice, with which we were favoured by Miss Martineau, will be found some very striking proofs of Shakspere's intimate acquaintance, not only with Italian manners, but with those minor particulars of the domestic life of Italy, such as the furniture and ornaments of houses, which could scarcely be derived from books, nor, with reference to their minute accuracy, from the conversation of those who had "swam in a gondola." These observations were communicated to us by our excellent friend, without any previous theorizing on the subject, or any acquaintance with the opinions that had been just then advanced on this matter by Mr. Brown. It is not our intention here to go over this ground again; but it appears to us strongly confirmatory of the belief that Shakspere did visit Italy, that in 1593 he might have been absent several months from England without any interference with his professional pursuits. It is difficult to name any earlier period of his life in which we can imagine him with the leisure and the command of means necessary for such a journey. The subsequent part of the sixteenth century certainly left him no leisure. The Merchant of Venice and Othello (in which there is also one or two remarkable indications of local knowledge) were produced within a few years of 1593. The Taming of the Shrew probably belongs to the exact period.

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We have a distinct record when the theatres were re-opened after the plague. The Diary' of Philip Henslowe records that "the Earl of Sussex his men acted Huon of Bordeaux' on the 28th of December, 1593. Henslowe appears to have had an interest in this company. It is probable that Shakspere's theatre of the Blackfriars was opened about the same period. We have some evidence to show what was the duration of the winter season at this theatre; for the same diary shows that from June, 1594, the performances of the theatre

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