teenth century disciple of Boccaccio. Shakespeare seems to have drawn direct from Cinthio's pages the plots of Othello and Measure for Measure. The Italian tale of Desdemona's tragic history is not known to have been translated into either French or English in Shakespeare's day.

Presented by T. W. DEWAR, Sandilands, Lanarkshire, December, 1908.

342.--THOMAS WILSON.--The Arte of Rhetorike

London, 1567. 4to.

For full title see facsimile of title page.

This standard treatise on rhetoric or prose-composition

The pre

He

was first published in 1553, and reprinted in 1562. sent revised edition of 1567 was re-issued in 1580, 1584 and 1585. The author, Thomas Wilson (1525?-1581), held many political offices, and became Secretary of State to Queen Elizabeth. dedicated his Arte of Rhetoricke' to John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, the eldest son of the Duke of Northumberland, who was Lord of the Manor of Stratford-upon-Avon from 1549 till his execution in 1553. The young Earl of Warwick died the year after his father. There is little doubt that the volume was in use in Stratford-upon-Avon Grammar School in Shakespeare's youth.

66

Shakespeare seems to have drawn many ideas and phrases from Wilson's pages. Wilson anticipates the character and language of Dogberry, when citing examples of the talk of a good fellow of the countrey being an officer and mayor of a towne, and desirous to speak like a fine learned man, having just occasion to rebuke a runnegate fellowe," (p. 167).

Again, Wilson offers logical proof of the conclusion Slaunder a greater offence then theft:

"And first he, [the logician] might shewe, that slaunder is theft, and that euery slaunderer is a thief. For as wel the slaunderer as the thief, doe take awaie an other mannes possession against the owners will. After that he might shewe, that a slaunderer is worse, then any thief, because a good name is better, then all the gooddes in the worlde, and that the losse of money, maie be recouered, but the losse of a mannes good name, can not be called backe againe, and a thief maie restore that againe which he hath taked awaie, but a slaunderer can not giue a man, his good name again, which he hath taken from hym. Again, he that stealeth goods or catell, robbes onely but one man, but an euill tongued man, infecteth all their mindes: unto whose eares, this report shall come.'

Compare Iago's speech in Othello iii. 3. 156.

'Good name in man and woman, dear my lord, Is the immediate jewel of their souls:

Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing;
'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands;
But he that filches from me my good name

Robs me of that which not enriches him

And makes me poor indeed.'

Wilson's work also quotes an epistle devised by Erasmus, which supplies the same argument as that employed by Shakespeare to persuade a young man to marry, in the opening sections of the Sonnets.

Bequeathed by MRS. BEISLY, Sydenham, 1896.

343.-ROGER ASCHAM'S SCHOLEMASTER. don, 1571. 4to.

For the full title see facsimile of title page.

Lon

The work is a practical treatise on education, which enjoyed great repute in Shakespeare's early life. The first book deals with education in general, and the second book gives practical rules and methods for teaching Latin. The author, Roger Ascham, was Queen Elizabeth's private tutor, while she was princess and queen. Ascham died in 1568, aged 53, and his 'Scholemaster' was first published posthumously in 1570. This is the second edition.

Purchased 1903.

344.-JOHN LYLY'S EUPHUES AND HIS ENGLAND. London, 1588.

For the full title see facsimile of title page.

This is the second part of 'Euphues,' John Lyly's famous didactic romance. The affected prose style gave rise to a mode of talking and writing which was generally known as Euphuism. The first part 'Euphues the anatomy of wyt,' was first published in 1579. The sequel or second part, 'Euphues and his England,' which described the hero Euphues' travels in England, was first published in 1580. The copy of the latter here exhibited is of the fourth edition, which is often found bound with an edition of the first part which came out in 1587. Many later editions of both parts appeared in Shakespeare's lifetime. Lyly wrote eight light comedies as well as his romance, and with most of his work Shakespeare shows familiarity in his plays. He seems to borrow from Lyly's 'Euphues and his England' (p. 2) most of Polonius's advice to Laertes in Hamlet, 1, 3, 55 seq. However Shakespeare may have regarded the moral sentiment of that didactic fiction, he had no respect for the affectations of its prose style, which he ridiculed in a familiar passage in I Henry IV, ii, 4, 445: For though the camomile, the more it is trodden on, the faster it grows, yet youth the more it is wasted, the sooner it wears' (Lee's Life of Shakespeare, 6th edition, 1908, p. 65).

Bequeathed by MRS. BEISLY, Sydenham, 1896.

345.-GOLDING'S OVID.-The XV Bookes of P. Ouidius Naso, Entituled, Metamorphosis. Imprinted [at London by W. Seres, 1567.] 4to.

This is the second complete edition of the standard Elizabethan translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses. The first edition came out in 1567. The copy here exhibited is a copy of the second edition which appeared in 1575. The words (here printed in brackets) on the title-page of the present copy are a modern imprint on a corner of the page which has been supplied. The date has been rightly corrected from 1567 to 1575 by the pen. Bound in old calf. On the title-page is the inscription William Smith, 1672.

Shakespeare's work shows much familiarity with Golding's translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses. Golding's phraseology constantly reappears in Shakespeare's pages. The Lord's' description of Daphne roaming through a thorny wood,' in The Taming of the Shrew. Induction, Sc. 2, paraphrases Golding's Metamorphoses 1. 508-9. Prospero's recantation of his magical powers in The Tempest, v. 1. 33 seq.-Ye elves of hills,' &c.-echoes Medea's incantation in Golding's Metamorphoses, vii. 197 seq. See "Ovid and Shakespeare's Sonnets," by Sidney Lee, in Quarterly Review, April, 1909.

This

Presented by J. O. HALLIWELL-PHILLIPPS, who
upon the fly-leaf, has written:
is the edition of 1575. This is one of the
few books which we know for certain was
read by Shakespeare."

346.-FLORIO'S MONTAIGNE.-The Essays, or Morall, Politike and Millitarie Discourses of Lo: M. de Montaigne. ...now done into English by.... J. Florio. London, 1603. Folio.

The first edition of the first English translation of Montaigne's Essays, which was published in London in 1603. The translator, John Florio, son of an Italian Protestant refugee, was a prominent figure in London literary circles in Shakespeare's day. Many passages in Shakespeare's plays show that the dramatist was well read in Florio's translation of the work of the great French essayist.

The bookplate is that of Richard Townley, of Townley Hall, Lancashire, who like many of his family in the 17th and 18th centuries was a book-collector of note. The stamp on the cover