that ben softe and mole taketh sonner Impression than the nature of men that is rude and stronge. Compare 'Cymbeline', V, IV, 140; V, v, 437; and, especially, the following lines 446 ff.: The piece of tender air, thy virtuous daughter, Which we call 'mollis aer'; and 'mollis aer' SECTION 2. ELIZABETHAN AUTHORS. ARTHUR BROOKE'S Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Iuliet' is the basis on which Shakespeare built his wonderful drama, Romeo and Juliet. (The sourcequestion has been carefully and minutely examined by Mr. P. A. Daniel, in the New Shaksp. Soc., III, 1, pp. XIIff.; and by Dr. Schulze in Sh. Jahrb., XI, 195 f., and 218 ff. '.) 3 The late Prof. Zupitza pointed out some motifs and incidents in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, which are traceable to Brooke's poem. Silvia refuses to accept the hand of Thurio, though favoured by her father, and decides to marry Valentine secretly. For the purpose of escaping with her, Valentine undertakes to "climb her window, "The ladder made of cords" (II, IV, 181). He is banished and flees 1 First printed by R. Tottell in 1562. 'Romeo and Juletta' was licensed to Tottell in 1583 (Arber, Stat. Reg., II, 419). This is no doubt Brooke's poem. But no copy of this edition, if published, is known. Brooke's poem was reissued by Robert Robinson in 1587. 2 Regarding the history and development of the Romeo-story, compare, too, Fränkel's papers in Zeitschrift für vergl. Literaturgesch. Neue Folge, III & IV, and in Kölbing's Engl. Studien, XIX, 183. Regarding a Latin drama, but which is later than Sh.'s play, see Sh. Jahrb., 34, p. 255. A terrible amount of learning has accumulated round Shakespeare's play. 3 See Sh. Jahrb. XXIII, pp. 1–17. Here will be found a careful examination of the sources of The Two Gentlemen of Verona. I cannot, however, endorse Zupitza's supposition, which he shares with some other littérateurs, that a hypothetical old English play, the alleged original of Julius und Hyppolita' (a German play printed in the collection 'Engelische Comedien und Tragedien', 1620, and reprinted by Cohn, 'Sh. in Germany', and discussed by Creizenach, Die Schauspiele der englischen Komoedianten, 1889, p. LIV), is one of Shakespeare's sources. towards Mantua. Silvia's father is wroth with her. Under the pretext of making confession at Patrick's cell, she escapes, noticed only by Friar Laurence. The names Verona and Mercatio (for Mercutio) may be derived from the same source. The sudden change of affection in Proteus is analogous to Romeus's sudden change, the instant he sees Juliet: His [Romeus's] former love, for which of late he ready was to dye, Is nowe as quite forgotte, as it had never been: The proverbe saith unminded oft are they that are unseene. So novell love out of the minde the auncient love doth rive. (Brooke, vv. 204-'8) The same simile is used by Shakespeare in The Two Gentlemen, II, 1v, where the following verses are put into the mouth of Proteus, after he had seen Silvia for the first time: Even as one heat another heat expels, Or as one nail by strength drives out another; So the remembrance of my former love Is by a newer object quite forgotten. (Comp. Coriol., IV, vii, 54: (II. 192-195.) "One fire drives out one fire; one nail, one nail".) There are two or three more traces of Brooke in Shakespeare: The name Escalus is given to the good Lord in Measure for Measure, and occurs also once in All's Well. In this latter play Diana is made to say: "I am, my lord, a wretched Florentine, Derived from the "ancient Capilet" (V, 111, 158); cf. "Diana Capilet" (1. 147, ib.). The name, I ought to remark, is spelt Capilet or Capelet by Brooke, Capellet by Painter. WAS BROOKE THE ONLY SOURCE Shakespeare used for his 'Romeo and Juliet'? For convenience' sake I first reproduce here Fränkel's table', giving at one glance a clear idea of the literary history and development of the Romeo-story. 1 Zeitschr., ut sup., III, p. 182.-Mr. P. A. Daniel mentions to me an Italian Romeo-play, La Donna Constante by Raffaello Borghini (1578), which, he says, has so far remained unnoticed. C N. B. dotted lines signify probable secondary influence. If we suppose, that Shakespeare's knowledge of French and Italian was such that he preferred to read English translations instead of their originals, it will be natural to seek for English versions of the Romeo-story. Apart from Brooke's poem, the only other pre-Shakespearean English version preserved to us is that given by Painter in the second volume of his 'Palace of Pleasure' (pr. 1567 and again circa 1575). This novel of 'Rhomeo and Julietta' translated from Boaistuau has been subjected to close comparison with Shakespeare and Brooke since Steevens's and Malone's days, a comparison which irrefragably establishes, that Brooke is Shakespeare's source, as I have already said. 1 In Shakespeare Jahrb., XI, p. 218, two or three trifling coincidences between Shakespeare's play and Painter's novel are given. 1) While Brooke has 'Romeus', Painter has Rhomeo. Romeo is the Italian form of the name. 2) Shakespeare's Romeo gives the apothecary forty ducats for the poison (V, 1, 59); Painter has 'Fifty Ducates; Brooke: 'fiftie crownes of gold'. But Shakespeare knew that ducats were current in Italy (cp. Merch. of Ven.) 3) Act IV, 1, 105: "Thou shalt "continue two and forty hours." 'Brooke does not mention the time 'which the sleeping draught is to hold Juliet. Steevens notes as proof 'that Shakespeare consulted Painter, that in Painter it is said to be I may remark here, that Warton's supposition (repeated by Drake and Fränkel) of an English translation of Boaistuau and Belleforest's novels in 1596 is chimerical. Warton was no doubt misled by an entry in the Stat. Reg., III, 67, which, however, refers to Silvayn's 'Orator'. “40 houres at the least". On this Boswell remarks (Var. Ed. VI, p. 265), ""although the number of hours..... are not specified in the poem, 'yet enough is said to make it easily inferred, when we are told that two [?] nights after, the Friar and Romeo were to repair to the se'pulchre". Da Porto has forty-eight hours; Clitia, two days; Bandello ‘and Boaistuau about forty hours; Groto, in 'La Hadriana', about sixteen hours.' (Daniel, ut sup., p. xv1). Boswell's explanation, I must confess, does not quite satisfy me. I cannot infer the forty-two hours from Brooke's poem. 4) To these three points I add a fourth. 'Anselme' is one of the invited guests (I, 11, 68). Now, Anselme is the name of the messenger sent by Friar Lawrence to Mantua, in Painter. By Brooke and Shakespeare he is called Friar John.-Seeing that these coincidences are not very striking, we have to conclude that the probability of Shakespeare having used Painter is not great. Regarding the question of a pre-Shakespearean play on this theme see post, in the chapter on the Drama. 'Resemblances between passages of Shakespeare's tragedy and 'passages of Groto's Italian tragedy of Hadriana are probably due to ‘accident.' (Cp. Daniel, ut sup. p. XXIff.; and Sh. Jahrb., XI, 196 ff). SAMUEL DANIEL.1 1. THE COMPLAINT OF ROSAMOND is important in its bearing on Shakespeare, in whose earlier works we find remarkable reminiscences, in the language, substance and form, of that poem. Daniel's 'Rosamond' was first printed together with his 'Delia' in 1592. The poems met with the applause of the public and ran through another edition in this year and a third (and fourth?) in 1594.* To begin with Shakespeare's epic poems, 'A Lover's Complaint' is written in imitation of Daniel's poem, as the subject, characterization, tone, metre, and style show. This must be felt. The main motive of each poem is the loss of virginity by the heroine, into whose mouth the complaints are put. A similar topic treated in a somewhat similar way is The Rape of Lucrece. Thomas Churchyard's 'Shore's Wife', the most popular poem in the Mirror for Magistrates, and much akin to 'Rosamond', may also have been known to Shakespeare, though I cannot find any clear traces of it in his works. 1 Besides notes of my own, I have made use of Dr. Ewig's article in Anglia XXII, p. 436-448, to which I refer the curious reader. 2 See Grosart's ed., 1885, I. pp. 20 f. and 80. The following parallelisms in Lucrece and the Complaint of Rosamond are very striking. 1) Ros. 128. Ah beauty Syren, faire enchaunting good, Sweet silent Rhetorique of persuading eyes: Dombe Eloquence, whose powre doth move the bloud, More then the words or wisedome of the wise. Compare Lucr., 29-30: Beauty itself doth of itself persuade Comp. also Love's Lab. Lost, IV, 11, 60: II) Ros. 246: The heavenly rhetoric of thine eye. Thou must not thinke thy flower can alwayes flourish, But that those raies which all these flames doe nourish, Compare Lucr. 22 ff.: III) Ros. 439: O happiness enjoy'd but of a few! And, if possess'd, as soon decay'd and done ... Com'd was the Night, mother of sleepe and feare, Compare Lucr. 117: Till sable Night, mother of Dread and Fear, The situation in both poems is, mutatis mutandis, similar. IV) The following parallel passages exemplify the structural resemblance in an obvious manner: Ros. 428 ff.: I saw the sinne wherein my foote was entring, I saw how that dishonour did attend it, |