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The learned doctor Farmer has restored to the public notice a compilation of this class, unmentioned by any typographic annalist, and entitled, "The ORATOR, handling a hundred feue"rall Difcourfes in form of Declamations: fome of the Ar

guments being drawne from Titus Liuius, and other an"cient writers, the rest of the author's own Invention. Part "of which are of matters happened in our age. Written in "French by Alexander Silvayn, and Englished by L. P. [or

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3. A fonnet of" that excellent poet of
"Italie Lodouico Pafcale," is introduced,
SIGNAT. L. Another," in imitation of
"Martelli, hauing the right nature of an
"Italian melancholie," SIGNAT. L. He
mentions" the fweet conceites of Philip
"du Portes, whofe poeticall writings be-
❝ing alreadie for the most part Englished,
"and ordinarilie in euerie man's hands,"
are not here tranflated. SIGNAT. L 2.

I think I have alfo feen in Italian "The "ftraunge and wonderfull aduentures of "Simonides a gentilman Spaniarde. Con

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teyning uerie pleafaunte difcourfe, Ga"thered as well for the recreation of our "noble yong gentilmen as our honourable "courtly ladies. By Barnabe Riche gentil"man. London, for Robert Walley, 1581." Bl. Lett. 4to. Much poetry is intermixed. A recommendatory poem in the octave ftanza is prefixed by Lodge, who fays he corrected the work, and has now laid his mufe afide. There is another in the fame ftanza by R. W. But it would be endless to purfue publications of this fort. I only add, that Barnabe Riche abovementioned wrote in profe THE HONESTIE OF THIS AGE, &c. Lond. 1615. 4to. A curious picture of the times. Alfo "the PATHWAY

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TO MILITARY PRACTICE, with a ka"lendar for the ymbattallinge of men, "newly written by Barnabie Riche," entered to R. Walley, 22 March, 1586. REGISTR. STATION. B. fol. 216. b. Riche in the title-page to his IRISH HUBBUB (Lond. 1617. 4to.) calls that book his twenty-fixth. I have feen moft of them.

"Lazarus

"Lazarus Pilot.] London, printed by Adam Iflip, 1596'." The
fubject of the ninety-fifth DECLAMATION is, of a Jew who
would for his debt haue a pound of the flesh of a Chriftian". We
have here the incident of the BOND, in Shakespeare's MER-
CHANT OF VENICE, which yet may be traced to a much higher
fource 2. This Alexander Sylvain compiled in French Epitomes
de cent Hiftoires Tragiques partie extraictes des Actes des Romains et
autres, a work licenced to Iflip to be translated into English in
1596. Perhaps the following paffage in Burton's MELAN-
CHOLY, may throw light on these DECLAMATIONS.
"Low Countries, before thefe warres, they had many folemne
"feastes, playes, challenges, artillery [archery] gardens, col-
ledges of rimers, rhetoricians, poets, and to this day, fuch
places are curiously maintained in Amfterdam. In Italy, they
"have folemne Declamations of certaine felect yonge gentlemen
" in Florence, like these reciters in old Rome, &c."

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"In the

In 1582, a fuite of tales was published by George Whetstone, a fonnet-writer of fome rank, and one of the most passionate among us to bewaile the perplexities of love, under the title of HEPTAMERON, and containing fome novels from Cinthio. Shakespeare, in MEASURE FOR MEASURE, has fallen into great improprieties by founding his plot on a history in the HEPTA

y I know not exactly what connection this piece may have with an entry, under the year 1590, to Aggas and Wolfe," Cer"ten tragicall cafes conteyninge Lv Hyf"tories with their feuerall declamations "both accufative and defenfive, written

in ffrenfhe by Alexander Vandenbrygt "alias Silvan, tranflated into Englishe by "R. A." REGISTR. STATION. B. fol. 263. b. Perhaps R. A. is Robert Allot, the publisher of ENGLAND'S PARNASSUS in 1600. See fupr. p. 280. And add, that he has fome Latin hexameters prefixed to Chriftopher Middleton's LEGEND OF DUKE HUMPHREY, Lond. 16co. 4to.

z See fol. 401.

a

See fupr. Diss. GEST. ROMAN. lxxxiii.

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MERON, imperfectly copied or tranflated from Cinthio's original'. Many faults in the conduct of incidents for which Shakespeare's judgement is arraigned, often flowed from the casual book of the day, whose mistakes he implicitly followed without looking for a better model, and from a too hafty acquiefcence in the present accommodation. But without a book of this fort, Shakespeare would often have been at a lofs for a subject. Yet at the fame time, we look with wonder at the ftructures which he forms, and even without labour or deliberation, of the basest materials ".

Ames recites a large collection of novels in two volumes, dedicated to fir George Howard master of the armory, and printed for Nicholas England in 1567". I have never seen them, but presume they are tranflations from Boccace, Cinthio, and Bandello 1. In 1589, was printed the CHAOS OF HISTORYES And in 1563, "A boke called Certaine noble ftoryes contaynThese pieces are perhaps to

ynge rare and worthy matter'. be catalogued in the fame class.

AND

f See Whetstone's RIGHT EXCELLENT FAMOUS HISTORYE OF PROMOS AND CASSANDRA, Divided into Commical DISCOURSES, printed in 1578. Entered to R. Jones, 31 Jul. 1578. REGISTR. STATION. B. fol. 150. b.

In the Prologue to a comedy called CUPID'S WHIRLIGIG, As it hath bene fundrie times acted by the Children of his Maiefties Reuels, written by E. S. and printed in quarto by T. Creede in 1616, perhaps before, an oblique ftroke feems intended at fome of Shakespeare's plots.

Our author's pen loues not to swimme in
blood,

He dips no inke from oute blacke Acheron:
Nor croffes feas to get a forraine plot.-
Nor doth he touch the falls of mighty kings,
No ancient hyftorie, no fhepherd's love,
No statesman's life, &c.

He blames fome other dramatic writers for their plots of heathen gods. So another, but who furely had forgot Shakespeare, in

PASQUILL'S MADCAPPE'S MESSAGE, p.
11. Lond. 1600. Printed by V. S. 4to.
Go, bid the poets ftuddie better matter,
Than Mars and Venus in a tragedie.

h Pag. 328.

i Cont. 856 leaves. 8vo.

k REGISTR. STATION. B. fol. 246. a. Jul. 28, to Abell Jeffes.

1 To Berys. REGISTR. A. fol. 89. b. I have here thrown together many pieces of the fame fort, before 1585, from the registers of the Stationers. Mar. 10, 1594, to T. Creede, "MOTHER REDD-CAPPE "her laft will and teftament, conteynyng "fundrye conceipted and pleasant tales "furnished with muche varyetie to move

delighte." REGISTR. B. fol. 130. a.Nov. 3, 1576, to H. Bynneman, "MERY "TALES, wittye questions, and quicke an"fwers." Ibid fol. 135. b. - April 2, 1577, to R. Jones, "A FLORISHE UPON 'FANCIE, as gallant a glofe of fuche a "triflinge a texte as euer was written, compiled by N. B. gent. To which are " annexed

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In the year 1590, fir James Harrington, who will occur again in his place as an original writer, exhibited an English verfion of Ariofto's ORLANDO FURIOSO": which, although executed without fpirit or accuracy, unanimated and incorrect, enriched our poetry by a communication of new stores of fiction and imagination, both of the romantic and comic fpecies, of Gothic machinery and familiar manners.

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Fairfax is commonly fuppofed to be the first translator of Taffo. But in 1593, was licenced "A booke called Godfrey of Bolloign an heroycall poem of S. Torquato Taffo, Englished by R. E. efquire "." In confequence of this verfion, appeared the next year "An enterlude entituled Godfrey of Bol

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annexed manie pretie pamphlets for pleafaunte heades to paffe away idell time "withall compiled by the fame author." Ibid. fol. 138. b. And by the fame author, perhaps Nicholas Breton, Jun. 1, 1577, to Watkins, afterwards T. Dawfon, "The woorkes of a yong witte truste up, "with a FARDELL of pretie fantasies pro"fitable to yong poets, compiled by N. B. "gent." Ibid. fol. 139. b-Jun. 5, 1577, to R. Jones, "A HANDEFULL OF HIDDEN "SECRETS, Conteyninge therein certayne "Sonnettes and other pleafaunte devifes, "pickt out of the closet of fundrie wor"thie writers, and collected by R. Wil "liams." [N. B. This is otherwise entitled, The GALLERY OF GALLANT UENTIONS.] Ibid. fol. 140. a. —Jun. 23, 1584, to T. Hacket, two books," A DIALL for daintie darlings," and “the "BANQUET of daintie conceipts." Ibid. fol. 200. b." The parlour of pleafaunte "delyghtes," to Yarret James, Jan. 13, 1580. Ibid. fol. 177. b." A ballad of "the traiterous and vnbrideled crueltye of one Lucio a knyght executed ouer Eri"phile daughter to Hortenfia Caftilion of "Genoway in Italy," to H. Carre, Sept. 3, 1580. Ibid. fol. 171. b.-" The deceipts in loue difcourfed in a Comedie "of ij Italyan gentlemen and tranflated "into Englisfhe," to S. Waterfon, Nov.

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10, 1584. Ibid. fol. 2oz. a. Most of these pieces I have feen: and although perhaps they do not all exactly coincide with the clafs of books pointed out in the text, they illuftrate the general fubject of this fection.

At least in that year, Feb. 26, was entered to Richard Field, under the hands of the archbishop of Canterbury and the bishop of London, "A booke entituled "John Harrington's Orlando Furiofo, &c." REGISTR. STATION. B. fol. 271.b. But there is entered to Cuthbert Burbye, to be printed by Danter, May 28, 1594, "The "Hiftorie of Orlando Furiofo." Ibid. fol. 306. b. See also fol. 303. a. And Ariofto's ftory of Rogero and Rhodomont, tranflated from the French of Philip de Portes, by G. M. [Gervis Markham] is entered to N. Linge, Sept. 15, 1598. Ibid. C. fol. 41. b.

To Christopher Hunt, Jan. 25. RE GISTR. STATION. B. fol. 304. b. The fame verfion of Taffo is again entered Nov. 22, 1599. REGISTR. C. fol. 54. a. Among Rawlinfon's manufcripts are two fair copies in large folio of a translation of Taffo in octave ftanzas, by fir G. T. An inferted note fays this is George Turberville, the poet of queen Elifabeth's reign, and that he was knighted by the queen while ambaffador.

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"loigne with the Conqueft of Jerufalem ." Hall in his Satires published in 1597, enumerates among the favorite ftories of his time, fuch as, Saint George, Brutus, king Arthur, and Charlemagne,

What were his knights did SALEM'S SIEGE maintayne,

To which he immediately adds Ariosto's Orlando ".

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By means of the fame vehicle, tranflation from Italian books, a precife and fyftematical knowledge of the antient heathen theology feems to have been more effectually circulated among the people in the reign of queen Elifabeth. Among others, in 1599 was published, "THE FOUNTAINE OF ANTIENT FIC"TION, wherein is depictured the images and ftatues of the gods of the antients with their proper and particular expo"fitions. Done into Englishe by Richard Linche gentleman ". Tempe è figliuola di verità. London, imprinted by Valentine "Sims, 1599 "." This book, or one of the fame fort, is cenfured in a puritanical pamphlet, written the fame year, by one H. G. a painfull minister of God's word in Kent, as the Spawne of Italian Gallimaufry, as tending to corrupt the pure and unidolatrous worship of the one God, and as one of the deadly fnares of popish deception. In the hiftory of the puritans, their apprehenfions that the reformed faith was yet in danger from paganism, are not sufficiently noted. And it should be remembered, that a PANTHEON had before appeared; rather indeed with a view of expofing the heathen fuperftitions, and of fhewing their conformity to the papistic, than of illustrating the religious fable of antiquity. But the scope and defign of the writer will ap

• To John Danter, Jun. 19. Ibid. fol. 309. b.

P B. vi. Sat. i.

In quarto. From fome other book of
the kind, fays John Maríton in his SA-
TYRES, Lond. for E. Matts, 1593. 12mo.
SAT. ii.

Reach me fome poets Index that will shew
IMAGINES DEORUM. Booke of Epithites,

Natalis Comes, thou, I know, recites,
And mak'ft anatomie of poefie.
With this might have been bound up "A
"treaforie and ftorehouse of fimilis," for
T. Creede, 1600.

In 1599 was published by G. Potter, "A commendacion of true poetry and a "difcommendacion of all baudy, pybald, "and paganizde [paganifed] poets, &c." See REGISTR. STATION. C. fol. 55. b.

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