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EPILOGUE.

SPOKEN BY PROSPERO.

Now my charms are all o'erthrown,
And what strength I have's mine own;
Which is most faint: now, 'tis true,

I must be here confined by you,

Let me not,

Or sent to Naples.
Since I have my dukedom got,
And pardon'd the deceiver, dwell
In this bare island, by your spell;
But release me from my bands,
With the help of your good hands.1
Gentle breath of yours my sails
Must fill, or else my project fails,
Which was to please. Now I want
Spirits to enforce, art to enchant;
And my ending is despair,
Unless I be relieved by prayer;
Which pierces so, that it assaults
Mercy itself, and frees all faults.

Let

As you from crimes would pardon'd be,
your indulgence set me free.

By your applause. Noise was supposed to dissolve a spell.

TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA.

SHAK.

1.

HISTORICAL NOTICE

OF THE

TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA.

Mr. Steevens conjectures that some of the incidents of this play were taken by Shakspeare from the Arcadia, book i. chap. 6. where Pyrocles consents to head the Helots; to which tale the adventures of Valentine with the outlaws, in this drama, bear a striking resemblance. But however this question may be disposed of, there can be little doubt that the episode of Felismena, in the Diana of George of Montemayor, a romance translated from the Spanish, and published in the year 1598, was the source whence the principal part of the plot of the Two Gentlemen of Verona has been derived. The story of Proteus and Julia, in this play, closely corresponds with its prototype; and in several passages the dramatist has copied the very language of the pastoral.

The authenticity of this drama has been disputed by Hanmer, Theobald, and Upton, who condemn it as a very inferior production: but Dr. Johnson, in ascribing it to the pen of Shakspeare, asks, if it be taken from him, to whom shall it be given?' justly remarking, that it will be found more credible that Shakspeare might sometimes sink below his highest flights, than that any other should rise up to his lowest.' 'It is observable,' says Pope, that the style of this comedy is less figurative, and more natural and unaffected,

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