Anfaldo were landed, all the court went out to meet them. When they arrived at the palace, the lady ran to embrace Anfaldo, but feigned anger againft Giannetto, tho' fhe loved him exceffively: yet the feastings, tilts and diverfions went on as ufual, at which all the lords and ladies were prefent. Giannetto feeing that his wife did not receive him with her accustomed good countenance, called her, and would have faluted her. She told him, the wanted not his careffes: I am fure, fays fhe, you have been lavish of them to fome of your former miftreffes. Giannetto began to make excufes. She asked him where was the ring fhe had 'given him? It is no more than what I expected, cries Giannetto, and I was in the right to fay you would be angry with me; but, I fwear by all that is facred, and by your dear felf, that I gave the ring to the lawyer who gained our caufe. And I can fwear, fays the lady, with as much folemnity, that you gave the ring to a woman therefore fwear no more. Giannetto protefted that what he had told her was true, and that he said all this to the lawyer, when he asked for the ring. The lady replied, you would have done much better to ftay at Venice with your mistresses, for I fear they all wept when you came away. Giannetto's tears began to fall, and in great forrow he affured her, that what fhe fuppofed could not be true. The lady feeing his tears which were daggers in her bofom, ran to embrace him, and in a fit of laughter fhewed the ring, and told him, she was herself the lawyer, and how the obtained the ring. Giannetto was greatly aftonished, finding it all true, and told the ftory to the nobles and to his companions; and this heightened greatly the love between him and his lady. He then called the damfel who had given him the good advice in the evening not to drink the liquor, and gave her to Anfaldo for a wife and they spent the reft of their lives in great felicity and contentment R UGGIERI de Figiovanni took a refolution of going for fome time to the court of Alfonfo king of Spain. He was graciously received, and living there fome time in great magnificence, and giving remarkable VOL. II. K proofs proofs of his courage, was greatly esteemed. Having frequent opportunities of examining minutely the behaviour of the king, he obferved, that he gave, as he thought, with little difcernment, caftles, and baronies, to fuch who were unworthy of his favours; and to himself, who might pretend to be of fome eftimation, he gave nothing; he therefore thought the fittest thing to be done, was to demand leave of the king to return home. go His requeft was granted, and the king presented him with one of the most beautiful and excellent mules, that had ever been mounted. One of the king's trusty fervants was commanded to accompany Ruggieri, and riding along with him, to pick up, and recollect every word he faid of the king, and then mention that it was the order of his Sovereign that he should back to him. The man watching the opportunity, joined Ruggieri when he fet out, faid he was going towards Italy, and would be glad to ride in company with him. Ruggieri jogging on with his mule, and talking of one thing or other, it being near nine o'clock, told his companion, that they would do well to put up their mules a little, and as foon as they entered the ftable, every beaft, except his, began to ftale. Riding on further they came to a river, and watering the beafts, his mule ftaled in the river: You untoward beaft, fays he, you are like your mafter, who gave you to me. The fer vant remembered this expreffion, and many others as they rode on all day together; but he heard not a fingle word drop from him, but what was in praife of the king. The next morning Ruggieri was told the order of the king, and inftantly turned back. When the king had heard what he had faid of the mule, he commanded him into his prefence, and with a smile, asked him, for what reafon he had compared the mule to him, Ruggieri anfwered, My reafon is plain, you' give where you ought not to give, and where you ought to give, you give nothing; in the fame manner the mule would not ftale where the ought, and where the ought not, there the staled. The king faid upon this, If I have not rewarded you as I have many, do not entertain a thought that I was infensible to to your great merit; it is Fortune who hindered me; fhe is to blame, and not I; and I will fhew you manifeftly that I fpeak truth. My difcontent, Sir, proceeds not, answered Ruggieri, from a defire of being enriched, but from your not having given the fmalleft teftimony to my deferts in your fervice : nevertheless your excufe is valid, and I am ready to fee the proof you mention, though I can eafily believe you without it. The king conducted him to a hall, where he had already commanded two large cafkets, shut close, to be placed; and before a large company told Ruggieri, that in one of them was contained his crown, scepter, and all his jewels, and that the other was full of earth: choose which of them you like beft, and then you will fee that it is not 1, but your fortune that has been ungrateful. Ruggieri chose one. It was found to be the cafket full of earth. The king faid to him with a fmile, Now you may fee, Ruggieri, that what I told you of fortune is true; but for your fake I will oppofe her with all my ftrength. You have no intention, I am certain, to live in Spain; therefore I will offer you no preferment here, but that cafket which fortune denied you, fhall be yours in defpite of her carry it with you into your own country, fhew it to your friends, and neighbours, as my gift to you; and you have my permiffion to boast that it is a reward of your virtues. TH HE antient ballad, on which the greater part of this play is probably founded, has been mentioned in Obfervations on the Fairy Queen, I. 129. Shake Speare's track of reading may be traced in the common books and popular ftories of the times, from which he manifeftly derived moft of his plots. Hiftorical fongs, then very fafhionable, often fuggefted and recommended a fubject. Many of his incidental allufions alfo relate to pieces of this kind; which are now grown valuable on this account only, and would otherwise have been deservedly forgotten. A ballad is ftill remaining on the subject of Romeo and Juliet, which, by the date appears to be much older than Shakespeare's, time is remarkable, that all the particulars in which that K 2 It play play differs from the story in Bandello, are found in this ballad. But it may be faid, that he copied this story as it ftands in Paynter's Pallace of Pleasure, 1567, where there is the fame variation of circumftances. This, however, fhews us that Shakespeare did not firft alter the original story for the worfe, and is at least a presumptive proof that he never faw the Italian. Shakespeare alludes to the tale of king Cophetua and the beggar, more than once. This was a ballad; the བ་ oldeft copy of which, that I have feen, is in, “ A crown garland of golden rofes gathered out of Eng"land's royall garden, 1612." The collector of this mifcellany was Richard Johnson, who compiled, from various romances, THE SEVEN CHAMPIONS. This ftory of Copbetua was in high vogue, as appears from our author's manner of introducing it in Love's Labour left, Act iv. fc. i. As likewife from John Marfion's Satire; called the Scourge of Villanie, printed 1598, viz. Go buy fome ballad of the fairy king, The first stanza of the ballad begins thus, I read, that once in Africa The prince, or king, falls in love with a female beggar, whom he fees accidentally from the windows of his palace, and afterwards marries her. [Sign. D. 41.] The fong, cited at length by the learned Dr: Gray, on this fubject, is evidently fpurious, and much more modern than Shakespeare's time. The name Cophetua is not once mentioned in it. Notes on Shak. vol. ii. p. 267. However, I fufpect, there is fome more genuine copy, than that of 1612, which I before mentioned. But this point may be, perhaps, adjusted by an ingenious enquirer enquirer into our old English literature, who is now publishing a curious collection of antient ballads which will illustrate many paffages in Shakespeare. I doubt not but he received the hint of writing on king Lear from a Ballad on that fubject. But in moft of his hiftorical plays he copies from Hall, Hollingshead, and Stowe, the reigning hiftorians of that age. And although these chronicles were then univerfally known and read, he did not fcruple to transcribe their materials with the most circumftantial minutenefs. For this, he could not efcape an oblique ftroke of fatire from his envious friend Ben Johnson, in the comedy called, The Devil's an Ass, A& ii. sc. iv. "Fitz-dot. Thomas of Woodstock, I'm fure, was "duke and he was made away at Calice, as duke Humfrey was at Bury. And Richard the Third, you "know what end he came to. "Meer-er. By my faith you're cunning in the "Chronicle. "Fitz-dot. No, I confefs, I ha't from the play-books, and think, they're more authentick." In Antony Wood's collection of ballads, in the Amolean Museum, I find one with the following title. "The lamentable and tragical hiftorie of Titus An"dronicus, with the fall of his five and twentie fons in 66 wars with the Goths, with the murder of his daugh"ter Lavinia, by the empreffes two fons, through the "means of a bloody Moor taken by the sword of Titus "in the war his revenge upon their cruell and inhu44. mane acte." "You noble minds, and famous martiall wights. The ufe which Shakespeare might make of this piece is obvious. Mr. WARTON. Of The MERCHANT of VENICE the ftile is even and eafy, with few peculiarities of diction, or anomalies of conftruction. The comick part raises laughter, K 3 and |