There is good reason to think that "the melancholy vale" is a proper name, and that it ought therefore to be printed thus: The Melancholy Vale,-as indeed it is in the folios. Both are instances of the same mistaken principle of translation, to which we have before had occasion to refer. In the same scene, Adriana says, May it please your grace, Antipholis, my husband- At your important letters where the allusion is to the custom of royal letters being sometimes addressed to ladies with great fortunes in behalf of certain persons who had the means of obtaining them: "Sir William Compton shewed unto me my Lord Cardinal wrote unto Mrs. Vernon, if she would attain the king's favour, to bear her good mind unto his servant Tyrwhit."* The second folio, and probably the first, reads "impotent," which is changed in the modern editions, without notice, but probably rightly. being undramatic. It ought to be preserved in every edition of this poet, as it is in Gifford's, exhibiting as it does the fine spirit in which Jonson entered on his poetical career, and the vigour of his mind: If it can stand with your most wished content, I can refel opinion; and approve The state of poesy such as it is, Blessed, eternal, and most true divine, &c. * Lodge's Illustrations of British History, &c. vol. i. p. 29, where, in a note, is a copy of one of these letters. MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. THIS sprightly and most entertaining comedy, which we cannot have the least hesitation in ascribing, in all its parts, to Shakespeare, was entered for publication on the Stationers' Register in August 1600. It was printed in that year, and we are informed in the title-page that it had been 66 sundry times acted by the Lord Chamberlain's servants,” that is, by the company of performers to which Shakespeare belonged. It does not occur in Meres' List in 1598, so that it may be referred, with little chance of error, to the year 1600. In the folio it was placed between The Comedy of Errors and Love Labours Lost, both earlier and very different compositions; a proof that there was little of system or design in the original arrangement. Where all is admirable, each in its own kind, it may seem superfluous to single out any thing for especial commendation. But attention may be drawn to the address with which the change in Benedick and Beatrice is brought about, and the great difficulty overcome of uniting them without shocking offensively the demands of probability. But every part is executed with infinite skill, quite in the best manner of this best master. There is much of incident and plot of Shakespeare's own invention. What relates to Hero, and her cruel treatment, is a tale of Bandello's; but the whole of what belongs to Benedick and Beatrice is without a counterpart in the Italian novel, and, as far as is at present known, peculiar to Shakespeare himself. It is only the second plot, but it is so highly wrought, so admirably finished, so interesting, and so entertaining, that the main plot is thrown rather too much into the shade, and it is indisputable that when we hear Much Ado spoken of we think not of Claudio and Hero, but of Benedick and Hero's cousin Beatrice. While the commentators have sent us to Bandello for the serious and anxious incidents in the history of Hero, they have not even attempted to assign to any origin the share of the plot which belongs to Benedick and Beatrice; nor do they appear to have surmised that there was any thing connected with this part of the play in the mind of the poet beside the amusement which two such characters, and the circumstances in which they are placed, could not fail to occasion. But this in all probability was not the case. When he read this portion of the dialogue, BEATRICE. By my troth, I am exceeding ill :-hey-ho! Act iii. Sc. 4. Dr. Johnson remarks, "This is a poor jest, somewhat obscured, and not worth the trouble of elucidation:" and so it is, were there no more in it than the learned commentator perceived. But suppose H was intended to suggest to the intelligent, at once both ache and something else-Herbert,—and we can find a reason why it should do so,—the jest will not be so vapid as at present it appears, or so unworthy the genius of Shakespeare, which never slumbered while he was portraying Benedick and Beatrice. To the multitude, however, there was probably no more in the expression than the poor jest which Dr. Johnson did not think worth the trouble of elucidation; but to a few persons, who were accustomed to resort to the theatre, personal friends of Shakespeare, for he had personal friends among the young nobility of the time, its secondary meaning would be apparent, and the jest would no doubt by them be most highly approved and admired. That it had this secondary meaning, and that there is much in the play which is connected with this secondary meaning, is the point which I now propose, if not to prove, yet to make exceedingly probable. That individual persons were sometimes introduced upon the stage in those times is matter of perfect notoriety. I shall content myself with two testimonies. The first is that of Shakespeare's contemporary, Heywood, who in his Apology for Actors, published in 1612, distinctly admits as abuses that had crept in which he meant not to defend, the inveighing against the state, the court, the law, the city, and "particularizing private men's humours yet alive, noblemen and others." The next is that of the second Villiers Duke of Buckingham: When Shakespeare, Jonson, Fletcher ruled the stage, They took so bold a freedom with the age, That there was scarce a knave or fool in town Of any note but had his picture shown. This, though a late testimony, will have weight when we connect it with what is related of the duke in the preface to The Rehearsal, that "he became well acquainted, by his education, and conversation of the greatest persons of his time, with the writings of the most celebrated poets of the late age, namely, Shakespeare, Beaumont, and Jonson, the last of whom he knew personally, being thirteen years old when he died, as also with the famous company of actors at Blackfriars, whom he always admired," &c. It is therefore no matter of surprise if we find that the character of a young nobleman of those times is partially reflected in the character of Benedick, and that certain events in the history of that young nobleman's life were the immediate occasion of the writing these scenes of the drama. Henry Herbert, the second Herbert Earl of Pembroke, of the new creation, married Mary Sidney, the sister of Sir Philip Sidney, and also of Sir Robert Sidney, who, in the reign of James the First, was created Earl of Leicester. Their eldest son, named William, was born on the 8th of April 1580. While his father lived he was William Lord Herbert, and on his father's death, on the 19th of January 1600-1, he became the third Earl of Pembroke, and was one of the most eminent persons of the reign of James the First. Of the pursuits, character, and history of this young nobleman, while his father was still living, we should have known as little as we do of other minors of the time, but for a rather unusual concurrence of fortunate circumstances. It happened that his uncle, Sir Robert Sidney, was sent abroad, as Governor of Flushing. It happened also that Sir Robert Sidney was a person extremely desirous of information of all that passed at the English court, and that he had provided for himself a very assiduous and faithful intelligencer, in the well-known Rowland Whyte, whose gossiping letters are among the pleasantest of all that have descended from those times. It has happened also that nearly the whole of the letters which Whyte addressed to Sir Robert have been preserved; and, to complete the fortunate accidents which have concurred in opening to us an insight into the manner of life and history of the young Lord Herbert, these letters have been made public, having been printed in the work published in 1746, entitled Letters and Memorials of the Family of Sidney. There are two bundles of them, one consisting of letters written in 1597, the other in the period between the 4th of August 1599 and the close of the |