It is not perhaps very neceffary to enquire whether the Vehicle of so much Delight and Inftruction be a Story probable, or unlikely, native, or foreign. Shakespear's Excellence is not the Fiction of a Tale, but the Reprefentation of Life; and his Reputation is therefore fafe, till Human Nature fhall be changed. Nor can he who has fo many juft Claims to Praise, fuffer by lofing that which ignorant Admiration has unreasonably given him. To calumniate the Dead is Baseness, and to flatter them is furely Folly.

From Flattery, my Lord, either of the Dead or the Living, I wish to be clear, and have therefore folicited the Countenance of a Patron, whom, if I knew how to praise

him, I could praife with Truth, and have the World on my Side; whofe Candour and Humanity are univerfally acknowledged, and whose Judgment perhaps was then firft to be doubted, when he condefcended to admit this Address from,

My Lord,

Your Lordship's

moft obliged,

and most obedient,

humble Servant,

The AUTHOR.

CONTENTS

OF THE

FIRST VOLUME.

THE fifth Novel of the eighth Decad of
the Hecatomythi of Giraldi Cinthio.

25

38

Page

Obfervations on the Ufe Shakespear bas

made of the foregoing Novel in his Co-

medy called Measure for Meafure

The Ninth Novel of Bandello.

Obfervations on the Ufe Shakespear has

made of the foregoing Novel in bis

Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. 89

The feventh Novel of the third Decad of

the Hecatomythi of Giraldi Cinthio.

101

Obfervations on the Ufe Shakespear bas
made

125

135

made of the foregoing Novel in his Tra-

gedy of Othello.

The ninth Novel of the fecond Day of the

Decamerone of Boccaccio.

Obfervations on the Ufe Shakespear bas

made of the foregoing Novel in his Tra-

gedy of Cymbeline.

The ninth Novel of the third Day of the

Decamerone of Boccaccio.
169

Obfervations on the Ufe Shakespear bas

made of the foregoing Novel, in his Co-

medy of All's Well that ends Well.

185

155

The Thirty fixth Novel of Bandello. 197

Obfervations on the Ufe Shakespear bas

made of the foregoing Novel, in his Co-

medy called Twelfth Night, or What

.

You Will.

237

251

The Hiftory of Macbeth, collected from

Holingthed's Chronicles of England,

Scotland, and Ireland.

Obfervations on the Ufe Shakespear has

made of the foregoing History of Mac-

beth.

269

Shakespear

Shakespear Illuftrated.

င

The fifth Novel of the eighth Decad of the Hecatomythi of Giraldi Cinthio.

HE Roman Empire was at the Heighth of it's Grandeur and Power, when Maximine, a great and virtuous Prince, reigned over it; this Emperor, who defired nothing more ardently than the Welfare and Happiness of all his Subjects, was extremely nice in the Choice of those. Perfons whom he deputed to govern the Provinces dependant on the Empire, affigning thofe Employments only to Men whofe Integrity and Virtue were well known to him.

VOL. I.

B

It