Search Life & Times

Footnotes

1. The Comedy of Errors

   Sources:

   • Menaechmi, Plautus; translated by W. Warner (1595)
   • Amphitruo, Plautus -I.1, I.2, III.4, IV.1,2,3.

   Probable source:

   • Confessio Amantis, John Gower - Lib. 8

2. The Taming of the Shrew

   Source:

   • Supposes, George Gascoigne (1566)

   Possible source:

   • The Taming of a Shrew, Unknown (1594)

   Analogue:

   • Thrésor d'histoires admirables et mémorable, S. Goulart; translated by E. Grimeston (1607)

3. The Two Gentlemen of Verona

   Source:

   • Diana Enamorada, J. de Montemayor; translated by B. Yonge (1598) - Pt.1, Bk.II; Pt.1, Bk. VII

   Possible source:

   • The Governour, Sir Thomas Elyot (1531) - Bk. II Ch.XII (Titus and Gisippus)

   Analogues:

   • Euphues, The Anatomy of Wit, John Lyly (1579)
   • The Countesse of Pembroke's Arcadia, Sir Philip Sidney (1590) - Bk. II
   • Flavio TraditoComedia, Flamino Scala (1611)

4. Love's Labor's Lost

   Analogues:

   • The French Academie, Pierre de La Pimaudaye; translated by T. B[owes](1586)
   • Gesta Grayorum (1688)

   Historical parallel:

   • The Chronicles of Enguerrand de Monstrelet
   • The History of the Civil Wars of France, H.C. Davila (1678) - Book Eight.
   • Travels of Sir Jerome Horsey in Russia at the Close of the Sixteenth Century; ed. E.A. Bond (1865)

5. A Midsummer Night's Dream

   Source:

   • Metamorphoses, Ovid; translated by Arthur Golding 1575) - Book IV

   Probable sources:

   • Canterbury Tales [The Knight's Tale] by Geoffrey Chaucer.
   • "The Life of Theseus," Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans; translated by Sir Thomas North (1579)
   • Huon of Bourdeaux; translated by Lord Berners (c.1534)
   • The Discoverie of Witchcraft, by Reginald Scot (1584) - Bk.IV, Ch.X; Bk.VII,Ch.II,XV, Bk.V, Ch.III; Bk.XIII, Ch.XIX

   Possible sources:

   • The XI Bookes of the Golden Asse conteininge the Metamorphosie of Lucius Apuleius; translated by William Adlington. (1566) - Book II, Ch. 17
   • A Handefull of Pleasant Delites, Clement Robinson and divers others (1584)
   • Analogue:
   • Thesaurus Linguae Romanae et Britannicae, T. Cooper (1573 edn.) - (Midas, Pyramus)

   The Tragedy of Pyramus and Thisbe

6. The Merchant of Venice

   Source:

   • The Jew of Malta, Christopher Marlowe (1633)

   Probable sources:

   • Il Pecorone, Ser Giovanni Fiorentino (1558) - Day 4, Story I
   • Il Novellino of Masuccio; translated by W.G. Waters (1895) - The Fourteenth Story
   • Gesta Romanorum; ed. Sir F. Madden (1838) - Story LXVI

   Possible sources:

   • Zelauto or The Fountain of Fame, Anthony Munday (1580) - Book III
   • Analogue:
   • The Three Ladies of London, R[obert]. W[ilson]. (1584)
   • The Orator, Alexander Silvayn; translated by L.P. (1596) - No. 95
   • Confessio Amantis, John Gower - Bk.V

7. The Merry Wives of Windsor

   Probable source:

   • Metamorphoses, Ovid; translated by Arthur Golding (1567) - Book III, Lines 138-252

   Possible sources:

   • Tarltons Newes out of Purgatorie (1590) - "The Tale of the Two Lovers of Pisa"
   • Riche his Farewell to Militarie Profession, Barnaby Riche (1581) - "Of Two Brethren and their Wives"
   • Endimion,The Man in the Moone, John Lyly (1591) - Act IV, Sc.3

   Analogue:

   • Il Pecorone, Ser Giovanni Fiorentino (1558) - Giornata I, Novella II

   Account of a probable historical source:

   • Frederick Count Mompelgard in England (from J. Rathgeb's Journal, translated in England as Seen by Foreigners, W.B. Rye, 1865)

   Account of historical analogue:

   • The Governor of Dieppe in Trouble (Letter from Sir John Leveson)

8. Much Ado About Nothing

   Probable source:

   • Orlando Furioso, Ludovico Ariosto; translated by Sir John Harington (1591) - Book V
   • The Faerie Queene, Edmund Spenser (1596) - Book II, Canto IV, Stanzas XVI to XXXVIII (The Story of Phedon)
   • La Prima Parte de le Novelle del Bandello, Lucca (1554) - Novella XXII

   Analogue:

   • Fedele and Fortunio, M.A.[Anthony Munday?] (1585)

9. As You Like It

   Source:

   • Rosalynde, Thomas Lodge (1590)
   • Syr Clyomon and Clamydes, Anon. (1599)

10. Twelfth Night

    Sources:

    • Riche his Farewell to Militarie Profession, Barnaby Riche (1581) - "Of Apolonius and Silla"
    • Probable source:
    • The Deceived (Gl'Ingannati), by the Academy of the Thunderstruck in Siena (1537)

    Probable historical sources:

    • A letter by Roland White to Sir Robert Sydney
    • Merry Passages and Jests, Sir Nicholas L'Estrange
    • Analogue:
    • Gl'Inganni (The Deceived) by Nicolò Secchi (1547)

    Summary of dramatic analogue:

    • L'Interesse (Interest), by Nicolò Secchi (1581)

    Possible source:

    • The Famous History of Parismus, b Emanuel Forde (1598) - "The Loves of Violetta"

11. Troilus and Cressida

    Sources:

    • The Seaven Bookes of Homers Iliads; translated by George Chapman (1598)
    • The Iliads of Homer; translated by George Chapman (1611)
    • The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye, Raoul Lefevre; translated by William Caxton (c. 1474)
    • Metamorphoses, Ovid; translated by Arthur Golding (1567) - Books XII - XIII

    Possible source:

    • The Hystorye Sege and Dystruccyon of Troye, John Lydgate (1513)

    Analogue:

    • The Testament of Cresseid, Robert Henryson (1593)

12. All's Well That Ends Well

    Source:

    • The Palace of Pleasure, William Painter 1575) - Novel 38

13. Measure for Measure

    Source:

    • Promos and Cassandra, George Whetstone (1578)
    • Probable source:
    • Hecatommithi, G.B. Giraldi Cinthio (1583) - Decade 8, Novella 5 (The Story of Epitia)

    Possible source:

    • Epitia, G.B. Giraldi Cinthio (1583)

    Analogues:

    • The Second part ...of the Boke entituled Too Good To be true, Thomas Lupton (1581)
    • The Adventures of Brusanus, Prince of Hungaria, Barnaby Riche (1592)
    • De Sermone Domini in Monte Secundum Matthaeum, Saint Augustine of Hippo - Book I, Chapter 16