th those of
Daniel, Drayton, Constable, Watson, and Barnes, formed the main channel
through which the French and Italian influences reached Shakespeare's.
However we may estimate the original element in his sonnets, and in our
opinion it is very great, there is no question of the author's having
had a thorough familiarity with contemporary sonnetteers.

Similarly we can be certain that he had read many of the elaborate
narrative poems then in vogue, a class to which he contributed _Venus
and Adonis_, _Lucrece_, and _A Lover's Complaint_. Daniel's _Rosamond_
and Marlowe's _Hero and Leander_ especially have left many traces, and
Daniel's _Barons' Wars_ is intimately related to _Richard II_ and _Henry
IV_. The longer prose fictions of the time he also watched, and Lyly's
_Euphues_ contributed the germ of a number of passages, as Lodge's
_Rosalynde_ and Greene's _Pandosto_ supplied the plots of _As You Like
It_ and _The Winter's Tale_ respectively.

Reference has already been made to his knowledge of folk beliefs about
fairies. To this should be added other supernatural beliefs, especially
as to ghosts, devils, and witches, evidence of his familiarity with
which will occur to every one. Matters of this sort were much discussed
in his time, the frequency of ghosts in Senecan plays having made them
conspicuous in Elizabethan imitations, and religious controversy having
stimulated interest in demonology. Several important books appeared on
the subject, and one of these at least Shakespeare read, Harsnett's
_Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures_, for from it Edgar, as Poor
Tom in _King Lear_, derived many of the names and phrases which occur in
his pretended ravings.

The most useful book in all his reading, if we judge by the amount of
his work that is based on it, was the second edition of the _Chronicles
of England, Scotland, and Ireland_, compiled by Raphael Holinshed. With
it he used the work by Hall on _The Union of Lancaster and York_, the
_Chronicles_ of Grafton and of Fabyan, and the _Annals_ of John Stowe.
On these were based the greater number of the historical plays,
_Macbeth_, and the political part of _Cymbeline_. In the case of _Henry
VIII_ there should be added the _Acts and Monuments_, better known as
the _Book of Martyrs_, of John Foxe.

[Page Heading: Contemporary Drama]

To deal adequately with Shakespeare's reading in the plays of his time
would be to write a history of the Elizabethan drama. Old