adding a greater interest to
contemporary presentations not only by the palpable reflection of
Spenser's point at Florio in the play on the word "undermine" in a
similar connection, but also as reflecting the wide latitude his
Italianate breeding and manners and his Mediterranean unmorality allowed
him and his type to take in conversing with English gentlewomen at that
period.

The Rev. J.H. Halpin was not far from the truth in saying that "Florio
was beset with tempers and oddities which exposed him more perhaps than
any man of his time to the ridicule of his contemporaries"; and that "he
was in his literary career, jealous, vain, irritable, pedantic,
bombastical, petulant, and quarrelsome, ever on the watch for an
affront, always in the attitude of a fretful porcupine."

Florio became connected as tutor of languages with the Earl of
Southampton some time before the end of April 1591, when he issued his
_Second Fruites_ and dedicated it to his recent patron, Nicholas Saunder
of Ewell. In this publication there is a passage which not only exhibits
the man's unblushing effrontery, but also gives us a passing glimpse of
his early relations with his noble patron, the spirit of which
Shakespeare reflects in Falstaff's impudent familiarity with Prince Hal.
This passage serves also to show that at the time it was written, the
last of April 1591, Florio had entered the pay and patronage of the Earl
of Southampton. He introduces two characters as follows, and, with true
Falstaffian assurance, gives them his own and the Earl of Southampton's
Christian names, Henry and John. Falstaff invariably addresses the
Prince as Hal.

HENRY. Let us make a match at tennis.

JOHN. Agreed, this fine morning calls for it.

HENRY. And after, we will go to dinner, and after dinner we will see
a play.

JOHN. The plaies they play in England are neither right comedies nor
right tragedies.

HENRY. But they do nothing but play every day.

JOHN. Yea: but they are neither right comedies nor right tragedies.

HENRY. How would you name them then?

JOHN. Representations of history, without any decorum.

It shall later be shown that Chapman also noticed Florio's presumption
in this instance, and that he recognised the fact, or else assumed as a
fact, that Florio's stricture on English historical drama was directed
against Shakespeare.

We may judge from the conversation between Henry and John that
Southampton,