ation.' In his 'Letters' (1721, p. 232) Dennis reduces the
period of composition to ten days--'a prodigious thing,' added Gildon,
{172a} 'where all is so well contrived and carried on without the least
confusion.' The localisation of the scene at Windsor, and the
complimentary references to Windsor Castle, corroborate the tradition
that the comedy was prepared to meet a royal command. An imperfect draft
of the play was printed by Thomas Creede in 1602; {172b} the folio of
1623 first supplied a complete version. The plot was probably suggested
by an Italian novel. A tale from Straparola's 'Notti' (iv. 4), of which
an adaptation figured in the miscellany of novels called Tarleton's
'Newes out of Purgatorie' (1590), another Italian tale from the
'Pecorone' of Ser Giovanni Fiorentino (i. 2), and a third romance, the
Fishwife's tale of Brainford in the collection of stories called
'Westward for Smelts,' {172c} supply incidents distantly resembling
episodes in the play. Nowhere has Shakespeare so vividly reflected the
bluff temper of contemporary middle-class society. The presentment of
the buoyant domestic life of an Elizabethan country town bears distinct
impress of Shakespeare's own experience. Again, there are literal
references to the neighbourhood of Stratford. Justice Shallow, whose
coat-of-arms is described as consisting of 'luces,' is thereby openly
identified with Shakespeare's early foe, Sir Thomas Lucy of Charlecote.
When Shakespeare makes Master Slender repeat the report that Master
Page's fallow greyhound was 'outrun on Cotsall' (I. i. 93), he testifies
to his interest in the coursing matches for which the Cotswold district
was famed.

'Henry V.'

The spirited character of Prince Hal was peculiarly congenial to its
creator, and in 'Henry V' Shakespeare, during 1598, brought his career to
its close. The play was performed early in 1599, probably in the newly
built Globe Theatre. Again Thomas Creede printed, in 1600, an imperfect
draft, which was thrice reissued before a complete version was supplied
in the First Folio of 1623. The dramatic interest of 'Henry V' is
slender. There is abundance of comic element, but death has removed
Falstaff, whose last moments are described with the simple pathos that
comes of a matchless art, and, though Falstaff's companions survive, they
are thin shadows of his substantial figure. New comic characters are
introduced in the persons of three soldiers respecti