1: Arber's _English Scholars Library_, 1879, shows that this highly
interesting drama was for the first time given at Cambridge in
1602. If so, the manuscript has unquestionably received additions
during the four years before its appearance in print. The fact is,
we find in the play certain evident allusions which could not
possibly have been added before the years 1603-4; for instance,
references to the translators of Montaigne--John Florio, and the
friends who aided him;--references which must have been made after
the _Essais_ were published.
In act i. sc. 2, Judicio speaks of the English 'Flores Poetarum,
against whom can-quaffing hucksters shoot their pellets.' These
'_Flores_ Poetarum' are _Florio_ and his fellow-workers, among whom Ben
Jonson is also to be reckoned; and we shall see farther on that the
latter abuses these offensive hucksters as 'vernaculous orators,'
because they make Montaigne the target of their sneers. Again,
in act iv. sc. 2, Furor Poeticus, Ingenioso, and Phantasma indulge
in expressions which can only apply to the Dedications and the
Sonnets of Florio's translation. Phantasma, for instance, addresses
an Ode of Horace to himself:--
'Maecenas, atavis edite regibus,
O et praesidium et dulce decus meum
Dii faciant votis vela secunda tuis.'
The latter line ought to run:--
Sunt, quos curriculo pulverem Olympicum,
and if we take into consideration that Juror says in the same
scene:--
And when thy swelling vents amain,
Then Pisces be thy sporting chamberlain,
it is not asserting too much that these are manifest hits at Florio,
who, to please his Maecenas, tries with Dr.
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