According to the above-quoted words of Jonson, _Hamlet_ seems to have
pleased at Court on its first appearance.
44: The following passage in Jonson's _Epicoene_ is also
interesting, though in the play itself it is not made to refer to
Montaigne but apparently to Plutarch and Seneca: 'Grave asses! mere
essayists: a few loose sentences, and that's all. A man could talk
so his whole age. I do utter as good things every hour if they were
collected and observed, as either of them.' May not such words have
fallen from Shakspere's lips, in regard to Montaigne, before an
intimate circle in the Mermaid Tavern?
45: This may point either to Montaigne or to Dr. Guinne, the
fellow-worker of Florio in the translation of the Essays, whom the
latter calls 'a monster-quelling Theseus or Hercules.'
46: The reasons which induce us to this opinion are the following:
The three authors of _Eastward Hoe_ were arrested on account of a
satire contained in this play against the Scots; James I., himself
a Scot, having become King of England a year before. The audacious
stage-poets were threatened with having their noses and ears cut
off. They were presently freed, however; probably through the
intervention of some noblemen. Soon afterwards, Jonson was again
in prison; and we suspect that this second imprisonment took place
in consequence of _Volpone_.
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