Venetia! Venetia!
Chi non te vede non ti pretia.
Old Mantuan! Old Mantuan! who understandeth thee not, loveth thee not.
Love’s Labour Lost, iv, 2.
Where did Shakspere learn his Italian, which, although then a court language, he quotes but rarely, and in an awkward manner? Surely at second-hand, and probably quoting the phrases current at the period, or still more probably from conning in his spare moments:
An Italian Grammer, written in Latin by M. Scipio Lentulo: and turned into Englishe by Henry Grantham. Typis Tho. Vautrolerij.
London, 16mo., 1578.
This was put to press again in 1587. In Vautrollier’s ‘shop’ he would also have often in his hands:
Campo di Fior; or else the Flourie field of foure Languages, for the furtherance of the learners of the Latine, French, English, but chiefly of the Italian tongue. Imprinted at London, by Thos. Vautrollier, dwelling in the Black Friers by Ludgate.
16mo., 1583.
Here, again, we have a very extensive Italian vocabulary upon all common subjects quite sufficient for an occasional quotation; as to the plots taken from Italian sources, such as ‘Romeo and Juliet’, it seems to be now generally admitted that Shakspere in every instance followed the English translations.
But Shakspere knew also a little French, and uses a few colloquial sentences here and there. In one play indeed, Henry V, iii. 4, there is a short scene between the Princess and her attendant, in alternate French and English, which reads almost like a page of a Vocabulary. Shakspere’s knowledge of Latin was apparently about the same in extent; and for the uses to which he has applied both tongues, the Flourie Field of Four Languages, already quoted as the source of his Italian, would be quite sufficient. If not, he had the opportunity of consulting under his master’s roof
A Treatise on French Verbs.