The satirist Aretine. Pietro Aretino (1492–1557), the ‘Scourge of Princes.’ Machiavel. The Arte of Warre and The Florentine Historie appeared in English in 1560 and 1594 respectively.
Castiglione. Count Baldasare Castiglione’s Il Cortegiano, a Manual for Courtiers, was translated in 1561 by Sir Thomas Hoby.
Ronsard. Pierre de Ronsard (1524–85), ‘Prince of Poets.’
Du Bartas. Guillaume de Saluste Seigneur du Bartas (1544–1590), soldier, statesman and precursor of Milton as a writer on the theme of creation. His ‘Diuine Weekes and Workes’ were Englished in 1592 and later by ‘yt famous Philomusus,’ Joshua Sylvester (1563–1618). See Dr. Grosart’s edition of his works.
[187]. Fortunate fields and groves, etc. Paradise Lost, III. 568–70.
Prospero’s Enchanted Island. Modern editors give Eden’s History of Travayle, 1577, as the probable source of Setebos, etc.
Right well I wote. The Faerie Queene, Stanzas I.–III.
[188]. Lear ... old ballad. Or rather from Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Britonum, c. 1130. The ballad of King Leir (Percy’s Reliques) is probably of later date than Shakespeare.
Othello ... Italian novel. The Heccatommithi of Giraldi Cinthio. The work may have been known in England through a French translation.
Those bodiless creations. Hamlet, III. 4.