_Old Comedy_, and his etymological
learning in the word, _Desdemona_.

Surely poor Mr. Upton was very little acquainted with _Fairies_,
notwithstanding his laborious study of Spenser. The last authentick
account of them is from our countryman William Lilly; and it by no means
agrees with the _learned_ interpretation: for the _angelical Creatures_
appeared in his _Hurst_ wood in a _most illustrious Glory_,--"and indeed,"
says the Sage, "it is not given to very many persons to endure their
_glorious aspects_."

The only use of transcribing these things is to shew what absurdities men
for ever run into, when they lay down an Hypothesis, and afterward seek
for arguments in the support of it. What else could induce this man, by no
means a bad scholar, to doubt whether _Truepenny_ might not be derived
from {~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}; and quote upon us with much parade an old Scholiast on
Aristophanes?--I will not stop to confute him: nor take any notice of two
or three more Expressions, in which he was pleased to suppose some learned
meaning or other; all which he might have found in every Writer of the
time, or still more easily in the vulgar Translation of the Bible, by
consulting the Concordance of Alexander Cruden.

But whence have we the Plot of _Timon_, except from the Greek of
Lucian?--The Editors and Criticks have been never at a greater loss than in
their inquiries of this sort; and the source of a Tale hath been often in
vain sought abroad, which might easily have been found at home: My good
friend, the very ingenious Editor of the _Reliques of ancient English
Poetry_, hath shewn our Author to have been sometimes contented with a
legendary _Ballad_.

The Story of the _Misanthrope_ is told in almost every Collection of the
time; and particularly in two books, with which Shakespeare was intimately
acquainted; the _Palace of Pleasure_, and the _English Plutarch_. Indeed
from a passage in an old Play, called _Jack Drum's Entertainment_, I
conjecture that he had before made his appearance on the Stage.

Were this a proper place for such a disquisition, I could give you many
cases of this kind. We are sent for instance to Cinthio for the Plot of
_Measure for Measure_, and Shakespeare's judgement hath been attacked for
some