DR. JOHNSON, G. STEEVENS, AND OTHERS,

REVISED BY

ISAAC REED, ESQ.

VOLUME IV.

Time, which is continually washing away the dissoluble Fabrics of other Poets, passes, without Injury by the Adamant of Shakespeare. Dr. Johnson's Preface.

NEW YORK:

PUBLISHED BY HENRY DURELL,

Succesor to William Dere, &

1817. cimitta

ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS

WELL.

OBSERVATIONS.

All's WELL THAT ENDS well.] The story of All's well that ends well, or, as I suppose it to have been sometimes called, Love's Labour Wonne, is originally indeed the property of Boccace, but it came immediately to Shakespeare from Painter's Giletta of Narbon, in the First Vol. of the Palace of Pleasure, 4to. 1566, p. 88.

FARMER. Shakespeare is indebted to the novel only for a few leading circumstances in the graver parts of the piece. The comic business appears to be entirely of his own for. mation.

STEEVENS.

This comedy, I imagine, was written in 1598. See An Attempt to ascertain the Order of Shakespeare's Plays, Vol. II,

MALONE