The Comedy of Errors is confeſſedly taken from the Menæchmi of Plautus; from the only play of Plautus which was then in Engliſh. What can be more probable, than that he who copied that, would have copied more; but that thoſe which were not tranſlated were inacceſſible?
Whether he knew the modern languages is uncertain. That his plays have ſome French ſcenes proves but little; he might eaſily procure them to be written, and probably, even though he had known the language in the common degree, he could not have written it without aſſiſtance. In the ſtory of Romeo and Juliet he is obſerved to have followed the Engliſh tranſlation, where it deviates from the Italian; but this on the other part proves nothing againſt his knowledge of the original. He was to copy, not what he knew himſelf, but what was known to his audience.
It is moſt likely that he had learned Latin ſufficiently to make him acquainted with conſtruction, but that he never advanced to an eaſy peruſal of the Roman authors. Concerning his ſkill in modern languages, I can find no ſufficient ground of determination; but as no imitations of French or Italian authors have been diſcovered, though the Italian poetry was then high in eſteem, I am inclined to believe, that he read little more than Engliſh, and choſe for his fables only ſuch tales as he found tranſlated.
That much knowledge is ſcattered over his works is very juſtly obſerved by Pope, but it is often ſuch
