Page:Observations on an autograph of Shakespeare, and the orthography of his name.djvu/17

 led to make an uninhabited island the scene of his Tempest; and from the title "Of the Canniballes," as it stands in Florio, he has evidently, by transposition, (as remarked by Dr. Farmer,) formed the name of his man-monster, Caliban.

The copy of Montaigne's work in Mr. Patteson's hands has suffered in some degree from damp, so that the fly-leaves at the beginning and end have become loose, and the edges somewhat worn. On the top of the same page which contains Shakspere's autograph, are written in a smaller, and in my opinion, a more recent hand, two short sentences from the Thyestes of Seneca, Act. v. cecidit incassum dolor, and vota nonfaciam improba. The same hand, apparently, has written on the fly-leaf at the end of the volume many similar Latin sentences, with reference to the pages of Montaigne's work, from which they are all borrowed; such as Faber est suæ quisque fortunæ.—Festinatio tarda est.—Calamitosus est animus futari anxius, &c. Could we believe these to have proceeded from Shakspere's hand, they would acquire a high degree of interest; but after an attentive examination of them, I am persuaded they were added by a later pen, and in this opinion I have been confirmed by the judgment of other persons versed in the writings of that period. A very few marginal notes occur in the volume, at pp. 134, 254, 513, which are by the same hand, to which also in all probability we must assign the word "Thessayes," written in ink on the back of the volume. The binding is in its original state, and no doubt the same as when the book was read by Shakspere.

Having thus stated all I can collect relative to the