[5] Johnson’s concluding observation on this play, is not conceived with
    his usual judgment.  There is no analogy or resemblance whatever
    between the fairies of Spenser, and those of Shakespeare.  The
    fairies of Spenser, as appears from his description of them in the
    second book of the Faerie Queene, Canto 10. were a race of mortals
    created by Prometheus, of the human size, shape, and affections, and
    subject to death.  But those of Shakespeare, and of common tradition,
    as Johnson calls them, were a diminutive race of sportful beings,
    endowed with immortality and supernatural power, totally different
    from those of Spenser.—­M.  MASON.

[6] The first novel of the fourth day.  An epitome of the novels, from
    which the story of this play is supposed to be taken, is appended to
    it in Malone’s edition, v. 154.

[7] This opinion of the character of Bertram is examined at considerable
    length in the New Monthly Magazine, iv. 481.—­Ed.

[8] The notion that Shakespeare revised this play, though it has long
    prevailed, appears to me extremely doubtful; or to speak more
    plainly, I do not believe it.  MALONE.  See too the Essay on the
    Chronological order of Shakespeare’s plays, Malone’s edition, ii.

[9] For a full discussion of this point, see the Dissertation on the
    three parts of King Henry VI. tending to show that those plays were
    not written originally by Shakespeare.  The dissertation was written
    by Malone, and pronounced by Porson to be one of the most convincing
    pieces of criticism he had ever met with.  Malone’s Shakespeare,
    xviii. 557.

[10] See this opinion controverted.  Malone’s Shakespeare, xviii. 550. 
     —­Ed.

[11] This paragraph, apparently so unconnected with the preceding,
     refers to some critical dissertations on the character of Vice. 
     They may be found in Malone’s Shakespeare, xix. 244.  See likewise
     Pursuits of Literature, Dialogue the First.—­Ed.

[12] Chetwood says, that during one season it was exhibited 75 times. 
     See his History of the Stage, p. 68.—­Ed.

[13] Dr. Johnson told Mrs. Siddons that he admired her most in this
     character.—­Mrs. Piozzi.

[14] This statement is not quite accurate concerning the seven spurious
     plays, which the printer of the folio in 1664 improperly admitted
     into his volume.  The name of Shakespeare appears only in the
     title-pages of four of them:  Pericles, Sir John Oldcastle, the
     London Prodigal, and the Yorkshire Tragedy.  Malone’s Shak. xxi. 382.

[15] The first seven books of Chapman’s Homer were published in the year
     1596, and again in 1598.  The whole twenty-four of the Iliad
     appeared in 1611.—­STEEVENS.