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_. Mr.
Langbaine could not conceive whence the Story of _Pericles_ could be
taken, "not meeting in History with any such _Prince of Tyre_"; yet his
legend may be found at large in old Gower, under the name of _Appolynus_.

_Pericles_ is one of the Plays omitted in the later Editions, as well as
the early Folios, and not improperly; tho' it was published many years
before the death of Shakespeare, with his name in the Title-page. Aulus
Gellius informs us that some Plays are ascribed absolutely to Plautus,
which he only _re-touched_ and _polished_; and this is undoubtedly the
case with our Author likewise. The revival of this performance, which Ben
Jonson calls _stale_in 1598.

I have met with a facetious piece of Sir John Harrington, printed in 1596
(and possibly there may be an earlier Edition), called, _The Metamorphosis
of Ajax_, where I suspect an allusion to the old Play: "Read the _booke_
of _Taming a Shrew_, which hath made a number of us so perfect, that _now_
every one can rule a Shrew in our Countrey, save he that hath hir."--I am
aware, a _modern_ Linguist may object that the word _Book_ does not at
present seem _dramatick_, but it was once almost _technically_ so: Gosson
in his _Schoole of Abuse, contayning a pleasaunt inuective against Poets,
Pipers, Players, Jesters, and such like Caterpillars of a Common-wealth_,
1579, mentions "twoo prose _Bookes_ plaied at the Belsauage"; and Hearne
tells us, in a Note at the end of _William of Worcester_,