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John Gerarde, The Herball, 1597 - daffodils, p.108

b>Autolycus sings of daffodils in The Winter’s Tale Autolycus, the former courtier turned pedlar, first arrives on the scene singing of the joys of spring: ‘When daffodils begin to peer... ...

Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, 1634 - Ariodante and Dalinda, illustration pl.V, p.31.

Illustration for the story on which Shakespeare based a comedy sub-plot. The tale of Ariodante, and Ginevra impersonated by Dalinda is the subject of a fine engraving in the 1634 edition of Harington's ...

Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, 1634 - portrait of Ariosto, prelim.p. 1r. title page, detail.

An Italian who inspired Shakespeare and his contemporaries. The work of Italian poet and dramatist Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533) had considerable influence over in English writing in Shakespeare's time, ...

Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, 1634 - shipwreck, pl.XLI.

Shipwrecks in the Mediterranean. Ariosto’s storms at sea are a possible source for Shakespeare's The Tempest or Pericles. Shipwrecks and storms often feature in Ariosto’s work, and such ...

Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, 1634 - title page, prelim.p.1r.

An English translation of a Shakespeare source. Shakespeare also knew the work of the Italian Renaissance poet Ludovico Ariosto. Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso was published in Italy in 1516, and ...

Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, 1634 -p. 32, Book 5, a source for a sub-plot.

The source for Hero and Claudio in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. Ariosto’s story of Ariodante and Genevra, as well as Matteo Bandello’s Novelle, was the main source for the Hero ...

Michel de Montaigne, The Essayes done into English by John Florio..., 1603 - detail p.558.

Shakespeare’s contemporary in France. Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533-1592) born in south-west France, was tutored at home, before studying medicine, and then law at university. He was responsible ...

Michel de Montaigne, The Essayes, 1603 - 'Of Cannibals' p.100.

A source for Caliban in Shakespeare's The Tempest. Florio’s translation of Montaigne was registered in 1600, and it is possible that Shakespeare saw a manuscript before the Essays were printed ...

Michel de Montaigne, The Essayes, 1603 - title page

A French text translated by an associate of Shakespeare. English born, John Florio, son of a protestant Italian refugee, was tutor to Lady Jane Grey, and later to Shakespeare’s patron Henry Wriothesley, ...

Ovid, Metamorphosis, 1603 - Book III, p. 32v. 'Phoebe'.

Stories for references in Shakespeare. Shakespeare's reading, and school memories of Ovid gave him not only references for stories that he could use, but names such as Phoebe, which occurs in the story ...

Ovid, Metamorphosis, 1603 - Book III, p. 33r, Hunting dogs'.

Shakespeare's source for Theseus praising his hounds in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Shakespeare drew on his memories of Ovid's story of Diana and Actaeon when Duke Theseus praises the barking ...

Ovid, Metamorphosis, 1603 - Book IV, p. 43v, 'Pyramus & Thisbe'..

Shakespeare’s source for the play of 'Pyramus and Thisbe'. Nick Bottom, the weaver and leading actor amongst the Athenian craftsmen in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, knows little about ...

Ovid, Metamorphosis, 1603 - Book IV, p. 44r,'Thisbe flees the lioness'..

Stories for sources in Shakespeare. The tale of the doomed lovers Pyramus and Thisbe was among those that Shakespeare remembered from Ovid, and used for A Midsummer Night’s Dream>, 1,2, lines ...

Ovid, Metamorphosis, 1603 - Book X, p. 119v, 'Orpheus' story'..

Stories for sources in Shakespeare. When Shakespeare came to London he had great opportunity for contact with books, whether in the city, on the bookstalls around St. Paul's Churchyard, or from the ...

Ovid, Metamorphosis, 1603 - Book X, p. 120r, 'Orpheus and Euridice'..

Stories for sources in Shakespeare. The story of Orpheus, the poet and singer who tried to save his wife, the nymph Euridice, from death by charming the king of the underworld with his music, was in ...

Ovid, Metamorphosis, 1603 - Book XII, p. 144v, 'Achilles'.

A story source for Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida. The fame of the Greek warrior, Achilles, and his companions was well-known in literature, but Shakespeare may first have discovered the story ...

Ovid, Metamorphosis, 1603 - Book XII, p. 145r, 'Trojan Nestor'..

A source for Shakespeare’s character of Nestor, the elderly nobleman in Troilus and Cressida This page in Ovid's story of the heroes of Greece and Troy may have provided Shakespeare with ideas ...

Ovid, Metamorphosis, 1603 - title page, p.1'Of shapes transformed...'.

A schoolbook that provided many sources for ideas in plays and poems One of the first books that Shakespeare experienced at Stratford grammar school was the Metamorphosis of Ovid. Written in Latin ...