(ii.) The Waking Mans Dream.
IT strikes me that I have found the original of the Induction to " The Taming of the Shrew;" and my object in forwarding the present paper is that some member of the Shakespeare Society should throw farther light upon the subject.
Warton, in his ** History of English Poetry," iv. 117, edit. 1824, informs us that a collection of comic stories by Richard Edwards, dated 1570, and printed in black letter, contained the incidents of the Induction in question. This fact does not depend upon the statement of Collins that he had the book, but upon the assertion of Warton that he himself had seen it. He adds, that the library was dispersed, and nobody seems to have heard since of the volume. It would be singular if the amusing collection made by Edwards, and published in 1570, were never reprinted ; and I apprehend that I have now in my hands a portion of a reprint of it, containing the very tale on which the Induction to Shakespeare's " Taming of the Shrew," and to the older " Taming of a Shrew," was founded. It is a mere fragment of a book, and contains no more than this story, so that we can only judge of its date by its type and orthography: the type and orthography appear to me to be as old as about the year 1620 or 1630, and it begins upon p. 59, and ends upon p. 67. Of the orthography the reader will be able to form an opinion from what follows ; and, having been a student of old books for the last twenty or thirty years, I think I can speak positively to the date of the type, which is rather large Roman letter, much worn and battered. The words, " the fifth event," at the commencement, show that four stories preceded it, but by how many it was followed it is impossible to decide. 1 should not be surprised if the old language of 1570 had been in