THE Composition and structure of Love's Labour's Lost unquestionably lead to a supposition that the main incidents were taken from some old romantic story not yet discovered; and that the tale, whenever it may be found, will probably have been rightly conjectured to belong to the cycle of the lighter romances of chivalry. Douce is of opinion it was borrowed from a French novel, but he relies chiefly upon the names of the characters, and on a palpable Gallicism in the fourth act ; while, on the other hand, the characters of the Pedant and the Braggart, both so called in the early copies, would induce us to believe that the comedy was grounded upon an Italian drama. The story is partially founded on history, as appears from the following passage in the Chronicles of Monstrelet :—“ Charles, king of Navarre, came to Paris to wait on the king. He negociated so successfully with the King and Privy Council, that he obtained a gift of the castle of Nemours, with some of its |