In reply to J. M. G. of Worcester, who inquires for a MS. volume of English poetry containing some lines attributed to Shakspeare, and which is described in Thorpe's _Catalog_ of MSS. for 1831, I can supply some particulars which may assist him in the research. The MS., which at one period had belonged to Joseph Hazlewood, was purchased from Thorpe by the late Lord Viscount Kingsborough; after whose decease it was sold, in November, 1842, at Charles Sharpe's literary sale room, Anglesea Street, Dublin. It is No. 574. in the auction catalogue of that part of his lordship's library which was then brought to auction.
The volume has been noticed by Patrick Fraser Tytler, in his _Life of Sir Walter Raleigh_, Edinburgh, 1833 (in Appendix B, p. 436., of 2nd edit.), where, citing the passage from Collier, which is referred to by J. M. G., he asserts that the lines are not Shakspeare's, but Jonson's. But he does not appear to me to have established his case beyond doubt; as the lines, though found among Jonson's works, may, notwithstanding, be the production of some other writer: and why not of Shakspeare, to whom they are ascribed in the MS.? Some verses by Sir J. C. Hobhouse originally appeared as Lord Byron's: and there are { 524} numerous instances, both ancient and modern, of a similar attribution of works to other than their actual authors.
_The Island of Prospero._--We cannot assert that Shakspeare, in the _Tempest_, had any particular island in view as the scene of his immortal drama, though by some this has been stoutly maintained. Chalmers prefers one of the Bermudas. The Rev. J. Hunter, in his _Disquisition on the Scene, &c. of the Tempest_, endeavours to confer the honour on the Island of Lampedosa. In reference to this question, a statement of the pseudo-Aristotle is remarkable. In his work "[Greek: peri thaumasiôn akousmatôn]," he mentions Lipara, one of the Æolian Islands, lying to the north of Sicily, and nearly in the course of Shakspeare's Neapolitan fleet from Tunis to Naples. Among the [Greek: polla teratôdê] found there, he tells us:
"[Greek: Exakouesthai gar tumpanôn kai kumbalôn êchon gelôta te meta thorubou kai krotalôn enargôs. legousi de ti teratôdesteron gegonenai peri to spêlaion.]"