All Mr Shakespeare ever needed to set his mind a-racing was a few words, the merest outline of a plot. Often, hearing of some such, I saw him stop his ears, covering them suddenly with his hands, rather than listen to the actual conclusion of the story. He always preferred to hear half a promising tale, and then let his own wild fancy do the rest. In this way several of his plays had their beginnings.
John Florio was a curious gentleman. The feature of him which I remember best was his little wax-like hands. When he had completed a game at tennis the smell that his body exhaled was of sweet earth-flesh, the odour of mushrooms. He had long, bristling moustaches which he would twist between his fingers and thumbs as he talked to you. As his several books show, he was a man of incontestable erudition and culture, even if he did like torturing rats.
To give you some idea of Mr Shakespeare's debt to Mr Florio, I think I will quote first from the latter's First Fruits:
'We need not speak so much of love; all books are full of love, with so many authors, that it were labour lost to speak of love.'
That saying, of course, gave Mr Shakespeare the title of one of his first plays, Love's Labour's Lost.
Among the three hundred proverbs which Florio boasted of having introduced into England from Italy, Shakespeare uses (to my count) more than thirty, and there are a few of them which the poet quotes more than ten times. It is interesting and revealing, your author suggests, to see the manner in which Shakespeare incorporates Florio's 'golden sentences' in his dialogue or fits them into his verse:
'All that glistereth is not gold ...' All that glisters is not gold Golden tombs do dust enfold ... (Florio, First Fruits, page 32) (Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act II, Scene 5) 'More water flows by the mill than the miller knows ...' More water glideth by the mill than wots the miller of (First Fruits, page 34) (Titus Andronicus, Act II, Scene 1) 'When the cat is abroad the mice play ...' Playing the mouse in absence of the cat ...' (First Fruits, page 33) (Henry V, Act I, Scene 2) 'He that maketh not, marreth not ...' What make you? Nothing? What mar you then? (First Fruits, page 26) (As You Like It, Act I, Scene 1) 'An ill weed groweth apace ...' Small herbs have grace; great weeds do grow apace (First Fruits, page 31) (Richard III, Act II, Scene 4) 'Fast bind, fast find ...' Fast bind, fast find, (Second Fruits, page 15) A proverb never stale in thrifty mind (The Merchant of Venice, Act II, Scene 5) 'Give losers leave to speak ...' But I can give the loser leave to chide, (Second Fruits, page 69) And well such losers may have leave to speak
(Henry VI, Part II, Act III, Scene 1) 'The end maketh all men equal ...' One touch of nature makes the whole world kin ...' (First Fruits, page 31) (Troilus and Cressida, Act III, Scene 3) 'Necessity hath no law ...' Nature must obey necessity ... (First Fruits, page 32) (Julius Caesar, Act IV, Scene 3) 'That is quickly done, that is done well ...' If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well it were done quickly ... (First Fruits, page 27) (Macbeth, Act I, Scene 7)