Quattro Comedie.: Cioè il Marescalco, la Cortegiana, la Talanta, l'Hipocrito, etc. Novellamente ritornate, per mezzo della stampa, a luce, a richiesta de conoscitori del lor valore.

[London: John Wolfe,], 1588. An Elizabethan printing of Aretino, perhaps read by Shakespeare First edition thus, a surreptitious London printing aimed at the Italian market, an attractive copy in contemporary vellum. A sustained argument has been made that Shakespeare read Aretino in this edition. The prominent Elizabethan printer John Wolfe (1548-1601) was "a notable publisher of Italian works, including those by Pietro Aretino and, inevitably perhaps, Machiavelli, probably employing the Italian refugee Petruccio Ubaldini as an editor and reader" (ODNB). He was close to the leading literary men of the day, and printed the first edition of Spenser's Faerie Queene. Four of Aretino's comedies are included: the Marescalco, Talanta, Cortigiana and Hipocrito; Wolfe apologises to the reader for not including the projected fifth, the Filosofo, as the text was unprocurable. Wolfe's edition seems to have been intended primarily for export to Italy, where surreptitious editions were in demand, as all of Aretino's works were banned by the Index from 1558 and local publishers avoided the author. Nonetheless, though intended for export, copies were certainly sold in London. Italian literature had a major influence on the Elizabethan dramatists, not least Shakespeare, whose works are riddled with Italian words and themes, and who set a third of his works in Italy. J. M. Lothian published a convincing thesis, arguing firstly that Shakespeare was familiar with Aretino, and that Aretino's influence is evident in the plays, and secondly that Wolfe's 1588 edition is that which Shakespeare would have read (see J. M. Lothian, "Shakespeare's Knowledge of Aretino's Plays", in The Modern Language Review; vol. 25, 1930). No translation of Aretino in English was available at the time. Small octavo (141 x 90 mm). Contemporary black vellum, spine lettered and tooled in gilt, ties perished. Neat notes in French to rear pastedown. Rear cover a little bowed with some wear to bottom corner, light residue of paper to front pastedown, front free endpaper absent, running small wormhole in front cover and gutter throughout occasionally shaving letters, some pages a little soiled. A very good copy. STC 19911; Pforzheimer 800.