This passage is almost literally taken from Essay I. 30, 'On
Cannibals.' We shall later on show Shakspere's reason for giving
us this fanciful description of such an Utopian commonwealth.

36: Florio, after enumerating the difficulties he encountered in the
translation of the _Essays_, concludes his preface to the
courteous reader with the following words:--

'In summe, if any think he could do better, let him trie, then
will he better think of what is done. Seven or eight of great wit
and worth have assayed, but found those Essais no attempt for
French apprentises or Littletonians. If thus done it may please
you, as I wish it may and I hope it shall, and I with you shall be
pleased: though not, yet still I am.'

We learn, from this remark, of what great importance the _Essais_
must have been considered in literary circles, and it is not
improbable that a few attempts 'of the seven or eight of great wit
and worth' may have appeared in print long before Florio's
translation. We may well ask: Is it likely that the greatest
literary genius of his age should have been unaware of the
existence of a work which was considered of such importance that
'seven or eight of great wit and worth' thought it worth while to
attempt to translate it? Shakspere, who in _King Henry the Fifth_
(1599) wrote some scenes in French, must surely have had sufficient
knowledge of this language to read it.

37: Besides the quartos of 1603 and 1604, thee were reprints of the
latter in 1605 and 1611; also another edition without date.