Note 7 — MEDITATION AND IMAGINATION[6]

Florio's Montaigne. John Florio (1553-1625). A teacher of French and Italian in Oxford University, who in 1603 translated the essays of Montaigne, one copy of which, autographed by Shakespeare, is in the British Museum in London. From him Shakespeare perhaps learned French and Italian. In all probability many of the passages of wit and wisdom in plays like Hamlet and The Tempest, as well as in other plays, were suggested by Florio's translation of Montaigne.