It is as unnecessary to discuss the degrees of probability in Halpin's identifications as it was for him to elaborate them. Certainly it is likely that Shakespeare intended a compliment to his queen; it is possible that the "mermaid on a dolphin's back" was a reminiscence of a pageant which he might have visited Kenilworth at the age of eleven to see; and it may be true that he meant to hint at Leicester. On the other hand, I think that another explanation is more obvious and more rational. Shakespeare had to introduce into his play the magic herb which was to alter the loves of those into whose eyes it was squeezed. We may reasonably guess that he had read somewhere one of the many popular legends that explain why the violet is purple, why the rose is red, _etc._; there are some in Ovid's _Metamorphoses_[93] which Shakespeare read in Golding's translation. He saw an opportunity of paying a graceful compliment to Elizabeth by saying that the magic flower, once white, had been empurpled by a shaft of Cupid's drawn at the fair vestal and imperial votaress, who yet passed on untouched; "And maidens call it love-in-idleness" --a popular name for the common pansy. NOTES ON THE INTRODUCTION [1] For _The Knightes Tale_, see Prof. Skeat's edition (modern spelling) in the "King's Classics," and his excellent introduction. [2] was named [3] realm [4] called [5] were not [6] besieged [7] See Mr. R.B. McKerrow's note on Nashe's reference to the name in _Have with You to Saffron-Walden_ (_Works,_ iii. 111). [8] See Statius, _Thebais_, I, 13-14, etc. (Chaucer refers to "Stace of Thebes," _Knightes Tale_, 1436.) Athamas, having incurred the wrath of Hera, was seized with madness, and slew his son Learchus. His wife Ino threw herself, with his other son Melicertes, into the sea, and both were changed into sea-deities, Ino becoming Leucothea, and Melicertes Palaemon, whom the Greeks held to be friendly to the shipwrecked. The Romans identified him with Portunus, the protector of harbours. [9] See Skeat's _The Knight's Tale_, xi-xv. [10] little. [11] In this passage, Statius describes the meeting between Theseus, returning in triumph with Hippolyta, and the widows of those slain at the siege of Thebes, who complain that the tyrant Creon will not permit their husbands' bodies to be either burned or buried. This episode, as we shall see, is the opening of the _Knightes Tale,_ and reappears in a modified form in _The Two Noble Kinsmen._ [12] J. M. Rigg's introduction to his translation of the _Decameron_ (1903) [13] This opening, derived from Statius (see note, p. 13), serves merely to introduce the main story, much in the same way as the Theseus story in _A Midsummer-Night's Dream_ is simply the "enveloping action" of the play.