Ben Jonson, the greatest Dramatic Poet England ever produced. Langhorne, in his preface to Plutarch, referring to the time of Shakespeare, says: “The celebrated soliloquy ‘To be, or not to be,’ is taken almost verbatim from that philosopher (Plato); yet we have never found that Plato was translated in those times.” Montaigne is the base of Hamlet Othello: The Story of a Moorish Captain, from the Hecatommithi of Giraldi Cinthio, parte prima, decaterza, November 7 was derived entirely from the Italian of one of Cinthio’s novels: but Shakespeare knew nothing of Italian, even the translation could not be his, independent of the structure of the play. A French translation appeared in 1584; but of the French Shakespeare was as ignorant as of the Italian.