not printed by Nich. Vavafour till 1633, as Tho. Heywood, who wrote the preface to it, informs us. In this manner the contending theatres (feventeen in number *) were prepared to affert a priority of title to any copies of dramatic performances; and thus were they aflifted by our ancient ftationers, who ftrengthened every claim of literary property, by entries fecured in a manner which was then fuppofed to be obligatory and legal.

I may add, that the difficulty of procuring licences was another reafon why fome theatrical publications were retarded and others entirely fuppreffed. As we cannot now difcover the motives which influenced the conduct of former Lord Chamberlains and Bishops, who ftopped the fale of feveral works, which neverthelefs have efcaped into the world, and appear to be of the most innocent nature, we

* Mr. Dodfley, in a note to the preface to his collection of Old Plays, has the following enumeration of the different theatres which had been built between the years 1570 and 1629, when that in White Friars was finished:- St. Paul's Singing-school. The Globe on the Bank-fide, Southwark, The Swan and the Hope there. The Fortune between Whitecrofs Street and Golding Lane, which Maitland tells us was the first playhouse erected in London. The Red Bull in St. John's Street. The Cross Keys in Gracechurch Street. The Tuns. The Theater. The Curtain. The Nursery in Barbican. One in Black Friers. One in White Friers. One in Salisbury Court. The Cockpit, and the Phoenix in Drury Lane."

To this account I may fubjoin, that the Fortune (as appears from the following advertisement in the Mercurius Politicus, Tuefday Feb. 14, to Tuesday 21, 1651,) must have been a place of confiderable extent; and it is by no means improbable that all the actors refided within its precincts. The Fortune playhouse fituate between Whitecrofs Street and Golding Lane, in the parif of St. Giles Cripplegate, with the ground thereunto belonging, is to be lett to be built upon; where 23 tenements may be erected, with gardens; and a street may be cut through for the better accommodation of the buildings." The Curtain was in Shoreditch, a part of which diftrict fill retains the name of The Curtain. The original fign hung out at this theatre was the painting of a firiped Curtain. We learn likewife from Prynne's Hiftriomaftix, that in the time of Queen Elizabeth there were two other playhoufes, the one called the Bell Savage (fituated, very probably, on Ludgate Hill,) the other in Bifhopfgate Street: and Taylor the Water-poet in "The true Caufe of the Water-men's Suit concerning Players, 1613," mentions another theatre called the Rofe.

may

may be tempted to regard their feverity as rather dictated by jealoufy and caprice, than by judgment and impartiality. See a note to my Advertisement which follows Dr. Johnson's

Preface.

The public is now in poffeffion of as accurate an account of the dates, &c. of Shakefpeare's works as perhaps will ever be compiled. This was by far the moft irkfome part of my undertaking, though facilitated as much as poffible by the kindness of Mr. Longman of Pater-nofter Row, who readily furnished me with the three earliest volumes of the records of the Stationers' Company, together with accommodations which rendered the perufal of them convenient to me though troublesome to himself.

Mr. Malone has attempted in the following pages to afcertain the chronological order in which the plays of Shakespeare were written. By the aid of the registers at Stationers' Hall, and fuch internal evidence as the pieces themselves fupply, he has fo happily accomplished his undertaking, that he only leaves me the power to thank him for an arrangement which I profess my inability either to dispute or to improve.

STEEVENS

AN

E

were Written.

Primufque per avia campi

Ufque procul, (necdum totas lux moverat umbras)
Nefcio quid vifu dubium, incertumque moveri,

Corporaque ire videt.

Trattando l'ombre come cofa falda.

STATIUS.

DANTE.

VERY circumftance that relates to those persons whofe writings we admire, interefts our curiofity. The time and place of their birth, their education and gradual attainments, the dates of their productions and the reception they feverally met with, their habits of life, their private friendships, and even their external form, are all points, which, how little foever they may have been adverted to by their contemporaries, ftrongly engage the attention of pofterity. Not fatisfied with receiving the aggre gated wifdom of ages as a free gift, we vifit the mansions where our inftructors are faid to have refided, we contemplate with pleasure the trees under whofe fhade they once repofed, and wish to fee and to converse with those fages, whofe labours have added ftrength to virtue, and efficacy to truth.

Shakspeare above all writers, fince the days of Homer, has excited this curiofity in the highest degree; as perhaps no poet of any nation was ever more idolized by his countrymen. An ardent defire to understand and explain his works, has, to the honour of the prefent age, so much encreased within thefe laft thirty years, that more has been

done

done towards their elucidation, during that period, than perhaps in a century before. All the ancient copies of his plays, hitherto difcovered, have been collated with the most fcrupulous accuracy. The meaneft books have been carefully examined, only because they were of the age in which he lived, and might happily throw a light on fome forgotten cuftom, or obfolete phrafeology: and, this object being ftill kept in view, the toil of wading through all fuch reading as was never read, has been chearfully endured, because no labour was thought too great, that might enable us to add one new laurel to the father of our drama. Almost every circumstance that tradition or hiftory has preferved relative to him or his works, has been inveftigated, and laid before the publick; and the avidity with which all communications of this kind have been received, fufficiently proves that the time expended in the purfuit has not been wholly mifemployed.

However, after the most diligent enquiries, very few particulars have been recovered, refpecting his private life, or literary hiftory: and while it has been the endeavour of all his editors and commentators, to illuftrate his obfcurities, and to regulate and correct his text, no attempt has been made to trace the progrefs and order of his plays. Yet furely it is no incurious fpeculation, to mark the gradations by

NOTES.

Within the period here mentioned, the commentaries of Warburton, Edwards, Heath, Johnfon, Tyrwhitt, Farmer, and Stee vens, have been published."

b It is not pretended that a regular fcale of gradual improvement is here prefented to the publick; or that, if even Shakspeare himfelf had left us a chronological lift of his dramas, it would exhibit fuch a scale. All that is meant, is, that, as his knowledge increafed, and as he became more converfant with the stage and with life, his performances in general were written more happily and with greater art; or (to ufe the words of Dr. Johnfon) "that however favoured by nature, he could only impart what he had learn ed, and as he muft encreafe his ideas, like other mortals, by gradual acquifition, be, like them, grew wifer as he grew older, could difplay life better as he knew it more, and inftruct with more efficacy, as he was himself more amply inftructed." Of this opinion alfo was Mr. Pope. It must be obferved, (fays he) that when his performances had merited the protection of his prince, and when the encouragé ment of the court had fucceeded to that of the town, the works of his riper years are manifeftly raised above thefe of his former-And Ï make

by which he rose from mediocrity to the fummit of excel ience; from artlefs and uninterefting dialogues, to those unparalleled compofitions, which have rendered him the delight and wonder of fucceffive ages.

The materials for afcertaining the order in which his plays were written, are indeed fo few, that, it is to be feared, nothing very decifive can be produced on this subject.

NOTES.

no doubt that this obfervation would be found true in every instance, were but editions extant from which we might learn the exact time when every piece was compofed, and whether writ for the town or the court. "-From the following lines it appears, that Dryden alfo thought that our author's moft imperfect plays were his earliest dramatick compofitions:

"Your Ben and Fletcher in their firft young flight,
"Did no Volpone, no Arbaces write;

"But hopp'd about, and fhort excurfions made.
"From bough to bough, as if they were afraid;
"And each were guilty of fome Slighted Maid.
"Shakspeare's own mufe his Pericles first bore,
"The Prince of Tyre was elder than the Moor:
""Tis miracle to fee a first good play;

"All hawthorns do not bloom on Christmas-day.
"A flender poet muft have time to grow,
"And fpread and burnish as his brothers do:
"Who ftill looks lean, fure with fome p-- is curft,
"But no man can be Falstaff fat at first.”

Prologue to the tragedy of Circe.

The plays which Shakspeare produced before the year 1600, are known, and are about eighteen in number. The rest of his dramas, we may conclude, were compofed between that year and the time of his retiring to the country. It is incumbent on thofe, who differ in opinion from the great authorities abovementioned, who think with Rowe, that " we are not to look for his beginning in his leaft perfect works," it is incumbent, I fay, on thofe perfons, to enumerate in the former clafs, that is, among the plays produced before 1600, compofitions of equal merit with Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, the Tempeft and Twelfth Night, which we have reafon to believe were all written in the latter period; and among his late performances, that is, among the plays which are fupposed to have appeared after the year 1600, to point out five pieces, as hafty, indigefted, and uninterefting, as the first and third parts of K. Henry VI. Love's Labour Loft, the Comedy of Errors, and the Two Gentlemen of Verona, which, we know, were among his eartier works.