" 'Twas I that led you through the painted meads, "Where the light fairies danc'd upon the flowers, "Hanging in ev'ry leaf an orient pearl.” So, in A Midsummer Night's Dream, "And hang a pearl in ev'ry cowslip's ear." Again, "And that same dew, which sometimes on the buds "Was wont to swell, like round and orient pearls, "Stood now within the pretty flouret's eyes, "Like tears," &c. There is no earlier edition of the anonymous play in which the foregoing lines are found, than that in 1600; but Dr. Dodipoll is mentioned by Nashe, in his preface to Gabriel Harvey's Hunt is up, printed in 1596. This, therefore, is another circumstance, that in some measure authorises the date here assigned to A Midsummer Night's Dream. The passage in the fifth act, which, with some probability, has been thought to allude to the death of Spenser, is not inconsistent with the early appearance of this comedy; for it might have been inserted between the time of the poet's death, and the year 1600, when the play was published. And indeed, if the allusion was intended, the passage must have been "The thrice three muses mourning for the death Of learning, late deceas'd in beggary." added added in that interval; for A Midsummer Night's Dream was certainly written in, or before, 1598; and Spenser, we are told by Sir James Ware (whose testimony with respect to this controverted point must have great weight), did not die till 1599: "others (he adds), have it wrongly, 1598 *." So careful a searcher into antiquity, who lived so near the time, is not likely to have been mistaken in a fact, concerning which he appears to have made particular inquiries. * Preface to Spenser's View of the State of Ireland. Dublin, fol. 1633. This treatise was written, according to Sir James Ware, in 1596. The testimony of that historian, relative to the time of Spenser's death, is confirmed by a fact related by Ben Jonson to Mr. Drummond of Hawthornden, and recorded by that writer. When Spenser and his wife were forced in great distress to fly from their house, which was burnt in the Irish Rebellion, the Earl of Essex sent him twenty pieces; but he refused them; telling the person that brought them, he was sure he had no time to spend them. He died soon after, according to Ben Jonson's account, in King-Street, Dublin. Lord Essex was not in Ireland in 1598, and was there from April to September in the following year.-If Spenser had died in London, as Cambden says he did, his death would probably have been mentioned by Rowland Whyte, in his letters to Sir Robert Sydney (brother to the poet's great patron), which are still extant, and contain a minute detail of most of the memorable occurrences of that time. It should likewise be remembered that Verses by Spenser are prefixed to Lewknor's Commonwealth and Government of Venice, printed in 1599. 9. ROMEO E e 9. ROMEO AND JULIET, 1595. It has been already observed, that our author, in his early plays, appears to have been much addicted to rhyming; a practice from which he gradually departed, though he never wholly deserted it. In this piece more rhymes, I believe, are found, than in any other of his plays, Love's Labour Lost and A Midsummer Night's Dream only excepted. This circumstance, the story on which it is founded, so likely to captivate a young poet, the imperfect form in which it originally appeared, and its very early publication *, all incline me to believe that this was Shakspere's first tragedy; for the three parts of K. Henry VI. do not pretend to that title. "A new ballad of Romeo and Juliet" (perhaps our author's play), was entered on the Stationers' books, August 5, 1596 †, and the first sketch of the play was printed *There is no edition of any of our author's genuine plays extant, prior to 1597, when Romeo and Juliet was published. + There is no entry in the Stationers' books relative to the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, antecedent to its publication in 1597, if this does not relate to it. This entry was made by Edward Whyte, and therefore is not likely to have related to the poem called Romeo and Juletta, which was entered in 1582, by Richard Tottel. How vague the description of plays was at this time, may, appear from the 3 following printed in 1597: but it did not appear in its present form till two years afterwards. Few of his plays appear to have been entered at Stationers-Hall, till they had been some time in possession of the stage; on which account it may be conjectured that this tragedy was written in 1595. If the following passage in an old comedy already mentioned, entitled Dr. Dodipoll, which had appeared before 1596, be considered as an imitation, it may add some weight to the supposition that Romeo and Juliet had been exhibited before that year: "The glorious parts of fair Lucilia. "Take them and join them in the heavenly spheres, following entry, which is found in the Stationers' books, an. 1590, and seems to relate to Marlowe's tragedy of Tamburlaine, published in that year, by Richard Jones: "To Richard Jones] Twoe Commical Discourses of Tamburlein, the Cythian Shepparde." In Marlowe's Tamburlaine, as originally performed, several comick interludes were introduced; whence, perhaps, the epithet comical was added to the title.As tragedies were sometimes entitled discourses, so a grave poem or sad discourse in verse (to use the language of the times), was frequently denominated a tragedy. All the poems inserted in the Mirrour för Magistrates, and some of Drayton's pieces, are called tragedies, by Meres and other ancient writers. Some of Sir David Lindsay's poems, though not in a dramatick form, are also by their author entitled tragedies. Eeij "And "And fix them there as an eternal light "For Lovers to adore and wonder at." Dr. Dodipoll. "Take him and cut him out into little stars, Romeo and Juliet. Mr. Steevens in his observations on Romeo and Juliet has quoted these lines from Daniel's Complaint of Rosamond: "And nought-respecting death (the last of paines) "Plac'd his pale colours (th' ensign of his might) "Upon his new-got spoil, &c." So in Romeo and Juliet, Act V. Sc. iii. "Beauty's ensign yet " Is crimson in thy lips, and in thy cheeks, That Shakspere imitated Daniel, or was imitated by him, there can, I think, be little doubt. The early appearance of The Complaint of Rosamond * (which is commended by Nashe, in a tract entitled Pierce Penni "A booke called Delia, containynge diverse sonates, with the Complainte of Rosamonde," was entered at Stationers-Hall by Simon Waterson, in Feb. 1591-2, lesee |