play in two parts, printed in 1591, for the composition of Shakspere *. In the first act of King John, an ancient tragedy, entitled Solyman and Perseda, is alluded to. The earliest edition of that play, now extant, is that of 1599, but it was written, and probably acted, many years before; for it was entered on the Stationers' books, by Edward Whyte, November 20, 1592. Marston's Insatiate Countess, printed in 1603, contains a passage, which, if it should be considered as an imitation of a similar one in King John, will ascertain this historical drama to have been written at least before that year: "Then how much more in me, whose youthful veins, "Like a proud river, overflow their bounds." It is observable, that on the republication of this old play in 1611, the two parts are set forth as they were (sundry times) lately. acted by the Queene's Majesties servants"—a description, which, probably, was copied literally from the former edition in 1591. If this had been really Shakspere's performance, it would have been described, on its re-impression, as acted by his Majesty's servants; for so runs the title of most of his genuine pieces, that were either originally printed or re-published after the year 1603. The bookseller, the better to impose on the publick, prefixed the letters W. Sh. to the new edition of this play in 1611, which do not appear in the former impression in 1591. 59 So in King John: "Why holds thine eye that lamentable rheum, "Like a proud river peering o'er his bounds.” 13. RICHARD II. 1597. King Richard II. was entered on the Stationers' books, August 29, 1597, and printed in that year. 14. RICHARD III. 1597. Entered at the Stationers-Hall, October 20, 1597. Printed in that year. 15. FIRST PART OF K. HENRY IV. 1597. Entered February 25, 1597, according to our present reckoning, 1598. Written, therefore, probably in 1597. Printed in 1598. 16. THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, 1598. Entered July 22, 1598; and mentioned by Meres in that year. Published in 1600. 17. ALL's WELL THAT ENDS WELL, 1598. All's Well that Ends Well was not entered at Stationers-Hall, nor printed, till 1623; but probably is the play mentioned by Meres, in 1598, under the title of Love's Labour Won. This comedy was, I believe, also sometimes called A Bad Beginning makes a Good Ending; for I find that a play with that title, together together with Hotspur, Benedict and Beatrix, and several others, was acted at court, by John Heminge's company, in the year 1613; and no such piece is to be found in any collection, however complete or extensive, nor is such a title preserved in any list or catalogue whatsoever. As the titles of Hotspur and Benedi&t and Beatrix, were substituted in the place of The First Part of King Henry IV. and Much Ado about Nothing, it is probable that the other was only a new name for All's Well that Ends Well. By an entry in the hand-writing of king Charles I. in a copy of the second edition of our author's plays in folio, which formerly belonged to that monarch, and is now in the possession of Mr. Steevens, it appears, that this play was also sometimes called Mr. Parolles. 18. SECOND PART OF K, HENRY IV. 1598,' The Second Part of K. Henry IV. was entered on the Stationers' books, August 23, 1600, and was printed in that year. It was, probably, written in the latterend of the year 1598; for from the epilogue it appears to have been composed before K. Henry V. which itself must have been written in, or before, 1599. I suppose this drama to have been written in the Later part of the year 1598, because Meres, who in his Wit's Treasury (which was not published before September in that year) has enumerated Henry IV. among our author's plays, does not speak of it as a Ff iij first first part, nor does he mention it as a play in two parts. His words are these; "As Plautus and Seneca are accounted the best for comedy and tragedy among the Latines; so Shakspere, among the English, is the most excellent in both kinds for the stage: for comedy, witness his Gentlemen of Verona, his Errors, his Love's Labour Lost, his Love's Labour Wonne, his MidsummerNight's Dream, and his Merchant of Venice; for tragedy *, his Richard II. Richard III. HENRY IV. K. John, Titus Andronicus, and his Romeo and Juliet†." The following allusion to one of the characters in this play, which is found in Ben Jonson's Every Man out of his Humour, A&t V. sc. ii. first acted in 1599, is an additional authority for supposing The Second Part of K. Henry IV. to have been written in 1598. "Savi. What's he, gentle Mons. Brisk? Not that gentleman ? "Fast. No, Lady; this is a kinsman to Justice Silence," 19. KING HENRY V. 1599. Mr. Pope thought that this historical drama was one of our author's latest compositions; but he was The circumstance of Hotspur's death in this play, and its being an historical drama, I suppose, induced Meres to denominate The First Part of King Henry IV. a tragedy. + Wit's Treasury, p. 282. evidently evidently mistaken. King Henry V. was entered on the Stationers' books, August 14, 1600, and printed in the same year. It was written after the Second Part of K. Henry IV. being promised in the epilogue of that play; and while the Earl of Essex was in Ireland*. Lord Essex went to Ireland, April 15, 1599, and returned to London on the 28th of September, in the same year. So that this play (unless the passage relative to him was inserted after the piece was finished) must have been composed between April and September 1599. Supposing that passage a subsequent insertion, the play was probably not written long before; for it is not mentioned by Meres in 1598. The prologue to Ben Jonson's Every Man in his Humour, seems clearly to allude to this play; and, if we were sure that it was written at the same time with the piece itself, might induce us, notwithstanding the silence of Meres, to place King Henry V. a year or two earlier; for Every Man in his Humour is said to have been acted in 1598. But I suspect that the prologue, which now appears before it, was not written till after 1601, when the play was printed without a prologue. It * See the Chorus to the fifth act of King Henry V. "He rather prays you will be pleas'd to see Prologue to Every Man in his Humour. Fol. 1616. appears |