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equal propriety, be ascribed to 1602, and it is not easy to determine in which of those years it was composed; but it is extremely probable that it was written in one of them. It was not printed till 1623.

A book or poem, called "The Life and Death of Thomas Woolsey Cardinall," which was entered on the books of the Stationers-Company, in the year 1599, perhaps suggested this subject to Shakspere.

24. TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, 1602.

Troilus and Cressida was entered at Stationers-Hall, Feb. 7, 1602-3, by J. Roberts, the Printer of Hamlet, The Merchant of Venice, and A Midsummer-Night's Dream. It was therefore, probably, written in 1602. It was printed in 1609, with a preface by the editor, who speaks of it as if it had not been then acted. But it is entered in 1602-3, "as acted by my Lord Chamberlen's men." The players at the Globe theatre, to which Shakspere belonged, were called the Lord Chamberlain's servants, till the year 1603. In that year they obtained a licence for their exhibitions from king James; and from that time they bore the more honourable appellation of his Majesty's servants. There can, therefore, be little doubt, that the Troilus and Cressida which is here entered as acted at Shakspere's theatre,

*No other play with this title has come down to us. We have, therefore, a right to conclude, that the play entered in the books of the Stationers-Company was Shakspere's.

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was his play, and was, if not represented, intended to have been represented there.

Perhaps the two discordant accounts, relative to this piece, may be thus reconciled. It might have been performed in 1602 at court, by the lord chamberlain's servants (as many plays at that time were), and yet not have been exhibited on the publick stage till some years afterwards. The editor in 1609 only says, had never been staled with the stage, never clapperclaw'd with the palms of the vulgar.”

"it

As a further proof of the early appearance of Troilus and Cressida, it may be observed, that an incident in it seems to be burlesqued in a comedy entitled Histriomastix, which, though not printed till 1610, must have been written before the death of queen Elizabeth, who, in the last act of the piece, is shadowed under the character of Astræa; and is spoken of as then living.

In our author's play, when Troilus and Cressida part, he gives her his sleeve; and she, in return, presents him with her glove.

To this circumstance these lines in Histriomastix seem to refer. They are spoken by Troilus and Cressida, who are introduced in an interlude :

Troi. "Come, Cressida, my cresset light,
Thy face doth shine both day and night,
Behold, behold, thy garter blue

Thy knight his valiant elbow weares,

That, when he shakes his furious speare,

The

The foe in shivering fearful sort

May lay him down in death to snort.
Cress. O knight, with valour in thy face,

Here take my skreene, weare it for grace;
Within thy helmet put the same,

Therewith to make thy enemies lame."

Dryden supposed Troilus and Cressida to have been one of Shakspere's earliest performances*, but has not mentioned on what principles he founded his judgment. Pope, on the other hand, thought it one of his last; grounding his opinion not only on the preface by the editor in 1609, but on "the great number of observations, both moral and political, with which this piece is crowded, more than any other of our author's." For my own part, were it not for the entry in the Stationers' books, I should have been led, both by the colour of the writing and by the above-mentioned preface, to class it (though not one of our author's happiest effusions) in 1608, rather than in that year in which it is here placed.

The tragedy which I have undertaken to correct was, in all probability, one of his first endeavours on the stage. Shakspere (as I hinted) in the apprenticeship of his writing, modelled it [the story of Lollius] into that play which is now called by the name of Troilus and Cressida.” -Dryden's preface to Troilus and Cressida.

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25. MEASURE FOR MEASURE, 1603.

This play was not registered at Stationers-Hall, nor printed, till 1623. But from two passages in it, which seem intended as a courtly apology for the stately and ungracious demeanour of king James I. on his entry into England, it appears probable that it was written soon after his accession to the throne:

"I'll privily away. I love the people,
"But do not like to stage me to their eyes.
Though it do well, I do not relish well
"Their loud applause, and aves vehement;
"Nor do I think the man of safe discretion
"That does affect it."

Measure for Measure, Act I. Sc. i.

Again, Act II. Sc. iv.

"So

"The general, subject to a well-wish'd king, Quit their own part, and in obsequious fondness "Croud to his presence, where their untaught love "Must needs appear offence *.”

King James was so much offended by the untaught, and, we may add, undeserved, gratulations of his

*See Mr. Tyrwhitt's note.

subjects,

subjects, on his entry into England, that he issued a proclamation, forbidding the people to resort to him.

"Afterwards," says the historian of his reign," in his publick appearances, especially in his sports, the accesses of the people made him so impatient, that he often dispersed them with frowns, that we may not say with curses*."

That Measure for Measure was written before 1607, may be fairly concluded from the following passage in a poem published in that year, which we have good ground to believe was copied from a similar thought in this play, as the author, at the end of his piece, professes a personal regard for Shakspere, and highly praises his Venus and Adonis † :

*Wilson's History of King James, ad ann. 1603.

+ See the verses alluded to, ante p. 268. note.

This writer does not seem to have been very scrupulous about adopting either the thoughts or expressions of his contemporaries; for in this poem are found two lines taken verbatim from Marston's Insatiate Countess, printed four years before Myrrha the Mother of Adonis, &c.

"Night like a masque was enter'd heaven's great hall, "With thousand torches ushering the way."

It appears from B. Jonson's Silent Woman, that W. Barksted was an actor, and was employed in the theatre where our author's plays were represented. He might, therefore, have performed a part in Measure for Measure, or have seen the copy before it was printed.

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