to contend, viii. 116 Wage, to remunerate, vi. 263 Wan, to grow pale, vii. 255 Wanton, a trifler, a feeble person, vii. 344 Warn, to summon, vii. 79 Wassails, viii. 21 Watch-light, v. 478 Waters, for all, iii. 402 Water-work, water-colours, iv. 369 Web and pin, cataract in the eye, iii. 444; vii. 428 Week, in by the, ii. 352 Westward ho! an exclamation, iii. 377 When, an indication of impatience, iv. 117 Where, whereas, i. 130 Where, place, vii. 365 Whiffler, fifer, iv. 559 Wit, to know, viii. 6. 337 whither wilt? iii. 76 Wood, mad, wild, i. 113; ii. 410; v. 83; viii. 395 Woodcock, a silly person, ii. 261 Wooden, awkward, v. 92 Woodman, wencher, ii. 83 Woolvish, hairy? vi. 191 World, going to the, marrying, ii. 210; iii. 90. 218 Wreak, revenge, vi. 232 Wren of nine, iii. 381 Wrest, a tuning instrument? vi. 75 Yare, handy, nimble, i. 9. 82; ii. 72; iii. 391; viii. 36. 71 Ycleped, called, named, ii. 291 ; vii. 219. See also "Cleped." Year, what the good, i. 196; ii. 198; iv. 381; vii. 477 White, to hit the, to hit the mark, iii. 200 Yearning, or eaning time, time of par to spit, iv. 358 Whoo-bub or hubbub, iii. 515 Whooping, out of all, iii. 53 Wishtly, wishfully, iv. 208 Wits, the five, ii. 189; vii. 425 turition, i. ccxc; viii. 322 Yearn, to grieve, iv. 539 Yellow stockings, the fashion of wearing, iii. 370 Yeoman to a serjeant, iv. 364 Yield, to reward, iii. 62. 94; vii. 305 Zany, fool, ii. 367; iii. 340 "The Tempest" was first printed in the folio edition of “Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies," bearing date in 1623, where it stands first, and occupies nineteen pages, viz. from p. 1 to p. 19 inclusive. It fills the same place in the folios of 1632, 1664, and 1685. INTRODUCTION. A MATERIAL fact, in reference to the date of the first production of "The Tempest," has only been recently ascertained: we allude to the notice of the performance of it, before King James, on Nov. 1st, 1611', which is contained in the "Extracts from the Accounts of the Revels at Court," edited by Mr. P. Cunningham for the Shakespeare Society, p. 211: the memorandum is in the following form::"Hallomas nyght was presented att Whithall before the Kinges Majestie a play called the Tempest." In the margin is inserted the additional circumstance, that the performance was "by the King's Players;" and there can be no reasonable doubt that it was Shakespeare's drama, which had been written for that company. When it had been so written, is still a point of difficulty; but the probability, we think, is that it was selected by the Master of the Revels, for representation at Court in 1611, on account of its novelty and popularity on the public stage. Eleven other dramas, as appears by the same document, were exhibited between Oct. 31, 1611, and the same day in the next year; and it is remarkable that ten of these (as far as we possess any information respecting them) were comparatively new plays, and with regard to the eleventh, it was not more than three years old. We may, perhaps, be warranted in inferring, therefore, that “The Tempest" was also not then an old play. It seems to us, likewise, that the internal evidence, derived from style and language, clearly indicates that it was a late production, and that it belongs to about the same period of our great dramatist's literary history as his "Winter's Tale," which was also chosen for a Court-play, and represented at Whitehall only four days after "The Tempest" had been exhibited. In point of construction, it must be admitted at once that there is the most obvious dissimilarity, inasmuch as "The Winter's Tale" is a piece in which the unities are 'The earliest date hitherto discovered for the performance of "The Tempest" was "the beginning of the year 1613," which Malone established from Vertue's MSS.: it was then acted by "the King's company, before Prince Charles, the Princess Elizabeth, and the Prince Palatine," but where is not stated. 2 See note 2 to the Introduction to "The Winter's Tale," Vol. iii. p. 423. The particular play to which we refer is intitled in the Revels' Account "Lucrecia," which may have been either T. Heywood's "Rape of Lucrece," first printed in 1608, or a different tragedy on the same incidents. |