In the following attempt to trace the progrefs of his dramatick art, probability alone is pretended to. The filence and inaccuracy of thofe perfons, who, after his death, had the revifal of his papers, will perhaps for ever prevent our attaining to any thing like proof on this head. Little then remains, but to collect into one view, from his feveral dramas, and from the ancient tracts in which they are mentioned, or alluded to, all the circumstances that can throw any light on this new and curious enquiry. From these circumftances, and from the entries in the books of the Stationers' company, extracted and now first published by Mr. Steevens, (to whom every admirer of Shakspeare has the highest obligations), it is probable, that the plays attributed to our author were written nearly in the following fucceffion; which, though it cannot at this day be ascertained.to be their true order, may yet be confidered as approaching nearer to it, than any which has been obferved in the various éditions of his works. The rejected pieces are here enumerated with the reft; but no opinion is thereby meant to be given concerning their authenticity. Of the nineteen genuine plays which were not printed in our author's life-time, the majority were, I believe, late compofitions. The following arrangement is in some mea NOTES. fure They are, King Henry VI. P. I. The Two Gentlemen of VeTona, The Winter's Tale, The Comedy of Errors, King John, All's Well that End's Well, As you like it, King Henry VIII. Measure for Meafure, Cymbeline, Macbeth, The Taming of the Shrew, Julius Cæfar, Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, Timon of Athens, Othello, The Tempeft, and Twelfth Night. Of thefe nineteen plays, four, viz. The first part of K. Henry VI. King John, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and The Comedy of Errors, were certainly early compofitions, and are an exception to the general truth of this obfervation. Perhaps, the ill fuccefs of the two latter, was the oc.cafion that they were not printed fo foon as his other early performances. Two others, viz. The Winter's Tale, and All's well that ends well, though fupposed to have been early productions, were, it must be acknowledged, not published in Shakspeare's lifetime; but for the dates of these we rely only on conjecture. This fuppofition is ftrongly confirmed by Meres's lift of our author's plays, in 1598. From that lift, and from other circumftances, we learn, that of the fixteen genuine plays which were printed in Shak fpeare's life-time, thirteen were written before the end of the year 1600.-The fixteen plays published in our author's fure formed on this idea. Two reafons may be affigned, why Shakspeare's late performances were not published till after his death. 1. If we fuppofe him to have written for the ftage during a period of twenty years, thofe pieces which were produced in the latter part of that period, were lefs likely to pafs through the prefs in his life-time, as the curiofity of the publick had not been fo long engaged by them, as by his early compofitions. 2. From the time that Shakspeare had the fuperintendance of a playhoufe, that is, from the year 1603, when he and feveral others obtained a licence from King James to exhibit comedics, tragedies, hiftories, &c. at the Globe Theatre, and elsewhere, it be came strongly his intereft to preferve thofe pieces unpublished, which were compofed between that year and the time of his retiring to the country; manufcript plays being then the great fupport of every theatre. Nor were the plays which he wrote after he became a manager, fo likely to get abroad, being confined to his own theatre, as his former productions, which probably had been acted on many different ftages, and of confequence afforded the players at the feveral houfes where they were exhibited, an eafy opportu nity of making out copies from the feparate parts tranfcribed for their ufe, and of felling fuch copies to printers; by which means, there is great reafon to believe, that they. NOTES. author's life-time, are-Love's Labour Loft, The Second and Third Parts of K. Henry VI. A Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Haflet, K. Richard II. K. Richard III. The Firft Part of K. Henry IV. The Merchant of Venice, The Second Part of K. Henry IV. K. Henry V. Much Ado about Nothing, The Merry Wives of Windfer, Troilus and Crefilla, and K. Lear. с None of the plays which in the enfuing lift are fuppofed to have been written fubfequently to this year, were printed till after the author's death, except K. Lear, the publication of which was probably haftened by that of the old play with the fame title, in 1605.-The copy of Troilus and Creda, which feems to have been compofed the year before K. James granted a licence to the company at the Globe Theatre, appears to have been obtained by fome uncommon artifice. "Thank fortune (lays the Editor) for the feape it hath made among you; fince, by the grand poffeffors' wills, I believe, you should have pray'd for them, rather than been pray'd."-By the grand poffeffors, Shakspeare and the other managers of the Globe Theatre, were clearly intended. VOL. I. [S] were In what year our author began to write for the ftage, or which was his first performance, has not been hitherto afcertained. And indeed we have fo few lights to direct our enquiries, that any fpeculation on this fubject may appear an idle expence of time. But the method which has been already marked out, requires that fuch facts fhould be mentioned, as may ferve in any manner to elucidate these points. Shakspeare was born on the 23d of April, 1564, and was probably married in, or before, September 1582, his eldeft daughter, Sufanna, having been baptized on the 26th of May, 1583. At what time he left Warwickshire, or was firft employed in the playhoufe, tradition does not inform us. However, as his fon Samuel and his daughter Judith were baptized at Stratford Feb. 2, 1584-5, we may prefume that he had not left the country at that time. He could not have wanted an eafy introduction to the theatre; for Thomas Green', a celebrated comedian, was NOTES. his There was not (fays Heywood in his preface to Greene's Tu quoque, a comedy,) an actor of his nature in his time, of better ability in the performance of what he undertook, more applauded by the audience, of greater grace at the court, or of more general love in the city." The birth-place of Thomas Greene is afcertained by the following lines, which he fpeaks in one of the old comedies, in the character of a clown: "I pratled poefie in my nurfe's arms, And, born where late our fwan of Aven fung, Chetwood quotes this paflage, in his British Theatre, from the comedy of the Two Maids of Moreclack; but no fuch paffage is there to be found. He deferves but little credit; having certain ly forged many of his dates; however, he probably met thefe lines in fome ancient play, though he forgot the name of the piece from which he tranfcribed them. Greene was a writer as well as an [S2] actor. his townfman, perhaps his relation, and Michael Drayton was likewife born in Warwickshire; the latter was nearly of his own age, and both were in fome degree of reputation foon after the year 1590. If I were to indulge a conjecture, I fhould name the middle of the year 1591, as the era when our author commenced a writer for the stage; at which time he was fomewhat more than twenty-feven years old. The reafons that induce me to fix on that period are thefe. In Webbe's Difcourfe of English Poetry, published in 1586, we meet with the names of moft of the celebrated poets of that time; particularly thofe of George Whetstone and Antony Munday, who were dramatick writers; but we find NOTES. actor. There are fome verfes of his prefixed to a collection of Drayton's poems, publifhed in the year 1613. He was perhaps a kinfman of Shakspeare's. In the register of the parish of Stratford, Thomas Greene, alias Shakfpere, is faid to have been buried March 6, 1689. He might have been the actor's father. The author of Promos and Cassandra, a play which furnished Shakspeare with the fable of Meafure for Meafure. This poet is mentioned by Mercs, in his Wit's Treasury, as an eminent comick writer, and the best plotter of his time. He feems to have been introduced under the name of Don Antonio Balladino, in a comedy that has been attributed to Ben Jonfon, called The Cafe is Altered, and from the following paffages in that piece appears to have been city-poet; whofe bufineis it was to compofe an annual panegyrick on the Lord Mayor, and to write verfes for the pageants: an office which has been difcontinued fince the death of Elkanah Settle in 1722: Onion. "Shall I request your name? Ant. My name is Antonio Balladino. Oni. Balladino! You are not pageant poet to the city of Milan,` Sir, are you? Ant. I fupply the place, Sir, when a worfe cannot be had, Sir.Did you fee the last pageant I fet forth?” Afterwards Antonio, fpeaking of the plays he had written, fays, "Let me have good ground-no matter for the pen; the plot fhall carry it. Oni. Indeed that's right; you are in print, already, for THE BEST PLOTTER. Ant. Ay; I might as well have been put in for a dumb-shew too. It is evident, that this poet is here intended to be ridiculed by Ben Jonton: but he might, notwithstanding, have been defervedly eminent. |