longed, and that under the management of Henslowe, it may be looked upon as singular, that the latter should have been without a drama on that portion of English history until after 1599; and it is certainly not less singular, that as late as 1602 Ben Jonson should have been occupied in writing a new play upon the subject. Possibly, about that date Shakespeare's "Richard the Third" had been revived with the additions; and hence the employment of Jonson on a rival drama, and the publication of the third edition of Shakespeare's tragedy after an interval of four years. Malone was of opinion that Shakespeare wrote "Richard the Third" in 1593, but did not adduce a particle of evidence, and none in fact exists. We should be disposed to place it somewhat nearer the time of publication. KING HENRY VIII. "The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight," "Nor shall this peace sleep with her but as when The bird of wonder dies, the maiden phoenix, Her ashes new create another heir, As great in estimation as herself; So shall she leave her blessedness to one (When heaven shall call her from this cloud of darkness) Shall star-like rise, as great in fame as she was, Ingenuity cannot pervert these lines to any other meaning; but it has been said that they, and some others which follow them, were a subsequent introduction; and, moreover, that they were the work of Ben Jonson, on some revival of the play in the reign of James I. There does not exist the slightest evidence to establish either proposition. Any person, reading the whole of Cranmer's speech at the christening, can hardly fail to perceive such an entireness and sequence of thoughts and words in it, as to make it very unlikely to make it very unlikely that it was not dictated by the same intellect, and written by the same pen. Malone and others made up their minds that "Henry the Eighth " was produced before the death of Elizabeth; and finding the passage we have quoted directly in the teeth of this supposition, they charged it as a subsequent addition, fixed the authorship of it upon a different poet, and printed it within brackets. As to external evidence, there is one fact which has never had sufficient importance given to it. We allude to the following memorandum in the Registers of the Stationers' Company : "12 Feb. 1604 known before it appeared in the folio of 1623, and we may infer that Butter failed in getting "good allowance" with "the wardens' hands to it." The Globe Theatre was destroyed on 29th June, 1613, the thatch with which it was covered having been fired by the discharge of some small pieces of ordnance. (Hist. of Engl. Dram. Poetry and the Stage, vol. iii. p. 298.) It has been stated by Howes, in his continuation of Stowe's Chronicle, that the play then in a course of representation was "Henry the Eighth;" but Sir Henry Wotton, who is very particular in his description of the calamity, asserts that the play was called "All is True." There is little doubt that he is right, because a ballad, printed on the occasion, has the burden of "All is True" at the end of every stanza. The question then is, whether this was Shakespeare's "Henry the Eighth" under a different title, or a different play? Sir Henry Wotton informs us in terms that it was a new play," and as he was right in the title, we may have the more faith in his statement respecting the novelty of the performance. In the instance of "Henry the Eighth," as of many other works by our great dramatist, there is ground for believing that there existed a preceding play on the same story. Hen slowe's Diary affords us some curious and important evidence on this point, unknown to Malone. According to this authority two plays were written in the year 1601 for the Earl of Nottingham's players, on the events of the life of Cardinal Wolsey, including necessarily some of the chief incidents of the reign of Henry VIII. These plays consisted of a first and second part, the one called "The Rising of Cardinal Wolsey," and the other, "Cardinal Wolsey." We collect that the last was produced first, and the success it met with on the stage was perhaps the occasion of the second drama, containing, in fact, the commencement of the story. Of this course of proceeding Henslowe's Diary furnishes several other examples. The earliest entry relating to "Cardinal Wolsey," (the second play in the order of the incidents, though the earliest in point of production) is dated 5th June, 1601, when Henry Chettle was paid 20s. "for writing the book of Cardinal Wolsey." On the 14th July he was paid 40s. more on the same account, and in the whole, between 5th June and 17th July, he was paid 57., as large a sum as he usually obtained for a new play. We have no positive testimony of the success of "Cardinal Wolsey," of which Chettle was the sole author; but we are led to infer it, because very soon afterwards we find no fewer than four poets engaged upon the production of the drama under the title of "The Rising of Cardinal Wolsey," which, doubtless, related to his early life, and to his gradual advance in the favour of Henry VIII. These four poets were Drayton, Chettle, Munday, and Wentworth Smith; and so many pens, we may conjecture, were employed, that the play might be brought out with all dispatch, in order to follow up the popularity of what may be looked upon as the second part of the same "history." history." Another memorandum in Henslowe's Diary tends to the same conclusion, for it appears that the play was licensed piece-meal by the Master of the Revels, that it might be put into rehearsal as it proceeded, and represented immediately after it was finished. A farther point established by the same authority is, that Henslowe expended an unusual amount in getting up the drama. On the 10th Aug. 1601, he paid no less than 217. for "velvet, sattin, and taffeta" for the dresses, a sum equal now to about 1007. Upon the costumes only, in the whole, considerably more than 2007. were laid out, reckoning the value of money in 1601 at about five times its value at present. "Nath. Butter] Yf he get good allowance for the En-wrote "Henry the Eighth" in the winter of 1608-4, and We may conclude with tolerable certainty that Shakespeare terlude of K. Henry 8th before he begyn to print it; that it was first acted at the Globe soon after the commenceand then procure the wardens hands to yt for the ment of the season there, which seems to have begun toentrance of yt: he is to have the same for his copy." wards the close of April, as soon as a theatre open to the Chalmers asserted, without qualification, that this entry weather could be conveniently employed. The coronation referred to a contemporaneous play by Samuel Rowley, under procession of Anne Bullen forms a prominent feature in the the title of "When you see me you know me," 1605; but drama; and as the coronation of James I. and Anne of Denthe "enterlude " is expressly called in the entry "K. Henry mark took place on the 24th July, 1603, we may not unrea8th," and we feel no hesitation in concluding that it referred sonably suppose that the audiences at the Globe were into Shakespeare's drama, which had probably been brought tended to be reminded of that event, and that the show, deout at the Globe Theatre in the summer of 1604. The me-tailed with such unusual minuteness in the folio of 1623, was morandum, judging from its terms, seems to have been made, meant as a remote imitation of its splendour. The opinion, not at the instance of Nathaniel Butter, the bookseller, but that Shakespeare's "Henry the Eighth" was undoubtedly of the company to which Shakespeare belonged, and in order written after the accession of James I., was expressed and to prevent a surreptitious publication of the play. The printed by us nearly twenty years ago. The words "aged "12 Feb. 1604," was, of course, according to our present princess," (no part of the imputed addition by Ben Jonson) reckoning the 12 Feb. 1605, and at that date Butter had not would never have been used by Shakespeare during the life begun to print "Henry the Eighth." No edition of it is of Elizabeth. TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. The Famous Historie of Troylus and Cresseid. Excellently The Historie of Troylus and Cresseida. As it was acted by In the folio of 1623, "The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida" "Histories," and "Tragedies," at the beginning of the volume was most likely printed last, and the person who formed it accidentally omitted "Troilus and Cressida," because it had been as accidentally omitted in the pagination. No copy of the folio of 1623 is, we believe, known, which does not contain "Troilus and Cressida :" it is not there divided into acts and scenes, although at the commencement of the piece we have Actus Primus, Scana Prima. Such are the facts connected with the appearance of the tragedy in quarto and folio. It seems very evident that "Troilus and Cressida" was acted in the interval between the first and the second issue of the quarto, as printed by G. Eld for Bonian and Walley in the early part of 1609. It is probable that our great dramatist prepared it for the stage in the winter of 1608-9, with a view to its production at the Globe as soon as the season commenced at that theatre: before it was so produced, and after it had been licensed,1 Bonian and Walley seem to have possessed themselves of a copy of it ; and having procured it to be printed, issued it to the world as a new play, never staled with the stage, never clapperclawed with the palms of the vulgar." That they had obtained it without the consent of the company, "the grand possessors," as they are called, may be gathered from the The play was originally printed in 1609. It was formerly conclusion of the preface. The second issue of Bonian and supposed that there were two editions in that year, but they Walley's edition of 1609 was not made until after the tragedy were merely different issues of the same impression: the had been acted at the Globe, as is stated on the title-page. body of the work (with two exceptions, pointed out hereafter) This is an easy and intelligible mode of accounting for the is alike in each; they were from the types of the same main differences in the quarto copies; and it enables us with printer, and were published by the same booksellers. The some plausibility to conjecture, that the date when Shakestitle-pages, as may be seen on the opposite leaf, vary ma-peare wrote "Troilus and Cressida" was not long before it terially but there is another more remarkable alteration. was first represented, and a still shorter time before it was On the title-page of the copies first circulated, it is not stated first printed. that the drama had been represented by any company; and in a sort of preface headed, "A never Writer to an ever Reader. News," it is asserted that it had never been "staled with the stage, never clapper-clawed with the palms of the vulgar" in other words, that the play had not been acted. This was probably then true; but as "Troilus and Cressida" was very soon afterwards brought upon the stage, it became necessary for the publishers to substitute a new title-page, and to suppress their preface: accordingly a re-issue of the same edition took place, by the title-page of which it appeared, that the play was printed "as it was acted by the King's Majesty's servants at the Globe.” In the Stationers' Registers are two entries, of distinct dates, relating to a play, or plays, called, "Troilus and Cressida :" they are in the following terms : "7 Feb. 1602-3 Some difficulty has arisen out of the entry, already quoted, of a "Troilus and Cressida" in the Stationers' books, with the date of 7th Feb. 1602-3, in which entry it is stated that the play was "acted by the Lord Chamberlain's servants ;" the company to which Shakespeare belonged having been so denominated anterior to the license of James I. in May, 1608. This circumstance formed Malone's chief ground for contending that Shakespeare wrote his "Troilus and Cressida" in 1602. It may, however, be reasonably inferred that this was a different play on the same subject. Every body must be struck with the remarkable inequality of some parts of Shakespeare's "Troilus and Cressida," especially towards the conclusion: they could hardly have been written by the pen which produced the magnificent speeches of Ulysses and other earlier portions, and were probably relics of a drama acted by the Lord Chamberlain's servants about 1602, and in "Mr. Roberts] The booke of Troilus and Cresseda, as the spring of 1603 intended to be printed by Roberts. In April yt is acted by my Lo. Chamberlens men." "28 Jar. 1608-9 and May, 1599, it appears by Henslowe's Diary that he paid various sums to Dekker and Chettle for a play they were then “Rich. Bonion and Hen. Whalleys] Entered for their writing under the title of "Troilus and Cressida :" it may be copie under t' hands of Mr. Segar Deputy to concluded that it was soon afterwards acted by the Earl of Sir Geo. Bucke, and Mr. Warden Lownes: A Nottingham's players, for whom it was composed; and the booke called the History of Troylus and Cressula.""Troilus and Cressida," entered by Roberts on the 7th Feb. The edition of 1609 was, doubtless, published in conse- 1602-3, may have been a tragedy, not by Shakespeare, brought quence of the entry of "28 Jan. 1608-9;" but if Roberts out by the Lord Chamberlain's servants at the Globe, in comprinted a "Troilus and Cressida," whether by Shakespeare petition with their rivals at the Rose or Fortune. Of this or by any other dramatist, in consequence of the earlier entry piece it is not impossible that Shakespeare in some degree of "7 Feb. 1602-3," none such has come down to our time. availed himself; and he might be too much in haste to have Shakespeare's tragedy was not again printed, as far as can time to alter and improve all that his own taste and genius now be ascertained, until it appeared, under rather peculiar would otherwise have rejected. circumstances, in the folio of 1623. This brings us to the question of the source from which Shakespeare derived his plot: how far he did, or did not, follow the older play we suppose him to have employed, it is not possible to determine. In 1581 "a proper ballad, dialogue-wise, between Troilus and Cressida was entered on the Stationers' Registers by Edward White, and in the lax form of expression of that day this may have been a dramatic performance. More than a century earlier, viz. in 1471, Caxton had printed his "Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye," which at various dates, and in a cheap form, was reprinted. Lydgate's "History, Sege, and Destruccyon of Troye from Pynson's press in 1518; but Shakespeare seems to have been so attentive a reader of Chaucer's five books of “Troylus and Creseyda" (of which the last edition, anterior to the production of Shakespeare's play, appeared in 1602) as to have been considerably indebted to them. It is not easy to trace any direct or indirect obligations on the part of Shakespeare to Chapman's translation of Homer, of which the earliest portion came out in 1598. It is well known that the adventures of Troilus and Cressida are not any where mentioned in In that volume the dramatic works of Shakespeare, as is well known, are printed in three divisions-"Comedies," "Histories," and "Tragedies ;" and a list of them, under those heads is inserted at the commencement. In that list "Troilus and Cressida" is not found; and it is farther remarkable, that it is inserted near the middle of the folio of 1623, without any paging, excepting that the second leaf is numbered 79 and 80: the signatures also do not correspond with any others in the series. Hence it was inferred by Farmer, that the insertion of "Troilus and Cressida " was an afterthought by the player-editors, and that when the rest of the folio was printed, they had not intended to include it. It seems to us, that there is no adequate ground for this notion, and that the peculiar circumstances to which we have alluded may be sufficiently accounted for by the supposition that "Troilus and Cressida " was given to, and executed by, a different printer. The paging of the folio of 1623 is in several places irregular, and in the division of "Tragedies" (at the head of which "Troilus and Cressida" is placed) there is a mistake of 100 pages. The list of "Comedies," the Iliad. 1 We infer this from the terms of the entry in the Stationers' Registers, in which Sir George Buck, and his deputy, Segar, are mentioned. It is upon this evidence only that we know that Segar 17 came acted for the Master of the Revels. Sir George Buck was not formally appointed until 1610. Dryden produced an alteration of "Troilus and Cressida " at the Dorset Garden Theatre in 1679, and it was printed in the same year: in the preface he states that he had “refined Shakespeare's language, which before was obsolete." ADDRESS PREFIXED TO SOME COPIES OF THE EDITION OF 1609. After adverting to the real or supposed origin of the story ment of the received text. This copy of the second issue of of "Troilus and Cressida," Coleridge remarks in his Literary the quarto, 1609, seems originally to have belonged to HumRemains, vol. ii. p. 180, that it "can scarcely be classed with phry Dyson, a curious collector, who considerably outlived his dramas of Greek and Roman History; but it forms an in- Shakespeare, and who registers on the title-page, with the termediate link between the fictitious Greek and Roman His- attestation of his signature, that "Troilus and Cressida" was tories, which we may call legendary dramas, and the proper" printed amongest the workes" of Shakespeare, referring of ancient histories; that is, between the Pericles or Titus An- course to the folio of 1623. dronicus, and the Coriolanus or Julius Cæsar." He then adverts to the characters of the hero and heroine, and the purpose Shakespeare had in view of pourtraying them, and goes on to observe:-"I am half inclined to believe that Shakespeare's main object, or shall I rather say, his ruling impulse, was to translate the poetic heroes of paganism into the not less rude, but more intellectually vigorous, and more featurely, warriors of Christian chivalry,-and to substantiate the distinct and graceful profiles or outlines of the Homeric epic into the flesh and blood of the romantic drama, -in short, to give a grand history-piece in the robust style of Albert Durer." Consistently in some degree with this opinion, A never Writer to an ever Reader. News1. Schlegel remarks, that "the whole play is one continued irony of the crown of all heroic tales-the tale of Troy," and after the stage, never clapper-clawed with the palms of the vulgar, Eternal reader, you have here a new play, never staled with dwelling briefly upon this point, he adds:-" in all this let no and yet passing full of the palm comical; for it is a birth of man conceive that an indignity was intended to Homer: Shakespeare had not the Iliad before him, but the chivalrous your brain, that never undertook any thing comical vainly: romances of the Trojan war derived from Dares Phrygius." and were but the vain names of comedies changed for the Shakespeare, in fact, found the story popular, and he applied titles of commodities, or of plays for pleas, you should see all those grand censors, that now style them such vanities, flock it to a popular purpose in a popular manner. One reason for thinking that "Troilus and Cressida" to them for the main grace of their gravities; especially this came from the hands of a different printer, though little or author's comedies, that are so framed to the life, that they no distinction can be traced in the type, is that there is hardly serve for the most common commentaries of all the actions of our lives, showing such a dexterity and power of wit, that any play in the folio of 1623 which contains so many errors of the press. The quarto of 1609 was unquestionably the the most displeased with plays are pleased with his comedies. foundation of the text of the folio, for in various instances And all such dull and heavy-witted worldlings, as were never the latter adopts the literal blunders of the former: it besides capable of the wit of a comedy, coming by report of them to introduces not a few important corruptions, for which it is not his representations, have found that wit there that they never easy to account, so that the language of Shakespeare, on the found in themselves, and have parted better-witted than they whole, is perhaps best represented in the quarto. There came feeling an edge of wit set upon them, more than ever however, some valuable additions in the folio, not found in they dreamed they had brain to grind it on. So much and the quarto, while on the other hand the quarto contains such savoured salt of wit is in his comedies, that they seem passages omitted in the folio, though sometimes absolutely (for their height of pleasure) to be born in that sea that necessary to the sense. The variations, whether important brought forth Venus. Amongst all there is none more witty or comparatively insignificant, are noted at the foot of the than this; and had I time I would comment upon it, though page; but there are two instances deserving notice in which I know it needs not, (for so much as will make you think our text differs from that of all preceding editions. It has your testern well bestowed) but for so much worth, as even been thought that the quarto impressions of 1609, as far as poor I know to be stuffed in it. It deserves such a labour, regards the body of the play, are identical. Such is not pre- this, that when he is gone, and his comedies out of sale, you as well as the best comedy in Terence or Plautus: and believe cisely the case, and a copy of the drama issued after it had been "acted by the King's Majesty's servants at the Globe," will scramble for them, and set up a new English inquisition.a acted by the King's Majesty's servants at the Globe," belonging to the Duke of Devonshire, contains two valuable Take this for a warning, and at the peril of your pleasure's improvements of the text, as it had been given in the earlier loss, and judgment's, refuse not, nor like this the less for not copies published before it had been performed. The first of being sullied with the smoky breath of the multitude; but these occurs in Act iii. sc. 2, where Troilus, anticipating the thank fortune for the scape it hath made amongst you, since entrance of Cressida, exclaims, as we find the passage in all by the grand possessors wills, I believe, you should have prayed for them, rather than been prayed. And so I leave all such to be prayed for (for the states of their wits' healths) that will not praise it.- Vale. modern editions, "I am giddy expectation whirls me round. That it enchants my sense; what will it be are, For thrice-reputed nectar," the Duke of Devonshire's copy of the quarto, 1609, has "thrice-repured nectar," or thrice purified and refined nectar. The other instance of the same kind occurs near the end of the play (Act v. sc. 7.) where Achilles is exciting his armed Myrmidons to the slaughter of Hector, and tells them, "Empale him with your weapons round about: CORIOLANUS. The Tragedy of Coriolanus" was first printed in the folio of 1623, where it occupies thirty pages, viz. from p. 1 to p. 30 inclusive, a new pagination commencing with that drama. In the folio of 1632 the new pagination begins with "Troilus and Cressida," and in the folios of 1664 and 1685"Coriolanus " is inserted in the same order. NOTHING has yet been discovered to lead to the belief that there was a play on the story of Coriolanus anterior to ShakeThus it stands in all editions, from the folio of 1623 down-speare's tragedy. Ilenslowe's Diary contains no hint of the wards, and the commentators have been at some pains to ex- kind. plain the phrase "execute your arms," when in truth, as Steevens suspected, it is nothing but a misprint for "execute your aims," as appears upon the authority of the quarto, 1609, in the collection of the Duke of Devonshire: for Achilles, to charge his followers to encircle Hector with their weapons, and then to execute their aims against him in the fellest manner, requires no explanation, and is an improve 1 A never Writer to an ever Reader. News.] This address, or epistle, is only found in such copies of "Troilus and Cressida" as do not state on the title-page that it "was acted by the King's Majesty's servants at the Globe." See Introduction. 2 and set up a new English inquisition.] This prophecy has been well verified of late years, when (to say nothing of the prices of first editions of Shakespeare's undoubted works) 100%. have been given for a copy of the old "Taming of a Shrew," 1594, and 1307. for The True Tragedy of Richard Duke of York," 1595, merely because they were plays which Shakespeare made use of in his compositions. The materials for this drama appear to have been derived exclusively from "the Life of Caius Martius Coriolanus," in the early translation of Plutarch by Sir Thomas North. That translation came from the press in folio in 1579, with the following title: "The Lives of the noble Grecians and Romanes, compared together by that grave learned Philosopher and Historiographer, Plutarke of Charonea." It was avowedly 3 rather than been prayed.] This passage refers, probably, to the unwillingness of the company to which Shakespeare belonged to allow any of their plays to be printed. Such seems to have been the case with all the associations of actors, and hence the imperfect manner in which most of the dramas of the time have come down to us, and the few that issued from the press, compared with the number that were written. The word "them," in " prayed for them," refers, as Mr. Barron Field suggests to me, not to the "grand possessors," but to his comedies," mentioned above. of the revolting nature of the plot. Compared with the ver sification of Greene, Peele, or Lodge, the lines in "Titus Andronicus" will be found to run with ease and variety, and they are scarcely inferior to the later and better productions "The Tragedy of Coriolanus" originally appeared in the of Marlowe. Neither is internal evidence wholly wanting, for folio of 1623, where it is divided into acts but not into scenes; words and phrases employed by Shakespeare in his other and it was registered at Stationers' Hall by Blount and Jag-works may be pointed out; and in Act iii. sc. 1, we meet a regard on the 8th of November of that year, as one of the markable expression, which is also contained in "Venus and copies which had not been "entered to other men." Adonis." Hence we infer that there had been no previous edition of it With reference to the general complexity of the drama, and in quarto. Malone supposed that "Coriolanus was written the character of the plot, it must also be borne in mind that in 1610; but we are destitute of all evidence on the point, it was produced at a time, when scenes of horror were especibeyond what may be derived from the style of composition:ally welcome to public audiences, and when pieces were actuthis would certainly induce us to fix it somewhat late in the career of our great dramatist. made from the French of Amiot, Bishop of Auxerre, and ap- to recollect that our dramatic poets were then only beginning pears to have been very popular: though published at a high to throw off the shackles of rhyme, and their versification parprice (equal to about 57. of our present money), it was took of the weight and monotony which were the usual accomseveral times reprinted; and we may, perhaps, presume that paniments of couplets. "Titus Andronicus" is to be read our great dramatist made use of an impression nearer his own under this impression, and many passages will then be found time, possibly that of 1595. In many of the principal in it which, we think, are remarkable indications of skill and speeches he has followed this authority with verbal exact-power in an unpractised dramatist: as a poetical production ness; and he was indebted to it for the whole conduct of his it has not hitherto had justice done to it, on account, partly, plot. The action occupies less than four years, for it cominences subsequent to the retirement of the people to Mons Sacer in 262, after the foundation of Rome, and terminates with the death of Coriolanus in A. U. C. 266. It is on the whole well printed for the time in the folio of 1623; but in Act ii. sc. 3, either the transcriber of the manuscript or the compositor must have omitted a line, which Pope supplied from conjecture (with the aid of North's Plutarch), and which has ever since been received into the text, because it is absolutely necessary to the intelligibility of the passage. For the sake of greater distinction, we have printed the line within brackets, besides pointing out the circumstance in a note. TITUS ANDRONICUS. ally recommended to their admiration in consequence of the blood and slaughter with which they abounded. Shakespeare, perhaps, took up the subject on this account, and he worked it out in such a way as, prior to the introduction and formation of a purer taste, would best gratify those for whose amusement it was intended. "6 Feb. 1593 John Danter] A booke entitled a noble Roman Historye of The oldest known edition of "Titus Andronicus" bears date in 1600: two copies of it are extant, the one in the collection of Lord Francis Egerton, now before us, and the other in the Signet Library at Edinburgh. This second copy was not discovered until very recently, and we feel convinced that a more ancient impression will some time or other again be brought to light. That it once existed, we have the testimony of Langbaine, in his "Account of English Dramatic Poets, 8 vo. 1691, where he tells us that the play was "first printed The most lamentable Romaine Tragedie of Titus Andronicus. 4to. Lond. 1594." Consistently with this assertion we find the As it hath sundry times beene playde by the Right Honour-following entry in the Registers of the Stationers' Company :able the Earle of Pembrooke, the Earle of Darbie, the Earle of Sussex, and the Lorde Chamberlaine theyr Seruants. At London, Printed by I. R. for Edward White, and are to bee solde at his shoppe, at the little North doore of Paules, at the signe of the Gun. 1600. 4to. 40 leaves. The most lamentable Tragedie of Titus Andronicus. As it hath sundry times beene plaide by the Kings Maiesties Seruants. London, Printed for Eedward White, and are to be solde at his shoppe, nere the little North dore of Pauls, at the signe of the Gun. 1611. 4to. 40 leaves. In the folio of 1623, "The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus" occupies twenty-two pages, in the division of "Tragedies," viz. from p. 31 to p. 52 inclusive. The three later folios, of course, insert it in the same part of the volume. WE feel no hesitation in assigning “Titus Andronicus" to Shakespeare. Whether he may lay claim to it as the author of the entire tragedy, or only in a qualified sense, as having made additions to, and improvements in it, is a different and a more difficult question. The Stationers' books contain several subsequent memoranda respecting "Titus Andronicus," bearing date 19th April, 1602, 14th Dec. 1624, and 8th Nov. 1680 but none which seems to have relation to the editions of 1600 and 1611. No quarto impressions of a subsequent date are known, and the tragedy next appeared in the folio of 1628. The folio was printed from the quarto of 1611, but with the addition of a short scene in the third Act, which otherwise, according to the divisions there adopted, would have consisted of only one scene. The wording of the title-page of the edition of 1600 is remarkable, although it has hitherto been passed over without due notice: it professes that the drama had been played not only by." the Lord Chamberlain's servants," of whom Shakespeare was one, but by the theatrical servants of the Earl of Pembroke, the Earl of Derby, and the Earl of Sussex. The We find it given to him by his contemporary, Francis Meres, performance of Shakespeare's plays seems almost uniformly in his Palladis Tamia, 1598, where he mentions "Titus An- to have been confined to the company to which he belonged; dronicus" in immediate connection with "Richard II.," but we know from Henslowe's Diary that between 3rd June, "Richard III.," "Henry IV.," "King John," and "Roméo 1594, and 15th Nov. 1596, the Lord Chamberlain's servants and Juliet." It was also inserted in the folio of 1628 by were acting in apparent conjunction with those of the Lord Shakespeare's fellow-actors, Heminge and Condell, and they Admiral2: one of the plays, enumerated by Henslowe as havplace it between "Coriolanus" and "Romeo and Juliet." ing been acted in this interval, is "Titus Andronicus," which Had it not been by our great dramatist, Meres, who was well circumstance he records under date of 12th June, 1594. This acquainted with the literature of his time, would not have may have been the very play Shakespeare had written, and attributed it to him; and the player-editors, who had been which having been thus represented by several companies, Shakespeare's "fellows and friends," and were men of char-although the Earl of Nottingham's servants was not one of acter and experience, would not have included it in their vol-them, the fact was stated on the title-page of the earliest exume. These two facts are, in our view, sufficient1. It was, undoubtedly, one of his earliest, if not his very earliest dramatic production. We are not to suppose that at the time he first joined a theatrical company in London, when he might not be more than twenty-two or twenty-three years old, his style was as formed and as matured as it afterwards became all are aware that there is a most marked distinction between his mode of composition early and late in life; as exhibited, for instance, in "Love's Labour's Lost," and in "The Winter's Tale" and we apprehend that "Titus Andronicus" belongs to a period even anterior to the former. Supposing “Titus Andronicus" to have been written about 1588, we are tant impression. It is to be observed, however, that Henslowe has an entry of the performance of "Titus Andronicus" on the 23rd Jan. 1593-4, when it appears to have been a new play. The "Titus Andronicus," therefore, acted on 12th June, 1594, may have been a repetition of a drama, which possibly had been got up for Henslowe, in consequence of the success of a tragedy upon the same story, the property of a rival company. There can be little doubt that Shakespeare's “Titus Andronicus" was written several years earlier. It is very possible that Shakespeare's "Titus Andronicus" was founded upon some anterior dramatic performance, but on this point we have no evidence beyond what may be colspeare only gave "some master-touches to one or two of the principal characters." 1 We consider Ravenscroft's testimony, in his alteration of "Titus Andronicus," (acted about 1678, and printed nine years afterwards) of very little value: in his suppressed Prologue he asserted it to be the 2 See "The Memoirs of Edward Alleyn," published by the Shakeunquestionable work of Shakespeare, while in his preface to the speare Society, p. 22. The theatre the Lord Chamberlain's and the printed copy in 1687, he mentions it as a stage-tradition, that Shake-Lord Admiral's players jointly occupied, was that at Newington Butts. lected from the piece itself, in certain real or supposed dissimi- | sometimes more particular; and our inference is, that it owed larities of composition. When Danter entered the "noble Roman History of Titus Andronicus" in 1593, he coupled with it "the ballad thereof," which probably is the same printed in Percy's "Reliques," vol. i. p. 241, edit. 1812. A play called "Andronicus" is mentioned by Ben Jonson in the Induction to his "Bartholomew Fair," (played first in 1614,) as a piece of twenty-five or thirty years standing. This may have been Shakespeare's tragedy, that acted by Henslowe's company, or a drama which had served as a foundation of both. The oldest notice of "Titus Andronicus" (excepting that by Meres) is contained in a tract called "Father Hubbard's Tales, or The Ant and the Nightingale," 4to. 1604, imputed to Thomas Middleton, where (Sign. | E. 8) the author speaks of the "lamentable action of one arm, like old Titus Andronicus." The loss of his hand by the hero would no doubt form an incident in every drama written upon the subject. ROMEO AND JULIET. part of its popularity, not merely to printed narratives in prose or verse, nor to the play spoken of by Brooke in 1562, but to subsequent dramatic representations, perhaps, more or less founded upon that early drama. How far Shakespeare might be indebted to any such production we have no means of deciding; but Malone, Steevens, and others have gone upon the supposition, that Shakespearé was only under obligations either to Brooke's poem, or to Paynter's novel; and least of all do they seem to have contemplated the possibility, that he might have obtained assistance from some foreign source. Arthur Brooke avowed that he derived his materials from Bandello (Part ii. Nov.'9), La sfortunata morte di due infelicissimi Amanti, &c.; and Paynter very literally translated Boisteau's Histoire de deux Amans, &c., in the collection of Histoires Tragiques, published by Belle-forest. Both Brooke's poem and Paynter's prose version have recently been reprinted in a work called "Shakespeare's Library," where the antiquity of the story is considered. Steevens was disposed to think that our great dramatist had obtained more from Paynter than from Brooke, while Malone supported, and we think, minute points of resemblance; but, surely, no doubt can be established, a contrary opinion. He examined a number of entertained by those who only compare the following short passage from a speech of Friar Laurence with three lines from Brooke's "Romeus and Juliet." "Art thou a man? Thy form cries out thou art; Thy tears are womanish; thy wild acts denote The unreasonable fury of a beast."—(Act iii. sc. 3.) This, as will be seen from what is subjoined, is almost verbally from Brooke's poem :— An excellent conceited Tragedie of Romeo and Iuliet. As it 4to. 46 leaves. We "Art thou," quoth he, "a man? thy shape saith so thou art; Thy crying and thy weeping eyes denote a woman's heart ** If thou a man or woman wert, or els a brutish beast." (Sakesp. Lib. part vii. p. 43.) in an imperfect manner, in 1597, quarto. This edition is in Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" originally came out, but two different types, and was probably executed in haste by two different printers. It has generally been treated as an after the most careful examination, is not our opinion. authorized impression from an authentic manuscript. Such, bookseller's or stationer's name is placed at the bottom of the think that the manuscript used by the printer or printers (no title-page) was made up, partly from portions of the play as it was acted, but unduly obtained, and partly from notes taken for this notion is, that there is such great inequality in differat the theatre during representation. Our principal ground ent scenes and speeches, and in some places precisely that degree and kind of imperfectness, which would belong to Steevens printed the first and the third edition of "Romeo manuscript prepared from defective short-hand notes. the truth of our remark, may be readily made. and Juliet" in his "Twenty Quartos," a comparison, to test We do not of course go the length of contending that Shakespeare did not alter and improve the play, subsequent to its earliest production on the stage, but merely that the quarto, 1597, does not contain the tragedy as it was originally represented. The second edition was printed in 1599, and it professes to have been "newly corrected, augmented, and amended:" the third dated edition appeared in 1609; but some copies without a date are known, which most likely were posterior to 1609, but anterior to the appearance of the folio in 1623. The quarto, 1637, is of no authority. As It is certain that there was an English play upon the story of Romeo and Juliet before the year 1562; and the fact establishes that, even at that early date, our dramatists resorted to Italian novels, or translations of them, for the subjects of their productions. It is the most ancient piece of evidence of the kind yet discovered, and it is given by Arthur Brooke, who in that year published a narrative poem, called "The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet." At the close of his address "to the Reader" he observes :-"Though I saw the same argument lately set forth on stage with more commendation than I can look for (being there much better set forth, than I have, or can do), yet the same matter, penned as it is, may serve the like good effect." (Hist. of English Dramatic Poetry and the Stage, vol. ii. p. 416.] Thus we see also, that the play had been received" with commendation," and that Brooke himself, unquestionably a competent judge, admits its excellence. We can scarcely suppose that no other drama would be founded upon the same interesting incidents between 1562 and the date when Shakespeare wrote his tragedy, a period of, probably, more than thirty years; but no hint of the kind is given in any record, and certainly no such work, either manuscript or printed, has come down to us. Of the extreme popularity of the story we have abundant proof, and of a remote The quarto, 1609, was printed from the edition which came date. It was included by William Paynter in the "second out ten years earlier; and the repetition, in the folio of 1623, tome" of his "Palace of Pleasure," the dedication of which of some decided errors of the press, shows that it was a reIt is remarkable, that although he dates 4th Nov. 1567; and in old writers we find frequent print of the quarto, 1609. mention of the hero and heroine. Thomas Dalapeend gives every early quarto impression contains a Prologue, it was not the following brief "argument" in his "Pleasant Fable of transferred to the folio. The quarto, 1597, has lines not in Hermaphroditus and Salmacis," 1565:-"A noble mayden of the quartos, 1599, 1609, nor in the folio: and the folio, reprintthe cytye of Verona, in Italye, whyche loved Romeus, eldest ing the quarto, 1609, besides ordinary errors, makes several sonne of the Lorde Montesche, and beinge pryvelye maryed important omissions. Our text is that of the quarto, 1599, togyther, he at last poysoned hymn selfe for love of her: she, compared, of course, with the quarto, 1609, and with the folio for sorowe of his deathe, slewe her selfe in the same tombe of 1623, and in some places importantly assisted by the quarto with hys dagger." B. Rich, in his "Dialogue betwene Mer- of 1597. Of the value of this assistance, as regards particucury and a Souldier," 1574, says that "the pittifull history of lar words, we will only give a single instance, out of many, Romeus and Julietta," was so well known as to be represented from Act iii. sc. 1, where Benvolio, in reference to the conflict on tapestry. It is again alluded to in "The Gorgeous Gal- between Mercutio and Tybalt, says of Romeo, lery of Gallant Inventions," 1578; and in "A Poore Knight "His agile arm beats down their fatal points." his Palace of Private Pleasure," 1579. Austin Saker's "Nar- The quartos, 1599 and 1609, and the folio of 1623, absurdly bonus," 1580, contains the subsequent passage:" Had Ro-read aged arm ;" and the editor of the folio of 1632 substimeus bewrayed his mariage at the first, and manifested the tuted "able arm:" the true word, for which no substitute intent of his meaning, he had done very wisely, and gotten equally good could be found, is only in the quarto, 1597. license for the lives of two faithful friends." After this date It will be observed that on the title-page of the quarto, the mention of the story becomes even more frequent, and 1597, it is stated that "Romeo and Juliet" was acted by the |