find no trace of our author, or of any of his works. Three years afterwards, Puttenham printed his Art of English Poefy; and in that work alfo we look in vain for the name of Shakspeare i. Sir John Harrington in his Apologie for Poetry, prefixed to the Tranflation of Ariofo, (which was entered in the Stationers' books Feb. 26, 1590-1, in which year, it was printed) takes occafion to speak of the theatre, and mentions fome of the celebrated dramas of that time; but fays not a word of Shakspeare, or of any of his plays. If even Love's Labour Loft had then appeared, which was probably his first dramatick compofition, is it imaginable, that Harrington fhould have mentioned the Cambridge Pedantius, and The Play of the Cards, (which laft, he tells us was a London comedy) and have paffed by, unnoticed, the new prodigy of the dramatick world? That Shakspeare had commenced a writer for the stage, and had even excited the jealousy of his contemporaries, before September 1592, is now decifively proved by a paffage extracted NOTES. eminent. That malignity which endeavoured to tear a wreath from the brow of Shakspeare, would, certainly, not spare inferior writers. i The thirty-first chapter of the first book of Puttenham's Art of English Poefy is thus entitled: "Who in any age have bene the most commended writers in our English Poefie, and the author's cenfure given upon them." After having enumerated feveral authors who were then celebrated for various kinds of compofition, he gives this fuccinct account of those who had written for the stage: Of the later fort I thinke thus;-that for tragedie, the Lord Buckhurft and Maifter Edeward Ferrys, for fuch doings as I have fene of theirs, do deferve the byeft price; the Earl of Oxford and Maifter Edwardes of her Majeftie's Chappell, for comedie and enterlude." * See vol. VI. p. ult. where the paffage is given at large. The paragraph which immediately follows that quoted by Mr. Tyrwhitt, though obfcure, is worth tranfcribing, as it feems to allude to Shakspeare's country education, and to intimate, that he had not removed to London long before the year 1592.-After having mentioned a perfon who had newly appeared in the double capacity of actor and author, one, "who is in his one conceit the only Shake-fcene in a country," and exhorted his brother-poets to feek better masters than the players, Greene proceeds thus: "In this I might infert two more, that both have written against these buckram gentlemen [the players:] but let their owne worke ferve to witnesse [S3] against extracted by Mr. Tyrwhitt from Robert Greene's Groatf worth of Witte bought with a Million of Repentance', in which there is an evident allufion to our author's name, as well as to one of his plays. At what time foever he became acquainted with the theatre, we may prefume that he had not compofed his first play long before it was acted; for being early incumbered with a young family, and not in very affluent circumstances, it is improbable that he fhould have fuffered it to lie in his clofet, without endeavouring to derive fome profit from it; and in the miferable ftate of the drama in thofe days, the meanest of his genuine plays must have been a valuable acquifition, and would hardly have been refufed by any of the managers of our ancient theatres. Titus Andronicus appears to have been acted before any other play attributed to Shakspeare; and therefore, as it has been admitted into all the editions of his works, whoever might have been the writer of it, it is entitled to the first place in this general lift of his dramas. From Ben Jonfon's induction to Bartholomew Fair, 1614, we learn that Andronicus had been exhibited twenty-five or thirty years before, that is, at the loweft computation, in 1589; or, taking a middle period, (which is perhaps more juft) in 1587. In our author's dedication of his Venus and Adonis to lord Southampton, in 1593, he tells us, as Mr. Steevens has obferved, that that poem was "the first heir of his invention:" and if we were fure that it was published immediately, or foon, after it was written, it would at once prove Titus Andronicus not to be the production of Shakspeare, and nearly ascertain the time when he commenced a dramatick writer. But we NOTES. against their own wickedneffe, if they perfever to maintaine any more fuch peasants. For other new-commers, I leave them to the mercie of thefe painted monfiers, who, I doubt not, will drive the best minded to defpife them, &c." Greene's Groatsworth of Witte, &c. Sig. E. 4. 1 This tract has no date, but was published after the author's death, agreeably to his dying requeft. It appears to have been. written not long before his death; for near the conclufion he fays, "Albeit weakness will fearce fuffer me to write, yet to my fellow febollers about this citie will 1 direct thefe few infuing lines." He died, according to Dr. Gabriel Harvey's account, on the third of September 1592. Additions by Oldys to Winstanley's Lives of the Poets, MI. do not know what interval might have elapfed between the compofition and the publication of that poem. There is indeed a paffage in the dedication already mentioned, which, if there were not fuch decifive evidence on the other fide, might induce us to think that he had not written, in 1593, any piece of more dignity than a love-poem, or at least any on which he himself set a value. "If (fays he to his noble patron) your honour feem but pleased, I account myself highly praised, and vow to take advantage of all idle hours, till I have honoured you with fome graver labour." "A booke, entitled a Noble Roman Hiftory of Titus Andronicus," (without any author's name) was entered at Stationers' hall, Feb. 6, 1593-4. This I fuppofe to have been the play, as it was printed in that year, and acted (according to Langbaine, who alone appears to have seen the first edition) by the fervants of the earls of Pembroke, Derby, and Effex. Mr. Pope thought, that Titus Andronicus was not written by Shakspeare, because Ben Jonson spoke flightingly of it, while Shakspeare was yet living. This argument will not, perhaps, bear a very strict examination. If it were allowed to have any validity, many of our author's genuine productions must be excluded from his works; for Ben Jonfon has ridiculed feveral of his dramas, in the fame piece in which he has mentioned Andronicus with contempt. It has been faid that Francis Meres, who in 1598 enumerated this among our author's plays, might have been misled by a title-page; but we may presume that he was informed or deceived by fome other means; for Shakspeare's name is not in the title-page of the edition printed in 1611, and therefore, we may conclude, was not in the title page of that in 1594, of which the other was probably a re-impreffion. However, (notwithstanding the authority of Meres) the high antiquity of the piece, its entry on the Stationers' books without the name of the writer, the regularity of the verfification, the diffimilitude of the ftyle from that of thofe plays which are undoubtedly compofed by our author, and the tradition" mentioned by Ravenfcroft, at a period when fome NOTES. I have been told, by fome anciently converfant with the flage, that it [Titus Andronicus] was not originally his, but brought by a private author to be acted, and he only gave fome mafter [S4] touches fome of his contemporaries had not been long dead", rens der it highly improbable that this play fhould have been the compofition of Shakspeare. 2. LOVE'S LABOUR LOST, 1591. Shakspeare's natural difpofition leading him, as Dr. Johnfon has obferved, to comedy, it is highly probable that his first dramatick production was of the comick kind: and of his comedies none appears to me to bear ftronger marks of a first essay than Love's Labour Loft. The frequent rhymes with which it abounds, of which, in his early perform NOTES. ances touches to one or two of the principal parts or characters." Ravenfcroft's preface to Titus Andronicus, altered by him. n John Lowin, and Jofeph Taylor, two of the actors in Shakfpeare's plays, were alive a few years before the Restoration of K. Charles II; and Sir William D'Avenant, who had himself written for the ftage in 1629, (thirteen years after the death of our author) did not die till April 1668. Ravenfcroft's alteration of Titus Andronicus was published in 1687. As this circumftance is more than once mentioned, in the courfe of thefe obfervations, it may not be improper to add a few words on the fubject of our author's metre. A mixture of rhymes with blank verfe, in the fame play, and fometimes in the fame fcene, is found in almost all his pieces, and is not peculiar to Shakspeare, being alfo found in the works of Jonfon, and almost all our ancient dramatick writers. It is not, therefore, merely the use of rhymes, mingled with blank verfe, but their frequency, that is here urged, as a circumftance which feems to characterize and diftinguish our poet's earliest performances. In the whole number of pieces which were written antecedent to the year 1600, and which, for the fake of perfpicuity, have been called his early compofitions, more rhyming couplets are found, than in all the plays compofed fubfequently to that year; which have been named his late productions. Whether in procefs of time, Shakspeare grew weary of the bondage of rhyme, or whether he became convinced of its impropriety in a dramatick dialogue, his neglect of rhyming (for he never wholly difufed it) feems to have been gra dual. As, therefore, moft of his early productions are characterized by the multitude of fimilar terminations which they exhibit, whenever, of two early pieces it is doubtful which preceded the other, I am difpofed to believe, (other proofs being wanting) that play in which the greater number of rhymes is found, to have been first compofed. This, however, must be acknowledged to ances he feems to have been extremely fond, its imperfect verfification, its artlefs and defultory dialogue, and the irregularity of the compofition, may be all urged in fupport of this conjecture. Love's Labour Loft was not entered at Stationers' hall till the 23d of January 1606, but is mentioned by Francis Meres P in his Wit's Treafury, or the Second Part of Wit's Commonwealth, in 1598, and was printed in that year. In the title page of this edition, (the oldeft hitherto difcovered) this piece is faid to have been prefented before her highness [Queen Elizabeth] the laft Christmas [15971, and to be newly corrected and augmented: from which it fhould feem, that there. had been a former impreffion. Mr. Gildon, in his obfervations on Love's Labour Loft, fays," he cannot fee why the author gave it this name."-The following lines exhibit the train of thoughts, which probably fuggefted to Shakspeare this title, as well as that which anciently was affixed to another of his comediesLove's Labour Won. "To be in love where fcorn is bought with groans, With twenty watchful, weary, tedious nights: If loft, why then a grievous labour won." Two Gentlemen of Verona. Act. I. fc. i. NOTES. be but a fallible criterion; for the Three Parts of K. Henry VI. which appear to have been among our author's earliest compofitions, do not abound in rhymes. This writer, to whofe lift of our author's plays we are so much indebted, appears, from the following paffage of the work here mentioned, to have been perfonally acquainted with Shakspeare: "As the foul of Euphorbus was thought to live in Pythagoras, fo the sweet witty foul of Ovid lives in mellifluous and honeytongued Shakespeare. Witnefs his Venus and Adonis, his Lucrece, his fugred Sonnets among his private friends, &c." Wit's Treafury, p. 282. There is no edition of Shakspeare's Sonnets, now extant, of fo early a date as 1598, when Meres's book was printed; fo that we may conclude, he was one of thofe friends to whom they were privately recited, before their publication. This book was probably published in the latter end of the year 1598; for it was not entered at Stationers' hall till September in that year. |