whole piece, the more exalted characters are fubfervient to the interefts of those beneath them. We laugh with Bottom and his fellows, but is a fingle paffion agitated by the faint and childish follicitudes of Hermia and Demetrius, of Helena and Lyfander, thofe fhadows of each other?-That a drama, of which the principal perfonages are thus infignificant, and the fable thus meagre and uninterefting, was one of our author's earlieft compofitions, does not, therefore, feem a very improbable conjecture; nor are the beauties with which it is embellifhed, inconfiftent with this fuppofition; for the genius of Shakspeare, even in its minority, could embroider the coarseft materials with the brightest and most lafting colours.

A Midsummer Night's Dream was not entered at Stationers' hall till Oct. 8, 1600, in which year it was printed; but is mentioned by Meres in 1598.

From the comedy of Dr. Dodipoll Mr. Steevens has quoted a line, which the author feems to have borrowed from Shakspeare:

" 'Twas I that led you through the painted meads,
"Where the light fairies danc'd upon the flowers,
"Hanging in ev'ry leaf an orient pearl."

So, in A Midfummer Night's Dream,

"And hang a pearl in ev'ry cowflip's ear."

Again,

"And that fame dew, which fometimes on the buds
"Was wont to fwell, like round and orient pearls,
"Stood now within the pretty flouret's eyes,

"Like tears," &c.

There is no earlier edition of the anonymous play in which the foregoing lines are found, than that in 1600; but Dr. Dodipoule is mentioned by Nafhe, in his preface to Gabriel Harvey's Hunt is up, printed in 1596. This, therefore, is another circumftance, that in fome measure authorises the date here affigned to A Midsummer Night's Dream.

The paffage in the fifth act, which, with fome probabili

NOTES.

converfation, determine to liften to a tragedy, which is acted before them, and to which they make a kind of chorus, by moralizing at the end of each act,

ty,

ty, has been thought to allude to the death of Spenfer *, is not inconfiftent with the early appearance of this comedy; for it might have been inferted between the time of the poet's death, and the year 1600, when the play was published. And indeed, if the allufion was intended, the pallage must have been added in that interval; for A Midsummer Night's Dream was certainly written in, or before, 1598, and Spenfer, we are told by Sir James Ware, (whofe teftimony with refpect to this controverted point must have great weight) did not die till 1599: "others, (he adds) have it wrongly, 1598." So careful a fearcher into antiquity, who lived fo near the time, is not likely to have been mistaken in a fact, concerning which he appears to have made particular enquiries.

II. ROMEO AND JULIET, 1595

It has been already obferved, that our author, in his early plays appears to have been much addicted to rhyming; a practice from which he gradually departed, though he never wholly deferted it. In this piece more rhymes, I believe, are found, than in any other of his plays, Love's Labour Loft and A Midsummer Night's Dream only excepted. This circumftance, the story on which it is founded, fo likely to captivate a young poet, the imperfect form in which it ori

NOTES.

"The thrice three mufes mourning for the death

Of learning, late deceas'd in beggary.

Preface to Spenfer's View of the State of Ireland. Dublin, fol. 1633. This treatife was written, according to Sir James Ware, in 1596. The teftimony of that hiftorian, relative to the time of Spenfer's death, is confirmed by a fact related by Ben Jonfon to Mr. Drummond of Hawthornden, and recorded by that writer. When Spenfer and his wife were forced in great diftrefs to fly from their house, which was burnt in the Irish Rebellion, the Earl of Effex fent him twenty pieces; but he refused them; telling the perfon that brought them, he was fure he had no time. to fpend them. He died foon after, according to Ben Jonfon's account, in King Street [Dublin.] Lord Effex was not in Ireland in 1598, and was there from April to September in the following year. If Spenfer had died in London, as Camden fays he did, his death would probably have been mentioned by Rowland Whyte, in his letters to Sir Robert Sydney, (brother to the poet's great patron) which are still extant, and contain a minute detail of moft of the memorable occurrences of that time.

ginally

ginally appeared, and its very early publication, all incline me to believe that this was Shakspeare's firft tragedy; for the three parts of K. Henry VI. do not pretend to that title.

"A new ballad of Romeo and Juliet," (perhaps our author's play) was entered on the Stationers' books Auguft 5, 1596, and the first sketch of the play was printed in 1597; but it did not appear in its prefent form till two years afterwards.

Few of his plays appear to have been entered at Stationers' hall, till they had been fome time in poffeffion of the stage; on which account it may be conjectured that this tragedy was written in 1595.

If the following paffage in an old comedy already mentioned, entitled Dr. Dodipoll, which had appeared before 1596, be confidered as an imitation, it may add fome weight to the fuppofition that Romeo and Juliet had been exhibited before that year:

"The glorious parts of fair Lucilia,

"Take them and join them in the heavenly spheres, "And fix them there as an eternal light

"For lovers to adore and wonder at.”

There is no edition of any of our author's genuine plays extant, prior to 1597, when Romeo and Juliet was published.

There is no entry in the Stationers' books relative to the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, antecedent to its publication in 1597, if this does not relate to it. This entry was made by Edward Whyte, and therefore is not likely to have related to the poem called Romeo and Juletta, which was entered in 1582, by Richard Tottel. How vague the description of plays was at this time, may appear from the following entry, which is found in the Stationers' books, an. 1590, and feems to relate to Marlowe's tragedy of Tamburlaine, published in that year, by Richard Jones.

"To Richard Jones] Twoe Commical Difcourfes of Tamburlein, the Cythian Shepparde."

In Marlowe's Tamburlaine, as originally performed, several comick enterludes were introduced; whence perhaps, the epithet comical was added to the title.-As tragedies were fometimes entitled difcourfes, fo a grave poem or fad difcourfe in verse, (to use the language of the times) was frequently denominated a tragedy. All the poems inferted in the Mirrour for Magiftrates, and fome of Drayton's pieces, are called tragedies, by Meres and other ancient writers. Some of Sir David Lindfay's poems, though not in a dramatick form, are alfo by their author entitled tragedies,

VOL. I.

[T]

"Take

"Take him and cut him out into little stars,
"And he will make the face of heaven so fine,
"That all the world fhall be in love with night,
"And pay no worship to the garish fun."
Romeo and Juliet.

Mr. Steevens in his obfervations on Romeo and Juliet has quoted these lines from Daniel's Complaint of Rosamond:

"And nought-refpecting death (the last of paines)
"Plac'd his pale colours (th' enfign of his might)
"Upon his new-got fpoil, &c."

So in Romeo and Juliet, A&t V. Sc. ïïi.

"Beauty's enfign yet

"Is crimson in thy lips, and in thy cheeks, "And death's pale flag is not advanced there." That Shakespeare imitated Daniel, or was imitated by him, there can, I think, be little doubt. The early appearance of The Complaint of Rofamond, (which is commended by Nafhe, in a tract entitled Pierce Pennileffe his Supplication, &c. 1592,) feems to authorize the former opinion.

From a fpeech of the Nurse in this play, which contains thefe words" It is now fince the earthquake eleven years, &c." Mr. Tyrwhitt conjectures, that Romeo and Juliet, or at least part of it, was written in 1591; the novels from which Shakfpeare may be fuppofed to have drawn his ftory, not mentioning any fuch circumftance; while, on the other hand, there actually was an earthquake in England on the 6th of April, 1580, which he might here have had in view -It is not without great diftruft of my own opinion that I exprefs my diffent from a gentleman, to whofe judgment the highest respect is due; but, I own, this argument does not appear to me conclufive. It feems extremely improbable, that Shakspeare, when he was writing this tragedy, fhould have adverted, with fuch precifion, to the date of an earthquake that had been felt in his youth; unlefs we fuppofe him to have entertained fo ftrange and incongruous a thought, as to wish to perfuade his audience, that the events which

NOTES.

f" A booke called Delia containynge diverfe fonates, with the Complainte of Rofamonde," was entered at Stationers' hall by Simon Waterfon in Feb. 1591-2.°

* Sec Romeo and Juliet, A&t I. Sc, iii,

are the fubject of his play, happened at Verona in 1591, at the very moment that a dramatick reprefentation of them was exhibiting in London: (for if Romeo and Juliet was written in 1591, it probably was then alfo reprefented.) The paffage quoted ftrikes me, as only difplaying one of those characteristical traits, which diftinguish old people of the lower clafs; who delight in enumerating a multitude of minute circumstances that have no relation to the bufinefs immediately under their confideration", and are particularly fond of computing time from extraordinary events, fuch as battles, comets, plagues, and earthquakes. This feature of their character our author has in various places, ftrongly marked. Thus (to mention one of many inftances) the Grave-digger in Hamlet fays, that he came to his employment, "of all the days i'th'year, that day that the last king o'ercame Fortinbras-that very day that young Hamlet was born."-Shakspeare probably remembered the earthquake in 1580, and thought he might introduce one, for the nonce, at Mantua. Why he has placed this earthquake at the distance of eleven years, it is not very eafy to determine. However, it may be observed, that having fuppofed it to have happened on the day on which Juliet was weaned, he could not well have made it more distant than thirteen years; which, indeed, from the context, fhould feem to be the true reading. Suppofing the author to have used figures, the mistake might eafily have happened.--At present there is a manifest contradiction in the Nurfe's account; for fhe exprefsly fays that Juliet was within a fortnight and odd days of completing her fourteenth year; and yet, according to the computation here made, fhe could not well be much more than twelve years old. Perhaps Shakspeare was more careful to mark the garrulity, than the precifion, of the old woman-or perhaps, he meant this very incorrectness as a trait of her character:-or, without having recourse to either of thefe fuppofitions, fhall we fay, that our author was here, as in fome other places, hafty and inattentive? It is certain

NOTE.

Thus Mrs. Quickly in K. Henry IV. reminds Falstaff, that hefwore on a parcel-gilt goblet, to marry her, fitting in her Dolphin chamber, at a round table, by a fea-coal fire, on Wednefday in Whitfun-week, when the prince broke his head for lik caing his father to a finging man of Windfor."