rime, when this play appear'd, was thought a beauty of the drama, and heard with singular pleasure by an audience, who but a few years before, had been accustom❜d to all rime; and the measure we call dogrel, and are so much offended with, had no such effect upon the ears of that time: but whether blemishes or no, however this matter be which we have brought to exculpate him, neither of these articles can with any face of justice be alleg'd against "Love's Labour's Lost," seeing they are both to be met with in several other plays, the genuineness of which has not been question'd by any one. And one thing more shall be observ'd in the behalf of this play; that the author himself was so little displeased at least with some part of it, that he has brought them a second time upon the stage; for who may not perceive that his famous Benedict and Beatrice are but little more than the counter-parts of Biron and Rosaline? All which circumstances consider'd, and that especially of the writer's childhood (as it may be term'd) when this comedy was produc'd, we may confidently pronounce it his true offspring, and replace it amongst its brethren.

That the "Taming of the Shrew" should ever have been put into this class of plays, and adjudg'd a spurious one, may justly be reckon'd wonderful, when we consider it's merit, and the reception it has generally met with in the world: its success at first, and the esteem it was then held in, induc'd Fletcher to enter the lists with it in another play, in which Petruchio is humbl❜d and Catharine triumphant; and we have it in his works, under the title of "The Woman's Prize, or, the Tamer tam'd": but, by an unhappy mistake of buffoonery for humour and obscenity for wit, which was

not uncommon with that author, his production came lamely off, and was soon consign'd to the oblivion in which it is now bury'd; whereas this of his antagonist flourishes still, and has maintained its place upon the stage (in some shape or other) from its very first appearance down to the present hour: and this success it has merited, by true wit and true humour; a fable of very artful construction, much business, and highly interesting; and by natural and well-sustained characters, which no pen but Shakespeare's was capable of drawing: what defects it has, are chiefly in the diction; the same (indeed) with those of the play that was lastmention'd, and to be accounted for the same way: for we are strongly inclin❜d to believe it a neighbour in time to "Love's Labour's Lost," though we want the proofs of it which we have luckily for that.

But the plays which we have already spoken of are but slightly attack'd, and by few writers, in comparison of this which we are now come to of "Titus Andronicus"; commentators, editors, every one (in short) who has had to do with Shakespeare, unite all in condemning it,— as a very bundle of horrors, totally unfit for the stage, and unlike the poet's manner, and even the style of his other pieces; all which allegations are extremely true, and we readily admit of them, but can not admit the conclusion that therefore it is not his; and shall now proceed to give the reasons of our dissent, but (first) the play's age must be enquir'd into. In the Induction to Jonson's "Bartholomew Fair," which was written in the year 1614, the audience is thus accosted;-" Hee that will sweare, Jeronimo,' or 'Andronicus' are the best playes, yet, shall passe unexcepted at, heere, as a man whose judgement shews it is constant, and hath

stood still, these five and twentie, or thirty yeeres. Though it be an ignorance, it is a vertuous and stay'd ignorance; and next to truth, a confirm'd errour does well; such a one the author knowes where to finde him." We have here the great Ben himself, joining this play with "Jeronimo, or The Spanish Tragedy," and bearing express testimony to the credit they were both in with the publick at the time they were written; but this by the by; to ascertain that time, was the chief reason for inserting the quotation, and there we see it fix'd to twenty-five or thirty years prior to this Induction: now it is not necessary to suppose that Jonson speaks in this place with exact precision; but allowing that he does, the first of these periods carries us back to 1589, a date not very repugnant to what is afterwards advanc'd: Langbaine, in his "Account of the English Dramatick Poets," under the article "Shakespeare," does expressly tell us,-that "Andronicus' was first printed in 1594, quarto, and acted by the Earls of Derby, Pembroke, and Essex, their servants"; and though the edition is not now to be met with, and he who mentions it be no exact writer, nor greatly to be rely'd on in many of his articles, yet in this which we have quoted he is so very particular that one can hardly withhold assent to it; especially, as this account of its printing coincides well enough with Jonson's æra of writing this play; to which therefore we subscribe, and go on upon that ground. The books of that time afford strange examples of the barbarism of the publick taste both upon the stage and elsewhere: a conceited one of John Lilly's set the whole nation a-madding; and, for a while, every pretender to politeness "parl'd Euphuism," as it was phras'd, and no writings would go

down with them but such as were pen'd in that fantastical manner: the setter-up of this fashion try'd it also in comedy; but seems to have miscarry'd in that, and for this plain reason; the people who govern theatres are, the middle and lower order of the world; and these expected laughter in comedies, which this stuff of Lilly's was incapable of exciting: but some other writers, who rose exactly at that time, succeeded better in certain tragical performances, though as outrageous to the full in their way, and as remote from nature, as these comick ones of Lilly; for falling in with that innate love of blood which has been often objected to British audiences, and choosing fables of horror which they made horrider still by their manner of handling them, they produc'd a set of monsters that are not to be parallel'd in all the annals of play-writing; yet they were received with applause, and were the favourites of the publick for almost ten years together ending at 1595; many plays of this stamp, it is probable, have perish'd; but those that are come down to us, are as follows;

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"The Wars of Cyrus," "Tamburlaine the Great," in two parts; "The Spanish Tragedy," likewise in two parts; "Soliman and Perseda," and "Selimus, a tragedy "; which whoever has means of coming at, and can have patience to examine, will see evident tokens of a fashion then prevailing, which occasion'd all these plays to be cast in the same mold. Now, Shakespeare, whatever motives he might have in some other parts of it, at this period of his life wrote certainly for profit; and seeing it was to be had in this way, (and this way only, perhaps), he fell in with the current, and gave his sorry auditors a piece to their tooth in this contested play of "Titus Andronicus "; which as it came out at the same

time with the plays above-mention'd, is most exactly like them in almost every particular; their very numbers, consisting all of ten syllables with hardly any redundant, are copied by this Proteus, who could put on any shape that either serv'd his interest or suited his inclination: and this, we hope, is a fair and unforc'd way of accounting for "Andronicus"; and may convince the most prejudic'd—that Shakespeare might be the writer of it; as he might also of "Locrine" which is ascribed to him, a ninth tragedy, in form and time agreeing perfectly with the others. But to conclude this article,-However he may be censur'd as rash or ill-judging, the editor ventures to declare-that he himself wanted not the conviction of the foregoing argument to be satisfy'd who the play belongs to; for though a work of imitation, and conforming itself to models truly execrable throughout, yet the genius of its author breaks forth in some places, and, to the editor's eye, Shakespeare stands confess'd: the third act in particular may be read with admiration even by the most delicate; who, if they are not without feelings, may chance to find themselves touch'd by it with such passions as tragedy should excite, that is— terror, and pity. The reader will please to observethat all these contested plays are in the folio, which is dedicated to the poet's patrons and friends, the Earls of Pembroke and Montgomery, by editors who are seemingly honest men, and profess themselves dependant upon those noblemen, to whom therefore they would hardly have had the confidence to present forgeries, and pieces supposititious; in which too they were liable to be detected by those identical noble persons themselves, as well as by a very great part of their other readers and auditors: which argument, though of no little