edy and Tragedy among the Latins, so Shakespeare among the English is the most excellent in both kinds for the stage; for Comedy, witness his Gentlemen of Verona, his Errors, his Love's Labour's Lost, his Love's Labour's Won, his Midsummer-Night's Dream, and his Merchant of Venice; for Tragedy, his Richard the II., Richard the III., Henry the IV., King John, Titus Andronicus, and his Romeo and Juliet. As Epius Stolo said, that the Muses would speak with Plautus' tongue, if they would speak Latin; so I say that the Muses would speak with Shakespeare's fine-filed phrase, if they would speak English. As Ovid saith of his work: Jamque opus exegi quod nec Jovis ira, nec ignis, And as Horace saith of his :-Exegi monumentum ære perennius; Regalique, situ pyramidum altius; Quod non imber edax, non aquilo impotens possit diruere; aut innumerabiles annorum series, &c., so say I severally of Sir Philip Sidney's, Spenser's, Daniel's, Drayton's, Shakespeare's and Warner's works." [It is significant that Meres omits Henry VI. from his list of plays, but includes Titus Andronicus.] The following is the approximate chronological order of plays mentioned by Meres (cp. Prefaces to individual plays):-Love's Labour's Lost (c. 1591), The Two Gentlemen of Verona (c. 1591), Comedy of Errors (1592), Romeo and Juliet (1592-6, subsequently revised), Richard II. (1593), Richard III. (1593), Titus Andronicus (1594), Merchant of Venice (1594, subsequently revised), King John (1594), Midsummer-Night's Dream (c. 1593-5, perhaps subsequently revised), the earlier 1 The close connexion between the date of Titus and Peele's Honour of the Garter, to which Mr. Charles Crawford has recently called attention, inclines me to place the play after June, 1593. I do not accept Mr. Crawford's general conclusions (cp. Jahrbuch der d. Shak. Gesell. xxxvi.). draft of All's Well that Ends Well (i.e. Love's Labour Won) (before 1595), Henry IV. (1597). In this same year we have "A Remembrance of some English Poets," probably by Richard Barnfield. Spenser is praised for his Fairy Queen, Daniel for his Rosamond and that rare work The White Rose and the Red, Drayton for his well-written "Tragedies and sweet epis tles 66 "AndShakespeare thou, whose honey-flowing vein. Whose Venus and whose Lucrece, sweet and chaste, Well may the body die, but Fame dies never." According to a tradition preserved by Rowe "Queen Elizabeth was so well pleased with the admirable character of Falstaff in the two parts of Henry IV. that she commanded Shakespeare to continue it for one play more, and to show him in love"; and an- The only other of Shakespeare's Bust of Sir Thomas Lucy. plays already written by the date of From the monument in Meres' Palladis Tamia was probably Charlecote Church. The Taming of the Shrew, remarkable for the many allusions to Stratford and the neighbourhood in the Inductions' (cp. Preface). 1 e.g. "Old Sly of Burton Heath" (Barton-on-the-Heath); Marian Hacket of Wincot; "Old John Naps of Greece" ( Greet, in Gloucestershire); similarly in 2 Henry IV. "William = The following allusion to Shakespeare appeared in John Marston's "Scourge of Villainie," published this year : 66 Luscus, what's played to-day? Faith, now I know, I set thy lips abroad, from whence doth flow Nought but pure Juliet and Romeo. Say, who acts best? Drusus or Roscio? If e'er you heard him courting Lesbia's eyes; He writes, he rails, he jests, he courts what not, And all from out his huge long-scraped stock Of well-penned plays." Soon after the publication of Marston's "Scourge of Villainie," the author of "The Return from Parnassus" (probably John Day) was at work on the second of his three plays, which was probably acted at St. John's College, Cambridge, at Christmas, 1599. The following extracts suggest the character of Luscus : Visor of Woncot ( = Bas-relief in plaster, formerly in Shakespeare's birth-place. It represents David and Goli ath, and formerly bore the date 1606. Woodmancote) and "Clement Perks of the Hill" (= Stinchcombe Hill) are specific references to persons and places in Gloucestershire; so, too, "Will Squele, a Cotswold man." 1 Perhaps a quibbling allusion to the "Curtain" theatre. "Return from Parnassus," edited by the present writer. 2 V. "Gullio. Pardon, fair lady, though sick-thoughted Gullio makes amain unto thee, and like a bold-faced suitor 'gins to woo thee.1 Ingenioso. (We shall have nothing but pure Shakespeare and shreds of poetry that he hath gathered at the theatres.) Gullio. Pardon me, moi mistressa, as I am a gentleman, the moon, in comparison of thy bright hue's a mere slut, Anthonio's Cleopatra a black-brow'd milkmaid, Helen a dowdy. Ingenioso. (Mark, Romeo and Juliet! O monstrous theft! I think he will run through a whole book of Samuel Daniels !)3 Gullio. Thrice fairer than myself—thus I began—”♦ "O sweet Mr. Shakespeare! I'll have his picture in my study at the court." * "Let the duncified age esteem of Spenser and Chaucer, I'll worship sweet Mr. Shakespeare, and to honour him will lay his Venus and Adonis under my pillow, as we read of one (I do not well remember his name, but I am sure he was a king) slept with Homer under his bed's head." The revised Love's Labour's Lost was published this year, with Shakespeare's name for the first time on the title-page of a play 1 1cp. "Sick-thoughted Venus makes amain unto him, And like a bold-faced suitor 'gins to woo him." Venus and Adonis, st. i. 2 cp. Romeo and Juliet, II. iv. Preface. Richard II.) Evidently Daniel's debt to Shakespeare was recognised (cp. |