been produced, say, before 1593, however overwhelming may be the other evidence of its Shakespearean authorship, the whole case must fall to the ground. The earliest reference to it is in Henslowe's Diary, January 23, 1593, and after that its entry on the Stationers' Registers on the 6th of the following February. It was first printed, according to Langbaine-for this edition, though seen by Langbaine, has since disappeared-in 1594; the only quartos now extant are dated respectively 1600 and 1611. But we know from Ben Jonson that it had been on the stage some two or three years before this. For, in the Introduction to Bartholomew Fair, first produced in 1614, occurs the following passage: "He that will swear Jeronimo or Andronicus are the best plays yet shall pass unexcepted at here as a man whose judgment shows it is constant and hath stood still these five-and-twenty or thirty years." Now Ben Jonson was not in the habit of writing at random, and if we take his first reckoning, that would give 1589 as the year of the vogue of Titus; if we strike the medium, as it seems natural to do, this would give us 1586 or 1587. We know from Henslowe's Diary that the play with which it is coupled, Jeronimo, was in the full tide of its popularity in 1591, and how long before this we have no means of ascertaining. The very latest of these dates carries us back to a time preceding the appearance of any of Shakespeare's printed productions. We are, therefore, justified in concluding that the composition of Titus must be assigned to a period ranging between 1586 and 1591, and that it was thus, beyond all reasonable doubt, his very earliest, or one of his very earliest attempts at drama. But, it may be objected, he speaks of Venus and Adonis as the first heir of his invention, and Venus and Adonis was published in 1593. The reply to this is, either that Venus and Adonis was written long before it was printedI do not wish to indulge in conjecture, but it seems to me highly probable that it was composed at Stratford before he came up to London, as early perhaps as 1585-or that for some reason he did not regard his early dramas as heirs of his invention. What is certain is, as we know from Greene and Chettle, that he was writing plays before 1593. But to pass from external to internal evidence. The play abounds with turns of expression, with phrases, with imagery, with sentiments which are found in the poems and in the dramas produced subsequently. Here we have an adumbration of some position, incident or character afterwards filled out and developed; here the anticipation, more or less crude, of some touch of humour or pathos recurring more maturely in later work. Nor is this all. The play must have been produced during or about the time he was engaged on Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece, and what, therefore, we should expect to find would be characteristics in common and strikingly in common with these poems, the same or similar imagery in metaphor and illustration, parallel mythological and classical allusions, the saturation of Ovidian influence, and a large infusion of legal phraseology. And we find them in abundance. Let us begin with miscellaneous parallels, taken in the order of the scenes and acts. Wilt thou draw near the nature of the gods? The quality of mercy is not strain'd It is an attribute of God Himself, (i. 2.) And earthly power doth then show likest God's, (Merch. of Ven., iv. 1.) The sacrificing fire Whose smoke, like incense, doth perfume the sky. Laud we the gods; (i. 2.) And let our crooked smokes climb to their nostrils. (Cymb., v. 5.) Repose you here, Secure from worldly chances and mishaps; Here grow no damned grudges, here no storms, (i. 2.) Echoed in the Dirge in Cymbeline and in Macbeth on Duncan, Macb., iii. 2 She is a woman, therefore to be woo'd ; (ii. 1) repeated 1 Henry VI., v. 3 She's beautiful, and therefore to be woo'd; and echoed in turn and rhythm in Richard III., i. 3 Was ever woman in this humour woo'd, The morn is bright and grey. (1. i. 2.) This is Shakespeare's favourite and constantly repeated epithet for the morning and the morning sky, occurring in Sonnet cxxxii. in Romeo and Juliet, ii. 3, in Henry IV., i. 3 : And run like swallows o'er the plain. The swiftness of swallows is again referred to in the play, infra, iv. 2, and in Richard III. v. 2— True love is swift and flies with swallows' wings, The same epithet occurs twice in 1 Henry VI., ii. 4, and Id., Part II. iii. 2. I do not scruple, let me add, to quote Henry VI. as Shakespeare's, for there is almost as little reason for questioning the authenticity of the three parts as well as that of the two plays of which Parts ii. and iii. are recasts as there is of questioning the authorship of Titus. I say "almost," because qualification is necessary, as Henry VI. is not included in Meres' list : Upon whose leaves are drops of new-shed blood O had the monster seen these lily hands And made the silken strings delight to kiss them. Not only exquisitely Shakespearean but recalling Sonnet cxxviii. How oft when thou, my musick, musick playest Do I envy those jacks that nimble leap O that delightful engine of her thoughts. (iii. 2.) Once more the engine of her thoughts began. Marcus unknit that sorrow-wreathen knot. (iii. 2.) Sitting His arms in this sad knot. (Tempest, i. 2.) |