An excellent conceited Tragedie of Romeo and Iuliet. As it hath been often (with great applause) plaid publiquely, by the right Honourable the L. of Hunsdon his Seruants. London, Printed by Iohn Danter. 1597. 4to. 39 leaves.

The most excellent and lamentable Tragedie, of Romeo and Iuliet. Newly corrected, augmented, and amended: As it hath bene sundry times publiquely acted, by the right Houourable the Lord Chamberlaine his Seruants. London Printed by Thomas Creede, for Cuthbert Burby, and are to be sold at his shop neare the Exchange. 1599. 4to. 46 leaves.

The most excellent and Lamentable Tragedie, of Romeo and Juliet. As it hath beene sundrie times publiquely Acted, by the Kings Maiesties Seruants at the Globe. Newly corrected, augmented and amended: London Printed for Iohn Smethwick, and are to be sold at his Shop in Saint Dunstanes Church-yard, in Fleetestreete vnder the Dyall. 1609. 4to. 46 leaves.

In the folio of 1623"The Tragedie of Romeo and Iuliet" occupies twenty-five pages, viz. from p. 58 to p. 79, inclusive, in the division of "Tragedies." It fills the same space in the folios of 1632, 1664, and 1685.

INTRODUCTION.

It is certain that there was an English play upon the story of Romeo and Juliet before the year 1562; and the fact establishes that, even at that early date, our dramatists resorted to Italian novels, or translations of them, for the subjects of their productions. It is the most ancient piece of evidence of the kind yet discovered, and it is given by Arthur Brooke, who in that year published a narrative poem, called "The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet." At the close of his address "to the Reader" he observes :-"Though I saw the same argument lately set forth on stage with more commendation than I can look for (being there much better set forth, than I have, or can do), yet the same matter, penned as it is, may serve the like good effect." (Hist. of English Dramatic Poetry and the Stage, vol. ii. p. 416.] Thus we see also, that the play had been received" with commendation," and that Brooke himself, unquestionably a competent judge, admits its excellence. We can scarcely suppose that no other drama would be founded upon the same interesting incidents between 1562 and the date when Shakespeare wrote his tragedy, a period of, probably, more than thirty years; but no hint of the kind is given in any record, and certainly no such work, either manuscript or printed, has come down to us. Of the extreme popularity of the story we have abundant proof, and of a remote date. It was included by William Paynter in the "second tome" of his "Palace of Pleasure," the dedication of which he dates 4th Nov. 1567; and in old writers we find frequent mention of the hero and heroine. Thomas Dalapeend gives the following brief "argument" in his "Pleasant Fable of Hermaphroditus and Salmacis," 1565:-" A noble mayden of the cytye of Verona, in Italye, whyche loved Romeus, eldest sonne of the Lorde Montesche, and beinge pryvelye maryed togyther, he at last poysoned hym selfe for love of her: she, for sorowe of his deathe, slewe her selfe in the same tombe with hys dagger." B. Rich, in his "Dialogue betwene Mercury and a Souldier," 1574, says that "the pittifull history of Romeus and Julietta," was so well known as to be represented on tapestry. It is again alluded to in "The Gorgeous Gallery of Gallant Inventions," 1578; and in "A Poore Knight his Palace of Private Pleasure," 1579. Austin Saker's "Narbonus," 1580, contains the subsequent passage:-"Had Romeus bewrayed his mariage at the first, and manifested the intent of his meaning, he had done very wisely, and gotten license for the lives of two faithful friends." After this date VOL. VI.-24

the mention of the story becomes even more frequent, and sometimes more particular; and our inference is, that it owed part of its popularity, not merely to printed narratives in prose or verse, nor to the play spoken of by Brooke in 1562, but to subsequent dramatic representations, perhaps, more or less founded upon that early drama.

How far Shakespeare might be indebted to any such production we have no means of deciding; but Malone, Steevens, and others have gone upon the supposition, that Shakespeare was only under obligations either to Brooke's poem, or to Paynter's novel; and least of all do they seem to have contemplated the possibility, that he might have obtained assistance from some foreign source.

Arthur Brooke avowed that he derived his materials from Bandello (Part ii. Nov. 9), La sfortunata morte di due infeli cissimi Amanti, &c,; and Paynter very literally translated Boisteau's Histoire de deux Amans, &c., in the_collection of Histoires Tragiques, published by Belle-forest. Both Brooke's poem and Paynter's prose version have recently been reprinted in a work called "Shakespeare's Library," where the antiquity of the story is considered. Steevens was disposed to think that our great dramatist had obtained more from Paynter than from Brooke, while Malone supported, and we think, established, a contrary opinion. He examined a number of minute points of resemblance; but, surely, no doubt can be entertained by those who only compare the following short passage from a speech of Friar Laurence with three lines from Brooke's "Romeus and Juliet."

"Art thou a man? Thy form cries out thou art;

Thy tears are womanish; thy wild acts denote

The unreasonable fury of a beast."-(Act iii. sc. 3.)

This, as will be seen from what is subjoined, is almost verbally from Brooke's poem :

"Art thou," quoth he, "a man? thy shape saith so thou art; Thy crying and thy weeping eyes denote a woman's heart** If thou a man or woman wert, or els a brutish beast."

(Sakesp. Lib. part vii. p. 43.)

Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" originally came out, but in an imperfect manner, in 1597, quarto. This edition is in two different types, and was probably executed in haste by two different printers. It has generally been treated as an authorized impression from an authentic manuscript. Such, after the most careful examination, is not our opinion. We think that the manuscript used by the printer or printers (no bookseller's or stationer's name is placed at the bottom of the title-page) was made up, partly from portions of the play as it was acted, but unduly obtained, and partly from notes taken at the theatre during representation. Our principal ground for this notion is, that there is such great inequality in different scenes and speeches, and in some places precisely that degree and kind of imperfectness, which would belong to manuscript prepared from defective short-hand notes. As Steevens printed the first and the third edition of "Romeo and Juliet" in his "Twenty Quartos," a comparison, to test

the truth of our remark, may be readily made. We do not of course go the length of contending that Shakespeare did not alter and improve the play, subsequent to its earliest production on the stage, but merely that the quarto, 1597, does not contain the tragedy as it was originally represented. The second edition was printed in 1599, and it professes to have been "newly corrected, augmented, and amended:" the third dated edition appeared in 1609; but some copies without a date are known, which most likely were posterior to 1609, but anterior to the appearance of the folio in 1623. The quarto, 1637, is of no authority.

The quarto, 1609, was printed from the edition which came out ten years earlier; and the repetition, in the folio of 1623, of some decided errors of the press, shows that it was a reprint of the quarto, 1609. It is remarkable, that although every early quarto impression contains a Prologue, it was not transferred to the folio. The quarto, 1597, has lines not in the quartos, 1599, 1609, nor in the folio: and the folio, reprinting the quarto, 1609, besides ordinary errors, makes several important omissions. Our text is that of the quarto, 1599, compared, of course, with the quarto, 1609, and with the folio of 1623, and in some places importantly assisted by the quarto of 1597. Of the value of this assistance, as regards particular words, we will only give a single instance, out of many, from Act iii. sc. 1, where Benvolio, in reference to the conflict between Mercutio and Tybalt, says of Romeo,

"His agile arm beats down their fatal points."

The quartos, 1599 and 1609, and the folio of 1623, absurdly read aged arm;" and the editor of the folio of 1632 substituted "able arm:" the true word, for which no substitute equally good could be found, is only in the quarto, 1597.

It will be observed that on the title-page of the quarto, 1597, it is stated that "Romeo and Juliet" was acted by the players of Lord Hunsdon; and hence Malone argued that it must have been first performed and printed between July, 1596, and April, 1597. The company to which Shakespeare was attached called themselves the servants of the Lord Chamberlain." Henry Lord Hunsdon died Lord Chamberlain on 22nd July, 1596, and his son George succeeded to the title, but not to the office, which, in August, was conferred upon Lord Cobham. Lord Cobham filled it until his death in March subsequent to his appointment, very soon after which event George Lord Hunsdon was made Lord Chamberlain. It seems that the theatrical servants of Henry Lord Hunsdon, Lord Chamberlain, did not, on his decease, transfer their services to his successor in office, Lord Cobham, but to his successor in title, George Lord Hunsdon, and called themselves the servants of that nobleman in the interval between the death of his father on 22nd July, 1596, and 17th April, 1597, when he himself became Lord Chamberlain. Malone concludes that in this interval, while those players who had been the servants of the Lord Chamberlain called themselves the servants of Lord Hunsdon, "Romeo and

Juliet" was first performed and printed; and that, in conse quence, the title-page of the first edition states, that it had been played by "the L. of Hunsdon his servants."

The answer that may be made to this argument is, that though the tragedy was printed in 1597, as it had been acted by Lord Hunsdon's servants, it does not follow that it might not have been played some years before by the same actors, when calling themselves the Lord Chamberlain's servants. This is true; and it is not to be disputed that there is an allusion in one of the speeches of the Nurse (Act i. sc. 8) to an earthquake which, she states, had occurred eleven years before:

"But as I said,

On Lammas eve at night shall she be fourteen;
That shall she, marry; I remember it well.
"T is since the earthquake now eleven years;
And she was wean'd."

It has been supposed that this passage refers to the earthquake of 1580, and, consequently, that the play was written in 1591. However, those who read the whole speech of the Nurse cannot fail to remark such discrepancies in it as to render it impossible to arrive at any definite conclusion, even if we suppose that Shakespeare intended a reference to a particular earthquake in England. First, the Nurse tells us, that Juliet was in a course of being weaned; then, that she could stand alone; and, thirdly, that she could run alone. It would have been rather extraordinary if she could not, for even according to the Nurse's own calculation the child was very nearly three years old. No fair inference can, therefore, be drawn from the expression, ""T is since the earthquake now eleven years," and we coincide with Malone that the tragedy was probably written towards the close of 15961.

Another trifling circumstance may lead to the belief that "Romeo and Juliet" was not written, at all events, until after 1594. In Act ii. (not Act iii., as Malone states) there is an allusion, in the words of Mercutio-" a gentleman of the very first house-of the first and second cause,"-to a work on duelling, called "Vincentio Saviolo his Practise." That book was first printed in 1594, and again in 1595, and the issue of the second impression might call Shakespeare's attention to it just before he began "Romeo and Juliet." We have already seen "Vincentio Saviolo his Practise" more particularly referred to in "As You Like It." We place little

1 The Registers of the Stationers' Company throw little light upon the question when "Romeo and Juliet" was first written. On 5 Aug. 1596, Edward White entered "A newe ballad of Romeo and Juliett," which may possibly have been the tragedy, printed (without a bookseller's name) in 1597, though called only a ballad. On 22 Jan. 1606-7, "Romeo and Juliet " (together with "Love's Labour 's Lost" and "The Taming of a Shrew") was entered to "Mr. Linge," with consent of "Mr. Burby" On 19 Nov. 1607, John Smythick entered "Hamlet," "The Taming of a Shrew," "Romeo and Juliet," and "Love's Labour 's Lost," as having derived his property in them from Linge.