T was the opinion of Johnson, Steevens, and Malone, that this play was written a short time before the death of Queen Elizabeth, which happened on the 24th of March, 1602-3. The eulogium on King James, which is blended with the panegyric of Elizabeth in the last scene, they think a subsequent insertion, after the succession of the Scottish monarch to the throne: and that Shakespeare was too well acquainted with courts to compliment, in the lifetime of Queen Elizabeth, her presumptive successor: of whom, history informs us, she was not a little jealous. To me it seems somewhat strange, that any one acquainted with the character of Elizabeth should think that a license could have been then obtained for a piece, which on many accounts would have been exceedingly obnoxious to her. It is much more probable that it was produced soon after the accession of James; perhaps at first in a less perfect form, as a vehicle for the pageantry and show attendant upon a coronation. The unusual long and mimick stage-directions for the vision and for the procession at the christening, give some colour to this supposition, and the entry upon the Stationers' books of an "Enterlude of King Henry VIII." which I shall shortly mention, may refer to this piece, and not to the farcical performance of Samuel Rowley. It appears at least certain, that it was played, in 1613, under the title of "All is True," when the Prologue and Epilogue may have been added: and that it was performed on the very day, being St. Peter's, on which the Globe Theatre was burnt down. The fire was occasioned, as it is said, by the discharge of some small pieces of ordnance called chambers in the scene where King Henry is represented as arriving at Cardinal Wolsey's gate at Whitehall, one of which, being injudiciously managed, set fire to the thatched roof of the theatre*. Dr. Johnson first suggested * The circumstance is recorded by the continuator of Stowe; |