Greene died in Septem Shakspeare were formed. ber 1592, and Marlowe about May 1593. By affigning our poet's part in thefe performances to the end of the year 1593 or the beginning of 1594, this objection is done away, whether we fuppofe Greene to have been the author of one of the elder plays, and Marlowe of the other, or that celebrated writer the author of them both. Dr. Farmer is of opinion, that Ben Jonfon particularly alludes in the following verses to our poet's having followed the fleps of Marlowe in the plays now under our confideration, and greatly furpaffed his original: "For, if I thought my judgment were of years, From the epithet fporting, which is applied to Kyd, and which is certainly in fome measure a quibble on his name, it is manifeft that he must have produced fome comick piece, upon the fcene, as well as the two tragedies of his compofition, which are now extant, Cornelia, and The Spanish Tragedy. This latter is printed, like many plays of that time, anonymously. Dr. Farmer with great probability fuggefts to me, that Kyd might have been the author of The old Taming of a Shrew printed in 1594, on which Shakspeare formed a play with nearly the fame title. The praise which Ben Jonfon gives to Shakspeare, that he " outfhines Marlowe and Kyd, on this hypothefis, will 8 Kyd was alfo, I fufpect, the author of the old plays of Hamlet, and of King Leir. See p. 111. appear to fland on one and the fame foundation; namely on his eclipfing thofe ancient dramatists by new-modelling their plays, and producing pieces much fuperior to theirs, on flories which they had already formed into dramas, that, till Shakspeare appeared, fatisfied the publick, and were claffed among the happieft efforts of dramatick art. 4. A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, 1592. 9 The poetry of this piece, glowing with all the warmth of a youthful and lively imagination, the many fcenes which it contains of almoft continual. rhyme, the poverty of the fable, and want of difcrimination among the higher perfonages, difpofe me to believe that it was one of our author's earliest attempts in comedy." • See p. 97, n. 3. 2 Dryden was of opinion that Pericles, Prince of Tyre, was our author's firft dramatick compofition: Shakspeare's own mufe his Pericles first bore, Prologue to the tragedy of Circe, by Charles Mr. Rowe in his Life of Shakspeare (firft edition) fays, There is good reafon to believe that the greatest part of Pericles was not written by him, though it is owned fome part of it certainly was, particularly the laft act." I have not been able to learn on what authority the latter affertion was grounded. Rowe in his fecond edition omitted the paffage. Pericles was not entered in the Stationers' books till May 2, 1608, nor printed till 1609; but the following lines in a metrical pamphlet, entitled Pimlyco, or Runne It seems to have been written, while the ridiculous compofitions, prevalent among the hiftrionick tribe, were strongly impreffed by novelty on his '. mind. He would naturally copy those manners first, with which he was firft acquainted. The ambition of a theatrical candidate for applause he has happily ridiculed in Bottom the weaver. But among the more dignified perfons of the drama we Red-cap, 1595, afcertain it to have been written and exhibited on the ftage, prior to that year: "Amazde I ftood to fee a crowd .. Of civil throats ftretch'd out fo lowd: (As at a new play,) all the roomes "Did fwarme with gentiles mix'd with groomes; "Came to fee Shore or Pericles." hulband The play of Jane Shore is mentioned (together with another very ancient piece not now extant) in The Knight of the Burning Pefle, 1613: "I was ne'er at one of thefe plays before; but I fhould have feen Jane Shore, and my hath promised me any time this twelvemonth to carry me to The Bold Beauchamps." The date of The Bold Beauchamps is in fome measure afcertained by a paffage in D'Avenant's Playhoufe to be let: There is an old tradition, "That in the times of mighty Tamburlaine, "Of conjuring Fauftus, and The Beauchamps Bold, Tamburlain and Fauftus were exhibited in or before 1590. The lamentable end of Shore's wife alfo made a part of the old anonymous play of King Richard III. which was entered in the Stationers' books, June 19, 1594. Both the dramas in which Jane Shore was introduced were probably on the ftage foon after 1590; and from the manner in which Pericles is mentioned in the verfes above quoted, we may prefume, that drama was equally ancient and equally well known. look in vain for any traits of character. The manners of Hippolita, the Amazon, are undiftinguished from thofe of other females. Thefeus, the affociate of Hercules, is not engaged in any adventure worthy of his rank or reputation, nor is he in reality an agent throughout the' play. Like King Henry VIII. he goes out a Maying. He meets the lovers in perplexity, and makes no effort to promote their happinefs; but when fupernatural accidents have reconciled them, he joins their company, and concludes his day's entertainment by uttering fome miferable puns at an interlude reprefented by a troop of clowns. Over the fairy part of the drama he cannot be fuppofed to have any influence. This part of the fable, indeed, (at leaft as much of it as relates to the quarrels of Oberon and Titania,) was not of our author's invention. ' Through the whole piece, the more 3 The learned editor of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, printed in 1775, obferves in his introductory difcourse, (Vol. IV. p. 161,) that Pluto and Proferpina in the Marchant's Tale appear to have been "the true progenitors of Shakfpeare's Oberon and Titania." In a tract already quoted, Greene's Groatsworth of Witte, 1592, a player is introduced, who boafts of having performed the part of the King of Fairies with applaufe. Greene himself wrote a play, entitled The Scottishe Hiftorie of James the Fourthe, flaine at Flod-. don, intermixed with a pleafant Comedie prefented by Oberon King of Fayeries; which was entered at Stationers' hall in 1594, and printed in 1598. Shakspeare, however, does not appear to have been indebted to this piece. The plan of it is fhortly this. Bohan, a Scot, in confequence of being difgufted with the world, having retired to a tomb where he has fixed his dwelling, is met by After Oberon, king of the fairies, who entertains him with an antick or dance by his fubjects. Thefe two perfonages, after fome exalted characters are fubfervient to the interefts of those beneath them. We laugh with Bottom and his fellows, but is a fingle paffion agitated by the faint and childifh folicitudes of Hermia and Demetrius, of Helena and Lyfander, thofe fhadows of each other? That a drama, of which the prin cipal perfonages are thus infignificant, and the fable thus meagre and unintereiting, was one of our author's earliest compofitions, does not, therefore, feem a very improbable conjecture; nor are the beauties with which it is embellifhed, inconfiftent with this fuppofition; for the genius of Shakspeare, even in its minority could embroider the coarfeft materials with the brightest and most lafting colours. Oberon and Titania had been introduced in a dramatick entertainment exhibited before Queen Elizabeth in 1591, when he was at Elvetham in Hampfhire; as appears from A Defcription of the Queene's Entertainment in Progrefs at Lord Hartford's, &c. printed in 4to. in 1591. Her majefly, after having been peftered a whole afternoon with fpeeches in verse from the three Graces, Sylvanus, Wood Nymphs, &c. is at length addressed by the Fairy Queen, who prefents her majefty with a chaplet, "Given me by Auberon (Oberon) the fairie king." A Midfummer Night's Dream was not entered at Stationers' hall till Oct. 8, 1600, in which year converfation, determine to liften to a tragedy, which is acted before them, and to which they make a kind of chorus, by moralizing at the end of each act. |