in September 1598, has given a lift of our author's plays, and among them is King Henry IV.; but as he does not defcribe it as a play in two parts, I doubt whether this fecond part had been exhibited, though it might have been then written. If it was not in his contemplation, it may be prefumed to have appeared in the latter part of the year 1598. His words are thefe: "As Plautus and Seneca are accounted the best for comedy and tragedy, among the Latines, fo Shakspeare, among the English, is the moft excellent in both kinds for the flage: for comedy, witness his Gentlemen of Verona, his Errors, his Love's Labour's Loft, his Love's Labour's Wonne, his Midfummer Night's Dream, and his Merchant of Venice; for tragedy, his Richard II. Richard III. HENRY IV. King John, Titus Andronicus, and his Romeo and Juliet. The following allufion to one of the characters in this play, which is found in Every Man out of his Humour, Act V. fc. ii. first acted in 1599, is an additional authority for fuppofing The Second Part of King Henry IV. to have been written in 1598: "Savi. What's he, gentle Monf. Brifk? Not that gentleman? 'Faft.No, lady; this is a kinfman to Justice Shallow." That this play was not written before the year 1596, is afcertained by the following allufions. In the laft act Clarence, fpeaking of his father, fays, .. The inceffant care and labour of his mind "Hath wrought the mure, that fhould confine it in, 2 The circumftance of Hotfpur's death in this play, and its being an historical draina, I fuppofe, induced Meres to denominate The Firfi Part of King Henry IV. a tragedy. 3 Wit's Treafury, p. 282. * These lines appear to have been formed on the following in Daniel's Civil Warres, 1595, B. III. ft. 116: 66 Wearing the wall fo thin, that now the mind "Might well look thorough, and his frailty find." Daniel's poem, though not published till 1595, was entered on the Stationers' books, in October 1594. The diftich, with which Piftol confoles himself Si fortuna me tormenta, &c. had, I believe, appeared in an old collection of tales, and apothegms, entitled Wits, Fits, and Fancies, which was entered at Stationers' hall in 1595, and probably printed in that year. Sir Richard Hawkins, as Dr. Farmer has observed, “in his voyage to the South Sea in 1593, throws out the fame jingling diftich on the lofs of his pinnace." But no account of that voyage was published before 1598. In the laft act of this play the young king thus addreffes his brothers: 66 Brothers, you mix your fadnefs with fome fear. "This is the English, not the Turkish court; "But Harry Harry." It is highly probable, as is observed in a note on that paffage, that Shakspeare had here in contemplation the cruelty practifed by the Turkifh emperor, Mahomet, who after the death of his father, Amurath the Third, in Feb. 1596, invited his unfufpecting brothers to a feaft, and caufed them. all to be ftrangled. 4 The affairs of this court had previoufly attracted the publick attention; for in 1594 was published at London, A Letter fent by Amurath the great Turke to Chriftendom. 16. THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, 1598. Entered at the Stationers' hall, July 22, 1598; and mentioned by Meres in that 'year. Published in 1600. 17. ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL, 1598. All's well that ends well was not registered at Stationers' hall, nor printed till 1623; but has been thought to be the play mentioned by Meres in 1598, under the title of Love's Labour's Won. No other of our author's plays could have borne that title with so much propriety as that before us; yet it must be acknowledged that the prefent title is inferted in the body of the play : All's well that ends well; ftill the fine's the crown; &c. This line, however, might certainly have fuggefted the alteration of what has been thought the first title, and affords no decifive proof that this piece was originally called All's well that ends well. The words that compofe the present title appear to have been proverbial. ' I formerly fuppofed that a comedy called A bad Beginning makes a good Ending, which was acted at court in 1613, by the Company of John Heminge, was the play now under confideration, with only a new title but I was miftaken. The play then exhibited was written by John Ford. 'See The Remidie of Love, tranflated from Ovid, 1600, Sign. E. 3. b: "You take the old proverb with a right application for my juft excufe: All is well that ends well; and fo end I. See alfo Camden's Proverbial Sentences, Remains, 1614. งา In All's well that ends well, "The fhewing of a heavenly effect in an earthly actor" is mentioned. If this fhould prove to be the title of fome tract, (which is not improbable,) and the piece fhould' be hereafter discovered, it may ferve in fome meafure to afcertain the date of the play. This comedy alfo contains an allufion to the difpute between the Puritans and Proteflants concerning the ufe of the furplice. That difpute began in 1589; and was much agitated during all the remainder of the reign of Queen Elizabeth. "Plutus himself," (fays one of the characters in this play,) "That knows the tinct and multiplying medicine, &c. I know not whether the purfuit of the philofo. pher's flone particularly engaged the publick attention at the period to which this comedy has been afcribed; and quote the paffage only for the confideration of thofe who are more converfant with that fubject. 18. KING HENRY V. 1599. Mr. Pope thought that this hiftorical drama was one of our author's lateft compofitions; but he was evidently miflaken. King Henry V. was entered on the Stationers' books, Aug. 14, 1600, and printed in the fame year. It was written, after the Second Part of King Henry IV. being promifed in the epilogue of that play; and while the Earl of Effex was in Ireland. Lord Effex went to Ireland April 15, 1599, and returned to London on the 28th of September in the fame year. So that this See the Chorus to the fifth act of King Henry V. play (unless the paffage relative to him was inferted after the piece was finished) must have been com-/ pofed betwen April and September, 1599. Suppofing that paffage a subsequent infertion, the play was probably not written long before; for it is not mentioned by Meres in 1598. The prologue to Ben Jonfon's Every Man in his Humour feems clearly to allude to this play, and, if it had been written at the fame time with the piece itself, might induce us, notwithstanding the filence of Meres, to place King Henry V. a year or two earlier; for Every Man in his Humour is faid to have been acted in 1598. But the prologue which now appears before it, was not written till after 1601, when the play was printed without a prologue. It appears to have been Jonfon's first performance; and we may prefume that it was the very play, which, we are told, was brought on the stage by the good offices of Shakspeare, who himself acted in it. Malignant and envious as Jonfon appears to have been, he hardly would have ridiculed his benefactor at the very time he was fo effentially obliged to him. Some years afterwards his jealoufy broke out, and vented itfelf in this prologue, which firft appeared in the folio edition of Jonfon's Works, published in 1616. It 7 "He rather prays, you will be pleafed to fee Prologue to Every Man in his Humour. Fol. 1616. -- 66 * Jonfon himself tells us in his Induction to The Magnetick Lady, that this was his firft dramatick performance The author beginning his ftudies of this kind with Every Man in his Humour. VOL. II. K |