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Should the errors and deficiencies of this effay invite others to deeper and more fuccefsful refearches, the end propofed by it will be attained: and he who offers the prefent arrangement of Shakfpeare's dramas, will be happy to transfer the flender portion of credit that may refult from the novelty of his undertaking, to fome future claimant, who may be fupplied with ampler materials, and endued with a superior degree of antiquarian fagacity.

To fome, he is not unapprized, this inquiry will appear a tedious and barren fpeculation. But there are many, it is hoped, who think nothing which relates to the brightest ornament of the English nation, wholly uninterefting; who will be gratified by obferving, how the genius of our great poet gradually expanded itself, till, like his own Ariel, it flamed amazement in every quarter, blazing forth with a luftre, that has not hitherto been equalled, and probably will never be surpassed.7 MALONE.

In the lift of plays enumerated (p. 184, 185.) by Mr. Malone as unpublished, he might have excepted two more of them which ftill remain in manufcript, viz. The Queen of Corfica and The Bugbears, both alfo in the poffeffion of the Marquis of Lanfdowne. The following is the lift of plays formerly in the poffeffion of Mr. Warburton, copied from his MS. in the poffeffion of the fame nobleman:

The honourable Loves, by Will. Rowley.

Henry the First, by Will. Shakespear and Robert Daven

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Sir John Suckling's Workes.

Nothing impoffible to Love. T. P. Sir Rob. le Greece.

The fore'd Lady. T. Phill. Maflinger.

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The Puritan Maid, the modeft Wife, and the wanton Widow,

by Tho. Middleton.

The London Merchant, a Comedy, by Jo. Ford.

The King of Swedland. *

Love hath found out his Eyes, by Tho. Jorden.
Antonio and Vallia, by Phill. Maffinger.

The Dutchefs of Fernandina. T. Henry Glapthorne.
Jocondo and Aftolfo, by Tho. Decker.

St. George for England, by Will. Smithe.
The Parliament of Love, by Wm. Rowley.
The Widow's Prife. C. Will. Sampfon.
The inconftant Lady. Wm. Wilfon.
The Woman's Plott. Phill. Maffinger.
The crafty Marshall. C. Shack. Marmion.
An Interlude, by Ra. Wood. (worth nothing.)
The Tyrant. a Tragedy, by Phill. Maffinger.
The Nonefuch, a C. Wm. Rowley.
The Royal Combate. C. by Jo. Forde.
Philenzo and Hipolito. C. Phill. Maffinger.
Beauty in a Trance, Mr. Jo. Forde.

The Judge. C. By Phill. Maffinger.

A good Beginning may have a good End, by Jo. Forde.

Faft and welcome, by Phill. Maffinger.

Believe as you lift, C. By Phill. Maffinger.

Hift. of Jobe, by Robt. Green.

The Veftall, a Tragedy, by H. Glapthorne.
Yorkshire Gentlewoman and her Sons.

The Honour of Women. C. By P. Maffinger,

"The noble Choice. T. C. P. Maflinger.

A Mafk. R. Govell.

Second Maiden's Tragedy.

The Great Man.

The Spanish Puechas. C.

George Chapman,

The Queen of Corfica. T. By F. Jaques.

The Tragedy of Jobe. (Good.)

Query if not Dekker's King of Swethland", entered on the Stationers' books, June 29, 1669.

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T. C. Cyrill Tourneur.

A Play by Will. Shakspeare.
Bugbears. C. Jo. Geffrey.
Orpheus. C.

'Tis good fleeping in a whole Skin. W. Wager.
Fairy Queen.

After I had been many years collecting thefe MS. plays, through my own careleffnefs and the ignorance of my fervant in whofe hands I had lodged them, they were unluckily burn'd, or put under pyebottoms, excepting the three which follow:

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SHAKSPEARE, FORD, AND JONSON.

ubi nulla fugam reperit fallacia, victus,

In fefe redit. VIRG.

I HAVE long had great doubts concerning the

authenticity of the facts mentioned in a letter printed in Vol. III. giving a pretended extract from a pamphlet of the laft age, entitled "Old Ben's Light Heart made heavy by young John's Melancholy Lover," containing fome anecdotes of Shakspeare, Ben Jonson, and John Ford, the dramatick poet; and fufpected that the plaufible tale which the writer of the letter alluded to has told, was an innocent forgery, fabricated for the purpofe of aiding a benefit, and making the town believe that The Lover's Melancholy came from the mint of Shakspeare. Some additional information on this fubject, which I have lately obtained, appears to me fo decifively to confirm and establish my opinion, that I shall here, though somewhat out of place, devote a few pages to the examination of this question.

Having always thought with indignation on the tafteleffnefs of the fcholars of that age in preferring Jonfon to Shakspeare after the death of the latter, I did not find myself much inclined to dispute the authenticity of a paper, which, in its general tenour, was conformable to my own notions: but the love of truth ought ever to be fuperior to fuch confiderations. Our poet's fame is fixed upon a bafis as broad and general as the cafing air, and ftands

in no need of fuch meretricious aids as the pen of fiction may be able to furnish. However, before I entered on this difcuffion, I thought it incumbent on me to apply to Mr. Macklin, the author of the letter in question, upon the fubject: but his memory is fo much impaired, (he being now in the ninetyfirst year of his age,) that he fcarcely recollects having written fuch a letter, much less the circumstances attending it. I ought, however, to add, that I had fome converfation with him a few years ago upon the fame topick, and then ftrongly urged to him that no kind of difgrace could attend his owning that this letter was a mere jeu d'efprit, written for an occafional harmless purpose: but he perfifted in afferting that the pamphlet of which he has given an account, (for which I in vain offered by a publick advertisement, continued for fome time in the newspapers, to pay two guineas, and of which no copy has been found in any publick or private library in the courfe of forty years,) was once in his poffeffion; was printed in quarto, and bound up with several small political tracts of the fame period; and was loft with a large collection of old plays and other books, on the coaft of Ireland, in the year 1760. I cannot therefore boast, habeo confitentem reum. However, let the point be tried by those rules of evidence which regulate trials of greater importance; and I make no doubt that I fhall be able to produce such teftimony as fhall convict our veteran comedian of having, fportively, ingenioufly, and falfely, (though with no malice afore-thought,) invented and fabricated the narrative given in the letter already mentioned, contrary to the Statute of Biography, and other

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