Henry VI. and Leicester is Suffolk. "This," he says, "would not necessarily require the date of Henry VI. to be before 1588, when Leicester died; for Nash's apologue of the Bear at the end of Pierce Penniless (1592) similarly refers to the dead statesman."

PARTS II. AND III.

Various theories have been advanced with respect to the authorship of these and of the two quartos to which they are related :

(1) Malone argued that Marlowe, Greene, and perhaps others, wrote the two quartos (The Contention and The True Tragedie), and that Shakespeare shaped them into the folio form; Collier, Gervinus, Ingleby, and others, adopt this view.

(2) Halliwell-Phillipps, the Cambridge editors, and others think Shakespeare had a share in the quartos.

(3) Mr. Grant White (supported by Mr. Rives's Harness Essay, 1874) carries this last hypothesis further; he holds that Shakespeare wrote The Whole Contention with Marlowe and Greene, and that his own portion, with additions, forms the folio edition.

(4) Johnson, Steevens, C. Knight, Ulrici, Delius, and the German writers generally, contend that Shakespeare wrote both the quartos and the folio; and,

(5) Lately, Mr. Fleay (Macmillan's Magazine, Nov. 1875) believes "the whole of 2 and 3 Henry VI. to be by Peele and Marlowe ;" he adds, however, "of course Shakespeare revised (though he did not write) these plays about 1601."

The German view (4) may pretty safely be passed by; and the final result which Mr. Grant White (3) arrives at, can surely not be accepted. Mr. Fleay (5) seems to forget the plural in the words "for their sake" in the epilogue of Henry V.; again, Mr. Grant White may be left to deal with

Malone's assertion (1) that there is no Shakespearian work in the quartos.

The view, numbered (2) above, being accepted, to what date or dates must Shakespeare's work be assigned?

Now, first, the Groatsworth quotation seems pretty convincingly to show

(1) That Greene himself had had some share in The Contention;

(2) That Marlowe had likewise a share in it; [and

(3) This appears, too, certainly proved by the numerous Marlowe lines in it];

(4) Whilst it also implies that Shakespeare had been at work upon it, before Greene's death in 1592;

(5) At the same time, the way in which Greene speaks, seems to prove that he and Shakespeare could not have worked together.1

On the other hand, it is not at all improbable that Marlowe and Shakespeare may have co-operated; for we may note how they are alluded to together in the Chettle Apology, how tenderly Marlowe is referred to in As You Like It, and how he is spoken of (see Massey) in the Sonnets.

The following conjecture then is hazarded: that two plays by Marlowe and Greene had, with the former's consent and perhaps co-operation, been touched by Shakespeare; that these are the quartos, The Contention and The True Tragedy; that the Lord Pembroke's Company claimed the right of acting these; whilst the Chamberlain's men also brought out the plays, Shakespeare still further revising them for his Company; the plays thus elaborated forming 2 and 3 Henry VI. as given in the folio edition.

In support of these suppositions, and of the date (before 1592) thus agreed upon, it should be remembered that

I The improbability of any co-operation between Greene and Shakespeare will be seen by consulting the note on p. 6; and by remembering the allusion to Greene in Midsummer Night's Dream (see p. 50).

Pavier, from the first entry he made (Ap. 19, 1602), evidently attributed the quartos to Shakespeare, and that they had therefore, doubtless, been so assigned before; while a consideration of the relations which 2 and 3 Henry VI. bear to Richard III. will show that they preceded and prepared for that play (which we shall see reason to date 1593 or 1594).

TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA.

"Who found a bird's nest, and told his comrade, and he stole it."
Much Ado About Nothing.

This play was not entered on the Stationers' Register, nor was it printed, till 1623; and the only allusion to it of any kind previous to that date is in the Palladis Tamia, where Meres places it first among the six comedies which he mentions. In endeavouring, therefore, to fix the date of its composition, we are driven back upon historical or literary comparisons, and upon a general consideration of the style and versification; and, while it is generally admitted that it must rank among the early works of our author, we think it will prove to belong to his very first period.

The chief source of the play is the Story of the Shepherdess Filismena in Montemayor's Diana; Yonge's translation of this, not published till 1598, existed in MS. in 1582—3; while another translation appeared in 1595—6; and a play called the History of Felix and Philomena was acted at Greenwich in 1584. (See Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps's last work.) But Shakespeare is also supposed to have borrowed incidents or expressions from Bandello's Apollonius and Sylla, and from Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia, 1590. Tieck thinks that the tragedy, Julius and Hippolyta (acted by English comedians in Germany at the beginning of the

TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA, Cir. 1591. 13

seventeenth century), suggests some common origin for that play and our comedy; Prof. Ward adds that a similar conclusion may be drawn from the resemblances, which Klein has pointed out between Parabosco's Il Viluppo and Shakespeare's comedy. Indeed, Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps at one time thought that the latter is an expansion of an older play.

Malone pointed out two passages which he thought were suggested by contemporary historical events; but to what particular circumstances they allude has been much disputed.

The lines, i. 3, 8, 9 :—

"Some to the wars, to try their fortune there ;
Some to discover islands far away,"

have been referred to Essex, 1591; to Lancaster, 1594; to Hawkins, 1594; to Gilbert, 1594; to Raleigh, 1595; and to others.

The line, ii. 1, 20, "Like one that hath the pestilence," has been illustrated by the pestilence of 1593, and again by that of 1583.

The following corresponding passages have been pointed

out:

(1) Two references to the story of Hero and Leander (see i. 1, 21, 22, and iii. 1, 119, 120) have been supposed to refer to Marlowe's poem. Marlowe died in 1593, and the poem was not published till 1598, though the work may have been in circulation in MS. for some time; or the allusion may merely be to the well-known story.1

(2) Chalmers, in arguing for the date 1595, laid great stress on what he calls "the obvious allusions to Spenser's Sonnets (1595), in the following lines, in iii. 2, 68-72:

! It should be noticed, however, that Shakespeare, in the first of the passages referred to, alludes to "a love-book." Proteus says: "Upon some book I love I'll pray for thee" (i. 1, 20), and the quotation from Marlowe in As You Like It should be remembered." Mr. Fleay in his statements about Shakespeare's allusions to Hero and Leander (none prior to 1596 or 1593), surely forgets Act v. Sc. 1, 11. 200, 201, of Midsummer Night's Dream (which he assigns to 1592).

"Pro. You must lay lime to tangle her desires
By wailful sonnets, whose composed rhymes
Should be full-fraught with serviceable vows.

"Duke. Ay!

Much is the force of heaven-bred poesy."

(3) Steevens pointed out that Shakespeare in preparing for his King John may have found the following passage in the old play of that name (1591):—

"As sometimes Phaeton,

"Mistrusting silly Merops for his sire."

And upon it he may have founded a passage in the present comedy: :-

"Why, Phaeton (for thou art Merops' son),
Wilt thou aspire to guide the heavenly car,
And with thy daring folly burn the world?

(iii. 1, 153-155.)

(4) Prof. Ward has noted that the pun about "the unkindest tied that ever man tied" (i. 3, 42) occurs also in Lyly's Endymion, 1591. [I have not had an opportunity of seeing whether Shakespeare's extension of it does, too.]

(5) Passages in The Sonnets (Shakespeare's) may be compared with lines in this comedy; e.g. sonnet lxx. and i. I, 45-50; sonnet xcv. and the same; sonnet cxxvii. and iv. 4, 161, &c.

Commentators have differed as to the year to which this play should be assigned; Malone (in his earlier edition), Chalmers, Drake, and (lately in a paper of great ability) Mr. Fleay date it 1595; (Mr. Fleay, however, assigning the first two acts to 1593); Malone (in his last edition), Gervinus, and others 1591; while Collier, Grant, White, and Delius would place it even earlier. In the Transactions of the New Shakspere Society, Messrs. Furnivall and Hales very strongly oppose the late date, which Mr. Fleay has been led to adopt chiefly through the "rhyme test" and "the double-ending test." The following reasons, together with some of the