Dowden points out that the line (ii. 2, 201), "If thou art changed to aught, 'tis to an ass," strikingly reminds us of the nearly contemporary comedy, Midsummer Night's Dream. I have before pointed out the occurrence of the quibble about "ship" and "sheep" in Act iv. Sc. 1, 1. 93 of this play, in ii. 1, 219 of Love's Labour's Lost, and in i. 1, 72 of the Two Gentlemen of Verona, as a remarkable link between three nearly contemporary plays. ROMEO AND JULIET. "The course of true love never did run smooth." Midsummer Night's Dream. "No grave upon the earth shall clip in it A pair so famous."-Antony and Cleopatra. Malone, very acutely, pointed out a date at which this play must have been acted; the Company, to which Shakespeare belonged, was under the patronage of Lord Hundson, who was Lord Chamberlain when he died on July 22nd, 1596. The Company thereupon ceased to be styled "the Lord Chamberlaine's men," and were simply called after the name of the succeeding Lord Hundson; but when his lordship was appointed Lord Chamberlain on the 17th April, 1597, the Company once more resumed the more honourable designation. Now the quarto, which was issued in 1597, simply styles them Lord Hundson's men, thus showing that the tragedy must have been "plaid publiquely" between July 1596 and April 1597. But was the play then first produced? Was it not rather, as Malone himself hints, produced, in some form or other, at an earlier date? The following considerations suggest that it may have been sketched as early as 1591 at least: the 1599 edition is said to be "newly corrected, augmented, and amended," and thus we see that the play did undergo at least one revision; an allusion to Romeo, as a popular character of Shakespeare's, by Weever in an epigram, written probably before 1595, shows positively that the play cannot first have appeared in 1596;1 1 and the well-known allusion to the earthquake of 1580 seems, in spite of what has been said to the contrary, to point to the date of 1591; the garrulous old nurse says distinctly enough (i. 3, 23): "Tis since the earthquake now eleven years ;" but we are told she was confused, and that her allusions to Juliet's age show that she had made a miscalculation; at the risk, however, of seeming to miss "the humour of the passage," it must be pointed out that some dozen lines further on (i. 3, 35) the nurse again emphatically repeats her statement : "And since that time it is eleven years." This repetition, which has apparently been lost sight of, seems to fix the production of the play in 1591. Moreover, Shakespeare must also certainly have produced (though it may be in an elementary form) before [Spenser alludes to him in 1591], Greene in 1592, and especially Chettle in 1593, more works than are generally attributed to him at that period; and what story is he more likely to have dwelt upon, in the freshness of his young-manhood, than that of the youthful pair, of whose love and deaths the 1587 edition of Brooke's poem had so lately reminded the literary world? "I know," says Lessing, "but one tragedy which love itself helped to elaborate; and that tragedy is Romeo and Juliet." Brooke, in his preface to the poem above alluded to, says he had seen "the same argument lately set foorth on stage;" This date, however, has been supported by an entry, under date Aug. 15th, 1596, "of a new ballad of Romeo and Juliett,' which has by some been supposed to refer to our play. The entry was made by Edw. White. and though there is no evidence other than this of an old play upon the subject, nor any evidence to connect Shakespeare with such older drama, yet analogy would suggest that he may have improved some previous tragedy. Brooke's poem appeared first in the year 1562; the story was also told in Paynter's Palace of Pleasure (1567), the original source, however, being one of Bandello's novels. The following parallel passages have been pointed out ; some were perhaps Shakespeare's own, others he may have borrowed either originally or at one of the revisions :— Marlowe's Few of Malta (1588—1590), "But stay: what star shines yonder in the east? With this Dyce compared the well-known passage in Romeo and Juliet (ii. 2); Marlowe's Edward II. (1592), "Gallop apace, bright Phoebus, through the skie, Between you both, shorten the time, I pray, That I may see that most desired day;' With which Malone (2nd Appendix, p. 53) compared iii. 2, 1—5. Prof. Ward (ut supra, p. 194) feels "sure that the nurse in Romeo and Juliet has her original in Marlowe's [and Nash's] Dido; ·" but compare the nurse in Brooke's poem. Malone compares certain passages in the fifth act with lines in Daniel's Complainte of Rosamonde; but, as in the similar comparison between passages from this author in Richard II., the question, which was the original, is open. Daniel's book was entered on the Register in February 1592; in both cases, if the dates here given are correct, Daniel must have been the borrower. The same may be said (see Midsummer Night's Dream) of the following passages: "The glorious parts of fair Lucilia, Take them and join them in the heavenly spheres, For lovers to adore and wonder at." Dr. Dodipoll, before 1596. "Take him and cut him into little stars, Romeo and Juliet, iii. 2, 22—25. Some lines in this play have also been compared with others in our author's sonnets, which were doubtless written long before they were published; some, we know, were seen by Meres and others before 1598. In the third act, says Malone, "the first and second cause" are mentioned; that passage, therefore, was probably written after the publication of Saviolo's Book on Honour and Honourable Quarrels (1594); compare the corresponding insertion in the revision of Love's Labour's Lost. Some historical allusions have also been supposed to exist; besides the passage about the earthquake which was alluded to at the beginning of this section, and which was first pointed out by Tyrrwhit; the reference in v. 2, 8-11 to the sealing up of plague-stricken houses, drawn out as it is, may perhaps be due to the pestilence of 1593; Chalmers referred ii. 2, 82-84, to the voyages of Drake and Hawkins in 1594-5, or of Raleigh, in 1595; Prof. Ward seems almost to approve of Mr. Massey's characteristic discovery, "in the nurse's difficulty about the first letter in Romeo's name (ii. 4), of a reference to (Henry) Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, to the prevention of whose marriage with Elizabeth Vernon he supposes the action of the play to allude." That some part, at least, of the play should be assigned to a very early date seems to be proved by the peculiar1 sonnet 1 Gervinus points out that Shakespeare in this play uses three species of lyrical poetry; the sonnet, the epithalamium or nuptial song (cf. Halpin), and the dawn-song. like verse found in many parts of the tragedy, by the frequent rhyme (note especially the numerous alternates), by the alliteration, by the glowing poetry, lyrical rather than dramatic, by the quibbling between the gentlemen and between their attendants, and by the peculiar quality of the classical allusions. LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST. "This keen encounter of our wits."-Richard III. "Witty, courteous, liberal, full of spirit."—3 Henry VI. Perhaps the earliest extrinsic notice of this play is contained in the following lines from a poem, entitled Alba, or the Month's Mind of a Melancholy Lover, by R. T[ofte], Gentleman, published by Cuthbert Burby in 1598 :— "Love's Labour Lost I once did see, a play Each actor plaid in cunning wise his part, But chiefly those entrapt in Cupid's snare," &c. The same publisher (Cuthbert Burby) in the same year (1598) affords us two other pieces of evidence; one the celebrated Palladis Tamia, in which Meres mentions Love's Labour's Lost, and the other a quarto edition of the play itself, with the title-page: "A pleasant conceited comedie called Loves Labours Lost. As it was presented before her Highnes this last Christmas. Newly corrected and augmented by W. Shakespeare. Imprinted by W. W[aterson], for Cuthbert Burbie, 1598." No entry of this upon the Stationers' Register has been 1 It may be added that the sonnet-like prologues to the first and second acts are another sign of early work, and that the fact that these prologues are given only to these two acts might seem to favour the idea of those who think these acts were written (or revised) before the remaining three. 2 The subsequent history of the copyright may be very distinctly traced. On Jan. 22nd, 1606-7, "by direction of a court and with consent of Mr. Burby under his hand wrytinge" Love's Labour Loste and two other "copies" were |
