MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR.

"Hence this Jack, and whip him."-Antony and Cleopatra.

The reasons which favour an early date may first be stated (1592 or 1593); they are due to Mr. Halliwell, C. Knight and others. [It may be premised that a subsequent revision is admitted, and that a quarto edition (of what is generally thought to be a first sketch) appeared in 1602]. Remembering the Elizabeth tradition (vide infra), attention is drawn to the festivities, including masques, given by the Queen at Windsor Castle at the commencement of 1593 (compare iii. 2, 63).

Again in 1592, Duke Frederick of Würtemburg and Teck visited Windsor, and the fact that free-post horses had been granted to him, through a pass of Lord Howard's, seems to be alluded to in a short, but peculiar, scene (the 3rd) of Act iv.

Reference is also made to the Duke, in iv. 5, 72, in connection with the impositions practised upon the host of the Garter by some German travellers, which facts are also referred to about the same period. [I may add that the allusion in this passage, "the three Doctor Faustuses," as well as the mention, in i. 1, 132, of Mephistopheles, would have more point at an early date than later on.']

Malone contended that the line (i. 3, 89), “Sail like thy pinnace to those golden shores," shows that the earliest edition was written after Sir Walter Raleigh's return from Guiana in 1596; but Mr. Knight answers that the line quoted contains only a general statement, while certain lines subsequently inserted (e.g., i. 3, 76, "She is a region in Guiana,

I I may take this occasion, too, of noting that, in iv. 5, 69, a local allusion, as well as a pun, is lost in all editions of Shakespeare, by not printing the word "Slough "with a capital letter. Cf. the mention of Windsor, Eton, Maidenhead, Reading, and Colebrook in adjacent passages.

all gold and bounty," which appears in F1, but not in Q1,) show that the sketch was written before Raleigh's return; the finished play after Guiana was known and talked of.

Again, Chalmers contends that The Faery Queen, 1596, is "plainly" alluded to in several places; but here, also, Mr. Knight answers that there are only general allusions to fairies in the early sketch, while in the folio edition The Faery Queen is three times presented to the audience as a familiar name.

It may be added that the resemblance in this play to Lyly's Endimion (1591) [iv. 3, Song by Fairies, pointed out by Prof. Ward, ut suprà, p. 165, note 2] would be more pointed at an early date.

Before proceeding further, it may be remarked that Chalmers, who was strongly of opinion that this comedy preceded the plays on Henry IV., in arguing for the date 1596, urged, beside the above allusion, his favourite reference to Lodge's Incarnate Devils, 1596; cf. v. 5, 20—24, where, says Chalmers, "the very language" of the Devil Luxury is quoted.

The sources of the play do not aid us in settling the chronology of the play; unless, indeed, they be held to favour the early date; they are, as Mr. Malone pointed out (Appendix I., pp. 689-697) the story of The Two Lovers of Pisa in Tarlton's News of Purgatorie ["about 1590," Halliwell]; and, it may be, The Fishwife's Tale of Brainford in Westward for Smelts, though this was not published till 1620 (or according to Steevens, 1603).

Much discussion has arisen as to the relative (chronological) order of this comedy, and the historical plays in which Falstaff appears; it has been contended that The Merry Wives must have preceded 2 Henry IV., in which the fat knight is disgraced, and it has been still more strongly urged that it must have been produced before Henry V. in which Falstaff's death is recorded. But it is now pretty generally agreed that the inconsistencies as to the characters

which are common to this comedy and to the historical plays are so great, that The Merry Wives cannot be considered as one of the Henry IV. and V. series; so that it must, to a great extent, be considered independently; still the appearance of Falstaff in the comedy is almost undeniably that of a known character,' and the first and second parts of Henry IV. are so intimately connected together2 and so evidently were almost contemporary, that it seems impossible to consider The Merry Wives as anterior to either of these parts. The question then remains, whether the comedy preceded or succeeded Henry V.? As remarked above, it is perhaps impossible to answer this question by a mere comparison of the characters common to the two plays; but the following considerations seem to justify us in assigning the priority to The Merry Wives, and dating it 1598-1599.

The epilogue of 2 Henry IV. had promised a continuation of the story "with Sir John" in it: now, it is scarcely possible that that epilogue can be Shakespeare's, so that we must not press too closely the details of the promise there made; still some weight must be allowed to that statement, and perhaps also to the tradition that the Queen had desired to see Falstaff in love. The grand historical play of Henry V., with its marvellous use of the chorus (which Garrick so well appreciated), of course precluded the combination of "Sir John" and French affairs which the epilogue promised, so that we cannot wonder that Shakespeare separated the comedy from the history; and that The Merry Wives came out before Henry V. seems proved, among other reasons, by the following point: Sir Hugh Evans, in Act iii. Sc. 1, jumbles up, in his singing, part of an excellent pastoral song of Marlowe's with a line or two from the old version of the 137th Psalm. Misled perhaps

And notice that he is here Falstaff pure and simple. No hint, external or internal, speaks of Sir John Oldcastle.

2 See page 54.

by this quotation, William Jaggard, when he brought out The Passionate Pilgrim in 1599, included Live with Me and be My Love, as one of Shakespeare's productions; the following year (1600), however, it was rightly attributed to Marlowe in the collection of poems, entitled England's Helicon. This seems to suggest that The Merry Wives had been brought out early in 1599, or late in the preceding year. And this date is supported by a general consideration of the style and versification of the play, for while (as Warton says) it is perhaps “the most complete specimen of Shakespeare's comic powers," and while (as Dr. Johnson observes) "it is remarkable for the variety of its characters," still there are several points about the comedy that prevent us from placing it too late in the chronological order; Lloyd notices, for instance, "the little hint there is, of any subjective difference between the pair of merry wives,” and in spite of the marks of “maturity of power, the little scope there is for full play of the power.”

That this comedy was revised in the reign of King James ‚is evident from the following alterations and additions, as shown by a comparison of the quarto and folio editions.

(1) Chalmers says that in the amended edition, Slender is altered from a swaggerer to a simpleton in accordance with the act of Parliament (3 Jac. I. c. 21) for "preventing the abuse of the holy Name of God."

66

(2) The same commentator thought that Mrs. Page's remark: "I will exhibit a Bill in Parliament" (ii. 1, 30) was a sarcasm on the many bills which were unadvisedly moved in the Parliament which began Nov. 5th, 1605, and ended May 26th, 1606."

Malone, also, called attention to the following points :(3) ii. 2, 63, "When the court lay at Windsor ” may refer to July 1603; it was usually held at Greenwich in the summer.

(4) ii. 2, 66, “Coach after coach" is hardly likely to have been used before coaches came into general use in 1605; [but Chalmers demurs to this date].

(5) i. 1, 112, 113, "You complain of me to the council," (afterwards altered to "the king") supports the statement made above.

(6) ii. 1, 79, “These knights will hack," may have reference to the numbers knighted by James on his way from Scotland to his new metropolis.

(7) i. 1, 91–99, with the line "I heard say he was outrun on Cotsall," may be an insertion, containing an allusion to the founding (or the reviving) of the Cotswold games by Mr. Dover.

These alterations and insertions certainly seem to prove an amended edition in King James's reign, but there is nothing to particularise the year in which the comedy was revised.

For the registration and publication of the play, see Appendix (pp. 179, 180).

TWELFTH NIGHT; OR, WHAT YOU WILL.

"What a brawling dost thou keep."-1 Henry IV.

"They'll so whip me with their keen jests."

Merry Wives of Windsor.

The older commentators classed this play among Shakespeare's latest works; the reason assigned, besides the perfection of style in certain parts, being supposed allusions to various contemporary events. These need not be mentioned, for they can be found in Malone, Chalmers, or Drake; they are very general, and the date is now known to be earlier. In the diary of a member of the Middle Temple (John Manningham), discovered by Mr. Hunter, we find the following memorandum :—

"Feby. 2, 1601 [2]. At one feast we had a play called Twelfth Night, or What You Will, much like the Comedy of Errors or Menechmi in Plautus; but most like and near