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Two reasons may be affigned, why Shakspeare's late performances were not published till after his death. 1. If we fuppofe him to have written for the ftage during a period of twenty years, thofe pieces which were produced in the latter part of that period, were lefs likely to pass through the prefs in his life-time, as the curiofity of the publick had not been fo long engaged by them, as by his early compofitions. 2. From the time that Shakspeare had the fuperintendance of a playhoufe, that is, from the year 1603,7 when he and feveral others obtained a licence from King James to exhibit comedies, tragedies, hiftories, &c. at the Globe Theatre, and elsewhere, it became ftrongly his intereft to preferve thofe pieces unpublished, which were compofed between that

year circumftances, we learn, that of the fourteen plays which were printed in Shakspeare's life-time, thirteen were written before the end of the year 1600.-The fourteen plays published in our author's life-time, are-A Midfummer Night's Dream, Love's Labour's Loft, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, King Richard 11. King Richard III. The First Part of King Henry IV. The Second Part of King Henry IV. The Merchant of Venice, King Henry V. Much Ado about Nothing, The Merry Wives of Windfor, Troilus and Creffida, and King Lear.

7 None of the plays which in the enfuing lift are fuppofed to have been written fubfequently to this year, were printed till after the author's death, except King Lear, the publication of which was probably haftened by that of the old play with the fame title, in 1605.-The copy of Troilus and Creffida, which feems to have been compofed the year before King James granted a licence to the company at the Globe Theatre, appears to have been obtained by fome uncommon artifice. Thank (fays the editor) for the fcape it hath made amongst you; fince, by the grand poffeffors' wills, I believe, you should have pray'd for them [r. it] rather than been pray'd."-By the grand poffeffors, Shakspeare and the other managers of the Globe Theatre, were certainly intended.

and the time of his retiring to the country; manufcript plays being then the great fupport of every theatre. Nor were the plays which he wrote after he became a manager, fo likely to get abroad, being confined to his own theatre, as his former productions, which perhaps had been acted on different ftages, and of confequence afforded the players at the feveral houfes where they were exhibited, an eafy opportunity of making out copies from the separate parts tranfcribed for their use, and of felling fuch copies to printers; by which means there is reafon to believe that fome of them. were submitted to the prefs, without the confent of the author.

The following is the order in which I fuppofe the plays of Shakfpcare to have been written:

1589.

1. FIRST PART OF KING HENRY VI.
2. SECOND PART OF KING HENRY VI. 1591.

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15. SECOND PART OF KING HENRY IV. 1598. 16. THE MERCHANT OF VENICE,

17. ALL'S WELL THAT ENds Well, 18. KING HENRY V,

19. MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING,

20. As You LIKE IT,

1598.

1598.

1599.

1600.

1600.

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1. THE FIRST PART OF KING HENRY VI. 1589.

In what year our author began to write for the ftage, or which was his firft performance, has not been hitherto ascertained. And indeed And indeed we have fo few lights to direct our inquiries, that any speculation on this fubject may appear an idle expence of time. But the method which has been already marked out, requires that fuch facts fhould be mentioned, as may ferve in any manner to elucidate these points.

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Shakspeare was born on the 23d of April, 1564, and was probably married in, or before, September 1582, his eldeft daughter, Susanna, having been baptized on the 26th of May, 1583. At what time he left Warwickshire, or was firft employed in the playhouse, tradition does not inform us. However, as his fon Hamnet and his daughter Judith were baptized at Stratford, Feb. 2, 1584-5, we may presume that he had not left the country at that

time.

He could not have wanted an eafy introduction to the theatre; for Thomas Greene, a celebrated

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8" There was not (fays Heywood in his preface to Greene's Tu Quoque, a comedy,) an actor of his nature in his time, of better ability in the performance of what he undertook, more applauded by the audience, of greater grace at the court, or of more general love in the city." The birth-place of Thomas Greene is afcertained by the following lines, which he speaks in one of the old comedies, in the character of a clown: "I pratled poefie in my nurfe's arms,

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And, born where late our fwan of Avon sung, "In Avon's ftreams we both of us have lav'd,

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And both came out together."

Chetwood, in his British Theatre, quotes this paffage from the comedy of the Two Maids of Moreclack; but no fuch

comedian, was his townfman, perhaps his relation, and Michael Drayton was likewife born in Warwickshire; the latter was nearly of his own age, and both were in fome degree of reputation foon after the year 1590. If I were to indulge a conjecture, I fhould name the year 1591, as the era when our author commenced a writer for the ftage; at which time he was fomewhat more than twentyfeven years old. The reafons that induce me to fix on that period are thefe. In Webbe's Difcourfe of English Poetry, published in 1586, we meet with the names of moft of the celebrated poets of that time; particularly thofe of George Whetstone and Anthony Munday, who were dramatick writers;

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paffage is there to be found. He deferves but little credit; having certainly forged many of his dates; however, he probably met with thefe lines in fome ancient play, though he forgot the name of the piece from which he tranfcribed them. Greene was a writer as well as an actor. There are fome verfes of his prefixed to a collection of Drayton's poems, published in the year 1613. He was perhaps a kinfman of Shakspeare's. In the register of the parish of Stratford, Thomas Greene, alias Shakfpere, is faid to have been buried there, March 6, 1589. He might have been the actor's father.

,9 The author of Promos and Caffandra, a play which furnished Shakspeare with the fable of Measure for Measure.

This poet is mentioned by Meres, in his Wit's Treafury, 1598, as an eminent comick writer, and the best plotter of his time. He feems to have been introduced under the name of Don Antonio Balladino, in a comedy that has been attributed to Ben Jonfon, called The Cafe is Altered, and from the following paffages in that piece appears to have been city-poet; whose business it was to compofe an annual panegyrick on the Lord Mayor, and to write verfes for the pageants: an office which has been difcontinued fince the death of Elkanah Settle in 1722:

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