diction, and not only to forbid performances of every description, but "so to deface" all places erected for theatrical representations, "as they might not be employed again to such use." This command was given just anterior to the production of Nash's "Isle of Dogs," which was not calculated to lessen the objections entertained by any persons in authority about the court.

The Blackfriars not being, according to the terms of the order of the privy council, "a common playhouse," but what was called a private theatre, does not seem to have been included in the general ban; but as we know that similar directions had been conveyed to the magistrates of the county of Surrey, it is surprising that they seem to have produced no effect upon the performances at the Globe or the Rose, upon the Bankside. This was owing, perhaps, to private influence; and it is certain that the necessity of keeping some companies in practice, in order that they might be prepared to exhibit, when required, before the Queen, was made the pretext for granting exclusive licenses" to the actors of the Lord Chamberlain, and of the Lord Admiral. We know that the Earls of Southampton and Rutland, about this date and shortly afterwards, were in the frequent habit of visiting the theatres: the Earl of Nottingham also seems to have taken an interest on various occasions in favour of the company acting under his name, and to the representations of these noblemen we are, perhaps, to attribute the exemption of the Globe and the Rose from the operation of the order "to deface" all buildings adapted to dramatic representations in Middlesex and Surrey, in a manner that would render them unfit for any such purpose in future. We have the authority of the registers of the privy council for stating that the companies of the Lord Chamberlain and of the Lord Admiral obtained renewed permission "to use and practise stage-plays," in order that they might be qualified to perform before the Queen. This privilege, as regards the players of the Lord Admiral, seems the more extraordinary, because that was the very company which only in the August preceding had given such offence by the representation of Nash's "Isle of Dogs," that its further performance was forbidden, the author and some of the players were arrested and sent to the Fleet, and vigorous steps taken to secure the persons of other parties who for a time had made their escape. It is very likely that Nash was the scape-goat on the occasion, and that the chief blame was thrown upon him, although, in his tract, before mentioned, he maintains that he was the most innocent party of all those who were concerned in the transaction. It seems evident, that in 1598 there was a strong disposition on the part of some members of the Queen's government to restrict dramatic performances, in and near London, to the servants of the Lord Chamberlain and of the Lord Admiral.

Accordingly, we hear of no interruption, at this date, of the performances at either of the theatres in the receipts of which Shakespeare participated.

To the year 1598, inclusive, only five of his plays had been printed, although he had then been connected with the stage for about twelve years-viz. ROMEO AND JULIET, RICHARD II. and RICHARD III. in 1597, and LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST and HENRY IV. (Part I.) in 1598; but, as we learn from indisputable contemporaneous authority, he had written seven others, besides

what he had done in the way of alteration, addition, and adaptation. The earliest enumeration of Shakespeare's dramas made its appearance in 1598, in a work by Francis Meares, entitled "Palladis Tamia, Wits Treasury." In a division of this small but thick volume, headed "A comparative discourse of our English Poets, with the Greeke, Latine and Italian Poets," the author inserts the following paragraph, which we extract precisely as it stands in the original, because it has nowhere, that we recollect, been quoted quite correctly :— “As Plautus and Seneca are accounted the best for Comedy and Tragedy among the Latines: so Shakespeare among y English is the most excellent in both kinds for the stage; for Comedy, witnes his Getleme of Verona, his Errors, his Loue labors lost, his Loue labours wonne, his Midsummers night dreame, & his Merchant of Venice: for Tragedy his Richard the 2. Richard the 3. Henry the 4. King Iohn, Titus Andronicus and his Romeo and Juliet.”

Thus we see that twelve comedies, histories, and tragedies, (for we have specimens in each department,)

The following passages, in the same division of the work of Meares, contain mention of the name or works of Shakespeare: "As the soule of Euphorbus was thought to liue in Pythagoras, so the sweete wittie soule of Ouid liues in mellifluous and honytongued Shakespeare; witnes his Venus and Adonis, his Lucrece, his sugred sonnets among his priuate friends &c." fol. 281.

"As Epius Stolo said, the Muses would speake with Plautus tongue, if they would speak Latin; so I say the Muses would speak with Shakespeare's fine-tiled phrase, if they would speak English." fol. 282.

"And as Horace saith of his, Exegi monumentu ære perennius, Regaliq; situ pyramidum altius; Quod non imber edax ; Non Aquilo impotens possit diruere, aut innumerabilis annoruin series et fuga temporum; so say I severally of Sir Philip Sidneys, Spencers, Daniels, Draytons, Shakespeares, and Warner's workes." fol. 282.

"As Pindarus, Anacreon, and Callimachus among the Greekes, and Horace and Catullus among the Latines, are the best lyrick poets; so in this faculty the best amōg our poets are Spencer (who excelleth in all kinds) Daniel, Drayton, Shakespeare, Brettō." fol. 282.

"As these tragicke poets flourished in Greece, Eschylus, Euripedes, Sophocles, Alexander Aetolus, Achæus Erithriæus, Astydamas Atheniesis, Apollodorus Tarsensis, Nicomachus Phrygius, Thespis Atticus, and Timon Apolloniates; and these among the Latines, Accius, M. Attilius, Pomponius Secundus and Seneca ; so these are our best for tragedie; the Lord Buckhurst, Doctor Leg of Cambridge, Dr. Edes of Oxford, Maister Edward Ferris, the Authour of the Mirrour for Magistrates, Marlow, Peele, Watson, Kid, Shakespeare, Drayton, Chapman, Decker, and Beniamin Iohnson." fol. 283.

"The best poets for comedy among the Greeks are these: Menander, Aristophanes, Eupolis Atheniensis Alexis, Terius, Nicostratus, Amipsias Atheniensis, Anaxadrides Rhodius, Aristonymus, Archippus Atheniesis, and Callias Atheniensis; and among the Latines, Plautus, Terence, Nauius, Sext. Turpilius, Licinius Imbrex, and Virgilius Romanus; so the best for comedy amongst us bce Edward Earle of Oxforde, Doctor Gager of Oxforde, Maister Rowley, once a rare scholler of learned Penbrooke Hall in Cambridge, Maister Edwardes, one of her Maiesties Chappell, eloquent and wittie John Lilly, Lodge, Gascoyne, Greene, Shakespeare, Thomas Nash, Thomas Heywood, Anthony Mundye, our best plotter, Chapman, Porter, Wilson, Hathway, and Henry Chettle." fol. 283.

"As these are famous among the Greeks for elegie, Melanthus, Mymnerus Colophonius, Olympius Mysius, Parthenius Nicæus, Philetas Cous, Theogenes Megarensis, and Pigres Halicarnasœus; and these among the Latines, Mecenas, Ouid, Tibullus, Propertius, T. Valgius, Cassius Seuerus, and Clodius Sabinus; so these are the most passionate among us to bewaile and bemoane the perplexities of loue; Henrie Howard Earle of Surrey, sir Thomas Wyat the elder, sir Francis Brian, sir Philip Sidney, sir Walter Rawley, sir Edward Dyer, Spencer, Daniel, Drayton, Shakespeare. Whetstone, Gascoyne, Samuell Page sometime fellowe of Corpus Christi Colledge in Oxford, Churchyard, Bretton." fol. 283.

a remarkable circumstance, evincing strikingly the manner in which the various companies of actors of that period were able to keep popular pieces from the press, that until Shakespeare had been a writer for the Lord Chamberlain's servants ten or eleven years, not a single play by him was published; and then four of his first printed plays were without his name, as if the bookseller had been ignorant of the fact, or as if he considered that the omission would not affect the sale: One of them, ROMEO AND JULIET, was never printed in any early quarto as the work of Shakespeare. The reprints of RICHARD II. and RICHARD III., in 1598, have Shakespeare's name on the title-pages, and they were issued, perhaps, after Meares had distinctly assigned those "histories" to him.

It is our conviction, after the most minute and patient examination of, we believe, every old impression, that Shakespeare in no instance authorized the publication of his plays; we do not consider even HAMLET an exception, although the edition of 1604 was probably intended, by some parties connected with the theatre, to supersede the garbled and fraudulent edition of 1603: Shakespeare, in our opinion, had nothing to do with the one or with the other. He allowed most mangled and deformed copies of several of his greatest works to be circulated for many years, and did not think it worth his while to expose the fraud, which remained, in several cases, undetected, as far as the great body of the public was concerned, until the appearance of the folio of 1623. Our great dramatist's indifference upon this I It was entered for publication on the Stationers' Registers in September, 1598. Meares must have written something in verse which has not reached our day, because in 1601 he was addressed by C. Fitzgeoffrey, in his Affania, as a poet and theologian: he was certainly well acquainted with the writings of all the poets of his time, whatever might be their department. Fitz geoffrey mentions Meares in company with Spenser, Daniel, Drayton, Ben Jonson, Sylvester, Chapman, Marston, etc.

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point seems to have been shared by many, if not by most, of his contemporaries; and if the quarto impres sion of any one of his plays be more accurate in typog raphy than another, we feel satisfied that it arose out of the better state of the manuscript, or the greater pains and fidelity of the printer.'

Returning to the list of twelve plays furnished by Meares, we may add, that although he does not men tion them, there can be no doubt that the three parts of HENRY VI. had been repeatedly acted before 1598: we may possibly infer, that they were not inserted because they were then known not to be the sole work of Shakespeare. By HENRY IV. it is most probable that Meares intended both parts of that "history." "Love's Labour's Won" has been supposed, since the time of Dr. Farmer, to be ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL, under a different title: our notion is that the original name given to the play was "Love's Labour's Won:" and that, when it was revived with additions and alteratious, in 1605 or 1606, it received also a new appellation.

In connection with the question regarding the in terest taken by Shakespeare in the publication of his works, we may notice the fraud practised in the year after the appearance of the list furnished by Meares. In 1599, came out a collection of short miscellaneous poems, under the title of "The Passionate Pilgrim:" they were all of them imputed, by the printer, or by the bookseller, to Shakespeare, although some of them

1 We cannot wonder at the errors in plays surreptitiously procured and hastily printed, which was the case with many impressions of that day. Upon this point Heywood is an unexceptionable witness, and he tells us of one of his dramas"that some by stenography drew

The plot, put it in print, scarce one word true." Other dramatists make the same complaint; and there can be no doubt that it was the practice so to defraud authors and actors, and to palm wretchedly disfigured pieces upon the public as genuine and authentic works. It was, we are satisfied, in this way that Shakespeare's ROMEO AND JULIET, HENRY V., and HAMLET, first got out into the world. 53

were notoriously by other poets. But Shakespeare, as far as appears from any evidence that has descended to us, took no notice of the trick played upon him: possibly he never heard of it, or if he heard of it, left it to its own detection, not thinking it worth while to interfere. It serves to establish, what could not otherwise be doubted, the popularity of Shakespeare in 1599, and the manner in which a scheming printer and stationer endeavoured to take advantage of that popularity.

Yet it is singular, if we rely upon several coeval authorities, how little our great dramatist was, about this period, known and admired for his plays. Richard Barnfield published his "Encomion of Lady Pecunia," in 1598, (the year in which the list of twelve of Shakespeare's plays was printed by Meares,) and from a copy of verses entitled "Remembrance of some English Poets," we quote the following notice of Shakespeare:"And Shakespeare thou, whose honey-flowing vein, Pleasing the world, thy praises doth contain, Whose Venus, and whose Lucrece, sweet and chaste, Thy name in Fame's immortal book hath plac'd; Live ever you, at least in fame live ever: Well may the body die, but fame die never." Here Shakespeare's popularity, as "pleasing the world," is noticed; but the proofs of it are not derived

1 When "The Passionate Pilgrim" was reprinted in 1612, with some additional pieces by Thomas Heywood, that dramatist pointed out the imposition, and procured the cancelling of the title-page in which the authorship of the whole was assigned to Shakespeare.

from the stage, where his dramas were in daily performance before crowded audiences, but from the success of his VENUS AND ADONIS and LUCRECE, which had gone through various editions. To the same effect, but a still stronger instance, we may refer to a play in which Burbage and Kempe are introduced as characters, the one of whom had obtained such celebrity in the tragic, and the other in the comic parts in Shakespeare's dramas: we allude to "The Return from Parnassus," which was acted before the death of Queen Elizabeth. In a scene where two young students are discussing the merits of particular poets, one of them speaks thus of Shakespeare:

"Who loves Adonis love or Lucrece rape,

His sweeter verse contains heart-robbing life;
Could but a graver subject him content,
Without love's foolish, lazy languishment."

Not the most distant allusion is made to any of his dramatic productions, although the poet criticised by the young students immediately before Shakespeare was Ben Jonson, who was declared to be "the wittiest fellow, of a bricklayer, in England," but "a slow inventor." Hence we might be led to imagine that, even down to as late a period as the commencement of the seventeenth century, the reputation of Shakespeare depended rather upon his poems than upon his plays; almost as if productions for the stage were not looked upon, at that date, as part of the recognized literature of the country.

Is the document, relating to the quantity of corn and malt in Stratford, it is stated that William Shakespeare's residence was in that division of the borough called Chapel-street Ward. This we think settles decisively the disputed question, whether he purchased what was known as "the great house," or "New Place," before, in, or after 1597. It was situated in Chapel-street Ward, close to the chapel of the Holy Trinity. We are now certain that he had a house in the ward in February, 1597-8, and that he had ten quarters of corn there; and we need not doubt that it was the dwelling which had been built by Sir Hugh Clopton in the reign of Henry VII.: the Cloptons subsequently sold it to one Botte, and he to Hercules Underhill, who disposed of it to Shakespeare. We therefore find him, in the beginning of 1598, occupying one of the best houses, in one of the best parts of Stratford. He who had quitted his native town about twelve years before, poor and comparatively friendless, was able, by the profits of his own exertions, and the exercise of his own talents, to return to it, and to establish his family in more comfort and opulence than, as far as is known, they had ever before enjoyed. We consider the point that Shakespeare had

1 That Shakespeare was considered a man who was in a condition to lend a considerable sum, in the autumn of 1598, we have the evidence of Richard Quyney, (father to Thomas Quyney, who subsequently married Shakespeare's youngest daughter Judith,) who then applied to him for a loan of 30%., equal to about 150, of our present money, and in terms which do not indicate any doubt that our Poet would be able to make the advance. This application is contained in a letter which must have been sent by hand, as it unluckily contains no direction: it is the only letter yet discovered addressed to Shakespeare:

"Loving Contryman, I am bolde of yow, as of a frende, craveing your helpe with xxxb, uppon Mr Bushell & my securytee, or Mr Myttens with me. Mr Rosswell is not come to London as yeate, & I have especiall cawse. Yow shall frende me muche in helpeing me out of all the debeits I owe in London, I thanck god, and muche quiet to my myude weh wolde not be indebited. I am

become owner of New Place in or before 1597 as completely made out, as, at such a distance of time, and with such imperfect information upon his history, could be at all expected.'

We have already remarked that the confirmation of arms in 1596, obtained by William Shakespeare, had reference to the permanent and substantial settlement of his family in Stratford, and to the purchase of a residence there consistent with the altered circumstances

now towards the Cowrte, in hope yr answer for the dispatche of my Buysenes. Yow shall nether loose creddytt nor monney by me, the Lorde willinge; & nowe butt pswade your selfe soe as I hope & yow shall nott neede to feare; but with all hartie thanckfullnes I wyll holde my tyme & content your frend, & yf we Bargaine farther, yow shall be the paie mr your selfe. My tyme bidds me to hasten to an ende, & soe I comitt thys [to] your care & hope of your helpe. I feare I shall nott be backe this night from the Cowrte. haste. the Lorde be with yow & wth us all. amen. From the Bell in Carter Lane, the 25 october 1598.

1 in the garden of this house it is believed that Shakespeare planted a mulberry tree, about the year 1609: such is the tradition, and we think that it is founded in truth. In 1609, King James was anxious to introduce the mulberry (which had been imported about half a century earlier) into general cultivation, and the records in the State Paper Office show that in that year letters were written upon the subject to most of the justices of peace and deputy lieutenants in the kingdom: the plants were sold by the state at 6s the hundred. On the 25th November, 1609, 9351. were paid out of the public purse for the planting of mulberry trees "near the palace of Westminster." The mulberry tree, said to have been planted by Shakespeare, was in existence up to about the year 1755; and in the spring of 1742, Garrick, Macklin, and Delane the actor, were entertained under it by Sir Hugh Clopton. New Place remained in possession of Shakespeare's successors until the Restoration; it was then repurchased by the Clopton family: about 1752 it was sold by the executor of Sir Hugh to a clergyman of the name of Gastrell,

of that family-altered by its increased wealth and consequence, owing to his own success as an actor and a dramatist.

The removal of the Lord Admiral's players, under Henslowe and Alleyn, from the Rose theatre on the Bankside, to the new house called the Fortune, in Golding-lane, Cripplegate, soon after this date, may lead to the opinion that that company did not find itself equal to sustain the rivalship with the Lord Chamberlain's servants, under Shakespeare and Burbage, at the Globe. That theatre was opened, as we believe, in the spring of 1595: the Rose was a considerably older building, and the necessity for repairing it might enter into the calculation, when Henslowe and Alleyn thought of trying the experiment in a different part of the town, and on the Middlesex side of the water. Theatres being at this date merely wooden structures, and much frequented, they would soon fall into decay, especially in a marshy situation like that of the Bankside: so damp was the soil in the neighbourhood, that the Globe was surrounded by a moat to keep it dry; and, it is likely that the Rose was similarly drained. The Rose was, in the reign of Edward VI., a house of entertainment with that sign, and was converted into a theatre about 1584; but seems to have early required reparations,

who, on some offence taken at the authorities of the borough of Stratford on the subject of rating the house, pulled it down, and cut down the mulberry tree. According to a letter in the Annual Register of 1760, the wood was bought by a silversmith, who "made many odd things of it for the curious." In our time we have seen as many relics, said to have been formed from this one mulberry tree, as could hardly have been furnished by all the mulberry trees in the county of Warwick.

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and they might be again necessary prior to 1599, when Henslowe and Alleyn resolved to abandon Southwark.'

1 We may assign the following lines to about this period, or a little earlier: they relate to some theatrical wager in which Alleyn, of the Lord Admiral's players, was, for a part not named, to be matched against Kempe, of the Lord Chamberlain's servants. By the words "Will's new play," there can be little doubt that some work by Shakespeare was intended; and we know from Heywood's "Hierarchie of the Blessed Angels," 1635, that Shakespeare was constantly familiarly called "Will." The document is preserved at Dulwich, and it was first printed in the "Memoirs of Edward Alleyn."

"Sweete Nedde, nowe wynne an other wager
For thine old frende, and fellow stager.
Tarlton himselfe thou doest excell,
And Bentley beate, and conquer Knell,
And now shall Kempe orecome as well.
The moneyes downe, the place the Hope,
Phillippes shall hide his head and Pope.
Feare not, the victorie is thine;
Thou still as macheles Ned shall shyne.
If Roscius Richard foames and fumes,
The Gobe shall have but emptie roomes.
If thou doest act; and Willes newe playe
Shall be rehearst some other daye.
Consent, then, Nedde; do us this grace:
Thou cannot faile in anie case;
For in the triall, come what maye,

All sides shall brave Ned Allin saye."

By "Roscius Richard" the writer of these lines, who was the backer of Alleyn against Kempe, could have meant nobody but Richard Burbage.

Not long afterwards Kempe became a member of the associa tion of which Alleyn was the leader, and quitted that to which Shakespeare and Burbage were attached. Kempe's success in this wager, led Alleyn and Henslowe to hold out inducements to him to join them in their undertaking at the Fortune.