"I'll privily away. I love the people, "But do not like to ftage me to their eyes. Though it do well, I do not relish well "Their loud applaufe, and aves vehement; "Nor do I think the man of safe discretion "That does affect it." Meaf. for Meaf. A&t I. fc. i. Again, Act II. fc. iv. "The general, fubject to a well-wish'd king, "Quit their own part, and in obfequious fondness "Croud to his prefence, where their untaught love "Muft needs appear offence +." King James was fo much offended by the untaught, and, we may add, undeferved, gratulations of his fubjects, on his entry into England, that he iffued a proclamation, forbidding the people to refort to him. Afterwards," fays the hiftorian of his reign, in his publick appearances, especially in his sports, the acceffes of the people made him fo impatient, that he often difperfed them with frowns, that we may not fay with curses3. It is obfervable throughout our authour's plays, that he does not scruple to introduce English figns, habits, cuftoms, names, &c. though the fcene of his drama lies in a foreign country; and that he has frequent allufions to the circumstances of the day, though the events which form the fubject of his piece are supposed to have happened a thousand years before. Thus, in Coriolanus, Hob and Dick are plebeians; and the Romans tofs their caps in the air, with the fame expreffion of feftivity which our poet's contemporaries difplayed in Stratford or London. In Twelfth Night we hear of the bed of Ware, and the bells of Saint Bennet; and in The Taming of the Shrew the Pegafus, a fign of a publick houfe in Cheapfide in the time of Queen Elizabeth, is hung up in a town in 4 See Mr. Tyrwhitt's note. $ Wilson's Hift. of K. James, ad ann. 1603. Italy. In Hamlet the Prince of Denmark and Guildenstern hold a long converfation concerning the children of the Chapel and St. Pauls'. The opening of the present play, viewed in this light, furnishes an additional argument in fupport of the date which I have affigned to it. When King James came to the throne of England, March 24, 1602-3, he found the kingdom engaged in a war with Spain, which had lasted near twenty years. "Heaven grant us his peace!" fays a gentleman to Lucio, A& I. fc. ii.; and afterwards the bawd laments, that "what with the war, what with the sweat, she was custom-fhrunk." Suppofing these two paffages to relate to our authour's own time, they almoft decifively prove Meafure for Measure to have been written in 1603; when the war was not yet ended, as the latter words feem to imply, and when there was fome profpect of peace, as the former feem to intimate. Our British Solomon very foon after his acceffion to the throne manifefted his pacifick difpofition, though the peace with Spain was not proclaimed till the 19th of Auguft, 1604. By the fweat, confidering who the fpeaker is, it is probable that the disorder moft fatal to thofe of her profeffion was intended. However, the plague was fometimes fo called; and perhaps the dreadful peftilence of 1603 was meant; which carried off in the month of July in that year 857 perfons, and in the whole year 30,578 perfons: that is, one fifth part of the people in the metropolis; the total number of the inhabitants of London being at that time about one hundred and fifty thousand. If fuch was the allufion, it likewife confirms the date attributed to this play. Some part of this laft argument in confirmation of the date which I had affigned fome years ago to the comedy before us, I owe to Mr. Capell; and while I acknowledge the obligation, it is but juft to add, that it is the only one that I met with, which in the fmallest degree could throw any light on the present inquiry into the dates of our authour's plays, "In the dry defert of ten thousand lines;" 4 after after wading through two ponderous volumes in quarto, written in a style manifeftly formed on that of the Clown in the comedy under our confideration, whose narratives, we are told, were calculated to last out a night in Ruffia, when nights are at the longeft. In the year 1604, fays Wilfon the hiftorian," the fword and buckler trade being out of date, diverfe fects of vitious perfons, under the title of roaring boys, bravadoes, roysters, &c. commit many infolencies; the streets fwarm night and day with quarrels: private duels are fomented, especially between the English and Scotch: and great feuds between proteftants and papifts." A proclamation was published to reftrain these enormities; which proving ineffectual, the legislature interpofed, and the act commonly called the ftatute of ftabbing, 1 Jac. I. c. 8. was made. This ftatute, as Sir Michael Forster obferves, was principally intended to put a stop to the outrages above enumerated, "committed by perfons of inflammable fpirits and deep refentment, who, wearing fhort daggers under their cloaths, were too well prepared to do quick and effectual execution upon provocations extremely flight." King James's firft parliament met on the 19th of March, 1603-4, and fat till the 7th of July following. From the time of James's acceffion to the throne great animofity fubfifted between the English and Scotch; and many of the outrageous acts which gave rife to the ftatute of ftabbing, had been committed in the preceding year, about the end of which year I fuppofe Measure for Measure to have been written. The enumeration made by the Clown, in the fourth act, of the perfons who were confined with him in the prison, is an additional confirmation of the date affigned to it. Of ten prifoners whom he names, four are ftabbers, or duellifts Mafter Starve-lacky, the rapier and dagger man, young Drop-heir that kill'd lufty Pudding, Matter Forth-right, the tilter, and wild Half-can that ftabb'd Pots." That Measure for Measure was written before 1607, may be fairly concluded from the following paffage in a poem poem published in that year, which we have good ground to believe was copied from a fimilar thought in this play, as the authour, at the end of his piece, profeffes a perfonal regard for Shakspeare, and highly praises his Venus and Adonis: "So play the foolish throngs with one that woons; "Come all to help him, and fo ftop the air By which he should revive." Meaf. for Meaf. A& II. sc. iv. "And like as when fome fudden extafie "Seizeth the nature of a ficklie man ; "When he's difcern'd to fwoune, ftraite by and by "Folke to his helpe confufedly have ran; "And feeking with their art to fetch him backe, "So many throng, that he the ayre doth lacke.” Myrrha, the Mother of Adonis, or Lufte's Prodigies, by William Barksted, a poem, 1607. 25. THE WINTER'S TALE, 1604. Greene's Doraftus and Fawnia, from which the plot of this play was taken, was published in 1588. The Winter's Tale was not entered on the Stationers' books, nor printed till 1623, It was acted at court in 16135. 4 See the verses alluded to, ante, p. 251, n. 4. This writer does not feem to have been very fcrupulous about adopting either the thoughts or expreffions of his contemporaries; for in his poem are found two lines taken verbatim from Marfton's Infatiate Countess, printed four years before Myrrha the Mother of Adonis, &c. "Night, like a masque, was enter'd heaven's great hall, It appears from Ben Jonfon's Silent Woman, that W. Barkfred was an actor, and was employed in the theatre where our authour's plays were reprefented. He might therefore have performed a part in Meafure for Meafure, or have feen the copy before it was printed. 5 Mf. of the late Mr. Vertue.-The Tempeft was reprefented at the fame time before the king. Hence probably they were both ridiculed by Ben Jonfon in his Bartholome Fair, acted in the following year. In the first edition of this effay I fuppofed The Winter's Tale to have been written in 1594; an errour (as it now appears to me) into which I was led by an entry in the Stationers' regifters dated May 22, in that year, of a piece entitled A Winter-Night's Paftime, which I imagined might have been this play under another name, the titles of our authour's plays having been sometimes changed. The opinion, however, which I gave on this fubject, was by no means a decided one, I then mentioned that "Mr. Walpole thought, that this play was intended by Shakspeare as an indirect apology for Anne Bullen, in which light it might be confidered as a Second Part to King Henry VIII.; and that my refpect for that very judicious and ingenious writer, the filence of Meres, in whofe catalogue of our authour's dramas published in 1598 the play before us is not found, and the circumftance of there not being a fingle rhyming couplet throughout this piece, except in the chorus, made me doubt whether it ought not rather to be ascribed to the year 1601 or 1602, than that in which I then placed it." The doubts which I then entertained, a more attentive examination of this play has confirmed; and I am now perfuaded that it was not near fo early a compofition as the entry above-mentioned led me to suppose. Mr. Walpole has obferved, that "The Winter's Tale may be ranked among the historick plays of Shakspeare, though not one of his numerous criticks and commentators have discovered the drift of it. It was certainly intended (in compliment to Queen Elizabeth) as an indirect apology for her mother Anne Boleyn. The address of the poet appears no where to more advantage. The subject was too delicate to be exhibited on the stage without a veil; and it was too recent, and touched the - queen too nearly, for the bard to have ventured fo home 6 Thus, Hamlet was fometimes called Hamlet's Revenge, fometimes The Hiftory of Hamlet; The Merchant of Venice was fometimes called The Jew of Venice, &c. See p. 338, n. 7. 1 Hiftorick Doubts. an |