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by which he roſe from mediocrity to the ſummit of excellence; from artleſs and unintereſting dialogues, to thoſe unparalleled compoſitions, which have rendered him the delight and wonder of ſucceſſive ages.
The materials for aſcertaining the order in which his plays were written, are indeed ſo few, that, it is to be feared, nothing very deciſive can be produced on this ſubject.
NOTES.
no doubt that this obſervation would be found true in every inſtance, were but editions extant from which we might learn the exact time when every piece was compoſed, and whether writ for the town or the court.”—From the following lines it appears, that Dryden alſo thought that our author's moſt imperfect plays were his earlieſt dramatick compoſitions:
“ Did no Volpone, no Arbaces write;
“ But hopp’d about, and ſhort cxcurſions made
“ From bough to bough, as if they were afraid;
“ And each were guilty of ſome Slighted Maid.
“ Shakſpeare’s own muſe his Pericles firſt bore,
“ The Prince of Tyre was elder than the Moor:
“ ’Tis miracle to ſee a firſt good play;
“ All hawthorns do not bloom on Chriſtmas-day,
“ A ſlender poet muſt have time to grow,
“ And ſpread and burniſh as his brothers do:
“ Who ſtill looks lean, ſure with ſome p— is curſt,
“ But no man can be Falſaff at firſt.”
Prologue to the tragedy of Circe.
The plays which Shakſpeare produced before the year 1600, are known, and are about eighteen in number. The reſt of his dramas, we may conclude, were compoſed between that year and the time of his retiring to the country. It is incumbent on thoſe, who differ in opinion from the great authorities abovementioned, who think with Rowe, that “we are not to look for his beginning in his leaſt perfect works,” it is incumbent, I ſay, on thoſe perſons, to enumerate in the former claſs, that is, among the plays produced before 1600, compoſitions of equal merit with Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, the Tempeſt and Twelfth Night, which we have reaſon to believe were all written in the latter period; and among his late performances, that is, among the plays which are ſuppoſed to have appeared after the year 1600, to point out five pieces, as haſty, indigeſted, and unintereſting, as the firſt and third parts of K. Henry VI, Love's Labour Loſt, the Comedy of Errors, and the Two Gentlemen of Verona, which, we know, were among his earlier works.
