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In the following attempt to trace the progreſs of his dramatick art, probability alone is pretended to. The ſilence and inaccuracy of thoſe perſons, who, after his death had the reviſal of his papers, will perhaps for ever prevent our attaining to any thing like proof on this head. Little then remains, but to collect into one view, from his ſeveral dramas, and from the ancient tracts in which they are mentioned, or alluded to, all the circumſtances that can throw any light on this new and curious enquiry. From theſe circumſtances, and from the entries in the books of the Stationers’ company, extracted and now firſt publiſhed by Mr. Steevens, (to whom every admirer of Shakſpeare has the higheſt obligations), it is probable, that the plays attributed to our author were written nearly in the following ſucceſſion; which, though it cannot at this day be aſcertained to be their true order, may yet be conſidered as approaching nearer to it, than any which has been obſerved in the various editions of his works. The rejected pieces are here enumerated with the reſt; but no opinion is thereby meant to be given concerning their authenticity.
Of the nineteen genuine plays which were not printed in our author's life-time[1], the majority were, I believe, late compoſitions[2]. The following arrangement is in ſome mea-
NOTES.
- ↑ They are, King Henry VI. P. I. The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Winter’s Tale, The Comedy of Errors, King John, All’s Well that Ends Well, As you like it, King Henry VIII, Meaſure for Meaſure, Cymbeline, Macbeth, The Taming of the Shrew, Julius Cæſar, Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, Timon of Athens, Othello, The Tempeſt, and Twelfth Night. Of theſe nineteen plays, four, viz. The firſt part of K. Henry VI. King John, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and The Comedy of Errors, were certainly early compoſitions, and are an exception to the general truth of this obſervation. Perhaps, the ill ſucceſs of the two latter, was the occaſion that they were not printed ſo ſoon as his other early performances. Two others, viz. The Winter’s Tale, and All’s well that ends well, though ſuppoſed to have been early productions, were, it muſt be acknowledged, not publiſhed in Shakſpeare’s life-time; but for the dates of theſe we rely only on conjecture.
- ↑ This ſuppoſition is ſtrongly confirmed by Meres’s liſt of our author's plays, in 1598. From that liſt, and from other circumſtances, we learn, that of the ſixteen genuine plays which were printed in Shakſpeare’s life-time, thirteen were written before the end of the year 1600.—The ſixteen plays publiſhed in our
