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ſure formed on this idea. Two reaſons may be aſſigned why Shakſpeare’s late performances were not publiſhed till after his death. 1. If we ſuppoſe him to have written for the ſtage during a period of twenty years, thoſe pieces which were produced in the latter part of that period, were leſs likely to paſs through the preſs in his life-time, as the curioſity of the publick had not been ſo long engaged by them, as by his early compoſitions. 2. From the time that Shakſpeare had the ſuperintendance of a playhouſe, that is, from the year 1603[1], when he and ſeveral others obtained a licence from King James to exhibit comedies, tragedies, hiſtories, &c. at the Globe Theatre, and elſewhere, it became ſtrongly his intereſt to preſerve thoſe pieces unpubliſhed, which were compoſed between that year and the time of his retiring to the country; manuſcript plays being then the great ſupport of every theatre. Nor were the plays which he wrote after he became a manager, ſo likely to get abroad, being confined to his own theatre, as his former productions, which probably had been acted on many different ſtages, and of conſequence afforded the players at the ſeveral houſes where they were exhibited, an eaſy opportunity of making out copies from the ſeparate parts tranſcribed for their uſe, and of ſelling ſuch copies to printers; by which means, there is great reaſon to believe, that they
NOTES.
- ↑ None of the plays which in the enſuing liſt are ſuppoſed to have been written ſubſequently to this year, were printed till after the author’s death, except K. Lear, the publication of which was probably haſtened by that of the old play with the ſame title, in 1605.—The copy of Troilus and Creſſida, which ſeems to have been compoſed the year before K. James granted a licence to the company at the Globe Theatre, appears to have been obtained by ſome uncommon artifice. “Thank fortune (ſays the Editor) for the ſcape it hath made amongſt you; ſince, by the grand poſſeſſors’ wills, I believe, you ſhould have pray'd for them, rather than been pray’d.”—By the grand poſſeſſors, Shakſpeare and the other managers of the Globe Theatre, were clearly intended.
author's life-time, are—Love’s Labour Loſt, The Second and Third Parts of K. Henry VI. A Midſummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, K. Richard II. K. Richard III. The Firſt Part of K. Henry IV. The Merchant of Venice, The Second Part of K. Henry IV. K. Henry V. Much Ado about Nothing, The Merry Wives of Windſor, Troilus and Creſſida, and K. Lear.
