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ſtage, and have his bones new embalmed with the tears of ten thouſand ſpectators at leaſt (at ſeveral times), who, in the tragedian that repreſents his perſon, imagine they behold him freſh bleeding.”
| 4. | Second and Third Parts of King Henry VI. | |
| 5. | 1592. |
In a tract already mentioned, entitled Greene’s Groatſworth of Witte, &c. which was written before the end of the year 1592, there is, as Mr. Tyrwhitt has obſerved[1], a parody on a line in the Third Part of K. Henry VI. and an alluſion to the name of Shakſpeare.
Theſe two hiſtorical dramas were entered on the books of the Stationers’ company, March 12, 1593—4, but were not printed till the year 1600. In their ſecond titles they are called—The First and Second Parts of the Contention of the two famous Houſes of Yorke and Lancaſter; but in reality they are the Second and Third Parts of King Henry VI.
In the laſt chorus of King Henry V. Shakſpeare alludes to the Second Part, perhaps to all the parts of K. Henry VI. as popular performances, that had frequently been exhibited on the ſtage; and expreſſes a hope, that K. Henry V. may, for their ſake, meet with a favourable reception: a plea, which he ſcarcely would have urged, if he had not been their author.
6. Pericles, Prince of Tyre, 1592.
There is reaſon to believe that Pericles, whoever was the writer of it, was compoſed about this time. The poet introduces John Gower by way of chorus to it, as Middleton introduces Rainulph, the monk of Cheſter, in his Mayor of Quinborough, and as Thomas Heywood does Skelton and Fryar Tuck, in his Robert of Huntingdon: performances nearly of this date. Ben Johnſon, in his ode on the ill reception of his New Inn, ſpeaks of Pericles as a play of great antiquity, calling it a mouldy tale. It was not entered on the books of the Stationers’ company till May 2, 1608, nor printed till 1609; but the following ſtanza, in a metrical
- ↑ See vol. VI. p. ult.
