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pamphlet, entitled Pymlico or Run away Redcap, publiſhed in 1596, aſcertains it to have been written and exhibited on the ſtage, prior to that year:
“ Amaz’d I ſtood, to ſee a crowd
“ Of civil throats ſtretch’d out ſo lowd:
“ As at a new play, all the rooms
“ Did ſwarm with gentles mix’d with grooms,
“ So that I truly thought, all theſe
“ Came to ſee Shore[1], or Pericles.”
In this piece are introduced many dumb ſhews, which were much admired at this time; and they afford one argument againſt its being the produdcton of Shakſpeare; he having never admitted ſerious dumb ſhew in any play unqeſtionably his: and having in Hamlet, four years after the date here aſſigned to Pericles, expreſsly marked his diſapprobation of them, by calling them inexplicable. Dryden, however, ſeems to have thought Pericles genuine, and our author’s firſt compoſition:
“ Shakeſpeare’s own muſe his Pericles firſt bore,
“ The Prince of Tyre was elder than the Moor[2],”
7. Locrine, 1593.
Entered on the Stationers’ books July 20, 1594. Printed in 1595, without any author’s name. In the title-page this piece is ſaid to be newly ſet fourth, overſeene and corrected by W.S.
- ↑ See the entry on the books of the Stationers’ company, June 19, 1594, where the lamentable End of Shore’s Wife is mentioned as a part of Richard III. This piece in which Shore's wife was introduced was, probably, in poſſeſſion of the ſtage a year or two before this entry; and from the manner in which theſe plays are mentioned in the verſes above quoted, we may conclude that Pericles was equally ancient, and equally well known.
- ↑ Prologue to the tragedy of Circe, by Charles Davenant, 1677.—Mr. Rowe, in his Life of Shakeſpeare, (firſt edition) ſays, “ There is good reaſon to believe that the greateſt part of Pericles was not written by him, though it is owned ſome part of it certainly was, particularly the last act.” I have not been able to learn on what authority this latter aſſertion was grounded.— Rowe, in his ſecond edition, omitted the paſſage.
