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hall, not printed, till 1613; but probably is the play mentioned by Meres, in 1598, under the title of Love’s Labour Won. This comedy was, I believe, alſo ſometimes called A Bad Beginning makes a Good Ending; for I find that a play with that title, together with Hotſpur, Benedict and Beatrix, and ſeveral others, was acted at court, by John Heminge’s company in the year 1613: and no ſuch piece is to be found, in any collection however complete or extenſive, nor is ſuch a title preſerved in any liſt or catalogue whatſoever. As the titles of Hotſpur, and Benedict and Beatrix, were ſubſtituted in the place of the firſt part of K. Henry IV. and Much Ado about Nothing, it is probable that the other was only a new name for All’s Well that Ends Well.
By an entry in the hand writing of king Charles I. in a copy of the ſecond edition of our author’s plays in folio, which formerly belonged to that monarch, and is now in the poſſeſſion of Mr. Steevens, it appears, that this play was alſo ſometimes called Mr. Parolles.
20. Sir John Oldcaſtle, 1598,
This play was entered at Stationers’ hall, Auguſt 4, 1600, and printed in the ſame year. It was acted very early[1] in that year, by the Lord Chamberlain’s ſervants, before Monſ. Vereiken, ambaſſador to Queen Elizabeth from the Archduke and the Infanta.
The prologue to this piece furniſhes a {(ls}}trong argument to ſhew that it was not written by Shakſpeare. The following lines particularly deſerve our attention:
“ The doubtfull title, (gentlemen) prefixt
“ Upon the argument we have in hand
“ May breed ſuſpence
“ To ſtop which ſcruple let this breeſe ſuffice:
“ It is no pampered glutton we preſent,
“ Nor aged councellour to youthfull ſinne;
“ But one whoſe vertue ſhone above the reſt,
“ A valiant martyr, and a vertuous peere
“ Let fair truth be grac’d,
“ Since forg’d invention former time defac’d.”
- ↑ On the 16th of March 1599, in fact 1600. See the Letters of the Sydney Family, vol. II. p. 175.
