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32. The London Prodigal, 1605.
There is good ground for thinking that The London Prodigal was written long before 1605; but not affording any marks to aſcertain the preciſe time of its compoſition, an, not deſerving any very minute inquiry, it is here aſcribed to that year, in which it was publiſhed.
Shakſpeare’s name is printed in the title page of this play, as well as in three other conteſted pieces;—Pericles, Sir John Oldcaſtle, and A Yorkſhire Tragedy. But how little the bookſellers of that time ſcrupled to avail themſelves of his name, in order to procure a ſale for their publications, appears from its being prefixed to two of Ovid’s Epiſtles, (which have ever ſince been publiſhed among his poems) though they were tranſlated by Thomas Heywood; and printed (as Dr. Farmer has obſerved) in a work of his entitled Brytaine’s Troy, fol. 1609[1], before they were aſcribed to Shakſpeare.
33. King Lear, 1605.
The tragedy of King Lear was entered on the books of the Stationers’ company Nov. 26, 1607, and is there mentioned to have been played the preceding Chriſtmas, before his majeſty at Whitehall. But this, I conjecture, was not its firſt exhibition. It ſeems extremely probable that its firſt appearance was in 1605; in which year the old play if K. Leir, that had been entered at Stationers’ hall in 1594, was printed by Simon Stafford, for John Wright, who, we may preſume, finding Shakſpeare’s play ſucceſsful, hoped to palm the ſpurious one on the publick for his[2].
Our author’s King Lear was not publiſhed till 1608. Harſnet’s Declaration of Popiſh Impoſures, from which Shakſpeare borrowed ſome fantaſtick names of ſpirits, mentioned in this play, was printed in 1603.
- ↑ “ Theſe two epiſtles, being ſo pertinent to our hiſtorie, I thought neceſſarie to tranſlate.”—Bryt. Troy p. 211.
- ↑ Shakſpeare has copied one of the paſſages in this old play. This he might have done, though we ſhould ſuppoſe it not to have been publiſhed till after his K. Lear was written and acted; for the old play had been in poſſeſſion of the ſtage for many years before 1605.
