ON THE SIX OLD PLAYS TO WHICH SHAKESPEARE WAS, OR IS SUPPOSED TO HAVE BEEN INDEBTED. THE six old plays on which, it is asserted by Steevens, Shakespeare founded' his Measure for Measure, Comedy of Errors, Taming of the Shrew, King John, Henry the Fifth and King Lear are the following: The History of Promos and Cassandra, printed in 1578. The Troublesome Reign of King John, printed in 1591. The Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth, acted prior to 1588, probably published in 1594, and certainly printed in 1598. The Taming of the Shrew, printed in 1594. The Chronicle History of Leir, King of England, probably published in 1594, and certainly printed in 1605. Menæchmi, taken out of Plautus, printed in 1595. When Steevens reprinted these pieces in 1779, he ventured upon no argument nor explanation to prove how, and to what extent Shakespeare was under obliga tion to their authors: with respect to the last, of which I shall speak first, it may now be taken for granted that he did not make the slightest use of it. Menæchmi taken out of Plautus, by W. W. (perhaps W. Warner,) did not appear, in all probability, until several years after The Comedy of Errors (which has been supposed to be founded upon it) had been brought upon the stage. Malone assigns The Comedy of Errors to 1592, and we may conclude with tolerable safety that it had its origin in that or in the following year. Although there is no trace of any similarity between it and the translation of the Menæchmi by W. W., yet there is little doubt that The Comedy of Errors was founded upon an older English play, which was an adaptation of the Menæchmi much anterior to 1595. On new-year's night 1576-7, the children of Paul's acted The History of Error at Hampton Court. This fact is recorded by Malone*, but he has not remarked also, that it was repeated on Twelfthnight, 1582-3; for although by mistake, in the account of the Revels at that date, it is called A History of Ferrar,' the person who made out the list of plays, writing from the sound only, meant probably the same piece as the History of Error. This play may have been the foundation of Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors, and the circumstance, that he borrowed certain parts from the old History of Error, will explain all that the commentators have said regarding doggrel * Shakespeare by Boswell, iv. 151. verses, and the apparent authorship of two different persons in the same play. The doggrel fourteensyllable verses given to the Dromios are precisely such as were used in dramatic performances not long before the period when Shakespeare began to write for the stage; and, as Malone himself has observed, he most likely obtained the designations of Antipholus erraticus and Antipholus surreptus, which are found in the old copy of the Comedy of Errors *, from this source. We may, therefore, very safely dismiss from our consideration the translation of Menæchmi by W. W., on the grounds, that Shakespeare did not use it, and that it was not printed until some time after he had commenced his theatrical career. It is, I think, equally certain that the other five old plays, above enumerated, were written anterior to the date of any of Shakespeare's productions: four of them were published anonymously, and there is by no means sufficient ground for the supposition entertained by some of the German critics, that they were the juvenile works of our great dramatist, who subsequently altered and improved them. They bear no resemblance to his style, as exhibited in his undoubted performances; and nothing is more clear than that at the time when he commenced his career, and afterwards, it was the constant custom for dramatic poets to revive, amend, and make additions to, productions which had once * It was not printed until it appeared in the folio of 1623. Meres mentions it in 1598. been popular, but which required novelty and adaptation to the improvements of the age. Judging from internal and external evidence, I should be inclined to place the five old plays in the following order, with reference to the dates at which they were produced, and according to that arrangement I shall speak of each:-1. Promos and Cassandra. 2. Henry the Fifth. 3. King John. 4. King Leir. 5. Taming of a Shrew. Promos and Cassandra was written by a poet of considerable celebrity in his day, George Whetstone, and it came from the press of Richard Jones in 1578: it is divided into a first and second part; and, perhaps, the most remarkable circumstance connected with the performance is one that has not hitherto been noticed, viz.; that the first part is entirely in rhyme, while in the second are inserted considerable portions of blank-verse, put only into the mouth of the King, as if it better suited the royal dignity. This fact might appear to militate against the position, elsewhere maintained in this work, that blank-verse was not employed upon the common, popular stage until 1586 or 1587, did we not know that Promos and Cassandru never was performed, either in public or private. Whetstone himself gives us this information, in his Heptameron of Civil Discourses, 1582: he there inserts a translation of the original novel on which he constructed his play *, and in a marginal note he ob From La Seconda Parte de gli Hecatommithi di M. Giovanbatista Giraldi Cinthio. Deca 8, Nov. 5, p. 415. Edit. 1565. serves: this Historie, for rarenes therof, is lively set ' out in a Comedie by the Reporter of the whole ' worke, but yet never presented upon stage.' It is likely that there was some interval between the penning of the first and of the second parts of Promos and Cassandra, and that in that interval the author had acquired a taste for blank-verse, and therefore employed it, never designing the piece for popular representation, for which on this account, among others, he might think it unfit. The year 1578 is an early date for the use of blank-verse for dramatic purposes, and a short extract will show sufficiently that Whetstone had not much improved upon the few examples already set. The King first addresses Cassandra, (who answers to Shakespeare's Isabella,) who has appealed to him, and he afterwards turns to Promos, the wicked deputy. เ Thy forced fault was free from evill intent, 'So long, no shame can blot thee any way; 'And though at full I hardly may content thee, Yet, as I may assure thyselfe I wyl. 'Thou wycked man, might it not thee suffice, By worse then force to spoyle her chastitie, But, heaping sinne on sinne, against thy oth 'Hast cruelly her brother done to death? 'This over proofe ne can but make me thinke That many waies thou hast my subjectes wrongd; For how canst thou with justice use thy swaie, Unto this ende, that I might learne at large 'What other wronges by power thou hast wrought.' VOL. III. F |