'And offer thou him his horse to ride abroad,

'And thou his hawkes, and houndes to hunt the deere, And I will aske what sutes he meanes to weare, And what so ere he saith, see you doo not laugh, 'But still perswade him that he is a Lord.

Enter one.

Mess. And it please your honour, your plaiers be com, 'And doo attend your honour's pleasure here.

'Lord. The fittest time they could have chosen out. 'Bid one or two of them come hither straight; 'Now will I fit my selfe accordinglie,

For they shall play to him when he awakes.

Enter two of the players with packs at their backs, and a boy.

Now, sirs, what store of plaies have you?

'San.[der] Marrie, my lord, you maie have a Tragicall, 'Or a commoditie, or what you will.

The other. A Comedie thou shouldst say: souns,

thout shame us all.

'Lord. And what's the name of your Comedie ?

'San. Marrie, my lord, 'tis calde The taming of a

shrew.

''Tis a good lesson for us, my lord, for us yt are married

men.

'Lord. The taming of a shrew, that's excellent sure.

'Go see that you make you readie straight,

For you must play before a lord to-night.

Say you are his men and I your fellow,

'Hee's something foolish, but what so ere he saies, 'See that you be not dasht out of countenance.'

The reprint made by Steevens, in 1779, from the edition of the old Taming of a Shrew, (mentioned by Sir J. Harington in 1596 *,) will enable the reader to

In his Metamorphosis of Ajax printed in that year. VOL. III.

G

judge how far Shakespeare, and, as I suppose, his coadjutor, were aided by the previous drama; and as the resemblance runs through the whole performance, it is not necessary to point out particular instances. Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew is deficient in the conclusion, for we there hear nothing of Sly after the play is ended. In the old piece of 1594, he is again borne to the door of the ale-house, and there left asleep it is related in the following manner.

'Then enter two bearing of Slie in his owne apparell, and leaves him where they found him, and then goes out: then enter the Tapster.

Tapster. Now that the darkesome night is overpast,

'And dawning day appeares in cristall skie,

'Now must I haste abroade: but soft, who's this?

'What, Slie, O wondrous! hath he laine heere all night? 'I'le wake him: I thinke hee's starved by this,

'But that his belly was so stufft with ale.

'What now, Slie, awake for shame!

'Slie. Sim, gives some more wine: what all the
Players gone: am not I a Lord?

Tapster. A Lord, with a murrin: come, art thou drunken still?

'Slie. Who's this? Tapster, O Lord sirha, I have had 'the bravest dreame to-night, that ever thou heardest in all thy life.

'Tapster. I, mary, but you had best get you home, For your wife will course you for dreaming heere tonight.

'Slie. Wil she? I know now how to tame a shrew; 'I dreamt upon it all this night till now,

'And thou hast wakt me out of the best dreame 'That ever I had in all my life: but I'le to my

'Wife presently, and tame her too, and if she anger me.

'Tapster. Nay, tarry, Slie, for Ile go home with thee, And heare the rest that thou hast dreamt to-night.

The variations between the copies of 1594 and 1607 are not material, the latter being a reprint from the former; unless, as Reed asserts, there was an intermediate edition in 1596*. One circumstance has not been remarked by the commentators, viz., that the scene of the old Taming of a Shrew is laid in Athens, and that the names of the characters are a mixture of Greek, Latin, Italian, English, and Scotch. Shakespeare transferred it to Padua, and altered the dramatis persona, observing in this particular, and some others, more dramatic propriety.

Malone's Shakespeare by Boswell, ii. 341.

84

THE IMMEDIATE

PREDECESSORS OF SHAKESPEARE.

INTRODUCTION.

ANTERIOR to the year 1593, when it has been assumed that Shakespeare first began to attract notice as a dramatic poet, we have seen that the following five theatres were certainly open :-the Blackfriars, the Whitefriars, the Rose on the Bankside, a playhouse at Newington Butts, and Paris Garden, where plays were occasionally performed. Besides these, it is probable that the Hope was also in use at this period, and the school-room at St. Paul's had been early applied to the purpose of acting plays: the employment of inn-yards also, as temporary places of exhibition, had not been entirely discontinued. It is not possible, perhaps, to arrive at anything like a correct notion with regard to the number of companies at any one time playing in London and its vicinity: the writer of a letter to Secretary Walsingham, quoted under the date of 1586 in the Annals of the Stage,' mentions the players of the Queen, of Lord Leicester, of Lord Oxford, Lord Nottingham, and divers others,' then performing; and in the whole he states that there were

not less than two hundred players in and near the metropolis. Allowing for puritanical exaggeration on the part of the writer, and supposing the number to be only about one hundred, each company at that date could scarcely exceed ten or twelve persons, and this calculation would give about ten companies performing in London and its vicinity in 1586.

Philip Henslowe's manuscript Diary commences about five years afterwards, and two years before Shakespeare became an author of mark and likelihood.' His business, judging from his own accounts, seems originally to have been that of a sort of pawnbroker, who advanced money upon various kinds of property, but especially upon wearing apparel. The players often pledged their dresses with him, and afterwards hired them when they were wanted: this probably was the commencement of Henslowe's connection with plays and theatres. Various companies in this manner might become his debtors, and he ultimately possessed a large share of the wardrobe and properties of the playhouses with which he was concerned. In 1591, he either extensively repaired or built the Rose on the Bankside; and on the 19th of February, in that year, he began to register his proportion of the receipts. The house was then in the occupation of Lord Strange's players. On the 27th of December, 1593, he was connected in the same way with Lord Sussex's players, who, in April following, joined the Queen's players; but the union appears to have been of very short duration, and after April, 1593, Hen