letter type, in 1598. On the titlepage of this early quarto we are informed that it had been "acted by the Queen's players;" that is, between 1583 and 1593, the Queen's company having been in existence only between those dates. Tarleton, too, acted in it, and Tarleton died in 1588. A new version, entitled the Chronicle History of Henry V.,' still anonymous, but from the same press as before, appeared in 1600. It is significant that these two versions were the property of the same publisher, Thomas Pavier, and continued to be so until Pavier's death in 1626, when they were transferred by the widow to other persons. That they were of common origin, or, in other words, that they were both Shake-speare's, we have no particle of doubt. Indeed, the 'Famous Victories' is expressly declared to have been Shakespeare's in the dedication to Richard James's 'Legend and Defence of the noble Knight and Martyr, Sir John Oldcastle,' an unpublished MS., written in or about 1625, and now in the Bodleian Library at Oxford.1 A modern writer pronounces the earlier work the "product of a powerful but uncultivated mind;" he would have been more exact had he said, a powerful but immature mind. The earliest intelligence we have of the great tragedy of 'King Lear' is in its entry for publication in the Stationers' 1 "A young lady of your acquaintance, having read the works of Shakespeare, made me this question: How Sir John Falstaffe . . . could be dead in Harrie the Fift's time and again live in the time of Harrie the Sixt to be banished for cowardice? Whereto I made answer . . . that in Shakespeare's first shewe of Harrie the Fift, the person with which he undertook to playe the buffone was not Falstaffe, but Sir John Oldcastle."- RICH. JAMES. Dr. James was a man of high character and attainments, an Oxonian, clergyman, antiquary and critic. His testimony to the Shakespearean authorship of the Famous Victories of Henry V.' in which the fat knight is named Sir John Oldcastle, taken in connection with other facts given above, ought to settle the paternity of the early play at once and forever. Indeed, it leaves us no room to doubt the paternity also of the early drafts of 'King John,' 'King Leir,' and the Taming of the Shrew,' which scholars have heretofore so generally and persistently, as well as so blindly, attributed to some unknown playwright. That this is true of the 'early Hamlet' we have already given irrefragable evidence. Register, May 14, 1594, name of author not given. No copy of the quarto, if then printed, is extant. It was produced on the stage by the Queen's company and that of the Earl of Sussex acting together to crowded houses. The play was entered again in 1605, and printed anonymously in the same year. Three years afterward it appeared a second time in print, with the name of "Shake-speare" on the titlepage and almost entirely rewritten, substantially in the form in which we now have it. The common authorship of the two versions is unmistakable. Of the former Mr. Lloyd, in his critical essay on this subject, says that Shake-speare " found gold on every page." It seems also to have furnished the germ of a speech put into the mouth of Bassanio in the Merchant of Venice.' "The elder tragedy of 'King Leir' is simple and touching. There is one entire scene in it, the meeting of Cordelia with her father in the lonely forest, which, with Shakespeare's Lear' in my memory and heart, I could scarcely read with dry eyes." THOMAS CAMPBELL. "In reading this old drama [King Leir and his three daughters] every now and then there comes across us an incident, or a line, or a phrase that reminds us of Shakespeare's Lear.". - FURNESS' New Variorum Shakespeare, v. 384. One scene of the drama in its first draft seems to be worthy of special notice. The old king is returning from France with an army to reclaim his dominions. His unfilial daughters set a watch for him upon the shore. In the colloquy that follows among the watchmen, we have a singular, not to say suspicious repetition of the word beacon (then pronounced bacon), fifteen times, together with 1 This will appear from the numerous puns on words containing these two vowels in the literature of the time and especially in Shake-speare, as for example: "Come you, sir, if justice cannot tame you, she shall ne'er weigh more reasons [raisins] in her balance.". Much Ado, v. 1. -- the word Bacon itself twice, within the space of less than two pages. "Enter a Captain of the Watch and two watchmen. Cap. My honest friends, it is your turn to-night To watch this place, near about the Beacon, And vigilantly have regard, If any fleet of ships pass hitherward : Which if you do, your office is to fire The beacon presently and raise the town. [Exit. 1 Wat. Aye, Aye, Aye, fear nothing; we know our charge, I warrant; I have been a watchman about this Beacon this thirty year, and yet I ne'er see it stir, but stood as quietly as might be. 2 Wat. Faith, neighbor, and you'll follow my advice; instead of watching the Beacon, we'll go to goodman Gennings' and watch a pot of ale and a rasher of Bacon; and if we do not drink ourselves drunk, then so; I warrant, the Beacon will see us when we come out again. 1 Wat. Aye, but how if somebody excuse us to the captain? 2 Wat. 'Tis no matter; I'll prove by good reason that we watch the Beacon, as for example. 1 Wat. I hope you do not call us by craft, neighbor. 2 Wat. No, no, but for example: say here stands the pot of ale, that's the Beacon. 1 Wat. Aye, aye, 't is a very good Beacon. 2 Wat. Well, say here stands your nose, that's the fire. 1 Wat. Indeed, I must confess, 't is somewhat red. 2 Wat. I see, come marching in a dish, half a score pieces of salt Bacon. 1 Wat. I understand your meaning; that's as much to say, half a score of ships. 2 Wat. True, you conster right; presently, like a faithful watchman, I fire the Beacon and call up the town. 1 Wat. Aye, that's as much as to say, you set your nose to the pot, and drink up the drink. 2 Wat. You are in the right; let's go fire the Beacon. [Exeunt. "Give you a reason on compulsion! if reasons were as plentiful as blackberries, I would give no man a reason on compulsion.” —1 Henry IV. ii. 4. In the early days of the New England settlement, the name of the watchtower in Boston and of the hill on which it stood was always pronounced Bacon. Alarum, with men and women half naked; enter two Captains without doublets, with swords. 1 Cap. Where are these villains that were set to watch And fire the Beacon, if occasion served, That thus have suffer'd us to be surpris'd, And never given notice to the town? We are betray'd and quite devoid of hope, By any means to fortify ourselves. 2 Cap. 'Tis ten to one the peasants are o'ercome with drink and sleep and so neglect their charge. 1 Cap. A whirlwind carry them quick to a whirlpool That there the slaves may drink their bellies full. 2 Cap. This 't is, to have the Beacon so near the Ale-house. Enter the watchmen drunk, each with a pot. 1 Cap. 1 Wat. 2 Wat. Out on ye, villains, whither run ye now? 2 Cap. What, with a pot of ale, you drunken rogues? 1 Cap. You'll fire the Beacon when the town is lost. you how to tend your office better.1 [He drinks. I'll teach [Draws to stab them." As to the exact date when the dramatic instincts of the author first stirred within him and created these three boyish dramas, we are left wholly to conjecture. Certain considerations (to be mentioned later) indicate the years 1579–81. "Are not Shakspere's early works incomplete, as compared with his later ones? Do not Chaucer's works follow his growth, begin poor, wax rich, and in old age turn poor again? What is Byron's earliest trash when compared with his later better poems?" F. J. FURNIVALL.2 The following is a complete schedule of these early plays, with their respective approximate dates: 1 Our attention was first called to this significant play upon the word beacon by Samuel Cabot, Esq., a Shakespearean scholar of Boston, Mass. 2 New Shakespere Society's Transactions, 1874, page 329. In confirmation of this schedule as a whole, we are not without ample testimony from the author's contemporaries. In 1598, Francis Meres published a list of thirteen plays (seven tragedies, and six comedies) as Shakespeare's. He did not include Hamlet,' nor the three parts of 'King Henry VI.,' all of which were certainly then in existence. Indeed, he did not pretend to exhaust the whole catalogue; he was simply commending Shake-speare's merits as a writer, and in doing so he asked his readers to "witness," as he said, certain specimens that justified his eulogy. The phrase, for example, would have conveyed the same meaning. His statement is as follows: "Shakespeare among the English is the most excellent in both kinds for the stage; for comedy, witness his Gentlemen of Verona, his Errors, his Love's Labor's Lost, his Love's Labor's Won, his Midsummer Night's Dream, and his Merchant of Venice; for Under the title of The Troublesome Reign of King John. "Under the title of The Famous Victories of Henry V. • Under the title of King Leir and his Three Daughters. 4 Under the title of The Taming of a Shrew. • Under the title of The Contention betwixt the Two Famous Houses of York and Lancaster. • Under the title of The True Tragedy of Richard, Duke of York. |