Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 18.djvu/57

SHAKESPEARE. 41 SHAKESPEARE. AH three parts of Henry TI. were plays that Shakespeare retouched for the stage at the very beginning of his dramatic career ; but the second and third parts have unquestionably a larger proportion of his work than the first. Titiis Amlroiiicus is another play which probably has a similar history, and which bears some slight traces of his hand. If he was the author of this bloody and revolting tragedy, as a few critics have assumed, il must have been written be- fore he had found his true self. It is far more probal>le that when he first attempted en- tirely original work it was in comedy, and that Loi-e'n Labour's Lost was the plaJ^ It was doubtless written as early as 1.501, if not two or three years earlier. The first extant edition appeared in 1508, when the title page informs us that it had been "newly revised and augmented." The Tiro Gentlemen of Verona and Tlic Coniedi/ of Errors appear to have followed immediately; and the first draft of the poet's first tragedy. Romeo and Juliet (excluding Titus Andronicvs) , belongs to the same period, the play in its present form being a revised and enlarged edition. Richard III., the first of the English historical plays which was entirely the work of Shakespeare, naturally follows the trilog;s' of Henry 17. and was probably written in 1502 or 1503. Richard II. was produced soon after Rich- ard III., though, like that play, it was not print- ed until 1507. Both plays appeared without the author's name, which was added the next .vear in second editions of both. A Midsummer Wight's Dream belongs in this group of earl.v comedies, of whi(»h it was in all probability the last, 1594 being the date generally accepted. The breadth of Shakespeare's literary tastes and aspirations in this 'prentice period' of his career is shown bj^ the fact that, jast when his reputation as an actor and a dramatist was becoming established, he published two long nar- rative poems, Venus and Adonis and Luercce, the former in 1503 and the latter in 1594. The popularity of the T>»«s and Adonis led to the issue of a second edition in 1594; and at least ten more editions appeared in the next sixteen years. Probalily there were others, as only single copies are extant of several of the known issues. Kothing was known of the fourth edition until a copy was discovered in 180", and a single cop.v of the twelfth has come to light more recently. Of the Luerece, eisht editions are known. bit it is unlikely that these complete the list. Both poems are dedicated to the young Earl of Southampton, who was a liberal patron of men of letters and- particularly interested in the drama. In the dedication of Venus and Adonis Shake- speare calls the poem "the first heir of my inven- tion," that is, the first product of his imagina- tion. This does not prove that it was w'ritten before any of the plays, but may onl.v mean that it was his first distinctively literary work, plays being then regarded as not included in literature properly so called. Some critics, how- ever, take the expression in its literal sense, believing that the poem was first written when the author was a very young man, perhaps even before he went to London. If Shakespeare did not become an author until 1590. the period of his literary apprenticeship covers at most five years, or until the end of 1594; and during tliis time he revised more or less thoroughly Titus An- dronicus and the three parts of Henry VI., and wrote at least the seven original plays already enumerated and two long poems. And all this time ho was activel.v engaged in his profession as an actor. The earliest definite notice of his appearance on the stage is of his playing in two comedies before Elizabeth at Greenwich Palace, in December, 1504. During the next six years (1505-1600) Shakespeare completed the series of English historical plays (not including Henry VIII., his part in which was done at least ten years later), and wrote most of his licst comedies and Julius Cwsar. All or nearly all the Honnets are probably to be included in this period. King John is generall,v assigned to 1505, internal evi- dence indicating that it immediately followed (if it did not precede) Riehard II. The two parts of Henry IV. followed in 1590 or 1507. and Henry V. in 1508. The Merry Wives of Windsor, which tradition says was written at the request of Elizabeth, who desired to see FalstaflT in love, appears to have come between 2 Henry /V. and Henry V. The Merchant of ]'eniee is mentioned in a list of Shakespeare's pla.vs in Francis Meres's I'alladis Tamia, published in September, 1598; it was written probably in 1590 or 1597. The same list includes all the plays mentioned above, exce])t the trilogy of Henry VI. It does not in- clude The Taming of the Shrew (an adaptation of an anonymous pla.v called The Taming of a fihrew, published in 1594), which in its present form cannot well have been later than 1597, and may be a year or two earlier. Some good critics identify it with the Loire's Labour's Won, men- tioned by Meres, which the niajoritv believe to have been an early draft of All's Well that Ends Well. In the closing .vears of the century, be- tween the summer of 1508 and the end of 1600, Shakespeare, after finishing the English histor- ical plays (except Henry VIII.), returned to comedy, and wrote his three most brilliant works in that line. As You Like It, Much Ado About Sothing, and Tu-elfth ight. The order of their composition is uncertain, but Twelfth Night is almost unanimously reckoned the last of the series. Julius Cwsar is alluded to in Weever's Mirror of Martyrs (printed'in 1601, but written two years before) and other evidence leaves little doubt that the play was produced in 1590. It was very popular, and many allusions to it are found in the literature of the time, according to one of which it was far more successful than Ben Jonson's Roman plays, Catiline and Se- janus. Of Shakespeare's personal histor.y between 1592 and 1600 few facts are known. In 1506 his only son, Hamnet, died and was buried on the 11th of August at Stratford. During the Christmas holidays his theatrical company performed twice before Elizabeth at Whitehall. In the spring of 1507 he made his first investment in real estate by the purchase of Xew Place, a mansion with about an acre of land in the centre of Stratford. In 1596 John Shakespeare, doubtless by his son's advice and at his expense, applied to the College of Heralds for a eoat-of-arms; but, though the petition was approved in October of that year, the negotiations were not then concluded. In 1599 •John made a new application to the College of Heralds, in which he refers to the action taken on that of 1596. and also requests that he and his son may be allowed to quarter on the coat the arms of the Ardens of Wilmcote, his wife's family. The heralds granted the coat, but sub-