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early editions, (particularly thoſe of K. Henry V. the Second and Third Part of King Henry VI. and the Second Part of King Henry IV.) I ſuppoſe the omiſſons to have ariſen from the imperfection of the copies; and inſtead of ſaying that “the firſt ſcene of K. Henry V. was added by the author after the publication of the quarto in 1600,” all that we can pronounce with certainty is, that this ſcene is not found in the quarto of 1600.
23. The Puritan, 1600.
Printed in 1600, without the name of Shakſpeare. In the title page are the letters W. S.
24. Much Ado about Nothing, 1600.
Much Ado about Nothing, was written, we may preſume, early in the year 1600; for it was entered at Stationers’ hall, Auguſt 23, 1600, and printed in that year.
It is not mentioned by Meres in his liſt of our author’s plays, publiſhed in the latter end of the year 1598.
25. As You Like It, 1600.
This comedy was not printed till 1623, and the caveat or memorandum[1] in the ſecond volume of the books of the Stationers’ company, relative to the three plays of As You Like It, Henry V. and Much Ado about Nothing, has no date except Aug. 4. But immediately above that caveat there is an entry, dated May 27, 1600,—and the entry, immediately following it, is dated Jan. 23, 1603. We may therefore preſume that this caveat was entered between thoſe two periods: more eſpecially, as the dates ſcattered over the pages where this entry is found, are, except in one inſtance, in a regular ſeries from 1596 to 1615. This will appear more clearly by exhibiting the entry exactly as ſtands in the book:
- ↑ See Mr. Steevens’s extracts from the books of the Stationers’ company, ante p. 256.
