FOURTH PERIOD, 1608 to 1616. year to his death. From his 44th Cymbeline (probably revision of an earlier play). A Winter's Tale. Pericles (probably revision of an earlier play). Troilus and Cressida. Henry VIII. Coriolanus. Julius Cæsar. Antony and Cleopatra. There is another view in which the chronological order of Shakspere's plays may be regarded : and we think that it presents a key to the workings of his genius, in connexion with that desire which men of the highest genius only entertain, when a constant succession of new productions is demanded of them by the popular appetite, namely, to generalize their works by certain principles of art, producing novel combinations; which principles impart to groups of them belonging to the same period a corresponding identity. In Shakspere this is to be regarded more especially with reference to the nature of the dramatic action. We put down these groups, rather as materials for thought in the reader, than as a decided expression of our own conviction; because, all such circumstances and relations must be modified by other facts of which we have an incomplete knowledge. * Our reasons for considering the first "Hamlet" and "Romeo and Juliet" to belong to this class are given in a notice of the authenticity of "Titus Andronicus." We subjoin a Chronological Table of Shakspere's Plays, which we have constructed with some care, showing the positive facts which determine the dates previous to which they were produced. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF SHAKSPERE'S PLAYS. ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL. Held to be mentioned by 1598 Meres as "Love's La Mentioned by Meres 1598 Acted at Harefield Acted at Whitehall Whitehall. Supposed to have been 1607 acted at Henslow's The atre, 1593. Entered at Stationers' Hall. **Out of the thirty-seven Plays of Shakspere, the dates of thirty-one are thus to some extent fixed in epochs. These dates are, of course, to be modified by other circumstances, which are stated in our introductory notice to each Play. There are only six Plays remaining, whose dates are not thus limited by publication, by the notice of contemporaries, or by the record of their performance; and these certainly belong to the poet's latter period. They are MACBETH, CYMBELINE, TIMON OF ATHENS, ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, POSTSCRIPT FOR THE PRESENT EDITION. WERE Coleridge now alive, he would be not a little astonished at the progress of opinion regarding Shakspere. In England, he would find one editor adhering to the text of the first folio with somewhat of that bibliolatry which led the Rabbis to count the number of letters in the Holy Scriptures, and to calculate exactly which is the middle letter of the volume; another publishing an edition with a quasi sanction to more than a thousand conjectural emendations; and he would hear of an American work which is to prove that Shakspere never existed, even as Wolf demonstrated that Homer is but a myth. In Germany, he would find innumerable sermons and homilies on the Wisdoms of the plays, every obscurity regarded as a sacred mystery, every quibble as a word of magical virtue; and after seeing all this, perhaps he would scarcely be surprised to hear a scene read in the churches as the Lesson for the Day. In France, he would find what would astonish him most of all-those bigoted classicists absolutely receiving Shakspere open-armed, and crowding to see his dramas acted at the Théâtre Français. Shakspere naturalised in France! The barbarian |