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PERICLES, though printed separately during Shakespeare's life, was not included in this first collection, and was first added to it in the second reprint of it, in 1684.

It is obvious, on the slightest examination, that, with the exception of the distribution into three classes, and placing the English historical dramas in their order of historical succession, this arrangement is entirely arbitrary or accidental. There is no regard to the probable order of composition, or the variations of the author's taste and manner; several of the comedies and tragedies, which bear their own evidence, confirmed by external proof, of being among the author's youthful works, being placed after or between others as certainly known, and as strongly marked, as being the fruits of his disciplined and matured judgment,-while it is impossible to trace any other arrangement.

The order of the modern editions is founded mainly upon the folios, but with various changes, differing in different editions, such as transferring MACBETH from the tragedies to the commencement of the histories, and others not indicating any regular plan of arrangement. Mr. Collier is, I believe, the only modern editor who adheres to the order of the folio editions. This strange confusion in all editions, from the very first, may possibly have at first suggested the notion of Rowe, and the critics of the last century, that "we are not to look for Shakespeare's beginnings, like those of other authors, among their least perfect writings," and that "the performances of his youth, as they were the most vigorous, and had the most fire and strength of imagination in them, were the best ;" and so, too, it is still likely to keep up the vague popular opinion, that he wrote under an irregular inspiration, of which he had no control,-gaining nothing for himself from the progressive study of nature, of men, or of books, or from that selfdiscipline by which every great mind evolves and perfects its own natural gifts.

The present edition having been first issued in numbers, several circumstances, connected with the convenience of the artists, the printer, or the editor, led to a total disregard of any sys tematic order of publication, and each play was separately paged, so as to leave the whole series to be re-arranged in volumes, when the publication was completed. The precise order of arrangement is certainly not a matter of the highest importance; but, in considering the best mode of disposing the plays in volumes, it seemed that some advantage might be attained for the reader, by a more methodical distribution than those of former editions. It is, on all accounts, desirable to preserve the original division into Comedies, Histories, (or dramas of English history,) and Tragedies, as these were the familiar distinctions of the Poet's age, and were doubtless in his own mind when he wrote. Therefore, although the distinction between some of the dramas may now not be very obvious,-as, for instance, it is not clear why CYMBELINE should be classed as a tragedy, and the WINTER'S TALE as a comedy,-it is still proper to follow the old distribution of the folio editions in this respect.

After preserving that classification, no more appropriate arrangement of the several pieces can be well made than to distribute them according to the several progressive stages of their author's style, taste, and general cast of thought.

In this way, the growth of the author's mind, the ripening of his taste, his formation of diction and of versification for himself, may all be made more prominent, so as to be perceptible even to the careless reader; while, on the other hand, we avoid the incongruity which must strike the reader of former editions, when he finds a drama of such majestic intellect as the TEMPEST, or CORIOLANUS, suddenly succeeded by the feebler elegance of the Two GENTLEMEN OF VERONA, or the crude horrors of TITUS ANDRONICUS. But the inter-dependence of the plots, and the succession of events, in the English histories, require that this order should be followed in respect to them, in preference to that of the probable dates of their production. This, however, may be done with little discrepancy from the other principle; because, though the two orders do not precisely correspond, (the three Parts of HENRY VI. and RICHARD III. having certainly been written and acted before HENRY IV. and HENRY V.,) yet, with the exception of HENRY VIII., they all belong to the same epoch or period of their author's genius.

The particular evidence of the respective dates when each play was first published or acted, or probably written, is stated, in full, in the Introductory Remarks prefixed to each drama. The reader will there perceive how much uncertainty and darkness there is as to the precise dates

of most of them; while these difficulties as to the chronological order are increased by the fact, known as to some plays, and highly probable as to others, that the same piece sometimes contains a ground-work and many scenes in some one or other of the Poet's earlier manners, by the side of subsequent corrections and enlargements, in a different style. Still, the evidence of the earlier editions, of the entries in the Stationers' Register, of the notices of contemporary writers, and other minute indications gleaned from all quarters by the zealous industry of the later Shakespearian antiquaries, combined with the strong testimony of style and versification, now shed light enough on the inquiry to enable us to trace quite satisfactorily the progress of the dramatist's mind, and to assign, with reasonable confidence, most of his works to their respective successive stages of his genius and taste. That evidence, as separately detailed in the Introductory Remarks to each play, leads to the following general conclusions:

The later investigations have quite dissipated the old traditionary notion, that Shakespeare was a wholly uneducated adventurer, who did not suspect his own latent powers, nor essay them for the stage or the press, until his twenty-seventh or twenty-eighth year. On the contrary, it is unquestionable that, with some opportunities of irregular and imperfect education, his literary talent and ambition began to develop themselves at an early age, and probably even before he had left his native village to try his fortunes in London.

To the period of the Poet's early manhood, and first trial of his unpractised strength, now in one direction and now in another, we may ascribe his poems of VENUS AND ADONIS, and Lucrece, the tragedy of TITUS ANDRONICUs, and probably the legendary tale of PERICLES, afterwards improved by additions in a far higher mood. It has also been thought likely that, while yet very young, he produced the rude and imperfect sketches of other dramas; such as CYMBELINE,-re-modelled and re-written by him, in later years, but where some of the original materials and unskilful forms may still be traced out, in the stately structures into which they were subsequently incorporated. Among his more successful and, doubtless, the later labours of this period of his self-training, must be enumerated the Two GENTLEMEN OF VERONA, the COMEDY OF ERRORS, and LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, in its original form, before it was "corrected and augmented," as stated in the title-page of the first edition, in 1598. To this period, also, there is good reason to assign the "Love's Labour Won," mentioned by Shakespeare's friend Meares, in his list of the Poet's works before 1598, and which seems to have been revised and enlarged, long after, in quite another mood of thought and cast of diction, and re-produced as ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL. If we consider this period of Shakespeare's apprentice labours,-of this first stage of the selfformation of his genius,-as extending to his twenty-eighth year, I do not hesitate to assign to his hand, at or about the close of this period, as an early essay in historical delineation and varied heroic characterization, the old plays of the "Contention between the two famous Houses of York and Lancaster," some years after re-modelled by him into the successive Parts of HENRY VI. (See Introductory Remarks to HENRY VI., Parts I. and III.) There is, too, some reason to think (though the evidence is but faint or conjectural) that he had also, even at this early period, produced a tragedy of "Hamlet," with the plot, and incidents, and characters of the tragedy we now have, but brought into its latest form by repeated revisals and enlargements, at long intervals.

In the succeeding eight or nine years, ending with the beginning of the seventeenth century, and the Poet's thirty-seventh year, we are able to trace his progress with great certainty. It was a period of amazing fertility of invention, and of the most rapid development of poetic and of comic, as well as of purely dramatic power. It probably commenced with the first outline of ROMEO AND JULIET, as we have it in the first quarto edition, which was enlarged and changed to its present form not very long before it was thus reprinted, in 1599,-the original draft being full of wit, fancy, spirit, and dramatic effect; but it is in the after additions that we mark the near approach to the deep passion and fiery splendour of OTHELLO. During the same few years were produced the series of his English Histories, except HENRY VIII., and most probably in the following order: HENRY VI., (the three Parts, as revised and enlarged,) RICHARD III., KING JOHN, RICHARD II., the two Parts of HENRY IV., HENRY V.; these three last belonging to the latter end of the century, and they approximate, in style and versification, and in their

throng of thought, to the productions of the author during the next and most magnificent period of his genius. These same few years, from 1593 to 1601, were also distinguished for a rapid succession of brilliant and joyous comedies, all of them (except the MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR) remarkable for the perpetual and graceful blending and contrasting of broad humour with poetic fancy. Besides, the TAMING OF THE SHREW, (a popular piece of some brother dramatist, re-writ ten with the decoration of poetry added to its original farcical extravagance,) the MIDSUMMERNIGHT'S DREAM, the MERCHANT OF VENICE, MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, AS YOU LIKE IT, TWELFTH NIGHT, and the MERRY WIVES OP WINDSOR, successively appeared during these years. In the MERCHANt of Venice, (1597,) and As You LIKE IT, (about 1600,) we may again observe the same approximation as in the later English Histories, to that bolder use of language, and that blending of the intellectual with the poetical, which were soon to become the Poet's predominant characteristics.

It appears certain that the MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, (1600,) and the TWELFTH NIGHT, (1601,) were the latest of the comic series,-a circumstance worthy of notice, from their being among the most gay and joyous of the whole, and immediately preceding a long period distinguished by productions of austere thought and darker views of life. Falstaff and his companions, both in the comedy and the Histories, and Malvolio and his tormentors, were the immediate predecessors of Othello, Iago, Angelo, Lear, and Macbeth. During the next eight or nine years, from the first year of the sixteenth century to about 1609 or 1610-from the Poet's thirty-seventh to about his forty-sixth year-his genius rose at once to its highest point of culmination. It was the era of his tragic power, of his resistless control over the emotions of terror and of pity, of his deepest and most gloomy philosophy. This was the period so well noted by Mr. Hallam, when he appeared "as the stern censurer of man," when his deeper insight into the human heart led him to dark and sad views of human nature; sometimes prompting the melancholy philosophy of HAMLET—sometimes bursting forth in the fiery indignation of TIMON and LEAR. It was during this period that he most impressed upon his style that character which we now recognise as peculiarly Shakespearian, by crowding into his words a weight of thought, until (in the eloquent phrase of some critic) "the language bent under it." His versification becomes, like his diction, bolder, freer, careless of elegance, of regularity, and even of melody,-a sterner music, fitted to sterner themes. OTHELLO may be considered as commencing this series, in the order of time; it having appeared in 1602. Soon after, (in 1604,) appeared the revised HAMLET, enlarged (as the title-page of the edition of 1604 states) "to almost as much again as it was,' and then first filled with its "meditative philosophy," its alternation of the bitter and the tender, of the pensive with the impassioned.

MEASURE FOR MEASURE is also ascertained, by recent investigations, to have been produced about this same remarkable date of the Poet's life,-between 1601 and 1604. This comedy, as it is called, severe, sarcastic, bitter, indignant in spirit, and harsh in rhythm and diction, marks the overshadowing of the same dark influence, and the constant excitement of the same intense and, as it were, tumultuous energy of thought. Then followed LEAR and MACBETH, as we know from positive proofs, and TIMON, as its own internal evidence indicates. To this, or to some later date, we must assign ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL, with its sententious morals and harsh versification, worked into the web of the juvenile comedy of "Love's Labour Won," and retaining much of the original materials, quite different in taste and spirit from the rest. TROILUS AND CRESSIDA was first published in 1609, having then never been acted, (see Introductory Remarks to TROILUS AND CRESSIDA ;) and here, too, there are indications that much of the dialogue and story might be the spared remnants of a juvenile work,-while the nobler passages. in which it abounds are in the tone and spirit of the later works. To this same period, which was that of the author's personal management of theatrical concerns, we may, with much probability, assign the rifaciamento of PERICLES, whether the original sketch was Shakespeare's own youthful work, or by some other hand. It may be, also, that CYMBELINE was worked up, about the close of this period, from some other youthful drama of his own, on the same old English plot; though, to my mind, the spirit and taste of its higher poetry are more assimilated to those of his very latest works.

The tradition that Shakespeare,* during the last six or seven years of his life, after he had retired from London to his native village, continued to supply the stage with new dramas, is confirmed by positive evidence, as to the first representation of some of them, (the TEMPEST, and WINTER'S TALE,) and by the strong probability as to others, such as the Roman Tragedies, having been written during these years, to be inferred from our finding no mention or trace of them, at any earlier period, and from their being first printed in the folio collection, after the author's death; as well as by the internal evidence and mutual congruity of style and spirit, in all the dramas not assigned to one or the other of the preceding periods. These are the WINTER'S TALE, certainly produced about 1610; the TEMPEST, 1611, (and perhaps enlarged in 1613;) HENRY VIII., about 1613; probably CYMBELINE, unless it was put into its present form a year or two before 1609; and, I doubt not, the three noble Roman Tragedies of CORIOLANUS, JULIUS CÆSAR, and ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. These are all of them such works as could only have been written by the author of OTHELLO, HAMLET, LEAR, and MACBETH, after he had formed and made habitual to his own mind the peculiar cast of language and style, which characterizes these noblest creations of his genius; and, without their intensity of thought and expression, their sadness or bitterness of spirit, or their fiery excitement, they are scarcely less majestic in intellect,-while, in style, some of them (as the TEMPEST) combine the severer strength of those great tragedies with the mild beauties of his most perfect comedies.

In the present edition, the convenience of dividing the publication into three equal volumes induces the placing the English Histories first after the Preface, Life, etc. The Histories must, of course, be arranged according to their historical succession: but the reader will be reminded, in the Introductory Remarks, that KING JOHN, RICHARD II., HENRY IV., and HENRY V., were all written after HENRY VI. and RICHARD III.

The Comedies and the Tragedies would be best arranged in the precise order of their original composition, if it were possible to do so with any confidence of accuracy. But the real uncertainty which exists as to the respective dates of many of the plays, and the ascertained fact as to several of them, (as LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST and HAMLET,) that they were altered or largely augmented long after they were first written, must necessarily render such arrangement open to some objection or other. All, then, that can be of much value in any innovation upon the older accidental arrangement, and all that is aimed at here, will be attained by a distribution of the dramas under the several epochs when they received the form they now bear; so as to show by their juxtaposition, the successive diversities of the great Poet's style and taste, the development of his genius, and the varying moods of his mind.

In the order proposed for this edition, TITUS ANDRONICUS and PERICLES are placed at the end of the Tragedies, in the last volume. According to the editor's own view of the disputed question of the authorship of these pieces, they should be placed at the beginning of the volume of Tragedies, as Shakespeare's very earliest dramatic works; and if it is preferred by any purchaser, they may still be so placed by directions to the binder. But in consequence of the general denial of their authenticity by former editors and critics, and their striking diversity from the rest of Shakespeare's works, together with some circumstances of typographical convenience, it has been thought proper to place them at the end of the Tragedies, as an appendix or supplement to the edition of the undisputed dramas.

* See Ward's "Diary."

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