that they were almost of the same age and that Shakespeare had done little or nothing while Marlowe had produced enough to make his name immortal, we ask what he would not have been had he lived. The answer is silence. To quote his own Faustus, "Cut is the branch that might have grown full straight, And burned is Apollo's laurel bough That sometime grew within this learned man: Though he showed little comic power, had apparently no understanding of women, and lacked Shakespeare's sweetness, light, gentleness, and morality, he undeniably had in him, as Drayton said, "those brave translunary things that the first poets had." To quote Hibbert, “ Kit Marlowe is beyond comparison the finest of the neglected poets." When, therefore, Shakespeare began his career as playwright, he had as a foundation to build upon a national drama highly popular and developed along the following lines: (1) vigorous native comedy and solid ideals of morality derived from the miracles, mysteries, moralities, and interludes; (2) the classical form and unity introduced by Sackville and Udall; (3) a dainty prose style contributed by Lyly; (4) the verisimilitude, life, vigor, and skill in plot construction developed by Greene; (5) Kyd's power of depicting character; and (6) Marlowe's blank verse and real poetry. Though at first he did not always rate each of these elements at its exact value, he learned by degrees, as we shall see, to reject the dross and to appropriate the gold with unerring skill. At Stratford Shakespeare had probably already become interested in plays and actors. At all events he soon found his way to the London theatres, where at first he earned a precarious living by holding horses at the door, but soon obtained employment as callboy. Then in quick succession he became actor, playwright, and part owner of a theatre. Within seven years after his arrival in London he had become sufficiently prominent to excite the jealousy of Greene, who, in a pamphlet written on his deathbed in 1592 and called a Groatsworth of Wit," says of him: "There is an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tyger's heart wrapt in a player's hide ('Henry VI,' part 3), supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as any of you, and, being an absolute Johannes factotum, is in his owne conceit the only Shake-scene in a countrie." During these seven years, his education outside of the theatre must have progressed at a prodigious rate. Like Burns, he was evidently brother and playmate to all mankind. Like Terence, he found nothing human void of interest. In his plays there is ample evidence that he knew all sorts and conditions of men and womensome high, some low-thieves and saints-philosophers and foolsprinces, queens, serving-women. In a study of his work, it is of supreme importance to remember that he was a man of one book and that that book was the human race. It must have been during these seven years that he studied it most closely and successfully. We do not know positively the order in which he wrote his plays, but in 1598 Francis Meres (1565-1647) published a book called "Palladis Tamia," in which he says: "The sweet witty soul of Ovid lives in mellifluous and honey-tongued Shakespeare. Witness his 'Venus and Adonis,' his 'Lucrece'; his sugared sonnets among his private friends. As Plautus and Terence are accounted the best for comedy and tragedy among the Latins, so Shakespeare among the English is the best in both kinds of the stage. For Comedy, witness his 'Gentlemen of Verona'; his 'Errors'; his 'Love's Labour's Lost'; his 'Love's Labour's Won" ('All's Well that Ends Well'); his 'Midsummer Night's Dream'; and his 'Merchant of Venice.' For Tragedy: His 'Richard II,' ‘Richard III,' 'Henry IV,' ' King John,' 'Titus Andronicus,' and his 'Romeo and Juliet.' This evidence, supplemented by a study of the style of the plays themselves by an army of critics more industrious and more numerous than ever worked on a similar problem before, enables us to fix the order of the plays with a fair degree of probability. The first seems to have been "The Comedy of Errors," which is taken from the "Menaechmi " of Plautus and is a carnival of boisterous fun intermixed with passages of poetry such as a youth of genius might produce when trying his 'prentice hand. It still holds the stage by virtue of the mirth-provoking powers of the two Dromios, who are so identical in appearance that they cannot be told apart. It is known to have been acted, 1594, but was not printed until 1623. The second was probably "Titus Andronicus," which George Saintsbury says in a sense is the complement of the "Comedy of Errors" and might be called "The Tragedy of Horrors," outrage and bloodshed taking the place of buffoonery and horse-play. Of 20 characters, 14 are killed. The play so shocked Burns as a boy that he could not read it through. In these two plays the young playwright was probably working under orders, as he certainly was in the three parts of "Henry VI," which probably came next. These are sometimes mistakenly referred to by critics as being of little merit. They are just as good as Schiller's "Maid of Orleans," parts of which they may have suggested, or as Marlowe's "Edward II." They are bad only in comparison with Shakespeare's later work. In "Love's Labour's Lost," which perhaps came next, and was printed 1598, we find the poet less under the orders of the stage director. The result is a play uneven but full of beauty and promise. The story tells how the King of Navarre and his three friends, Biron, Longaville, and Dumain, failed in an attempt to study three years without seeing any women, the reasons for this result being four in number—the Princess of France and her three ladies in waiting, Rosaline, Maria, and Katharine. The minor characters, Nathaniel the Curate, Holofernes the Schoolmaster, and the rational hind Costard, afford some admirable fooling by way of satire on pedantry. In character portrayal the play is a masterpiece. It is also full of lines that live in all memories. In Bartlett's "Dictionary of Familiar Quotations," indeed, the citations from "Love's Labour's Lost" fill as much space as Marlowe and Lyly combined. The play ends with one of Shakespeare's best songs. The story of " All's Well Which Ends Well," which was perhaps Shakespeare's next play, is not agreeable; but it contains two characters, the statesman Lafen and Parolles, three-thirds liar and coward, who are drawn to the life. The scenes depicting the way the latter's villainy is smoked out of its den are in Shakespeare's best comic vein. "The Two Gentlemen of Verona" belongs to the same period. Its theme is embodied in one sentence: "Were man but constant, he were perfect." Here, too, are a profusion of poetry, lines that are unforgettable, and abundant wit. Launce and his dog remind us for cibly also that Shakespeare was giving his audiences what the English public had been used to for generations by way of clownish antics. Indeed, the presence of a clown in almost every Shakespearean play You stand within his danger, doe yon not. An. 1, fo he fayes. Por. Doc you confelle the bond? Por. Then must the sew be mercifull. vvherein doth fit the dread and feare of Kings: and earthly power doth then fhow likeft gods vvhich if thou follow, this strict Court of Venice PORTIA'S SPEECH From the first edition of "The Merchant of Venice," printed for Thomas Heyes, 1600 points eloquently to the fact that even the master poet had to subdue his hand to what it worked in. With the "Two Gentlemen," Shakespeare's apprenticeship may be said to end. He had now done enough to excite Greene's jealousy and to be able to demand large remuneration for his work. He was popular. He had friends among the nobility. His financial future seemed secure. He longed, however, for solid literary fame. Accordingly, in 1593 he published what he called "the first heir of his invention," a poem entitled " Venus and Adonis." It was followed in 1594 by "Lucrece," another poem. Both proved popular and both in a measure deserved their popularity. In "Venus and Adonis,” which relates how Venus unsuccessfully wooed Adonis and how the latter was killed by a boar, there are fine descriptions of Adonis's horse, of the boar, and of a hunted hare. Both poems, while highly artistic, are cold; somebody has compared them to two ice-houses. They were followed quickly by four plays which must be described in far other terms "The Taming of the Shrew," "Romeo and Juliet," "A Midsummer Night's Dream," and the "Merchant of Venice." Their merit is such that they still hold the stage and are read by all educated people and by most who pretend to be. Their success when first produced must have been instant and enormous. At all events they filled the poet's purse so full that, in 1597, he bought the biggest and best house in Stratford, which he renamed "New Place." Upon the treasury of the Lord Chamberlain's players they exercised a similar influence; their old playhouse became too small to hold its patrons; and accordingly in 1599 we find a new one, known in literary history as the Globe, being erected for Shakespeare and his company. Το That they aroused the interest of the reading public also is attested by the fact that, despite all efforts to prevent it, they began to be printed, either from stolen copies or from shorthand notes. To attempt to analyze them here would be not only superfluous but impudent. There is only one way for the student to gain an adequate idea of them, and that is to read them again and again and yet again. Along with them came a great series of chronicle plays: "King John," "Richard II" and "Richard III," the two parts of "Henry IV," and "Henry V." Internal evidence seems to indicate that of these "King John " was the earliest to be written. While it is not |