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importance. (It has given us that beautiful altar-scene, that would be almost too tragical if we did not know that the "Much Ado" was "about Nothing. But that maiden's sorrows, and that father's passion, are real aspects of life, however unreal be the cause of them. The instrumentality, too, of the hateful Don John has given us Dogberry and Verges. Coleridge has said, somewhat hastily we think, "any other less ingeniously absurd watchmen and night-constables would have answered the mere necessities of the action." Surely not. Make Dogberry in the slightest degree less self-satisfied, loquacious, full of the official stuff of which functionaries are still cut out, and the action breaks down before the rejection of Hero by her lover. For it is not the ingenious absurdity that prevents the detection of the plot against Hero; it is the absurdity which prevents the prompt disclosure of it after the detection. Let us take a passage of this inimitable piece of comedy to read apart, that we may see how entirely the character of Dogberry is necessary to the continuance of the action. When Borachio and Conrade are overheard and arrested, the spectators have an amiable hope that the mischief of Don John's plot will be prevented; but when Dogberry and Verges approach Leonato, the end, as they think, is pretty sure. Let us see how the affair really works :

"Leon. Neighbours, you are tedious.

Dogb. It pleases your worship to say so, but we are the poor duke's officers; but, truly, for mine own part, if I were as tedious as a king I could find in my heart to bestow it all of your worship.

Leon. All thy tediousness on me! ha! Dogb. Yea, and 't were a thousand times more than 't is for I hear as good exclamation on your worship as of any man in the city; and though I be but a poor man I am glad to hear it.

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wit is out; God help us! it is a world to see!— Well said, i'faith, neighbour Verges:—well, God's a good man; and two men ride of a horse, one must ride behind:-An honest soul, i' faith, sir; by my troth he is, as ever broke bread: but God is to be worshipped: All men are not alike; alas, good neighbour!

of

Leon. Indeed, neighbour, he comes too short you.

Dogb. Gifts, that God gives.

Leon. I must leave you."

Truly did Don Pedro subsequently say, "This learned constable is too cunning to be understood." The wise fellow, and the rich fellow, and the fellow that hath had losses, and one that hath two gowns, and everything handsome about him, nevertheless holds his prisoners fast; and when he comes to the Prince, with "Marry, sir, they have committed false report; moreover, they have spoken untruths; secondarily, they are slanders ; sixth and lastly, they have belied a lady; thirdly, they have verified unjust things; and, to conclude, they are lying knaves," though his method be not logical, his matter is all-sufficient. And so we agree with Ulrici, that it would be a palpable misunderstanding to ask what the noble constable Dogberry and his followers have to do with the play. Dogberry is as necessary as all the other personages;-to a certain degree more necessary. The passionate lover, the calm and sagacious Prince, the doting father, were the dupes of a treachery, not well compact, and carried through by dangerous instruments. They make no effort to detect what would not have been very difficult of detection: they are satisfied to quarrel and to lament. Accident discovers what intelligence could not penetrate; and the treacherous slander is manifest in all its blackness to the wise Dogberry:

"Flat burglary as ever was committed." Here is the crowning irony of the philosophical poet. The players of the game of life see nothing, or see minute parts only: but the dullest by-stander has glimpses of something

more.

In studying a play of Shakspere with the assurance that we have possessed ourselves of

the fundamental "idea" in which it was composed, it is remarkable how many incidents and expressions which have previously appeared to us at least difficult of comprehension are rendered clear and satisfactory. As believers in Shakspere we know that he wrought in the spirit of the highest art, producing in every case a work of unity, out of the power of his own "multiformity." But, as we have before said, we have not always, as in the case of the natural landscape, got the right point of view, so as to have the perfect harmony of the composition made manifest to us. Let us be assured, however,

that there is an entirety, and therefore a perfect accordance in all its parts, in every great production of a great poet,—and above all in every production of the world's greatest poet; and then, studying with this conviction, when the parts have become familiar to us— as in the case before us, the sparkling raillery of Benedick and Beatrice, the patient gentleness of Hero, the most truthful absurdity of Dogberry-they gradually fuse themselves together in our minds, and the whole at last lies clear before us,

"A world

Of one entire and perfect chrysolite."

CHAPTER VI.

THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR.

THE first edition of this play was published in 1602. The same copy was reprinted in 1619. The comedy, as it now stands, first appeared in the folio of 1623; and the play in that edition contains very nearly twice the number of lines that the quarto contains. The succession of scenes is the same in both copies, except in one instance; but the speeches of the several characters are greatly elaborated in the amended copy, and some of these characters are not only heightened, but new distinctive features given to them. For example, the Slender of the present comedyone of the most perfect of the minor characters of Shakspere is a very inferior conception in the first copy. Our Slender has been worked up out of the first rough sketch, with touches at once delicate and powerful. Again, the Justice Shallow of the quarto is an amusing person-but he is not the present Shallow; we have not even the repetitions which identify him with the Shallow of Henry IV.' We point out these matters here, for the purpose of showing that, although the quarto of 1602 was most probably piratically published when the play had been remodelled, and was reprinted

without alteration in 1619 (the amended copy then remaining unpublished), the copy of that first edition must not be considered as an imperfect transcript of the complete play. The differences between the two copies are produced by the alterations of the author working upon his first sketch. The extent of these changes and elaborations can only be satisfactorily perceived by comparing the two copies, scene by scene. As an example, we subjoin the scene at Herne's Oak, which has no doubt been completely rewritten :--

QUARTO OF 1602.

"Qui. You fairies that do haunt these shady

groves,

Look round about the wood if you can spy
A mortal that doth haunt our sacred round:
If such a one you can espy, give him his due,
And leave not till you pinch him black and
blue.

Give them their charge, Puck, ere they part

away.

Sir Hugh. Come hither, Peane, go to the country houses,

And when you find a slut that lies asleep,

And all her dishes foul, and room unswept,

With your long nails pinch her till she cry,
And swear to mend her sluttish housewifery.
Fai. I warrant you, I will perform your will.
Hu. Where's Pead? Go and see where
brokers sleep,

And fox-eyed serjeants, with their mace,
Go lay the proctors in the street,
And pinch the lousy serjeant's face:
Spare none of these when th' are a bed,
But such whose nose looks blue and red.
Qui. Away, begone, his mind fulfil,
And look that none of you stand still.
Some do that thing, some do this,
All do something, none amiss.

Sir Hugh. I smell a man of middle earth.
Fal. God bless me from that Welsh fairy.
Qui. Look every one about this round,
And if that any here be found,
For his presumption in this place,
Spare neither leg, arm, head, nor face.

Sir Hugh. See, I have spied one by good luck, His body man, his head a buck.

Fal. God send me good fortune now, and I

care not.

Qui. Go straight, and do as I command, And take a taper in your hand,

And set it to his fingers' ends,

And if you see it him offends,
And that he starteth at the flame,
Then is he mortal, know his name:
If with an F it doth begin,
Why then be sure he 's full of sin.
About it then, and know the truth,
Of this same metamorphos'd youth.

Sir Hugh. Give me the tapers, I will try And if that he love venery.

FOLIO OF 1623.

Qui. Fairies, black, grey, green, and white, You moonshine-revellers, and shades of night, You orphan-heirs of fixed destiny, Attend your office and your quality. Crier Hobgoblin, make the fairy oyes.

Pist. Elves, list your names; silence, you airy toys.

Cricket, to Windsor chimneys shalt thou leap: Where fires thou find'st unraked, and hearths

unswept,

There pinch the maids as blue as bilberry: Our radiant queen hates sluts and sluttery. Fal. They are fairies; he that speaks to them shall die:

I'll wink and couch: no man their works must eye. [Lies down upon his face.

Eva. Where's Pede?-Go you, and where

you find a maid,

That, ere she sleep, has thrice her prayers said,
Raise up the organs of her fantasy,

Sleep she as sound as careless infancy;
But those as sleep and think not on their sins,
Pinch them, arms, legs, backs, shoulders, sides,
and shins.

Qu.* About, about;

Search Windsor-castle, elves, within and out:
Strew good luck, ouphes, on every sacred room;
That it may stand till the perpetual doom,
In state as wholesome, as in state 't is fit;
Worthy the owner, and the owner it.
The several chairs of order look you scour
With juice of balm, and every precious flower:
Each fair instalment, coat, and several crest,
With loyal blazon evermore be bless'd!
And nightly, meadow-fairies, look you sing,
Like to the Garter's compass, in a ring:
The expressure that it bears, green let it be,
More fertile-fresh than all the field to see;
And, Hony soit qui mal y pense, write,
In emerald tufts, flowers purple, blue and
white:

Like sapphire, pearl, and rich embroidery,
Buckled below fair knighthood's bending knee:
Fairies use flowers for their charactery.
Away; disperse: But, till 't is one o'clock,
Our dance of custom, round about the oak
Of Herne the Hunter, let us not forget.

Eva. Pray you, lock hand in hand; yourselves in order set:

And twenty glow-worms shall our lanterns be, To guide our measure round about the tree. But stay: I smell a man of middle earth.

Fal. Heavens defend me from that Welsh fairy!

Lest he transform me to a piece of cheese! Pist. Vild worm, thou wast o'erlook'd even in thy birth.

Qui. With trial-fire touch me his finger end. If he be chaste, the flame will back descend And turn him to no pain; but, if he start, It is the flesh of a corrupted heart. Pist. A trial, come.

Eva. Come, will this wood take fire? [They burn him with their tapers.

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Qui. Corrupt, corrupt, and tainted in desire! | and Second Parts of King Henry IV.' But About him, fairies; sing a scornful rhyme; And, as you trip, still pinch him to your time.

If the quarto is not to be taken as a guide in the formation of a text, it appears to us, viewed in connection with some circum

stances which we shall venture to point out as heretofore in some degree unregarded, to be a highly interesting literary curiosity. Malone, contrary to his opinion with regard to the quarto edition of Henry V.,' says of the quarto of 'The Merry Wives of Windsor,' "The old edition in 1602, like that of Romeo and Juliet,' is apparently a rough draught, and not a mutilated or imperfect copy." His view, therefore, of the period when this play was written applies to the "rough draught." Malone's opinion of the date of this sketch is thus stated in his 'Chronological Order :'— "The following line in the earliest edition of this comedy,

'Sail like my pinnace to those golden shores,' shows that it was written after Sir Walter Raleigh's return from Guiana in 1596.

"The first sketch of 'The Merry Wives of Windsor' was printed in 1602. It was entered in the books of the Stationers' Company on the 18th of January, 1601-2, and was therefore probably written in 1601 after the two Parts of King Henry IV.,' being, it is said, composed at the desire of Queen Elizabeth, in order to exhibit Falstaff in love, when all the pleasantry which he could afford in any other situation was exhausted. But it may not be thought so clear that it was written after 'King Henry V.' Nym and Bardolph are both hanged in 'King Henry V.,' yet appear in 'The Merry Wives of Windsor.' Falstaff is disgraced in 'The Second Part of King Henry IV.,' and dies in 'King Henry V.;' but, in 'The Merry Wives of Windsor,' he talks as if he were yet in favour at court: 'If it should come to the ear of the court how I have been transformed,' &c.: and Mr. Page discountenances Fenton's addresses to his daughter because he 'kept company with the wild prince and with Pointz.' These circumstances seem to favour the supposition that this play was written between the First

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that it was not written then may be collected from the tradition above mentioned. The truth, I believe, is, that, though it ought to be read (as Dr. Johnson has observed) between the 'Second Part of King Henry IV.' and King Henry V.,' it was written after King Henry V.,' and after Shakspeare had killed Falstaff. In obedience to the royal commands, having revived him, he found it necessary at the same time to revive all those persons with whom he was wont to be exhibited, Nym, Pistol, Bardolph, and the Page, and disposed of them as he found it convenient, without a strict regard to their situations or catastrophes in former plays."

The opinion that this comedy was written after the two Parts of 'Henry IV.' is not quite in consonance with the tradition that Queen Elizabeth desired to see Falstaff in love; for Shakspere might have given this turn to the character in 'Henry V.,' after the announcement in the Epilogue to ‘The Second Part of Henry IV.'-" our humble author will continue the story, with Sir John in it." Malone's theory, therefore, that it was produced after 'Henry V.,' is in accordance with the tradition as received by him with such an implicit belief. George Chalmers, however, in his 'Supplemental Apology,' laughs at the tradition, and at Malone's theory. He believes that the three historical plays and the comedy were successively written in 1596, and in 1597, but that 'Henry V.' was produced the last. He says, "In it (Henry V.') Falstaff does not come out upon the stage, but dies of a sweat, after performing less than the attentive auditors were led to expect and in it ancient Pistol appears as the husband of Mistress Quickly; who also dies, during the ancient's absence in the wars of France. Yet do the commentators bring the knight to life, and revive and unmarry the dame, by assigning the year 1601 as the epoch of 'The Merry Wives of Windsor.' Queen Elizabeth is said by the critics to have commanded these miracles to be worked in 1601,—a time when she was in no proper mood for such fooleries. The tradition on which is founded the story of Elizabeth's command to exhibit the facetious

Shakspere in which he should show the knight in love. Malone considers that the tradition, as given by Dennis, came to him from Dryden, who received it from Davenant; Rowe, Pope, and Theobald adopted a more circumstantial tradition from Gildon, who published it in his 'Remarks on Shakspere's Plays,' in 1710. But even this authority is more vague than the usual statement. It runs thus:-"The Fairies in the fifth act make a handsome compliment to the queen, in her palace of Windsor; who had obliged him [Shakspere] to write a play of Sir John Falstaff in love, and which I am very well assured he performed in a fortnight." The tradition, as stated by Dennis, is not inconsistent with the belief that 'The Merry Wives of Windsor' (of course we speak of the sketch) was produced before the two Parts of 'Henry IV.' The more circumstantial tradition is completely reconcileable only with Malone's theory, that Shakspere, continuing the comic characters of the historical plays in 'The Merry Wives of Windsor,' ventured upon the daring experiment of reviving the dead.

knight in love, I think too improbable for | she commanded a play to be written by belief." Chalmers goes on to argue that after Falstaff's disgrace at the end of 'The Second Part of Henry IV.' (which is followed in Henry V.' by the assertion that "the king has killed his heart") he was not in a fit condition for "a speedy appearance amongst the Merry Wives of Windsor ;" and further, that if it be true, as the first act of the Second Part evinces, that Sir John, soon after doing good service at Shrewsbury, was sent off, with some charge, to Lord John of Lancaster at York, he could not consistently saunter to Windsor, after his re-encounter with the Chief Justice." Looking at these contradictions, Chalmers places "the true epoch of this comedy in 1596," and affirms "that its proper place is before 'The First Part of Henry IV." We had been strongly impressed with the same opinion before we had seen the passage in Chalmers, which is not given under his view of the chronology of 'The Merry Wives of Windsor.' But we are quite aware that the theory is at first sight open to objection: though it is clearly not so objectionable as Malone's assertion that Shakspere revived his dead Falstaff, Quickly, Nym, and Bardolph; and it perhaps gets rid of the difficulties which belong to Dr. Johnson's opinion that "the present play ought to be read between 'Henry IV.' and 'Henry V.'" The question, altogether, appears to us very interesting as a piece of literary history; and we therefore request the indulgence of our readers whilst we examine it somewhat in detail.

And first, of the tradition upon which Malone builds. Dennis, in an epistle prefixed to 'The Comical Gallant,' an alteration of this play which he published in 1702, says, "This comedy was written at her (Queen Elizabeth's) command, and by her direction, and she was so eager to see it acted that she commanded it to be finished in fourteen days; and was afterwards, as tradition tells us, very well pleased at the representation." The tradition, however, soon became more circumstantial; for Rowe, and Pope, and Theobald each inform us that Elizabeth was so well pleased with the Falstaff of the two Parts of Henry IV.,' that

Malone, according to his theory, believes that the sketch of 'The Merry Wives of Windsor,' "finished in fourteen days," was written in 1601; Chalmers that it was written in 1596. We are inclined to think that the period of the production of the original sketch might have been earlier than 1596.

Raleigh returned from his expedition to Guiana in 1596, having sailed in 1595. In the present text of the 'Merry Wives' (Act I. Scene 3) Falstaff says, "Here's another letter to her she bears the purse too; she is a region in Guiana, all gold and bounty. I will be cheater to them both, and they shall be exchequers to me: they shall be my East and West Indies." In the original sketch the passage stands thus :-"Here is another letter to her; she bears the purse too. They shall be exchequers to me, and I'll be cheaters to them both. They shall be my East and West Indies." In the amended text we have, subsequently,

"Sail like my pinnace to those golden shores;"

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