simple verses should have protected his ashes from sacrilege. The nearest approach to an excavation into the grave of Shakespeare was made in the summer of the year 1796, in digging a vault in the immediate locality, when an opening appeared which was presumed to indicate the commencement of the site of the bard's remains. The most scrupulous care, however, was taken not to disturb the neighboring earth in the slightest degree, the clerk having been placed there, until the brickwork of the adjoining vault was completed, to prevent anyone making an examination. No relics whatever were visible through the small opening that thus presented itself, and as the poet was buried in the ground, not in a vault, the chancel earth, moreover, formerly absorbing a large degree of moisture, the great probability is that dust alone remains. This consideration may tend to discourage an irreverent opinion expressed by some, that it is due to the interests of science to unfold to the world the material abode which once held so great an intellect. It is not many years since a phalanx of troubletombs, lanterns and spades in hand, assembled in the chancel at dead of night, intent on disobeying the solemn injunction that the bones of Shakespeare were not to be disturbed. But the supplicatory lines prevailed. There were some among the number who, at the last moment, refused to incur the warning condemnation, and so the design was happily abandoned.

CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER OF

SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS

Malone Chalmers Drake 1. First Part of Henry VI.

1589 1593 2. Second part of Henry VI.

1591 1595 1592 3. Third Part of Henry VI.

1591 1595 1592 4. Two Gentlemen of Verona.

1591 1595 1595 5. Comedy of Errors..

1592 1591 1591 6. Richard II....

1593 1596 1596 7. Richard III.,

1593 1596 1595 8. Love's Labor's Lost.

1594 1592 1591 9. Merchant of Venice.

1594 1597 1597 10. A Midsummer Night's Dream.

1594 1598 1593 11. Romeo and Juliet.

1596 1592 1593 12. King John...

1596 1598 1598 13. Taming of the Shrew.

1596 1599 1594 14. Part I of Henry IV.

1597 1597 1596 15. Part II of Henry IV.

1599 1597 1596 16. Henry V....

1599 1597 1599 17. As You Like It.

1599 1602 1600 18. Much Ado About Nothing.

1600 1599 1599 19. Hamlet

1600 1598 1597 20. Merry Wives of Windsor.

1601 1596 1601 21. Troilus and Cressida.

1602 1610 1601 22. Measure for Measure.

1603 1604 1603 23. Henry VIII.

1603 1613 1602 24. Othello..

1604 1614 1612 25. King Lear...

1605 1605 1604 26. All's Well That Ends Well.

1606 1606 1598 27. Macbeth..

1606 1606 1606 28. Julius Cæsar..

1607 1607 1607 29. Twelfth Night.

1607 1613

1613 30. Antony and Cleopatra..

1608 1608

1608 31. Cymbeline....

1609 1609 1605 32. Timon of Athens..

1610 1611 1602 33. Coriolanus..

1610 1619 1609 34. Winter's Tale.

1611 1601 1610 35. The Tempest..

1611 1613 1611 36. Pericles......

.Not acknowledged 1609 37. Titus Andronicus, not acknowledged by these critics, but originally published about 1589.

CHIEF CONTEMPORARY PLAYS

ca.

Udall, Ralph Roister Doister...
Sackville and Norton, Gorboduc (Ferrex and

Porrex)
Gammer, Gurton's Needle..
Gascoigne, Supposes and Jocasta.
Wilmot, Tancred and Gismunda.
Preston, Cambises King of Percia.
Whetstone, Promos and Cassandra.
Lyly, Campaspe...
Lyly, Sapho and Phao..
Peele, Arraignement of Paris..
Lyly, Endimion....
Marlowe, Samburlaine.
Hughes, Misfortunes of Arthur.
Marlowe, Faustus..
Kyd, Spanish Tragedie..
Troublesome Raigne of King John...
Greene, Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay.
Peele, David and Bethsabe...
Marlowe, Rich Jew of Malta..
Marlowe, Edward II..
Peele, Edward I....
Arden of Feversham.
Peele, Old Wives' Tale...
Lyly, Woman in the Moone.
The Raigne of Edward III.
Jonson, Every Man in his Humour.
Dekker, The Shoemaker's Holiday.
Chapman, All Fools....
The Return from Parnassus
Marston, The Malcontent.
Jonson, Sejanus.
Heywood, A Woman killed with Kindness.
Dekker, The Honest Whore. Part I..
Day, Ile of Guls..
Jonson, Volpone.
Marston, Chapman, and Jonson, Eastward Hoe..
Chapman, Bussy d'Ambois...
Tourneur, The Revenger's Tragedy.

1562 1565 1563? 1575 1566 1566 1568 1591 1569 1570 1578 1578 1580-1581 1584 1582 1584 1583 1584 1586 1591 1587-1588 1590 1587 1587 1589 1604 1588 1594 1588 1591 1589 1594 1589 1599 1589 1594? 1590 1594 1590 1593 1591? 1592 1593? 1595 1593 1597

1596 1598 1601 1599 1600 1600? 1605 1601-1602 1606 1602? 1604 1603 1605 1603 1607 1603? 1604 1605 1606 1605 1607 1605 1605 1606? 1607

1607

Chapman, Conspiracy and Tragedy of Byron.....
Webster, The White Devil....
Dekker, The Honest Whore. Part II.
Fletcher, The Faithful Shepherdess..
Jonson, The Silent Woman.
Beaumont and Fletcher, Philaster.
Jonson, The Alchemist...
Beaumont and Fletcher, The Maid's Tragedy..
Beaumont and Fletcher, A King and No King...
Beaumont and Fletcher, The Knight of the Burn

ing Pestle....
Field, A Woman is a Weathercock..
Fletcher (and Shakespeare?), The Two Noble

Kinsmen
Chapman, The Revenge of Bussy d'Ambois..
Jonson, Bartholomew Fair.
Webster, Duchess of Malfi.
Fletcher, Valentinian..
Fletcher and Massinger, Thierry and Theodoret...
Fletcher, Bonduca..
Fletcher, The Humorous Lieutenant..
Fletcher and Massinger, Little French Lawyer.
Dekker and Massinger, The Virgin Martyr..
Middleton, The Changeling..
Massinger, The Duke of Milan.
Fletcher, The Pilgrim..
Fletcher (and another), The Beggars' Bush.
Middleton and Rowley, The Spanish Gipsie.
Fletcher, Rule a Wife and have a Wife..
Jonson, The Staple of News...
Massinger, A New Way to Pay Old Debts.
Ford, 'Tis Pity She's a Whore.
Shirley, The Gamester..
Jonson, The Sad Shepherd..
Middleton, Women beware Women.

1613 1634

1613 1614 1631 1616 1623 1616? 1647 1617?

1621 1618? 1647 1619 1640 1620 1647

1622 1622-1624 1653

1623 1621 1647 1622 1647 1623? 1653 1624 1640 1625 1631 1625 1632 1628–1630 1633 1634 1637

1641 1657

INDEX OF CHARACTERS

A.

Troilus and Cressida: Act I,

sc. i, ii, iii; Act IV, sc. i, ii,
AARON, a Moor, beloved by iii, iv, v; Act V, sc. ii, x

Tamora, Titus Andronicus: AGAMEMNON, the Grecian gen-
Act I, Sc. i; Act II, sc. i, eral, Troilus and Cressida:
iii; Act III, sc. 1; Act IV, sc. Act I, sc. iii; Act II, sc. iii;
ii; Act V, sc. i, iii

Act III, sc. iii; Act IV, sc. V;
ABERGAVENNY, LORD, King Henry Act V, sc. I, v, ix
VIII: Act I, sc. i

AGRIPPA, friend to Cæsar, Antony
ABHORSON, an executioner, Meas- and Cleopatra: Act II, sc. ii,

ure for Measure: Act IV, sc. iv, vii; Act III, sc. ii, vi; Act
ii, iii

IV, sc. i, vi, vii; Act V, sc. i
ABRAHAM, servant to Montague, AGRIPPA, MENENIUS, friend to

Romeo and Juliet: Act I, sc. i Coriolanus, Coriolanus: Act
ACHILLES, a Grecian commander, I, sc. i; Act II, sc. i, ii, iii;

Troilus and Cressida: Act II, Act III, sc. i, ii, iii; Act IV,
sc. i, iii; Act III, sc. iii; Act sc. i, ii, vi; Act V, sc. i, ii, iv
IV, sc. V; Act V, sc. i, v, vi, AGUECHEEK, SIR ANDREW, Twelfth
vii, viii

Night: Act I, sc. iii; Act II,
ADAM, servant to Oliver, As You sc. iii, v; Act III, sc. i, ii, iv;

Like It: Act I, sc. i; Aet II, Act IV, sc. i; Act V, sc. i
sc. iii, vi, vii

AJAX, a Grecian commander,
ADONIS, Passionate Pilgrim; Troilus and Cressida: Act II,
Venus and Adonis

sc. i, iii; Act III, sc. iii; Act
ADRIAN, a lord, The Tempest: IV, sc. v; Act V, sc. i, V, vi,

Act II, sc. i; Act III, sc. iii; ix
Act V, sc. i

ALARBUS, son to Tamara, Titus
ADRIANA, wife to Antipholus of Andronicus: Act I, sc. i

Ephesus; The Comedy of Er- ALBANY, DUKE OF, King Lear:
rors: Act II, sc. i, ii; Act IV, Act I, Sc. i, iv; Act IV, sc.
sc. ii, iv; Act V, sc. i

ii; Act V, sc. i, iii
Ægeon, a merchant of Syracuse, ALCIBIADES, an Athenian captain,

The Comedy of Errors: Act I, Timon of Athens: Act I, sc.
sc. i; Act V, sc. i

i, ii; Act II, sc. ii; Act III,
ÆMILIA, wife to Ægeon, an Ab- sc. v; Act IV, sc. iii; Act V,

bess of Ephesus, The Comedy

of Errors: Act V, sc. i ALENCON, Duke of, King Henry
ÆMILIUS, a noble Roman, Titus VI: Part 1, Act I, sc. ii, vi;

Andronicus: Act IV, sc. iv; Act II, sc. i; Act III, sc. ii,
Act V, sc. i, iii

iii; Act IV, sc. vii; Act V,
ÆNEAS, a Trojan commander,

sc. ii, iv

Sc. iv