A Chronicle History of the Life and Work of William Shakespeare

1622 [often, but wrongly, dated c. 1591]

The Birth of Merlin, or The Child hath Found his Father, was published in 1662 as "written by W. Shakespeare and W. Rowley." Rowley probably revised the play for a revival c. 1622, but in the main it is manifestly by another hand. The comic scenes with Joan Goto't may be Rowley's, but the serious parts are palpably Middleton's. I owe the suggestion of his authorship to Mr. P. A. Daniel. A ballad on the subject was entered on 10th May 1589, S. R. In ii. 3b iii. 6 we have some very interesting imitations of Shakespeare. Cutting out the Rowley additions in iii. 1. 4, I would ask the reader to carefully compare the remaining parts of ii. 3b, beginning with Aurel. "Artesia, dearest love," iii. 2. 3. 5. 6, with such passages of Shakespeare as they call to memory: e. g. iii. 2, "This world is but a mask," &c., with As You Like It, ii. 7. 139, &c., and iii. 3. 1-6 with Lear, iii. 2. 1-9. Compare especially the definition of a crab as "a creature that goes backward" in ii. 3, with Hamlet, ii. 2. 206, "if like a crab you could go backward." Crab as the name of an animal does not occur elsewhere in Shakespeare. I believe the early plays on this subject, Vortiger, 4th December 1596, and Uter Pendragon, 29th April 1597, in Henslowe's Diary, to be alluded to by Jonson in his Prologue to Every Man in his Humour, 1601 —

"To make a child now swaddled to proceedMan: and then shoot up in one beard and weedPast threescore years."1592

June. A [Merry] Knack to Know a Knave was acted as a new play at the Rose by Edward Alleyn and his company (i. e. Lord Strange's) "with Kempe's Merriments of the Men of Gotham." The introduction of Honesty as a principal character points to R. Wilson the elder as the author. It was certainly not written by Greene and Nash, as Mr. Simpson supposes. Besides this play and a number of revivals, mostly of plays of the Queen's company (see my Shakespearian Study, p. 88), Lord Strange's men acted this season certain new plays: on March 3, 1 Henry VI.; April 11, Titus and Vespasian (these have been already noticed): April 28, 2d. Tambercame; May 23, The Taner of Denmark; and in 1593, January 5, The Gelyous [Jealious] Comedy; January 30, The Guise (i. e. Marlowe's Massacre of Paris).

1594

July 24, Locrine was entered S. R. and published in 1595 as "newly set forth, overseen, and corrected by W. S." I see no reason to infer that W. S. is William Shakespeare. The play was written, according to Mr. Simpson, by Tilney in 1586. I rather think for him by G. Peele. Shakespeare has no concern with it further than the letters W. S. indicate.

1595 [possibly 1599]

A 'Larum for London, or The Siege of Antwerp, was acted about this time. It was published in 1602, but entered S. R. 29th May 1600. The title at once points it out as a moralising play, of the same class as A Looking-Glass for London; didactic as to politics. I believe it to be by the same author, T. Lodge. The fear of a Spanish invasion is evident in the play. In July 1595 the Spaniards made a descent on Cornwall and burned Mouse Hole, Neulin, and Penzance. This is the most likely time for any real danger to London from the Spaniards to have been apprehended. Lodge, probably in the next year, wrote The Taming of the Shrew (afterwards altered by Shakespeare) for the Chamberlain's company. The seldom-used word villiaco, found in this play, occurs in 2 Henry VI., iv. 8, in the part I assign to Lodge.

1596

The Life and Death of Sir Thomas More was certainly acted in this year. That this also was a political play is evident from the numerous alterations made in the MS. by E. Tylney, Master of the Revels. He specially objected to all passages directed against the French; and cut out entirely Scene 1, the insurrection scene. This must have alluded too closely to events of the time. Now on 29th June 1595 there was an insurrection of the London Prentices, suppressed by the then Lord Mayor just in the same way as that in the play by Sheriff More. (See Maitland and Stowe under that date.) Moreover, in October 1595 Hartford was imprisoned in the Tower for contempt, and threatened with loss of his title, just as More is in the play, which was no doubt acted while he was in prison (Aikin's Elizabeth, chap, xxiv.) I have previously noted the certainty of this play being acted by the Chamberlain's players, T. Goodale being one of the actors. It was probably written chiefly by Lodge; but some scenes, such as Scene 2 with the Lifter and Scenes 9, 10, with Faulkner and the players, bear unmistakable marks of another hand, the same, I think, as the author of Lord Cromwell. It is a singular play, containing a comedy, Scenes 1-10, and a tragedy, Scenes 11-18, in one. This leads me to conjecture that it is the same play as was played by the Paul's children before James and the King of Denmark, 30th July 1606. This contained a comedy and tragedy, and was called Abuses. I need hardly say that this title is specially appropriate to Sir T. More. It pleased the kings, as was to be expected, more than it did the authorities under Elizabeth. We know that some plays of the Chamberlain's company passed into the hands of the Paul's boys, e. g. Satiromastix. The part of Justice Suresby is probably the one alluded to in The Return from Parnassus, iv. 3, where Kempe tells Philomusus (Lodge) that his face "would be good for a foolish mayor or a foolish justice of peace." In the same scene, Studioso (Drayton) is made to recite from Richard III. and Jeronymo, both which plays were still acted by the Chamberlain's men in 1599; so that Drayton was looked on in 1602 as a tragedian, Lodge as a comedian. This agrees with Meres' classification of them in 1598. Nevertheless it is certain that both of them produced both tragedies and comedies.

1597-9

The Merry Devil of Edmonton, acted at the Globe, and therefore still on the stage in 1599, was closely connected with the early form of 1 Henry IV., in which Falstaff was called Oldcastle (see supra, p. 33). Coxeter says that it was ascribed in an old MS. of the play to Michael Drayton. No doubt it was written by him. The character of the Host, and indeed all the play, are so like parts of Sir John Oldcastle, which we know to have been partly written by Drayton, that it is not possible to doubt the identity of authorship. That play was written by Munday (i. 1; v. 2 – end), Wilson (? i. 2; ii. 3; iii. 4), Hathaway (? iii. 1; v. 1), and Drayton, who probably was the plotter and chief composer. The Merry Devil was entered S. R. 22d October 1607. The entry on 5th April 1608 refers to the prose history by Thomas Brewer. Nevertheless that entry has been confidently adduced by Mr. Halliwell and others as proof that Drayton did not write the play (see Halliwell's Dictionary of Old Plays under Merry Devil): which as printed is evidently greatly abridged. All the part relating to Smug's taking the place of St. George as the sign of the inn, for instance, which is found in the prose story, must have been cut out, though an allusion to it is left in the end of the play. This alteration was probably made c. 1603-4, as in the Black Book (S. R. 22d March 1604) a revival of the play contemporaneous with The Woman Killed with Kindness is alluded to. It remained popular even to 1616: Jonson's prologue to The Devil is an Ass calls it "your dear delight." That play is of a somewhat similar nature, founded on the adventures of a devil incarnate; so also are Dekker's If this be not a Good Play the Devil's in it, and Haughton's Grim the Cobler of Croydon, or The Devil and his Dame (6th May 1600). In this last, which gives a posterior limit of date, Robin Goodfellow calls himself "merry devil," and is no doubt intended as a satire on Drayton, as is also the Robin Goodfellow of Wily Beguiled, 1597. In Sir Giles Goosecap by Chapman, the continued usage by Goosecap of the phrases "tickle the vanity on't" and "we are all mortal" points to Drayton as the person ridiculed under that name; while in 2 Henry IV., ii. l. 66, Falstaff uses the exact phrase of Smug in scene 3 of "tickling the catastrophe." Another point of connection with Shakespearian satire of this date is found in the term Hungarian, scene 8, which occurs in Merry Wives, i. 3. 23, and nowhere else in Shakespeare. The great similarity of the Hosts in these two plays has been often noted. There is much confusion in the Christian names in our present version of the Merry Devil, an indication of revision. Drayton's first connection with the Chamberlain's company was in my opinion his writing the Induction for The Taming of the Shrew in 1596, afterwards altered by Shakespeare. The Merry Devil was entered as Shakespeare's on S. R. 9th September 1653, probably on account of the similarity of title with The Merry Wives of Windsor; and this similarity does point to a connection, though not of authorship, between these plays. The Oldcastle play, acted 6th March 1600 at Lord Hunsdon's, was probably The Merry Devil.

1594

The Seven Deadly Sins, an old play plotted for the Queen's company by Tarleton, was revived. I have had already occasion to refer to the plot of this play, which is extant at Dulwich College.

1598-9

A Warning for Fair Women was entered S. R. 17th November 1599, and printed as "lately divers times acted" by the Chamberlain's men. Its title, so like A Looking-Glass for London and A 'Larum for London, its didactic character, its Induction, with History, Tragedy, and Comedy for actors, so like that to Mucedorus, and its style and metre all point to Thomas Lodge as the author. As a murder-play it should be compared with Arden of Feversham, The Yorkshire Tragedy, and Two Tragedies in One. Plays on similar subjects, such as Page of Plymouth, by Dekker and Jonson, September 1599; The Tragedy of Merry, by Haughton and Day, December 1599; The Tragedy of Orphans, by Chettle, November 1599; and perhaps The Stepmother's Tragedy, by Dekker and Chettle, October 1599, were very abundant just at this time. This seems to be Lodge's final original production for the stage.

1598-9

Every Man in his Humour in its first form, with the Italian names, in the latter part of 1598, and his Every Man out of his Humour in the spring of 1599, both by Jonson, were acted by the Chamberlain's men. Jonson then left them and wrote for the children of the Chapel.

1601

Satiromastix was written by Dekker against Jonson's Poetaster for the Chamberlain's men, and acted first by them and afterwards by the Paul's boys.

1601

The Chronicle History of Thomas Lord Cromwell was entered S. R. 11th August 1602. This is clearly a political play, in which the career of Cromwell Earl of Essex shadows forth another Earl of Essex, of much greater interest to an audience of 1601. One scene, iii. 2, reminds us strongly of scene 9 in Sir T. More; and the whole play is very like the part of Sir John Oldcastle assigned by me to Drayton. In Act iv. the Chorus apologises for the omission of Wolsey's life. That had, in fact, been treated already by Chettle in August 1601, and by Chettle, Munday, Drayton, and Smith in November 1601, in two plays for the Admiral's men. Drayton's last work for them was done in May 1602 and Cromwell was probably acted in June. The second edition, 1613, had "by W.S." on the title. This was clearly an attempt, like the "by W. Sh." in the 1611 edition of the older John, to father the play on Shakespeare after his retirement from theatrical life. It has been supposed that Wentworth Smith is indicated. This is most unlikely. Smith was a hack writer for Henslowe, 1601-3, not one scrap of whose work was ever thought worth publishing; and that he, at the same date that he was a "novice" in the Admiral's, should have been an independent author for the Chamberlain's, is one of the plausible figments that will not be received by any one acquainted with stage history. If W.S. are authentic initials, W. Sly is a more likely claimant.

1603

The London Prodigal was published in 1605, with the name of William Shakespeare on the title-page. This surely shows some connection of Shakespeare with its authorship. It is true that in 1600 his name had been attached to Sir John Oldcastle in one of the editions then printed, and that he could not have written, or been concerned with the writing of, that play; but the peculiar relation in which it stands to his historical plays places it in a very different category from a play which was acted by his own company, and over the publication of which he may be supposed to have had some control, direct or indirect. Perhaps he "plotted" it. At the same time it should be noticed that the publisher, Butter, was the same man who issued the Quarto of Lear in 1608, which was certainly derived from an authentic copy, however carelessly printed; while Pavier, who published Oldcastle, was notoriously an issuer of surreptitious and piratical editions. This play is certainly by the same hand as the Cromwell. In iii. 3, "And where nought is the king doth lose his due," with which compare Cromwell, ii. 3, "And where nought is the king must lose his right," is taken from Nash's Unfortunate Traveller (p. 15, Grosart's reprint), "When it is not to be had the king must lose his right." Compare, also, "Pardon, dear father, the follies that are past," v. 1, with Cromwell, iv. chorus, "Pardon the errors are already past," and the passing of St. George's inn in i. 2 with the Merry Devil plot. The date of production is certainly 1603. The words "under the King," ii. 1, and the allusion to Armin the actor, who took the part of Matthew Flowerdale, "So young an armin," v. 1, forbid an earlier date. This last allusion, by the bye, has never previously been explained. On the other hand, the allusions to Cutting Dick, ii. 2, The Devil and his Dame, iv. 2 (Mar. 1600), and to "wanton Cressid," v. i. (1602), would lose much effect at a later date. The name Greenshield was adopted from this play in the "comical satire" of Northward Ho, 1605, as Frescobald was in The Honest Whore, 1603, from Cromwell.

1603

Sejanus, by Jonson, was acted this year. Jonson had returned to the Chamberlain's men from the Admiral's, for whom he wrote after leaving the Chapel children in 1601; but this play being a political satire on Leicester got the company into trouble, and he again left them for the children of the Revels. See supra, p. 49.

1604

The Malcontent, by Marston, was acted "with the additions played by the King's Majesty's servants" by Webster, and entered S. R. 25th July. This play belonged to the Revels' children, and was appropriated in retaliation for their playing Jeronymo, which was the property of the King's men. (See the Induction.) Compare p. 52.

1604

Gowry, already noticed, was performed this year.

1603-4

The Miseries of Enforced Marriage, by George Wilkins, was entered S. R. 31st July 1607. It was founded on the life of Mr. Caverley, the hero of The Yorkshire Tragedy, and the play ends with a reconciliation before October 1603, when his third child was born, and dating about January or February, just before the accession of King James. This play was written before 1605. Mr. P.A. Daniel discovered the identity of story in it and in The Yorkshire Tragedy. The share of G. Wilkins in the authorship of Timon and Pericles has already been noticed. He left the King's company for the Queen's in 1607, before publishing the present play. He is not the G. Wilkins who died in 1603: Mr. W.C. Hazlitt's statement in his Handbook to that effect is a mistake.

1605

A Yorkshire Tragedy, founded on the same story, was certainly acted soon after the execution of Caverley, 5th August 1605. The murdered children were buried in April. The prose account of Caverley's trial was entered S. R. 24th August, and the story of his life was printed by V. S. (Valentine Simmes) in the same year. The play was entered S. R. 2d May 1608, and printed as by William Shakespeare. I cannot think that this was unauthorised. Compare the parallel instance of The London Prodigal. Was the author his brother Edmund; and did Shakespeare assist in or revise his work? (See p. 60.) The "young mistress" of Scene 1 is the Clare Harcup of the Enforced Marriage, and her decline is inconsistent with her death in that play, but in accordance with facts. Together with three other probably similar short plays it was acted as All's One, or one of the Four Plays in One.

1605

Volpone or the Fox, by Jonson, was acted in this year.

1605-6

Mucedorus, an old play, originally written, I think, for the Queen's company by T. Lodge, was revived under exceptional circumstances, with additions at Court. From the added part at the end of the play it appears that "a lean hungry neagre (meagre) cannibal," "a scrambling raven with a needy beard," had written "a comedy" for the King's players, containing "dark sentences pleasing to factious brains," and that information had been given to "a puissant magistrate," and that the players feared "great danger or at least restraint" in consequence. Moreover, this "unwilling error" had been lately "presented" to the King: nevertheless, not being "boys," but "men," they had avoided the "trap," apologised, and been pardoned. The only known new comedy, not Shakespeare's, produced by the King's men between 1604 and 1610 was Jonson's Fox. It contains a good deal, even in its present state, that must have been unpalatable at Court, especially on monopolies and spies; and Jonson altered his plays so much after performance for publication, that it is dangerous to draw conclusions as to what the play may have originally contained. One thing in it, however, was particularly "obnoxious to construction," the miraculous "Oglio del Scoto," which, in the case of one who was this same year imprisoned for satirising the Scots in Eastward Ho, might well be taken as a gird at the Scotch King's miraculous charisma in treating for the King's evil. It is to the Eastward Ho affair that the "trap for boys, not men," alludes; and the meagreness and "needy beard" plainly indicate Jonson as the "raven" (Corbaccio) who wrote the comedy. In accordance with this view stands the fact that on the Christmas succeeding this unfortunate performance of 1605-6 there was no Court masque produced by Jonson. The date hitherto assigned to the "additions" in Mucedorus has been 1610, because the edition of that year was issued as it was acted before the King on Shrove Sunday night. But there was no Court performance in the 1609-10 winter on account of the plague. The date 1610 is therefore impossible; the words on the title were probably repeated in the usual way from the 1606 edition, of which, though mentioned in Beauclerc's Catalogue, 1781, no copy unfortunately is extant. Of the authorship of the original play, with its Induction, "cooling-card" mark, and many similarities to Marius and Sylla, there can be no doubt: it was written by Lodge. Who wrote the "additions" in 1605-6 it would be hard to say: perhaps Wilkins.

1607-11

The Revenger's Tragedy by Cyril Tourneur (?) was entered S. R. 7th October 1607, and probably acted not long before. The Second Maiden's Tragedy, licensed in 1611, which we know to have been acted by the King's men, was probably by the same author.

In 1610 Jonson returned to the King's men (he had been writing for the Revels' children since he left, after producing Volpone), and his Alchemist was acted in that year; in 1611 his Cataline, and Beaumont and Fletcher's Philaster, Maid's Tragedy, and King and no King; c. 1612 Webster's Duchess of Malfy was produced. The further prosecution of this subject belongs to a life of Fletcher rather than of Shakespeare.

SECTION VII.

EARLY ENGLISH PLAYS IN GERMANY

The importance of the performance of English plays in Germany and its bearings on our own stage history has never been duly estimated. This is owing to the fact that the groups of such plays have not been treated as wholes, only isolated references to single dramas having been occasionally made by our critics. I must here confine myself to such groups as have reference to the productions of Shakespeare. In 1626-7 a company of Englishmen acted at Dresden, and a list of their performances has fortunately been preserved (Cohn, Shakespeare in Germany, p. 115). This company appears from their Christian names to have been the Company of the Revels, which broke up in 1625 in the plague-time. In the Runaway's Answer, 1625, to Dekker's Rod for Runaways, which was directed against those who left London for fear of the plague, the players say, "We can be bankrupts on this side and gentlemen of a company beyond the sea: we burst at London and are pieced up at Rotterdam." The 1626 Dresden company were Robert Pickleherring [R. Lee] and two boys; Jacob der Hesse, and Johan Eydtwardtt (two Germans); Aaron the dancer (probably a German Jew); Thomas die Jungfrau [T. Basse], John [Cumber], William the wardrobe-keeper (probably a German), the Englishman, the Redhaired, and four boys. The other members of the Revels' company can be traced in England; and although Robert, Thomas, and John are common christian names, they are not to be found in conjunction in any other list of English players of the date. The plays acted by these men were the following: —

• 1. Duke of Mantua and Duke of Verona. Comedy.

• 2. Christabella. C.

• 3. Amphitryon. C.

• 4. Romeo and Julietta. Tragedy. [Founded on Shakespeare's play of 1591; extant in German MS., and printed by Cohn.]

• 5. Duke of Florence. Tragi-Comedy. [Not Massinger's play, which is of ten years' later date.]

• 6. King of Spain and ViceRoy of Portugal. C. [Kyd's Jeronymo, c. 1588.]

• 7. Julius Cæsar. T. [Query, the old play mentioned by Gosson in 1580, or the Admiral's play of 1594, or Shakespeare's, or the Admiral's of 1602, or the Oxford of 1606, or Chapman's, or the old play on which Chapman's is founded? The last most likely.]

• 8. Crysella. C.

• 9. Duke of Ferrara. C.

• 10. Somebody and Nobody. T.C. [Printed in German, 1620; extant in an altered form, by Heywood in my judgment, as played by Queen Anne's men in English; published c. 1609. In its original form acted c. 1591.]

• 11. King of Denmark and King of Sweden. T. C. [Clyomon and Clamydes.? by R. Wilson, c. 1585.]

• 12. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. T. [From Kyd's old play, c. 1589; extant in modernised MS. in Germany; printed in Cohn. The Induction with Night and the Furies is quite in Kyd's manner.]

• 13. Orlando Furioso. C. [Greene's play, c. 1587.]

• 14. King of England and King of Scotland. C. [Greene (and Lodge)'s James IV., 1591.]

• 15. Hieronymo, Marshal of Spain. T. [Kyd's Spanish Tragedy, c. 1588.]

• 16. Haman and Queen Esther. T. C. [Printed in German, 1620, from an English play acted in 1594 by the Chamberlain's men, but an old play then; originally not later than 1591. Compare the interlude in Kirkman's Wits, which was probably founded on it. The German play ought to be made accessible to English readers.]

• 17. The Martyr Dorothea. T. [Perhaps from a play by Dekker and Massinger, revived for the Revels' company between 1619 and 1622. This is the only play in this list to which I can assign a definite date later than 1592. But were both taken from an older play?]

• 18. Dr. Faust. T. [Marlowe's play, 1588.]

• 19. King of Arragon. T. C. [Greene's Alphonsus, c. 1588.]