Heminge and Condell, therefore, had for the basis of their work the best of these quartos; such stage copies of the plays as they could get, and that intimate knowledge of the dramas, in which, as members of the company that first produced them, they must often have performed different parts. But even with their best care, these first editors of Shakspeare, to whom we all owe a debt of gratitude, could not avoid some mistakes in a work so full of difficulties.

To these thirty-six plays, of which I have elsewhere given* a list, the play of Pericles was afterwards added, making thirty-seven, the number now usually included in his works. But besides these thirty-seven, there are a number of others which have been claimed as Shakspeare's. There are three old plays still in existence, which were printed in quarto, with Shakspeare's name on the title page, and there are several others, with the initials W. Sh., or W. S., which Heminge and Condell did not put in their edition. Probably these plays are not Shakspeare's, but were printed with his name by some publisher who knew Shakspeare's popularity as a writer would be likely to sell any play that bore his name, or even his initials, on the title-page.

It was also a common custom, at this time, for writers for the stage to unite together to produce a play. There are some plays which have as many as five writers concerned in them, and two and three is a very common number in this joint authorship. The Two Noble Kinsmen, a play found among Beaumont and Fletcher's works, bore the name of Fletcher and Shakspeare as authors; and the play of Henry VIII, in Shakspeare's works, had the name of Shakspeare and Fletcher again as joint authors. Thus you will see that it is quite probable that some plays may have been put among Shakspeare's works of which he was only the writer in part, and that others may have been left out in which Shakspeare may have had some share with other writers. A number of *See list of Shakspeare's plays, p. 444. Pericles was added to the 3d edition, 1664.

the thirty-seven plays which we now call Shakspeare's are

thus under dispute.

First in doubtfulness comes Titus Andronicus, of which I shall say for my own part, I do not think he wrote any part of it.* It is also believed by many scholars that only the first scenes in Pericles are by Shakspeare, and that Timon of Athens is an alteration or adaptation of an old play.

an

The Taming of the Shrew is certainly founded on older play of the same title, which it strikingly resembles in incident. As to the Three Parts of Henry V1, they are mostly all under dispute, some critics believing that he did not write the first part, and that the Second and Third Parts are alterations of two old plays which still exist in evidence; while others claim that he wrote all three, and that the older plays are his own earlier version of the plays which he afterwards finished and revised more carefully. There has been a great deal written on both sides on all these plays, and most of the disputed points must forever remain undecided, a matter of individual opinion, and many lines which

or only lie within the covers of his plays will be read a little doubt

fully.

With regard to the sources for the plots of the plays, our knowledge is clearer. We know from whence most have been derived, and from this evidence it would seem that Shakspeare rarely invented his plot. He took them wherever he found them-in old poems, stories, translations from

French

or

Italian; in the old Roman or current English history, wherever he could find a dramatic incident. In HolinChronicle History he found many a hint. There he read

shed's

*I have for a long time believed that Titus Andronicus was written by the same poet who wrote Lust's Dominion, a play sometimes ascribed to Marlowe. The hero of both plays is a Moor, and there is a general resemblance, while some lines are strikingly alike, as for instance:

And do not now with quarrels shake the state,
Which is already too much ruinate.

Lust's Dominion.

Then afterwards to order well the state,
That like events may ne'er it ruinate.
Titus Andronicus.

of the troubled reign of Duncan of Scotland; his murder by Macbeth; the appearance of the three witches, and the fight between Macduff and Macbeth. In Plutarch's Lives he read of great Cæsar's assassination, the conspiracy and death of Brutus, as well as the loves of Anthony and Cleopatra. In some charming novels by Greene and by Thomas Lodge, he got the plots for Winter's Tale and As You Like It. Thus the eye of the dramatist was quick to see in all places whatever would serve his purpose. The inventive power of the novelist either he did not have, or did not care to use. I sometimes fancy that the lack of this power stimulated the power of the dramatist-that he could better work the men and women of his imagination, when, like the men and women of the real world, they were controlled by a destiny which he had not shaped for them.

From this slight glance I have given you of his methods, you will see that Shakspeare was a busy, hard-worked man, absorbed and interested in affairs which filled his life for over twenty years. While so many of the other poets, like Greene, Peele and Marlowe, lived and died in drunkenness and misery, Shakspeare was a prosperous shareholder in the theater, where he was also an actor. While busy with his own work for the stage, he was interested in revising and criticising the works of other men; and all this time he was building up a good name and estate in his native town, which was no doubt the main purpose of his life. The greatest poet of his age, he was also a practical man, with a breadth of intellect which could include the details of the petty affairs of life.

In studying Shakspeare, go first of all to his works, and not to critics. To know thoroughly Shakspeare's plays with appreciative knowledge, would be of itself a liberal education. Even if you should read thoroughly only four such plays as Hamlet, Merchant of Venice, Julius Cæsar and As You Like It, you would have in your mind a treasure which would be priceless.

TALK XXIV.

EXTRACTS FROM SHAKSPEARE'S PLAYS - RICHARD II; HAMLET; THE TEMPEST,

In illustration of Shakspeare's poetry, I am going to give extracts from plays written at different periods. First, from Richard II, which was written in the earlier period of his career; then from Hamlet, which was probably produced in the middle of his life as author; and, finally, from The Tempest, which is one of his latest, if not his very latest production. The selection from Richard II is that in which John of Gaunt, the uncle of the king, lying at point of death, calls for Richard, that he may warn him of his misgovernment, which is bringing so many troubles to the realm.

As the scene opens, Gaunt lies on a couch, his brother, Duke of York, standing near:

Gaunt. Will the King come, that I may breathe my last, In wholesome counsel to his unstaid youth?

York. Vex not yourself, nor strive not with your breath, For all in vain comes counsel to his ear.

Gaunt. O, but they say the tongues of dying men

Enforce attention, like deep harmony.

Where words are scarce, they are seldom spent in vain;
For they breathe truth, that breathe their words in pain
He, that no more must say, is listened more

Than they whom youth and ease have taught to glose,
More are men's ends marked, than their lives before
The setting sun and music at the close-

As the last taste of sweets is sweetest, last

Writ in remembrance, more than things long past.
Tho' Richard my life's counsel would not hear,

Methinks I am a prophet now inspired,
And thus, expiring, do foretell of him:
His fierce, rash blaze of riot cannot last;
For violent fires soon burn out themselves.

Small showers last long, but sudden storms are short;
He tires betimes, that spurs too fast betimes;
With eager feeding, food doth choke the feeder.
Light vanity, insatiate comorant,

Consuming means soon preys upon itself.
This royal throne of kings, this sceptered isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars;
This other Eden, demi-paradise,

This fortress, built by Nature for herself
Against infestion and the hand of war;
This happy breed of men, this little world;
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall,
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands;

This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,

This land of such dear souls, this dear, dear land—
Dear for her reputation thro' the world—

Is now leased out (I die pronouncing it)
Like to a tenement or pelting farm;

England, bound in by the triumphant sea,
Whose rocky shore beats back the envious siege
Of watery Neptune, is now bound in with shame,
With inky blots and rotten parchment bonds;
That England, that was wont to conquer others,
Hath made a shameful conquest of itself.

This, as I have said before, is from one of Shakspeare's earlier plays. You will notice, in studying his works, that when Shakspeare was younger he very often used rhymed couplets, as in this extract, instead of blank verse. As he grew older he used rhyme less and less. In Hamlet and As You Like It, which he wrote about the middle of his life, there are few rhymes, except occasionally a couplet at the close of a scene; in The Tempest and Winter's Tale,