266 SMYTH — PERICLES AND APOLLONIUS. [Oct. 7, 



worked new scenes. It is in accordance with this last thought that 

 Stapfer and Hugo would explain Pericles. It is as if Shakespeare 

 had thrown a giant's robe over the dwarfish limbs of the beggarly 

 verse. 



There is still another banditti of troubles ambushed for the un- 

 wary scholar \ frequently playwrights of an inferior order so catch 

 the secret of a master's manner that they counterfeit it exactly. 

 The voice may be the voice of Shakespeare, but the thought is the 

 thought of Wilkins or Rowley ! Hence arises a dual possibility in 

 a line that has the Shakespearean ring, but a suspicious poverty or 

 flatness of meaning ; it may be an authentic but juvenile expression, 

 or it may be a clever counterfeit. There is the notable instance of 

 Edward III, where some cunning hand has caught the style of both 

 Marlowe and Shakespeare and blended them with singular vivid- 

 ness and vigor. 



The third hypothesis is that proposed by Mr. F. G. Fleay. He 

 undertakes to invert Steevens' supposition ; that is, he gives to 

 Shakespeare the original writing of the last three acts, subtracting 

 Gower's part and the brothel scene. This outline, according to 

 Fleay, was filled out by another poet of the company with the 

 result which we know. 



There has been a great throwing about of brains over the de- 

 termination of the chronology of Shakespeare's plays. In some 

 vain hope of approaching nearer to the personal life of Shake- 

 speare, the scholars of the Shakespearean Guild have occupied 

 their wit and ingenuity in dividing the poet's career into definitely 

 marked periods, and seeking for a parallel between the works of 

 each period and the events, ascertained or imaginary, of Shake- 

 speare's life. The old Shakespeare Society, represented by Halli- 

 well. Thorn, Dyce, Collier and Peter Cunningham, scrutinized 

 Elizabethan documents for every rag and remnant of external evi- 

 dence bearing upon dramatic history. When in 1874 the New Shaks- 

 pere Society was founded, an original method of inquiry into ques- 

 tions of chronology and authorship was instituted. Mr. Hales, in 

 two lectures upon the occasion of the founding of the society by Mr. 

 F. J. Furnivall, that indefatigable king of clubs, defined seven tests 

 for determining the growth of Shakespeare's mind and art from the 

 witness of the plays themselves: (i) external evidence, (2) histori- 

 cal allusions, (3) changes of metre, (4) changes of language and 

 style, (5) power of characterization, (6) dramatic unity, (7) knowl- 



