SHAKESPEARE 



365 



history. Learned pedantry, fantastical extrava- 

 gance of speech, the affectations of amorous poetry 

 are satirised, and the dramatist pleads against 

 artificial restraints on conduct and pseudo-ideals 

 and in favour of nature and healthy passion. The 

 play was partly rewritten about 1598, when it was 

 presented before Queen Elizabeth. The, Comedy 

 of Errors (c. 1591) is a lively tangle of farcical 

 incidents; it is founded on the Mencechmi of 

 Plautus, which was translated into English by 

 Warner, but Shakespeare seems to have reached 

 the Mentechmi either in the original or through 

 some other rendering. The twin-brothers Dromio 

 are an addition to the twin-brothers of the Latin 

 comedy, and heighten the laughable perplexi- 

 ties of the play. A serious almost a pathetic- 

 background to the story is invented by Shake- 

 speare, and in his Luciana we get a hint of some of 

 his later beautiful creations of female character. 

 The Two Gentlemen of Verona (c. 1592), a roman- 

 tic love comedy, exhibits a marked advance in 

 the presentation of character, though not in the 

 construction of plot. There is apparently a con- 

 nection between the story of the play and the 

 story of the ' Shepherdess Felismena ' in the Diana 

 of George of Montemayor, a Spanish piece of 

 Arcadian romance. Shakespeare's humour breaks 

 forth in his portrait of the clown, Launce ; 

 Julia is the first of his charming feminine dis- 

 guisers in male costume. This group of early 

 comedies may be considered to close with A 

 Midsummer Night's Dream (c. 1593-94). Hints 

 for the play may have been taken from Chaucer, 

 from Plutarch, from the Diana, and from popular 

 superstitions ; but it is essentially a new creation 

 of the poet. No other comedy of Shakespeare has 

 so large a lyrical element ; the figures of the lovers 

 are faintly drawn, but the exquisite fairy-poetry, 

 and the humours of sweet bully Bottom make 

 sufficient amends. 



Meanwhile Shakespeare was also engaged on the 

 English historical drama. In the Second and Third 

 Part* of Henry VI. (c. 1592) he worked upon 

 the basis of old plays written probably by Marlowe 

 and Greene possibly also Peele and in the revision 

 he may have had Marlowe as a collaborator. To 

 come under the influence of that great master, 

 Christopher Marlowe, was no disadvantage for one 

 who could accept gains from every quarter and by 

 the force of his genius could make them his own. 

 In King Richard III. (c. 1593) he still writes 

 in Marlowe's manner, though the play is wholly 

 his own. As with Marlowe the protagonist every- 

 where dpminates over the secondary characters ; as 

 with Marlowe a great criminal is made of fascinat- 

 ing interest, by virtue of his unity of passion and 

 of power. The chief source from which Shake- 

 speare derived the material for his plays from 

 English history was the chronicle of Holinshed. 

 The three parts of Henry VI. and the tragedy of 

 Richard III. present a continuous view of the rise 

 and fall of the House of York. In King Richard 

 II. (c. 1594) is set forth the rise of the House of 

 Lancaster. Here, though there are reminiscences 

 from Edward II., the influence of Marlowe is no 

 longer supreme. The contrast between the hectic, 

 ell-indulgent, rhetorical Richard, who yet pos- 

 sesses a certain regal charm, and his strong adver- 

 sary Bolingbroke is a fine psychological study of a 

 kind which is essentially Shakespearian and not 

 Marlowesqne. To mould into dramatic form the 

 tough material of history was an admirable exer- 

 cise in dramatic craftsmanship. The breadth and 

 sanity of history also tended to preserve Shake- 

 speare from the danger of romantic extravagance, 

 such as injures the art of other dramatists who 

 worked chiefly on stories of crime and passion sup- 

 plied by Italian romance. King John (c. 1595) 



stands apart by its subject from both the York 

 and the Lancaster series of plays ; but in style it 

 has something iin common with Richard II. It is 

 founded not so much on Holinshed as on an old 

 play, The Troublesome Raigne of King John, and 

 a comparison of bis original, seen in its poverty, 

 crudity, and coarseness, with Shakespeare's crea- 

 tion, where everything is ennobled, purified, and 

 refined, affords a study of no little interest in 

 dramatic art. 



In the passage which describes, Oberon's vision 

 in A Midsummer Night's Dream a magnificent 

 compliment to Queen Elizabeth, 'the imperial 

 votaress,' is introduced. Shakespeare as a mem- 

 ber of the Lord Chamberlain's company appeared 

 on several occasions before her majesty. In 

 December 1594 he acted in two comedies at 

 Greenwich Palace. On Innocents' Day of the same 

 year the Comedy of Errors was presented in the 

 hall of Gray's Inn. The playhouse in which at 

 first he ordinarily performea was either that known 

 as 'The Theatre' or 'The Curtain' on the Shore- 

 ditch edge of London. From 1599 onwards he was 

 connected with the new playhouse, 'The Globe,' 

 which stood near London Bridge on the Southwark 

 side, and here and in the Blackfriars Theatre ( 1596) 

 his dramas were presented. His good sense and 

 worldly prudence are remarkable ; before long he 

 became a theatrical shareholder, and had gathered 

 sufficient wealth to purchase (1597) 'New Place,' 

 a large house in his native town. In 1596 his 

 father, moved perhaps by the wish of the dramatist 

 to occupy a dignified position, applied for a grant 

 of coat-armour, and sought, probably without 

 success, to recover the mortgaged Asbies estate. 

 The year was one of affliction, for in August 

 Shakespeare's only son Hamnetr died. Yet Strat- 

 ford remained dear to the sorrowing father; he 

 kept in close relation with his friends and former 

 neighbours, and in 1598 was engaged in negotiating 

 a loan for the corporation of the town. The run- 

 away youth of ten or twelve _years since was now 

 a man of consideration ana of substance. In 

 September 1601 his father died ; his mother lived 

 until September 1608. In the year following his 

 father's death Shakespeare bought for 320, then 

 a large sum of money, 107 acres near Stratford, 

 and enlarged the bounds of his New Place pro- 

 perty. In 1605 he paid 440 for the unexpired 

 term of the moiety of a lease of the tithes of btrat- 

 ford, Old Stratford, Bishopton, and Welcombe. 

 He did not despise small things, for we find him 

 in 1604 proceeding for the recovery of a debt 

 amounting to 1, 15s. lOd. With boundless empire 

 in the realm of imagination he valued also at its 

 real worth a foothold on this material earth of 

 ours. 



Among the earlier creations of his genius one 

 stands apart from the rest the tragedy of Romeo 

 and Juliet. Possibly as we have it now the play 

 is a revision dating about 1596-97 of a work 

 written as early as 1592. It is founded in the 

 main upon a poem, Romeus and Juliet (1562), by 

 Arthur Brooke, which versifies the tale taken by 

 the French Boisteau from the Italian of Bandello ; 

 but Shakespeare was also probably acquainted 

 with Paynter's prose version of the story in his 

 Palace of Pleasure (1567). The play has a lyrical 

 sweetness, swiftness, and intensity such as we do 

 not find elsewhere in its author's writings. It has 

 many signs of early workmanship much rhymed 

 verse, and many conceits and over-strained ingenu- 

 ities; but these last are forgotten in the high 

 passions of joy and anguish which find expression 

 in the tragedy. The brilliant Mercutio, the tran- 

 quil Friar, the humorous figure of the Nurse form 

 an admirable background from which stand out 

 the persons of the lovers a youth and a maiden of 



