206 



THE POPULAE EDUCATOB. 



a poet are to remove local and national prejudices, and narrow- 

 ness and distortion of taste and judgment, and to supply 

 materials for the mind and imagination to work upon ; and, 

 judged by these tests, it cannot be denied that Shakeepeare had 

 acquired such a degree of learning aa waa needed for the 

 development of his poetical powers. 



If the details of Shakespeare's personal history are obscure, 

 the history of his works is almost more so. Successive genera- 

 tions of critics and antiquaries have laboured with a zeal almost 

 fanatical in bringing to light every fragment of evidence, internal 

 or external, bearing upon the history of Shakespeare's plays, 

 with extremely meagre results. 



It will be convenient to mention, in the first place, Shake- 

 speare's poems, before going on to notice his plays the more 

 so as he appeared as a poet before he did as a dramatist. 

 " The first heir of his invention," to use Ms own words, waa the 

 poem of " Venus and Adonis." This poem waa published in 1593, 

 but was probably written a good deal earlier. It is a narrative 

 poem on the well-known story which its name indicates. The 

 subject is not a very attractive one to the modern reader, but it 

 shows in a high degree the fertility of imagination, judgment, 

 good taste, and sense of harmony which are among the peculiar 

 characteristics of Shakespeare. This waa followed soon after- 

 wards by the "Rape of Lucrece," a poem somewhat similar in 

 character. Both these works, especially the former, attained a 

 great and immediate popularity. The "Passionate Pilgrim" 

 was a collection of poems published in Shakespeare's name, 

 though almost certainly without his consent; many of the 

 pieces in it are undoubtedly by other authors, but some are 

 probably his. His " Sonnets" were not published till 1609, but 

 it is probable that they were written at intervals extending over 

 many years preceding that time. The " Sonnets " have given rise 

 to one of the most curious and one of the most fruitless contro- 

 versies in the whole history of literature. As published, they 

 were dedicated to Mr. W. H., and speculation has been busy 

 as to who the W. H. could be to whom these tender and beau- 

 tiful outpourings of love and reproach were addressed. But no 

 clue to the identity of W. H., on which the slightest reliance 

 can be traced, has been discovered ; and there is no sufficient 

 ground for assuming that the " Sonnets " were really addressed 

 to the same person to whom, when collected, they were dedicated, 

 or even to any one person at all. 



The order of Shakespeare's plays, and the dates at which they 

 were written, it is for the most part quite impossible to deter- 

 mine with any certainty. But as the attempt has been very 

 often made, and by very eminent critics, and as anything that 

 can be learned upon this subject is important and instructive, 

 we shall briefly indicate what materials there really are for 

 ascertaining to any extent the history of the plays. 



The external evidence ia of the following kinds : A certain 

 number of the plays were published singly during Shakespeare's 

 life. And of course the date of publication gives us the latest 

 date at which each play can have been composed. But it gives 

 us no more. We know that many of Shakespeare's plays had been 

 acted for years before they were printed, a large number never 

 having been published till some years after his death. The plays 

 thus printed during Shakespeare's life were "Richard II.," 

 " Richard III.," and "Romeo and Juliet," in 1597; "Love's 

 Labour's Lost," and " Henry IV., Part I.," in 1598; "Henry 

 IV., Part II.," "Henry V.," "Merchant of Venice," " Mid- 

 summer Night's Dream," " Much Ado about Nothing," and 

 "Titua Andronicus," in 1600; "Merry Wives of Windsor," 

 in 1602 ; " Hamlet," in 1603 ; " King Lear," in 1608; " Troilus 

 andCressida," and " Pericles," in 1609. But in some instances 

 the first quarto edition differs very materially from the play as 

 we now have it; the quarto "Hamlet" especially is probably 

 only a first sketch, afterwards worked up into the more com- 

 plete play. 



We learn some further information about Shakespeare's plays 

 from a passage in the " Palladis Tamia " of Francis Meres, 

 published in 1598. He says : " As Plautua and Seneca are 

 accounted the best for comedy and tragedy among the Latins, 

 so Shakspere among the English is the most excellent in both 

 kinds for the stage. For comedy witness his ' Gentlemen of 

 Verona,' his ' Errors,' his ' Love's Labour's Lost,' his ' Love's 

 Labours' Won' [that is, no doubt, ' All's Well that Enda Well '], 

 his 'Midsummer Night's Dream,' and his 'Merchant of Venice ;' 

 in tragedy his ' Richard II.,' ' Richard III.,' ' Henry IV.' ' King 



John,' 'Titua Andronicus,' and hia 'Romeo and Juliet.'" 

 And from stray entries in contemporary diaries and other 

 similar sources we learn that certain plays were in existence at 

 an earlier period than they could otherwise have been shown to 

 exist. In this way we know that "Twelfth Night,'' though 

 never published till after Shakespeare's death, was acted in the 

 Middle Temple Hall as early as 1602. 



The internal evidence as to the chronology of Shakespeare's 

 plays is of two kinds. In the first place, many of the plays con- 

 tain manifest allusions to contemporary events, allusions in 

 some cases so pointed that they could only have been written 

 when the events referred to were fresh in the public mind. But 

 the value of these allusions as an index of date becomes com- 

 paratively small when we recollect that many, if not most, of the 

 plays, were acted long before thay were printed ; and many of 

 them undoubtedly underwent much change from their original 

 form before they reached the shape in which they have come 

 down to us, and that such allusions aa we have referred to may 

 well have been inserted long after the plays were first written. 

 The other branch of internal evidence upon the question is of 

 greater value. It is derived from the character of the playa 

 themselves. It is impossible for any one to believe that the 

 greatest efforts of Shakespeare's genius, such as " Macbeth," 

 " Othello," and " King Lear," are the work of a very young or 

 inexperienced writer. And it is difficult to resist the conclusion, 

 so forcibly urged by some critics, that plays in which we find 

 one peculiar aspect of the problem of life, or one type of 

 character strongly marked, belong to the same period of their 

 author's life. Thus, there is great probability that such playa 

 as "Hamlet," "Timon of Athens," "As You Like It," and 

 " Measure for Measure," were written within short intervals of 

 one another. Again, peculiarities of outward structure such, 

 for instance, aa the prevalence of rhymed couplets in one group 

 of playa, and their absence in another are deserving of some 

 weight. There is some reason for thinking that the prevalence 

 of rhyme in any play ia in general an indication of early date. 



Such being, in short, the materials at our command, it ia evi- 

 dent that any chronological arrangement can be no more than a 

 vague approximation to the truth. We shall not, therefore, 

 attempt such a classification ; but shall rather, when speaking 

 of the plays individually, point out to what period each may 

 with most probability be referred. 



The first collected edition of Shakespeare's playa was given to 

 the world by Hemynge and Condell, two of his brother actors of 

 the Globe Company, in 1623, seven years after the author's 

 death. This edition was in folio, and is commonly known as the 

 first folio. The second complete edition, also in folio, appeared 

 in 1632, the third in 1664, and the fourth in 1685. 



LESSONS IN ALGEBRA. XXX. 



MULTIPLICATION OF RADICAL QUANTITIES. 

 RADICAL quantities may be multiplied, like other quantities, 

 by writing the factora one after another, either with or without 

 the sign of multiplication between them. 



EXAMPLES. 



Thua the product of Va into v7>, ia Va X /&. 

 The product of h* into y*, is h*y* 



But it is often expedient to bring the factora under the same 

 radical sign. This may be done, if they are first reduced to a 

 common index. 



Hence, quantities under the same radical sign or index may 

 be multiplied together like rational quantities, the product being 

 placed under the common radical sign or index.* 



EXAMPLE. Multiply 2 Vx into **/y, that ia, ar into y*. 

 The quantities reduced to the same index, are (a; 3 ) , and 



j j 



(i/ 2 ) s , and their product ia (a;V) 3 = 6 VasV- Ans. 



In this manner the product of radical quantities often be- 

 comes rational. 



EXAMPLE. Thus the product of A/2 into A/18 = A/36 = 6. 

 Ans. 



* The case of an imaginary root of a negative quantity may be con- 

 side red au exception. 



