Part 3 (2/2)

The whole of Shakespeare's draun and ended within two decades (1591-1611), between his twenty-seventh and forty-seventh year If the works traditionally assigned to him include some contributions from other pens, he was perhaps responsible, on the other hand, for portions of a few plays that are traditionally claimed for others When the account is balanced, Shakespearethese twenty years, of a yearly average of two plays, nearly all of which belong to the supreme rank of literature

Three volumes of poems must be added to the total Ben Jonson was often told by the players that 'whatsoever he penned he never blotted out (_ie_ erased) a line' The editors of the First Folio attested that 'what he thought he uttered with that easinesse that we have scarce received frons of hasty work, but they are fehen it is considered how rapidly his nuregate uni his plots he to soy, but he transformed most of the his strength that he systematically levied loans on popular current literature like Holinshed's 'Chronicles,' North's translation of 'Plutarch,' widely read roard he betrayed so of the practical temperament which is traceable in the conduct of the affairs of his later life It was doubtless with the calculated aily adapted, as his genius dictated, themes which had already, in the hands of inferior writers or dra public attention

The revision of plays

The professional playwrights sold their plays outright to one or other of the acting coal interest in them after the manuscript had passed into the hands of the theatrical er to invite extensive revision of a play at the hands of others than its author before it was produced on the stage, and again whenever it was revived Shakespeare gained his earliest experience as a dra behind the scenes plays that had becoer It is possible that some of his labours in this direction reht, but as a rule his fund of originality was too abundant to restrict hi as an adapter, to mere recension, and the results of most of his labours in that capacity are entitled to rank ay of the plays Metrical tests

The determination of the exact order in which Shakespeare's plays ritten depends largely on conjecture External evidence is accessible in only a few cases, and, although alorthy of the utmost consideration, is not invariably conclusive The date of publication rarely indicates the date of composition Only sixteen of the thirty-seven plays coned to Shakespeare were published in his lifetime, and it is questionable whether any were published under his supervision {48} But subject-h clues to the period in his career to which each play may be referred In his early plays the spirit of coradually matured he depicted life in its ht the subtle gradations of hus of huradually blended; and his work finally developed a pathos such as could only cooes e restraints of fixed rule and beco In the blank verse of the early plays a pause is strictly observed at the close of each line, and rhy couplets are frequent Gradually the poet overrides such artificial restrictions; rhyely disappears; recourse is more frequently made to prose; the pause is varied indefinitely; extra syllables are, contrary to strict metrical law, introduced at the end of lines, and at times in the middle; the last word of the line is often a weak and unemphatic conjunction or preposition

{49} To the latest plays fantastic and punning conceits which abound in early work are rarely accorded adinning to the end of his career offers clearer evidence than that of any other writer of genius of the steady and orderly growth of his poetic faculty, some allowance must be ress Early work occasionally anticipates features that become habitual to late work, and late work at times embodies traits that are mainly identified with early work No exclusive reliance in detery can be placed on the merely mechanical tests afforded by tables of ical order can only be deduced with any confidence from a consideration of all the internal characteristics as well as the known external history of each play The prey hitherto suggested receives at all points universal assent

'Love's Labour's Lost'

There is no external evidence to prove that any piece in which Shakespeare had a hand was produced before the spring of 1592 No play by him was published before 1597, and none bore his nae till 1598 But his first essays have been with confidence allotted to 1591 To 'Love's Labour's Lost' ned priority in point of time of all Shakespeare's dramatic productions

Internal evidence alone indicates the date of composition, and proves that it was an early effort; but the subject-ests that its author had already enjoyed extended opportunities of surveying London life and manners, such as were hardly open to him in the very first years of his settlement in the metropolis 'Love's Labour's Lost' embodies keen observation of contemporary life in many ranks of society, both in town and country, while the speeches of the hero Biron clothe much sound philosophy inShakespeare's plots in that it is not known to have been borrowed, and stands quite alone in openly travestying known traits and incidents of current social and political life The names of the chief characters are drawn froress between 1589 and 1594, and was anxiously watched by the English public {51} Conte men; fashi+ons of speech and dress current in fashi+onable circles; recent atteotiate with the Tsar of Russia; the inefficiency of rural constables and the pedantry of village schoolood humour

The play was revised in 1597, probably for a performance at Court It was first published next year, and on the title-page, which described the piece as 'newly corrected and augmented,' Shakespeare's name first appeared in print as that of author of a play

'Two Gentleaiety characterised another comedy of the same date, 'The Two Gentlemen of Verona,' which dramatises a romantic story of love and friendshi+p There is every likelihood that it was an adaptation--a to a reformation--of a lost 'History of Felix and Philomena,' which had been acted at Court in 1584 The story is the same as that of 'The Shepardess Felise de Monteland No colish translation of 'Diana' was published before that of Bartholoe in 1598, but a manuscript version by Thomas Wilson, which was dedicated to the Earl of Southampton in 1596, was possibly circulated far earlier Some verses from 'Diana' were translated by Sir Philip Sidney and were printed with his poems as early as 1591 Barnabe Rich's story of 'Apollonius and Silla' (froain in 'Twelfth Night,'

also gave hi conceits abound in the 'Two Gentle, and the speeches of the clowns, Launce and Speed--the precursors of a long line of whi-men--overfloith farcical drollery The 'Two Gentlemen' was not published in Shakespeare's lifeti, in all probability, undergone some revision {53}

'Comedy of Errors'

Shakespeare next tried his hand, in the 'Comedy of Errors' (commonly known at the time as 'Errors'), at boisterous farce It also was first published in 1623 Again, as in 'Love's Labour's Lost,' allusion was made to the civil war in France France was described as 'ainst her heir' (III ii 125) Shakespeare's farcical comedy, which is by far the shortest of all his draer extant, called 'The Historie of Error,' which was acted in 1576 at Hampton Court In subject-matter it resembles the 'Menaechmi'