Part 4 (1/2)

of Plautus, and treats offrom the likeness of twin-born children The scene (act iii sc i) in which Antipholus of Ephesus is shut out from his own house, while his brother and wife are at dinner within, recalls one in the 'Amphitruo' of Plautus Shakespeare doubtless had direct recourse to Plautus as well as to the old play, and he lish The earliest translation of the 'Menaechmi' was not licensed for publication before June 10, 1594, and was not published until the following year No translation of any other play of Plautus appeared before But it was stated in the preface to this first published translation of the 'Menaechmi' that the translator, W W, doubtless William Warner, a veteran of the Elizabethan world of letters, had solished' that and 'divers' others of Plautus's comedies, and had circulated theht of his private friends, who, in Plautus's oords, are not able to understand them'

'Roave promise of a dramatic capacity out of the common way, cannot be with certainty pronounced to be beyond the ability of other edy, that he proved himself the possessor of a poetic and dramatic instinct of unprecedented quality In 'Roic roin, {55a} which was already popular in English versions Arthur Broke rendered it into English verse from the Italian of Bandello in 1562, and William Painter had published it in prose in his 'Palace of Pleasure' in 1567

Shakespeare e in the plot as drawn fronated it with poetic fervour, and relieved the tragic intensity by developing the hu on the story the new comic character of the Nurse {55b} The ecstasy of youthful passion is portrayed by Shakespeare in language of the highest lyric beauty, and although a predilection for quibbles and conceits occasionally passes beyond the author's control, 'Roic poem on the theme of love, has no rival in any literature If the Nurse's remark, ''Tis since the earthquake now eleven years' (I iii

23), be taken literally, the composition of the play must be referred to 1591, for no earthquake in the sixteenth century was experienced in England after 1580 There are a few parallelisms with Daniel's 'Complainte of Rosamond,' published in 1592, and it is probable that Shakespeare completed the piece in that year It was first printed anonymously and surreptitiously by John Danter in 1597 fro copy A second quarto of 1599 (by T Creede for Cuthbert Burbie) was printed froone revision since its first production {56}

Of the original representation on the stage of three other pieces of the period we have uisedly as an adapter of plays by other hands Though they lack the interest attaching to his unaided work, they throw invaluable light on some of his early methods of composition and his early relations with other dramatists

'Henry VI'

On March 3, 1592, a new piece, called 'Henry VI,' was acted at the Rose Theatre by Lord Strange's men It was no doubt the play which was subsequently known as Shakespeare's 'The First Part of Henry VI' On its first performance it won a popular triumph 'Hoould it have joyed brave Talbot (the terror of the French),' wrote Nash in his 'Pierce Pennilesse' (1592, licensed August 8), in reference to the striking scenes of Talbot's death (act iv sc vi and vii), 'to thinke that after he had lyne two hundred yeares in his Toe, and have his bones newe embalmed with the teares of ten thousand spectators at least (at severall tiine they behold hiorical record of the production of a second piece in continuation of the theme, but such a play quickly followed; for a third piece, treating of the concluding incidents of Henry VI's reign, attractedautuy

The applause attending the coy caused bewilderment in the theatrical profession The older draered by the young stranger who had set up his tent in their midst, and one veteran uttered without delay a rancorous protest Robert Greene, who died on September 3, 1592, wrote on his deathbed an ill-natured farewell to life, entitled 'A Groats-worth of Wit bought with a Million of Repentance' Addressing three brother drae--he bade them beware of puppets 'that speak froarnished in our colours' 'There is,' he continued, 'an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his _Tygers heart wrapt in a players hide_ supposes he is as well able to bu an absolute _Johannes factotum_ is, in his owne conceit, the only Shake-scene in a countrieNever more acquaint [those apes] with your admired inventions, for it is pity men of such rare wits should be subject to the pleasures of such rude groo denunciation of Shakespeare The tirade was probably inspired by an established author's resent actor--the theatre's factotu the dramatic work of his seniors with such masterly effect as to ioer The italicised quotation travesties a line froy of Shakespeare's 'Henry VI:'

Oh Tiger's heart wrapt in a woman's hide

But Shakespeare's amiability of character and versatile ability had already won hiard of colleagues more kindly than Greene In December 1592 Greene's publisher, Henry Chettle, prefixed an apology for Greene's attack on the young actor to his 'Kind Hartes Drea on phases of contemporary social life 'I ainall fault had beene my fault, because myselfe have seene his [_ie_ Shakespeare's] demeanour no lesse civill than he [is] exelent in the qualitie he professes, besides divers of worshi+p have reported his uprightnes of dealing, which argues his honesty, and his facetious grace in writing that aprooves his art'

Divided authorshi+p of 'Henry VI'

The first of the three plays dealing with the reign of Henry VI was originally published in the collected edition of Shakespeare's works; the second and third plays were previously printed in a form very different from that which they subsequently assumed when they followed the first part in the folio Criticism has proved beyond doubt that in these plays Shakespeare did no more than add, revise, and correct other men's work

In 'The First Part of Henry VI' the scene in the Temple Gardens, where white and red roses are plucked as emble speech of Mortiaret by Suffolk, alone bear the i with the second part of Henry VI's reign was published anonye copy in 1594, with the title 'The first part of the Contention betwixt the two fa with the third part was published with greater care next year under the title 'The True Tragedie of Richard, Duke of Yorke, and the death of good King Henry the Sixt, as it was sundrie times acted by the Earl of Pembroke his servants' In both these plays Shakespeare's revising hand can be traced The humours of Jack Cade in 'The Contention' can owe their savour to hiinal drafts of the three pieces, perhaps with another's aid, they were put on the stage in 1592, the first two parts by his own coe's ement, by Lord Pembroke's men But Shakespeare was not content to leave them thus Within a brief interval, possibly for a revival, he undertook a h revision, still in conjunction with another writer 'The First Part of The Contention' was thoroughly overhauled, and was converted into as entitled in the folio 'The Second Part of Henry VI;' there edie,' which became 'The Third Part of Henry VI,' was less drastically handled; two-thirds of it was left practically untouched; only a third was thoroughly remodelled {60}

Shakespeare's coadjutors

Who Shakespeare's coadjutors were in the two successive revisions of 'Henry VI' is matter for conjecture The theory that Greene and Peele produced the original draft of the three parts of 'Henry VI,' which Shakespeare recast, nant denunciation of Shakespeare as 'an upstart crow, beautified with the feathers' of himself and his fellow draestion that Shakespeare joined Marlowe, the greatest of his predecessors, in the first revision of which 'The Contention' and the 'True Tragedie' were the outcoes in the second recension seeest a partnershi+p rese that of the first revision It is probable that Marlowe began the final revision, but his task was interrupted by his death, and the lion's share of the work fell to his younger coadjutor

Shakespeare's assienius that receptivity of mind which impels them to assimilate much of the intellectual effort of their contemporaries and to transold Had Shakespeare not been professionally e old plays by contes traces of a study of their work The verses of Thomas Watson, Samuel Daniel, Michael Drayton, Sir Philip Sidney, and Thohty river of his poetic and lyric invention Kyd and Greene, aedy, left more or less definite iedy It was, however, only to two of his fellow dramatists that his indebtedness as a writer of either coedy was material or emphatically defined Superior as Shakespeare's poere to those of Marlowe, his coadjutor in 'Henry VI,' his early tragedies often reveal him in the character of a faithful disciple of that veheic passion Shakespeare's early comedies disclose a like relationshi+p between him and Lyly

Lyly's influence in comedy