Part 17 (1/2)

Although Shakespeare's powers showed no sign of exhaustion, he reverted in the year following the colossal effort of 'Lear' (1607) to his earlier habit of collaboration, and with another's aid composed two dramas--'Timon of Athens' and 'Pericles' An extant play on the subject of 'Timon of Athens' was co to show that Shakespeare and his coadjutor were acquainted with it They doubtless derived a part of their story froression in Plutarch's 'Life of Marc Antony,' where Antony is described as e the life and example of 'Timon Misanthropos the Athenian' The draue of Lucian entitled 'Timon,' which Boiardo had previously converted into a comedy under the name of 'Il Timone' Internal evidence ue was responsible for nearly the whole of acts III and V But the character of Timon himself and all the scenes which he dominates are from Shakespeare's pen Timon is cast in the round for the belief that Shakespeare's coadjutor in 'Tie Wilkins, a writer of ill-developed drae' (1607), first treated the story that afterwards served for the plot of 'The Yorkshi+re Tragedy' At any rate, Wilkins may safely be credited with portions of 'Pericles,' a romantic play which can be referred to the same year as 'Timon'

Shakespeare contributed only acts III and V and parts of IV, which together form a self-contained whole, and do not co scenes The presence of a third hand, of inferior merit to Wilkins, has been suspected, and to this collaborator (perhaps William Rowley, a professional reviser of plays who could show capacity on occasion) are best assigned the three scenes of purposeless coarseness which take place in or before a brothel (IV ii, v and vi) From so distributed a responsibility the piece naturally suffers It lacks hoeneity, and the story is helped out by duues

But a matured felicity of expression characterises Shakespeare's own contributions, narrating the rohter Marina, as born and abandoned in a shi+pwreck At many points he here anticipated his latest dramatic effects The shi+pwreck is depicted (IV i) as impressively as in the 'Tempest,' and Marina and her mother Thaisa enjoy many experiences in common with Perdita and Herues, which were not by Shakespeare, were spoken by an actor representing the mediaeval poet John Goho in the fourteenth century had versified Pericles's story in his 'Confessio Amantis' under the title of 'Apollonius of Tyre' It is also found in a prose translation (from the French), which was printed in Lawrence Twyne's 'Patterne of Painfull Adventures' in 1576, and again in 1607

After the play was produced, George Wilkins, one of the alleged coadjutors, based on it a novel called 'The Painful Adventures of Pericles, Prynce of Tyre, being the True History of the Play of Pericles as it was lately presented by the worthy and ancient Poet, John Gower'

(1608) The play was issued as by Williaain in 1611, 1619, 1630, and 1635 It was not included in Shakespeare's collected works till 1664

'Antony and Cleopatra'

In May 1608 Edward Blount entered in the 'Stationers' Registers,' by the authority of Sir George Buc, the licenser of plays, 'a booke called ”Anthony and Cleopatra”' No copy of this date is known, and once again the company probably hindered the publication The play was first printed in the folio of 1623 The source of the tragedy is the life of Antonius in North's 'Plutarch' Shakespeare closely followed the historical narrative, and assimilated not merely its tey A few short scenes are original, but there is no detail in such a passage, for exaeant of Cleopatra's voyage up the Cydnus to meet Antony (II ii 194 seq), which is not to be matched in Plutarch In the fourth and fifth acts Shakespeare's nificent freedom {245} The whole therandeur which lifts into sublimity even Cleopatra's moral worthlessness and Antony's criminal infatuation The terse and caustic comments which Antony's level-headed friend Enobarbus, in the role of chorus, passes on the action accentuate its significance Into the ses Shakespeare breathed all his vitalising fire The 'happy valiancy' of the style, too--to use Coleridge's adedy very near the zenith of Shakespeare's achieve it from 'Macbeth,' 'Othello,' and 'Lear,' renders it a very formidable rival

'Coriolanus'

'Coriolanus' (first printed froin to the biography of the hero in North's 'Plutarch,'

although Shakespeare may have first met the story in Painter's 'Palace of Pleasure' (No iv) He again adhered to the text of Plutarch with the utreat crises of the action--repeated North's translation word for word {246} But the humorous scenes are wholly of Shakespeare's invention, and the course of the narrative was at tied for purposes of dramatic effect The metrical characteristics prove the play to have been written about the same period as 'Antony and Cleopatra,' probably in 1609 In its austere temper it contrasts at all points with its predecessor The courageous self-reliance of Coriolanus's entleness of Virgilia, Coriolanus's wife

The hero falls a victim to no sensual flaw, but to unchecked pride of caste, and there is a searching irony in the enoble temper of the rabble, who procure his overthrow By way of foil, the speeches of Menenius give dignified expression to the hout is as single and as unflaggingly sustained as in 'Othello'

XV--THE LATEST PLAYS

The latest plays

In 'Cymbeline,' 'The Winter's Tale,' and 'The Tempest,' the three latest plays that came from his unaided pen, Shakespeare dealt with romantic themes which all end happily, but he instilled into theory of their own apart alike froedy

The placidity of tone conspicuous in these three plays (none of which was published in his lifetime) has been often contrasted with the storedies that preceded thee of tone a corresponding developnores the objectivity of Shakespeare's dra lay within the scope of his intuition, and the successive order in which he approached them bore no explicable relation to substantive incident in his private life or experience In middle life, his teer ht took a profounder cast than characterised it in youth The highest topics of tragedy were naturallywhen he was nearing his fortieth birthday than at an earlier age The serenity of meditative romance was more in harmony with the fifth decade of his years than with the second or third But no more direct or definite connection can be discerned between the progressive stages of his work and the progressive stages of his life To seek in his biography for a chain of events which should be calculated to stir in his own soul all or any of the tereatest plays is to under-estiht of his creative genius

'Cymbeline'

In 'Cy with it a story from Boccaccio's 'Decameron' (day 2, novel ix) Ginevra, whose falsely suspected chastity is the theen

Her story is also told in the tract called 'Westward for Smelts,' which had already been laid under contribution by Shakespeare in the 'Merry Wives' {249} The by-plot of the banishe for his expatriation kidnapped the king's young sons and brought them up with him in the recesses of the h most of the scenes are laid in Britain in the first century before the Christian era, there is no pretence of historical vraisemblance With an al's courtiers make y, like 'grace' and 'election' {250} The action, which, owing to the combination of three threads of narrative, is exceptionally varied and intricate, wholly belongs to the region of roure of the play, Shakespeare lavished all the fascination of his genius She is the crown and flower of his conception of tender and artless womanhood Her husband Posthumus, her rejected lover Cloten, her would-be seducer Iachimo are contrasted with her and with each other with consuenuity Theboy-companions play their part has points of resemblance to the Forest of Arden in 'As You Like It;' but life throughout 'Cyrimly earnest, and the mountains nurture little of the contemplative quiet which characterises existence in the Forest of Arden The play contains the splendid lyric 'Fear no more the heat of the sun' (IV ii 258 seq) The 'pitiful mummery' of the vision of Posthumus (V iv 30 seq) must have been supplied by another hand Dr Forer who kept notes of sooer, saw 'Cymbeline' acted either in 1610 or 1611

'A Winter's Tale'