The First Folio (1623) is confidered as the most authentic and complete edition of Shakespeare's works. The following account of the Plays contained therein. is fummarized from the Preface to the Reprint of the First Folio, by Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps : Much Ado about Nothing. In this vol. is the First Edition. In this vol. is the First Edition. in its complete state. First Edition. First Edition. Printed from a quarto, 1600, with a few omiffions and variations. Love's Labours Loft. . Printed from a quarto, 1598, . Second Part of Henry IV.. "There was a quarto edition On this play Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps remarks: "It is nearly impoffible to believe that this drama could have been written by Shakespeare, and I rather incline to conjecture * See an article on the Hiftorical Element in Shakespeare's Falstaff, in The Fortnightly Review, by J. Gairdner, Mar. 1, 1873, p. 333. I that the editors of the First Folio inferted the older play on the subject, first printed in 1594, through either mistake or ignorance, knowing that Shakespeare had written a drama on the fame theme, and finding no other verfions of it in their collection of plays." Another writer is of opinion that— "Our prefent play [Titus Andronicus] is not Shakespeare's; it is built on the Marlowe blank-verse system which Shakespeare, in his early work, opposed; and did not belong to Shakespeare's Company till 1600."-Fleay, Shakespeare Manual, p. 44. * Vide Preface to the fac-fimile Reprint of the First Folio, 1623, by J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps, F.R.S., pp. 8-11, 1876. NOTE. For the best account of the fources whence Shakefpeare derived the plots, etc., of his plays, fee the Shakespeare Library, 2nd edition, 1875, 6 volumes, being A Collection of Plays, Romances, Novels, Poems, and Hiftories employed by Shakespeare in the Compofition of his Works, with Introductions and Notes, by W. C. Hazlitt, and Shakespeare Jeft-Books, 3 vols., 1864, by the fame learned writer. Enscriptions in Stratford Church. "Judicio Pylivm, genio Socratem, arte Maronem, "Stay Paffenger, why goeft thou by fo faft? Read if thov canft, whom enviovs Death hath plast, Obiit Año Do' 1616. The above lines are infcribed upon the tablet under Shakespeare's Buft, in the chancel-north-wall of Stratford Church. The date of the erection of the monument is not known, but was before 1623. "The buft was originally painted in imitation of Nature," which was renewed in 1748. Malone caufed it to be covered with one or more coats of white paint in 1793,* which gave rife to the following lines: "Stranger, to whom this monument is shown, Whofe meddling zeal his barbarous taste displays, The colours on the bust are now restored. On the flat stone covering the body are the following lines, the authorship of which is not known: "GOOD FREND FOR IESUS SAKE FORBEARE, TO DIGG THE DVST ENCLOASED HEARE: B BLESTE BE Ÿ MAN Ỷ SPARES THES STONES, Dyce's Memoir, p. lv., note 79. † Neil, loc. cit., p. 66. List of Plays ONCE ATTRIBUTED TO SHAKESPEARE, BUT NOW REJECTED AS SPURIOUS. 1. The History of the Life and Death of Lord Thomas Cromwell. Printed 1602. 2. Locrine, Eldeft Son to King Brutus; The Lamentable Tragedie of. Printed 1595. 3. London Prodigal. A Comedy. Printed 1605. 4. Sir John Oldcastle, the good Lord Cobham, his Hiftory. Printed 1600. 5. Puritan; or, The Widow of Watling Street. A Comedy. Printed 1670. 6. Yorkshire Tragedy, not fo New as Lamentable and True. Printed 1608. 7. Birth of Merlin; or, The Child has loft his Father. A Tragic Comedy. Printed 1662. 8. John, King of England, his troublesome Reign; the first and fecond Part, with the Discovery of King Richard Cœur de Lyon's Base Son (vulgarly named the Bastard Fawconbridge), also 9. The Death of King John, at Swinftead Abbey. Printed 1591 and again in 1611. (The play of King John is founded on these two plays.) |