the arms of the new-married pair.* Hence, with his ufual licence, Shakspeare ufes heraldry for junction, or union in general. Thus, in his Rape of Lucrece, the fame term is employed to denote that union of colours which conftitutes a beautiful complexion:

"This heraldry in Lucrece' face was feen,

Argued by beauty's red,' and virtue's white."

This paffage not affording us any affiftance, we are next to confider one in The Alchemist, by Ben Jonfon, which, if it alluded to an incident in Othello, (as Mr. Steevens feems to think it does,) would ascertain this play to have appeared before 1610, in which year The Alchemist was first acted: "Lovewit. Didft thou hear a cry, fay'ft thou?

Neighb. Yes, fir, like unto a man that had. been ftrangled an hour, and could not fpeak."

But I doubt whether Othello was here in Jonfon's contemplation. Old Ben generally spoke out; and if he had intended to fneer at the manner of Defdemona's death, I think, he would have taken care that his meaning fhould not be mifs'd, and would have written-" like unto a woman," &c.

This tragedy was not entered on the books of the Stationer's company, till Oct. 6, 1621, nor printed till the following year; but it was acted at court early in the year 1513.3 How long before that time it had appeared, I have not been able to afcertain, either from the play itself, or from any

2 66

"I may quarter, coz, fays Slender in The Merry Wives of Windfor. You may (replies juftice Shallow) by marrying."

3 MS. Vertue.

contemporary production. I have, however, perfuaded myself that it was one of Shakspeare's latest performances: a fuppofition, to which the acknowledged excellence of the piece gives fome degree of probability. It is here attributed to the year 1611, because Dr. Warburton's comment on the paffage above-cited may convince others, though, I confefs, it does not fatisfy me.

Emilia and Lodovico, two of the characters in this play, are likewife two of the perfons reprefented in May-day, a comedy by Chapman, first printed in 1611.

34. THE TEMPEST, 1612.

Though fome account of the Bermuda Islands, which are mentioned in this play, had been published in 1600, (as Dr. Farmer has obferved,) yet as they were not generally known till Sir George Somers arrived there in 1609, The Tempeft may be fairly attributed to a period fubsequent to that year: efpecially as it exhibits fuch ftrong internal marks of having been a late production.

The entry at Stationers' hall does not contribute to ascertain the time of its compofition; for it appears not on the Stationers' books, nor was it printed, till 1623, when it was published with the reft of our author's plays in folio: in which edition, having, I fuppofe by mere accident, obtained the firft place, it has ever fince preferved a flation to which indubitably it is not entitled.*

As the circumftance from which this piece receives its name, is at an end in the first scene,

See p. 171, article, Cymbeline.

very

There

and as many other titles, all equally proper, might have occurred to Shakspeare, (fuch as The Inchanted Ifland, The banished Duke,-Ferdinand and Miranda, &c.) it is poffible, that fome particular and recent event determined him to call it The Tempeft. It appears from Stowe's Chronicle, p. 913, that in the October, November, and December of the year 1612, a dreadful tempeft happened in England, which did exceeding great damage, with extreme Shipwrack throughout the ocean." perished" (fays the hiftorian) "above an hundred Ships in the space of two houres."-Several pamphlets were publifhed on this occafion, decorated with prints of finking veffels, colles toppling on their warders' heads, the devil overturning fteeples, &c. In one of them, the author defcribing the appear'ance of the waves at Dover, fays, "the whole feas appeared like a fiery world, all fparkling red." Another of thefe narratives recounts the efcape of Edmond Pet, a failor; whofe prefervation appears to have been no lefs marvellous than that of Trinculo or Stephano: and fo great a terror did this tempest create in the minds of the people, that a form of prayer was ordered on the occafion, which is annexed to one of the publications above mentioned.

There is reafon to believe that fome of our author's dramas obtained their names from the feafons at which they were produced. It is not very eafy to account for the title of Twelfth Night, but by fuppofing it to have been firft exhibited in the Christmas holydays. Neither the title of A Mid

It was formerly an established cuftom to have plays. reprefented at court in the Chriflmas holydays, and particularly on Twelfth Night. Two of Lyly's comedies (Alexander

Jummer Night's Dream, nor that of The Winter's Tale, denotes the feafon of the action; the events which are the fubject of the latter, occurring at the time of fheep-fhearing, and the dream, from which the former receives its name, happening on the night preceding May-day.-Thefe titles, therefore, were probably fuggefted by the season at which the plays were exhibited, to which they belong; A Midfummer Night's Dream having, we may prefume, been first reprefented in June, and The Winter's Tale in December.

Perhaps then it may not be thought a very improbable conjecture, that this comedy was written in the fummer of 1612, and produced on the stage in the latter end of that year; and that the author availed himself of a circumflance then fresh in the minds of his audience, by affixing a title to it, which was more likely to excite curiofity than any other that he could have chofen, while at the fame time it was fufficiently juftified by the fubject of the drama.

Mr. Steevens, in his obfervations on this play, has quoted from the tragedy of Darius by the earl of Sterline, firft printed in 1603, fome lines fo

and Campafpe, 1584, and Mydas, 1592,) are faid in their title-pages, to have been played befoore the queenes majeftie on Twelfe-day at night; and feveral of Ben Jonfon's mafques. were prefented at Whitehall, on the fame feftival. Our author's Love's Labour's Loft was exhibited before Queen Elizabeth in the Christmas holydays; and his King Lear was acted before King James on St. Stephen's night: the night. after Christmas-day.

"Let greatnefs of her glaffy fcepters vaunt,

66

Not fcepters, no but reeds, foon bruis'd, foon broken, "And let this worldly pomp our wits enchant,

ftrongly refembling a celebrated paffage in The Tempeft, that one author muft, I apprehend, have been indebted to the other. Shakspeare, I imagine borrowed from lord Sterline.7

Mr. Holt conjectured, that the mafque in the fifth act of this comedy was intended by the poet as a compliment to the earl of Effex, on his being united in wedlock, in 1611, to lady Frances Howard, to whom he had been contracted fome years before. However this might have been, the date which that commentator has affigned to this play, (1614,) is certainly too late; for it appears from the MSS. of Mr. Vertue, that the Tempest was acted by John Heminge and the reft of the

"All fades, and fcarcely leaves behind a token.
"Thofe golden palaces, thofe gorgeous halls,
"With furniture fuperfluoufly fair,

"Thofe flately courts, thofe hy-en countring walls,
Evanish all like vapours in the air.

66

Darius, A& III. edit. 1603.
Thefe our actors,

"As I fortetold you, were all fpirits, and
"Are melled into air, into thin air;

66

And, like the baseless fabrick of this vifion,
"The cloud-capt tow'rs, the gorgeous palaces,
"The folemn temples, the great globe itfelf,
"Yea, all which it inherit, fhall diffolve,
"And, like this unfubftantial pageant faded,
"Leave not a rack behind."

Tempest, Act IV. fc. i,

7 See note on Julius Cæfar, A&t I. fc. i.

s Obfervations on the Tempeft, p. 67. Mr. Holt imagined, that lord Effex was united to lady Frances Howard in 1610; but he was mistaken their union did not take place till the next year.

• Jan. 5, 1606-7. The earl continued abroad four years from that time; fo that he did not cohabit with his wife till 1611.