rejection of Cordelia by the dower-seeking Burgundy (Fletcher), and the eager acceptance of her, as "a dowry in herself," by the King of France [Beau-mont], distinctly mark Shakspere's estimation of the two poets.

t EDWARD III'

"TRULY," says Ulrici, "if this piece, as the English critics assert, is not Shakspere's own, it is a shame for them that they have done nothing to recover from forgetfulness the name of this second Shakspere, this twin-brother of their great poet."— "We look in vain," says Mr. Knight, "for some known writer of the period, whose works exhibit a similar combination of excellences."

A change, however, has come over the English critics since Mr. Knight wrote the above lines; it is now acknowledged the Second Act was written by Shakspere; nor can there be a doubt the First Act was also written by him; since the commencement of Artois' speech on the first page is perfect Shakspere; whilst various phrases crop up here and there, reminding us of him, and at the end of the second scene we read:

Count. "Let not thy presence, like the April sun,
Flatter our earth;"

as in the Sonnet 33:

"Full many a glorious morning have I seen

Flatter the mountain-tops with sovereign eye.”

In the last three acts, however, the poet probably abstained from putting forth his full powers, being now on the very battleground where his future hero, Henry V., was to win his laurels; but he is undisturbed by the ghost of Talbot behind him with the Countess Auvergne, as that was a mere episode; whilst the Countess of Salisbury is an essential part, one might say the pivot on which the whole play turns; for 'Edward III.' is not so much a play as a Dramatic-sonnet, or Sonnet-play, and most probably composed after the Lucrece.'

The enigma is sufficiently transparent; after a comparative neglect of the drama, writing sonnets and two long poems, Shakspere now, as a sonnetteer, courts the Countess of Salisbury,

who, as the dramatic muse, indignantly rejects him, at the same time giving him a moral lecture on connubial fidelity; he, repentant, casts away that "lascivious grace," the sonnet-muse, and henceforth devotes himself to the drama, and 'Richard II.' is the immediate result.

As evidence of Shakspere's hand in the three last acts, the following lines may be adduced:

"That, t'other day was almost dead for love ?"—Act iii. sc. 3. A different writer would scarcely have made such a reference to the previous act.

Ah, what an idiot hast thou made of life."-Act iv. sc. 4.

It is a tale told by an idiot."-Macbeth, act v. sc. 5.

"That now the under-earth is as a grave."-Act iv. sc. 5.
"Whom this beneath world."- Timon, act i. sc. 1.
"This lower world."- Tempest, act iii. sc. 3.

66 My arms shall be thy grave."-Act iv. sc. 7.
Now my old arms are young John Talbot's grave."

Henry IV., act iv. sc. 7.

"And kings approach the nearest unto God

By giving life and safety unto men."-Act v. sc. 1.

"And earthly power doth then show likest God's,

When mercy seasons justice."-Merchant of Venice, act iv. sc. 1.

It should be well noted that the lines,

"Ah, what an idiot hast thou made of life,"
"And kings approach the nearest unto God,"

are precursors of two of the finest passages in Shakspere; and I join with German critics, "It is a shame they have not discovered the name of this twin-brother of their great poet," if Shakspere did not write the fifth scene in the fourth act, where one feels the silence, stillness, and gloominess of a coming storm:

"A sudden darkness hath defac'd the sky."

"A tongue-ty'd fear hath made a midnight hour."
"That now the under-earth is as a grave,

Dark, deadly, silent, and uncomfortable."*

[A clamour of ravens heard.

It should be borne in mind, Shakspere in this play has not put forth his full powers; being merely a trifle written for some temporary purpose,† whilst the description of the young prince

"Discomfortable cousin !"-Richard II., act iii. sc. 2.

+ As "private theatricals" on the Earl of Southampton coming of age in October, 1594; Lady Rich taking the part of the Countess; Shakspere as Edward the Third; and Southampton, Prince Edward, the hero of the play.

may, in a measure, justify the supposition Shakspere is alluding to his own son, who must then have been in good health, but afterwards having been affected with a low fever was sent into the country; and in the distress of Constance in 'King John may be represented the mother's anxieties for her son; and I should infer the play preceded the death of Hamnet.

In gratitude to Germany for having given us a genuine Shakspere play, and one of such inestimable value in the elucidation of an interesting period of Shakspere's life, I here present the Fatherland with a genuine German Hamlet, such as our Hamlet might have been, had he not suspected that his father had been poisoned: "My father! methinks I see my father;" the first premonitory symptom of the ghost; it shows also how impressionable was Hamlet's mind:

"Chose bizarre, il était né plutôt pour les arts de la paix, et ne semblait pas avoir le tempérament militaire. Le fonds de Frédéric, comme on l'a très-bien dit, c'était l'homme de lettres. Spectacle surprenant de voir ce petit homme, replet et presque gras, si mou jusqu'à trente ans, marcher devant ses troupes aux profondes boues de Westphalie, dans les neiges des monts de Bohême, dans ces batailles affreuses de décembre et janvier, ne connaissant hiver ni été, ni repos. En paix, tout aussi grand.-Moqueur pour d'autres, avec les pauvres gens, il était sérieux, les consolait."-Michelet, 'Louis XV.' vol. xvi. p. 398.

'HENRY VIII.'

IN the Paper, 'On the Succession of Shakspere's Earliest Plays,' I stated that Shakspere took to the stage, not as a mere playwright, but with the thorough spirit of an artist. This love, this earnest study of his art, he has carried on through life, even into this, his last play, 'Henry VIII.;' where, with exquisite judgment and the true skill of an artist, he adopts in certain passages the flowing and looser lines of Beaumont and Fletcher, the play having reference to the present time, the events occurring almost within the memory of persons still living.

In the first act, the scenes 1 and 2 are evidently by Shakspere;

and at the end of the second scene the mind of the reader is oppressed by the gravity of the surveyor's charge and the wrath of the king. This oppression is most judiciously relieved, not by a comic scene, full of wit and laughter, a discord most incongruous, but by a spectacle, a drawing-room filled with ladies and courtiers in their rich and splendid dresses; and if the conversation be a little less than brilliant, perhaps it may be truer to nature.

In the second act, the first scene is also by Shakspere; the following passage is a concise analysis of Ralegh's trial:

1st Gent. "I'll tell you in a little. The great duke

Came to the bar: where, to his accusations,
He pleaded still, not guilty, and alleg'd
Many sharp reasons to defeat the law.
The king's attorney on the contrary,

Urg'd on the examinations, proofs, confessions
Of divers witnesses; which the duke desired
To him brought, viva voce, to his face."

We are here reminded of: "Let Cobham be here; let him speak it. Call my accuser before my face, and I have done;" whilst "Neither the king nor his heirs" (act i. sc. 2) corresponds to "the king and his cubs." In the character of Buckingham, however, Shakspere seems to have had an eye more especially to Essex: "All good people, pray for me" agrees with the words of Essex to the guards the night before his death: "My good friends, pray for me."

The interview between Henry and Wolsey (in act iii. sc. 2) in the ante-chamber is accepted as Shakspere's; but the remainder of the scene is attributed to Fletcher, although Wolsey remains in the same chamber.

It seems to me incredible, degrading to the character of Shakspere personally, that he could at that stage have handed the pen over either to Beaumont or Fletcher to portray the character of Wolsey, his reflections on the scene with the king, then the interview with the lords, their taunts and insults, and his indignant remark, "How much, methinks, I could despise this man;" followed by the affecting interview with Cromwell; whilst the delineation of the character of Katharine and her death is perhaps unsurpassed by any scene throughout his works; nor can I doubt that Wolsey's "Farewell, a long fare

well, to all my greatness!" was written by Shakspere; since the emendation I proposed in the 'New Readings in Shakspere :'

"That sweet aspect of princes and their ruin,"

is confirmed by a line in the 'Sonnets:'

"For at a frown they in their glory die."

Sonnet 25.

The immediate origin of the play may have been a sudden impulse on the part of the poet to acknowledge his gratitude and loyalty to those who had so honoured him, "Eliza and our James;" and whilst in the sympathy, excited by the sufferings of Queen Katharine and the repentance of Wolsey, he pleads the cause of humanity against religious persecution, in the birth of Elizabeth would be joyfully hailed the success of the Protestant cause, the point towards which the whole play tends.

In the last scene after delivery of the speech praising Queen Elizabeth together with the so-called fulsome laudation of James, we have the happy interruption of King Henry: "Thou speakest wonders;" then Cranmer, holding forward the infant in his arms, turns to the audience :

66 She shall be," etc.

Thus the petty criticisms on this passage fall to the ground, and never was there a truer word:

66 Comedies are writ to be spoken, not read."

*This speech, out of compliment to Beaumont, for whom Shakspere had the highest esteem, shadowing him in the Tempest as Miranda's Ferdinand, carrying logs, an emblem of his arduous studies, is founded on a speech by Arbaces: