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KING HENEY VIII
- William Shakespeare
- Edited by Henry Irving, Frank A. Marshall
-
- Book:
- The Henry Irving Shakespeare
- Published online:
- 29 August 2010
- Print publication:
- 20 July 2009, pp 155-258
- First published in:
- 1890
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Summary
INTRODUCTION
LITERARY HISTORY AND CRITICAL REMARKS.
Henry VIII. was first printed in the Folio of 1623, where it ends the series of “Histories.” The main historical authorities, which it follows with extreme exactitude, were, in the first four acts, Holinshed's Chronicles; in the fifth, Foxe's Acts and Monuments of the Church, commonly known as the Book of Martyrs. The play is a good deal indebted, directly or indirectly, to a narrative then in MS., George Cavendish's Life of Cardinal Wolsey, largely quoted from by both Holmshed and Hall, though the book itself was not published till 1641. Closely as the play follows its authorities, alike in the main course of incident and in the general choice of language, there are numerous deviations from the chronological order of events. These will be seen by referring to Mr. Daniel's table of “historic dates in the order of the play.”
So far we have dealt with facts: what remains must be but conjecture. It is as well to say frankly, that we know with certainty neither who wrote Henry VIII., nor when it was written. I shall give, first, the scanty records, the few external facts relating to the play; then, the various theories which have been brought forward as to its date and authorship; not having much hope of being able, finally, to speak myself on all points with the enviable assurance of one whose mind is fully and confidently made up.
THE TEMPEST
- William Shakespeare
- Edited by Henry Irving, Frank A. Marshall
-
- Book:
- The Henry Irving Shakespeare
- Published online:
- 29 August 2010
- Print publication:
- 20 July 2009, pp 177-254
- First published in:
- 1890
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Summary
INTRODUCTION
LITERARY HISTORY
The Tempest was printed for the first time in the Folio of 1623, and occupies the first place in that collection. The text is far from accurate.
The only authentic record of any previous performance is the notice discovered by Malone, in Vertue's MSS., of the play having been acted at court in February, 1613, on occasion of the marriage of the Princess Elizabeth to Frederick, Elector Palatine. We shall shortly find good reason to conclude that this was also the date of composition. That this date was at all events not earlier than 1603 is evident from the fact that the leading features of Gonzalo's commonwealth (act ii. sc. 1) are derived from Florio's translation of Montaigne, published in that year. This entirely overthrows Mr. Hunter's theory, advanced in a special essay, that the date of composition was 1596. Elze's notion that it was 1604 avoids this particular objection, but has no groundwork except this critic's fixed idea that the last ten or twelve years of Shakespeare's life were spent in idleness. If this is not admitted, the internal evidence of the versification, clearly establishing that the play belongs to the last group of Shakespeare's creations, proves also that it must have been written after 1608 at all events. The metrical test is quite decisive on this point, the proportion of double endings being, roughly speaking, 33 per cent, against 25 per cent in Antony and Cleopatra (1608), and 12 per cent in As You Like It (1599).
THE WINTER'S TALE
- William Shakespeare
- Edited by Henry Irving, Frank A. Marshall
-
- Book:
- The Henry Irving Shakespeare
- Published online:
- 29 August 2010
- Print publication:
- 20 July 2009, pp 313-396
- First published in:
- 1890
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Summary
INTRODUCTION
LITERARY HISTORY
The Winter's Tale was first printed in the Folio of 1623, where it is placed last among the comedies. In the diary of Dr. Simon Forman, among the Ashmole MSS. in the Bodleian, there is a curious reference to a performance of this play at the Globe in 1611:
“In the Winters Talle at the glob, 1611, the 15 of maye. Obserue ther ho we Lyontes the Kinge of Cicillia was overcom with Ielosy of his wife with the Kinge of Bohemia, his frind, that came to see him, and howe he contriued his death, and wold haue had his cupberer to haue poisoned, who gaue the King of bohemia warning ther-of, & fled with him to bohemia | Remember also howe he sent to the Orakell of appollo, & the Aunswer of apollo, that she was giltles, and that the King was Ielouse, &c, and howe Except the child was found Again that was loste, the Kinge should die with-out yssue, for the child was caried into bohemia, & ther laid in a forrest, & brought vp by a sheppard. And the Kinge of bohemia his sonn maried that wentch, & howe they fled in Cicillia to Leontes, and the sheppard hauing showed the letter of the nobleman by whom Leontes sent away that child, and the Iewelles found about her. she was knowen to be leontes daughter, and was then 16 yers old.
2 - ANTONY AND CLEOPATEA
- William Shakespeare
- Edited by Henry Irving, Frank A. Marshall
-
- Book:
- The Henry Irving Shakespeare
- Published online:
- 29 August 2010
- Print publication:
- 20 July 2009, pp 111-216
- First published in:
- 1889
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INTRODUCTION
LITERARY HISTORY
” The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra” was printed for the first time in the Folio of 1623. “A booke called Anthony and Cleopatra” was entered by Edward Blount in the Stationers’ Registers, May 20, 1608. Blount was afterwards one of the publishers of the First Folio, and it seems most probable that this entry relates to the play of Shakespeare. Possibly the play was written a little earlier than the year in which it was first entered, and a certain kinship which the play seems to have—despite some marked differences—with Macbeth perhaps favours the supposition. The dramatic method, indeed, in the two plays, or rather the precise form of the construction, is (as I shall point out later) of a quite dissimilar kind. But the style in both plays seems clearly to belong to the same period, and there are various interesting links connecting the characters of Macbeth and Antony.
As in all the Roman plays, Shakespeare has taken the materials for his tragedy from North's version of Amyot's Plutarch, which appeared in 1579; a translation perhaps twice removed from the original—for the great Bishop of Auxerre, one of the earliest masters of really nervous and scholarly French, is said to have followed a Latin text—but a translation, certainly, which is still the most inspiring version of the most inspiring book of antiquity. How closely Shakespeare has followed the life of Marcus Antonius will be seen from the quotations given in the notes.
5 - MACBETH
- William Shakespeare
- Edited by Henry Irving, Frank A. Marshall
-
- Book:
- The Henry Irving Shakespeare
- Published online:
- 29 August 2010
- Print publication:
- 20 July 2009, pp 343-430
- First published in:
- 1889
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INTRODUCTION
LITERARY HISTORY
Macbeth was first printed in the Folio of 1623, and the printing seems to have been done with singular carelessness, or from a singularly imperfect MS., probably a hastily-made transcript. All that we know with certainty of the date when the play was written, is, that it was some time before 1610. In Collier's New Particulars regarding the Works of Shakespeare, 1836, there is an account of a MS. discovered in the Ashmolean Museum, containing the “Booke of Plaies and Notes thereof” of Dr. Simon Forman, the notorious astrologer, who died in 1611. The entry for April 20, 1610, is given by Collier as follows:
“In Macbeth, at the Globe, 1610, the 20th of April, Saturday, there was to be observed, first how Macbeth and Banquo, two noblemen of Scotland, riding through a wood, there stood before them three women Fairies, or Nymphs, and saluted Macbeth, saying three times unto him, Hail, King of Codor, for thou shalt be a King, but shalt beget no Kings, &c. Then, said Banquo, What all to Macbeth and nothing to me? Yes, said the Nymphs; thou shalt beget Kings, yet be no King. And so they departed, and came to the Court of Scotland to Duncan King of Scots, and it was in the days of Edward the Confessor. And Duncan bad them both kindly welcome, and made Macbeth forthwith Prince of Northumberland; and sent him to his own Castle, and appointed Macbeth to provide for him, for he would sup with him the next day at night, and did so.
5 - TWELFTH NIGHT; OR, WHAT YOU WILL
- William Shakespeare
- Edited by Henry Irving, Frank A. Marshall
-
- Book:
- The Henry Irving Shakespeare
- Published online:
- 05 October 2010
- Print publication:
- 20 July 2009, pp 349-422
- First published in:
- 1888
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Summary
INTRODUCTION
LITERARY HISTORY
Twelfth Night was first printed in the Folio of 1623, where it occupies pp. 255–275 of the Comedies. Its date is fixed, within certain limits, by a reference discovered by Mr. Hunter in 1828. It is found in a MS. volume in the British Museum (MSS. Harl. 5353) containing the diary of John Manningham, a member of the Middle Temple, from January 1601–2 to April 1603. The entry for February 2, 1601–2, is as follows :—
“At our feast wee had a play called Twelue night or what you will, much like the commedy of errores or Menechmi in Plautus, but most like and neere to that in Italian called Inganni a good practice in it to make the steward beleeue his Lady widdowe was in Loue with him by counterfayting a letter, as from his Lady, in generall termes, telling him what she liked best in him, & prescribing his gesture in smiling his apparaile &c. And then when he came to practise making him beleeue they tooke him to be mad.”
This entry proves that Shakespeare's play must have been written before February 1601–2; its absence from the list in Meres’ Palladis Tamia shows that it could not have been known before September 1598. The introduction in the play of some fragments from the song, “Farewell, dear heart, since I must needs be gone,” further narrows the limits of conjecture; for this song first appeared in 1601 in the Booke of Ayres composed by Robert Jones.