In the following list the sources of most of Shakespeare's dramatic works, so far as they have been traced or conjectured, are indicated, and the probable or approximate dates of production are also given. The numbering corresponds with that of the list printed on p. 249 :—

I. TEMPEST, Comedy (probable date, 1610).—Die schöne Sidea, by Jacob Ayrer (d. 1605), has a somewhat similar plot. Both are probably from the same unknown original romance.

II. Two GENTLEMEN OF VERONA, Comedy (between 1592 and 1593). Some incidents are in Sidney's Arcadia, i. 6. The story of Proteus and Julia resembles that of Felix and Felismena, in the Diana of George de Montemayor (1520-62), translated by Bartholomew Yonge, 1598.

III. MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, Comedy (Before 1602, date of quarto). Various sources are given for the incidents.

IV. MEASURE FOR MEASURE, Comedy (1603?).-Taken from George Whetstone's Historye of Promos and Cassandra, &c., 1578, borrowed in its turn from Giraldi Cinthio's Hecatommithi, Part ii., D. viii., N. v.

V. COMEDY OF ERRORS, Comedy (1589-1591).-The main incident is in Plautus' Menæchmi; but Shakespeare's play was possibly based on an English version intitled the Historie of Error, acted in 1576-77, by the children of Powles.'

VI. MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, Comedy (Between 1598 and 1600, when it was entered on the Stationers' Register).-The 'serious incidents' are taken, probably through some English version, from the twenty-second novel of Matteo Bandello (1480-1562).

VII. LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, Comedy (About 1590.—Meres *). — 'As far as we know, is wholly of Shakspere's invention' (Dowden). VIII. MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Comedy (1593—1594.—

'As Plautus and Seneca are accounted the best for comedy and tragedy among the Latins, so Shakespeare among ye English is the most excellent in both kinds for the stage; for comedy witness his Getleme of Verona, his Errors, his Love Labor's Lost, his Love Labour's Wonne, his Midsummer's Night Dreame, and his Merchant of Venice; for tragedy, his Richard the II., Richard the III. Henry the IV., King John, Titus Andronicus, and his Romeo and Juliet. Palladis Tamia, by Francis Meres, 1598.

Meres). Theseus and Hippolyta come from North's Plutarch, 1579, Life of Theseus; Pyramus and Thisbe from Golding's Ovid, 1567.

IX. MERCHANT OF VENICE, Comedy (1594-1598.—Meres).—The fables of the bond and caskets are in the Gesta Romanorum, chaps. xlviii. and xcix.; the former is also in the Pecorone of Giovanni Fiorentino (circa 1378). But Shakespeare probably worked from an older play. This, both on the stage and in the study, is one of the most popular of Shakespeare's Comedies. It has been edited for the Clarendon Press Series, by Messrs. Clark and Wright.

X. AS YOU LIKE IT, Comedy (1599-1600).-Founded on Lodge's novel of Rosalynde, Euphues Golden Legacie, &c., 1590 (see p. 69, s. 43), which was partly derived from the Coke's Tale of Gamelyn (see p. 244).

XI. TAMING OF THE SHREW, Comedy (date of composition doubtful).-Based upon an earlier anonymous play, printed in 1594, entitled A Pleasant Conceited Historie, called the Taming of a Shrew.

XII. ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL, Comedy (date of composition doubtful).—If it be the Love's Labour's Won, specified by Meres (see note, p. 295), it should be placed before 1598. The leading circumstances are in the Decameron, D. iii., N. ix. ; and in Paynter's Palace of Pleasure, 1566, Vol. i., Novel 38.

XIII. TWELFTH NIGHT; OR, WHAT YOU WILL, Comedy (between 1598 (Meres) and February, 1602, when it was acted at the Middle Temple).-The 'serious incidents' are in Bandello, Part ii., Novel 36, translated by Barnabie Riche, 1581; and in the drama of Gľ Ingannati, 1537.

XIV. WINTER'S TALE, Comedy (Before May, 1611, when it was acted at the Globe).-Founded on Robert Greene's Pandosto; the Triumph of Time, or The History of Dorastus and Fawnia, 1588.

XV. KING JOHN, Hist. Drama (Before 1598.-Meres).-Probably worked up from an old piece called The Troublesome Raigne of John, King of England, 1591.

XVI. LIFE AND DEATH OF KING RICHARD THE SECOND, Hist. Drama (between 1593 and 1594).—Incidents taken from Holinshed. It has been edited for the Clarendon Press Series, by Messrs. Clark and Wright.

XVII. FIRST PART OF KING HENRY THE FOURTH, Hist. Drama (Before 1598.-Meres).

XVIII. SECOND PART OF KING HENRY THE FOURTH, Hist. Drama (Before 1598.-Meres).-Period occupied, from Hotspur's death, 1403, to accession of Henry V., 1413.

XIX, KING HENRY THE FIFTH, Hist. Drama (perhaps, from the

reference to Essex's expedition of 1599, written in that year).-Period occupied, from 1413 to Henry's marriage with Katharine of France, 1420.

XX. FIRST PART OF KING HENRY THE SIXTH, Hist. Drama. XXI. SECOND PART OF KING HENRY THE SIXTH, Hist. Drama. XXII. THIRD PART OF KING HENRY THE SIXTH, Hist. Drama. (The dates of this and the two preceding plays are very early.)

XXIII. KING RICHARD THE THIRD, Hist. Drama (Before 1597, date of quarto).—Shakespeare's 'only authorities appear to have been the old chroniclers' (Staunton). The play ends with the death of King Richard at Bosworth, 1485.

XXIV. KING HENRY THE EIGHTн, Hist. Drama (Before June, 1613, when it was acted at the Globe).-' Frequently in Henry VIII. we have all but the very words of Holinshed' (Dyce).

XXV. TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, Tragedy (written before 1609, date of quarto).-Based upon Chaucer's Troylus and Criseyde (see p. 35, s. 17), Lydgate's Troy Book (sce p. 41, s. 19), and Caxton's Recuyell of the Historyes of Troy.

XXVI. CORIOLANUS, Tragedy (1607-8).-Based on Life of Caius Martius Coriolanus, in North's Plutarch, 1579.

XXVII. TITUS ANDRONICUS, Tragedy (written before 1598.— Meres). The source is not known. Shakespeare's share in the play is much discussed; it is possibly the very earliest.

XXVIII. ROMEO AND JULIET, Tragedy (written between 1591 and 1597, date of quarto).-Based chiefly on Arthur Brooke's poem of the Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet, 1562, and Paynter's Palace of Pleasure, Vol. ii., Nov. 25. It was a popular Italian story.

XXIX. TIMON OF ATHENS, Tragedy (written circa 1607-8?).— The story is in Paynter's Palace of Pleasure, Vol. i., Nov. 28, and in North's Plutarch. But Shakespeare probably re-cast some old dramatic form of it.

XXX. JULIUS CÆSAR, Tragedy (probably written about 1600—1).— Incidents in North's Plutarch, but there were other plays.

XXXI. MACBETH, Tragedy (probably written between 1604 and April, 1610, when it was acted at the Globe).-Based on Holinshed. It has been edited for the Clarendon Press Series, by Messrs. Clark and Wright.

XXXII. HAMLET, Tragedy (before July, 1602, when it was entered in the Stationers' Register).-The story of Hamlet is in the Historia Danica of Saxo Grammaticus (1150-1220), and Belleforest's collection of Novels, 1570. This latter was translated under the title of the Hystorye of Hamblet. But there was probably an earlier

play. Hamlet has been edited for the Clarendon Press Series, by Messrs. Clark and Wright, 1872.

XXXIII. KING LEAR, Tragedy (Before Christmas 1606, when it was acted at Whitehall).-The story may have been taken from the Myrroure for Magistrates (see p. 52, s. 33), from Geoffrey of Monmouth, from Spenser's Faery Queene, b. ii., c. x., or Holinshed. Sidney's Arcadia, perhaps, suggested an episode. King Lear was edited in 1877 for the Clarendon Press Series by Mr. W. A. Wright. XXXIV. OTHELLO, Tragedy (1604?).—Based upon Cinthio's Hecatommithi, Part i., Deca Terza, Nov. 7.

XXXV. ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, Tragedy (probably written in 1608). Story taken from the Life of Antonius, in North's Plutarch. Period occupied, B.C. 40 to B.C. 30.

XXXVI. CYMBELINE, Tragi-comedy (supposed to be written in 1609). The main incident appears to have been taken from the Decameron, D. ii., N. ix. The historical facts and allusions . . were seemingly derived from Holinshed' (Staunton).

XXXVII. PERICLES, PRINCE OF TYRE, Comedy (Before 1608, when it was entered in the Stationers' Register).—The original source is the romance of Appollonius of Tyre (see p. 15, s. 7), but it was probably taken from Gower's Confessio Amantis, and a translation of Apollonius, by Laurence Twine, 1576. It is supposed Shakespeare worked upon the drama of another writer, perhaps George Wilkins.

The following are the dates suggested by Prof. Dowden in Shakspere, his Mind and Art; and in his excellent Primer:

APPENDIX D.

'PARADISE LOST' AND 'PARADISE REGAINED.'

6

THE first of Milton's epics, as we have already said, was written between 1658 and 1665, when its author,-that 'Puritan among poets' and 'poet among Puritans'—was poor, blind, and advanced in years. It was published, in ten books, in 1667. The measure,' in the words of the prefatory notice, 'is English heroic verse without rime, as that of Homer in Greek, and of Virgil in Latin; rime being no necessary adjunct or true ornament of poem or good verse, in longer works especially. .. 'This neglect then of rime so little is to be taken for a defect, though it may seem so perhaps to vulgar readers, that it is rather to be esteemed an example set, the first in English, of ancient liberty recovered to heroic poem, from the troublesome and modern bondage of riming.' How grandly and majestically the muse of Milton wears that 'ancient liberty' has long been conceded; and we question whether anyone since the days of Byron has been found bold enough to hint that rhyming couplets would be a fitter vehicle for that sublimest story than the various and harmonious measure employed by the poet. To analyse Miltonic blank verse' (we borrow a passage that it is hard to excel) 'in all its details would be the work of much study and prolonged labour. It is enough to indicate the fact that the most sonorous passages commence and terminate with interrupted lines, including in one organic structure, periods, parentheses, and paragraphs of fluent melody, that the harmonies are wrought by subtle and most complex alliterative systems, by delicate changes in the length and volume of syllables, and by the choice of names magnificent for their mere gorgeousness of sound. In these structures there are many pauses which enable the ear and voice to rest themselves, but none are perfect, none satisfy the want created by the opening hemistich, until the final and deliberate close is reached. Then the sense of harmony is gratified and we proceed with pleasure to a new and