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 EIGHTH, 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 (see 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:— 1.-1588-90. Titus Andronicus. 2.-1590-1. 1 Henry VI. 3.-1590. 4.-1591. 5,6.-1591-2. 7.-1592-3. 8.-1593. Love's Labour's Lost. 2 and 3 Henry VI. Two Gent. of Verona. 9.-1593-4. Dream. 10.-1594. Richard II. 11.-1595. King John. 12.-1596. 1 and 2 Henry IV. 34.-1609. Merry Wives. 35.-1610. 18.-1598. Much Ado. 36.--1610-11. 19.-1599. Henry V. 37.-1612-3. Cymbeline. Henry VIII. 13.-1596-7. 14.-1597. 15, 16.-1597-8. 17.-1598. Merchant of Venice. Rome and Juliet (a Coriolanus. APPENDIX D. 'PARADISE LOST' AND 'PARADISE REGAINED.' 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 different sequence. If the truth of this remark is not confirmed by the following celebrated and essentially Miltonic passage, it must fall without further justification: 'And now his [Satan's] heart Distends with pride, and hardning in his strength Met such imbodied force, as nam'd with these Or whom Biserta sent from Afric shore, [Paradise Lost, I. 11. 571-87.] In the early days of Paradise Lost, we are told, 'few either read, liked, or understood it.' 'The old blind schoolmaster, John Milton,' wrote Waller, 'hath published a tedious poem on the Fall of Man: if its length be not considered a merit, it hath no other.' But even Johnson's prejudice,—so obstinate as to provoke De Quincey's saying of it that it made that arch-critic a 'dishonest man'-was ultimately Overcome. His abstract of the subject may be quoted. 'It is,' says he, 'the fate of worlds, the revolutions of Heaven and of earth; rebellion against the Supreme King, raised by the highest order of created beings; the overthrow of their host and the punishment of their crimes; the creation of a new race of reasonable creatures; their original happiness and innocence, their forfeiture of immortality and their restoration to hope and peace.' The contents of the twelve books into which Paradise Lost was divided in the edition of 1674 may be shortly summed up as follows: Book I.—Satan, expelled from Heaven, and lying in Chaos, consoles his legions with the hope of regaining their lost estate, and then tells them of a new kind of creature to be made 'according to an ancient prophecy or report in Heaven.' To confer on the full meaning of this prophecy he institutes a council. Pandemonium is raised out of the deep, and here the council sits,— "A thousand demigods on gold'n seats, From a paper on Blank Verse, Cornhill Magazine, xv. 635-6. Book II.-The result of the consultation is that Satan undertakes to verify the tradition concerning the existence of another world and another kind of creature-Man. He arrives at the gates of Hell, and thence Sin and Death 'Pav'd after him a broad and beat'n way Over the dark abyss, whose boiling gulf Of this frail World; by which the spirits perverse To tempt or punish mortals, except whom God and good angels guard by special grace.' Book III.-As Satan flies towards this world God the Father shows him to the Son, and foretells his success in tempting man, who was made 'just and right, Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall.' The Father then declares that man who 'falls deceived' shall find grace if 'Some other able, and as willing, pay The rigid satisfaction, death for death.' The Son of God offers himself a ransom: the Father accepts him. Satan, meanwhile, reaches the outermost orb of the world, and passing through the Limbo of Vanity, directed by Uriel, alights on Mount Niphates (in Armenia). Book IV. introduces the Arch-Enemy in the Garden of Eden, where, in the guise of a cormorant, he sits on the tree of Life, 'devising death To them who liv'd,' and gathering from the discourse of Adam and Eve that the tree of Knowledge was forbidden them under penalty of death, resolves through it to tempt them to transgress. His presence in Paradise being announced by Uriel to Gabriel, he is at length discovered by two of the latter's ministers, 'squat like a toad,' whispering temptation in the ear of sleeping Eve. Book V.-With the morning Eve relates to Adam her dream and is comforted. Raphael, sent of God, descends to Eden, to remind Adam of his free estate, to enjoin obedience and to warn him of an enemy at hand; and, at his request, tells him who the Enemy is, relates the story of his revolt, in Heaven, his inciting his legions to rebel, and of the seraph Abdiel's opposition to and desertion of him. In Book VI. Raphael describes the war in heaven. He tells Adam that Michael and Gabriel were sent forth to fight against |