460, as heretofore quoted, that a great part of Henry VIII substantially consists of centos from Holinshed, and that the dramatist often reproduces the speeches given by the historian.

Such easy alterations of the prose history would nicely suit the views of three or four needy dramatists.

It must also be considered that Drayton was a Warwickshire man, born and bred, and the Warwickshire words used in this play can properly be charged to him.

As a further identification of Drayton's connection with this play, I cite the reader to the following confirmatory facts: Wolsey says, "Sweet aspect," with the accent on the penultimate, and Drayton, in King Edward to Mrs. Shore, uses the phrase "sweet amiable aspect," with a similar accent. Wolsey says, "And sounded all the depths and shoals of honor," while Drayton, in his preface to the Epistles, says, "Sounded the depths of." Butts says, "The high promotion of his grace of Canterbury"; and Drayton, in Barons' Wars, C. 1, S. 13, says, "The seignories and high promotion." Cranmer says, "And like a mountain cedar," while Drayton, in Margaret to De La Poole, says, "And like a mounting cedar." Norfolk says, "his practices to light," and Drayton uses the same words in Mooncalf. Norfolk says, "in most strange postures," and Drayton, in Barons' Wars, C. 6, S. 38, says, "In postures strange, their limber bodies bending." Campeius says, "They will not stick to say," and Drayton, in Pol. 3, p. 10, in his address to the reader, says, "And some of our outlandish unnatural English stick not to say." Gardiner says, "Commotions, uproars, with a general taint," and Drayton, in Pol. 3, p. 48, says, "For those rebellions, stirs, commotions, uproars here."

Gardiner says, "But stop their mouths with stubborn bits," while Drayton, in Barons' Wars, C. 2, S. 24, says, "The angry horse, chafed with the stubborn bit." Further examples are, "Unpartial judging; The sacring bell; high and mighty; Guy and Colbrand."

Words used only once in this play and in no other play, and used also by Drayton, are, "Bewailing, Bevis, choicest, cinque-ports, illustrated, innumerable, praemunire,undoubtedly."

I have not been able to find, for the purpose of comparison, a copy of any play written by Wentworth Smyth. There are several entries in the Diary preceding those heretofore quoted, which tend to show that Henry Chettle was first employed to write the play of Cardinal Wolsey. On August 18, 1601, Chettle received twenty shillings from Henslowe "for his book of carnoulle Woltsey," and on August 21, 1601, Robert Shaw received from him twenty shillings "for vellvett and mackyng of the docters gowne in Carnoulle Wollsey." Evidently the other three poets were employed to fit the play to suit the taste of the theatre-goers.

Passing from Henry the Eighth, I will briefly consider the play of the Two Gentlemen of Verona, in connection solely with the question of authorship.

Any reader of the play, familiar with the learning and talents of Francis Bacon, if asked whether in his opinion Bacon was the sole composer of this play, would say, I think that it was the work of two men at least, and that one of the writers either had no especial knowledge of the location of the places in Italy, or if he had, did not care to be accurate, and further that he had no regard whatever for the unities. Bacon certainly never would have made

seaport towns out of Milan and Verona. He never would have indulged in the silly punning on "ship" and "sheep" which Proteus and Speed indulge in, in the first scene of the first act. He might have taken this play as it came crude from the hands of the hasty composers and treated it to a revision.

Thomas Dekker may clearly be traced in it. The Milan and Verona blunder would have been an easy matter for the poet who placed Horace at the Court of William Rufus. Blackstone said that "the great fault of this play was the hastening too abruptly and without preparation to the denouement."

Upton and Hanmer were of the opinion that this play was "the production of some inferior dramatist" and that "Shakespeare could have had no other hand in it than enlivening it with some speeches and lines, thrown in here and there." Other commentators are of the opinion that the play was the earliest work of the idolized ignoramus of Stratford. The words used once only, and exclamations and phrases which I cull from it, are clearly betrayers of the handiwork of Thomas Dekker in this play. They are, in part, as follows: "A vengeance on't; an unmannerly slave; and so farewell; bear witness; by mine honesty; cruel-hearted; currish; fie, fie; full-fraught; gentlemenlike; go to; good-hap; he makes me no more ado; here is a coil; I fear me; I must where is no remedy; imprimis; inscrutable; it is no matter; it shall go hard; lumpish; marry, quoth he; metamorphosed; my very heart-strings; nothing is impossible; O, miserable; poor habiliments; she hath more hair than wit; so gingerly; tedious nights; the best is; to speak puling; true constancy; trust me; water spaniel."

The expression "so gingerly" used by Julia in the second scene of Act 1, is used by Dekker in A. 1, S. 1 of the Honest Whore.

Drayton's co-operation with Dekker in this play is also manifest. I find it in such identical expressions as the following: "A peevish girl; and fit for great employment; and yet methinks; how say'st thou; I am peremptory; I can not choose but; I dare to be bold; I do conjure thee; is she not passing fair; muse not that; not a whit; rude, uncivil touch; therefore, I pray you; think'st thou; thou know'st; will serve the turn; you are hard beset."

Reference has been had to the words so aptly called Warwickshireisms by Morgan in his careful study of the Warwickshire dialect. As summarized, he finds Warwickshireisms in the several plays as follows: In All's Well that Ends Well 15, in As You Like It 16, in Anthony and Cleopatra 10, in the Comedy of Errors 9, in Coriolanus 13, in Cymbeline 7, in Julius Cæsar 7, in King John 11, in Hamlet 34, in 1st Henry 4th 10, in 2nd Henry 4th 13, in Henry 5th 34, in 1st Henry 6th 5, in 2d Henry Sixth 21, in 3d Henry Sixth 10, in Henry Eighth 9, in Winter's Tale 23, in the Merchant of Venice 16, in Troilus and Cressida 20, in the Tempest 15, in Twelfth Night 14, in King Lear 14, in Love's Labor's Lost 17, in Macbeth 13, in Measure for Measure 14, in the Midsummer Night's Dream 14, in the Merry Wives of Windsor 9, in Much Ado about Nothing 8, in Othello 17, in Pericles 4, in Richard the Second 2, in Richard the Third 8, in Romeo and Juliet 15, in the Taming of the Shrew 9, in Timon of Athens 11, in Titus Andronicus 5, and in the Two Gentlemen of Verona 4.

I can find no reference to this play in Henslowe's Diary.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

THE FALSTAFF PLAYS AND THE COMEDY OF ERRORS

CONSIDERED.

"A deal of skimble-skamble stuff."

-First Henry IV, iii, 1.

Henry the Fourth is not referred to in Henslowe's Diary, but Henry the Fifth is noted on page 26, under the date of May 14, 1592. Malone fixes the date of First Henry the Fourth at 1597; Chalmers, at 1596; and Halliwell, at 1593, but I think that the reader will agree with me that it must have preceded Henry the Fifth. I suspect that the play must have been on the stage at first with Oldcastle as the fat leader of the jolly crowd, because in Act 1, Scene 2, Prince Henry says, "As the honey of Hybla, my old lord of the castle," and the expression would be meaningless as applied to Falstaff. It was printed in 1598 with no reference whatever to any author, and a second edition was issued in 1599, with these words added, "Newly corrected by W. Shake-speare." As my examination is chiefly directed to the original composition of the play, I will leave the question of the maker of the correction or revision open for future examination, suggesting, however, to the unprejudiced reader that in so far as the published plays of 1598 and 1599 furnish evidence as to composition, the presumption is that, while as to the original play the authorship was not stated, the play was corrected between 1598 and 1599 by some one whose name is set down as "W. Shake-speare."

The Second Part of Henry the Fourth was printed in 1600, and it is evident that originally, as in the first part,