parts, first edition.
All these are transition works, Uebergangswerke; not his, yet of him.
SECOND EPOCH.
| All's Well that Ends Well;—but afterwards worked up afresh (umgearbeitet), especially Parolles. | |
| The Two Gentlemen of Verona; a sketch. | |
| Romeo and Juliet; first draft of it. |
THIRD EPOCH
rises into the full, although youthful, Shakespeare; it was the negative period of his perfection.
[pg 078]
| Love's Labour's Lost. | |
| Twelfth Night. | |
| As You Like It. | |
| Midsummer Night's Dream. | |
| Richard II. | |
| Henry IV. and V. | |
| Henry VIII.; Gelegenheitsgedicht. | |
| Romeo and Juliet, as at present. | |
| Merchant of Venice. |
FOURTH EPOCH.
| Much Ado about Nothing. | |
| Merry Wives of Windsor; first edition. | |
| Henry VI.; rifacimento. |
FIFTH EPOCH.
The period of beauty was now past; and that of δεινότης and grandeur succeeds.
| Lear. | |
| Macbeth. | |
| Hamlet. | |
| Timon of Athens; an after vibration of Hamlet. | |
| Troilus and Cressida; Uebergang in die Ironie. | |
| The Roman Plays. | |
| King John, as at present. | |
| Merry Wives of Windsor | |
| Taming of the Shrew umgearbeitet. | |
| Measure for Measure. | |
| Othello. | |
| Tempest. | |
| Winter's Tale. | |
| Cymbeline. |
[pg 079]
CLASSIFICATION ATTEMPTED, 1810.
Shakespeare's earliest dramas I take to be—
| Love's Labour's Lost. | |
| All's Well that Ends Well. | |
| Comedy of Errors. | |
| Romeo and Juliet. |
In the second class I reckon—
| Midsummer Night's Dream. | |
| As You Like It. | |
| Tempest. | |
| Twelfth Night. |
In the third, as indicating a greater energy—not merely of poetry, but of all the world of thought, yet still with some of the growing pains, and the awkwardness of growth—I place—
| Troilus and Cressida. | |
| Cymbeline. | |
| Merchant of Venice. | |
| Much Ado about Nothing. | |
| Taming of the Shrew. |
In the fourth, I place the plays containing the greatest characters—
| Macbeth. | |
| Lear. | |
| Hamlet. | |
| Othello. |
And lastly, the historic dramas, in order to be able to show my reasons for rejecting some whole plays, and very many scenes in others.
[pg 080]
CLASSIFICATION ATTEMPTED, 1819.
I think Shakespeare's earliest dramatic attempt—perhaps even prior in conception to the Venus and Adonis, and planned before he left Stratford—was Love's Labour's Lost. Shortly afterwards I suppose Pericles and certain scenes in Jeronymo to have been produced; and in the same epoch, I place the Winter's Tale and Cymbeline, differing from the Pericles by the entire rifacimento of it, when Shakespeare's celebrity as poet, and his interest, no less than his influence, as manager, enabled him to bring forward the laid-by labours of his youth. The example of Titus Andronicus, which, as well as Jeronymo, was most popular in Shakespeare's first epoch, had led the young dramatist to the lawless
