Chapter Shakespeare to Shakespeare of S by Biographical Dictionary of English Literature

purchased New Place, the largest house in the village. With the income derived from his profession as an actor and dramatist, and his share of the profits of the Globe and Blackfriars theatres, and in view of the business capacity with which he managed his affairs, he may be regarded as almost a wealthy man, and he went on adding to his influence in Stratford by buying land. He had enjoyed the favour of Elizabeth, and her death in 1603 did nothing to disturb his fortunes, as he stood quite as well with her successor. His company received the title of the “King’s Servants,” and his plays were frequently performed before the Court. But notwithstanding this, the clouds had gathered over his life. The conspiracy of Essex in 1601 had involved several of his friends and patrons in disaster; he had himself been entangled in the unhappy love affair which is supposed to be referred to in some of his sonnets, and he had suffered unkindness at the hands of a friend. For a few years his dramas breathe the darkness and bitterness of a heart which has been sounding the depths of sad experience. He soon, however, emerged from this and, passing through the period of the great tragedies, reached the serene triumph and peace of his later dramas. In 1611 Shakespeare severed his long connection with the stage, and retired to Stratford, where the remaining five years of his life were spent in honour and prosperity. Early in 1616 his health began to give way, and he made his will. In the spring he received a visit from his friends, Jonson and Drayton, and the festivity with which it was celebrated seems to have brought on a fever, of which he died on April 23. He was survived by his wife and his two daughter, both of whom were married. His descendants died out with his granddaughter, Elizabeth Hall.

Immense research has been spent upon the writings of Shakespeare, with the result of substantial agreement as to the order of their production and the sources from which their subjects were drawn; for Shakespeare rarely troubled himself with the construction of a story, but adopting one already existing reared upon it as a foundation one of those marvellous superstructures which make him the greatest painter and interpreter of human character the world has ever seen. His period of literary production extends from about 1588 to 1613, and falls naturally into four divisions, which Professor Dowden has named, “In the Workshop” ending in 1596; “In the World” 1596-1601; “Out of the Depths” 1601-1608; and “On the Heights” 1608-1613. Of the 37 plays usually attributed to him, 16 only were published during his lifetime, so that the exact order in which they were produced cannot always be determined with certainty. Recent authorities are agreed to the extent that while they do not invariably place the individual plays in the same order, they are almost entirely at one as to which belong to the four periods respectively. The following list shows in a condensed form the order according to Mr. Sidney Lee (Dictionary of National Biography) with the most probable dates and the original sources on which the plays are founded.

Chronological Table of Shakespeare’s Plays

First Period—1588?-1596

Love’s Labour Lost (1591)—Plot probably original.
Two Gentlemen of Verona (1591)—The Shepherdess Felismena in George of Montmayor’s Diana.
Comedy of Errors (1591)—Menæchmi of Plautus and earlier play.
Romeo and Juliet (1591)—Italian romance in Painter’s Palace of Pleasure and Broke’s Romeus and Juliet.
Henry VI. 1, 2, and 3 (1592)—Retouched old plays, probably with Marlowe.
Richard III. (1592- 3)—Holinshed’s Chronicle.
Richard II. (1593-4?)—do.
Titus Andronicus (1594)—Probably chiefly by Kyd, retouched.
King John (1594)—Old play retouched.

Second Period—1596-1601-2

Merchant of Venice (1594)—Italian novels, Gesta Romanorum, and earlier plays.
Midsummer Night’s Dream (1595)—North’s Plutarch, Chaucer, Ovid.
All’s Well that Ends Well (1595)—Painter’s Palace of Pleasure.
Taming of the Shrew (1596?)—Old play retouched, and Supposes of G. Gascoigne, Shakespeare’s in part only.
Henry IV. 1 and 2 (1597?)—Holinshed and earlier play.
Merry Wives of Windsor (1597-8)—Italian novels (?).
Henry V. (1599).
Much Ado about Nothing (1599).—Partly from Italian.
As You Like It