(d) Thomas Churchyard's Charitie, 1595: A colder time in world was neuer seene; The skies do lowre, the sun and moone waxe dim; Of course, evidence of this kind cannot be in any sense conclusive, but it affords, I think, a striking example of Shakespeare's skill and business ability in taking advantage, for dramatic purposes, of current or contemporary events, which must, at the time, have made a strong impression on men's minds. For somewhat similar references we may compare the "earthquake" in Romeo and Juliet, 1. iii. 23; and "these late eclipses" in King Lear, I. ii. 113; and Craig's note thereon. 2. Amongst the "revels" or "sports" proposed in the "brief" of Theseus's master of the revels, we have the wellknown lines in V. i. 52, 53: The thrice three Muses mourning for the death I think there is here a clear allusion to Spenser's Teares of the Muses, published in 1591, and that the allusion is skilfully adapted to refer to the death of Robert Greene, which occurred in September 1592. The idea that it refers to the death of Spenser himself, namely, in 1599, is obviously quite inadmissible. I agree with Knight in thinking that the "expressions are too precise and limited to refer to the tears of the Muses for the decay of knowledge and art." Greene," says Knight, "a man of learning" [he was utriusque Academiæ in Artibus Magister, and "For judgement Jove, for learning deepe he still Apollo seemde": Greene's Funeralls, 1594], "and one whom Shakespeare, in the generosity of his nature, might wish to point at kindly, died in 1592, in a condition that might truly be called beggary. But how was his death, any more than that of Spenser, to be the occasion of 'Some Satire keen and critical'? Every student of our literary history will remember the famous controversy of Nash and Gabriel Harvey, which was begun by Harvey's publication in 1592, of Foure Letters and certain Sonnets, especially touching Robert Greene and other parties by him abused. Robert Greene was dead; but Harvey came forward, in revenge of an incautious attack of the unhappy poet, 'to satirize him in his grave, to hold up his vices and misfortunes to the public scorn. . . . Truly I have been ashamed,' observed Harvey, 'to hear some ascertayned reports of hys most woefull and rascall estate: how the wretched fellow, or shall I say the Prince of beggars, laid all to gage for some few shillings: . . . and would pitifully beg a penny pott of Malmesie: and could not gett any of his old acquaintance to comfort, or visite him in his extremity but Mistris Appleby, and the mother of Infortunatus.'" Halliwell thinks "there is nothing in the consideration that the poet had been attacked by Greene as the 'upstart crow' to render Knight's theory improbable. The allusion was certainly not conceived in an unkind spirit; and the death of one who at most was rather jealous than bitterly inimical, under such afflicting circumstances, there can be no doubt would have obliterated all traces of animosity from a mind so generous as was that of Shakespeare." Halli well also agrees in the supposition that there is a reference to Spenser's poem. As to this, I think it is not too much to assume that Shakespeare was, since his appearance in London and the dedication of all his powers to the stage and the drama, a keen student of contemporary literature. He must have been well acquainted with Spenser's poems. It will not be forgotten that a couple of years after the publication of the Teares of the Muses appeared his Venus and Adonis, which is written in the metre of the Teares. The latter poem stands No. 2 in the volume of " Complaints : containing sundrie small poemes of the world's vanitie whereof the next page maketh mention, by Ed: Sp: imprinted for William Ponfonbie 1591." It is dedicated "to the Right Honorable the Lady Strange." The poem No. 3 in the volume is "Virgil's Gnat long since dedicated to the Most Noble and Excellent Lord the Earle of Leicester late deceased." The significance of the last words of this dedication will appear when it is remembered that Leicester died in 1588, the year of the Armada. If Spenser could refer to him as "late deceased" three years after his death, it is not a great stretch of probability to assume that Shakespeare might reasonably, at the end of 1594, use the exact words in reference to Greene's death in September 1592. That event would be still fresh in the recollection of the literary and theatrical world of London. Therefore even on this ground alone, if on no other, we may fairly say that A Midsummer-Night's Dream is to be referred to the autumn or winter of 1594-95. The significance of Spenser's dedication of the Teares to Lady Strange will also presently appear. 3. Judging from the frame of the play, and notably from the opening lines and the last act, winding up as it does with Puck's "Epithalamium," it is not improbable that it was, at least eventually, intended for the celebration of the marriage of some nobleman of Elizabeth's court; but I rather incline to the belief that it was not so in the first instance; and that, marriage or no marriage, we should have had A Midsummer-Night's Dream, though, perhaps, not exactly in its present form. "If," says Furness, "a noble marriage before 1598 can be found to which there are unmistakeable allusions in the play, we shall go far to confining the Date of Composition within narrow limits." Various attempts have been made to discover the marriage in question. The suggestion of Fleay is, in my opinion, by far the most probable yet made. In his Life and Work of Shakespeare (1886, p. 81), he says: "January 26 was the date of the marriage of William Stanley, Earl of Derby, at Greenwich. Such events were usually celebrated with the accompaniment of plays or interludes, masques written. specially for the occasion not having yet become fashionable. The company of players employed at these nuptials would certainly be the Chamberlain's (ie. the company to which Shakespeare belonged), who had, so lately as the year before (i.e. 1594) been in the employ of the Earl's brother Ferdinand. No play known to us is so fit for the purpose as A Midsummer-Night's Dream, which in its present form is certainly of this date. About the same time Edward Russel, Earl of Bedford, married Lucy Harington. Both marriages may have been enlivened by this performance. . . The date of the play here given is again confirmed by the description of the weather (in II. i. 81 sqq.). . Chute's Cephalus and Procris was entered on the Stationers' Registers, 28 Sept. 1593; Marlowe's Hero and Leander, 22nd October 1593; Marlowe and Nash's Dido was printed in 1594. All these stories are alluded to in the play. The date of the Court performance must be in the winter of 1594-95." Marriage is the theme of the play. It is initiated by the coming marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta, and it is wound up not only by their marriage, but by those of the pairs of lovers. If Fleay's hypothesis be correct, may not this have some slight reference to the double wedding of 1594-95 ? William Stanley was the younger brother of Ferdinand, Lord Strange, and by the death of his father in September 1593, and of his brother Ferdinand in April 1594, he became sixth Earl of Derby. Next year he married Elizabeth Vere, daughter of the Earl of Oxford, and Stowe, in his Annals, thus records the event: "The 26 of January William Earl of Derby married the Earl of Oxford's daughter at the Court then at Greenwich, which marriage feast was there most royally kept." It may, therefore, with some reason be conjectured, but only conjectured, that Elizabeth herself was present, and that the royal ears listened to the graceful though somewhat irrelevant tribute to the "fair vestal throned by the west" (II. i. 158). Inasmuch as the "marriage feast was most royally kept," in all likelihood one of the entertainments was A Midsummer-Night's Dream. Again, on the assumption that the play was performed at Greenwich and at William Stanley's wedding, it is not a further |