I. THE HISTORY OF THE PLAY. THE Second and Third Parts of King Henry the Sixth are so connected that they are properly considered together. The two plays, in their present form, were first printed, so far as we know, in the folio of 1623. They are recasts of two earlier plays, published in 1594 and 1595. The one recast these into the later ones. In the old plays, the parts of King Henry, Cardinal Beaufort, York (many of whose speeches, however, are by Greene), Suffolk, the two Cliffords, and Richard are assigned by Miss Lee to Marlowe, with the reservation that in certain scenes written by Greene the parts of these characters were written by Greene also;" while Duke Humphrey (in a measure), the Duchess Eleanor, Clarence, Edward IV., Elizabeth, Sir John Hume, and Jack Cade belong to Greene. "The Third Part of Henry VI.," as Miss Lee remarks, “underwent a much less thorough revision than the Second. Out of 3075 lines in Part II. there are 1715 new lines, some 840 altered lines (many but very slightly altered), and some 520 old lines. In Part III., out of 2902 lines, there are about 1021 new lines, about 871 altered lines, and about 1010 old lines. Hence it is that in Part III. there are fewer resemblances of thought and verbal expression to Shakespeare's undoubted writings than in Part II." The earliest allusion to any of these plays, and one that has a significant bearing upon the question of their authorship, is in Greene's Groatsworth of Wit, a pamphlet written a short time before his death in September, 1592. In the parting words addressed "To those Gentlemen his Quondam acquaintance, that spend their wits in making Plaies," he says: "Yes, trust them not: for there is an vpstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that, with his Tygers heart wrapt in a Players hide, supposes he is as well able to bumbast out a blanke verse as the best of you: and being an absolute Iohannes fac totum, is in his owne conceit the onely Shakescene in a countrie." By "Shake-scene" it is certain that * For a fuller presentation of the theories we have mentioned, see Malone's Essay in the Variorum of 1821, vol. xviii., pp. 557-596; Knight's Essay in the Pictorial Shakspere, vol. ii. of "Histories," pp. 401-485; White's, in his edition, vol. vii. pp. 403-468; and Miss Lee's, in the Trans. of New Shaks. Soc. for 1875-76, pp. 219–279. he meant Shakespeare; and the "Tygers heart,” etc., is a parody of 3 Henry VI. i. 4. 137: "O tiger's heart wrapp'd in a woman's hide!" Some believe that the reference here is to Shakespeare as a player, and not as a writer; but the more probable meaning is that Shakespeare had borrowed from Greene and his friends, and that the line parodied was one of his plagiarisms. That Marlowe had a hand in the Contention and the True Tragedie is admitted by nearly all the critics who do not assign their authorship exclusively to Shakespeare; but Greene's share in them is denied by Fleay, Ward, and others. To our thinking, however, White has made out a very clear case for Greene from the internal evidence of style; and his conclusions are confirmed by Miss Lee's careful study of the plays, though she gives Greene certain parts which he believes to be Shakespeare's. The external evidence also tends to sustain the indirect claim to a share in the plays which Greene seems to make in the Groatsworth of Wit, and the insinuation that Shakespeare had appropriated portions of this matter. Greene died before his pamphlet was published, and it was brought out by his friend Henry Chettle. The latter afterwards repented of what he had done, and in the preface to his KindHarts Dreame, written in December, 1592, referring to the fact that two persons had been offended by Greene's attack, he says: "With neither of them that take offence was I acquainted, and with one of them I care not if I neuer be: The other [Shakespeare?] whome at that time I did not so much spare as since I wish I had . . . I am as sory as if the originall fault had beene my fault, because my selfe haue seene his demeanor no less ciuill, than he exelent in the qualitie he professes: Besides, diuers of worship haue reported his vprightnes of dealing, which argues his honesty, and his facetious grace in writing, that aprooues his Art." This is friendly and complimentary, but it will be observed that it |