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Wars of Cyrus, Locrine, Arden of Feversham, King Edward I. The Spanish Tragedy, Solyman and Perseda, King Leir, the old King John, or any other of the pieces that were exhibited before the time of Shakespeare, and he will at once perceive that Titus Andronicus was coined in the same mint.

The testimony of Meres, mentioned in a preceding note, alone remains to be considered. His enumerating this among Shakespeare's plays may be accounted for in the same way in which we may account for its being printed by his fellow-comedians in the first folio edition of his works. Meres was in 1598, when his book appeared, intimately connected with Drayton, and probably acquainted with some of the dramatic poets of the time, from some or other of whom he might have heard that Shakespeare mterested himself about this tragedy, or had written a few lines for the author. The internal evidence furnished by the piece itself, and proving it not to have been the production of Shakespeare, greatly outweighs any single testimony on the other side. Meres might have been misinformed, or inconsiderately have given credit to the ru mour of the day. For six of the plays which he has mentioned, (exclusive of the evidence which the representation of the pieces themselves might have furnished,) he had perhaps no better authority than the whisper of the theatre; for they were not then printed. He could not have been deceived by a title-page, as Dr. Johnson supposes; for Shakespeare's name is not in the title-page of the edition printed in quarto in 1611, and therefore we may conclude, was not in the title-page of that in 1594, of which the other was undoubtedly a re-impression. Had this mean performance been the work of Shakespeare, can it be supposed that the booksellers would not have endeavoured to procure a sale for it by stamping his name upon it?

In short, the high antiquity of the piece, its entry on the Stationers' books, and being afterwards printed without the name of our author, its being performed by the servants of Lord Pembroke, &c. the stately march of the versification, the whole colour of the composition, its resemblance to several of our most ancient dramas, the dissimilitude of the style from our author's undoubted compositions, and the tradition mentioned by Ravenscroft, when some of his con

temporaries had not been long dead, (for Lowin and Taylor, two of his fellow-comedians, were alive a few years before the Restoration, and Sir William D'Avenant, who had himself written for the stage in 1629, did not die till April 1668;) all these circumstances combined, prove with irresistible force that the play of Titus Andronicus has been erroneously ascribed to Shakespeare. MALONE.

"Kyd-probably original author of Andronicus, Locrine, and play in Hamlet.-Marloe, of H. 6.

"Ben Jonson, Barthol. Fair-ranks together Hieronymo and Andronicus, [time and stile]-first exposed him to the criticks-shelter'd afterwards under another's name.

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Sporting Kyd [perhaps wrote comedy] and Marloe's mighty line-Jonson. [might assist Lily.] Perhaps Shakespeare's additions outshone.

"Tamburlaine mention'd with praise by Heywood, as Marloe's might be different from the bombast one-and that written by Kyd."

From a loose scrap of paper, in the hand writing of Dr. Farmer. STEEVENS.

In the library of the Duke of Bridgewater, at Ashbridge, is a volume of old quarto plays, numbered R. 1. 7; in which the first is Titus Andronicus. Todd.

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

SATURNINUS, Son to the late emperor of Rome, and afterwards declared emperor himself.

BASSIANUS, brother to Saturninus; in love with Lavinia. TITUS ANDRONICUS, a noble Roman, general against the Goths.

MARCUS ANDRONICUS, tribune of the people; and brother to Titus.

[blocks in formation]

AARON, a Moor, beloved by Tamora.

A Captain, Tribune, Messenger, and Clown; Romans.
Goths and Romans.

TAMORA, queen of the Goths.

LAVINIA, daughter to Titus Andronicus.

A Nurse, and a Black Child.

Kinsmen of Titus, Senators, Tribunes, Officers, Soldiers, and

Attendants.

SCENE-Rome; and the country near it.

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