A Lorer's Complaint, published with Sonnets in 1609, is written in the same seven-lined stanza as Luerece, but internal evidence indicates that it was later than that poem. The title-page of the 1709 edition of the Poems refers to it a. "I Lover's Complaint of His Angry Mistress;" hut the 'lover' is a girl who has been betrayed by a deceitful youth. The PluTnix and the Turtle is the only other poem by Shakespeare not al ready mentioned. It Must have been written be fore 1601, when it was printed with Chester's Lore's Martyr, together with poems by Marston, Chapman, and Ben Jolson.
After the plays already considered we come to a group of comedies so called, that are comedies only in name, or because they have not a tragical ending. They are All's Well that Ends Well, Measure for Measure, and Troilus and Cressidn "one earnest, another dark and severe, the last bitter and ironical" (Dowden). If All's Well is a later form of the Lore's Labour's Won in Meres's list of 159S, the revision was probably made in 1601. Measure for Measure is supposed to have been written in 1603 or early in 1604. Troilus and Cressida, first published in 1609. may have been written about, the same time, and revised between 1606 and 1609. These plays appear to form a natural group, and indicate that Shake speare's interest was changing from comedy to tragedy, but it is not necessary to assume that they were written or revised in immediate suc cession and apart from other work. Although in a sense they lead up to the period of the great tragedies, they partly belong to it. Of these tragedies Hamlet was undoubtedly the first, the earliest quarto edition having appeared in 1603. The next year a second quarto was published, claiming to be "newly imprinted and enlarged to almost as much again as it was." At least three other editions were printed before the publication of the Folio of 1623. in which the text varies con siderably from that of the quartos. The precise relation of the texts to one another is a per plexing question. Othello was performed on the first of November, 1604, before King James, and was probably then a new play. Macbeth, is men tioned in the manuscript Diary of Dr. Simon Forman, who saw it "at the Glob, 1610, the 20 of Aprill;" but it is supposed to have been writ ten in 1606 or 1607. King Lear was produced about the same time, and may possibly have pre ceded Macbeth. Antony and Cleopatra and Co rio/omis must have followed at no long interval, the date generally accepted for both being 1607 or 1608.
The transition from the tragedies to the plays that follow is most remarkable. From that period of gloom and horror the poet emerges into the genial sunshine of Cymbcline, The Tempest, and The Winter's Talc. Inexorable retribution for sin is no longer the keynote of his dramas, but charity, forgiveness, reconciliation, benignity almost divine. Dowden aptly calls these last plays 'Romances,' and other critics have accept ed the designation. "The dramas have a grave beauty, a sweet serenity, which seems to render the name 'comedies' inappropriate; we may smile tenderly, but we never laugh loudly as we read them." Cymbeline was probably a new play when Dr. Forman, as we learn front his Diary, saw it in 1610 or 1611, the undated entry cer tainly belonging to one of those years. The
Tempest was believed by Campbell, the poet, to be the last of Shakespeare's plays, and Lowell also thought that in it "the great enchanter" was "bidding farewell to the scene of his tri umphs:" but most critics think that The Win ter's Tale followed rather than preceded it, though both must have been written in 1610 or 1611. The Tempest was acted before King .James at Whitehall on the 1st of November, 1611. The Winter's Tale was also performed there four days afterwards; but Dr. Forman had seen it at the Globe on "the 15 of Alaye" the same year, and there is evidence that the play was originally li censed in the latter part of 1610.
It is now generally agreed that certain of the plays included in the standard editions of Shake speare are partly the work of other dramatists. The earliest plays of this class belong to the period of his dramatic apprenticeship, when he was employed by theatrical managers to revise or touch up old plays for reproduction on the stage. Titus Andronieu.s and the three parts of Henry 11. have been already considered, as well as the somewhat later Taming of the Shrew, in which there is more of his own work. To these are to he added three plays of the latter part of his career—Timm/ of .1 thens, Pericles, and Henry in all of which lie had a considerable share, though the critics differ in their explanations of the divided authorship. The Two Noble kinsmen is another play which some good critics believe to be partly Shakespeare's, and which is included in several of the more recent editions of his works. The title-page of the earliest edition (1634) asserts that it was "Written by the mem orable Worthies of their time; Air. John Fletcher and Air. William Shakespeare." There can be no doubt of Fletcher's share in it, but the author ship of the other portions is uncertain. The crit ics are almost unanimous in deciding that Timm/ of Athens is partly Shakespeare's, but they dis agree as to its probable history. Alost of them believe that lie laid the play aside or left it un finished, and that it was completed by an inferior writer. Others think that he revamped an ear lier play, parts of which lie retained with slight alteration. Internal evidence indicates that his share of the work was done between 1606 and 1608. Pericles, Prince of Tyre, was first pub lished in 1609, with Shakespeare's name on the title-page. It was not included in either the first or the second (1632) folio, but was reprint ed with six plays wrongly attributed to Shake speare in the third folio (1664) and the fourth (1685). Rowe put it in his editions (1709, 1714), but it was rejected by all other editors down to the time of Malone (1778, 1790), when it was re stored. and it has kept its place ever since. The general opinion is that the first two acts and the prose scenes of the fourth act are not Shake. speare's. Whether he enlarged and reconstructed an earlier play, or some other writer or writers filled out an unfinished work of his, is a dis puted question; but the latter seems to be the more reasonable hypothesis. The date of the play in its present form is probably 1607.