. . Hardly a single line
of the original version reappears in the King John of Shakespeare."
{114a} "I think it is a mistake to endeavour to fortify the argument
against him" (my Will, toi que j'aime), "by ascribing to Shakespeare
such old plays as the King John of 1591 or the primitive Hamlet."
{114b}
I thought so too, when I read p. 51, and saw King John apparently
still "coloured on the card" among "Shakespeare's lot." We are now
left with Love's Labour's Lost, Midsummer Night's Dream, Comedy of
Errors, and Romeo and Juliet, out of Dr. Furnivall's list of plays up
to 1593. The phantom force of miraculously early plays is "following
darkness like a dream." We do not know the date of A Midsummer
Night's Dream, we do not know the date of Romeo and Juliet. Mr.
Gollancz dates the former "about 1592," and the latter "at 1591."
{114c} This is a mere personal speculation. Of Love's Labour's
Lost, we only know that our version is one "corrected and augmented"
by William Shakespeare in 1598. I dare say it is as early as 1591-2,
in its older form. Of The Comedy of Errors, Mr. Collins wrote, "It
is all but certain that it was written between 1589 and 1592, and it
is quite certain that it was written before the end of 1594." {114d}
The legion of Shakespearean plays of date before 1593 has vanished.
The miracle is very considerably abated.
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