o translation of any other
play of Plautus appeared before. But it was stated in the preface to
this first published translation of the 'Menaechmi' that the translator,
W. W., doubtless William Warner, a veteran of the Elizabethan world of
letters, had some time previously 'Englished' that and 'divers' others of
Plautus's comedies, and had circulated them in manuscript 'for the use of
and delight of his private friends, who, in Plautus's own words, are not
able to understand them.'

'Romeo and Juliet.'

Such plays as these, although each gave promise of a dramatic capacity
out of the common way, cannot be with certainty pronounced to be beyond
the ability of other men. It was in 'Romeo and Juliet,' Shakespeare's
first tragedy, that he proved himself the possessor of a poetic and
dramatic instinct of unprecedented quality. In 'Romeo and Juliet' he
turned to account a tragic romance of Italian origin, {55a} which was
already popular in English versions. Arthur Broke rendered it into
English verse from the Italian of Bandello in 1562, and William Painter
had published it in prose in his 'Palace of Pleasure' in 1567.
Shakespeare made little change in the plot as drawn from Bandello by
Broke, but he impregnated it with poetic fervour, and relieved the tragic
intensity by developing the humour of Mercutio, and by grafting on the
story the new comic character of the Nurse. {55b} The ecstasy of
youthful passion is portrayed by Shakespeare in language of the highest
lyric beauty, and although a predilection for quibbles and conceits
occasionally passes beyond the author's control, 'Romeo and Juliet,' as a
tragic poem on the theme of love, has no rival in any literature. If the
Nurse's remark, ''Tis since the earthquake now eleven years' (I. iii.
23), be taken literally, the composition of the play must be referred to
1591, for no earthquake in the sixteenth century was experienced in
England after 1580. There are a few parallelisms with Daniel's
'Complainte of Rosamond,' published in 1592, and it is probable that
Shakespeare completed the piece in that year. It was first printed
anonymously and surreptitiously by John Danter in 1597 from an imperfect
acting copy. A second quarto of 1599 (by T. Creede for Cuthbert Burbie)
was printed from an authentic version, but the piece had probably
undergone revision since its first production. {56}

Of the original representation on the stage of three other pieces of the
p