i.) Cervantes's amorous story, which first
appeared in English in Thomas Shelton's translation in 1612, offers much
incident in Fletcher's vein. When Lewis Theobald, the Shakespearean
critic, brought out his 'Double Falshood, or the Distrest Lovers,' in
1727, he mysteriously represented that the play was based on an
unfinished and unpublished draft of a play by Shakespeare. The story of
Theobald's piece is the story of Cardenio, although the characters are
renamed. There is nothing in the play as published by Theobald to
suggest Shakespeare's hand, {259a} but Theobald doubtless took advantage
of a tradition that Shakespeare and Fletcher had combined to dramatise
the Cervantic theme.

'Two Noble Kinsmen.'

Two other pieces, 'The Two Noble Kinsmen' and 'Henry VIII,' which are
attributed to a similar partnership, survive. {259b} 'The Two Noble
Kinsmen' was first printed in 1634, and was written, according to the
title-page, 'by the memorable worthies of their time, Mr. John Fletcher
and Mr. William Shakespeare, gentlemen.' It was included in the folio of
Beaumont and Fletcher of 1679. On grounds alike of aesthetic criticism
and metrical tests, a substantial portion of the play was assigned to
Shakespeare by Charles Lamb, Coleridge, and Dyce. The last included it
in his edition of Shakespeare. Coleridge detected Shakespeare's hand in
act I., act II. sc. i., and act III. sc. i. and ii. In addition to those
scenes, act IV. sc. iii. and act V. (except sc. ii.) were subsequently
placed to his credit. Some recent critics assign much of the alleged
Shakespearean work to Massinger, and they narrow Shakespeare's
contribution to the first scene (with the opening song, 'Roses their
sharp spines being gone') and act V. sc. i. and iv. {260} An exact
partition is impossible, but frequent signs of Shakespeare's workmanship
are unmistakable. All the passages for which Shakespeare can on any
showing be held responsible develop the main plot, which is drawn from
Chaucer's 'Knight's Tale' of Palamon and Arcite, and seems to have been
twice dramatised previously. A lost play, 'Palaemon and Arcyte,' by
Richard Edwardes, was acted at Court in 1566, and a second piece, called
'Palamon and Arsett' (also lost), was purchased by Henslowe in 1594. The
non-Shakespearean residue of 'The Two Noble Kinsmen' is disfigured by
indecency and triviality, and is of no literary value.

'Henry VIII.'

A like problem is presented b