Page:Shakespeare of Stratford (1926) Yale.djvu/140

Shakespeare of Stratford personal taste and powers developed even more. The conditions of the day led to radical revision of plays, almost as often as they were revived, to suit the changing manners of the theatre and the playwright. Some of Shakespeare’s earlier works are therefore palimpsests, containing writing of several different periods, impossible to refer to a single point in the poet’s development. Love’s Labour’s Lost and All’s Well that Ends Well (probably originally presented under the title of Love’s Labour’s Won) are striking examples of this mixture of styles.

A list of Shakespeare’s works, classified according to type, and arranged in conjectural chronological order follows. For purposes of comparison the dates assigned by three other critics, Mr. Fleay, Professor Alden, and Professor Adams, are added in the last three columns. Titles of works which are of doubtful or only partial authenticity are printed in italic.