Page:The Plays of William Shakspeare (1778).djvu/322

[ 306 ] early editions, (particularly thoe of K. Henry V. the Second and Third Part of King Henry VI. and the Second Part of King Henry IV.) I uppoe the omiSS undefinedons to have arien from the imperfection of the copies; and intead of aying that “the firt cene of K. Henry V. was added by the author after the publication of the quarto in 1600,” all that we can pronounce with certainty is, that this cene is not found in the quarto of 1600.

23. The Puritan, 1600.

Printed in 1600, without the name of Shakpeare. In the title page are the letters W. S.

Much Ado about Nothing, was written, we may preume, early in the year 1600; for it was entered at Stationers’ hall, Augut 23, 1600, and printed in that year.

It is not mentioned by Meres in his lit of our author’s plays, publihed in the latter end of the year 1598.

This comedy was not printed till 1623, and the caveat or memorandum in the econd volume of the books of the Stationers’ company, relative to the three plays of As You Like It, Henry V. and Much Ado about Nothing, has no date except Aug. 4. But immediately above that caveat there is an entry, dated May 27, 1600,—and the entry, immediately following it, is dated Jan. 23, 1603. We may therefore preume that this caveat was entered between thoe two periods: more epecially, as the dates cattered over the pages where this entry is found, are, except in one intance, in a regular eries from 1596 to 1615. This will appear more clearly by exhibiting the entry exactly as tands in the book: