Page:The Plays of William Shakspeare (1778).djvu/352

[ 336 ] was the firt play that brought Beaumont and Fletcher into reputation. That play, as has been already mentioned, was acted about the year 1609. We may therefore preume that the Maid’s Tragedy did not appear before that year; for we cannot uppoe it to have been one of the unuccesful pieces that preceded Philater. That the ‘‘Maid’s Tragedy’’ was written before 1611, is acertained by a M. play, now extant, entitled The Maid’s Tragedy which was licened by Sir George Buck, on the 31t of Oct. 1611. I believe it never was printed. If, therefore, we fix the date of the original Maid’s Tragedy in 1610, it agrees ufficiently well with that here aigned to Julius Cæar. It appears by the papers of the late Mr. George Vertue, that a play called Cæar’s Tragedy was acted at court before the 10th of April, in the year 1613. This was probably Shakpeare’s ‘‘Julius Cæar’’, it being much the fahion at that time to alter the titles of his plays.

37. A Yorkhire Tragedy, 1608. A Yorkhire Tragedy, (whoever was the author of it) could not have been written before Augut 1604, when the murder, on which it was founded, was committed. It was entered at Stationers’ hall May 2, 1608, and printed in that year. It is obervable, that, in the title-page of this play, the name of Shakpeare is pelt in the ame manner as he has himelf ubcribed it to his Will; and the piece is aid to have been acted by his majetie’s players at the Globe; the theatre in which almot all our author’s plays were originally performed. The very name, however, of the publiher of this piece, (independent of other circumtances) is ufficient to create a doubt concerning its authenticity; for it is printed for Thomas Pavier, who appears, from the Stationers’ books, to have