Page:The Plays of William Shakspeare (1778).djvu/359

[ 343 ] paage in the Tempet that one author mut, I apprehend, have been indebted to the other. Shakpeare, I imagine, borrowed from lord Sterline. Mr. Holt conjectured, that the maque in the fifth actof this comedy was intended by the poet as a compliment to the earl ot Eex, on his being united in wedlock, in 1611, to lady Frances Howard, to whom he had been contracted ome years before. However this might have been, the date which that commentator has aigned to this play (1614) is certainly too late; for it appears from the M. of Mr. Vertue, that the Tempet was acted by John Heminge and the ret of the King’s Company, before prince Charles, the lady Elizabeth, and the prince Palatine elector, in the beginning of the year 1613. The names of Trinculo and Antonio, two of the characters in this comedy, are likewie found in that of Albumazar; which was firt printed in 1614, but is uppoed by Dryden to have appeared ome years before.

43., 1614.

It has been generally believed, that Shakpeare retired from the theatre, and ceaed to write, about three years