Chapter 17

CHRONOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENT

The first thorough attempt to determine the chronology of Shakespeare's plays was made in Malone's "Attempt to ascertain the order in which the plays attributed to Shakespeare were written," published in Steevens's edition of 1778. His final conclusions on the subject are to be found in the preliminary volumes of the 1821 Variorum. Since then, discussions of chronology and development have appeared in almost every edition of Shakespeare's Works and in many volumes discussing his life and art. (See Bibliography for Chaps. II and VIII.) The following are the most important contributions to the general question of the chronology.

Hertzberg, W. G. Preface to Cymbeline in Ulrici's ed. of Schlegel and Tieck's trans. of Shakespeare, 1871.

---- Metrisches, grammatisches, chronologisches zu Shakespeares Dramen. Jahrbuch, xiii, 1878.

Fleay, F. G. Shakspere Manual, 1878.

New Shakspere Society. Publications for 1874 contain Fleay's tests as originally proposed with discussions by Furnivall, Ingram, et al. Publications for 1877-9 contain F. S. Pulling's essay on The Speech-ending test, p. 457.

Ingram, J. K. On the weak endings of Shakspere with some account of the verse-tests in general. N. S. S. Publ. 1874.

König, G. Der Vers in Shaksperes Dramen. Quellen und Forschungen vol. 61, 1888. The fullest presentation of numerical results for various verse tests.

Furnivall, F. J. Preface to the Leopold Shakespeare, 1876.

Hales, J. W. The Succession of Shakespeare's plays. 1874.

Stokes, H. P. Attempt to determine the chronological order of Shakespeare's plays, 1878.