Malone suppresses the obvious resemblance between these passages and
others like them, and is guilty of the same uncritical conduct in
disregarding the classical allusions in the "Second and Third Parts of
Henry VI." which he admits were added by Shakspere,--allusions as
numerous and striking as those in the "First Part."

Mr. Richard Grant White, after reviewing the argument of Knight, reaches
the conclusion that he "demolished Malone's theory," and this conclusion
is a sufficient answer to Professor Wendell's unsupported assertion that
"Henry VI." is "certainly collaborative."

But Professor Wendell further says that "Greene and Peele were the chief
makers of such plays until Marlowe developed the type into his almost
masterly 'Edward II.'" We are therefore asked to believe that Shakspere,
in the historical plays bearing his name, imitated them or one of them.
Examination of the record will best show whether this latest critic has
discovered any evidence to support his new charge, that Shakspere "was
the most obviously imitative dramatist of all, following rather than
leading superficial fashion."

Malone, in his "Chronological Order," says: "'The First Part of King
Henry VI.,' which I imagine was formerly known by the name of the
'Historical Play of King Henry VI.,' had, I suspect, been a very
popular piece for _some_ years, before 1592, and perhaps was first
exhibited in 1588 or 1589." Collier states "that it is merely the _old_
play on the early events of that reign, which was most likely written in
1589." Knight concludes that "there can be no doubt that the composition
of this play preceded that of the two parts of the 'Contention.'" That
these had been upon the stage before Greene died in 1592 is proven
beyond dispute by Greene's savage attack, at that time Shakspere was
twenty-eight years old and for at least three years had been a
shareholder in the Blackfriars Theatre, and, if Mr. Sidney Lee is right,
had been in London six years; if old Aubry was better informed, he had
been "acting exceeding well" and making "essays at dramatic poetry which
took well" for ten years.

The theory of "imitation" rests upon the assumption that Shakspere did
not begin to write for the stage before 1592; Collier asserts, without
the slightest support from known facts, and against the hostile
testimony of Greene, that he wrote the "tiger's heart lines" before
September, 1592, that "the 'History of Henry VI.,' the 'First Part