al editions; but if Marlowe was
the unquestioned author, were not his friends and associates still
living, three years after his death, to claim the honor of creating two
dramas which immeasurably surpassed any other he ever wrote? If it be
asked why Shakspere's friends did not claim the authorship for him, it
is answered that as soon as another edition appeared, they did. In 1619,
three years after his death, a new edition of these very plays appeared,
with Shakspere's full name on the title page, and enlarged by additions
from the second and third parts of "Henry VI." And this proof is further
supported: In an entry in the Stationer's Registers under date of April
19, 1602, appears the following remark:--"Thom. Pavier: By assignment
from Th. Millington _salvo jure cujuscunque_: the First and Second
Parts of 'Henry VI.', two books." This entry refers to the two plays first
published in 1594 and 1595, the first of which is always called "The
First Part of the Contention," and both of which in the edition of 1619
were under the title of "The whole Contention between the two famous
Houses of Lancaster and York," by the same Th. Pavier who had received
them "by assignment" from the original publisher of the editions of 1594
and 1595,--_Thomas Millington_. _Pavier_ knew in 1619, and therefore put
his name on the title page of his edition, that Shakspere was the author
of the two parts of the "Contention," but instead of giving them the
extended titles of the former editions, briefly and inaccurately
designated them as "The First and Second Parts of Henry VI." It results
from these facts, that when Malone was attempting to show that Shakspere
was imitating Marlowe's "Edward II." in the lines--

"Scorning that the lowly earth
Should drink his blood, mounts up to the air,"

and--

"Frown'st thou thereat, aspiring Lancaster?"

he forgot the important and established truth that Marlowe was imitating
Shakspere in the "Contention."

For two centuries, until Malone's "Dissertation," nobody had claimed
that Marlowe wrote any portion of the "Contention"; for nearly two
centuries, the "Second and Third Parts of Henry VI." had appeared as the
sole work of Shakspere, embodying act for act, scene for scene, event
for event and character for character, the whole "Contention," and
nobody had claimed that he was not the sole author of both. We therefore
respectfully submit that Professor Wendell has no warrant for his