consists." There is nothing to show
that it had any connection with history or chronicle, or was anything
better than a hurriedly written, spectacular drama.

The "Edward I." of Peele bears this title: "The famous Chronicle of King
Edward the First, surnamed Edward Longshanks, with his Return from the
Holy Land. Also the life of Llewellen Rebell in Wales. Lastly, the
sinking of Queene Elinor, who sunk at Charing-crosse, and rose again at
Pottershith, now named Queenshith."

The title itself proves that it is not a "chronicle" but an unhistorical
fiction. The events pass by in one straight, continuous line, the
dramatic personages are characterized almost solely by their actions,
the language is a mere sketch. The Queen murders the Lady Mayoress, and
on her death-bed confesses a double adultery; she commits perjury by
denying the murder and calls upon Heaven to sink her into the depths of
the earth if she had spoken falsely. "That she 'sunk at Charing-crosse'
before it was erected to her memory, is a sufficiently remarkable
circumstance in Peele's play, but it is more remarkable that, assuming
to be a 'famous Chronicle,' and in one or two of the events following
the Chronicle, he has represented the Queen altogether to be a fiend in
female shape,--proud, adulterous, cruel, treacherous and bloody." The
play contradicts the Chronicle, and therefore cannot be called a
chronicle history. Hollinshed, the source of all Shakspere's histories,
says of Queen Eleanor: "She was a godly and modest princess, full of
pity, and one that showed much favor to the English nation, ready to
relieve every man's grief that sustained wrong, and to make those
friends that were at discord, so far as in her lay."

Mr. Hallam has characterized this violation of historical truth as a
"hideous misrepresentation of the virtuous Eleanor of Castile.... The
'Edward I.' of Peele is a gross tissue of absurdity with some facility
of language, but nothing truly good." Nobody but Professor Wendell has
ever even intimated that Shakspere imitated it.

It is hardly necessary to consider "The Love of King David and Fair
Bethsabe," published in 1599, because, in the deliberate opinion of
those who have studied the subject most deeply, it was not written till
"Romeo and Juliet" was upon the stage in 1592. In it there are distinct
traces of Shakspere's influence. "The love scenes, and the images and
similes describing the charms of the beauty of nature, remind