f
the Roses, upon which he had already worked, or was then working for his
company. There is not a single classical allusion in the "Temple
Garden" scene, while there are twenty-seven classical allusions in the
whole play: eight of them being in the Talbot passages. In Shakespeare's
_Richard II._--which I shall give good evidence was written within about
a year of the time that _Henry VI._ was presented as a new play--there
are two classical allusions. In any authentic play by Marlowe, Greene,
or Peele of an equal length there will be found from forty to eighty
classical allusions, besides, as a rule, a number of Latin quotations.
In revising the first part of _Henry VI._ in, or after, 1594, it is
evident that Shakespeare eliminated many classical allusions, and that
in the early work which he did upon _The Contention_, and also in his
final revision of _The Contention_, into the second and third parts of
_Henry VI._, he eliminated classical allusions, reducing the average in
these plays to from thirty to thirty-five. In his own acknowledged
historical plays, _Richard II._, _King John_, _Richard III._, _Henry
IV._, and _Henry V._, _there is not an average of six classical
allusions_.

When the settled animus which Nashe, in conjunction with Greene, between
1589-92, displays against Shakespeare is better understood, the utter
improbability of his referring to Shakespeare's work in a laudatory
manner in the latter year shall readily be seen. When, also, the high
praise which Nashe bestows upon Peele in the same publications in which
he attacks Shakespeare is noted, it becomes evident that he again
intends to commend Peele in his complimentary allusion to the Talbot
scenes. Peele was the principal writer and reviser for Henslowe at this
period, while not one of Shakespeare's plays is mentioned in his whole
_Diary_.

While I believe that the reference to Shakespeare's name in _Edward
I._--which was first noticed by Mr. Fleay--was actually intended by
Peele, the passage in which it occurs pertains to an early form of the
play, which was old when it was published in 1593. It was written by
Peele for the Lord Admiral's company before their conjunction with
Strange's men under Henslowe, and at the time when they acted with Lord
Hunsdon's company at the Theatre in Shoreditch in summer, and at the
Crosskeys in the winter. It is significant that this play was not acted
by Lord Strange's men during their tenure of the Rose Theatr