e hardly equal to the great tragedies
just mentioned, for the poet is growing older now, and the fiery vigor
of _Macbeth_ is fading out of his verse. But in loftiness of thought
and tenderness of feeling these later romances are equal to anything
that the author ever gave us.

Whether other causes influenced him or not, Shakespeare was doubtless
in these four periods conforming to some extent to the literary
tendencies of the hour. The writings of his contemporaries also show a
larger percentage of comedies between 1595-1600 than between 1590-1595.
Many other dramatists, too, were writing histories while he was, and
dropped them at about the same time. Likewise during his Fourth Period
three-quarters of all the plays written by other men were comedies, the
most successful of them in a similar {104} romantic tone. On the
whole, too, other writers produced a rather larger percentage of
tragedies during 1601-1607 than at any other time while Shakespeare was
writing, although the change was not nearly as marked in them as in
him. But whether the influence of contemporaries was great or small,
these periods exist; and the individual plays can be better understood
if read in the light of the groups to which they belong.

Perhaps the best book on Shakespeare's development as a dramatist is:
_The Development of Shakespeare as a Dramatist_ by G. P. Baker (The
Macmillan Co., New York, 1907).

[1] These plays are throughout designated as _I_, _II_, and _III_ Henry
VI.

{105}

CHAPTER VIII

THE CHIEF SOURCES OF SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS

+Shakespeare and Plagiarism+.--Among the curious alterations in public
sentiment that have come in the last century or two, none is more
striking than the change of attitude in regard to what is called
"plagiarism." Plagiarism may be defined as the appropriation for one's
own use of the literary ideas of another. The laws of patent and of
copyright have led us into thinking that the ideas of a play must not
be borrowed in any degree, but must originate in every detail with the
writer. This is as if we should say to an inventor, "Yes, you may have
invented a safety trigger for revolvers, but you must not apply it to
revolvers until you have invented a completely new type of revolver
from the original matchlock."

But the playwright of to-day cannot help plagiarizing his technique,
many of his situations, and even his plots from earlier plays;
consequently, he tries to concea