Acknowledgments to Marlowe.

In 'As you like it' (III. v. 80) Shakespeare parenthetically commemorated
his acquaintance with, and his general indebtedness to, the elder
dramatist by apostrophising him in the lines:

Dead Shepherd! now I find thy saw of might:
'Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?'

The second line is a quotation from Marlowe's poem 'Hero and Leander'
(line 76). In the 'Merry Wives of Windsor' (III. i. 17-21) Shakespeare
places in the mouth of Sir Hugh Evans snatches of verse from Marlowe's
charming lyric, 'Come live with me and be my love.'

Between February 1593 and the end of the year the London theatres were
closed, owing to the prevalence of the plague, and Shakespeare doubtless
travelled with his company in the country. But his pen was busily
employed, and before the close of 1594 he gave marvellous proofs of his
rapid powers of production.

'Titus Andronicus.'

'Titus Andronicus' was in his own lifetime claimed for Shakespeare, but
Edward Ravenscroft, who prepared a new version in 1678, wrote of it: 'I
have been told by some anciently conversant with the stage that it was
not originally his, but brought by a private author to be acted, and he
only gave some master-touches to one or two of the principal parts or
characters.' Ravenscroft's assertion deserves acceptance. The tragedy,
a sanguinary picture of the decadence of Imperial Rome, contains powerful
lines and situations, but is far too repulsive in plot and treatment, and
too ostentatious in classical allusions, to take rank with Shakespeare's
acknowledged work. Ben Jonson credits 'Titus Andronicus' with a
popularity equalling Kyd's 'Spanish Tragedy,' and internal evidence shows
that Kyd was capable of writing much of 'Titus.' It was suggested by a
piece called 'Titus and Vespasian,' which Lord Strange's men played on
April 11, 1592; {65} this is only extant in a German version acted by
English players in Germany, and published in 1620. {66a} 'Titus
Andronicus' was obviously taken in hand soon after the production of
'Titus and Vespasian' in order to exploit popular interest in the topic.
It was acted by the Earl of Sussex's men on January 23, 1593-4, when it
was described as a new piece; but that it was also acted subsequently by
Shakespeare's company is shown by the title-page of the first extant
edition of 1600, which describes it as having been performed by the Earl
of Derby's and the Lord Cham