described it as
'thought to be writ by Shakespeare.' Many speeches scattered through the
drama, and one whole scene--that in which the Countess of Salisbury
repulses the advances of Edward III--show the hand of a master (act ii.
sc. ii.) But there is even in the style of these contributions much to
dissociate them from Shakespeare's acknowledged productions, and to
justify their ascription to some less gifted disciple of Marlowe. {72a}
A line in act ii. sc. i. ('Lilies that fester smell far worse than
weeds') reappears in Shakespeare's Sonnets' (xciv. l. 14). {72b} It was
contrary to his practice to literally plagiarise himself. The line in
the play was doubtless borrowed from a manuscript copy of the 'Sonnets.'

'Mucedorus.'

Two other popular plays of the period, 'Mucedorus' and 'Faire Em,' have
also been assigned to Shakespeare on slighter provocation. In Charles
II.'s library they were bound together in a volume labelled 'Shakespeare,
Vol. I.,' and bold speculators have occasionally sought to justify the
misnomer.

'Mucedorus,' an elementary effort in romantic comedy, dates from the
early years of Elizabeth's reign; it was first published, doubtless after
undergoing revision, in 1595, and was reissued, 'amplified with new
additions,' in 1610. Mr. Payne Collier, who included it in his privately
printed edition of Shakespeare in 1878, was confident that a scene
interpolated in the 1610 version (in which the King of Valentia laments
the supposed loss of his son) displayed genius which Shakespeare alone
could compass. However readily critics may admit the superiority in
literary value of the interpolated scene to anything else in the piece,
few will accept Mr. Collier's extravagant estimate. The scene was
probably from the pen of an admiring but faltering imitator of
Shakespeare. {73}

'Faire Em.'

'Faire Em,' although not published till 1631, was acted by Shakespeare's
company while Lord Strange was its patron, and some lines from it are
quoted for purposes of ridicule by Robert Greene in his 'Farewell to
Folly' in 1592. It is another rudimentary endeavour in romantic comedy,
and has not even the pretension of 'Mucedorus' to one short scene of
conspicuous literary merit.

VI--THE FIRST APPEAL TO THE READING PUBLIC

Publication of 'Venus and Adonis.'

During the busy years (1591-4) that witnessed his first pronounced
successes as a dramatist, Shakespeare came before the public i