CLASSIFICATION ATTEMPTED, 1810.
Shakspeare's earliest dramas I take to be,
Love's Labour's Lost.
All's Well That Ends Well.
Comedy of Errors.
Romeo and Juliet.
In the second class I reckon
Midsummer Night's Dream.
As You Like It.
Tempest.
Twelfth Night.
In the third, as indicating a greater energy—not merely of poetry, but—of all the world of thought, yet still with some of the growing pains, and the awkwardness of growth, I place
Troilus and Cressida.
Cymbeline.
Merchant of Venice.
Much Ado About Nothing.
Taming of the Shrew.
In the fourth, I place the plays containing the greatest characters;
Macbeth.
Lear.
Hamlet.
Othello.
And lastly, the historic dramas, in order to be able to show my reasons for rejecting some whole plays, and very many scenes in others.