WHO WROTE SHAKSPEARE'S HENRY VIII.?

I had no sooner read the title of an essay in the current number of the Gentleman's Magazine, "Who wrote Shakspeare's Henry VIII.?" than I became aware that I had been anticipated in at least the publication of a discovery I made three or four years ago, but for the making known of which a favourable opportunity had not occurred. The fact is, that I was anxious to arrive at a more satisfactory conclusion than has yet presented itself to me, and a paper on the subject commenced more than two years ago, I, with this feeling, laid aside. My present object is to strengthen the argument of the writer in the Gentleman's Magazine, by recording the fact that I, having no communication with him, or knowledge of him, even of his name, should have arrived at exactly the same conclusion as his own. That conclusion is (should any of your readers not have seen the article referred to), that Fletcher has at least an equal claim with Shakspeare to the authorship of Henry VIII.

In the unfinished paper to which I have alluded, having asked how it was that, with so much to be learned personal to Shakspeare from his works, our criticism was so limited, and having stated it to be my intention to confine myself to the simple inquiry, "What did Shakspeare really write?" I continued:

"To those who consider the text as having been settled 'by authority,' this question may seem superfluous; but, not to refer to plays of very early date, in connection with which we could bring forward facts that, we doubt not, would be considered sufficiently startling; we now state it as our belief that a great portion of the play of Henry VIII.—nay, more than half, was not written by Shakspeare."

My intention now is not to enter into any argument in support of this view, but to state the results, which will be shown in the following extract from my note-book:

Henry VIII.

Act I.Scene 1.Shakspeare.
" 2.Ditto.
" 3.Fletcher.
" 4.Ditto.
Act II." 1.Ditto.
" 2.Ditto.
" 3.Shakspeare.
" 4.Ditto.
Act III." 1.Fletcher.
" 2.Shakspeare, (ending with 'what appetite you have.')
" 2.Fletcher, (beginning from the above.)
Act IV." 1.Ditto.
" 2.Ditto.
Act V.Scene 1.Shakspeare
" 2.Fletcher.
" 3.Ditto.
" 4.Ditto.
Prologue and EpilogueDitto.

So far all is clear, and in this apportionment Mr. Urban's correspondent and myself are agreed. My conviction here is as complete as it is of my own identity. But beyond, at present, all is dark; I cannot understand the arrangement; and I doubt if my friend, who has treated the question with so much ability, is altogether satisfied with his own explanation.

In the meanwhile, I would suggest one or two points for consideration. In those parts which I have set down as Shakspeare's, and in which this writer imagines he occasionally detects "a third hand," does the metre differ materially from that of Shakspeare's early plays?

It will be observed that, in Act iii., Scene 2., there are two farewells, the second being a kind of amplification of the first; both, however, being in the part which I ascribe to Fletcher. Is it not probable that these were written at different periods? And supposing Fletcher to have improved his part, might there not originally have been a stronger analogy than now appears between this play and the Two Noble Kinsmen?

The more it is tested the brighter shines out the character of Shakspeare. The flatteries of James and Elizabeth may now go packing together. The following four lines which I have met with in no other edition of Shakspeare than Mr. Collier's, are worth any one of his plays for their personal value; they show how he could evade a compliment with the enunciation of a general truth that yet could be taken as a compliment by the person for whom it was intended:

Shakspeare on the King.

"Crowns have their compass; length of days their date;

Triumphs, their tomb; felicity her fate;

Of nought but earth can earth make us partaker,

But knowledge makes a king most like his Maker."

Samuel Hickson.

August 12. 1850.