On January 24 Abraham Sturley wrote to Richard Quiney urging him to persuade Shakespeare to make a purchase at Shottery, on the ground that he would thus obtain friends and advancement, and at the same time benefit the Corporation.
On February 25 1 Henry IV. was entered on S. R., and on July 22 The Merchant of Venice.
In this spring or in 1597 Much Ado about Nothing was probably produced. It was probably an alteration of Love's Labour's Won.
In September Jonson joined the Chamberlain's men, and produced his Every Man in his Humour at the Curtain. This was the Quarto version with the Italian names. Aubrey has been subjected to much unfounded abuse for asserting that Jonson acted at the Curtain. The actors in this play were Shakespeare, Burbadge, Phillips, Hemings, Condell, Pope, Sly, Beeston, Kemp, and Duke. Shakespeare, it will be noted, is first on the list.
On September 7 Meres' Palladis Tamia was entered on S. R. Among the abundant and often-quoted praises of Shakespeare in this work the most important for biographical purposes are the enumeration of his plays, the lists of tragic and comic dramatists, and this passage, which I shall have to refer to hereafter. "As the soul of Euphorbus was thought to live in Pythagoras, so the great witty soul of Ovid lives in mellifluous and honey-tongued Shakespeare. Witness his Venus and Adonis, his Lucrece, his sugared Sonnets among his private friends," &c. A careful comparison of the list of dramatists with that of known plays or titles of plays that have come down to us shows that the Palladis Tamia could not have been completed for the press till June 1598, and an examination of the list of Shakespeare's plays shows that it consists of those then in the repertoire of the Chamberlain's company, that is, of those either newly written or revived between June 1594 and June 1598. These plays are: Gentlemen of Verona; Errors; Love's Labour's Lost; Love's Labour's Won; Midsummer-Night's Dream; Merchant of Venice—comedies. Richard II.; Richard III.; Henry IV.; John; Titus Andronicus; Romeo and Juliet—tragedies. It is clear that Richard III. and a play on Andronicus, which I believe to be the one we have, were attributed to Shakespeare at that time.
On 25th October Richard Quiney wrote from the Bell in Carter Lane to his "loving good friend and countryman Mr. William Shakespeare," who was, according to the subsidy roll discovered by Mr. J. Hunter, then living in the parish of St. Helen's, Bishopsgate, asking for the loan of £30. On the same day he wrote to his brother-in-law Mr. Sturley at Stratford, that "our countryman Mr. W. Shakespeare would procure us money." The former letter was sent evidently by hand, an affirmative answer obtained, and soon after instructions given by Shakespeare for the procuring the money. We could not otherwise account for the letter being preserved among the documents of the Corporation.
The Famous Victories of Henry V. was reprinted in 1598; as we so often find to be the case with old plays on which other plays have been founded. The complaint about the name Oldcastle no doubt was a special motive for reproducing the old play in this instance.
There were three plays performed at Court by Shakespeare's company in the Christmas festivities.
1599.