Coriolanus in all probability was produced not long after Anthony. There is no external evidence available. Both these Roman plays are founded on North's Plutarch.
Pericles as we now have it was probably on the stage in 1608, when Wilkins published his prose version of "the play, as it was lately presented by the worthy and ancient poet John Gower." He was probably annoyed by the adoption of Shakespeare's version of the Marina story in place of his own. The rest of the play as it stands—i.e., Acts i. ii. and Gower chorus to Act iii.—are by Wilkins, in whose novel the only distinctly traceable piece of Shakespeare's is from iii. 1. 28-31, which is repeated almost verbatim. The play was published in 1609, probably as an answer to Wilkins; whose unaltered play must have been on the stage as early as 1606, seeing that The Puritan, acted that year, contains a distinct parody of the scene of Thaisa's recovery. This original form of the play was founded on Gower's Confessio Amantis and Twine's novel of Prince Apollonius, which was probably, in consequence of the popularity of the play, reprinted in 1607. It was, I think, this Wilkins' play that was entered in S. R. along with Anthony and Cleopatra 20th May 1608, and the publication of which was stayed. There is no trace of any transfer of Blount's interest as so entered to Gosson, who published the altered play. To the popularity of this drama there are many allusions, notably one in Pimlico, or Run Redcap (1609).
1609.
Cymbeline was probably produced after the Roman plays and before Winters Tale; and the Iachimo part was doubtless then written. There is, however, strong internal evidence that the part derived from Holinshed, viz., the story of Cymbeline and his sons, the tribute, &c., in the last three acts, was written at an earlier time, in 1606 I think, just after Lear and Macbeth, for which the same chronicler had been used. All this older work will be found in the scenes in which Lucius and Bellarius enter. A marked instance in the change of treatment will be found in the character of Cloten. In the later version he is a mere fool (see i. 3; ii. 1); but in the earlier parts he is by no means deficient in manliness, and the lack of his "counsel" is regretted by the King in iv. 3. Especially should iii. 5 be examined from this point of view, in which the prose part is a subsequent insertion, having some slight discrepancies with the older parts of the scene. Philaster, which contains some passages suggested by this play, was written in 1611. The Iachimo story is found in Boccaccio's Decameron, Day 11, Novel 9. The verse of the vision, v. 4. 30-122, is palpably by an inferior hand, and was probably inserted for some Court performance after Shakespeare had left the stage. Of course the stage directions for the dumb show are genuine. This would not have been worth mentioning but for the silly arguments of some who defend the Shakespearian authorship of these lines, and maintain that the play would be maimed without them. Forman saw this play acted c. 1610-11; which gives our only posterior limit of date.
1610.
The Winter's Tale was founded on Greene's Dorastus and Fawnia; it was still on the stage when Dr. S. Forman saw it, 15th May 1611; but this gives only a posterior limit. Sir H. Herbert mentions it as an old play allowed by Sir G. Buck. But Buck, although not strictly Master of the Revels till August 1610, had full power to "allow" plays from 1607 onwards. We are, after all, left in great measure to internal evidence. One really helpful fact is that Jonson in Bartholomew Fair links it with The Tempest: "If there be never a servant monster in the Fair who can help it? nor a nest of antics? He is loth to make nature afraid in his plays like those that beget Tales, Tempests, and such like drolleries." This was written in 1614, and at that date he would of course allude to the latest productions of Shakespeare, if to any. This allusion occurs in a play written for a rival company, the Princess Elizabeth's. In his Conversations with Drummond, Jonson again refers to this play apropos of Bohemia having no sea-coast. I suspect that the Bear was a success in Mucedorus, and therefore revived in this play.
1610.
The Tempest was shown by Malone to contain many particulars derived from Jourdan's narrative, 13th October 1610, A Discovery of the Bermudas, otherwise called the Isle of Devils; by Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers, and Captain Newport, with divers others. He is not equally successful in showing that Shakespeare used The True Declaration of the Colony of Virginia, S. R. 8th November 1610, in which the reference to The Tempest as a "Tragical Comedy" seems to me to show that the play was already on the stage. It does not follow that because the October pamphlet was used in the storm scenes, that none of the play was written before that month; but that the date of its first appearance was in October to November 1610, I have little doubt. Gonzalo's description of his ideal republic is from Florio's Montaigne. The play as we have it is evidently abridged; one character, the son of Anthonio the Duke of Milan, i. 2. 438, has entirely disappeared, unless the eleven lines assigned to Francisco are the débris of his part. The lines forming the Masque in iv. 1 are palpably an addition, probably made by Beaumont for the Court performance before the Prince, the Princess Elizabeth, and the Palatine in 1612-13; or else before the King on 1st November 1612 (The Winters Tale being acted on 5th November). This addition consists only of the heroics, ll. 60-105, 129-138; the mythological personages in the original play having acted in dumb show. In the stage directions (l. 72) of the dumb show "Juno descends;" in the text of the added verse l. 102, she "comes," and Ceres "knows her by her gait." This and the preceding were surely Shakespeare's last plays; compare Prospero's speech, v. 1. 50, &c., and the Epilogue. He began his career with the Chamberlain's company (after his seven years' apprenticeship in conjunction with others, 1587-94), with a Midsummer Dream, he finishes with a Winter's Tale; and so his playwright's work is rounded; twenty-four years, each year an hour in the brief day of work, and then the rounding with a sleep.[13]
1613.