[[1]] This play is either lost, or preserved under another title.
[[2]] Quoted in full in Chapter I, p. [10].
[[3]] This form of evidence is usually weak and unreliable. Most of the supposed allusions are much more vague than the two given. Where there have been similar events in history, the allusion might be to one which we had forgotten when we thought it was to a similar one which we knew.
[[4]] Mr. Ingram makes a distinction between "light" and "weak" endings. Both are classed together as weak endings above. The distinction seems to us too subtle for any but professional students.
CHAPTER VII
SHAKESPEARE'S DEVELOPMENT AS A DRAMATIST
As the reader will remember, our main aim in attempting to date Shakespeare's plays was to trace through them his development as a dramatist and poet. Just as the successive chambers of the nautilus shell show the stages of growth of its dead and vanished tenant, so the plays of Shakespeare show how
"Each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut him from heaven with a dome more vast."