We presume, therefore, both the external and internal evidence for much the greater part of this play being the composition of Shakspeare may be pronounced complete and unanswerable; and it now only remains to enquire, if there be sufficient ground for considering Pericles, as we have ventured to do in this arrangement, as the FIRST dramatic production of our author's pen.
It is very extraordinary that the positive testimony of Dryden as to the priority of Pericles, especially if we weigh well the import of the context, should ever have admitted of a moment's doubt or controversy. Nothing can, we think, be more plainly declaratory than the lines in question, which shall be given at length:—
"Your Ben and Fletcher in their first young flight,
Did no Volpone, no Arbaces write:
But hopp'd about, and short excursions made
From bough to bough, as if they were afraid;
And each were guilty of some Slighted Maid.
Shakspeare's own muse his Pericles FIRST bore;
The Prince of Tyre was elder than The Moor:
'Tis miracle to see a first good play;