Shake hands with union, O thou mightie state,
Now thou art all great Britain, and no more,
No Scot, no English now, nor no debate."[458:A]
We see here, that even before James took possession of his capital, poetry had adopted the very language which Shakspeare has used in his Lear: and that, as early as the 13th of May, 1603, a proclamation had been issued, declaratory of the King's resolution to hold and esteem the two realms as united, and as forming but one kingdom.
These two events, therefore, were of themselves, a sufficient ground for the alteration which our bard thought proper to introduce, and which, if it occurred, as we suppose, anterior to the definitive proclamation of October, 1604, must have been considered, by the monarch, as the greater compliment, on that very account.
A strong additional argument in favour of this chronology, may be drawn from the attempt made in 1605, to impose on the public the old play of King Leir for the successful drama of our author. This production, which had been entered at Stationers' Hall in 1594, was, with this view, re-entered on the Stationers' books on the 8th of May, 1605, and the entry terminates with these words, "as it was lately acted."[458:B]
Now, as it was intended that the expression lately should be
referred, by the reader, to our author's play, for which this was meant to be received, it follows, as an almost necessary consequence, from the common acceptation of the term, that the Lear of Shakspeare had been acted some months anteriorly, and was not then actually performing, an inference which agrees well with the date which we have adopted, but cannot be made to accord with Mr. Malone's supposition of Shakspeare's tragedy appearing in April, 1605, and the spurious claimant in May, when there is every reason to conclude that our poet's drama was then nightly, or, at least, weekly delighting the public.
Another circumstance in support of the era which we have chosen for this play, is to be derived from the consideration, that, in Mr. Malone's arrangement, Cymbeline is assigned, and, in our opinion, correctly assigned, to the year 1605, while, in consequence of the removal of The Winter's Tale to the epoch of 1613, a change founded on apparently substantial grounds, the year 1604 is left perfectly open to the admission for which we contend.
To the numerous sources mentioned by the [459:A]commentators, whence Shakspeare may have drawn the materials of his Lear, is to be added the celebrated French Romance, entitled Perceforest, which, next to the Gesta Romanorum, and the History of Geoffrey of Monmouth, is the oldest authority extant. The story of King Leyr, as here related, corresponds, in all its leading features, with the fable of our poet.[459:B]