There is great stiffness and tameness in the matter in many places.
Lastly, what Mr. Hickson hopes he has taken off Shakspeare's shoulders, the compliments to the Queen and the King, is brought in here most forcedly:—
"She (i.e. A. Boleyn) is a gallant creature, and complete
In mind and feature. I persuade me, from her
Will fall some blessings to this land, which shall
In it be memoriz'd."
But there is also the general question, whether, either upon à priori probability, or inferences derived from particular passages, we are bound to suppose that the two authors wrote scene by scene. Shakspeare might surely be allowed to touch up scenes, of which the mass might be written by Fletcher.
As to the dates, Mr. Collier is persuaded that Henry VIII. was written in the winter of 1603-4. The accession of James was in March, 1603. Mr. Collier thinks that the compliments to Queen Elizabeth were not written in her lifetime. He thinks that, even in the last year of her long reign, no one would have ventured to call her an "aged princess," though merely as a way of saying that she would have a long reign; and he says, there is not the slightest evidence that the compliment to King James was an interpolation. But surely it is strong evidence that if there is no interpolation, this passage—
"As when
The bird of wonder dies, the maiden phœnix,"