The Turn of the Century

Abstract

On 7 September 1598 Palladis Tamia: Wit’s Treasury, by Francis Meres, was entered in the Stationers’ Register. It contains ‘A Comparative Discourse of our English Poets, with the Greek, Latin, and Italian Poets’, and is still remembered because it mentions Shakespeare several times, as a lyric and love poet and as being among ‘our best for tragedy’ and ‘best for comedy’. Crucially, Meres offers this comparison: As Plautus and Seneca are accounted the best for comedy and tragedy among the Latins: so Shakespeare among the English is the most excellent in both kinds for the stage; for comedy, witness his Gentlemen of Verona, his Errors, his Love Labours Lost, his Love Labours Won, his Midsummer’s Night Dream, & his Merchant of Venice: for tragedy his Richard the 2. Richard the 3. Henry the 4. King John, Titus Andronicus and his Romeo and Juliet.1 In several instances this is the earliest record of the plays he lists, proving that they must have been staged by that date. The catalogue is tantalising both for what it includes and for what it leaves out. Is Love Labours Won a lost play (we do not hear of it again) or is it an alternative title for a known play? The Taming of the Shrew is a good candidate, but Much Ado About Nothing is not impossible.KeywordsPrivy CouncilEnglish HistoryEnglish PoetEarly PlayHenry VersusThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.