In some former papers which you did me the honour to publish, I gave it
incidentally as my opinion that Marlowe was the author of the _Taming of
a Shrew_. I have since learned, through Mr. Halliwell, that Mr. Dyce is
confident, from the style, that he was not. Had I the opportunity, I
might ask Mr. Dyce "which style?" That of the passages I cited as being
identical with passages in Marlowe's acknowledged plays will not, I
presume, be disputed; and of that of such scenes as the one between
Sander and the tailor, I am as confident as Mr. Dyce; it is the style
rather of Shakspeare than Marlowe. In other respects, I learn that the
kind of evidence that is considered by Mr. Dyce good to sustain the
claim of Marlowe to the authorship of the _Contention_ and the _True
Tragedy_, is not admissible in support of his claim to the _Taming of a
Shrew_. I shall take another opportunity of showing that the very
passages cited by Mr. Dyce from the two first-named of these plays will
support my view of the case, at least as well as his; doing no more now
than simply recording an _opinion_ that Marlowe was a follower and
imitator of Shakspeare. I do not know that I am at present in a position
to maintain this opinion by argument; but I can, at all events, show on
what exceedingly slight grounds the contrary opinion has been founded.

I have already called attention to the fact, that the impression of
Marlowe's being an earlier writer than Shakspeare, was founded solely
upon the circumstance that his plays were printed at an earlier date.
That nothing could be more fallacious than this conclusion, the fact
that many of Shakspeare's earliest plays were not printed at all until
after his death is sufficient to evince. The motive for withholding
Shakspeare's plays from the press is as easily understood as that for
publishing Marlowe's. Thus stood the question when Mr. Collier
approached the subject. Meanwhile it should be borne in mind, that not a