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NOTES.

AUTHORSHIP OF "HENRY VIII."

In returning to the question of the authorship of _Henry VIII._, I am
anxious to remove a misconception under which MR. SPEDDING appears to
labour relative to the purport of a remark I made in my last communication
to you (Vol. ii., p. 198.) on this subject. As we appear to be perfectly
agreed as to the reasons for assigning a considerable portion of this play
to Fletcher, and as upon this basis we have each worked out a result that
so exactly coincides with the other, I conclude that MR. SPEDDING, as well
as myself, has rested his theory solely on positive grounds; that is, that
he imagines there is strong internal evidence in favour of all that he
ascribes to this writer. It follows, therefore that the "third hand" which
he thought he detected must be sought rather in what remained to
Shakspeare, than in that which had been already taken from him. I never for
an instant doubted that this was MR. SPEDDING's view; but the inequality
which I supposed he had observed and accounted for in this way, I was
disposed to refer to a mode of composition that must needs have been
troublesome to Shakspeare. The fact is, that, with one or two exceptions,