was the first Play he wrote; it would be without doubt a pleasure to any
Man, curious in Things of this Kind, to see and know what was the first
Essay of a Fancy like _Shakespear's_. Perhaps we are not to look for his
Beginnings, like those of other Authors, among their least perfect
Writings; Art had so little, and Nature so large a Share in what he did,
that, for ought I know, the Performances of his Youth, as they were the
most vigorous, and had the most fire and strength of Imagination in 'em,
were the best. I would not be thought by this to mean, that his Fancy
was so loose and extravagant, as to be Independent on the Rule and
Government of Judgment; but that what he thought, was commonly so Great,
so justly and rightly Conceiv'd in it self, that it wanted little or no
Correction, and was immediately approv'd by an impartial Judgment at the
first sight. Mr. _Dryden_ seems to think that _Pericles_ is one of his
first Plays; but there is no judgment to be form'd on that, since there
is good Reason to believe that the greatest part of that Play was not
written by him; tho' it is own'd, some part of it certainly was,
particularly the last Act. But tho' the order of Time in which the
several Pieces were written be generally uncertain, yet there are
Passages in some few of them which seem to fix their Dates. So the
_Chorus_ in the beginning of the fifth Act of _Henry_ V. by a Compliment
very handsomly turn'd to the Earl of _Essex_, shews the Play to have
been written when that Lord was General for the Queen in _Ireland_: And
his Elogy upon Q. _Elizabeth_, and her Successor K. _James_, in the
latter end of his _Henry_ VII, is a Proof of that Play's being written
after the Accession of the latter of those two Princes to the Crown of
_England_. Whatever the particular Times of his Writing were, the People
of his Age, who began to grow wonderfully fond of Diversions of this
kind, could not but be highly pleas'd to see a _Genius_ arise amongst
'em of so pleasurable, so rich a Vein, and so plentifully capable of
furnishing their favourite Entertainments. Besides the advantages of his