f his not printed during his life;
and the long interval is a reason also why the printer and publisher are
different persons from any who were concerned in Shakspeare's other
works. The hyperbolical phraseology of the title-page is quite in the
taste of the day, and is exceeded by the quarto editions of some of
Shakspeare's admitted works.

[Sidenote: Custom of authors writing plays together.]

Was the alleged co-operation then in itself likely to have taken place?
It was. Such partnerships were very generally formed by the dramatists
of that time; both the poets were likely enough to have projected some
union of the kind, and to have chosen each other as the parties to it.
[Sidenote: Shakspere followed this custom, though rarely.] Although
Shakspeare seems to have followed this custom less frequently than most
of his contemporaries, we have reason to think that he did not wholly
refrain from it; and his favourite plan of altering plays previously
written by others, is a near approach to it. [Sidenote: Fletcher very
often.] As to Fletcher, his name is connected in every mind with that of
Beaumont; and the memorable and melancholy letter of the three
players,[5:1] proves him to have coalesced with other writers even
during that poet's short [5:2]life. This is of some consequence,
because, if the two poets wrote at the same time, it would seem that
they must have done so previously to Beaumont's death; for Shakspeare
lived only one year longer than Beaumont, and is believed to have spent
that year in the country. There is no proof that the drama before us was
not written before Beaumont's death (1615), and it is only certain that
its era was later than 1594. [Sidenote: Fletcher's co-authors.] After
the loss of his friend, Fletcher is said to have been repeatedly
assisted by Massinger: he joined in one play with Jonson and Middleton,
and in another with Rowley. [Sidenote: His sonship to a bishop, no
hindrance.] His superior rank (he was the son of a bishop) has been
gravely mentioned as discrediting his connection 