[Sidenote: Shakspere.] _Theseus._ ... Palamon! Your kinsman hath confessed, the right o' the la|dy Did lie in you: for you first saw her, and Even then proclaimed your fancy. He restord | her As your stolen jewel, and desired your spir|it To send him hence forgiven! The gods my jus|tice Take from my hand, and they themselves become The executioners. Lead your lady off: And call your lovers from the stage of death, Whom I adopt my friends.--A day or two Let us look sadly, and give grace unto The funeral of Arcite; in whose end, The visages of bridegrooms we'll put on, And smile with Palamon; for whom, an hour, But one hour since, I was as dearly sor|ry, As glad of Arcite; and am now as glad, As for him sorry.--Oh, you _heavenly charm|ers_! What things you make of us! For what we lack, We laugh; for what we have, are sorry still; Are children in some kind.--Let us be thank|ful For that which is, and with you leave disputes That are above our question.--Let us go off, And bear us like the time! (_Exeunt omnes._) You have now before you an outline of the subject of this highly poetical drama, with specimens which may convey some notion of the manner in which the plan is executed. But detached extracts cannot furnish materials for a just decision as to the part which Shakspeare may have taken even in writing the scenes from which the quotations are given. If I addressed myself to one previously unacquainted with this drama, I should be compelled to request an attentive study of it from beginning to end. [Sidenote: Two authors wrote _The Two Noble Kinsmen_.] Such a perusal would convince the most sceptical mind that two authors were concerned in the work; it would be perceived that certain scenes are distinguished by certain prominent characters, while others present different and dissimilar features. [Sidenote: Fletcher was one.] If we are to assume that Fletcher wrote parts of the play, we must admit that many parts of it were written by another person, and we have only to inquire who that other was. [Sidenote: The other was Shakspere.] Without recurring to any external presump[56:1]tions whatever, I think there is enough in most or all of the parts which are evidently not Fletcher's, to appropriate them to the great poet whose name, in this instance, tradition has associated with his. Even in the passages which have been here selected, you cannot but have traced Shakspeare's hand frequently and unequivocally. The introductory views which I slightly suggested to your recollection, may have furnished some rules of judgment, and cleared away some obstacles from the path; and where I have failed in bringing out distinctly the real points of difference, your own acute judgment and delicate taste must have enabled you to draw instinctively