Second: it must have been written after _Hamlet_, because the name Baptista, used incorrectly in that play as a feminine name, is properly applied to a man in this. And these, I believe, are all. Now, the first of these assumptions I answer, by asking, "Does it follow?" Of all Shakspeare's plays which had then appeared, only three had been published before 1598, and not one comedy. Meres, in all probability, had no list to refer to, nor was he making one: he simply adduced, in evidence of his assertion of Shakspeare's excellence, both in tragedy and comedy, such plays of both kinds as he _could_ recollect, or the best of those which he _did_ recollect. Let us put the case home; not in reference to any modern dramatist (though Shakspeare in his own day was not the great exception that he stands with us), but to the world-honoured poet himself, who has founded a sort of religion in us: I, for my part, would not be bound not to omit, in a hasty enumeration, and having no books to refer to, more important works than the _Taming of the Shrew_. In short, the omission by Meres proves no more than that he either did not think of the play, or did not think it necessary to mention it. To the second assumption, I answer that the date of the _first Hamlet_ is "not proven:" it may have been an early play. From the play of _Hamlet_, in its earlier form, is the name Baptiste, where it is used in conjunction with Albertus, taken; the scene mentioned is Guiana; and there is nothing to lead one to suppose that the name is used as an Italian name at all. Both the date of _Hamlet_, therefore, and--whichever way decided--the conclusion drawn from the supposed mistake, I regard as open questions. There is yet another circumstance which Mr. Collier thinks may strengthen his conclusion with regard to the date of this play. He refers to the production of Dekker's _Medicine for a Curst Wife_, which he thinks was a revival of the old _Taming of a Shrew_, brought out as a rival to Shakspeare's play. This is easily answered. In the first place, Katharine, the Shrew, is not a "curst wife:" she becomes a wife, it is true, in the course of the play; but this is a part of the process of taming her. But what seems at once to disprove it is, that, according to Henslow's account, Dekker was paid 10_l_. 10_s_. for the piece in question; as Mr. Collier observes, an "unusually large sum" for a new piece, and not likely to be paid for the bashing up of an old one. I am thus left entirely without a clue, derivable from external evidence, to the date of this play; and shall be glad to know if there is any thing, throwing light upon the point, which I may have overlooked. That more important consequences are involved in this question than appear upon the face of it, I think I shall be able to show in a future communication; and this is my excuse for trespassing so much upon your space and your readers' patience. SAMUEL HICKSON. St. John's Wood, Jan. 26. 1850.