raised by modern grammarians, the idle conceits, the play upon words, the puns, the improbability, the extravagance, the absurdity, the obscenity, the puerility, the bombast, the emphasis, the exaggeration. Therefore it must be admitted that in order to uphold "Henry VIII." as a late play of Shakespeare's, it becomes necessary for his sincere admirers to invent all sorts of apologies for its faults, and to overlook the consistent development of the poet's genius from the close of the great tragedies to the play of the "Tempest," "where we see him shining to the last in a steady, mild, unchanging glory." TROILUS AND CRESSIDA[9] The mystery in which the history of this play is shrouded bewilders students, for the information available is scanty. The play was entered on the _Stationers' Register_ on February 7, 1603, as "The Booke of Troilus and Cresseda," but it was not to be printed until the publisher had got the necessary permission from its owners; and it was also the same book, "as it _is_ acted by my Lord Chamberlen's men," and a play of Shakespeare's had never before been entered on the _Register_ as one that was being acted at the time of its publication, plays being seldom printed in those days until they had become, to some extent, obsolete on the stage. Then Mr. A. W. Pollard points out that the Globe managers often got some publisher to enter a play on the _Stationers' Register_ in order to protect their playhouse copies from pirates, and for this or some other reason not yet fully explained, the play did not get printed. But on January 28, 1609, another firm of publishers entered on the _Register_ a book with a similar name, which soon afterwards was published, with the following words on its title-page: "The Historie of Troylus and Cresseda. As it _was_ acted by the Kings Majesties servants at the 'Globe.'" Shortly afterwards this title-page was suppressed, being torn out of the book, and another one inserted to allow of the following qualification: "The Famous Historie of Troylus and Cresseid. Excellently expressing the beginning of their loves, with the conceited wooing of Pandarus, Prince of Licia." On both title-pages Shakespeare is announced as the author, and apparently the object of the second title-page was to contradict the former statement that the play had been acted at the Globe, or, in other words, was the property of the Globe managers; and also to suggest by the title "Prince of Licia" that the book was not the same play as the one the actors of the theatre owned. In addition to the altered title there appeared on the back of the new leaf a preface, and this was another unusual proceeding, since there had not appeared before one attached to a Shakespeare play. No further editions were issued until 1623, when Heminge and Condell published their player's copy, with additions and corrections taken from the 1609 quarto. It was inserted in the first folio in a position between