One evening, after seeing Booth in "Richard III.," three of us fell a-talking about the authorship of the play, and wondering how far Shakespeare was responsible for what we had heard. Everybody knows that Colley Cibber improved upon the text of the old folios and quartos: for what was listened to with delight by Ben Jonson could not satisfy Congreve, and William III. needed better verses than those applauded by Queen Elizabeth. None of us knew how great or how many these improvements were. I doubt whether many of the audience that crowded the theatre that evening were wiser than we. The next day I got an acting copy of "Richard III.," and, with the help of Mrs. Clarke's Concordance,[1] arrived at the following astonishing results. "Shakspeare's Historical Tragedy of Richard III., adapted to Representation by Colley Cibber," (I quote the full title for its matchless impudence,) makes a pamphlet of fifty-nine small pages. Of these, Cibber was good enough to write twenty-six out of his own head. Then, modestly recognizing Shakespeare's superiority, he took twenty-_seven_ pages from him, (not all from this particular play, to be sure,) remodelled six other pages of the original, and, mixing it all up together, produced a play, and called it Shakespeare. With Mrs. Clarke's touchstone it is easy to separate the base metal from the fine gold; though you have only to ring most of Cibber's counterfeits to see how flat they are. Would any one take the following for genuine coin, and believe that Shakespeare could make a poor ghost talk thus? "PRINCE E. Richard, dream on, and see the wandering spirits Of thy young nephews, murdered in the tower: Could not our youth, our innocence, persuade Thy cruel heart to spare our harmless lives? Who, but for thee, alas! might have enjoyed Our many promised years of happiness. No soul, save thine, but pities our misusage. Oh! 'twas a cruel deed! therefore alone, Unpitying, unpitied shalt thou fall." Or thus:-- "K. HENRY. The morning's dawn has summoned me away; And let that wild despair, which now does prey Upon thy mangled thoughts, alarm the world. Awake, Richard, awake! to guilty minds A terrible example!" No wonder that Gloucester finds it quite hopeless to reply to such ghosts in the words Shakespeare put into his mouth, and so has recourse to Cibber. We are not told what (Cibber's) ghosts say to Richmond; but he declares,-- "If dreams should animate a soul resolved, _I'm more than pleased with those I've had to-night._" Just after this, it is rather confusing to find him straying off into "Henry V." Still, "In peace there's nothing so becomes a man," seems to promise Shakespeare at least,--so compose yourself to listen and enjoy:-- "In peace there's nothing so becomes a man As _mild behavior_ and humility; But when the blast of war blows in our ears, _Let us be tigers in our fierce deportment_."