The readiness to impute this act to
him was to me but an instance of the unworthy manner in which he had
almost universally been treated; and, without at the time having any
suspicion of what I now take to be the fact, {346} I determined, if
possible, to find it out. The first question I put to myself was, Had
Shakspeare himself any concern in the older play? A second glance
at the work sufficed for an answer in the negative. I next asked
myself on what authority we called it an "older" play. The answer I
found myself obliged to give was, greatly to my own surprise, On no
authority whatever! But there was still a difficulty in conceiving
how, with Shakspeare's work before him, so unscrupulous an imitator
should have made so poor an imitation. I should not have felt this
difficulty had I then recollected that the play in question was not
published; but, as the case stood, I carefully examined the two plays
together, especially those passages which were identical, or nearly
so, in both, and noted, in these cases, the minutest variations.
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