Another token of like import is a letter written by the same Richard Quiney, whose son Thomas afterwards married the Poet’s youngest daughter.  The letter was dated, “From the Bell, in Carter-lane, the 25th October, 1598,” and addressed, “To my loving good friend and countryman, Mr. Wm. Shakespeare.’” The purpose of the letter was to solicit a loan of L30 from the Poet on good security.  No private letter written by Shakespeare has been found; and this is the only one written to him that has come to light.  How the writer’s request was answered we have no certain information; but we may fairly conclude the answer to have been satisfactory, because on the same day Quiney wrote to Sturley, and in Sturley’s reply, dated November 4, 1598, which is also extant, the writer expresses himself much comforted at learning that “our countryman, Mr. Wm. Shak., would procure us money.”

The earliest printed copies of Shakespeare’s plays, known in our time, are Romeo and Juliet, King Richard the Second, and King Richard the Third, which were published separately in 1597.  Three years later there was another edition of Romeo and Juliet, “newly corrected, augmented, and amended.”  In 1598, two more, the First Part of King Henry the Fourth and Love’s Labour’s Lost, came from the press.  The author’s name was not given in any of these issues except Love’s Labour’s Lost, which was said to be “newly corrected and augmented.” King Richard the Second and King Richard the Third were issued again in 1598, and the First Part of King Henry the Fourth in 1599; and in all these cases the author’s name was printed in the title-page.  The Second Part of King Henry the Fourth was most likely written before 1598, but we hear of no edition of it till 1600.

Francis Meres has the honour of being the first critic of Shakespeare that appeared in print.  In 1598, he put forth a book entitled Palladis Tamia, Wit’s Treasury, which has the following:  “As Plautus and Seneca are accounted the best for comedy and tragedy among the Latins; so Shakespeare among the English is the most excellent in both kinds for the stage.”  The writer then instances twelve of the Poet’s dramas by title, in proof of his point.  His list, however, contains none but what I have already mentioned, except The Merchant of Venice.  Taking all our sources of information together, we find at least eighteen of the plays written before 1598, when the Poet was thirty-four years of age, and had probably been in the theatre about twelve years.