In the year 1600, five more of his plays were published in as many quarto pamphlets.  These were, A Midsummer-Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado about Nothing, the Second Part of King Henry the Fourth, and King Henry the Fifth.  It appears, also, that As You Like It was then written; for it was entered at the Stationers’ for publication, but was locked up from the press under a “stay.” The Merry Wives of Windsor was probably then in being also, though not printed till 1602.  And a recent discovery ascertains that Twelfth Night was played in February, 1602.  The original form of Hamlet, too, is known to have been written before 1603.  Adding, then, the six plays now heard of for the first time, to the eighteen mentioned before, we have twenty-four plays written before the Poet had finished his thirty-eighth year.

The great Queen died on the 24th of March, 1603.  We have abundant proof that she was, both by her presence and her purse, a frequent and steady patron of the Drama, especially as its interests were represented by “the Lord Chamberlain’s servants.”  Everybody, no doubt, has heard the tradition of her having been so taken with Falstaff in King Henry the Fourth, that she requested the Poet to continue the character through another play, and to represent him in love; whereupon he wrote The Merry Wives of Windsor.  Whatever embellishments may have been added, there is nothing incredible in the substance of the tradition; while the approved taste and judgment of this female king, in matters of literature and art, give it strong likelihoods of truth.

Elizabeth knew how to unbend in such noble delectations without abating her dignity as a queen, or forgetting her duty as the mother of her people.  If the patronage of King James fell below hers in wisdom, it was certainly not lacking in warmth.  One of his first acts, after reaching London, was to order out a warrant from the Privy Seal for the issuing, of a patent under the Great Seal, whereby the Lord Chamberlain’s players were taken into his immediate patronage under the title of “The King’s Servants.”  The instrument names nine players, and Shakespeare stands second in the list.  Nor did the King’s patent prove a mere barren honour:  many instances of the company’s playing at the Court, and being well paid for it, are on record.

The Poet evidently was, as indeed from the nature of his position he could not but be, very desirous of withdrawing from the stage; and had long cherished, apparently, a design of doing so.  In several passages of his Sonnets, two of which I have already quoted, he expresses, in very strong and even pathetic language, his intense dislike of the business, and his grief at being compelled to pursue it.  At what time he carried into effect his purpose of retirement is not precisely known; nor can I stay to trace out the argument on that point.  The probability is, that he ceased to be an actor in the Summer of 1604.  The preceding year, 1603, Ben Jonson’s Sejanus was brought out at the Blackfriars, and one of the parts was sustained by Shakespeare.  After this we have no note of his appearance on the stage; and there are certain traditions inferring the contrary.