Which brings me to the matter of Shakespeare’s SENIOR CONTEMPORARIES.  For here, again, the process was gradual.  Neither may we affirm that nothing had yet been done towards organizing the collected materials.  But the methods and faculties of art were scattered here and there; different parts of the thing had been worked out severally; and it yet remained to draw and knit them all up together.  It is difficult, perhaps impossible, to determine exactly by whom the first steps were taken in this work.  But all that was done of much consequence, Shakespeare apart, may be found in connection with the three names of George Peele, Robert Greene, and Christopher Marlowe.

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PEELE took his first degree at Oxford in 1577, and became Master of Arts in 1579.  Soon after this, he is supposed to have gone to London as a literary adventurer.  Dissipation and debauchery were especially rife at that time among the authors by profession, who hung in large numbers upon the metropolis, haunting its taverns and ordinaries; and it is but too certain that Peele plunged deeply into the vices of his class.

His first dramatic work, The Arraignment of Paris, was printed in 1584, the title-page stating that it had been played before the Queen by the children of her chapel.  The piece is vastly superior to any thing known to have preceded it.  It is avowedly a pastoral drama, and sets forth a whole troop of gods and goddesses; with nothing that can properly be called delineation of character.  The plot is simply this:  Juno, Pallas, and Venus get at strife who shall have the apple of discord which Ate has thrown among them, with directions that it be given to the fairest.  As each thinks herself the fairest, they agree to refer the question to Paris, the Trojan shepherd, who, after mature deliberation, awards the golden ball to Venus.  An appeal is taken:  he is arraigned before Jupiter in a synod of the gods for having rendered a partial and unjust sentence; but defends himself so well, that their godships are at a loss what to do.  At last, by Apollo’s advice, the matter is referred to Diana, who, as she wants no lovers, cares little for beauty.  Diana sets aside all their claims, and awards the apple to Queen Elizabeth; which verdict gives perfect satisfaction all round.

The piece displays fair gifts of poetry; it abounds in natural and well-proportioned sentiment; thoughts and images seem to rise up fresh from the writer’s observation, and not merely gathered at second hand; a considerable portion is in blank-verse, but the author uses various measures, in all which his versification is graceful and flowing.