THE CHIEF CONTEMPORARY ALLUSIONS TO SHAKESPEARE’S PLAYS[1]
I. 1 Henry VI, 1592.
From Thomas Nashe, Pierce Penniless, his Supplication to the Devil, 1592.
How would it have joyed brave Talbot, the terror of the French, to think that after he had lien two hundred years in his tomb he should triumph again on the stage, and have his bones new embalmed with the tears of ten thousand spectators at least (at several times), who in the tragedian that represents his person imagine they behold him fresh bleeding!
Note. This alludes to the sensational success of the play of Harry the Sixth at the Rose Theatre in the spring of 1592. It is improbable that Shakespeare had any part in this piece, which he later expanded into 1 Henry VI.
II. The Comedy of Errors, 1594.
From Henry Helmes[?], Gesta Grayorum, an account of the proceedings at Gray’s Inn, London, on the night of December 28, 1594
. . . And after such sports, a Comedy of Errors (like to Plautus his Menechmus) was played by the players. So that night was begun and continued to the end in nothing but confusion and errors; whereupon it was ever afterwards called The Night of Errors.
