Points to Ponder
Mr. Dowden divides Shakespeare's dramatic authorship into four periods. Commencing with 1588 or 1590, he assigns the period up to 1595 to dramatic apprenticeship and calls the period "In the workshop," because now Shakespeare is employed on light and fanciful plays and is adapting old plays. From 1595 to 1601 the poet was employed on comedies and histories, exercising the plastic energy of his imagination on the world as seen through a poet's spectacles. Now he is "In the world," amassing a fortune, and drinking deep draughts of worldly pleasure. Read on...