The  sources  chiefly  drawn  on  by  our  playwrights  in
the  composition  of  these  tragedies,  were  Stow's  and
Holinshed's  Chronicles,  supplemented  by  special  tracts
and  pamphlets  devoted  to  a  fuller  exposition  of  the
crimes  in  question.  The  author  of  '  Arden  of  Fever-
sham  '  followed  Holinshed  ;  the  author  of  '  The  York-
shire Tragedy '  worked  on  Stow  ;  the  author  of
'  A  Warning  for  Fair  Women  '  took  for  his  text  a
detailed  narrative  of  Sanders'  murder,  which  appeared
in  1573.^  It  will  be  noticed  that  the  most  prolific
writer  in  this  kind  was  Dekker,  and  that  Ford  on  three
occasions  devoted  his  great  talents  to  the  task.  Shak-
spere,  if  we  could  trust  the  title-page  of  the  first  quarto
of  the  '  Yorkshire  Tragedy,'  may  have  made  at  least  one
experiment  in  domestic  drama.  Neither  Jonson  nor
Chapman  nor  yet  Webster  disdained  the  species  ;  and
it  is  probable  that  if  the  works  of  these  men  had  come
down  to  us,  our  dramatic  literature  would  have  been
enriched  with  highly  instructive  objects  of  study.  For
a  note  of  the  domestic  drama  is  that  here  even  great
artists  laid  aside  their  pall  of  tragic  state,  descending
to  a  simple  style  befitting  the  grim  realism  of  their
subject.  This  consideration  should  make  us  cautious
in  rejecting  a  tradition  which  ascribes  to  Shakspere  one
of  these  homely  plays.     The  same  consideration  will

'  A  Brief  Discourse  of  the  late  Murther  of  Master  George  Sanders,  &c.
E  E


4i8  SHAKSPERE'S  PREDECESSORS.
perhaps  enable  us  to  understand  how  Jonson  may  have
made  those  powerful  additions  to  Kyd's  '  Spanish
Tragedy  '  which  puzzled  Lamb.
II.
