A comparison of these passages with that above quoted from
The First Part of the Contention and the Second Part of King
Henry the Sixth in common, will make it sufficiently clear to
every reader that the writer of the former had instinctively
adopted a principle of rhythm, and possessed a facility of
thought and verse, and especially a dramatic freedom of diction,
which are not indicated by either of the latter. But the com-
parison in other respects would not be fair ; for the passage
cited from the Second Part of Henry the Sixth and The First Part
of the Contention, is taken only because it is the first of any im-
portance which is common to both those plays ; while the pas-
sages quoted from Marlowe, Greene, and Peele are selected as
being among the best in thought, rhythm, and diction to be
found in the works of their several authors. They gain little,
it is true, in any one of these respects, even if they do not suffer
in all, by comparison with the passage from T/w First Part of
tJie Contention ; but for the complete attainment of our end, they
must be compared with some of the finer passages common to
the earlier and later versions of the two plays, the authorship
of which is the present subject of oiir inquiry.
