Shakespeare’s First Plays (contd)

Abstract

If the chronology of Shakespeare’s earliest plays is as ‘uncertain’ as F. P. Wilson maintained¹, how is it that an ‘orthodox’ chronology has held the field for so long? The orthodox ‘late start’ chronology (according to which Shakespeare began his writing career in 1590, and not three or four years earlier) rests on assumptions that once made good sense, many of which have now been brought into question or superseded by later research. I propose, next, to examine these assumptions, their early history and their survival in the immensely influential work of E. K. Chambers.