This is Patmore's earliest prose writing still extant; it was written when he was 16 years old. WMR thought highly of the essay, which makes an original argument about Shakespeare's play. (But as the note to the essay suggests, Patmore's insight was anticipated by an essay published in the
It was printed in The
Germ
At the conclusion of the essay Patmore briefly recapitulates some of the most important commentators on the play: Dryden's