Begun in the winter of 1874, a first instalment of "A Study of
Shakespeare" appeared in the _Fortnightly Review_ for May 1875, and a
second in the number for June 1876, but the completed work was not issued
in book form until June 1880. In a letter to me (January 31, 1875),
Swinburne said:
"I am now at work on my long-designed essay or study on the metrical
progress or development of Shakespeare, as traceable by ear and _not_
by finger, and the general changes of tone and stages of mind
expressed or involved in this change or progress of style."
The book was produced at the moment when controversy with regard to the
internal evidence of composition in the writings attributed to
Shakespeare was raging high, and the amusing appendices were added at the
last moment that they might infuriate the pedants of the New Shakespeare
Society. They amply fulfilled that amiable purpose.