NOTICE. THE First Book of William Shakspere, a Biography,' is now concluded. The Second Book, completing the Volume, will form a similar quantity. It is intended to give an engraved Title-Page at the conclusion of the work, which will contain the various Portraits of Shakspere. In the mean time, as some subscribers may desire to bind the First Book, and as it may be purchased so bound, a letter-press title-page is temporarily given. The two mottoes on that title-page express the principle upon which this Biography' has been written. That from Steevens shows, with a slight exaggeration of its author, how scanty are the materials for a Life of Shakspere, properly so called. Indeed, every Life of him must, to a certain extent, be conjectural; and all the Lives that have been written are conjectural. Our Biography' is only so far more conjectural than any other, as regards the form which it assumes; by which it has been endeavoured to associate Shakspere with the circumstances around him, in a manner which may fix them in the mind of the reader by exciting his interest. What we have proposed thus to do is shown in the second motto, from Mr. Carlyle's admirable article on Dr. Johnson, we having ventured to substitute the name of "Shakspere" for that of "Johnson." We might have accomplished the same end by writing a short notice of Shakspere, accompanied by a History of Manners and Customs, a History of the Stage, &c., &c. The form we have adopted may appear fanciful, but the narrative essentially rests upon facts. As it is desirable to complete the Seventh Volume of the Works, we shall suspend the publication of the Biography' for two months, to give the 'History of Opinion' (which will include a notice of all the more important critical views of Shakspere, English and Foreign) and the Index. October 24, 1842. WILLIAM SHAKSPERE: A BIOGRAPHY. BY CHARLES KNIGHT. BOOK I. "All that is known with any degree of certainty concerning Shakspere is--that he was born at Stratford-upon-Avon-married and had children there-went to London, where he commenced actor, and wrote poems and plays-returned to Stratford, made his will, died, and was buried." STEEVENS. "Along with that tomb-stone information, perhaps even without much of it, we could have liked to gain some auswer, in one way or other, to this wide question: What and how was ENGLISH LIFE in Shaksperes time; wherein has ours grown to differ therefrom? In other words: What things have we to forget, what to fancy and remember, before we, from such distance, can put ourselves in Shakspere's place; and so, in the full sense of the term, understand him, his sayings, and his doings?"-CARLYLE. LONDON: CHARLES KNIGHT AND CO., LUDGATE STREET. THE poet who has described a man of savage wildness, cherishing "unshaped, half-human thoughts" in his wanderings among vales and streams, green wood and hollow dell, has said that nature ne'er could find the way into his heart:"A primrose by a river's brim A yellow primrose was to him, And it was nothing more." These are lines at which some of the worldly-wise and clever have been wont to laugh; but they contain a deep and universal truth. Without some association, the most beautiful objects in nature have no charm; with association, the commonest acquire a value. The very humblest power of observation is |