PUBLISHERS' PREFACE. IT เ T is difficult for publishers nowadays to find a feature not already represented by the enterprise of predecessors in all the possible forms of publication of Shakespeare's Dramas, but we have noted one very excellent form of Shakespeare's works entirely unrepresented in library shape, viz. the edition such as Dr. Johnson a hundred years ago recommended as the best, in the following words : "Those who wish to become acquainted with Shakespeare for the first time, and who desire the fullest pleasure that the drama can give, should read every play, from the first scene to the last, with utter negligence of all his commentators.. When fancy is once on the wing it should not stoop at correction or explanation. Particular passages may be cleared by notes; but the general effect is weakened by the interruption. Obscurities and niceties may be investigated when time permits and inclination prompts; but from beginning to end it is best and safest to allow Shakespeare to speak for himself." Acting on this sage advice, we have adopted the text of Johnson and Steevens as revised by Clark and Wright, and give the complete works of Shakespeare in their unabridged and perfect purity in seven handy volumes, and in case of any reader needing explanation or reference, we have added a thorough Glossary of obscure words and phrases. Besides this we have prepared a complete and comprehensive Compendium and Commentary of the Plays, and a Concordance to all the most notable passages; also a separate Concordance of all the Characters of the Dramas. The only departure from the rule of non-annotation is in the Sonnets, which we have annotated separately because we desired to keep the Glossary, Commentary and Historical Summaries for the Dramas only. The 50 photogravures form a Gallery of Gems of Illustration which will speak for themselves. THE GEBBIE PUBLISHING Co., LIMITED. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. VOLUME I. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (Chandos Portrait) Frontispiece. FERDINAND AND MIRANDA, by W. von Kaulbach PAGE 41 MR. COMPTON AS LAUNCE, Daguerrotype by Paine FALSTAFF AND MRS. FORD, by E. Grutzner Merry Wives of Windsor, Act III., Scene III. 100 123 147 MALVOLIO, SIR TOBY BELCH, ETC., by E. Grutzner . 199 Twelfth Night, Act II., Scene III. ANGELO AND ISABELLA, by A. Spiess Measure for Measure, Act II., Scene IV. 268 BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. THERE is no name in the world of literature like the name of WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. Homer broke as a sudden dawn through the darkness of the earlier ages, and sang the grandest of heroic songs. Dante, when the gods of Homer were no more, towered up, proud and solitary, with his sad and solemn dreams, his fierce hate, and his majestic love. Milton opened the gates of death, of heaven, and of hell, and saw visions such as no man ever saw before or will see again. But Homer, Dante, and Milton do not live in our heart of.hearts, do not twine round our affections, do not satisfy our souls as SHAKESPEARE does. Here and there we find touches of more daring sublimity, passages may more steeped in learning, lines more instinct with abstract thought; but the greatest and best interpreter of human nature, the poet of the widest sympathies, of the most delicate perceptions, of the profoundest knowledge of mankind, a greater sculptor than Phidias, a truer painter than Raphael, came into the world at the pleasant town of Stratford-upon-Avon in April, 1564. IIe lived fifty-two years, he wrote thirty-seven |