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THE history of this little book is a brief one. In May, 1849, I commenced the publication of "The Shakspeare Calendar" in the Southern Weekly Gazette. continued from week to week, and attracted the attention of numerous readers, some of whom advised the publication of the Calendar in a volume.

In consenting to this, and putting my name upon the title-page as its editor, I cannot forbear to acknowledge more fully than I have done in the Dedication, my indebtedness to one whose highest happiness it has ever been to aid me in my diversified labors. Beyond the suggestion

of the idea developed in the following pages, the accumulation of chronological events, and the selection of perhaps one third of the illustrations, I have had little to do with the preparation of the book, except to approve the taste and industry of her to whom the greater share of whatever merit it possesses is justly due.

If it were allowable to plead haste as an apology for imperfections in a volume like this, I might venture to say that its publication as a holiday book was only resolved upon at a period so late as to demand great dispatch in the preparation of those portions not embraced in the columns of the Gazette, amounting to fully one half of the year.

An humble waif thrown thus upon the stream of destiny, I cannot but hope that it may be wafted along by the gentle

breeze of popular favor; and since it can provoke criticism only by its imperfections of manner, I trust that the reader will estimate it, chiefly as I do, for the design and spirit of the work.

If it should prove successful, it, another season, may add additional evidence of the admirable fertility of Shakspeare in "wit and wisdom for every day of the year."

ATHENS, GA., Nov. 1, 1849.

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