OF THE SHAKESPEARE SOCIETY. President. THE EARL OF ELLESMERE. Vice-Presidents. THE EARL OF CLARENDON, G.C.B. THE EARL OF GLENGALL. THE EARL HOWE. THE RT. HON. LORD BRAYBROOKE. THE RT. HON. LORD LEIGH. THOMAS AMYOT, ESQ., F.R.S. WILLIAM AYRTON, ESQ., F.R.S., F.S.A. BAYLE BERNARD, ESQ. THE RIGHT HON. THE VICE-CHANCELLOR SIR JAMES KNIGHT BRUCE, F.R.S., F.S.A. J. PAYNE COLLIER, ESQ., TREAS. S.A., DIRECTOR. BOLTON CORNEY, ESQ. PETER CUNNINGHAM, ESQ., TREASURER. THE REV. ALEXANDER DYCE. JOHN FORSTER, ESQ. HENRY HALLAM, ESQ., F.R.S. J. O. HALLIWELL, ESQ., F.R.S., F.S.A. THE REV. WILLIAM HARNESS. CHARLES KNIGHT, ESQ. WILLIAM C. MACREADY, ESQ. THE REV. H. H. MILMAN, F.R.S. JOHN OXENFORD, ESQ. T. J. PETTIGREW, ESQ., F.R.S., F.S.A. J. R. PLANCHÉ, ESQ., F.S.A. SIR GEORGE ROSE, F. R. S. SERJEANT TALFOURD, M.P., D.C.L. F. GUEST TOMLINS, ESQ., SECRETARY. The Council of the Shakespeare Society desire it to be understood that they are not answerable for any opinions or observations that may appear in the Society's publications; the Editors of the several works being alone responsible for the same. PREFACE. In consequence of its interest and novelty, the Council has directed the insertion in the present volume of "Papers" of a document, which may be said not strictly to belong to the period for the illustration of the Drama, Poetry, and Stage of which the Shakespeare Society was established. It relates, however, to no less dramatists than Dryden and Killigrew, and to no less actors than Hart and Mohun, who figured on the boards of London theatres not merely prior to the Restoration, but prior to the Suppression of the Stage by the Orders of 1642 and 1647. An apology for its publication seems, therefore, scarcely required. Of the other contributions to this, the fourth, volume of our Shakespearian miscellany it is not necessary to say more, than that all of them possess peculiar and varied claims to notice in relation to the immediate objects of our inquiries. Some of the articles are of considerable importance, and the Members who have forwarded them merit the best thanks of those who take an interest in such subjects. The volume would have been issued earlier, but for some delay occasioned, in part at least, by arrangements for the engraving, by Mr. Cousens, of the Chandos Portrait of Shakespeare, now the property of our noble President. It will be accompanied by a dissertation on all the known, or imputed, likenesses of the great Dramatist, of the size of the ordinary publications of the Society. |