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though he hardly matches himself at his best. Thirdly, there may be about the same number of plays constructed of slighter materials and put together hurriedly by the playwright to meet the demands of the hour. These the general reader is not likely to read more than once, and he will not be endangering his literary salvation if he does not read some of them at all. It goes against the grain to acknowledge such a tail" among Shakspeare's works; but one is not a real reader at all as long as one stands in stupefaction before everything written by even the greatest genius, and it is impossible to perceive the greatness of a Hamlet or a Henry the Fifth, unless one sees the contrast between it and one of the inferior plays. Yet even the latter enter into the total bulk of work by which Shakspeare impresses the mind of the world; and in even the least hopeful of them a careful reader will find lines and phrases which he cannot forget.1

1 At the last moment I perceive that both the above estimates are accommodated to conventional opinion; and I shall be doing better service to the general reader by transferring the markings from my working copy of Shakspeare; though I am well aware that, in so doing, I am taking my life in my hands. This third estimate may, indeed, be almost taken as that of another man, as it dates back a considerable time. It was made after close, critical and repeated reading, and without the slightest thought of publication. So far am I from wishing to impose it on anyone else that I have not even adhered to it myself; but it is reproduced for the sake of encouraging others to form an independent judgment. Advantage is taken of the opportunity to arrange the plays in the usual order,

The Tempest, Class A; The Two Gentlemen of Verona, E; The Merry Wives of Windsor, C; Measure for Measure, C; The Comedy of Errors, F; Much Ado about Nothing, E; Love's Labour's Lost, C ; A Midsummer-Night's Dream, C; The Merchant of Venice, A; As You Like It, C; The Taming of the Shrew, F; All's Well that Ends Well, D; Twelfth Night, C; The Winter's Tale, D;

King John, A B; King Richard the Second, A B; First Part of King Henry the Fourth, A B; Second Part of King Henry the Fourth, A B; King Henry the Fifth, B; First Part of King Henry the Sixth, G; Second Part of King Henry the Sixth, C; Third Part of King Henry the Sixth, E; King Richard the Third, D; King Henry the Eighth, D;

Troilus and Cressida, C; Coriolanus, B; Titus Andronicus, G; Romeo and Juliet, B; Timon of Athens, C; Julius Cæsar, A; Macbeth, A; Hamlet, A; King Lear, B; Othello, C; Antony and Cleopatra, A B; Cymbeline, B C; Pericles, F.

A PAGE OF LEARNING

A PAGE OF LEARNING

ALTHOUGH, in the preface, it has been stated that this book is not intended for scholars, yet a page of learning may be added for the sake of any disposed to proceed further and for the purpose of indicating wherein Shakspearean learning consists.

First, there is the question of the edition to get. The first I ever used was a single volume, costing only a shilling and published, I well remember, by one of the name of Dick. It was trying to the eyes;

but there are single-volume editions, at a reasonable rate, unexceptionable in this respect, such as the Globe, the Leopold and that in the Oxford Poets. The edition I have used most is that of Dyce, in eight volumes, one of which is a glossary; there are ample notes, especially on the text. On single plays I have used the volumes of Professor Aldis Wright in the Clarendon Press Series; the introductions and notes leave nothing to be desired. But, of late years, I have used most the dainty volumes of the Temple Shakspeare, edited by Gollancz.1

1 There is now a new Clarendon Press Series, edited by J. C. Smith; and I am told that Blackies' (Warwick) and the Pitt Press (Verity) editions of single plays are firstrate.

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