820 SHAKESPEARE pendous edition, in 20 vols. folio, which was intended to present all of interest that has been discovered or written for the illustration of Shakespeare down to the present day. This great undertaking was several years in attain- ing a completion which fell somewhat short of the editor's expectations. Mr. Halliwell has not done much for the correction of the text ; and the same is true of Mr. Howard Staunton's pictorial edition, in which much of Mr. Knight's matter has been used. One of the most judi- cious editions ever published is that of the Rev. Alexander Dyce (6 vols. 8vo, London, 1850-'58), of which a second edition (9 vols. 8vo, 1864-'7) and a third (1875) have appeared, the last being posthumous, and each showing many and noticeable changes from the text of its predecessor. The edition of Mrs. Mary Cowden Clarke (2 vols. 8vo, New York, 1860) gives the text very carefully and judiciously. In his revisions Mr. Dyce availed himself large- ly of the next edition of the poet's works, pre- pared from a new recension and collation of the text, that of Mr. R. Grant White (12 vols. crown 8vo, Boston, 1857-'62), which seeks to present the reader with all that is necessary to a critical study of the poet, and which is distinguished by its numerous and successful restorations of corrupted passages. The last complete edition of importance is that of Cam- bridge, edited by W. G. Clark and W. Aldis Wright (9 vols. 8vo, London and Cambridge, 1863-' 6), which gives all the readings of all the folios and all the quartos, and of all the edi- tors, and the suggestions and conjectures of all the commentators whose labors are generally deemed worthy of consideration. In 1871 Mr. Horace Howard Furness began the publica- tion of a great variorum edition, intended to include everything essential or even important as to its subject. The plays which have ap- peared, " Romeo and Juliet " and " Macbeth," have been received with marked approval by Shakespearian scholars. Of the books writ- ten upon Shakespeare's life, text, and genius, forming a mass of which a very imperfect record of the mere titles fills 89 octavo pages in Sillig's book, mentioned above, only a few of the most noteworthy can be indicated here. "A short View of Tragedy; its original Ex- Oillency, and Corruption, with some Reflec- tions on Shakespeare and other Practition- ers for the Stage," by Thomas Rymer (8vo, London, 1693), is noticeable only as being the first book on this subject. But Dryden in his "Essay of Dramatic Poesy" (1668), and in the prefaces to "The Tempest" (1670) and "Troi- lus and Cressida" (1679), and the defence of the epilogue to "The Conquest of Granada" (1672), and Langbaine in his "Account of the English Dramatic Poets" (1691), had previ- ously criticised Shakespeare's plays, the for- mer very elaborately. Of subsequent critical works these are worthy of particular remark : " Shakespeare Restored, or Specimens of Blun- ders committed and unamended in Pope's Edi- ' tion of this Poet," by Lewis Theobald (4to, London, 1726); "Miscellaneous Observations on the Tragedy of Macbeth, with Remarks on Sir T[homas] H[anmer's] Edition of Shake- speare ; to which is affixed Proposals for a new Edition of Shakespeare with a Specimen," by Samuel Johnson (12mo, London, 1745); "Crit- ical Observations on Shakespeare," by John Upton (8vo, London, 1746 and 1748); "The Canons of Criticism," by Thomas Edwards (London, 1748, and, with additions, 1765); "A Revisal of Shakespeare's Text," by Benjamin Heath (8vo, London, 1765); "Twenty of the Plays of Shakespeare, being the whole num- ber printed in Quarto during his Lifetime, or before the Restoration ; collated where there were different copies, and published from the originals," by George Steevens (4 vols. 8vo, London, 1766); "An Essay on the Learning of Shakespeare," by Richard Farmer, D. D. (8vo, London, 1767, and, greatly enlarged, Cambridge, 1767) ; " Notes and Various Read- ings of Shakespeare," by Edward Capell (4to, London, 1775, and, with important additions and " The School of Shakespeare," 8 vote. 4to, 1783) ; " Six Old Plays on which Shake- speare founded ' Measure for Measure,' ' Com- edy of Errors,' ' Taming the Shrew,' ' King John,' 'King Henry IV.,' 'King Henry V./ and 'King Lear'" (2 vols. 12mo, London, 1779); "Comments on the Last Edition of Shakespeare's Plays," by John Monck Mason (8vo, Dublin, 1785); "A Dissertation on the Three Parts of Henry VI.," by Edmond Ma- lone (London, 1792) ; " A Specimen of a Com- mentary on Shakespeare, containing : 1st, Notes on 'As You Like It;' 2dly, An At- tempt to explain and illustrate various Pas- sages on a new Principle of Criticism derived from Mr. Locke's Doctrine of the Association of Ideas," by Walter Whiter (8vo, London, 1794); "An Apology for the Believers in the Shakespeare Papers which were exhibited in Norfolk Street, London," by George Chalmers (8vo, London, 1797), and " A Supplemental Apology for the Believers in the Shakespeare Papers" (1799; these volumes, with "An Ap- pendix" published in 1800, in spite of the speciality of their titles, are filled with gen- eral comment and the results of careful inves- tigation); "Illustrations of Shakespeare and of Ancient Manners," &c., by Francis D6uce (2 vols. 8vo, London, 1807); "Characters of Shakespeare's Plays," by William Hazlitt (Lon- don, 1817) ; Vorlesungen uber dramatische Kunst und Literatur, by August Wilhelm von Schlegel (3 vols. 8vo, Heidelberg, 1817; trans- lated by J. Black, London, 1818); "Shake- speare and his Times," by Nathan Drake, M. D. (2 vols. 4to, London, 1817); "A Glossary, or a Collection of Words, Phrases, Names, and Allusions to Customs, Proverbs, &c., which have been thought to require Illustration in the Works of English Authors, particularly Shakespeare and his Contemporaries," by Archdeacon Nares (4to, London, 1822; and
Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/846
This page needs to be proofread.