THE COMEDIES, HISTORIES,
TRAGEDIES, AND POEMS OF

William Shakespeare

WITH MEMOIR, INTRODUCTIONS, AND
NOTES BY RICHARD GRANT WHITE

REVISED, SUPPLEMENTED, AND ANNOTATED BY WILLIAM P.
TRENT, M.A., LL.D., PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

IN COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, BENJAMIN W. WELLS,

PH.D., AND JOHN B. HENNEMAN, M.A., PH.D.,

LATE PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH IN

THE UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH

In Eighteen Volumes

VOLUME ONE

THE TEMPEST

THE TWO GENTLEMen of veERONA
THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR

BOSTON

LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY

TO

THOMAS P. BARTON, ESQUIRE,

THIS EDITION

OF THE POET WHOSE WORKS HE HAS STUDIED SO PROFOUNDLY

AND COMPREHENDS SO THOROUGHLY,

AND FOR THE ILLUSTRATION OF WHICH HE HAS ACCUMULATED

AND SYSTEMATICALLY ARRANGED,

WITH AN INTELLIGENT PURPOSE RARELY BROUGHT TO THE TASK,

A MASS OF MATERIAL UNEQUALLED IN THIS COUNTRY,

AND HARDLY SURPASSED IN THE World,

IS DEDICATED,

IN RECOGNITION OF HIS ATTAINMENTS IN SHAKESPEARIAN LETTERS,

AND IN ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF AID WITHOUT WHICH

IT COULD NOT HAVE BEEN COMPLETED,

BY HIS OBLIGED FRIEND AND FELLOW-STUDENT,

R. G. W.

PREFACE TO THE REVISED
EDITION

THE revisers of the edition of Shakespeare which Rich

ard Grant White completed forty-five years ago end their labors with deep admiration for the varied scholarship, acute discernment, and critical originality displayed by an editor whose name will continue to stand high among students of Shakespeare. In a sense, however, the very qualities of the edition seemed to invite and justify its revision in the light of the progress made by Shakespearian studies in the past half-century. White's text, while deserving to be left substantially intact, needed revision in many small particulars of spelling and punctuation and some change in matters of larger importance. It seemed advisable to number the lines in order to facilitate reference and to transfer from the first to the last volume such of the preliminary essays as appeared to possess permanent value. The introductions to the separate plays and poems were in most cases retained in the form White had given them, errors being corrected and supplementary information supplied through bracketed material and additional notes. With the annotations a more radical procedure was deemed necessary.

The state of Shakespearian scholarship in 1857, when the first volume of this edition was issued, was such as to warrant discussion, polemic and justificatory, of matters that are now clear to all. Here a considerable amount of elimination seemed wise. Again, when the original notes were compiled, none of the greater modern English dic