The Project Gutenberg EBook of Eighteenth Century Essays on Shakespeare by
D. Nichol Smith

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Title: Eighteenth Century Essays on Shakespeare

Author: D. Nichol Smith

Release Date: October 10, 2009 [Ebook #30227]

Language: English

Character set encoding: US-ASCII

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ESSAYS ON SHAKESPEARE***

Eighteenth Century

Essays on Shakespeare

Edited by

D. Nichol Smith, M.A.

Glasgow

James MacLehose and Sons

Publishers to the University

1903

CONTENTS

Preface.
Introduction. Shakespearian Criticism in the Eighteenth Century.
Nicholas Rowe: Some Account of the Life &c. of Mr. William Shakespear.
1709.
John Dennis: On the Genius and Writings of Shakespeare. 1711.
Alexander Pope: Preface to Edition of Shakespeare. 1725.
Lewis Theobald: Preface to Edition of Shakespeare. 1733.
Sir Thomas Hanmer: Preface to Edition of Shakespeare. 1744.
William Warburton: Preface to Edition of Shakespeare. 1747.
Samuel Johnson: Preface to Edition of Shakespeare. 1765.
Richard Farmer: An Essay on the Learning of Shakespeare: Addressed to
Joseph Cradock, Esq. 1767.
Maurice Morgann: An Essay on the Dramatic Character of Sir John Falstaff.
1777.
Notes.
Nicholas Rowe.
John Dennis.
Alexander Pope.
Lewis Theobald.
Sir Thomas Hanmer.
William Warburton.
Samuel Johnson.
Richard Farmer.
Maurice Morgann.
Index.
Footnotes

PREFACE.

The purpose of this book is to give an account of Shakespeare's reputation
during the eighteenth century, and to suggest that there are grounds for
reconsidering the common opinion that the century did not give him his
due. The nine Essays or Prefaces here reprinted may claim to represent the
chief phases of Shakespearian study from the days of Dryden to those of
Coleridge. It is one of the evils following in the train of the romantic
revival that the judgments of the older school have been