ear, that a
study of Shakespeare's influence is in part a study of changing ideas
and ideals in literature--that as he survived the Restoration taste, so
he survived the new classicism of the eighteenth and the romanticism of
the early nineteenth century. It is also clear that a full record of the
influence of Shakespeare on English-speaking readers would touch on
almost all the varied changes of thought and conduct that have entered
into the history of two centuries.

The most important of the successive editions of Shakespeare from that
of Nicholas Rowe, 1709, to the present time, have been noted in the
history of the text in Chapter VII. It must be observed that these
various publications indicate not only progress toward establishing a
sound text, but also a constantly increasing number of readers. The
multiplication of editions kept pace with the vast extension of the
middle-class interest in literature. By the end of the eighteenth
century, the works of Shakespeare were in the possession of everyone who
had a library, and with a text and notes that left few difficulties for
a person of any education.

The nineteenth century well maintained the tradition of earlier
scholarship. Malone's extensive antiquarian knowledge of Elizabethan
drama and theater served as the basis for further research in these
fields by Dyce, Ward, Fleay, and others. The chronological order of the
plays, which Malone was the first to investigate, was determined with
considerable certainty and gave a new significance to the study of
Shakespeare's work as a whole. Dyce, Sidney Walker, and Wright, Delius
of the Germans, Richard Grant White of the Americans, are a few among
the long list of scholars who have added notable emendations and
illustrative notes. Editions of the collected works indeed soon became
almost too numerous for record, and the number of readings, notes, and
illustrations too great for collection even in the largest variorum.
To-day the task of scholarship may lie in the restriction,
simplification, and final determination of certain varying editorial
practices rather than in the accumulation of further illustrative and
appreciative comment. But to the work of adding new editions there can
be no end so long as the number of readers increases. Volumes of all
sizes, for many classes, following various editorial methods, are likely
to continue to meet the changing but ever increasing demands of
English-speaking readers. At the e