The Project Gutenberg EBook of An Introduction to Shakespeare, by
H. N. MacCracken and F. E. Pierce and W. H. Durham

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Title: An Introduction to Shakespeare

Author: H. N. MacCracken
F. E. Pierce
W. H. Durham

Release Date: January 16, 2010 [EBook #30982]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN INTRODUCTION TO SHAKESPEARE ***

Produced by Al Haines

[Frontispiece: TITLE-PAGE OF THE FIRST FOLIO, 1628 The first collected
edition of Shakespeare's Plays (From the copy in the New York Public
Library)]

AN INTRODUCTION TO SHAKESPEARE

BY

H. N. MacCRACKEN, PH.D.
F. E. PIERCE, PH.D.

AND

W. H. DURHAM, PH.D.

OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LITERATURE IN

THE SHEFFIELD SCIENTIFIC SCHOOL OF

YALE UNIVERSITY

New York

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

1925

_All rights reserved_

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

COPYRIGHT, 1910,

By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.

Set up and electrotyped. Published September, 1910. Reprinted April,
December, 1911; September, 1912; July, 1913; July, 1914; December,
1915; November, 1916; May, 1918; July, 1919; November, 1920; September,
1921; June, 1923; January, 1925.

Norwood Press

J. S. Cushing Co.--Berwick & Smith Co.

Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.

{v}

PREFACE

The advances made in Shakespearean scholarship within the last
half-dozen years seem to justify the writing of another manual for
school and college use. The studies of Wallace in the life-records, of
Lounsbury in the history of editions, of Pollard and Greg in early
quartos, of Lee upon the First Folio, of Albright and others upon the
Elizabethan Theater, as well as valuable monographs on individual plays
have all appeared since the last Shakespeare manual was prepared. This
little volume aims to present what may be necessary for the majority of
classes, as a background upon which may be begun the study and reading
of the plays. Critical comment on individual plays has been added, in
the hope that it may stimulate interest in other plays than those
assigned for study.

Chapters I, VIII, IX, X, and XIII are the work of