The complete works of William Shakespeare, comprising his plays and poems, with a history of the stage, a life of the poet, and an introduction to each play: the text of the plays corrected by the manuscript emendations contained in the recently discovered folio of 1632.

Front matter

IP.

JEWETT'S COLLIER'S EDITION.

THE

Preface

It is known to all who nave bestowed attention upon the early history of Shakespeare's writings, that his dramas came originally from the press in a most imperfect state : so inaccurate, indeed, so defective and mutilated were the first editions of some of these admirable productions, that, were they reproduced at the present day with all the faults of their primitive typography, it is doubtful whether their transcendent merits would be discovered, even by many who are now their sincerest admirers. They were often without stage directions, and deficient in all the divisions of act and scene ; halting rhymes and intolerable rhythm disfigured every speech ; prose was solemnly measured off into verse, and verse unmercifully degraded into prose ; omissions and redundances rapidly succeeded each other ; they abounded with blunders in grammar and in sense, in orthography and punctuation, and with incoherences and inconsistencies of every imaginable description.

For so much of this gross carelessness as may fairly be attributed to the printers, it may be remarked in extenuation, that in the age of Shakespeare the art of printing was comparatively in its infancy. The correction of the press, as it is called, or the business of securing the most perfect accuracy in printed works, was not then, generally, as it has since become, a distinct department, intrusted to an experienced person specially trained for the purpose ; but was often exercised at hap-hazard, either by the proprietor of a printing-office, who was sometimes incompetent, or by one of his deputies no better qualified than himself. It is true that among the old printers there was not wanting here and there one, who justly prided himself upon the superior accuracy with which he executed the works intrusted to his care ; but it was not the good fortune of Shakespeare's plays, on their first publication, to fall into any such competent hands.

The carelessness or ignorance of printers was not, however, the only source of inaccuracy. The unwillingness of the old stage-managers to have their popular acting dramas printed, and thus made accessible to the public— probably through fear that such publicity would tend to diminish the desire to witness their performance at the theatre — often rendered the publication of a play a surreptitious work. Publishers ^ being thus driven to indirect means to obtain possession of a manuscript copy, the author of a play, by his joint interest with the manager, was necessarily excluded from furnifhing it, as well as from any supervision of his own production while passing through the press. That such was the case with the first impression of Shakespeare's plays there can be no doubt. The manuscript from which they were printed was evidently an imperfect copy, obtained from the memory of subordinate

PREFACE.

many of the most valuable of these emendations the reader will desire no authority ; they carry conviction on their face, and that they are the genuine language of the poet becomes at once self-evident. If, however, there are a few which seem to deserve only a qualified approbation, we hazard nothing in saying, that from the large majority it will be found utterly impossible to dissent.

The text of Collier being without notes, or any means of distinguishing the new readings, for the present work we have collated it with the best modern editions, principally with those of Verplanck and Singer, and denoted its variations from them by figures, which are plaeed before the word or passage referred to. The reading of former editions is inserted, under corresponding figures, in the " Notes to the Emendations" at the close of the volume. The' means are thus furnished not only of comparing this edition with previous ones, but of restoring the former reading whenever desirable. As the drama of " Pericles" is not contained in the folio of 1632, none of the proposed emendations can of course be applicable to it : the text, in this instance, is that of the most authentic impressions.

Our text of the Poems is from Collier's edition of 1844,

Collier's " History of the English Stage to the Time of Shakespeare," affording, as it does, a view of the poet's stand-point at the outset of his career, is of great value in forming an estimate of the creative and reformatory power of his genius. It contains, however, much irrelevant matter of inferior interest, and has accordingly been abridged for the present work. The Life of Shakespeare and the Introductions to the Plays inserted in this edition have also been abridged from the same source.

As something of interest to the reader, the preliminary matter belonging to the folio of 1632 — consisting of " The Dedication," " Commendatory Verses," &c. — has been reproduced in the form and order there observed.

More than ordinary pains have been bestowed upon the foot-notes of this edition, in order to obviate the necessity of looking beyond the volume itself for any thing needful to its proper elucidation. While many difficult words and passages hitherto neglected have been explained, many lengthy interpretations of commentators have also been condensed ; and it is believed these notes, as now arranged, will afford all the essential ^id that can be derived both from a glossary of antiquated words, and a commentary upon obscure or involved passages, obsolete customs, &c. The foot-notes are referred to by letters of the alphabet, which, in the text, are placed before the word or passage to be explained. J. L. J.

New York, June, 1855.

Mr. Collier says of the " recently-discovered Folio" : " The singularity and interest of the volume arises out of the fact that from the first page to the last it contains notes and emendations in a handwriting not much later than when it came from the press As there is no page without from ten

to thirty of these minor emendations they do not in the whole fall short of 20,000 Corrections

only have been hitherto spoken of, but there are at least two other peculiar features in the volume. Many passages in nearly all the plays are struck out with a pen as if for the purpose of shortening the performance. [See Facsimile.] To this fact we may add that hundreds of stage-directions have been

inscribed in manuscript as if for the guidance and instruction of actors in order that no mistake might lie made in what is denominated stage-business."

For a full account of the history and value of this volume, see " Notes and Emendations to the Text of Shakespeare's Plays, from the early MS. Corrections, contained in a copy of the Folio of 1632, iu the possession of J. Payne Collier, Esq." London. One vol. 12mo, reprinted by J. S. Redfield, New York, and to be had of the booksellers generally throughout the United States.

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Baft. How the yongwhelpeof-7'^^ raging wood, Did flcih hispuny-fword in Freiicbmens blood.

Puc. Once I encouatrcd him^nd thus 1 laid : Thou Maiden youthjbevanuuiiht by aMaide. But with a provdMajeftkallhigh fcorne *3©' t-vuft;*^ - Heanfwer'd thus : Yong Talbot was not borne i<,r*#**U; To be the pillage of a Giglot Wenclu^ / 'V fr^^^L He left me proudly , as unw ortby fight.

iter.DoubtlejTe he would have made a noble Knight. See where he lyes inherced in the armes Of the mofrWa^rNuTlfer of his harmes . |

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[har. Ohnoforbeare:For that which we have fled During the life Jet nsiiot Wrong it dead. ^ ^L

Z*.Herald,conduA me to the Dolphins Tent, To Know who hath obtarirfthhe glory or' the day.

Char. On what fubmijTive meflageart choufent?

Lhcj. Submi/TionDolphin?Tisameere French word: We EngliftV Warriours wot not wbatitrneanes. I come to know whatPrifoners thou haft taney And to furvey the bodies of the dead.

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HISTORY

OF

THE ENGLISH DRAMA AND STAGE

TO

THE TIME OF SHAKESPEARE,

In order to make the reader acquainted with the origin of the English stage, such as Shakespeare found it when he became connected with it, it is necessary to mention that a miracle-play or mystery, (as it has been termed in modern times), is the oldest form of dramatic composition in our language. The stories of productions of this kind were derived from the Sacred Writings, from the pseudo-evangelium, or from the lives and legends of saints and martyrs.

Miracle-plays were common in London in the year 1170; and as early as 1119 the miracle-play of St. Katherine had been represented at Dunstable.

During about 300 years this species of theatrical entertainment seems to have flourished, often under the auspices of the clergy, who used it as the means of religious instruction ; but prior to the reign of Henry VI., a new kind of drama had become popular, which by writers of the time was denominated a moral, or moral play, and more recently a morality. It acquired this name from the nature and purpose of the representation, which usually conveyed a lesson for the better conduct of human life, the characters employed not being scriptural, as in miracle-plays, but allegorical, or symbolical. Miracle-plays continued to be represented long after moral plays were introduced, but from a remote date abstract impersonations had by degrees, not now easily traced, found their way into miracle-plays : thus, perhaps, moral plays, consisting only of such characters, grew out of them.

A very remarkable and interesting miracle-play, not founded upon the Sacred Writings, but upon a popular legend, and all the characters of which, with one exception, purport to be real personages, has recently been discovered in the library of Trinity College, Dublin, in a manuscript certainly as old as the later part of the reign of Edward IV.

It was not until the reign of Elizabeth that miracle-plays were generally abandoned, but in some distant parts of 1 the kingdom they were persevered with even till the time of James I. Miracle-plays, in fact, gradually gave way to moral plays, which presented more variety of situation and character ; and moral plays in turn were superseded by a species of mixed drama, which was strictly neither moral play nor historical play, but a combination of both in the same representation.

Of this singular union of discordant materials, no person who has hitherto written upon the history of our dramatic poetry has taken due notice ; but it is very necessary not to pass it over, inasmuch as it may be said to have led ultimately to the introduction of tragedy, comedy, and history, as we now understand the terms, upon the boards of our public theatres. No blame for the omission can fairly be imputed to our predecessors, because the earliest specimens of this sort of mixed drama which remain to us have been brought to light within a comparatively few years. The most important of these is the " Kynge Johan" of Bishop Bale. We are not able to settle with precision the date when it was originally written, but it was evidently performed, with additions and alterations, after Elizabeth came to the throne. The purpose of the author was to promote the Reformation, by applying to the circumstances of his own times the events of the reign of King John, when the. kingdom was placed by the Pope under an interdict, and when, according to popular belief, the sovereign was poisoned by a draught administered to him by a monk. This drama resembles a moral play in the introduction of abstract impersonations, and an historical play in the adaptation of a portion of our national annals, with real characters, to the purposes of the stage. Though performed in the reign of Elizabeth, we may carry back the first composition and representation of " Kynge Johan" to the time of Edward VI.

The object of Bale's play was, as we have stated, to advance the Reformation under Edward VI. ; but in the reign of his successor a drama of a similar description, and of a directly opposite tendency, was written and acted. The anonymous author calls his drama " Resjiublica," and he adds that it was " made in the year of our Lord 1553, and the first year of the most prosperous reign of our most gracious Sovereign, Queen Mary the First." He was supposed to speak the prologue himself, in the character of "a Poet;" and although every person he introduces is in fact called by some abstract name, he avowedly brings forward the Queen herself as " Nemesis, the Goddess of redress and correction," while her kingdom of England is intended by " Respublica," and its inhabitants represented by " People :" the Reformation in the Church is distinguished as "Oppression;" and Policy, Authority, and Honesty, are designated " Avarice," " Insolence," and " Adulation." All this is distinctly stated by the author on his title-page, while he also employs the impersonations of Misericordia, Veritas, Justitia, and Pax, (agents not unfrequentjy resorted to in the older miracle-plays) as the friends of " Nemesis," the Queen, and as the supporters of the Roman Catholic religion in her dominions.

The production was evidently written by a man of education ; but, although there are many attempts at humor, and some at variety, both in character and situation, the whole must have been a very weari-

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE some performance, adapted to please the court by its general tendency, but little calculated to accomplish any other purpose entertained by the writer.

In the midst of the performance of dramatic productions of a religious or political character, each party supporting the views which most accorded with the author's individual opinions, John Heywood, who was a zealous Roman Catholic, and who subsequently suffered for his creed under Edward VI. and Elizabeth, discovered a new species of entertainment, of a highly humorous, and not altogether of an uninstructive kind ; which seems to have been very acceptable to the sovereign and nobility, and to have obtained for the author a distinguished character as a court dramatist, and ample rewards as a court dependant. ' These were properly called " interludes," being short comic pieces, represented ordinarily in the interval between the feast and the banquet ; and we may easily believe that they had considerable influence in the settlement of the form which our stage-performances ultimately assumed. Heywood does not appear to have begun writing until after Henry VIII. had been some years on the throne. His " John Tib and Sir John," his " Four Ps," his " Pardoner and Friar," and pieces of that description, presented both variety of matter and novelty of construction, as well as considerable wit and drollery in the language. He was a very original writer, and certainly merits more admiration than any of his dramatic contemporaries.

To the commencement of the reign of Elizabeth we may refer several theatrical productions -which make approaches, more or less near, to comedy, tragedy, and history, and still retain many of the known features of moral plays. " Tom Tiler and his Wife" is a comedy in its incidents ; but the allegorical personages, Desire, Destiny, Strife, and Patience, connect it immediately with the earlier species of stage-entertainment. " The conflict of Conscience," on the other hand, is a tragedy on the fate of an historical personage ; but Conscience, Hypocrisy, Avarice, Horror, &c, are called in aid of the purpose of the writer. " Appius and Virginia" is in most respects a history, founded upon facts; but Rumor, Comfort, and Doctrine, are importantly concerned in the representation. These, and other productions of the same class, which it is not necessary to particularize, show the gradual advances made towards a better, because a more natural, species of theatrical composition.

What is justly to be considered the oldest known comedy in our language is of a date not much posterior to the reign of Henry VIII., if, indeed, it were not composed while he was on the throne. It has the title of " Ralph Roister Doister," and it was written by Nicholas Udall, who was master of Eton school in 1540, and who died in 1557. It is on every account a very remarkable performance ; and as the scene is laid in London, it affords a curious picture of metropolitan manners. The regularity of its construction, even at that early date, may be gathered from the fact, that in the single" copy which has descended to us it is divided into acts and scenes. The story is one of common, every-day life ; and none of the characters are such as people had been accustomed to find in ordinary dramatic entertainments. The piece takes its name from its hero, a young town-gallant, who is mightily enamored of himself, and who is encouraged in the good opinion he entertains of his own person and accomplishments by Matthew Merrygreek, a poor relation, who attends him in the double capacity of companion and servant. Ralph Roister Doister is in love with a lady of property, called Custance, betrothed to Gawin Goodluck, a merchant, who is at sea when the comedy begins, but who returns before it concludes. The main incidents relate to the mode in which the hero, with the treacherous help of his as sociate, endeavors to gain the affections of Custance. He writes her a letter, which Merrygreek reads without a due observance of the punctuation, so that it entirely perverts the meaning of the writer: he visits her while she is surrounded by her female domestics, but he is unceremoniously rejected : he resolves to carry her by force of arms, and makes an assault upon her habitation ; but with the assistance of her maids, armed with mops and brooms, she drives him from the attack. Then, her betrothed lover returns, who has been misinformed on the subject of her fidelity, but he is soon reconciled on an explanation of the facts ; and Ralph Roister Doister, finding that he has no chance of success, and that he has only been cajoled and laughed at, makes up his mind to be merry at the wedding of Goodluck and Custance. Were the dialogue modernized, the comedy might be performed, even in our own day, to the satisfaction of many of the usual attendants at our theatres.

The drama which we have been accustomed to regard as our oldest tragedy, and which probably has a just claim to the distinction, was acted on 18th January, 1562, and printed in 1565. It was originally called " Gorboduc ;" but it was reprinted in 1571 under the title of " Forrex and Porrex," and a third time in 1590 as " Gorboduc." The first three acts were written by Thomas Norton, and the last two by Thomas Sackville, afterwards Earl of Dorset, and it was performed " by the gentlemen of the Inner Temple." Although the form of the Greek drama is observed in " Gorboduc," and each act concluded by a chorus, yet Sir Philip Sidney, who admitted (in his "Apology of Poetry") that it was " full of stately speeches and well-sounding phrases," could not avoid complaining that the unities of time and place had been disregarded. Thus, in the very outset and origin of our stage, as regards what may be termed the regular drama, the liberty, which allowed full exercise to the imagination of the audience, and which was afterwards happily carried to a greater excess, was distinctly asserted and maintained. It is also to be remarked, that " Gorboduc" is the earliest known play in our language in which blank-Verse was employed ; but of the introduction* of blank-verse upon our public stage, we shall have occasion to speak hereafter. It was an important change, which requires to be separately considered.

We have now entered upon the reign of Elizabeth ; and although, as already observed, moral plays and even miracle-plays were still acted, we shall soon see what a variety of subjects, taken from ancient history, from mythology, fable, and romance, were employed for the purposes of the drama. Stephen Gosson, one of the earliest enemies of theatrical performances, writing his " Plays confuted in Five Actions" a little after the period of which we are now speaking, but adverting to the drama as it had existed some years before, tells us, that " the Palace of Pleasure, the Golden Ass, the ^Ethiopian History, Amadis of France, and the Round Table," as well as " comedies in Latin, French, Italian, and Spanish, have been thoroughly ransacked to furnish the play-houses in London." Hence, unquestionably, many of the materials of what is termed our romantic drama were obtained. The accounts of the Master of the Revels between 1570 and 1580

TO THE TIME OF SHAKESPEARE.

contain the names of various plays represented at court ; and it is to be noted, that it was certainly the practice at a later date, and it was probably the practice at the time to which we are now adverting-, to select for performance before the Queen such pieces as were most in favor with public audiences : consequently the mention of a few of the titles of productions represented before Elizabeth at Greenwich, Whitehall, Richmond, or Nonesuch, will show the character of the popular performances of the day,/ We derive the following names from Mr. P. Cunningham's " Extracts from the Revels' Accounts," printed for the Shakespeare Society : —

Lady Barbara. Mutius Scsvola.

Ajax and Ulysses. Titus and Gisippus.

Narcissus. Three Sisters of Mantua.

Paris and Vienna. Cruelty of a Stepmother.

The Play of Fortune. The Greek Maid.

Alcmaaon. Rape of the second Helen.

Quintus Fabius. The Four Sons of Fabius. Timoclea at the Siege of Thebes. History of Sarpedon.

Perseus and Andromeda. Murderous Michael.

The Painter's Daughter. Scipio Africanus.

The History of the Collier. The Duke of Milan. The History of Error.

These are only a few out of many dramas, establishing the multiplicity of sources to which the poets of the time resorted. .

Upon the manner in which the materials thus procured were then handled, we have several contemporaneous authorities. George Whetstone, (an author who has principally acquired celebrity by writing an earlier drama upon the incidents employed by Shakespeare in his " Measure for Measure") in the dedication of his " Promos and Cassandra," gives a compendious description of the nature of popular theatrical representations in 1578. " The Englishman," he remarks, " in this quality is most vain, indiscreet, and out of order. He first grounds his work on impossibilities ; then, in three hours, runs he through the world, marries, gets children, makes children men, men to conquer kingdoms, murder monsters, and bringeth gods from heaven, and fetcheth devils from hell : and, that which is worst, their ground is not so unperfect as their working indiscreet ; not weighing, so the people laugh, though they laugh them for their follies to scorn. Many times, to make mirth, they make a clown companion with a king : in their grave councils they allow the advice of fools ; yea, they use one order of speech for all persons, a gross indecorum." This, it will be perceived, is an accurate account of the ordinary license taken in our romantic drama, and of the reliance of poets, long before the time of ShakeiSpeare, upon the imaginations of their auditor's.

Sir Philip Sidney is believed to have written his "Apology of Poetry" in 1583, and we have already referred to it in connection with " Gorboduc." His observations, upon the general character of dramatic representations in his time, throw much light on the state of the stage a very few years before Shakespeare is supposed to have quitted Stratford-upon-Avon, and attached himself to a theatrical company. " Our tragedies and comedies," says Sidney, " are not without cause cried out against, observing neither rules

of honest civility, nor skilful poetry But if

it be so in Gorboduc, how much more in all the rest, where you shall have Asia of the one side, and Afric of the other, and so many other under-kingdoms, that the player, when he comes in, must ever begin with telling where he is, or else the tale will not be conceived. Now you shall have three ladies walk to gather flowers, and then we must believe the stage to be a garden : by and by we hear news of a shipwreck in the same place ; then, we are to blame if we accept it not for a rock. Upon the back of that comes out a hideous monster with fire and smoke, and then the miserable beholders are bound to take it for a cave ; while, in the meantime, two "armies fly in, represented with four swords and bucklers, and then what hard heart will not receive it for a pitched field ? Now, of time they are much more liberal ; for ordinary it is that two young princes fall in love : after many traverses she is got with child, delivered of a fair boy ; he is lost, groweth a ma-a, falleth in love, and is ready to get another child, and all this in two hours' space : which how absurd it is in sense, even sense may imagine, and art hath taught, and all ancient examples justified."

Having thus briefly adverted to the nature and character of dramatic representations from the earliest times to the year 1583, and having established that our romantic drama was of ancient origin, it is necessary shortly to describe the circumstances under which plays were at different early periods performed.

There were no regular theatres, or buildings permanently constructed for the purposes of the drama, until after 1575. Miracle-plays were sometimes exhibited in churches and in the halls of corporations, but more frequently upon moveable stages, or scaffolds, erected in the open air. Moral plays were subsequently performed under nearly similar circumstances, excepting that a practice had grown up, among the nobility and wealthier gentry, of having dramatic entertainments at particular seasons in their own residences. These were sometimes per formed by a company of actors retained in the family, and sometimes by itinerant players, who belonged to large towns, or who called themselves the servants of members of the aristocracy. In 14 Eliz. an act was passed allowing strolling actors to perform, if licensed by some baron or nobleman of higher degree, but subjecting all others to the penalties inflicted upon vagrants. Therefore, although many companies of players went round the country, and acted as the servants of some of the nobility, they had no legislative protection until 1572. It is a singular fact, that the earliest known company of players, travelling under the name and patronage of one of the nobility, was that of the Duke of Gloucester, afterward Richard III. Henry VII. had two distinct bodies of " actors of interludes" in his pay, and henceforward the profession of a player became well understood and recognised. In the later part of the reign of Henry VII., the players of the Dukes of Norfolk and Buckingham, and of the Earls of Arundel, Oxford, and Northumberland, performed at court. About this period, and somewhat earlier, we also hear of companies attached to particular places; and in coeval records we read of the players of York, Coventry, Lavetiham, Wycombe, Chester, Manningtree, Evesham, Mile-end, Kingston, &c.

In the reign of Henry VIII., and perhaps in that of his predecessor, the gentlemen and singing-boys of the Chapel Royal were employed to act pluys and interludes before the court; and afterwards the children of Westminster, St. Paul's, and Windsor, under their several masters, are not unfrequently mentioned in the household books of the palace, and in the accounts of the department of the revels.

In 1514 the king added a new company to the dramatic retinue of the court, besides the two companies which had been paid by his father, and the associations of theatrical children. In fact, at this period dramatic entertaiments, masques disguisings,

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE and revels of every description, were curried to a costly excess. Henry VIII. raised the sum, until then paid for a play, from £6 13*. Ad. to £10. William Cornyshe, the master of the children of the chapel, on one occasion was paid no less a sum than £200, in the money of that time, by way of reward ; and John Heywood, the author of interludes before mentioned, who was also a player upon the virginals, had a salary of £20 per annum, in addition to his other emoluments. During seasons of festivity a Lord of Misrule was regularly appointed to superintend the sports, and he also was separately and liberally remunerated. The example of the court was followed by the courtiers, and the companies of theatrical retainers, in the pay, or acting in various parts of the kingdom under the names of particular noblemen, became extremely numerous. Religious houses gave them encouragement, and even assisted in the getting up and representation »of the performances, especially shortly before the dissolution of the monasteries.

In 1543 was passed a statute, rendered necessary by the polemical character of some of the dramas publicly represented, although not many years before, the king had himself encouraged such performances at court, by being present at a play in which Luther and his wife were ridiculed. The act prohibits " ballads, plays, rhymes, songs, and other fantasies" of a religious or doctrinal tendency, but at the same time carefully provides, that the clauses shall not extend to " songs, plays, and interludes" which had for object " the rebuking and reproaching of vices, and the setting forth of virtue ; so always the said songs, plays, or interludes meddle not with the interpretations of Scripture."