Preface
P "
^ I EXT to the Bible and Pilgrim's Progress, no Classic of English Literati ture is more reverently esteemed by Englisli-speaking people than the ^ works of William Shakespeare, yet few have the time to read Shakespeare I thoroughly. A general knowledge of this great author is an essential I introduction to a knowledge of English Classics. It is with this end in view that we have prepared the present volume.
The stor}^ of each drama has been given concisely, and is supplemented by tlie most frequently quoted passages. So extensively have the characters of Shakespeare been drawn upon by artists, poets and writers of fiction — so interwoven are these characters in the great body of English literature, that to be io-norant of the plot of these dramas is often a cause for embarrassment and regret. -Such of them as have been described by the genial Charles and Mar}^ Lamb are made so interesting that we think no one will be contented to leave the subject without reading the original. Scarcely inferior to these, however, are the outlines given by Mary Seymour.
Another motive, no less important than the above, has suggested the preparation of the present volume. Many of the passages of Skakespeare, as originally written, are objectionable in a volume for family reading. To what degree this is true will scarcely be realized by one whose knowledge of the author has been gathered by attendance upon the theater. The objectionable passages have long since been banished from the stage, yet the dramas are not onl}' unimpaired thereby, but are rendered much ^nore popular and instructive. The passages referred to are almost invariably so distinct from the general plan and text of the original as to appear, for the most part, like interpolations, made by the author to suit a taste as uncongenial to him as it appears to be out of harmony with the beauty and grandeur of the author's productions. We are satisfied that these objectional ]:)assages have had great influence in restraining many from that familiarity with Shakespeare which we deem to be essential to English scholarship, and in making the changes we have referred to, we have endeavored to perform the same service to the reading public that dramatists have found it necessary to perform for the exhibition of Shakespeare on the stage.
A man's moral stature is best measured when placed beside men of his own age. Indeed, no other measurement is just. ISTo reader who is familiar with the drama of Shakespeare's time could fail to have marked the contrast between this great master and the indecencies of Beaumont, Fletcher, Dr^^den and Congreve.
We regard with a large degree of suspicion those theories which tend to throw doubt upon the authorship of certain portions of the generally accepted writings of Shakespeare. 'No doubt Timon of Athens and Pericles are dramas that were formerly written by an unknown hand and recast and finished bv Shakespeare. There is also some evidence of another hand in the preamble of King Henry YIII. ; but we have no sympathy with the modern controvers}' introduced by an ambitious Western author, whose pi'oductions upon this subject we regard rather in the light of personal efforts to excite controvers}'^ than from any fixed conviction.
We hope that this volume may prove a helpful stepping-stone to a more general familiarity with this greatest of English Classics.
C. A. GASKELL.
Contents
PAGE.
Life of Shakespeare, 7
The Tempest — Story, 14
Scene I. On a ship at sea ; a tempestuous noise of thunder and lightning heard. Enter a Ship-Master and a Boatswain
Mast. Boatswain !
Boats. Here, master: what cheer?
Mast. Good, speak to the mariners: fall to't, yarely, or we run ourselves aground: bestir, bestir. \^E7:it.
E-nter Mariners.
Boats. Heigh, my hearts! cheerly, cheerly, my hearts! yare, yare! Take in the top-sail. Tend to the master's whistle. Blow, till thou burst thy wind, if room enough!
Enter Alonso, Sebastian, Antonio, Ferdinand, Gonzalo, and others.
Alon. Good boatswain, have care.
Where's the master? Play the men.
Boats. I pray now, keep below.
Ant. Where is the master, boatswain?
Boats. Do you not hear him? Yoii mar our labor: keep your cabins: you do assist the storm.
Gon. Nay, good, be patient.
Boats. When the sea is. Hence!
W hat cares these roarers for the name of king? To cabin: silence! trouble us not.
Gon. Good, yet remember who thou hast aboard.
Boats. None than I more love than^ myself. You are a counsellor; if you can command these elements to silence, and work the peace of the present, we will not hand a rope more; use your authority: if you cannot, give thanks you have lived so long, and make yourself ready in your cabin for the mischance of the hour, if it so hap. Cheerly, good hearts! Out of our way, I say. [Exit.
Gon. I have great comfort from this fellow: methinks he hath no drowning mark upon him; his complexion is perfect gallows. Stand fast, good Fate, to his hanging: make the rope of his destiny
Act I.
THE TEMPEST.
SCEIN-E II.
our cable, for our own dotli little advantage. If lie be not born to be hanged, our case is miserable. \^Exeunt.
Be-enter Boatswain.
Boats. Down with the top mast! j-are! lower, lower! Bring her to try with main course. \^A cry tvithin.'] A plague upon this howling! they are louder than the weather or our office.
ZALO.
Yet again! what do you here? Shall we give o'er and drown? Have you a mind to sink?
Set}. A pox o' your throat, you bawling, blasphemous, incharitable dog!
Boats. Work you then.
Ant. Hang, cur! hang you whoreson, insolent noisemaker! We are less afraid to be drowned than thou art.
Gon. I'll'warrant him from drowning, though the ship were no stronger than a nutshell and as leaky as an unstanched wench.
Boats. Lay her a-hold, a-hold! set her two courses off to sea again; lay her off.
Enter Mariners luet.
Mariners. All lost! to prayers, to prayers! all lost!
Boats. What, must our mouths be
cold?
Gon. The king and prince at prayers! let's assist them.
For our case is as theirs.
Set. I'm out of patience.
Ant. We are merely cheated of our lives by drunkards.
This wide-cliapp'd rascal — would thou
mightst lie drowning.
The washing of ten tides!
Gon. He'll be hang'd yet.
Though every drop of water swear against
it And gape at widest to. glut him. [^ confused noise tvifJiin: 'Mercy on us! —
'We split! we split!' — 'Farewell, my wife
and children!' — 'Farewell, brother!' — 'We split, we split, we split!'] A}it. Let's all sink with the king.
Sei. Let's take leave of him.
\_Exeiint A?it. and Seb.
Gon. Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground, long heath, brown furze, any thing. ^ The wills above be done! but I would fain die a dry death. [Exeu?it.
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You’ve reached the end of An art edition of Shakespeare, classified as comedies, tragedies, histories and sonnets, each part arranged in chronological order, including also a list of familiar quotations.