daughters, of whom the elder, Susanna, was married to Dr. John Hall, in 1607; the younger, Judith, to Mr. Thos. Quin ey, in 1616. His son, Hamnet, had died in his twelfth year,

in 1596.

Shakespeare died at Stratford, as already mentioned, on the 23d of April, 1616; and he lies buried in the parish church there.

The first work of Shakespeare's which was printed with his name was the poem of Venus and Adonis, which appeared in 1593. In the Dedication to the Earl of Southampton the author styles it "the first heir of his invention.” In 1594, The Rape of Lucrece was published. Both these poems were reprinted several times in the poet's lifetime. His only other works, besides the Plays, are The Passionate Pilgrim, a small collection of poems, first printed in 1599, and his Sonnets (154 in number), with a poem entitled A Lover's Complaint, which appeared together in 1609.

The first edition of his collected Dramatic Works contained all the Plays generally included in modern editions, with the exception of Pericles, and was published in a folio volume, in 1623, or not till seven years after his death. It was put forth by two of his friends and fellow actors, John Heminge and Henrie Condell, and the title-page declares it to be printed "according to the true original copies." The preface also condemns all preceding editions of separate plays* as "stolen and surreptitious copies, maimed and deformed by the frauds and stealths of injurious impostors," while it claims that the publishers of this volume had the use of the author's manuscripts. They probably had the use of such of his papers as were in the possession of the Blackfriars Theatre, to

* Eighteen of the Plays are known to have been separately printed, some of them more than once, in Shakespeare's lifetime. Othello was also printed separately in 1622. All these editions are in quarto form, and are commonly known as the old or early quartos.

which they, like himself, belonged. The volume, however, appears to have had no proper editing, and every page is disfigured by the grossest typographical errors. While it is the earliest and the only authentic edition of the Plays, it cannot be accepted as anything like an infallible authority in all cases for what Shakespeare actually wrote.

The volume just described is commonly known as the "first folio." A second folio edition, including the same plays, appeared in 1632. It contains some new readings, which are

probably nothing more than the conjectural emendations of the unknown editor.

A third folio edition was issued in 1664. This contains the thirty-six Plays of the preceding folios, with Pericles and six dramas* not included in the modern editions. A fourth and last folio reprint followed in 1685.

These four folios were the only editions of the Plays brought out in the 17th century. The 18th century produced a long succession of editors-Rowe, Pope, Theobald, Hanmer, Warburton, Johnson, Steevens, Capell, Reed, Malone, and Rann. In 1803 appeared what is known as "Reed's Second Edition of Johnson and Steevens," in twenty-one volumes, in which were incorporated all the notes of the preceding editions.

* These are The London Prodigal, Thomas Lord Cromwell, Sir John Oldcastle, The Puritan Widow, A Yorkshire Tragedy, and Locrine. It is almost certain that Shakespeare wrote none of them.

8

THE LIFE AND WORKS OF SHAKESPEARE.

This was followed in 1821 by what is now the standard "Va riorum edition," also in twenty-one volumes, mostly prepared by Malone, but completed and carried through the press by his friend Boswell. The most important English editions of more recent date are those of Knight, Collier, Singer, Staunton, Dyce, Clark and Wright, and Halliwell. The only American editions of any critical value are Verplanck's (1847). Hudson's (1855 and 1881), White's (1857-1865 and 1883), and Furness's ("New Variorum" ed. begun in 1871).

ARMS OF JOHN SHAKESPEARE.

INTRODUCTION

TO THE

MERCHANT OF VENICE.

I. THE HISTORY OF THE PLAY.

The Merchant of Venice is the last on a list of Shakespeare's plays given by Francis Meres in his Palladis Tamia, which appeared in 1598. In the same year it was entered as fol lows on the Register of the Stationers' Company :

"22 July, 1598, James Robertes.] A booke of the Marchaunt of Venyce, or otherwise called the Jewe of Venyse. Provided that yt bee not prynted by the said James Robertes. A-8