64 10474.020 HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY RECEIVED THROUGH THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF Jan 15.1932 F. Shoberl, Jun., Printer to H.R.II. Prince Albert, 51, Rupert St., Haymarket. OF THE SHAKESPEARE SOCIETY. President. THE EARL OF ELLESMERE. Vice-Presidents. THE EARL OF CLARENDON. THE EARL OF GLENGALL. THE EARL HOWE. THE RT. HON. LORD BRAYBROOKE. THE RT. HON. LORD LEIGH. Council. THOMAS AMYOT, ESQ., F.R.S., F.S.A. WILLIAM AYRTON, ESQ., F.R.S., F.S.A. BAYLE BERNARD, ESQ. THE RIGHT HON. THE VICE-CHANCELLOR SIR JAMES KNIGHT BRUCE, F.R.S., F.S.A. JOHN BRUCE, ESQ., TREAS. S.A. J. PAYNE COLLIER, ESQ., V.P. S.A., DIRECTOR. BOLTON CORNEY, ESQ. PETER CUNNINGHAM, ESQ., TREASURER. SIR HENRY ELLIS, K.H., PRINCIPAL LIBRARIAN OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. JOHN FORSTER, ESQ. J. O. HALLIWELL, ESQ., F.R.S., F.S.A. THE REV. WILLIAM HARNESS. SWYNFEN JERVIS, ESQ. CHARLES KNIGHT, ESQ. SIR E. BULWER LYTTON, BART. T. J. PETTIGREW, ESQ., F.R.S., F.S.A. F. GUEST TOMLINS, ESQ., SECRETARY. The Council of the Shakespeare Society desire it to be understood that they are not answerable for any opinions or observations that may appear in the Society's publications; the Editors of the several works being alone responsible for the same. PREFACE. This, the second volume of our Extracts from the Registers of the Stationers' Company, brings the entries down to the middle of the year 1587, about the period when it has been conjectured, on such grounds as have been afforded to his biographers, that Shakespeare arrived in London, and became a writer for the stage (Malone's Shakspeare by Boswell, ii., 157, and Collier's Shakespeare, i., cv). It cannot, therefore, contain any memoranda relating to his plays or poems: they are reserved for a farther continuation of our present labours. After the many times these records have been examined by Steevens, (who did not scruple to put his initials against every entry that interested him) Malone, Chalmers, Douce, Ritson, and other investigators, we should hardly hope to find anything new respecting the works of our great dramatist, did we not know, from repeated experience, that the most laborious and accurate men are often guilty of extraordinary oversights. Of this fact the present volume and its predecessor have afforded a good deal of evidence, with reference to the works of earlier, |