ADDRESS. IN adding another to the many editions of Shakspeare already published, it may be justly expected that the promoters should shew on what peculiar grounds they rest their claims to preference. The mere multiplying of impressions, unaccompanied by some distinctive excellence, would be to confer no benefit on the Public, and be productive of little advantage to themselves. Aware of the justice of this position, the Proprietors of the present Edition are desirous of briefly stating what they conceive to be fair reasons why they should hope to at least divide the palm with their competitors. As a chief object, they have laboured for CORRECTNESS. The Reader is assured, that the following pages have not been passed through the press in a hasty or slovenly manner. The utmost diligence has been used to prevent the occurrence of errors; and the best edition of Johnson, Steevens, and Reed, has been diligently consulted, even to the scrupulous revision of every point. A principal feature, by which the present Edition is distinguished from all others yet publishe in a single volume, is the valuable illustrative matter with which it is enriched. All that coule tend to elucidate the text, or illumine the obscurity which envelopes the great Bard and the Dramatic History of his time, has been collected from every authentic source, and the essence of man scarce and high-priced volumes, only to be found in the libraries of the opulent, presented for the first time to the General Reader. The Variorum Notes are placed at the end of the volume, te prevent the interruption and confusion arising from their accompanying the text, and those only preserved which tend to elucidate real difficulties. The Glossary we may affirm to be more copiou than in any other edition. There are fifty-one Embellishments, engraved by the best artists. Those which accompan the Prolegomena cannot fail to prove interesting, and the Illustrations to the Plays and Poemare from the designs of the most eminent masters. Some stress may also be laid on the fine Hea of Shakspeare, and the very novel feature of the Eight Portraits of eminent by-gone Performers who have been distinguished for personating his characters. But the main point, on which the rea value of their labours must inevitably depend, is, the extreme cheapness of their volume, which presents the entire Works of our immortal Poet, adorned by the talents of the critic, the antiquary and the engraver, at the very low price usually charged for a common and incorrect edition of hi PLAYS ALONE, without either Poems, Hlustrative Matter, or Embellishments; and the Pro prietors cannot but feel they have attained an object of no mean importance, in thus placing within the reach of the humblest Reader, the cheapest and most complete Edition of the Works of Shak speare that has ever yet been published. As several of our best Commentators have agreed in rejecting the plays of Titus Andro nicus and Pericles, some apology may be expected for retaining them. Steevens's excuse for th same procceding may be fairly quoted :-Some ancient prejudices in their favour may still exist to which may be added, that they have usually accompanied all editions of repute. JUNE, 1825. ve and Balne, Printers, Gracechurch Street. 13 وق The Birth-Place of Shakspeare. Biographical Memoir of Shakspeare. AFTER all the laborious research which has been espeoded on the subject of Shakspeare's biography, few particulars are known on those points wh would be most gratifying to the curiosity el ins rational admirers. We may trace his anmestors to the doomsday book, and his posterity they dwindle into tongueless obscurity; but whis own habits and domestic character we know paratively nothing. During his early days, his pin life was so humble, that all our inquiries cessarily terminate in disappointment; and of the more busy period of his existence, when he wrots for the stage, and was the public favourite, his remarkable humility of mind and manners indated him to avoid the eye of notoriety; and, unfortunately, there was no Boswell or Medwin to make memoranda of bis conversations, or transmit to our times a fac-simile of the great dramatist in the familiar moments of relaxation and friendly inMercourse. Such hiatuses in the life of Shakspeare at now be supplied; more than two hundred rears have elapsed since his mortal remains were In't to monider beneath a tomb, over which Time las taken the dust of his wings too often to allow four recovering details, local and fugitive, however interesting. Rowe was the first, whose researches elicited anything like a satisfactory memoir of our great bard. Poets and critics have bhriously re-trodden his steps; the genius of Pope and the acumen of Johnson have been employed on the same subject, but the sun of their adoration had gone down before their intellectual telescopes were levelled to discover its perfections. Malone has done the most, and appears indeed to have rabusted the subject; but, from inadvertency or tarelessness, he has overlooked many particulars which deserve preservation. Having turned over variety of books, and consulted every accessible uthority, we shall attempt to condense, under one besd, sach recollections of Shakspeare, as are at Prent scattered over many volumes, as well as the are obrious and familiar portions of his history. It appears a family, designated indifferently caper, Shakespeare, Shakspere, and Shakspeare, Wate well known in Warwickshire during the sixcentury. Rowe says: "It seems by the Mater and other public writings of Stratford, but the poet's family were of good figure and bing there, and are mentioned as gentlemen." This account turns out to be very incorrect ; for ou reference to the authorities cited, we find that the Shakspeares, though their property was respectable, never rose above the rank of tradesmen or husbandmen. Nothing is known of the immediate ancestors of John Shakspeare, the poet's father, who was originally a glover, afterwards a butcher, and in the last place, a wool-stapler, in the town of Stratford. Being very industrious, his wealth gave him importance among his neighbours, and having served various offices in the borough with credit, he ultimately obtained its supreme municipal honours, being elected high-bailiff, at Michaelmas, 1568. His townsfolk no doubt considered this the summit of earthly felicity; but however reverend the corporation of Stratford in its own estimation, we cannot but smile at these erudite sages, out of nineteen of whom, as we find from their signatures, attached to a public document, 1564, only seven were able to write their names. While chief magistrate of the borough, and on his marriage with Mary Arden, he obtained a grant of arms from the Herald's College, and was allowed to impale his own achievement with that of the ancient family of the Ardens. In the deed respecting John Shakspeare, his property is declared to be worth five hundred pounds, a sum by no means inconsiderable in those days; and, on the whole, we have sufficient evidence of his worldly prosperity. From some unexplained causes, however, his affairs began to alter for the worse about 1574, and after employing such expedients to relieve his growing necessities as in the end served only to aggravate them, he at length fell into such extreme poverty, that he was obliged to give security for a debt of five pounds; and a distress issuing for the seizure of his goods, it was returned: "Joh'es Shakspere nihil habet unde distr. potest levari." (John Shakspere has no effects on which a distraint can be levied.) During the last ten years of his life we have no particular account of his circumstances; but, as in 1597 he describes himself as "of very small wealth and very few friends," we may justly suppose that be remained in great indigence. He seems, indeed, to have fallen into decay with his native town, the trade of which was almost ruined; as we may learn from the supplication of the burgesses, in 1590. The town had then "fallen into much decay, for want of such trade as heretofore they had by |