WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE.

From the Chenstry Portrait in the resochoirs of the. Acronis of Varkiegiem.

Lorter B blickd by FC&J. Rivington & Partners June 25728 ex.

THE

PLAYS

OF

WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE,

ACCURATELY PRINTED

FROM THE TEXT OF THE CORRECTED COPIES

LEFT BY THE LATE

GEORGE STEEVENS, Esq., AND EDMOND MALONE, Esq.

WITH

MR. MALONE'S VARIOUS READINGS;

A SELECTION OF

EXPLANATORY AND HISTORICAL NOTES,

FROM THE MOST EMINENT COMMENTATORS;

A History of the Stage, and a Life of Shakspeare;

BY

ALEXANDER CHALMERS, F.S.A.

A NEW EDITION, IN EIGHT VOLUMES.

VOLUME I.

CONTAINING

THE TEMPEST. -

TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA.
MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR.

LONDON:

Printed for F. C. and J. Rivington; T. Egerton ; J. Cuthell; J. Scatcherd; Longman
and Co.; T. Cadell; J. and W. T. Clarke; J. Booker; J. Booth; J. Richardson;
J. M. Richardson; R. H. Evans; J. Mawman; R. Scholey; W. Earle; J. Bohn;
C. Brown; R. Pheney, Baldwin and Co.; Newman and Co.; Ogle and Co.; T. Tegg;
T. Hamilton; W. Wood; J. Sheldon; Whitmore and Fenn; Harding and Co.;
E. Edwards; W. Mason; G. Mackie; J. H. Bobte; T. Wilkie; G. and W. B. Whit
taker; Kingsbury and Co.; Simpkin and Co.; and R. Saunders: also for Deighton and
Sons, Cambridge; Wilson and Sons, York; for Stirling and Slade, A. Black, P. Brown,
and J. Fairbairn, Edinburgh.

PREFACE.

WH

HEN (in 1802) this work was first suggested by the Proprietors of Mr. Steevens's elaborate edition, it was the Editor's intention to illustrate the plays of our immortal bard, by a SELECTION of the most important and interesting notes which the labours of the various commentators had accumulated. In this he was encouraged by Mr. Steevens himself, who, in the Advertisement to his edition of fifteen volumes, 1793, after apologizing for the prolixity and number of his notes, seems to anticipate the time when 66 a judicious and frugal selection" might be made from the labours of all his coadjutors.

In attempting to form such a SELECTION, which the present Editor published in 1803, and which is now reprinted for the third time, his object was to separate the conjectural from the decisive explanations and amendments, — to leave the reader under no difficulty which investigation had already removed,—and to furnish