COMEDY OF

THE TEMPEST

EDITED WITH NOTES

BY

HOMER B. SPRAGUE, A.M., PH.D.

FORMERLY PROFESSOR OF RHETORIC IN CORNELL UNIVERSITY; AFTERWARDS PRESIDENT
OF THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH DAKOTA; FOUNDER OF THE MARTHA'S
VINEYARD SUMMER INSTITUTE; LECTURER ON SHAKESPEARE, MILTON,

GOLDSMITH, ETC., UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY

FOR THE EXTENSION OF UNIVERSITY TEACHING

WITH

SUGGESTIONS AND PLANS FOR STUDY, TOPICS
FOR ESSAYS, ETC.

SILVER, BURDETT AND COMPANY

NEW YORK

BOSTON

CHICAGO

PREFACE.

THIS edition of Shakespeare's The Tempest is designed to meet especially the wants of teachers and students, but it is hoped that many others may find it useful. Of course all the notes will not be alike valuable to each, but probably nine of every ten readers will find in them something helpful.

If it be asked, "Why add another to the many school editions?" the following points of difference between it and most if not all of the other editions may be mentioned:

1. The notes are intended to stimulate rather than supersede thought.

2. The results of many of the latest studies in interpretation by scholars have been given.

3. The edition continually presents for choice the various opinlons of leading editors and commentators.

4. It suggests some of the best methods of studying English literature, and of making the finest passages the basis of lessons in language and rhetoric.

5. It contains critical comments by Assistant Professor Wendell, Dr. Furness, and other recent writers, as well as by Coleridge, Schlegel, and other geniuses of past generations; also topics for essays, and an unusually copious index.

6. Out of regard for the feelings of youth, it treats with more delicacy than most editions certain passages difficult to handle in mixed classes.

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As in our edition of Hamlet, Merchant of Venice, Macbeth, As You Like It, Midsummer Night's Dream, and Julius Cæsar, we follow, in numbering the lines, the excellent edition of Dr. Rolfe.

To make the student's mastery of these dramas easy, complete, and delightful; to insure in him some appreciation of the richness of Shakespearian thought and the felicity of Shakespearian expression; to enlarge his vocabulary, sharpen his critical judgment, and store his memory with some of the choicest gems in literature; and so to multiply his sources of enjoyment and lift him to a higher plane of being, - these are some of the principal objects sought in this new school edition.