THE

WORKS

OF

SHAKSPEARE,

FROM THE

TEXT OF THE STANDARD EDITION BY ISAAC REED;

WITH

A SELECTION OF NOTES,

CHIEFLY EXTRACTED

FROM THE COMMENTARIES OF STEEVENS, MALONE, AND JOHNSON:

WITH THE

Preface by Dr. Johnson;

AND

A GLOSSARY OF OBSOLETE WORDS.

STEREOTYPE EDITION.

London:

PRINTED BY W. LEWIS, FINCH-LANE;

FOR ISAAC, TUCKEY, AND CO.,

14, HENRIETTA-STREET,

COVENT GARDEN.

1836.

Whilst we studie to be thankful in our particular,

are made more precious, when they are dedicated to
Temples. In that name, therefore, we most humbly
consecrate to your H. H. these remaines of your
servant SHAKESPEARE; that what delight is in them
may be ever your L. L. the reputation his, and the
faults ours, if any be committed, by a payre so care-
full to shew their gratitude both to the living, and
the dead, as is
Your Lordshippes most bounden,
JOHN HEMINGE,
HENRY CONDdell.

for the many favors we have received from your L. L. The Preface of the Players. Prefixed to the first

we are falne upon the ill fortune, to mingle two the
most diverse things that can bee, feare, and rash-
Besse; rashnesse in the enterprize, and feare of the
successe. For, when we valew the places your
H. H. sustaine, we cannot but know their dignity
greater, then to descend to the reading of these tri-
fles and, while we name them trifles, we have de-
priv'd ourselves of the defence of our Dedication.
But since your L. L. have been pleas'd to thinke
these trifles some-thing, heeretofore; and have pro-
sequuted both them, and their Authour living, with
so much favour: we hope that (they out-living him,
and he not having the fate, common with some, to
be exequutor to his owne writings) you will use the
same indulgence toward them, you have done unto
their parent. There is a great difference, whether
any booke choose his Patrones, or finde them: This
hath done both. For, so much were your L. L.
lakings of the severall parts, when they were acted,
as before they were published, the Volume ask'd to
be yours. We have but collected them, and done
an office to the dead, to procure his Orphanes, Guar-
dians; without ambition either of selfe-profit, or
fame: onely to keepe the memory of so worthy a
Friend, and Fellow alive, as was our SHAKESPEARE,
by humble offer of his playes, to your most noble
patronage. Wherein, as we have justly observed,
no man to come neere your L. L. but with a kind
of religious addresse, it hath bin the height of our
care, who are the Presenters, to make the present
worthy of your H. H. by the perfection. But, there
we must also crave our abilities to be considered,
my Lords. We cannot go beyond our owne powers.
Country hands reach foorth milke, creame, fruites,
or what they have: and many Nations (we have
beard) that had not gummes and incense, obtained
their requests with a leavened Cake. It was no
fauit to approch their Gods by what meanes they
could: And the most, though meanest, of things
3925
1836

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folio edition published in 1623. To the great variety of Readers, From the most able, to him that can but spell. there you are number'd. We had rather you were weigh'd. Especially, when the fate of all Bookes depends upon your capacities: and not of your heads alone, but of your purses. Well! it is now publique, and you wil stand for your priviledges we know: to read, and censure. Do so, but buy it first. That doth best commend a Booke, the Stationer saics. Then, how odde soever your braines be, or your wisedomes, make your licence the same, and spare not. Judge your sixe-pen'orth, you shillings worth, your five shillings worth at a tim or higher, so you rise to the just rates, and welcome. But, whatever you do, Buy. Censure will not drive a Trade, or make the Jacke go. And though you be a Magistrate of wit, and sit on the Stage at Black-Friers, or the Cock-pit, to arraigne Playes dailie, know, these Playes have had their triall ́alreadie, and stood out all Appeales; and do now come forth quitted rather by a Decree of Court, than any purchas'd Letters of commendation.

It had bene a thing, we confesse, worthie to have bene wished, that the Author himselfe had lived to have set forth, and overseen his owne writings; But since it hath bin ordain'd otherwise, and he by death departed from that right, we pray you, doe not envie his Friends, the office of their care and paine, to have collected and publish'd them; and so to have publish'd them, as where (before) you were abus'd with divers stolne, and surreptitious copies, maimed and deformed by the frauds and stealthes of injurious impostors, that expos'd them: even those are now offer'd to your view cur'd, and perfect of their limbes; and all the rest, absolute in their numbers, as he conceived the: Who, as he was a happie imitator of Nature, was a most gentle

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