COMEDY OF THE WINTER'S TALE. EDITED, WITH NOTES, BY WILLIAM J. ROLFE, A.M., FORMERLY HEAD MASTER OF THE HIGH SCHOOL, CAMBRIDGE, mass. f. Illustrated. 16m0, Cloth, 70 cents per volume; Paper, 50 cents per volume. PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK. Any of the above works will be sent by mail, postage prepaid, to any part Copyright, 1879, by HARPER & BROTHERS. PREFACE. THE text of this play, like that of its predecessors in the series, has been prepared by carefully collating the early and the modern editions. In doubtful cases I have preferred to adhere to the folio; but if the reader is less conservative in his tastes, the varia lectiones in the Notes will enable him to modify the text as he pleases. In the Notes, besides giving this "variorum" information, I have aimed not only to make the poet's meaning clear, but to illustrate the language and the life of his time. I have also added such æsthetic comments as, from their brevity or their close connection with single passages, were more appropriately put there than in the Introduction. I do not assume that all the Notes will be equally interesting or helpful to every reader; but I hope that no one will turn to them for help without finding it. Neither do I expect that every teacher will make precisely the same use of them; but I hope that they will enable his pupils to do whatever he may require in the study of the play, whether his taste inclines to linguistic or to æsthetic criticism, or is broad enough— as I trust it may be-to include both. As I am unable to give pictorial illustrations of Shakespeare's Bohemia (except the one on page 9, to which I venture to say no other "local habitation can be assigned), I have asked the publishers to insert a few that belong to the real Bohemia of that day. The royal palace and the cathedral at Prague were old buildings even then; but the portal to the former (see p. 41) was designed by Scamozzi, and the royal mausoleum in the latter (p. vi) was the work of Colin of Malines, both of whom were contemporaries of the poet. Cambridge, Sept. 26, 1879. |