TO THE TEXT OF

SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS,

FROM

EARLY MANUSCRIPT CORRECTIONS

IN

A COPY OF THE FOLIO, 1632,

IN THE POSSESSION OF

J. PAYNE COLLIER, ESQ. F.S.A.

FORMING

A Supplemental Volume

TO THE

WORKS OF SHAKESPEARE BY THE SAME EDITOR,

IN EIGHT VOLUMES, OCTAVO,

LONDON:

WHITTAKER AND CO. AVE MARIA LANE.

INTRODUCTION.

IN preparing the following sheets it has been a main object with me to give an impartial notion of the singular and interesting volume from which the materials have been derived. It is a copy of the folio of "Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies," which was published in 1632: we need hardly say, that that edition was a reprint of a previous impression in the same form in 1623; and that it was again reprinted (with additional plays) in 1664, and for the fourth time in 1685. The reprint of 1632 has, therefore, been usually known as the second folio of the collected plays of Shakespeare.

The singularity and interest of the volume arise out of the fact, that, from the first page to the last, it contains notes and emendations in a hand-writing not much later than the time when it came from the press. Unfortunately it is not perfect it begins, indeed, with "The Tempest," the earliest drama, but it wants four leaves at the end of " Cymbeline," the latest drama, and there are several deficiencies in the body of the book', while all the preliminary matter, consisting of dedication, address, commendatory verses, &c., may be said to be wanting, in as much as it has been

It deserves remark that all the defects in the body of the book are in the division of "Histories," the plays forming which have been especially thumbed and maltreated.