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THE BEQUEST OF
THEODORE JEWETT EASTMAN

1931

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1851, by

JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by

NOYES, HOLMES, AND COMPANY,

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.

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THE

PREFACE

ΤΟ

REVISED EDITION.

Ir is now about twenty-one years since this edition of SHAKESPEARE'S WORKS was begun. The Editor had good reasons for this delay; for, besides that he was necessarily subject to divers interruptions, being compelled to do a good deal of other work, the task has proved a much longer and harder one than he had anticipated. But the edition is at length finished; and the editor dismisses his labours to the public with a mixture of pleasure and regret ; pleasure, that his obligation to the publishers is now discharged; regret, that the serene and tranquil delights of the task are to be no longer his save as a remembered experience.

As for the reasons which led to this edition of Shakespeare, perhaps it were as well to leave them. to be gathered from the manner of the performance; but it is thought best to give a brief statement of them, as this may serve in some measure to unfold the plan of the work.

The celebrated Chiswick edition, on which this is partly modelled, was published in 1826, and has for some time been out of print. In size of volume, in

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