PREFACE In 1851 there was published in Boston an edition of Shakespeare's plays in eleven volumes, edited by Henry N. the second by an American, Ver Hudson. This edition planck's being the first of students of literature in Europe and America because of the independence, originality, and suggestiveness revealed. in the analysis of the characters, and the insight, sympathy, and sanity of the aesthetic criticism. As a result the editor soon became recognized as one whose opinions challenged attention as did those of Gervinus of Heidelberg and Dowden of Dublin. Professor Hudson's object, everywhere manifest, even in his earlier work, was to quicken in the minds and hearts of readers a love for Shakespeare, as a man and artist, by bringing them into vital relations with his manifold revelations of human life. at once attracted the attention Few of those who have found pleasure in teaching the English classics are aware of what a debt they owe to Professor Hudson, who did pioneer work in making the study of English literature popular in private classes, secondary schools, and colleges. He was able to do this by virtue of his unbounded enthusiasm in his work, his belief that literature properly taught would awaken a living interest in all that belongs to humanity, and his wealth of experience in life. His ambition to do this for English literature was not free from disturbing fears that the methods which were so much in vogue in teaching the Greek and Latin classics would be thought available here, and as a protest against such methods he wrote the following essays, which were published in the editions of his School Shakespeare. In the revision of Hudson's edition of Shakespeare's plays now being published, it was desirable to retain those features of the work which gave it distinction and placed the editor among the great interpreters of dramatic literature, and to gather the essays on the teaching of Shakespeare and the English classics in a separate volume for the use of teachers as an introduction to Professor Hudson's life, his methods of teaching, and his principles of literary criticism. These essays contain earnest matter for the teacher of English, and if they are read as they were intended to be read they will reveal what is so much needed at the present time, -a deep feeling for literature, its natural magic and moral profundity, rather than a critical knowledge of it. The Introduction gives such biographical facts as had a special influence on the development of Hudson's character and the forming of his tastes; and the Notes show how his work is related to that of other great teachers, and reflect the esteem in which it was held by his coworkers in the sphere of Shakespearean interpretation and criticism. It is believed these will be found helpful to those teachers who would teach literature in a vital way. It was my good fortune to come upon these essays at a time, during my first year of teaching, when I was casting about for editions of the English classics which were edited with an idea of revealing the forces in the life of the times which gave them their tone and color, and the personality behind them which gave them their charm and vogue, rather than those affording opportunity for learned. disquisitions on the structure of language and the science of verse the kind of criticism adapted to make our pleasure less. I found in them a living power, a warm human sympathy, a clear moral purpose, and a noble conception of what constitutes literary workmanship — the unmistakable signs of one who possessed the eye to see, the heart to feel, and the imagination to make real the things in literary art which are more excellent. After reading them I sought the man who created them, and the resulting intimate association which I had with him during the remaining years of his life was rich in revelation of a Soul whose master bias leans To home-felt pleasures and to gentle scenes. He was a genial spirit, full of delicate and subtle purposes, of sweet and chivalrous activities, of healthful and charming enthusiasms, of a high faith in the beauty and truth of noble literary creations, and yet endued as with a sense And faculty for storm and turbulence, which manifested itself in a fierce denunciation of pedantry and a withering scorn of drudgery- those foes to the study of mere literature — which, when once admitted to the class room, will expel interest, admiration, and fellowship. For these reasons it has been a pleasure to prepare this volume, and to introduce my friend and teacher to others who can never feel the charm of his presence as I have felt it. Owing to the nature of these essays and the conditions under which they were written, it was but natural that there should be some repetition of thought and form, but it has seemed best to republish them as they originally appeared. The address on Daniel Webster is included in this volume as being worthy of study beside those later tributes of Honorable S. W. McCall and Honorable George F. Hoar, given at the Webster Centennial at Dartmouth College. My thanks are due to Dr. Horace Howard Furness for permission to quote from his correspondence with Dr. Hudson, and to Professor Edward Dowden, of Trinity College, Dublin, for his interesting present-day estimate of Dr. Hudson's work, which appears in the Notes. The presence of a cross (+) in the text indicates that there is a note on the passage. BROOKLINE, MASSACHUSETTS A. J. GEORGE |