PREFACE

This series of Shakespeare's plays, which includes The Merchant of Venice, Julius Cæsar, Macbeth, and Hamlet, is based mainly on the Oxford and Cambridge editions of Spilsbury, and Marshall and Wood. The present Editors have found it expedient to eliminate certain passages in the text, as well as to make some changes of matter and form in the editorial work, deemed necessary for American schools. The Introduction contains a Biographical Sketch of Shakespeare, a short account of the History of the Drama, brief references to the Sources of the Play, to the Characters, to Versification, to the Grammar of Shakespeare, etc. The annotated words are printed in italic type and the notes and word equivalents are given in the margin in juxtaposition with the text for the convenience of the student. The Glossary and many of the Notes have been rewritten, condensed, or amplified, as the case required, and the Classical and Biblical Allusions have been included in the Notes and Glossary. An abstract of the play has been supplied in Hamlet and in The Merchant of Venice. Some unimportant and apocryphal matter has been omitted. The section on Shakespearean Grammar will be found convenient for those who may have difficulty in classifying many Shakespearean expressions, and the Questions for Review will be of advantage to both teacher and pupil, by saving time for the one, and by assigning specific work to the other.

INTRODUCTION

I. NARRATIVE OF SHAKESPEARE'S LIFE

William Shakespeare, the greatest of English dramatic poets, was born at Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire, England, on April 23, 1564. His father, John Shakespeare, was of the yeoman class. He had been a successful Warwickshire farmer, but he adopted the trade of glover on his removal to Stratford in 1553. There he soon became an important factor in municipal affairs, and by ability and industry he rapidly rose from one position of trust to another, until finally, in 1568, he became high bailiff or mayor of the town. Shakespeare's mother, Mary Arden, was of an old Warwickshire family, and though she inherited "lands and houses" she had no education.

John and Mary Shakespeare had eight children-four sons and four daughters. William, the third child, was the eldest son. Of his infancy and boyhood we know practically nothing. It is probable, however, that at the age of seven he entered the grammar school of Stratford, where he learned the rudiments of Latin, English grammar, writing, arithmetic, and probably a little Greek. His years at school were not many, for the declining fortunes of his father compelled the boy to seek employment when he was but thirteen years of age. After this we hear little or nothing about him until the time of his marriage, which probably took place in December, 1582. His wife, Ann Hathaway, of whom the boy-poet admiringly wrote

Ann Hathaway, she hath a way

To charm all hearts, Ann Hathaway,

does not seem to have long exerted that charm over her young husband. At the time of their union he was little more than

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eighteen, while she had attained the more mature age of twentysix. This marriage, like most marriages of its kind, did not prove a happy one.

If a small amount of reliable tradition can be winnowed from the chaff of fiction with which the memory of Shakespeare's boyhood days at Stratford is surrounded, we may give credence to the tales regarding his youthful follies and escapades. Of the latter but one may be mentioned as having a direct bearing upon his whole career. We are told that among other prohibited practices of the time he took part in poaching expeditions, during one of which he was caught stealing deer from the estate of Sir Thomas Lucy of Charlecote. The punishment for this offense in those days was a fine and imprisonment. Sir Thomas, being Justice of the Peace for that district, acted as "judge, jury, and executioner" in the case of the young Shakespeare, who bitterly resented the punishment meted out to him. In revenge, we are told, he wrote the scurrilous lampoon beginning

A parliament member, a justice of peace,

At home a poor scarecrow, etc.

and posted it on the gate to Charlecote Manor.

This naturally aroused Sir Thomas to further reprisals, and Shakespeare, to avoid his vengeance fled to London in 1585. Verification of the poaching tradition may be found in 2 Henry IV and in The Merry Wives of Windsor, where Lucy is caricatured as "Justice Shallow." The three luces or pikes, in the Lucy coat-of-arms, apparently suggested the "dozen white luces" in The Merry Wives of Windsor, and the many allusions to poaching found in the context are none the less significant.

Before the poet's departure for London, three children were born to him-Susanna, the eldest, in May, 1583, and Hamnet and Judith, twins, in February, 1585. On his flight, the immediate support of these children is supposed to have devolved upon his