the name of the author upon the title-page. In the instance of " Much ado about Nothing," he omitted the hyphen between Shake and speare, which had been inserted in Wise's second impressions of the three other dramas published by him: this is a very trifling circumstance, but, in connexion with the vexata questio of the spelling of our great dramatist's name, it may just deserve remark. Although Cuthbert Burby, in 1598, had spelt it Shakespere, Wise (or Simmes for him) continued to print it with all the letters-Shakespeare. This observation, as far as it is of any consequence, applies to three of the other plays which came out in 1600, “A Midsummer Night's Dream," "The Merchant of Venice," and "The Second Part of Henry the Fourth." The title-page of the first of these is thus arranged : A Midsommer nights. dreame. As it hath beene sundry times pub- seruants. Written by William Shakespeare. T Imprinted at London, for Thomas Fisher, and are to be soulde at his shoppe, at the Signe of the White Hart, in Fleetestreete. 1600. The name of Thomas Fisher (whose device of a halcyon with a fish in its mouth occupies the centre of the page) is here for the first time connected with the works of our great dramatist; and, as stationers did not usually employ devices, we may presume, perhaps, that he was both the printer and publisher. The type is something like that of Creede, but Creede was in the habit of putting his name in the imprint of all books from his press. Fisher's edition was regularly entered at Stationers' Hall, which was not the case with an impression by James Roberts, which came out in the same year, the title-page of which I subjoin. A Midsommer nights dreame. As it hath beene sundry times pub- seruants. VVritten by VVilliam Shakespeare. Printed by Iames Roberts. 1600. For aught that appears, Roberts was only a printer; and whether his edition were or were not in some way authorized, it is quite certain that the editors of the folio of 1623 adopted his text, and inserted some of his blunders, while they seem never to have consulted the more accurate impression Fisher had put forth. Are we to presume that the edition by Roberts was that used in the theatre between 1600 and 1623? Fisher's edition did not make its appearance, at all events, until October, 1600, because in that month it was entered on the books of the Stationers' Company; but whether Roberts's edition were earlier in the year, we have no means of deciding, for no memorandum of it has been met with in the Registers. "The Merchant of Venice" was brought out under very similar circumstances: there were two editions of it in the same year, and one of them was printed by Roberts, and had been registered by him at Stationers' Hall two years anterior to its publication, viz., on the 22nd July, 1598. The titlepage is in this form, and it will be observed that it does not mention by what company it had been acted. THE EXCELLENT History of the Mer chant of Venice. With the extreme cruelty of Shylocke Written by W. SHAKESPEARE Printed by J. Roberts, 1600. When Roberts entered the play at Stationers' Hall, in 1598, a proviso was added, that it should not be printed by him "or any other whatsoever, without license first had from the right honourable the Lord Chamberlain," and perhaps the delay between 1598 and 1600 was occasioned by an objection of the Lord Chamberlain, at the instance of his players. The titlepage of Roberts's edition says nothing of the company, but such is not the case with the title-page of the other impression of the same year, which is this: The most excellent Historie of the Merchant of Venice. With the extreame crueltie of Shylocke the Iewe As it hath beene diuers times acted by the Lord Written by William Shakespeare. AT LONDON, Printed by I. R. for Thomas Heyes and are to be sold in Paules Church-yard, at the signe of the Greene Dragon. 1600. This is the first and only time the name of Thomas Heyes occurs in any imprint of a play by Shakespeare. The initials I. R. are supposed to be those of James Roberts, the printer of the other edition of "The Merchant of Venice," but the types are different, and it has been conjectured that the authority of the Lord Chamberlain for printing the play had been obtained between 1598, the year of Roberts's entry, and 1600, when it was entered by Heyes, or Haies, as the name stands in the Register. If Roberts were employed by Heyes to print one edition of 1600, it seems inexplicable how it happens that a separate impression, with the imprint "Printed by J. Roberts, 1600," should have made its appearance in the same year. This is one of the points that we have no information to enable us to clear up. Wise and Aspley were the publishers of the first edition of "The Second Part of Henry the Fourth," in 1600, as they had been of" Much ado about Nothing," in the same year: they also employed the same printer, V[alentine] S[immes], as will be seen from what follows. THE Second part of Henrie the fourth, continuing to his death the fift. With the humours of sir Iohn Fal- As it hath been sundrie times publikely Written by William Shakespeare. LONDON Printed by V. S. for Andrew Wise, and |