masse, when, in the commentary with which he encumbered them, he advocated hundreds of the most unnecessary changes ever devised by perverse ingenuity; and when, moreover, from his limited knowledge of what conjecture had attempted on the poet's text during the eighteenth century, he paraded as novelties a number of alterations already to be found in the editions of Pope, of Hanmer, and elsewhere.-It would seem that Mr. Collier's judgment, nay, his recollection of the phraseology of our old writers, was at times affected by his blind admiration of the Corrector. E. g. In The Two Gentlemen of Verona, act iv. sc. 2, the first folio has, "Her eyes are grey as glass," &c.; on which line Theobald aptly cites from Chaucer, "hire eyen grey as glas." But the second folio, by a misprint, has, "Her eyes are grey as grass," &c. The Corrector, who used the second folio,-not perceiving that the error lay in the word "grass," altered the unoffending epithet "grey" to "green,” "Her eyes are green as grass," &c.; "and such," says Mr. Collier, "we have good reason to suppose was the true reading;" though a little before he admits that the first folio "may be right." In The Second Part of King Henry the Fourth, act iv. sc. 1, the old copies have, "and your tongue divine To a loud trumpet and a point of war." The Corrector substitutes, "and your tongue divine To a loud trumpet and report of war ;" which Mr. Collier declares "ought to be printed in future," for "here point of war' can have no meaning:" yet Mr. Collier formerly edited an early drama which contains the following passage; "Matrevers, thou Sound proudly here a perfect point of war In honour of thy sovereign's safe return." Peele's Edward I.,-Dodsley's Old Plays, vol. xi. 13, ed. Collier. But enough of the Ms. Corrector's Emendations, with their particles of golden ore and their abundant dross. When, at the desire of Mr. Moxon, I undertook this edition of Shakespeare,-with a reluctance arising from the conviction that, even if it proved not wholly unacceptable to others, it must fail to satisfy myself,—the arrangement was, that I should merely revise the text, without adding notes of any kind. But it soon became evident that, though notes explanatory of words, manners, customs, &c. might not be essentially necessary (for with such matters the reader is often as conversant as the editor), yet notes regarding the formation of the text were indispensable. Hence it is, that an edition originally meant to be entirely free from annotation comprises a considerable quantity of notes:-in disjoining which from the text, and placing them at the end of each play respectively, I have consulted the taste of those who have little relish for the minutiae of verbal criticism. It was also originally understood between the publisher and myself, that I should not be required to supply the memoir of Shakespeare intended to accompany the present edition: circumstances, however, which it is needless to explain, eventually imposed on me that ungrateful task. Owing to the scantiness of materials for his history, and to our ignorance of what we most wish to know concerning him, a Life of Shakespeare, in spite of its subject, is generally among the least readable efforts of the biographer: and I cannot but feel that, if my own memoir of the poet has any claim to another character, it is solely on account of its comparative shortness. I have to return my best thanks to Mr. W. N. Lettsom for the extracts from the late Sidney Walker's unpublished papers on Shakespeare, as well as for his own critical remarks, with which from time to time he furnished me; to Mr. John Forster, for much kind and judicious advice on various points of difficulty; and to Mr. Singer, for his prompt assistance whenever I had occasion to request it: nor ought I to conclude without acknowledging my obligations to Mr. Robson, from whose press the present edition comes forth, not only for the care he has bestowed in revising the sheets with an eye to verbal correctness, but for innumerable suggestions during the whole progress of the work. A. DYCE. December 1857. SOME ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE OF SHAKESPEARE. "ALL that is known with any degree of certainty concerning Shakespeare, is—that he was born at Stratford upon Avon-married and had children there-went to London, where he commenced actor, and wrote poems and plays—returned to Stratford, made his will, died, and was buried." Such is the remark made long ago by the most acute of his commentators: and even at the present day,—notwithstanding some additional notices of Shakespeare which have been more recently discovered, the truth of the remark can hardly fail to be felt and acknowledged by all, except by professed antiquaries, with whom the mere mention of a name in whatever kind of document assumes the character of an important fact.2 'Note by Steevens on Shakespeare's xciii Sonnet. * "All that insatiable curiosity and unwearied diligence have hitherto detected about Shakesp、 serves rather to disappoint and perplex us, |