consented to the publication, and Condell decided to edit the plays jointly with myself. I spoke to Mr. Blount and an arrangement was made, as he has stated. He and I saw to the preparation of the sheets for printing, and also to the punctuation.

We did not see the proofs to correct them. The plays are, I think, well punctuated, and have attained in printing a very substantial accuracy.

I did not add a line to the manuscripts, nor, as far as I know, did any other person.

There are twenty plays in the folio, of which I never saw any copy in print.

The folio was printed from independent manuscripts, not from any book.

I wrote the dedication of the folio volume.

I never received anything for allowing the manuscripts to be printed, or for my work in editing, nor did my colleague, Henry Condell.

The portrait is very much like the Poet. could mistake it.

No one

Cross-examined-I am not a man of straw, as you suggest. I am possessed of considerable real estate in the City of London and the suburbs.

I do not believe that the stealing of deer had anything to do with Shakespeare's coming to London. I do not believe, from what I heard, that he stole any deer, or exposed himself to an indictment at the instance of Sir Thomas Lucy.

I believe he did not kill any deer at Charlcote Park. I have heard that he killed a deer at Fulbroke close by. Fulbroke Park was not the property of Lucy. Fulbroke belonged to Sir Francis Englefield, who was attainted and his property sequestered, but the proceeds not appropriated by the Queen. Lucy sported there without right, and so did Shakespeare.

Sir Thomas Lucy was angry at what he called the insolence of young Shakespeare in daring to interfere with his claim of sport over Fulbroke Park.

William Shakespeare was not, when he came to London, a rude, uncultivated youth. He was not a runaway poacher.

I do not believe Shakespeare ever was in a lawyer's office. I never heard so.

Did he not stand for hours, holding a horse at your theatre door?

Is it likely?

Answer the question.

Then certainly not-never. Persons came to the theatre on horseback, and when they arrived, either there was no one to take the horse or no one on whom they could rely, to take due care and bring the horse when the play was over.

Shakespeare saw that it would be a great convenience, if boys, well selected and known, should be ready to hold the horses when the riders dismounted, or take them to some stables.

Shakespeare organised a body of boys for this purpose, and they were called by his name. As for his holding a horse, himself, it is an idle story.

I never heard of Shakespeare receiving any assistance in the composition of his plays.

He may have received such help. I think he found all the materials of his plays ready to his hand. He supplied the dramatic energy; all that made the dry bones live.

I never heard of his receiving help or assistance from Francis Bacon.

He may have read some of Bacon's manuscripts.

May he not have visited Bacon by night and taken away the plays as Bacon composed them?

He may have gone by night, like Nicodemus, but I never heard that he did.

I never heard of or saw any communications, passing between him and Bacon.

I did not add a line to the manuscripts, nor suffer any one to do so.

Is not the account of the condition of the Plays you gave in your Address to the Reader a fiction ?* What do you mean? Certainly not.

I said we collected and published what we believed to be the best text of Shakespeare.

I said that the copies printed before the folio were very often stolen and surreptitious copies, maimed and deformed, and that I now put them forth cured and perfect in their limbs. I say we did and have done this.

I believe I came into possession of the true original copies, that is, as they received the last finish from Shakespeare's hands. The twenty not printed before are undoubtedly the original. No one has pretended to be in possession of the original manuscripts of these plays, nor of any manuscript copy of them, nor has any one printed a better text of them. All the prints of these plays are from the text of the folio.

Of those printed before the folio I can give you abundant proof that I gave the better, and, as I believe, the final text.

Take " Othello," published for the first time, in quarto, in 1622.

There are passages and songs in the folio not found in the quarto.

Spelling and punctuation much improved.

*After quoting the preface to the folio, which, if true, establishes by proper inference the claim of Shakespeare, Mr. Bompas exclaims, "The story is a fiction" ("The Problem of Shakespeare's Plays," by Geo. C. Bompas, p. 100).

The same with "Hamlet"; there are very important portions in the folio, not in the quartos.

One passage is omitted from the folio, which is found in the quartos. I did not omit it.

It is a portion of the speech of Horatio when, after seeing the Ghost, he speaks of the palmy state of Rome, and says,

"A little ere the mightiest Julius fell,

The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead
Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets."

Shakespeare may have omitted this passage, because it was somewhat far fetched, a little bombastic, and the connection with the succeeding lines defective.

The "Merry Wives of Windsor " in the folio is almost entirely a new play. "Taming the Shrew" the same. "Richard the Third," "King John," "Henry the Fifth," are all different from and superior to the quartos. The whole of the plays were printed from the manuscript, and, as I believe, the original, in the sense of the complete and last manuscripts of Shakespeare. My belief is that after correction and addition, they were re-written.

To my knowledge, no one has revised or touched the manuscripts since Shakespeare's death.

You ought to be ashamed of yourself in stating my story is a fiction.

Mr. Benjamin Jonson had nothing to do with editing the folio.

Neither he nor Lord Bacon ever made the slightest alteration in the manuscripts or supplied a line.

HENRY CONDELL: I am an actor and reside in Aldermanbury, and have a country house at Fulham. I own several houses in Fleet Street and the Strand. I was for many years associated with William Shakespeare on the stage. I only knew him after he had been in London for some time.

I was one of the actors when Jonson's "Every Man in his Humour" was performed in 1598. People are pleased to say that I created the part of Captain Bobadil. I had known Shakespeare then about a year.

I was afterwards one of His Majesties' servants, and am the Henry Condell mentioned in the will before me, by which a ring is given me.

I took a leading part in some of Shakespeare's plays. I concur in the statements Mr. Heminge has made as to Shakespeare and his writings, and particularly as to the preparation and production of the folio volume.

I only desire to add that I employed the last portion of my strength in discharging the duties of friendship.

This witness was not cross-examined. The reporter says the witness seemed very feeble, and that he died in the following December.

FRANCIS MERES: I am a clerk in Holy Orders and Rector of Wing in Rutlandshire.

I also keep a school there.

I was born in 1565, and am now sixty-two years of age.
I am a Master of Arts in both Universities.

In the year 1596 I was living in Botolph Lane, London, and I continued there until 1602, when I became Rector of Wing.

During my residence in London, I took considerable interest in contemporary English literature.

I also visited the theatres and made the acquaintance of play writers and actors; among these was William Shakespeare. He was then one of the Lord Chamberlain's Company, and was both an actor and as I believed, a writer.

I have seen many of his plays in manuscript.

I also saw some of his sonnets.

They were to my knowledge lent to some of his friends, and I have received some from Shakespeare himself.