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LENOX LIBRAR

NEW YORK

LONDON:

Printed by J. Strangeways and H. E. Walden, 28 Castle Street, Leicester Square.

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SHAKESPEARE;

A REPRINT OF THE "FAMOUS FOLIO OF 1623."

IN

ADVERTISEMENT.

N this reproduction of the first edition of the collected Works of Shakespeare, the prime object has been to fecure its entire identity with the Original. It is well known that there exifts in the Original a great variety of errors; but, not one of these has here been corrected. Whatever the defects of the Volume, it was felt that if reproduced at all it must be reproduced intact as it was firft put forth in 1623, and that if the leaft "license of ink" were affumed, all reliance upon its identity would be destroyed. Notwithstanding its defects, it fhould not be forgotten that the Folio of 1623 is the most important edition extant; for, as Mr. Howard Staunton has well obferved, it is "the only authority we poffefs for above one-half of Shakespeare's plays, and a very important one for those which had been published before its appearance." Yet while, for the reafons given, the blemishes must be allowed to remain, they have not been unheeded. On the hint of Horne Tooke (Diverfions of Purley, part ii. p. 52, edit. 1805), they have all been noted with a view to a comprehenfive lift of corrigenda.

After accuracy, the next object is to place within eafy attainment of the many a book the poffeffion of which has hitherto been reftricted to the very fortunate few. Henceforth for less than two pounds may be fecured, in a perfect ftate, the coveted of all English book-collectors, a Volume which in the Original, and in a condition more or lefs of defacement and repair, would be confidered cheap at a hundred; and this in form and condition more pleafing to the eye-a "cheerful femblance" of its prototype-and much

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