Edited by the Rev. CHARLES E. MOBERLY, M.A., Assistant-Master in Rugby School, and formerly Scholar of Balliol College, Oxford. "This is a handy, clearly printed school edition of Shakspere's bright play. The notes are sensible, and not overdone, and the introduction is helpful."-Athenæum. "The notes are clear, to the point, and brief, and for the most part excellent.' Standard. MACBETH. 2s. Edited by the SAME. "A very excellent text, very ably annotated."—Standard. "The plan of giving a brief sketch of each character in the play lends additional interest to it for the young learner. The notes are mainly explanatory, and serve the same useful purpose of clearing away difficulties from the path of the young reader. Of all school Shaksperes, this seems to us considerably the best."-Educational Times. HAMLET. 2s. 6d. Edited by the SAME. "The Introductions in this edition are particularly good, rising above the dull level of antiquarianism into a region of intelligent and sympathetic comment and analysis not often reached in school-books. The Rugby Edition will do well either for school or home reading."-London Quarterly Review. KING LEAR. 2s. 6d. Edited by the SAME. With Notes at the end of the Volume. ROMEO AND JULIET. Edited by the SAME. CORIOLANUS. 2s. 6d. Edited by ROBERT WHITELAW, M. A., Assistant-Master in Rugby School, formerly Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. "The way in which the play is edited displays careful scholarship, and the whole edition is extremely well adapted for school use."-Educational Times. "This number of the Rugby Edition of Select Plays of Shakspere we think the best of the series. There is more effort than before to bring out the characteristics of the central figure of the play, the notes are fuller, and the glossary too."—Athenæum. Edited by J. SURTees Phillpotts, M. A., Head-Master of Bedford Grammar School, formerly Fellow of New College, Oxford. With Notes at the end of the Volume. THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. [c-388] Edited by R. W. TAYLOR, M. A., Head-Master of Kelly College, RIVINGTONS, LONDON, oxford, anD CAMBRIDGE. HAMLET PRINCE OF DENMARK EDITED BY THE REV. CHARLES E. MOBERLY ASSISTANT MASTER IN RUGBY SCHOOL RIVINGTONS 1873 INTRODUCTION A FEW remarks on the tone of reflection and senti ment which prevailed in Shakspere's time, and the circumstances out of which it grew, may serve as a fit introduction to the masterpiece of his intellect and imagination. The main point to be noted is this: that there was in those times a conscious struggle in men's minds between cheerfulness and melancholy, more real, natural, and widely felt by far than that which we remember in our own days, as springing from the conflict between the poetical principles of Byron and Wordsworth. On the one side in these battles stood the prodigious animal spirits and mental vigour of the time, manifesting itself in a thousand ways. It astonishes us in the wonderful cheerfulness with which men like Drake, Grenville, or Raleigh could bear the most awful trials in carrying on our undeclared naval war with Spain; in the fervid spirit which the commanders threw into the thankless and unremitting Irish struggle; in the personal devotion of her people to Elizabeth which made them cry "God save the Queen" under the very mutilating knife of the executioner; perhaps, also, in the strenuous resistance to monopolies, and in the unsolicitous and cheerful persuasion of Elizabeth's ministers, that, in spite of all adverse appearances, she would always be safe against foreign aggression, because she could always hold the balance between |