DIFFICULT PASSAGES IN THE WORKS OF SHAKESPEARE THE TEXT OF THE FOLIO AND QUARTOS COLLATED WITH THE LECTIONS OF RECENT EDITIONS AND THE OLD COMMENTATORS WITH ORIGINAL EMENDATIONS AND NOTES BY BENJAMIN GOTT KINNEAR LONDON: GEORGE BELL AND SONS 1883 TO THE READER. The following Work consists of Suggestions, resulting from many years' study, for the Emendation of Shakespeare's Text. Every portion of it must stand or fall upon its individual merit, and there is little occasion for Introduction or Preface, but it may be well to state the general Principle on which the Suggestions have been made. It is that of Analogy: it is assumed that in Passages more or less similar in Tenour a corresponding Similarity of Expression may be looked for, and that from Internal Evidence alone a Key may thus be found to the true Reading of many doubtful and obviously corrupt Passages. External Evidence is not rejected, for Parallelisms may reasonably be expected in Contemporary Writers: but it is in the Works of the Great Master himself that we may most confidently look for a Solution of these Cruces; and to make Shakespeare his own Interpreter is the main Object of this Work. |