The Plays of William Shakspeare (1778)/Volume 1

by William Shakespeare

Layout 2

TO THE READER.

This figure, that thou here seest put,
It was for gentle Shakspeare cut,
Wherein the graver had a strife
With nature, to out-doo the life:
O, could he have but drawn his wit.

As well in brasse, as he hath hit
His face; the print would then surpasse
All that was ever writ in brasse
But since he cannot, reader looke
Not on his picture, but his booke.

Ben Johnson.

THE

PLAYS

OF

WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE.

VOLUME the FIRST.

CONTAINING

PREFACES, &c.
The TEMPEST.
The TWO GENTLEMEN of VERONA.
The MERRY WIVES of WINDSOR.

PLAYS, &c. contained in each Volume.
CONTENTS of VOL. I.

Head of Shakespeare, from an Engraving by Martin Droeshout, before the Folio 1623.
Preface by Johnson.
Advertisement by Steevens.
Extract from the Gul’s Hornbook, by Decker, concerning our ancient theatres, &c.
The Globe Theatre, from the Long Antwerp View of London in the Pepysian Library.
Catalogue of the earliest Translations from Greek and Roman Classicks.
Appendix to Colman’s Terence, relative to the Learning of Shakespeare.
Dedication by Heminge and Condell to the Folio, 1623.
Preface by the same.
——— by Pope.
——— by Theobald.
——— by Hanmer.
——— by Warburton.
Advertisement prefixed to Steevens’s Twenty Plays, &c.
Rowe’s Life of Shakespeare.
Ms. in the Herald’s Office.
Licences to Shakespeare, &c. from Rymer’s Fædera, and his Mss.
Head of Shakespeare from that by Marshall, prefixed to the Poems 1640.
Fac-Simile of Shakespeare’s Hand-writing.
Anecdotes of Shakespeare, from Oldys’s Mss. &c.
Farmer’s Account of a Pamphlet falsely imputed to Shakespeare; together with Remarks on a passage in Warton’s Life of Dr. Bathurst.
Observations on Passages in the Preface to the French Translation of Shakespeare.
Registers of the Shakespeare Family.
Grainger’s Catalogue of the Portraits of Shakespeare.
Ancient and Modern Commendatory Verses on Shakespeare, with Notes, &c.
List of Editions of Shakespeare’s Plays, both ancient and modern;—of Plays alter’d from him;—of detach’d Pieces of Criticism, &c.
Entries of Shakespeare’s Plays on the Books of the Stationers’ Company.
An Attempt to ascertain the Order in which the Plays attributed to Shakespeare were written, by Edmond Malone, Esq.

Tempest.
Two Gentlemen of Verona.
Merry Wives of Windsor.

VOL. II.

Measure for Measure.
Comedy of Errors.
Much Ado about Nothing.
Love’s Labour Lost.

VOL. III.

Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Merchant of Venice.
As You Like It.
Taming of a Shrew.

VOL. IV.

All’s Well that Ends Well.
Twelfth Night.
Winter’s Tale.
Macbeth.

VOL. V.

King John.
King Richard II.
King Henry IV. Part First.
King Henry IV. Part Second.

VOL. VI.

King Henry V.
King Henry VI. Part First.
King Henry VI. Part Second.
King Henry VI. Part Third.

VOL. VII.

King Richard III.
King Henry VIII.
Coriolanus.

VOL. VIII.

Julius Cæsar.
Antony and Cleopatra.
Timon of Athens.
Titus Andronicus.

VOL. IX.

Troilus and Cressida.
Cymbeline.
King Lear.

VOL. X.

Romeo and Juliet.
Hamlet.
Othello.

Supplemental Note on Hamlet, p. 263, and 420.

[The rugged Pyrrhus &c.]