Author: William J. Rolfe

Publisher: Forgotten Books

Published: 2015-06-25

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 9781330369531

Excerpt from Shakespeare's History of King Henry the Eighth This edition of Henry the Eighth has been prepared on the same plan as those of The Merchant of Venice and The Tempest, and I have little to add by way of preface beyond a grateful acknowledgment of the kindness with which the series has thus far been received. As in the case of the former plays, the text is the result of a careful collation of the Folio of 1623 with all the modern editions that have any critical value. With very few exceptions, the variations from the Folio, however trivial, have been mentioned in the notes, together with the readings adopted or proposed by the leading commentators. 'These textual questions are of interest to every student of Shakespeare, and my experience as a teacher has satisfied me that they may be profitably discussed even by boys and girls at school. Indeed, it sometimes happens that these babes in criticism are quick to see what is hidden from men reputed "wise and prudent." Their young eyes discern the simple truth through all the dust that successive generations of learned editors have raised in' their quarrels about it. In the Notes I have often referred the reader to illustrations of Shakespeare's English in the earlier books of the series, and the space thus gained has been used for historical annotations. The material for these has been drawn from a great variety of sources, and has been very carefully worked up. There are, of course, many notes which many of my readers will not need, but I think there are none that may not be of service, or at least of interest, to some of them. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.