Description

Shakespeare's library; a collection of the plays, romances, novels, poems, and histories employed by Shakespeare in the composition of his works.

With introd. and notes. The text now first formed from a new collation of the original copies (1875)
2nd Edition, 6 volumes

Contents
PART I. VOL. I.

Shakespeare's plays in this volume:
LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST.
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.
THE COMEDY OF ERRORS.
ROMEO AND JULIET.
KING RICHARD II.
HENRY IV.
HENRY V.
TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA.
MERCHANT OF VENICE.
TWELFTH NIGHT


SYNTHETICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS.
(List of works of literature associated with each play):

LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST:
The Story of Charles, King of Navarre, from Monstrelet.

MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM :
The Life of Theseus, from North's Plutarch.

COMEDY OF ERRORS:
1. Menoechmi, translated from Plautus, by W. W., 1595. (Part II.}
2. The Story of the Two Brothers of Avignon, [from Goulart's Admirable and Memorable Histories, 1607, p. 529.]

ROMEO AND JULIET :
1. Romeus and Juliet, a poem by Arthur Broke, 1562.
2. Rhomeo and julietta, from Painter's Palace of Pleasure, 1566.

FIRST PART OF HENRY IV. :
SECOND PART OF HENRY IV. :
HENRY V. :
1. The Famous Victories of Henry V., 1598. (Part 77.)
2. Agincourt, the English Bowman 's Glory, a ballad.

Two GENTLEMEN OF VERONA :
The Story of the Shepherdess Felismena, from the Diana of Montemayor, 1598.

MERCHANT OF VENICE:
1. The Adventures of Giannetto, from the Pecorone of Ser Giovanni Fiorentino.
2. Of a Jew who would for his Debt have a Pound of the Flesh of a Christian, from the Orator of Alex. Silvayn, Englished by L. P., 4 to , 1596.
3. The Story of the Choice of Three Caskets, from the English Gesta Romanorum (edit. Madden, pp. 238-43)
4. The Northern Lord, a ballad.
5. Gernutus, the Jew of Venice, a ballad.

TWELFTH NIGHT :
History of Apollonius and Silla, by Barnaby Rich,1581.

THE following work supplies an important deficiency in our literature as regards Shakespeare : it brings into one view all that has been recovered of the
sources he employed, in various degrees, in the composition of such of his dramas as are not derived from Grecian, Roman, or English History, or were not formed upon some earlier play. The romances, novels, and poems to which he resorted are scattered over many volumes, some of them of the rarest occurrence, existing only in our public libraries : these are included in the ensuing pages. We have ventured to call the work "Shakespeare's Library," since our great dramatist, in all probability, must have possessed
the books to which he was indebted, and some of which he applied so directly and minutely to his own purposes.