THE PLAYS OF WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE, WITH NOTES OF VARIOUS COMMENTATORS. EDITED BY MANLEY WOOD, A. M. IN FOURTEEN VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: PRINTED FOR GEORGE KEARSLEY. 1806. .H. PREFACE. FRIENDS of learning and admirers of genius will not be very forward to complain that editions of great and favourite authors are too variously multiplied. Experience has taught them, in the course of their own researches, that by the repeated efforts of succeeding editors, difficulty is removed and simplicity restored. Among the whole race of writers, ancient and modern, no one has, perhaps, needed more the assistance of commentators, or been more plentifully supplied with it, than the illustrious bard whose works are here presented to the public. Shakspeare's wonderful exuberance of fancy, and the vast rapidity with which his mind assimilated images, could not always be restrained by the necessary duty of correct and |