ON THE HISTORICAL PLAYS OF SHAKSPEARE. BY THE RIGHT HON. THOMAS PEREGRINE COURTENAY. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: HENRY COLBURN, PUBLISHER, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. PR V.7 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Courtenay, Thomas Peregrine, 1782-1841. Commentaries on the historical plays of Shakspeare. Portions first published in the New monthly magazine, 1. Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Histories. I. Title. PR2982.C6 1972 ISBN 0-404-01781-9 822.3'3 72-1030 Reprinted from the edition of 1840, London Manufactured in the United States of America PREFACE. THE greater part of the following Commentaries was published in the popular Miscellany* edited by Theodore Hook, whose approbation, as a man equally acute and amiable, is very gratifying to me: this preface contains the substance of the observations with which I introduced my papers to the public. It was not without real diffidence that I attempted further comments upon Shakspeare. I do not affect to have discovered new beauties in that writer, nor can I boast of the power to place in a more striking light, those which have now for some ages delighted the readers of the English language. But it appeared * New Monthly Magazine, June 1838 to March 1839; under the title of 'Shakspeare's Historical Plays considered historically.' |