HAMLET. 2s. 6d. KING LEAR. 2s. 6d. ROMEO AND JULIET. 25. KING HENRY THE FIFTH. 25. A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. 25. KING JOHN. 25. Edited by the Rev. C. E. MOBERLY, M.A., late Assistant Edited by ROBert Whitelaw, M.A., Assistant Master at Rugby School. Edited by J. SURTEES PHILLPOTS, M.A., Head Master of Bedford Grammar School. HAMLET PRINCE OF DENMARK EDITED BY THE REV. CHARLES E. MOBERLY LATE ASSISTANT MASTER IN RUGBY SCHOOL NEW EDITION. RIVINGTONS WATERLOO PLACE, LONDON M. add: 65.3.1. INTRODUCTION A FEW remarks on the tone of reflection and senti ment which prevailed in Shakspere's time, and the circumstances out of which it grew, may serve as a fit introduction to the masterpiece of his intellect and imagination. The main point to be noted is this: that there was in those times a conscious struggle in men's minds between cheerfulness and melancholy, more real, natural, and widely felt by far than that which we remember in our own days, as springing from the conflict between the poetical principles of Byron and Wordsworth. On the one side in these battles stood the prodigious animal spirits and mental vigour of the time, manifesting itself in a thousand ways. It astonishes us in the wonderful cheerfulness with which men like Drake, Grenville, or Raleigh could bear the most awful trials in carrying on our undeclared naval war with Spain; in the fervid spirit which the commanders threw into the thankless and unremitting Irish struggle; in the personal devotion of her people to Elizabeth which made them cry "God save the Queen" under the very mutilating knife of the executioner; perhaps, also, in the strenuous resistance to monopolies, and in the unsolicitous and cheerful persuasion of Elizabeth's ministers, that, in spite of all adverse appearances, she would always be safe against foreign aggression, because she could always hold the balance between |