PREFATORY NOTE

Summary

The present volume contains five plays, and, in addition, Charles Kemble's condensation of the Three Parts of Henry VI. into one play, printed from Kemble's MS. in Mr. Henry Irving's possession. This clever attempt to accomplish a most difficult task has never before been published; and it is hoped that it may prove interesting to all students of dramatic literature. Two of these five plays, the Second and Third Parts of Henry VI., are of more than ordinary length; and, as every endeavour has been made to render the historical notes very complete, this volume, necessarily, extends to greater length than its predecessor. The extracts in the Notes on Richard II. from “The Tragedy of Richard the Second,” the original of which is in the volume of MS. plays in the Egerton Library, now in the British Museum, will be found quite new to nearly all Shakespearian students. The paper alluded to in the Introduction to Richard II., p. 396, has not been printed, as it will be embodied in an edition of the Egerton MS. play which I hope shortly to be able to print among the publications of the New Shakspere Society.

I have to thank Mr. Thomas Catling, the editor of Lloyd's Newspaper and a most ardent lover of Shakespeare, for an important correction with regard to the date of the late Mr. Phelps's production of Love's Labour's Lost at Sadlers Wells Theatre.