INTRODUCTION

Summary

The plays in this serial edition of Shakespeare have, in accordance with custom, hitherto followed the order originally laid down in the First Folio. With the completion of the fourteen Comedies, however, more than a third of the whole journey has been traversed, and to persevere in the wake of Messrs Heminge and Condell would mean a long trudge through the ten Histories. I therefore propose, not indeed to desert their guidance altogether, but to relieve the rather monotonous scenery of their second stage by an occasional excursion into the highlands of tragedy. The play that comes next to The Winter's Tale in the Folio is King John; this will be issued after the present volume, with Richard II to follow. Meanwhile, we turn aside from the frontiers of Angevin England to Denmark, a Denmark legendary in its setting but with an atmosphere and characters which, clearly belong to the age of Elizabeth.

Hamlet has been chosen for several reasons, but chiefly for a personal one. With The Winter's Tale Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch ceased to captain the ship of this adventure. That I should wish to dedicate the next volume to him as a slight acknowledgment of encouragement and tolerance extended over twelve years of unclouded fellowship goes without saying. But I wished also to give him something different from the ordinary run of plays.