to such treatment
giving us true, although not highly finished specimens of his grand
style.

A few of the plays now remain unnoticed; but our purpose is accomplished
without further particular remark. The reader who has gone thus far with
me needs me no longer as a guide. The Roman plays, "Coriolanus," "Julius
Caesar," and "Antony and Cleopatra," particularly the last, should now
receive his careful attention. In "The Winter's Tale," "The Tempest,"
and "Henry VIII." he will find the very last productions of
Shakespeare's pen, and in the first and the third of these he will find
marks of hasty work both in the versification and in the construction;
but the touch of the master is unmistakable quite through them all, and
"The Tempest" is one of the most perfect of his works in all respects.
No true lover of Shakespeare should neglect the Sonnets, although many
do neglect them. They are inferior to the plays; but only to them.

As to helps to the understanding of Shakespeare, those who can
understand him at all need none except a good critical edition. And by a
good critical edition I mean only one which gives a good text, with
notes where they are needed upon obscure constructions, obsolete words
or phrases, manners and customs, and the like. Of the plays in the
Clarendon Press series, "The Merchant of Venice," "Richard II.,"
"Macbeth," "Hamlet," and "King Lear," better editions cannot be had,
particularly for readers inexperienced in verbal criticism. Those who
find any difficulty which the notes to those editions do not explain may
be pretty sure that, with the exception of a very few passages the
corruption of which is admitted on all hands, the trouble is not with
Shakespeare or the editor. Shakespeare read in the way which I have
indicated, and with the help of such an edition, has a high educating
value, and in particular will give the reader an insight into the
English language, if not a mastery of it, that is worth a course of all
the text-books of grammar and rhetoric that have been written ten times
over. As to editions, I shall give only one caution. Do not get Dyce's.
Mr. Dyce was a scholar, a man of fine taste, most thoroughly read in
English literature, particularly in that of the Elizabethan period. He
was a man for whom I had a very high respect, and whom I had reason to
regard with a somewhat warmer feeling than that of a mere literary
acquaintance. This and my deference to his age and his position
prev