l in a few days be published by James Munroe & Co., of Boston, who
will issue at short intervals the other ten, the last of which will
embrace a Life of the Poet by the editor. Some of the main
characteristics of this edition may be inferred from these paragraphs,
which we are enabled to make from an early copy of the preface.

"The celebrated Chiswick edition, of which this is meant to be as near
an imitation as the present state of Shaksperian literature renders
desirable, was published in 1826, and has for some time been out of
print. In size of volume, in type, style of execution, and adaptedness
to the wants of both the scholar and the general reader, it presented a
combination of advantages possessed by no other edition at the time of
its appearance. The text, however, abounds in corruptions introduced by
preceding editors under the name of corrections. Of the number and
nature of these corruptions no adequate idea can be formed but by a
close comparison, line by line, and word by word, with the original
editions.

"The Chiswick edition, though perhaps the most popular that has yet been
issued, has never, strange to say, been reprinted in this country. For
putting forth an American edition retaining the advantages of that,
without its defects, no apology, it is presumed, will be thought
needful. How far those advantages are retained in the present edition,
will appear upon a very slight comparison: how far those defects have
been removed, we may be allowed to say that no little study and
examination will be required to the forming of a right judgment. In all
of the plays, the chief, and in many of them the only, basis and
standard whereby to ascertain the true text, is the folio of 1623. In
our preparing of copy we have this continually open before us, at the
same time availing ourselves of whatsoever aid is to be drawn from
earlier impressions, in case of such plays as were published during the
author's life. So that, if a thorough revisal of every line, every word,
every letter, and every point, with a continual reference to the
original copies, be a reasonable ground of confidence, then we can
confidently assure the reader that he will here find the genuine text of
Shakspeare.

"The process of purification has been rendered much more laborious, and
therefore much more necessary, by the mode in which it was for a long
time customary to edit the poet's works. This mode is well exemplified
in the case of Malone