he Cambridge series, 1906, is
the latest scholarly edition in America. It follows in most cases the
positions taken by Clark and Wright.

Within the last few years there has been an enormous {130} stimulus to
Shakespeare study. The chief work of modern Shakespearean scholarship
is the still incomplete _Variorum_ edition of Dr. H. H. Furness and his
son.

Other aids to study are reprints of the books used by Shakespeare,
facsimile reprints of the original quartos of the plays, and, perhaps
as useful as any one thing, the facsimile reproduction of the First
Folio. The few perplexing problems that the scholar still finds in the
text of Shakespeare will probably never be solved.

On the subject of this chapter, consult A. W. Pollard, _Shakespeare
Folios and Quartos_, Methuen, London, 1910; Sidney Lee, Introduction to
the facsimile reproduction of the First Folio by the Oxford University
Press; T. R. Lounsbury, _The Text of Shakespeare_, New York, Scribners,
1906. For the remarks of critics and editors, the _Variorum_ edition
of Dr. H. H. Furness is invaluable.

[1] A quarto volume, or quarto, is a book which is the size of a fourth
of a sheet of printing paper. The sheets are folded twice to make four
leaves or eight pages, and the usual size is about 6x9 in. A folio is
a volume of the size of a half sheet of printing paper. The paper is
folded once and bound in the middle, the usual size being about 9 x 12
in. The divisions of the book made by thus folding sheets of paper are
called quires, and may consist of four or eight leaves.

[2] This view of the Pavier-Jaggard collection is held by A. W. Pollard
of the British Museum and W. W. Greg of Trinity College Library,
Cambridge. The writers of this volume incline to accord it complete
recognition.

[3] It was evidently designed to fit in between _Romeo and Juliet_ and
_Julius Caesar_; but the owner of the publishing rights holding out
till that part of the book was ready, the editors "ran in" _Timon of
Athens_ to fill up. When _Troilus and Cressida_ was finally arranged
for, it had to be inserted between the Histories and Tragedies.

{131}

CHAPTER X

THE PLAYS OF THE FIRST PERIOD--IMITATION AND EXPERIMENT

1587 (?)-1594

The first period of Shakespeare's work carries him from the youthful
efforts at dramatic construction to such mastery of dramatic technique
and of original portrayal of life as raise him, when aided by his
supreme poetic a