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Copyrighted, 1889, by GEBBIE & Co.

PREFACE.

IT is the intention of the publishers to make this

COMPENDIUM such a perfect summary of Shakespeare's Dramas as will enable the student to comprehend the whole plot of each play at a glance. This will be found a great advantage to the general reader, and will prove a still greater boon to the theatre-goer who may be about to witness on the stage one of Shakespeare's plays which he may not have read, or read so long ago as to need refreshing his memory thereon. Each drama will be treated separately in the rotation in which they appear in the Dr. Johnson edition of Shakespeare's Works published by Gebbie & Co., but it will serve equally well for any other edition. The following will be the method of treatment of each drama:

1st. A historical notice of when the play was written, or first appeared in print, or was first acted, and the sources from whence Shakespeare most probably drew his work.

2d. The plot of the play summarized and the dramatis persona in this connection repeated in detail.

3d. A few brief notes on the most prominent characters in each drama, to enable the reader more

readily to measure and estimate the relative impor-
tance and position of the chief actors engaged.

This arrangement for busy men and women will
possess at least the recommendation of novelty, and
we think will be found generally useful, when any
play of Shakespeare is spoken of, to be able at a few
minutes' notice to compass an understanding of all the
chief characters and the plot of the drama.

The CONCORDANCE embodies all the familiar phrases
most currently quoted-treated by catchwords, leading
to the quotations, alphabetically arranged; and these
quotations are furthermore elaborately indexed, so that
if any important word of any popular quotation be
remembered, the searcher is likely to find it in this
CONCORDANCE.

A separate CONCORDANCE OR INDEX OF CHARAC-
TERS will be found following the general Concordance
of Familiar Quotations. This, we believe, is the first
time that all the characters in Shakespeare's works
have been brought together and registered each in the
proper place.
GEBBIE & Co.

Philadelphia, July 6, 1889.