SHAKESPEARE'S COMPLETE WORKS.

NEW AND ELEGANT EDITION.

EDITED BY RICHARD GRANT WHITE.

TO BE PUBLISHED BY SUBSCRIPTION,

BY

LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY,

112 Washington Street, Boston.

N TWELVE VOLUMES, POST, 8vo.

THE labors of Mr. White in the wide field of Shakesperian research and criticism are everywhere known and appreciated by the students and lovers of the Great Dramatist. The recent publication of his "Shakespeare's Scholar,” which presented views taken by the author during several years of careful and diligent study, was hailed with delight and satisfaction on both sides of the Atlantic, and secured for him the gratitude of every intelligent reader of Shakespeare, who desired to see the text in its original purity, relieved of the mass of superfluous annotations, explanations, and attempted improvements, by which it had been encumbered, if not obscured, by most of the previous commentators.

This work may be regarded as the precursor of the forthcoming edition of Shakespeare's Complete Works, and as indicating the spirit in which it was undertaken, and, in some degree, its peculiarities. To the preparation of this edition, Mr. White has devoted the greater part of the last five years; having, among other labors, collated in that time every letter and point of the text, (numbering more than a hundred and fifty thousand lines,) with those of the first folio and the early quartos, and having carefully examined every existing critical edition of Shakespeare's works.

The chief characteristics of this edition are as follows:

I. Adhesion to the text of the authentic folio of 1623, excepting where that is manifestly corrupt or defective.

II. The restoration of many passages from the original text, which the editor shows to have been carelessly assumed to be corrupt in preceding modern editions.

III. The successful emendation of many passages which are undeniably corrupt, and which have baffled the efforts of previous editors and commen

tators.

IV. The discovery and correction of many corruptions of the text which have hitherto been undetected.,

V. The "frugal selection from the labors of all" the commentators, which Steevens desired, and which he believed would one day be made.

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'This selection frequently takes the form of condensation; and it is with the extremest rarity made the occasion of controversy.

VI. The adaptation of the Notes - whether textual, explanatory, or antiquarian to the capacity, not of professional men on the one hand, or of dull and uneducated persons on the other, but of the great mass of Shakespeare's intelligent readers.

VII. The careful preservation of the rhythm of Shakespeare's prose, as well as verse, according to the contractions in use at his time, or peculiar to him, as they are given in the old editions, though almost universally neglected in those of modern date.

VIII. The examination, and, as far as possible, the determination, of the old modes of pronunciation, which in numberless instances affect the rhythm, and in many the sense of the text.

IX. Remarks upon the state of our language in the time of Shakespeare, which are interspersed through the Notes.

X. The crediting of every emendation, explanation, or illustrative quotation, to the editor or commentator who first brought it forwardthus succinctly giving the reader the history of every disputed passage, and so, of the vicissitudes of the text.

XI. The separation of the text and the notes. As every lover of Shakespeare desires, sometimes, at least, to read his text "simple, of itself," without the distraction inevitable when notes and references are forced upon the eye, the text of this edition is not cumbered and deformed by notes, or references to notes, upon the page; but the notes are placed at the end of each play, with clear marginal references to act, scene, and page; so that whoever seeks elucidation or justification of a reading, may find it instantly, but not have it thrust upon him, whether he will or not.

XII. This edition will be accompanied by a reduced fac-simile of the curious and interesting preliminary matter to the folio of 1623; by two portraits, (exclusive of that upon the title-page of the old folio,) one of which has never been published in this country; and by views in Stratford on Avon, some of which have been taken specially to illustrate the Memoir of the Poet which, with an Essay upon his Genius, a compact but comprehensive History of Text, and an account of the Rise and Progress of the English Drama, will appear in the first volume.

The work will be published by subscription, in twelve volumes, post 8vo., and will be printed on new and elegant type, and very superior paper. Specimen pages furnished upon application.

Vols. II. III. IV. V. containing the Comedies, will be ready for delivery in May, the Histories in the coming Autumn, and the Tragedies, with vol. I., containing the Poems and the editorial essays, in the course of the following Spring.

Price $1.25 per volume, bound in cloth; payable on delivery.

A few copies of the work will be published with India proof impressions

of the three portraits and the few wood-cuts, at $1.50 per volume. Subscriptions will now be received by the publishers.

Boston, April 15, 1858.

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Valuable Works Recently Published

BY LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY.

Agassiz's Natural History.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, by LOUIS AGASSIZ. First Monograph, in Three Parts. I. Essay on Classification. II. North American Testudinata. III. Embryology of the Turtle, with 34 plates. Vols. I. II. 4to. $24.00.

Subscriptions received for the whole work only, to be comprised in ten volumes. A limited number of copies printed.

CONTENTS OF VOLS. ONE AND TWO.

PART I.-Essay on Classification.

CHAPTER I. The fundamental relations of animals to one another and to the world in which they live, as the basis of the natural system of animals; under which head, the author treats of, the actual foundation in nature of the true zoological system or classification, — the unity of plan throughout the diversified types, the distribution of the same types over widely diverse geographical regions, and as widely diverse geological ages, the permanency of types and the immutability of species, the relations between plants and animals and the surrounding world, embryology a basis for determining the rank of species, — succession in geological time a basis for deciding approximately upon rank; - all of which topics, besides others not here enumerated, are so handled as to bear directly on the question of creation by physical agencies, giving it a decided negative reply.

CHAPTER II. Leading groups of the existing systems of animals --a philosophical disquisition on the true significance of the grades of subdivisions in the kingdoms of life, the nature of species, genera, families, orders, and classes.

CHAPTER III. Notice of the principal systems of Zoology, including observations on the systems of Aristotle and Linnæus; the anatomical systems of Cuvier, Lamarck, Ehrenberg, Burmeister, Owen, von Siebold, and others; the physio-philosophical systems of Oken and McLeay; and the embryological systems of Dollinger, von Baer, Vogt, etc.

PART II. - North American Testudinata.

CHAPTER I. The Order of Testudinata, its rank, classification, general characters, anatomical structure, geographical distribution, geological history, etc.

CHAPTER II. The Families of Testudinata.

CHAPTER III. North American genera and species of Testudinata, their characters, distribution, etc., for the several families.

PART III. — Embryology of the Turtle.

CHAPTER I. Development of the egg from its first appearance to the formation of the embryo.

CHAPTER II. Development of the embryo from the time the egg leaves the ovary to that of the hatching of the young, including the laying of the eggs, the deposition of the albumen and formation of the shell, the absorption of albumen into the yolk sac, the transformations of the yolk in the fecundated egg, — segmentation of the yolk, — the

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whole egg in the embryo,-foldings of the embryonic disk, and successive stages of growth of the Turtle, formation and development of the organs, histology, chronology of the development of the embryo.

The young of various species, and the several successive phases in embryological development, are illustrated with details in the plates, all of which are crowded full of figures.

Pierce's Analytical Mechanics.

PHYSICAL AND CELESTIAL MECHANICS: developed in four systems of Analytical Mechanics, Celestial Mechanics, Potential Physics, and Analytical Morphology. By BENJAMIN PIERCE. Part I. Analytical Mechanics, in 1 vol. 4to. Price $7.50.

Gauss's Theoria Motus.

THEORY OF THE MOTION OF THE HEAVENLY BODIES MOVING ABOUT THE SUN in Conic Sections. A translation of Gauss's Theoria Motus, with an Appendix. By CHARLES HENRY DAVIS. 1 vol. 4to. $5.00.

Trescot's Diplomatic History.

THE DIPLOMATIC HISTORY OF THE ADMINISTRATION OF WASHINGTON AND ADAMS, 1789-1801. By WILLIAM HENRY TRESCOT. 1 vol. 12mo. $1.25.

British Poets.

A COMPLETE COLLECTION OF THE BRITISH POETS, from Chaucer to Wordsworth; embracing the whole Works of the most distinguished Authors, with Selections from the Minor Poets; accompanied with Biographical, Historical, and Critical Notices.

This series of the British Poets has secured the unqualified commendation of the press and the public, in all parts of the country, so that the success of the undertaking is firmly established. It is universally acknowledged to be the best edition ever issued, both in point of editorship and mechanical execution, placing it out of the reach of competition. Each separate work is sold by itself; and the price of each volume, 16mo, bound in the Aldine style, or in black cloth, gilt-lettered, is 75 cents.

Ninety-six volumes are now ready, comprising the following:

A COMPLETE COLLECTION, uniform with the Poets. 38 vols. Price 75 cents per volume.