The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1853-05-04
GOLFERS NOTES AND EMENppaa-
TIONS TO THE TEXT or ShAn'
PEARE'S PLAYS.

ropn,rv has had something TO say win regard
TO this book, and were the snpJec' capao'e o
.xbsus,;on we should suspect that, TO the ma
;n,;,v =, readers. il had already become stale
Trusting. however, 10 the undying interest
which is attached to everything connected in
Oh. ,emotest degree with the great poet whose
80, il processes 70 elucidate, we shall, at the
IL nj being voted bore. eadeavor 10 give as
eoncisely as possible, our own views of the
suecess which has attended upon this, the la.
test as we'll as the most imposing attempt TO
accomplish an end so much to be desired.
We regard this volume as one of the mos,
interesting that has been published in our time
Some Of the greatest and most acute minds
that England has produced, have condescend.
ed to become aunotators of the marvellous old
playwright. Rowe, Theobald, Pope, Warbur'
ton, Johnson, Stevens, Malone, Chalmers,
Coleridge, and hundreds of others, some OF
them almost equally famous with the best OF
those named, have thought tnot beneath their
dignity to exhaust their ingenuity in correct
ing, restoring, and calculating his text, ana
placing him before the world in ga'b suited
to the extraordinary interest which ne mas al
WAYS excited in it. Homage so pure ana So
exalted. was never before paid at the shrine Oh
genius, and it would serve to convey 10 NATIONS
speaking different tongues, even 'hough ne
sbouId not have been naturaliZed among them,
some faint idea ofits SURPRISING grandeur The
reader who may not have read these notes,
will be enabled to form some estimate OF their
value. when he is told, that in the opinion OF
all who have written upon the subject, they
have done more towards restoring the text of
Shakespeare, than all the writings of all the
commentators combined. With this opinion,
though our judgment may be esteemed of liz.
tie value in the premises, we take occasion to
say, that we heartily and entirely coincide
Before presenting specimens of the emenda-
tons presented by MIR. Collier, we shall allude
briefly to his predatory statement, accompany
ing it with differences of our own, which we
regard as fairly deducibe.
From a very early period in his histrionic
career, Shakespeare appears to have been a
and then another. AS the laws of literary pro-
perty were exceedingly loose and defective in
his day, had he published his plays, they would
have been acted at other and rival theatres
About the year 1898 fourteen Of them were &C
tually pirated and published in vitiated form.
A great deal of wonder has been expressed at
his not having come forward at once, claimed
them as his own, and published them as he
wrote them. But the wonder ceases when we
reflect that he derived more profit from them
on the stage, than he could have derived from
selling them in print, in an age when readers
were comparatively few, and when the bulk
and price of the volume would deter the ma
jority of those disposed to purchase-tha1
looking for his profits to the theatre, it be-
came an object to restrict them that o.
which he was the proprietor-that the cor
rupt and defective plays played at the
other theatres, could not compete with the
correct copies of the same as played a
his-and that as he was joint manager with
others, he. in all probability, regarded the
plays as joint property belonging to the theatre
If it be asked why he did not publish a cor
rected edition after he had retired to Stafford
upon.Avon about the year 1912, the answer is
1st, that there is no evidence that his connec
ton with the theatre ceased upon his retire
ment. I'd, that he died in 1916 aged only 50
IN the very prime of his life, and, il is fai
TO presume, of his powers also, leaving unfn
ished whatever he might have contemplated
with regard to his immortal dramas. That hi
did not estimate them at their true value, il
oh 49, I,
centuries their full worth is even now not hal
developed. But that he should not have
known that they were extraordinary produc
tions, and that he himself was a very extraor
binary man, their vast popularity, and the at
tention which they had drawn upon him of sc
much that was distinguished for learning
wealth, and exalted rank, render it alb
surd to imagine. Equally absurd is it t.
suppose that mind SO ely under thu
control oil the poetic faculty, should have
been wholly destitute of that passion which
is common to all mankind, but has alwav,
been found most fully DEVELOPED in war
riors and poets; we mean the love of fame
We hold 1t, therefore, to have been impossible
that ne should not have keenly felt the de
grading uses TO which his dramas were put il
the corrupt edition published during his life
and II is more than probable that these feeling
were uppermost in his mind when he mad
Hamlet instruct the players TO "speak n
more than is set down for them." Far NOR
reasonable is it to suppose that his neglect t
publish an edition OF his works was owing {
his early death, than to his contempt of fame
But we have been led beside our purpose.
The edition which was published durin
the life of the poet seems to have been pirate
from the theatre by combination of plaver
who had each played parts in the seyers
plays, and contributed each man his part O
cue las it is technically termed.) As tber
must have been some person TO write down III
several parts, as they were delivered. and
1t rs probable that the person thus emnlovs
was no great scholar boundless field ",
opened to errors and corruptions Of every CO,
eeiVaole description. Seven years after n
poets death, Heminge and Condell. two MIA,
efs. who had heep hi. asso.;..o.