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WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

*NCL

Rusden


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What needs my Shakespeare for his honoured bones
The labour of an age in piled stones?

Or that his hallowed reliques should be hid

Beneath a star-ypointed pyramid?

Dear son of memory! Great heir of fame!
What needs't thou such weak witness of thy name?
Thou in our wonder and astonishment

Hast built thyself a livelong monument;

For whilst, to the shame of slow endeavouring art,
Thy easy numbers flow, and that each heart

Hath from the leaves of thy unvalued book
Those Delphic lines with deep impression took,

Then thou, our fancy of itself bereaving,

Dost make us marble with too much conceiving,

And, so sepulchred, in such pomp dost lie,

That kings for such a tomb would wish to die.

Milton.

MELBOURNE:

MELVILLE & MULLEN, 262 AND 261 COLLINS STREET.

1903.

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H. A. Evans & Sons !! July 1941

PREFACE.

So much has been written about Shakespeare that it would be vain to hope that at this time another writer can add anything which is new and true. Yet it seems possible to arrange known facts (now scattered in many publications) in such a manner as to present a picture, more accurate than some which have been published about the man himself, and those creations of his imagination, which have enriched the literature, not only of his own country but of the world.

To myself, who complete on this day my 84th year, he has been a cherished companion over "Ocean's roaring tides,” and in every continent and many islands of the globe.

My debt to him is one which can never be repaid, but I hope that the authorities at Stratford-on-Avon will permit this humble tribute to find a place in their Library.

I may be asked what hope I can reasonably entertain that I can add anything of worth to Shakespearian literature. My answer must be that the sense of duty done is grateful to the mind, and that many friends have urged me to the task as one which I ought to do.

For the rest, if any profit should accrue from the sale of this work it is bequeathed for the purpose of founding

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