Book Description

Excerpt from The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark: According to the First Folio (Spelling Modernised); With Further Remarks on the Emphasis-Capitals of Shakspere Of editing Shakspere's works, and writing books on them and him, there is no end, and with such a popular subject many have to do whom the Gods have not made Poetical, and who, therefore, do not know what Poetical is. We have laborious contributors in every branch connected with him and his writings, but, of course, the first thing, which has led to all the interest, is his meaning, that is the Heart of heart, and on which depends the accurate reading or reciting of his language, and we claim for these emphasis-capitals, that in this, they are the confidential servants or body-guard. Adherents to our opinion increase in number more rapidly than could have been anticipated, for there are so many grave interests bound up with Modern Editions which shew the shorn Text, that any published favourable words of an Edition restoring these abolished Capitals, and upon the ground of their being indispensable, cannot be other than few and far between. With a large number of persons, to admit that there is anything whatever in them, making them worthy of restoration, would be to lift a stone to break their own heads, and, accordingly, there is either silence, orutterances of the when I ope my lips, let no dog bark character, to force the emphasis-capitals to be regarded as merely types of a different shape, signifying nothing emanating from the Printers, and not thoughtfully selected, and carefully set down in his Manuscript, by Shakspere himself. One of the reviewers has said, These Capitals were simply inserted by the printers in the fashion of the time when no two printing offices agreed in the matter, or even took the trouble to be consistent with themselves, a statement with which we think no earnest and impartial student of the First Folio, capable of judging. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.