has since been substantiated; what seems light and almost juvenile
in the composition of this man, aged thirty-nine, gives the scent on
which nowadays the main pack of students is pursuing. No one not a
fool can read Johnson's notes on Shakespeare without respect or fail
to turn to them again with an increased trust in his common-sense,
as no one not a fool can read Hazlitt without an equal sense that he
has the root of the matter, or of the spirit which is the matter.

ARTHUR QUILLER-COUCH 1916






TO CHARLES LAMB, ESQ.

THIS VOLUME IS INSCBIBED AS A MARK OF OLD FRIENDSHIP AND LASTING
ESTEEM

BY THE AUTHOR




CONTENTS

PREFACE
CYMBELINE
MACBETH