2. _Shakspeare's himself again_, by Andrew Becket, 2 vols, 8vo. 1815. The author has indulged in a license of conjecture and of interpretation which has never been equalled before or since. We have nevertheless generally given his conjectures, except when he has gone the length of inventing a word. 3. _Shakspeare's Genius Justified_, by Zachary Jackson, 1 vol. 8vo, 1811. As the author himself had been a printer, his judgement on the comparative likelihood of this and that typographical error is worth all consideration. But he sometimes wanders 'ultra crepidam[15].' Douce's _Illustrations to Shakespeare_, 2 vols. 8vo, 1807, ought to be mentioned as a work of great antiquarian research, though he rarely suggests any new alteration of the text, and his name therefore will seldom occur in our notes. The more recent editions of Shakespeare are so well known and so easily accessible, that it is unnecessary for us, even were it becoming in this place, to undertake the invidious task of comparing their respective merits. It will suffice to mention the names of the editors in the order of their first editions: S. W. Singer, Charles Knight, Barry Cornwall, J. Payne Collier, S. Phelps, J. O. Halliwell, Alex. Dyce, Howard Staunton. We have also to mention the edition of Delius, 7 vols. 8vo, Elberfeld, 1854-61, the English text, with concise notes, critical and explanatory, in German, and that of Mr Richard Grant White (known as the author of _Shakespeare's Scholar_, 1854), published at Boston, United States, 1857. In 1853, Mr J. Payne Collier, published in 1 vol. 8vo, _Notes and Emendations to the text of Shakespeare's Plays, from early manuscript corrections, in a copy of the Folio 1632_, in his own possession. All the emendations given in this volume by Mr Collier, or subsequently as an Appendix to Coleridge's _Lectures_, except, of course, where they have been anticipated, have been recorded in our notes. We have no intention of entering into the controversy respecting the antiquity and authority of these corrections, nor is it necessary to enumerate the writings on a subject which is still so fresh in the memory of all. M. Tycho Mommsen, of Marburg, who published the most elaborate work on the so-called 'Perkins Folio,' also published in 1859 the text of the first Quartos of _Romeo and Juliet_, with a collation of the various readings of all editions down to Rowe's, a full description of the critical value of the different texts, and an inquiry into the versification, and incidentally the grammar and orthography of Shakespeare. The precise rules which he lays down disappear, for the most part, on a wider induction, and we greatly question whether it be worth while to register and tabulate such minutiæ as do not represent in any way Shakespeare's mind or hand, but only the caprices of this or that compositor, at a period when spelling, punctuation, and even rules of grammar, were matters of private judgement.