Produced by David Clarke, Carla Foust and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net Transcriber's note Minor punctuation errors have been corrected without notice. Obvious printer errors have been corrected, and are listed at the end. For the chapter heading, "The Second Part of King Henry IV", the Table of Contents lists it as "King Henry IV, Part II"; this was not changed. In addition other inconsistencies are as in the original. The author's spelling has been maintained. HOME UNIVERSITY LIBRARY OF MODERN KNOWLEDGE WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE BY JOHN MASEFIELD LONDON WILLIAMS & NORGATE HENRY HOLT & Co., NEW YORK CANADA: WM. BRIGGS, TORONTO INDIA: R. & T. WASHBOURNE, LTD. UNIVERSITY LIBRARY OF MODERN KNOWLEDGE _Editors:_ HERBERT FISHER, M.A., F.B.A. PROF. GILBERT MURRAY, D.LITT., LL.D., F.B.A. PROF. J. ARTHUR THOMSON, M.A. PROF. WILLIAM T. BREWSTER, M.A. (Columbia University, U.S.A.) NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE BY JOHN MASEFIELD AUTHOR OF "THE TRAGEDY OF POMPEY THE GREAT," "MULTITUDE AND SOLITUDE," "LOST ENDEAVOUR," "CAPTAIN MARGARET," "THE TRAGEDY OF NAN," ETC. NEW AND REVISED EDITION LONDON WILLIAMS AND NORGATE CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I THE LIFE OF SHAKESPEARE 9 II THE ELIZABETHAN THEATRES 18 III THE PLAYS 23 Love's Labour's Lost 24 The Two Gentlemen of Verona 34 The Comedy of Errors 43 Titus Andronicus 49 King Henry VI, Part I 51 " " " " II 54 " " " " III 60 A Midsummer Night's Dream 63 Romeo and Juliet 67 King John 75 King Richard II 86 King Richard III 93 The Merchant of Venice 102 The Taming of the Shrew 105 King Henry IV, Part I 109 " " " " II 114 King Henry V 120 The Merry Wives of Windsor 123 As You Like It 128 Much Ado About Nothing 133 Twelfth Night 138 All's Well that Ends Well 144 Julius Caesar 149 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark 157 Troilus and Cressida 168 Measure for Measure 174