BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
The first edition of the Characters of Shakespear’s Plays (5½ in. × 9 in.) was published in 1817. The imprint reads thus:—London: | Printed by C. H. Reynell, 21, Piccadilly, | for R. Hunter, successor to Mr. Johnson, | in St. Paul’s Church-yard; | and C. and J. Ollier, | Welbeck-street, Cavendish-square. | 1817. The second edition was issued in the following year, and the imprint is:—London: | Printed for Taylor and Hessey, | 93, Fleet Street. | 1818. There are several verbal alterations in the second edition, and one curious erratum: ‘In Lear, p. 173 [p. 269 present edition] dele line “Not an hour more nor less.’” In the text of the play these words occur between ‘Fourscore and upward’ and ‘And, to deal plainly.’ The second edition also was printed by C. H. Reynell, Broad-street, Golden-square. No further edition was published in Hazlitt’s lifetime, and the present issue has consequently been printed from a copy of the second edition: the proofs, however, have been read with a copy of the first edition, and one or two misprints thereby corrected. In 1818 a pirated American edition was published at Boston.
A contemporary criticism of the volume may be found in the Edinburgh Review, 1817, by Francis Jeffrey. See also E. L. Bulwer’s Some Thoughts on the Genius of Hazlitt. One hundred pounds was paid to Hazlitt by C. H. Reynell for the copyright, and the first edition, at half a guinea, was sold in six weeks: an adverse criticism by William Gifford in the Quarterly Review (No. 36, January 1818) spoiled the sale of the second edition.
The following announcement appears on the back of the half-title of the second edition:—‘This day is published, Lectures on the English Poets, delivered at the Surry Institution, By William Hazlitt. In one vol. 8vo. price 10s. 6d.’
TO
CHARLES LAMB, ESQ.
THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED, AS A MARK OF
OLD FRIENDSHIP
AND LASTING ESTEEM,
BY THE AUTHOR.