Four folio editions were brought out in all, the last in 1685.
Of the famous editions may be mentioned Rowe's, the first octavo, in 1709; Alexander Pope's in 1723; Theobald's in 1733; Warburton's in 1747; Dr. Johnson's in 1765; Malone's, the first variorum, in ten volumes, in 1790. The first American edition was issued at Philadelphia in 1795. Among modern editions may be mentioned Boydell's illustrated edition in 1802; Charles Knight's popular pictorial edition in eight volumes in 1838; Halliwell's edition in sixteen volumes from 1853 to 1865; Dyce's edition in 1857; Richard Grant White's edition in twelve volumes, published in Boston (1857-1860).
The most noteworthy edition issued in this country is Dr. H. H. Furness' variorum edition, begun in Philadelphia in 1873 and still continued by Dr. Furness' son. A volume is devoted to each play and the various texts as well as the notes and critical summaries make this the ideal edition for the scholar. The Cambridge Edition, edited by W. Aldis Wright in nine octavo volumes, is the standard modern text. This text is also given in the Temple Edition, so popular with present-day readers, issued in forty handy sized volumes with prefaces and glossaries by Israel Gollancz. The expurgated text edited by W. J. Rolfe has been used generally in schools, as also the Hudson Shakespeare, edited by Rev. H. N. Hudson.
The best concordance for many years was that of Mary Cowden Clarke, first issued in 1844. The concordance by John Bartlett was published more recently.
The best biography of Shakespeare is by Sydney Lee, in a single volume, A Life of Shakespeare. (New York: The Macmillan Company.)
Other interesting books that deal with the playwright and his plays are Shakespeare's London, by H. T. Stephenson; The Development of Shakespeare as a Dramatist, by George Pierce Baker; Shakespeare, by E. Dowden; Shakespeare Manual, by F. L. Fleay; The Text of Shakespeare, by Thomas R. Lounsbury; Shakespearean Tragedy, by A. C. Bradley, and An Introduction to Shakespeare, by H. N. McCracken, F. E. Pierce and W. H. Durham, of the Department of English Literature in the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University. This is the most valuable book for a beginner in the study of Shakespeare.
A valuable book for the reader who cannot grasp readily the story of a Shakespeare play is Stories of Shakespeare's Comedies, by H. A. Guerber. (New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1910.) The best book for the plots is Charles and Mary Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare.
If you are interested in the subject look up these books in any good library and then decide on the volumes you wish to buy. Never buy a book without looking it over, unless you wish to court disappointment.
The Shakespeare-Bacon controversy was first touched upon by J. C. Hart in The Romance of Yachting, issued in New York in 1848. Seven years later W. H. Smith came out with a work, Was Bacon the Author of Shakespeare's Plays? In 1857 Delia Bacon wrote the Philosophy of the Plays of Shakespeare Unfolded. She created a great furore for a time in England but interest soon declined. In recent years the principal defender of the theory that Bacon wrote the plays of Shakespeare was Ignatius Donnelly of Minneapolis, who wrote two huge books in which he developed at tedious length what he claimed was a cipher or cryptogram that he had found in Shakespeare's plays, but he died before he cleared up the mystery or gave any adequate proofs.
GREEK AND ROMAN CLASSICS