8235121 NOTE Of the following essays, the first originally appeared as a series of magazine articles in 1896, and thereafter, revised and expanded, as a separate volume in 1897. That having been for years out of print, the essay is now again revised and considerably expanded, the thesis being strengthened by new parallels; while there is raised a fresh problem of some little interest, as to a point of apparent intellectual contact between Shakespeare and Bacon-not, of course, in the sense of the current Bacon-Shakespeare theorem. The paper on "The Originality of Shakespeare" discusses and answers a number of the criticisms passed on the first essay in 1897-98, and appeared as a magazine article. In view of later criticisms, and in particular of the positions taken up by the late Professor Churton Collins in his Studies in Shakespeare (1904), I have sought to clear up the V applicable critical principles in a general Intro- JOHN M. ROBERTSON. May 1909. |