The following Tales
In those tales
It has been wished
are meant
to be
submitted to the young reader
as an introduction
to the study of Shakespeare,
for which purpose his words
are used
whenever it
seemed possible
to bring them in;
and in
whatever has been added
to give
them the regular form
of a connected story,
diligent are
has been
taken to select
such words as
might least
interrupt the effect
of the beautiful English tongue
in which he wrote:
therefore,
words introduced into our language
since his time
have been
as far
as possible avoided.
which have been taken
from the Tragedies,
the young readers will perceive,
when they
come to see
the source from
which these stories are derived,
that Shakespeare's own words,
with little alteration,
recur very
frequently in the narrative
as well
as in the dialogue;
but in those made
from the Comedies the writers
found themselves scarcely ever able
to turn his words
into the narrative form:
therefore it is feared that,
in them,
dialogue has been made use
of too
frequently for young people
not accustomed
to the dramatic
form of writing.
But this fault,
if it be a fault,
has been
caused by an earnest wish
to give
as much of Shakespeare's own
words as possible:
and if the
'He said,'
and 'She said,' the question
and the reply,
should sometimes
seem tedious
to their young ears,
they must pardon it,
because it
was the only way
in which
could be
given to
them a
few hints
and little foretastes
of the great pleasure
which awaits them
in their elder years,
when they
come to
the rich treasures from
which these small
and valueless coins
are extracted;
pretending to no other merit
than as
faint and imperfect stamps of
Shakespeare's
matchless image.
Faint and imperfect images
they must be called,
because the beauty
of his language
is too frequently
destroyed by the necessity
of changing
many of his excellent words
into words
far less expressive
of his true sense,
to make it
read something like prose;
and even
in some few places,
where his blank verse
is given unaltered,
as hoping
from its simple plainness
to cheat the young reader
into the belief
that they are reading prose,
yet still his language
being transplanted
from its own natural soil
and wild poetic garden,
it must
want much
of its native beauty.
to make these Tales easy
reading for very young children.
To the utmost
of their ability the writers
have constantly
kept this in mind;
but the subjects of
most of them
made this
a very difficult task.
It was no easy matter
to give the histories
of men
and women
in terms familiar
to the
apprehension
of a very young mind.
For young ladies too,
it has been
the intention chiefly
to write;
because boys
being generally
permitted the use
of their fathers' libraries
at a much earlier age
than girls are,
they frequently
have the best scenes
of Shakespeare
by heart,
before their sisters
are permitted
to look
into this manly book;
and,
therefore,
instead of recommending these Tales
to the perusal
of young gentlemen
who can read
them so much better
in the originals,
their kind assistance
is rather requested
in explaining
to their sisters
such parts as
are hardest
for them to understand:
and when
they have helped them
to get over the difficulties,
then perhaps
they will read to them
(carefully selecting
what is proper
for a young sister's ear)
some passage
which has
pleased them
in one of these stories,
in the very words
of the scene from
which it is taken;
and it is hoped