WEATHERVANE BOOKS NEW YORK
Copyright © MCMLXXV by Crown Publishers, Inc.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 75-18860
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This edition is published by Weathervane Books, a division of BarrePublishing Company, Inc.
Manufactured in the United States of America
The following Tales are meant to be submitted to the young reader as anintroduction to the study of Shakespeare, for which purpose his wordsare used whenever it seemed possible to bring them in; and in whateverhas been added to give them the regular form of a connected story,diligent care has been taken to select such words as might leastinterrupt the effect of the beautiful English tongue in which he wrote:therefore, words introduced into our language since his time have beenas far as possible avoided.
In those tales which have been taken from the Tragedies, the youngreaders will perceive, when they come to see the source from which thesestories are derived, that Shakespeare's own words, with littlealteration, recur very frequently in the narrative as well as in thedialogue; but in those made from the Comedies the writers foundthemselves scarcely ever able to turn his words into the narrative form:therefore it is feared that, in them, dialogue has been made use of toofrequently for young people not accustomed to the dramatic form ofwriting. But this fault, if it be a fault, has been caused by an earnestwish to give as much of Shakespeare's own words as possible: and if the"He said," and "She said," the question and the reply, shouldsometimes seem tedious to their young ears, they must pardon it, becauseit was the only way in which could be given to them a few hints andlittle foretastes of the great pleasure which awaits them in their elderyears, when they come to the rich treasures from which these small andvalueless coins are extracted; pretending to no other merit than asfaint and imperfect stamps of Shakespeare's matchless image. Faint andimperfect images they must be called, because the beauty of his languageis too frequently destroyed by the necessity of changing many of hisexcellent words into words far less expressive of his true sense, tomake it read something like prose; and even in some few places, wherehis blank verse is given unaltered, as hoping from its simple plainnessto cheat the young readers into the belief that they are reading prose,yet still his language being transplanted from its own natural soil andwild poetic garden, it must want much of its native beauty.
It has been wished to make these Tales easy reading for very youngchildren. To the utmost of their ability the writers have constantlykept this in mind; but the subjects of most of them made this a verydifficult task. It was no easy matter to give the histories of men andwomen in terms familiar to the apprehension of a very young mind. Foryoung ladies too, it has been the intention chiefly to write; becauseboys being generally permitted the use of their fathers' libraries at amuch earlier age than girls are, they frequently have the best scenes ofShakespeare by heart, before their sisters are permitted to look intothis manly book; and, therefore, instead of recommending these Tales tothe perusal of young gentlemen who can read them so much better in theoriginals, their kind assistance is rather requested in explaining totheir sisters such parts as are hardest for them to understand: and whenthey have helped them to get over the difficulties, then perhaps theywill read to them (carefully selecting what is proper for a youngsister's ear) some passage which has please