ote TO THE LARGE PAPER EDITION. HE FIRST EDITION of "NOTES ON SHAKESPEARE, AND MEMORIALS OF THE URBAN CLUB," having been favourably received, not only by the members of the Urban Club, under whofe aufpices the work was iffued, but by the general public, I have been induced, by the repeated folicitations of numerous applicants, to iffue an EDITION, on LARGE paper. In fo doing, I have availed myself of the opportunity of revifing the matter throughout the book, and of adding feveral occafional poems by members of the Urban Club; alfo many details and references in connection with the "Notes on Shakespeare," for which I am indebted to Dr. C. M. Ingleby, M.A. Further, I have reprinted, as Specimens of Shakespeare Fabrications, fome poems afcribed to the Dramatist and Anne Hathaway. URBAN CLUB, J. JEREMIAH. ST. JOHN'S GATE, CLERKENWELL, Nov. 10th, 1876. Preface N the occafion of the Annual Shakespearean Festival of the Urban Club, held in the Old Hall of St. John's Gate, Clerkenwell, on the 24th of April last, I had the honour of prefenting to each gentleman a copy of a fmall Pamphlet, entitled "Notes on Shakespeare," in commemoration of that interesting event. It was a compilation of a few of the best known facts and hypothefes relating to the Life, Works, and Times of the great Dramatist. The copies were limited to the company then present-eighty in number-and the brochure is now out of print. In complying with the wifh of the members of the Urban Club that I fhould re-iffue the "Notes on ShakeSpeare," I have thoroughly recast and revised the com. pilation, and added a lift of the Spurious Plays once attributed to Shakespeare, and many particulars concerning the Playhouses in ufe during the Elizabethan Era. The "Notes" are nothing more than gleanings from many fources, ftrung together into a Chronological Order. The items that are doubtful as FACTS are indicated, and in every cafe I have given the fources whence I acquired my information. The task I have undertaken has not been one of ease and lightness. Much labour has been expended that cannot be made manifeft; but the pleafure I have derived from a careful research into the Life and Times of the great Dramatift is beyond expreffion. My warmest thanks are due to Mr. J. O. HalliwellPhillipps for much valuable affistance and encouragement; alfo for the loan of his last great work, Illustrations of the Life of Shakespeare, Part the First, which has been of invaluable aid to me. I have added hereto a Hiftory of the Urban Club, and an Appendix, containing a complete Collection of the Circulars and Programmes I have from time to time compiled in connexion with that Literary Affociation, the whole forming a contribution to the MEMORIALS of the URBAN CLUB. I am deeply indebted to Messrs. Hain Friswell, Henry Marston, Jonas Levy, Horace Green, W. Sawyer, Charles Braid, Effingham Wilfon, and Dr. J. E. Carpenter, for many items of information regarding the early histɔry of the Club; to Mr. E. L. Blanchard, for his kindness in reading the proof-sheets, and to Sir Edmund Lechmere, Bart. (the owner of St. John's Gate), for many of the illuftrations used in this work. URBAN CLUB, J. JEREMIAH. ST. JOHN'S GATE, CLERKENWell, July 8th, 1876. |