From F. J. FURNIVALL, Director of the New Shakspere Society, London.

The merit I see in Mr. Rolfe's school editions of Shakspere's Plays over those most widely used in England is that Mr. Rolfe edits the plays as works of a poet, and not only as productions in Tudor English. Some editors think that all they have to do with a play is to state its source and explain its hard words and allusions; they treat it as they would a charter or a catalogue of household furniture, and then rest satisfied. But Mr. Rolfe, while clearing up all verbal difficulties as carefully as any Dryasdust, always adds the choicest extracts he can find, on the spirit and special "note" of each play, and on the leading characteristics of its chief personages. He does not leave the student without help in getting at Shakspere's chief attributes, his characterization and poetic power. And every practical teacher knows that while every boy can look out hard words in a lexicon for himself, not one in a score can, unhelped, catch points of and realize character, and feel and express the distinctive individuality of each play as a poetic creation.

From Prof. EDWARD DOWDEN, LL.D., of the University of Dublin, Author of "Shakspere: His Mind and Art."

I incline to think that no edition is likely to be so useful for school and home reading as yours. Your notes contain so much accurate instruction, with so little that is superfluous; you do not neglect the aesthetic study of the play; and in externals, paper, type, binding, etc., you make a book "pleasant to the eye" (as well as "to be desired to make one wise ")—no small matter, I think, with young readers and with old.

From EDWIN A. ABBOTT, M.A., Author of " Shakespearian Grammar.”

I have not seen any edition that compresses so much necessary information into so small a space, nor any that so completely avoids the common faults of commentaries on Shakespeare-needless repetition, superfluous explanation, and unscholar-like ignoring of difficulties.

From HIRAM CORSON, M.A., Professor of Anglo-Saxon and English Literature, Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y.

In the way of annotated editions of separate plays of Shakespeare, for educational purposes, I know of none quite up to Rolfe's.

From Prof. F. J. CHILD, of Harvard University.

I read your "Merchant of Venice" with my class, and found it in every respect an excellent edition. I do not agree with my friend White in the opinion that Shakespeare requires but few notes-that is, if he is to be thoroughly understood. Doubtless he may be enjoyed, and many a hard place slid over. Your notes give all the help a young student requires, and yet the reader for pleasure will easily get at just what he wants. You have indeed been conscientiously concise.

Under date of July 25, 1879, Prof. CHILD adds: Mr. Rolfe's editions of plays of Shakespeare are very valuable and convenient books, whether for a college class or for private study. I have used them with my students, and I welcome every addition that is made to the series. They show care, research, and good judgment, and are fully up to the time in scholarship. I fully agree with the opinion that experienced teachers have expressed of the excellence of these books.

From Rev. A. P. PEABODY, D.D., Professor in Harvard University.

I regard your own work as of the highest merit, while you have turned the labors of others to the best possible account. I want to have the higher classes of our schools introduced to Shakespeare chief of all, and then to other standard English authors; but this cannot be done to advantage unless under a teacher of equally rare gifts and abundant leisure, or through editions specially prepared for such use. I trust that you will have the requisite encouragement to proceed with a work so happily begun.

From the Examiner and Chronicle, N. Y.

We repeat what we have often said, that there is no edition of Shakespeare which seems to us preferable to Mr. Rolfe's. As mere specimens of the printer's and binder's art they are unexcelled, and their other merits are equally high. Mr. Rolfe, having learned by the practical experience of the class-room what aid the average student really needs in order to read Shakespeare intelligently, has put just that amount of aid into his notes, and no more. Having said what needs to be said, he stops there. It is a rare virtue in the editor of a classic, and we are proportionately grateful for it.

From the N. Y. Times.

This work has been done so well that it could hardly have been done better. It shows throughout knowledge, taste, discriminating judgment, and, what is rarer and of yet higher value, a sympathetic appreciation of the poet's moods and purposes.

From the Pacific School Journal, San Francisco.

This edition of Shakespeare's plays bids fair to be the most valuable aid to the study of English literature yet published. For educational purposes it is beyond praise. Each of the plays is printed in large clear type and on excellent paper. Every difficulty of the text is clearly explained by copious notes It is remarkable how many new beauties one

may discern in Shakespeare with the aid of the glossaries attached to these books.... Teachers can do no higher, better work than to inculcate a love for the best literature, and such books as these will best aid them in cultivating a pure and refined taste.

From the Christian Union, N. Y.

Mr. W. J. Rolfe's capital edition of Shakespeare... by far the best edition for school and parlor use We speak after some practical use of it The notes are brief but useful; and the

in a village Shakespeare Club.

necessary expurgations are managed with discriminating skill.

...

From the Academy, London.

Mr. Rolfe's excellent series of school editions of the Plays of Shakespeare. they differ from some of the English ones in looking on the plays as something more than word - puzzles. They give the student helps and hints on the characters and meanings of the plays, while the word-notes are also full and posted up to the latest date. . . . Mr. Rolfe also adds to each of his books a most useful "Index of Words and Phrases Explained."

PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK.

The above works are for sale by all booksellers, or they will be sent by HARPER & BROTHERS to any address on receipt of price as quoted. If ordered sent by mail, 10 per cent. should be added to the price to cover cost of postage.

SELECT POEMS OF THOMAS GRAY.

Edited, with Notes, by WILLIAM J. ROLFE, A.M., formerly Head Master of the High School, Cambridge, Mass. Illus trated. Square 16mo, Paper, 40 cents; Cloth, 56 cents. (Uniform with Rolfe's Shakespeare.)

Mr. Rolfe has done his work in a manner that comes as near to perfection as man can approach. He knows his subject so well that he is competent to instruct all in it; and readers will find an immense amount of knowledge in his elegant volume, all set forth in the most admirable order, and breathing the most liberal and enlightened spirit, he being a warm appreciator of the divinity of genius.-Boston Traveller.

The great merit of these books lies in their carefully edited text, and in the fulness of their explanatory notes. Mr. Rolfe is not satisfied with simply expounding, but he explores the entire field of English literature, and therefrom gathers a multitude of illustrations that are interesting in themselves and valuable as a commentary on the text. He not only instructs, but stimulates his readers to fresh exertion; and it is this stimulation that makes his labor so productive in the school-room.-Saturday Evening Gazette, Boston.

Mr. William J. Rolfe, to whom English literature is largely indebted for annotated and richly illustrated editions of several of Shakespeare's Plays, has treated the "Select Poems of Thomas Gray" in the same way -just as he had previously dealt with the best of Goldsmith's poems.Philadelphia Press.

Mr. Rolfe's edition of Thomas Gray's select poems is marked by the same discriminating taste as his other classics.-Springfield Republican. Mr. Rolfe's rare abilities as a teacher and his fine scholarly tastes enable him to prepare a classic like this in the best manner for school use. There could be no better exercise for the advanced classes in our schools than the critical study of our best authors, and the volumes that Mr. Rolfe has prepared will hasten the time when the study of mere form will give place to the study of the spirit of our literature.-Louisville CourierJournal.

An elegant and scholarly little volume.-Christian Intelligencer, N. Y,

PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK.

The above works are for sale by all booksellers, or they will be sent by HARPER & BROTHERS to any address on receipt of price as quoted. If ordered sent by mail, 10 per cent. should be added to the price to cover cost of postage.

SELECT POEMS OF ROBERT BROWNING. Edited, with Notes, by WILLIAM J. ROLFE, A.M., formerly Head Master of the High School, Cambridge, Mass., and HELIllustrated. 16mo, Paper, 40 cents; (Uniform with Rolfe's Shakespeare.)

OISE E. HERSEY.
Cloth, 56 cents.

Miss Her

Probably no critic yet has gone to the heart of Browning's true significance as does Miss Hersey. There is something in the fineness of her insight and her subtle, spiritual sympathy that truly interprets him, while others write in a more or less scholarly manner about him. sey's work indicates the blending of two exceptional qualities-the poetic sympathy and the critical judgments. She feels intuitively all the poet's subtle meanings; she is responsible to them by virtue of temperament; yet added to this is the critical faculty, keen, logical, and constructive.-Boston Traveller.

To say that the selections have been made by Mr. Rolfe is to say that they have not only been made by a careful and accurate scholar, but by a man of pure and beautiful taste. . . . The Notes, which fill some thirty pages, are admirable in their scope and brevity.-N. Y. Mail and Express.

We can conscientiously say that both the arrangement of the selections and the fulness, as well as the illuminating character, of the annotations are all that the most exacting taste could require; and the whole work is well fitted to charm the poet's established admirers, and to awaken in others who have not been among these a new sense of Browning's strength and beauty as a writer.-Hartford Times.

The "Select Poems of Robert Browning" is a marvel of industrious editing, wise, choice, and excellent judgment in comment. . . . An introduction, a brief account of Browning's life and works, a chronological table of his works, and a series of extracted critical comments on the poet, precede the series of selections. Besides these there are at the end of the book very extensive, valuable, and minutely illustrative notes, together with addenda supplied by Browning himself on points which the editors were unable fully to clear up.-N. Y. Star.

PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK.

The above works are for sale by all booksellers, or they will be sent by HARPER & BROTHERS to any address on receipt of price as quoted. If ordered sent by nail, 10 per cent. should be added to the price to cover cost of hostage.