This day is published, in one volume, Svo, 15s., Illustrated with Seventy-six Engravings, by F. W. FAIRHOLT, F.S.A.,

A NEW LIFE

OF

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE,

FOUNDED UPON RECENTLY DISCOVERED DOCUMENTS,

AND CONTAINING ALL THE

ANECDOTES AND TRADITIONS RESPECTING THE POET.

BY

J. O. HALLIWELL, ESQ., F.R.S., F.S.A.

It is a circumstance no less true than extraordinary that no separate Life of Shakespeare, the great Poet of the World, and the most eminent author of all ages, has yet been published, which clearly exhibits the important discoveries respecting his

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personal history that modern diligence has brought to light; and still more singular, that, notwithstanding the strenuous exertions of so many inquirers, no one should hitherto have thought it worth while to examine with proper minuteness the extensive records of Stratford-upon-Avon, the town associated more than any other with Shakespeare, where he was born, where he was buried, and where he spent so large a portion of his life.

The Author of the present work has minutely investigated the numerous MSS. preserved at Stratford, the local authorities of that town having placed every facility at his disposal for the due performance of his labours; and the reader will find the valuable and interesting results of this investigation in nearly every page of the work. He has also largely availed himself of other sources of information, and has even discovered numerous documents respecting Shakespeare and his family previously unknown, preserved in the Record Offices of London.

All the curious anecdotes and traditions relating to the Poet are minutely investigated, and traced to their various sources. In every case, the evidence on either side has been honestly and fairly mentioned, but no anecdotes of any authority have been omitted, not only because they attract the notice of the general reader, but because it is often found that tales apparently the most improbable have a real, though perhaps obscure, foundation in fact.

The Author has not indulged in fanciful theories, or attempted an imaginative biography, believing that no one but a second Shakespeare should venture to trace the workings of Shakespeare's mind and feelings in connexion with his life, or at least that such a task requires the mind of a Coleridge, and the