Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare, Vol. 1 (Classic Reprint)

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Excerpt from Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare, Vol. 1The London traditions, which were subjected through a long series of years to very different in¿uences, do not merit the same degree of consideration. The violent disruption of the theatrical world in the middle of the seventeenth century was attended with the loss of nearly all its original character, and at the creation of a new stage there was retained little beyond fragmentary recollections of the old. It has been clearly ascertained that even Dryden had a very imperfect knowledge of the history of the latter, and there is nothing to indicate that he cared to gather any particulars respecting the life of the great dramatist. Very few indeed there must have been in the Restoration period who took a sincere interest in the subject, - not any, so far as we know, excepting Davenant and Betterton. The best of the metropolitan reports are traceable to the latter, most of the others that were recorded after his death in 1710 being exceedingly meagre and unsatisfactory. In the compilation of the following pages it has, therefore, been thought advisable, in estimating the authority of the various traditions, to give the preference, wherever selection was necessary, to the rural versions. It may also be observed that great reliance has been placed on the general credibility of those anecdotes, whether gleaned from London or the provinces, that include references to facts or conditions which have been verified by modern enquiry, but which could only have been known to the narrators through hearsay.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.