Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: I may here incidentally mention a passage from "Henry IV.," Part I. :— ' No more the thirsty entrance of this soil," which Steevens suggests might be read "entrants"—i.e., those who set foot on this kingdom.33 It should he remembered that in Shakespeare's time there was a desire to prevent people becoming acquainted with plays that were produced, except by representation on the stage. It must also be recollected that although Shakespeare's plays created a great impression at the period of their performance they were not regarded with that veneration that is now entertained for them. Nevertheless they were popular, and, we must assume, understood by the audience. The printers and publishers, eager to satisfy an eager public, were early in the field with their surreptitious editions, and it may fairly be assumed that Shorthand has played a part in the production of some of the editions of the plays of Shakespeare. We shall see this illustrated presently by reference to contemporary dramatists, some of whom have left on record complaints of their treatment by " Stenographers." Plays were taken down in Shorthand first and then copied into fair Longhand; that it was the practice to do so at this period is beyond doubt. Surreptitious, piratical, and imperfect copies of various plays are known, printed without authority, and palmed off upon an unsuspecting public as the genuine productions of gre.it genius. In accounting for discrepancies we must remember that actors interpolate words and ideas of their own. Blank verse, declaimed with fine etl'ect, might be turned into prose, halting lines, or broken lines, by even a skilled Shorthand-writer using the best system known; and the text of a play taken down accurately and transcribed correctly would possibly differ materially from th...