Excerpt from The Shakespearian Dictionary: Forming a General Index to All the Popular Expressions, and Most Striking Passages in the Works of Shakespeare, From a Few Words to Fifty or More LinesThe matchless genius of Shakespeare has furnished occupation for authors, from the very age in which he wrote, down to the pre sent day, so that, independent of the innumerable editions of his plays, from the original authentic copies, to the modern mutila tions represented under his name upon the stage, we have more than two hundred works of which Shakespeare and his writings are the subject.Such being the case, it may be thought necessary, for one who ventures to add to the number, to offer some apology to the public for so doing. That tendered for the present compilation is founded on the belief, that among all these works, there does not exist one which effectively occupies the ground here taken, and very few which even attempt to connect Shakespeare's felicitous expressions -exhibiting as they do, a matchless insight into human nature with the various casualties, motives, and objects of ordinary life. Such a task, if performed with judgment and faithfulness, could hardly fail to prove both pleasing and useful. In support of the opinion that this task yet remained to be accomplished, it will be necessary to submit a few observations concerning the works which profess to have the same object, upon the comparative merits of which with the shakespearian dictionary, its pretensions to public favour must be founded.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.