The following Tales are meant to be submitted to the young reader as an
introduction to the study of Shakespeare, for which purpose his words
are used whenever it seemed possible to bring them in; and in whatever
has been added to give them the regular form of a connected story,
diligent are has been taken to select such words as might least
interrupt the effect of the beautiful English tongue in which he wrote:
therefore, words introduced into our language since his time have been
as far as possible avoided.
In those tales which have been taken from the Tragedies, the young
readers will perceive, when they come to see the source from which
these stories are derived, that Shakespeare's own words, with little
alteration, recur very frequently in the narrative as well as in the
dialogue; but in those made from the Comedies the writers found
themselves scarcely ever able to turn his words into the narrative
form: therefore it is feared that, in them, dialogue has been made use
of too frequently for young people not accustomed to the dramatic form
of writing. But this fault, if it be a fault, has been caused by an
earnest wish to give as much of Shakespeare's own words as possible:
and if the 'He said,' and 'She said,' the question and the reply,
should sometimes seem tedious to their young ears, they must pardon it,
because it was the only way in which could be given to them a few hints
and little foretastes of the great pleasure which awaits them in their
elder years, when they come to the rich treasures from which these
small and valueless coins are extracted; pretending to no other merit
than as faint and imperfect stamps of Shakespeare's matchless image.
Faint and imperfect images they must be called, because the beauty of
his language is too frequently destroyed by the necessity of changing
many of his excellent words into words far less expressive of his true
sense, to make it read something like prose; and even in some few
places, where his blank verse is given unaltered, as hoping from its
simple plainness to cheat the young reader into the belief that they
are reading prose, yet still his language being transplanted from its
own natural soil and wild poetic garden, it must want much of its
native beauty.
It has been wished to make these Tales easy reading for very young
children. To the utmost of their ability the writers have constantly
kept this in mind; but the subjects of most of them made this a very
difficult task. It was no easy matter to give the histories of men and
women in terms familiar to the apprehension of a very young mind. For
young ladies too, it has been the intention chiefly to write; because
boys being generally permitted the use of their fathers' libraries at a
much earlier age than girls are, they frequently have the best scenes
of Shakespeare by heart, before their sisters are permitted to look
into this manly book; and, therefore, instead of recommending these
Tales to the perusal of young gentlemen who can read them so much
better in the originals, their kind assistance is rather requested in
explaining to their sisters such parts as are hardest for them to
understand: and when they have helped them to get over the
difficulties, then perhaps they will read to them (carefully selecting
what is proper for a young sister's ear) some passage which has pleased
them in one of these stories, in the very words of the scene from which
it is taken; and it is hoped they will find that the beautiful
extracts, the select passages, they may choose to give their sisters in
this way will be much better relished and understood from their having
some notion of the general story from one of these imperfect
abridgments; which if they be fortunately so done as to prove
delightful to any of the young readers, it is hoped that no worse
effect will result than to make them wish themselves a little older,
that they may be allowed to read the Plays at full length (such a wish
will be neither peevish nor irrational). When time and leave of
judicious friends shall put them into their hands, they will discover
in such of them as are here abridged (not to mention almost as many
more, which are left untouched) many surprising events and turns of
fortune, which for their infinite variety could not be contained in
this little book, besides a world of sprightly and cheerful characters,
both men and women, the humour of which it was feared would be lost if
it were attempted to reduce the length of them.
What these Tales shall have been to the young readers, that and much
more it is the writers' wish that the true Plays of Shakespeare may
prove to them in older years enrichers of the fancy, strengtheners of
virtue, a withdrawing from all selfish and mercenary thoughts, a lesson
of all sweet and honourable thoughts and actions, to teach courtesy,
benignity, generosity, humanity: for of examples, teaching these
virtues, his pages are full.