Tales from Shakespeare

TALES FROM SHAKESPEARE

CHARLES AND MARY LAMB

PREFACE
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