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Hausa is an African language originating in Niger and northern Nigeria and spoken widely in West and Central Africa as a trading language. This anthology of Hausa texts (mainly Islamic religious verse and historical narratives) was the first publication supported by the short-lived Hausa Association, formed in 1891 to promote the study of the Hausa language and people. Under its aegis the Reverend C. H. Robinson went on to produce a Hausa Grammar in 1897 and a Dictionary in 1899, making great advances in Western knowledge of the language, despite the fact that some in the field criticised him for his relatively short exposure to Hausa-speaking countries. With facsimile reproductions of the manuscripts at actual size, the texts collected in this book were the first published specimens of Hausa writing. Each text is transcribed into in roman script and an English translation is given on facing pages.

In 1911, the New York Times alerted its readers to the forthcoming 'authoritative' biography of Ruskin with the words 'out of a life's devotion to Ruskin and the Herculean task of editing the definitive Ruskin, Mr E. T. Cook is to give us a definitive Ruskin biography also. It will have the authority of a brilliant Oxford scholar, combined with the charm and lightness of a style which makes Mr Cook one of the first of English journalists'. Cook had been given complete access to Ruskin's diaries, notebooks and letters by his literary executors, and Ruskin's family and friends co-operated fully with him. His depth of knowledge of, and sympathy for, his subject make Cook's biography a vital tool for anyone wishing to understand Ruskin's extraordinary achievements in so many fields. Volume 2 covers the period from 1860 to Ruskin's death in 1900, and includes an index to both volumes.

In 1911, the New York Times alerted its readers to the forthcoming 'authoritative' biography of Ruskin with the words 'out of a life's devotion to Ruskin and the Herculean task of editing the definitive Ruskin, Mr E. T. Cook is to give us a definitive Ruskin biography also. It will have the authority of a brilliant Oxford scholar, combined with the charm and lightness of a style which makes Mr Cook one of the first of English journalists'. Cook had been given complete access to Ruskin's diaries, notebooks and letters by his literary executors, and Ruskin's family and friends co-operated fully with him. His depth of knowledge of, and sympathy for, his subject make Cook's biography a vital tool for anyone wishing to understand Ruskin's extraordinary achievements in so many fields. Volume 1 covers the period to 1860, the year in which the final volume of Modern Painters was published.

George Charles Moore Smith (1858-1940) was a renowned literary scholar who graduated from St John's College, Cambridge, with a first-class degree in the classics in 1881. In 1896 he was made professor of English language and literature at Firth College, Sheffield, and he played a key role in building up the social and academic position of the institution after it became the University of Sheffield in 1905. College Plays Performed in the University of Cambridge (1923) includes a chronological table of the Latin plays performed by scholars at the university in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The study also contains Moore Smith's 48-page introduction along with an appendix of actor lists. The introduction provides useful context to sixteenth- and seventeenth-century literary and theatrical culture at the University of Cambridge, discussing both the 'outlines of [the plays] histories' and the 'manner of [their] production'.

John Dover Wilson's New Shakespeare, published between 1921 and 1966, became the classic Cambridge edition of Shakespeare's plays and poems until the 1980s. The series, long since out-of-print, is now reissued. Each work is available both individually and as a set, and each contains a lengthy and lively introduction, main text, and substantial notes and glossary printed at the back. The edition, which began with The Tempest and ended with The Sonnets, put into practice the techniques and theories that had evolved under the 'New Bibliography'. Remarkably by today's standards, although it took the best part of half a century to produce, the New Shakespeare involved only a small band of editors besides Dover Wilson himself. As the volumes took shape, many of Dover Wilson's textual methods acquired general acceptance and became an established part of later editorial practice, for example in the Arden and New Cambridge Shakespeares.

John Dover Wilson's New Shakespeare, published between 1921 and 1966, became the classic Cambridge edition of Shakespeare's plays and poems until the 1980s. The series, long since out-of-print, is now reissued. Each work is available both individually and as a set, and each contains a lengthy and lively introduction, main text, and substantial notes and glossary printed at the back. The edition, which began with The Tempest and ended with The Sonnets, put into practice the techniques and theories that had evolved under the 'New Bibliography'. Remarkably by today's standards, although it took the best part of half a century to produce, the New Shakespeare involved only a small band of editors besides Dover Wilson himself. As the volumes took shape, many of Dover Wilson's textual methods acquired general acceptance and became an established part of later editorial practice, for example in the Arden and New Cambridge Shakespeares.

John Dover Wilson's New Shakespeare, published between 1921 and 1966, became the classic Cambridge edition of Shakespeare's plays and poems until the 1980s. The series, long since out-of-print, is now reissued. Each work is available both individually and as a set, and each contains a lengthy and lively introduction, main text, and substantial notes and glossary printed at the back. The edition, which began with The Tempest and ended with The Sonnets, put into practice the techniques and theories that had evolved under the 'New Bibliography'. Remarkably by today's standards, although it took the best part of half a century to produce, the New Shakespeare involved only a small band of editors besides Dover Wilson himself. As the volumes took shape, many of Dover Wilson's textual methods acquired general acceptance and became an established part of later editorial practice, for example in the Arden and New Cambridge Shakespeares.

In this charming and thought-provoking 1926 volume, Arthur Gray, Master of Jesus College, Cambridge from 1912 to 1940, explored the possibility that William Shakespeare spent his formative years at Polesworth Hall in the Forest of Arden, perhaps serving as a page boy. The Forest of Arden once stretched from just north of Stratford-upon-Avon to Tamworth, and covered what is now Birmingham; Polesworth, near Tamworth, was the home of Sir Henry Goodere and the centre of the famed 'Polesworth Circle'. This splendid focus of creative and cultural activity would have offered the young William exposure to the finest minds, a wonderful education and valuable introductions. Sir Henry, who evidently knew John Shakespeare in Stratford, was certainly patron of many young writers and musicians, including the eminent Elizabethan poet, Michael Drayton. If Gray is correct, Drayton would have been a contemporary of Shakespeare's at Polesworth.

George H. Cowling (1881-1946), Lecturer in English at the University of Leeds and subsequently Professor of English at Melbourne, wrote this study as his dissertation, inspired by his own love of music. He shows what kinds of music were used on the Elizabethan stage, and explains where in the theatre, at which point during the plays and with which instruments and personnel the music was performed. He also assesses what both songs and incidental music contributed to the meaning and the performance of Shakespeare, going back to examine the roots of dramatic music in the use of religious music in the medieval Mystery plays. He offers a lively and approachable introduction to the subject that provides a way into the field of early modern music in the theatre, and a foundation for more detailed critical work.

Seneca's plays, which include Hercules Furens, Phaedra, Medea and Oedipus, were widely read during the Elizabethan era, and had an important influence on the dramatists of the time, including Shakespeare, Kyd, Marlowe and Marston. This study, first published in 1922, examines Seneca's Greek predecessors, his character, life and times, and the nature and extent of his influence and legacy. Divided into five sections, the book addresses in turn: the rise of Greek drama before Seneca; Seneca's character and temperament; Seneca's tragedies; the different dramatic forms in the centuries after Seneca; and the important influence of Seneca on Elizabethan dramatists. Lucas provides close readings of a wide range of plays, including Macbeth and The Spanish Tragedy, and places the works in their historical context - Greek, Roman and Elizabethan.

In the mid-nineteenth century, as Jane Austen's fame grew, her family was under increasing pressure to provide details about her life and work. Her nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh, who had known her personally, collected a series of reminiscences, letters and family documents and put them together in this very first full-length biography of Jane Austen, published in 1870. Concentrating on his aunt Jane's life in rural southern England, he made public for the first time the domestic and social context which nurtured her and within which she wrote her famous novels. He also gave previously unknown details about her efforts to publish her work, including some of her correspondence. At the same time he created a partial portrait of a modest, unassuming and devout woman, living 'in entire seclusion from the literary world', which has influenced Austen scholarship ever since.

Camilla Crosland (1812-1895) was a British author whose literary career spanned sixty years of the nineteenth century. Although best known as a poet, she was also a prolific writer of short stories, novels and articles. In the late 1850s she became involved with spiritualism, and published influential works on the subject. This volume, first published in 1893, contains her detailed autobiography. Crosland describes her long life chronologically, describing the aftermath of the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, the death of George III and the characters and lives of the many influential authors she met during her career. She also provides anecdotes and detailed descriptions of early Victorian society and the development of literature to appeal to a broader readership. This volume provides a fascinating retrospect of early Victorian social life. For more information on this author, see http://orlando.cambridge.org/public/svPeople?person_id=crosca

This edition of Worke for Cutlers was edited by Albert Forbes Sieveking and published in 1904, shortly after it had been staged (probably for the first time in 300 years) at Trinity Hall. The play was originally published anonymously in 1615, and was then described as 'Acted in a Shew in the famous Universitie of Cambridge'. Sieveking gives reasons to believe that Thomas Heywood, whose most famous work is A Woman Killed with Kindness (1603), had at least a part in its writing, and points out the topicality of 'A Merry Dialogue betweene Sword, Rapier and Dagger' at a time when James I was issuing edicts against duelling, which was punishable by heavy fines or even death. The short play is provided with a 'glossarial epilogue' containing explanatory notes.

This 1914 scholarly edition of the mid-sixteenth-century play Jacke Jugeler contains an informative introduction and detailed notes. Little-known today, the play represents a pre-Shakespearean example of classical 'borrowing' - a Roman play by Plautus is adapted to an English domestic situation - and it is one of the first instances of confused identity and 'doubles' in English comedy. The text of this edition is taken from the unique original, probably published around 1562, in the collection of the Duke of Devonshire. In his Introduction, W. H. Williams proposes the likely identity of the play's author, and provides an analysis of the play's language to support his claim. He examines the connections in method, characters and language between Jacke Jugeler and Ralph Roister Doister, a play written and performed around the same time.

C. J. Sisson (1885-1966) was Lord Northcliffe Professor of Modern English Literature in the University of London. His main research interest was Shakespeare, but in this study, first published in 1936, he explores what legal records can tell us about lost early modern plays and entertainments. The Court of Star Chamber prosecuted a number of offences against moral order and frequently took action against the dramatic representation of sedition and libel. Its records often provide the only evidence of Tudor plays and entertainments never printed and lost in manuscript. Sisson explores several cases in detail, identifying the people who filed complaints against libel as well as exploring all possible evidence about what the plays contained. Sisson's study remains of value as the first to uncover archival information about lost works of Chapman, Dekker, Ford and Webster as well as anonymous jigs, verse satires and libels.

Lily Bess Campbell (1883-1967) was a professor of English at UCLA. She won the achievement award from the American Association of University Women in 1960 and was named Woman of the Year by the Los Angeles Times in 1962. One of the most eminent literary scholars of her generation in the United States, she published mostly on Tudor literature. This study, first published in 1930, examines how the passions were understood in the Renaissance and why they were a central concern in the philosophy and medical studies of the period. After several chapters exploring moral philosophy and tragedy more generally, Campbell analyses the characters of Hamlet, Othello, Lear and Macbeth in relation to their guiding emotions: grief, jealousy, wrath and fear. She argues that Shakespeare, in his major tragedies, reflected the latest thinking of his time about the passions and their role in shaping the human mind.

First published in 1962, Matthews' study examines the symbolic elements which persistently recur in Shakespeare's plays. The book focuses on the traditional material from medieval and sixteenth-century drama which seems to have been present in Shakespeare's mind as he worked, and which, Matthews argues, inspired significant themes which resonate throughout the plays. Divided into three parts, the book addresses in turn the concept of sin, the opposition of justice and mercy and the hope of redemption. Matthews investigates these motifs and their currency in Elizabethan England, and traces their presence in Shakespeare's created worlds with detailed reference to a wide range of the plays. Awareness of them provides fruitful avenues for the interpretation of the plays, and sheds light on Shakespeare's motives and methods.

The anonymous 'Old Soldier' who compiled this anthology of passages from Shakespeare, published in 1877, states in the preface that he was inspired to make his selection by a passage in The Gentle Life: Essays in Aid of the Formation of Character, by the now largely forgotten Victorian essayist James Hain Friswell: 'If a man wanted to make a sugar-sweet book ... let him go through the plays of the great national Poet, and make an extract of those passages wherein he has exalted woman.' In thirty-three sections (four plays are omitted), extensive quotations present examples of 'exalted woman' and give an insight into the taste of the educated middle class in the mid-Victorian period.

James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps (1820-1889) was an enthusiastic collector of books on Shakespeare (including nearly all the pre-1660 editions) and a respected and prolific scholar of Elizabethan literature. His extensive collection is now housed at Edinburgh University Library. This volume contains a selection of his early writings and includes: 'A catalogue of the early editions of Shakespeare's plays and of the commentaries and other publications illustrative of his works' (1841); 'An account of the only known manuscript of Shakespeare's plays, comprising some important variations and corrections in the Merry Wives of Windsor' (1843); 'An introduction to Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream' (1841); 'On the character of Sir John Falstaff, as originally exhibited by Shakespeare in the two parts of King Henry IV' (1841); 'Curiosities of Modern Shakespearian Criticism' (1853); 'Observations on some of the manuscript emendations of the text of Shakespeare and are they copyright?' (1853).

Mary Cowden Clarke (1809-1898) was the daughter of the music publisher Vincent Novello. Charles and Mary Lamb were family friends, and under the inspiration of their Tales from Shakespeare, Mary became a noted Shakespeare scholar, her major work being the Concordance to Shakespeare, which took twelve years to compile, and was to remain a standard work for half a century. From 1856 Clarke and her husband Charles lived in Italy, continuing to publish essays and books, including their joint Cassell's Illustrated Shakespeare. This autobiography, published in 1896, contains many anecdotes and memories of the literary and musical circles in which Mary moved throughout her life: the Lambs, John Keats, the Shelleys, Dickens, Leigh Hunt and Mendelssohn all appear. The book is written in a vivid and engaging style, and records a fascinating nineteenth century life. For more information on this author, see http://orlando.cambridge.org/public/svPeople?person_id=clarmc

Lady (Augusta) Gregory (1852-1932) was a dramatist and folklorist. Along with the poet W. B. Yeats she was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival, and co-founded the Abbey Theatre, Dublin. Born Isabella Augusta Persse in County Galway, she belonged to the Anglo-Irish ascendancy, which was closely associated with colonial rule. She married Sir William Gregory in 1880. Her conversion to Irish cultural nationalism began after the death of her husband and was heavily influenced by her visit in 1892 to Inisheer, one of the Aran Islands, where she learnt Irish and the Hiberno-English dialect of Kiltartin. Poets and Dreamers was her first publication and contained translations of the Irish-language poet Anthony Raftery, folk-tales, and plays by the Gaelic scholar and future first President of Ireland, Douglas Hyde. For more information on this author, see http://orlando.cambridge.org/public/svPeople?person_id=gregau

Analysing Shakespeare's historical background and craft, Spencer's 1943 study investigates the intellectual debates of Shakespeare's age, and the effect these had on the drama of the time. The book outlines the key conflict present in the sixteenth century - the optimistic ideal of man's place in the universe, as presented by the theorists of the time, set against the indisputable and ever-present fact of original sin. This conflict about the nature of man, argues Spencer, is perhaps the deepest underlying cause for the emergence of great Renaissance drama. With detailed reference to Shakespeare's great tragedies, the book demonstrates how Shakespeare presents the fact of evil masked by the appearance of good. Shakespeare's last plays, especially The Winter's Tale and The Tempest, are also analysed in detail to show how they embody a different view from the tragedies, and the discussion is related to the larger perspective of general human experience.

When James Edward Austen-Leigh's Memoir of his famous aunt was published in 1870, far from satisfying public curiosity about Jane Austen as the family had intended, it simply raised a series of new questions, particularly about Jane Austen's unpublished work, which had been mentioned only in passing. Austen Leigh was persuaded to issue a much-expanded second edition in 1871. Here he included for the first time the complete texts of Jane Austen's novel in letters, Lady Susan, and the fragmentary novel The Watsons, as well as a brief summary of her last unfinished work, later known as Sanditon. At the same time he took the opportunity to revise the biographical sections of the Memoir partly to include new information that had come to light since the first edition, so that all in all the second edition has a significance for Austen scholars quite separate from the first.

The critic, essayist and painter William Hazlitt (1778-1830) published and lectured widely on English literature, from Elizabethan drama to reviews of the latest work of his own time. His first extended work of literary criticism was Characters of Shakespeare's Plays, published in 1817. This volume from 1908 takes the text of the first edition and adds notes explaining complex terms to readers and an introduction by J. H. Lobban, a lecturer in English at Birkbeck College. As such it is the ideal introduction to Hazlitt's criticism. Hazlitt's political view of Shakespeare drew the ire of the Tory Quarterly review, whose hostile review destroyed sales of the second edition. The work remains of value, however, both as a contribution to the study of Shakespeare and, as with all of Hazlitt's prose, as a model of an elegant, persuasive essay.

Entertaining and informative, this 1956 anthology paints a vivid picture of the world in which Shakespeare lived. Using the playwright's life as the framework - his birth, his education, his move to London, his life in theatre, his death - the book uses selected extracts from key Elizabethan publications to embody the atmosphere of this period. From sport to superstition, from festival to fashion, from the plague to playhouses, the significant features of the age are described through its prose, providing the reader with first-hand accounts of the conditions in which Shakespeare's masterpieces were created. All chapters are prefaced with illustrative Shakespearean quotations; the collection representing a commentary on the work as well as the life of Shakespeare. All texts have been modernised to assist the reader, and a glossary is included which explains names, unfamiliar words and difficult passages.

The Reverend Matthew Albert Bayfield (1852-1922) published this study at the end of his life after a long career as classical scholar, editor of Greek tragedies and headmaster of several public schools. He gives an account of the structure and characteristic features of Shakespeare's dramatic verse and argues that it has been fundamentally misunderstood by other scholars. In particular, he analyses the use of contractions or abbreviations found in the Folio and Quartos and continued in the editions of his own time. He weighs up which of the contractions familiar from many editions were actually Shakespeare's, and what that reveals about how Shakespeare might have intended his prose and verse to be spoken. Bayfield's many appendices evaluating the metre of specific lines and his detailed linguistic analysis remain thought-provoking for modern editors and scholars of Shakespeare.

The writings in this collection first appeared in Bentley's Miscellany, the well-known nineteenth-century journal whose first editor was Charles Dickens. Their author, William Maginn, was widely acknowledged as one of the most eccentric and brilliant periodical writers of his time. This volume, consisting of two parts, was put together by his friends and well-wishers after his death in 1842. The first part, The Shakespeare Papers, features eight essays that display Maginn's brilliantly tangential and often counter-intuitive approach to Shakespearean characters and includes his views on Falstaff, Jacques, Romeo, Bottom, Lady Macbeth, Timon of Athens, Polonius and Iago. The second part, Pictures Grave and Gay, consists of four short stories peopled with eccentric characters and brimming with Maginn's odd wit. The spectrum of writing contained in this volume gives the reader a rich harvest of literary nuggets that is both historical and timeless.

Helena Faucit Martin, one of the leading stage actresses of the early nineteenth century, played several Shakespearean roles. When she began expressing her opinions on her favourite women characters in letters to her friends, they urged her to publish them. The result is a series of fascinating, candid and informed sketches of seven of Shakespeare's well-known female characters, featuring Ophelia, Juliet, Portia, Imogen, Desdemona, Rosalind and Beatrice, which was published in 1885. Faucit's writings are distinctive, in that she approaches her subjects not as a critic of drama, but as someone who has 'thought their thoughts and spoken their words'. She treats Shakespeare's characters as beings with a life outside the stage, as figures for herself and other women to look up to as guides, friends and mirrors for their own lives. Among the letters in the volume are those written to Faucit's eminent friends, Robert Browning and John Ruskin.

Dowden's critical study of 1875 approaches Shakespeare from the human side, showing how Shakespeare the man is visible through his art. Moving from Shakespeare's early plays to his late period, and grouping the plays according to key stages in his career, the book traces the growth of Shakespeare's intellect and character from youth to full maturity. Dowden does not seek to align Shakespeare with any particular single character from his plays, but sees aspects of Shakespeare in many of his dramatic creations, demonstrating how Shakespeare represents many different sides of human life. The reader is provided with an insight into the questions at the forefront of Shakespeare's mind, his most intense moments of inspiration and his discoveries about human life. Outlining the differences between the youthful Shakespeare and Shakespeare as a mature and experienced man, the book enables us to better understand Shakespeare's character and genius.

Gerald Massey's work of 1888 presented a strong argument against the many theorists who viewed Shakespeare's Sonnets as autobiographical - 'a permanent reply to Shakespeare's misinterpreters'. Beginning by outlining the known background and context of the Sonnets, Massey proceeds to wage what he terms his 'battle against fictions, fallacies, forgeries, and groundless assumptions'. Who were the Sonnets addressed to, if anyone, and what is the significance of the inscription in the edition of 1609? What is the correct arrangement of the Sonnets, and why did Shakespeare himself give personal testimony to their 'purity'? Following detailed descriptions of the many different theories, Massey provides close readings and analysis of the Sonnets themselves to dispute the autobiographical claims, and to demonstrate that the Sonnets are 'partly personal and partly dramatic'.