419
Nursing 420
The Text 421
The End of May 422
Feigned Courage 424
The Broken Doll 425
The Duty of a Brother 426
Wasps in a Garden 427
What is Fancy? 428
Anger 429
Blindness 429
The Mimic Harlequin 430
Written in the First Leaf of a Child's Memorandum Book 430
Memory 431
The Reproof 432
The Two Bees 432
The Journey from School and to School 434
The Orange 435
The Young Letter-Writer 436
The Three Friends 437
On the Lord's Prayer 442
"Suffer little Children, and Forbid them not, to come unto Me" 443
The Magpye's Nest; or, A Lesson of Docility 445
The Boy and the Sky-lark 447
The Men and Women, and the Monkeys 449
Love, Death, and Reputation 449
The Sparrow and the Hen 450
Which is the Favourite? 451
The Beggar-Man 451
Choosing a Profession 452
Breakfast 453
Weeding 454
Parental Recollections 455
The Two Boys 455
The Offer 456
The Sister's Expostulation on the Brother's learning Latin 456
The Brother's Reply 457
Nurse Green 459
Good Temper 460
Moderation in Diet 460
Incorrect Speaking 462
Charity 462
My Birthday 463
The Beasts in the Tower 464
The Confidant 466
Thoughtless Cruelty 466
Eyes 467
Penny Pieces 468
The Rainbow 469
The Force of Habit 470
Clock Striking 470
Why not do it, Sir, To-day? 471
Home Delights 471
The Coffee Slips 472
The Dessert 473
To a Young Lady, on being too Fond of Music 474
Time Spent in Dress 475
The Fairy 476
Conquest of Prejudice 476
The Great-Grandfather 478
The Spartan Boy 479
Queen Oriana's Dream 480
On a Picture of the Finding of Moses by Pharaoh's Daughter 481
David 483
David in the Cave of Adullam 486

THREE POEMS NOT IN "POETRY FOR CHILDREN"

Summer Friends 488
A Birthday Thought 488
The Boy, the Mother, and the Butterfly 489

PRINCE DORUS 490

* * * * *

NOTES 499 INDEX 523 INDEX OF FIRST LINES 529

FRONTISPIECE

CHARLES AND MARY LAMB

From the Painting by F.S. Cary, in 1834, now in the National Portrait
Gallery.

TALES FROM SHAKESPEAR

(Written 1805-1806. First Edition 1807. Text of Second Edition 1809)

PREFACE

The following Tales are meant to be submitted to the young reader as an introduction to the study of Shakespear, 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 care 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, as my young readers will perceive when they come to see the source from which these stories are derived, Shakespear'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 I found myself scarcely ever able to turn his words into the narrative form; therefore I fear in them I have made use of dialogue too frequently for young people not used to the dramatic form of writing. But this fault, if it be as I fear a fault, has been caused by my earnest wish to give as much of Shakespear'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 I knew of, in which I could give 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 Shakespear'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 readers 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.

I have wished to