Note 262b — VIII. LORD ACTON’S LIST OF THE HUNDRED BEST BOOKS

I contend that while most of the poets are self-contained in a single volume, Shakspere’s plays are best enjoyed as separate entities. Certainly each of them has a library attached to it, and it is quite profitable to read Hamlet in Mr. Horace Howard Furness’s edition (Lippincott) with a multitude of criticisms of the play bound up with the text of Hamlet. But Hamlet should be read first in the Temple Shakspere (Dent) or in the Arden Shakspere (Methuen). To this last there is an admirable introduction by Professor Dowden.