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.