Tales from Shakespeare  (1923)

Illustrated by Frank C Papé

Tales from Shakespeare (1923) was published by Frederick Warne & Co. Ltd. (London)

with a stunning suite of colour and monotone illustrations contributed by Papé to the

classic collection of Shakespeare's tales brought together by Charles and Mary Lamb.

The Preface to Tales from Shakespeare (1923) from Charles Lamb provides a lovely

introduction to the volume:

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

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, 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 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 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 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 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 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 make these Tales easy reading for very young children.

To the utmost of my ability I 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

my intention chiefly to write, because boy are generally permitted the

use of their fathers' libraries at a much earlier age than girls are. They

frequently having 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, I must rather beg their

kind assistance 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 I trust 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 you, my young

readers, I hope will have no worse effect upon you than to make you

wish yourselves a little older, that you 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 your hands, you

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 I was fearful of

losing if I attempted to reduce the length of them.

What these Tales have been to you in childhood, that and much more it

is my wish that the true Plays of Shakespeare may prove to you in older

years - enrichers of the fancy, strentheners of virtue, a withdrawing from

all selfish and mercenary thoughts, a lesson of all sweet and honourable

thoughts and actions, to teach you courtesy, benignity, generosity,

humanity; for of examples teaching these virtues, his pages are full.

For connoisseurs of Papé's work, we have prepared sets of 8 Greeting Cards displaying each of his major colour images for Tales from Shakespeare and on the left, we show an example of how these Greeting Cards appear.

Code: FCP TS CS(8)
Price: US$40.00

Similarly, we have prepared sets of 12 Greeting Cards displaying each of Papé's major monotone images for Tales from Shakespeare and on the right, we show an example of how these Greeting Cards appear.

Code: FCP TS MS(12)
Price: US$60.00