1904. Mabie, was an editor of The Independent, a lecturer, and a prolific author of volumes of essays. Mabie writes in the Preface: This account of Shakespeare has been prepared with the hope that it may bring the greatest of English poets more distinctly before the minds of some of his readers, and widen the interest in a body of poetry rich beyond most literature in the qualities which not only give deep and fresh interest to life, but which make for the liberation and enrichment of the human spirit. Contents: The Forerunners of Shakespeare; Birth and Breeding; Shakespeare's Country; Marriage and London; The London Stage; Apprenticeship; The First Fruits; The Poetic Period; The Sonnets: The Historical Plays; The Comedies; The Approach of Tragedy; The Earlier Tragedies; The Later Tragedies; The Ethical Significance of the Tragedies; The Romances; and The Last Years at Stratford. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.