PUBLISHER: Printed by C. H. Reynell, for R. Hunter, Successor to Mr. Johnson; and C. and J. Ollier.
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Hazlitt discusses the most famous passages of Shakespeare and comments on the qualities and defects of the most famous actors in London: David Garrick, John Philip Kemble, Sarah Siddons, Edmund Kean.
Hazlitt included in the volume texts taken from his lively production of theater reviews and essays (such as, for example, the series The Round Table, published starting in 26 November 1815 on The Examiner and, as a collection in the same periodical in 1817). Unsatisfied with how his publisher had promoted The Round Table, Hazlitt began promoting the Characters himself, organizing for the chapter on Hamlet to be published in the Times and asking Francis Jeffrey, director of the Edinburgh Review, to publish a review of the text in his periodical. Various copies began to circulate in private form. Finally, in July 9, 1817, Hazlitt managed to get Characters published by Rowland Hunter and the two brothers Charles and James Ollier.

LATER EDITIONS:
A second edition was published by Taylor and Hessey in 1818 (London, Taylor & Hessey, 1818). In the same year an anauthorized edition was published in Boston by Wells and Lilly.

Third edition: Characters of Shakespeare's Plays. By William Hazlitt. Third Edition. Edited by his Son, London, John Templeman, 1838, 1848, 1854.
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- New York, Wiley and Putnam, 1845.

RECENT EDITIONS:
Characters of Shakespeare's Plays by William Hazlitt; with an Introduction by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, London, H. Milford, Oxford University Press, Series World's classics 205, 1916, 1924, 1929, 1949, 1955, 1962, 1966, 1975.

- New York, Chelsea House, 1983.

Later published in:
The Collected Works of William Hazlitt Edited by A. R. Waller and Arnold Glover with an Introduction by W. E. Henley, Vol. 1: The Round Table. Characters of Shakespear's Plays. A Letter to William Gifford, Esq., London, J. M. Dent & Co., New York, McClure, Phillips & Co., 1902.
Online text: INTERNET ARCHIVE

The Complete Works of William Hazlitt edited by P.P. Howe after the Edition of A.R. Waller and Arnold Glover, Vol. 4: The Round Table; Characters of Shakespeare's Plays, London, J.M. Dent and Sons, 1930; New York, AMS Press, 1967.

Reprint of the first edition: Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2009. Introduction and notes by J.H. Lobban.