324 Washington Stbeet, Boston, Mass. 



(Entered at the Post Office, Boston, Mass., as 

 Second Class Mail Matter) 



FRIDAY, JULY 8, 1910 



DR. WILLIAM JAMES ROLFE 



Distinguished Shakspearian Scholar, Au- 

 thor and Editor Succumbs to Infirmities 

 of Age ! - 



Dr. William J. Rolfe of Cambridge, 

 Shakspearian scholar and author, died on 

 Thursday at the home of bis son, Charles 

 J. Rolfe, in Tisbury. Death was due to the . 

 infirmities incident to age. 



Dr. Rolfe was a man. to whom many 

 hundreds of pupils gave credit for theif 

 appreciation of the English classics and 

 in whom Shakspearian students the country 

 over recognized a. master. Few men, if 

 any, did more to popularize standard Eng- 

 lish literature in America than Dr. Rolfe, 

 and the popularity of Shakspeare as a 

 classic in the schools of America was due 

 in great measure to him. He was the edi- 

 tor of many editions of the dramatist's 

 •works. He also edited editions of most of 

 the great English authors from Milton to 

 Tennyson — editions that were regarded qs 

 peculiarly fitted for school purposes. Ha 

 was a prolific writer on literary topics for 

 the magazines and literary journals all his 

 life. 



William James Rolfe was born in New- 

 buryport, Dec. 10, 1827, the son of John and 

 Lydia Davis (Moulton) Rolfe. His boy- 

 hood was mainly passed in Lowell, where 

 at the high school he was fitted for college. 

 He entered Amherst College in 1815 and 

 was the classmate of President Seelye, un- 

 til recently the head of Smith College. 

 After his graduation in 1849 he taught 

 school in Kirkwood Acade.ny, Maryland, 

 resigning after two months to become 

 principal of Day's Academy in Wrentham, 

 where he remained until December, 1852, 

 when he accepted the mastership of the 

 Dorchester High School. In 1837 he be- 

 came principal of the Dawrence High 

 School, where he remained for four years, 

 going from there to Salem, but the next 

 year he was offered the mastership of the 

 Cambridge High School and he had made 

 his residence in that city since that time, 

 although he resigned his position in the 

 school in 1868 and devoted himself to edi- 

 torial and literary work. 



Dr. Rolfe received the honorary degree 

 of A. M. at Harvard in 1859, and the same 

 degree in 1865 at Amherst, where in 1887 

 he received the further honor of doctor of 

 letters. From" 1882 to 1888 he was president 

 of the Martha's Vineyard Summer Institute. 

 He was also an instructor in the summer 

 session of the State University of Illinois 

 and several other summer schools, and 

 in 1001 was elected president of the Emer- 

 son College of Oratory, succeeding Dr. 

 Charles Wesley Emerson. 



Dr. Rolfe edited volumes of Milton, 

 Gray, Wordsworth, Goldsmith, Browning, 

 Scott's complete works, also a Cambridge 

 and an edition de luxe of Tennyson, and 

 supervised the publication of the "New 

 Century edition de luxe" of Shakspeare. 

 With his son, John C. Rolfe, Ph. D., pro- 

 fessor of Latin in the University of Penn- 

 sylvania, he edited Macaulay's "Lays of 

 Ancient Rome." He published a series of 

 elementary English classics in six volumes. 



From 1860 to 1303 Dr. Rolfe was one of 

 the editors of the Popular Science News, 

 and for more than twenty years had charge 

 of the department of "Shakspeariana" in 

 the Literary World and the Critic as one 

 of the staff" contributors of the latter. He 

 also wrote many articles for the North 

 American Review, Arena, Harper's and 

 other literary, scientific . and educational 

 Journals. In 1865 he published a "Handbook 

 of Latin Poetry" in conjunction with J. H. 

 Hanson, A. M.. of Watervllle. Me. Be- 

 tween 1867 and 1869, in connection with J. 

 A. Gillet, he brought out the ''Cambridge 

 Course In Physics." In six volumes. 



Dr. Rolfe was the author of an "English 

 History for Schools." "The Elementary 

 Study of English," a "Life of Shakspeare" 

 and "Shakspeare, the Boy." His first Shak- 

 spearian work was the bringing out of the 

 edition of "Craik's English of Shakspeare," 

 in 1867. Since then he may be said to 

 have "given his days and nights to Wil- 

 liam Shakspeare." 



In 1870 Dr. Rolfe made a school edition 

 of "The Merchant of Venice," which was 

 followed by editions of "The Tempest," 

 "Julius Cicsar" and "Henry VIII." 



sistent call for 

 quarter, and the < 

 pleted in forty vo 

 i edition has c 

 —more than half 

 ■ ady market. 



lltK 



. No 



et with f 



from every 

 finally corn- 

 other 



ales 



find- 

 It pleased Mary Cow- 

 English Shaksperian, to 

 call this the "Friendly Edition. " 



Dr. Rolfe married one of the gradu- 

 ates of the Dorchester High School, Miss 

 Eliza J. Carew, who died some years ago. 

 Their three sons are all graduates of 

 Harvard. The eldest is John C. Rolfe, 

 Ph. D„ "professor of Latin in the Univer- 

 sity of Pennsylvania. The second son, 

 George William, is an instructor In the 

 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 

 while the third son, Charles Joseph 

 Rolfe, is a lawyer practising in Boston. 



