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World - Famous Shakespearean 

 Scholar and Editor Overcome 

 by Infirmities of Old Age at 

 His Son's Home. 



HARVARD AND AMHERST 



ACCORDED HIM HONORS 



Prolific Contributor to Leading 

 Literary and Educational 

 Magazines; Edited Poems of 

 Tennyson and Browning. 



VINEYARD HAVEN, July 7— Dr. - 

 William J. Rolfs of Cambridge, 

 Shakespearean scholar, author and 

 editor, died today at the home in Tis- j 

 bury of his son, Charles J. Rolfe. 

 Death was due to old age. 



William James Rolfe was born in 

 Newburyport, Dee. 10, 1827, the son of 

 John and Lydia Davis (Moulton) I 

 Rolfe. His boyhood was mainly- 

 passed in Lowell, where he was fitted | 

 for college at the high school. He en- 

 tered Amherst College in 1845 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 Academy, 

 Maryland, resigning after two months 

 to become principal of Day's Acade- 

 my in Wrentham, where he remained 

 I until December, 1852, when he accept - 

 ! eu the mastership of the Dorchester 

 high school. In 1857 he became pri'i- 

 I cipal of the Lawrence high school, I 

 ! where he remained for four years, 

 i going from there to Salem, but the j 

 next year he was offered the master- 

 ship of the Cambridge high school 

 and made his residence in that city, 

 since that time, although he resigned < 

 his position in the school in 1868 and | 

 devoted himself to editorial and liter- 

 ary work. Prof. Rolfe married Miss j 

 Eliza J. Carew, one of his pupils at 

 1 the Dorchester high school. 



Prominent as Editor. ! 

 From 1889 to 1903 he was one of the 

 editors of the Popular Science News, 

 md for over 20 years had charge of 

 the department of "Shakespeariana" j 

 hn the Literary World and. The Critic, j 

 being one of the staff contributors of, 

 the iattei. He also wrote many arti- j 

 cles for the North American Review, I 

 Arena, Harper's and other literary, j 

 scientific and educational journals. 



In 1S65 he published a "Handbook 

 of Latin Poetry" in conjunction with 

 J. H. Hanson, A. M., of Watervllle, 

 ! Me. Between 1867 and 1S69, in con- 

 nection with J. A. Qlllet, he brought 

 out the "Cambridge Course in 

 Physics." in six volumes 



He was the author of an "English 

 History for Schools, "The Elementary 

 Study of English," a "Life of Shake- 

 speare" and "Shakespeare, the Boy." 

 His first Shakespearian work was the 

 bringing out of the edition of "Craik's 

 English of Shakespeare," in 1867. 

 Since then he may be said to have 

 "given his days and nights to Will- 

 iam Shakespeare." 



In 1870 he made a school edition of 

 "The Merchant of Venice," which was 

 followed by editions of "The Tem- 

 pest," "Julius Caesar" and "Henry 

 VIII." An insistent call for more came 

 from every quarter, and the edition 

 was finally completed in 40 volumes. 

 No other American edition has ever 

 met with such sales— more than half 

 a million volumes finding ready mar- 

 ket. It pleased Mary Cowden Clarke, 

 an English Shakesperian, to call this 

 the "Friendly Edition." 



Edited Leading Poets, 

 He edited volumes of Milton, Gray, 

 Wordsworth, Goldsmith, Browning, 

 Scott's complete works, offered both 

 a Cambridge and an edition de luxe 

 of Tennyson, and supervised the pub- 

 lication of the "Newr Century edition 

 de luxe" of Shakespeare. 



After many years of pleasant cor- ! 

 respondenee with the poet Tennyson 

 and his son, he was a guest of both 

 at different times, one memorable 

 visit occurring only six weeks pre- 

 vious to the poet laureate's death. 



With Ills son, John C. Rolfe, Ph. D., 

 professor of Latin in the University 

 of Pennsylvania, he edited Macau- 

 lay's "Lays of Ancient Rome." He 

 published a series of elementary Eng- 

 lish classics in six volumes, and also 

 supervised the publication of the 

 "New Century" edition de luxe of 

 Shakespeare In 24 volumes, besides 

 writing for it a "Life of Shakespeare" 

 which fills a volume of 550 pages. 



He 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 ses- 

 sion of the State University of Illinois 

 and several other summer schools, 

 and in 1904 was elected president of 

 the Emerson College of Oratory, suc- 

 ceeding Dr. Charles Wesley Emerson. 



