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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* B. in. JUNE 3, 1905.

in this direction we have passed frequent, if inade- quate, comment. With her devoted labours for the amelioration of the lot of women it is forbidden us to deal, while to describe her social influence over whatever is best in the worlds of literature and art space is entirely wanting. Among those whose names most frequently occur, and who seem to have been most closely associated with LadyDilke's intellectual growth and development, are Ruskin (whose influence, though she often dissents from him, is traceable), Browning, George Eliot, Mark Pattison, Renan, G. F. Watts, Randolph Caldecott, and Eugene Miintz, the head of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Apart from the charac- teristic work now first printed, some occasional memoranda, quoted by Sir Charles from her note- books, illustrate the essential nobility of her cha- racter. While in Oxford she wrote: "The worst to me of this life here is the sense of personal degra- dationwhich accompanies theexercise of whatpeople call ' tact." 1 feel more ashamed at small scheming than I should (I think) at a crime. There is some- thing morally lowering about ' management.' Once out of it, however, it shakes off like dust." Another phrase from a letter is, "To seek is nearly as good as to find, for in seeking one finds also things one did not seek." That Lady Dilke's eminently poetical stories were written to "lay ghosts" we now learn from her husband. In ' The Book of the Spiritual Life' we find an observation as hrewa as that of Montaigne, with a spiritual insight which Maeterlinck might envy, the whole illustrated by an erudition of a kind elsewhere unusual, and illuminated by the noblest and most widespread sympathies. Such things vindicate their reproduction, for they are, indeed, too good to be lost. We know not where, also, among English writers we can find familiarity with the 'Divine Comedy ' accompanied by know- ledge of the 'Songe de Poliphile' and the fabliaux of Rutebeuf. The case is worthy of the jewel, the book being a bibliographical treasure. It contains some very interesting and striking designs by Lady Dilke, whose command of the pencil was not less than that of the pen her thumbnail sketches and lighter products are delightful (see that of the Boggart opposite p. 64) and has three charming portraits, showing her at various ages. One por- trait, the last ever taken, presents her as her friends will remember her, with a face indicative of past suffering, but sanguine, hopeful, and, in a sense, radiant.

A Xcu; Variorum Edition of Shakespeare. Edited by Horace Howard Furness. Vol. XtV. Love's Labour's Lost. (Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott Company.)

CONTINUING zealously his self-imposed and worthily discharged task, Dr. Horace Howard Furness has brought within reach of the student in the Ame- rican Variorum Edition the principal tragedies of Shakespeare, and is now proceeding seriatim through the comedies. Resisting the temptation to deal primarily with the plays which are most frequently acted, and seem therefore to put forth the most pressing claims, he is giving in their turn works which, like the present, are all but unknown to the modern stage. ' Love's Labour 's Lost ' enjoys the distinction (almost, if not quite unique) of having remained unacted in post-Restoration time until the days of Plielps at Sadler's Wells, involving a presumable absence from the stage of

two hundred and fifty odd years 1604 to 1857. AID anonymous adaptation for the stage was prepared in 1762. This, however, seems to have remained unperformed. In the large, if inchoate, index to Genest the only mention of 'Love's Labour's Lost' stands opposite a reference to this work which few of the most ardent students of Shakespeare can have seen and to which few are likely to turn. By consent, virtually general, 'Love's Labour's Lost' is held the earliest in date of the Shake- spearian plays. It is usually regarded as the- weakest also. Dr. Johnson almost alone seems disposed to cast doubts upon its authorship, and Hazlitt says, though he subsequently goes far towards retracting his utterance, that " if we were to part with any of the author's comedies it would be this." On the other hand, Mr. Swinburne, in the course of a divinely inspired comment, says- that in the language of 'Love's Labour's Lost' we find "a very riot of rhymes, wild and wanton in their half-grown grace as a troop of 'young satyrs, tender hoofed and ruddy horned' ; during certain- scenes we seem almost to stand again by the cradle- of new-born comedy, and hear the first lisping and laughing accents run over from her baby lips in* bubbling rhyme ; but when the note changes we- recognixe the speech of gods." Dr. Furness's effort in this, as in preceding volumes, is to supply the text of the first edition, with all the variants noted at the foot of the text, and with the prin- cipal verbal comments below. Once more the task of reducing to the test of reason the wild conjec- tures of critics is carried out, and the influence of the editor is ever on the side of common sense. Close and continuous study of the text seems, how- ever, to exercise a bewildering influence, and the editor, though one of the sanest of his class, and by far the most sound in view as to the limits of emen- dation, is disposed at times to be, we hold, over tolerant. There are five passages in 'Love's- Labour's Lost' which are held to defy all attempt at explanation. These have to be passed over, since illumination is now scarcely like to reach us. There are many others in which conjecture needlessly darkens counsel. In respect of the in- tention of the work to make sport of euphuism, a subject on which much is said. Dr. Furness has many wise words. The view also that Biron and Rosaline are studies for Benedick and Beatrice is- far from finding plenary acceptance. Nothing in the editorial matter is of more account than the comparison between the two pairs of lovers. In Act II. sc. i. 1. 87, it is asked if the use of the word/dire by Boyet, addressing the Princess, in

Navar had notice of your faire approach,

is not "somewhat suspicious." We think not so in the least; nor do we hold that any difficulty such as is suggested is found, 1. 97, in the King's reference to the Court of Navar. In this, as in other cases, as we have before said, a sort of obtuse- ness seems the result of close investigation. In the last sentences of his preface Dr. Furness takes the right view: "Be then and there the drowsy hum of commentators uncared for and unheard." In language we frequently employ, we say that read- ing ' Love's Labour 's Lost ' is like repose on summer grass, and him who regards such indulgence as waste time we leave to himself. The selection of comments at the close is edifying and valuable, and the book is a thrice-welcome addition to the treasure-house the editor is providing.