Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/165

 ii 8. in. FEB. 20, i9iL] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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Dramatists,' and various aspects of Shakespeare occupy five chapters ; while Dr. Ward sums up at the end with ' Some Political and Social Aspects of the late Elizabethan and Earlier Stewart Period.'

The second volume is chiefly concerned with notable dramatists from Ben Jonson to Ford and Shirley, but chapters are also devoted to ' The Elizabethan Theatre,' ' The Children of the Chapel Royal and their Masters,' ' University Plays,' ' Masque and Pastoral,' and ' The Puritan Attack upon the Stage.' This survey, in two volumes, covers the field with a plenitude of learning which is sufficient to daunt the con- fidence of the most assured critic.

Leaving for the moment the greatest name, we may mention some of the articles which have struck us most. Mr. Harold Child's work on ' Secular Influences and the Elizabethan Theatre ' is admirable alike in style and matter. Mr. Arthur Symons in his chapter on ' Middleton and Rowley ' writes with a distinction and a pre- cision of phrase which are all his own. Par- ticularly to be commended are his generaliza- tions on the stage of the day, and that to us surprising licence of violence which shows that " it had no character to keep up." Mr. G. C. Macaulay has a lucid and judicious study of ' Beaumont and Fletcher.' The comparison of Fletcher's style with Shakespeare's is note- worthy (vol. vi. p. 118). In vol. v. Dr. Ward's papers on ' The Origins of English Drama ' and ' Some Political and Social Aspects ' are not only valuable and close-packed summaries, but also put us in touch with modern life by references to the pageants of to-day, Oberammergau, and such occupations as drinking and smoking. Advance- ment in Colleges and Universities did not in those days always coincide with. merit, but Dr. Ward is able to claim an advantage in intellectual condition for Cambridge over Oxford for several years. This was due to the lesser hold the Puritans had on Cambridge. Their attack on the stage is well handled by Mr. J. Dover Wilson at the end of vol. vi. ' University Plays,' treated by Mr. F. S. Boas, had their culmination in Ruggle's ' Ignoramus,' which King James I. insisted on seeing twice. On the other hand, in 1613, when Prince Charles Fre- derick, the Elector Palatine, saw a comedy of Brooke's, he slept during the greater part of the performance which lasted from seven in the evening till one.

Prof. Thornydyke of Columbia writes ably on Ben Jonson, and concludes with the note that Dickens, who knew Jonson's plays " well, and himself acted Bobadill, must to no inconsiderable extent have been indebted to their suggestion." We do not believe this, and think it more reason- able to say that Jonson influenced Fielding and Smollett, who influenced Dickens. Prof. Saints- bury's two chapters on the * Life and Plays ' of Shakespeare and the ' Poems,' written in his characteristic style (incidentally he defends the use of neologisms), are full of good sense, and state briefly and lucidly the main points which any one attacking the question of fact and legend ought to consider, while largely brushing away that mist of probabilities or possibilities which critics often substitute for certainties. The infor- mation available, according to him, comes to very little, though other people think it comes to a great deal. The summary of the plays and their

chronological position is excellent, while the critical attitude of the Professor is always en- lightening. In discussing ' Hamlet ' he dwells on the character of Claudius, a welcome change after the reams that have been blackened by studies of the prince and protagonist of the play. There is a useful comparison drawn between Thackeray and Shakespeare and their methods of vivifying character. Nothing much is said of the special sides law, classics, &c. on which Shake- speare has been studied ; but this is, perhaps, not much loss. The mastery of " trisyllabic substitution " in blank verse is noted as founded " on good principles of English prosody." It is also, we might add, eminently Greek.

In the ' Plays attributed to Shakespeare ' Prof. Moorman finds nothing of the master, except in the case of ' The Two Noble Kinsmen.' The Rev. Ernest Walder has a succinct account of ' The Text of Shakespeare,' which is meritorious in the main as a survey of a difficult question. He should, however, have laid before readers the definite statement of Heminge and Condell at the beginning of the First Folio. That statement is remarkable in many ways as going counter to what we might expect, but we do not think it fair to disregard it, as some do, as the untrust- worthy advertisement of a tradesman. Mr. J. G. Robertson's ' Shakespeare on the Continent * is full of interesting detail which is little known. With these guides and the formidable Biblio- graphies the student should be well equipped to form a judgment on our supreme poet.

We note a few items in this last section, where, of course, individual opinion must prevail, Tolstoy's criticism is mentioned, but not the actual booklet in English. Our copy is called ' Tolstoy on Shakespeare ' (Everett & Co.), and includes also some fireworks by Mr. Bernard Shaw. In botany there is ' Shakespeare's Garden,' by the Rev. J. Harvey Bloom (Methuen, 1903). We think that the late Alfred Nutt pub- lished a paper on the fairies of Shakespeare ; and there is a book on ' Shakespeare and Music ' (1890) by Mr. E. W. Naylor, a Cambridge man. We should also have mentioned the new edition of Mr. W. Carew Hazlitt's ' Shakespear : the Man and his Work ' (Quaritch, 1908). Mr. J. L. Haney has written on ' The Name of William Shakespeare : a Study in Orthography ' (Phila- delphia, 1906). The ' Cambridge Shakespeare/ edited by W. A. Neilson (Houghton & Mifflin, 1906), is a useful one-volume edition. ' Julius Oaesar,' for which two commentaries only are given, is available in ' The Elizabethan Shake- speare,' edited by W. H. Hudson (Harrap). Swinburne's volume ' A Study of Shakespeare,' given as of 1880, reached a fourth edition in 1902..

Under ' Special Aspects ' we should add ' Criminal Types in Shakespeare,' by A. Goll, a translation from the Danish by Mrs. C. Weekes (Methuen, 1909). ' Shakespeare's Proverbs,' by Mary Cowden Clarke, edited by W. J. Rolfe (Putnam, 1908), is an attractive collection. Bart- lett's Concordance is preferable to M. C. Clarke's, as containing notice of the actual line as well as the act and scene.

W T e forbear to add more, and it is possible that some of the books we note have been mentioned and have escaped our eye. If so, it is not the fault of the Bibliography, which is arranged in, excellent subdivisions.