Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 5.djvu/33

 12 S. V. JAN., 1919.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

Shakespeare's Workmanship. By Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch. (Fisher Unwin, 15s. net.)

SIR ARTHUR has read a good deal of Shake- spearian criticism, but he is no slave to tradi- tional opinions. He will give generous praise to this or that piece of interpretation, and will dismiss another with a shrug of the shoulders; he has loved Shakespeare from a boy, and seen him with fresh eyes, and now with deft hands and a light touch he tells us his impressions. He gives new meaning to this or that line which we had passed unnoticed ; he points out the wonderful quality of Shakespeare's work, while not shrinking from condemning it as slovenly in this or that detail ; he throws in personal recollections and jokes to beguile our ears, and sends us away exhilarated and charmed. Every student of Shakespeare, even the oldest, will feel he has gained by reading this book.

It is not that it is in any way epochmaking, nor in the main very new not so new, certainly, as Sir Arthur seems to think. His dislike of commentators and academic scholars sometimes leads to outbursts which are foolish or unfair. He dismisses Mr. E. K. Chambers's explanation of the term " interlude " without a word of refutation, and substitutes another for which he does not advance a particle of evidence " that ' Interlude ' meant, or came to mean, a

C' j of a sort commonly presented indoors, in queting halls, in the interval between theatri- cal seasons ; or, in other words, the sort of play to amuse a Christmas or Twelfth Night audience " (p. 142). He is ready to infer the conditions of the public theatre from those of the banquet- ing hall : " Upon the masques, as we know, very large sums of money were spent ; and I make no doubt that before the close of Shakespeare's theatrical career, painted scenes and tapestries were the fashion " (p. 22). But no evidence is adduced. He dismisses without examination the reasons that have been alleged for con- sidering the Hecate scenes in ' Macbeth ' un- Shakespearian. All we have is : " It docs not appear likely to me that a whole set of foolish men (though Middleton in itself seems a well- enough-inyented name) were kept permanently employed 'to come in and write something when- ever Shakespeare wanted it foolish " (p. 76). If this is Sir Arthur's way of arguing with serious students, our sympathies go over to them and leave the genial dilettante. There are times when Sir Arthur's recollection even of the play he is treating fails him. On the question why Hamlet himself did not inherit his father's throne, he says : " Shakespeare overlooking this trifle, Hamlet does not seem to mind or indeed, to think about it first or last " (p. 176). But Hamlet thinks about it very seriously (V. ii. 64-8) : He that hath kill'd my king, and stain'd my

mother, Popp'd in between the election and my hopes. . ..

is't not perfect conscience To quit him with this arm ?

Sir Arthur is so self-confident, and so contemp- tuous of the unhappy commentators " who have never created a play or a novel or a scene or a

character in their lives," that it is necessary to point out that his dicta are not all equally sound. But this is not the note on which we would close. He has written in a charming and illu- minating manner on many of the plays 'Mac- beth,' ' Midsummer Night's Dream,' ' As You Like It.' ' Cymbeline,' and ' The Tempest ' par excellence ; he has made some very telling criticisms of ' The Merchant of Venice ' and ' The Winter's Tale.' He expresses the feeling of many of us when he writes : " The dreariest

Eassages in Shakespeare are those in which his idies and courtiers exchange * wit.' " He has brought common sense and poetical feeling to bear with damaging effect on a dull remark of Sir Sidney Colvin's (p. 261). He has given us a book full of a light and happy spirit, common sense, and insight now turned on the immediate subject, now on something a little extraneous, as in his charming account of his canoe voyage down the Avon (pp. 121-3), or the equally charming passage in which 'he speaks of the lifelong devotion inspired in so many by the unfortunate Elizabeth of Bohemia (p. *309). At times he strikes a grave note well worth listening to :

" I have known an Archbishop from a Uni- versity pulpit excuse a war with a weaker nation not because our cause was just (which, though quite arguable, he made no attempt to argue), but because we were a greater, more enlightened, more progressive race than they, with a great literature, too for in his fervour the preacher even dragged in literature, and therefore (argued he) God, who encourages and presides over the evolution of mankind, must be on our side."

It is good for our humility to be reminded that the cant which makes Kultur an excuse for aggression has not always been the peculiar possession of one nation.

A Bibliography of Works by Officers, Non-Com- missioned Officers, and Men, who have ever served in the Royal, Bengal, Madras, or Bombay Artillery. Compiled and verified by Lieut.- Col. John H. Leslie, B.A. (retired list), and Lieut.-Col. D. Smith, R.A. Parts VI. and VII. Gascoignc Jacob. (Sheffield, Sir W. C. Leng Co., 2s. each.)

THE first part of this elaborate work was issued in 1909, but the War interrupted its progress. Nothing daunted, however, the compilers have resumed their industrious labours, the fruits cf which appear in the two parts r-amed above. The toll of noble lives taken by the War is illus- trated by the inclusion of Donald Hankey, the author of * A Student in Arms,' who was killed in action on Oct. 12, 1916. The majority of the entries are naturally of a somewhat technical character, but the remainder cover an extremely wide range of subjects. Thus we encounter Col. H. W. L. Hime's discussions on the Greek materials of Shelley's ' Adonais ' and Lucian the Syrian satirist ; Col. E. A. P. Hobday's ' Blue- beard,' arranged as a burlesque opera for produc- tion at Simla ; and F. W. Howe's ' Classified Directory to the Metropolitan Charities,' a useful handbook issued annually for 40 years ; while the last work recorded is a volume on Jeypore enamels.

That the compilers are animated by the true bibliographical spirit is evident from the fact that