Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/112

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

S. N 5., FEB. 2. '56.

explanations of difficult passages, and more exact de- finitions of obsolete words, than are to be found in any preceding edition. I have passed over nothing which seemed to me to require elucidation, and if the critical and initiated reader should complain of superfluous com- ment, I must request him to remember that the book is not intended for such readers alone who have made the poet their study, but for popular use, for those who may require such aid ; for although, however carelessly read, he cannot fail to afford delight, how much more will that delight and admiration be increased by a careful study of his language and allusions."

Mr. Singer's modesty induces him to point out as the " distinguishing feature" of his edition, the Critical Essays on the Plays, and the Biographical Sketch of Shakspeare, by Mr. Lloyd. We are of opinion that Mr. Singer's friendship has somewhat biassed his judgment, and doubt whether his opinions in this respect will be confirmed by the verdict of his readers. There are, as might be ex- pected, points on which we differ from Mr. Singer. To our thinking, while he has done more than justice to some of his fellow-labourers, he has to others done less. But there is no question that he has produced an edition of Shakspeare of great value one by which he will long be honourably remembered one which must hereafter be consulted by every student of our immortal poet. Let us add, that the edition is fitly and gracefully dedicated to " the Memory of his Friend Francis Douce." Would that that kind friend, and accomplished Antiquary, had been spared to peruse it !

While on the Subject of Shakspearian literature, we may call attention to an article in Putnam's Monthly for January, in" which the American writer seeks to prove that Shakspeare was not the writer of the plays which bear his name. TTie Atheneeum of Saturday last well describes it as a " florid, eloquent, and discursive paper but without a single fact of any sort to sustain the strange conclusion at which the writer labours namely, that Raleigh and Bacon were the real authors of the dramas which constitute the literature of their age. Shakspeare was a peasant Shakspeare was a player Shakspeare was a fellow without learning, travel, courtly breeding, therefore, he could not have written The Merchant of Venice, Hamlet, and Othello. But Bacon and Raleigh were learned, courtly, accomplished, tempered by action, travel, great employments: they were capable of the Shakspeare drama. Such is the argument of this Ame- rican writer. He who wrote the Essays might have written Hamfet and Troilus and Cressida he who com- posed The Historic of the World, might have written Lear and Julius Caesar." After a sketch of this startling but untenable theory, the writer in The Athenaeum justly remarks : " The process by wh'ch Shakspeare is re- duced to nothing, is certainly startling. Take away all the evidence of the poet's supreme intellect refuse him the witness of his works and it is, of course, easy to say the poor player was unequal to his mighty task. But the same process could reduce Bacon from a great law-

fiver in the empire of thought, to a corrupt lawyer and ase flatterer in the court of King James. Take the facts which stand apart from his intellectual action erect the idea of a man on them and it will be as easy to raise a theory that not Bacon but Shakspeare wrote the Essays and the Novum Organum."

A paragraph has been going the round of the papers during the past week, in which it is distinctly announced that the fifth volume of Mr. Macaulay's History has been committed to the press. This is not true. The mistake has probablv arisen from the fact, that the original large edition of the third and fourth volumes being exhausted, they are in the course of being reprinted.

BOOKS AND ODD VOLUMES.

WANTED TO PURCHASE.

BOOKS WASTED. In, consequence of the increased use made of this division of " N. & Q.," and also of the increased necessity of economising our space, we must in future limit each article to one insertion.

Tyrrell. BRIEF DISQUISITION op THB LAW OF NATURE. 2nd Ed. 8vo. 1701. London.

BISHOP BERKELEY'S WORKS. By Wright. 2 Vols. 8vo. London, 1813.

Vincent. LAW op HUMAN JUDGMENT. 8vo. London, 1833.

Mackintosh. LECTURES ON ETHICAL PHILOSOPHY. By Whewell. Edin- burgh, 1836.

Price. KKCIEW OF MORALS. 8vo. London, 1787.

Rutherford. ESSAY ON VIRTUE. 4to. Cambridge, 1744.

PLATO. Bekker. 8vo. Vol. I. Priestley.

COP'.EY'S (J. S.1 REPORT OF THE CASE op A DOUBLE RETURN POB THB BOBOCTOB OF HORSHAM. 8vo. 1808.

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CHEVALT.IBR'S HISTOIRS DBS GHAPHIDEKS. 1824. 4to.

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fiotictit ta

Among other interesting papers necessarily postponed until next week, it one by MR. GAIRDNEH on the Authorship of the Life of Kichard III., generally ascribed to Sir Thomas More.

Q. E. F. The. admirable Index to the Publications of The Parker So- ciety is now in course of delivery.

T. TJ. V. Tonson published in 1762, a beautiful edition in small octavo o/The Poems of Mr. John Phillips.

W. H Y. Are the lines on the buck nfthe frontispiece of The Dunciad (3nd Ed., 1729) printed or in MS. T If the former, the loan of the volume for a few dc.ys would be esteemed a favour.

L. G. R. Lieqe is called " The paradise of priests, the purgatory of men. and the hell of women," from the number of its churches, convents, and nunneries, which form the greater part of it.

PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE. An accident has deprived vt of our Photographic Article this week.

PHOTOGRAPHIC COPIES OF ANCIENT MSS., BOOKS, ETC. We have been reminded by several friends, that in reprinting from The Times the cor- respondence on the subject of copying/ The Codex Vaticanua, awl Mr. Dc/amotle's letter on the copying afJfSS. by Photography, we passed over without notice the admirable photographic fac-simues of MSS. made fnmt i/ears since bu DR. DIAMOND. We did so intentionally, believing that no reader of" N. & Q." could be ignorant of the existence of works of which we hare to often expressed our approbation ; and because we know how unwillinr/ DR! DIAMOND is to have his name brought forward on all occasions. We, have now the pleasure <if announcing that Dr. DIAMOND lias promised to communicatt toour columns a paper on this very im- portant subject.

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