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BOOKS RECEIVED.

(Only books german to the study of Shakespeare or to a current phase thereof, are received for review. They are numbered as received and reviewed thereafter by the numbers assigned them on receipt.

(5) SHAKESPEARE'S JULIUS CAESAR. With an introduction and notes. By K. Deighton, Fellow of the Universities of Calcutta and Allahabad. 16mo, cloth, pp. 184. London and New York: Macmil

lan & Co.

(7) CHURCH AND STATE UNDER THE TUDORS. By Gilbert W. Child, M.A., Exeter College, Oxon. 8vo, cloth, pp. 429. London and New York: Longmans, Green & Co.

(8) THE MEMORIAL THEATRE EDITION of the Plays of William Shakespeare. Edited by C. E. Flower. Vols. I.-XIV. 12m0, cloth, pp. about 101 each. London: Samuel French.

(9) THE PASSION PLAY AT OBER-AMMERGAU, 1890. By F. W. Farrar, D.D., F.R.S. Square 12m0, cloth, pp. 120. London: Will

iam Heinemann.

Edited by Havelock Ellis. II.
London: Vizetelli & Co.

(10) THE MERMAID SERIES. Thomas Middleton. 12mo, cloth, pp. 484.

(11) POLY OLBION: A GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION OF Great BRITAIN. By Michael Drayton. Part II. Reprinted in fac-simile. from the Edition of 1622. Folio, paper, pp. 235. Manchester: The Spenser Society.

(12) WILLOBY'S AVISA: "Willoby His Avisa, or the True Picture of a Modest Maid; and of a Chaste and Constant Wife." Reprinted from the Edition of 1633. 4to, paper, pp. 148. Manchester: The Spenser Society.

(13) JAHRBUCH DER DEUTSCHEN SHAKESPEARE-GESELLSCHAFT IN AUFTRAGE DES VORSTANDES. Herausgegeben durch F. A. Leo. Fünfundzwanzigster Jahrgang.-Mit zwei zinkographischen Facsimilien. 8vo, cloth, pp. 324. Weimar: in Kommission bei A. Huschke.

(14) SHAKESPEARE'S ROMEO AND JULIET. Illustrated by Ludovic Marchetti and Oreste Contazzi. Printed at the Fine Art Works, London. Folio, 15 x 12, pp. 43. New York: Raphael Tuck & Sons.

(15) SIR PHILIP SIDNEY. The Defence of Poesy. Otherwise known as "An Apology for Poetry." Edited, with Introduction and Notes, by Albert, S. Cook, Professor of English Language and Literature in Yale University. 12mo, cloth, pp. 143. Boston: Ginn & Co.

(16) THE HENRY IRVING SHAKESPEARE. Irving and Frank A. Marshall. VII., VIII. 511. New York: Scribner & Welford.

Edited by Henry Small 4to, cloth, pp.

(17) SHAKESPEARE'S POEMS. Edited with Introduction and Notes by William J. Rolfe, Litt. D. 12mo, cloth, pp. 200. New York: Harper & Brothers.

(18) SHAKESPEARE'S MACBETH. Nach der Folio von 1623, mit den varianten der anderen Folios herausgegeben. Von Albrecht Wagner. 12mo, paper, pp. 951. Halle: Max Niemeyer.

(19) ZUR SHAKESPEARE-BACON-THEORIE. Von Karl Lenkner. 8vo, paper, pp. 48. Halle: Max Niemeyer.

(20) PSEUDO-SHAKESPEARIAN PLAYS. Revised and edited, with Introduction and Notes, by Karl Warnke, Ph.D., and Ludwig Proescholdt, Ph. D. I. The Comedie of Faire Em; II. The Merrie Devil of Edmonton; III. The Birth of Merlin; IV. Edward III; V. Arden of Feversham. 8vo, paper, pp. 40, 81, 97, 84, 62. Halle: Max Nie

meyer.

(21) IBSEN'S PROSE DRAMAS. I. The League of Youth, The Pillars of Society, A Doll's House. II. Ghosts, An Enemy of the People, The Wild Duck. III. Lady Inger of Ostrat, The Vikings at Helgeland, The Pretenders. By Henrik Ibsen. Edited by William Archer. 12mo, cloth, pp. 389, 381, 379. New York: Scribner & Wel

ford.

(22) A FABLE FOR CRITICS. By James Russell Lowell. With vignette portraits of the author's "De Quibus Fabula Narratur." 12mo, cloth, pp. 101. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co.

(23) OLD FRIENDS. Essays in Epistolary Parody. By Andrew Lang. 16mo, cloth, parchment back, pp. 193. New York and London: Longmans, Green & Co.

(24) BRIEF FOR PLAINTIFF. Bacon vs. Shakespeare. By Edwin Reed. Third edition. 12mo, paper, pp. 38. Chicago: Rand, McNally & Co.

(25) STRATFORD-ON-AVON, FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE DEATH OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. By Sidney Lee. With 45 illustrations by Edward Hull. New edition. 12mo, cloth, pp. 304. New York: Macmillan & Co.

(26) THE CARISBROOKE LIBRARY. Edited by Henry Morley, LL.D. I. Tales of the Seven Deadly Sins. Being the "Confessio Amantis" of John Gower. VII. Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered. Translated by Edward Fairfax. VIII. London under Elizabeth. Being the "Svrvay of London," by John Stow. 8vo, cloth, pp. each 446. New York: George Routledge & Sons.

(27) THE BEST ELIZABETHAN PLAYS. The Jew of Malta, by Marlowe; The Alchemist, by Jonson; Philaster, by Beaumont and Fletcher; The Two Noble Kinsmen, by Fletcher and Shakespeare; The Duchess of Malfi, by Webster. Edited by William Roscoe Thayer. 12mo, cloth, pp. 611. Boston: Ginn & Company.

(28) ROBERT BROWNING PERSONALIA. By Edmund Gosse. 16mo, cloth, pp. 96. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. (29) EMINENT ACTOR SERIES. Edited by William Archer. William Charles Macready. Cloth, pp. 224. New York: Longmans, Green & Co.

(30) THE ANCIENT CLASSICAL DRAMA. Evolution. By Richard G. Moulton, A.M. London: Henry Froude.

A Study in Literary 12mo, cloth, pp. 479.

(31) SHORT STUDIES OF SHAKESPEARE'S PLOTS. By Cyril Ransome, M.A., Professor of Modern Literature and History in the Yorkshire College of the Victoria University; and formerly a Postmaster of Merton College, Oxford. 12mo, cloth, pp. 299. New York and London: Macmillan & Co.

BOOKS REVIEWED.

(5) As Mr. Deighton's "Indian Series " goes on, his system attracts us more and more. It will be remembered that Mr. Deighton's admirable rule is to limit his students to historical, critical and explanatory notes, permitting them to supply themselves with such æsthetic commentary as their tastes might crave. With this exception, this series is much on the plan of Rolfe's School Shakespeares, whose books, indeed, Mr. Deighton's much resemble.

(7) The point of strain in the great duality of Church and State was naturally the point of contact between them. Constant even to-day, this problem of Church and State in Tudor times presented itself in a peculiarly focussed position for study. The rapid changes of the sovereign, back and forwards from Catholic to Protestant, while the State policy remained the same; the disarray and disorder resulting from the break-up of feudalism, and the iron characters of three such monarchs as Henry VIII., Mary, and Elizabeth, certainly make the most wonderful century in history, regarded from any standpoint, and Mr. Child has the noblest opportunity. His work is a treatise in practical polemics, and as such might be reviewed here from that standpoint only. And it might be reviewed from several others. But from the point of view of Shakespearian students the interesting impingement of Church and State seems to be that where the former denied the right of the latter to try for crime an individual who was able to claim the former's ægis. In examining Benefit of Clergy we feel unable to do better than to print the opinion in State vs. Bitansky (3 Minnesota, 246), which we believe is and will continue, the last case of legal record upon the subject, having occurred so recently as July, 1859.

"FLANDRAU, J. It is quite remarkable that a court in this country and at this day should be called upon to investigate and decide questions of the benefit of clergy and of petit treason. Yet the peculiar provisions of our statute render it necessary. These subjects have been so long looked upon by lawyers and courts as practically obsolete, that we enter upon them more in the spirit of curious research than of useful application. Yet, as the case in which they arise is one of capital moment, the prisoner is entitled to any benefit the statute may allow her when construed, as such statutes must be, in favorem vitæ.

"She was indicted for murder, and the evidence discloses that the murdered party was her husband. The statutes of this State (R. S., p. 523, § 14) provide as follows: The plea of benefit of clergy and the distinction between murder and petit treason are abolished, and the last-named defence shall be prosecuted and punished as murder in the second degree.' This was passed in 1851, and I will proceed to ascertain what was the law on these subjects at that time, to aid in determining how far the act is operative.

"The privilegium clericale, or the benefit of clergy, had its origin in the pious regard paid by Christian princes to the Church in its infant state, and the ill use which the Popish ecclesiastics soon made of that pious regard. (4 Black. Com., 364.) At first it was confined.

in its operation to those persons who were actually in the service of the Church, and had taken orders; but it was gradually extended until it comprehended all persons who could read, that being, in those days of ignorance and superstition, a mark of great learning, and the person enjoying this distinction was called a clerk (clark), or clericus. The probable reason of this exemption being accorded to learned. persons was their supposed beneficial influence upon the progress of the realm in civilization and religion, as much as to any sanctity with which the persons of the clergy were invested. As might well have been expected, the privilege was soon perverted to the worst purposes, and the arrogance of the privileged class soon led them to claim what had its origin in a favor extended by the crown to be theirs by a right of the highest nature, indefeasible and jure divino.

"This privilege was curtailed in England from time to time. By 4 Henry VII., ch. 13, a distinction was made between laymen and clerks that were really in orders, and restricting the enjoyment of the clerical privilege to one offence. This distinction was abolished by the statutes of 28 Henry VIII., ch. 1, and 32 Henry VIII., chap. 3, and restored again by i Edward VI., ch. 12, which extended the privilege to lords of Parliament and peers of the realm who could not read, and included some crimes not clergyable at common law. It subsequently, during the reigns of Elizabeth, James I., and William and Mary, underwent various mutations affecting the punishment that might be inflicted upon laymen, women and peers who claimed its benefits. And in the reign of Queen Anne, by statute 5 Anne, ch. 6, the qualification of learning was done away with altogether, and it was granted to all those who were entitled to ask it without requiring them to read by way of conditional merit' (4 Black. Com., 370), and the same statute allowed the judge, in his discretion, to commit the prisoner to the house of correction or public workhouse for a period not exceeding two years. During the reigns of the first three Georges, several changes were made in the punishment that might be inflicted upon laymen after the privilege had been claimed, such as 'transportation to America,' 'branding,' labor, fine, etc. And in the reign of George IV. the absurd provision was abolished entirely. So it seems that, as the science of jurisprudence advanced, and it came to be understood that the possession of knowledge, instead of being a reason for exculpating a criminal, tended rather to aggravate the offence, this privilege of clergy was diminished from being a full acquittal of the offence to a mitigation merely of the punishment; and by this means what was originally an instrument of fraud upon society was rendered a salutary check, in administering the otherwise too rigorous code of England. And, when the punishment of crimes was made to correspond with, and depend more upon, the degree of their enormity, it was abrogated entirely. While on this subject, it is curious to know how this plea was made and allowed, and I refer to one case as an example. After the verdict of guilty was rendered, the prisoner was asked by the court if he had anything to say why judgment should not pass against him. The prisoner then prayed his clergy, generally upon his bended knees. He was then tested by an ordinary, who handed him a psalm to read, and he read the first verse. The Judge then put the question to the ordinary, Legit vel_non?' who answered, Legit.' The prisoner was then taken without the bar of the court and branded in the hand (1 Salk., 61). The psalm usually given to the prisoner to read was the fifty-first, on account of

the peculiar appropriateness of the first verse. This psalm is called in the Vulgate the Miserere, hence termed the psalm of mercy.'

By the way, did Ben Jonson plead his benefit of clergy when arrested for murder? Mr. Waites thinks not. But we think he did. There is no record of a trial, and it was the simplest way out of the affair. Why should he seek court influence or legal exculpation when he simply had to speak ten words of Latin-which was to him as his mother tongue-to accept his liberty?

Whether from indolence, economy, or affectation (we are sometimes almost tempted to believe it the latter), English authors insist on sending out the profoundest and bulkiest treatises without indexes. This, in earlier times, made, possibly, no great matter. One was supposed to read books, not merely to taste or consult them. But, in the vast output of our presses to-day, surely Lord Campbell's saying (and he said it, too, more than fifty years ago) that no book ought to be granted a copyright unless it contained an index, ought to be a rule, somehow.

That the present work is without an Index is the only fault we can find with it, for it is a noble as well as a painstaking study of the relations of Church and State in England in the days of the TudorsHenry VIII., Mary, Edward VI., and Elizabeth. Students of Shakespeare are especially interested in the question.

(8) At the time the first part of the play Henry VI. was performed at the Stratford Memorial Theatre, we noted the fact that Mr. Charles E. Flower, of Stratford-upon-Avon-the promoter and benefactor of the Memorial Theatre, and who in many beneficent ways has distinguished himself by his devotion of time and fortune to the glory of his great seventeenth-century fellow-townsmen-had hit upon a device of publishing the present stage arrangement of the entire series of plays, for the benefit of audiences, while at the same time preserving the original text in its entirety, in an edition to be named the Memorial Theatre Edition. We now find before us the first fourteen volumes, being the list of comedies complete of that admirably conceived project.

Mr. Flower is quite innocent of any attempt to Bowlderizewhich is to actually emphasize-such passages as the taste of the present century rather disinclines to pronounce upon the stage or to read aloud in mixed companies. But since it is so that omissions will be made, Mr. Flower proposes to guide them to codify them, as it were without disturbing the benefit of the text so unpronounced. Mr. Flower contrives to do this, not as in the Henry Irving Edition, by brackets and wavy marginal lines, but by use of two different sizes of letter-type. And he says, very judiciously we think, in his preface: "The editor has frequently noticed among an audience some engaged with an ordinary edition of Shakespeare endeavoring to follow the text during the progress of the play. He would suggest that it would be more profitable, as well as more pleasurable, to read the play before going to the theatre, and to give full attention to the actor's interpretation; but those who prefer to take their books will find this edition of the greatest service, as it shows at a glance the difference between the plays as written and as now acted. And a reference to this difference between the acts may even be of use to those familiar with the full text." The exigencies of modern scenic representation require the occasional transposition of scenes. These must vary with the ideas of different stage managers. Those that are

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