Shakespeare's Historical Plays. By Charles Wordsworth, D.C.L., Bishop of St.
Andrews. Vols. II. and III. (Blackwood and Sons.)— Bishop Wordsworth has completed in these volumes the tank of editing, with a certain amount of revision, excision, and abbreviation, Shakespeare's historical plays. It is, we take it, generally allowed that he has performed a task of extreme difficulty with remarkably good-taste and judgment. If he has erred, it has been, we should be inclined to say, on the side of timidity rather than of boldness. Even if we could be sure that all that we find in the plays is Shake- speare's own, this would be no valid ground for sacrificing what all would allow to be intrinsically worthless, for the sake of convenience and decency. As it is, we have good reason for knowing that there is no little "gag" in the text as we have it. Shakespeare, with that curious indifference which is one of the most puzzling things about him, seems to have let it stand. But it is not sacred because it is found in the First Folio. Of COWS° the task of removing it requires a skilful and reverent hand. Such Bishop Wordsworth, one of the ablest and moat enthusiastic of Shakespearian scholars, has proved
himself to possess, and we congratulate him on the success with which he has performed his task.
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