CURRENT LITERAT EIRE.
GIFT-BOOKS.
Master Skylark. By John Bennett. (Macmillan and Co.)— This is a very spirited and picturesque story, A little boy who has a very sweet voice is carried ca by one of the players in the Lord Admiral's company—the scene is laid in the last decade of Elizabeth's reign—and goes through various adventures. He is admitted into the company of the Children of St. Paul, with whom he sings before the Queen, and, above all, he meets with " Master Will Shakespeare." To bring Shakespeare into a story, except as a persona mum, is a perilous undertaking, but Mr. Bennett manages it with success. The pictures of life at Court and among the Stratford burgesses are uncommonly vivid, and the figures of the chief personages very natural and lifelike. This is one of the most successful books of its kind that we have ever seen. The artist does not seem to have quite made up his mind how big Master Skylark was. Other- wise his pictures are not unworthy of the excellent story which they illustrate.
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