NEw Eniyiows AND Reramrs.—Sheridan's Plays, now Printed as he Wrote
them. Edited by W. Fraser Rae. (D. Nutt. 10s. 6d. net.)—This edition, for which the late Marquis of Dufferin and Ava wrote a preface, has no little interest. All the plays, except The Rivals, exist in manuscript. This comedy was first represented on January 17th, 1775, and was received with mingled favour and censure. It was withdrawn, considerably changed (receiving "much castigation and the pruning-hand of judgment," as one of the criticising journals put it), and reproduced on January 28th. Unfortunately the manuscript perished in the burning of Drury Lane Theatre, and we have no means of knowing what the changes were. When all the plays were published in 1821 a certain Mr. Wilkie acted as editor, and seems to have taken unwarrantable liberties with the text. The Scheming Lieutenant and The Duenna are of no dramatic importance, but The School for Scandal now appears for the first time as it was written. The same may be said of The Critic. The Journey to Bath, a fragment from the pen of Sheridan's mother, is added. The dramatist seems to have taken a few quite trifling things from it.—In the series of the " World's Classics" (Grant Richards, 1s. net) we have The Poems of Robert Herrick. No introduction or note of any kind is added. All the editor has done has been to tell us that the poems of Robert Herrick were first published in the year 1648, though ho gives a reproduction of the title-page of " Noble Numbers" bearing the date 1647. Herrick is hardly a writer whom it is well to bring before a large circle of readers in this brusque fashion.
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