30 AUGUST 1946, Page 22

Henry IV. Part II. Edited by J. D. Wilson (Cambridge

University Press. 8s. 6d.)

THESE two volumes continue Dr. John Dover Wilson's labours as editor of the New Shakespeare, seventeen volumes, of which have already been published. It is unlikely that this edition will ever be surpassed, for its scholarship is fortified by a general soundness of judgement which recalls Dr Johnson at his best. And Dr. Wilson has shown—as in his wisdom about Falstaff—thar he has not read Dr. Johnson in vain. He contends that Parts I and II were designed by Shakespeare from the beginning as one play, and his argument seems unassailable. It is a pity that in the chapter giving the stage history of the play printed in Part I he did not bring it up to date enough to include the production of Part 7. and Part II by the Old Vic Repertory Company in London and New York in 1946, but his book obviously went to press too soon for this' otherwise he might have had some interesting comments to make on this outstanding production with Laurence Olivier as Hotspur and Shallow and Ralph Richardson as Falstaff.