Shakespeare's Henry the Fifth. By W. A. Wright, M.A., LL.D.
(Clarendon Press.)—This edition is marked by the same care and scholarship which have given its predecessors their reputation. In the introduction is printed the narrative of Holinshed, which Shake- speare took as his authority for the history. The notes have the good fault of being, if anything, too full ; room is found to quote Dr. Wagner's wonderful remark that the hostess's blunder, "Arthur's bosom," is duo to her patriotism ; and M. Philarete Chnsles' com- ment on "he cried out of sack," " it demande encore en mourant un verre do sa liqueur favorite." So on "waxen epitaphs," it is noticed that the custom referred to by Gifford, "upon the decease of an eminent person, for his friends to compose short, lauda- tory poems, epitaphs, &o., and affix them to the hearse or grave with pins, wax, paste, &e.," was last practised in Cambridge on the occasion of Porson's funeral. We may remark that the form " Killingworth," for "Kenilworth," given in Ilolinshed, is still in common use among the unlettered of that neighbourhood. The only misprint wo have noticed is in II., i., 112, where Malone's reading, "Lambkins we will live," is condemned in the notes, but printed in the text.—Shakespea-e's Cymbeline. By the Rev. H. N. Hudson. (Ginn and Heath, Boston, U.S.)—This is one of a series of plays edited for school use by the Professor of Shakespeare in Boston University. There is a good critical appendix, and the text is accompanied by ex- planatory notes, the chief defect of which seems to be that they are not full enough. Too many of them are on the model of "Shake- speare has many such inversions," and "the poet has many other like instances of lingual mew)," Readers who " may like to be told that eineue means fire," and for whom is provided the curious information that " the eyelid of a
fair beauty is white, laced with veins of blue," will probably feel the want of some explanation of such a sentence as "overbuys me almost the sum he pays." On the other hand, in some cases, space is occupied unneoessarily, as by the ten-line note begin- ning, " The inexpressible purity and delicacy of this scene," &c., especially as almost the whole of it is to be found in the intro- duction. The same distinction of repetition has been given to the remark on Cloten, that " the pith of his ungeared and loose-screwed genius goes right to the mark, though it goes off out of time." The introduction contains some excelleut criticism, bat the style is occasionally of the most wonderful, especially where the unfortunate Cloten is in question. Thus "not even Cloten's iron stomach is proof against Imogen's scorching strokes, when her spirit is up ;" " she quickly gives him enough ;" " in his case, at least, the man was bound to be just like the boy, only more so." Iachimo "is a sort of diluted Ingo ;" his name "sounds like lam with the intellectual hell-starch washed out ;" Imogen, "with one blow of her tongue, shatters his armour of audacity all in pieces."
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