When to the sessions of sweet silent thought I summon up remembrance of things past, The next year (1882), a second edition was published in London, by Longmans, Green & Co. Since then, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh editions have been published, the last in two large volumes. It is not likely that any scraps of knowledge will be added to what is contained in these vol umes. Under the title "The Story of a Great Biography," SHAKESPEARIANA printed on page 1 of Volume III. an adequate account of this immense work, of which Mr. Grant White said: "It is safe to say that, without consulting it, no one will hereafter undertake to write on a Shakespearian theme.” Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps, however, was not satisfied with the above results. He had in mind for the thirty years last past the preparation of a final work, and he was constantly collecting material for a "History of the English Stage." He had but little hope, years ago, that his life would be sufficiently prolonged for him to write this work, after finishing his Shakespearian researches. The material is so well arranged, every little scrap of knowledge having its place, that the future historian of the English stage can make easy use of it, and there is probably in his will (a copy of which has not, as we write this, reached the United States) minute directions as to who shall complete it. Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps a few years ago retired to Hollinbury Copse--one of the quaintest of houses, and of which our readers will find detailed description in SHAKESPEARIANA *—on the Sussex Downs, and no American Shakespearian will ever forget the hospitality, pressed down and running over, of this noble gentleman. It is safe to say that he leaves in England no successor. He leaves his library to his nephew, his invaluable collection of rarities to be sold at $50,000, unless the Birmingham Library will pay $35,000 for it, and his immense collection of electrotypes, cuts, and blocks, used in the printing of the 266 works above mentioned as well * Volume I., page 226. as in the several editions of the "OUTLINES," to the Shakespeare Society of New York, thus adding to the great art treasures which are accumulating in the city of New York, which already possesses in its Astor, Lenox, and Columbia Libraries the larger portion of the existing Shakespeare Quartos and Folios.* H. H. F. *Wm. H. Fleming. See SHAKESPEARIANA, Vol. V., p. 101. Editorial. APROPOS of the rumor that Mr. Browning himself was not entirely unconnected with the suggestion of a proposal at a late session of the London Browning Society, "that the Society be dissolved," comes the very pertinent suggestion that gentlemen who are fond of inquiring what William Shakespeare would have said could he have heard some of the interpretations his worshippers supply to his words, interview Mr. Browning. Doubtless Shakespeare did not mean and could not have meant all the esoteric Buddhism, Rosicrucianism, eschatological, mystical "stuff" that is read out of him and from between his lines. Yet at least Shakespeare is dead, and cannot contradict his interpreters. But Mr. Browning is alive, and can not only tell how Shakespeare would feel were he still amongst us; but, what is more to the purpose, can set us all right if he has a mind. The question is sometimes asked, Will the study of Browning cast out the study of Shakespeare? Is not Shakespeare yielding to his nineteenth century antetype? From this standpoint we should incline to doubt it. The limitations of Browning study alone forbid it. How can we debate the meaning of a phrase, the tendency of a thought, the trend of a story, the morals of an episode, night after night, week after week, overhauling libraries for the least hint or suggestion so as to help us in our search, when the rare old poet himself is alive, and a postage-stamp will settle our quandary from the very pen of the poet himself? Here are no "drams of eale,' no "Runaway's eyes," no "mother was her painting." But grand Mr. Browning himself for a corrector and an elucidator. Three hundred years from now, our progeny may study the Shakespeare of the nineteenth century. But, as Shakespeare's contemporaries were not obliged to found a Shakespeare Society for his study, so, living in the same days, and under the same skies, and in the midst of the same civilization as Browning himself, doubtless the days of the Browning Club are as limited as the investigation. Still less will the Shakespeare of the nineteenth century drive out and dispel his master and ours, while SHAKESPERIANA's present generation of readers occupy themselves with its pages. Miscellany. THE history of Shakespearian commentary and criticism is the history of what one may dignify as "disputes," or smile at as "squabbles "-entirely as he happens to be in charitable or complaisant mood. Shakespeariana is a free field into which anybody, who can write grammatically, and who has access to a library, can write himself to his heart's content. Or, if he do not happen to have access to a library, he has simply to take the last thing written on the subject and contradict it. If the last thing written, for example, maintains that Hamlet was fat, let him demonstrate that Hamlet was lean; if it holds that Desdemona was a brunette, let him point out that she must have been a blonde to have attracted a copper-colored Othellounless, indeed, Othello was a white man, which there is abund. ant text that can be twisted to prove, etc., etc., just as Sheridan's character wrote tragedies by simply reversing other people's comedies. There is absolutely nobody to interfere with him, and no data, one way or the other, to confront him with. Shakespeare himself has said something about everything (barring only perhaps tobacco), so the range of subjects is infinite, and, except the law, no topic of human interest has so religiously preserved its literature as has the exhaustless topic of Shakespeare. In other words, just as anybody can be a poet, so anybody can be a Shakespearian commentator. The recipe for either appears to be a quire of paper, a pen, and a bottle of ink.-The Church Review. SIX thousand five hundred and ninety-eight new books and new editions were issued last year in England. The number of new books and new editions published in 1887 was 5688, so that the increase over the previous year is 903, a large proportion of which consisted of books of fiction. The increase in 1887 over 1886 was 476, only a little more than half as much as the gain last year. It would probably be well within the mark to say that an average edition of 1500 of each of the 6591 books published in England last year was circulated. This estimate would make the total number of copies issued and circulated 9,886,500, and the readers of these volumes could fairly be numbered at between 25,000,000 and 30,000,000, though, owing to the number and popularity of circulating libraries in Great Britain, the actual figures, could they be obtained, would doubtless be found even greater. There were published in the United States, in 1887, 4437 books, new issues, and new editions. The figures for 1888 are not likely to be much, if any, in excess of this total. In 1886 high-water mark in the publishing trade was touched, with 4676 new books, the following year showing a falling off of 239. In the United States, the six most popular magazines have an aggregate monthly circulation of 600,000, the total number of copies distributed yearly amounting thus to over 7,000,000. Allowing eight readers for each monthly number, the total body of magazine readers is not far from 5,000,000. No class of literature in this country exerts so great an influence, and upon no class of literature is so much money spent annually by publishers. Of the above, 262 volumes in England and the United States (1887-1888) were devoted to Shakespearian (including Baconian) matters. America contributes the only magazine in the world devoted exclusively to ShakespeareSHAKESPEARIANA-now prosperously beginning its sixth year, unless we count the Jahrbuch, which is an annual and comes from Germany. DON QUIXOTE AND SHAKESPEARE.-The First Part of Don Quixote was licensed for the Press, December, 1604, and The History of Sir John Oldcastle, which is generally assigned to Munday, Drayton, Houghton, and Wilson, appeared for the |