3.

Position of the Play, e.g., in a group; metrical and

other tests.

Editions.

Internal evidence of its date.

CRITICAL HISTORY. Sources of the Story.

The Story in other hands.

When first published or played, and how received.
Contemporary events.

Whole or partial genuineness, and emendations.

Picturesque phrases, epithets, metaphors, similes, &c.

Analysis of style. Shakespeare's wit and humour.

Traces of the "conceited" style, &c.

Ethical effect of the play.

5. ETHICAL CRITICISM. Ethical problems handled.

Position of play in Shakespeare's moral system.

6. SELECT THE BEST PASSAGES AND COMMIT THEM TO MEMORY.

We purpose now to give a few general directions on the study of those authors whose works are most commonly set for the "special subjects." For particular works of these authors our readers may refer to the list at the end of this chapter.

THE STUDY OF SHAKESPEARE.

Indispensable to the candidate who has to read a play of this unexcelled and world-famed author is Dr. Abbott's Shakespearian Grammar: An Attempt to Illustrate some of the Differences between Elizabethan and Modern English. New Edition (6s., Macmillan). It is a "complete book of reference for all difficulties of Shakespearian syntax or prosody," and it attempts an explanation of every idiomatic difficulty that comes within the province of a grammar as distinct from a glossary." The study of such a book as this will be a valuable mental discipline which a mere reading of notes on a

Shakesperian play cannot fully give. "It is clear that the mere getting up and reproducing a commentator's opinions, though the process may fill a boy with useful information, can in no sense be called a training." Dr. Abbott's method is to illustrate each part of speech, each rule of syntax, each irregularity of grammar, and each variety of prosody by brief and apposite quotations from Shakespeare and Elizabethan writers, but mainly from Shakespeare. The essential points and the peculiarities of grammar are fitly summarised and explained in distinct and concise paragraphs. There are also samples of Notes and Questions on Macbeth, Act III. The plays of Shakespeare are indexed according to those scenes and lines in each which are commented upon or explained in the grammar: some of the plays "so fully that, with the aid of a glossary and historical notes, the references will serve for a complete commentary." This is a great advantage, for if the student meets with a grammatical difficulty in reading Shakespeare he has only to turn to the Index in this Grammar and he will probably find a reference to the particular paragraph where that very difficulty is cleared up or discussed. How can the candidate venture to be without such a handy and reliable help?

The object of the Shakespeare Manual (4s. 6d., Macmillan), by F. G. Fleay, M.A., "is to place within the reach of the student of Shakespeare such information as is essential for him to possess, but is at present unattainable unless he purchases many costly books." Part I. treats on Shakespeare's Life; contemporary allusions to him; the chronological succession of the plays in order of composition; a summary of the principal grounds on which the authenticity, origin, data, &c., of each play are to be decided; results of late investigations as to pronunciation, metre, and metrical tests, and other matters of interest. It also presents a list of desirable books for the student. Part II. gives chiefly some original investigations of the author in relation to many of the plays, and the application to them of certain metrical tests. The Manual is not a book for the candidate to read through, but a book for reference on the particular subjects that concern the play which the candidate has to study for examination; and for this purpose we regard the work as very suitable indeed. The reader will find in it a mass of information on almost every point of interest connected with Shakespeare's works.

We can also commend what is "partly an introduction and partly a supplement" to the above work, and yet "complete in itself,” viz., the same author's Introduction to Shakespearian Study (1s., Collins). This little book is designed "for younger readers who have not power, and for popular readers who have not time, to master critical questions concerning Shakespeare, and who yet are desirous of acquainting themselves, to some extent, with the results of those investigations which have been made.” “It contains entirely new

matter to the extent of three-fourths of the book, and the rest has been altogether rewritten, not condensed from the Manual." It is a cheap, interesting, compact, and reliable guide to the study of Shakespeare.

Professor Dowden's Primer of Shakespeare (1s., Macmillan) is another admirable specimen of the way in which the student may be efficiently helped at the smallest cost to understand the life, the times, the works, and the marvellous influence and genius of Shakespeare. It is a most excellent and suggestive little volume, rich in illustrative comment and critical insight and instructiveness. We consider that the best annotated editions of separate plays are those in the Clarendon Press Series (Macmillan), which are under the supervision of Professor Brewer, M.A. They are edited with rare critical acumen and distinguished learning by W. G. Clarke, M.A., and W. A. Wright, M.A. The notes are not made to order for the purpose of filling up a book; they deal with real difficulties, and compel the student to think and judge for himself. As an able critic has said: "The notes are admirable, abounding with apt illustrations from parallel passages in other plays or writers, explanations of all words occurring in an obsolete sense, well-approved etymologies, and all necessary information, historical, geographical, or traditional." For general criticism on matters of taste the student must consult other books if necessary, such as Coleridge's Notes and Lectures on Shakespeare (3s. 6d., E. Howell, Liverpool), which also contains brief notes on Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher; Prof. Dowden's Mind of Shakespeare; the critical remarks of Johnson, Schlegel, Warburton, Dryden, and other critics and editors of the many-minded and inexhaustible Bard of Avon. "Esthetic notes," says Mr. Wright in his edition of King Lear, "have been deliberately omitted, because one main object of these editions is to induce those for whose use they are expressly designed to read and study Shakespeare himself, and not to become familiar with opinions about him."

Perhaps the next in completeness and scholarship is the Rugby Edition of Select Plays of Shakespeare (2s. or 2s. 6d. each, Rivington). They are edited by different writers, but all of them of eminent ability and well qualified for their work. Each play is accompanied with an able introduction and suggestive notes. We would urge a reference to this edition. (See the List at the end of this chapter.) Hunter's Shakespeare's Plays, with Explanatory and Illustrative Notes (1s. each Play, Longmans), are very handy and useful. The notes are at the foot of each page, and each play has an introduction containing critical remarks and other helps to the student. Some of the plays published earlier in the series contain more copious notes and other aids than many of the later ones. This is the case with Henry VIII., Julius Cæsar, Hamlet, King Lear, and one or two others.

W

There are also short introductions and numerous notes in Collins' School and College Classics (1s. cloth, 9d. sewed, Collins). In Chambers's Shakespeare for Schools there are 22 separate plays edited (1s. cloth, 8d. sewed, Chambers). The notes are comparatively few and brief; objectionable passages are omitted, but this is scarcely a disadvantage in respect to the examination, for no examiner would be likely to refer to any unbecoming phrase.

THE STUDY OF CHAUCER.

We would recommend each candidate who has to get up a work by this author to purchase Fleay's Guide to Chaucer and Spenser (1s., Collins). Nowhere else can we find in the same compass as much compact, classified, and varied information as we find in this muchneeded manual of 126 pages. The author observes: "It has been in no way my intention to infringe on the duties of the editor or commentator on Chaucer, but to give such information as can properly be given apart from the consideration of any special poem or particular passages of poems; so that by the help of a glossary (which can be found in most editions), a sound treatise on English grammar, such as Dr. Morris's Historical Accidence, and a good text, such as that in Wright's Canterbury Tales, or Morris's Complete Works of our author, no further aid should be needful for any student who desires a sound but not specially critical acquaintance with our earliest and our all but greatest poet." The work contains chapters on the Life of Chaucer, the Sources of his Works, his Language, the Order in which the Canterbury Tales were written, and other matters of great moment to the student.

In reading the Canterbury Tales it will add deep interest to their study if we observe how they constitute a faithful portrait and picture gallery of the different personages, the social condition, the manners, morals, and customs of the days of Edward III. and Richard II.

The chief difficulty to the reader who is approaching the study of Chaucer for the first time is his language-its peculiarities of spelling, of grammar, of metre, and of versification. The following "General Hints," taken from the Introduction to Skeat's Piers the Plowman, Clarendon Press Series, may be of service to the reader:—

"Several mistakes are frequently made by those who are beginning to study Old English, which are worth mention, in order to put the student on his guard.

"1. It is common to disregard the spelling, and look upon it as lawless. It is true that it was not uniform, but the scribes had a law nevertheless, for their general object was to represent sounds, and the spelling is phonetic, not conventional. The variations in

spelling arose from the variety of ways in which sounds can be represented. Thus i and y were considered as interchangeable, and it is a mere chance which is used.

"2. The difficulty of Old English has been much exaggerated. Though it may take years to become a sound scholar, a very fair knowledge of it may be picked up in a few weeks, and is of great utility; for more grammar can thus be learnt in a short time than by reading any amount of grammatical treatises that ignore the older forms of the language.

"3. Many words are regarded as obsolete which are nevertheless still preserved in provincial dialects.

"4. Old words are often wrongly taken in their modern sense. Thus, to allow does not mean to permit, but to approve of, the root being the Latin laudare. Again, to take is supposed always to mean to receive, whereas it commonly means to give.

"5. Some forget to apply and make the most of such knowledge as they really possess. Thus in the phrase, 'the quick and the dead,' everyone knows that quick means living. Such knowledge should be put to good use; let it be remembered that quick is almost sure to mean living in Early English, and then it will not wrongly be supposed to mean quick."

"Chaucer's English, like that of the present day, is an uninflected or analytic language, and in this respect it differed from the language of many earlier authors, and especially from that oldest form of English usually termed Anglo-Saxon, which was originally inflected or synthetic; that is to say, it expressed grammatical relation by a change in the form of words, instead of employing auxiliary words. Our earlier authors are usually studied for their philological importance, and most of them require the aid of a grammar and glossary; but Chaucer is as easily understood as Spenser or Shakespeare. Not many of his terms are wholly obsolete, and but few of his inflections have gone wholly out of use.

It

must be recollected that even during Chaucer's lifetime the language was in a transition state, and many changes from old to modern forms were going on; so that some license was permissible in the use of such grammatical inflections as were gradually becoming obsolete."

A full outline of Chaucer's grammatical forms is given in the Introduction to Dr. Morris's Chaucer: The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, The Knightes Tale, The Nonne Prestes Tale (2s. 6d., Macmillan). It is from this Introduction, in which there is much interesting information on Chaucer's Life, Works, Metre, and Versification, that we have made the last quotation. Further help in the study of these subjects may be readily obtained in the long and instructive Introductions to the other works on