terleaved for augmentation), while the others would make Volume I. With No. 9 the Society has changed the size of its publications from 16mo to small square folio, which is an improvement both in convenience and in appearance, a considerably larger type is employed, which is also in the line of betterment. These publications are intended to be exclusive of criticism per se, and to include only matter of preservative value as for purposes of reference. (6) Messrs. Roberts Bros. have put into its most accessible and reasonable form this English classic, and gentlemen who write cipher narratives to embalm in Seventeenth Century literature-by studying Mr. Landor's exquisite reproduction of the English of that age-can add largely to the verisimilitude of their performances. (7) Pen and Ink.-Mr. Matthews is a gentleman who writes with ease and at leisure. That he has no characteristic nothing which would enable us to say of a book of his if printed anonymously: "That's Matthews; that sounds like Matthews" and that he is careful never to tread on anybody's corns-is nothing against this pleasant little book, which quite repays a reading. Mr. Matthews in writing of poker alludes to a belief that the great American game had a genesis in the Primero which Falstaff regretted having ceased to play when he left the court, as he says in the Merry Wives. We suspect that the reason why Sir John ceased to play was because he had no coin of the realm, and his friends declined longer to take his IOU's or, perhaps, like his tailor, declined to accept Bardolph as security. And as there is nobody living who ever played, or knows how to play Primero, Mr. Matthews certainly is not laying himself open to any risk of contradiction by making the assertion: (8) The "unsaid word" which Mr. Cooke attempts to "say," is not after all, so unfamiliar. We cannot agree with critics who sail in the clouds or among the stars, in attempting to hunt up Shakespeare's motives in writing Hamlet. Why not tread the soil of this poor planet? It was the planet upon which Shakespeare lived and died, and where he earned his money, wrote his plays, built his theatres, brought his suits, had his frolics, lived, loved, married, died, as the rest of us. To our thinking Mr. Cooke's chapter on "Suggestive Parallelisms:" coincidences between Hamlet and some classical works," constitutes the chief value of his book. (9) (10) Messrs. Macmillan & Co. are publishing a Series of Selections from the Works of the English Classics, with Introductions and Notes, specially written for the Use of Native Students preparing for the Examina-tions of the Universities of Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, and the Punjab, and announce that they "have succeeded insecuring the co-operation of Professors in the several Presidency Colleges, and of other scholars whose names are well known in India, who bring to the elucidation of English texts the important qualification of familiarity with the special difficulties which present themselves to Indian students." We confess to have opened the two volumes already issued in this series with considerable curiosity, and that our curiosity has yielded to delight. Indeed there are many besides Indian pupils who may profit by such text-books as these!. Listen to this: "In regard to æsthetic and psychological criticism, the danger is not in giving too little help, but too much. To an Indian student nothing is so tempting as to commit to memory whole pages of criticism, the meaning of which, in the majority of cases, is but dimly understood by him. * In this matter, therefore, our object is to give a plain, lucid outline of the action of the play as it affects the principal characters, avoiding anything like an exhaustive analysis of their * * motives and significance of their conduct." We cannot too highly commend a series that thus, at the outset, announces its determination to study facts, and let the “sign-post" critics fight it out among themselves. (11) Octogenarian as he is Mr. Frederick Saunders, the beloved and honored librarian of the Astor Library, cannot cease to roam and cull among its treasures for his greater clientage outside. But nothing in Mr. Saunders' dainty little books-which begin to have a welcome periodicity of their own--is more apparent than the ever young and ever warm heart of their compiler. (12) The value of these bound volumes of SHAKESPEARIANA increases as time goes by. The record of the last five years here preserved covers a very active period in Shakespearian matters Among the more important papers included in the present volume is the very last memorandum the late J. O. Halliwell-Phillips ever wrote--the brief and modest sketch of his own life-work-and the admirable paper of Dr. Nathaniel Holmes, in which, while adhering to the Bacon theory, he completely ignores the possibility of a sane suspension of judgment in favor of a Donnelly or other " cipher" By the way, if there still remains a doubter who doubts that the first folio was set up from the quartos wnen procurable, let him examine the Troilus and Cressida and see (in Bankside folio line 3265) where the compositor exactly copied a typographical error from the 1609 Quarto: i.e., in the word enrapt the quarto has (Bankside Quarto line 3061) ENTAPT, and the folio exactly follows it. (13) Mr. Smith has devised a plan of teaching the rudiments of the English Literature and Structure based on the composite character of the language. He says: "A great deal of the work done with the English sentence in grammar and rhetoric has been to discover errors; the teaching of correct English has been therefore negative in character. Mr. Smith has attempted to reverse the process. The study of English must be fascinating when pursued with such a handbook as this. Not the least conspicuous feature of this manual is a glossary of English words in use before the year 1300 which still retain their significances. MESSRS. SAMPSON Low & Co. announce "A History of English Bookselling," by W. Roberts, editor of the Bookworm. Mr. Roberts has been engaged for many years upon the subject, and his work promises to supplement Curwen's in many important particulars, and, indeed, to a large extent going over untouched ground. There will be twelve chapters, dealing with Bookselling before Printing; The Dawn of English Bookselling; Bookselling in the Time of Shakespeare; Bookselling in the 17th Century; Bookselling on London Bridge; in Little Britain; in Paternoster Row, St. Paul's Church-yard, and Westminster Hall. There will also be biographical sketches of Jacob Tonson, Bernard Lintot, Edmund Curll, John Dunton, and Thomas Guy. MESSRS. WILLIAM H. WARD & Co. of New York, London, and Belfast have just manufactured a stationery cabinet which they call the Shakspere House" Cabinet, as it is an exact representation in colors of the birthhouse at Stratford-on-Avon. The cabinet is 9×84×64, and the roof opens to disclose an interior, being the familiar "birth-room" (so called) The box filled with choice "V.R." parchment, or Royal Irish linen paper makes a beautiful souvenir. VOL. VI. Shakespeariana APRIL, 1889. NO. LXIV. DID BEN JONSON WRITE BACON'S WORKS? * B EN JONSON was born in Westminster early in the year 1574, and was educated at Westminster school under Camden, who, says Gifford, was not slow in discovering nor negligent in cultivating the wonderful talents of his pupil. When he was sixteen Jonson went to Cambridge, and was statutably admitted to St. John's College. How long he remained there is unknown; not very long, as, according to all his biographers, the lack of pecuniary means forced him to assist his stepfather in the humble occupation of a bricklayer. Soon afterwards Jonson, dissatisfied with the nature of his employment, enlisted as a soldier and went off to fight the Spaniards in the Netherlands. After a short but not inglorious campaign he returned to London and sought work in a playhouse, "The Green Curtain," which, Anthony Wood says, was about Shoreditch or Clerkenwell, It was while here that he had the misfortune to be a principal in a duel in which he slew his adversary. At that time the Government was determined to repress the unchristian practice of duelling; Jonson was thrown into prison, charged with murder, and, as he himself states, "brought near the gallows." Though his biographers have told the story of the homicide, not one of them has been able to tell us by what means he escaped the penalty. While languishing in jail he was frequently visited by a Catholic priest, and became a papist. Some one, whose name * Read before the New York Shakespeare Society, January 24, 1889. had magic in it, bade the jailer warn Jonson-as he told Drummond of Hawthornden-that "spies were set to catch him; but he did not tell Drummond to whom he was indebted for this kindness, or who finally rescued him. "Camden! most reverend head, to whom I owe All that I am in arts, all that I know." Camden doubtless heard of his misfortune, and as surely sought assistance, but from whom? Necessarily from some one who had influence in the highest quarters. Now, about this time Bacon became acquainted with Jonson; and we know that Bacon, son of the late Lord-keeper, nephew of the great statesman who then guided the destinies of England, Member of Parliament for Middlesex, and Queen's Counsel extraordinary, had precisely that kind of influence which could open the prison doors and set the captive free. We also know that soon after this time Jonson was in Bacon's service more or less continuously till the latter's death in 1626. Jonson seems always to have preserved a strict silence upon the subject of his narrow escape. Perhaps the pain, the ignominy of a felon's doom had been too near for him to wish to speak of it to any one. Perhaps he had other reasons, such as were suspected by some of his friends and many of his enemies, to whose allusions there will be occasion to refer more than once; at all events, this date saw the commencement of a singular friendship-singular because of the exalted family, the honorable position, the brilliant hopes of the one; the humble surroundings, the detested religion, the miserable occupation of the other. Jonson, however, though often in want of the means to furnish his daily subsistence, was even then courting philosophy: "Indeed, if you will look on Poesie, As she appears in many, poor and lame, Set high in spirit with the precious taste Of none but grave and consecrated eyes!" "These lines," says Gifford (Memoirs, p. 8), "which were probably written before he had attained his twenty-second year, do not discredit him." It is very significant, too, that Jonson returned from Cambridge exactly as Bacon is said to have done, deploring the influence of Aristotle in the schools, for already 66 time and the truth had waked his judgment, The future Lord Chancellor hungered for fame; Jonson hungered for bread. What more natural than that each parted with what he could command for that which he could not? that Jonson, deeply grateful to Bacon for aiding him to escape from a shameful death upon the scaffold, agreed to further Bacon's ambition to devote a part of his time to the study of philosophy, and that the philosophical works resulting therefrom should be wholly ascribed to Bacon? It is difficult to see, even now, how Jonson could have helped himself. A man may be excused for saving his life under almost any circumstances, though it is quite possible that Jonson, with his indomitable will, would have hesitated to conclude such an agreement had he realized how persistently Bacon would insist upon his privilege to insert legal phrases which destroyed connection and commonplaces which dislocated sense. In considering this question we must not forget that in the days of Elizabeth and James a poor player or playwright was a being of the lowest caste; but when that playwright was a papist too he lost caste altogether and became a veritable pariah. This, and worse, was the condition of Jonson when he |