NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC.
The issue by the Shakspeare Society of an edition of the Notes and Emendations to the Text of Shakspeare's Plays from early MS. Corrections in a Copy of the Folio 1632, in the Possession of J. Payne Collier, Esq., affords an opportunity, of which we gladly avail ourselves, to recall attention to a volume which is unquestionably the most important contribution to Shakspearian literature which has issued from the press for many years. Although we have no evidence of the authority upon which these Notes and Emendations were made, an examination of them must, we think, convince even the most sceptical, that they were made upon authority, and are not the result of clever criticism and happy conjecture. The readers of "N. & Q." know well what discussions have been raised upon such phrases as "Prenzie Angelo," "Whose mother was her painting," "Ribaudred nag," "Most busy, least when I do it," &c. The writer of the Notes and Emendations, now first published, has given in these, and hundreds of other difficult and disputed passages, corrections which are consistent with Shakspeare's character as the poet of common sense. He converts the "prenzie Angelo" into the "priestly," and the "prenzie guards" into "priestly garb." So that the passage now reads—
"Claud. The priestly Angelo.
Isab. O, 'tis the cunning livery of hell,
The damned'st body to invest and cover
In priestly garb."
In the passages to which we have referred above, "whose mother was her painting," is changed into "who smothers her with painting;" "ribraudred nag" into "ribald hag;" and the passage from The Tempest is made plain—
"Most busy blest when I do it."
We think these examples are sufficient to make all lovers of Shakspeare anxious not only to examine the present volume, but to see the promised new edition of his works, in which Mr. Collier proposes to give the text as corrected by this great, although unknown authority.
The meeting for the establishment of the Photographic Society, held on Thursday week at the Society of Arts, was most numerously attended. The Society was formed, Sir Charles Eastlake elected president for the first year, Mr. Fenton honorary secretary, and Mr. Roslyn treasurer. The subscription was fixed at one guinea, with an admission fee of the same amount.
At a recent meeting of the Surtees Society, it was announced that the works in progress for this year are the Pontifical of Egbert, Archbishop of York (to be edited by the Rev. W. Greenwell), and a volume of Wills and Inventories from the Registry at Richmond, by Mr. Raine, Jun. The books for 1854 are to be the Northumbro-Saxon translation of The Gospel of St. Matthew, to be edited by the Rev. Joseph Stevenson, and the Inventories and Account Rolls of the Monasteries of Monkwearmouth and Jarrow until the Dissolution, which will appear under the editorship of the Rev. James Raine.
The Corporation of London Library is being thrown open to all literary men; the tickets of admission being accompanied by letters expressive of a wish that the holders should make frequent use of them. This is an act of becoming liberality, worthy of imitation in other quarters.
Books Received.—History of England from the Peace of Utrecht to the Peace of Versailles, 1713-1783, by Lord Mahon, vol. i. This is the first volume of a new and revised edition of this history of a most important period in our national annals, by the noble President of the Society of Antiquaries.—The Ethnology of the British Islands, by R. G. Latham, M.D. The value of all Dr. Latham's researches, whether into the history of our language, or of the races by which these islands have been successively inhabited, is so fully recognised, that we may content ourselves by merely calling attention to the publication of this able little volume.—On the Lessons in Proverbs: Five Lectures, &c., by the Rev. R. C. Trench. Those who know the value of Mr. Trench's admirable lectures On the Study of Words, will find in this companion volume, in which he attempts to sound the depths and measure the real significance of National Proverbs, a book which will give them a pleasant hour's reading, and subjects for many pleasant hours' meditation.