NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC.
If, as we believe, the first and greatest qualifications for an editor of Shakspeare be love for his author and a thorough appreciation of his beauties, Mr. Charles Knight may well come forward once more in that character. And, as he well observes, the fact of his having laboured for many years in producing a body of Commentary on Shakspeare, so that he was, out of the necessity of its plan, compelled not to miss any point, or slur over any difficulty, renders him not the less fitted for the preparation of an edition which is intended to be "The People's Shakspeare." The first volume of this edition, which he calls The Stratford Shakspeare, is now before us. It comprises the "Facts connected with the Life and Writings of Shakspeare," and the "Notice of Original Editions," and a most valuable shilling's worth it is. And there can be little doubt that, if Mr. Knight realises his intentions of suiting the present work to the wants of the many, by his endeavours, without any elaborate criticism, to unravel the difficulties of a plot, to penetrate the subtlety of a character, and to show the principle upon which the artist worked, the present will be the crowning labour of his many praiseworthy endeavours to place a good edition of the works of our great dramatist within the reach of all.
"Who speak the tongue
That Shakspeare spake."
We cannot better show the utility and interest of The Autograph Miscellany; a Collection of Autograph Letters, Interesting Documents, &c., selected from the British Museum, and other sources Public and Private, than by stating the contents of the first number, which certainly contains admirable lithographic facsimiles of—I. Queen Elizabeth's Letter to the House of Commons in answer to their Petition respecting her Marriage; II. Letter from Catherine de Medici; III. Wren's Report on the Design for the Summit of the City Monument; IV. Letter from Rubens on the Defeat of the English at Rochelle. Their execution is certainly most creditable to the artist, Mr. F. Netherclift.
Books Received.—The Works of Joseph Addison, with Notes by Dr. Richard Hurd, Bishop of Worcester, in Four Volumes, with Engravings, Vol. I. This is the first of a new, cheap, and well-printed edition of Hurd's Addison, and forms one of Mr. Bohn's new series of British Classics.—The Russians of the South, by Shirley Brooks, the 53rd Part of Longman's Traveller's Library, is a very lively and amusing little volume. It would have been read with interest at any time, but is especially deserving of attention at the present moment.