OUR BOOKING-OFFICE.
For the library shelves of those whom "Providence has not blessed with affluence," and who cannot afford first editions or expensive bindings, and for the working Journalist's library, the most useful books, the most handy, though not belonging to the regular "Handy Volume Series," and the best adapted to the pockets of most men, specially of the class above mentioned, are those forming Morley's Universal Library; published by Routledge and Sons, which now number about fifty-five volumes. Butler, Bacon, Cavendish, Cobbett, Dante, Goethe, Goldsmith, Thomas-à-Kempis, Sophocles, and De Quincey, are all well represented; and, following the fashion of the day, were I asked to provide "the young man just beginning active life" with a list of the best set of books for his study and perusal, I should have no hesitation in referring him to Morley's Universal Library; and I know of no more useful present at this Christmas time, or at any other time, than the neat and convenient oak cases, a guinea each, made on purpose to contain fifteen of the Morley volumes. I trust they will go on from year to year, and so continue to deserve the title first given them by Mr. Punch, of the "More-and-Morely Series," which fully expresses a constant supply to meet a growing demand.
Long expected come at last! The Henry Irving and Frank Marshall Shakspeare, Vol. I., produced by Messrs. Blackie (one of which Firm ought evidently to come out as Othello) as the Manager of the Lyceum always gets up his plays "regardless of expense." The prefaces and introductions will delight everyone who acknowledges the force of the common-sense opinion, emphatically expressed more than once in Mr. Punch's pages, that Shakspeare if acted just "as he is wrote" would not suit the taste of an audience of the present day. The taste of the modern audience is corrupted by Sensationalism and Materialism in every shape and form—and at some theatres Materialism in shape and form is one of the main attractions—and so impatient is it of anything like development of character by means of dialogue, that it would have most plays, no matter whether comedies or melodramas (there are no tragedies now, except Shakspeare's), reduced as nearly as may be to mere ballets of action. For the maxim of our audiences in this last quarter of the "so-called" Nineteenth Century, as regards the drama, is Facta non verba; before which imperious command those "who live to please," and who "must please to live," are compelled, be they authors or actors, to bow, and do their best, speaking as little as possible, so as not to give offence.
"Break, break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue,"
"Hist, Romeo, hist!"
R. & J., Act II., Sc. 2.
is the cry of any author nowadays who aims at writing a true Comedy. Mr. Irving marks clearly enough all the passages usually omitted in representation, which of themselves would make a small volume, but we are not shown the arrangement of scenes necessitated by the exigences of the stage, or rather by the taste of the audience, and so in this respect the plays remain pretty much as their author left them. Some stage-directions have been introduced, but as Mr. Frank Marshall denies that this is in any sense an "acting edition"—while Mr. Irving in his preface rather seems to imply that in some sense it is so,—I should be inclined to describe the work as "a contribution in aid of an acting edition," and I am delighted to add, a most valuable contribution it is, at least so far. Ex uno disce omnes, and if the other volumes are only on a par with this first instalment, Irving and Marshall's—it wouldn't do to put Marshall first in the Firm, because it would at once suggest, "and Snelgrove" to follow—or this Henry and Frank's edition of Shakspeare will be one of the most perfect and the most serviceable to the ordinary reader that has as yet been given to the public. In order to illustrate the Messrs. Blackie's judicious liberality, Mr. Marshall tells us that, with the view of making the work more complete by the introduction of certain explanations, "they (Messrs. Blackie) entirely recast all the notes to Richard the Second, though they (the notes, not Messrs. Blackie) had been already stereotyped." Oh, that Theatrical Managers would be as wise in their generations as were even these poor publishers, and when they see that a piece, Shakspeare's or anybody else's, is in an unsatisfactory state for representation, at once "recast it entirely," in spite of all the old "stereotyped" tie-wig objections. Mr. Irving in his preface makes a sort of apology for the luxurious extravagance of modern stage decoration. There is no necessity for this. The Stage reflects the fashion of the day, and that fashion is Materialism. Mr. Marshall's critical remarks on The Comedy of Errors, Love's Labour's Lost, Romeo and Juliet, and Henry the Sixth, Part I., are admirable, difficult subjects being most delicately handled. He has no note on the appearance of an "Abbess," and on a scene "in front of a Priory," in the first of these plays, of which the action takes place about 300 B.C.; but I suppose that, though seldom risking anything in a case of importance, he on this occasion consulted the Dyce, and concluded that there was some "a priory" argument in favour of the existence of Abbesses three hundred years before they were invented. A genius like Shakspeare is above time and place. Mr. Marshall is of opinion (in a footnote, and I think he has here put his foot in it) that Shakspeare never descended to sycophancy for the sake of pleasing his royal patroness. I shall be curious to see what he has to say on this subject when he comes to tackle the characteristic speech given to Cranmer in the last scene of Henry the Eighth. Mr. Marshall dealing with Joan of Arc, in Henry the Sixth, notices how Shakspeare halts between two opinions, but decides as a courtier and a man of business would have done. The courtier remembers that Joan was not the only heroic virgin who had cheered her troops on to victory, but that the masculine Queen Bess had also mounted a cock-horse, like the lady of Banbury Cross, and had encouraged her soldiers with brave words at Tilbury Fort. Where the full-flavoured British Queen had succeeded, evidently the humble Gallic peasant maid must fail, at least, on the stage. If Gloriana was to be the pride of Old England, La Pucelle must be held up to Gloriana's subjects as a vile impostor, and a witch. Shakspeare would not allow sentiment to interfere with business. Most of Mr. Gordon Browne's illustrations are charmingly designed and executed, and the prefaces, introductions to Shakspeare's family (managed by F.A.M., Master of the Ceremonies), and critical remarks, ought to satisfy the most exacting of Shakspearian students.