10 FEBRUARY 1900, Page 23

NEW EDITIONS.—The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. With Biographical Introduction

by Henry Glassford Bell. (William Collins and Co.)—Mr. Bell's introduction is a readable and interesting piece of work, giving in its thirty odd pages an easily apprehended account of the dramatist and his work. Now and then an expression needs correction. One can hardly say that between 1589 and 1613 Shakespeare "poured out upon an astonished world" thirty-seven plays. The world was not astonished, though a few of his contemporaries recognised, in part, the man's greatness. A speciality of this edition is a series of portraits of well-known actors in various parts. We have as a frontispiece Sir Henry Irving as Hamlet ; he appears again as Wolsey, as Shylock, and as King Lear. Hamlet is represented also by Madame Sarah Bernhardt. —The Essays of Bacon, by Arthur L. Humphries, is an edition noticeable for its fine bold type. Presumably it is intended for binding after the purchaser's taste, an excellent idea for those who do not find this taste too costly. —Bret Marie's Works, Vol. X. (Chatto and Windus. es.) This last volume contains "Tales of Trail and Town," fourteen in all.—In "The Temple Classics" (J. M. Dent and Co., Is. Ed. net per vol.), Defoe's Journal of the Plague and The Princess, and Other Poems, by Alfred Lord Tennyson.—Trans- formed, or Three Weeks in a Lifetime, by Florence Montgomery (Macmillan and Co. 6s.)—Crashaw's English Poems. Edited by J. R. Tutin. Vol. I. (Tutin : Great Fencote. 3s. 4d. net).— Mr. Tutin's second volume has, we gather, been already published, though we do not remember to have seen it. This contains a carefully edited text and bibliography. —Bacon's Large Scale Map of the Transvaal, Orange Free State and Natal (G. W. Bacon and Co., 2s. and 4s.) appears in a second edition, with many new names, and an extension to Port Elizabeth.