The Age of Shakespeare. By Thomas Seccombe and J. W.
Allen. 2 vols. (G. Bell and Sons. 7s.)—These two volumes belong to the series of "Handbooks of English Literature" appearing under the general editorship of Professor Hales. They have been tardy in coming out, volumes dealing with later periods having already made their appearance, and, indeed, having achieved considerable success. • There is good excuse for the delay. The work must have been very laborious. Many books are treated of, some of them, we imagine, not at all easy to master. The first volume is divided unequally between poetry and prose, the latter having the larger share ; the second is given up to the drama, the most characteristic development of the period. We shall not attempt to review the criticisms which Messrs. Seceombe and Allen give us. They are generallY, We think, adequate and sound. We would especially mention that of Edmund Spenser in the first volume, and that of Shakespeare in the second, of which it occupies more than a half. But the whole is good; we do not know, indeed, where the student of literature could find a safer and more stimulating guide. The authors are at their best, we think, in the Shakespeare portion. They discriminate with great judgment. The passage dealing with Shakespeare's metrical development is particularly good. "Love's Labour's Lost his but nine feminine endings, while in Cymbeline there are over ieven hundred. The growing frequency with which now "monosyllabic and now trisyllabic feet are introduced into the blank verse is simply another and kindred symptom of the general chmage and increasing flexibility." There is a curious parallel in the Versification of Euripides, who uses ten times as many tribrachs, anapaests, and dactyls in his later iambics as he does in his earlier.
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