22 JANUARY 1876, Page 22

We have to acknowledge the first volume of The Plays

of William Shakespeare, edited and annotated by Charles and Mary Cowden Clarke, and illustrated by H. C. Selene. (Cassell and Co.) The names of Cowden Clarke and Selena seem familiar to us in connection with Shakespeare, and we do not know whether this edition is a novelty or a republication.. We can see, however, that it is a handsome quarto, admirably printed and bound, and copiously illustrated. We cannot profess to have a high estimate of Mr. Salon's art, which seems to us somewhat monotonous- and formal ; yet it is certainly popular, and no one will deny that many of his drawings in the volume before us are a real adornment to the text. The first instalment gives us the "Comedies," the "Historical Plays" will occupy the second volume, the "Tragedies," together with the editor's preface and the life of Shakespeare, the third.