The First Folio Shakespeare. Edited by Charlotte Porter and H.
A. Clarke. With Introduction by J. Churton Collins, D.Litt. (George G. Harrap and Co. 13 vols. 42s. net.)—The principle -on which this edition is founded is adherence to the text of the First Folio. This volume contains thirty-six plays, and is the sole authority for twenty of them, of which King John, As You Like It, .Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Measure for Measure, and The Tempest are perhaps the most conspicuous. The Folio is, on the -whole, a curiously bad specimen of editing, if it was edited at all. As Dr. Churton Collins puts it, "it exhibits all the defects peculiar to the first uncorrected proofs of an impression set up from a manuscript exceedingly difficult to decipher by an unusually careless and incompetent compositor." Omissions, transpositions, transference of speeches to other characters, and other faults are frequent. Yet it is of the highest value if we are to realise what Shakespeare wrote. Where it is defective, the Quartos, when available, have been called in to make good the deficiency. Various readings and conjectures by editors of eminence appear in footnotes. We need hardly say that Dr. Churton Collins's general introduction is of great interest and value. Each drama is furnished with an introduction. We have no hesitation in saying that this is as great a help to Shake- spearean study as has been produced for many years.—In "Every- man's Library," Edited by Ernest Rhys (J'. M. Dent and Co.), we have "Shakespeare's Works" in three volumes (Is. per vol.) Vol. I. contains the Comedies, II. the Tragedies, III. the Histories and Poems.
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