Florse-breaX-ing. By Harry Moreton, M.R.C.V.S. (Longmans.)— This is a valuable
book, the due notice of which has been too long delayed. But then the subject is a little out of our usual line. Every one who breeds—we might almost say, every one who bUys—horses ought to read it. It is sound and practical. We may note that Mr. Moreton pronounces against the system of blinkers, one of the most curious of the superstitions of fashion. There are some countries where blinkers are never to be seen. Why should they be necessary here ? Another notable remark is the following :—" Let me remind
any readers that bearing-reins are both useless and cruel, the former, because the horse cannot pull to the fall extent of his power when his head is stuck no in the air, and that all attempts to alter the con- formation of his head and neck are futile; the latter, because the head and neck being kept in an unnatural and constrained position causes the animal excessive pain."
English Plays, selected, edited, and arranged by Professor Henry Morley (Cassell, Petter, and Galpin), is a volume in the series known as " Cassell's Library of English Literature." The first chapter de- scribes "acted pieces earlier than the first English comedy," and embraces a period of more than four centuries. We have, as a speci- men of the Mysteries, "The Shepherds' Play," one of the pieces from the Sequences preserved at Coventry, and relating to the message of the angels. Chapter II. describes the first English comedy and tragedy, "Ralph Roister Doister" (1535), and " Gorboduc" (1562). The former was written by Nicholas lidals, who was then head master of Eton ; the later by two young members of the Inner Temple, Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville, Sackville, as Professor Morley remarks, having the advantage over his collaborateur "of being a real poet." Marlowe is the first great dramatic name that we Come to, and is represented by "Faustus." The extracts from Shake- speare are naturally curtailed, but Professor Morley has taken occasion to give some excellent criticism on the great dramatist's genius. Ben Jonson's "Poetaster" is given, and the answers which Dekker and Marston made to it, in " Satiromastix." The limits assigned to latter dramatists are rapidly contracted, and modern dramatists have but slender space indeed. The period from 1789 to the present time has to be content with four pages. In fact, we have to blame a certain want of proportion in Professor 3forley's treat- ment. The interest in much of what occupies the earlier part of the volume is antiquarian or linguistic, rather than literary ; and it is a library of literature to which he is contributing. He has done his part of introducing and criticising very well, but no effort can make "The Shepherds' Play" or "Ralph Roister Doister " even approxi- mately readable. We could have spared four-fifths or more of these, and have had, for instance, some notice of "The Martyr of Antioch," one of the finest of English tragedies.
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