Shakespeare and Stratford - upon - Avon, a" Chronicle of the Time," com- prising
the salient facts and traditions, biographical, topographical, and. historical, connected with the poet and his birthplace, together with a. full record of the Tercentenary celebration. By Robert E. Hunter, late Secretary to the Stratford-upon-Avon Committee. (Whittaker and Co) —This tremendous mouthful of a title-page with the 250 pages tacked to it is, it is to be hoped, the last of the Tercentenary festival Those who want a record of the proceedings of the Stratford Committee, and of the squabbles of the actors and actresses, and all the playbills of the Stratford performances, will find them here in a narrative nearly as good as that which appeared in the London daily papers. Mr. Hunter calls it a blue-book, and trusts that his composition shares the value of those unpopular publications if it also partakes of their dulness. We are sure that one-half of Mr. Hunter's anticipation is fully realized. To this paste and scissors business is prefixed a short biography, which like other biographies of Shakespeare makes up for having nothing to say by wordiness and common-place quotations. There are also a. description of the town of Stratford and an account of the three previous jubilees, which that of the second is taken bodily from the Times newspaper.
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