Shakespeare's London. By T. F. Ordish. (J. M. Dent and
Co. 3s. 6d. net.)—Mr. Ordish has added to a new edition of this book a chapter on Westminster and an Itinerary of Shakespeare's London. The Westminster chapter is largely occupied with an account, more or less imaginative, of representations of Shake- speare's plays before Queen Elizabeth. (Mr. Ordish well remarks, in reference to the dramatist's apparent indifference to literary fame, that the playwright and player—Shakespeare, of course, was both —are apt to look to the present as that in which they are solely interested.) The Itinerary will be found, it is probable, of practical use. We observe in the earlier part of the book a curious carelessness, noticeable in a writer who must be some- thing of an antiquarian. He writes as if the syllable " gate " in such names as Bishopsgate, Moorgate, and the like came from the "gate" in which these thoroughfares terminated. Very likely such gates bore these names, but the syllable itself means "way." It has become obsolete in common speech, but it exists still in the dialects of the North of England. "Gang your own gate" represents exactly "Go your own way." And
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