A Life of William Shakespeare. By Sir Sidney Lee. (Murray.
15s. net.)—Sir Sidney Lee's masterly work, now nearly a quarter of a century old, appears anew in a third edition of the revised issue which was published during the War. In a long preface the author touches on several questions of interest. He quotes a new contemporary tribute to the editors of the First Folio, which Professor Gollancz discovered last year. He casts doubt on Sir Edward Maunde Thompson's belief that part of the MS. of the play of Sir Thomas More is in Shakespeare's handwriting. He repudiates altogether Mr. A. W. Pollard's theory that the punctuation of the First Folio was designed to show the actors how to deliver their lines ; his reference to Ben Joilson'e English grammar seems almost decisive. He draws attention to the flight of early editions of Shakespeare and other rare Elizabethan and Jacobean books to America, and urges that photographic copies of such books should be made for the national libraries. It is a very reasonable suggestion, as the photographs would meet all the requirements of students.
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