• Shakespear. By W. Carew Thmlitt. (Bernard Quaritch. 7s..6d. net.) - -This
volume certainly makes a distinct and valuable addition to the materials available for the appreciation of Shakespeare's 'personality and for the effective criticism of his work. It would be rash to say that there is anything new ; but we do not remem- ber to have seen elsewhere a more sober and rational treatment of the scanty remains, whether unquestionable or questioned, that we have to deal with. This is not the place for estimating Mr. Hazlitt's work in detail, or discussing the questions which ho 'raises. We must be content with a general commendation of them to our readers. A few words may be given to the chapter dealing with the Shakespeare-Bacon controversy. Mr. Hazlitt thinks it possible that the first drafts of some of the " Histories " Aatnefrom Bacon's pen, and were largely "worked over" by Shake- speare, just as Titus Andronicus, which he takes to be a posthumous work of Marlowe, was treated by the poet. We have some notion of what Bacon could do unaided in the way of dramatic, or quasi- dramatic, composition, for he devised a masque for presentation in 1613, on the occasion of the marriage of Elizabeth Stuart with the Elector Palatine. In this certainly there is nothing Shakespearian.
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