Shakespeare in Prose and Verse. By Lois Grosvenor Hufford. (Macmillan
and Co. 4s. 6d. net.)—This volume can scarcely be said to come into competition with the work of Charles and Mary Lamb. Perhaps we may say that it is written with a more definite purpose of instruction. The plays, of which fifteen (ten comedies, and five tragedies—Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear, and Othello) have been selected, are treated by com- bining the writer's prose with Shakespeare's verse. The latter is used as copiously as is consistent with the simplification of the story of the drama. Out of the twenty-two pages, for instance, assigned to The Tempest (first in order), about three-fifths are occupied by verse. The plan is carried through, as far as we have been able to examine the volume, with adequate skill ; and it is certainly a good one. One merit it certainly has, that it will probably send more readers to the plays themselves, which, as Miss Hufford hints, are more talked about than read.—We may mention in this connection, in the edition of "The Works of Shakespeare" (Methuen and Co., :;3. 6d.), The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, edited by Michael Macmillan. Mr. Macmillan contributes an introduction of considerable length. We are not sure but that it might have been retrenched. Between twenty and thirty pages, for instance, are given to extracts from Plutarch. Surely the references would have sufficed. Most of the discus- sion, too, about the character of the historical Brutus seems irrelevant. However, there is much to be learnt from the intro- duction, and the annotation will be found, we believe, both illuminating and adequate.
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