The Sonnets of Shakespeare. Variorum Edition. Edited by R. M.
Alden. (Houghton, Mifflin, and Co. 25s. net.)—Those who read Shake- rpeare's Sonnets for their intrinsic beauty should avoid this cxhau itive treatise, in which the variations in the text arc noted and the views of innumerable commentators are collected and compared. But to those who delight in Shakespearean controversy it will bo a mine of infor- mation, and also, perhaps, a warning against the futility of too definite theories as to the poet's intention. Mr. Alden's impartiality may be inferred from his caustic remark that if he " can come to the end of his task with any feeling of complacency, it is because he has spent sou e years with the Sonnets and still finds himself without a revelation." He has done his work extremely well, and is an apt disciple of the late Dr. H. II. Furness.
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