I have gazed with a good deal of awe at
the new complete Shakespeare which Messrs. Collins have published this week at 15s. The price is noteworthy, having regard to the quality of the. print, paper and binding ; the secret here is that the paper was purchased some years ago at half the price it would cost today. Unfortunately there is only enough of it for fifty thousand copies ; it will be interesting to see what the price of the second edition is. It appears that this volume, containing everything that Shakespeare wrote, contains a million words, whereas there are in the Bible—so it is said—only three quarters of a million. On the textual merits of Professor Peter Alexander's recension someone better qualified than 1 will no doubt write elsewhere in the Spectator. The ordinary reader, unconcerned with the obscurer niceties, will be content to have found a Shakespeare that meets completely every reasonable need.
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