Songs and Sonnets. By W. Shakespeare. Edited by F. T.
Palgravo. (Macmillan.)—The object of this collection is, in the words of the editor, to bring the lyrical works 'of Shakespeare within a portable volume. Excluding therefore the " Venus " and the "Lucrece," and a few of the sonnets which are really objectionable, he has pat together in the present volume the songs out of the plays and the mass of the sonnets, adding some short but useful notes, and a few remarks on the general style and character of the contents. The result is most satis- factory; anybody may put the book into his pocket and puzzle over it to his heart's content, as most persons conversant with literature have puzzled before. Ho may adopt Mr. Palgrave's theory that reality appears stamped on the sonnets, and that they are to be attributed to that excess which is characteristic of the poet's nature, to "that posses- sion and ecstasy with which the Muses seise on a plastic and pure soul," as Plato has it ; or he may consider them as a more offort of the imagination ; or he may deny that Shakespeare wrote them at all. At all events, thanks to Mr. Palgrave and the publisher, he has a "gem edition," containing our groat poet's songs and a very interesting problem.
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