SHAKESPEARE'S EUROPE.
Shakespeare's Europe: Unpublished Chapters of Fynes Ilforyson's Itinerary. By Charles Hughes. (Sherratt and Hughes. 15s. net.) —Under the title of Shakespeare's Europe Mr. Hughes prints excerpts from the unpublished MS. of Moryson's travels belong- ing to Corpus Christi College, Oxford. This MS. contains the fourth part of the Itinerary, of which the first three parts were published in 1617. Dissatisfaction has been expressed in some quarters that the MS. was not published as a whole, and Mr. Hughes's announcement of an edition of the earlier parts treated in the same manner has been similarly criticised. It appears, however, that in the omitted portions Moryson merely summarised the work of other observers which was already accessible in his day, and that these portions are therefore devoid of individual interest and in ito way add to our sum of knowledge concerning the condition of sixteenth-century Europe. Of course, one has to take the editor's word for this, and though the work of excision appears to have been done judiciously, there is always a danger of his having overlooked passages in which Moryson may have interwoven his own observations with information derived from other sources. There is, how- ever, the further question whether the publication of the work in extenso would be financially practicable. We wish Mr. Hughes every success with his present venture, but we can hardly be sanguine on the point. For our part, our chief quarrel with the book is on the score of its title. Why Shakespeare's name should be dragged in to advertise Fynes Moryson's miscellaneous observations and moralisings we entirely fail to see. Moreover, this inappropriate title is forced upon the reader's attention in a most gratuitous and irritating fashion. An index to such a book as the present is certainly a desideratum, but, short of this, something might be done to help the reader who wishes to refer to a particular passage by placing chapter and
section headings and numbers in the headlines. Instead of this, "Shakespeare's Europe" in black-faced type sprawls along the top of every page. In certain points of this nature Mr. Hughes has hardly done himself justice, for if we may judge from a com- parison with the page of MS. reproduced in facsimile, the text is a most careful and conscientious piece of work.
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