6 FEBRUARY 1915, Page 26

A number of obscure passages from the works of Shakespeare

are discussed by Mr. Charles D. Stewart in SOME Textual Difficulties in Shakespeare (Humphrey Milford, for the Yale University Press, 6s. net). Those who have studied the monumental " Variorum" edition of Shakespeare will be aware of what an enormous amount of human energy has already been devoted to these problems, and to what little effect. Mr. Stewart, however, in spite of a disturbing tendency to American colloquialisms in his style, displays plenty of shrewd common-sense and often throws light upon obscurities. The worst danger that he runs is a tendency to fall into those besetting sins of the textual critic—too much ingenuity in explanation and too much facility in emendation.