104 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
[294 8. No 5., Fas. 2, 56. 
explanations of difficult passages, and more exact de~ 
finitions of obsolete words, than are to be found in any 
preceding edition. I have passed over nothing which 
seemed to mesto require elucidation, and if the critical 
and initiated reader should complain of superfluous com- 
ment, I must request him to remember that the book is 
not intended for such readers alone who have made the 
poet their study. but for popular use, for those who may 
require such aid; for although, however carelessly read, 
he cannot fail to afford delight, how much more will that 
delight and admiration be increased by a careful study of 
his language and allusions.” - 
Mr. Singer’s modesty induces him to point out as the 
“ distinguishing feature” of his edition, the Critical Essays 
on the Plays, and the Biographical Sketch of Shakspeare, 
by Mr. Lloyd. We are of opinion that Mr. Singer’s 
friendship has somewhat biassed his judgment, and doubt 
whether his opinions in this respect will be confirmed by 
the verdict of his readers. There are, as might be ex- 
pected, points on which we differ from Mr. Singer. ‘To 
our thinking, while he has done more than justice to 
some of his fellow-labourers, he has to others done less. 
But there is no question that he has produced an edition 
of Shakspeare of great value—one by which he will long 
be honourably remembered —one which must hereafter 
be consulted by every student of our immortal poet. Let 
us add, that the edition is fitly and gracefully dedicated 
to “the Memory of his Friend Francis Douce.” Would 
that that kind friend, and accomplished Antiquary, had 
been spared to peruse it! 
While on the subject of Shakspearian literature, we 
may call attention to an article in Putnam's Monthly for 
January, in which the American writer seeks to prove 
that Shakspeare was not the writer of the plays which 
bear his name. The Atheneum of Saturday last well 
describes it as a “ florid, eloquent, and discursive paper— 
but without a single fact of any sort to sustain the strange 
conclusion at which the writer labours — namely, that 
Raleigh und Bacon were the real authors of the dramas 
which constitute the literature of their age. Shakspeare 
was a peasant — Shakspeare was a player —Shakspeare 
was a fellow without learning, travel, courtly breeding,— 
therefore, he could not have written The Merchant of 
Venice, Hamlet, and Othello. But Bacon and Raleigh 
were learned, courtly, accomplished, tempered by action, 
travel, great employments: —they were capable of the 
Shakspeare drama. Such is the argument of this Ame 
rican writer. He who wrote the Hssays might have 
written Hamlet and Troilus and Cressida —he who com- 
posed The Historie of the World, might have written 
Lear and Julius Cesar.” After a sketch of this startling 
but untenable theory, the writer in The Atheneum justly 
remarks: — “ The process by wh'ch Shakspeare is re- 
duced to nothing, is certainly startling. Take away all 
the evidence of the poet’s supreme intellect — refuse him 
the witness of his works — and it is, of course, easy to say 
the poor player was unequal to his mighty task. But 
the same process could reduce Bacon from a great law- 
giver in the empire of thought, to a corrupt lawyer and 
base flatterer in the court of King James. Take the 
facts which stand apart from his intellectual action — 
erect the idea of a man on them — and it will be as easy 
to raise a theory that not Bacon but Shakspeare wrote 
the Essays and the Novum Organum.” : 
A paragraph has been going the round of the papers 
during the past week, in which it is distinctly announced 
that the fifth volume of Mr. Macaulay’s History has been 
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