The Press. — London, England, 1853-10-08 00:00:00

OCTOBER 8, 1853. mantles in the two theatres iu which he was both an actor and a sharer. Nothing is more true than Pope's line, that Shakespeare winged his noble flight "for gain, not glory ;'' nor is it less true that he obtained both. Seeing. then. that Shakespeare did not print a Oily, on what foundation, it will be a s ked, rest the received texts of his plays? The an swer is easy. On the folio of ite.rt, published seven years after his death, by two of his fel low-actors, rei,vulated by a collation with the quartos, and the admission of such emenda tions as have received the general tacit consent of the commentators and the public. There is no such thing its a settled text of Shake speare. and it is a wild idea to suppose that there ever will be one. Will Mr. Collier agree with Mr. Pyce, or Mr. Singer with Mr. well, or Mr. Knight with any one? But nearer and nearer approaches may be made to at more correct version than any that is now in exist enee. But in what way? It is too late, we fear, to expect the discovery of a ph.y. tar even part ota play, in Shakespeare's own handwriting, and equally late to look fir a copy of the first folio corrected by Ben °liison, or lay some person who hail access to the poet's MSS., or the MS. books from which the folio was printed. The materials for anyt.slitor (smelt as they are) are ready at hand. But we now come to the requirements demanded of an editor. To edit. Shakespeare properly—that is, to en deavour to restorehis text to at state in which it n Llverwats,all but correct--so many quail field inint art' necessary, that it is hardly just to look for them in any one person. Hr must have a poet's nature, and his ear as well—the learning of at most accomplished literary antiquary — a first-rate verbal critic—and one who is so well versed in the manners and customs of Shakespeare's period, that he has all but Men tified himself with Shakespeare's age. In ap his task he must constantly bear in mind that every seeming obscurity is not ne cessarily any obscurity at all. Nor is he to forget thaNhakespeare invariably wrote !aortic common sense, while, in criticising hini, he must remember that much was foisted in by the players—of the truth of which, were other evidence wanting, the testimony of Cowley is amply convincing. The happiest emendation in the text of Shakespeare is that by Theobald of " a babbled of green fields," in the description of .Virixtqf's death. for " at table of green fields." 'floe reading of the first t'lio is so daring am alteration, that nothing can justify its intro duction into the text but the utter nonsense of the passage it so poetically supplants. But it would be unwise in any editor to Het on the improring principle. It would not be dittieult— for a man of poetic sensibilities—now and then to better the meaning of his author. We are, however, not in wont of an editor of this de scription. What we require is Shakespeare's own text ; and, where real obscurities exist. brief explanatory notes from the editor. To discover the corruption in all 11101101**S text, and by a happy sagacity restore it to sense, is no east- task ; and such Warburton found it to be, its fie writes to Hurd. The labours of a sue eehSt . tll etmunentabir should not in' despised. Theobald was too much decried. We are not sure that Shakespeare wrote " babbled of green tields,"—we are certain, however, that he would have admitted the propriety anal poetry of the emendation. Whoever undertakes the publication of a new edition of Shakespeare must necessarily have recourse to Mr. Collier's Notes, and to the env-volume edition of the plays based on his corrected folio. His volume of Notes is a nimble c ontribution to our critical literature ; and if Nlr. Collier had done 110 1114 We service to Shakespeare and the public than obtaining fair ns an edition of the poet's plays. revised by Mr. Pyce, we should indeed be grateful to him for this his last labour of love. For the one volume edition we are not so grateful. Some of the so-ealleal emendations HIV SI) bad that to place them in the text is a kind of insult to common sense. Anil this. in some degree Mr. (*lather himself appeal's to have telt. "It " is not to be understasl," he says, in his 1 advoiisement. " that the editor approves " all the changes in the text of this e►diti►►n ; •• but. while he is; doubtful regarding some " and opposed to others, it is his deliberate TIIE PRESS. opinion that. thu great majority of them " assert a well-founded claim to a place in •' every future edition of Shakespeare's dra- Mille works." We will nut Say. with Mr. Collier. the taAjority, hut, fearlessly, we think that ninny may l►e adopted safely and with advantage. We are unwilling to conclude an article on Shakespeare without at word of advice to three editors at present engaged upon rival editions. MI three will render good serviee to letters: but Mr. l►vee must not continue to indict too► many parallel passages, so frequently unlike, as if Shakespeare required at lay hgure for every thought ; nor must Mr. Singer disfigure his edition with airy palliatives, or idle refutations of matter not worth refuting ; while Mr. Hal liwell would improve his work were he to spend a little money in teaching Mr. Fairholt, who illustratA.s his edition, to engrave well. Foriase. A Romance of Life. Ity l). T. EST lAIIIIIOII durst lill4l 1111/111iSe of his titlepage is fulfilled by the author even to profuseness. " Fortune" i.. itt once the prime agent of his anima and the at tributts of its principal thartteters— the test of their virtues aril the reward of their welltloing. And thus, not lliloll till' ordinary moderate t.onipeteney scale, for which even the fortiu nate are expected to be thankful in this working-day world, but in proportions of colos sal magnitude, pretit'llting, indeed, something Oriental in the extent and rapidity of its vicis situdes. We move throughout the book in an atmosphere of wealth, amid a population of millionaires. Thus the titular hero. at it crisis or his destiny, is made to pass through the ago 'Using ordeal of examining his bankers' book to find illellll4'4Oillt 11%1'11111MM lint he hills spout :10,1100/. in less than three months. Itonntiatie lovers commit rash wedlock. and 1111` tiaccd by remorseless parents to sta rte for a season-- upon I MOO/. per annum. A gity, high-sonled spendthrift gets into diflieult les and a swinging house. llis arrest is upon a judg ment for five thousand odd hundred pounds ; 111141 his debts altogether are of such magnifi cent amplitude that a few spore thousands, we are told, would mako no more impression Oil theul than water on a sieve. The evil spirit of the book goes mad by way of retribution for his misdeeds. lle loses his senses front the shoek of disappointment at losing it lawsuit for an estate worth seven thousand a year. Still.) l .ever. he possesses property sufficient to justify the Conti of Chancery in making oil allowance of twenty-five thousand per annum for comfortably tnaiutaiuing the lunatic. There are two young ladies suffering poverty —in the real and bitter sense of that hard word—actually so as to want bread. R u t then it. is because they are unjustly kept out of the paternal estate of seven thousand a year as aforesaid, by the afioresitid evil genius. Even in that pmfession tvliere personal experience might be supposed to warn ottr author how to preserve the "Modesty of nature" Wl' find Iris ideas equally magnificent. One Mr..lolin Smith-441 be sure his authorship is not pro• fessional—thus recounts his morning s work with a bibliopole : Fur toy roan wigwam*, I have been amitatometl to make notes of Inv agricultural egwrieneew. louring r week of sultry welsher, when it Wits Attu*, U11 1 %194,41111 to get out, I threw the nob* ti•getlier, awl. Mopping Rt MiLltiltotrit in Aihrinarle-streel, close to Siturrwys. I called in there and left hint nitunisciirt. Ile maw delighted with it. %rote one It elietwe for it I IR111.0411(1 1141411441$ on the alma Om the 111 tool has I 1114 to Write awl, Ibr three Arti cles for the quarterly lit a linialrell guinea , ' rail'. The play of " Fortune " nnlllll the posses sors of Kuehl giwgeolis wealth is appr o priately narrated in it story whose lasliiint resembles the grotesque imaginings of an Oriental ro mancer nttlier than the sober rectangular pat terns wherein 'Western novelists generally weave their webs of fiction. There is a hero, handsome, seeomplished, and poor—gifted with far more delicacy to appreciate the plea sure of riches than with energy to win, or mond thinness to list'. 014'1 II properly. Ile walks inisalily among as where the chil dren of wealth are disporting themselves, watching afar oft' with bitter envy the delights he cannot hope to share, and audibly sighing forth his wish to become one of that brilliant 545 throng. if but for it year. and itt thr s;itliiire ui all that hie and Iliptb CAUL otter him afterwards Itehide him stands a being whom pleasure ha, hated and memory makes nil:wraith.; e n t l,.%%ca with inexhansti4ile wealth. with wonderful knowledge. and memateleed .nte..ectetal ponce. —fond tit' making experiments in whirl% 1111111 1111tUre is the object experimented upon ; and. above tille longing once more to taste at any price the pleasures of a sensation. Ili BROM or Delhi such a being would Is' called the Caliph Alraschid or Emperor Am-en/elle: in a London novel he appears as plain Mr. l'aventlimli. But in all he does pr e tty mu c h the saute' thing. lie closes with the bargain of which he has been the unsuspected auditor. otters to the discontented pauper the gratifies tion of his wish Olt his oen t 1.1111%, and, alter some mysterious talk at a mysterious trinity.- sends him tee sleep with the Melees of haseltimli—when the penniless usher %%likes to thud himself lord of et sumptuous palace% seed launched upon IlAntelon society as 1111 1111 doubtull millionaire for one year. and no more, certain. The incidents and adventures, the loves and frientlAtips. which FlesliAll . 1 . 11 4 111411 e is his 1111111C -- eneotinterm in that twelvemonth furnish berth the story eel thee hunk. Mr. (minim. nhi our readers will have disco vered, ix a bold man. Itut Fortune favours such. He hits flared to step outside tar track xo hartllwatett by the well dls ildinrd corps of modern heti (((( ints. He has ventured to sacri fice probability and hazard much incongruity in the search tOr novelty amid untroiltleit paths. 111141 in 1114` Wish lA/ to O s soltle Heald`►+ frellt Ills` "11111111 We of lik " moles. new Rtill44'th and eonll►inations. 111 carrying out this lotipose the author has Searl'ely exl►il,ited the eXeelltite power necessary ti. realise his own ideal. it the result is hilftirielltly It tamed to render Li,+ book. if incomplete as a work of art, one of the most striking and at tractive tiovelm of• the season. In sketching individual characters and de tached scenes of 'mein! life Mr. Cottlton is frequently happy. From tliem me must select a poiirait drawn to the lifi., and yet a general rather than a particular likeness. it is a pie. tare whose fidelity everybody m ill recognise, though none may Modify the original ; for tie nice is numerous and indigenous to all latitudes. Few, indeed, are the eirele:4 11f wiety, of any diameter, which are not haunted by a F reeborn : The lion. F realawiek Fred. aili MNs one of noose julep n.• alinte links in the IN winl clostiti hia s h 1111111.4 . 1 ills. 4.011.111i./i sas s iety together. I tvlsoe said Iw' was not unknown aimingthelsmilwr•tnsatwm. now inomicenl of the taste of rifler. Hp soling test himw that his learnt for th a 1141 111111 into V41%111101114 Nl 111111 . s ; 10114 011.11 is. %%W6 a pH- V 111141.11 IN.IIOIII, 111111 out a 111114 1111• lush tisse Ni the 1111/11' if Isis i meT . alai Hers mitt of liar runts xlll storiTs las • hail In tail esslislasm the nOll air al 1111 . 14111441 A. Ta al.. him . 1 no ia•T, ha a at. ant Ism l'llll%hint Ilom t ivia 1114, 01111 war. I.'nd tat go NA isonitonny anal {.;. ad lig • I him oh...squat is ail. Ito 1111 . 441111 /1111 . 1' 111 . living Hits• ilst• nnUurd oviiiiiirr aorta. 114. •14. an) thing ills' an y booty ; lout, as his view e 11% ale s how , lie aal/Ulli 014,1111. eon VIA. 1111111 111 111111.011 thr 11114.iiey w ills is MTh kr was cuttlintral tam InCrille• ala • fris•n4l, No now, inowci vs . , thought nit) . Ming of slr.:111 inistakem. Et my one knew Fo Trim orn could not help tin m ; anal then lor wen sineTirly sorry if he put 'Oil 1411111 . 01101161 d 110 . 111111 . 1111 . 114 •1 % and Waal 1011 . 11 a drianions manner of oamil Mg )oft out of )o ur 1'1101;11W 11101. 111011.1 IT your Iwo. might In . , )on noon snored with lisa iTs4t • d the works that it wit* fully to lor magi, wills1 : 1 erlsorn. snnwt • With a astand t nth rm. «rnnglilhnr«N *boa % more 141• hia' in suffering hisn'ulrlinnielaw to Ire I.I N •w11 Ilona in making any attempt to eaatieval at. %%110110104 any son. of Fre4.llilrll . l4 Ira 1014111111111111111.1* lrsugdailN d 111/11 111• 6411 laven trapped lay Isis friend, )0.4,1011. 11111) 11101011 . 11 at hi« hitiliol.• itilligmitia all, and, eotoodering it a email al jug.' that F'1.•0• horn ado odd aha arty one, virmsseal the a 41111111 T 1111111`, and rill,. 14 . 11141 a 111$1.111T 1111111 1 m of his 'lei a• 'flies thing 04 this feeling iu other state* of life. Ilia. political part), Isar instance, %Inch talirs up a it la A 10010110 s, area* Aar a leader gets no noire ea oninstaterat ion when duped Otos • niall 11114 . % who suffers moon elsoisaing A wite eau Irf t llr (Magdalen. Always cureless. alum, to.oil• trinperell, alwapt mad, --a% he imstai•A•ril lillwm . ll l , the rogue 4 and the con fetotiota took tin *ling oat al 111. a A la , a' ) --to live on his friends-- 'oat i cry INUIII.IIaI %hilt -a1111.1 . 1 hi. 11.111 'mail for I hem, pr. a% Mill he svea iv. al raptly /1.- lent . 1411911 the Olt', if uVI a 1.1.11,M10 "AI 11111 l 114 1 lay 10.11114.111 1111.11111111. anal -told Wall Nom% at I 10 . 4 ; filllnAllm .t, 11114 Plus, tall ittlitAlg the lighter eir1.14.1% sal AN a pea "ma mu - , to logirs• Ow is .t of' eq. 1y Isally in whirls ha• t5....k pail. Th.. 14 Mt lirViral ails OW 1011.4., „. 1110111111Mlee wails horn.. with tole Asir rhereit low., a* th e y gutturally managed to obtain paynolet of their lotto. lay t he