The Sun.
London, England, 1847-07-12 00:00:00

Melodist" each form a handsome cctavo volume,
elegantly bound in cloth boarag, and adorned with ap-
propriate devices. The " Songs of Dibdin" are dedi-
cated to Prince Albert. A copy of this edition of
"Dibdin's Songs" should form part of the library,
not only of every ship, but of every officer in her
Majesty's service.

THE CABINET Ms OR Y OF ENGLAND.
Vols. XXV. and XXVI. By Charles Mac Farlane.
Warning the readers against a certain tone of
bigotry and intolerance which pervades the work,
we record the conclusion of this epitome of our
national history from the remote obscurity of anti-
quity down to the close of 1846. As no similar com-
position has ever appeared, this miniature history, in
twenty-six volumes, must prove acceptable to the
multitude.

(We have received the Second Part of " The Dis-
grace to the Family," by Blanchard Jerrold, but
have not yet seen the first part. " Tait's Magazine"
has not been received this month.)

FINE ARTS.
THE HEROINES OF SHAKSPERE.
Part XIV.

The mere enumeration of the names appended to
each engraving in this inimitable serial is in itself a i
panegyric upon the genius of our great Shakspere.
Those names so fraught with the remembrance of
passion and of interest, so allied to the recollection of
poetry, now tender and now sublime, now sparkling into
wit and now dissolving into pathos ! Thirteen numbers
have already appeared, each containing the imaginary
portraits of three of the female creations of the most
wonderful of all poets, each portrait representing a
character complete in its individuality, and more
familiar to the popular imagination than the heroines
of any other dramatist. Still is the theme any-
thing but exhausted ; in the part just pub-
lished, for example, there are sketches of charac-
ters not less conspicuous than Cressida, Portia,
and Katharine, the first by Kenny Meadows, the
second by T. W. Wright, the third by A. Egg.
Katharine, though somewhat too sombre in attire, is
almost scornful enough to freeze the heart of the
jocund Petruchio, when he is bantering her thus by
playing on the pet abbreviation of her name :

" You are call'd plain Kate,
And bonny Kate, and sometimes Kate the curst ;
But Kate, the prettiest Kate in Christendom,
Kate of Kate Hall, my super-dainty Kate,

For dainties are all es:tes.''

We can fancy how Christopher'Sly stared for the
nonce, how he wagged his frouzy head in his
velvet frill, how he called a second time, and with
more gusto yet—" For God's sake bring me a cup of
small beer ' when he looked on the tart visage of
Katharine and heard the saucy gibes of Petruchio.
Portia is the worthy daughter of Cato, and what is
much the same, the noble wife of Brutus. She is
saying to her lord gently and beseechingly, " D well
I but in the suburbs of your good pleasure."
Cressida is a graceful limning of a face yet more
gracefully drawn on wood already by the artist of
Tyas's Shakspere. She seems not likely to be num-
bered amongst those whom Troilus derides as—
" scanted with a single famish'd kiss,
Ditlaited with the salt of broken tears."
Cressida has evidently just been correcting the
knuckles of the old demirep Pandarus, and is gazing
into the amorous eyes of Troilus.