The Sun.
London, England, 1859-01-05 00:00:00

ROUTLRDGES SIIAKSPERE.

The Plays of Sllttleespeoe. Rdited by Howard
Staunton. The illustrations by John Gilbert.
Vol. 11. George Routledge and Co.
Our opinion of this superb edition of the Im-
mortal Bard is very considerably enhanced and
elevated. The second volume, but just now com-
pleted, comprises, like its predecessor, thirteen out
of the seven-and-thirty plays by our National
Dramatist, leaving consequently eleven others to
make up, with glossary, general index, biography,
&c., &c., the third and concluding division of this
eminently important and, in several respects, most
remarkable publication. Remembering how many
popular editions of Shakspere had preceded the
one in course of periodical issue, it was obvious from
the outset that the Messrs. Routledge would be put
upon their mettle to render their own peculiar
enterprise, not in one or two particulars merely,
but in as many ways as possible, attractive, so as to
allure a Shaksperian taste that had become at last
both sated and fastidious. Hence, from the very
commencement, it was not at all surprising to note
that especial regard had been paid to the mere
material and mechanical portions of the undertaking,
to the general getting up of the work, such as the
quality of the paper and the excellenceof the typo-
graphy. Beyond the attention given to these essen-
tial advantages bythe enterprise of some among
the most enterprising publishers of our age—the
Messrs. Routledge secured a ripe Shaksperian
scholar for their Editor, and one of the most facile
and elegant pencils of our time for the purposes of
embellishment. Every one was already long
familiar with the appropriately characteristic
fruitfulness distinguishing the artistic powers of
the most gifted among all the pupils of
our great English Fruit-Painter. No stu-
dent had ever quitted the atelier of George
Lance with one tithe of the rare capa-
cities which have enabled John Gilbert to
win for himself simultaneously in so many different
directions so conspicuous and popularised
a reputation. Abundant sketches, for example,
are dashed off by him perpetually with the
affluent skill of a master, week after week,
as the frontispiece of the most widely
circulated of all the cheap serials, the London
Journal. Elaborate, and sometimes singularly
daring designs designs occasionally produced
upon a scale hitherto undreamt of as in any way
practicable in the way of wood engraving—John
Gilbert has continued to produce, moreover, with
the speed of an impromptu for the decoration (also
week after week) of the Illustrated London News.
Now it is the boldly-pencilled titlepage of a
volume, now a review in Hyde-park, now an
imaginary Christmas merrymaking, now a royal
procession on the opening of Parliament, now (as
evidenced in the number of the pictorial journal for
the current week) a historical picture like that
portraying the presentation of a Bible by Latimer
to King Henry the Eighth. Together with these
numerous, and for the most part constant drains
upon his artistic energies—book after book has,
for a considerable time past, been pouring from the
press, each decorated with John Gilbert's abundant
and ften brilliant illustrations. The inexhaustible
draughtsman —apparently never , without pencil
in hand sketching down designs upon the
woodblocks, to be afterwards delicately picked
out by the tools of the wood-engraver
yet finding leisure, time and again, at
rapidly recurring intervals, to contribute glow-
ing glimpses of the rarest merit, as in the instance
of the famous Trumpeter, to the walls of our
Water Colour Exhibitions. Recollecting the
skill, the affluence, the grace, the vigour revealed
in such prodigal variety by John Gilbert as a de-
signer, we hailed the earliest announcement of his
selection by the Messrs. Routledge, as the illus-
trator of their popular edition of the Plays of
Shakspere, with the liveliest satisfaction. Al-
ready, however, the first volume was completed
not merely without, in his intance, realizing in
any particular our very high expectations—but
actually, as we cursorily intimated in the course
of our critical remarks at the time, by subjecting
us to something very like a grievous disappoint-
ment. Several of the symbolical titles to the plays
were undoubtedly admirable for their blending of
grace and boldness—as in the instance of " Romeo
and Juliet," or of the " Taming of the Shrew"—
sometimes a little vignette fancy sketch, like the
post-haste Cupid, in jackboots, at p. 19, Vol, 1.,
was worthy, in the dexterous ease of its pencilling,
of emanating from the hand of John Gilbert. But,
altogether, regarding his labours upon that first
volume as a whole, we could not but deem them in
a very remarkable degree unsatisfactory. Dog-
berry, Verges, Gobbo, even Falstaff, with Bardolph,
Nym, Pistol, and his other grotesque attendants,
appeared upon the scene with scarcely a touch of
humour. Bottom was a boor, Sly a sot, the
Dromios slatternly varlets—all without raising a
,smile on the lip, or a dimple on the cheek. We
were disappointed. It seemed to us that the very
magpitassle of his new enterprize had baffled and
bewildered the unquestionably considerable powers
of -John. Gilbert, on his taking pencil in hand to
embellish thew on derful Plays of Shakspere. Latterly,
however, the artist has warmed to his work, to this
new and now congenial labour of love ! Volume 11.
is not only an improvement, but in many respects
a very wonderful improvement. Mr. Gilbert's
designs in this volume are some of them really
exquisite—they are most of them worthy of his
hand—they are in many instances eminently
Shaksperian. They are graceful—they are humor-
ous—they are, here and there, singularly effective
and picturesque—occasionally they are even charac-
terised by what we may term without exaggeration
a real splendour of elaboration. Richard the Third
certainly appears at times to degenerate into cari-
cature—though nothing can be finer, by the way,
than the pious unction of hypocrisy expressed upon
the tyrant's features, at page 550, as he appears
there, in the gallery, between the two episcopal
functionaries. But the delightful humour thrown
into several of the comic scenes by Gilbert espe-
cially demands from us, we conceive, a distinct and
eulogistic recognition. Instance this, at page 274,
Sir Toby Belch reeling in (with a hiccup) arm in
arm with that delightful clown—instance this, too,
that clown (always delightful) bowing to the Duke
with an affected obeisance, at page 271 ; or again,
at page 269, huddled up grotesquely in the friar's
gown and hood, as he stands there topping, and
listening, and jabbering, outside the cell of poor
deluded Malvolio. As evidence of the charming
grace of some of these Shaksperian illustrations by
Gilbert, we would particularise every passing
glimpse lie gives us of Helena in her pilgrim's gown
and scallop-shell, at page 31, for example, without
the walls of Florence ; or again, at page 47,
in one of the streets of Marseilles. In tes-
timony of the brilliant and picturesque power
displayed in others of these embellishments,
in the second volume, instance 'the incantation
scene, at page 350, where the Duchess-Witch raises
the spirits of the dead before the reeking of her
hellish cauldron, amidst thunder and lightning.
But among all the illustrations in the book, those
of a chivalric character, those displaying the splen-
dours of knightly pageantry, are incomparably the
very best. In would be difficult to choose among
so many designs of rare excellence, but Harry the
Fifth, armed cap-a-pie, crown on head, baton in
hand, in. the grasp of his iron gauntlet, seated upon
his mighty war-horse, fully caparisoned, among the
bristling spears and serried ranks of his army. on
the foughten field of Agincourt—presents to view
upon one page, for example, a wood cut worthy,
indeed, of forming an embellishment of the historic
dramas of our glorious Shakspere.
While the illustrator has thus signally-well ac-
quitted himsif in Volume Two of Routledge's Shak-
spere, the annotator has "continued " his labours—
as in the previous volume—to our admiration. Mr.
Staunton has, by this time, indeed, won for himself,
permanently, high rank among the most ingenious
of our modern commentators upon the text of
Shakspere. High commendation, in truth, when
accorded to one among whose immediate contem-
poraries are men like Knight, and Collier, and Hal-
liwell. Wonderful praise, if we remember that the
eminent Shaksperian student who extorts it has
hitherto achieved for himself elsewhere so entirely
distinct an intellectual reputation. That the cele-
brated chessplayer, whose name will henceforth
shine in the annals of that extraordinary game, side
by side with the kindred names of Phillidore and
Delabourdonnay should prove himself to be one of
the ripest Shaksperian scholars, in an essentially
Shaksperian generation is, to say the least of it, a
somewhat remarkable phenomenon. That pheno-
menon has now nevertheless been distinctly wit-
nessed. Ex. gr. these two admirably edited volumes
of the Plays of Shakspere, volumes edited with a
luminous pen by Howard Staunton, the greatest
of all English Chessplayers. The footnotes here
jotted down by Mr. Staunton are no mere hurried
or careless commentations upon the golden and
glorious text—they are the fruits of the study of a
life. They are evidences of a varied judgment, of
a searching analysis, of conspicuous originality, of
shrewd perception, of extensive reading, q a sin-
gularly retentive memory, and of no inconsiderable
powers as an etymologist, and ,generally speaking,
as a philologist. A desultory glance through the
volume now lying before us will furnish abundant
evidence of the combination in the person of Mr.
Staunton, of these manifold qualifications as a
Shaksperian annotator. To descend from gene-
ralities however to particulars—A chance word in
the King's mouth in " All's Well that Ends Well"
(act ii. scene 3.)—elicits this ingenious note :—" It,
has never, that we are aware, been remarked that
Shakspere usually pronounces cere in ceremony,
ceremonies, ceremonials (but not in ceremonious?