New-York tribune., 1886-05-30
NOTES ON BOOKS.
THACEERAY- AY-sHAKEsPEARE AND DONELLY
-RUSKlN-ShLA.


Thackeray m popular form at popular prices
Messrs Smith e. Elder have issued the first volume
Of VANITY FAIR" NJ n shilling IN paper coverA
eiqhtcen pencc in half cloth cut or urcut cdgea
These are nominal prices. Most London bookshopt
now give discount Of 25 per cent for cash Thack'
erays masterpiece ia therefore to be had at nine
pence volume, or 80 cents complete. Mr. knsktns
whose caprices are as numberless as they are II.
rational lately told lis we were not 10 De ai'
lowed to road Thackeray lie puts the
greatest English novelist Of the Victorian period
into his Index Expnrgatoriua IL remains 10 b
seen whether the reading public will take HIM OMIT
whether thev will have more regard for the literary
anathema of this self chosen Pope than to the more
ieeitimate-if he be more lcgitmate-successor oS
St. Peter who launches his thunaers from the banks
of the Tiber. This shilling edition IS perhaps ~
well printed as it colld be for the money. IN small
bnt rather clear type. People who for cheapneS
sake read type of this size habitualy are likelyts
soend on ocullsts more than they save on BOOKS
An attempt 70 dispose OF Mr Hartley's first folio
Shakespeare has failed. The copy has n certain
celebrity. It's we'll known to the trade as the
book which under the operation Of KNOCKOUT
was sold bv auction for $IO). IL was rcSoid 10 Mf.
Hartley for s3, 900. That is 70 say fhe iawfua
owner OF the book received for II just TZ'ooo i"~
than the SUN afterwari obtained By the COMPANY
Of honorable booksellers who con'pr'n aiho's
themselves to prevent an honest SAFE lhere can
however. be no doubt thai Mr lIartleg was induced
to nav price far excess or the real 'a'us
of the hook. This 10 one of the many shake
s,ora frat folios floating about the market without
q title mage or whichco comes to the sa1n"thng' Win
n title in c-simile The recent bidding Tor IL Az
the London sale did not 60 beyond $1,000. and ~
that price it was bought in.
.Mr. Dopnely's Shakespeare Cipher Is tue e't"
of singu ar article in the Hay N'pefee'" ''"'"s''
Nr Percy ". Wallace. The BaconIan crezH is nero
80 hs scen in ore Of its most highly developed
forms Mr.. Ignatius Donnclly. of Hastings. Minn'
Member Of Congress, is the prophet OF whom Ar.
percv NJ. Wallace is the foreTunner. of MI
Wallace himself the public now hears Tor the hrss
,,roo but reads him with that kind OF gratitnds
dina to q writer who all unconsciously supplies tns
reader with amusement. Did Mr. lgnetius DonhenS
send forth Mr.. Wallace into the English wlderhe"
70 prepare the way for him of ninneso'a' VI
Mr. Wallace self-appointed herald or tnc co'ihnA
of Mr. Ignatius DonneliyI
Coming 5Ir. Donne lily Is, as Mr. Waiiace ia"e'
expressly tells u.s. in a curious dialect. winch h' ~
dorbt supposes to be English. Meantime "o aN
rr,v,Ieoed 10 know that Mr. Donnely has found
new way of proving Shakespeare 10 os o'oU.'
ia has looked INTO the First Folio ana dis-
oorored that il is an Imprinted voluN
distinguished by irregular paging, arbitrary 'tan'
cising meaningless bracketng and SenSoie's ny
phenationr He was also struck with Tue stran"
use of CAPITAL letters The remark IS ltroS's.Io"
that the First Folio must nave been the urse DIVA
of the period that Mr. Donnelly ever did i'oA n.so'
| Books of the seventeenth century ap'uh" II, VIZ
neculiarites which 80 struck or Mnnesoa baco'
b;o,nr ont NJ which
salf 70 construct 4 theory aud cipher. His ltea u
tbot R,con EN- ooyed these typographical peculiar-
;+os as . cinher bv means of which he inter rNoVe "a
the text of the plays an assertion OF his own autnor
chin not TO sneak of long narratives ABOUT o'hoA
matters As suppose he may have puonsheo SUM
account of this marvellous discovery IN hiI"i,oo'
itself. abstaIn from farther account Oh IT, "a, M
wish is to polnt out that the supposei peCui.'i''
of the F,rst Folio on which all Mr.. Donneliys con-
lecture rests are no pecnllarltIes at ALL
If there is one thing says his expositor In whlca
nrinters are careful it is the paging OF the worA
| they do. If there is one thing answer III which
rrioters of the seventeenth century were care'esH
II WIS their paging Ii is almost idle 10 give III.
stances but they may be new to Nr Donhelly' anu
he shall have his IDOL Bacon as an example ins
first bool, take up is the first edition OF bacon
Advancement of Learning' published IN l6oA
rho ,ogos are not numbered; the leaves are; eacn
Of the two books separately and neither correctly
lI opened at leaf 90 of the second BOOK
The next is 20, the next after ina
20. then follow II, 70 again. ~ - -
70. "a, 75 90, ~ rs, ~ oo
then II again, then "a twice. then ~ TWICE. ,nei
50. 81. 70. 80. So much for careful paging Ii"
signatures and catchworis are correct; INC p'e',s
10 hot vou see. II Mr. Donnelly has an equally
| and all VII lie knowledge
of the other typographical eccentrIcities OF Tue
century IN which he is working his now contnou
lion to the Baconian absurdity will be one or TN
o,r;os;ties of literature Perhaps 1t would lnteres
hin, to know. in passing, that the first edition
} vI,o,,s paradise Lost" n667 is not PACED
4 all.
The following IS an entry in the SAFE catalogue
AR Nockenzis's library. which Messr'. Chapman
have lately been disposing of by auction IN Edin
hurrb. Second under HORSE" and amid vetei
D ;,arv publications. comes Horse: the Whitt
: sconrino Of T. Hughes" Since the famous Ni
On liberty. Ditto on the Floss" there has bee
nothing equal to this.
n. prsl,;n has now favored the public with hi
! views ON the question of the perinanence Oh ware
color exnressed in his most authoritative ana anu
y tho,;cal manner. "The public may justly sympa
tbize with Sir James Linton in the love ot MS III
q winch beguiles him into the conviction OF its III
;. mortality. and pardon Mr.. Robinson the care i'
- the future winch provokes him into exasSera,o
): of immediate loss" On the whole Mr.. huskin
! ON the side Of the President OF the Institute
o Painters in Water-color. Properly taken care o
o saws MIR. Ruskin, as well-educated man TAX
D. care Of his books and furniture, water-co'
at drawing is safe for centuries But 1t must De Sei
st out of direct sunlight.
10 Mr.. sala has been welcomed back to London
hosts of friends, and his familiar hand Is once mo
At to he seen in the usual columns, daily and weekly
to the Joy OF the readers of both he has dln' ,'
le with the Prince of Wales and was one OF the oele
lee rites on whose bronzed face men ana w1un,
re gazed with mos. interest in the whiri Oh Law
lr Rosebery's rst reception at the Foreign o'hee