The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1906-06-02
The new PUBLICATIONS
SOME OF THE LATEST BOOKS
OF THE SEASON

'"The Reading Of Shakespeare" by Pro-
fessor James Mason HOppin, Profess
sOr Emeritus of the History of Art
at Yale.
"A delightful little volume is 'The
Reading of Shakespeare" by our honor
! ed townsman, James Mason Hoppin,
professor emeritus of the History of
Art in Yale university, author of
Greek Art on Greek Soil," and "Old
England; Its Scenery, Art and People"
The book is study of Shakespeare
| that will interest, instruct and charm.
1t is adapted to the general reader,
being for those who desire to read crit
ically, without too curious considera-
| ton of words and roots. Chapters are
! given to Shakespeare S life and learn
| ing, to nature and art in his plays, and
to his morality and style, and then the
plays are taken up separately, and a
chapter on the group of great tragedies
| closes the book,
The book is published by Houghton,
Mifflin g. Co.
The New York Times says in its re-
view: Professor Hoppin took up his
Shakespeare in the wet summer of 1908,
and read thirty-six plays in regular or
der, OF course with the knowledge OF
Shakespeare that every educated man
has to begin with. He read both for
instruction and enjoyment that and
succeeding years, and now sets down
his impressions and deductions. He
knows Stratford and like the place. He
has no absurd illusions about Shake
speare and entertains none of the here
Sizes His study of Shakespeare's Eng
fish is lucid and worth having. He hats
entertaining and Instructive chapters
on the historical plays the comedies,
the Italian, Greek and Roman plays
There is no fresh discovery noted, of
course, and no new theory is advanced
in the book. Professor Hoppin can
make little out Of "Troilus and Ores
sida,' for instance, but wko can make
much Of it? His comments on the plays
have little relation to the dramatic
stage. But the book is remarkably well
written and easy to read, and may be
recommended as a good introduction to
the study Of Shakespeare
The Hartford Courant says of the
book:
A brief, authoritative and charming
comment, rather than elaborate criti-
cism (Which would be impossible In a
couple Of hundred pages) Of Shakes
peare's plays, is full of appreciation,
and in some particulars exhibits the
poet in a new light.
The most notable piece of criticism in
the book is, perhaps, that the compari-
son of Shakespeare with Homer and
Dante only makes Shakespeare the one
SURPRISING genius of all races and all
time. He was the creator of the ro-
mantle school and in other languages
than his own Goethe is his child as
we'll as Victor Hugo" His style was
the elimination of the English tongue"
But the meaning Is of more import
ance than the style (when grammar is
in question: "the life than the FORM"
The professor quotes from Winters
Tale.
This is an art
Which does mend nature, change it
rather; but
The Art itself Is nature"
and adds what must be poison to some
of our realistic writer's and painters:
the great artist is he who perceives
and interprets the secret Of nature and
can mend nature"
The scant treatment of some last
great plays" is due to the pathetic
reason of the failure of the authors
eyesight. The notes, therefore, on THE
Tempest" Macbeth" King Lear
and Hamlet" are brief, but not the
less authoritative.