The morning journal-courier., 1908-10-29

AGE OF sHAKTSPEARE By AlEer- per X Brothers New York Uniform with swnburno's eompelete workA For sale a Judd'si $2 not
 This book, by the aged and most famous livInE poet, sheds new light around the work and fame of those lesser dramatists of shakespeare's time whose glory shone round Shakespeare. via,, Marlowe, Web ster, Delsker Marston Middleton, Rowley. Haywood, Chapman and Tourneur, and 1t is the fruition of a determination which Mir, swinburne made thlrty-hve years ago, to unite a book on this subject. To it therefore, he gave much time, thought and re- search during that lengthy period and the result is before us in this, tho matured, rtpened and best judgment and estimate of these lesser dramatic luminaries. Mfr. Swinburne's fitness for the task was evidenced in his famous articles to the Encyclopedia Brittanica for the preparation of which he read everything pertaining to the subject which these contempor- aries of Shakespeare had written as found in the collection of their works MT. Swinburne devoted his spare time for eighteen months in reading and correcting the proofs of the complet- ed book. The hook was published simultaneously in England and Amer lea. It is dedicated 10 Charles Lamb and tho poets approval and reverence of Lambs judicious vision is exquis- itely manifest throughout the whole course of his criticism. and the dedi- catory verses are invested with rare personal emotion. Tho stanga reads as follows:
 To tho Memory of Charles Lamb. When stark oblivion fro8e above their
 names
 Whose glory shone round Shake
 speares, bright es now, One eye beheld their light shine full aa
 fame's.
 One hnd unveiled it, this did nonc
 but thou.
 Love, stronger than Expenditures and
 sleep,
 Rose. and bade memory rise and Eng And ali Af the harvest left so long tr shone r,pe and rich in every uheat
 and ear.
 A chtld 1t was who first by grace o'
 thine
 thee their shrine:
 Elder than thou vast ever now am Now that lay before thee in thanks
 giving
 Praise of dead men divine and ever
 living.
 theirs. Charles Lamb
 The book Is marked by Swinhurne's felicity of thought and style and re- veals anew the man with his enthus- iasms, his prejudices, his impetuosity hIs extrava gauces. his interesting per sonality The n'ne essays deal with fire and eloquence with invectlvp and anathema with the thomes and men under discussion. To Mariown he naturally assigns the highest euin- once for leadership and power, saying "TTe is the greatest dscoverer. the most daring and inspired pioneer fin all our poetic literature. Before him there was neither genuine blank verse nor genuine tragedy in our language After his arrival, the way was pre- pared, the paths made straight for Shakespeare" swinburne's discus. siveness crops out here and there as when for instance, he leaves his theme to pronounce Victor EuEo. a great poet. "a greater than all since Shake, apeare."
 Comparing Marlowe with c'haucer and Spencer, swinhurne's verdict reads: "Chaucer and Spencer were great writers and great men; they shared between them every gift which goes to the making of poet, except the me which alone can make poet in the proper sense of the word. great Neither pathos nor humor nor fanc, nor invention will suffice for that; nc poet is great ns poet whom no ont could ever pretend to recognize e' sublime. suhlimjty is the test Of i'm agination ee distinguished from in ventinn and from fancy: and tho hrF fnRllST N'FL Nll'FPi H''N'lN 'dll '' called sublime was Christopher Mar lowe" This, then, is the standard the touchstone of excellence, or rathe' of genius as laid down by the ager poet and he proceeds to judge accord inglv. The book Is a literary even and for colleges special clnsses ant Individual reference 1t will he irdia
 .f.y. a fine picture of Shakespeare, afte the Droeshout original print prafixet to the first folio C1622) of Shake speare's playe,