New-York tribune., 1911-12-24

BOOK TITLES FROM SHAKESPEARE.
BY Nolney Streamer. l6mo, pp. a.
Mitchell Kennerley.
Mr.. Streamer is a bockish man. as be-
fits his profession-he is librarian-and
fond of the curosities of literature.
decade ago a chance reference in peri
odcal to the indebtedness Of our au-
thors to Shakespeare for titles of books
set him to collecting "A list of such bor-
rCwings, which lie published privately
The booklet is now issued i'm a new and
words used as titles having in the mean
tirle grown from 132 to 400, Mr..
Streamer warning us at the same time
that he does not claim completeness for
his list Many of the added titles, he
confesses. had been used long before the
earlier issue of his list. The increase is
most marked in the field OF the drama,
where the seven titles registered ten
years ago have grown to flfty-two. sew
enteen of them being from Hamlet
/ That play. indeed, far distances all the
others in it's service to authors in search
of telling titles. eighty-one quotations
/ from it, or nearly one-ifth Of the whole
! list, being registered. "As You Like It.
follows with thirty; The Merchant of
! Venice" Julius Caesar" Twelfth
Night" and "Othello" are tied, with
nineteen each. Every play is now rep
resented. "Troilus and Cressda" having
yielded one phrase "A Touch of Nat
ure" to four different authors. Venus
and AdOnis" has been drawn upon only
once, by Mary Cecil Hay: bid Me Dis
course"
The first use Of Shakespeare as title
maker. says Mr.. Streamer, is Leigh
Hunts Table Talk" Hawthorne's
Twice Told Tales" and Kingsley's
Westward Ho!" coming next. The
greater portion Of the titles enumerated
are, however those of books published
within the last twenty years or so. Mr..
Howells has drawn oftenest upon Shake
speare for his titles, no less than sixteen
of them being from that source. Occa-
sionally the quotation is somewhat modi-
fed, as in the case of Mr. Brander Mat
thews's This Picture and That" In
many instances. moreover, it must he
said that the title has Outived the book,
and even the memory Of its author The
dramatists appear TO have found the
Bard a far less fruitful inspiration. Sir
Arthur Wing Pinero is not among the
forty-nine enumerated here Mr.. Arthur
Jones has gone tC Shakespeare twice
for "A Bed of Roses" and "HoOdman
/ Blind"-Martha Morton also twice. John
! Oliver Hobbies once, for Journeys End
| in Lovers Meeting" and Mr.. Theodore
Kremer once. The Evil That Men Do"
which, by the way, was also used by
i the late Edgar Fawcett for one of his
novels. But is not Mr.. Streamer stretch
| ing a point rather far when he includes
Calderon in his list? Such Stuff as
Dreams" he quotes as one of the Span
| ish dramatists titles, but this appears
| to be merely the choice of some English
translator of LA Vida es Sueflo"-"Life
/ Is a Dream"
| 1t is possible that some authors may
have used these quotations unconscious
| ~. as Mr.. Strcamer suggests. Certain it
is that many Of their readers have failed
= To identify them. Hence the compiler; !;
method Of giving the title without its
context. and without reference to act
and scene. Thus would he send those
whose curiosity he has aroused to por-
ing over Shakespeare himself. The pub
fishers have given the little volume a
/ quietly artistic dress.