trated by H. C. Selous, this edition needs but few other recommendations to ensure its success, I am bound to add to these, that it is printed in clear type, of good size, on toned paper of excellent quality, and got up in a style to do credit to the publishers, and to all engaged in the work. The two parts already issued contain about twenty very clever illustrations, most of them of page size, and the text is rendered intelligible by the aid of judicious notes. It is altogether a marvel of cheapness, and doubtless will be sold by thousands.

One of the most graceful compliments to the memory of our national bard, has been paid by the Chevalier de Chatelain, who has ably-and everything he does is ably done-translated into French verse the tragedies of Macbeth* and Hamlet. It is astonishing how well and cleverly the chevalier has preserved the spirit of Shakespeare in his translation into so different a language from that in which he wrote, but he has a marvellous power of grasping the thoughts and entering into the feelings of his author, and of conveying those thoughts and feelings to his readers, though in a different form and words.

Shakesperian scholars, and indeed all lovers of Elizabethan literature, will hail with sincere pleasure the opportune publication, this centenary year, by Messrs. Willis & Sotheran, t of the ،،، 'Shakespeare Jest Books," edited by Mr. Hazlitt. The books themselves are of the utmost possible rarity, and possess a vast amount of interest from the insight which they give into the manners, customs, and habits of our ancestors, and their re-issue is a great boon to collectors. Mr. Hazlitt, than whom no one is better qualified for the task, has acquitted himself nobly, and done good service by his excellent notes. The volume contains "A C Mery Talys," from the only known copy, and the " 'Mery Tales and Quicke Answers," from the rare edition of 1567, the first of which, it will be recollected, Beatrice in "Much ado about Nothing," thus alludes toThat I was disdainful,—and that I had my good wit out of the Hundred Merry Tales." I learn that other reprints are in preparation by the same editor and publishers, and may, therefore, take occasion again to speak of these capital books.

66

It could not, in "Music and Song," be supposed that the "Shakespeare Year" would or could be forgotten. "Music and Song" are, therefore, doing their part as notably as art or general literature. Mr. G. A. Macfarren has sweetly set to music, in four and five parts, not Shakespeare's "Seven Ages," but "Seven Songs," which are issued by Novello & Co. as a portion of their Part Song Book. The "Seven Songs" are "Orpheus with his Lute," (Henry VIII.); "When Icicles hung by the Well," (Love's Labour Lost); "Come away, come away, Death," (Twelfth Night); "When Daisies Pied," (Love's Labour Lost); "Who is Sylvia?" (Two Gentlemen of Verona); "Fear no more the heat o'th sun," (Cymbeline); and "Blow, blow, thou Winter Wind," (As You Like It). These are set with great skill, and no doubt will be very popular.

By far the finest things which have been done, however, are the Shakespeare Albums, published by Mr. C. Lonsdale. The first of these, the Shakespeare Vocal Album, f will be quite a treasure to our fair friends, and forms one of the fittest “Memorial” presents which can be given to a lady. The volume, which is dedicated to the Baroness Meyer de Rothschild, contains fifty-nine pieces, songs, duets, choruses, &c., including the words of Shakespeare's songs in his various plays, with the music of Hook, Arne, Bishop, Schubert, Purcell, Kelly, Horne, Lindley, Chilcot, Haydn, Stevens, Dibdin, &c., besides some other Jubilee pieces of a hundred years ago. To the work is prefixed an admirable "Sketch of the Life and Works of William Shakespeare," with an illuminated title page of the poet's arms, crest, and mantling, a fine portrait of the "immortal bard," from the Chandos painting, with gilt border, a chromo-lithographic view of the birthplace at Stratford, a view of the Shakespeare monument, and an illuminated plate, exhibiting fac-similes of five autographs of Shakespeare, and his arms-both singlý and impaled.

At the head of this paper, I give my readers a fac-simile of an hitherto unpublished signature, hoped to be genuine, which no doubt they will be glad to possess. Another admirable volume by Mr. Lonsdale,-and, like the other, dedicated to the Baroness Rothschild,—is the Shakespeare Album, || consisting of ninety-five choice

* Macbeth. Tragedie en 5 Actes de W. Shakespeare. Traduite en vers Français par le CHEVALIER DE CHATELAIN. Londres: W. Allen & Cie. 8vo. pp. 108.

+ Shakespeare's Jest Books. Reprints of the early and very rare Jest Books, supposed to have been used by Shakespeare. Edited by W. CAREW HAZLITT. London: Willis & Sotheran, 136, Strand. Sm. 8vo. pp. 162.

Seven Shakespeare Songs, set to Music, in four and five parts. By S. A. MACFARREN. London: Novello & Co., Dean Street, Soho.

The Shakespeare Vocal Album. London: C. Lonsdale, 26, Old Bond Street. Music folio, pp. 246, with coloured and gilt illustrations.

The Shakespeare Album or Warwickshire Garland, consisting of Ancient, Modern,

pieces of music by the "old masters," with an introductory life of Shakespeare, and plates of the Chandos portrait, the birthplace, monument, &c. We recommend our readers, very cordially, to secure these two "Albums," both for themselves and as presents to their fair friends.

Another capital Memorial idea is the publication of "Recollections of Shakespeare,"* being the music of Macbeth and the Tempest, arranged for the piano-forte by Callcott, (the titles bearing an admirable view of Shakespeare's birthplace), and Rosini's music of Otello, which are admirable additions to the music portfolio, and will this year, of course, be much sought after.

Poetry, of course, as well as prose (and some is indeed prose)-has been written and published in various forms, but, as the good old Derbyshire poet, Bancroft, said, in his Epigram to Shakespeare, in 1639

and again

"Thy muses sugred dainties seeme to us

Like the fam'd Apples of old Tantalus:
For we (admiring) see and hear thy straines,
But none I see or heare, those sweets attaines."

"Thou hast so us'd thy Pen (or shooke thy Speare)
That Poets startle, nor thy Wit come neare.'

"

So, none of the would-be poets of the present year 66 come neare" to the immortal bard, whom they feebly try to commemorate. One of these, also a "Son of Avon," a Mr. Allen, has published his "Tercentenary Poem," of which the following sample will, I think, be quite enough to nauseate my readers, and to prove to them that the mantle of Shakespeare, if it has fallen in his native place, certainly does not sit on the shoulders of Mr. Allen. Thus of Shakespeare—

"He was a playwright and his trade was plays,
He brought on scenes, as Jenkins on his boots!
Respectable man Jenkins! so was he!

But Jenkins' boots were not to last for ever;
He knew it to his cost! Yet what sane man
Ever imagined such a thing as this,

A pair of Styx dipped grand immortal boots.
In him no blowing of the trumpet: no

'Exegi monumentum' to outlast

The brazen statue and defy old time

Tis not in the grand Shakespeare style of thought---
But a great carelessness: which lifts the man

Above the grandeur of his noblest works:

bark,

No quick-keen-clever-fussy-terrier
But the deep braying of the noble dog
Amid the great St. Bernard snows, intent
Upon his work, and thinking but of it.

And oh, how little dreampt Miss Hathaway,

Fair, loving, buxom, blue-eyed country lass,

Proud, as she must have been, of her sweet Will;
That she was, as the Priest performed the rite,
Wedding the foremost man in all the world!"'

Art, too, has been busy, plying her fingers in every conceivable manner, to do honour to the occasion, and a simple list of her achievements would fill a goodly volume. Portraits of the bard have been issued in abundance, in every possible form, size, and, it must be added, cast of countenance. Of the thousand and one portraits we have seen, ranging from the penny memorial card to the five guinea print, no two are alike,

and Traditional Songs, &c., Illustrative of Shakespeare. Arranged for the Piano-Forte by the most eminent masters. London: C. Lonsdale, 26, Old Bond Street. Music folio, pp. 68, with illustrations.

*Recollections of Shakespeare; No. 1, Macbeth; No. 2, The Tempest. Arranged for the Piano-Forte by W. H. Callcott. London: C. Lonsdale.

+ Assisa a'pié d'un salice, Deh! calma O Ciel nel sonno. Romanza con scena, e. Preghiera di Desdemona, &c. By RoSSINI. London: C. Lonsdale, 26, Old Bond Street.

The Lambda-Nu Tercentenary Poem on Shakespeare. By J. A. ALLEN. Stratfordon-Avon John Morgan, High Street. 12mo. pp. 46.

and the bard exhibits as great a variety of faces as there are characters in the whole of his plays put together. Unlike the dealer in the story of the skull, the issuers of these portraits each declare theirs to be the "only genuine portrait" of the bard, without even the qualification that the others must have been taken at different times of life. But it is not only in engravings that art has been busy. The sculptor, the modeller, and the medallist, have each done honour to "their craft," and produced gems of the first water, in honour of the "Swan of Avon."

Of these beautiful productions, some are truly noteworthy and deserve all praise. First and foremost is a splendid bust, published by Messrs. Howell & James, goldsmiths to the Queen and the Prince of Wales, under the express sanction of both the "National Shakespeare" and the "Stratford-on-Avon Tercentenary" Committees.* This exquisite bust has been modelled with consummate skill by Mr. Felix Miller, the Professor of Sculpture at the "Government School of Art," who, taking the bust on the monument at Stratford, and the Lansdowne and Chandos portraits-the only three portraits recognised by Shakesperian critics and "experts,"-as his models, has built from them a life-like and beautiful bust, which, while it does honour both to the artist and to the bard, will take rank as one of the most successful and pleasing reproductions of his features which has yet been accomplished in any branch of art. There is an air of quiet and dignified repose about the thing, which pleases the eye at first glance and grows upon one as we look at it. There is that deep and thoughtful, that fine and lofty, sentiment, that more than earthly intelligence, that soul, in fact, in this bust, which brings it up to our ideal of the veritable man. Mr. Miller must have had an intense love for his subject, and have thoroughly understood his lofty genius, to have produced such a bust, and Messrs. Howell & James deserve thanks for the admirable manner in which they issued it.

Messrs. Roberts & Co. have produced careful and admirable copies of the Stratford and Van Jansen busts, by Mr. W. J. Wills, late Professor of Modelling in the Government School of Art, which will be very acceptable to Shakespeare collectors, and as drawing room ornaments. They are produced in Italian terra cotta.

In medals and their name is legion-the best producd is, as might naturally be expected, the splendid one in bronze, published by Messrs. Hunt & Roskell, the worldknown royal jewellers and goldsmiths. The medal,† one of the most succesful of modern times, has been designed by John Bell, R. A., and ably executed by L. C. Wyon, and is one of the most fitting and beautiful memorials of Shakespeare which art has produced, and is one which will not only be preserved by Shakesperian collectors, but will take its place in the cabinet of the numismatist. It is of large size-- 24 inches in diameter and of exquisite workmanship. On the obverse is an admirable bustprofile of Shakespeare, to the left; the head slightly bent forward, and surrounded by a "glory" of his own works-each ray of the "glory," by a charming idea, being formed by the name of some one of his plays or other works. The Stratford bust and the Chandos portrait have been wisely taken as the models on which this admirable madallic profile has been founded, and all who have studied those two recognised heads, will see at once how faithfully the medallist has reproduced their beauties in his present work. Beneath the head is the autograph of Willm. Shakespeare, encircled by an exquisite wreath of wild flowers the primrose, cowslip, fox-glove, woodbine, meadow-sweet, and convolvulus, mixed with the bramble and wild rose, in which

"Where the bee sucks, there suck I,”—

lies ensconsced a bee,-the wreath at each end twining round his magicians staff of hazel or witch elm. On the reverse is a chaste and beautiful composition of the tercentenary apotheosis, filling the entire field. In the centre is Shakespeare resting on the clouds, while the three centuries are represented by gracefully draped female figures. To his right are the two centuries which have already passed, and who have laid their wreaths on the scroll on the poet's knee, while the present century, a majestic figure,-bearing in her left hand a scroll, inscribed with the date, 1864,-is in the act of crowning with her right, the brow of the immortal bard. The composition, which is worthy of a Flaxman, is marvellously chaste and pure, and the execution is admirable. The inscription on the reverse is simply "TERCENTENARY ANNIVERSARY, 1864."

Art, however, has not confined herself to these matters, but has condescended to enrich with her stores of beauty a variety of matters of daily use and ornament. Thus, among other things, we have a Shakespeare pack of cards, of effective design, published

"The National Shakespeare Memorial Bust." Issued to subscribers only. In Wedgwood's Ceramic Statuary, 12 inches high; French and Italian Terra Cotta, 15 inches high; and Bronze, 8 inches high. London: Howell & James, Regent Street.

Tercentenary Anniversary Medal. Designed by JOHN BELL, executed by L. C. WYON, and published by Hunt & Roskell, 156, New Bond Street.

by Charles Goodall & Son, the prize medallists at the last Exhibition. The design, which is by John Leighton, F.S.A., and is printed in red and black, on a pale buff ground, is very strong, effective, and "taking." The general form of the design is a vesica within a square. In the centre is a portrait of Shakespeare, with initials and date of his birth and death, and this is surrounded by a border of shields, connected together by bays, each bearing a design, illustrative of the "seven ages," and surrounded by the appropriate quotation, All the world's a stage," &c. The design is, as we have said, very effective and pleasing, and doubtless, hundreds of persons will, like ones-self, be glad of the opportunity of using or preserving, a pack of Shakespeare cards.

*

In Photography, hundreds of beautiful pictures have been produced, to do honour to this "year of wonders." As might be expected, the London Stereoscopic Company have been busy catering for the public. They have produced a charming set of twelve stereoscopic pictures of Stratford-on-Avon. Done up in a tasty packet, the photographs, which are as sharp, clean, and good as it is possible to produce, consist of Shakespeare's monument, his birthplace, Anne Hathaway's cottage, the church, interior of Shakespeare's house, grammar school and guild chapel, two interior views of the room in which he was born, garden view of the house, the church from the river, &c. Altogether this series is one of the most acceptable souvenirs of the tercentenary which we have seen, and will enable those at a distance to see for themselves, by aid of a good instrument, the places around which the immortal bard has thrown such a halo of interest. The same company has issued, in form of a carte-de-visite, eleven similar views in miniature, and an autograph of Shakespeare. This is a pretty album memorial, and no doubt will be much sought after. Messrs. Burton & Sons, have also it seems issued, "by authority," a set of photographic views of Stratford, but they have not yet come under my notice.

It must not be supposed that in this busy year, when all else are up and doing, that either the textile or fictile artists have been idle. On the contrary, we have to chronicle some charming productions in each of these branches. In textile fabrics, Coventry has produced a series of badges and ribbons, in the same style as those which were produced by this "loyal town," on occasion of the marriage of the Prince of Wales. These badges are manufactured by Messrs. Mulloney & Johnson,† and although not so delicate and fine in workmanship as those prepared for the royal marriage, they are very effective and good. The badge consists of three separate pendants, fastened together at the top by a button, on which the arms and crest of Shakespeare are beautifully woven. The centre pendant bears the head of Shakespeare, in an oval within a bold border, with the words "Tercentenary Commemorated, April 23, 1864,” and the others bear respectively views of his birthplace, and of the church where he is buried, with dates of birth and death. The same firm have produced medal ribbons, with Garrick colours, bearing the arms and crest of Shakespeare, with the appropriate motto "We shall not look upon his like again." The bays are also, by a happy thought, issued mounted separately on cards for placing in albums. To those of my readers who do not know the immense mechanical labour requisite to produce these woven badges, I may just say that they are made on what are called "Double Batten Looms;" the figured portion being produced by the application of the Jacquard machine to the loom. The Jacquard is placed at the top of the loom, and raises the white warp five, ten, twelve, thirty, or a hundred threads at a time, as required, while the shuttle bearing the coloured "shute," or "weft," passes through the opening thus produced, and throws a "shed" or "shute" across. The warp (which had been lifted by the Jacquard) then descends and binds this shoot into the ribbon, and the process is rapidly repeated until the pattern is completed. To produce the portrait of Shakespeare on one of these badges, upwards of a thousand "shoots" have to be made; the same number is required for the house and the same for the church, and four hundred for the button; thus, to form one complete badge, the shuttle has to travel across the loom at least three thousand five hundred times.

In fictile art, Mr. Henry Baggally, a modeller of some repute in the potteries, and who is already favourably known as the producer of many interesting and beautiful works of art, has produced a Shakespeare jug of novel and effective design. On one side, within an oval frame of Elizabethan design, surmounted by a group of flowers and fruit, is a three-quarter-face portrait of Shakespeare in high relief, below which is an inkstand with books, and an inscribed ribband, and on the opposite side, in a similar

* Tercentenary of Shakespeare: A Set of Twelve Stereoscopic Pictures of Stratford-onAvon. London: The Stereoscopic Company, Cheapside and Regent Street.

The Shakespearian Tercentenary Badge. Coventry manufacture. Manufactured, under the sanction of the London and Stratford Committees, by MULLONEY & JOHNSON, Ironmonger Row, Coventry.

oval, are the arms and crest of Shakespeare boldly cut, and beneath is an inscription tablet. The front of the jug is formed of a model of Shakespeare's house, which stands out boldly and joins the two medallions. The handle is formed of cords and tassels bound together, and at the top are a mask and an hour glass. The whole jug is elaborately ornamented,-full of detail and of intricate design,-and is a clever and appropriate memento of the tercentenary. The jug is intended to be produced in different materials and no doubt will have an extended sale, and add to the fame of its originator. Messrs. Minton have also, I believe, a Shakespeare jug in preparation, of which I may speak hereafter.

Thus much, at present, of the productions in different departments, of Memorials of Shakespeare. Worthily, indeed, will he be this year commemorated in his native country, where his name will be made to live for ever.

Notes, Queries, and Gleanings.

KNIGHTS OF THE OAK.

A list of the intended Knights of the Royal Oak, for such counties as principally furnish readers of the "RELIQUARY," and taken from the MS. of Peter le Neve, Norroy, may prove useful as well as interesting. The order was proposed by the Gay Monarch, as a reward to several of his followers in adversity; but was "laid aside lest it might create heats and animosities and open those wounds afresh which at that time were thought prudent should be healed."

JOHN SLEIGH.