covers the ground of contemporary Shakespearian research and criti cism; collects Shakespearian news from scattered points; publishes reprints of valuable foreign articles (selected from different sources and gathered together for the convenience of Shakespearian students); and furnishes original Criticisms, Reviews and Literary Notes. In NOTES AND QUERIES opportunity is afforded for suggesting and discussing emendations, textual and otherwise. In the DRAMA will be found Home and Foreign notes on important representations of the Shakespearian, Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama. IN STAGE NOTES more attention will be given than hitherto to the Plays and Players of 'to-day, the object of SHAKESPEARIANA being, wherever fit occasion. offers, to bring the Stage and the Study into closer relation, and to strengthen the bonds that unite the Classic Drama with what is best and most promising in the Modern Theatre. SHAKESPEARIANA aims to be of use in Colleges and Schools, Libraries and Reading PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE LEONARD SCOTT PUBLICATION COMPANY, 1104 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, Pa, PRICE, FIFTEEN CENTS A NUMBER. 81.50 a Year, NO. XXXIII. SEPTEMBER, 1886. VOL. III. CONTENTS: Some Readers of Shakespeare. CHARLES C. MARBLE. XI. JOSEPH RANN. XII. EDMOND MALONE. NOTES AND QUERIES Queries About Hamlet. J. F. BROWN. THE DRAMA The Saxe Meiningen Company. Mr. Wilson Barrett. The Coming Season. The Open-air Revivals in England. How The Comedy of Errors has Grown. REVIEWS Papers of the N. Y. Shakespeare Society. LITERARY NOTES MISCELLANY The Church and Relics of Stratford.-Death of the former Stratford Contributions on subjects within the scope of the magazine are desired, and will receive prompt attention and reply. AS SHAKESPEARIANA holds a peculiar place among periodicals, by reason of its unique design aud special field, its greatest possible measure of usefulness and success can not be reached without the co-operation of all students and lovers of Shakespeare and Shakespearian literature. It asks therefore, that the members of Shakespeare Societies and Classes everywhere, will report their work and condition from time to time, and also any bits of Shakespearian news of interest, indulgently leaving their publication, of course, to the judgement of the Editor, in view of the needs, opportunities and conveniences of the magazine. Address, EDITOR OF SHAKESPEARIANA, 1104 Walnut St., Phila. PHILADELPHIA: LEONARD SCOTT PUBLICATION COMPANY, 1104 WALNUT STREET. SOME READERS OF SHAKESPEARE.* As a child, in the country, I remember seeing, now on the library bookshelves, and now on the parlor centre-table-that universal receptacle of the best books in the best bindings, intended more for the eye and for ornamentation than use-a ponderous copy in red cloth of the Complete Works of William Shakespeare, edited by Samuel Johnson, LL.D. The name was so queer, and so long, and so unpronouncable, (I had no notion then of the controversy respecting the spelling of it) as to produce a strangely oppressive effect upon my young imagination. Often I took up the volume and attempted to read the wonderful blank verse, blank to me then in every sense, and then turned to the few steel illustrations it contained, one of which, Lady Macbeth holding a candle in her hand, and huskily, I suppose, reciting: I laid their daggers ready, produced upon my mind an impression of murderous intent which has echoed in my dreams ever since. It was to me a beautiful picture. Who the actress was that impersonated the royal witch, for she bewitched me, I do not recall; but in her light flowing garment, her beautiful bosoms chastely exposed, she was as fascinating in the picture as the loveliest of Juliets. Strange as it may seem, that engraving, inferior as it may have been, affected me more vividly and profoundly than the play itself in future and maturer years. And then the preface by Dr. Samuel Johnson !-more ponderous even than the speeches of Shakespeare's royal characters, who may not, for dignity's sake, descend to common speech. As an introduction to the latter, it was, to me, an utter failure. One sentence was a study, and while it made me long for a full comprehension of the poet's works, kept me in abject and hopeless discouragement. No doubt you remember it, and, with me, recognize one of the first adequately appreciative utterances on the mighty genius: "The sand heaped by one flood is scattered by another. The stream of time, which is perpetually washing the dissoluble fragments of other poets passes by without injury the adamant of Shakespeare." Read before the New York Shakespeare Society. |