supplement to Dr. Charles Rogers, Mr. Napier, and Mr. Grigor and their co-workers. It is indeed wonderful how far back some of these customs lead us. Beltane, or the Belus fire, down to 'a late date lighted on hilltops in Scotland on May-day, takes us beyond the Druids to some form of primæval sun-worship; the red thread tied round the tails of household animals to ward of harm is the old sacred thread of the East; throwing old shoes after the newly-wedded pair is doubtless a survival of bridestealing, as are several other old Scottish customs-for instance, the feigning of some difference between friends of bride and bridegroom and some parleyings the night before the wedding. The journeyings to holy wells, which all the efforts of Christian teachers have not yet wholly succeeded in uprooting, is a relic of barbarism which taught that the evil spirits in certain circumstances fled from water and could not cross a running stream. Mr. Guthrie, we are sorry to say, has not aimed at any scientific classification, and prints his materials very much as they came to his hand. In this respect he might have taken a lesson from two recent writers already named, one of whom has done not a little for the folklore and superstitious customs of the west of Scotland, and the other for the north-east. But, as it is, his volume is valuable and welcome, for it has some fresh facts, and traverses a wide area. But we fancy he must be wrong in speaking of a hill Garnock, in Kincardine, and that he means Garvock; and if he had referred fully to some circles on Caterthun, in the same range, he would have done well.

Days and Nights of Salmon-Fishing in the River Tweed. By WILLIAM SCROPE, Esq., Author of 'Days of Deerstalking.' Illustrated by Sir DAVID WILKIE, Sir EDWIN LANDSEER, CHARLES LANDSEER, WILLIAM SIMSON, and EDWARD COOKE. Glasgow: Thomas D. Morison.

The Field Sports of the North of Europe. A Narrative of Angling, Hunting, and Shooting in Sweden and Norway. By Captain L. LLOYD, Author of 'Scandinavian Adventures,' The Game-birds and Wild Fowl of Sweden and Norway.' Enlarged and Revised Edition. Same Publisher.

Mr. Morison has done well to reprint, with additions and improvements, these two excellent and serviceable works, admirable alike as conveying the results of much experience and observation, and as being written with remarkable literary skill and grace. This particularly applies to Mr. Scrope's book, which is racy in bits of dialogue and pieces of Scottish vernacular. No two skilled salmon-fishers will agree with respect to certain tricks of their craft, nor about the methods of fly-tying, nor indeed about the pre-eminence of certain flies for certain seasons and certain waters. Mr. Scrope has devoted himself to the Tweed, as Captain

Lloyd has devoted himself to the streams of Norway and Sweden, and from both much may be learned by younger anglers. Of course much has been done since their day to settle several points with regard to the salmon and his habits of life. On the natural history, indeed, the reader who would be well informed must supplement much that is found here by reference to Frank Buckland, Mr. Huxley, Major Traherne, Dr. Hamilton, and other recent writers on the subject. Mr. Scrope's drawings and descriptions of leading flies for the Tweed still have a claim to attention. The other drawings in the volume, though from the pencils of artists so eminent, are more picturesque and fanciful than exact, according to our ideas and recollections of the points chosen for illustration; but they are pretty and help to make an attractive book. Captain Lloyd, in addition to his details about fishing, shooting, and hunting in Norway and Sweden, tells a great deal about the people and their ways. But we fear that much has changed since the period of his residence, and that Scandinavia as well as other places has lost the touch of idyllic simplicity suggested by the very low rates here given for living. All expenses have since then greatly mounted up. Captain Lloyd's remarks on spinning in deep rapids are as appropriate as ever; and his assertion that 'if the rod has proper play, and the fisherman does his part, almost any sort of tackle is strong enough to hold a fish of the largest size,' will suggest how much skill is presumed in an expert salmon angler.

On some of Shakespeare's Female Characters: Ophelia, Portia, Desdemona, Juliet, Imogen, Rosalind, Beatrice. By HELENA FAUCIT, LADY MARTIN. Wm. Blackwood and Sons.

This sumptuous book claims special attention for several reasons. The first is that it is full of the most interesting autobiographic morceaux; the second, that it throws floods of light on some points in Shakespeare's text; the third, that it indicates the proper point of approach for the actress to the true motives of his leading female characters; and fourth, that it affords us some admirable glimpses of Macready and several other great actors. Lady Martin, more than once, in the course of these letters, expresses the idea that she was too young on her first essaying the representation of the characters of Juliet, Desdemona, and Rosalind, to appreciate the subtlety and manysidedness of their natures and, with regard to Juliet, suggests that the English girl's tardier attainment of maturity was against her. But her own early experiences were clearly calculated to develop early maturity of intellect, if not of passion, and to aid her in some most important respects. As we read here, we can see that her loneliness and solitude saved her from conventionality, that her repressed enthusiasm was in favour of concentration and intensity; whilst the necessity that was laid upon her to find her own path-she saw no famous actresses, nor had help from them-did much to keep her in the line of nature and truth. The qualities which combined to make her a great actress-complete self-repression, the power of throwing her

self wholly into the attitude of another, and that 'vicarious thought' which is only found by the side of sympathy-these appear also in full measure in this volume. The letters were begun to gratify her friend, Miss Dewsbury, in her last illness; and all through the first three letters we can see that the mental attitude and physical condition of her friend were kept in view. The epistolary style was exactly suited to Lady Martin's purpose, and she has made good use of it. It is free and fluent, without the sacrifice of order; digressions there are, but they have only the effect of relieving any sense of strain. Without effort as without display or egotistic effusiveness, Lady Martin tells precisely what is most desirable for the reader to know of her early experiences, her triumphs, her frequent dissatisfactions with herself, and her disappointments even in the midst of success, with so much frankness and selfrevelation, indeed, that the book must be regarded as at once original, practical, and artistic. This last word, too, covers a great deal. Miss Faucit never lost the true artistic aspiration under the spell of success and the gifts of the world. Her style of telling her experiences here is still fresh and fragrant of gentle enthusiasms. The letters do not present the subjects in the order in which she first essayed the characters, and, perhaps in some measure owing to this, there are slight repetitions; but the spirit and the refined communicativeness (we can find no other fit term) pervade all. Miss Dewsbury died before the third letter appeared, and the rest are addressed, with due amount of personal explanation, &c., to Mrs. S. C. Hall, Miss Anna Swanwick, Mr. Robert Browning, and Mr. John Ruskin; and some very valuable matter is communicated in an appendix. The complete grasp of the characters and the quick insight and the gentle penetration are equalled only by the unaffected felicity of expression. Let our readers only peruse those on Ophelia and Desdemona, and we are sure they will agree with us here. Especially is the biography of Ophelia a full and careful one, with some most suggestive side-lights on the character of Hamlet and the Queen. Lady Martin does not believe that Gertrude was privy to her husband's murder, and in this way explains a good deal that is obscure in a very natural manner.

Altogether, the book is delightful, full of information and helpful commentary on Shakespeare, while at the same time it reveals to us, in the most effective way, a very lofty and beautiful individuality in the process of development and under the trials of an exacting art and severe discipline. One point we should not fail to emphasize—that is, Lady Martin's plea for more of community between the arts. Painters, poets, and actors should not stand apart from each other, and coldly criticise at a remote and respectful distance. They should seek, each to see his art in the light of the others, and thus aim at securing a harmony and elevation otherwise unattainable. Lady Martin's book must prove a potent factor in promoting this artistic bond and brotherhood.

We should not omit to speak of the beautiful and finished steel engravings from portraits of Lady Martin at different times, which do much to add interest and value to the book.

J

Hard Knots in Shakespeare. By SIR PHILIP PERRING, Bart., formerly Scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge. Longmans, Green, and Co.

Sir Philip Perring has been a close and careful student of Shakespeare, and here has done something to unravel a number of the hard knots.' Not that his suggestions are in every case wholly satisfactory; but he invariably gives proof of thought and of appreciation of the difficulties. His comparisons of the various texts have been patient, careful, and thorough. In the following passage from Midsummer Night's Dream'

'The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale,

Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me ;
Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,
And tailor" cries and falls into a cough'-

he ingeniously explains the word tailor' as a misprint for 'traitor,' to which undoubtedly countenance is given by the fact that 'taitour' is found in the first quarto. The results of Sir Philip's labour and criticisms can only be to incite others to bring their ingenuity to the same test as he has brought his; and if in this way some progress is made in removing corruptions from our great dramatist, some real benefit will have been done for the whole English-speaking race.

Marino Faliero. A Tragedy. By ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE. Chatto and Windus.

disfigured the chair of the The Council-of-Ten senBut this did not satisfy

Readers of Lord Byron's tragedy do not require to be reminded of the story associated with the name of this Doge of Venice. Marino Faliero had led a brilliant career before he reached the goal of his ambition; and age had come upon him meanwhile. To aid him to the happiness he desired he married a very young woman; and one of his enemies Doge with an insulting inscription on this point. tenced the offender to a month's imprisonment. Marino. Disgusted at the lightness of the sentence, he joined a conspiracy, one of whose objects was political revolution. The plot failed, and Marino was tried for treason, convicted, and beheaded. Byron's tragedy was conceived too much after the French pattern, and failed. Mr. Swinburne's will not fail for the same reason. He does not bind himself to regard very strictly the unities of time and place, and allows his peculiar powers free play in certain directions. The chief characters indulge in long speeches, inflamed by passion. Image is heaped on image, and alliteration's artful aid 'is duly employed. Sometimes this is so overdone as to be rather detrimental, in calling off the reader's mind from the situation and dramatic fitness to tricks of manner. Here is a telling example:

Dumb, disarrayed, disseated, dispossessed,
Degraded and disfigured."

'The three R's' may now have a parallel in Mr. Swinburne's 'six D's.' Towards the end the play grows more and more undramatic from the disproportionate prominence given to the hero, who speaks some ninety per cent. of the whole of the concluding third of the poem. Mr. Swinburne's genius, however, enables him to carry the reader along in the swell of his imagination and glowing metres. It is plain that he has been inspired by his theme: it has taken possession of him. Evidently, too, he has aimed at making the leading situations of the drama carry something of political purpose in viewing certain questions of the day. We miss here none of Mr. Swinburne's eager enthusiasm and power of splendid denunciation; he has made some of his characters his own mouthpieces, and it would not surprise us if hereafter passages and lines in this poem should become the maxims of modern radicals. In spite of some defects, due to the teachings by which the play is informed, and the undramatic length of some of the speeches, Mr. Swinburne has written a poem which will increase his reputation; for it proves that his command over character is of a wider sweep than was formerly supposed, and that his power over English blank-verse has really not been exaggerated. The Dedication to Aurelio Saffi is very characteristic and very musical.

Vagabunduli Libellus. By JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS, Author of Animi Figura,' 'Many Moods,' &c. Kegan Paul, Trench, and Co.

Mr. Addington Symonds, under this rather quaint title, presents us with a series of sonnets in much the same tone and spirit as those of the 'Animi Figura' volume. Here we have the same boldness of thought, the same delicacy and grace of figure and phrase, the same delight in nature and beauty, and the same sudden starting aside, as it were, in face of some of the social and religious problems of the day. The first portion, headed 'Stella Maris,' is an attempt in a series of sonnets to tell a story of friendship and love, and it must be admitted that the task has been done with the rarest skill and felicity of touch. But it is inevitable that much must be sacrificed to a form which is so exigeant. Some of the individual sonnets are very perfect, as witness the second and third written in Venice, which convey at once the glory and charms of Venice, and the sense of their inefficiency to atone or make up for true companionship and sympathy. The height of the author's power in this form is perhaps reached in the 36th and 37th sonnets, which begin respectively, The heavens are one dusk sapphire,' and 'Silvery mosquito curtains draped the bed.' The two which follow are almost equal to them; and the touch of mysticism gives an added depth and suggestiveness. The second section, Among the Mountains,' contains more direct personal experience, and several point at great and almost constant suffering. The sustained power of nature-painting is the more noticeable. If we read aright the sonnets on Resignation, pain is the grim chamberlain that often tends the singer. A