MAY 2, 1864. OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENCE. Mr. Bellew, with whom the preliminary arrangements rested, committed at starting the great blunIt is well for our reputation as a practical people der of giving preference to Mr. Fechter's melodrathat the public generally put but little faith in the matic Hamlet after he had in some way committed ability of the moλ of self-constituted Tercentenary himself to Mr. Phelps, the consistent representative Committees, either in London or Stratford-upon- of Shakspeare on the London stage for more than Avon, to get up a festival that should be able to thirty years. The consequence, when this became express adequately the national feeling towards the known to Mr. Phelps, was that that gentleman ingreatest man of English blood who has ever ap- dignantly declined to have anything to do with the peared amongst us. It was soon seen that it was Stratford-upon-Avon celebration. However, things not to honor Shakspeare, but to push themselves went on smoothly enough for a time, and tickets into notoriety, that the clique of a literary paper were bought to see the Hamlet of the Lyceum comusurped the title of the "National Shakspeare Company with Mr. Fechter in the part, till the committee," to hang, as it were, upon his skirts, and mittee congratulated themselves upon the promised so, if possible, to get smuggled into the Temple of successful issue of the performance. But there Fame. There can be no doubt that our London was "the small cloud in the distance," and mischief committee has made a complete mess of the thing; brewing. It appears some members of the comfor here we are on the 6th of April, within little mittee thought differently from Mr. Bellew, liked more than a fortnight of the time, without even an Phelps in Hamlet better than Fechter, and had the outline of what the ridiculus mus is to be, after all indiscretion to breathe it. Upon this the Frenchman the great upheavings of the mountain. One thing, turkeys up, retracts his promise to fill the part, and however, we are promised, provided money comes leaves the Stratford-upon-Avon Committee no alterin, a statue of Shakspeare of bronze, as a kind of native but to return the money, and I have just seen perpetual sentinel, on the top of Constitution Hill, a caricature of Mr. Bellew in the character of Merand, to keep up the illusion, it is to be placed in a cutio, exclaiming, "Plague on both your Houses," sentry-box-the committee call it a canopy in the with the vision, on either side, floating away from style of the architecture of the Shakspearian era; him, of Phelps in John Kemble and Macreadybut as it is sure to have the former name attached looking costume, and Fechter in a last Paris suit, to it if now erected, it is already spoken of as such. and a bowl of golden sovereigns upset at his feet To secure funds for this "desirable" object, the and rolling away into a rat-hole. voluntary principle having failed to make up a good. However, our publishers have come nobly to the balance at the "National Committee's" bankers, the rescue, and, like men of sound practical sense, they Lord Mayor has been persuaded to convene a meet-have been waking up a truly national and lasting ing at the Mansion House for Monday next, when Mr. Fite and the Right Hon. W. Cowper, to the first of whom we owe that matchless structure the Royal Exchange, and to the latter the splendid application of cross-squirts to the "ornamental" fountains of Trafalgar Square, are to hold the hats and to explain how much more desirable it is to have a statue of Shakspeare at the top of Piccadilly, which was all fields and swamp in his day, instead of placing it on the verge of the Temple Gardens, in front of which the new embankment of the Thames is progressing, and where it would naturally be associated with the Red and White Roses of York and Lancaster, and where the face of the statue might be turned towards the opposite side of the river, looking, as it were, to the "Globe Theatre," the site of which is now occupied by Barclay & Perkins's breweries. I believe the Tercentenary notion had its rise with the members of the Urban Club, which holds its meetings at a tavern of which St. John's Gate, Clerkenwell, forms a part, which you will know by having so often seen the cut of it on the wrapper of the "Gentleman's Magazine." This is a very unpretending club of literary men and artists, the entrance to which involves but little trouble and outlay, and which, on seeing that the grand banquet, promised originally by the National Shakspeare Committee to be held in Westminster Hall, but afterwards away in the north at the Islington Agricultural Hall, is not at all likely to be the sort of thing that was anticipated, has wisely asked its members to assemble within its walls and to "rest and be satisfied" with the "Shakspeare Banquet" of its providing. The fact is, it seems that every one who could decently back out of the National Committee has been doing so quietly, and this last announcement of the members of the Urban Club's intention to keep aloof from the Hepworth Dixon dinner, and dine by themselves, looks so like a "split," that it is sure to act prejudicially upon the success of the London Commemoration. As to the Stratford-upon-Avon Commemoration, monument to Shakspeare during the last twelve All that was ever writ in brass, Look at this list, which has been drawn out with considerable care, and which is worth preserving as a record of how the publishers have sought to raise to his memory the most honorable and lasting monument which the nation can offer. First of all there is Messrs. Day & Son's photo-lithographic facsimile of the first folio of "Mr. William Shakspeare's Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies," printed by Jaggard & Blount in 1623, of which the second part has just reached us; and to the "letter-perfect" reprint of the same in quarto, of which the Comedies and Histories have been issued by Mr. Booth. Mr. Lovell Reeve gives us a photo-zincographic facsimile of the first edition of the Sonnets of 1609; Mr. Robert Bell an edition of his Poems; and Messrs. Day and Son, with the sanction of the Judge of the Court of Probate, a photo-lithographic copy of Shakspeare's Will, of which Messrs. Sampson, Low & Co. also issue a lithographic fac-simile. As to really new editions, we have four peculiarly deserving notice. Here are three volumes of the Cambridge Shakspeare, with the fourth on the eve of publication, under the editorial care of Messrs. Clark and Wright-a restoration of the text from the careful study of the "true original copies ;" a new and carefully revised edition of Mr. Dyce's scholarlike Shakspeare, the first two volumes of which are now ready; Mr. Keightley's first volume of the "Elzevir edition," a carefully revised text; and Mr. Marsh's admirable "Reference Shakspeare." Besides these, there is Messrs. Chambers's "Household Shakspeare," from which every naughty word has been expunged, and now very fit reading for MAY 2, 1864. the Bible;" Mr. Marsh's "Familiar, Proverbial, and Select Sayings from Shakspeare;" "Shakspeare's Household Words," printed in gold and colors; Mr. Friswell's "Life Portraits of William Shakspeare," to the second edition of which is added a photographic fac-simile of his will; Mr. Bellew's "Shakspeare's Home at New Place, Stratford-upon-Avon;" Mr. Jephson's "Shakspeare's Birthplace, Home, and Grave;" Mr. Wise's "Shakspeare's Birthplace and its Neighborhood;" the Stereoscopic Company's One Dozen Stereoscopic Pictures, comprising the most interesting spots connected with the poet's life; "All About Shakspeare," illustrated by Gilks; Mr. S. Neil's "Shakspeare: a Critical Biography;" Number," a most interesting memorial of the poet's ways and pursuits, person, relatives, and home, works and companions; Beeton's "Shakspeare Memorial," something about his life and times, his works and their editions; Cassell's Stratford-on-Avon Programme, with similar information; Booth's Shakspeare Gallery; and his "Seven Ages," after Smirke's designs; the "Comic Version of Shakspeare's Seven Ages," published by the Stereoscopic Company; Mr. Ellis's "Authentic Portrait of Shakspeare, from the Original by Droeshout;" and Messrs. Cundall's Shakspeare, from the porratit preserved in Shakspeare's house at Stratford-on-Avon. Then we have Gervinus's "Shakspeare Commentaries," translated by Bunnett; and Mr. Hazlitt's collection of Shakspeare jest-books, including "A Hundred Mery Talys," alluded to by Beatrice in "Much Ado about Nothing." All honor, then, to our publishers. They have hit the nail on the head. "No monument to Shakspeare is so fitting as his works." Let us all remember this on the 23d, and lay out our money wisely and well. Your obedient servant, little folks and little maids, sure not to raise a blush on the cheek of the one, nor a simper behind a fan from any old maid who may hear Pericles read for the first time. Of new editions, or rather issues, of received texts, Mr. Nimmo sends forth a "Tercentenary Shakspeare" for the people, from the Ballantyne press, based on the text of Johnson, Steevens, and Reed, as issued in 1813, with a biographical sketch by Mrs. Cowden Clarke, in four different shapes-from that of a single volume at five shillings, and a marvel of beauty and cheapness, to that in seven monthly shilling parts. Messrs. Routledge put forth a new edition of Chas. Knight's Pictorial Shakspeare, in monthly parts, and reissue, in penny numbers, H. Staunton's text, illus-"Chambers's Journal; Shakspeare Tercentenary trated with 800 cuts by the brothers Dalziel, after John Gilbert's designs. They have also a reprint of Mr. Staunton's text and notes, in four volumes royal octavo, issued as " Routledge's Library Shakspeare," and re-issues of Hazlitt's, Campbell's, and Rowe's texts the former in five volumes, and the latter two each in a single one. Messrs. Bickers & Son give us reprints of Cowden Clarke's useful edition, with the life and glossary, in four handsome volumes octavo, and also in a single volume imperial octavo. Mr. Bohn, who has recently presented a life of Shakspeare and a complete Shakspeare bibliography as his contribution to the Philobiblion Society, advertises an eighth edition of Charles Knight's single-volume Shakspeare, and two other single-volume editions, besides Valpy's fifteen-volume "Cabinet Pictorial Shakspeare," with outline plates after the engravings of Boydell's Shakspeare Gallery. Messrs. Chambers re-issue "Knight's Cabinet Shakspeare," and Mr. Tegg a pocket edition in a single volume. Chalmers's stereotyped editions in eight volumes with notes, and in a single volume without notes, have also been reprinted; Messrs. Milner and Sowerby put forth a single volume Shakspeare, with the six spurious plays which first appeared under his name in the folio of 1664; *and, besides Routledge's "Penny Shakspeare,” already mentioned, there are for the nimble penny Cassell's admirably" Illustrated Shakspeare," with notes by Mr. and Mrs. Cowden Clarke, and plates after Mr. Selous's designs, and Charles Knight's "Stratford Shakspeare," published by Henry Lea. There are one or two others of less note, but I think I have here enumerated all such as are worthy to be heralded across the Atlantic. However, I must not omit Sampson Low's reprints of Shakspeare's Tragedy of Hamlet, the first and second editions of 1603 and 1604, which give us the opportunity of mentioning a wily dodge of a country bookseller to find out Shakspeare buyers, by advertising a copy of the edition of 1603, for twenty-four shillings, which we all know sold at Evans's rooms some years ago for 250 guineas, and was bought by the Duke of Devonshire. Of course everybody is writing for the book, and in return receives a letter stating that the advertiser advertised is not the advertiser, and knows nothing about it. But the opportunity is not lost, and a capital list of Shakspeare buyers is the reward. Of "Shakspeariana " we have Dr. Conolly's "Study of Hamlet;"""Songs and Sonnets from William Shakspeare," with 30 illustrations by Gilbert; Mr. Cowden Clarke's "Shakspeare Characters, chiefly subordinate ;" Mrs. Jameson's "Characteristics of Women, Moral, Political, and Historical, in Illustration of the Heroines of Shakspeare;" Charles Lamb's "Tales from Shakspeare," reprinted for the occasion; "The Philosophy of Shakspeare," by the editors of " Truths Illustrated by Great Authors;" Mr. Brown's "Bible Truths, with Shakspearian Parallels;" Bishop Wordsworth's new work "On Shakspeare's Knowledge and Use of N. OUR CONTINENTAL CORRESPONDENCE. PARIS, March 18, 1864. It has been a long time since we have had in Paris a more stirring fortnight than the last fourteen days. It has given us George Sand's "Le Marquis de Villemer"-that admirable story, is it not the best of her novels? which on its appearance made Paris forget everything to follow the brilliant Duc d'Aleria in his fortunes and Mlle. de Saint Geneix in her concealed love-arranged for the stage and played as near perfection as one could wish; it has given us Alex. Dumas the younger's long-expected piece, "L'Ami des Femmes ;" it has brought to the hammer the interesting library of the Duchess de Berry; it has deprived us of M. Laromiguière (an advocate whose family name is commended to our attention) and of M. Charles Didier; it has thrown open the doors of the Sorbonne and the portals of la Salle Barthélemy to an immense throng of people eager in the pursuit of knowledge. But let me pause and pursue these themes in something like order, that you may not be tempted to say to me as the Cardinal Dubois exclaimed to the impetuous Duke de Saint Simon, who had cornered him at Versailles : " Duke, do for Heaven's sake throw in a comma; and if you could manage to throw in a semicolon, I should be so grateful." Last year M. de La Rounat went to Nohant, Mme. George Sand's country seat; he was uninvited, and as he entered the drawing-room where the eminent authoress was seated with her son, M. Maurice Sand (whom you saw in America, in the suite of Prince Napoleon), and his wife, who is a daughter of Calamatta, the well-known engraver, and her daughter, who is the wife of M. Clesinger, the sculptor, and with M. Alex. Dumas the younger, |