Joachim Belli, the Roman poetical satirist, died in February, aged 70. The tercentenary of Galileo's birthday was celebrated at Pisa, on 18th February. Ludwig Noack, of Giessen, is engaged on "A Life of Jesus." G. B. Torre has edited, with notes and an introduction, the writings of Christopher Columbus. Dr. J. H. Plath's "Essays on the Religion and Worship of Ancient China, the Sources of the Biography of Confucius," &c., have been reprinted from the "Transactions of the Bavarian Academy. Mr. W. Hepworth Dixon (b. 1821) is reported to be engaged in composing Biography of Edward, Second Marquis of Worcester," author of "A Century of Inventions." a A translation of Shakspere into Russ has just reached the second edition. It is done by M. Ketcher. A life of Flaxman, the sculptor, is in preparation by G. F. Terriswood. A collected edition of the writings of the late statesman and scholar, Sir G. C. Lewis, containing, as far as may be, his contributions to journals, magazines, &c., is engaging his relatives and friends. The French Academy of Moral and Political Sciences has elected as corresponding member Mr. Edwin Chadwick. of London, born near Manchester, in 1800, one of the early contributors to the London Review, and now distinguished as a legislative and administrative reformer, on the vacancy caused by the death of Archbishop Whately. A monument, in honour of Joost Van der Vondel, the prince of Flemish poets, author of " Gysbert d'Amstel," "Lucifer," "Palamede," &c., died Feb. 5th, 1679, aged 91, has been erected in Amsterdam, though Cologne was his birth place. An authentic memoir of Hugh Miller, stonemason, banker, geologist, editor, story-teller, critic, poet, lecturer, &c., is in preparation as a supplement to "My Schools and Schoolmasters." Mr. Roger Acton-a gentleman long connected with the London press-has accepted the editorship of the Illustrated London News. A people's edition of Renan's "Vie de Jésus" is about to be issued, price one franc, in Paris. Dr. D. R. Ballantyne, the distinguished Sanscrit scholar, died 16th Feb. "A History of the Language and Literature of Wales" has been published in Germany. A new (Protestant) version of the Scriptures is issuing, in parts, in Paris. "Christian compared with the Old and the New Philosophy," by Sanseverino, is a noticeable book. The publication of Dr. Latham's edition of Dr. S. Johnson's "Dictionary," in thirty-six monthly parts at 3s. 6d. each, has been commenced by Messrs. Longman. George Grote (b. 1794), politician and historian, whose work on Greece " has become a standard on the subject, has been elected foreign member of the Paris Academy of Social and Political science, in succession to Lord Macaulay. The paper on Renan's "Life of Jesus," contained in the North British Review, is attributed to the Duke of Argyle, and that on "Thackeray "to Dr. John Brown. The Shakspere Tercentenary mittee are settling down, and seer likely now to accomplish their end we' both in London and at Stratford. Shakspere Controversies. "This king Shakspere, does not he shine, in crowned sovereignty, over us all, as the noblest, gentlest, yet strongest of rallying signs? indestructible;-really more valuable in that point of view than any other means or appliance whatsoever?"Carlyle. SHAKSPERE! What can be said of Shakspere that has not been already said? All that jealousy, adulation, admiration, and love, only stopping short of worship, can utter, has been spoken, and even depreciation has added its bass to complete the harmony of the resounding appreciation of which he has been the subject. If "all is well that ends well," it is surely time to close the play and let the hero rest. Such, we cannot doubt, is a reflex of the thought which first arises in our readers' minds on noting the title of our paper-written in the hope of affording a clue through the mazes of a few of those controversies of which Shakspere and his writings have been the subjects. To us it seems a dutiful homage to the prevailing hero-worship of the time to present to our readers an aspect of the absorbing question of the period not likely to be taken elsewhere, and which could nowhere else appear so fittingly. Round the name, fame, life, writings, memory, and present worth of Shakspere the ceaseless waves of controversy have not restrained themselves, and we purpose here to cast our eye over the courses of their currents, and to attempt to show in some measure a way along which we may steer, if we should find ourselves caught in the onflow of their forces. "Of this Shakspere of ours, perhaps the opinion one sometimes hears a little idolatrously expressed is, in fact, the right one: I think the best judgment, not of this country only, but of Europe at large, is slowly pointing to the conclusion that Shakspere is the chief of all poets hitherto; the greatest intellect who, in our recorded world, has left record of himself in the way of literature.' Regarding a man possessed of such a seeing eye, and taking such a sweep with it, it is almost impossible but that there should be differences of opinion held, and in accordance with this à priori probability, the facts are that a whole literature of controversy has been written concerning Shakspere. It may now be judicious to issue an outline of this controversy, that the subscribers to this cial may be put in possession of a few of the topics of interest and seerch have been and may again be raised in connection with the and works of this "foremost man in all the files of time." mary r end we Ford. t is unnecessary here to exhaust "a mint of phrases," "the sweet oke of rhetoric,' Three-piled hyperboles, spruce affectation, in laudation of "William Shakspere, the protagonist on the arena of modern poetry, and the glory of the human intellect ;" that will, we doubt not, be done sufficiently, if not efficiently, elsewhere. All is said when we have said "None but himself can be his parallel." "Such a poet," Douglas Jerrold averred, “by the charm of his genius permeates and perpetuates a deeper philosophy and more practicable truths than any set code of laws or legislation could compass. The people feel the force of such genius; and his precepts, his illustrations, and his wisdom have made him reverenced on every hearth. He contains within himself a moral code, and touches every phase of humanity; we at once love and revere our teacher." It is almost impossible to enumerate, arrange, and discuss all the controversies of which Shakspere has been made the subject, in a brief paper such as this must be; but we may conveniently notice the greater part of them under one or other of the following heads, viz., his personality, birthplace and birthday, life, character, learning, works and popularity, text, sonnets, religion, and commemoration. Among recent controversies regarding Shakspere, perhaps the most singular is that relative to his personality. Is Shakspere the dramatist a myth, and only the alter ego of Lord Bacon? That question has been put before the public by Miss Delia Bacon in America, and by W. H. Smith and others in England. Of his actual existence there is, of course, no doubt,-that can be traced in the register of his birth, in his marriage bond, in legal documents regarding the purchase of property, in court records of actions at law, in his will, by his monument, and by the testimony of friends. It is only of his dramatic genius that scepticism has been pronounced. It is said that Pope's sketch of Shakspere is full of the express characteristics of Bacon; that Bacon possessed cultured dramatic talents, and could assume the most diverse characters; that his lordship not only assisted at, but even wrote, " masques; that he was an intimate friend of Lord Southampton; that the Shakspere folio of 1623 was not issued till Bacon's retirement from public life, when he was poor and in straits, to raise money; that Shakspere was a money-seeking, business man, and not, therefore, likely to be much of a poet, or to be disinclined to accept a douceur for lending his name to a deception of so slight a sort as that implied in supporting a false repute in society; and that Lord Bacon, guilty of receiving bribes, would not be nice in conveying them to another through a common friend. Hence it is highly improbable that Shakspere wrote dramas, and highly probable that Lord Bacon is the person who "wrote Shakspere." Now "mark how plain a tale" will set this down. 66 66 The men among whom Shakspere rose from being a country author passing at a moral" play, as Green calls some one, to being that "star of poets," the sweet Swan of Avon, of whom Ben Jonson speaks, were Edmund Spenser, "high priest of all the Muses' mysteries;" Christopher Marlow, renowned for his rare art and wit;" George Peele, then the "Atlas of Poetry;" William Warner, author of Albion's England;" Abraham Fraunce, whose "Arcadian Rhetorick" had invested him with reputation; Nash, Lodge, Kyd, and Henry Constable. Michael Drayton, too, and Samuel Daniel, and silver-tongued Sylvester, might be named among the men of note among whom-as "an upstart crow beautified with our feathers, that with his Tyre's heart wrapt in a player's hide supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you; and, being an absolute Johannes-factotum, is in his own conceit the only shake-scene in a country"-Shakspere claimed and took a place. His eminence pained them, and they resented as intrusion his dramatic labours. Greene saw his fame wane before the new author, and spoke despitefully of him. Nash flouted him on his country grammar knowledge," his "whole Hamlets" of blank-verse bombast, and having "forsaken the trade of noverint." Chettle endorsed Greene's charges, but afterwards handsomely apologized for his share in the transaction. Richard] B[arnfield], in "Greene's Funeralls," had said, "Greene gave the ground to all that wrote upon him ;— 66 Nay, more, the men that so eclipsed his fame, Purloined his plumes,-can they deny the same?'" Spenser lamented that "pleasant Willy" had ceased to supply"Fine counterfesance and unhurtful sport, Delight and laughter decked in seemly sort." 66 Were there doubts of his poetic power expressed in these attacks of foes or this praise of friends? If there were, his answer was unmistakable, for in April 13th, 1593, Richard Field entered in the Stationers' Company's registers A booke, entitled 'Venus and Adonis,' which, on being published, bore the name of William Shakspere on its title; and on May 9th, 1594, Mr. Harrison, sen., entered "A booke, intituled 'The Ravyshment of Lucreece," which also had the name of the poet on its title. Both contained, besides, signatured dedications To the Right Hon. Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, and Baron of Lichfield," then scarcely twenty years of age, and already A.M. of Cambridge and Oxford, and student at Lincoln's Inn. These acquired instant popularity, and "private friends" began to collect and preserve the affluent products of his pen. In 1598, Meres enrols him, speaking in the name of the reading public of the time, always among, and sometimes above, the olden and the living writers of his day; without hesitation regarding the poet, the dramatist, the playwright, and the proprietor of lands, houses, and tenements, as one and the same 66 66 Of person. Seven editions of "Venus and Adonis," and seven of Lucreece," appeared in the poet's lifetime with his name affixed to them. The "Sonnets' were issued in 1609 with his name. the plays now attributed to him, forty editions were before the public, and his name was upon twenty-nine of these. Shakspere was recognized as a poet by John Davis, of Hereford, 1607, in "The Scourge of Folly;" by Richard Barnefield, in "Poems in Divers Humours," 1598; by Wm. Weever, in his "Epigrams," 1599; by Richard Chester, in "Love's Martyr," 1601; by Chettle, in "England's Morning Garment," 1603; by Wm. Barksted, in Myrrha, the Mother of Adonis," 1607; by Thomas Freeman, in "Rubbe and a Great Cast," 1614. Quotations, bearing Shakspere's name as their author, appear in "England's Parnassus,' "Belvedere; or, the Garden of the Muses," and "England's Helicon," in 1600. In reference to the question of Shakspere's personality as a dramatist, we may call attention to an entry,-indicative, as we believe, of local envy and jealousy at the rise of a player and play: wright who had not only bought New Place, but had also purchased "107 acres of arable land in the parish of Old Stratford."-It is contained in the council records of Stratford, 1602, viz., "That there shall be no plays nor interludes played in the Chamber, the Guildhail, nor in any part of the house or court, from henceforth, upon pain that whatsoever of the bailiff, aldermen, or burgesses of this borough, shall give leave or licence thereunto, shall forfeit for every offence Xs." Add to these the monument with its inscription, attributing to him "The prudence of Nestor, the wisdom of Socrates, the art of Virgil," and its assertion, "All that he hath writ Leaves living art but page to serve his wit." Let us farther note the testimony of Ben Jonson, of Hugh Holland, Leonard Digges, John Marston, and his fellow-players, Heminge and Condell, prefixed to the first folio, and the identity in person of Shakspere, the man and the author, is complete, as far as proof can make it manifest. Where was Shakspere born? A simple question, but one not easily settled. In 1552 John Shakspere resided in Henley Street, Stratford-upon-Avon. In 1556 he was possessed of "one tenement, with a garden and croft, &c.," in Greenhill Street, and of one tenement, and a garden adjacent," in Henley Street. In the same year he was one of the jury of a court-leet; ale-taster, 1557; burgess, 1558; constable, 1559; affeeror, 1560; chamberlain, 1561; alderman, 1565; chief magistrate, 1568 till 1572. The place of his residence must, therefore, have been well known. He bought the tenements, in one of which he had lived, in 1575. Though it is possible his son William may have been born in either of the other two houses, or even at Ingon, tradition gives the house the nation bought in 1847 as the scene of that illustrious event more persist |