REPRINTS OF EARLY BIBLES. In 1833 the authorities of the Clarendon Press put forth a quarto reprint, word for word, page for page, and letter for letter, of the first large black-letter folio edition of 1611, of the present authorised or Royal version of the Bible. So accurate was it, that even manifest errors of the press were retained. It was published that the reader might judge whether the original standard could still be exactly followed.... more...

A LEADER FROM A FOREIGN NEWSPAPER: THE NEW RUSSIAN MANIFESTO. Mention was recently made, in Vol. ix., p. 218., of the valuable character of many of the leading articles in the continental journals, and a wish expressed that translations of them were more frequently communicated in our own papers to English readers. The great newspapers of this country are too rich in varied talent and worldwide resources of their own, to make it worth their... more...

"SHAKSPEARE'S RIME WHICH HE MADE AT THE MYTRE." In the third volume of Mr. Collier's valuable History of Dramatic Poetry (p. 275.) is the following passage, which forms part of a note: "Mr. Thorpe, the enterprising bookseller of Bedford Street, is in possession of a MS. full of songs and poems, in the handwriting of a person of the name of Richard Jackson, all copied prior to the year 1631, and including many unpublished pieces, by a... more...

CURIOUS OLD PAMPHLET. Grubbing among old pamphlets, the following has turned up: "A Fragment of an Essay towards the most ancient Histories of the Old and New Worlds, connected. Intended to be carried on in four Parts or Æras. That is, from the Creation of all Things to the Time of the Deluge: thence to the Birth of Abraham: from that Period to the Descent of Jacob and his Family into Egypt: and, lastly, to the Time of the Birth of... more...

GOSSIPING HISTORY. "This is the Jew That Shakspeare drew." I do not know by whom or when the above couplet was first imputed to Pope. The following extracts will show how a story grows, and the parasites which, under unwholesome cultivation, adhere to it. The restoration of Shakspeare's text, and the performance of Shylock as a serious part, are told as usual. "In the dumb action of the trial scene he was amazingly descriptive, and... more...

WHERE ARE THE WILLS TO BE DEPOSITED? The difficulties thrown in the way of all literary and historical inquiries, by the peculiar constitution of the Prerogative Office, Doctors' Commons, have long been a subject of just complaint. An attempt was made by The Camden Society, in 1848, to procure their removal, by a Memorial addressed to the Archbishop of Canterbury, which we now print, because it sets forth, plainly and distinctly, the nature... more...

NOTE UPON A PASSAGE IN "MEASURE FOR MEASURE." The Third Act of Measure for Measure opens with Isabella's visit to her brother (Claudio) in the dungeon, where he lies under sentence of death. In accordance with Claudio's earnest entreaty, she has sued for mercy to Angelo, the sanctimonious deputy, and in the course of her allusion to the only terms upon which Angelo is willing to remit the sentence, she informs him that he "must die," and then... more...

Notes. ILLUSTRATIONS OF CHAUCER, NO. VI. Unless Chaucer had intended to mark with particular exactness the day of the journey to Canterbury, he would not have taken such unusual precautions to protect his text from ignorant or careless transcribers. We find him not only recording the altitudes of the sun, at different hours, in words; but also corroborating those words by associating them with physical facts incapable of being perverted or... more...

The Arke of Artificial Day. Before proceeding, to point out the indelible marks by which Chaucer has, as it were, stereotyped the true date of the journey to Canterbury, I shall clear away another stumbling-block, still more insurmountable to Tyrwhitt than his first difficulty of the "halfe cours" in Aries, viz. the seeming inconsistency in statements (1.) and (2.) in the following lines of the prologue to the Man of Lawe's tale:—... more...

ON THE PROPOSED SUGGESTIONS FOR PRESERVING A RECORD OF EXISTING MONUMENTS. The following communications have reached us since the publication of our remarks on the proposed Monumentarium Anglicanum (No. 73. p. 217. et seq.). They serve to show how much interest the subject has excited among those best qualified to judge of the great utility of some well-organised plan for the preservation of a record of our still existing monuments. Mr.... more...