Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 29.djvu/240

Xottrrs of iliiijafoloolfal ^Jublications. SHAKSPfZRE AND TYroGRAPilV. By Wii.i.iam Bi.adis. Triibncr. 1872. Mr. Blades has served the cause of scientific bibliograph}' so well by his vtdumcs on C'nxton that many of us were rather sorry to hear he had ventured into the interminable labyrinths of Shakspearian speculation. It would be a pity, we thought, that so clear a head and so unerring an eye nhould go the way which has led so many other enthusiastic spirits into obscure and aimless controvei"sies. Hut a glance at " Shakspere and Typography" has ilis.sipated our fears. Mr. Hladcs has nut failed to bring Something valuable l)efore us — something which he only was likely to find. The l)uok consist.s of three cliaptei-s and an Appendix. The first is devoted to a review of the various theories which have at ditVerent times been put forwaid a.s to Shakspeare's occupation, enumerating, fimong others, the authors who have endeavoured to make him a butcher, a skewer sharpener, a lawyer, a surgeon, a musician, a botanist, a sorcerer, and so on j and to prove that in religion he was a Romanist, I'rotestant, or an Atheist ; and finally, that he was not himself, but Lord Bacon, or that he was nobody at all, but a myth. This chapter is exceedingly amusing, and merely a.s a piece of historical information well worth read- ing. Chapter II. contains Mr. Blades's own theory. He jiuts it forwani Ko modestly, that although it is manifestly no more iniprol>alile than any of the otheiT?, we arc hardly able to say whether it is seriously meant. Yet when we find that a certain Kii-hard Kii-ld was Shakspeare's fellow- towii.'-man and contomporary, that Field was a ]«rinter, and was manied to the daughter of N'autrollicr, the great printer, whom he succeeded ; that Field actually wu.s the first to print any work of Shaksjjeare's, we are ol)ligcd to allow the pos.sibility that Shakspeare had some connection with the prc.s.H, if not as a printer, as a corrector. And wo find further that among the books pul'lishcil liy Vautrollicr were precisely those from which Shaksjicare niay, and pr<»l)ali|y must, have derivid the knowledge ho shows of certain branches of foreign literature; and finally, that many ulluHioiiH occur througliout iiis works — Mr. Blades puts this information in his third chapter — to the |»re8H, titles, prcfuccH, punctuation, imj)riuts, and so on, including Othello's " H««re"» a young ftiid Mwcittng dovil," whirh Mr. Blades ingcniouHly rcferH to the Imstc and IkmI of a jirinter's rnc'MMenger.