238
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. i. MAR. 19, %.
editors would be most acceptable to the public
at large. There is also another surname pre-
fix on which I desire light viz., Im, as in the
name E. F. Im Thurn. Neither H. B. Wheatley
in his ' What is an Index 1 ' nor C. A. Cutter
in his 'Rules for a Dictionary Catalogue,'
refers to this curious prefix. BIBLIOPHILE.
For Thomas Becket we are referred to Thomas. Will our purists insist that Sir Thomas More is likewise to be placed under Thomas ? The Roman calendar prepares us for anything. Nowadays a search for a name is often exciting. Cardinal Borromeo hides under his Christian name of Charles, and many others follow his example. Is Becket's name still retained in our calendar 1 ? Hone says, "The name of this saint, so obnoxious to the early Reformers, is still retained in the Church of England calendar"; but other authorities state that it was erased by the iconoclastic Henry VIII. PELOPS.
Bedford.
ST. SYTH (8 th 'S. xii. 483 ; 9 th S. i. 16, 94). Perhaps I should have stated more fully that St. Syth is said to have been the daughter of Frithwald, Fridwald, or Redoald. I adopted the last name, writing it Raedwald. Is T. W. right in asserting that St. Eadburga was a sister of St. Osyth? I find two St. Eadburgas mentioned in the 'Dictionary of National Biography,' the first a daughter of Centwine, King of the West Saxons ; the second a daughter of Offa, King of Mercia.
T. SEYMOUR.
NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.
William Shakespeare : a Critical Study. By George
Brandes. 2 vols. (Heinemann.) To Mr. Brandes the English public is indebted for one of the most erudite and exhaustive studies of Shakspeare that have yet seen the light. Not probable is it that the views expressed will in any- thing approaching to their entirety find acceptance at the hands of English scholars. The work is none the less monumental in its class, and conveys in a singularly pleasant shape all that is known and most of what has been conjectured concerning the dramatist. Mr. Brandes has studied closely and intelligently the works, dramatic and poetical, of Shakspeare, and most that has been written about them both at home and abroad. He is as much at home in the views and theories of writers such as Dowden, Furnivall, and Fleay as he is in the discoveries of Halliwell-Phillipps or the dreams of Gervinus and Elze. With Shakspeare's prede- cessors and contemporaries he has a creditable acquaintance, and the views he holds as to the share of Shakspeare in plays such as 'King Henry VI., 'King Henry VIII., ' and 'The Two Noble Kins men ' are those of the soundest scholars, In short,
bo do the work justice, we know no other in which
the student can with so much ease, convenience,
and comfort learn all that it is necessary for him to
know. If he is not thoroughly up in his subject he
will find little or nothing with which to disagree,
and however well informed he is he will find much
for which to be grateful. So excellent is the work
all round that it is only in regard to a few matters
that we are called upon to extend to Mr. Brandes
the indulgence he has a right, as a foreigner, to
claim. The aim of the work, as narrated in its
concluding chapter, is to refute the present heresy
or delusion we are expressing Mr. Brandes' s views,
not our own that Shakspeare is impersonal and
beyond our ken. " Given, it is said, "the posses-
sion of forty-five important works by any man, it is
entirely pur own fault if we know nothing whatever
about him." Born at Stratford - on - Avon in the
reign of Elizabeth, living and writing in London in
her reign and that of her successor, the William
Shakspeare who "ascended into heaven in his
comedies and descended into hell in his tragedies,
and died at the age of fifty-two in his native town,
rises a wonderful personality in grand and distinct
outlines, with all the vivid colouring of life, from
the pages of his books, before the eyes of all who
read them with an open, receptive mind, with
sanity of judgment, and simple susceptibility to the
power of genius." This is well said and plausibly
urged, and the book is made up of a persistent
attempt to shape from the writings the Shakspeare
desired. Taking first the supposed date of writing
the play, it is sought by a close study of supposed
influences, personal or national, to establish the
state of feeling under which it was written, and so
to evolve from it a quasi -autobiographical signi-
ficance. Thus the vision in ' Macbeth ' of the
descendants of Banquo,
That twofold balls and treble sceptres carry,
contains obviously a reference to the union of England and Scotland and their conjunction with Ireland under James. " This would have had little effect unless spoken from the stage shortly after the event." So says our author ; and he adds the further reflection that "as James was proclaimed King of Great Britain and Ireland on the 20th of October, 1604, we may conclude that ' Macbeth ' was not produced later than 1604-1605." This is ingenious enough, but purely conjectural. In like manner the influence upon Shakspeare of the dis- favour into which Essex had fallen, and of his death, on which Mr. Brandes dwells, is only to be traced in his writings by the eye of faith, not to say of credulity. In the case of Shakspeare, indeed, tests that in other cases might have some value are wholly unimportant. So dramatic is the spirit of Shakspeare, so capable is he of incorporating him- self in each of the characters he depicts, that it is very rarely possible to treat any utterance as other than dramatic, and to read into it anything per- sonal. It is, perhaps, scarcely fair to deal with a man still living. Many of us have, however, known all that is to be known concerning Mr. Swinburne since he published ' The Queen Mother ' and ' Rosa- mond.' Which of us in any of the numerous and noble works he has written can trace the influence of current events, except a direct tribute, in the shape of monody, to some dead friend or object of devotion? and who, knowing him as little as we know Shakspeare, could from his writings shape out any notion of the man ? In one of the parts ot
