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MR. HAMILTON V. MABIE'S William Shakes peare ' will appeal more to the intelligent part of the general reading public than to the select body of Shakespearean scholars. Doubtless it was written for that first class of readers; and having that fact in mind, it may be said that Mr. Mabie — or should we say Dr. Mabie? — has given us a book which admirably fills its author's purpose. Starting with a brief summary of the rise of dramatic literature and of the state of such lit erature in England immediately before Shakes peare's time, Mr. Mabie gives a chapter to Stratford and the surrounding country; speaks of the poet's birth and breeding, his marriage and his removal to London; and then devotes the last three-quarters of the volume to the more strictly literary side of his subject. An account of the London Stage brings us to Shakespeare's earlier work; and after a consideration of the Sonnets and the other poems, Mr. Mabie takes up for discussion, in more or less detail, the plays, under the separate heads of the Historical Plays, the Comedies, the Romances, and the Tragedies, sub-dividing his consideration of these latter plays into the Approach of Tragedy, The Earlier and the Later Tragedies, and the Ethical Significance of the Tragedies. This book, like all that Mr. Mabie writes, is pleasant reading. Besides the Chandos portrait of Shakespeare, which is the frontispiece, there are several full-page photogravures, and about a hundred other illustrations, many of these latter from old prints and very interesting. NEW
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BOOKS.
THE CIVIL SERVICE LAW OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. BY William Miller Collier. Albany, N. Y. : Matthew Bender. 1901. Buckram; $4.50. (xliv + 440 pp.) The sub-title gives an accurate idea of the scope of this book, which is " A Treatise upon 1 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE : Poet, Dramatist, and Man. By Hamilton Wright Mabie. New York : The Macmillan Company, 1901. Cloth, (xviii + 421 pp.)
the law as to appointments to office, removals from office, and tenure in office, as embodied in the New York Civil Service Law and the ' Vet eran' Laws "; but although thus dealing primarily with New York statutes and thus of practical and professional value to practising lawyers of that State, it is, also, a treatise which may be read with interest and profit by supporters both there and elsewhere, of an hon est and efficient civil service. It is a matter of congratulation that the important subject of the Civil Service Law is treated by one so competent as Mr. Collier to deal with it; for to his experience as a legal editor and text-book writer, he adds the strong grasp of, and deep interest in, the subject, which one both looks for and is glad to find in the president of the New York State Civil Service Commission. The arrangement of the book is good. The present civil service law is quoted and discussed, section by section; all the New York cases bear ing thereon are cited and freely quoted, and refer ence is made also to cases decided under the Civil Service Laws of the United States, Massachu setts, and Illinois, and to those reported or cited in the reports of Civil Service Commissions in various parts of the country. Of value, both on the practical and theoretical sides is the inclu sion in the notes of the original form of each section and its successive amendments — in a word the history of the section. In the long note following Section i is an ex cellent summary of the present condition all over the United States of statutory law — Federal and State — relating to civil service; and the very full note, of some fifty closely printed pages, on the section regulating the power of removal, adds much to the value of the book and is an example of the thorough way in which the sub ject in hand is treated. The texts of the orig inal New York Civil Service Law, of supple mentary statutes, of the former " Black Law," of former " Veteran Laws," of State Civil Ser vice rules and regulations, and of forms, com plete the volume.
