That next year's issue of books would, if funds should allow, consist of (in addition to Harrison,' Part 1) a thin part (2) of 'Harrison' with a view of the North side of Cheapside in 1638 now in preparation; 'Stubbes,' Part II; and Henry V, Parallel Texts.

That the Reprint of the late Professor Spalding's Letter on the Two Noble Kinsmen and the Revised Edition of the Two Noble Kinsmen, which are about to be issued to Members (after unforeseen delay), would be the last publications the Committee would be able to issue for 1876.

That Dr Nicholson's intended Paper for the 8th of next Month would be replaced by-I. A Paper by Mr Henry B. Wheatley, "On Ben Jonson's Every Man in his Humour." II. A Paper by Frank Marshall, Esq.; and III. A Note by E. G. Dogget, Esq., on the Expression "By holy" in the "Passionate Pilgrim."

That as an Appendix to the Transactions, 1875-6, would be issued in a condensed form the late Rev. J. L. Halpin's tract on the Dramatic Unities of Shakspere, and Professor Wilson's papers which called it forth. These treated most interestingly of Shakspere's two times in his plays,-one seemingly long, as in Antonio's three Months' Bond in the Merchant,' whereas the action of the play took up, in fact, only two days.

The Director also asked for a Volunteer to translate, for the Transactions, the 2nd part of Prof. Delius's Paper on the Narrative Element in Shakspere's Plays, and Miss Eleanor Marx kindly undertook to make the translation.

The Director further stated that Prof. Corson intended to come over from the United States to read his promised Paper before the Society in June next.

The Paper for this evening-"The character of Hamlet not entitled to the admiration often bestowed upon it"-was by F. J. Furnivall, Esq., by whom it was also read. Mr Furnivall believed that, as most folk got their idea of Satan from Milton and then said it was from the Bible, so many made their own ideal of Hamlet, and then declared it was Shakspere's, though there was no foundation whatever for it in Shakspere's text. Folk pitied Hamlet, then they loved him, then they glorified him, and turned a shirker of duty, a do-nothing, a putter-forward of specious subterfuges, into a Christian warrior and hero. Nothing was too good for him in the eyes of Werder and several English critics. Mr Furnivall followed Hamlet somewhat pitilessly through his whole career, from his mooning and spooning, instead of watching and acting, after his father's death; through his weakness after weakness, and his subterfuge-full excuses for them, in staying at Court, in vowing that he would "sweep to his revenge," and then making notes on his tablets, saying he would go pray, dawdling, turn

ing stage-manager, brutally jeering at Ophelia, quoting ballads and calling for a tune-like an overgrown schoolboy when his trick has succeeded-instead of killing the king at the end of the play; then mouthing rant about drinking hot blood, &c., and, of course, shirking his duty again directly after; then pretending that Heaven had made him stab Polonius, over whose corpse his brutal jeers must come again; still dawdling when he returned to Denmark, straying into graveyards, engaging in fencing-matches-anything to shirk his duty; at last letting Claudius's own plot, not his, work out the king's destruction, Hamlet at last stabbing him, not because he had murdered his brother, but because (1) he had poisoned Hamlet himself; (2) because he was "incestuous, murderous," therefore "follow my mother." Mr Furnivall contended that whatever virtues Hamlet had, he basely and persistently shirked his duty, which was just a bore to him, and made mean subterfuges to excuse himself. Even at last, it was not as a duty to his father that he killed his uncle; and his friend, Horatio, put forth no such pretence in his behalf. He spoke

"Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters. .

And, in this upshot, purposes mistook

Fall'n on the inventors' heads."

Yet we all pity, nay like Hamlet. This is because he typifies each one of us. Weak, shirkers of duty, we all are: but in so far as we are so, we are not to be admired; we are to be despised. The thanks of the Meeting were unanimously voted to Mr Furnivall.

Messrs Knight, Pickersgill, Bayne, Matthew, Todhunter and Furnivall took part in the discussion which arose; some written remarks were also read by Mrs Bayne.

The Director further read a letter from Mr H. H. Furness, of Philadelphia, stating that he agreed in condemning the vacillation of Hamlet.

TWENTY-NINTH MEETING, Friday, December 8, 1876.

F. J. FURNIVALL, ESQ., Director, in the Chair.

THE Director announced that Dr Ingleby had kindly offered to present to the Society the 2nd Edition of his "Centurie of Prayse," an offer which had at once been gratefully accepted in the name of the Members.

Mr H. F. B. Wheatley read "Notes on Ben Jonson's Every Man in his Humour." Mr Wheatley gave an account of the alterations made in the Quarto of the play by the second edition in the Folio. He showed that these changes were only in names, scenes, and lines -though with large and judicious cuttings-out in the last act-but did not affect the scheme and motives of the play. He contended

that the first Quarto was not surreptitious, but plainly genuine. Mr Furnivall, recurring to the point of the date of the Prologue, which Dr B. Nicholson had originally intended to treat at the meeting, argued that the only lines which could allude to Shakspere were the "York and Lancaster's long jars" (Henry VI), and "chorus wafts you o'er the seas (Henry V): he did not believe in the "storm" and "monsters" referring to The Tempest. As the play was produced in 1598, and Henry V not till 1599, either the Prologue was written after the first cast of the play, or it did not allude to Henry V. He could not allow that the Prologue, if after 1598, must have mentioned the revision of the play.

The thanks of the Meeting were given to Mr Wheatley.

Mr Doggett then proposed to read "by holy" in 1. 343 of the Passionate Pilgrim, as an exclamation, "by the Holy," like Foxe's "by roode" for "by the roode." Mr Furnivall proposed to read 1. 302, "As well as Fancy's partial might," taking "might" as a substantive.

The thanks of the Meeting were voted to Mr Doggett and Mr Furnivall for their respective suggestions.

Mr Wheatley spoke upon the emendations proposed.

In place of an intended Paper by Mr Marshall, Miss Marx then read a translation which she had made of the 2nd part of a Paper by Prof. Delius on 'Shakspere's use of Narrative in his Plays' in continuation of that already printed in the Society's Transactions, 1875-6, Part 1. The Paper dealt with the English Historical and the Roman Plays, and showed how the poet's skill in employing the narrative element in his dramas improved as he advanced from his first period to his third.

Thanks were voted to Prof. Delius and Miss Marx, and the Director mentioned that Prof. Delius had been much gratified by the able way in which his Paper had been rendered into English. He also stated that this Paper would follow Part 1 on the same subject in the printed Transactions. (See p. 332 below.)

The speakers upon the above Paper were Mr Furnivall and Mr F. D. Matthew.

The Members who have joined the Society during the past month were reported to be as under :—

J. T. La Brooy.
Stephen Austin.
John Barnett.

Walter J. Marshall.
Queen's College, Cork.
S. D. Law.

Rev. M. Creighton.
University Library, Halle.
Royal Institution.
Madame Van De Weyer.
Miss Catherine Drew.
Thos. Wm. Pickering.

Income and Expenditure of the NEW SHAKSPERE SOCIETY for the Year ending Dec. 31, 1876.

9096

9 202