The Subscription (£1 1s.) for 1875 became due on Jan. 1, and, if not yet paid, should be sent forthwith (not to the Treasurer, but) to the Hon. Sec., A. G. SNELGROVE, Esq., London Hospital, London, E., by Money Order on the Chief Office, or to the Society's account at the Alliance Bank, Bartholomew Lane, London, E. C. Members are askt to give the Hon. Sec. a standing Order for their Subscriptions on their Bankers. A form is sent herewith.

No books will be sent to any Member until his Subscription for 1875, and his arrears, if any, are paid.

§ 1. THE New Shakspere Society was founded in the autumn of 1873 "To do honour to SHAKSPERE, to make out the succession of his plays, and thereby the growth of his mind and art; to promote the intelligent study of him, and to print texts illustrating his works and his times."

The first work of the Society was to be, by "metrical tests," to get a trial order of the production of Shakspere's works; which, when controlld by higher tests, would fix as nearly as possible the succession of those works, and thus reveal the growth of the poet's art and mind.

To start this work, the Committee reprinted that most able, but almost overlookt and disregarded, article by MR JAMES SPEDDING on the play of Henry VIII. (from The Gentleman's Magazine for August, 1850), which containd the most striking confirmation of Mr Tennyson's view of the play, and of the coincidence of the results of the higher criticism, and a metrical test-that of the extra syllable,-and which assignd, once and for ever, to Shakspere his part of

the play, and to Fletcher his. The confirmation of Mr Spedding's results, by the late Mr Hickson on æsthetic grounds, and by the unstopt-line and weak-ending tests, though not needed by those who could follow Mr Spedding's criticism, yet gave all students faith in these metrical tests when us'd with judgment, and as aids to higher criticism.

The reprinting of Mr Spedding's article was followd up by that of the late Mr Hickson's earlier one on The Two Noble Kinsmen (from The Westminster Review for April, 1847); and his division of this Play between Shakspere and Fletcher was confirmd by the metrical tests of the extra syllable, the 4-measure line, the unstopt-line, and the weak-ending. Again the metrical tests coincided with the higher criticism.

A third time did they do so. Mr Tennyson had in his undergraduate days at Trinity (Cambridge), pickt-out the genuine from the spurious parts of Pericles; and in December, 1873, read the genuine portion to Mr Furnivall. Mainly by metrical tests, though with aid from æsthetic critics, Mr Fleay selected this genuine part of Pericles from the spurious, and printed it in the Society's Transactions as the play of Marina.

A fourth instance of like kind may be cited. Mr Richard Grant White, developing hints of prior critics, had decided that Shakspere wrote (besides the Induction) only those parts of The Taming of the Shrew in which Katherine, Petruchio, and Grumio were concernd. These parts were pointed out in the Society's Transactions, and confirmd by the ryme-test1 and the unstopt-line test. A separation was also made by Mr Fleay between the supposd genuine and spurious parts of Timon; but this and the Shrew division will require further investigation.

Lastly, Professor Ingram in his Paper of Nov. 13, 1874,

1 Other Papers will be found in the Transactions, in which the results of the ryme-test are given, generally without, though occasionally with, the data enabling the results to be verified.

prov'd that the 'light- and weak-ending test' pickt-out the latest plays of Shakspere, and arranged them in at least the probable order of their production.

One result of the Society's first year's work has certainly been, to bring out the value of Metrical Tests to an extent unexpected by Englishmen,1 and to render these Tests henceforth an indispensable part of Shakspere criticism here, as they have long been in Germany, though there their value in helping to distinguish spurious work from genuine had been quite overlookt.

Mr Spedding's suggested Pause-Test', the Committee hope that he will hereafter work out, and give his results, and the material for their verification, in the Society's Transactions. At the 'Speech-ending Test' Professor Ingram is working. The unstopt-line and other metrical tests (except that of the light and weak endings) the Committee trust will find Members to take them up and carry out; while others who are fit for it, devote themselves to the higher criticism of style and thought.

How far the outward signs and the inward spirit of Shakspere agree, may be seen in the lately publisht work of one of the Vice-Presidents of the Society, Professor Edward Dowden, LL.D., The Mind and Art of Shakspere,2

1 Against the unwise attempt to make these tests the sole ones of the dates of the plays, as strong protests have been utterd in the Society's rooms and publications as have been heard outside.

2 The Director has procur'd the issue of a new and cheaper edition of the translation of the late Professor Gervinus's Commentaries on Shakspere (Smith, Elder & Co., 148.), of a cheap reprint of Singer's readable and handy edition of Shakspere's Dramatic Works (G. Bell & Sons, 10 volumes, 2s. 6d. a volume, bound in cloth), the preparation of a Shilling Series of Shakspere's Plays for Schools, &c., under the superintendance of Prof. Dowden and himself, to be publisht by Messrs H. S. King & Co., Cornhill; and the publication of another Part of Mr R. Simpson's 'School of Shakspere' by Messrs Chatto & Windus. Professor Dowden is writing a shilling Shakspere' Primer for Mr J. R, Green's Series of Primers publisht by Macmillan & Co,

1 *

Another most important and interesting section of work has been opend by Mr Richard Simpson in his Papers on "The Political Use of the Stage in Shakspere's Time" and "The Politics of Shakspere's Plays." At the Meetings at which those papers were read, the Members present felt that the subjects were too wide, and the historical training requird for their due discussion too great, for any definite conclusion on them to be come to at once within the range of the Society. This feeling the Committee share, and they trust that these Papers will receive from historians and antiquarians the examination and consideration that they deserve.

The genuineness of the Porter scene in Macbeth the Committee believe is settl'd by Mr Hales's Paper and the discussions on it. The overlookt "speech of a dozen or sixteen lines" written by Hamlet for one of the Players, has been ably discusst in the Society's Transactions by Professor J. R. Seeley and Mr William Malleson. Though the speakers at the meeting at which the Papers were read were almost all in favour of the view that the speech was not in the Play as it now stands, yet Prof. Seeley's position is still strongly maintaind by him, that the dozen or sixteen lines are in the Player-King's speech, III. ii. 196-223.

§ 2. Turning now to the publication of Shakspere-Texts. By the care and devotion of Mr P. A. Daniel, and the generosity of H.R.H. Prince Leopold, one of the Vice-Presidents of the Society-lately, to the relief of the nation, recoverd from his almost mortal illness-the Committee were able to issue in 1874 the Parallel-Text edition of the first two Quartos of Romeo and Juliet (1597 and 1599)-invaluable for work at the play—and the simple reprints of these two Quartos.

Mr Henry Huth was so good as to allow the Society to reprint his three most rare originals of Greenes Groatsworth of Wit, and Chettles Kind-hartes Dreame, and Englands Mourn