caution is continually needed in placing reliance upon it. The labours of James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps (1820-1889), long known without the last addition to his name, are of a more reliable character. His Life of Shakespeare appeared in 1848, and his Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare (1881)-largely augmented in the last edition of 1887-though it cannot be regarded as final, is particularly valuable to the student as containing reprints of rare documents, etc., upon which its statements are based. Like Collier and the Clarkes, he edited the poet's works; and among his multifarious labours was that of superintending a valuable series of photographic reprints of forty-eight early quartos of the plays, as well as of the first Folio of 1623. The name of William Chambers (1800-1883) as publisher and writer is honourably associated, like that of his brother, Robert Chambers,* with the successful attempt to bring within reach of the people a wide range of information; and much of the labour of Professor Henry Morley (1822-1894) as lecturer, editor, and author, was devoted to bringing home to the minds and hearts of hearers and readers the treasures contained in our books. In his chief work, English Writers, begun in 1864, resumed in 1887 in the autumn of life, and continued till his death, he wrote more especially for the student, and aimed at tracing the development of our literature from the earliest times to the present day. Ten volumes had appeared when he died; the eleventh was completed by another hand, and the history closes with the death of Shakespeare. William Minto (1845-1893), successor to Professor Bain at Aberdeen, was known as journalist, novelist, and critic, but will doubtless be best remembered by his excellent Manual of English Prose, Literary and Biographical. 150. The Dramatists.-The greater names connected with the drama on its more literary side have already been mentioned. Tennyson's acted plays have been indicated (p. 226), and of those written by Browning, Strafford was successfully acted by Macready in 1837; A Blot in the 'Scutcheon, when performed in 1843, enjoyed a marked if brief success, and the poet could not but feel flattered by the cries for Author, Author,' which were then heard. Colombe's Birthday was represented in 1853. But of the modern drama as a whole it may be said that it is copious in proportion as it is poor; that it lacks originality may be judged from the wholesale adaptation from foreign, chiefly French, sources; and the absence of high-class work is but feebly compensated for by the For Robert Chambers, see Dictionary Appendix E. p. 318. vigorous development of extravaganza, melodrama, and sensational plays. Of this last form, the modern father is Dion Boucicault (1822-1890), actor, manager, and as an author said to rival the well-known fertility of the Elizabethan Thomas Heywood (see p. 67). Irish by birth, he holds a distinct place as the delineator of Irish life and character, yet two of his best plays-London Assurance (1841), a brilliant early success marked by smart Sheridanlike dialogue, and Hunted Down (1866), deal with English subjects and character. In sensational drama he holds a place akin to that of Wilkie Collins among sensational novelists, and great was the success and influence of his Colleen Bawn (1860). Tom Taylor (1817-1880), a Cambridge ‘Apostle,' and a Fellow of Trinity, who, during the last seven years of his life, was editor of Punch, in succession to Shirley Brooks, began writing melodramas before he took to school books. In maturer years he produced about a hundred pieces, usually, like The Ticket-of-Leave Man, adaptations from French plays and stories. Others well known are Still Waters Run Deep, The Overland Route, and Clancarty. From 1870 he strove to stem the sensational wave by attempting to re-establish a standard of literary excellence by blank verse historical dramas-'Twixt Axe and Crown and Joan of Arc (1870), and Anne Boleyn (1876). James Robinson Planché (1796-1880) was the originator of what is best in modern extravaganza, and his work was intimately associated with the dramatic career of Mme. Vestris. A prolific writer, like Taylor, he is credited with seventy-two original pieces, and with nearly one hundred adaptations from French, Spanish, Italian, German, and older English plays. But one of the most popular of recent playwrights has certainly been Henry James Byron (1834-1884), whose domestic drama Our Boys was acted continuously for four years from January 16, 1875, till April 18, 1879. From 1858 to 1882 he poured forth a series of extravaganza, farce, burlesque and more regular drama, the best of which is held to be his comedy Cyril's Success (1868). A keen observer and witty recorder of the foibles of middle-class life, his works abound in puns, and in a pointed, if not wholly refined, somewhat Cockney smartness of repartee. The genial and scholarly dramatic critic, John Oxenford (1812-1877), produced some seventy odd plays; and out of the sixty-chiefly adaptations from the French-by John Palgrave Simpson (1807-1887), All for Her, written with Herman Merivale, has so far assumed a somewhat permanent place. William Blanchard Jerrold (1826-1884), son of Douglas Jerrold (see p. 219), a busy journalist, whose residence in Paris brought him in close touch with Napoleon III., whose Life he wrote (1874-1882), and whose career he defended, was modestly content with only four plays. His farce Cool as a Cucumber (1851) supplied Charles Mathews the younger with one of his most delightful impersonations; two dramas and a comedy complete the list. Mention has already been made of the dramatic work of Charles Reade (p. 247) when speaking of him as a novelist. His Masks and Faces (1852) still holds the stage, and his Lyons Mail, first called The Courier of Lyons (1854), has been a favourite with Sir Henry Irving. In 1865 he dramatised his novel Never too Late to Mend; and his 'greatly daring' romance Foul Play (1869), written with Dion Boucicault, was first adapted for the stage by the co-workers, and then by Reade alone as The Scuttled Ship (1877). In one of his last plays, Drink (1879), he adapted Emile Zola's L'Assommoir. A busy writer and a hard worker throughout life, five new plays by him were acted during one year (1854) at the London theatres. 'I am a painstaking man,' said he late in life, and I owe my success to it.' APPENDIX A. EXTRACTS Illustrative of the Progress of the Language previous to 1600. The following extracts are arranged in the order of their production or publication. The Old English letters employed are b=th in thin, and th in then. p is the capital in the one case, Ð in the other; g=g or y. The character signifies 'that;' in Extract II. signifies and.' The structure of our older verse has been examined on pp. 5 and 6, but by the following extract from Beowulf its characteristics may be still more clearly exemplified. Eighteen complete lines are here printed, and the cæsura mentioned on p. 5 is indicated by a slight division between the two half '-lines, the alliteration being marked by means of italics. In eleven out of the eighteen lines the consonant alliteration is quite regular, there being two alliterative syllables in the first half-line, and one in the second. This is the case in the first five lines; but in the sixth (1363), as in four others (1365, '7, '8, '75), the alliteration is defective, there being but two alliterative syllables, one in each half-line. Lines 1371 and 1373 afford instances of vowel alliteration; in the former case this is regular, there being three alliterative words; in the second case it is defective. It will be noticed (cf. p. 6) that the vowels must differ (e.g. 1. 1371, a, o, æ; 1. 1373, ỹ, u). In all cases the alliterativo word also bears a natural stress, and therefore unstressed syllables, such as '[ge]-n'ipu,' in 1. 1360, and '[ge]-m'earces,' in l. 1362, are not considered. Mr. Wm. Morris, it may be remarked, in his modern rendering has preserved the original rhythm, there being uniformly four stressed words in each line; while, as in the older poem, the number of syllables varies. He has also happily retained much of the archaic phraseology, and has discarded the use of rhyme. EXTRACT I A.D. 650 (?) BEOWULF, 11. 1357–1376. [Beowulf having heard how the monster Grendel had desolated Heorot, the proud mead-hall of the Danish King Hrothgar, journeyed from Sweden and slew the fiend. Then once more the sound of feasting was heard in the hall, and the retainers dared to sleep there. But that very night Grendel's mother came and slew Eschere, the friend and adviser of King Hrothgar, who, having hastily called for the hero Beowulf, bewails Eschere's loss, and describes the abode of the two destroyers.] "They dwell in a dim hidden land, |