books of a distinctly Shakespearean character, and we believe the forthcoming report will show an increase greatly in excess of any former experience. This gratifying state of things is to be ascribed largely to the assiduity of Mr. Hawley. Everything he did was done out of pure love for the work entrusted to him. He had just about six weeks ago completed a manuscript catalogue of all the known editions of Shakespeare's plays in every language, and this will stand as a monument to his perseverance and industry. There is no other such complete catalogue in existence. As a specimen of what can be done in caligraphy perhaps nothing could be found to compare with it. Other work of a valuable character might also be mentioned, but it is sufficient to say that the library has been immensely benefited by his services. - Stratford-on-Avon Herald.

A FIRST FOLIO in excellent preservation is said to have been discovered in the city of Mexico, and purchased from an ignorant dealer for an insignificant price. The Robert Lenox Kennedy Folio, mentioned by Mr. Fleming on page 111 of Volume V. of SHAKESPEARIANA, was recently sold at auction in New York City for $1400.

THE sale of that portion of the library of the late J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps which his nephew has decided to dispose of at public auction will take place next month in London, and will embrace about one thousand lots.

MR. FRANK MARSHALL, editor of "The Henry Irving Shakespeare," is studious and well-meaning, but he has lately written one or two letters which might lead the public to believe that he puts Irving before Shakespeare in more senses than one. To defend Mr. Irving's conception of Macbeth is one thing; to defend his liberties with the play and text is another. For example, when Macbeth-I mean the real Macbeth-hears of his wife's death, he begins an impressive soliloquy with the sentence, "She should have died hereafter." Mr. Irving substitutes

"would" for "should," and Mr. Marshall upholds him in a change which turns a suggestive phrase into a platitude. The reason for condemning it, however, is not merely or mainly rhetorical. If there be an accepted canon of Shakespearian criticism it is that no conjectural emendation shall be made where the text is intelligible and consistent. "Improvements to suit the taste of this or that editor are not to be tolerated. If there are two or more texts the righteous editor is not even then to let fancy dictate his choice. He is to accept, other things being equal, the best authority. For the text of Macbeth there is but one authority, the Folio of 1623, when the play was first printed, seven years after Shakespeare's death There are no Macbeth quartos. The Folio reads "should," and the reading, being intelligible and consistent-making good sense, to put it short-is decisive. Mr. Frank Marshall's defence of Mr. Irving's "would" is itself entirely indefensible.— N. Y. Tribune.

EDITORS SHAKESPEARIANA: Your correspondent's question apropos of "In the soup," as to whether any piece of modern slang has yet been invented which cannot be found suggested in Shakespeare, reminds me to write you that the expressions Painting the town red" and "It's a cold day when I get left," both of which appeared in these forms within the last six or ten years, are both, almost literally, in Shakespeare. The one in I. Henry Fourth, II., iv., 13, where Falstaff says:

66

"They call drinking deep, dyeing scarlet";

and the other in Cymbeline, II., iii., 1, when the "First lord " says to Cloten :

"Your lordship is the most patient man in loss, the very coldest that ever turned up an ace."

And Cloten replies:

"It would make any man cold to lose!"

New York, March 17, 1889.

R.

Shakespeare Societies.

APRIL MEETING OF THE SHAKESPEARE SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. At the triennial meeting of the Board of Trustees the following officers were elected to serve for the coming three years:

President, Appleton Morgan, A. M., LL. B.; Chairman of Board of Trustees, W. W. Nevin, Esq.; Vice-President, Thos. R. Price, A.M., LL.D. (Chair of English, Columbia College); Treasurer, Jas. E. Reynolds, Esq.; Secretary, Wm. H. Fleming, Esq.; Librarian, B. Rush Field, M.D. The President read his Report for four years last past as follows:

TO THE TRUSTEES-Gentlemen: I have the honor to make the following report:

The Articles of Incorporation of the Shakespeare Society of New York were approved by the Hon. George B. Barrett, a Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, on April 18, 1885, and filed in the proper office upon that day.

On the evening of April 24, 1885, the trustees named in said Articles of Incorporation-Appleton Morgan, James E. Reynolds, A. Chalmers Hinton, R. S. Guernsey, and Albert R. Frey-met at the residence of James E. Reynolds, Esq., No. 104 West 38th Street, in the city of New York, and effected a temporary organization. The Articles of Incorporation and certificates being then read, and it appearing that the Society had received its statutory incorporation by full compliance with the statutes of the State of New York, said trustees proceeded to effect its permanent organization by election of officers to serve for one year as follows: President, Appleton Morgan; Vice-President, R. S. Guernsey; Treasurer, James E. Reynolds; Secretary, Charles C. Marble; Librarian, Albert R. Frey. All of these officers served until the end of the term for which they were elected, except Mr. Guernsey, who resigned both as a member and as an officer of the Society, on account of removal from the city, on April 8, 1886, on which day his resignation was, at his request, accepted.

The first stated meeting of the Society was held at the residence of Mr. Reynolds, and the Constitution and By-Laws of this Society were then adopted, upon being read and voted upon

section by section. Here the Society thereafter continued to assemble, except that by the courtesy of M. H. Mallory & Company, proprietors of The Churchman, the Society occupied for a time two large rooms at No. 47 Lafayette Place. On October 24, 1885, by the kindness and procurement of Dr. Barnard, the late beloved and revered President of Columbia College, whom this Society will not cease to hold in grateful memory, the Trustees of Columbia College invited this Society to occupy spacious apartments in Hamilton Hall of that university. This courtesy the Society accepted, passing a vote of thanks to Dr. Barnard and to the Board of Trustees, and since has made its home within the hospitable walls of that university. By invitation of the same institution the Society has resolved to deposit its library in the massive and fire-proof alcoves of the Columbia College library, and though formal arrangements to that end have not yet been completed, owing to a vacancy in the office of the librarian of the college, the Society has assurances of the conclusion of such formalities at an early date, a committee of this Society now being in communication with the trustees of Columbia College in regard to the matter.

At the first stated meeting of the Society, the Society honored itself by electing as its first honorary member the late learned and beloved James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps, Esq., of Hollinbury Copse, Brighton, England, who accepted the election in a most grateful and complimentary letter to the Society. Subsequent honorary members elected by the Society have been as follows: Carl Elze, Ph.D., Stuttgart, Germany; Charles Mansfield Ingleby, LL.D., Valentines, Ilford, England; David Thomas Morgan, Esq., Whips Cross, Walthamstow, Essex, England; Rev. Henry Paine Stokes, A.M., Wolverhampton, England; Samuel_Timmins, Esq., Birmingham, England; George Frederick Holmes, LL.D., University of Virginia, Virginia; Hon., Cushman K. Davis, St. Paul, Minnesota. The mortality among the above list has been exceptionally large. D. T. Morgan, Esq., died at Whips Cross, November 4, 1886; Dr. Ingleby died November 18, 1886; Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps died January 3, 1889, and Dr. Elze died January 23, 1889. As the Society has proposed from the outset that the title of "Honorary Member of the New York Shakespeare Society" should have weight and meaning, the vacancies on this list-which was deliberately selected-will be most deliberately filled, the constitution providing that only persons who shall be "of recognized eminence as an author, editor, or compiler of Shakespearian drama, or of the Elizabethan drama, or of works or matters re

lating thereto, and who shall be recommended by the Executive Committee," shall be eligible as honorary members.

THE LIBRARY.

The library of the New York Shakespeare Society it is proposed to ultimately make an honor to the city of the Society's birth. At present, though not imposing in bulk or of large significance, compared to the great collections of the world, it is believed that the Society is proceeding in the sure and proper way to make its increase sure and its value permanent. Judicious purchases are made by order of the Executive Committee on recommendation of the Library Committee, and contributions have been and are constantly being added by its friends. It is hoped that by the absorption of the private libraries of certain members who have pledged themselves to bequeath them to the Society, our library will ultimately become one of the largest and most practicable working Shakespearian libraries in the United States, and our members are urgently requested to assist to further that end, not only by contributions of books, but by losing no opportunity of representing to others the permanent condition of security under which the Society will deposit its library with Columbia College, and the Society's assurances that Columbia College will co-operate with this Society by placing in an alcove or a group of alcoves such collection as itself may be able to make along with the library of this Society: and this Society will see to it that all donors to its library shall receive perpetuation for their collections and their names.

The following donors to our library are entitled to the thanks of the Society: The late J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps, Esq., the late Dr. Carl Elze, the late Dr. C. M. Ingleby, the late D. T. Morgan, Esq., Samuel Timmins, Esq., Justin Winsor, Esq., B. Rush Field, M.D., Messrs. Funk & Wagnalls, Mrs. Evangeline M. O'Connor, Mrs. Elizabeth Wormeley Latimer, Charles F. Gunther, Esq., Mr. Herbert Janvrin Browne, Augustin Daly, Esq., Franz Thimm, Ph.D., Mr. Horace Davis, Charles F. Hansom, Esq., Charles F. Steele, Esq.

MEETINGS AND PAPERS.

The following papers have been read before the Society: 1st, "Sir William D'Avenant and the First Shakespearian Revival, Appleton Morgan. 2d, "Ecclesiastical Law in Hamlet, the Burial of Ophelia," R. S. Guernsey. 3d, "Some Readers of Shakespeare," C. C. Marble. 4th, "Queen Elizabeth's Share in the Merry Wives of Windsor," Appleton Morgan. 5th,