Za darmo

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 03, No. 16, February, 1859

Tekst
Autor:
0
Recenzje
Oznacz jako przeczytane
Czcionka:Mniejsze АаWiększe Aa

We come now to the theory on which Mr. White lays the greatest stress, and for being the first to broach which he even claims credit. That credit we frankly concede him, and we shall discuss the point more fully because there is definite and positive evidence about it, and because we think we shall be able to convince even Mr. White himself that he is wrong. This theory is, that the th was sounded like t in the word nothing, and in various other words, at the beginning of the seventeenth century. This certainly seems an unaccountable anomaly at very first sight; for we know that two sounds of th existed before that period, and exist now. What singular frost was it that froze the sound in a few words for a few years and left it fluent in all others?

Schoolmaster Gill, in his "Logonomia," already referred to, gives an interesting and curious reason for the loss from our alphabet of the Anglo-Saxon signs for the grave and acute th. He attributes it to the fact, that, when Henry VII. invited Wynken de Word over from Germany to print for the first time in English, the foreign fount of types was necessarily wanting in signs to express those Saxon sounds. Accordingly, the form th was required to stand for both. For the Germans, he says, call thing, Ding, and father, Vater.35 In his alphabet he gives though and thistle as expressing the two sounds, which is precisely consonant with present usage. On page 152, speaking of the difficulties of English pronunciation to a foreigner, he says, "Etenim si has quinque voculas, What think the chosen judges? quid censent electi judices? rectè protuleris, omnem loquendi difficultatem superâsti." Ben Jonson in his Grammar gives similar examples, and speaks also of the loss of the Saxon signs as having made a confusion. It is certain, then, at least, that Shakspeare did not pronounce thing, ting,—or, if he did, that others did not, as we shall presently show.

Most of Mr. White's arguments in support of his opinion are theoretic; the examples by which he endeavors to sustain it tell, with one exception, against him. That exception is his quoting from one of Shakspeare's sonnets the rhyme doting and nothing. But this proves nothing (noting?); for we have already shown that Shakspeare, like all his contemporaries, was often content with assonance, where identity could not be had, in rhyming. Generally, indeed, the argument from rhymes is like that of the Irishman who insisted that full must be pronounced like dull, because he found it rhyming with b[)u]ll. Mr. White also brings forward the fact, that moth is spelt mote, and argues therefrom that the name of the Page Moth has hitherto been misconceived. But how many th sounds does he mean to rob us of? And how was moth really pronounced? Ben Jonson rhymes it with sloth and cloth; Herrick, with cloth. Alexander Gill tells us (p. 16) that it was a Northern provincialism to pronounce cloth long (like both), and accordingly we are safe in believing that moth was pronounced precisely as it is now. Mr. White again endeavors to find support in the fact that Armado and renegado are spelt Armatho and renegatho in the Folio. Of course they were, (just as the Italian Petruccio and Boraccio are spelt Petruchio and Borachio,) because, being Spanish words, they were so pronounced. His argument from the frequent substitution of had for hath is equally inconclusive, because we may either suppose it a misprint, or, as is possible, a mistake of the printer for the Anglo-Saxon sign for th, which, as many contractions certainly did, may have survived in writing long after it was banished from print, and which would be easily confounded with d. Can Mr. White find an example of dod for doth, where the word could not be doubtful to the compositor? The inability of foreigners to pronounce the th was often made a source of fun on the stage. Puttenham speaks of dousand for thousand as a vulgarism. Shakspeare himself makes Caius say dat, and "by my trot"; and in Marston's "Dutch Courtezan," (Act ii. Sc. 1,) we find Francischina, (a Dutch woman,) saying, "You have brought mine love, mine honor, mine body, all to noting!"—to which her interlocutrix answers, "To nothing!" It is plain that Marston did not harden his _th_s into _t_s, nor suppose that his audience were in the habit of doing so. How did Ben Jonson pronounce the word? He shall answer for himself (Vision of Delight).—

 
  "Some that are proper find signify o'thing,
  And some another, and some that are nothing."
 

But perhaps he pronounced thing, ting? If he did, Herrick as surely did not, for he has

 
  "Maides should say, or virgins sing,
  Herrick keeps, as holds, nothing,"
 

where the accent divides the word into its original elements, and where it is out of the question that he should lay the emphasis on a bit of broken English. As to the _h_s which Mr. White adduces in such names as Anthony and such words as authority, they have no bearing on the question, for those words are not English, and the h in them is perhaps only a trace of that tendency in t to soften itself before certain vowels and before r, as d also does, with a slight sound of theta, especially on the thick tongues of foreigners. Shakspeare makes Fluellen say athversary; and the Latin t was corrupted first to d and then to dth in Spanish. The h here has not so much meaning as the h which has crept into Bosporus, for that is only the common change of p to f, corresponding to v for b. So when Mr. White reads annotanize rather than anatomize, because the Folio has annothanize, we might point him to Minsheu's "Spanish Dictionary," where, in the earlier editions, we find anathomia. In lanthorn, another word adduced by Mr. White, the h is a vulgarism of spelling introduced to give meaning to a foreign word, the termination being supposed to be derived from the material (horn) of which lanterns were formerly made,—like Bully Ruffian for Bellerophon in our time, and Sir Piers Morgan for Primaguet three centuries ago. As for t'one and t'other, they should be 'tone and 'tother, being elisions for that one and that other, relics of the Anglo-Saxon declinable definite article, still used in Frisic.

We have been minute in criticizing this part of Mr. White's notes, because we think his investigations misdirected, the results at which he arrives mistaken, and because we hope to persuade him to keep a tighter rein on his philological zeal in future. Even could he show what the pronunciation of Shakspeare's day was, it is idle to encumber his edition with such disquisitions, for we shall not find Shakspeare clearer for not reading him in his and our mother-tongue. The field of philology is famous for its mare's-nests; and, if imaginary eggs are worth little, is it worth while brooding on imaginary chalk ones, nest-eggs of delusion?

Life is short and Shakspeare long. We believe the pronunciation of Shakspeare's day to have been so qualified with perfectly understood provincialisms as to have allowed puns and rhymes impossible now. It is not eighty years since you could tell the county36 of every country member of Parliament by his speech. Speculations like Mr. White's would be better placed in a monograph by themselves. We have subjected his volumes to a laborious examination such as few books receive, because the text of Shakspeare is a matter of common and great concern, and they have borne the trial, except in these few impertinent particulars, admirably. Mr. Dyce and Mr. Singer are only dry commonplace-books of illustrative quotations; Mr. Collier has not wholly recovered from his "Corr. fo."-madness; Mr. Knight (with many eminent advantages as an editor) is too diffuse; and we repeat our honest persuasion, that Mr. White has thus far given us the best extant text, while the fulness of his notes gives his edition almost the value of a variorum. We shall look with great interest for his succeeding volumes.

* * * * *

In the introductory part of this article, we said that it was doubtful if Shakspeare had any conscious moral intention in his writings. We meant only that he was purely and primarily poet. And while he was an English poet in a sense that is true of no other, his method was thoroughly Greek, yet with this remarkable difference,—that, while the Greek dramatists took purely national themes and gave them a universal interest by their mode of treatment, he took what may be called cosmopolitan traditions, legends of human nature, and nationalized them, by the infusion of his perfectly Anglican breadth of character and solidity of understanding. Wonderful as his imagination and fancy are, his perspicacity and artistic discretion are more so. This country tradesman's son, coming up to London, could set high-bred wits, like Beaumont, uncopiable lessons in drawing gentlemen such as are seen nowhere else but on the canvas of Titian; he could take Ulysses away from Homer and expand the shrewd and crafty islander into a statesman whose words are the pith of history. But what makes him yet more exceptional was his utterly unimpeachable judgment, and that poise of character which enabled him to be at once the greatest of poets and so unnoticeable a good citizen as to leave no incidents for biography. His material was never far-sought; (it is still disputed whether the fullest head of which we have record were cultivated beyond the range of grammar-school precedent!) but he used it with a poetic instinct which we cannot parallel, identified himself with it, yet remained always its born and question-less master. He finds the Clown and Fool upon the stage,—he makes them the tools of his pleasantry, his satire, and even his pathos; he finds a fading rustic superstition, and shapes out of it ideal Pucks, Titanias, and Ariels, in whose existence statesmen and scholars believe forever. Always poet, he subjects all to the ends of his art, and gives in Hamlet the churchyard-ghost, but with the cothurnus on,—the messenger of God's revenge against murder; always philosopher, he traces in Macbeth the metaphysics of apparitions, painting the shadowy Banquo only on the o'erwrought brain of the murderer, and staining the hand of his wife-accomplice (because she was the more refined and higher nature) with the disgustful blood-spot that is not there. We say he had no moral intention, for the reason, that, as artist, it was not his to deal with the realities, but only with the shows of things; yet, with a temperament so just, an insight so inevitable as his, it was impossible that the moral reality, which underlies the mirage of the poet's vision, should not always be suggested. His humor and satire are never of the destructive kind; what he does in that way is suggestive only,—not breaking bubbles with Thor's hammer, but puffing them away with the breath of a Clown, or shivering them with the light laugh of a genial cynic. Men go about to prove the existence of a God! Was it a bit of phosphorus, that brain whose creations are so real, that, mixing with them, we feel as if we ourselves were but fleeting magic-lantern shadows?

 

But higher even than the genius, we rate the character of this unique man, and the grand impersonality of what he wrote. What has he told us of himself? In our self-exploiting nineteenth century, with its melancholy liver-complaint, how serene and high he seems! If he had sorrows, he has made them the woof of everlasting consolation to his kind; and if, as poets are wont to whine, the outward world was cold to him, its biting air did but trace itself in loveliest frost-work of fancy on the many windows of that self-centred and cheerful soul.

* * * * *

NEW PUBLICATIONS

For the Quarter ending December 31, 1858.

Life in a Risen Saviour. By Robert S. Candlish, D.D. 12mo. 75 cts. Philadelphia. Lindsay & Blakiston.

Life of Lord Timothy Dexter, etc. By Samuel L. Knapp: 16mo. 50 cts. Boston. J.E. Tilton & Co.

Principles of Social Science. By H.C. Carey. Vol. 2. 8vo. $2.50. Philadelphia. J.B. Lippincott & Co.

The Motherless Children. Play and Study. By Mrs. Madeline Leslie. 12mo. Each 75 cts. Boston. Shepard, Clark, & Brown.

Agnes; a Novel. By the Author of Ida May. 12mo. $1.25. Boston. Phillips, Sampson, & Co.

Courtship and Matrimony, with other Sketches. By Robert Morris. 12mo. &1.25. Philadelphia. T.B. Peterson & Brothers.

A History of East Boston, with Biographical Sketches of its Early Proprietors. By Wm. H. Sumner, A.M. 8vo. $4.50. Boston. J.E. Tilton & Co.

An Elementary Grammar of the Italian Language. Progressively arranged for the Use of Schools and Colleges. By G.B. Fontana. 12mo. $1.00. Boston. Phillips, Sampson, & Co.

A Journey Due North; being Notes of a Residence in Russia in the Summer of 1856. By G.A. Sala. 16mo. $1.00. Boston. Ticknor & Fields.

Brief Expositions of Rational Medicine; to which is prefixed, The Paradise of Doctors, a Fable. By Jacob Bigelow, M.D. 18mo. cloth. 50 cts. Boston. Phillips, Sampson, & Co.

Lectures to Children. Second Series. By Rev. John Todd. 32mo. cloth. 60 cts. Springfield. Hopkins, Bridgman, & Co.

Man upon the Sea; or a History of Maritime Adventure, Exploration, and Discovery. By Frank B. Goodrich. 8vo. $3.00. Philadelphia. J.B. Lippincott & Co.

Mizpah. Prayer and Friendship. By Lafayette C. Loomis. 12mo. $1.25. Philadelphia. J.B. Lippincott & Co.

In and Around Stamboul. By Mrs. E. Hornby. 12mo. $1.25. Philadelphia. Lindsay & Blakiston.

Davenport Dunn. By Charles Lever. Vol. 1. 50 cts. Philadelphia. T.B. Peterson & Brothers.

A Grammar of the German Language. By Adolph Douai. 12mo. $1.25. Boston. Phillips, Sampson, & Co.

Sir Walter Raleigh and his Times, with other Papers. By Charles Kingsley. 12mo. $1.25. Boston. Ticknor & Fields.

Plain Words to Young Men. By Aug. Woodbury. 12mo. 75 cts. Concord, N.H. E.C. Eastman.

The Works of Charles Dickens. A New Edition. Pickwick Papers. 2 vols. 12mo. Nicholas Nickleby. 2 vols. 12mo. Martin Chuzzlewit. 2 vols. 12mo. The Old Curiosity Shop. 2 vols. 12mo. $1.25 per vol. Boston. Ticknor & Fields.

The Household Edition of the Waverley Novels. The Betrothed, 2 vols. 16mo. The Talisman. 2 vols. 16mo. Woodstock. 2 vols. 16mo. The Fair Maid of Perth. 2 vols. 16mo. Anne of Geierstein, or the Maiden of the Mist. 2 vols. 16mo. 75 cts. per vol. Boston. Ticknor & Fields.

The Works of William Shakspeare. Edited by Richard Grant White. 12 vols. 12mo. Vols. 2 to 5. $1.50 per vol. Boston. Little, Brown, & Co.

The Courtship of Miles Standish, and other Poems. By Henry W. Longfellow. 12mo. 75 cts. Boston. Ticknor & Fields.

Thoughts on the Life and Character of Jesus of Nazareth. By Rev. Wm. H. Furness, D.D. 12mo. $1.00. Boston. Phillips, Sampson, & Co.

Dolce Far Niente. By John R. Tait. 12mo. 50 cts. Philadelphia. Parry & McMillan.

Inquiries and Suggestions in Regard to the Foundation of Faith in the Word of God. By Albert Barnes. 12mo. 60 cts. Philadelphia. Parry & McMillan.

Piney Woods Tavern, or Sam Slick in Texas. 12mo. $1.25. Philadelphia, T.B. Peterson & Brothers.

Milch Cows and Dairy Farming. By Charles L. Flint. 12mo. $1.25. Boston. A. Williams & Co.

Selections from the Writings of Fenelon, with a Memoir of his Life. By Mrs. Follen. A New Edition. 12mo. $1.00. Boston. J. Munroe & Co.

The Wolf-Boy of China, or Incidents and Adventures in the Life of Lyn-Pays. By Wm. Dalton. 12mo. 75 cts. Boston. J. Munroe & Co.

The Harvest and the Reapers; Home Work for All, and How to do it. By Rev. Harvey Newcomb. 12mo. 63 cts. Boston. Gould & Lincoln.

A Service-Book for Public Worship. Prepared especially for Use in the Chapel of Harvard University. 12mo. $1.25. Cambridge. John Bartlett.

Annual Obituary Notices of Eminent Persons who have died in the United States in the Year 1857. By Hon. Nathan Crosby. 8vo. $1.75. Boston. Phillips, Sampson, & Co.

Willard Memoir; or Life and Times of Major Simon Willard; with Notices of Three Generations of his Descendants, and two Collateral Branches in the United States, etc. By Joseph Willard. 8vo. $3.00. Boston. Phillips, Sampson, & Co.

The Demi-Monde; a Satire on Society. Translated from the French of A. Dumas Fils. By Mrs. E.G. Squier. 12mo. 75 cts. Philadelphia. J.B. Lippincott & Co.

Violet; or the Times we Live in. 12mo. $1.00. Philadelphia. J.B. Lippincott & Co.

Ought American Slavery to be Perpetuated; a Debate between Rev. W.G. Brownlow and Rev. A. Pryne, held in Philadelphia in September. 12mo. $1.00. Philadelphia. J.B. Lippincott & Co.

Practical Dissections. By R.M. Hodges, M.D. 12mo. $1.00. Cambridge. John Bartlett.

The Mathematical Monthly. Edited by J.D. Runkle. For October and November. 2 Nos. 25 cts. each. Cambridge, John Bartlett.

Zenaida. By Florence Anderson. 12mo. $1.25. Philadelphia. J.B. Lippincott & Co.

The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table. By O.W. Holmes. Illustrated by Hoppin. 12mo. $1.00. Boston. Phillips, Sampson, & Co.

Poor and Proud; or the Fortunes of Katy Redburn. By Oliver Optic. 18mo. 63 cts. Karl Kiegler; or the Fortunes of a Foundling. 18mo. 50 cts. Walter Seyton. A Story of Rural Life in Virginia. 18mo. 50 cts. Boston. Phillips, Sampson, & Co.

Rollo's Tour in Europe. Rome. By Jacob Abbott. 12mo. 50 cts. Boston. Brown, Taggard, & Chase.

The Four Sisters. By Frederika Bremer. Translated by Mary Howitt. 12mo. $1.25. Philadelphia. T.B. Peterson & Brothers. This is a reprint (under another name) of Hertha.

Journal of Conversations with Lord Byron. By the Countess of Blessington. 12mo. $1.00. Boston. Wm. Veazie.

Biography of Self-Taught Men, with an Introductory Essay. By B.B. Edwards. 18mo. 88 cts. Boston. J.E. Tilton & Co.

The New Priest in Conception Bay. 2 vols. 16mo. $1.75. Boston. Phillips, Sampson, & Co.

Ernest Carroll, or Artist Life in Italy. 12mo. 75 cts. Boston. Ticknor & Fields.

Thoughts of Favored Hours upon Bible Incidents and Characters, and other Subjects. By Josiah Copley. 18mo. 50 cts. Philadelphia. J.B. Lippincott & Co.

Shadows. By C.H. Bennett. Thin 4to. plain, 50 cts. colored, 75 cts. Philadelphia. C.J. Price & Co.

Jessie; or Trying to be Somebody. With Illustrations. By Walter Aimwell. 16mo. 63 cts. Boston. Gould & Lincoln.

Brandon; or a Hundred Years Ago. A Tale of the American Colonies. By Osmond Tiffany. 12mo. $1.00. New York. Stanford & Delisser.

Irving's Life of Columbus. A New Revised Edition. 3 vols. 12mo. $4.00. New York. G.P. Putnam.

Travels in Africa. By Bayard Taylor. A New Edition. 12mo. $1.50. New York. G.P. Putnam.

The Microscope. By Jabez Hogg. 3d Edition. 12mo. $1.50. New York. Geo. Routledge & Co.

The Poetical Works of George Crabbe. New Illustrated Edition. 16mo. $1.25. New York. Geo. Routledge & Co.

The German Scholar's Hand-Book. By Theodore Von Rosenthal and D.W. Turner. 18mo. 13 cts. New York. Geo. Routledge & Co.

True to the Last; or Alone on a Wide, Wide Sea. By A.S. Roe. 12mo. $1.25. New York. Derby & Jackson.

Minna Raymond; a Tale that might have been True. 16mo. 63 cts. New York. Geo. Routledge & Co.

Vestiges of the Spirit History of Man. By S.F. Dunlap. 8vo. $3.50. New York. D. Appleton & Co.

From New York to Delhi. By Robert B. Minturn, Jr. 12mo. $1.25. New York. D. Appleton & Co.

Electron; or The Pranks of the Modern Puck. By William C. Richards. 16mo. 50 cts. New York. D. Appleton & Co.

Legends and Lyrics. A Book of Verses. By Adelaide Anne Proctor (Daughter of Barry Cornwall). 12mo. 75 cts. New York. D. Appleton & Co.

The Laying of the Telegraphic Cable, with all its Incidents and Anecdotes, etc. By John Mullaly. 12mo. 50 cts. New York. D. Appleton & Co.

Rational Cosmology; or the Eternal Principles and the Necessary Laws of the Universe. By Laurens P. Hickok, D.D. 8vo. $1.75. New York. D. Appleton & Co.

American Eloquence; a Collection of Speeches and Addresses of the most Eminent Orators of America. By Frank Moore. 2 vols. 8vo. $5.00. New York. D. Appleton & Co.

Shamah in Pursuit of Freedom; or the Branded Hand. Translated from the original Showrah, and edited by an American Citizen. 12mo. $1.25. New York. Thacher & Hutchinson.

The Religious Aspects of the Age; being Addresses delivered at the Anniversaries of the Young Men's Christian Union of New York in May, 1858. 12mo. 75 cts. New York. Thacher & Hutchinson.

Sermons to the Churches. By Francis Wayland, D.D. 12mo. 85 cts. New York. Sheldon, Blakeman, & Co.

Spurgeon's Gems; being Brilliant Passages from the Discourses of the Rev. C.H. Spurgeon. 12mo. $1.00. New York. Sheldon, Blakeman, & Co.

 

Ernestin; or The Heart's Longings. By Aleth. 12mo. $1.25. New York. Stanford & Delisser.

The Household Book of Poetry. Collected and edited by Charles A. Dana. 8vo. $3.50. New York. D. Appleton & Co.

The Poetical Works of Edgar A. Poe. Illustrated. 4to. cloth gilt, $6.00. morocco, $8.00. New York. J.S. Redfield.

Memoirs of Rev. David T. Stoddard, Missionary to the Nestorians. By Joseph P. Thompson, D.D. 12mo. $1.00. New York. Sheldon, Blakeman, & Co.

Selections from Favorite Prescriptions of Living American Practitioners. By Horace Green, M.D., LL.D. 8vo. $2.00. New York. Wiley & Halsted.

History of the Rise and Progress of the Iron Trade of the United States, from 1621 to 1857. By B.F. French. 8vo. $2.00. New York. Wiley & Halsted.

The Decimal System. An Argument for American Consistency in the Extension of the Decimal Scale to Weights and Measures, in Harmony with the National Currency. By John H. Felton. 12mo. 75 cts. New York. Wiley & Halsted.

The Rifleman. By Captain Rafter. 18mo. 38 cts. New York. G. Routledge & Co.

A Hand-Book of Swimming and Skating. By George Forest. 32mo. 13 cts. New York. G. Routledge & Co.

Law and Lawyers. By Archer Polson. 32mo. 25 cts. New York. G. Routledge & Co.

China; being The Times' Special Correspondence in the Years 1857 and 1858. Map and Portrait, 12mo. $1.25. New York. Geo. Routledge & Co.

Peasant Life in Germany. By Mrs. Anna C. Johnson. 12mo. $1.25. New York. Charles Scribner.

K.N. Pepper and other Condiments. By Jacques Maurice. 12mo. $1.00. New York. Rudd & Carleton.

The Boy's Book of Industrial Information. 12mo. $1.50. New York. D. Appleton & Co.

Clarke's Microscope. A Popular Description of the most Beautiful Objects to Observe. 12mo. 75 cts. New York. G. Routledge & Co.

Practical Sermons. By Nathaniel W. Taylor, D.D. 8vo. $1.50. New York. Clark, Austin, & Smith.

My Lady Ludlow. By Mrs. Gaskell. 12 cts. New York. Harper & Brothers.

The Potiphar Papers. Prue and I. By Geo. Wm. Curtis. New Editions. $1.00 each. New York. Harper & Brothers.

Loomis's Philosophy. 12mo. 75 cts. New York. Harper & Brothers.

Beauties of Ruskin. Selected from his Works, with a Notice of the Author. By L.C. Tuthill. 12mo. $1.25. New York. Wiley & Halsted.

How to Lay out a Garden. By Edward Kemp. 12mo. $2.00. New York. Wiley & Halsted.

Blonde and Brunette; or The Gothamite Arcade. 12mo. 75 cts. New York. D. Appleton & Co.

Swedenborg, a Hermetic Philosopher. 12mo. $1.00. New York. D. Appleton & Co.

Fitz Greene Halleck's Poems. A New Edition. 12mo. 75 cts. 8vo. $2.00. New York. D. Appleton & Co.

Isabella Orsini. A Historical Novel. By F.D. Guerazzi. Translated by Luigi Monti. 12mo. $1.25. New York. Rudd & Carleton.

Vernon Grove; or Hearts as they are. 12mo. $1.25. New York. Rudd & Carleton.

The Secret of a Life. By M.M. Bell. 18mo. 50 cts. New York. Geo. Routledge & Co.

Illustrations to Irving's Life of Washington. Ninety Steel Plates, in a Box. $5.00. New York. G.P. Putnam.

The Tenant-House; or Embers from Poverty's Hearthstone. 12mo. $1.25. New York. Robert M. De Witt.

History of Frederick the Second, called Frederick the Great. By Thomas Carlyle. 2 vols. 12mo. $2.50. New York. Harper & Brothers.

Self-Made Men. By Charles C.B. Seymour. 12mo. $1.25. New York. Harper & Brothers.

Nature and the Supernatural, as together constituting the One System of God. By Horace Bushnell. 8vo. $2.00. New York. C. Scribner.

Discourses on Common Topics of Christian Faith and Practice. By James W. Alexander, D.D. 8vo. $2.00. New York. Charles Scribner.

The Theology of Christian Experience, designed as an Exposition of the "Common Faith" of the Church of God. By George D. Armstrong, D.D. 12mo. $1.00. New York. Charles Scribner.

The History of Prostitution; its Extent, Causes, and Effects, throughout the World. From an Official Report to the Board of Almshouse Governors of the City of New York. By William W. Sanger, M.D. 8vo. $3.00. New York. Harper & Brothers.

Bitter-Sweet. A Poem. By J.G. Holland. 12mo. 75 cts. New York. Charles Scribner.

Joan of Arc; or The Maid of Orleans; from Michelet's History of France. 32mo. 50 cts. New York. Stanford & Delisser.

The Poems of William Wordsworth. Illustrated. 4to. cloth, $6.00. morocco, $8.00. New York. Geo. Routledge & Co.

Bethlehem and the Bethlehem School. By C.B. Mortimer. 16mo. 63 cts. New York. Stanford & Delisser.

The Ministry of Life. By Mrs. Maria L. Charlesworth. 12mo. $1.00. New York. D. Appleton & Co.

Bertram Noel; a Story for Youth. By E.J. May. 16mo. 75 cts. New York. D. Appleton & Co.

The Witches of New York, as encountered by Q.K. Philander Doesticks. 12mo. $1.00. New York. Rudd & Carleton.

Dust and Foam; or, Three Oceans and Two Continents. By T.R. Warren. 12mo. $1.25. New York. Charles Scribner.

History of the Christian Church. By Philip Schaff, D.D. 8vo. $2.50. New York. Charles Scribner.

The Chronicles of the Bastile. Illustrated. 8vo. $2.00. New York. Stanford & Delisser.

Oriental Tales of Fairy Land. 16mo. 63 cts, New York. Stanford & Delisser.

Songs of the Woodland, the Garden, and the Sea. Elegantly illustrated. 4to. $2.00. New York. Anson D.F. Randolph.

Lyra Germanica; Second Series; The Christian Life. Translated from the German, by Catherine Winkworth. 12mo. 75 cts. New York. Anson D.F. Randolph.

A Little Leaven, and what it Wrought at Mrs. Blake's School. 18mo. 60 cts. Our Little Girls. By the same Author. 18mo. 40 cts. New York. Anson D.F. Randolph.

The Babes in the Basket, or Daph and her Charge. By the Author of Timid Lucy. 18mo. 50 cts. New York. Anson D.F. Randolph.

Tabby's Travels; or The Holiday Adventures of a Kitten. By Lucy Ellen Guernsey, Author of Irish Amy. 18mo. 50 cts. New York. Anson D.F. Randolph.

Kenneth and Hugh; or Self-Mastery. By "Cousin Kate," Author of Horace and May. 18mo. 75 cts. New York. Anson D.F. Randolph.

Sunshine; or, Kate Vinton. By Harriet B. M'Keever. 16mo. 75 cts. Philadelphia. Lindsay & Blakiston.

Quaint Sayings and Doings concerning Luther. Collected and arranged by John G. Morris, D.D. 16mo. 75 cts. Philadelphia. Lindsay & Blakiston.

A Yacht Voyage. Letters from High Latitudes. Being some Account of a Voyage in the Schooner-Yacht "Foam" 850 m. to Iceland, Jan Mayens, and Spitzbergen, in 1856. By Lord Dufferin. 12mo. $1.00. Boston. Ticknor & Fields.

The Life and Times of Sir Philip Sidney. 12mo. $1.00. Boston. Ticknor & Fields.

The Emancipation of Faith. By Henry Edward Schedel, M.D. 2 vols. 8vo. $4.00. New York. P. Appleton & Co.

Meta Gray; or, What makes Home Happy. By M.J. M'Intosh. 12mo. 75 cts. New York. D. Appleton & Co.

"The Julia." By the Author of Vara. 12mo. $1.00. New York. Robert Carter & Brother.

Struggles of the Early Christians, from the Days of our Saviour to the Reign of Constantine. With an Introduction by Rev. F.D. Huntington, D.D. 18mo. 50 cts. Boston. J.P. Jewett & Co.

The Persian Flower. A Memoir of Judith Grant Perkins, of Oroomiah, Persia. 18mo. 50 cts. Boston. J.P. Jewett & Co.

The Age of Chivalry. Part I., King Arthur and his Knights. Part II., The Mabinogeon, or Welch Popular Tales. 12mo. $1.00. Boston. Crosby, Nichols, & Co.

Arabian Days' Entertainments. Translated from the German. By Herbert Pelham Curtis. 12mo. $1.25. Boston. Phillips, Sampson, & Co.

Hymns of the Ages, Being Selections from Lyra Catholica, Germanica, Apostolica, and other Sources. With an Introduction by F.D. Huntington, D.D. 4to. cloth, gilt, $3.00. morocco, $5.00. A cheap edition, $1.00. Boston. Phillips, Sampson, & Co.

Life Thoughts. Gathered from the Extemporaneous Discourses of Henry Ward Beecher. By one of his Congregation. A fine edition, on large paper. cloth, gilt, $2.00. morocco, $4.50. Boston. Phillips, Sampson, & Co.

Thorndale; or Conflict of Opinions. By William Smith. 12mo. $1.25. Boston. Ticknor & Fields.

Christmas Hours. By the Author of The Homeward Path. 16mo. 50 cts. Boston. Ticknor & Fields.

The Life of James Sullivan, with a Selection from his Writings. By Thomas C. Amory. 2 vols. 8vo. $4.50. Boston. Phillips, Sampson, & Co.

Dora Deane; or East India Uncle and Maggie Miller, or Old Hagar's Secret. By Mrs. M.J. Holmes, Author of "Tempest and Sunshine." 12mo. $1.00. New York. C. Saxton.

The Power of Prayer Illustrated in the Wonderful Display of Divine Grace. By S.I. Prime. 12mo. $1.00. New York. C. Scribner.

The Banks of New York, their Dealers, the Clearing-House, and the Panic of 1857, with a Financial Chart. By J.S. Gibbons. With Thirty Illustrations. 12mo. $1.50. New York. D. Appleton & Co.

Future Life, or Scenes in Another World. By George Wood, Author of "Modern Pilgrims." 12mo. $1.25. New York. Derby & Jackson.

While it was Morning. By Virginia F. Townsend. 12mo. $1.25. New York. Derby & Jackson.

The Sociable; One Thousand and One Home Amusements. By the Author of the Magician's Own Book. 12mo. $1.00. New York. Dick & Fitzgerald.

Wild Flowers, Drawn and Colored from Nature. By Mrs. C.M. Badger. With an Introduction by Mrs. L.H. Sigourney. 4to. morocco. $12.50. New York. C. Scribner.

The Daily Counsellor. By Mrs. L.H. Sigourney. Small 8vo. $1.50. Hartford. Brown & Gross.

Palestine, Past and Present, with Biblical, Literary, and Scientific Notices. By Henry S. Osborn, A.M. With Illustrations. 8vo. $3.50. Philadelphia. James Challen & Sons.

The Mustee; or Love and Liberty. By B.F. Presbury. 12mo. $1.25. Boston. Shepard, Clark, & Brown.

The Queen's Domain, and other Poems. By William Winter. 16mo. 63 cts. Boston. E.O. Libby & Co.

Life Memories, and other Poems. By Edward Sprague Rand, Jr. 16mo. 63 cts. Boston. J. Munroe & Co.

Poems. By Frances Anne Kemble. 12mo. $1.00. Boston. Ticknor & Fields.

Lectures and Addresses on Literary and Social Topics. By the late Frederick W. Robertson of Brighton. 12mo. $1.00. Boston. Ticknor & Fields.

35Praefatio, p. 6. We abridge his statement.
36Mr. White is mistaken in thinking that to say "my country" for "my county" was a peculiarity of Shallow. It was common in the last century in England. He is wrong also in thinking that he was restoring a characteristic vulgarism in aleven. Gabriel Harvey uses it, and says there is no difference in sound between that and a leaven.