"A HAMLET BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCE GUIDE

1877-1935." By Professor Anton A. Raven. University of Chicago Press, xvi, 292 p. $3.50.

If you entertain or desire a theory about Hamlet or any part of it; if you consider the play one of the seven wonders or an artistic failure; if the prince seems to you a continuing mould of form or the mere victim of conventional delay in revenge plays; if Polonius or the grave diggers intrigue you; if you lack knowledge of the sources; if you specially interpret "the sledded Polacks" or "the bird of dawning" or "the dram of eale," or care for examples of men's ingenuity in construing what they see in terms of what they are: here is a guide to all that the modern world has produced to help, bewilder, or convict you. Furness gave a bibliography of the then existing Hamletiana in 1877. Professor Raven has examined directly or indirectly all (that is the hope, it may well be the actuality) that has subsequently appeared in every language—English, French, German, Russian, Spanish, Italian, Serbian, etc. There are 2167 items, from the most to the least important; on an average one of these has been published every twelve days for the whole period covered. And all of this library has been studied, classified, and described. Indeed, some fourteen hundred items have been summarized,—and that with generosity as well as precision (if actual test in a few cases allows us to hazard a general opinion). A monumental labour! It gives a swift instrument hitherto lacking to the hand of the Shakespearean scholar or student.