AN ELIZABETHAN MISCEL LANY REPRINTED

This Elizabethan miscellany, familiar to Shakespeare and containing a ballad which may have provided Ophelia with snatches of her mad scene, is now reprinted for modern readers and students, in a pleasing edition which follows the original pagination, punctuation, and division of lines. "The Handful of Pleasant Delights", says the editor, "contains nothing but ballads, all of which and, before their collection in miscellany, been printed on breadsides, so that it is a bit surprising to see how unanimous is the price given to it." Whether the present reprint should prove more tempting to student of special topics or to general readers, a consensus of tastes must decide.

There is plenty of material which should entice the modern reader, for the original sponsors of the book had certain definite notions of what it was to be good for and what were its selling points. These they took laborious metrical pains to set forth beyond the possibility of doubt in a verse which, tastefully placed at the beginning, advertises the ensuing, volume with a skill rather perennial than antiquated.

Within this book such may you haue, as Ladies may wel like.

Here may you haue such pretie things, such Songs as you require.

The purpose is practical, and one sighs, perhaps, to think how the word has degenerated, or to imagine the Ladies who might have responded to such chords.

Moderns Deficient in Affection

The warmth of affection practised by the knights and poets of Elizabeth's reign demanded protestation, an art in which the modern world is deficient. It is an art, however vain, which might restore some fragment of joy and courtesy to Vanity Fair, the only permanent institution on earth. In "A Handful of Pleasant Delights", we see the art practised with simplicity and fervor of soul, too honest and optimistically tussling with versification for the polished and invidious grace of the sonneteers Or at least it is so in the following superb example, which merits instant acceptance as the literal truth. Other verses in the book are more fluent and studied.

Time (Thyme) is to trie me, as each be tried must,

Letting you know while life doth last,

I will not be unjust.

And if I should I would to God.

to hell my soule should beae.

And eke also that Beelzebub,

with teeth the should me teare,

The "Handful of Dainty Delights" is a book of ballads for singing, containing "fine Histories" as well as "such Pretie thinges as women much desire"; Mr. Rollins's reprint is pleasantly and skillfully presented;

Wherefore my friend, if you regard,

Such Songs to regard or heare;

Doubt not to buy this pretie Booke, the price is not so deare