INDEX.

SECOND EDITION.

Shakespeare's True Life,

BY JAMES WALTER.

(Dedicated by special permission to Sir Theodore Martin, K.C.B., and Lady Martin.) Printed on thick vellum paper. Imperial 8vo (size of page, 11in. by 7in.) pp. 410 PRICE ONE GUINEA.

WITH 500 ILLUSTRATIONS BY GERALD E. MOIRA.

The Great Public Schools have adopted it as a Prize Volume, and where choice of selection is left to winning youths, it is a usually favoured book.

The Rev. Dr. Haig Brown, Head Master of Charterhouse, writes of it:-" Major Walter's True Life of Shakespeare' is a service not to literature only but to the nation. Its patient and laborious research and judicious discrimination and enthusiasm deserve the highest praise. Never before have we had such an insight into the domestic life of him who bears the greatest name among our Poets. Charterhouse delights in it for prizes." Many other distinguished Head Masters have borne like gratifying testimony.

EW Works have ever received higher general commendation from the press than this by MAJOR WALTER. Apart from its interest as the Life of the World's Greatest Writer, its suitability for Birthday or Wedding Gifts and School Prizes is universally admitted. Church Dignitaries of the several grades of thought-from the late Canon Liddon, of St. Paul's Cathedral, and the Very Rev. F. W. Farrar, Dean of Canterbury-join hands with the late Rev. Chas. H. Spurgeon, and the scholarly of other religious bodies, in enthusiastic welcome of the book.

The author acknowledges with gratitude the kindness with which the public journals have referred to its issue.

An Edition, known as the Royal, printed on specially-made paper, in Imperial Quarto, with margin double that of the ordinary edition, has been prepared, This ed tion is issued strictly for private circulation, and can be obtained only by Subscribers at Two Guineis per copy. Name, accompanied by remittance, to be sent to MAJOR JAMES WALTER, Stratford Lodge, St. Margaret's, Middlesex.

The RIGHT HON. W. E. GLADSTONE presented a copy of this edition to All Souls College as a souvenir to his A ma Mater.

BRITAIN'S MAJESTY, together with the Imperial and Royal Houses of Europe generally, are among the Subscribers to this Edition de Luxe. The most exalted personages have been graciously pleased to testify by autograph letters their appreciation of the Author's endeavour to place the Great Prince of Literature in his right before the world.

LONDON AND NEW YORK; 15, EAST 16TH STREET

LONGMANS, GREEN, I CO.

Eminent Literary Men and the Press

ON

WALTER'S "SHAKESPEARE'S TRUE LIFE."

Canon Liddon.

Foremost among teachers to testify to the
True Life came "the heart most loving, with
tongue of fire! now dumb for aye!" Canon
Liddon, of St. Paul's, with these characteristic
words!"It supplies Literature's great need
with rare power, boldness, and seeming truth,
ruthlessly brushing away the gossip, many
unfounded scandals, and presenting the vital
links in life's chain welded with impressive
eloquence-withal it helps the cause of God.
Ruggedness of style has appertained to works
enduring through all ages. May not this
become the accepted life-tale of him of all
times,' and its peculiarities be deemed here-
after its chiefest merit?"

Rev. Charles H. Spurgeon.
The Boanerges of the Metropolitan Tabernacle,
the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, thus writes in his
Magazine, The Sword and Trowel:-"Major
Walter has accomplished what no one else
could have carried through. With a wealth of
choice illustrations of every place where the
great Poet set his foot he has adorned a book
which will henceforth be the standard work on
Shakespeare's life. We are amazed at the
prodigality with which the illustrations bejewel
the volume. This work to the archæologist and
the artist is a museum of delights. We warmly
welcome his splendid book. He has written
well and most devoutly. Hitherto the loose
world has set up a claim to the imperial genius
of the Bard of Avon; but here a man who loves
his Bible and his God takes fair possession of
him, and fights hard with all who would
besmirch his character. It is graciously done,
and we thank him for it. Our interest in his
achievement is great, and if his work is really
to be sold for a nominal guinea, or an actual
sixteen shillings, it is cruelly cheap. If we
were making a Christmas present to a literary
friend, we should think it one of the best gifts
we could give him. We care not for the play-
wright; but whatever form the productions of
this master-mind might have assumed, they
would have exercised a vast influence far beyond
their immediate audiences. It is History and
Biography of a most tempting order."

Archdeacon Farrar.

Westminster Abbey's eminent preacher and author says: Major Walter's beautiful volume evinces the bestowal of a great amount of most loving care on the vindication of the great Poet, and the scenes in which he passed the happy years of his youth and his later manhood. All who love the memory of Shakespeare and are indebted to him for some of their deepest and most consoling thoughts must be grateful to the author of Shakespeare's True Life for such earnest and thorough labour."

The Times.

"A more delightful volume to give to the innumerable admirers of rural England it would be difficult to imagine. To accompany the and theatres and bear-gardens of the Borough, dramatist up to the metropolis, amid the taverns and the churches as they stood associated with Shakespeare before the great fire had burned out the contagion of the plague, is of deepest interest. The work has been the labour of a life, and we do it sad injustice in a short review. The author has struck a new mine of treasure in the traditions with regard to Shakespeare and his family. Anne Hathaway was, of course, her husband's senior by years, and in place of being and intellectual, and might have sat for the ideal a commonplace woman, she was sympathetic of "Sweet Ann Page." Shakespeare was never a scape-grace, but a studius young man of orderly, habits, with far more books at his disposal than has hitherto been admitted."

Daily Telegraph.

"A sumptuous gift book, written by an enthusiast, and illustrated with truly artistic splendour, is Shakespeare's True Life. There can be no question that in this book the most scrupulous and loving care has been at work to collect every particle of evidence bearing either on the details of the Poet's life or on those ircumstances and conditions which influenced his career. The beauty of the River Avon, the inhospitable Hall and Park at Charlecote-all the golden threads which are worked into the rich tapestry of Shakespeare's life are here

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Daily News.

illustrated by pen and pencil with royal profusion. One of the most interesting points in the book is the author's treatment of that mysterious ceremony which joined into some sort of recognised union Anne Hathaway and her youthful lover. Stoutly he defends Shakespeare's character in the matter of the deer stealing, and resolutely he vindicates the happi-fascinating theme. Major Walter's work must ness of the union between the mature maiden of twenty-seven and a boy of eighteen. All true Shakespeare lovers owe a debt of gratitude to Major Walter for his magnificent volume."

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The Standard.

"When it is remembered how many have been the books devoted to the life of our great national Poet, it is no small thing to be able to boast of having produced the most beautiful volume that has yet come forth upon this have been a labour of years; it has certainly been a labour of love. Witness the illustrations which brighten the text. Nothing that is, or was, or might be, or could even be imagined to be associated with Shakespeare and his sojourn has here upon this "bank and shoal of Time been judged alien to the objects of the artist's pencil."

The Echo.

master of one thing is formidable. Such a lovely "Life is short, but the man who makes himself volume as this helps one more into touch with the Bard of Avon's works, and therewith one appreciates him the better than any other book we know of. Shakespeare's country is described in this delightful work with truthful and glowing language, with graphic fidelity. There are no dry bones here, and the many hundreds of illustrations pourtray no lengthy references to musty records. All is instinct with the beautiful life that environs and pervades the sacred precincts of rural English homes. There are red-tiled farmhoutes with quaint dormers, clustered chimney stacks, frdens of roses, lavender and rosemary, and windows large enough to feel the morning sunshine and afford snug corners for the martens beneath the eaves. One

Major Walter's charming volume not only comes with the Christmas books, but is in itself the beau ideal of what a Christmas book ought to be. If anyone whose disposition inclines him to Yule Tide benefactions, and whose convictions compel him-in the matter of gifts to take thought for the bookshelf of the object of his regard, is still hesitating, he will find an end of doubt when he lights upon this timely treasure. Only, if rightly advised, he will secure a duplicate for his own use and delight. It would be making too severe a demand on human nature to expect anyone to forego absolutely in favour of another the possession of a thing so much to be desired. The unique merit of Major Walter's method is that he has gone with antiquarian zeal, and with that seeing eye that is denied to many a porer over manuscripts and decipherer of has only to turn over half the 400 pages of this more inscriptions, to the very world in which Shake- than charming volume, or pause for a moment over speare moved and worked. The scenes where the centre drawings, to see how full Shakespeare's he spent his youth and his prosperous prime country is of picturesque old English life-life remain, to this day, less changed by the defac-associated with the wanderings of the Bard of ing fingers of time and man than the home of most of our English worthies. Major Walter fills out with faithful and delicate local colour the outline rudely traced by preceding biographers by the dim light of entries in registers and of half-faded signatures on documents unearthed from old monument chests. The wealth of topographical detail given in the volume constitutes its main charm. A good deal can be said in 395 large double columned pages; and the writer has allowed himself a leisurely discursiveness of style which accords excellently with the Old World theme. The "True Life" is the outcome of the loving abour of a life-time. Every library should possess it. No pilgrim should visit the Shakespeare country without it. As a companion to the study of the Poet's works, it must ever be a charming necessity."

Avon, the man himself. Major Walter's book, with its graphic description and wealth of illustra tion, adds new interest and significance to Shakespeare's immortal works. The book is crowded with interesting matter graphically told, and is the handsomest guinea book we have seen.'

Court Journal.

As a gift-book nothing equals this charming volume. Whether as bridal or birthday souvenir it is unsurpassed, with the recommendation of never getting out of date, and therefore an ever constant remembrance of the donor."

Spectator.

"The author convinces us that in the Poot purity and elevation of character went hand in hand with genius. His earliest relations with