MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS.

Southland Times, Volume VII, Issue 518, 13 July 1866, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS.

The following is an orginal Acrostic which will exercise the reader's remembrance of some of the principal characters of our noblest dramatist and poet:— ACEOSTIC. "William Shakespeare. BY JIES. ABDY. 1. A cardinal of proud imperious will, 2. A Lady famed for " saucing broths" with skill. 3. A father forced a fearful storm to brave. 4. A brother standing in a sister's S rave ' . v 5. A maid whom none m virtue could surpass. 6. A Spanish Don, who wooed a country lass. 7. A Thane, who saw strange shadows in a glass. 8. A usurer, who held a gleaming knife. 9. A faithful, but traduced and hapless wife. 10. A country girl, unfavored by the Muse. 11. A fair one classing with the tribe of shrews. 12. A widow taunted as " poor painted Queen." 13. A justice far from being wise and keen. 14. A kuight whose constancy was light as brief. 15. A wife enjoined to steal a handerchief. 18. A " dainty spirit " kept awhile in thrall. 17. A lover who o'releapt the garden wall. 18. A " cankered granddam " of a royal line. Read, and a character to each assign ! ♦ A letter from Ventor, Isle of "Wight, gives a long list of sprine and summer flowers, &c, in bloom there on Christmas Day. A book upon Shakespeare's Sonnets, by Mr Gerald Massey, which had been promised for some time, has just appeared. The pretensions put forth in the title plainly indicate the character, of the work; •' Shakespeare's Sonnets never before interpreted : his private friends identified ; together with a recovered likeness of himself..' It would appear from the title that Shakespeare's sonnets had been hitherto supposed to lie in blank oblivion, Like the dull weed that rots on Lethe's stream ; and that it was reserved for Mr Gerald Massey to draw the sonnets from obscurity, and to explain their meaning for the first time. We need not say that this assumption is purely gratuitous, and that the great calamity, under which the sonnet? have suffered is, not lack of annotation, but the piling up of more rubbish upon them in the shape of conjectural criticism than any book of like dimensions has ever had to endure since the printing press was invented. Mr Gerald Massey, indeed in spite of his title-page, is quite aware of this fact, and devotes no inconsiderable space to show that everyone who preceded him in this inquiry failed to discover the secret which he believes he has found out, As to Mr Cbarles Armitage Brown's theory, which, whatever may be said, oi thought, of it intrinsically, was certainly tlie most ingenious and important thai had been previously launched, Mr Massey looks upon, it with ineffable contempt. " Mr Brown's book," he says, " leaves the subject just where he " [who ? — the book ?] " found it ; dark and dubious as ever. His theory has only served to trouble the dead waters, and make them so muddy that it was impossible to see to the bottom." But if it was impossible to see to the hot't'om, how comes it that Mr Masseyfias seen to the bottom ? and what is it he he has seen ? Well, that is not so easy to divkfer- Mr Massey has a way of ' ; interpreting " the sonnets which cannot be said, as he says of Mr Brown's book, to leave the subject just where he found it, but, on the contrary, which leaves it in greater obscurity than ever. He assumes, of course, that the sonnets are auto-biographical, ?and his method oi establishing his theory is of the approved arbitrary character. He picks out the sonnets, and re-arranges them in groups varying in number in each group accordingly as they suit his purpose, and thus makes out a story about the Earl of Southampton and Elizabeth Vernon, which, we need scarcely add, is pure moonshine. In the first place, neither INr Massey, nor anybody else, has any right to disturb the original arrangement of the sonnets, in which they have come down to us from Shakespeare's own time, and therefore we should be justified in stopping him on the very threshold of his work. In the second place, iv order to bring out hi 3 theoiy, he is obliged to sun pose that certain sonnets were intended to embody the feelings of other people, such as the loves and jealousies of the Earl and his mistress, expressed by thempelres; and by this device, Mr Massey liberates himself from much of the difficulty he would have found in endeavoring to reconcile these particular pieces with Shakespeare's individuality. This latter class of sooneta is denominated " Dramatic " and all the rest " Personal ;" but the distinction between the two is not clear, and the former title is simply unintelligible. lr» carrying out this infelicitous design, Mr Massey has added to the useless heap of Shakesperian commentaries already existing the heaviest and least satisfactory volume yet written. All that Mr Massey has really to say might have been said in a quarter of, the space he has occupied, and his manner of saying it is nob only cumbrous and redundant, but it is colored all throughout with a flippancy out of keeping alike with tho subject and the respect which is due to previous critics whose lines happen to cross the path of his inquiry. A Pompons Judge Taken Down. — A. certain nidge -was repremauding an attorney lor bringing beviv-iil K'.its into- chuh, and remaned .that it I would "bnTo boon niueh better for all parties hao ho piir&um.ed his e'uentß;to leave their case to t\ ! arbitration of two Oi-tlireo.honwt men. "Pleas ! you? h<in-n\" j^torlea the Inwypr, "^edor^ 1 choose lo tPOubUi Y>Qr\nt tas\\ wl<<h &?»*"

A chtirraing domestic story comes to us from the Antipodes — " Vermont Vale 5 cr, Home Pictures in Australia," by Maud Jeanne Franc. The pictures are thoroughly life-like, and briug us at once acquainted with, interiors and mddea oi ice which have at least the attraction -oi novelty t > European readers. The characters are naturally drawn, and the incidents are in harmony with the scene and the society. The story may be especially recommended to young readers 08 Mccraat of ita jmtitg of tone.