Almost as wide of the mark is Mr. Swinburne's description of the volume as "worthless." It contains twenty-one numbers, besides that lofty dirge, so unapproachably solemn, _The Phoenix and the Turtle_. Of these, five are undoubtedly by Shakespeare. A sixth (_Crabbed age and youth_), if not by Shakespeare, is one of the loveliest lyrics in the language, and I for my part could give it to no other man. Note also that but for Jaggard's enterprise this jewel had been irrevocably lost to us, since it is known only through _The Passionate Pilgrim_. Marlowe's _Live with me and be my love_, and Barnefield's _As it fell upon a day_, make numbers seven and eight. And I imagine that even Mr. Swinburne cannot afford to scorn _Sweet rose, fair flower, untimely pluck'd, soon vaded_--which again only occurs in _The Passionate Pilgrim_. These nine numbers, with _The Phoenix and the Turtle_, make up more than half the book. Among the rest we have the pretty and respectable lyrics, _If music and sweet poetry agree; Good night, good rest; Lord, how mine eyes throw gazes to the east. When as thine eye hath chose the dame_, and the gay little song, _It was a Lording's daughter_. There remain the _Venus and Adonis_ sonnets and _My flocks feed not_. Mr. Swinburne may call these "dirty and dreary doggrel," an he list, with no more risk than of being held a somewhat over-anxious moralist. But to call the whole book worthless is mere abuse of words. It is true, nevertheless, that one of the only two copies existing of the first edition was bought for three halfpence. SHAKESPEARE'S LYRICS August 25, 1894. Shakespeare's Lyrics. In their re-issue of _The Aldine Poets_, Messrs. George Bell & Sons have made a number of concessions to public taste. The new binding is far more pleasing than the old; and in some cases, where the notes and introductory memoirs had fallen out of date, new editors have been set to work, with satisfactory results. It is therefore no small disappointment to find that the latest volume, "The Poems of Shakespeare," is but a reprint from stereotyped plates of the Rev. Alexander Dyce's text, notes and memoir. The Rev. A. Dyce.