We said at the beginning of this article that there was not a word of commentary on the poetical merits of the play. We beg the editors’ pardon. They have in one note, and in one note only, ventured on an expression of critical opinion. We all know the lines-- “There is a willow grows aslant a brook That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream,” etc., etc. We transcribe the note on this passage that it may be a sign to all men of what Philology is able to effect, an omen and testimony of what must inevitably be the fate of Literature if the direction and regulation of its study be entrusted to philologists:-- “This speech of the Queen is certainly unworthy of its author and of the occasion. The enumeration of plants is quite as unsuitable to so tragical a scene as the description of Dover cliff in _King Lear_ iv. 6. 11-24. Besides there was no one by to witness the death of Ophelia, else she would have been rescued.” As this beggars commentary, transcription shall suffice. Now we would ask any sensible person who has followed us, we do not say in our own remarks--for they may be supposed to be the expression of biassed opinion--but in the specimens we have given of such an edition as this of _Hamlet_, and of such an edition as we have just reviewed of _Adonais_, what is likely to be the fate of English Literature, as a subject of teaching, so long as our Universities ignore their responsibilities as the centres of culture by not only countenancing, but assisting in the production and dissemination of such publications as these? How can we expect anything but anarchy wherever the subject is treated?--there an extreme of flaccid dilettantism, here an extreme of philological pedantry. Conceive the tone and temper which, especially at the impressionable age of the students for whom the book is intended, the study of Shakespeare, under such guides as the editors of this _Hamlet_, would be likely to induce. Is it not monstrous that young students between the ages of about fifteen and eighteen should have such text books as these inflicted on them?