"Your ideas of Hamlet so entirely agree with my own that the book has been a real delight to me. I have always had exactly this feeling about the character of Hamlet. I think you have wiped away a great many cobwebs, and I believe your book will prove to be most convincing to many people who may yet be a trifle in the dark." _The Book News Monthly_: "Mr. Venable is the latest critic to apply himself to the 'Hamlet' problem, and he offers a solution in an admirably written little book which is sure to attract readers. Undeterred by the formidable names of Goethe and Coleridge, Mr. Venable pronounces untenable the theories which those great authors propounded to account for the extraordinary figure of the Prince of Denmark. * * * Mr. Venable looks in another direction for the solution of the problem. * * * The solution offered by the author is just the reverse of that proposed by Goethe. * * * From Mr. Venable's viewpoint the key to 'Hamlet' is found in the famous soliloquies, and his book is based upon a close study of those utterances which bring us within the portals of the soul of the real Hamlet. The reader with an open mind will find in Mr. Venable a writer whose breadth of view and searching thought gives weight to this competent study of the most interesting of Shakespearean problems." _16mo. Silk cloth Net, $1.00_ * * * * * _Portmanteau Plays_ BY STUART WALKER Edited and with an Introduction by EDWARD HALE BIERSTADT This volume contains four One Act Plays by the inventor and director of the Portmanteau Theater. They are all included in the regular repertory of the Theater and the four contained in this volume comprise in themselves an evening's bill. There is also an Introduction by Edward Hale Bierstadt on the Portmanteau Theater in theory and practice. The book is illustrated by pictures taken from actual presentations of the plays. The first play, the "_Trimplet_," deals with the search for a certain magic thing called a trimplet which can cure all the ills of whoever finds it. The search and the finding constitute the action of the piece. Second play, "_Six who Pass While the Lentils Boil_" is perhaps the most popular in Mr. Walker's repertory. The story is of a Queen who, having stepped on the ring-toe of the King's great-aunt, is condemned to die before the clock strikes twelve. The Six who pass the pot in which boil the lentils are on their way to the execution. Next comes "_Nevertheless_," which tells of a burglar who oddly enough reaches regeneration through two children and a dictionary. And last of all is the "_Medicine-Show_," which is a character study situated on the banks of the Mississippi. One does not see either the Show or the Mississippi, but the characters are so all sufficient that one does not miss the others.