the names of Gilbert, Birket Foster, Harrison Weir, John Absolon,
and a crowd of others. The poems of Longfellow, Montgomery, Burns,
"Barry Cornwall," Poe, Miss Ingelow, were all successively
"illustrated." Besides these, there were numerous selections, such
as Willmott's "Poets of the Nineteenth Century," Wills's "Poets' Wit
and Humour," and so forth. But the field here grows too wide to be
dealt with in detail, and it is impossible to do more than mention a
few of the books most prominent for merit or originality. Amongst
these there is the "Shakespeare" of Sir John Gilbert. Regarded as
an interpretative edition of the great dramatist, this is little
more than a brilliant tour de force; but it is nevertheless
infinitely superior to the earlier efforts of Kenny Meadows in 1843,
and also to the fancy designs of Harvey in Knight's "Pictorial
Shakespeare." The "Illustrated Tennyson" of 1858 is also a
remarkable production. The Laureate, almost more than any other,
requires a variety of illustrators; and here, for his idylls, he had
Mulready and Millais, and for his romances Rossetti and Holman Hunt.
His "Princess" was afterwards illustrated by Maclise, and his "Enoch
Arden" by Arthur Hughes; but neither of these can be said to be
wholly adequate. The "Lalla Rookh" of John Tenniel, 1860, albeit
somewhat stiff and cold, after this artist's fashion, is a superb
collection of carefully studied oriental designs. With these may be
classed the illustrations to Aytoun's "Lays of the Scottish
Cavaliers," by Sir Noel Paton, which have the same finished
qualities of composition and the same academic hardness. Several
good editions of the "Pilgrim's Progress" have appeared,--notably
those of C. H. Bennett, J. D. Watson, and G. H. Thomas. Other books
are Millais's "Parables of our Lord," Leighton's "Romola," Walker's
"Philip" and "Denis Duval," the "Don Quixote," "Dante," "La
Fontaine" and other works of Dore, Dalziel's "Arabian Nights,"