system, by which men are paid, re- "It shall to the barber's with your beard" tained, supported, to betray their fel- Now this allusion to the beard of low subjects, so that every man looks Polonius, evidently points out the prowith suspicion upon his neighbour, priety of his having one in the repreand the barriers of social confidence sentation: but the eye of the specta are gradually undermining. It excites tor looks in yain upon the smooth the highest indignation, when const- shaven chin of Mr. Munden, for that der what contemptible things are the longitude of beard which requires diobjects of this society's prosecution: minution. This therefore is an error, contemptible in themselves, but vex- which ought to be amended. atious to the subject. I will examine Newman-street, I remain, &c. their whole proceedings: I will examine them upon constitutional. grounds; I will hunt them, to the utmost of my power, through all their doublings.

May 1.

BARBATUS.

ANNOTATIONS on the TEXT of
SHAKSPEARE.

Sir,

Viridu vis animi, and those
N point of original genius, of the

I repeat it, let the members of this society confine themselves to such .matters as demand amendment: let them abolish the infamous sale of im"Mad natural graces that extinguish art," moral books and obscene plates: let our national dramatist is, perhaps, inthem restrict their operations to such ferior to none of the modern or an business as is, in fact; amenable to cient models of composition that we the law, but which the administrators possess. The present writer does of the law have few means of detect- not, however, defer to the sentiment ing and punishing: let them do this, of those who maintain his almost toand they will be venerated and esteem- tal ignorance of literature; but is ined by their countrymen but let them clined to the opinion, (as Quinctilian step beyond this, and infringe upon says of Aper*) that "otius contemprivate liberty, by exercising a vexatious jurisdiction over every petty action which a man commits in his own house, and it shall not be my fault if they escape hatred, infamy, and disgrace. I remain, &c. London, May 16. W. MUDFORD. P.S. I shall await the publication of your number for June with considerable anxiety, as I am not without strong expectations that this letter may call forth the thoughts of many, more competent, though not more willing, to effect the liberation I wish. If I find, however, that such is not the case, I will then, with your permission, address a series of letters to my countrymen, upon a topic so important. to their liberty and interests.

Sir,

POLONIUS' BEARD?

nebat libros quam nesciebat." To the maxim of the polished Algarotti, "che la poesia dei settentrionali consista più di pensieri che d'immagini," he must be allowed to form the most conspicuous exception; for in what author shall we look for bursts of fancy more sublime than those of Shakspeare?

Dryden,† whose mind was imbued with the fine phrenzy of poetry, has with justice observed of this illustrious bard, that he needed not the specta cles of books to read nature: the ener gy of his conceptions has produced a style of language peculiar to himself; but which is yet frequently inefficient to embody the vivid ideas that his creative imagination suggested.

The charge of inutility is readily urged against additional remarks, by those who may think that a satiety of

AS your Magazine is daily becom- comment has already been employed,

ing more and more looked up to in order to diffuse and refine the bein theatrical affairs, permit me to state nefit of the pleasure of his dramatic what appears to me an error in the powers; but it should be reflected, tragedy of Hamlet, as it is now repre- that complete elucidation, in quessented at Covent Garden theatre. tionable passages, is more easily atWhen the Player King is reciting be- tained by successive observation and fore Hamlet, Æneas' tale to Dido," Polonius exclaims "This is too long," to which Hamlet replies,

* Dialog. de Orat.

Essay on Dramatic Poesie.

varied research. The explanation of She, whose absence should be the oc a single passage may sometimes occa- casion of exciting your tears, is basion inferences, with respect to a dis- nished from your sight. Whet is in puted meaning elsewhere; the colla- reference to the degree of grief.. Mr. 置 teral exertions of reason are in some Heath's interpretation (revisat) is ex degree similar to the solar rays, which tremely harsh: he supposes the eye. are not concentrated to a particular to be treated as a person. point, but embrace the circuit of the visible horizon.

Are upon the Mediterranean flote* Bound sadly home for Naples.

The following trifles have accumu- Flote is the participle, and equivalent lated and reposed during several to afloat. years; and from an intelligent reader they may expect the indulgence of. candor, if they cannot aspire to the acquiescence of conviction.

I remain, &c.

PERRECTURUS.

TEMPEST.-Act I. Sc. I.

"Blow till thou burst thee, wind, if room enough!"

This scene is closely imitated in the
commencement of Beaumont and
Fletcher's Sea-Voyage.

Like one,
Who having unto truth, by telling of it,
Made such a sinner of his memory
To credit his own lie.-Sc. 2.

By this lection, it is very irregularly
referred to lie, that occurs after it.
Hanmer's text gives untruth, and
Warburton's oft. The two readings

united would elicit sense:

"Who having an untruth by telling oft,"

&c.

On their sustaining garments not a blemish.

Maintaining their life after escape from wreck, Miranda has said, at the beginning of this scene, the "freighting souls within," to intimate those who loaded the vessel.

Now I arise.

Prospero means, that he is about to relate the amelioration of his circumstances in the ensuing part of his tale. He accordingly subjoins,

"Sit still, and hear the last of our sea-sorTOW."

(I find myself anticipated by Warburton, whom the revisal, in my opinion, ineffectually opposes.)

We cannot miss him.

That is, we are unable to spare his
services. So in Macbeth," Who
cannot want the thought, how mon-
strous," &c. explained hereafter.
Act II.

Where she, at least, is banish'd from your eye,
Who hath cause to what the grief on't.

A

Calib" Water with berries in't.”

With equal wildness and energy, the
savage thus designates wine.
Vouchsafe, my prayer

May know, if you remain upon this island.
Inhabit: Fr. demeurer.

My husband then ?Ay, with a heart as-
willing

As bondage e'er of freedom.
Willing is here used for glad.

Mr. Steevens affirms himself ignorant of the difference between aferde and affraide. I think that the latter included the idea of disorderly dress. Thus, Chaucer; Romaunt of the Rose, v. 154:

"For she was nothing well aravde,
But like a wode woman afraide."

The poet applies these words to Hate,
personified.

Act IV.Sc. I.
Γ

If his wickedness be not excessive. Sosicles says of a blockhead, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Queen of Corinth, that "he utters such single matter in so infantly a voice." Single (like oney denotes insignificance, and the word double, excess. Brabantio, in Othello, boasts of " a voice as double, or powerful, as the duke's."

Act III. Sc. II.

Orpheus' lute was strung with poet's sinews.

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.
Act II. Sc. 1.

liuddled jest upon jest, with such impossi
ble conveyance.

Conveyance (or attack) which it was impossible to parry or repel.

Act III. Sc. IV.

And now he (Benedict) eats his meat without grudging.

"He has resigned his fruitless strug

Warburton's supposition, that lute gles against his passion, and is at means a system of laws, is not neces- Jength contented to love and to hope." sary. That "the lute of Orpheus To the SOCIETY of PEOPLE, Comwas endued with poetical attributes," constitutes very plain sense.

Act V. Sc. III.

And that my love may appear plain and free,
All that was mine in Sylvia I give thee.
These words undoubtedly appear in-
consistent in Valentine.

monly called QUAKERS. TO you as a peculiarly considerate

and a peculiarly benevolent people, an appeal is now made in behalf of those miserable little children, who are employed to sweep chimneys by climbing. You, no doubt, are well Perhaps the similarity of the fami- aware of their sufferings, and no liar sounds of but and that, has caused doubt are desirous of lessening their the intrusion of the latter into the hardships. To you is owing in a second line in lieu of the former. If great degree, the abolition of that inwe admit but was, the interpretation auman traffic, the African slavewill be natural. "To convince you trade; and may it not be hoped that of my reconciliation, I grant you all you will give your assistance to abomy love, excepting that share in my lish another very great evil, though affections that was occupied by Sylvia." The latter word is emphatic, and implies that his regard for his mistress is not yet diminished.

MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR.
Act 1. Sc. I.

The luce is the fresh fish, the salt fish is an
old coat.

certainly as far as respects the number of sufferers very small, when compared with that trade. It is not meant to be inferred that there are not as benevolent individuals of other denominations: but taken collectively, happy would it be were all alike in this respect as yourselves.

Mr. Tollet's note expresses an opiThe evils attending climbing chim nion, that salted means powdered, neys has long been lamented, and sewhich may be also understood as veral associations have been formed at white. Perhaps there was a distinc- different times for lessening the hardtion between the luce, considered per ships of those employed in that occuse, and the white luce before-men- pation. In the year 1803, a society tioned. The passage then signifies, was established in London, "for su that an old coat of arms was distinguished by the white luce, or salt fish; a new one, by the simple luce.

Act III. Sc. III.

I see how thine eye would emulate the dia mond.

J. Harrington has imitated this in a Sonnet on Isabella Markhame, and is followed by Pope in the Elegy on an unfortunate Lady:

"Whence comes my love, O heart disclose, 'Twas from cheeks that sham'd the rose; From lips that speak the rubies praise, From eyes that mock the diamond's blaze.” See Nuge Antique, p. 129; published by Dodsley, 1769.

perseding the necessity of climbing boys, by encouraging a new method of sweeping chimnies, and for im proving the condition of children and others employed by chimney-sweepers." This society has now been ac tively employed for five years, and there is great reason to hope that it has laid a foundation for the complete abolition of the practice of climbing chimneys. That the chimneys which are already built may, in most cases, be as effectually swept by mechanical means, as they have heretofore been by climbing, there is very little doubt. Since the institution of the society,

"He, soone discovering his desire, And finding now fit opportunity To stirre up strife, 'twixt love, and spight,

and ire,

those means have been adopted in many thousand instances in London, and in different parts of the kingdom. The principal machine which has been used for the purpose is one, Did privily put coles unto his secret fire." Faery Queene, Bk. Cant. St. 2, 4, 11. consisting of a brush and hollow-rods, connected together by a cord which To carry coles, in the phraseology of passes through them. In many that age, signifies to endure insult; cases where easy access can be had to or if the preceding be admitted, "to the top of the chimney, the method bear those provocations without regenerally practised in the north of sentment, which should induce us to England may be adopted, which is manifest the feelings of anger." by drawing up and down a bundle of 2. The famous darkness visible of straw, a broom, or a furze bush, tied Milton may be found in a line of to a rope. The society have lately Spenser; F. Q. B.C. S. 1, 1, 14: had some square bricks, with a circu"A little glooming light, much like a lar opening, shewn at one of their shade; meetings, which bricks, if brought and Quintus Curtius was perhaps the into use, would form chimneys peculiarly well adapted for machi- model for this latter:

nery.

"Obscura cæli, verius umbra quàm lux, premit terram.-Lib. 8, c 3, dis.

Several of the above-mentioned nocti simi. machines, with hollow-rods, have de Parapam been forwarded into the country to 3. The following notes occurred to the following places, at the request, me while reviewing the volume of it is understood, of individuals of your Beaumont and Fletcher's works, society, to Bristol, Birmingham, Shef- which contains the lately revived trafield, Chichester, and Witham, in gedy of Bonduca.

Essex. It may be observed, that in The prophetess says to Drusilla, the committee of the society for su- to whom she promises reparation for perseding the necessity of climbing. the infidelity of Diocles: boys, &c. are two of your people, and

"He shall be thine, amongst the subscribers several more, Or wish in vain he were not ”—Act 2, sc. 3. so that already you have manifested The last editors (1778) incline to your zeal in this cause. The time think, that "were not" denotes his now approaches when many of you future wish of escaping from wretchwill assemble in the metropolis on edness by death. For this there is no your annual affairs, when it is hoped necessity; as the word thine will bear you will, if you are not already suffi- a double sense of love and subjection. ciently informed, make enquiry re- "If he be not attached to your love, specting the object of this address; he shall vainly hope to escape from and when returned into the country, your power." Thus, Ovid, in a siconfer with your friends on the best milar turn of phrase, (Artis Amatomeans of promoting that object in ride, Lib. 2.) your several neighbourhoods.

May 13, 1808.

Sir,

THE

A Member of the Society
fouperseding the ne-
cessity of Climbing
Boys, &c.

MISCELLANEA.

Quo sine non possit vivere; posse velit.

Again, in Bonduca, Act 1, sc. 1, Caratach, in allusion to his swimming a river in the enemy's sight,

"When the stars of Rome

Shot at me as ! floated." These words to the editors appear obscure; but the meaning is obvious: HE origin of the proverb, to "When the fortune of the Roman carry coles, so frequent in the name was opposed to my single life.' works of Shakspeare and contem- We have heard of Fortune in alliance porary writers, has not been, to my with the Roman Eagle; and why not knowledge, explained by any com- apply it, parili ratione, to the accus mentator. A passage in Spenser may tomed success in war of the tela Lati

elucidate it:

norum?

"Honor got out of fint; and on their petition of the sinonimes, mala, and

heads,

Whose virtue, like the sun, exhal'd all
Act 2, Sc. 1.

valors "

Whose valor wither'd martial prowess, and rendered it ineffectual. The editors propose vapors. Insipid and absurd! Quis teneat se?-Yet by these men is a most rancorous malignity betrayed towards the memory of the Rev. Mr. Seward (father of the present Miss S.) and his coadjutor Mr. Sympson, whose notes are far the most valuable part of their work. 4. Mr. Mason has committed a

strauge mistake in his Life of Gray,
on the subject of West's Elegy. In
that poem two lines of Tibullus are
translated, Eleg. 111. 5, as follow:

Quid fraudare juvat vitem crescentibus uvis,
Et modo nata malâ vellere poma manu.
On which it is observed, that the re-

poma, is a great defeet: mala is here the ablative of the adjective, and not the substantive. How can we account for this error in a scholar, unless from the vicious habit of pronunciation that now prevails?

5. Voltaire has the following lines in his ode on the defeat of the French by Frederic of Prussia:

"Francais, ta valeur si vantée,
Devant le Prussien est glacée;

Tout est perdu, jusqu' a l'honneur.” This is an evident allusion to the Letby Charles V. On that occasion, he ter of Francis I, when taken prisoner is reported to have written in the fol lowing terms to the Queen Dowager: "Madame, tout est perdu, hormis l'honneur.” May 10. PERRECTURUS.

CRITICISM.

"Nulli negabimus, nulli differemus justitiam." MARMION; a Tale of Flodden Field. By WALTER SCOTT, Esa. 1 vol.

4to. 1803.

but without her occasional elevations. His ideas are pretty, his language is pretty, his verse is pretty; and the WEconon expectations. E took up this volume with no reader glides through a hundred or Not two of pages thus prettily filled, with that we are by any means inclined to as little sense of relish upon his menconcede to Mr.Scott that pre-eminence tal palate, as he would upon his which his countrymen have endea- physical one after drinking a pint voured to claim for him. His celebrity of milk and honey. He is withis the celebrity of fashion: it is built out inspiration, sublimity, or energy; pretty nearly upon the same basis as yet he has genius enough to versify the driver of a new equipage, or the a tale of chivalry so as not to be abinventor of a new button-novelty. solutely dull; and if he be a vain But the fame of singularity, though man, he will find food for his vanity, dazzling as a meteor, is, like it, as by seeing a number of pretty sonnets transitory too: it gleams for awhile addressed to him, in the pages of upon the sight, and sinks at last un- different magazines, written by gennoticed and unregretted. Mr. Scott, tle masters and misses of promising in the "Lay of the last Minstrel," abilities. He has a right indeed to displayed a very considerable facility expect this honou, for Mr. Capel of rime, much knowledge of the Lofft has it, and so has Mr. Nathaniel manners, opinions, and prejudices of Bloomfield, cum cæteris paribus. the middle ages, and some degree of The present volume, as a whole, poetical fancy. The book was read is inferior to the "Lay of the last precisely for the same reason that a Minstrel; yet it is a pleasing pernovel is read, because it told of gob- formance. It is a fictitious tale, inlins, and fairies, castellated mansions, vented merely as a vehicle for dea chains, daggers, dungeons, blood and scribing the manners and customs murder: and it was exuberantly of the 16th century. It is written praised by precisely that class of with every possible licence of metre readers who are most forward to and language: of the former we praise a romance in prose. Mr. Scott have all sorts; and of the latter is in fact a Mrs. Radcliffe in poetry, we have a Babylonish dialect”