approving voices predominated over minent personages in it, in whose the dissentient ones. That this divi- proceedings the spectator is equally sion of the word into two syllables, in interested: Hotspur, Hal, and last, not the plural, was sometimes practised by least, Falstaff. Of Mr. Kemble's perthe carly poets is true; and in the line formance of the first, we can speak of Shakspeare where it occurs in this only in terms of the most enthusiastic play, it requires such a division to ren- admiration. The fiery, the impetuder the measure correct: those there- ous, the gallant Hotspur, was never fore who have attempted to ridicule more forcibly depicted. the fire of his Mr. Kemble, by supposing that he eye bore testimony to the eager workwould say tooth-ach-e, or head ach-e, ings of his mind, and the hurried restshow only their own ignorance of the lessness of his action bespoke the vemotive and reason why, in this single hemence of his character. flis deliinstance, he makes it a dissyllabic word. Johnson seems to have regarded this division of it as usual, in poetry, for the sake of the measure: though in the second example, which he has quoted from Swift, it is a monosyllable: We remember also to have met, somewhere in Hudibras, with a couplet, in which this word terminates a line as a dissyllable in the plural, and which shews that the usage at least prevailed in his days. Butier might indeed be objceted too as an authority, because of the known laxity of his rimes: but here he is called in only as an auxiliary. The part of Caliban is such a wild and fantastic creation of the poet's brain, that scarcely can it be hoped an actor will ever be found to please a reader of Shakspeare in the perform ance of it. Mr. Emery, however, is not, we think, by any means correct in his conception of it: he wants energy and force to depict the horrid workings of the savage, when he trembles and deprecates the potency of Prospero's magic. An apology was made for Mr. Munden this evening, who was to have played Stephano: his place was supplied by Mr. Treby! Mrs. C. Kemble acted with very considerable vivacity and humour in Dorinda. very of the first speech," My liege, I did deny no prisoners, &e" was masterly: but it was only a prelude to the continuous excellence of the ensuing scene, in which his endeavours to recollect the name of Berkley Castle were so natural, so impatient, so eager, before you the very man whom the so varied, that you fancied you beheld pen of Shakspeare had embodied. We consider, indeed, the Hotspur of Kemble as one of the perfect delineations of the modern stage. We wish we could say as much of Mr. Cookes Falstaff: but there is a hardness in his manner, a want of richness and humour, which do not belong to him, "who was not only witty himself, but the cause of wit in others." The range of this actor's powers is very li mited: a truth he does not seem to be aware of. We object also to his pronouncing the word gyees with the hard g. Mr. C. Kemble improves in his performance of the Prince of Wales, by giving it more ease and playfulness in the early part of the play: but surely it was a trip of the memory that suffered him to enunciate lute, as though it were spelled loot. Mr. Murray ranted less in Henry than he usually does, and therefore he played better. Monday, May 16. King Richard the Third-Harlequin & Mother Gouse, Mr. Cooke's performance of Kichard is a most unequal performance. It cannot be denied that in particular parts he shines: and in those parts especially which require the expres Thursday, May 12. King Henry sion of cunning, duplicity, and delithe Fourth, (part the first)--Who berate villainy. We could point out Wins? This is the first time that this many passages which he delivered bustling and animated play has been performed this season. It is one that keeps the attention awake from the first to the last scene; it has three pro most felicitously: hut his general manner does not please us. In the first place; for a tragedian, he has too little grace or dignity about him: in the next, he studies his author too the mind could scarcely divert itself loosely and in the last, his mode of of the belief that it was nature, and delivery is extremely harsh and desul- not art that it beheld. The introverttory, if w we may so express ourselves. ed toes, the tremulous voice, the totHe makes all his cominas, periods; tering frame, the quivering hand, the and where the suspensive pause only unclastic step, all so combined as to should be used, he uses the conclusive preserve kingly dignity with it, reflect one: he never rises by gradation, but the highest lustre on Mr. Kemble's abruptly starts fo th, or falls back. In talents. In the firt act, where he fell short, he speaks as though he remem- upon his knees to implore curses on bered his speech piecemeal, and ne- his ungrateful child, there was an awver anticipated a single line before its fulness, we may say a sublimity, of utterance but this is both ungrace- manner that seemed to electrify the ful and improper, and detracts greatly house: the simultaneous burst of apin our opinion from the general im- plause, and which continued for a conpression of his performance. In the siderable time, so that he was unable tent scene and in the field, he appear to proceed with the imprecation, was ed to great disadvantage, from the in- that sudden homage to what is truly elegance of his manner, having more great, which no sense of propriety can. the appearance of Major Sturgeon than controul. For our own parts, we may of a king. We would hint also to this say with truth, that a cold shudder gentleman, that his orthoepy is sus- crept through our frame at the moceptible of much improvement: mi ment, which was rather painful than ther for neither, conkered for conquered, pleasant. In the scenes wherehe is mad, cum multis aliis, are highly censurable. and in the colloquy with Edgar sitting Wednesday, May 18. King Lear on the ground, we admired also the The Day after the Wedding; or, A correctness of his conceptions; there Wife's first Lesson--Raymond and Ag- was nothing that bespoke an exaggeIt was Mr. C. Kembie's benefit rated delineation. On the whole, we this evening, and he could not have do consider Mr. Kemble's Lear as one chosen a play more likely to attract a of those characteis in which he stands full house. His brother's perforin- alone. ance of Lear, being the first time Mr. Cooke played Kent for the first these eight years) was as fine a piece time, and he played it very well: he of acting as we ever remember to have gave great force to his bluntness and seen; nor do we reckon among the sincerity. Mr. C. Kemble also far least of its beauties, that perfect sem- surpassed our expectations in Edgar, blance of palsied decrepitude which and was deservedly applauded in Mr. Kemble preserved throughout the many parts The new interlude of whole character. He never once for- the Day after the Wedding was a spritegot it; in his most impassioned ly amusing trife, and does credit to speeches, it was the energy of an old its author. nes. man: of age, so nicely imaged, that THE NEW PATENTS. Mr. JOHN WILLIAMS's, for a Method ible axis or parts answering the purof preserving the Equilibrium, and pose of the same, a pair of levers propreventing all kinds of Carriages and ceeding or projecting horizontally on Vehicles from overturning. each side, in opposite directions from NSTEAD of putting each pair of the same part of the perch or middle one and the same inflexible axis, or the wheels of and belonging to the framing, having extreme parts answer- said carriage, and at right angles to ing the purposes of an inflexible axis, the line of traction; and joins cach of as is usually done, whereby the said the said levers to or with the said perch wheels in each pair are made to pre- or middle bar, or framing, made use serve an unalterable position with re- of to connect the said wheels, by means gard to each other; Mr. W. substitutes of an hinge or any other strong or well in the place of each of the said inflex- made joint, of the nature of an hinge, so fixed, and applied, that each of the said levers shall be allowed to move in a vertical circle, or up and down, but not at all sideways; and upon the extremities of the sail levers, which are formed into pivots or points of the axle of the usual materials, he puts tions, to be varied by the nature of Mr. NEWMAN'S, for his invention of a hard wood, stone, or cast-iron, and secures his wheels. And further Mr. JOHN WILKINSON'S, for a new Method of making Pig or Cast Metal from the Ore, which, when manufac tured into Bar-iron, will be found equal in quality to any that is imported from Russia or Sweden. HE invention consists in making Mr. WILLIS's, for certain Improve- THESE improvements consist THE principally in so managing the land in tillage, that in many cases, after producing a crop, it may be worked with great expedition, and capable of receiving another crop, by means of ploughs, &c. constructed in a peculiar manner. In an expeditious, taining manganese, in addition to irou of manuring or dressing land, by which stone and other materials now used in the manure is more equally distri making iron; and in certain propor- buted, and rendered more effective 1 than by the usual processes. In certain the manuring or dressing land and convenient modes of combining and plants by the medium of liquids iuconveying manures to be laid on land, troduced into such: the combination or incorporated with soil. In the com- with liquids of the substances with bination of any of the improvements which land is intended to be dressed. in the culture of the same piece of The patentee is aware that some obland. The specification now before jections may be urged against the seus, being much too long to admit of an veral parts of his intended plan: these abridgment suited to the limits of this he anticipates, and undertakes to republication, it will be sufficient to fute; and presuming that his invenenumerate the leading features of the tion will be eagerly adopted by those invention, if such it can be called, engaged in agricultural pursuits, he viz. an expeditious and economical mentions the terms upon which he is mode of tillage-A consequent dis- willing that they may be benefited by position of the soil into alternate ridges it. These terms are 5s. per acre, per and channels, by a peculiar manage ment, preserved through various operations, which at once facilitates the cropping, prepares for subsequent improvements, and whilst it affords. protection to the infant plants, secures the benefit of an advantageous fallow: THE ROYAL SOCIETY. annum, if the whole improvements are adopted; or persons may use a part for half that sum. But labourers cultivating not more than 3 acres of land for their own advantage, will be permitted to make use of his invention without fee or reward. TRANSACTIONS OF LEARNED & ECONOMICAL SOCIETIES. meter of the full moon. Its progress HE late meetings of this learned was not so rapid as that of common body have been occupied in meteors or shooting stars; neither was reading an account of a shower of the light emitted by it so intense as meteoric stones, at Weston, in North the lightning in a thunder storm, but America. The following account, rather more like what is called heat written by the Hon. Mr. Greville, is lightning. Its surface was apparently by far the best authenticated and pre- convex. There was no peculiar smeli cise. It states, in substance, that seve- in the atmosphere; and from its first ral imperfect and erroneous accounts appearance to its total extinction, was of this phenomenon are in circulation, about thirty seconds. About thirty but that the present is the result of or forty seconds after this, three loud an investigation made on the ground and distinct reports, like those of a when it happened. This actually oc- four- pounder, near at hand, were curred at Weston, in America, about heard, successively occupying about a quarter or half-past six o'clock, A.M. a second for each. A rapid succession on Monday, Dec. 14, 1807. The of reports less loud followed those so morning was rather cloudy; the clouds as to produce a continual rumbling were dispersed in unequal masses; in like that of a cannon ball rolled over some places thick and opaque; in a floor. Some persons said it was like others, light, fleecy, and transparent. what, in military language, is termed a The day had merely dawned, and there running fire; one person observed, was little or no light, except from the that when the meteor disappeared, moon, which was just setting. Judge there were apparently three successive Wheeler was passing through the en- efforts, or leaps of the fire-ball, which closure adjoining his house, with his grew more dim at every throe, and eyes rather directed towards the disappeared with the last of them. ground, when a sudden flash, occa- Three principal places are pointed sioned by the transition of a luminous out where the meteoric stones first rebody across the northern margin of a ferred to had fallen at the instant the clear sky, illuminated every object, cannon-like reports were heard. There and caused him to look up, when he was in every instance, immediately immediately discovered a globe of fire after the explosions had ceased, a loud passing behind a cloud, apparently whizzing, or roaring noise observed about one-half or two-thirds the dia- in the air; and in every instance im mediately after this, a sudden and fallen in India, France, and Scotland, abrupt noise, like that of a ponderous and their composition is the same body striking the ground in its fall, The earliest account of the fall of was heard: excepting one, the stones a stone of this nature is recorded at were more or less broken. One of Einsisheim, in Upper Alsace. This these stones, which fell near the house occurred on the 7th of November, of Mr. Burr, struck against a granite 1192. This substance, said to have rock, and left a stain of a deep lead weighed 260 pounds, was till lately colour. Another piece, found near preserved in the parish Einsisheim, Mr. Prince's house, in the neighbour- In 1762, two stones fell at Verona. hood of Weston, was buried in a hole In 1790, a shower of them fell near about twelve inches in diameter; this Agenin, Guienne; and in April 1802, stone was about thirty-five pounds in the same thing happened at L'Aigle, weight. It was to be lamented that, Some philosophers have supposed being afterwards broken, a piece of these stones to have been thrown from only twelve pounds weight was re terrestrial comets; but this is an hyserved. This was purchased by Isaac pothesis which will by no means acBronson, Esq. of Greenfield, with the count for an appearance at Sienna in view of presenting it to some public 1794; when stones descended not from institution. The common people, it a moving meteor, but from a luminous should be observed, being strongly cloud. Some other philosophers have impressed with the idea that these admitted the possibility of their being stones contained gold and silver, sub- dropped from the moon; but admitjected them to all the tortures of an- ting that bodies can be projected becient Alchemy; and the goldsmith's yond the sphere of the moon's attrac crucible, the forge, and the black- tion, they must then move round the smith's anvil, were employed in vain earth in one of the conic sections; in to elicit treasure which existed only fine, the subject must remain involved in imagination. Upon the estate of in great difficulty, till more facts and Mr. Elijah Seely, the stone that fell more mature observations can be obthere was estimated at 200 pounds tained. weight. This, however, was a deduction only made from the quantity of LINNEAN SOCIETY. of Carlisle, vice-president, being HE Right the Bishop 1 its fragments, which, when first found, were friable, being easily broken between the fingers; but being taken in the chair in one of the recent sitout of the moist earth and exposed to tings, a paper from Dr. Smith was the air, they gradually became hard. read, entitled “Characters of a new The specimens of stone gathered from Genus of Moss, called Hookeria, condifferent places were so similar, that taining eight species, &c." some of i even a superficial observer could pro- these species are new, and others have nounce them different from any others ranked in the genus Hyprum; from commonly seen on this globe. The which, however, they are now sup texture of the stones is granular and posed to be clearly distinguished by coarse, resembling some kinds of grit- their reticulated capsulas. These constone. From a hasty analysis of this stitute an essential character of this kind of stone, it appears to consist of new genus, but which accord with the siler, iron, magnesia, nickel, and sul- other, in the remaining characterisphur; the two first constitute by far tics. Dr. Smith has named this after the greatest part; the third is much Mr. W. Jackson Hooker, of Norwich, less in proportion than the others; the F.L.S. a young naturalist of great profourth still less, and the sulphur exists mise, the discoverer of Buxbaumia. in a small, but indeterminate quantity, aphylla, and author of a work on the Most of the iron is in a perfectly me- Jungermannæ, which is nearly ready tallic state; the whole stone attracts for publication. the magnet, and this instrument takes On the 19th of April, the president up a large proportion of it when pul- read a communication of his own, on verized. These specimens are also a new genus of lilaceous plants, which found to accord with stones that have he has called,, Brodæ, in honour of |
