This drama exhibits an extraordinary mixture of humour and invention, of poetry and pathos, of negligence and absurdity. We may conjecture, from the title of Midsummer Night's Dream, bestowed upon it by the author, that Shakspeare himself was not insensible of its wild and fantastical complexion. Yet it contains scenes of distinguished excellence, and many passages which the inspiration, of the highest genius only could dictate.

MERCHANT OF VENICE.

Act IV. Scene 1.
-For affections,
Masters of passion, sway it to the mood
Of what it likes or loaths.

This passage has been deemed very difficult, and it has given rise to numerous alterations and conjectures. Mr. Malone's is the last and best. He understands, by affection, the disposition of the mind; and, by passion, corporal sensation: that is, the inclinations of the mind govern the acts of the body. A similar distinction prevails in a passage in All's Well that Ends Well:

-Come, come, disclose The state of your affections; for your pas

sions

Have to the full appeached.

It seems extraordinary that the character of Shylock should ever have been regarded as allied to comedy. Yet we know, that before Macklin appeared, it was represented, or rather misrepresented, by Hippesley, the Shuter of his time, in a style of merriment. And very recently, Mr Cooke, who is an excellent comedian, but whose powers in tragedy are very limited, has attempted to introduce something of comick effect into his performance of this character, which cannot be approved by those who remember the deeply-tragick colouring of

Macklin.

Dr. Warburton changes, erroneously, beyond a doubt, souls to sounds. Dr. Johnson rightly explains the passage, by interpreting harmony to be the power of perceiving harmony; as musick in the soul is the quality of being moved with concord of sweet sounds. But he alters, without necessity, and by a deviation from the true meaning, ❝ immortal souls" to "the immortal soul." The purport of the passage is, "such power of deriving bliss from harmony resides in the immortal souls of men, as well as in angels and cherubims; but we cannot exercise it in the present inferiour state of existence.

AS YOU LIKE IT-Act II. Scene 7. -And then the justice In fair round belly with good capon lin'd, With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,

Full of wise saws and modern instances, And so he plays his part.

Dr. Warburton observes, that Shakspeare uses modern in the double sense; that the Greeks used xus both for recens and absurdus. But modern is not used by Shakspeare, either for recens or absurdus, but for slight or trivial; as in this very play, act iv. scene 1: « And betray themselves to every modern censure." So in king John," And scorns a modern invocation." And in All's

Well that Ends Well. «Her insuit coming with her modern grace;" and in Macbeth (to quote no farther examples) "Where violent sorrow seems a modern ecstacy. The meaning is, That the justice has collected a great number of commonplace max

Blow, blow, thou winter wind;
Thou art not so unkind
As man's ingratitude;
Thy tooth is not so keen,
Because thou art not seen,

Although thy breath be rude. Ib. Ib.

Various attempts have been made to correct the fifth line of this stanza, but with very ill success. Dr. Warburton would fain persuade us to read, "thou art not sheen;" that is, shining or smiling. Sir Thomas Hanmer, by a dangerous and unwarrantable license, changes the whole line to "thou causest not that teen." Dr. Farmer proposes, " because the heart's not seen." And Mr. Musgrave, because thou art foreseen." After all, perhaps, the only alteration necessary may be teen for seen, and the sense will then be," Because, though thou art pain, thou art not sorrow; though thou art a sharp and bitter evil, still thou art a natural and not a mental one."

Will you sterner be

Than he that dies and lives by bloody drops ? Act III. Scene 5. After several learned notes on this passage, and proposals of amendment, we have a common-sense explanation of it in three lines, by Mr. Tollot, viz. "He who lives and dies by bloody drops, continues to the end of life in the office of an executioner." So, act v. scene 2, of this play, we read:

"Here will I live and die a shepherd." Many will swoon when they do look on blood,

There is more in it-cousin!-Ganimede!" Act IV. Scene 3.

"Celia, in her first fright," says Dr. Johnson, "forgets Rosalind's character and disguise, and calls out, cousin! Then recollects herself, and says, • Ganimede!" And, in her fright, too, it may be remarked, she is very near blabbing the secret VOL. Y

is

2 Y

of

Rosalind's love for Orlando. "There is more in it." These are genuine touches of nature.

This is a very interesting and beautiful comedy. The pastoral and forest scenery, connected with the fa ble, gives it a wild and romantick air. The characters are natural, and delineated with skill and felicity. That of the melancholy Jaques, is altogether original, and exhibits exquisite touches of Shakspeare's creative pencil.

TAMING OF THE SHREW.

Dr. Farmer has, without any external proof, and in contradiction to the strongest internal evidence, pronounced Shakspeare's property in this excellent drama to be extremeplay under the same name, and ly disputable. The truth is, that a appeared, A. D. 1607; and it cannot founded upon the same story, had be denied that this play was closely imitated by Shakspeare, in respect both to character and incident. But the general composition of the old play is very mean, and the dialogue was almost entirely new-written by the great poet. Who can doubt that the following passages, amongst many others, are the genuine production of Shakspeare's magick pen:

"O Tranio, while idly I stood looking on, I found the effect of love in idleness; I burn, I pine, I perish, Tranio; O! yes, I saw sweet beauty in her face:-Tranio, I saw her coral lips to move, And with her breath she did perfume the air;

Sacred and sweet was all I saw in her. Act I. Scene I.

It is the mind that makes the body rich; And as the sun breaks through the darkest clouds,

So honour peereth in the meanest habit; What is the jay more precious than the lark,

Because his feathers are more beautiful? Act IV. Scene 4.

The principal merit of this play, however, does not consist in the poetry, but in the freedom and vi

WINTER'S TALE.

This play is strangely supposed by some of the commentators to be surreptitious; but Dr. Warburton truly pronounces it "to be throughout, written in the very spirit of Shakspeare," who, in this simple and pleasing drama, "warbles his native wood notes wild," in a strain which no other writer could ever successfully emulate. The conduct of the fable is, indeed, extravagant; but the inspiration of genius pervades the whole, and incongruity and impropriety vanish before it. The story of this play is taken from a novel, written by R. Green, entitled: The pleasant History of Dorastus and Fawnia; but the parts of Antigonus, Paulina, and Autolycus, are, as Mr. Steevens informs us, of Shakspeare's own invention. It has been very justly remarked by Mr. Horace Walpole, that the characters of Leontes and Hermione bear an allusion to those of Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn. The subject could not be treated on the stage without a veil, and the poet has discovered great address in his mode of managing it. The task was by no means easy to vindicate the innocence of the queen, without making the character of the king too odious; and it must be acknowledged, that Leontes, rash, credulous, and passionate as he is, ex

hibits much too favourable a portrait of the merciless tyrant he is supposed to represent.

You may ride us, With one soft touch a thousand furlongs

ere

With spur we heap an acre, but to the goal. Act I. Scene 2. "That is," says Dr. Warburton, "good usage will win us to any thing; but with ill we stop short, even there where both our interest and inclination would otherwise have carried us." This is, indeed, assigning that sense to the words which suits the general tenour of themselves will admit of such a conthe passage; but how the words struction, the learned commentator has not attempted to explain. “But the goal; which is directly contrary to the goal" must mean, except to

to the conclusion we are led to expect. The true reading seems to be "be it to the goal;" that is, with ill usage we make no exertions, though we should be within reach of the goal.

What were more holy Than to rejoice the former queen is well? What holier than, for royalty's repair, For present comfort, and for future good, To bless the bed of majesty again, With a sweet fellow to it?

Act V. Scene 1.

Dr. Warburton changes the structure of the second line in the following manner: "Than to rejoice the former queen? This will." And Dr. Johnson so far countenances this strange alteration, as to say, "it is plausible, and such as we may wish the author had chosen." "What,” says Dion, "were more holy in the present state of things, than, instead of repining to rejoice that the former queen is released from her troubles? Instead of wishing her sainted spirit again to possess her corpse," as it is subsequently expressed, what can be holier than, for royalty's repair, to fill up the vacancy in the bed of majesty with a partner worthy of it. When the sense is so plain, why induige this propensity to inno

vation or amendment?

THE deceased, Joseph Paisley, of coupling celebrity, was born on the borders of England, in the year 1728, or 1729, at the obscure hamlet of Lenoxtown, about a mile distance from Gretna Green; at which place, and at Springfield (its immediate neighbourhood) the subject of this memoir half a century continued to weld together the chains of matrimony; to render happy or miserable great multitudes of anxious lovers. Early in life, Paisley was apprentice to a tobacconist; but becoming disgusted with this employment, he changed it for that of a fisherman, and was allowed by his brethren to bear the palm on all occasions, where strength and agility were required. It was in this humble capacity that he was initiated into the secrets of a profession, which he managed with such address. He had formed a connexion with one Walter Cowford, who lived very near to Sarkfoot, upon the seashore; and who, though strange it may appear, was both a smuggler and a priest. Old Watty had the misfortune to be but indifferently lodged, having "a reeky house," and what is perhaps worse, a scolding wife, so that he was necessitated to perform the marriage ceremony on the open beach, among the furze, or, as it is provincially called, whins; on these occasions young Paisley officiated as clerk. But our hero had ambition, and he only wanted an opportunity for its exertion. An opportunity soon of fered itself. One time Watty went to the Isle of Man, for the purpose of fetching over a cargo of contraband brandy; whilst his assistant remained at home to perform the necessary rites, during the absence of the former. Finding that he could rivet the matrimonial band equally as well as his master, and being at the same time under some pecuniary

embarrassment, he began business on his own account, and by his abi lity and address, soon overcame all competition.

About the year 1794, he was served with a subpoena to give evidence at Bristol, respecting the validity of a marriage. It was expected by thousands, that the event of the trial would put an end to Joe's matrimonial career. The contrary, however, took place; for, by his dexterous management, he not only succeeded in rendering the match valid, but was enabled to follow his favourite profession with increased security.During this journey, he visited the metropolis, where he was much noticed by the nobility and gentry. Had he been of a covetous disposi tion, he might have accumulated a considerable fortune; but, since the time to which we allude, he had never been distant a single mile from Springfield.

Of Joseph's personal strength, there are many well authenticated accounts. His strength of arm was prodigious. He could have taken a large oaken stick by the end, and continued to shake it to and fro, until it went to pieces in the air! The excellence of his constitution was likewise often tried; though it must be allowed that his intemperance was proverbial, yet he reached his eighty second year. He was accustomed to relate, with great pleasure, a celebrated achievement, in which he and a jovial companion, a horse breaker, were once engaged, when they consumed the amazing quantity of ten gallons of pure brandy in the short space of sixty hours; and, what is more, these two thirsty souls kicked the empty cask in pieces with their feet, for having run dry so soon. It may be conjectured, that the conversation of such a character could not be very engaging. Juvenile feats of activity, and

his beloved brandy, formed the chief topicks of his discourse, which, until very lately, never turned upon religious subjects.

But let justice be done to the character of the man. It must be allowed, indeed, that he was too fond of a stoop of liquor, and was of coarse and unpolished manners; but was not addicted, as reported, to prophane talking and obscene discourse. Without hazard of contra

diction, it may be averred, that he was a very honest and charitable man, and an inoffensive neighbour, and that he was generally respected by all who knew him.

Paisley is succeeded in the capacity of coupler, by a young man, a friend of his; and there is no fear that the business will fall off, as three weddings have already taken place since the interment of the old

man.

ANECDOTES.

DURING the late expeditions against different parts of the coast of Spain, a party of seamen had been trained, for a day or two, in military tacticks, and no small number of admonitory precepts were bestowed upon them by a military officer, as to the necessity of obeying, with promptitude, the words of command. However, in the attack of a fort, the words "Incline to the right" having been given, the Jacks pushed on in the same direction as before, and appeared to care for nothing but the enemy in view, towards whom they were rushing with their usual dauntlessness. A naval lieutenant, seeing the errour, immediately rushed forward in front of the party, and bawled out: "Starboard, my boys!" an exhortation which was instantly attended to, with an aye, aye, sir, by the whole party.

THE mayor of a certain great and respectable borough near Norwich, not half a century ago, summoned a full assembly of the corporation; and, on its being met, he arose and said: "It has been a matter of much surprise to me, consi

dering the length of time since the decease of queen Anne, that the compliment should still be paid her memory, of mentioning her name in all publick deeds, &c. and I wonder at it the more, as every gentleman must agree with me, that we never had a more gracious monarch than his present majesty, king George the third. I have, therefore, called this assembly for the purpose of making a proposition, which, from the known loyalty of my worthy brethren, I doubt not, will be unanimously approved of; namely, that in all deeds, charters, and publick papers, belonging to, and issued from the borough of instead of

the usual words Anno Domini, for the future, shall be substituted the word George Domini;" which motion was lost by a majority of three.

A new Mode of Challenging a Jury. An Irish gentleman, previous to a trial, in which he was defendant, was informed by his counsel, that if there were any of the jury, to whom he had any personal objections, to legally challenge them. "By and so I will," replied he, "if they don't bring me off handsomely, I will challenge every man of them.