quently do him more harm than avowed enemies. They fhew fo many apprehenfions on his account-they fo much dread the cenfure he may incur, and the enemies he may create by his new opinions, &c.

"All this betrays a want of confidence, and is very naturally fet down to their knowing fomething of the author and his works the world is not acquainted with.

It is certain, that the lefs perfomal knowledge we have of an author, the greater is our esteem for his productions; of course, we commend those the most, of whom we know the leaft."

LETTER XIV.

On Shakspeare.

"We are got into a cuftom of mentioning Shakspeare and Jonfon together, and many think them of equal merit, though in different ways. In my opinion, Jonfon is one of the dulleft writers I ever read; and his plays, with fome few exceptions, the moft unentertaining I ever faw. He has fome fhining paffages now and then, but not enough to make up for his deficiencies. Shakspeare, on the contrary, abundantly recompenfes for being fometimes low and trifling. One of his commentators much admires his great art in the conftruction of his verfes-I dare fay they are very perfect; but it is as much out of my power to think upon the art of verfemaking when I am reading this divine poet, as it is to confider of the best way of making fiddle-ftrings at a concert. I am not master of myself fufficiently to do any thing that requires deliberation: I am taken up like a leaf in a whirlwind, and dropped at Thebes or Athens, as the poet pleafes. "I have seldom any pleasure from the reprefentation of Shakspeare's plays, unless it be from fome fcenes of converfation merely, without paffion. The fpeeches which have any thing violent in the expreffion, are generally fo overacted as to ceafe to be the mirror of nature-but this was always the cafe

Oh! it offends me to the foul, to fee a robuftious perriwig-pated fellow tear a paflion to tatters:-though this is a

• lamentable thing,' yet it appears to be without remedy. An actor, in a large theatre, is like a picture hung at a distance, if the touches are delicate, they escape the fight: both must be extravagant to be feen at all, and hence the custom of the ancients to make use of the Perfona and Buskin. Acting has a very different effect in the ftage-box from what it has in the back of the gallery. In the one, every thing appears rough and rude, like a picture of Spagnolet's near the eye; in the other it is with difficulty that the play can be made out. Perhaps, the best place is the front of the first gallery; as being fufficiently removed to foften thefe hardneffes, yet near enough to fee and hear with advantage. But there is no place can alter the impropriety of rant and turgid declamation, which the performer naturally runs into by endeavouring to be ftrong enough to be heard-fo that, as I obferved, the evil feems to be incurable.

"As the performance of a play is beyond nature, fo is the writing of it. The plot muft partake of the marvellous, the characters must be in fituations too violent for common life, and fpeak a language unheard (but on the ftage) in mirth or diftrefs. Our late comedies, indeed, are exceptions to this rule, for they are fome degrees below nature. The modern tragedies have loft all fight of nature, fo that it is difficult to fay whether they are above or below it.

"Those who think that Shakfpeare's perfonages are natural, are deceived. If they were fo, they would not be fufficiently marked for ftageeffect. A ftrong proof of this is in the portrait of Lear, who is fourfcore and upward.' Were the character natural, Lear would be best acted by an old man: but every one must inftantly perceive, that it requires the ftrength as well as the abilities of the vigour of life to perform it.

I believe it will be found that all characters which intereft us are overcharged, and not real nature, but what the dramatic poets have agreed to confider as fuch. If we hit this point,

E e ?

our

our piece is perfect; if we come fhort, it is flat; if we exceed, it is bombaft. LETTER XV. On Writing-band.

"An acquaintance of our's has correfponded with a writing-mafter many years, not from any regard to the man, but for the pleasure he takes in feeing fine writing. He preferves his letters carefully, and though he reads them to none (perhaps they are ftill unread by himself) he bews them to all who can relish the excellence of a flourish long drawn out.'- Our friend's taste may be ridiculed by thofe who hold it a basenefs to write fair,' but yet it is certain, that the true form of letters, in writing, is underftood no where but in England. I never faw a fpecimen of a correct hand either written or engraved, from any other country, that was upon a right principle. Perhaps it may be objected, that every nation, prejudiced in favour of their own particular manner, will fay the fame thing. Let us examine this.

"Modern writing-hand had its rife from an endeavour to form the true letters as they are printed, with expedition. The first variation from the original, must be an oblique inftead of a perpendicular fituation, this naturally arifes from the pofition of the hand the next, a joining of the letters; thefe two neceffarily produce a third, an alteration of the form. So that writing-hand differs from printing ia this, that the former is an arrangement of connected characters, the latter of difiinct ones. The flit in the pen makes the down-ftrokes full, and the upftrokes flight, fo that the body of the letter is ftrong, and the joinings weak, as they fhould be. It is moft natural and eafy alfo to hold the pen always in the fame pofition; by which means, the full and hair-ftrokes are always in their right places. So far, feems the neceffary confequence of endeavouring to make the letters expeditiously with This being granted, the ornamental part comes next to be confidered. For this, it is requifite that the letters fhould be of the fame fize and diftance, that their leaning fhould be in the fame direction, that the join

a pen.

ing be as much as poffible uniform; and, laftly, that the fuperadded ornament of flourishing, thould be continued in the fame pofition of the pen in which it was firft begun (generally the reverse of the ufual way of holding it) and that the forms be distinct, flowing, and graceful.

Thefe appear to me to be the true principles of writing. Examine the Italian and French hands by these rules. (fome of the beft fpecimens are the titles of prints, &c.) and the hand which they ufe will be found to be unconnected, full of unmeaning twifts and curlings, generally produced by altering the pofition of the pen, and upon the whole, awkward, stiff, and ungraceful.

"As they now write, we did, about feventy or eighty years fince; fo that our prefent beautiful hand is a new one, and by its being ufed no where but in England, I muft conclude it to be an English invention.

"Believe me, in my beft writing, and with my bett wishes, ever

Your's, &c."

LETTER XXII. Paffages in Skakfpeare explained. "The commentators of Shakspeare think themfelves obliged to find some meaning in his nonfenfe; and to come at it, twift and turn his words without mercy: never confidering, that in his fcenes, as in common life, fome part muft be neceffarily unimportant.

"Many a paffage has been criticifed into confequence. The meaning, to ufe the poet's words on a like occafion,

is like a grain of wheat hid in a bushel of chaff; you fhall feek all the day e'er you find it, and when you have it, it is not worth the fearch.'

"An expreffion of Shallow's, in the fecond part of Henry the Fourth, has been the fubject of much criticism and hypercriticifm. We will eat a laft year's pippin with a difh of carraways;' and it is certain that there was such a dish, but if Shakspeare had meant it, he would have faid, A difh of laft year's pippins with carraways' a difh, &c.' clearly means fomething diftinct from the pippins. Roasted pippins ftuck full of carraways, fays

with

one

one-carraway confect or comfit, well known to children, fays another-as if every one did not know what carraway comfits were, fays a third, laughing at the fecond. Dine with any of the natural inhabitants of Bath about Christmas, and they probably will give you after dinner a dth of pippins and carraways- -which laft, is the name of an apple as well known in that country, as nonpareil is in London, and as generally affociated with golden pippins, “Then_ am I a fous'd gurnet, fays Falftaff. This fifh has puzzled the commentators as much as the apple did before. What can it be?- -I never heard of fuch a fifh.There is no fuch fish. A magazine critic, affured of its non-existence, propofed reading grunt; gurnet, quafi grunet, quafi grunt well, and what do we get by that? Why, because hogs grunt, and pork is the flesh of hogs, fous'd gurnet means pickled pork! Very lately, a commentator, who once denied its existence, has difcovered, in confequence of his great learning, that there is really fuch a fish-he is really in the right-if he will go to the fouth coaft of Devonfhire, he may fee plenty of them-but not fous'd.

"And now I mention Falftaff, let me explain his copper ring. He complains of being robbed when he was afleep, and lofing a feal-ring of his grandfather's worth forty marks.

ap

O Jefu (fays the hoftefs) I have heard the prince tell him I know not how oft, that the ring was copper.' Is the pearance of copper fo much like gold, that one may be mistaken for the other? Formerly (about the time of Falstaff's grandfather) gold was a fcarce commodity in England, fo fcarce that they frequently made rings of copper and plated them thinly with gold; I have feen two or three of them. As the look of both was alike, Falftaff might infift upon its being gold; on the contrary, the prince, from the quality of the wearer, and lightnefs of the ring, might with equal fairness maintain that it was only plated.

Though it is not my intention to make one of the number of Shakspeare's commentators, I will take this oppor

tunity of restoring a paffage in King Lear. In the agony of his paffion with his daughter, he fays (in the modern editions)

Th' untented woundings of a father's curfe, Pierce every fenfe about thee.'

In the old editions it is printed exceeding plainly, Th' untender wonndings,

&c. that is not tender, or cruel. It would be wafte of time to fhew its' propriety, and that there is no fuch

word as untented. Who first threw out the true reading and fubftituted the falfe I know not. It is worth while to fay that the word is often ufed by Shakspeare, and once at least befides in the fame play, so young and fo untender?

"One more and I will release you.— Shylock fays,

Some men there are, love not a gaping pig; Some that are mad if they behold a cat; And others when the bag pipe fings in the nofe, Cannot contain, &c.- -for affection." that is, because they are so affected. Thefe poor lines have been new-worded, new ftopped, and all to find the meaning of as plain a paffage as can be written. 'Some men cannot abide this thing, others have an averfion to another, which fometimes produces ftrange effects on their bodies, because their imagination is fo ftrongly affected. Mafterlefs paffion (that is, fuffering or feeling) compels them to follow the impulfe.' The not understanding affection and paffion in Shak fpeare's quaint fenfe, has occafioned the difficulty.

"There are many other corrupted and mifunderftood paffages, that require as little attention to fet them right, as what has been exerted on this occafion, by Your's fincerely, &c." LETTER XXIII.

Petition of To and The.

"Scarce a year paffes without our language having fome new trick played with it. But let the fufferers fpeak for themselves.

To the People of GREAT-BRITAIN. The Petition of To and The, Humbly hereth,

"That your petitioners have, time out of mind, poffeffed certain places. allowed to be their undoubted right, and that they lately have been, vi et

armis,

armis, thruft from their ancient poffeffions. Their misfortune being in common, they prefent their common petition; hoping that the laudable zeal

for the reformation of abuses will extend even to them, and that they fhall be restored to their priftine ufe and confequence.

Though your petitioners labour under a common misfortune, yet it is neceffary that they separately ftate their cafe. And firft To for himself says,

That he has for years paft had a place in the direction of all lettersthat he was first removed from thence, as he apprehends, by fome member of parliament, who was too much bufied in his country's good to attend to propriety. As it is the wicked cuftom of the world to prefs down a falling man, the faid To is in a manner totally difplaced from his ancient poffeffion: all people, except the very few who prefer grammar to fafhion, agreeing to his removal. Were his place filled by a worthy fucceffor he fhould keep his complaints fecret, remembering that he himself fucceeded For-but to be fucceeded by nothing, is reviving the old fanatic principle of the laft century, which all, who are lovers of the conftitution must fhudder at! Confider good people, you who fo well know the value of property, what quantities of letters are at this inftant in the postoffice, that are neither To nor For any perfon? In many inftances you condefcend to be inftructed by your neighbours is the A Monfieur yet left out in the direction of French letters? If you were to addrefs in Latin, would you not use the dative cafe- and pray what is the fign of the dative but your petitioner

To?

Secondly, The for himfelf fays, "That he has had, from the first existence of our language, precedence of army, navy, commons, lords, and even government itfelf; that he is most bafely removed from this his juft ftation -for he appeals to all impartial judges, if fuch are to be found, what a toolifh figure does army, navy, commons, lords, and government cut without he takes the lead. If this were alone the

damage it is furely of great concern; but alas! the evil is fpreading; fcarce a day paffes but he lofes fome ancient poffeffion of truft and confequence! It is, indeed, infinuated, that your petitioner formerly ufurped a station he had by no means a right to, and that his prefent lofs is a juft retaliation. What bufinefs had The, fays thefe meddlers, before Fauftina and Cuzzoni, and fo on through all the inas and onis to the prefent time? Alas! my good countrymen, confider, these were but poffeffions of a day! The Fauftina and her fucceffors were but the grafshoppers of a season-from this encroachment he was foon difpoffeffed; but navy, army, miniftry, are of perpetual duration. Perhaps you will reply that your petitioner is but an article-truebut think of the confequence-if you deftroy your particles and articles, and reduce your language by degrees to noun fubftantives, who knows but the next innovation will be the fubftituting things inftead of words-you have heard of a country fo incumbered.Confider the expence of carriage.Think, O ye wits, of having your coaches attended with waggon loads of converfation. Nip the evil in its bud, fhew your regard for pofterity, and confider the petition of

The.

In a general wreck it is worth while to fave fomething. Your petitioners are contented to be thrust out of parliament-it is confeffed that the members of that honourable house fhould not attend to trifles. But confider, good people, you are not all members of parliament, you may restore us to our ancient rights, our juft privileges, and legal poffeffions-which we truft you will do, and your poor petitioners

Shall ever pray, &c.” LETTER XXVII. On Alliteration and Literation. "Alliteration very early made its appearance in English poetry. I have feen an old piece where it was intended to fupply the place of rhyme: the ter minations of each line were different; and there were in every one, three or four words which begun with the fame

letter.

letter. This, I fuppofe, was thought a beauty. Shakspeare in feveral places burlefques the improper ufe of Alliteration with great pleafantry. It was much in request in the days of Thomfon, his

-Floor, faithlefs to the fuddled foot,

is fcarce lefs ridiculous than Shak fpeare's Bravely broach'd his bloody boiling breast.

I believe wherever it is perceived, it difgufts. There is fomething very ridiculous in the pains of an author, when he is fearching for a fet of words beginning with the fame letter: this furely argues a 'lack of matter. A man who has things in his head, is never curious about words, unlefs it be thofe which exprefs his meaning quickeft and cleareft. I would have given fomething to have feen the paper upon which Smollet first sketched the

titles of fome of his novels. I dare

fay it coft him as much time to fix upon the name of Roderick Random, as to write some of the best parts in that fprightly and entertaining performance: Robert and Richard were common, Roger and Ralph were vulgar-there was a neceffity for a founding uncommon name, and beginning with an R: at laft, by a lucky chance Roderick occurred-and Roderick it is.. Do think me fanciful? I call upon Peregrine Pickle, and Ferdinand Fathom to prove the contrary.

you

"If we laugh at the hard-fought-for Alliteration of the poet and hiftorian, may we not laugh a little louder at that of the comic dramatift? Can any language be less that of nature or common converfation, than ftrings of words beginning with an M or N? And yet this has been done by one who paints the manners living as they rife.' It is furprifing, that fo fprightly a genius as Foote could fubmit to the drudgery of confulting his fpellingbook for words proper to be paired my three ppp's put me in mind of a letter in the Student, in which p is predominant; it is highly humourous and well worth your perufing.

"Will you give me leave to make an abrupt tranfition from Alliteration to Literation, and pardon me alfo for coining?

"The Germans in pronouncing English, and writing it too, if they have not studied the language, almoft conftantly change b into p, d into t, g (hard) into k, vnto f, and the reverse. This peculiarity of theirs, I find, upon recollection, is not confined to English. In the burletta of La buona Figliola, the author makes his German character to

fay trompetti and tamparri; nay, they ferve their own language the fame, as I have obferved from their pronunciation of proper names of cities, &c. It feems difficult to account for this, but perhaps not more fo, than for the trick of the French in giving an afpirate to thofe English words where there is none, and omitting it where it fhould be used. I once faw a Frenchman much furprised (not difconcerted) at a general laugh when he was comparing our country-women with his; an unlucky mifplaced afpirate was all the caufe- The English ladies (fays he) are fo plain, but the French ladies are foairy!"

One more, and we fhall conclude this article.

LETTER

XXV. Some Phrafes explained. Though I hate to fet out upon the principle of word-hunting, yet it always gives me pleasure when by accident I can trace the meaning of a word or phrafe to its fource, and purfue it through its various changes to its prefent ftate. The pleafure is ftill greater, to mark the gradual refinement rifm, until it arrives at precifion and of language from obfcurity and barbaelegance. Our tongue, as every one knows, is a compound of many. The pains which William the Conqueror took to graft his Norman French upon it, fucceeded in many inftances, and there are others where we may trace the dying away of the French by degrees, and the English refuming its old place. Chaucer in his character of the Monk, fays

He was a lord full fat and in good point. This is the remains of the French embonpoint, or as it was written then en bon point. The phrafe was wearing out in Chaucer's time, the en bon being tranflated, and point preferved. Now

the