68 (To be continued.) Feb. Hiftories of the Tete a-Tete annexed. or, Shakespeare. The theatre, when it is fhewn human nature as it acts in real "Upon every other ftage, the univer- UR paftor after he had compleated from college, was appointed tutor to a his claffical education, and retired certain gay young nobleman, who was upon the point of fetting out on his travels gaiety of our hero's collegiate life, which to the continent. Notwithstanding the peculiarly diftinguished him amongst his fellow Cantabs, he foon was convinced of his errors, and from a gay frolickfome young fellow, was now as much noticed for his regularity and prudence. this character that had recommended him to lord S for a tutor to his fon, It was whom he knew would not bear the controul of afperity, tho', at the fame time, he was of too docile a difpofition not to be open to conviction, when it came with the air of reafoning and friendship. fuited, fet out for Paris, where they reThe pupil and his tutor being fo perfectly mained fome time. His lordfhip gave into all the innocent amufements of that gay metropolis; and our hero often winked at fome indifcretions, which were judged to be better overlooked than noticed: but when he found his lordship launching into extravagances that might prove fatal, as well with regard to his fortune as his conftitution, he immediately interfered, and pointed out to him his danger, in fuch eyes, and withdrew the veil which pleaa manner, as moft generally opened his fure and custom had let drop to blind him. When he found his pupil was upon the point of taking an extravagant opera girl into keeping, whofe fole view was duping him of his cafh, and laughing at his folly, or, when he heard that he affociated with a fet of polite harpers, who, under fici good company, he failed not to flep fortious titles, introduced themselves inta ward, and prevent the fatal effects of fuck a connexion, or fuch an affociation. "Other dramatists can only gain attention by hyberbolical or aggravated characters, by fabulous and unexampled excel. lence or depravity, as the writers of barbarous romances invigorated the reader by a giant and a dwarf, and he that should form his expectations of human affairs from the play, or from the tale, would be equally deceived. heroes; his fcenes are occupied only by Shakespeare has no men, who act and speak as the reader think, that he thould himself have fpoken or acted on the fame occafion: even where the agency is fupernatural, the dialogue is no danger in his lordship's vifiting Italy, With fuch a tutor as our hero, there was level with life. Other writers difguife the and recalling to his mind all those fituatimolt natural paffions and most frequent in- ons, and veftiges of remarkable monuments cilents; fo that he who contemplates of antiquity mentioned in claffical authors: them in the book, will not know them in in this refpect the preceptor, as well as his the world. Shakespeare approximates the pupil, received uncommon gratification. ranety and familiarizes the wonderful, Neither were the public entertainments The event which he reprefents will not and amufements overlooked; but they home, but if it were poffible, its effects were vifited with a cautious eye, to avoid would he probably fuch as he has affigned; the impofitions that are fo frequently prac 264 11 may be faid that he has not only tifed upon foreignere, and particular ly En The Pliant Penitent The Tithe Hunter Published as the As the Act directs by T:WAL KER No79 Dame Street. gluhmen, in all parts of Europe, but more t;ecially Italy. Upon their return home they took Mentz, Ratisbon, and fome other cities of Germany, in their route, and arrived in England, after having been absent about two years. Their prefence here was very agreeable to all their acquaintance, but more partiularly to lord S, who was greatpleafed with the account his fon gave his travels, and the behaviour of the Tithe Hunter, who at that period had not cbtained this diftinguished title. Lord S took the first opporturity of acknowledging the obligations he had to our hero, for the faithful difcharge of his duty towards his fon, by prefent ing him with a valuable living he had in his git in the vicinity of the metropolis, and which had just become vacant. He no foaner entered upon this benefce, than he became a great favourite of bis parithioners, and particularly the lad; as he was at once an orthodox and eloquent preacher, and, for a confiderable fine, was almoft adulated by his congregation. Lord S-thinking he had not fufficiently requited our hero for his pa fervices, prefented him with another living in the city, which was alfo pretty alable. Whether from dividing his time between the two livings, or from whatever caufe, a kind of jealoufy fprung up in the parith where he had made his firit appearance; and fome of the inhabitants bec une fo re. ory that they refused paying him his tithes. Thus injured in his property, it was natural for him to feek his remedy at law, and accordingly inftituted fome actions for the recovery of his legal dues. What has been the confequences of thefe proceffes we are unacquainted with, as we believe they are till undetermined; the mean while, his opponents, unable to difpute his right with any degree of reaor propriety, thought proper to caft a zma, as they thought it, upon him, by ag Lim the Tithe Huster. Not contented with having attempted to make him ridiculous, they went so far 'o call his moral character in queftion, to impute to him amours and intrigues ich we believe never exifted; the only Ladition for which, that we can trace as follows: certain duchefs, who has peculiarly fignalized herself in that line. Our heroine was a conftant attendant at drums, routs, hurricanes, and frequently gave some herfelf. She received mafks at her house on pantheon and other nights, and might be ranked a diftinguished female phaeton. This lady was married to a gentleman of confiderable fortune, who wedded her entirely for her perfonal accomplishments, as her fortune was very trivial, and her expectancies ftill lefs. Before the nuptial ceremony, the was the emblem of meeknefs and refignation, and for fome time after, was confidered as an example of connubial affection. But no fooner did the rage for the Veftris propagate itself, than the caught the contagion, and her rage was equally manifefted for the extravaganza of fathionable folly, tafte, and diffisation. Her husband, who was ftill paffionately fond of her, in vain remonstrated against her frequent vigils, her nocturnal revels, and that inceffant tiflue of polite riot in which he had immersed: his expoftulations were all fruitless and ineffectual. In vain did he fet forth in the mott kind, tender, and at the fame time forci ble manner, the injury fhe was doing her health, as well as his fortune--the ftill perfevered-till one day being in certain royal gardens near the capital, a thunder-ftorm compelled her to take refuge in an adjacent church, where our hero was preaching. His difcourfe turned upon the levity, frivolity, and folly of the age, in purfing imaginary pleafures that they could never grafp, whilft they had real and permanent blfs wit in their own reach, and which they could ways command. The pathefic and affecting manner in which he delivered his fermon, added to the awful and almoft tremendous ftate of the clements, made a very forcible impreffion on our heroine: add to this, our hero's great politenefs in requefting the lady, who was deftitute of a conveyance, to partake of his carriage, with his agreeable and rational converfation, made almost inftantly a convert of her. "This is the magic he has ufed," to make a profelyte of the Pliant Penitent, who, from that hour, faw her errors and her follies through their jul medium, and has once more become the best of wives, and the most agreeable domeftic, and cop jugal companion, within the purlicus of St. James's. It is true the Tithe Hunter fometimes vifits in the family; and, in return, the Pliant Penitent is frequently feen at his houfe at K, and in his carriage taking an airing: but thefe circumstances can conftitute nothing more than mere cending fun, which at the fame tim furmife, often the child of malice, and the warned our traveller to return, before the offspring of fcandal. darkness and dew of evening bad render ed his walk uncomfortable. "T the most diftant and delightful landicaps that ever my eyes beheld. The hill be neath which you have contrived to hide your habitation, would have afforded you a variety of natural curiofities, that muft have appeared to fo contemplative a perfon, highly entertaining, and as the cell to which you are advancing, is feeming ly of your own contrivance, methinks it was probable you would have fo placed it, as to prefent them, in all their beauty, to your eye." The Hermit. In the Manner of Cambray. He had now defcended to the foot o TWAS in that delightful month which the mountain, when he remarked an ol love prefers before all others, and hermit approaching to a little hut, which which moft reveres his deity; that month he had formed with his own hands, a which ever waves a verdant carpet for the the very bottom of the precipice. Poly earth, and embroiders it with flowers. dore all enamoured with the beauties h The banks became inviting through their had been furveying, could not avoid won Coverlets of mofs; the violets refreshed dering at his conduct, who, not content by the moisture of defcending rains, en- with hunning all commerce with man riched by the tepid air with their agreeable kind, had contrived as much as poffible perfumes. But the fhower was paft; the to exclude all views of nature. He ac fun difperfed the vapours; and the fky cofted him in the manner following was clear and lucid when Polydore walk-Father, faid he, it is with no fmai ed forth. He was of a complexion alto- furprise, that I obferve your choice of figether plain and unaffected; a lover of tuation, by which you feem to negled the Mufes, and beloved by them. He would oftentimes retire from the noife of mixt conversation, to enjoy the melody of birds, or the murmurs of a waterfall. His neighbours often smiled at his peculiarity of temper; and he, no leís, at the vulgar call of theirs: he could newer be content to pass his irrevocable time in an idle comment upon a newspaper, or in adjusting the precife difference of temperature betwixt the weather of today and yesterday. In fhort, he was not void of fome ambition, but what he felt he acknowledged, and was never averle to vindicate. As he never centured any one who indulged their humour inoffenfively, to be claimed no manner of ap. plaufe for thofe purfuits which gratified his own. But the fentiments he entertained of honour, and the dignity conferred by royal authority, made it wonderful how he bore the thoughts of ob fcurity and oblivion. He mentioned, with applause, the youths who by merit had airived at ftations, but he thought that all fhould in life's vifit leave fome token of their exiftence, and that their friends night more reafonably expect it from them, than from their posterity. Polydore, a new inhabitant, in a fort of wild uninhabited country, was now afcended to the top of the mountain, and in the full enjoyment of a very extenfive profpect; before him a broad and winding valley, variegated with all the charms of landfcape. Fertile meadows, glitter. ing ftreams, pendant rocks, and nodding ruins. But thefe indeed were much lefs the objects of his attention, than thofe diftant hills and fpires that were almoft concealed by one undiftinguished azure. The fea appeared to clofe the fcene, tho' diftant as it was, it but little diversified the view. Hardly, indeed, were it diftinguishable but for the beams of a def The hermit made him this anfwer, « My fon, the evening approaches, and you have deviated from your way. I would not, therefore, detain you by my ftory, did I not imagine the moon would prove a fafer guide to you, than that fetting fun you muft otherwife rely upon Enter awhile into my cave, and I will give you fome account of my adventures, which will folve your doubts, perhaps, more effectually than any method I can propofe. But before you enter my lone abode, calculated only for the ufe of meditation, dare to contein fuperfluous magnificence, and render thyfelf worthy of the Being I contemplate. "Know then that I owe, what the world is pleased to call, my ruin (and indeed juftly, were it not for the ufe I have made of it) to an affured dependence, in a literal fenfe, upon confufed and diftant profpects; a confideration which hath fo affected me, that I fall never, henceforth, enjoy a landfcape that lies at fo remote a distance as not to exhibit all its parts. Were I, indeed, to form the leaft pretenfions, to what your world calls tafte, I might even then, perhaps, contend that a well difcriminated landfeape was at all times to be preferied to a diftant and promifcueus azure. "I was born in the parish of a nobleman who arrived to the principal manage |