By the knaves were defigned the fervants to knights, esquires (Efcuyers) fhield or armour bearers; for knave originally meant only fervant, and in an old tranflation of the Bible, St. Paul is called the knave of Chrift. So in French, Valets or Varlets, as they were alfo called, and Pages, were officers or attendants formerly allowed only to persons of the first distinction. Others fancy that the knights themselves were defigned by thofe cards, because Hogier and Lahire, two names on the French cards, were famous knights about the time cards were supposed to be invented; the other two Lancelot and Hector. The pack taken together, containing precifely 52 cards, equivalent to the number of weeks in a year, aptly enough announces time, and however dealt out, in its speedy revolution, affords a document, that even in our pastimes we should be mindful of its tranfient nature and brief duration. It would ahfwer little purpose here to describe at length the method of making cards; in one refpect however interesting to mankind, as it seems to have given the first hint to the invention of printing; as appears from the early specimens of that curious art at Huerlem, and those preserved in the Bodleian Library. The cutting of forms, moulds or blocks for the first books at Mentz, Haerlem, and Straßburgh, in Germany, fometime after the commencement of the 15th century, was precisely in the manner of that in use for playing-cards, and the rest of the process very probably was the way of printing used by John Fauft, Cofler, Mentel, and others, in the infancy of that art; as might have been discovered long ago, if it had been confidered, that the great letters in our manuscripts, of upwards of a thousand years standing, are apparently done by the illuminers in the method of card-making. The art of printing, though fo lately introduced among us, is indeed of very ancient standing among the Chinese; but their manner of printing is very different from ours, which, owing to the prodigious number of their characters, they cannot perform, as we do, by separate types; but are obliged to have recourfe to wooden blocks on which they cut their pages, as is done by our card-makers, calico-printers, &c. The European printing in its original, was very much the fame with the Chinese; yet as there was at that time no commerce or intercourse between Europe and China, the paffage into the Eaft by the Cape of Good Hope, not being discovered till long after, when Vafquez de Gama, first doubled the Cape, November 20th, 1497, there is no room to charge the Europeans with borrowing this art from the Chinefe; but each must be owned to have fallen on the fame thing though at very different periods. Page 34, verfe 858-Ye Prynnes and Colliers rave, &c. -Prynne and Collier, two voluminous and virulent writers against the stage. In the reign of Charles the first, the puritans raised a violent clamour against the Drama, which they confidered as an entertainment not lawful to christians; and Prynne, a lawyer of the day, found time to publish Histrio-mastix, a huge quarto volume, against stage-playes. London, printed 1633. 1086 This extraordinary production, which indicates no very Pages. distinguished share of professional merit, contains Befides three Epiftles dedicatory; Ift. To his mvch honovred friends, the Right Worship fvll Masters of the Bench of the honourable flourishing Lavv Society of Lincolnes Inne. 6 ad. To the Right Christian Generovs yovng Gentlemen Students of the 4 famous Innes of Court, and efpecially thofe of Lincolnes Inne. 3d. To the Christian Reader All closely printed and noted, like a brief, on the margin. Errata, which he modeftly defires the reader to correct, Total, No. Pages, closely noted, like a lawyer's brief. 12 IF 39 2 3 1165 The The whole is divided into acts, in conformity to the practice of the very people against whom he declaims, which might feem an abomination in itself; not to mention how the work is larded and stuffed with diabolisms, furious menaces, horrible denunciations, and tremendous anathemas, more than sufficient for all the brain-fick blufterers of the Drama, from the aera of Thefpis to the present hour. Part 1ft. confifting of VIII ACTS Scenes and chorus. Part 2d. But the most striking part of the catastrophe, he deemed proper to fupprefsHe has not even hinted that he mounted the pillory for his profaneness, and for once lent an EAR to juftice. The outrages and crimes of the Puritans, brought afterwards their whole system of doctrine into disrepute, and the poets were left in quiet; for to have molefted them would have had the appearance of puritanical malignity. This danger Having in time worn away, Jeremy Collier, a fierce and implacable nonjuror, knowing that an attack upon the Theatre would never make him fufpected for a Puritan, published in 1698, a view of the profanenefs and immorality of the English Stage. Probably, as Dryden obferves, a divine might have employed his parts to much better purpose, than in the naftiness of Plautus and Aristophanes, and it may naturally be supposed, that he read them not without some pleasure. Collier was committed to newgate for writing against the revolution, and again for carrying on a treasonable correfpondence with the enemies of the government. Antecedent to Prynne, in the beginning of the seventeenth century, one Maister Rainoldes, a Civilian I believe, published at Oxford, a multifarious performance in the fame fanatical ftrain of invective and parturient redundancy, entitled the overthrow of stage-plays. Rouffeau, of our own times, in his reasonings against dramatic entertainments, not properly restricted, is more profound, philofophical and difcriminating, and as he wrote with more temper, deferves more respect than his predeceffors, who are harsh and violent, and do not make the proper distinction, between the use and abuse of plays. To argue from immoral plays to no plays, is ftraining the premiffes to an extravagant latitude, and, drawing a foreign and inadmiffable conclufion; ab abufu ad ufum non valet confequentia. No recreation, however innocent! no art or science; no profeffion, however useful and neceffary to man; Law, nor Phyfic; no, not religion itself could stand before a logic fo intemperate and unwarrantable: for, where's that palace whereinto foul things fometimes intrude not?- -Have not Paftors of every denomination fometimes difgraced their order by their irregularities? have they not prostituted their facred function, to venal and base purposes? In the very fanctuary, at the foot of the Throne of Mercy, when they should have been enforcing the doctrines of the Prince of peace, have they not ftood forth the promoters of diffenfion? Have not the Sacheverells of the day waved the Banners of Falfehood in the Temples of Truth? In their pulpits have they not blown the trumpet of fedition, and cried aloud-to battle! That the stage wanted reformation, and still wants it, no man of judgment I believe will dispute; but if the auditors show a decent, proper fpirit, and, uniting in a body, refuse to countenance or tolerate profanenefs, immorality and abuses, where is the libertine, poet or player, hardy enough to fet them at defiance? The bufinefs therefore lies with the audience— Mr. Sheridan devoted his whole care and attention to the advancement of the drama; he was impreffed with an idea of its utility and confequence, and his idea, truly a noble one, had he happily continued manager, 'tis probable would have been realized in every part-see Victor and Hitchcock, &c. on the stage. Page 41, verfe 1042. On the rich bafis of a parent's, &c.— Frances, wife of the late Thomas Sheridan, is the lady here alluded to, her maiden name Chamberlaine, author of Sidney Bidulph in two parts; fhe alfo wrote Nourjahad, an Oriental Tale; Tale; the Discovery, a Comedy; the Dupe, and a Trip to Bath; a Tragedy also in prose, the subject taken from the latter part of her own Sidney Bidulph; the concluding volumes of which, with her two last dramatic pieces, fhe produced in France; but did not live to give them to the public. She was youngest daughter to the Rev. Dr. Chamberlainę, Prebend of Rathmichael, Vicar of Bray and Rector of St. Nicholas-Without. Anastatia, her mother, was descended from an ancient English family, who purchased a considerable estate in Ireland, near Rofs in the county of Wexford, where they afterwards settled. Her grandfather commanded a regiment of infantry under King William, and left two fons, both officers, to each of whom her Majesty Queen Ann, with her own hand, prefented an elegant fword for their gallant behaviour in her fervice, and in the fucceeding reigns they were not overlooked. Catharine, a younger daughter of the same family, was married to a Mr. Eury, an eminent linen-merchant; this lady had a genius for poetry, a fpecimen of which is preserved in the Appendix; but, in the evening of life, fhe had no very convincing reafons to boast of fortune's partiality to rhyme. Mr3. Sheridan died at Blois in France, September the 17th, 1766. Such was the respect paid to her memory by the good Bishop of the place, that he had it intimated to her friends, notwithstanding the difference of religious perfuafion, that they might take advantage of the night, to depofit her remains in confecrated ground, and no interruption fhould be given to the pious exequies; a compliment in France, which was perhaps never before extended to any reputed Heretic. Young, in his Night Thoughts, bitterly reprobates the different treatment which attended his darling daughter's interment, who went thither for her health, and paid the debt of nature in that boasted country of gallantry and politenefs; but Young was a querulous old fashioned dotard-ignorant of TON-what have gallantry and politeness to do with religion? Page |