obferve that from the year 1727, to the end of 1736, almost all his plays and farces were written, not above two or three having appeared fince that time: fo that he produced about eighteen theatrical performances, plays and farces included, before he was quite thirty years old. No felection has been made of thofe pieces, but they are all printed together in this edition, that the public might have the entire theatre of Henry Fielding. For though it must be acknowleged that in the whole collection there are few plays likely to make any confiderable figure on the flage hereafter, yet they are worthy of being preferved, being the works of a genius, who in his wildeft and most inaccurate productions, yet occafionally displays the talent of a mafter. Though in the plan of his pieces he is not always regular, yet he is often happy in his diction and ftyle; and in every groupe, that he has exhibited, there are to be feen particular delineations that will amply recompenfe the attention beftowed upon them. The comedy of the Mifer, which he has moftly taken from Moliere, has maintained its ground upon the ftage ever fince it was first performed, and has the value of a copy from a great painter by an eminent hand. If the comedy of Pafquin were restored to the stage, it would perhaps be a more favourite entertainment with our audiences, than the much admired Rehearsal; a more rational one it certainly would be, as it would undoubtedly be better understood. comedy, under the authority of the laws, made ufe of fictitious names to fatyrize vice and folly, however dignified by honours and employments. But the middle comedy did not flourish long at Athens; the archness of its aim, and the poignancy of its fatire, foon became of fenfive to the officers of state: a law was made to prohibit those oblique ftrokes of wit, and the comic muse was reftrained from all indulgencies of perfonal fatire, however humoroufly drawn, under the appearance of imaginary characters. The fame fate attended the use of the middle comedy in England; and it is faid that the wit and humour of our modern Ariftophanes, Mr. Fielding, whofe quarry in fome of his pieces, particularly the Hiftorical Regifter. was higher game than in prudence he fhould have chofen, were principal inftruments in provoking that law, under which the British theatre' has groaned ever fince. In the comedy called Rape upon Rape, or the Coffee houfe Politician, we have an admirable draught of a cha❤ racter very common in this country, namely, a man who is fmitten with an infatiable thirst for news, and concerns himself more about the balance of power than of his books. The folly of these statefinen out of place is there exhibited with a masterly ridicule; and indeed in all the plays of our author, however in fome refpects deficient, there are ftrokes of humour and half-length paintings, not excelled by fome of the ablett artifts. The farces written by Mr. The Pafquin of Fielding, though Fielding were almoft all of them its fuccefs was confiderable, never very successful, and many of them fhone forth with a luftre equal to are still acted every winter with a its merit; and yet it is a compofition continuance of approbation. They that would have done honour to the were generally the production of two Athenian ftage, when the middle or three mornings, fo great was his facility facility in writing; and to this day they bear frequent repetition, at leaft as well as any other pieces of the kind. The mock tragedy of Tom Thumb is replete with as fine parody as perhaps has ever been written; the Lottery, the Intriguing Chambermaid, and the Virgin Unmasked, befides the real entertainment they afford, had on their first appearance this additional merit, that they served to make early discoveries of that true comic genius, which was then dawning forth in Mrs. Clive; which has fince unfolded itself to a fulness of perfection, and continues to this day to be one of the trueft ornaments of the stage. [To be continued. REFLECTIONS on the Uncertainty of FRIENDSHIP. LIFE has no pleasure higher or nobler than that of Friendship. It is painful to confider, that this fublime enjoyment may be impaired or deftroyed by innumerable caufes, and that there is no human poffeffion of which the duration is lefs certain. days together may be separated by the different courfe of their affairs; and Friendship, like Love, is deftroyed by long absence, though it may be encreased by fhort intermiffions. What we have miffed long enough to want it, we value more when it is regained; but that which Many have talked, in very ex- has been lott till it is forgotten, alted language, of the perpetuity of will be found at laft with little gladFriendship, of invincible Conftancy, nefs, and with ftill lefs, if a fubftiand unalienable Kindness; and fome tute has fupplied the place. A man examples have been feen of men deprived of the companion to whom who have continued faithful to their he used to open his bofom, and with earlieft choice, and whofe affection whom he shared the hours of leisure has predominated over changes of and merriment, feels the day at first fortune, and contrariety of opinion. hanging heavy on him; his difficulBut these inftances are memora- ties opprefs, and his doubts diftra&t ble, because they are rare. The him; he fees time come and go Friendship which is to be practifed without his wonted gratification, or expected by common mortals, and all is fadnefs within and folitude must take it rife from mutual plea- about him. But this uneafiness nefure, and muft end when the power ver lafts long, neceffity produces ceafes of delighting each other. expedients, new amufements are difcovered, and new conversation is admitted. Many accidents therefore may happen, by which the ardour of kindness will be abated, without criminal bafenefs or contemptible inconftancy on either part. To give pleasure is not always in our power; and little does he know himself, who believes that he can be always able to receive it. Thofe who would gladly pals their confiders how much alteration time No expectation is more frequently difappointed, than that which naturally arifes in the mind, from the profpect of meeting an old Friend, after long feparation. We expect the attraction to be revived, and the coalition to be renewed; no man has has made in himself, and very few enquire what effect it has had upon The first hour convinces them, that the pleasure, which they have formerly enjoyed, is for ever at an end; different fcenes have made different impreffions, the opinions of both are changed, and that fimilitude of manners and fentiment is loft, which confirmed them both in the approbation of themselves. Friendship is often destroyed by oppofition of intereft, not only by the ponderous and visible intereft, which the defire of wealth and greatnefs forms and maintains, but by a thoufand fecret and flight competitions, fcarcely known to the mind upon which they operate. There is fcarcely any man without fome favourite trifle which he values above greater attainments, fome defire of petty praise which he cannot patiently fuffer to be fruftrated. This minute ambition is fometimes croffed before it is known, and fometimes defeated by wanton petulance; but fuch attacks are feldom made without the lofs of Friendship; for whoever has once found the vulnerable part will always be feared, and the refentment will burn on in fecret of which fhame hinders the difcovery. This, however, is a flow malignity, which a wife man will obviate as inconfiftent with quiet, and a good man will reprefs as contrary to virtue; but human happiness is fometimes violated by fome more fudden itrokes. A difpute begun in jeft, upon a fubject which a moment before was on both parts regarded with careless indifference, is continued by the de fire of conqueft, till vanity kindles into rage, and oppofition rankles into enmity. Againft this hafty mischief I know not what fecurity can be obtained; men will be fometimes furprized into quarrels, and though they might both haften to reconciliation, as foon as their tumult had fubfided, yet two minds will feldom be found together, which can at once fubdue their difcontent, or immediately enjoy the fweets of peace, without remembering the wounds of the conflict. Friendship has other enemies. Sufpicion is always hardening the cautious, and Difguft repelling the delicate. Very flender differences will fometimes part thofe whom long reciprocation of civility or beneficence has united. Lonelove and Ranger retired into the country to enjoy the company of each other, and returned in fix weeks cold and petulant; Ranger's pleasure was to walk in the fields, and Lonelove's to fit in a bower; each had complied with the other in his turn, and each was angry that compliance had been exacted. The most fatal difeafe of Friendship is gradual decay, or dislike hourly encreased by causes too flender for complaint, and too numerous for removal. Those who are angry may be reconciled; those who have been injured may receive a recompence; but when the defire of pleafing and willingness to be pleafed is filently diminished, the renovation of Friendship is hopeless; as, when the vital powers fink into languor, there is no longer any use of the Phyfician. COMPENDIOUS COMPENDIOUS HISTORY OF FRANCE. [Continued.] AS peace was now rettored, the king thought it expedient to place the crown upon the head of his eldest fon Philip; which was accordingly done, with all the ufual folemnities, at Rheims. This being over, he thought himself more at leifure to correct many inconveniencies which had gradually crept into different parts of the kingdom, and which, in thofe times, could be done no other way than by force; and if, in these his good endeavours, he met with oppofition from fome of the great lords, he was affifted and fupported by others: fo that, by executing the decrees of his fupreme courts of justice, he rendered appeals frequent, and, with an apparent zeal for the public good, extended his own authority. Pope Innocent the fecond, finding himfelf constrained to leave Rome by his competitor, retired into France, where he was received with great respect, and kept his Eafter with great fplendour at Paris. But the joy of the court was quickly turned into mourning by the fall of the young king Philip from his horfe, of which he died on the third of October, 1131. Before the clofe of the month a general council was held at Rheims, in which the king as well as the pope was prefent, and there the crown was fet upon the head of Lewis, his eldeft furviving fon, at that time about twelve years of age. The fuddennefs of this coronation, after fo unlucky an accident, is accounted for by an old hiftorian, who reports, that a party was forming amongst the great lords and prelates for transferring the crown to another family, if the king, with the affiftance of pope Innocent, had not prevented it, in the manner that has been related. With all his excellent qualities, and the more candid of the French historians acknowlege him the beft of their kings, he had a failing, if it may be called fo, which raised a fecret diflike to him, and increased with his years. This failing confifted in a certain freedom of speech; honelt, fincere, and well-meaning himself, he defpifed flattery, and he hated falfhood; pious, without hypocrify or fuperftition, he treated very roughly fuch of the prelates as acted inconfiftent with their character; obedient to the laws himself, his zeal for justice had led him to correct fuch of the nobility as acted tyrannically, with a degree of rigour that made them fecret enemies to him and his family. But, while they meditated the humiliation of both, Providence placed the crown upon the head of the young Lewis, in the fight of four hundred prelates, affembled from different parts, the major part of the nobility, and the embaffadors and deputies of feveral foreign nations, with general applaufe. By long experience the greater vaffals of the crown began to per. ceive, that the king's views were very honourable, and that, though he was very quick, he was no less steady in his refolutions; and therefore Thibaut, count of Champagne, and other great lords, reconciled themselves to him; fo that all the arts of his rival could never detach them again from his intereft. But, in the midst of his profperity, he fell into a languifhing ftate of health, being in a manner overwhelmed with fat. As his strength wore away he prepared for death, by fetting his affairs in order; and, when he thought it so near as to receive the facraments of the church, he drew his fignet ring from his finger, and put it upon that of his fon, with thefe words: By this fign I inveft you with fovereign authority; but remember, that it is no other than a public employment, to which you are called by Providence, and for the exercise of which you are to give a ftrict account in the world to come." He grew better after this, but he would never ufe any of the enfigns of royal authority; but whenever he appeared abroad on horfeback, he was furrounded by vaft crouds of people, who, by loud acclamations, teftified their zeal for his government, and their affection for his perfon. An accident contributed not a little to the revival of the king's ftrength. William the tenth, duke of Guienne and Aquitaine, refolving to make a pilgrimage to the fhrine of St. James of Compoftella, bequeathed his extenfive territories to his daughter Eleanor, upon condition that he married the young king Lewis; and he dying in that pilgrimage, the king fent his fon, moft nobly attended, to Bourdeaux, where the marriage was celebrated with great pomp, and the young princefs folemnly crowned queen of France, and the young king was inaugurated as duke of Aquitaine and Poitiers. In the mean time Lewis te Grofs, unable to fupport the heat of the dog-days, died at 1137. Paris, on the first of Auguft, in the thirtieth year of his reign, May 1764 and fixtieth of his age. With the addition of certain qualities, the French hiftorians fay he might have made a better king; but, they allow, a better man never graced their throne: pofterity perhaps may think this no diminution of his cha racter. Lewis, at the time of his father's demife, was eighteen years of age, and, as all writers agree, was furnamed le jeune. If this was only to diftinguish him from his father, then we ought to ftile him Lewis. the younger; but a certain writer tells us, that this furname was given him on his feparating from his wife Eleanor, and giving her back the duchy of Guienne, and then it has quite another fignification, and implies that Lewis was always a young man. The fame troubles that perplexed the beginning of his father's difturbed alfo the entrance of his reign; that is, feveral of the nobi lity indulged themselves in great exceffes, which, as we have already fhewn, were no otherwife to be repreffed than by force. The king therefore, having put good garrifons into the fortreffes of his new dominions, returned to Orleans; where, upon his attempting to affemble troops, the commons, who owed all their privileges to his father's favour, revolted: but Lewis quickly reduced and chaftifed them, as he likewife did the lords. It is remarked, and it deferves to be remarked, that he did not follow his father's example, in being crowned a fecond time. Euftace, the son of Stephen ear! of Bologne, who had feated him felf in the English throne, had done homage to Lewis the Grofs for the duchy of Normandy; the king, to fix him more effectually to his interefts, gave him his fifter in marriage? Hh |