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FROM THE MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

CRITICAL REMARKS ON SHAKSPEARE.

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Pale in her anger washes all the air, And through this distemperature we see The seasons alter," &c.

That is, we are perpetually disturb ed with thy brawls; therefore, our hymns and carols are neglected: therefore, the moon, the governess of floods, is offended: therefore, no longer adored, and pale in her anger, she washes all the air: therefore, the seasons alter, &c. There is hereby a regular series of deductions. Dr. J. supposes the devotion of the human, not of the fairy race, to suffer interruption; and his construction is, "Men find no winter; therefore, they sing no hymns; therefore, the moon,

The human mortals want their winter provoked by this omission, alters the

Act II. Scene 2.

here, &c. "Shakspeare, without question, wrote," says Dr. Warburton, "winter heryed," that is, praised or celebrated. The word is to be found in Spenser's Calendar. Sir Thomas Hanmer, with far superiour judgment, proposes to read "winter cheer." And Dr. Johnson, yet more happily, "wonted year," though he still thinks Titania's account confused and inconsequential; and therefore, in imitation of Scaliger's experiment upon the Gallus of Virgil, he ventures upon a transposition of the lines, containing, it must be allowed, much display of ingenuity. There is, however, no occasion for carrying critical temerity so far. Titania enumerates the various calamities with which the earth was afflicted, in consequence of the quarrel subsisting between her and Oberon; and apparently closes the account with observing, that "the human mortals want their wonted year." She immediately adds, not by way of consequence, but as resuming the subject:

'No night is now with hymn or carol blest Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,

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"The honey-bags steal from the humble bees,

And for wax-tapers crop their waxen thighs,

And light them at the fiery glow-worm's eyes." Act III. Scene 1.

"I know not," says Dr. Johnson, "how Shakspeare, who commonly derived his knowledge of nature from his own observation, happened to place the glow-worm's light in his eyes, which is only in his tail." But is it not evident that Shakspeare purposely sacrificed, in this instance, physical accuracy of description to poetical effect? Who would advise, or could approve of, any alteration? And what poor duty cannot do, Noble respect takes it in might, not me

rit.

Act V. Scene 1.

The meaning is, that a generous mind takes the laborious effort, or endeavour, to please in lieu of merit. Dr. Johnson proposes to read, "take not in might but merit." This is plausible, but it is not Shakspe rian phraseology.

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 tikes 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

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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 represent ed, 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.

"Look how the floor of heaven

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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.

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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 xavos 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. 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

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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 of

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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 fable, 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 extremely disputable. The truth is, that a play under the same name, and founded upon the same story, had appeared, A. D. 1607; and it cannot 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

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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

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With spur we heap an acre, but to the goal. Act I. Scene 2. "That is," says Dr. Warburton, to any good usage will win us 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 the passage; but how the words themselves will admit of such a construction, the learned commentator has not attempted to explain. "But to the goal" must mean, except to the goal; which is directly contrary

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 innovation or amendment?

ACCOUNT OF JOSEPH PAISLEY, THE GRETNA GREEN COUPLER.

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 ability 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 disposition, 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

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