Here is your hand and feal for what I did,

to

Garrick fnatched the warrant from his hand; and, grafping it hard, in an agony of despair and horror, he threw his eyes heaven, as if felf-convicted of murder, and standing before the great Judge of the quick and dead to anfwer for the infringement of the divine command! Mr. Rumney, we are told by Dr. Potter, calls Æfchylus the poet of the painters: Shakspeare has furely as juft a title to that appellation as any poet, ancient or modern. The tragedy of King John would supply the finest materials for difplaying the skill of our most eminent painters. The two fcenes in the third and fourth act, between John and Hubert, merit the noble pencil of a Sir Joshua Reynolds or a Weft. My friend, Mr. Penny, has given the public some valuable paintings from Shakspeare, and particularly an exact picture of the fmith and the tailor, as described by Hubert.

I faw a fmith ftand with his hammer thus,

With eager hafte swallowing a tailor's news, &c, Hubert is, by the poet, made a principal agent in the play, and requires no small art in the acting. The feveral players whom I have feen in Hubert, Bridgwater, Berry, and Bensley, very skilfully dif played the various paffions incidental to the part. Quin was fo pleased with Bridgwater, (who followed at the fame time the different trades of coal-feller and playef,) that, upon going into the Green-room, after the scene in the fourth act, he took him by the hand and thanked him, telling him he was glad that he had drawn his attention from his coal-wharf to the ftage; "for fometimes, you know, Bridge, that, in the midst of a scene, you are thinking of measuring out a bufhel of coals to fome old crone, who you are fearful will never pay you for them."

Arthur's death, by a fall from the walls of Northampton-castle, follows the important scene of Hubert and Arthur. As

the death of this young prince is made of great confequence in the tragedy, it will not be an idle business to enter into a fhort and impartial difcuffion of that share of guilt which may be juftly imputed to King John, for so atrocious an action as the murder of his nephew.

From the concurring teftimony of hiftorians who had the best opportunity to know the truth, it is past doubt that Arthur was either killed by an express order of his uncle, or flain by the king's own hand. Hume, an hiftorian not likely to take things upon trust, and always a ready vindicator of royalty, charges the king himself with the perpetration of the bloody deed; with ftabbing him, and then fastening a ftone to his body, and throwing it into the river Seine. The report of his dying by a fall from the walls of his prifon was, in all probability, spread by John and his agents; and Shakspeare has laid hold of it as an historical incident best fuited to his purpose,

All

All writers on this period report, that every body was ftruck with horror at the inhuman deed; and that, from that moment, the king was detefted, and his authority over his people and barons rendered very precarious. The world has ever loudly exclaimed against the wretched John, as the most execrable of men, for this murder. To be well affured that he merited the odium which fell upon him in confequence of the action, we ought to inquire into that predicament in which the king and his nephew stood in relation to each other.

Although the feudal fyftem had admitted the right of inheritance by lineal descent in the greatest part of Europe, it was not fo established in England. From the conquest to John, a period of one hundred and forty years, there had been no less than three fucceffions to the crown, without any regard to the right of reprefentation. John's title, as there was no law against him, was as good as Arthur's, and the will

of

of King Richard in his favour rendered it ftronger. Befides, the people of England, having acknowledged John for their fovereign, put an end to all farther doubts with respect to his validity of claim. Lady Conftance and her fon were fo well fatisfied with John's right to the throne of England, that they both refided for fome time in his court. The policy of Philip, king of France, who contrived to alarm the prince and his mother for their safety, caufed them to leave England with terror, and to throw themfelves under his protection; and this, I believe, was the ruin of Arthur; for Philip had no other intention then to use him as an instrument in his hands to disturb John. The young prince was now become the profeffed rival of his uncle, a competitor for the crown of England, as well as a claimant of all the dominions which our kings at that time enjoyed in France.

Arthur, when taken prisoner at the battle of Mirabel, was fo far from listening to

the