Ib. Sir Gregory's speech : -Do you think I'll have any of the wits hang upon me after I am married once? The superfluous to' gives it the Sir Andrew Ague-cheek char acter. THE FAIR MAID OF THE INN. Act ii. Speech of Albertus : But, Sir, By my life, I vow to take assurance from you, Chop his hand off! In this (as, indeed, in all other respects; but most in this) it is that Shakspeare is so incomparably superior to Fletcher and his friend,—in judgment! What can be conceived more unnatural and motiveless than this brutal resolve? How is it possible to feel the least interest in Albertus afterwards? or in Cesario after his conduct? THE TWO NOBLE KINSMEN. ON comparing the prison scene of Palamon and Arcite, Act ii. sc. 2, with the dialogue between the same speakers, Act i. sc. 2, I can scarcely retain a doubt as to the first act's having been written by Shakspeare. Assuredly it was not written by B. and F. I hold Jonson more probable than either of these two. The main presumption, however, for Shakspeare's share in this play rests on a point, to which the sturdy critics of this edition (and indeed all before them) were blind,—that is, the construction of the blank verse, which proves beyond all doubt an intentional imitation, if not the proper hand, of Shakspeare. Now, whatever improbability there is in the former (which supposes Fletcher conscious of the inferiority, the too poematic minus-dramatic nature, of his versification, and of which there is neither proof, nor likelihood), adds so much to the probability of the latter. On the other hand, the harshness of many of these very passages, a harshness unrelieved by any lyrical inter-breathings, and still more the want of profundity in the thoughts, keep me from an absolute decision. Act i. sc. 3. Emilia's speech :— Since his depart, his sports, Tho' craving seriousness and skill, &c. I conjecture imports,' that is, duties or offices of importance. The flow of the versification in this speech seems to demand the trochaic ending - ; while the text blends jingle and hisses to the annoyance of less sensitive ears than Fletcher's—not to say, Shakspeare's. Act i. sc. 2. THE WOMAN HATER. THIS scene from the beginning is prose printed as blank verse, down to the line E'en all the valiant stomachs in the court where the verse recommences. This transition from the prose to the verse enhances, and indeed forms, the comic effect. (hh) Lazarillo concludes his soliloquy with a hymn to the goddess of plenty.' EXTRACTS OF TWO LETTERS OF MR. H. C. ROBINSON, GIVING SOME ACCOUNT OF TWO LECTURES OF MR. COLE RIDGE, DELIVERED IN MAY, 1808. (ii) MY DEAR FRIEND, May 7th, 1808. On receiving your threatening letter I inclosed it in a note to Coleridge, and on calling upon him before the lecture, found a letter for me, &c. He has offered to give me admission constantly; I shall accept his offer whenever I can, and give you a weekly letter on the subject. I shall not pretend to tell you what he says, but mention the topics he runs over. Every thing he observes on morals will be as familiar to you as all he says on criticism is to me; for he has adopted in all respects the German doctrines and it is a useful lesson to me how those doctrines are to be clothed with original illustrations, and adapted to an Eng lish audience. The extraordinary lecture on Education was most excellent, delivered with great animation, and extorting praise from those, whose prejudices he was mercilessly attacking: he kept his audience on the rack of pleasure and offence two whole hours and ten minutes; and few went away during the lecture. He began by establishing a common-place distinction neatly between the objects and the means of education, which he observed to be "perhaps almost the only safe way of being useful." Omitting a tirade, which you can well supply, on the object of Education, I come to the means of forming the character, the cardinal rules of early education. These are, First, to work by love and so generate love: Secondly, to habituate the mind to intellectual accuracy or truth: Thirdly, to excite power. 1. He enforced a great truth strikingly. "My experience tells me, that little is taught or communicated by contest or dispute, but every thing by sympathy and love." "Collision elicits truth only from the hardest head." "I hold motives to be of little influence compared with feelings." He apologized for early prejudices with a selfcorrection" and yet what nobler judgment is there than that a child should listen with faith, the principle of all good things, to his father or preceptor." Digressing on Rousseau he told an anecdote pleasantly: se non è vero è ben trovato. A friend had defended the negative education of Rousseau. Coleridge led him into his miserably neglected garden, choked with weeds. "What is this?" said he. "Only a garden," C. replied, "educated according to Rousseau's principles !" On punishment he pleaded the cause of humanity eloquently. He noticed the good arising from the corporal inflictions of our great schools, in the Spartan fortitude it excited; in the generous sympathy and friendship it awakened; and in the point of honor it enforced. Yet, on the other hand, he showed this very reference to honor to be a great evil as a substitute for virtue and principle. School-boys, he observed, lived in civil war with their masters. They are disgraced by a lie told to their fellows; it is an honor to impose on the common enemy: thus the mind is prepared for every falsehood and injustice, when the interest of the party, when honor requires it. On disgraceful punishments, such as fools-caps, &c. he spoke with great indignation, and declared that even now his life is embittered by the recollection of ignominious punishment he suffered when a child; it comes to him in disease, and when his mind is dejected. This part was delivered with fervor. Could all the pedagogues of the United Kingdom have been before him! 2. On Truth too he was very judicious he advised beginning with the enforcement of great accuracy of assertion in young children. The parent, he observed, who should hear his child call a round leaf long, would do well to fetch one instantly. Thus tutored to render words conformable with ideas, the child would have the habit of truth before he had any notion or thought of moral truth. "We should not early begin with impressing ideas of virtue, goodness, &c. which the child could not comprehend." Then he digressed à l'Allemagne on the distinction between obscure ideas and clear notions.* Our notions resemble the index and hand of the dial; our feelings are the hidden springs which impel the machine; with this difference that notions and feelings react on each other reciprocally. The veneration for the Supreme Being, sense of mysterious existence, was not to be profaned by the intrusion of clear notions. Here he was applauded by those who do not pretend to understand religion, while the Socinians of course felt profound contempt for the lecturer. I find from my notes, that C. was not very methodical: you will therefore excuse my not being more so 1. 2. Stimulate the heart to love and the mind to be early accurate, and all other virtues will rise of their own accord, and all vices will be thrown out." When treating of punishments, he dared to represent the text, "He that spareth the rod spoileth the child," as a source of much evil. He feelingly urged the repugnance of infancy to quiet and gloom, and the duty of attending to such indications, observing that the severe notions entertained of Religion were more pernicious than all that had been written by Voltaire and such "paltry scribblers." Considering this phrase as the gilding of the pill I let it pass. Coleridge is right in the main, but Voltaire is no paltry scribbler. Apropos, I was every twenty minutes provoked with the lecturer for little * Conceptions?—S. C. unworthy compliances for occasional conformity. But n'importe. He says such a number of things, both good and useful at the same time, that I can tolerate these drawbacks or rather makeweights. 3. In speaking of education as a mean of strengthening the character, he opposed our system of "cramming" children, and especially satirized the moral rules for juvenile readers lately introduced. "I infinitely prefer The Seven Champions of Christendom, Jack the Giant-killer, and such like for at least they make the child forget himself: but when in your good-child stories, a little boy comes in and says, Mamma, I met a poor beggar-man and gave him the sixpence you gave me yesterday. Did I do right? O yes, my dear, to be sure you did :-This is not virtue but vanity :-Such lessons do not teach goodness, but, if I might hazard such a word, goodiness." What Goody he referred to, I know not, for he praised Mrs Trimmer afterwards. He added, "The lesson to be inculcated should be, let the child be good and know it not." Instructors should be careful not to let the intellect die of plethora." 66 The latter part of the lecture was taken up with a defence of education for the Poor, &c. &c. He lugged in most unnecessarily an attack upon Malthus, and was as unfair in his representation as Hazlitt in his answer. He also noticed Cobbett, &c. In the end he eulogized Dr. Bell's plan of education, and concluded by a severe attack upon Lancaster for having stolen from Dr. Bell all that is good in his plans :-expatiated with warmth on the barbarous, ignominious punishments introduced by Lancaster, &c. &c. He concluded by gratulating himself on living in this age. "For I have seen what infinite good one man can do by persevering in his efforts to resist evil and spread good over human life : and if I were called upon to say, which two men in my own time, had been most extensively useful, and who had done most for humanity, I should say Mr. Clarkson and Dr. Bell. (kk) I can not answer for the terms of this sentence: the surprise I felt at the sudden introduction of the name of Clarkson perhaps made me lose the immediately preceding words. MY DEAR FRIEND, May 15th, 1808. Be assured you have imposed upon me no burthensome task. To write to you is as much a relief from my ordinary employ |