of Shakespeare's, and to be confined within narrower limits; at least he has not left us fuch an infinite variety of different tempers and humours; nor does he seem to have been capable, like him, of entering into the ridiculous and idle fenfations of human nature: he has, however, fufficiently diftinguished the character of every being he has reprefented. Every angel and every devil has fomething peculiar to itfelf, and by which they may be diftinguished. His characters, tho' not the fame, are, in their own nature, as different as thofe of Shakefpeare, as juft in themselves, and as well preserved. Shakespeare's mufe was not always confined within the bounds of decency; he fometimes finks into the obscene; Milton expreffes himself on the nicest circumftances with the extremeft delicacy, and never offers the leaft offence (as he expreffes it in his Comus) to the fun-clad power of chastity. Shakespeare has been cenfured for the low puns with which he has debased most of his plays; but it must be remembered, that he not only copied nature, but the folly and ridicule of every character. Milton has fometimes fallen into the fame fault; though this is a licence he has feldom taken even in his lightest pieces. We have, however, a remarkable instance of his playing upon words, in Paradise Loft; where the evil fpirits, elated with the fuccefs of their new-invented artillery, ridicule the confufion it caufes in the heavenly hoft, by the following ftrings of puns uttered by Belial. Leader, the terms we fent were terms of This paffage Mr. Addifon very juftly thinks the most exceptionable in the whole book: and, indeed, though put in the mouth of an evil fpirit, whofe mirth Milton would render as ridiculous as it was foolish, it is much too low for the dignity of an epic poem. But fome allowance ought to be made, on account of the prevailing taste of the age in which Shakespeare and Milton lived; when the graveft divines had fuch an extreme fondness for thefe low conceits, that their fermons confifted of little elfe. right reverend prelate, preaching against the views of the age, fays, "All-houfes are ale-houses.-The holy state of matrimony is become a matter of money.-Some men's paradife is a pair of dice; was it fo in the days of No-ah? —ab no. A It would take up too much room to examine the noble fentiments of thefe poets, and the ftrength and variety of language in which they frequently clothe their ideas; how Shakespeare wins upon us by furprize, and the boldness of his images; and Milton by the dignity of his thoughts. Shakespeare's admirable incurfions into the ideal world, the land His of fiction, are juftly admired. madmen, his monsters, his fairies, his witches, and his magic, have U u 2 fome fomething so astonishing, fo agree able, and, at the fame time, so extravagant, that they can never be read or heard without amazement at the fruitfulness of an invention that was confined within no bounds. Here he has been generally thought to stand alone; and yet perhaps there is nothing in which Milton resembles him more; his characters, his thoughts, and language, in his mafque of Comus, though different from those of Shakespeare, have the fame fpirit, and partake of the fame fportive mildness of fancy. Mr. Addifon, after enumerating the principal faults of Milton's Paradise Loft, very genteely adds, "I have feen in the works of a modern philofopher, a map of the fpots in the fun; my paper on the faults and blemishes in Milton's Paradife Loft, may be confidered as a piece of the fame nature." The like may also be said of Shakespeare, whose blemishes ferve as foils to fet off the striking beauties that every where ftart forth to our views. All nature was too small a boundary for the genius of a Shakespeare; "Our language, fays the above admired critic, finks under the genius of a Milton, and was unequal to that greatness of foul, which furnifhed him with fuch glorious conceptions." Shakespeare finks lower than Milton, but rifes in fudden. flashes; and before we are aware, he is all flames, the thunder roars, and his thoughts have all the fire and force of lightening. Milton is also uneven, though in a lefs degree; but his fire refembles the milder glory of the fun-beams, which gild and enliven all nature; and what he wants of this piercing heat, is made up by the more conftant glow of his poetic fire, by a fuperior dignity, propriety, and harmony. July 8, Your's, &c. 1763. K. L. I To the Authors of the BRITISH MAGAZINE. GENTLEMEN, Was born in this kingdom, but left it fo early in life, and have continued fo long out of it, that till my return to England, which happened within these three months paft, I was hardly acquainted with the real manners of a great part of my own countrymen; but now that I am becoming fo, I own, that I cannot help wondering at many of the extraordinary characters which I often meet with. As alinoft every thing and place here may be supposed to afford novelty enough to excite my curiofity, you must naturally suppose I have fufficient of it to gratify and as my perfonal acquaintances are not numerous, I had fome time fince taken a resolution to avail myself of the inviting weather at this time of the year for making fuch occafional excurfions in the neighbourhood of the metropolis, as would bring me acquainted with its beautiful environs, of which I have often heard fo much faid, and for the doing of which there is every where fuch a facility of accommodation. Having been before invited to their villas by most of my acquain tance, tance, I last Sunday morning mount- mouths of the cruets. ed my horse for a day's random entertainment, and rode to a village at about a dozen miles diftance. I there difmounted at the best inn I could fee, and having refreshed myfelf, enquired of my landlord what he could fupply me with for dinner; who told me he had no great abundance of spare provifions, but that if I pleased to dine at the ordinary, I fhould find a plentiful table, and a very good company of gentlemen, who were Londoners. I readily accepted his offer, and, after enquiring at what hour they would dine, determined to amufe myself in the mean time with a walk round the village. At my return, I was introduced into a company of about half a score perfons, fome of whom returned my general bow to them very cooly, but took no further notice of me, and very few of them, as I foon perceived, much of one another. At length a fat elderly man, rifing from his chair, faid he believed dinner would foon be coming up, and therefore he would prepare the fallad. Accordingly, he thruft haftily fo large a pinch of Scotch fnuff up his noftrils that it fet him a fneezing, which ended with his blowing his nose with his fingers, and cleaning them on the hinder part of his breeches after which he very freely handled a couple of fine lettuces, by first pulling them to pieces, and then holding the feveral parts of them with one hand while he cut them with the other. He next took up falt with the finger and thumb of his fnuff hand, and fprinkled it over the fallad; then poured into it oil and vinegar, after having tafted of each from the This done, with his knife and a fpoon he went to mixing of the fallad, every now and then tasting it by mouthfuls from the spoon, with his head held far over the table, in order for the dish to catch all that happened to fall from his mouth. This piece of cold cookery being performed, he then very carefully licked the fpoon and his knife, which he again laid in their places, fet the fallad on the fide-board, and then proceeded to the picking of his teeth, with his fork, of the bits of lettuce which had there lodged, and what else might be among them. This amufement continued till a round of beef was fet upon the table, with a difh of greens, and a large pudding; when, before he took his feat, with the fork fresh from his jaws, he examined every part of the beef, to find if it was properly dreft; and then went cutting away with that fork and his licked knife, till he came to a part of it which he liked for the helping of himself: which done, according to his own phrafe, he put round the dish, and then turned over the whole dish of greens with his fork, before he could please himself in his choice. I let the beef be cut deep before I refolved to begin with it; and as for the greens, after what I had feen, I could have nothing to do with them, but thought of making myself amends with a good flice of pudding, which by the movements of dishes was got before our great man, when a young gentleman at the bottom of the table defired it to be handed to him; upon bearing of which, this quinteffence of cleanness whipt his foul knife and fork into it, and very plentifully helped himself upon the plate on which part of his beef and greens were remaining, and then with the Spoon that he had licked he took butter out of the dish, in which he afterwards left it. I fat filent, as I was a stranger, at this fcene of filthiness; because no one else spoke, and fome of them feemed not to mind it, tho' others appeared difgufted. At length the table was cleared, and the fecond courfe fet on, which confifted of three chickens, a leg of mutton, two small dishes of peas, and the fallad fet in the middle of the table. Our great man begun with helping himself to the best part of a chicken, and then put about the dish to my great fatisfaction, and proceeded to fupply himself with a good stock of peas, of which, with the chicken, he eat very greedily, till a gentleman below him reached out his hand towards the dish of peas, when the old fellow haftily laid hold of it, and from eagerness to fay he had not yet done with it himself, discharged a full mouthful of his peas over the whole table, and even in the faces of a good part of the company, which turned my ftomach fo effectually, that I could eat nothing more. There were thereupon many wry faces made, and one ventured even to complain; who was anfwered abruptly, that if he minded an accident, and did not know good manners, he fhould not come into company with the uttering of which words, the well-bred old gentleman toffed the leg of a chicken to a great dog (which I afterwards found had been his companion down in a one-horse chaife) but the dog, miffing his catch, ftruck it against the flap of a spruce young fellow's coat, who fat at his lefthand, and who, for expreffing offence at it, was roughly told, the poor dog could not help it, and it was no other than a mischance that ought not to be minded. It can excite no wonder when I fay I got out of fuch company as faft as poflible, in order to complete my meal with what I could find in the house; and I then mounted my horfe and rode back to London. The next day I gave a friend an account of my adventure; who told me, there was nothing at all in it which in the least surprised him, and that my farther knowledge of England would certainly convince me, notwithstanding all our boasts of refinement, that it yet abounded greatly with fuch kinds of Hottentots. Your's, &c. NICHOLAS NICELY. Difference of Population in France. IT T being, if I mistake not, a matter much difputed, whether England be better peopled now than it was fome ages paft; the number of the people feems likewife uncertain, I beg leave to lay before you what a judicious French writer (M. Villaret) fays on these points, concerning his own country. "At the beginning of the reign of Philippe de Valois, in 1330, the country, dependent on the crown, and fubject to the Ayde, alone contained two millions five hundred thousand families, and that did not make near one third, of the present extent of the kingdom; thus, without any exaggeration, the number of familes then in France may be affirmed to have been not lefs than eight millions, which, at least, makes a total of twenty-four millions of inhabitants, exclufive of the ecclefiaftical and fecular lordships to which the furvey then made did not extend; to this must be added the Celibatarians, the Cerfs, or hinds, another large body, `a clergy confifling of an immenfe multitude of ecclefiaftics and religious of both fexes, the universities and the nobility, all exempt from the fubfidy, that we may well be ftruck with amazement and concern at the fenfible decrease, within four centuries, of the human species in France, where the highest calculations at prefent, do not rife to eighteen millions in the whole." The prudent author forbears etering into the causes of this rapid depopulation, a precaution needless in this happy land of liberty. Some Particulars of the Execution of the Bishops Ridley and Latimer. From tioh) the next morning. Quiet yourselves, fays he, my breakfast will be fomewhat fharp and painful, yet I am fure my fupper will be more pleasant and easy. When they rofe from table, he refufed the offer made by his brother to watch them all night, faying he fhould go to bed, and fleep as quietly as ever he did in his life. In the morning, when he proceeded to his execution, he was dreffed in his black gown, furred and faced with points, fuch as he used to wear in his Epifcopal character; about his neck a tippet of velvet furred likewise; his head covered with a velvet night-cap, and his fquare cap upon that, with flippers upon his feet. Looking back to fee if bishop Latimer were coming, whom he spied hafting after him, in a Bristol freeze-frock, with his cap but toned, an handkerchief on his head, and a new |