the circumstance of some robbers attack ing the castle of a Norman Baron, after the hour of Curfew. The scene in the second act, between Robert and Florence, bears a strong resemblance to that of Hubert and Arthur in King John; though this is probably to be attributed to coincidence. As a specimen of the language, we shall quote the Baron's address to Matilda.

Bar. Now observe her then. Woman, stand forth and answer to our charge. The universal cry is loud against you For practised witchcraft-the consuming plagues

Of murrain, blight, and mildew, that make

I did not firangle thee.-We drank together,
And ftill I mix'd no poison with thy wine.
Alone, at midnight, o'er a dreary heath
Have we pass'd-on the extremeft verge
Of a sea-impending cliff, yet I abftained.➡
Ask me why, thus so often strangely tempted,

I have witheld the blow?-Twas not in mercy ;

Say, was not this an honourable scar

(stripping bis arm.) To stamp upon a young and gallant soldier ? A shame which on my body is so fix'd,

To 'suage the burning thirst of my revenge— Drink thy blood life-warm; tear those trembling limbs,

And scatter them as whirlwinds strew the dust

Mid the triumphant pantings of my soul, Vengeance would weep to think thy panga

were mortal.

Among the Bagatelles of the Drama, we place Mr. DIMOND'S Young Hussar" an operatic piece in two acts. In criticising its contents, we shall use the author's own words, "To praise it highly is impossible. To censure it severely would be ill-natured." The stage-direc tion at the close we consider as a good caricature of the finale in the generality of modern plays. "Music-The lovers full into each others arms-The parents bend over them in benediction-BONCODE, NINETTE, and the Military dispose them selves in different attitudes of surprize and joy. The Curtain drops upon the groupe.”

"Town and Country," a comedy by Mr. MORTON, may be well adapted to the stage, but we cannot say much for its perusal in the closet. There it wants the aids both of scenery and acting.

"Peter the Great," by Mr. CHERRY, is not inferior to some of his former pro

ductions.

NOVELS AND ROMANCES.

The last half-year has been abundantly prolific in works of this description; but they have been almost without exception worthless. Miss PORTER'S "HEgarian Brothers," must be mentioned as an exception; and it stands with no inconsiderable share of honourable distinc tion, in a class of productions, in wluch almost all the rest that have appeared are characterised by their insipidity, their immorality, or their defamation. We mentioned on a former occasion the cruud of servile imitators of the title (but alas! nothing but the title) of "A Winter is London," and we have now to add to that

66

list, "A Winter in Bath;"" A Winter at Bath;" "The Winter in Dublin;" and by way of climax, we suppose, The Infidel Mother; or, Thee Winters in London." We should have hinted to the authors of these productions, that a title page ought to have some relation to the contents of a book; had we not been made acquainted with the strange fact, that at least two of these works were named, not by the author, but the bookseller. This ruse de commerce of a tricking title-page is only an old cheat practised upon the purse of the public; but there is matter calling for much more serious censure in the last-mentioned work, with which it is not our province to interfere, otherwise than to lament that the press should be abused to such purposes. A work similar in character and tendency to the "Infidel Mother," is the "Rising

Sun."

To the fair author of the "Libertines," we are inclined to use the language of the witches in Macbeth, and exclaim, "Fair is foul, and foul is fair!" The readers who can be amused, with such prurient trash as the Libertines, must have their mental appetites depraved, and their understandings warped in no common degree.

MISCELLANIES.

"A Supplement to Dr. Johnson's Dietionary of the English Language: or a Glossary of Obsolete and Provincial Words," by the late Rev. JONATHAN BOUCHER, A. M. Part the first. Lond.

1807.

The object of this valuable work is sufficiently explained by the title. It was Mr. Boucher's first intention to have presented to the world a Provincial Gloffary only; but having likewise directed his attention to Obsolete Words as a subordinate part of his undertaking, he found that his first idea of giving the whole in two alphabets would be objectionable. Various inftances were continually occurring in which it was extremely difficult to decide whether a word which was formerly provincial was not now obsolete, or whether a word supposed to be obsolete was not still provincial. In combining the two classes of words Mr. Boucher had proceeded as far as the letter G. His former Provincial Glossary having been advanced to T. Of the six letters which were compleated, the first is here submitted to the judgment of the public: and the advertisement prefixed concludes with this remark, that if from any intrinsic merit this first portion may appear to deserve a place on the same shelf with MONTHLY MAG., No. 159,

Johnson, the family and the friends of the lamented author will experience the satisfaction that they have not, from a mistaken zeal for his posthumous fame, sullied the literary character which be acquired while living.

We quote the following, as fair though short specimens:

"AFRET, part. Filled with; fraught with.

For rounde, environ, her crounet
Was full of riche stones fret.

Chaur. R of the Rose, 1. 3203. "The etymology of this word, and of the verb fret, is, as Dr. Johnson observes, very doubtful. Freight of a ship, which in French is spelled fret, and in Latin uffretamentum, has usually been referred nautical terms have been adopted from to fretum or frith, a strait. But as many the German, none of the etymologies abic, as to refer the word to the German mentioned by Johnson appcar so reason

French fret, the German fracht, and the fretten," to load, from which the English freight, may easily be deduced.

"AND-IRONS, n. & The irons, commonly called dogs, on which wood

is laid to burn.

"Dr. Arbuthnot, speaking of Cornehus Scriblerus's shield, says:

The maid, a cleanly wench, had scoured it as bright as her and-irons.

Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus. th' and-irons

(I had forgot them) were two winking cupids Of silver, each on one foot standing, nicely depending on their brands.

Cymbeline, Act. II. s. 6. "The term end-irons is in Yorkshire applied to two coarse iron plates, used to contract the fire-place. They are moveable: when a great fire is wanted, they are placed at a distance; and nearer for a small one.

"Andirons are mentioned in an inventory of goodes and cattels, taken in the time of Henry VIII., and there called aundirons. See Strutt's Horda, &c. vol. ii. p. 64.

"A pair of antique andirons embossed with figures, were sold at the Marquis of Landsdown's sale, this spring, (1806) for seventy guineas.

"Skinner suggests three etymologies of this term: 1. Irons that may he moved by the hand; 2. End-irons, from their supporting the ends of the wood that is to be burnt; and S. Brand-irons, as if it were a corruption of the Saxon branden, to burn. I conceive, however, that and in this compound term, has the general 40

sense

sense of the Saxon and in composition, being equivalent to the Greek arti, or the English against or opposite to: so that the name describes the thing just as it is -one piece of iron set opposite to another. And timben in Saxon, in like manner, is a beam laid opposite to another beam.

"In many places, and particularly in Shropshire, and the neighbouring counties, andirons are called cob-irons. This also is Saxon, and signifies the piling of the wood to be burned on such irons; from copan, compilare."

The only complaint we have to make is, that the authorities for the different quotations are very often incorrectly printed. Peck's is called sometimes Packes, and sometimes Peckes "Desiderata Curiosa." “Queen Elizabeth's" Progress, for " Progresses," continually occurs; and for Marston's Satires, we have Marstone's Saturise." Among the longer and more curious articles, are those on AMBRIE and AULD-NICK.

Mr. BELOF's" Anecdotes of Literature and scarce Books," deserve particular attention. To say that they are free from errors would be wrong: but we have not often seen a work of miscellaneous information more amusing to the bibliographical enquirer.

The main body of the materials appear to have been selected from the vast library at the British Museum; aided by information from literary characters, whose names give a sufficient sanction to their different communications.

From the more valuable articles among the Classical Fragments we transcribe the following:

"Juvenal et Persius.-Long before Renouard had published his excellent book on the Lives and Works of the Printers of the name of Aldus, the learned Mr. Cracherode had discovered that two editions of Juvenal and Persius were printed at Venice by Aidus, and his brother-inlaw Andrew, in the year 1501. The following is a note, written by Mr. Cracherode on the subject:

"Satis constat hoc anno (1501) duas Juvenalis et Persi Editiones e Prelo Aldino prodiisse, quarum altera neque solita Aldi præfert insigma, neque paginas habet numeratas; quæ vero ad calcem voluminis adjiciuntur Venetiis in ædibus Aldi, &c. literis minoribus sive Italico charactere expressa suut. Altera (que et posterior videtur, habet in fronte Del phinum Aucore implicitum, foliis absolvitur 76 numeratis, in fine denique hæc leguntur literis majusculis impressa VENE

TIIS IN ÆDIBUS ALDI ET ANDRES SO CERI, &c.

"The Editio princeps of Juvenal was printed at Venice, by Spira, in 1470, and may be seen in the Cracherode cullection. Concerning this edition, cosult Maittaire 1, p. 296. Gaignat, 1675. De Bure, 2828. Panzer, v. 3. p. 485.

Gaignat's copy sold for 185 livres, which was very cheap."

Another curious article occurs upon the Cantica Canticorum; but it is too long for quotation; and a third, of peculiar interest, is entitled English Poetry.

In the enumeration of the different plays in the Garrick, Kemble, Malone, and other collections, we have to complain that scarcely any thing but the mdividual title of the production is given; with few particulars of its contents, and sometimes not even a remark upon its rarity or curiosity. Instances, however, do occur where the latter observation will not apply. Of Elkanah Settle's “Empress of Morocco," Lond. 1673, Air. Beloe observes:

"This play is much sought after, as being the first which was sold for what was then thought the enormous sum of two shillings. The engravings were not improbably a representation of the scenes, in one of which the most shocking tortures are exhibited. Horace did not think it possible that it should enter inte the human imagination to exhibit things so offensive."

Nor are the anecdotes which relate to the Devonshire collection of gems of less important interest.

Another article, the last we shall transcribe, is the formal and authentic abdcation of the supreme authority by Richard Cromwell. It exhibits the strong contrast of his character with that of his father Oliver.

"His late Highness's Letter to the Parliament of England:

"Shewing his willingness to submit to this present government; attested under his own hand, and read in the House, on Wednesday the 25th of May 1659.

"I have perused the Resolve and Decla ration which you were pleased to deliver to me the other night; and for your inform ation touching what is mentioned in the said resolve, I have caused a true state of my debts to be transcribed, and ar nexed to this paper, which will shew what they are, and how they were can tracted.

"As to that part of the Resolve where by the committee are to inform them selves how far I do acquiesce m the ge

vernment of this commonwealth, as it is declared by this parliament; I trust my past carriage hitherto hath manifested my acquiescence in the will and disposition of God, and that I love and value the peace of this commonwealth much above my own concernments; and I desire that by this a measure of my future deportment may be taken, which through the assistance of God shall be such as shall bear the same witness, having I hope in some degree learned rather to reverence and submit to the hand of God, than to be unquiet under it: And (as to the late providences that have fallen out among us), however in respect of the particular engagements that lay upon me, I could not be active in making a change in the government of these nations, yet, through the goodness of God, I can freely acquiesce in its being made, and do hold myself obliged, as (with other men) I expect protection from the present government, so to demean myself with all peaceableness under it, and to procure to the uttermost of my power, that all in whom I have any interest do the same.

"RICHARD CROMWELL. "London: Printed by D. Maxwell, 1659." Mr. Beloe announces his intention of continuing the Anecdotes at intervals. A third volume, we understand, is now preparing for the press.

So little has been done for the illustration of Anglo-Saxon Literature, that we view with pleasure any thing which may conduce to its revival. At present we shall only mention the two first numbers of the "Etymological Organic Reasoner," by Mr. HENSHALL. If we mistake not, they are in part the completion of a plan announced soine years ago.

The very valuable materials contained in Mr.WARTON's" History of English Poetry," speak of themselves the benefit derived to the literary world by the publication of an Index. We can only wonder that such a labour was not performed before. Under the idea that the work itself would ere long be continued, it has been formed in separate alphabets; one for the Dissertations prefixed, and one for each of the volumes. Another may be easily added to any subsequent portion. As far as it has yet gone, it is correct and copious.

In this class also we shall place "General Washington's Fac Simile Letters to Sir John Sinclair."

The still fewer works than ever, which in consequence of one of Lord Kenyon's decisions in 1798, are now entered at Statjoner's Hall, form the object of enquiry, in

Mr. CHRISTIAN'S "Vindication of the Right of the Universities of Great Britain to a Copy of every new Publication."

On the propriety of the entry, and consequent distribution of eleven copies among our public libraries, no friend to literature will probably entertain a doubt. But there is one question, the decision of which seems very material in regard to the benefit which the Universities are likely to obtain from the statute of Queen Anne: "Whether the delivery of the copies at Stationer's Hall was intended to depend upon the entry." If this was not the case, the Acts at present in force by which the Stationer's Company are made to benefit our public libraries must be viewed as inadequate to their intentions.

The looked for extension of our conquests in Spanish America has given rise to the publication of "La Foresta Espanola; or, Select Passages in Prose, extracted from the most celebrated Spanish authors, ancient and modern. To which are prefixed, Observations on the Origin, Progress and Decline of Literature in Spain. They who may be studying the Spanish language, will find this little volume of a mixed nature; containing extracts both of a serious and a lively turn, Near the ciose of the preliminary observations the best helps toward the attainment of a knowledge of the Spanish language are pointed out.

4.

Another work in this class, but of different intention, is "The Director, a Weekly Literary Journal," of which the first volume is completed. It contains: 1. Essays on subjects of Literature, the Fine Arts and Manners. 2. Bibliographiana. Accounts of rare and curious books, and of the Book sales in this country, from the close of the seventeeth century. 3. Royal Institution. Analysis of the Lectures delivered weekly. British Gallery. Description of the principal Pictures exhibited for sale, with the names of the purchasers. The title of the Paper may possibly at first sight seem presumptuous; but the author offers himself "as a mere guide-post to direct the course of others to moral and intellectual excellence," "resigning all claim to preeminence, and striving only to be the humble instrument of pointing out to his countrymen the path which leads to the temple of intellectual fame." The most curious portion of the work, however, is that which is entitled Bibliographiana,written, we believe, by the Rev. Mr. DIBDIN. The following account of the sale of Archbishop Tillotson's library, though by no means the most ample, we quote as a specimen: 402

"Arch